Well, we can't win them all. Unfortunately my second edition of Scream or Skip is a disappointing one, because on the whole I was underwhelmed by what I watched and played this month.

But, worry not. The title that stood out to me most this month is widely accessible on Netflix, one of the best streaming services, and it's incredibly good indeed.

I would love to hear your thoughts on either of these titles, especially if you think I'm wrong about the two skips. After all, I would love it if they hit the mark for someone out there, even if they didn't do it for me.

Read on to find out more about what I watched and played in July.

Movie: Her Private Hell

Where to watch: In theaters worldwide
Lucy's verdict: Skip

Look, I'm really gutted about this one. It gives me no pleasure to say that Her Private Hell was a huge let down, and a rare flop for Nicolas Winding Refn. I loved The Neon Demon and Drive, but his latest feature was too abstract and stylish to the point it lacked any real substance.

It's such a shame, because lead star Sophie Thatcher is excellent in everything she does. Here, she plays a young woman trying to find her father as a mysterious mist engulfs a futuristic metropolis, and it's just not good at all. If you'd like to see Thatcher in a different horror, I definitely recommend Heretic instead.

TV show: The East Palace

Where to watch: Netflix (worldwide)
Lucy's verdict: Scream

If you watch one thing on Netflix this week, make it The East Palace. I quickly devoured this eight-part series and now I'm hungry for more, because it's a wonderfully crafted limited series.

The scary K-Drama centers around a man who walks the spirit world and a court lady who can hear the dead, as they enter the East Palace by the king's orders and attempt to unravel its dark secrets. It's got gorgeous cinematography, even more gorgeous period settings, and some great scares throughout. I'm a huge fan of this series and I really hope it finds a bigger fanbase, because it deserves every single one.

Game: The Mound - Omen of Cthulhu

Where to play: PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PC
Lucy's verdict: Skip

No disrespect to the cosmic entity or anything, but I'm tired of Cthulhu themed things. We've had a lot of them recently and usually I'm all for Lovecraftian things, but The Mound - Omen of Cthulhu is a poorly made game which seems to be riding the recent Cthulhu craze.

There's a lot to criticize here. The combat is stiff and janky and I didn't enjoy the solo mode because the AI companions were unreliable. It's clear this game is designed for multiplayer, and I did see moderate improvement when roping friends into playing it with me, but if you're a solo player it's a punishing experience. It also feels repetitive, so I'd discourage you from playing if you don't want to do the same things a million times over.

There’s nothing I like more than playing a game that lets me switch off entirely. Mundane tasks that require minimal brain power are my greatest escape (apart from a good book) and it’s even better when I’m able to gain a deep sense of achievement from completing them.

I’ve played countless hours of The Sims 4 and Stardew Valley over the years, or more recently Starsand Island. These titles earn their impressive ratings and big sales for providing exactly what cozy gamers like me want – a place to unwind, relax and tick boxes. But, I’m always on the hunt more. Little did I know that an evening scroll on TikTok was about to kick up my next cozy obsession that almost went Under the Radar.

As if by magic, videos were appearing on my feed of a library littered with thousands of books, all out of place. The players gaze over the chaotic collection with a visual aesthetic akin to Harry Potter saying things like: “You’re seriously telling me I have to put all these back away where they’re supposed to go” and “Oh my god, there’s a second floor.” And that’s when I got really intrigued.

Librarian: Tidy Up the Arcane Library! is exactly as the name suggests, a game where you become the librarian and must tidy everything up.

Serenely sorting shelves

It’s a big, big mess. Huge. There are books strewn everywhere, piled on tables, disordered in corners like some massive puzzle you need to solve. The task is simple, really, even if it does require you to sort out over 3,000 books. But, with a cozy vibe and a lot of time on my hands, I was so utterly ready to get stuck in.

What Tidy Up the Arcane Library! wants you to do is place all the books on the correct shelves, in the correct order, before you’re allowed to leave. There’s a couple of maps on the walls explaining which category of book belongs on which shelf and to start, you just need to, well, get going.

Don’t get me wrong, I was a little worried that the sheer mess would unsettle any promise of coziness. It’s not quite the same as tending to your crops or gathering resources, but it was the kind of task I get a kick out of – and I’m hopeful comfort gamers will agree.

It reminds me of silly little tasks I’ve always loved to do like sorting out coins or writing addresses on a tower of envelopes, but no-one ever threw all those coins or envelopes haphazardly across a room and asked me to tidy them up. Fortunately, my worries were quickly cast aside when the game began, offering me the chance to play a specifically-made cozy mode with no time restraints, just chilled out sorting.

Every time you put a book on the shelf in the right place, it glitters gold and I almost felt like I was shimmering with satisfaction. The dopamine rush in games like these are hard to beat, especially when it’s so simply gained.

But, if you put a book in the wrong place, there’s no glimmering reward, only a desperation to figure out where it goes instead. But, no bother, I told myself, there are always more books to sort.

List-slaying

Now, it’s worth mentioning here that book-sorting isn’t something you have to take on alone. No, you can also harness a little bit of magic. As you begin to fill up shelves correctly, you level up, unlocking points that can be spent on different magical abilities.

From illuminating the correct shelf for the top book you’re holding to placing the book onto said shelf without you having to lift a finger, it’s entirely up to you if you want to tackle Tidy Up the Arcane Library! without using any magic. But, if you want to protect your peace, I strongly recommend you do.

It’s also entirely up to you whether you spent your points on all the abilities. I didn’t. While Sort automatically arranges the books in your possession in numerical order, I actually quite liked just taking my time over it, rifling through my books like a proper librarian. But, I did lean heavily on the other abilities to make sure I didn’t go crazy.

I even ended up using those TikTok videos that led me here in the first place to teach me about the hidden keys that transformed me into a much more efficient librarian – carrying more books, moving faster and even jumping.

I’ve worked in a library, I’ve also worked in a bookshop, but I can safely say that the calmness and magic of Tidy Up the Arcane Library! makes it a far cozier experience than real life, especially with absolutely no customers.

I’m still clocking up hours in the game taking my sweet, sweet time because I know once it’s over, I’ll miss it. If you're interested in playing too, you can pick it up on Steam.

Spoilers for The Crow Girl seasons 1 and 2 ahead.

It's no secret that we're beyond spoiled for choice when it comes to crime dramas, and that's just considering what's available to us on mainstream streaming services. But getting one that truly shakes us to the core is a lot rarer.

So when I stumbled across The Crow Girl season 1 on Paramount+, my mind was melted to mush by the time I got to the finale. In short, DCI Jeanette Kilburn (Eve Myles) and eminent psychotherapist Dr Sophia Craven (Katherine Kelly) join forces to hunt the killer of young men, but there's a lot more going on than meets the eye.

By the end of season 1, it was revealed that Victoria Burkeman, a prime suspect in the case, was actually Craven herself. She killed her father after he killed their daughter — meaning Victoria was sexually assaulted by her dad while her mum knew and did nothing to stop it.

It's heavy stuff, but I cannot stress enough how unexpectedly the reveal was, and how cleverly the clues were woven through the storyline.

18 months later and I'm pleased to say that The Crow Girl season 2, now on the streamer and Channel 5, doesn't disappoint... and that means a whole new level of shocking reveals.

The Crow Girl season 2 ending leaves Kilburn for dead, but Craven — now her lover — isn't responsible

It's important to remember that when we find out that Craven is actually Victoria, Kilburn is none the wiser. With the two women drawn to each other, a romantic connection sparks... secretly, seeing as Kilburn is technically cheating on her husband in the process.

Drama! Things get even worse in the finale, when the entire police station, which includes Kilburn's boss, finds out that she's been accidentally sleeping with the prime suspect in their murder case (the case itself hasn't changed since season 1).

Here's where the story gets more complicated. While we've known that Craven and Victoria are one, Craven apparently doesn't know herself. Kilburn explains that she's got DID (Dissociative Identity Disorder), meaning that Victoria is likely responsible for every murder they've investigated so far, including her own dad.

At this point, Kilburn is forced out of the station and threatened with questioning the next morning, but Craven is back at the manor she used to be abused in, unwilling for the party being thrown there to do any further damage to young girls.

Craven entices Kilburn there, and by the time she arrives, all of the guests are dead with the girls safely hidden. But as Victoria takes over Craven's mind, a surviving abuser shows up and shoots at the pair, hitting Kilburn in the leg. Don't panic though... after some further antagonizing, Craven pops one in his head. But will Kilburn pull through?

I genuinely don't see how The Crow Girl season 2 could be any more unhinged. If we're lucky, season 3 will be renewed, with the original book series telling us that Craven will learn how to "blend" her identities.

Sign me up, once I've got my head around what's just happened.

Fancy taking to the skies? DJI is the brand you're probably looking at — it's the name behind almost all the best drones around right now. If you're new to the world of drones, figuring out your options is tricky. This article is here to guide you through your options. I'll run through the main DJI ranges and who they're aimed at, and then once you've narrowed things down you can hop to the relevant section to read our reviews for each model. Let's get started...

Note: You'll only be able to see product cards for the models currently available to buy in your region. Due to FCC issues, not all DJI drones are available in the US. Hit the More details button to read our main takeaways for each model, and for a link to the full review.

DJI range guide

DJI Mini
DJI's flagship compact drones, and the best-selling range for beginner pilots. These are all sub-250g models, which means they come with little-to-no flight restrictions, depending on where you fly.
• Check out the Mini lineup

DJI Air
A step up from the Mini series, aimed at enthusiasts. These drones fall into the next weight category up, which means they're sturdier and you'll be able to fly for longer, but you'll need your region's equivalent of a certificate of competency before you fly.
• Check out the DJI Air lineup

DJI Mavic
Top-tier consumer drones with industry-leading camera performance. These are another step up from the DJI Air range, and again you'll need a certificate of competency before you fly.
• Check out the DJI Mavic lineup

DJI Neo
The cheapest, smallest, lightest and simplest DJI drone. It comes with single-push take-off from your hand, designed for aerial selfies (this kind of drone is sometimes referred to as a selfie drone).
• Check out the DJI Neo lineup

DJI Avata
FPV (first person view) drones, designed to be used with goggles for immersive high-speed and responsive flight — legally you need a 'spotter' with you when flying drones through goggles.
• Check out the DJI Avata lineup

There are a few standalone options to be aware of. The Lito is a straightforward beginner drone at an extremely wallet-friendly price — it's a step down from the Mini range in both price and capabilities. The DJI Flip is another beginner drone with vlogger-friendly features. At the other end of the scale is the DJI Inspire range, aimed at professionals — the kind of thing that might be hired for productions.

DJI Mini drones

DJI Mavic drones

DJI Air drones

DJI Neo drones

DJI Avata drones

Outliers

Spoilers for Stuart Fails to Save the Universe episode 1 ahead.

Stuart Fails to Save the Universe episode 1 has arrived, and is now available to stream worldwide on HBO Max.

In short, our "starting" versions of Stuart (Kevin Sussman), Denise (Lauren Lapkus), Kripke (John Ross Bowie) and Bert (Brian Posehn) live in a reality akin to The Walking Dead, complete with Mad Max-style apocalyptic outposts and wasps that are the size of cars.

Stuart accidentally triggered this multiverse Armageddon after breaking a device supposedly built by Sheldon (Jim Parsons) and Leonard (Johnny Galecki).

Shortly after Kripke, that universe's leader, is confronted by the rest of the group, we meet our first secret TBBT cameo: Raj (Kunal Nayyar). He's basically become a doomsday prepper, working on plans on a blackboard for how to get the device working and get the hell outta dodge.

But just as quickly as we've met him, Raj is killed while the others safely teleport to... well, hopefully somewhere better. It's a bold move, and one that has shocked fans if social media is anything to go by.

However, we've been so caught up in Raj's death that we haven't considered one major detail... it hasn't really happened at all.

Only one version of Raj is now dead... and it's certainly not the one from The Big Bang Theory

Did you forget? This is just one version of Raj in one universe, meaning there's still an infinite number of Raj's out there to be found.

As none of the versions of the characters we're meeting are actually the ones seen in TBBT, original Raj is safely in California doing some science equations in peace (probably).

This doesn't even rule out Raj appearing again later on in Stuart Fails to Save the Universe. Now that we know he's a confirmed cameo for the HBO Max spinoff, it would be silly not to use him again where possible. With the overarching narrative so difficult to predict, the possibilities are endless.

If nothing else, this now means that we're likely to see other TBBT cast members cameo in other episodes, and whether they're killed off or not. However, who these cameos might be is anybody's guess.

What we do know for episodes 2-10 is pretty minimal, but the below preview gives us the faintest idea of what to expect. Strap in, is all I'm saying.

I test over a dozen of the best coffee makers every year here at TechRadar, but having a small kitchen means I have to be very picky about which I choose to buy myself. The problem is, I love both drip coffee and espresso equally. I'd happily pick up a compact espresso machine and a quality drip coffee maker such as the Breville Luxe Brewer Thermal, but that would mean sacrificing valuable food prep space and, potentially, not having enough work surface available for rolling pastry and kneading dough.

Of course, a kitchen with no space in which to make pies or bread would be tragic — but, thankfully, it doesn't have to come to that because the Ninja Prestige DualBrew System can handle all my espresso and drip coffee-making needs in one convenient package.

I first tested the DualBrew System (known as the Ninja Espresso and Coffee Maker Barista System in the US) about nine months ago, and it's still the most impressive two-in-one coffee system I've ever used. It isn't a particularly glamorous appliance to have sitting on your counter — it's designed for function rather than looks — but it's enormously practical and has clearly been designed by people who know and love their coffee.

On the left of its roughly cuboid-shaped body, you have a fully featured drip coffee maker, with a standard-sized brew basket and toughened glass carafe. It has all the features you'd expect from a good-quality standalone brewer, including different intensity settings (regular, rich, or over ice) and a timer to start brewing when you wake.

However, there are also some great additions, such as a drip-stop system that means you can safely remove the carafe partway through brewing without making a mess, as well as a fold-down drip tray so you can brew directly into a travel cup rather than the carafe if you want your coffee to-go in the morning.

Some drip coffee makers use of a double-walled insulated carafe to keep your drink at the ideal temperature after brewing, whereas others use a hotplate. The DualBrew System is in the latter camp, but unlike any other drip coffee maker I've tested, it has a smart hotplate that doesn't just heat your coffee consistently, but instead turns on and off to help maintain the right temperature without stewing your brew. It also turns off automatically when you take the carafe away.

Espresso is handled on the right-hand side of the machine. The DualBrew System uses Nespresso Original-style coffee capsules, which means there's a huge array of different beans, blends, and roasts to choose from. Nestlé no longer owns the patent to this type of capsule, so any company is free to package its own freshly ground coffee in these little pods.

Personally, I like to use capsules from my local roastery, and an espresso made using these pods in the DualBrew System tastes almost identical to the same beans prepared with a manual coffee maker.

There's a choice of three drink sizes, and the espresso machine has an adjustable-height drip tray so you can use any cup you want. When you're done, the spent pod drops into a bin, ready to be emptied later.

The only downside of the DualBrew System is the lack of a steam wand (which makes sense, since there's no pressurized boiler here). Instead, there's an electric whisk that folds out from the rear of the machine. This doesn't heat your milk, but the DualBrew System offers a handy guide that advises how long to heat your milk for in the microwave, and how to whisk it for different espresso drinks. It's not the same as steam, but it's fine in a pinch when you don't have much space.

If that's a deal-breaker, a standalone milk frother such as the Dreo BaristaMaker or Smeg Mini Milk Frother will deliver more authentic results, and is small enough to tuck into the corner of a cabinet when it's not in use.

If you love coffee in all its forms but don't have acres of countertop space to spare, the DualBrew System provides everything you need in a single, neat package — and it's affordable, too. At the time of writing, it's available for $249.99 / £179, down from a list price of $279.99 / £249.99. You'll find all today's best deals at the bottom of this article.

Hugging Face is probably not a name you'd heard before this week, but you likely caught the big news about OpenAI's model escaping its sandbox and to launch a cyberattack on the company.

In short, Hugging Face — which is kind of like the equivalent of GitHub for the machine learning (AI) world — was the victim of an AI agent that OpenAI was testing in terms of its ability to pull off exploits.

So how exactly did this happen? And what does it mean for the future of online security given the development of increasingly advanced AI agents? In this article I'll answer those questions, and explore some of the issues this event has thrown up, including the security threats posed by AI not just to companies, but to individuals.

How did this even happen — why didn't OpenAI have safeguards to stop the AI?

As you might expect, OpenAI did have safeguards in place, but the model managed to break through them.

The scenario was that OpenAI ran a controlled experiment using GPT‑5.6 Sol and an "even more capable pre-release model" to see how they fared on ExploitGym, which is a benchmark test that challenges AI to successfully exploit known security vulnerabilities.

In this security test, the model was placed in a sandbox, a "highly isolated environment" from which the AI shouldn't have been able to gain access to the internet at all. But the pre-release AI — which had its guardrails turned off, as OpenAI believed it to be safely imprisoned — craftily decided to cheat, found a way to escape its sandbox, and actioned exploits to breach Hugging Face (where the AI reasoned that it might find the answers to crack the ExploitGym tests).

Why is this a big worry?

It's a major concern simply due to the level of smarts exhibited by the AI. As OpenAI explained, the model "chained together multiple attack vectors" and used "stolen credentials and zero-day vulnerabilities to find a remote code execution path on the Hugging Face servers."

This was no mean feat, and Clement Delangue, CEO of Hugging Face, posted on X to say that it was "quite mind-blowing that all of this happened autonomously!"

In a blog post, Hugging Face observed that: "The campaign was run by an autonomous agent framework executing many thousands of individual actions across a swarm of short-lived sandboxes, with self-migrating command-and-control staged on public services."

The attacked was deemed so serious, it was reported to law enforcement agencies. As Simon Willison, a cocreator of web framework Django, pointed out in a blog post: "This was a sophisticated attack," further explaining that "Chaining together multiple attack vectors is exactly the kind of thing these new models can do, where previous generations of models might have failed."

The headline of Willison's post sums it all up rather neatly: "OpenAI's accidental cyberattack against Hugging Face is science fiction that happened."

The Django co-creator is also quick to dismiss conspiracy theories that this is somehow a marketing stunt by OpenAI to prove how advanced its AI models are.

The future of hacking?

What should also be noted is the distinction between finding vulnerabilities, and being able to actively exploit vulnerabilities. AI being involved in the former could be very useful for bolstering security, but as for the latter — well, this Hugging Face incident is very much a clear illustration of why the makers of these models need to tread very carefully indeed.

While this was a 'white hat' (ethical) experiment, albeit one that went alarmingly awry, with real-world consequences, what happens when AI models start to become even more sophisticated along these lines — and criminals get hold of them?

There are obvious dangers in terms of the automation of attacks to make them far more regular occurrences, and the lowering of the bar in terms of the skills needed to be a successful hacker.

Dan Schiappa, President of Technology & Services at Arctic Wolf (responsible for threat-detection platform Aurora), warns: "Security teams should view this as a preview of what's ahead. As AI continues to lower the barriers to sophisticated cyber activity, organizations will need broad, deep visibility across their environments and the ability to investigate and respond at machine speed."

The ability to "respond at machine speed" is a hint at using AI for defense against AI bad actors, and that's another interesting facet of the Hugging Face incident. Simon Willison observes that Hugging Face was "unable to turn to OpenAI's models to help them fend off the attack", and that: "The frontier models [cutting-edge AIs] we have access to are increasingly being constrained in how much they can help us protect our software, heavily influenced by the US government's ongoing threat of export controls."

AI-driven attacks will doubtless be aimed at businesses and organizations, but could also be leveraged on a personal basis. Karolis Arbaciauskas, who is Head of Product at cybersecurity firm NordPass, tells us: "We don't need a nation-state actor or a Bond villain for this to go wrong. The most common emerging threats will likely be more mundane. For example, an [AI] agent could be instructed to dox a former romantic partner or settle an online grudge by hacking and stealing personal data, such as embarrassing photos or credit card details."

He adds: "AI models have become dangerously skilled at identifying software vulnerabilities. They've mastered every human hacking technique, from phishing to brute forcing. The difference is they can do it much faster than humans.

"I don't believe that we can patch software fast enough to keep up, so we must at least shield ourselves against the most obvious entry points. Encryption, strong unique passwords, passkeys, and multi-factor authentication (MFA) have never been more critical than they are right now."

The major AI firms are always talking about guardrails and safety, but it now seems like we should be thinking a lot harder about how more highly evolved AI models are going to fit into the future of cybersecurity — and how we can avoid a world where the danger of being hacked becomes a far more commonplace prospect, which is very much the biggest worry of all.

For the third year running, we’re delighted to announce that the entries for the TechRadar Sustainability Awards are now open.

Sustainability has long been an elephant in the room within consumer tech. While an increased focus in recent years has moved us in the right direction, the conversation is shifting from future pledges to action being taken today.

As one of the largest consumer tech sites, we want to encourage progress and celebrate real-life implementation of better practices, from how products are made and used, to how materials are reused or recovered.

We’ve heard from some of the biggest names in tech over the past two years of Sustainability Awards – the likes of Bang & Olufsen, Acer and Belkin all shared their efforts with our team and sustainability partners at Seismic – as well as exciting newcomers to the space, but we’re doing more. So, this year, we’re growing the TechRadar Sustainability Awards to reach even more brands, celebrating those making genuine progress, setting clear commitments, and, most importantly, being honest and transparent about their journey.

If that sounds like your brand, a company you represent or even a brand you’re a fan of, entries for our 2026 Awards are open.

So, what’s new? This year, entry to the Awards is completely free for companies with fewer than 250 staff, but larger businesses can expect to pay a nominal fee to enter and support the research completed by our partners at Seismic. All businesses should be prepared to evidence their impact with relevant documentation, data and certifications. It’ll take us a few months to fact-check and verify the shared information, and we will announce our winners later this year.

We’re doing everything we can to bring integrity to our process, ensuring we celebrate meaningful impact rather than greenwashing claims. Seismic is an international team of experts on a mission to help businesses become increasingly impactful forces for good.

Seismic brings together sustainability strategists, Net Zero advisors, reporting specialists, B Corp & EcoVadis experts and communications consultants to help businesses lead the shift. Seismic will support us in reviewing entries and judging the winners, bringing an extensive knowledge of impact across a range of disciplines and business models.

We’ll be evaluating entrants not only for sustainable product innovation, but also their approach to people and overall business operations. This includes considerations such as environmental footprint tracking, circularity in product design and supply chain ethics. Winning brands will have the opportunity to license the official TechRadar Sustainability Awards winners logo for use in their marketing.

How to enter

How to enter

You can enter the TechRadar Sustainability Awards 2026 here until August 14th. There are seven categories to choose from, which are detailed below as advised by Seismic.

We also sat down with co-founder and CCO Andy Schmidt in the video below if you want more insight into our joint vision for these awards.

Sustainability Awards categories

Sustainability Awards categories

Embodied Carbon

The emissions associated with the manufacturing, transportation and disposal of products and materials - typically account for the largest portion of a tech device’s carbon footprint. For example, research shows that over 80% of a laptop’s lifetime footprint is created before it even reaches a user.

Meanwhile, energy use during a device's life remains a critical challenge. Estimates suggest that user devices now account for more global electricity consumption than networks and data centres combined and this is expected to increase in the next five to ten years.

This category recognises businesses that are taking decisive action to reduce both embodied and operational carbon emissions - from smarter design and material choices to improving the energy efficiency of devices when in use.

Hardware circularity

The tech industry is characterised by rapid innovation and frequent product obsolescence. As newer, more advanced devices enter the market, older models are often discarded, contributing to a growing e-waste crisis.

The disposal of this waste is a major concern, particularly as many electronic devices contain hazardous materials, like lead, mercury and cadmium, which can pollute soil and water if not properly disposed of. Designing products with short lifespans also accelerates resource depletion and encourages unsustainable patterns of consumption.

This category celebrates companies embracing circular economy principles, designing products for longevity, repair and reuse, and with closed-loop material recovery, helping to reduce waste and extend product life cycles.

Digital Inclusion

Digital inclusion is a critical sustainability challenge with social implications. While 95% of the global population has the theoretical potential to access the internet, almost half remain offline, often due to limited digital skills, financial barriers or lack of infrastructure. Bridging these gaps is essential to ensuring equitable access to technology.

This category celebrates initiatives that are helping to close the digital divide by making tech more accessible, affordable and inclusive for underrepresented or underserved communities.

Nature-positive Sourcing

While committing to ethical material sourcing and minimising the harmful impacts of raw material extraction is essential, the tech industry must now go further. We want to celebrate businesses that are evolving their operations from simply doing less harm to actively restoring our ecosystems. This category recognizes companies that champion nature-positive sourcing and can provide clear evidence of regenerative practices. We are looking for entrants who are leading the way with initiatives such as the ecological restoration of mining sites, responsible water stewardship, or the innovative use of bio-based and ocean-bound plastics

Energy Consumption

Addressing energy consumption is an ongoing responsibility within the tech industry. This category recognises businesses that can evidence what they have done to minimise energy consumption across their operations, manufacturing processes, and product design.

We want to celebrate companies that have implemented successful initiatives, investments in renewable energy, and energy-efficient technologies and practices to reduce their carbon footprint and promote sustainability. Crucially, as new technologies scale, we place a particular emphasis on how entrants are quantifying their AI usage within their company, and actively managing the effect this has on their overall energy consumption. For example, we’d love to hear about any responsible AI training materials you may have developed, to keep your teams mindful of their AI usage and the environmental impact associated. In addition, we want to know how you’re quantifying AI usage in your company, such as your number of active weekly users of AI through employees or customers.

Tech for Good

This refers to the use of technology to address pressing social, environmental and humanitarian challenges and to create positive impact in the world. It encompasses various initiatives, projects and innovations that leverage technology to improve people's lives, protect the planet and promote sustainability and equity.

We are looking for companies that can demonstrate their positive change using clear impact metrics. We want to celebrate businesses that go beyond narrative success stories by backing up their progress with quantitative data on the beneficiaries reached or proven long-term outcomes. We also understand that smaller companies might not have years of tracked metrics available yet. We’d love to hear about your progress too, whether that’s through early indicators, direct feedback from your stakeholders or case studies showcasing real-world improvements.

Supply Chain Sustainability

A truly sustainable tech industry is built from the ground up. For this award, we are spotlighting businesses that proactively address supply chain sustainability. We are looking for standout initiatives and practices that promote ethical sourcing, reduce environmental impact, and enhance social responsibility from start to finish. Whether you are a small business or a large enterprise, we want to celebrate companies that can back up their progress with meaningful action and transparency.

Isn’t it funny that we take the flexible screen so for granted that we complain over a crease and lack of flatness? The screen folds to become half its size and unfolds to about the size of a mini-tablet, and we’re still not satisfied. I guess that’s what makes us — or maybe Samsung — human. You see, it wasn’t satisfied, either, at least with the already quite thin and pretty remarkable Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7.

That 4.2mm thick device that features two displays and yet is somehow lighter than the Galaxy S26 Ultra was close to flat and did have a less noticeable crease at the bend, but apparently Samsung thought it could do better, which is how we got the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, unveiled at Galaxy Unpacked on July 22.

That’s right, it’s now an Ultra device, though that has more to do with the other new entry in the folding lineup: the 4:3 ratio Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8. This new Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra is not, after all, a full-scale redesign and is, instead, a refinement that brings better cameras (an upgraded 200MP camera with an f-stop adjustment, a new 50MP ultra-wide that matches the Galaxy S26 Ultra), a new 5,000mAh silicon-carbon battery, an anti-reflective coating on the display, and, somehow, a thinner body.

The slimming

At 4.1mm, you might be hard-pressed to notice the difference between Samsung's two most recent foldable flagships, though I can tell you that the chassis is now so thin, it barely squeezes in a USB-C port.

What is noticeable, though, is that the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra unfolds its 8.1-inch OLED display effectively flat, and the crease is all but gone. (The phone actually almost snaps to flat and is somewhat less adjustable between flat and folded modes.)

That’s due to the lightweight but also very strong titanium architecture behind that OLED panel. There has been a rigid titanium backplate behind the OLED panel since the Galaxy Z Fold 7, but the lattice work along the crease — in the center of the panel — has been totally redesigned from a seemingly infinite series of parallel holes to holes that start narrow on top but open up on the opposite side (it’s sort of an “A” shape). Stacked on top of that panel now is another far more flexible titanium alloy sheet (a mix of titanium and other metals like aluminum and chrome). It’s about as flexible as a sheet of paper (I touched it, I know) but with infinitely more strength.

The combination of these two panels, which are sandwiched and glued together along with the OLED panel, an ultra-thin glass pane, and a plastic screen protector, all work in concert to allow the panel to be both 30% easier to open (a new chamfered display frame edge also assists here) and more inclined to pop out flat. And that makes the crease almost invisible.

I know all this because I met with Samsung Electronics and Samsung Display engineers in South Korea who worked together to bring the Z Fold 8 Ultra to life.

Even though I sort of understood how these elements worked together to make a flatter whole, I couldn’t entirely figure out how the rigid back plane was flexible enough to make the folding and unfolding possible, but Byung Duk Yang, EVP at Core Component Technology Team, Samsung Electronics, put a finer point on it for me.

Sitting next to a specially designed flexible display blow-out diorama featuring all those aforementioned panels hanging inside like so many curtains, Yang explained, “You’re right. Titanium is basically not flexible. We use a titanium plate already, but there are micro-holes to get the stretchability — so that is basic titanium. But this time we used the new titanium alloy — we needed some stretchability. That’s why it is not 100% titanium; it’s titanium alloy.”

The switch to the titanium alloy, which replaced a thicker polymer layer, is key because, with titanium’s ability to better withstand long-term deformation, it’s less likely that the now mostly hidden crease will grow more prominent over time.

As I noted, people tend to, with these foldables, fixate on the crease, but Yang explained that in designing these panels, Samsung Display has many considerations. “The crease itself is not our only top priority. We have to consider durability and surface quality.”

Stress tests

I also traveled to Samsung’s Gumi Factory City in South Korea, where I witnessed the new Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra and its new sibling, the Galaxy Z Fold 8, undergo rigorous stress tests that included extreme heating and cooling, folding and unfolding tens of thousands of times, and ball-drop tests in which metal balls are repeatedly dropped on the screens from various heights.

From what I could tell, the Z Fold 8 and Z Fold 8 Ultra are quite resilient and, in the Z Fold 8 Ultras I saw, less reflective.

The new antireflective coating appears to do its part in helping the flexible display hide the crease. After all, less light is bouncing back to your eyes. And when I visited the Gumi testing lab, I saw how they used a special box with a dome of brilliant white light and a spectrometer to test display reflectivity. The light robotically moved around the Z Fold 8 Ultra panel to assess general reflectivity but also how the light might bounce off the crease. Results are gathered by a computer in a lab that runs 24 hours a day. We were, by the way, the first reporters ever to see it in person.

I’ve been pondering, though, what comes next for the Galaxy Z Fold lineup. Unless Samsung removes the USB-C port, it really can’t get any thinner. But the display could get at least one cool improvement; Samsung confirmed to me that they are thinking about how the Privacy Display on the Galaxy S26 Ultra might come to a future folding device. As you may recall, that privacy technology works at a pixel level to hide your screen from prying eyes, so it would require a very specific update to the flexible OLED panel.

In the meantime, though, consumers will have to consider this new Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, perhaps the thinnest, flattest, and fullest expression of Samsung’s foldable ambitions.

Do you own a lot of Samsung devices? If so, why not test yourself to see how well you know the brand's products and services by taking the quiz below.

I can't say that I've been paying too much attention to what's happening at San Diego Comic Con, but I certainly didn't expect new Big Bang Theory spinoff Stuart Fails to Save the Universe and the DC universe to be mentioned in the same breath.

According to Nerdist, DC President Jim Lee made a surprise appearance at the HBO Max show's panel in Hall H, confirming that multiple DC characters will cameo later in the season.

“Some of the DC characters they have in it, I think, are some of the best versions I’ve seen of those characters,” Lee said during the panel.

In other words, watch out James Gunn. With Supergirl failing to make much impact earlier this year, maybe Stuart Fails to Save the Universe actually is the best DC Universe iteration we'll get in 2026.

If you've been watching the teaser trailers closely, you might have seen underrated characters such as Gotham villain Mr. Freeze have already featured. But if creators really want to bring the existing Big Bang Theory lore full circle, the show can't omit the superhero that's been staring us in the face for years.

Stuart Fails to Save the Universe's DC crossover need to include The Flash to commemorate — or spite — Sheldon

Even if you've only watched one episode of Big Bang Theory in your lifetime, my campaign for The Flash to join the Stuart Fails to Save the Universe x DC episode hopefully won't come as a surprise.

He's Sheldon's (Jim Parsons) favorite DC superhero, and the reason why, nearly every time we see him, he's sporting the iconic T-shirt with the Flash logo.

We're going to be on tenterhooks for all of the new show's 10-episode run to see if Sheldon makes a cameo appearance, and dropping in The Flash as a potential clue could be a really fun way for the creators to mess with us.

On the flip side, a Flash cameo could also work to either spite or celebrate Sheldon. The reason why Stuart (Kevin Sussman) is in this multiverse mess in the first place is because he broke a device built by Sheldon and Leonard (Johnny Galecki); bringing his favorite superhero closer to home could be a great way to apologize.

However, this is a multiverse show, so The Flash likely won't be appearing in the Sheldon we know's reality. So if another Sheldon met the Flash instead... our one would be furious. That, in itself, is hilarious.

At this point, I'm purely speculating. We've got no idea which DC characters will appear in Stuart Fails to Save the Universe, nor do we know exactly which episode they will be in. Regardless, we can definitely assume that the crossover will be an epic one.

My favorite interviews over the course of my career have involve people I'd never normally get the chance to speak to in everyday life.

So far this year that's involved two former FBI agents, but Dr. Sarita Robinson — who you can see in Pompeii: Out of Time, out now on Disney+ and Hulu — might just take the cake. Known as "Dr. Survival," her work specialises in figuring out why some people are more likely to survive disasters than others.

This makes her a compelling expert for the three-part docuseries, which explores the events leading up to the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79AD, which destroyed the nearby Roman city of Pompeii, and features Tom Hiddleston as presenter.

But it's not her take on the past that I'm actually as interested in... it's her take on the disasters of the future. As a TechRadar writer, I can't pass up an opportunity to talk to Robinson about the dangers of the rise of AI usage across the globe.

While some of us happily wile away the hours asking ChatGPT to generate images of us as hot dogs, others are getting concerned about increasingly awry security reports, such as Open AI models breaching rival company, Hugging Face.

Add in potential climate change risk, and I think that AI is more than a viable candidate for the sort of survival emergencies that Robinson researches. But surprisingly, AI isn't what she's most worried about.

'We theoretically have a risk from AI'

First, I begin by asking Robinson exactly how she defines a survival emergency. Does it have to be a natural occurrence, like the Mount Vesuvius eruption near Pompeii?

"Absolutely not," she replies. "For me, when I'm looking at emergencies, it's anything where your life is at risk. That can be as simple as you walking across a road and a car coming, small scale emergencies that are just enough that you have to respond, or it can be huge emergencies. The last one that I did quite a lot of research on, as you might expect, is the pandemic. The next one will be climate change, the era of global boiling."

"Medium scale would be an earthquake in a region, a terror attack — so they can be human made disasters... they don't have to be just natural disasters."

So far, so good. When it comes to categorizing AI within Robinson's research boundaries, is this kind of technological disaster something she's ever considered?

"I think I've watched enough science fiction movies to know that we theoretically have a risk from AI," she tells me. "Exactly what that risk would be or how it would look is very difficult to predict at this moment. But yes, absolutely, I would definitely add it onto my list of things that can go wrong... my list is quite extensive."

'I would be far more worried about a solar pulse'

"To be fair, I think the thing I worry about more on the tech front is something like a solar pulse that then knocks out a whole load of technology," Robinson adds. "I can't imagine my life without a mobile phone, a computer... it would be very odd to go into an age of no internet."

It's at this point of the interview where I stop feeling bad for adding a disaster scenario to Robinson's list, as she's certainly just added one to mine. Before this point, I'd never even heard of a solar pulse, which can best be described as a sudden burst of energy from the sun. According to the University of Minnesota, they can trigger "explosive releases of radiation and magnetized plasma ripple through space, occasionally triggering geomagnetic storms on Earth and producing auroras."

Fantastic, another reason to have anxiety in 2026. But what is Robinson's advice for not feeling so anxious about... well, general impending doom?

"Be prepared: active coping, doing something about it, keeping it in perspective, but making sure that you have the resources if something goes wrong," she responds. "I don't mean building a nuclear bunker in your back garden. For example, when the pandemic hit back in 2020, I had a 'pandemic kit' under my sink. I felt like I had a little bit more control in that moment."

"I did some research on the pandemic and what it did show was that those people who'd made some preparations prior to the lockdown were doing much better in terms of mental health, stress, anxiety and depression."

Can we make a solar pulse or anti-AI kit for under our sinks? Most likely not. But that doesn't mean that Robinson's advice should be discarded — control also means vigilance, so keeping a mix of online and offline resources in day-to-day life could be a great way of achieving this.

If success is measured by commitment, then Samsung’s foldable business is now more successful than ever.

With the addition of the quirkily sized Galaxy Z Fold 8, introduced here at Samsung Galaxy Unpacked on July 22, there are now three Samsung Galaxy Z smartphone options to choose from. Sure, foldables account for perhaps a single percentage point of the overall smartphone market, but Samsung is now more committed to the category than ever. So, success, right?

To understand that commitment, I, along with Tom’s Guide Global Editor in Chief Mark Spoonauer, sat down in Samsung’s South Korea headquarters a few weeks before the Galaxy Unpacked with Jay Kim, Samsung’s EVP and Head of CX Office, to talk about the newest foldables, how Samsung measures success, and the pesky new folding phone competitor that might be waiting in the wings.

Getting to the Fold 8

Kim acknowledged the journey over now eight generations of foldable devices and told us that when the exquisite Galaxy Z Fold 7 arrived (it remains my favorite foldable but might be supplanted by the Z Fold 8 Ultra), something shifted.

Consumers stopped nitpicking core stumbling blocks of foldable phones like thickness or thinness. Instead, they were celebrating the core benefit, saying, in Kim's words, “I have a phone that actually can be a tablet, and then that full capability of a phone is not compromising anything. So, we felt,” continued Kim, “like, 'okay, now… consumers are really understanding why we're pushing the boundary for such a long time.'”

So instead of bystanders watching a man balance a chair on his chin for no reason, they were on the journey with Samsung and getting excited about a device that could slip into a pocket as effortlessly as your classic flagship phone but also double as a productivity powerhouse.

Sitting before us as we talked were all three of the latest Samsung Galaxy Z devices, but only one is a head-scratcher: the 4:3-ratio Galaxy Z Fold 8. Sure, its size makes it the lightest Fold ever, but the question remains: why? From the outside, it’s hard to understand how Samsung came to this design conclusion, let alone how consumers would react.

Samsung, though, tracks the demands and behaviours of its consumers, and Kim told us that the company saw signals that there was a market for this device, and it came to what sounds like a very scientific conclusion.

“When we looked at our consumer… insight on how people react to the products, almost over 50% are focused on media; they consume media, whether on the outside cover screen or the inside, the main screen; they engage in content, and we thought, ‘Why not?’”

That’s right, why not? It’s not necessarily a market research-tested conclusion, though Kim admitted that Samsung threw out a lot of designs before arriving on this content-friendly and still pocketable display size.

“We put together the form factor where the media makes most sense, the content native [form factor], but in terms of, like, how do you engage with the device? So basically, we looked at when you engage with content, what is the best form factor [that doesn't] compromise anything on the full bar type,” recalled Kim. And by “bar type,” Kim is referring to slab phones like its Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra.

How does Samsung know it’s on to a winning design with the Galaxy Z Fold 8? Well, it did test it, at least internally, and the feedback appears to have been positive.

“I'm really happy how our hardware and the design team came out with the product, because it's beautiful, and when we test[ed] it with the market for the preview, everybody's asking about when it's coming,” said Kim.

Samsung may not have been excessively focused on the thinness of the Galaxy Z Fold 8 line, but it was, in one instance, acting on feedback about how hard it can be to open the Z Fold 7. "Folding and unfolding was some of the most important feedback we got [with last year's phones]." The result in the Z Fold 8 Ultra is a chamfered frame that's easier to pry open with a fingertip. "[They] spent days and nights changing the angles," recalled Kim.

There will be thoughts

It’s also fair to say, though, that everyone will have an opinion about the Z Fold 8, which is arguably a confusing name because the follow-up to the Z Fold 7 is not the 8, but the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra. The Z Fold 8 is, essentially, a totally new animal. And that size — the wide and squat cover screen, and the internal display that essentially unfolds to a screen quite similar in size and shape to your average Kindle ereader — is not going to be everyone’s cup of tea.

Yes, content like ebooks, comics, and video look great with smaller black bezels around them, but does the Galaxy Z Fold 8's new aspect ratio help with things other than content consumption? Kim sees benefits there, too.

“How do people use a cover screen? Most of the time [what] they do is communication. So, you text a lot, and… [the cover display on the Galaxy Z Fold 8] is actually a pretty good size for texting.”

Kim told us he also thinks the cover screen is an optimal size for flicking through all that scrollable video content, too.

Since he has responsibility for not just these new foldables but for standard Galaxy phones (and XR glasses) too, I wondered how Kim (and therefore Samsung) explains to consumers that there might be value in a foldable device over a standard S26. After all, these flexi phones are priced at a considerable premium over standard smartphones.

Kim knows that most consumers are satisfied with standard phones: “At the same time, bar type is very confined to the screen size, so everything must be squeezed into the size, but I think there's a consumer who would love to leverage different sizes of the display. You know, you have a size, but you can actually expand it to the bigger screen, or you can actually engage with content better, or you could be more productive. You can actually play a game on a bigger screen.”

No compromises

So, yes, there’s a market for those who feel constrained by the single screen size idea, but — and this is an early lesson Samsung learned —it’s not enough to just give a second screen size option on a single device. Samsung has arguably been doing that since the first Fold, but it was a terrible device.

“I think the only condition is you can't compromise anything that you have on the bar type. So, on top of not compromising from bar type, if you can actually provide additional screen experience, I think there's a need for the consumers,” added Kim.

It’s probably the reason why the Galaxy Z Fold 7 has been so well-reviewed. It is a no-compromise dual-screen device.

While the new Galaxy Z Fold 8 is by no means a compromise, it is a complication. We wondered how consumers might decide or be guided when they walk into, say, a Verizon store and consider the Z Fold 8, Z Flip 8, and Z Fold 8 Ultra.

“We’re happy for the consumer to make a choice,” said Kim, adding that the choice may boil down to where you spend most of your time on the phone.

People who like split screens and productivity — maybe they even set two phones side-by-side for double the productivity — they’ll gravitate toward the Galaxy Z 8 Ultra.

“If you use a lot of media, you read books, or you play games, you know, if that's like your focus area, then you take the Fold 8. And then if you are more, you know, very expressive, and you feel like you want to have a small phone in the pocket, and you want it to be glanceable, and then you want to have more of a native type of AI, a native type of experience, then you go with the Flip.”

There’s bound to be some market confusion as consumers adjust to the “Fold 8” being not the standard fold but the unusually shaped one, but Kim told us that Samsung spent a lot of time working on the names, and one thing was clear: “We weren’t trying to create a new category,” he said. This was still a Fold just in a different form factor and aspect ratio. "We went back to basics, saying it’s a Fold 8," said Kim.

And while Samsung wondered how the market would react, Kim says the company is pleased with the level of attention. “Whether it's a form factor, whether it's a name, or anything, it's a good sign [and] we were very happy that consumers and the market are very interested to get their hands on it.”

Kim, by the way, wouldn't talk pricing for any of the new folds, but he did reveal that, like the rest of the industry, Samsung is grappling with RAM crisis challenges. "The costs of components going up is not just our problem; it's an industry-wide problem... We take it pretty seriously, looking at [the] balance and [seeing] how to adjust based on the market situation. We’re not free from that and [are] addressing it very actively," he told us.

What's coming next and the Apple threat

While the Z Fold 8 is the exciting new look, the Z Fold 8 Ultra is now, at 4.1mm, essentially the same thickness as a USB-C port. It’s unlikely that the foldable could get any thinner without Samsung removing that port. I asked Kim if the company is considering doing so for future generations.

“Definitely, we look at all the options, but I think the most important thing is: do you need to make it thinner? That question is the most important. We made it thinner and lighter because that was the biggest sort of feedback we got for many, many years [...] So, I think now consumers are asking for different things.”

We also talked, naturally, about Apple. Most rumors point to a foldable iPhone Ultra possibly arriving in September, and it might even match the Galaxy Z Fold 8’s unusual aspect ratio.

Kim, though, doesn’t appear nervous about the industry’s most-watched company entering a market Samsung created.

“If our big sort of market player is coming into the market and bringing the fold type, then it proves that what I have been thinking and what I've been envisioning, and how much of the effort that we put in is actually the right direction. If not, they wouldn't really come into the market,” said Kim diplomatically.

Apple's anticipated entry will surely change the folding market, but only as a follow-up to the transformation Samsung has already wrought. “I think it’s important that we pushed the industry. [But] it's a collaborative effort. I don’t think we could’ve done it just ourselves.”

If you believe Kim, Apple’s folding entry, if it arrives, could be seen as a major validation of Samsung's years-long efforts. And, unless we are very mistaken, Apple will have one folding phone, while Samsung now has three. With that number of flexible devices and screen size and shape choices available on store shelves, that may be all the validation this still relatively young market needs.

We could even be approaching a foldables breakout moment. “I think we’re on the verge where [foldables] could actually become mainstream going forward. It has the potential,” Kim told us, “Because we had these two form factors for a very long time. Introducing another one is a bold move, actually, because that shows that we’re confident in the category and we’re confident in how the market is reacting to it. So I’m more excited about what’s to come than what we have achieved.”

"A circuit breaker." "Bring back hope." "Do better." That was Andy Burnham's promise to the nation on Monday as he became Britain's seventh Prime Minister in a decade. The digital rights community was watching closely — and they didn't have to wait long for action.

Before even stepping into Downing Street, on the previous Saturday, Burnham scrapped the controversial national digital ID plan. On day one, he sent fresh shockwaves by dismantling the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) entirely and merging it with the Business Department.

The question now is whether Burnham’s impetus for change will address the issues at the heart of the digital privacy debate.

According to the Policy and Campaigns Officer at Liberty, Anna Cardoso, the newly-formed cabinet is a prime opportunity for a "human-centred approach" to tech and privacy. "One that puts people, privacy and fundamental rights at its core," Cardoso told TechRadar.

But what does that actually look like in practice — and can the new government truly deliver?

Does Andy Burnham mean an end to Digital ID cards?

Keir Starmer’s BritCard was an unpopular policy among privacy-conscious citizens. Opponents to the programme then welcomed with excitement Burnham's decision to finally send the UK digital ID to the grave.

"We’ve done it," wrote Big Brother Watch's Director, Silkie Carlo, in a celebratory post on X, while Akiko Hart, Director at Liberty, called the move "a victory for civil liberties in the UK."

But Burnham's motivations to kill the proposal don't exactly come from privacy concerns. His decision was one of economics. Axing the BritCard means freeing up an estimated £600 million a year — from a policy no one wants — and using it for something citizens desperately desire, such as more support with the cost-of-living crisis.

In fact, Burnham told the Financial Times that he's not "arguing against the principle”. After all, he was a supporter of Tony Blair’s Identity Cards Act back in 2006.

"I think there’s a risk of an opportunity-cost situation here where something can consume a huge amount of time and actually doesn’t come through," he told the newspaper.

Does this mean that another form of BritCard be brought back when the time is right? Possibly.

Some commentators are already speculating that online ID checks may find a way to stick around.

Speaking with Al Jazeera, Alan Miller, co-founder of the campaign group Together, argues that other online government systems could evolve into a "de facto digital ID through creeping expansion".

Cardoso from Liberty agrees that killing one proposal isn't enough to sweep away all the concerns about digital forms of identification. Yet, she still considers it a huge step in the right direction. She told TechRadar:

"Whether or not digital ID returns in another form, any future proposal would need to demonstrate a clear public benefit, strong privacy protections, meaningful safeguards and robust democratic scrutiny. Those principles should apply regardless of who is in government."

Will Burnham really scrap Palantir's NHS deal?

The government's £330 million contract with Palantir to build the NHS's new Federated Data Platform (FDP) has also been a concern for Britain’s privacy-conscious citizens. Whether the wave of division on the subject has been one of geopolitics, morality or technical usability, data protection is at its core.

Some reports suggest that Burnham is already considering scrapping Palantir’s NHS contract. Something that, according to Palantir UK CEO Louis Mosley, "would be a terrible mistake".

While nothing is as yet confirmed, the Head of Tech and Data at Good Law Project, Duncan McCann, sees the political reshuffle as the best chance for the group’s campaign to remove Palantir from the UK's healthcare system to succeed, commenting to TechRadar that Burnham now represents "a beacon of at least an opportunity".

Burnham's track record in this area looks hopeful, too. During his almost decade as Mayor of Greater Manchester, municipal or public health departments did not award any contracts to the US surveillance tech giant.

And while McCann explains that Burnham may not necessarily be the one to credit for the decisions the city's public sector took on Palantir, it is an opportunity for hope of change at a national level.

As reported by Al Jazeera, Manchester’s NHS leaders spent six years building their own analytics infrastructure instead of adopting Palantir's FDP system, something that for Palantir critics became proof that effective NHS data management can be achieved without the help of the American company.

"It offers some real opportunity to show Manchester as an innovation hub," explained McCann, saying that the Good Law Project remains hopeful that this could fit well on Burnham's political agenda.

"It proves that we can do it ourselves and save money by doing that, while creating new jobs."

The Prime Minister's press office has already confirmed to reporters the guiding principle remains "getting value for money for the taxpayer" alongside the "need to be safeguarding people’s data and British interests", both of which fit neatly into McCann’s hopes.

As with the BritCard, then, it could be the financial angle that leads the digital rights community to have their concerns on Palantir and patients' privacy finally addressed.

Don’t expect much change to the UK’s approach to children's online safety

Keir Starmer dropped a digital rights bombshell in his last days of governance — an upcoming under-16s social media ban that privacy experts have already dubbed "a cybersecurity disaster waiting to happen".

But don’t expect Andy Burnham’s rise to power to change much here.

In an interview with The Times in April 2025, Burnham talked about the urgency to regulate social media platforms for teens. A concept he reiterated more recently, when he backed the Tories' call for a ban on under-16s from social media last January — as reported by The Guardian.

According to Policy Manager at the Open Rights Group, James Baker, that’s a clear sign that policies on social media will most likely remain unchanged.

"However, I'm not convinced it's going to work because it doesn't tackle the underlying root cause of what makes these platforms harmful," Baker told TechRadar, adding that evidence coming from Australia shows that young people can easily circumvent restrictions.

Baker argues that to really reassure British parents over their children’s online safety, we need a complete shift in policy.

"We need to tackle structural causes for harm instead, like the advertising business model causing platforms to come up with harmful loops that keep people online as long as possible," Baker told TechRadar.

That said, it also looks unlikely that Burnham will address privacy advocates’ concerns on mandatory age verification.

Back in 2016 — during the discussions around the controversial Investigatory Powers Act — Burnham took a strong stance against what he defined as "simplistic loyalties to the security or privacy lobbies", arguing that "such debates are pitched as a clash between two absolutes of privacy and security, where there can be no compromise and only one winner".

Baker agrees that the new Prime Minister probably isn't going to be a huge supporter of privacy causes. But he remains hopeful.

"So much time and energy has been spent trying to solve online safety with policies that haven't actually worked. Perhaps he will take a more pragmatic look and consider other, more cost-effective measures."

Again, economics may prove to be the deciding factor, shifting the conversation away from policies that experts fear will threaten digital freedoms.

So, what can we expect for Burnham on digital privacy?

By binning the digital ID proposal and the entire tech ministry within his first 36 hours of leadership, Andy Burnham proved he isn't afraid to move fast and break things. But as digital rights experts have made clear, a true 'circuit breaker' requires more than just stopping bad policy.

"Liberty wants policymakers to move away from a ‘technology first, questions later’ approach and instead place human rights at the heart of decision-making," Policy and Campaigns Officer Anna Cardoso told TechRadar.

She said that the real tests are yet to come on whether the government will be "willing to grapple seriously with the risks posed by surveillance technologies, AI and large-scale data collection."

Whether it comes from genuine concerns for digital privacy or a pragmatic way for closing the gap between politics and the public, it doesn’t much matter at this stage. If Burnham’s administration can weave privacy protections into his broader economic agenda, he might just deliver the positive vision for tech that advocates are desperate to see.

Until then, the digital rights community remains cautiously optimistic — holding its breath for the next move. As Baker from Open Rights Group puts it:

"We’ll try to give him a chance. Maybe he can do things a bit better."

Imagine an automated torture chamber where one calamity after another is inflicted upon you. Worse yet, it’s all robots doing the pushing, pulling, pressing, switching, and lighting. A robot even delivers you to this house of horrors.

Of course, you’re a Samsung Galaxy phone, and you were actually built to take this kind of punishment, or at least expected to survive it. Housed in a basketball court-sized room, this is one of Samsung’s endlessly running test suites for its growing line of Samsung Galaxy S series and Galaxy Z folding phones.

A few weeks ago, Samsung flew me out to South Korea to visit its Gumi factory where, among other things, they build and stress test their newest phones, including the Galaxy Z Fold 8, Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, and Galaxy Z 8 Flip, all of which were introduced this week at Samsung Galaxy Unpacked in the UK.

As a lab engineer guided us through the space, a robot waited impatiently behind him while trying to deliver more phones to its Guantanamo of tech indignities. The engineer seemed unconcerned as the robot edged closer to us, but it always remained a safe distance away, finally delivering a phone to the first chamber when we’d cleared a path.

Of course, before Samsung checks the viability of these handsets, it builds them.

Make 'em and (try to) break 'em

When I visited the factory — one of nine dotted around the globe and where millions of units are assembled — for the first time a few years ago, I noticed a mix of robots (not humanoid, just automated platforms and a wide variety of robot arms) and humans. This time, however, there were just a handful of humans, who were often checking the robots’ work for imperfections.

As we walked the pristine aisles while wearing thin, blue protective covers on our shoes, I caught the eye of one factory worker and gave her a thumbs up. To my surprise, she smiled and nodded back at me before quickly returning to product inspections.

Across a series of metal and plexiglass boxes, I saw all manner of robots and mobile device manufacturing activity. There was never a pause or moment of indecision. In one enclosure, I watched as camera boards were robotically placed in a Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra board and then expertly screwed into place.

Virtually every robot in every enclosure has a specific job, like the one that does nothing but remove thin-blue packing material from a phone circuit board. Its tiny fingers delicately grab a pair of thin blue tabs and strip away the filament. We found ourselves cheering on the little bot.

In another spot, a colleague noticed that a copper line wasn’t properly affixed to a phone’s main circuit board. I could see it bouncing freely and wondered if the error would be caught or end up in someone’s wonky Galaxy device. I needn’t have worried. Samsung’s automated systems are fully capable of both the build and error-catching. As we watched, the offending board shifted off course and was held at bay while other properly built boards moved along.

I saw many different enclosures with so many automated manufacturing capabilities that it was mind-boggling.

Box 'em up but test them first

In another space, I saw sensors identifying phone IMEI numbers, while another robot printed out corresponding labels, and then a third affixed them to boxes that matched the packages to each phone.

Most of the robots I saw were small, but at the end of the line was an almost car-sized palletizer that takes the 10-per-box cardboard crates and stacks them on a pallet, placing the boxes first around the perimeter and then filling in the middle. The motorcycle-sized arm was remarkably fast and accurate.

Some of the phones never make it to the pallet. Instead, a select few are destined for a special test room where a large horseshoe of enclosures determines if the models in the current batch are fit for purpose.

There are two types of test systems in Gumi: the boxes that run the same test over and over again in a single device, and the U-shaped automated test bay where one phone is run in serial through the entire array of tests. These tests will often replicate what is done repeatedly in other enclosures.

The number of test systems and kinds of tests Samsung runs on its products is impressively comprehensive, though some of the boxes look downright bizarre.

Weird tests, reliable products

Folding and unfolding the devices thousands of times is to be expected, as is pressure testing, but I also saw extreme heat and cold tests. There were also enclosures that do nothing but check AI vision systems, millimeter wave, waterproofing, and a facial recognition chamber with life-like mannequin heads that I can still see when I close my eyes.

There’s even a room where partners like Google can remotely access and run tests on Samsung phones.

More astonishing is that this is a living, ever-changing facility. Just imagine what happens every time, like now, Samsung unveils new phones and watches; they must retool. Walking the floor, I noticed how the brand-new Galaxy Z Fold 8 was already undergoing rigorous tests. The lab engineer told us, “For every new form factor, we develop new technology for it,” and they develop new automation to test it.

Look, I’m not saying other companies don’t put their mobile hardware through similar wringers, but I’m not sure any other tech giant has been so transparent about their process. It’s wild, bracing, and I must admit, gives me more than a bit of confidence about each new Galaxy device Samsung delivers.

Do you own a lot of Samsung devices? If so, why not test yourself to see how well you know the brand's products and services by taking the quiz below?

Since Dutton Ranch season 2 was renewed a week before the season 1 finale, I assumed it would be a good few months — perhaps even until the end of 2026 — before we'd hear any solid updates from Paramount+ or its cast. But thanks to Variety's explosive interview with star Ed Harris, who plays vet Everett on the Yellowstone spinoff, I was wrong.

“Prior to signing on for it, I was talked to quite a bit about what the season was, and what my character was going to do — and that I was one of the four main characters,” Harris said. “And that wasn’t really the case."

He continued: “I said, ‘I’m feeling underused and inconsequential,’ and they kind of went, ‘Oh'. I’m being told my character will have a little bit more to do [in Season 2]. I was just a little frustrated, to tell you the truth.”

According to Variety, Harris explained that when he actually watched Dutton Ranch, he thought it was “pretty good,” and felt his character was “relatively important to the story.” However, during filming, “it didn’t feel that way.”

These potentially controversial comments are the ones making headlines, but for me — a self-proclaimed hardcore fan of the show — they aren't the most interesting takeaway from Harris' interview.

Not only are there heavy hints about when we're likely to see new episodes released, but the certainty of Harris' belief in season 2 indicates that a new showrunner has been found.

Dutton Ranch season 2 episodes will likely arrive in late 2027 as Harris confirms February 2027 filming schedule

Do a little bit of social media digging and you will find that there's more to the interview with Harris than the clip Variety has chosen to run with. Journalist Marc Malkin has posted the full footage to his Instagram, where Harris confirms that Dutton Ranch season 2 is due to begin filming in 2027.

I'll be honest with you: this is a lot later than I was expecting. However, it does confirm that we'll be seeing episodes in late 2027 (or slightly later, depending on if there are any other production hitches).

Now let's examine what Harris allegedly knows about his season 2 character arc. For plans to already be so firmed up, this must mean that a new showrunner has been appointed to take over from Chad Feehan, who exited the show just weeks before the season 1 premiere.

This could easily have been a remark made by producers just to keep Harris happy enough to carry out his two-season contract with Dutton Ranch. But the fact that neither Paramount, nor Taylor Sheridan or 101 Studios chose not to comment on Harris' interview makes me feel hopeful that Sheridan has quietly resumed his position as showrunner.

Call it delusion if nothing else, as this is what I've always wanted to happen with the Yellowstone spinoff. But it's a smart move — with season 1 performing so well for Paramount+, everything needs to be perfect to keep up momentum. Annoyingly, it's likely that the showrunner won't be announced until season 2 begins production.

When the trio of Samsung Galaxy Z 8 foldables — the Galaxy Z Fold 8, Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, and Galaxy Z Flip 8 — arrive in consumers' hands in the coming weeks, they will be among the first mainstream handsets, aside from the Motorola Razr Fold, to feature silicon-carbon batteries. That's a big deal for the industry, but perhaps an even bigger deal with Samsung, which, a decade ago, had one of the biggest negative smartphone battery stories in a generation.

That was way back in 2016 when the Note 7, an otherwise excellent phablet (yes, that was a thing), occasionally blew up because of battery manufacturing imperfections. Ever since then, Samsung has not only had a perfect record; it's often been at pains to explain the lengths it goes to ensure smartphone battery stability and safety.

Now, as it introduces a relatively new and somewhat untested battery technology — silicon-carbon — Samsung is again making the effort to dive deep into the construction and chemistry of these new-fangled power sources to show just how much care and effort it's putting into the new tech, and into its new foldable phones.

What is silicon-carbon?

Silicon-carbon is not a wholesale refashioning of lithium-ion battery technology. Instead, it replaces a key component of the battery makeup, swapping the negative electrode (graphite) for silicon-carbon. This material allows for higher density (more power in less space) and far faster charging speeds. It's part of the reason why Samsung can, despite not making the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra any thicker than the Z Fold 7 (it's actually 0.1mm thinner when unfolded), make the battery larger — it's now 5,000mAh.

With Samsung now having a solid decade of battery safety under its belt, perhaps no one is questioning the quality, let alone the safety, of this new battery technology. But Samsung clearly wants to shout about it, and has been sharing extensive details.

In a recent briefing ahead of the July 22 Galaxy Unpacked event in London, Samsung executives walked us through a near-atomic-level chemistry class to explain how it's custom-building the silicon-carbon batteries to ensure they work as expected.

"With Samsung's highest standards, we carefully verified the silicon-carbon battery so that our users can trust it and use it with competence," said Samsung EVP Moon Sung-hoon.

As for what that means, Samsung told us it fully redesigned the cathode, separator, and anode, which means that, at an atomic level, Samsung is managing the chemical reaction inside the battery that delivers the power to your next Galaxy Z Fold device.

Samsung wouldn't share the exact amount of silicon-carbon that's in the batteries, but it did confirm that its new Z Fold 8 Ultra, Z Fold 8, and Z Flip 8 phones in every region would feature the new battery technology.

On coatings and voltage management

Even though we didn't learn the percentage of each battery element in the Galaxy Z8 phones, Samsung dove deep into the component construction, explaining that, in an effort to manage the reactivity of the silicon-carbon cells, it "innovated every single part of the battery system. This is why we call it the system level of innovation at battery."

A Samsung executive showed off a colorful illustration to detail all the work (sadly, I cannot share it with you here). But here's what I learned.

To the anode layer, Samsung's engineers added a micro-carbon coating, which offers protection to the layer without, thanks to carbon's natural pores, constricting it during charging and discharging,

On the cathode layer, they "injected additional atoms" to manage the naturally higher voltage and stability of the cells. To maintain that higher voltage, they added a solid electrolyte interface (SEI) that adds a "small coating to the anode cells". This also manages the cell reactivity.

Finally, for the chemical reaction that occurs in the battery, Samsung added a "hyperporosity separator," which has larger holes without reducing the stress or durability of the cell's separators, and therefore helps maintain stability.

While most of us non-chemical engineers might feel like we've just about wrapped our minds around this information, this is an unprecedented level of battery construction detail, which I don't think Samsung would have shared if not for its history with batteries.

For consumers, though, this may not matter as much as the fact that these are larger-capacity batteries in smaller frames that charge far faster than their predecessors — and that will feel like a win for most Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, Z Fold 8, and Z Flip 8 owners.

For our early impressions of all three new phones, check out our hands-on Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra preview, hands-on Galaxy Z Fold 8 preview, and hands-on Galaxy Z Flip 8 preview.

Prime Video just got a massive free upgrade that should be on your radar if you're interested in playing popular video games like Fallout 4, Fortnite, and EA Sports FC 26 on your TV at no extra cost.

From today, Amazon Prime subscribers using Fire TV devices in the US or UK will be able to access Amazon Luna titles from directly within the Prime Video app. Luna is the company's cloud gaming service, and lets you play entire games by streaming them directly to your device like you would a TV show or movie — simply pick what you want to play in the new games tab, connect your phone (or a compatible gamepad) to use as a controller, and you can dive straight in, with no download required.

You don't need to pay extra for this either, as a formidable library of games is already included with your Prime subscription. This includes a wide range of casual GameNight titles designed for playing with a group of family or friends (including an exclusive Angry Birds and digital versions of popular board games like Clue and Exploding Kittens), in addition to some more hardcore titles available on a rotating basis.

If you want even more games, you can upgrade to Luna Premium for an additional $9.99 / £8.99 per month.

Prime placement

The move comes as Amazon tries to get more eyes on its game streaming service, which many Prime subscribers don't even know they have access to.

"You could argue we're the largest paid gaming subscription in the world," Amazon GM of gaming Jeff Gattis laughs in a conversation ahead of today's reveal. "Problem is, not enough people know about it."

Although he argues that the service is "really easy to get to if you know where you're going," he reckons the decision to initially roll it out via a dedicated Luna website and app that you "have to actively seek out and go find" has inadvertently created too many "friction points" for otherwise potentially interested users.

"It's crazy how much value we're putting in to the Prime tier," he added. "The fact that we just had the World Cup, and the you could play FC 26 if you're a Prime member for essentially free is is amazing. But again, it's only as good as people's ability to know about it."

In addition to the prominent positioning of the new games tab, Amazon is currently working on brand awareness campaigns to help get the word out.

According to Gattis, Fire TV is also just the beginning of a wider rollout that might see the update coming to the Prime Video mobile app, and so be in front of even more eyes, in future. "The grander vision is to get it to everywhere Prime Video is, and so we're excited just for more people to discover the benefit," he teased.

Overall, he believes that all of this will help align Luna more closely with the core principles that make other Amazon services like its e-commerce offering so successful. "It's convenience," he adds, "and I think it's value. And when you think about Amazon, what are the things that it does well worldwide?"

From the scourge of Generative AI to the RAM crisis, from PlayStation axing discs to Xbox cutting legendary studios off at the knees, it seems like gaming is under attack from every angle. The industry is in dire straits, with studios seemingly no longer able to bank on the success of AAA blockbusters or Live Service behemoths like it used to. Even the biggest game ever, the upcoming Grand Theft Auto 6, has had a troubled announcement, with its $80 price tag and discless contents getting people’s backs up.

It’s easy to feel helpless when seemingly insurmountable problems hit a medium you love, and speaking out feels like you’re merely howling into the void. But based on historic events, it's true that when enough gamers make themselves heard — and when they vote with their wallets — positive changes can occur, bad decisions can be reversed and better futures can be laid. Hey, even Xbox rolled back its Game Pass price hike (to an extent).

So we want to hear from you — which issue are you most concerned about? Participate in our poll below and tell everyone what you think. No doubt many if not all of these issues are interconnected. For instance, I can’t help but laugh at the cruel irony of the RAM being used to power the Gen AI tools for the purposes of developing games more cheaply is pushing up the price of the systems for playing those games. Of course, there’s no easy fix to any one of them, but we’ll follow up by dissecting the results and discussing the potential routes to bring gaming out from the dark place it’s currently stuck in.

The pint-sized Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 just made its debut at Samsung Galaxy Unpacked, but as someone who has been in a year-long love affair with the Galaxy Z Fold 7, there’s a different phone turning my head: the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra.

This new entry in the Z Fold lineup is, in effect, the true sequel to last year’s Z Fold 7, because the new Z Fold 8 adopts a passport-like design that’s squatter than we’ve seen before. Meanwhile, the Z Fold 8 Ultra has identically sized 8-inch inner and 6.5-inch cover displays to the Z Fold 7.

However — and as you’d hope for from a new entry in the series — the Fold 8 Ultra isn’t the same in every way. Here are five key differences you'll want to know about if you're thinking of upgrading, or buying your first foldable (you can also read my first impressions of the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra elsewhere on TechRadar).

1. Get ready for a (small) price hike

The elephant in the room I need to address before we get into the exciting stuff is the price: the Z Fold 8 Ultra does cost more than the Z Fold 7.

Admittedly, this was entirely expected — thanks to the RAM crisis, we’ve been hit by price hike after price hike, even for older gadgets which would normally see price drops over time. But the news here isn't as bad as many expected.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 launched at $1,999 / £1,799 / AU$2,899, and the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 will set you back $2,099.99 / £1,899 / AU$2,999.

Any price increase is unwelcome, but considering that I and many others were bracing for something much worse, I’m not too frustrated by this, especially factoring in the upgrades on offer here.

2. A bigger battery

Ahead of its reveal I shared the changes I most wanted to see from the Z Fold 8, and the most important entry on that list was a bigger battery.

Despite, on paper, boasting a longer battery life than the Z Fold 6, the Galaxy Z Fold 7 never kept going as long as my previous foldable, and many other Z Fold 7 owners have shared their battery-life frustrations with me over the past year.

That’s why I’m excited to see the Z Fold 8 Ultra boast a 5,000mAh battery capacity thanks to its silicon carbide cell.

Admittedly, this isn’t the wild 7,000mAh capacity some recent handsets from brands such as Oppo have delivered, but compared to the Fold 7’s 4,400mAh battery I’m hoping to see a major improvement in stamina with the Z Fold 8 Ultra.

3. Closer to Ultra cameras

Last year, Samsung made some serious improvements to the main camera on the Galaxy Z Fold 7 by giving it a 200MP lens that more closely matches the capabilities of the Ultra models in its flagship S series. Admittedly, the Z Fold 7 still fell a little behind the S25 Ultra in this area (and behind the newer S26 Ultra), but certainly not as far behind as the Z Fold 6 was behind the S24 Ultra.

This year it's the turn of the ultra-wide camera on the Z Fold 7's successor to get an upgrade, with the 12MP snapper getting upgraded to 50MP on the Z Fold 8 Ultra — and the 200MP main camera is also getting the S26 Ultra’s HDR capabilities for more vibrant-looking shots.

The 12MP 3x telephoto camera is still the same, which is a shame — I’ve been loving the 50MP 5x telephoto on my Galaxy S26 Ultra — but this latest upgrade brings us one big step closer to the Galaxy Z Fold series boasting the same camera hardware as the Galaxy S Ultra lineup, and I can’t complain about that.

Besides the hardware, the Z Fold 8 Ultra is also getting the S26 Ultra’s impressive Horizontal Lock stabilization tech, which keeps your shots looking steady even with some absurd levels of camera tilt.

4. Display enhancements

While not the flashiest or most obvious change, especially because it’s the same size and shape as before, the Z Fold 8 Ultra’s display has received two notable improvements.

First, peak brightness is increased from 2,600 nits on the Z Fold 7 to 3,000 nits, which should make your screen easier to see in bright sunlight and enable better HDR performance.

Second, Samsung has added a matte coating to the inner display to reduce glare. Coupled with a new hinge design which lets the screen open more fully flat than before, this does seem to have resulted in a less noticeable crease than we’ve seen on previous Z Fold phones.

In fairness, I would say the crease on the Z Fold 7 is close to nonexistent, but, especially when light reflects off the inner display in a particular way, it can become annoyingly apparent. Thanks to this flatter design and reduced glare, my initial assessment is that the screen looks much less noticeably 'unfolded' when you open up the Z Fold 8 Ultra — though it’s worth noting this is comparing a new Z Fold 8 Ultra with a Z Fold 7 that's seen close to a year of constant use.

5. A Gen 5 chipset

Rounding things off, all three of Samsung's new foldables — the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, Galaxy Z Fold 8 and Galaxy Z Flip 8 — get a chipset upgrade over last year's models, in the shape of the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy, the same processor you’ll find in the Samsung Galaxy S26 lineup.

Compared with the chipset in the Z Fold 7, Samsung says you can expect a 19% faster CPU, 24% better GPU performance, and an NPU that’s 39% more powerful than before — leading to better onboard AI processing.

I personally haven't found that the Galaxy Z Fold 7 left me wanting for more power. It’s quick and responsive in use, gaming on the foldable has been a delight, and its AI abilities are fine for my needs. That said, I won’t say no to better performance, even if it is the upgrade I’m least excited about compared to the bigger upgrades coming to the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra.

Spoilers for Ransom Canyon season 2 ahead.

I shouldn't love Ransom Canyon as much as I do, but the Virgin River meets Yellowstone Western drama always has a way of hooking me back in.

In season 2, we've explored a lot of overarching storylines that were first established back in season 1.

The land feud between the Double K and Fuller ranches has become more ferocious, local bar owner Quinn (Minka Kelly) has left for New York despite her on-off relationship with rancher Staten (Josh Duhamel), and mysterious newcomer Yancy (Jack Schumacher) has revealed to new love interest Ellie (Marianly Tejada) that he has a secret wife.

But by the time we get to the end of this new batch of eight episodes, everything has changed again... and not always for the better.

So, where on Earth is everyone at now? Here's a full breakdown of the Ransom Canyon season 2 ending, and what it could mean for season 3 if Netflix decides to renew the series.

Ellie gives birth after her explosive fight with Sidney

As the Ransom Canyon season 2 finale begins, we meet Ellie as she regains consciousness in hospital. She's been brought in via ambulance after Yancy's "wife" (as their marriage was never annulled) Sidney (Heidi Grace Engerman) pushed her off a house porch, endangering Ellie and Yancy's unborn baby.

When Yancy gets there, things are touch and go, but the doctors soon confirm that mother and baby are both okay — though the fall has forced Ellie into labour, meaning baby Isabella has arrived much sooner than expected.

However, Ellie is really shaken up by what happened, as is left convinced that Sidney will return to attack her and Isabella. Yancy tries to reassure her as best as he can, telling Ellie that he will protect the pair of them.

Quinn comes to visit to take her mind off things, explaining how well the music festival they held at Gracie's has done, pushing the bar so far in the black that they made more profit that expected.

Quinn also spots Staten on his way to visit Yancy, explaining in the elevator that she only pushed him away because she was "scared." Staten claims that she hasn't been listening to what's actually happening between them, alongside how much he has changed.

Lucas tells Lauren about Ashley — but Kit's got bigger problems

Meanwhile, things are getting really messy for Lucas (Garrett Wareing). After a suspected drugs charge, he has to be bailed out by older brother Kit (Casey W. Johnson), and it's clear how much the brothers have swapped personalities since the beginning of season 1.

On his way into the station, Kit is stopped by Sherriff Dan (Philip Winchester), who threatens him for messing up daughter Lauren's (Lizzy Greene) life. But hang on... weren't Lucas and Lauren together instead? They were at the beginning of season 2, but Lauren soon found that her feelings were actually towards Kit.

Dan offers Kit a "start over" opportunity, claiming that he knows of a ranching job in Wyoming that would get Kit back into the work he loves so much — and away from Lucas and Lauren. "Everything you touch turns to sh*t" Dan tells him, with Kit intent on fixing the mess he has made.

Lucas emerges from the jail, and the brothers fight in the street when Kit tells him how urgently Lucas needs to get his life back on track. Lucas then tells Kit that he slept with local girl Ashley (Jennifer Ens), before driving to meet Lauren outside the hospital and tell her the truth too. As you can imagine, it doesn't go down well.

Quinn makes her next financial investment in Ransom Canyon

Things are going incredibly well at Gracie's, with Quinn's business investor Mary Lou even offering Lauren the chance to design an album cover for a new music artist because of the poster she created for the festival.

In fact, the festival has gone so well that Mary Lou is already thinking about next year's event, with acts already enquiring about being in the lineup. The only problem is accommodation — if Quinn wants to make the festival bigger and better, Ransom Canyon currently doesn't have the capacity to host more visitors.

But Quinn has an idea. She wants to use the extra profits made to invest back into Ransom, which starts with buying abandoned restaurant, The Lone Star, and converting it into a music venue and hotel. She pitches it to Mary Lou as a local version of The Ryman in Nashville, and the pair shake on it.

Claire pushes Quinn and Staten back together for good

Quinn's mother Claire (Patricia Crawford) arrived in town in season 2 episode 1, and now she's about to fly back home again. Before she does, she's got two stops to make.

The first is swinging by Quinn's house, with her daughter revealing the Lone Star investment plans. On top of that, Quinn has also sold her own farm to give Claire the money to buy a new house, giving her mother a chance to start afresh and chase her own dreams, for once.

Claire then swings by Staten's house, and convinces him to pursue Quinn one last time. She believes the pair are each other's true loves, despite Quinn telling Claire earlier that the pair are "done forever." Before she leaves Staten's house, he asks Claire to take something with her.

Claire says goodbye to her daughters at Gracie's and hands Quinn a box from Double K ranch, with a letter from Staten inside. He writes that everything he has said is "wrong," and asks her to meet at the cabin. While we wait to see if Quinn turns up, we see a flashback timeline of their relationship, from meeting each other as young teens to the present day.

Sure enough, Quinn opens the cabin doors to find Staten lighting a fire, as the pair kiss. Finally! The next morning, Staten tells Quinn how many times he's dreamed of having her there, with Quinn replying that she knows that Staten is "her person."

Freddie convinces Yancy that the oil grift is real — which brings Ellie to breaking point

Yancy's having a rough ride once again... but it's all his own fault. After his grift with old prison mate Freddie (Kenneth Miller) to trick Senator Kirkland (Brett Cullen) into believing there is oil on Double K land to stall his plans gets busted, the two reconvene.

Freddie claims he's no longer interested in the $80,000 Yancy allegedly owes him, instead revealing that he's run the survey past a new set of eyes, and their oil ruse could actually be real for Fuller ranch. If so, Yancy and Freddie could come into millions of dollars.

Yancy arrives at the hospital to tell Ellie the good news, but she's discharged herself. He finds her at her house, with officer Kai (Justin Johnson Cortez) keeping a 24-hour watch on the premises.

Between Freddie, the potential oil and being constantly convinced that Sidney will snatch Isabella from her, Ellie is at breaking point. She tells Yancy that she needs to protect their daughter from the "darkness that follows him," asking him to leave the house.

This effectively means that they've broken up, with Yancy starting a physical fight with Kai while leaving the house. We see him drive away in the snow, furious and upset with what has just happened.

Kit leaves for Wyoming as Lucas and Lauren make an uneasy truth

After finding out about her album art offer, Lauren waits for Kit on the stoop. She tells him that she's excited about their future together, but Kit no longer wants to continue seeing her. he claims that he's finally realised what Lucas sees in Lauren, and how big her success could be — he doesn't want either brother getting in the way of that.

The next day, Lucas finds Kit on the front porch at home, with a bag all packed. Kit tells him that in order to fix things between them, he's going to Wyoming to take the ranching job. The two share a tearful goodbye before Kit leaves.

Later that night, Lauren arrives looking for Kit. Lucas is there instead, and the two both admit how much they messed their relationship up. Lucas says that he hopes the pair will be okay again someday, and the two form an uneasy truce.

Before she leaves, Lucas tells Lauren that Kit is at the bus stop. She arrives just in time before he boards, telling him not to go. Kit says that he has to, with Lauren doubling down by replying that she's never letting him go. The pair kiss, but does he actually end up going?

Staten asks Quinn to move in as Double K board meeting looms near

On the night of the board meeting, there's a lot to play for. Senator Kirkland has finally relented, claiming that he'll back Staten as the head of Double K ranch in front of the board, forfeiting his own position. Lucas also says that he'll have Staten's back.

Before he enters, Quinn meets him outside, saying that she wouldn't have missed such an important evening. Staten puts a key to Double K ranch in her hand, as a prompt to move in with him. "You need to live somewhere now you've sold the farm," he adds, as the two kiss one last time.

Season 3 predictions

Unusually, there aren't a lot of plot lines left unresolved, but we still have two key stories to follow if Ransom Canyon season 3 gets picked up.

The first is what actually happens at the board meeting. The feud between Double K and Fuller ranches is far from over, even if it doesn't feel like a priority at the end of season 2. Yancy and Freddie are clearly still scheming, so it might not be as straightforward as Staten claiming victory at the meeting.

The second is what happens between Ellie and Yancy. Ellie has pushed Yancy away for her own safety, but he's not going to take be separated from daughter Isabella lying down. Will he made bad decisions in order to see her, and is this really the last we've seen of Sidney?

Of course, there's also a question mark over whether Kit goes to Wyoming, though it's heavily implied that he changes his mind.

Don't ask me what happened in any single episode of The Big Bang Theory, because I honestly can't remember.

Across 12 seasons, a myriad of in-jokes, long-standing gags and endless scientific lore were created, and you can bet your bottom dollar that hardcore fans won't have forgotten a single thing.

This level of detail initially made me nervous to try watching new HBO Max spinoff, Stuart Fails to Save the Universe.

Our titular heroic lead, on-off girlfriend Denise (Lauren Lapkus), as well as friends Kripke (John Ross Bowie) and Bert (Brian Posehn), are brought back together when Stuart (Kevin Sussman) triggers a multiverse armageddon by accidentally breaking a device built by Sheldon (Jim Parsons) and Leonard (Johnny Galecki).

Clearly, the spinoff is its own thing, but there's enough of a TBBT connection to assume that you'll need to know the ins and outs of the main season in order to enjoy it.

That's not the case, though. Not only can you be a Big Bang dunce and still have a whale of a time watching — and perhaps more importantly, always understand what's going on — Stuart Fails to Save the Universe is actually designed to contradict the existing IP lore, according to creators Zak Penn and Bill Prady.

'You're not obligated to be consistent'

"One of the wonderful things about moving from universe to universe is you're not obligated to be consistent," Prady tells me.

"We're in a different universe. When we were doing this, I was always reminded of an episode of Doctor Who where the Doctor is confronted with the with the inconsistency in the episode that they're in. He points out that time is more of a vague 'timey-wimey' kind of thing, and I think we had a lot of that going on to say, 'This is a different universe, and that's how it is in this universe.'"

Even from episode 1, which drops on HBO Max on July 23, you can see how it would break your brain to try and conform to the rules and regulations of TBBT.

Stuart and the gang are frequently confronted with alternative versions of themselves and others are each aware of completely different things... and that's before we consider that there's always an overarching physical difference to each universe visited.

"We kind of approached it like we're not trying to construct this perfectly organized science fiction idea," Penn adds. "In fact, we want to both violate the ideas that we set up and then have the characters acknowledge that that's what we've done. We do that quite a bit.

"There's characters all over the season mentioning that things don't really make sense... nobody can follow it. That was a deliberate choice because. The show isn't designed to be something that's a puzzle to figure out perfectly."

As the saying goes, if you can't beat them... be bewildered by the choices being made around you. Trust me: part of the fun is trying to keep up with the multiverse madness and second-guessing what comes next — and you'll never, ever be right.

The 2026 edition of San Diego Comic-Con (SDCC) is almost upon us, and you know what that means: all manner of rumors and speculation about the surprises Marvel might have in store for us at its now-customary Hall H panel.

To a certain extent, the biggest reveal has already happened. Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) diehards had expected the first official trailer for Avengers: Doomsday to be the focal point of the comic book titan's next presentation. With Avengers: Doomsday's main trailer released on Monday (July 20), though, Marvel must have something just as significant around which to center its forthcoming panel on July 25 at 5:30pm PT.

As attentions turn towards the Disney subsidiary's hour-long address at SDCC 2026, chief among fans' immediate thoughts is: what big reveal could Marvel make that a) would rival Avengers: Doomsday's first proper trailer as a major talking point, and b) is so noteworthy that Marvel felt confident enough to unveil Doomsday's trailer earlier than expected?

One project that fits the bill is Marvel's new X-Men movie. The only post-Multiverse Saga film in active development, myriad rumors are circulating online about who could star in the mutant-led flick. You can learn more about which actors Marvel is reportedly talking to via my Marvel's X-Men movie guide.

For what it's worth, industry insiders, albeit ones with sketchy track records, have claimed there'll be no such cast reveals at SDCC 2026. My reading of the situation is that'll be the case, too, especially as Marvel will want to focus to stay on the rest of its 2026 line-up — I'll discuss this in more detail shortly — and the projects it'll release in 2027, such as Daredevil: Born Again season 3 and Avengers: Secret Wars. We're not expecting the new X-Men movie to arrive until the following year.

That said, I'd be surprised if Marvel doesn't say something about the MCU's first X-Men film. Speculation abounds that the comic titan might tentatively discuss other Marvel Phase 7 movies, such as Thunderbolts 2, The Fantastic Four: First Steps sequel, Black Panther 3, Nova, and Midnight Sons — the last of which might repurpose Marvel's long-gestating plans to introduce Mahershala Ali's Blade to the MCU. It would be bizarre, then, if that quintet is covered, but not the first film of what'll be version 2.0 of the MCU.

But, onto more pressing matters — namely, the rest of Marvel's 2026 movie and TV slate.

On the film side of things, Spider-Man: Brand New Day, which swings into theaters between July 29 and 31 (depending on where you live), is expected to have a big presence at SDCC 2026. I'm willing to bet that attendees will be treated to some exclusive first-look footage, but any spoiler-based content, such as the identity of Sadie Sink's much-discussed mystery character in Spider-Man 4, won't be part of proceedings. Could we also get an early Spider-Man 5 announcement? As a huge Spidey fan, I'd be overjoyed if we did.

As for Avengers: Doomsday, I believe Marvel will show off some new clips from one of this year's most anticipated new movies, with the most likely candidates being extended looks at shots from its first main trailer. Where its sequel in Secret Wars is concerned, I think we'll get a name-drop and the briefest, spoiler-free hints about its story, but that's all.

Pre-SDCC 2026 chatter about Marvel's forthcoming Disney+ shows is much harder to read. After all, the studio has regularly reserved its biggest TV announcements for D23 Expo (Disney's flagship fan event, which takes place annually in Anaheim, California), so it stands to reason that there won't be a change in strategy this year.

Nevertheless, I predict we'll get some details about its final two TV series of the year — VisionQuest and Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man (YFNSM) season 2 — at SDCC.

With VisionQuest, I foresee confirmation of its main cast and a behind-closed-doors look at the Paul Bettany-led live-action program. Whether that'll be a full first trailer or a more general sneak peek remains to be seen, but I wouldn't be surprised if, as long as it's the former, VisionQuest's first trailer isn't publicly released following its possible unveiling at SDCC.

The same is true of YFNSM season 2. I'm of the opinion that Marvel's animated Spider-Man show will be highlighted in greater detail at D23 Expo 2026. That said, I'm fairly confident that Marvel will also deliver some news about it. Is it too much to ask for an official launch date? Not in my book.

Meanwhile, Marvel has already confirmed that it's full steam ahead on season 3 of its critically-acclaimed animated series X-Men 97. Will we hear more about it shortly? Not in my view. We've still got three more episodes of X-Men 97 season 2 to enjoy before it goes off the air, so any conversations about its follow-up season — especially those of a spoiler-based persuasion — will have to wait until D23 Expo 2026 or this year's New York Comic-Con.

Finally, will we hear anything substantial about Wonder Man season 2? That's similarly unlikely. Co-creator Destin Daniel Cretton has been incredibly busy with directing Spider-Man: Brand New Day. Although Cretton recently said that the cameras could roll on Wonder Man's next chapter as early as next year, this year's D23 Expo feels like a better fit for any major announcements for this series, as well as Marvel Zombies season 2, the company's first R-rated animated program.

What Marvel movies and TV shows do you think we'll see and hear more about at SDCC 2026? And which one(s) are you most looking forward to? Let me know in the comment section below and the above poll you probably scrolled past.

Once you're done, find out everything we know about Avengers: Doomsday, get the first details about Avengers: Secret Wars, learn all there is to know about VisionQuest, and what's what with Daredevil: Born Again season 3.

If you thought the whole point of a foldable smartphone with multiple screens was that “one size does not fit all,” then you were only half right. It seems that we’re rapidly entering the era of multiple foldable phone size choices with — no surprise — Samsung in the lead.

That’s just one reason why now, in addition to the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8 and the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, we have the unusually proportioned Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8, a flexible smartphone that, when folded closed, is quite close to the dimensions of a passport. All three of the new devices were officially unveiled at Samsung Galaxy Unpacked on July 22, and you can read our first impressions in our Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra preview and Galaxy Z Fold 8 preview.

After Samsung flew me out to visit its factories, meet its executives, and see these new foldables in person, I must’ve asked a dozen times: Why did you make this? Who is it for? I expect you'll be wondering the same thing.

There’s no arguing that the Galaxy Z Fold 8 (taking over the base name for the thinner and larger Z Fold 8 Ultra) is a compelling device. But the 10:61 aspect ratio of the 5.5-inch external display (it’s both wider and shorter than any typical flagship) and the opened 7.6-inch internal display, with its 4:3 aspect ratio, is almost unlike any handset we’ve seen in modern smartphone history.

The unusual size gives the Galaxy Z Fold 8 standout specs. At 201g, it’s the new folding phone weight leader. Unfolded, the screen resembles in size and dimensions your average Kindle e-reader (as a content-first handset, this makes some sense).

Different, yet the same

As part of the folding phone family, the Z Fold 8 does share some specs with its larger sibling. Both have the new titanium-backed folding screens that are stronger than the older polymer-backed ones, but also more resilient thanks to the properties of the new, ultra-thin titanium-alloy sheet. I took a closer look at this new screen technology in my deep dive with Samsung Display. As with the Ultra unfolded, the screen on the Galaxy Z Fold 8 is virtually flat and has an almost unnoticeable bezel.

Both the Fold 8 Ultra and Fold 8 screens support a peak brightness of 3,000 nits and feature a new anti-reflective coating. Like the Ultra, the Fold 8 has a large (in this case, 4,800mAh) silicon-carbon battery with exceptional claimed battery life and fast wired (45W with a 69% charge in 30 mins) and wireless (20W Qi2) charging capabilities.

But this is not an Ultra device. There are just two external cameras: a 50MP wide and 50MP ultra. So maybe this is a device focused less on content creation than it is on content consumption. Even so, it's backed by the same Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy chipset as the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra (and Z Flip 8), as well as the same 12GB of memory, which means it’ll be no slouch on the performance side.

Still, knowing the specs doesn’t answer why the Z Fold 8 exists and how Samsung expects to sell it to consumers.

Why and how we got here

As executives walked me through the new foldable devices, they called the Z Fold 8’s screen size “The new standard for viewing content.” Samsung believes that the 4:3 aspect ratio on the 7.6-inch foldable display is what consumers have been craving (even if they didn’t know it themselves). The result of this unusual screen size is that, in landscape mode, videos viewed on the screen feature shallower black bezels on the top and bottom for a more immersive experience. I did see this in numerous demos, though I kept thinking, “The black bars are smaller, but still there.”

When reading comics in portrait mode, though, the contrasty images filled the screen. It was a nice effect.

It’s also worth noting that the wider cover display, which accommodates a wider keyboard, makes for a slightly more pleasant texting experience.

When I spoke to Samsung Display executives about the new size, they told me that it wasn’t that they could not build this unusual size sooner. Instead, it was more about what they’ve learned about how people used their other foldables. The Flip seems to be more about self-expression, while the Galaxy Z Fold 7 and its predecessors, especially those that support multitasking, are about productivity and utility (though, since the Fold 7 lost support for the S Pen, they're no longer about drawing).

The new Galaxy Z Fold 8 sits in the middle. Sure, it’ll run the same One UI 9 platform, the usual smorgasbord of Galaxy and Gemini AI, and support multi-window navigation (including a new AI-based context-aware ability to sense when you need multi-windows and offer it up with a click). But the design speaks to those who primarily read, browse the web, watch videos, or scroll through endless TikToks and Reels.

Settling on a design

Getting to this rather unusual design wasn’t easy. When I asked Samsung EVP & Head of CX Office, Jay Kim, just how many designs were cast aside before arriving on the passport look, he told me, “Oh, so many, so many. I mean, because you need to have a size for the color screen, you need to have a size for the inside, and you know, you have to look at the display yield and everything around the technology around it, and you know it's a balance between thickness and weight, performance and everything about the product.”

In that design was a clear recognition of a perhaps underserved target market: “We realize that there's enough of a segment where consumers are very heavy on media, and basically you consume social media, you consume videos, you play games, and you read books in a most similar form factor. So, basically, we came up with a phone that's actually a very content native device.”

One thing is certain: the size and shape of the Galaxy Z Fold 8 is sure to provoke a reaction. The first time I held it, I was sort of amused. The folded size feels almost playful, but it’s also a very useful cover display. Opened, I noted the familiarity, especially in portrait mode, which is when I first realized it reminded me of my Kindle.

Still, the risk is inescapable. When I asked Samsung’s Jay Kim how they tested this new form factor, he told me they basically dogfooded multiple designs within the company.

“We did a lot of internal testing on different factors and different sorts of usage, and how do you use it?” recalled Kim.

As he spoke, I thought about how Samsung employees might hold back a bit on honest reactions, but then there are always the bold ones, and you assume a few unvarnished opinions on the new Fold look in there, too.

Kim sounded mostly confident. “We hope the market reacts the way we planned originally, and I think it's all based on the planning, and we're waiting for the [reaction], but I think when we did our internal sort of testing, I think that was very aligned with our sort of original plan, so we hope... I think we're pretty confident.”

It’s a big day for Samsung — and for fans of the company’s devices — with the brand unveiling three new foldable phones, two new smartwatches, and its first pair of smart glasses.

And it’s not just those glasses that are a truly ‘new’ thing from Samsung, as one of the phones is a new form factor too.

Below, you’ll find a rundown of the five biggest announcements at the second Samsung Galaxy Unpacked of 2026 — these are the key reveals you need to know about.

1. Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8

If you’re assuming that the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 is a direct successor to the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7, well, think again, because this is that new form factor I mentioned above.

Rather than a book-style foldable like the Z Fold 7, the Galaxy Z Fold 8 is a shorter, wider device with more passport-like dimensions. When unfolded and turned to portrait orientation it’s the ideal size and shape for reading, while in landscape it’s better suited to movies and games.

It has a 7.6-inch 120Hz foldable screen, a 5.5-inch 120Hz cover display, a 50MP wide camera, a 50MP ultra-wide, and a pair of 10MP selfie cameras — one on each screen.

It also has a top-end Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy chipset, 12GB of RAM, and up to 1TB of storage, while the battery is 4,800mAh. It starts at $1,899.99 / £1,699 / AU$2,699, making it a bit cheaper than the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, detailed below.

2. Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra

Confusingly, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra is effectively the successor to the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7, so you probably have some idea of what to expect here.

This phone has an 8-inch 120Hz foldable display, a 6.5-inch cover screen, a 200MP wide camera, a 50MP ultra-wide, a 10MP telephoto with 3x optical zoom, and two 10MP selfie cameras. It also has a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy chipset, 12GB of RAM, up to 1TB of storage, and a 5,000mAh battery — which is a big increase over the 4,400mAh cell of the Z Fold 7.

So this is a bigger, more book-like foldable than the Z Fold 8, and it has more cameras, but the same amount of power. It’s also extremely slim at just 4.1mm thick when unfolded, and it starts at $2,099.99 / £1,899 / AU$2,999.

3. Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8

Samsung has also unveiled a new device for fans of compact foldables, in the form of the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8.

This clamshell phone has a 6.9-inch 120Hz foldable screen, a 4.1-inch 120Hz cover screen, a 50MP wide camera, a 12MP ultra-wide, a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy chipset (or an Exynos 2600 outside the US), 12GB of RAM, up to 512GB of storage, and a 4,300mAh battery.

So it’s the smallest and most basic of these phones, but at 6.1mm thick when unfolded and 180g, it’s Samsung’s slimmest and lightest Flip model yet. The Galaxy Z Flip 8 starts at $1,199.99 / £1,149 / AU$1,949.

4. Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra 2

As well as phones, Samsung has also announced the Samsung Galaxy Watch 9 and the Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra 2, and it’s the latter of these that’s the most exciting.

This watch has a mammoth 800mAh battery, which is up from just 590mAh in the original Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra. It’s also slimmer and lighter than its predecessor, with the brightest screen of any smartwatch, and a ton of new features, including the ability to track Daily Cardio Load and Vascular Load.

This is Samsung’s ultimate smartwatch, and it’s priced accordingly, at $699.99 / £649 / AU$1,299. If you’re happy with a slightly less feature-and-tech-packed smartwatch, then the Galaxy Watch 9 can be had from $379.99 / £349 / AU$649.

5. Samsung Intelligent Eyewear

Samsung also gave us a closer look at what it’s calling ‘Intelligent Eyewear’ — said eyewear being the company’s first smart glasses.

Unlike the devices above, you can’t pre-order these yet, with Samsung promising they’ll land “this fall” — so presumably sometime between September and November.

No pricing was revealed either, but we did learn that these glasses will have a built-in camera and speakers, but no screen.

Initially, Samsung is partnering with Gentle Monster and Warby Parker to offer a selection of frames, and you’ll be able to access both Gemini and Bixby through the glasses.

'Intelligent Eyewear' is the fresh term Samsung is using to perhaps give its new wearable technology a fresh start in a market that's showing signs of smart glasses fatigue. With a focus on style and design, the company has unveiled a series of Warby Parker- and Gentle Monster-designed glasses that put fashion and Gemini at the center of the experience.

Samsung unveiled the long-promised collaboration between it, Google, and these premier eyewear brands alongside its new suite of Galaxy foldables at Samsung Galaxy Unpacked on July 22. Its Intelligent Eyewear is finally challenging chief competitor Meta, whose own Ray-Ban and EssilorLuxottica smartglasses have become the dominant products in this space.

In a preview just before the big launch, I got an up-close look at the new smart frames, though Samsung was insistent that I not try them on or actually use them, which was disappointing.

Samsung's Intelligent Eyewear consists of designs ranging from classic square and round-style frames to cat-eye-style silhouettes, and in colors ranging from amber to green and black. Lenses are available in clear and transition. There's no pricing, and the ship date is described as "this Fall".

As I picked up multiple frames (but never donned them, mind you), I quickly noticed that the frames, which are filled with, among other things, Qualcomm Snapdragon wearable silicon, are quite lightweight. Also, aside from somewhat larger stems than you'd find on standard glasses, they're pleasingly thin, so that someone looking at you head-on might not initially realize you're wearing smart...er...intelligent eyewear.

There are, however, tells.

On the front of the frames are a pair of what look like cameras, but only the one on the right is a shooter of indeterminate megapixels (more info Samsung chose not to share), and the one on the left is the critical LED to let people know you're taking photos or videos.

When I flipped the lenses around and looked at the left stem very near the frames, I noticed a metal switch. Yes, this Intelligent Eyewear appears to feature a large power button, which, thanks to its chrome coloring, is more noticeable than, say, the one on Meta's Ray-Ban smart glasses.

I then flipped the frames over to look at the bottom of the stems where I spotted the stereo speakers (one for each stem) and what appear to be a pair of far-field microphone holes.

There's a single button on the top of one stem that you can use to trigger a photo or video capture or to summon one of the personal assistants. Though I asked multiple times, I was told that there's no gesture recognition for the frames that you could use, say, to lower or raise the audio volume.

As with other intelligent wearables Samsung has produced with partner Google (see the much more powerful, reality-mixing Samsung Galaxy XR headset), the new Warby Parker and Gentle Monster Intelligent Eyewear put AI access at the center. The notion is that you will use your voice to summon Gemini and have it assist you in a variety of ways. Think having it identify what you're looking at, translate signs and menus in a foreign language, answer general prompts, help you ideate while on the go, give you email summaries, guide you through a recipe, and maybe access your email.

Nestled alongside Gemini is Samsung's Bixby assistant. It has the less-exciting job of, say, accessing phone apps and controlling eyewear features like volume.

I also got a chance to look at both the Warby Parker and Gentle Monster charge cases, nice white containers that were a bit lighter than the Meta Glasses case I didn't bring with me to the UK because (with the glasses inside) I thought it was too heavy.

Samsung on design choices, limitations, and looming privacy concerns

I can't tell you much about how these frames work, but we did get some useful insight about Samsung's strategy from James Choi, Samsung's Head of XR R&D Team EVP.

One thing Choi made clear is that, for now, these glasses are in no way a replacement for the phone. Part of the issue is the demands of AI processing, which for now are too high to place solely on the Intelligent Eyewear, but, he noted, "We want to extend heavy use of AI on phone to here."

He was also fairly transparent about things they have yet to solve with the frames, like adjustable nose bridge and stems. On the latter, Choi admitted that with regular glasses the stems are highly adjustable, but that's not the case with Samsung Intelligent Eyewear because there's technology and sensors in there.

In fact, when I examined some of the new frames, I noticed I could see through the housing to view some of that stem-based technology. What Choi seemed unaware of, though, is that with the just-released Meta Glasses from Essilor Luxottica, both the stems and nose bridge are adjustable.

Choi also discussed at some length the growing privacy concerns being raised with the entire smart glasses category.

He explained that some of the negative response to the technology is rooted in particular societies and cultures, noting that, in South Korea, with all the public transportation, people are closer and the concerns can be greater.

"Regarding public acceptance, it takes time," he added.

It's by no means a settled issue for Samsung. Choi explained that the company continues to work on what is an important topic for them and indicated that some future innovations in the shape or form factor could impact acceptance.

These concerns, though, are not a reason to end development or stop trying.

"We cannot stay here without innovating this. Intentional bad uses need to be covered and protected. If, because of that, we stop innovation, we don’t go anywhere."

What's coming in the Display Intelligent Eyewear space

Samsung has not forgotten about display lenses, and Choi assured us that they have "something with very good technology better than what’s in the market."

He also acknowledged the challenges and, without mentioning Snap and its recent release of the chunky Specs, the technical challenges of combining displays in a form factor meant to be worn discreetly on the face.

Samsung wants its display glasses to be, as he waved around a pair of the Warby Parker Intelligent Eyewear, “almost near to this form factor.”

It's not just the design that's a challenge. Battery life is a considerable issue (one of the reasons why display lenses still tend to be so thick). "If we publish display glass, we want to promise a certain level of daily use… really tough. We’re working on it."

Correction 7-24-2026: A previous version of this story noted that other smart glasses do not feature a physical power button. That's in accurate. We regret the error.

I’ve tested plenty of the best foldable phones in my time at TechRadar, but I’ve never opted to use one of these devices as my main handset long-term.

I use my phone for consuming content — scrolling, reading, watching — more than I do for productivity tasks, and so the appeal of having a heavier phone with a giant, square-sized foldable screen isn’t, for me, all that strong. Why would I watch a YouTube video with big black letterboxing above and below it, when I could simply use my regular phone in landscape for a better video-watching experience?

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 is a different proposition entirely. It’s still a book-style foldable — it’s got one smaller screen on the outside, and one larger screen on the inside that you open with both hands — but it’s shorter, wider, and dare I say cuter than the Galaxy Z Fold 7 before it. It’s the Galaxy Z Fold 7.5 in all but name (or maybe the Galaxy Z Fold Fat?).

This passport-shaped foldable has a 5.5-inch cover display and a 7.6-inch main display, with aspect ratios that make it, when closed, easier to use one-handed and better suited to video-watching when open. Specifically, when closed, the Galaxy Z Fold 8 has a 10:16 ratio — meaning your thumbs can easily reach the top of the screen — and when open, it’s a 4:3 ratio that’s optimized for widescreen content.

For comparison, the Galaxy Z Fold 7 — and indeed the new Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, which retains the former’s tall and narrow form factor — has a 21:9 cover display and an almost square 1.11:1 inner display, which is great for spreadsheets and multitasking, but less brilliant for watching World Cup highlights on the train home.

Here’s how the video-watching experience on the Galaxy Z Fold 8 and Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra — which you can read about in our hands-on Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra preview — compares, in both orientations:

Yes, I know — the black bars are still very much visible when the Galaxy Z Fold 8 is unfolded. But still, they're significantly smaller than those on the Ultra, and as for the outer display, the difference is night and day.

This is the key selling point of Samsung’s new shorter, wider foldable. Its displays have the same 120Hz refresh rate and 3,000-nit peak brightness as the pricier Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, but they don’t waste as much screen real estate as those on that square-sized premium model. If, like me, you use your phone primarily for watching videos and scrolling through social media, this is a big deal.

“We realize that there's enough of a segment where consumers are very heavy on media, and basically you consume social media, you consume videos, you play games, and you read books in a mostly similar form factor,” Samsung told us for our deep-dive into why it built the Galaxy Fold 8.

The company also describes the phone’s unfolded screen size as “the new standard for viewing content,” which makes sense when you consider that Apple is also rumored to be releasing a similarly sized foldable iPhone later this year.

Small but mighty

An important note: in the case of the Galaxy Z Fold 8, smaller does not mean less powerful. It’s got the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset under the hood — i.e., the same chipset as the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra and the entire Galaxy S26 line — plus 12GB of RAM in every storage configuration except 1TB, in which you’ll get 16GB of RAM.

Naturally, I didn’t have enough time to really test the mettle of this chipset, but let’s be honest: we already know it’s a beast. It powers plenty of the best Android phones, and I don’t expect the Galaxy Z Fold 8 to feel any different to those Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5-equipped devices from a performance perspective.

The first real differences between the Galaxy Z Fold 8 and its larger sibling come in the camera department. This wider foldable packs a respectable 50MP wide lens and a 50MP ultra-wide lens, but the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra gets a superior 200MP wide lens and a 10MP telephoto lens for zoom shots.

The Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra also has a slightly larger battery (5,000mAh) than the Galaxy Z Fold 8 (4,800mAh), but both phones finally — finally! — use silicon-carbon battery technology, so you should still get plenty of life from the latter’s smaller cell.

Silicon-carbon batteries can store up to 50% more energy in the same physical space as conventional smartphone batteries, so I’m expecting the Galaxy Z Fold 8 to deliver longer battery life than the 4,400mAh-equipped Galaxy Z Fold 7, which lasted for around 12 hours (standard use) in our testing.

For reference, Chinese foldable manufacturers like Oppo, Honor, and Vivo have been using silicon-carbon batteries for some years now, so Samsung’s adoption of this technology is a significant (if long overdue) step forward in markets like the US, where it hasn't been readily available.

As for charging, you’ll get 45W wired charging and 20W wireless charging, regardless of which model you choose, so the choice here is really between content and cameras. Would you prefer the wider Galaxy Z Fold 8 for scrolling and watching videos, or the taller Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra for productivity and taking photos?

Personally, I think the former’s shorter, wider form factor will be better suited to my needs, though I'm intrigued to see how much weaker the Galaxy Z Fold 8's main camera is compared to the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra's. At $2,099.99 / £1,899 / AU$2,999, the latter phone is more expensive than the Galaxy Z Fold 8 — which starts at $1,899.99 / £1,699 / AU$2,699 — so it's safe to expect a noticeable gulf in photo quality.

I look forward to testing both devices properly after Unpacked.

I’ve been using, and loving, my Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 for the past year — for me it's simply the best phone money can buy.

The foldable form factor is perfect for watching videos — either on the massive inner screen, or using the design to prop the phone up and watch on its outer display — and also for gaming, productivity, or capturing selfies with the 200MP main sensor rather than the lower-res selfie cam.

Its thin design is comfortable to hold and easily slips into any pocket, and the design has been durable enough to survive without me using a case; I did have a case for a few months but I hated it, so I’ve reverted back to my screen-protector only strategy.

As great as the Z Fold 7 is, though, it isn't flawless. The cameras could be better (a fact highlighted by the excellent cameras Samsung put in the Galaxy S26 Ultra that I also carry with me), the battery life isn’t as good as I need at times, and the crease can be quite noticeable in certain lighting thanks to annoying reflections on the inner display.

Thankfully, Samsung looks to have addressed a lot of my issues with the new Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra — the true successor to last year's Fold 7 (the new non-Ultra Z Fold 8 adopts a squatter design this year), and the frontrunner to be my favorite phone of 2026, after spending just an hour or so with the new device.

Ultra by name, Ultra by nature

At first glance, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra looks almost identical to the Galaxy Z Fold 7.

Unlike the Z Fold 8, the Z Fold 8 Ultra offers the exact same screen dimensions as the Z Fold 7, with an 8-inch inner display and 6.5-inch cover display.

It’s supremely thin and light, so that even when folded it doesn’t feel like a brick, and it offers a similar camera array to the Z Fold 7 (more on that in a moment).

The only design change you’ll notice is the redesigned hinge. It makes it easier to open the Z Fold 8 Ultra, and allows the phone to sit more flat when open — which in combination with the inner screen’s new matte coating makes the crease less noticeable.

Instead of reinventing the wheel in areas where the Z Fold 7 already shines, such as its superb form factor, Samsung has introduced upgrades with the Z Fold 8 Ultra that make this phone even more capable.

My favorite improvement is new silicon carbide battery tech that allows for a much larger 5,000mAh battery than the Z Fold 7’s 4,400mAh cell, despite the Z Fold 8 Ultra being (very slightly) slimmer.

The battery life of the Z Fold 7 isn’t ideal. I frequently find that my typical usage — which admittedly involves streaming a lot of video, gaming, and multitasking to watch and work at the same time while on the go — leaves my battery running low by late afternoon.

The larger capacity of the Z Fold 8 Ultra probably won’t save me from needing to carry a charger with me ‘just in case’, but I’m hoping it’ll mean that I rarely, if ever, run out of juice completely — which can happen with my Z Fold 7, even when I adapt my usage to be more conservative.

The Z Fold 8 Ultra's cameras are a solid upgrade too. Alongside the Z Fold 7 I also use the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra, because its cameras are so impressive — in particular, I’m in love with its 5x 50MP telephoto lens.

The Z Fold 8 Ultra doesn't, unfortunately, improve on the Z Fold 7’s 12MP 3x telephoto camera, but the existing 200MP main sensor has been enhanced with new HDR abilities to match Samsung’s S26 lineup, and the 12MP ultra-wide has been upgraded to 50MP, making the new phone's array feel more 'Ultra'.

It also gets the impressive Horizontal Lock video stabilization tech which I've loved on the S26 Ultra.

Having tried out the new cameras, the Z Fold 8 Ultra is certainly a major upgrade, and I’m keen to test them out further. Sure, the Z Fold 8 Ultra won’t win any prizes for best camera phone of 2026, but the versatility offered by the new camera array should help to make this foldable feel like a supremely capable all-round device, and not a phone with so many compromises that you can’t appreciate its incredible design wins.

A sort of silver lining

There's also a new chipset — the same Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy the S26 series is outfitted with — that powers a suite of new AI tools, and a brighter 3,000-nit display, which should help to make colors more vivid on the Z Fold 8.

As you might expect from a phone that's packed with upgrades and sporting a new Ultra moniker, and which is launching in the middle of the ongoing RAM crisis, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra will cost more than the Galaxy Z Fold 7.

The silver lining is that the price hike isn't as big as I and many others feared — the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra starts at $2,099.99 / £1,899 / AU$2,999, where the Z Fold 7's launch price started at $1,999 / £1,799 / AU$2,899.

No price increase is ever ideal, but considering how much worse I was expecting it to be, I’ll happily take the $100 / £100 / AU$100 increase on the chin.

I can't wait to spend more time with the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra. I love my Z Fold 7, but after spending just a short time with its successor, I already know that it’s time for an upgrade.

When it comes to battery life, foldables have it harder than regular phones. These devices need to power not one, but two screens (one of which is twice as large as the other), and so it's important to pick a model with decent endurance if you don't want to lug around a portable battery at all times.

Yet in the throes of a seemingly unquenchable thirst for thinness, Samsung has somewhat neglected the battery tech in its foldable phones. That is, until now, because the brand has finally introduced silicon-carbon batteries in its latest devices, the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra and Galaxy Z Fold 8. The former, specifically, packs a 5,000mAh cell that, based on Samsung's own testing, offers 27 hours of video playback.

Now, as uninteresting as this may sound, it's actually pretty big news, especially given that the phone is thinner than ever and the same weight as last year's Galaxy Z Fold 7. We were invited to an exclusive, early-access hands-on session alongside SuperSaf to try out the new phones, and we discussed this change (and others) in our latest podcast episode, which you can watch just below.

It's not just us professional tech nerds moved to excitement by the news; in a poll we shared in the weeks running up to the latest Samsung Galaxy Unpacked show, our readers overwhelmingly agreed that a larger battery life would be their biggest wish for the latest and greatest Samsung foldable, and those prayers have been answered. Feels good, right?

The sad news is, the second-most desired change remains unmet — that being the re-introduction of the S Pen and the digitizing layer under the display that makes the technology compatible. In fact, as reported by 9to5 Google, Samsung recently quietly removed product listings for all previous-generation S Pens, which perhaps doesn't bode well for the longevity of the styluses overall.

It's a real shame, and one I highlighted in the podcast as being particularly at odds with the phone's productivity-first marketing messaging; if the idea is that the best way to use this phone is like a tablet, which, for me, includes doodling, taking notes and not having to constantly wipe off grubby fingerprints, then hand me the S Pen and be done with it, even at the cost of a few more millimeters thickness.

That being said, at least in the case of the S26 Ultra phones, a Samsung exec shared with TechRadar just last year that the S Pen is a crucial part of the phone's DNA, so I hope that gives at least a little more runway for these handy accessories.

You can watch the full episode of the TechRadar podcast above or head directly to YouTube to hear all of our expert opinions on the latest slate of Samsung foldables and smartwatches.

I know, I know... I'm being greedy when it comes to Little House on the Prairie. Netflix only dropped the first season on July 9, with its second season being renewed months before we even saw it.

Frankly, it's all good news for anybody who loves the Ingalls family. Logic tells us that season 2 will be based on the next book in Laura Ingalls Wilder's original series, On the Banks of Plum Creek.

Having left their little house on the Kansas prairie (which is exactly what we saw at the end of season 1), the Ingalls family travels by wagon to Minnesota, settling on the banks of Plum Creek.

The book covers five years of Wilder's childhood, so we could see the Ingalls stay there for a while should the Netflix series continue to be renewed.

If I were a betting woman, I'd say that Little House on the Prairie season 2 could be exceeded by at least 3 more seasons, if the streamer invests in the IP in the same way as it does with Virgin River. At the time of writing, no further seasons have been commissioned.

Talking to star Alice Halsey, who plays Laura, this situation would be a "dream come true," — and there's good reason to be optimistic.

Little House on the Prairie season 3 would likely be based on By the Shores of Silver Lake

"I love playing Laura, and I would love to do it for a whole lot longer," Halsey tells me. "I would just adore the prospect of being able to be Laura for years to come, to be able to be that kind of person that Melissa Gilbert was to so many people. I think that's really empowering.

"I just hope that people will love season 2 as much as they seem to like season 1. Season 2 is going to be even better. If we have a season 3 or season 4, that would just be a dream come true."

As I've said, I think Halsey is right, and Little House on the Prairie will likely be renewed for both... but let's dig into why. For starters, there's a wealth of source material to work with courtesy of the real-life Ingalls.

Here's the full Little House series list:

• Little House in the Big Woods (1932)
• Farmer Boy (1933)
• Little House on the Prairie (1935)
• On the Banks of Plum Creek (1937)
• By the Shores of Silver Lake (1939)
• The Long Winter (1940)
• Little Town on the Prairie (1941)
• These Happy Golden Years (1943)
• The First Four Years (1971)

We skipped past the first two books by the time season 1 even began, with season 2 confirmed to adapt On the Banks of Plum Creek. That leaves another five novels that are ripe for adaptation, meaning a minimum of five further future seasons in the pipeline.

Why "minimum?" Well, this largely depends on how Netflix chooses to adapt future books. The Ingalls didn't live in the Kansas prairie for too long, but we know that they lived by Plum Creek for a good few years. This could either be crammed into one season, or spread out over a few.

Of course, Netflix doesn't have to use all of Wilder's remaining books, either. As it's already skipped past the first two (understandably to start at the most well-known point), the streamer can pick and choose what it wants to adapt.

In its best-case scenario, we could be looking at an original IP that rivals Virgin River, which is currently the longest-running original series in Netflix's roster. Little House on the Prairie must be similarly cost-effective for Netflix to film, with both shows passing off Canada as various US locations.

As it stands, it's all to play for... but don't be surprised if more announcements come out sooner rather than later.

ChatGPT Work sounds like something designed to prepare quarterly reports while you sit in meetings, but I suspect some of its best uses would have nothing to do with my job.

This week, I’ve used the new Work mode to help manage some of the life admin tasks I really don’t enjoy, and it’s been surprisingly effective. You see, holidays, household budgets, family events and home renovations are all projects too — they are simply projects we currently manage through a chaotic mixture of browser tabs, messages, spreadsheets and increasingly desperate notes to ourselves.

Perhaps ChatGPT Work could help me with that?

What is ChatGPT Work?

If you’ve been using ChatGPT over the last week on a paid plan (except the basic Go service), you’ll have noticed a new slider (in the browser version) or a drop-down menu on mobile has appeared at the top of the screen offering a choice between Chat and Work mode.

Work mode is a new agentic mode for longer, more involved tasks that can research and analyze information across connected apps and files. So, if you want a complicated report presented in a finished document, like a spreadsheet or presentation, then Work mode is your new friend.

That is where I thought ChatGPT Work could become interesting for normal life, too. Instead of answering one question and waiting for the next, it can take on a longer task, work across connected files and apps, create the documents and spreadsheets the project requires, and continue checking for changes after you leave.

Work mode is also better at one of the main bugbears of ChatGPT — running tasks at particular times. It can use the new Scheduled Tasks to repeat tasks on a schedule or monitor something for changes.

So, I decided to ignore Work mode's aggressively corporate name and see whether it could handle some actual life admin, starting with planning a holiday.

1. Planning a holiday

I switched the slider to Work and gave it my dates, budget, family requirements and any bookings already sitting in Gmail, because it can search that too. I asked it to research destinations, compare travel and accommodation, create a spreadsheet of costs, produce an itinerary and maintain a list of what still needs booking.

And off it went, happily beavering away on its task, while I was free to get on with something else. I really liked the way it tells you what it’s currently working on, so you can pop in and out of the chat and see what it’s currently doing. It shows sources it's drawing from as it calculates accommodation costs and travel arrangements. You can literally watch it working for you.

The result was a nicely planned holiday in a location optimized for activities and sightseeing all within my budget. It was actually pretty impressive.

2. Become the household financial administrator

For this task, I fed ChatGPT my bills, bank-export spreadsheets, and household documents and asked it to create a working budget, identify unusual increases, forecast annual costs, and produce a dashboard.

A scheduled task then reviewed new bills or price changes and flagged anything worth investigating. Of course, ChatGPT couldn't move my money around, but at least it gave me a clear view of where my money was going and how much I was spending.

It took a long time to get all the data into ChatGPT, but this taught me that the output was only as good as the effort I was willing to spend putting quality data into it. I’d have preferred a way to open the spreadsheets directly in Sheets from ChatGPT, too, but they were available to download.

3. Organize a major family event

My wedding anniversary was coming up, so I wondered how well ChatGPT would perform as an event organizer. I asked it to research a nice venue for taking my wife out for dinner, which it did well, and gave me three good options.

It struck me that if it had been a bigger event, it would have been ideal for researching venues, maintaining a guest list, tracking replies, producing a budget, creating invitations, and even building a simple information website.

Of course, ChatGPT can’t upload the website and host it, but at least it can build the site for you, and you can download it.

4. Manage a home improvement project

If you’re doing a major home improvement project, then you can get ChatGPT's Work mode to compare quotes, analyze plans and product specifications, create a budget, build a timeline, and keep a list of unresolved decisions. It could periodically check for price changes or relevant new messages.

This is probably the clearest example of an ordinary personal task becoming complicated enough to justify a proper agent.

5. Run the family’s weekly logistics

Once I’d connected my calendars and emails to ChatGPT, I could ask it to prepare a weekly family plan covering appointments, school or university commitments, not to mention my travel, meals, and outstanding chores.

I created a Scheduled Task that regenerated the plan each Sunday evening, taking the next week’s tasks into account, and alerted me during the week when something important changed.

This was actually the use of ChatGPT Work Mode I personally found most useful. It’s easy to miss school events, but when they’ve been emailed to you, ChatGPT will know about them and make sure you don’t forget. That’s a lifesaver.

Why Work mode matters

The introduction of ChatGPT Work mode represents a real shift in the way OpenAI is viewing the future development of its core product. It’s an obvious change in emphasis towards work-related tasks, and a hint at where OpenAI sees ChatGPT heading.

But I think it means more than that. ChatGPT’s new Work mode represents the moment ChatGPT stops being somewhere you go for individual answers — a chat — and becomes somewhere where you start to feel like you're working on an ongoing project.

While the first phase of AI’s evolution was the chatbot, we’re now firmly into its second phase — the AI agent. AI that can work independently of our requests and handle complex, ongoing tasks is where the future of AI lies, and Work mode is another step on that path.

Robot lawn mowers are growing in popularity, and with good reason. They're getting more advanced in features, easier to set up and use, and can be a huge time- and effort-saver... provided you pick the right model. There are plenty of options to choose from, spanning a range of prices and capabilities, and if you're new to the lawnbot world then it can be tricky to figure out which one you need.

This article is here to guide you through that process. I've pulled together five big questions to help you narrow down your options. And for added expertise, I've enlisted the help of KK Yin, Marketing Director at leading lawnbot brand Mammotion, whose insights you'll find throughout the piece.

#1. Do I need all-wheel drive?

"Everyone has a different environment for their lawn. So the first thing a customer should do is choose which kind of power system they need — for example, all-wheel drive or rear-wheel drive, or some the brands have front-wheel drive," says KK.

Rear-wheel drive will be perfectly fine if you have a relatively even and flat lawn, and will have no issue scaling relatively gentle inclines. However, if you have a very steep or uneven lawn, all-wheel drive (AWD) will help ensure the lawnbot maintains its grip without churning up your grass. Front-wheel drive is really only for flat lawns, and is a less common power system.

AWD tends to be reserved for larger, more premium robot mowers. However, at the start of this year Segway Navimow launched compact AWD model, with the suggestion that it would treat your turf more gently.

#2. Does my lawn have shaded areas?

Next, KK suggests figuring out which navigation method is best suited to the environment. "A customer should look at if they have shaded areas, the house is tall or they have trees in the garden. If they do, I suggest they don't choose an RTK positioning system. They should maybe choose a LiDAR model," says KK.

There are two major navigation systems for robot mowers. RTK, which uses satellites, can work very well if the lawnbot has a wide, uninterrupted view of the sky. However, if there are obstructions — such as those listed by KK — in the way, these can block the signal and lead to the lawnbot getting lost.

LiDAR is the system used by robot vacuums, and is relatively new in the robot mower market. LiDAR builds a picture of its surroundings by bouncing light off objects, so it's not well suited to wide-open lawns with no objects in them.

Broadly speaking, RTK will be a good choice in big, open yards, whereas LiDAR might be a better fit if you have a smaller, more cluttered yard. LiDAR models are often pricier, so if you can get away with an RTK bot, you might prefer to go with that option.

#3. How big is my lawn?

Many lawnbot models are available in a few different iterations aimed at different-sized lawns (typically indicated by a number after the product name). The difference is usually the battery capacity — a bot designed for a larger area will have a bigger battery, enabling it to cover more ground before having to return to its dock to recharge, thus making it more efficient.

"I think most users figure out that in one week they will mow maybe two or three times. So they need to work out how long it will take a product to mow their lawn once," suggests KK. With that information, you can work out if your mower will be efficient enough to keep up with your grass-trimming demands.

#4. Do I have more than one mowing zone?

"The next point, I think, is about multi-zone management," says KK. "Not all people have one big lawn — it's divided by the house, or the garden is split into different areas. That means they need to manage more than one mowing zone."

Pretty much every lawnbot will be able to mow multiple separate lawns, with the ability to create different maps in your app. However, some have more advanced multi-zone capabilities than others. One bot might be intelligent enough to handle a schedule where the lawnbot spends the morning in Zone A and moves to Zone B in the evening, and it might even be able to work out the optimal mowing patterns and cadence.

#5. How much setup do I want to do?

If you end up with a satellite-based lawnbot (see point #2), you might need to decide between a bot that comes with a separate antenna and one that does not. This RTK station is required to make the satellite information more accurate — so satellite positioning on its own might tell you where a bot is to within a meter or two, but add in a separate RTK receiver and it's more like centimeters.

Traditionally, you'd have this receiver in your own back yard. This adds an extra level of complexity to setup — the reciever needs to sit high up, with direct line of sight to satellites in the sky, and it also needs a power source. However, increasingly, we're seeing lawnbots that use a big, centralized RTK receiver that covers a large area. Mammotion calls this NetRTK. It's definitely a more low-effort option.

There are further features to look out for if you want the most straightforward setup. Some modern robot mowers have cameras and AI features that enable them to instantly create a map of their location, so you can just pop it on the floor and it'll be able to start mowing pretty much instantly. KK suggests these kinds of features are more of a nice-to-have, and advises focusing on the first four points first.

Reviews round-up

We've tested plenty of excellent lawnbots at TechRadar. Here's a taster of some of our favorites — tap the 'View details' button for more information, plus a link to our full reviews.

A new Google Home Display might be on the cards, but sticking to the traditional smart home hub format seems like a missed opportunity. What I really want to see this year is a new version of 2023's Google Pixel Tablet — and it would be a much better fit for a modern AI-powered smart home.

Google hasn't officially announced a new smart screen, but I think it's only a matter of time. Last year, Anish Kattukaran, Chief Product Officer for Google Home, said the company was still committed to the smart display format. "If you think about the properties of a smart display: a microphone, which means audio in, a speaker, so audio out. It’s got a screen, which complements a voice modality, you can interact with it and visualize information," he told The Vergecast.

"As I see where Gemini for Home is going and Gemini more broadly, all of the things Google is investing in building, for me it feels like almost the ultimate form factor to be able to deliver a really great home experience. So, that’s why we are going to continue to invest in that category, so I think it’s going to be awesome."

A smart home hub can be so much more than a speaker, screen, and microphone though, as the 2023 Google Pixel Tablet demonstrated — and I think a new version of that device would be an even better platform for Gemini than a Google Home Display.

The smart home untethered

If you're not familiar with the Pixel Tablet, it's essentially a full Android tablet specifically designed for use around the house. It doesn't have great battery life, and there's no SIM card slot for mobile data, but that's not a problem when you're never straying outside range of your home Wi-Fi network, or taking it far from its dock.

At first glance it looks just like a Google Home Display, but there's one big difference: while the Home Display is all one unit, the Pixel Tablet's screen lifts off its magnetic dock so you can carry it from room to room.

Unlike a Google Home Display, the Pixel Tablet isn't just a hub, either. Although it can be the heart of your smart home, providing quick access to your lights, switches, robovacs and cameras with quick voice controls, it's also a fully-featured Android tablet, with access to the whole Google Play Store. That means you can install your favorite web browser, stream movies from Netflix, or spend hours on YouTube on its 10.95-inch display. It has a reasonable front-facing camera as well, so it's ideal for Zoom calls with the family from the comfort of your sofa.

My Pixel Tablet lives on my kitchen table, where it serves as both a smart home hub and a second TV, letting me stream shows via BBC iPlayer at breakfast time, or use YouTube Music to play music while I work. The tablet's built-in speaker is quite tinny, but the one housed within its dock sounds surprisingly rich and well-balanced.

When it's time to make dinner, I can simply pluck it from its dock, stand it on the kitchen counter, and load my recipe app of choice, then in the evening, I can crash out on the sofa, adjust the lights, and finish my daily Duolingo session. You can't do that with a Home Display. Sounds good? It is — and it's now discontinued.

A smarter Pixel Tablet

So what would a 2026 Pixel Tablet look like? Well, apart from having Gemini pre-installed (naturally), it needs to function as a Thread border router, and its speaker needs a boost to bring it level with the new Google Home Speaker. Its 2,560 x 1,600px screen resolution is already respectable though (for comparison, the larger Amazon Echo Show 11's screen is 1,920 x 1,200px) and its weight doesn't matter considering it's not intended to travel outside the house, so I wouldn't worry about slimming it down much.

It would be nice to see a lower price, though. The original Pixel Tablet had a list price of $499 / £599 / AU$899, which is a hefty fee for a smart display. A cheaper Pixel Tablet might be wishful thinking, but considering you would need a Google Home Premium subscription to get the most out of Gemini, a lower asking price would make it a more tempting proposition.

There's a chance that Google might surprise me with a Google Home Tablet that can roam from room to room, but somehow I doubt it. Apple's vision for the future seems to involve multiple screens scattered throughout your home, while Amazon Echo devices are so affordable, it's easy to justify buying one for each room. We'll have to wait and see.

If you loved Netflix's take on Little House on the Prairie and want more, don't worry — it was renewed for season 2 long before we even saw a single episode.

With production now in full swing, we still don't know exactly when new episodes will be released (though I'd bet good money on that being in mid-2027). However, we do know that season 2 will adapt the next book in Laura Ingalls Wilder's original novel series, On the Banks of Plum Creek.

Having left their little house on the Kansas prairie, which is exactly what we saw at the end of season 1, the Ingalls family travels by wagon to Minnesota, settling on the banks of Plum Creek (who'd have guessed?).

But will Netflix stay faithful to the text or add in some unexpected surprises along the way? According to star Alice Halsey, who plays Laura Ingalls, it's best to keep an open mind heading into Little House on the Prairie season 2.

'I want to be able to figure out how Laura changes in season 2'

"Season 2 is definitely gonna be really exciting," Halsey tells me. "They're going to build a house by a creek, they're going to plant lots of wheat. They might make some friends, but they will make one particular enemy."

Here, Halsey is referring to Laura's rival Nellie, who is set to be introduced at some point in season 2. Played by Willa Dunn, Nellie is described in the book as a spoiled, affluent classmate who represents the clash between town merchants and rural farming families.

"I think that there's gonna be a lot of exciting things happening on the prairie, and some things that you might not expect."

The book covers a five-year span of Wilder's childhood, so we could see the Ingalls stay there for a while should the Netflix series continue to be renewed.

But how is Laura herself set to change? "I think that being able to watch season 1 has been a big reminder to me that Laura is like a big character," Halsey continues. "She has a lot of growth over the course of the series, and in the books. I want to be able to figure out how Laura changes in season 2, how all that was gonna plan out.

"For season 1, I was really prepped. I wanted to figure out how I was going to portray her. read the books, scripts, listened to podcasts to really figure her out. I think that Laura is also going to be changing a lot. In season 2, and I think her arc might be revolving around figuring out the kind of person that she wants to be.

"Not just her career and stuff, but also if she want to be honest, or have a lot of friends. Does she want to be tutor herself? Little things like that."

It's really a marvel that Halsey is only 11 years old, but I think that her wise-beyond-her-years personality makes her Laura Ingalls exceptional... and will continue to.

While the tech world is gearing up for the debut of Samsung’s new foldables at Unpacked next week — with the company teasing some major changes to its lineup — here in the UK we’re finally able to get our hands on the Samsung Galaxy XR headset.

It's now available outside the US and Korea for the first time since its launch in October of last year, and I’ve been taking the headset for a spin after Samsung sent me a review a few weeks ago, and seeing how it compares to my trusty Meta Quest 3.

Now, I could just rehash a lot of what our Editor at Large, Lance Ulanoff, said in his Samsung Galaxy XR hands-on — praising the OLED screen, describing the comfort of the headset over several sessions, and listing the apps I love in XR that elevate the Android experience beyond what's possible on a phone or laptop. But I won't do that here.

Instead I'm putting my body (well, head and neck comfort) on the line to bring you the return of my favorite VR headset testing format: can I spend a whole week wearing the Samsung Galaxy XR?

The short answer? Yes, but it could be comfier. Read on for more about my experience.

Into the Android XR-verse

Just to be clear, I didn't wear the Galaxy XR headset 24/7 — I haven't been walking around my local supermarket immersed in XR, or sleeping in my Samsung headset .

I spent my whole working day in the headset (taking it off only for my lunch breaks, and to use the bathroom), and also wore it for a couple of hours each evening, to unwind with a movie or a game.

I also made sure to spend at least a day relying on only the hardware in the Samsung Galaxy XR’s box — i.e., the headset.

Software-wise, I used everything I’d normally rely on my PC or phone to work and stay entertained, and also had access to the Explorer Pack — a suite of software and subscriptions worth £665 that you'll get for free with a purchase of the Galaxy XR until December 16.

A quick aside on this pack: with a year's access to premium Gemini models (and 5TB of digital Google Cloud storage), plus a year of YouTube Premium, a Calm subscription, and plenty more, it's a really solid addition to the XR experience — I'll be writing more about my experience with its services soon.

Anyway, back to the headset itself…

Things got off to a good start on day one. Thanks to the XR multitasking I was able to have a giant floating Slack window keeping me in touch with my TechRadar colleagues, and a second giant floating YouTube window featuring the latest episode of one of my many podcasts or music playlists to keep me engaged, flanking a Google doc page for whatever I was working on, which I wrote in using a floating keyboard that reacts to my finger movements.

I could open Google Chrome tabs too, and conveniently flick through and between windows using eye controls — the headset relies on eye-tracking to determine what buttons I want to press, which I indicate by simply pinching my fingers while my hand rests lazily in front of me.

I was even able to join meetings virtually, with digital avatars that were good, but not yet great at representing me or mimicking my real-world facial expressions. My Galaxy avatar looked a bit too cartoonish for work meetings, and my Google avatar looked permanently distressed (which I don’t think is my general state of being), and was also missing my glasses, which felt weird — I always wear them, so it felt like the avatar was missing some of my identity.

That aside, I quickly found that any job which relies on lots of basic operations (essentially anything that isn’t something like intense video editing, though there are Play Store apps for less sophisticated video editing needs) is a breeze on the Galaxy XR headset. However, as the novelty faded, I hit my first hurdle: speed.

Gotta type fast!

Eye-tracking controls are neat, and generally XR controls are incredibly intuitive, but the keyboard is not as responsive as even the most basic physical keyboard. This slowed my typing pace to a crawl, and with deadlines looming over me I couldn’t spend my days steadily working through sentences at a snail pace.

The ideal alternative would be a Bluetooth keyboard that pairs with your headset, and most standard models will get the job done after you’ve connected one. I gave one a quick try, and it was much more effective than the virtual keyboard for actually working productively in XR — the brief pause I had to contend with between virtual key presses was eliminated.

My predicament gave me an excuse, however, to see how the headset works when paired with a PC — giving me the massive virtual displays of XR combined with the convenience of a fully powered desktop.

The perfect setup would involve a Samsung Galaxy Book, which pairs more seamlessly with the headset, like the Vision Pro and a MacBook pair for Apple users. However I don’t have a Galaxy Book, so I instead had to turn to Virtual Desktop.

It’s an app I’ve used previously to pair Meta headsets with my PC, and it’s very effective. The connection, even in a room a few meters from where my router lives, is seamless, with next to no delay between what I do on my PC and see on my headset’s view. Plus, with the ability to drag displays around and resize them, I could create the ultimate multi-monitor setup.

The downside is that you can’t access the full multitasking capabilities of the Galaxy XR headset within the Virtual Desktop app. Other apps seem not to suffer from these issues; however the trouble is that several, such as Google’s PC Connect, weren’t available in the UK when I was conducting my tests, and it seems that every app has a downside (for example, PC Connect only lets you stream a single monitor, not multiple).

This compatibility friction with non-Samsung PCs would be the biggest change I’d like to see addressed from a productivity standpoint, as otherwise the Galaxy XR excels on the software side.

My other two big changes would be to the design: the addition of a silicone facial interface and a top strap.

I can’t feel my head when I’m with you

The UK, where I’m based, has been buffeted by heat waves in recent weeks, including while I was testing the Galaxy headset. In homes designed to retain heat, and which lack A/C, this means things can get pretty hot and sweaty, which isn’t ideal when a headset is strapped to your face — and it’s even less ideal when you can feel that sweat being soaked up by the fabric facial interface.

If I was in charge of making headsets I’d mandate that all facial interfaces are made of silicone, or at least that headsets come with a swappable silicone interface, or a silicone cover for the fabric interface, in the box. Unfortunately I can't force such a change on Samsung, but hopefully it’s a change it’ll make for the Galaxy XR 2; it’s more hygienic, and makes the headset easier to share, and I’ve found it doesn’t impact the comfort at all (if anything it makes me feel more at ease in the headset, as I know I’m not immersed in months-old sweat).

As for a top strap (one which runs over the top of my head rather than simply around it), I firmly believe it would help to make the headset comfier to wear for long stretches, as it would further spread the weight of the device across my head.

Day one wasn’t too bad, but by the midpoint of day two I was feeling a little discomfort. By day four I was ready to give up my challenge; and the end of day five couldn’t come fast enough.

Samsung gets so much else right in terms of the Galaxy XR's comfort — chiefly moving the weight of its bulky battery to an external puck, so that you’re only carrying 545g on your head — so it’s a shame that the headset is let down by something as simple as its headband.

For a few hours I found it was fine, but for my extreme testing sessions it didn’t hold up.

Yet again, then, I’ve found that I don’t really want to spend my whole day inside a VR headset, even though the Samsung Galaxy XR headset represents a serious improvement in terms of visual performance (courtesy of its superb OLED screen), the usefulness of its features, including eye-tracking (which I’ve previously found is quite gimmicky), and delivering solid multitasking performance (aided by the expansive app library of the Play Store) compared to the last time I tried a similar exercise with the Meta Quest Pro a few years ago.

Even if I won’t be spending all my time in the Galaxy XR, I plan to wear it plenty more, albeit just for more casual sessions, and I’ll definitely be taking it on a flight, as soon as I have the opportunity, to see how it fares — perhaps that’s where it’ll really shine.

To celebrate Evil Dead Burn coming out in theaters this month, I've put together the ultimate quiz to test fans of the popular horror franchise.

Ever since The Evil Dead was released in 1981, the series has been a favorite among genre fans and is widely recognizable, but have you been paying attention to it? I bet you won't be able to get a perfect score on my quiz, so now's your chance to prove me wrong!

Don't worry if you haven't seen Evil Dead Burn yet, because this quiz only covers the previous movies, meaning you won't find any spoilers for the new movie lurking in here.

But there's plenty of trivia about the rest of the franchise, from the original release to the 2013 remake. These horror movies are among the most fascinating, from the scripts all the way to what happened on set.

Feeling brave? Scroll down to try out the quiz now, and see if you can survive to the very end.

How did you do? Let me know your score in the comments below, and if you're hungry for more horror trivia, why not check out my Resident Evil movie quiz ahead of Zach Cregger's adaptation, which arrives later this year.

Or we've got an ultimate Walking Dead quiz for fans of the hit zombie series. If you think you're a superfan, join other quizzers and prove your knowledge.

For more horror streaming recommendations, I've got you covered too. Take a look at the best horror movies streaming on Netflix, Prime Video, Shudder, and more in July 2026 to find something good to watch.

Are you a Google Chrome or an Apple Safari user? These two web browsers are the default options for Android and Apple phones, respectively, and over the years they have utterly dominated the market. In fact, according to Yaguara, over 85% of people are now using one of those two browsers.

Or maybe, like me, you’re one of those rare few people who use Ecosia, or something similar, because you’re keen to do a little bit of good every time you search. Whatever you use, the reality is that AI is taking a stranglehold of all our search experiences.

Search engines are top-loading results with AI summaries, and it’s becoming increasingly difficult to find real websites in the sea of AI and paid-for positions that clutter results. Whether you’re a fan of it or not, one brand that is harnessing AI to deliver a more streamlined search experience is Arc Search.

AI takes center stage

Arc Search boasts three innovative AI features that help users get the information they want quickly. My favorite, mainly because of the way it's implemented, is the ability to get a bullet-point summary of the web page you’re currently visiting.

To access the summary, you perform a pinch gesture on the screen. Arc Search takes just a few seconds to work its AI magic, and while you wait, it keeps your attention by giving you a dancing thumbnail of the webpage. Cute.

When it’s finished thinking, it presents a simple and easy-to-follow breakdown of the key information. The feature is accurate and responsive, but I’d like to see it presented closer to the web page itself rather than taking you out into a separate window.

If you’d like to use Arc Search AI to browse the web for you, then ‘Browse for me’ is worth a look. Simply type your search text, select ‘Browse for me ’, and wait for the AI response to be generated. It’s simple to use, and I was glad to see that sources and web links were clearly provided and linked to the relevant AI-generated text.

Beyond these features, you can use Arc Search like any AI engine and ask it specific questions. An extension to this is the ability to lift your phone to your ear and have a conversation with the AI.

A lighter browsing experience

Along with offering a new, AI-centric way to interact with the web, Arc Search takes a drastic approach to de-cluttering the browsing experience. The primary way it does this is with a built-in ad blocker that blocks ads, trackers, pop-ups, and cookie banners. It’s an effective way to limit the often bombarding nature of online ads.

To complement the ad block, Arc Search also features a reader mode that strips away any unnecessary page information, converts all text to white, and places it on a black background. It’s a nice way to engage with web pages and a potential solution for anyone with sensory challenges.

Another feature I tried was the translate feature, although it’s not a native Arc Search feature. In fact, it uses Google Translate to power the translation. This didn’t seem to matter, though, as the implementation made it feel like a native part of the app experience.

Other features include auto-archiving old tabs, the syncing of passwords across iCloud Keychain, and an incognito mode. It’s also possible to use Arc Search as a traditional web browser, although Arc Search then simply becomes a container for a third-party browser such as Chrome, Bing, or DuckDuckGo.

As you’d expect with most modern tools, Arc Search syncs tabs across all different platforms, including Mac, Windows, and iOS. This means you can start a search journey on your phone before work and pick it up again on your laptop once you arrive in the office. All you have to do is create an Arc account and make sure you’re signed in on all accounts.

AI search, but at what cost?

Arc Search is a solid app that I'm sure will only rise in popularity as more people hear about it. It appeals to our need for speed and convenience, but we should always ask at what cost. For now, I'll continue using Ecosia and prioritizing 'real' results while keeping an eye on whether Arc Search and others can create a more hybrid experience that offers the best of both worlds.

Download Arc Search on iOS and Android.

2026 is a big year for Tom Holland. The popular actor has already appeared in one of this year's most anticipated new movies in Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey, and he'll soon be wearing his iconic superhero spandex once more when Spider-Man: Brand New Day releases later this month.

Starring in two of 2026's biggest films would be worth cheering about in itself. However, this year also sees Holland celebrate the 10th anniversary of his debut in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), which happened in 2016's Captain America: Civil War. Hey, I wasn't lying when I said 2026 was a big year for the A-lister.

With six MCU apperances already under his belt, Holland is now a certifiable stalwart of Marvel's cinematic juggernaut — so much so, in fact, that I believe some of you consider yourselves to be the biggest Tom Holland Spider-Man superfan.

Well, now is the time to put your superhero skills to the test. Below, I've rounded up 35 questions — some are way tougher than others — about Holland's wallcrawling career so far, including a query or five about Spider-Man 4.

So, what are you waiting for? Load up your web shooters and swing on over to the forthcoming quiz, and see if you have what it takes to be crowned the ultimate Holland Spider-Fan. Good luck!

For more on the forthcoming Marvel Phase 6 film, find out everything we know so far about Spider-Man: Brand New Day. Keep your eyes fixed on TechRadar later in July, too, for even more coverage of the hotly-anticipated movie.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day thwips its way into theaters on July 29 (UK) and July 31 (everywhere else).

Historically, the DJI brand has been all about drones. It remains an undisputed leader in that category, but in recent years its also solidified a name in compact cameras for content capture.

The two key ranges are the Osmo Action and the Osmo Pocket. The Action is DJI's classic action camera, with a rugged build designed to happily capture high-quality content no matter how much you bump, drop, submerge, freeze, or generally throw it about. The Pocket is a compact, image-stabilizing gimbal camera designed for vloggers. It can easily switch between vertical and horizontal shooting, and is set up to make selfie capture easy. There are also a couple of outliers: the Osmo 360 360-degree camera and the tiny, wearable Osmo Nano.

Most of these cams are leaders in their respective categories — this brand crops up in numerous best-of lists, including the best action camera, best 360 camera and best vlogging camera. If you're thinking of buying one but aren't quite sure of your options, or which to pick, you've come to the right place.

Our camera review team has tested every single one of the DJI cameras currently available to buy, and below you'll find a quick guide to the different models, plus summaries of our main testing takeaways, and links to read the full review for each (hit the More details button).

Note: You will only see cards for the products available to buy in your region. Due to FCC fun and games, not all new models are available in the US.

DJI Osmo Action

Osmo Actions are traditional action cameras — DJI's answer to a GoPro. They sport an all-in-one design, with all the hallmarks you'd expect from a good action cam: a robust, waterproof, compact design, front and back screens, mics, and features like time-lapse, slow-mo and (on newer models) subject tracking.

The current generation is the Osmo Action 6, but the Osmo Action 5 Pro (there's no not-Pro version, so treat this like a naming quirk) and the Osmo Action 4 are widely available too, including direct from DJI. It's also quite easy to get hold of an Osmo Action 3.

The specs and features differ slightly from model to model — you can see our review of each one by hitting the 'More details' button, and this DJI Osmo Action comparison page is useful for highlighting the differences.

You'll struggle to find either now, but the two previous models are the Action 2 and the original Osmo Action. The Action 2 was a particularly interesting swerve from DJI — it looked completely different from the rest of the range, with a modular build. For the third gen, DJI pivoted straight back to a more traditional all-in-one design, and that's what it's stuck with ever since.

DJI Osmo Pocket

Osmo pockets are compact, gimbal-stabilized 4K cameras designed specifically for vlogging. The current model is the DJI Osmo Pocket 4 — although it's not yet sold in the US. The Osmo Pocket 3 is still widely available to buy, as (to a certain extent) is the DJI Pocket 2.

Both the 3 and 4 boast a compact design, excellent video stabilization, crisp 4K video, the ability to swap easily between vertical and horizontal shooting. The 4th gen version polishes things up a bit, improving the slow-mo mode, bumping up the video specs, tightening up the subject tracking and making it available in more modes, boosting battery life and increasing the internal memory. It also adds a magnetic gimbal arm, onto which accessories such as fill lights can be snapped.

If you're not quite sure about the Pocket range, another option for content creators is to stick with your phone for recording, but add in a DJI Osmo Mobile — a smartphone gimbal with advanced tracking capabilities.

Outliers

Finally, there are a couple of (as-yet) standalone DJI cameras. The DJI Osmo Nano is a shrunk-down and stripped back version of its Action series. Small enough to be mounted on a pendant or hat, it's designed for on-the-go content capture. The magnetic, modular design makes it nice and versatile.

The Osmo 360 is a DJI's first 360-degree camera, and we thought it was "undeniably extremely compelling" first effort. We were impressed with the pricing too, which is very competitive within that particular market.

Tech companies large and small — including the likes of Meta, Samsung, and Google (and perhaps even Apple) — are betting that smart glasses become one of the leading device form factors of the future. But this week it became clear that they're facing an increasingly strong backlash against the technology.

There's one problem in particular: cameras. These tiny, embedded recording devices make it easier to record your kids' cute mishaps, your latest mountain bike ride, and a first-person view of anything without needing to get your phone out, but they also enable a certain level of surreptitious photo and video capturing that isn't possible with a phone.

And there's no doubt that bad actors are using these smart glasses for unwholesome purposes: some glasses owners have been paying modders to disable the warning light that should appear whenever recording is actively happening.

We're now at the stage where smart glasses owners are worried about wearing them in public, such is the growing negativity around them. Here's what we've learned in the last few days, and what might happen next.

An inevitable 'collapse into surveillance tech'

Smart glasses with cameras are nothing new of course, but stories around these devices being modded to operate without recording lights (something Meta has now moved to block), as well as reports that future Meta Ray-Bans could be recording all the time, seems to have prompted a new wave of anti-smart glasses sentiment.

Even the celebrities are weighing in: pop icon Lorde was less than complimentary about smart specs on stage recently, leaving her audience in no doubt about her feelings about the tech, while rapper and producer Tyler, the Creator has declared that "anyone who uses these glasses is a real weirdo".

Some of the rich and famous are still on board — you can actually buy Kylie Jenner-branded Meta Glasses, if you want — but most of the online reaction is critical of the technology. A quick peek at Reddit reveals comments like "all internet and computer tech seems to inevitably collapse into surveillance tech" and "people are choosing to be a walking Flock camera" (if you don't get the reference, read this).

Users are referencing Black Mirror and calling for the technology to be banned outright, and using terms like "creep goggles" to describe the devices. While a ban is unlikely at this point, there are some legal changes happening: Illinois looks set to be the first US state to ban smart glasses while driving, not because of any sneaky recording capabilities, but because they might prove to be a distraction to drivers.

Over in South Korea, meanwhile, a man is facing criminal charges after admitting to using smart glasses to cheat on a test. The camera captures the questions, on-board AI figures out what the answers are, and the person sitting the exam writes down the answers. There's more than one way to misuse the camera technology.

However, lawmakers don't yet seem convinced that these AI-powered glasses represent a privacy threat. Regulators in the European Union have reportedly bowed to US pressure in deciding that wearables were exempt from having to include removable batteries, like some other gadget types are when sold in the EU.

What happens next?

While there are some limited efforts to curb the use of smart glasses then, at this stage they're small scale and localized. To try and nudge things along, activists in London have been busy putting up fake Meta Glasses ads on bus stops (below), making a point about surveillance. One of the ads uses an optical illusion to turn the face of Kylie Jenner into a creepy skeleton, with the tagline "we're always watching".

Recording everything we see and do constantly? It’s giving fascism, not fashion It’s just been revealed Meta is planning to make the glasses “continuously record audio while taking photos every few seconds” without any warning light*Literally NO ONE asked for this#noncegoggles*Source: the FT

— @everyonehateselon.bsky.social (@everyonehateselon.bsky.social.bsky.social) 2026-07-17T18:40:05.934Z

Cast your mind back to 2012 when Google Glass launched, and you'll remember that we've been debating these issues for years. There are clearly benefits to wearable specs that can give you hands-free directions, translations, and information without you having to take your phone out, but it seems the concerns over covert surveillance are outweighing the positives in the public's mind.

Given the growing influence of AI tech and how well-suited these wearables are to taking in and processing information, it doesn't seem likely that the tech will be restricted any time soon. For several years now we've been seeing demos of smart glasses that can see and understand the world around them, and those capabilities are on the way whether we like it or not.

If, as rumored, Apple does make its own version of smart glasses, it's going to be interesting to see how this famously privacy-focused company deals with the issues of surveillance. A recording light that cannot be switched off is a good start, but as we've already mentioned, existing users are already cautious of wearing their smart specs around other people.

Later this year we're going to see more smart glasses from Google and Samsung, with Gemini AI ready and waiting to tell you everything you need to know about what you're looking at — which of course requires a camera. As per Google, the company is aware that people won't wear these specs if the privacy concerns are too great, and its solution is mostly to make sure the recording light is noticeable and cannot be tampered with.

"If people don't feel comfortable wearing these glasses, and privacy is part of this, they just won't wear the glasses," Google's Juston Payne told Tom's Guide this week. "It’s as simple as that." The new Google and Samsung wearables are scheduled to arrive later this year, but the companies involved still have a way to go when it comes to shifting user opinion.

Foldable phones are no longer a novelty, but what is novel this year is that Apple is almost certainly joining Samsung and Google in releasing a phone in a foldable form factor — and the launch is significant enough that it's led to a change in strategy from Samsung, now in its eighth year of launching Galaxy Z Fold models.

If you've been keeping up with the rumors, you'll know that Samsung is widely expected to reveal both a standard Galaxy Z Fold 8 and a 'wide' version of the phone when the next Unpacked rolls around on Wednesday, July 22.

That's very likely because the iPhone Ultra (or iPhone Fold if you prefer) is being tipped to adopt the wide form factor itself. By wide, we mean the phone is shorter and wider than previous book-style foldables, whether it's open or closed.

So why the shift in design this year? Is it likely to drive more foldable phone sales? And should you be looking at picking up either a Galaxy Z Fold 8, an iPhone Ultra, or a Google Pixel Fold 11 over the coming months? As a tech journalist whose used foldable phones for years now, I can lay out what's going on for you.

The rumors so far

Rumors around a foldable iPhone are nothing new, but for months now it's been clear that this is the year that the speculation finally turns into an actual device: there have been so many rumors, from so many well-placed sources, that it would now be a huge surprise if the iPhone Ultra didn't show up around September time.

As the rumors have started gaining momentum, we've seen a running theme: the iPhone Ultra's screens are going to be shorter and wider than is typical for a device like this. A 5.5-inch cover screen and a 7.8-inch main display are what we're expecting, which would make it smaller overall than the foldables Samsung and Google have been producing.

Through leaks such as this 3D CAD mockup, we've got a pretty good idea of what the Apple phone will look like, and it might be the most interesting design choice on this device (though I'm also looking forward to seeing just how 'invisible' Apple has been able to make that crease, which will go a long way to determining how appealing the phone is).

Over to the Samsung camp then, and around the same time that it emerged that Apple was taking the shorter and wider form factor approach with its foldable, we got news that Samsung was bringing out its own version — presumably to appeal to those who would otherwise go with Apple for their next folding phone.

Originally known as the Galaxy Z Fold Wide, it now appears that this handset will get the standard Galaxy Z Fold 8 moniker, while the 'normal' foldable will become the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra (try and keep up at the back). You'll get a direct choice between Samsung and Apple when it comes to this more 'squat' approach to foldable design.

Google, meanwhile, doesn't appear to be changing its approach for the Pixel 11 Pro Fold (due on Wednesday, August 12): that means this phone will be more of a regular handset size when it's closed, and have a squarer screen when opened, and that brings us to the reason why these wide foldables are appearing.

The foldable phone experience

For as long as foldables have been around, manufacturers have had to balance two experiences: what the phone is like to use when it's closed, and what it's like to use when it's opened. A foldable handset needs to score highly on both counts to get consumers to consider spending money on, but to date there's been almost too much of a compromise.

As a tech journalist, I've had the privilege of using multiple foldable phones, including many months with a Pixel 9 Pro Fold that Google loaned to me. Here's the thing though: most of the time I used that phone, I kept it closed. I didn't really have any need to switch to the bigger display, even though it's an impressive feat of engineering to have the two screens in one device.

Now part of the appeal of the Pixel 9 Pro Fold — as mentioned prominently in our review — is that it looks like a 'normal' phone when it's closed. But if that's one of the main selling points, it begs the question of why you wouldn't just buy a normal PIxel, which is going to be significantly cheaper and much thinner.

The trade-off from sticking to a standard display aspect ratio when a foldable is closed is that the larger display is more or less square. That means big black letterboxing when you're watching videos and playing a lot of games, and when I've used foldables in the past, I've usually ended up watching movies and shows with the phones closed and in landscape orientation.

That brings us back to what Apple and Samsung are doing this year. A square display is still useful for some tasks — like web browsing, and getting two apps up side-by-side — but these new foldables will have a more tablet-like 4:3 aspect ratio when opened up. That will make them much better for watching video content and for gaming (and much more iPad-like, in Apple's case).

The whole point of a book-style foldable, after all, is that larger display — and in 2026 that's the screen that Samsung and Apple are going to be focusing on, even if it does mean the handsets will look rather odd when they're closed. The passport-style foldable is the future, and I think it'll be a successful switch.

When developer Campo Santo released Firewatch in 2016, it was an unexpected hit. A debut title launching from a tiny indie studio with zero combat and doing really well is usually the stuff of fantasy, but Firewatch surpassed expectations – and it certainly surprised me.

Firewatch follows Henry, a man with a harrowing past. His wife, diagnosed with early-onset dementia, has been moved across the world to be cared for by her family. So, Henry makes a complicated decision to throw himself into an even lonelier situation by becoming a fire lookout in an expansive national park. He’s searching, perhaps, for an answer to all his problems.

It’s one of those games that doesn’t sound incredibly captivating. I mean, how hard can living in a remote tower looking out for flames really be? But it’s Firewatch’s narrative-driven storyline where the true magic lies, carrying you on an unsuspecting journey over a number of hours.

For some players, it could be a dull proposition. If I’m honest, 10 years ago, I wasn’t really into solely storytelling games. My brain worked a lot faster, and I was heavy into The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (and I’m still busy writing my feature wishlist for The Witcher 4). Yet, I played Firewatch on a whim, and it changed my mind.

Still burning bright

As the From the Backlog series launched, it felt like the perfect excuse to replay it. Oh, and the fact it’s celebrating its 10th anniversary!

The biggest surprise for me was how little I remembered. I had forgotten the immediate depth the narrative throws at you as conversations unfold on screen. I almost felt like I’d never played the game at all. I became lost in thought about whether I actually paid enough attention the first time around.

Everything I loved back then was still here – the art style, the mystery, and the problem-solving. But, as I’ve told people over the last ten years that they should play Firewatch, I’ve always been at a loss when it comes to explaining why. Now, I know exactly why. While Firewatch presents as a game that’ll follow just Henry, it’s the conversations he holds over his radio with Deliah, another lookout based across the park, that are utterly captivating.

Like Rob Dwiar’s Eastshade retrospective, Firewatch is a lesson in how to slow down wrapped up in a video game. This second time around, my mid-30s brain appreciated the pace, and for a replay, it almost felt like I was playing an entirely different game.

Solitude and substance

Through voice acting alone, they banter, swear, and even flirt at times. There are laughs shared, memories unravelled, and a deep connection sets itself firmly at the center of the game.

Perhaps it’s because you’re alone, or perhaps it’s because Campo Santo knew how to make you care, but whatever it was, it still works. Delilah’s constant reassurance (and occasional squabbling) over the radio is so much richer when there’s absolutely nothing to distract you. I realised I’ve been searching for this same feeling in games over the last decade.

I’ve played titles from What Remains of Edith Finch to, most recently, 2026’s Will: Follow The Light, but while their storytelling is enchanting, nothing looks the way Firewatch does. Something about the vibrant hues and vintage aesthetic makes me listen, and it turns out, all I needed was a replay to remember how intense and emotionally compelling the story really is.

As the days passed in my fire lookout tower, I didn’t want the story to end. I didn’t want to bury Firewatch for another ten years. And yet, after a handful of hours, it had come to an end once again.

At least, I thought, I’m finishing this time round safe in the knowledge that if I played again in 2036, I’d still get to feel the same way about this game. Oh, and I’ll also remember that I’ll always be bad at reading maps.

It’s pretty clear that EVs and software defined vehicles (SDVs) go hand-in-hand these days, and while Tesla paved the way with the Model 3 back in 2017, Rivian, Lucid, and Chinese manufacturers quickly followed. The legacy car manufacturers are taking a while longer to get on board, but are finally catching up. Companies like Hyundai Motor Group, General Motors, BMW, and Mercedes-Benz are starting to launch full SDVs.

SDVs for the win

SDVs are cars with functions and features that are primarily enabled through software and can improve over time via over-the-air (OTA) software updates. I’m not just talking about updating navigation or infotainment, here. Thanks to their zonal architecture, full SDVs use a holistic approach to software updates where every hardware module can be updated OTA, which enables diagnostics and even recalls without a dealer visit.

The cynical view is that SDVs allow greedy car manufacturers to extract revenue from customers via needless subscriptions, but that's short-term thinking. When done right, there are many benefits to SDVs. Companies like Rivian and Tesla issue free monthly OTA updates to fix bugs and add new features to their EVs, to the delight of their customers, while only charging an optional subscription for higher data connectivity and ADAS tiers.

SDVs go beyond EVs

What happens when you extend SDVs beyond EVs to hybrid and combustion vehicles? A few weeks back, I visited Mercedes’ factory near Tuscaloosa, AL, where the company manufactures most of its global SUVs, to get a first look at the refreshed GLE and GLS SUVs. Beyond more powerful engines and the usual mid-cycle cosmetic upgrades inside and out, these SUVs are Mercedes’ first hybrid and combustion SDVs. Well, almost.

Unlike their predecessors, the 2027 GLE and GLS run the company’s MB.OS across all four domains — infotainment, automated driving, body & comfort, and driving & charging — just like Mercedes’ first full SDVs, the all-electric CLA and GLC. Previously, MB.OS was only implemented for navigation and infotainment, like in the current E-Class sedan and wagon. As such, those cars weren’t SDVs. But there’s a catch.

Mercedes notes, however, that “while all of these vehicles leverage MB.OS principles and a domain-oriented software architecture, the underlying hardware, communication systems, software capabilities, and OTA deployment approaches vary by vehicle platform.” As such, the refreshed GLE and GLS, while only partial SDVs, are closer to full SDVs than any other hybrid or combustion car before them.

The 2027 GLE and GLS feature Mercedes’ pillar-to-pillar Superscreen as standard, which consists of three 12.3-inch displays (driver, center, and passenger) behind a single glass surface, and includes a selfie camera for video calls (when stopped) and for selfies, naturally. Video calls require apps like Zoom, which you can download from Mercedes’ own app store. A 3D instrument display and head-up display are available as an option.

Like the all-electric CLA and GLC, the refreshed GLE and GLS feature a generative AI-powered voice assistant which uses OpenAI’s ChatGPT4o, Microsoft Bing Search, and Google Cloud’s Automotive AI Agent (for navigation) — depending on context. The MBUX Virtual Assistant can handle a whole range of natural language requests, from adjusting the climate and music to navigation and even general knowledge queries.

Mercedes’ MB.Drive Assist Pro, the company’s NVIDIA-powered point-to-point level 2+ advanced driver assistance system (ADAS), which launched on the all-electric CLA and GLC, is coming to the 2027 GLE and GLS, first in China, then in the US later this year. This ADAS is similar to Tesla’s ill-named full self-driving (FSD), but in addition to using ten cameras, it also uses five radar sensors and twelve ultrasonic sensors.

In all, the refreshed GLE and GLS show that drivetrain variations aside, it’s possible for all-electric, hybrid, and combustion vehicles to reach parity as SDVs when it comes to infotainment, navigation, comfort, and ADAS. Let’s hope that Mercedes fully embraces this exciting new technology and follows in Rivian and Tesla’s footsteps by releasing free monthly OTA updates to fix bugs and add new features to these new SDVs.

SDVs for all

What’s even more important is that SDVs are starting to extend beyond EVs and luxury cars. Manufacturers like Hyundai Motor Group are launching more affordable hybrid and combustion vehicles that are SDVs. The zonal architecture used by SDVs makes cars inherently less expensive to manufacture since it requires fewer hardware modules and much simpler wiring harnesses (less copper means less cost and less weight).

The South Korean Grandeur sedan and Europe-bound IONIQ 3 SUV are Hyundai’s first proper SDVs. Both cars run the company’s new Android Automotive-based Pleos Connect navigation and infotainment platform, and include Hyundai’s App Market and large language model (LLM)-powered Gleo AI voice assistant. Pleos Connect, the App Market, and Gleo AI will also be coming to Hyundai Motor Group’s future Kia and Genesis cars.

Right now, most of the affordable full SDVs being developed outside of China are EVs. Ford is working on its Universal Electric Vehicle (UEV) SDV platform which will initially underpin an all-electric small truck priced around $30,000. Volkswagen’s upcoming ID.1 city car, destined for Europe and priced below €20,000, is the company’s first SDV. Its zonal architecture and software stack are a direct result of VW’s partnership with Rivian.

Hopefully, these new EV-first platforms can also be adapted to manufacture more affordable hybrid and combustion SDVs. Because while I believe that the future is all-electric, hybrid and combustion vehicles will be sticking around a little while longer, at least here in the US. And considering the cost and feature benefits of SDVs, it would be a shame if manufacturers didn’t deploy this technology across all their upcoming vehicles.

My takeaway

Between 2018 and 2024, I owned two Tesla Model 3s, so I was able to enjoy the benefits of SDVs firsthand. There’s something utterly wonderful about finding an OTA software update waiting in your car every month, ready to deliver new functionality for free. Rivian aside, I have missed this on every other EV I’ve driven since, and because of this positive experience, I will forever associate SDVs with EVs.

But as Mercedes has shown with the refreshed GLE and GLS SUVs, the benefits of SDVs also extend to hybrid and combustion vehicles. SDVs allow the company to provide a consistent and modern user experience across its entire lineup, regardless of drivetrain. Not to mention, SDVs reduce costs and complexity for all manufacturers. As such, I’m looking forward to SDVs becoming the norm for more cars going forward.

Simply put, polling rate is the frequency at which data is sent between your mouse and keyboard to your computer. For many years, the standard polling rate of most gaming mice and keyboards was 1,000Hz, and that's still a setting that's available by default.

However, with the rise of competitive shooters, particularly tactical ones such as CS2, VALORANT, and Rainbow Six Siege, the pro scene needed a shift, and we saw the advancement towards 4,000Hz and 8,000Hz for "esports tech".

The best gaming keyboards and the best gaming mice are marketed for their 8K or 8,000Hz polling rates, particularly in models aimed at esports pro players. If you look at the current gear in circulation, it's easy to see how it's caught on: the Razer Viper V4 Pro, and the Logitech G Pro X2 Superstrike are recent examples of pointers, and the Razer Huntsman V3 Pro Tenkeyless, Corsair Vanguard Pro 96, and Cherry XTRFY K63W Pro Compact Ultra-Wideband for decks that tout this feature.

But does anyone really need an 8,000Hz polling rate when gaming? Do the best FPS players in the world even take advantage of it? I'm going through everything you need to know about how 8K works, the latency you can expect, impact on battery life, and all other things you need to consider when properly getting your setup ready for success.

How does polling rate affect latency?

True to its namesake, an 8K polling rate will report its position to your PC a total of 8,000 times, instead of 4,000 times or a thousand times as with 4,000Hz and 1,000Hz, respectively. An 8,000Hz polling rate responds with far lower latency than either of these two previous standards; specifically, updates are sent between a mouse or a keyboard to your computer's processor every 0.125ms, eliminating a theoretical maximum of 0.875 ms input delay, meaning a smoother cursor or movement.

The difference in response time of 0.125ms (8K), 0.25ms (4K), and 1ms (1K) can be huge when it comes to polling rate, provided you have the right hardware to properly take advantage of this. That's because an 8,000Hz polling rate can be incredibly demanding on the battery life of wireless mice and keyboards, and it's one of the main considerations as to why you may want to drop the response time down in your settings.

The drawbacks of an 8,000Hz polling rate

In brief, an 8,000Hz polling rate for your mouse and keyboard can be incredibly demanding on your computer. That includes heavy strain on even the best processors, the aforementioned heavily reduced battery life on a mouse and keyboard, and even the potential risk of micro-stuttering. As a lifelong PC gamer and a competitive shooter enthusiast who is hopelessly obsessed with VALORANT, I've seen the battery life debate happen in real-time.

I've tested and reviewed hundreds of mice and keyboards throughout my career, and one of the biggest points of contention when it comes to enabling the polling rate comes down to battery life. As an example, my favorite gaming mouse of all time is the Corsair Sabre V2 MG, an 8K-enabled gaming mouse that's built with a Magnesium Alloy frame. It weighs just 56g and features excellent skates, making it ideal for a precision heavy shooter.

As standard, via the Corsair Web Hub, this gaming mouse will run out of the box at 1,000Hz (1K), with battery life prioritized. With the pointer used as the stock, you can expect around 100 to 120 hours of play between charges. In my experience, I am charging this mouse every two weeks or so, depending on how much I'm working day-to-day, etc. However, in my many months with this mouse, I've noticed that things fall off incredibly hard with 8K enabled; my battery life tends to last only around two to three days (or one or two nights of VALORANT Competitive) before I'm reaching for the USB-C lead.

If we take 18 hours as the average battery life from the Corsair Sabre V2 MG when used in 8K mode, that's a reduction of around 85%, which is staggering. We can see a similar drop off from the most well-used new esports mice currently on the market, with the Razer Viper V4 Pro (an excellent mouse), touting up to 180 hours of playback in 1K but only 45 hours when maxed out at 8K. Similarly, while the Logitech G Pro X2 Superstrike has around a 90-hour playback at 1K, that drops down dramatically to between 20 and 35 hours at 8K. With Logitech's pointer, though, you have to factor in the strength of the haptics here, hence the rough range rather than a more exact figure.

What about the human limitations of an 8,000Hz polling rate?

Now that we've covered what an 8,000Hz polling rate is, how it works, how it compares against 1K and 4K, and the technical drawbacks, we now need to go over the human limitations with 8K. As previously mentioned, 1K means a 1ms response time, and that gets cut down to just 0.125ms with 8K, but what does that mean for a human being, and not a machine?

The average human response time is around 250-280ms; that's the time it takes to see something and physically react. I am not a pro player, but I do play video games at a high level, with a response time average of around 175ms, though I've been faster. The best esports players can eclipse this effortlessly: you only need to look as far as VALORANT and CS2 players, such as TenZ (widely considered to be among the best VALORANT players), with an average reaction time of 135ms. 100ms is even possible, even though the average tends to hover around the 150ms mark.

If we take 1K as a baseline for polling rate, that means there's an average of 150 reports between the mouse/keyboard and the processor, as you tap a key or click what you see. Taking 8K, then, sees 1,200 instances. With this information in mind, is there really much of an advantage here, even at this granular level, with the best players in the world and, conversely, the only people who would even notice a proper difference between 1K, 4K, and 8K?

Do pro players use 8,000Hz polling rates?

Considering the far lower latency, you would expect that professional esports gamers would all dial their settings to an 8,000Hz polling rate by default when playing demanding games, but that's simply not the case. If we look back at TenZ's mouse and keyboard settings when playing VALORANT, he last used the Pulsar TenZ Signature Edition mouse at 1,600 DPI, 0.24 sensitivity, and (most crucially) a 1,000Hz polling rate as standard; no 4K, and certainly no 8K enforced here.

What about a VALORANT player from the most aggressive team in the game? Then we must look at f0rsakeN from the legendary Paper Rex. He was last using the Pulsar Sustanto-X with an 800 DPI, a 0.71 sensitivity, and a 4,000Hz polling rate. Let's move away from Riot Games' shooter and instead turn our attention to Valve, then. As far as CS2 players go, few are as well-regarded in 2026 as Team Spirit's donk.

The young Russian is widely regarded as the best player in the world. Is he using an 8K polling rate for his mouse and keyboard to do this? No, while he previously used the industry standard Logitech G PRO X Superlight 2, he's now switched to a bespoke, and as of yet unreleased/prototype Zowie X Donk mouse at 800 DPI, 1.25 sensitivity, and a 1,000Hz polling rate. What about Niko? He recently had his own Razer collaboration drop, and currently uses a Razer Deathadder V4 Pro Niko Edition with an 800 DPI, 0.9 sensitivity, and a 2,000Hz polling rate.

Let's briefly look at two games for the sake of argument, and two of their respective top players. Peterbot is widely considered the best Fortnite player in the world, and he uses a Logitech G Pro X Superlight 2 at 800 DPI with a 1,000Hz polling rate. ImperialHal is among the best Apex Legends players, and the CEO (as he's known) currently uses a Finalmouse Starlight Pro with an 800 DPI, a 1.1 sensitivity, and a 1,000Hz polling rate. So, pro players simply are not using an 8,000Hz polling rate when playing, and they're simply better than the other 99.9% of players who play these games.

Is using an 8,000Hz polling rate worth it?

Based on everything I've gone through here, it becomes challenging to wholesale recommend (or actively condemn) 8K. An 8,000Hz polling rate is mechanically and technically better for how it responds between the peripheral and the machine, even if the human who presses that key or clicks the mouse ends up being the limiting factor, or bottleneck. It's the simple, undeniable truth that the saved milliseconds are (really) indistinguishable to basically everyone on the planet.

Then we get into the debate of battery life. Do you want your gaming mouse to last over 100 hours on a single charge, or just 10? That's a tough sell, considering it undercuts the primary reason to cut the cord in the first place. Then there's the massive CPU overload, game engine incompatibility (and developers and publishers are not yet gearing their software for the tech), and the variables of the hardware itself. Hardware makes the difference: TMR and Hall Effect switches and sensors will have far more of an impact than the simple reporting time between the processor and peripheral.

So why am I not fully discouraging you from using an 8,000Hz polling rate in its entirety? Because it ultimately comes down to personal preference, and to feel. If you're running one of the best gaming PCs or best gaming laptops with a high-end processor, a 4K graphics card, and a high refresh rate monitor, then, battery life aside, it doesn't really hurt to have everything cranked up and forgotten about. Are you likely to really notice it? No, but fractional optimization is still (ever so slightly) better than none in the first place.

I'm not quite cynical enough to claim that an 8,000Hz polling rate is just a marketing gimmick; however, I will say that hardware companies have gleefully exploited the ignorance of the end consumer, the simple reductionist view that a bigger number automatically means better, without looking into the nuances of the conversation. Now that's something you will be fully clued up on when considering your next keyboard or mouse.

After months of speculation, it's official: parent company Oppo is pulling OnePlus devices out of US and European markets. While existing customers are still going to get after-sales support and software updates from OnePlus, we're not going to see any more new phones, tablets, or smartwatches in these regions in the future.

Oppo is branding this as a "strategic" move, but the decision is based on simple economics. OnePlus has always struggled to maintain the all-important carrier relationships in the US, and is being squeezed by Samsung, Apple, Google, and Chinese manufacturers in terms of sales.

We're not here to dissect what went wrong in this particular article though — we're here to celebrate some of the fantastic smartphones that OnePlus has made down the years, since the company was founded back in 2013. There have been dozens of OnePlus handsets launched since then, but these are our five favorites (in order of release).

1. OnePlus One (2014)

We had to start with the OnePlus One really, as it set the tone for OnePlus, and epitomized everything the fledgling company was about. Boldly marketed as a "flagship killer" and with the tagline "never settle" — as in, never settle for a poor compromise between price and performance — it really did shake up the market in a significant way.

Our review praises the value-for-money proposition — it was less than half the price of the flagship Samsung Galaxy, at the time — as well as the top-notch specs (a Snapdragon 801 and 3GB of RAM) and the customization features available in CyanogenMod, which is the operating system that the first OnePlus phone came running.

It almost defied belief that a phone this well made, with such good internal specs, could cost this little — and from nowhere, OnePlus was suddenly on the scene in a big way. As a historical note, it's also funny looking back to see the 5.5-inch screen described as being relatively big, in 2014 terms.

2. OnePlus 7 Pro (2019)

There were some excellent handsets between the debut phone from OnePlus and the OnePlus 7 Pro in 2019 — it was hardly a fallow time for the company — but this was the first handset to really wow us since the OnePlus One. That was partly down to its great party trick: a pop-up selfie camera.

Thanks to that pop-up camera, there was no need for a notch or cut-out on the front screen, and it looked gorgeous from the front (and the back, as it happens). It was a phone that genuinely turned heads when you took it out of your pocket, and our review waxed lyrical about the performance levels and charging speeds, too.

By this stage, OnePlus wasn't quite giving us the same jaw-dropping value for money with its flagship phones as it did with the OnePlus One, but this phone still held its own in terms of pricing with the best flagships on the market in 2019. The screen had been upped to 6.67 inches in size, and — notably — boasted a 90 Hz refresh rate too.

3. OnePlus Open (2023)

You could make a strong argument that despite the best efforts of Samsung and Google, OnePlus was the first phone maker to get a foldable phone right in every department: the OnePlus Open was awarded 4.5 stars out of 5 in its TechRadar review, with the biggest pros listed as the displays, the cameras, and the thin and light build.

As we put it at the time: "The OnePlus Open is the only big foldable phone that doesn’t feel like a compromise. It looks and feels like a normal phone, and the camera is the best you'll find on any foldable." Of course, it was still expensive (what book-style foldable isn't), but this was finally a folding phone that could justify the cost.

OnePlus was able to improve on what had gone before in this form factor in multiple areas, including the foldable's hinge and crease, and it still managed to score highly in all the categories that matter on any type of smartphone. Meanwhile, the OxygenOS software responded nimbly and seamlessly to the folding design too.

4. OnePlus 13 (2024)

Admittedly our list is a little biased towards later models: that's no criticism of the many fantastic earlier handsets, but OnePlus really has been hitting it out of the park in the last couple of years. As our reviewer for the OnePlus 13 put it: "I'm dumbfounded, I can't find anything wrong with this phone."

It had a huge 6,000 mAh battery, it ran super-smooth thanks to its Snapdragon 8 Elite processor, and it had an IP69 rating — a first for a OnePlus phone. The handset also boasted a gorgeous 6.82-inch display, and powerful triple-lens rear cameras. This handset was a real return to top-tier OnePlus.

You can probably guess what the main downside was for customers in the US — it wasn't possible to buy the OnePlus 13 in local carrier stores, which didn't help with brand awareness and recognition. Looking back, this may be one of the phones that made up Oppo's mind about exiting international markets: it was a device that deserved to sell in much higher numbers than it actually did.

5. OnePlus 15 (2025)

We'll close out this list with last year's OnePlus 15, which earned a rare 5-stars-out-of-5 ranking in its TechRadar review. There was so much to love about this phone: the battery life, the performance, the design, the software, the durability... it basically checked all of the boxes you would want, and there was really nothing bad to say about it.

The phone also shows that OnePlus was making great handsets right up until the end (in the US and Europe). It was other issues that were the problem — again, the OnePlus 15 couldn't be found inside carrier stores in the United States, which meant it wasn't as visible to consumers, and you had to pay more up front to get it.

While this wasn't quite the last OnePlus phone to launch internationally, it still stands as a testament to the quality of the handsets the company has put out down the years. It more than holds its own against anything Apple, Google, and Samsung have ever made, and it's a shame that most of the world won't see these handsets any more.

Spoilers for Heartstopper Forever ahead.

July 17 was a fantastic day for anyone who loves the movies. Not only did we have the release of Christopher Nolan's epic The Odyssey, but Netflix has wrapped up one of its most beloved IPs with a full-length feature in Heartstopper Forever.

Clearly, these are two very separate events. The Odyssey is set to be a theatrical phenomenon, currently screening in IMAX 70mm around the world, and is set to take at least $200 million at the international box office across its opening weekend.

Meanwhile, Heartstopper fans will be streaming Nick (Kit Connor) and Charlie's (Joe Locke) final farewell from the comfort of their own homes. The series has swapped format after its original three TV seasons, but the movie runtime is still equivalent to around 4.5 episodes.

If you're anything like me, you'll be doing both in a double bill that not even Barbenheimer could touch the sides of. But what if I told you there's a direct nod to The Odyssey in Heartstopper Forever if you know where to look?

Charlie's Odyssey poster in Heartstopper Forever is the perfect nod to the Christopher Nolan movie

When Nick and Charlie briefly break up, Charlie spends a great deal of time in bed to try and keep his problems at bay. When friends Elle (Yasmin Finney), Isaac (Tobie Donovan), and Tao (William Gao) arrive to stage an intervention, we see a poster of The Odyssey hanging above Charlie's head.

This isn't a detail we've seen in the previous three seasons, so I'd like to think that it is a direct Easter egg nod to the Nolan movie's release — despite this not being confirmed.

"Wonder if there'll also be a Heartstopper poster in The Odyssey movie," one fan joked on X/Twitter, who also spotted the background detail.

As with everything Heartstopper creator Alice Oseman has put her name to, the detail in Heartstopper Forever is nothing short of beautiful. The Odyssey reference isn't the only Easter egg you'll spot in the movie, but not more spoilers here... make sure you read our ending explainer to catch up on what you might have missed.

Are this week's movie releases going to join forces to become a legitimate double bill? I highly doubt it. But the fact that two such separate creations can briefly come together to share a wonderful moment is a testament to the power of cinema and creating meaningful art.

It goes without saying that it takes a lot to win the Tour de France, as those who conquer cycling's greatest race have scarified so much in their quest for glory, with every single second counting.

The 2026 race has already started strongly for Tadej Pogačar and his UAE Team Emirates-XRG team, with the Slovenian building a seemingly unsurpassable lead as he bids for his fifth triumph.

But asides from his incredsible physiology and stamina, Pogačar is also boasting another major advance for the 2026 Tour - a customized 3D-printed fizik One-to-One saddle, possibly the most detailed ever made - I spoke to the company to find out more.

Marginal gains

"Small details in the technology might make the difference," Alex Locatelli, Head of Brand at Fizik says, "the marginal gains in this case - comfort is strictly related to performance, as if you are able to forget about this, it's less thought you need to give while you have to focus on another part of training and racing."

3D-printed and adaptive saddles have been around for some time, but Fizik's one-to-one product goes beyond a standard mould, using the company's proprietary pressure-mapping sensor technology (pictured below) to create a hyper-customized product designed specifically for an individual rider's anatomy and riding style.

Locatelli notes each saddle takes around two to three weeks to produce, but certain VIPs (such as a multi-Tour winner) can get their products rushed through.

"We have a very good relationship with Tadej," he says, "that's something that's not easy to achieve...as a matter of fact, the team principal told me it's very rare that Tadej is so enthusiastic about a product - sometimes he's not even happy after winning the Tour de France, he's so demanding to the team and to himself."

"We are offering thr top of the pyramid when it comes to the technology," Locatelli says, noting that the saddle may be the next in a series of upgrades used by Pogačar that his rivals may soon look to copy.

But even the standard saddles Fizik produces in the future will benefit from the pressure-mapping data the company is collecting now, as it all goes in to future production and product development.

The technology is so precise and advanced right now that it may be a while before we see such innovations trickle down to us everyday cyclists, but I have to ask Locatelli if there's a future for park cyclists like myself ever getting hyper-personalized 3D-printed components.

He notes that it may take a few years, but adds, "general customization in cycling is expanding," highlighting how some smaller manufacturers are offering more options in terms of custom frames and saddles.

So you never know - the next bike you buy could be the most personal ever - but it might not let you ride quite as fast as Tadej Pogačar.

And an AI-designed helmet for good measure

However Pogačar won't just have fizik's individually-sculpted saddle to help him try and win this year's Tour. For stage 5 of the 2026 race, UAE Team Emirates-XRG also revealed a new helmet designed by AI.

Specifically designed by Helmetverse, the AI-powered design platform of tech group and team sponsor G42, and built by MET Helmets, the helmet was created in collaboration with AI artist Gizem Akdag, who says they were, "inspired by the transition from city to signal and from data to light", as the kit's "visual language captures the speed, energy and flow of professional cycling, translating movement and performance".

“The reaction to Helmetverse last year showed how passionate cycling fans are about engaging with our sport in new ways. As a team, we are always looking to push boundaries, whether that's through performance, innovation or fan engagement," said Mauro Gianetti, Team Principal and CEO of UAE Team Emirates-XRG. "Helmetverse reflects that mindset and gives cycling fans an opportunity to leave their mark on the team.”

Fans of the team can also now submit their own helmet designs, including creating their own using Helmetverse AI, with the winning design worn by UAE Team Emirates-XRG at the UAE Tour in February 2027.

Festivals pose a bit of a conundrum when it comes to charging. It's really useful to have a phone — for checking programs, finding friends, and snapping photos — but the days are long, and there's minimal access to power points. A power pack is your best friend, and below I've rounded up the best models for festival-goers.

I've included a mix of options. There are compact, lightweight power banks that won't weigh your bag down and can charge your phone while you're using it. These can generally only manage two charges at the absolute maximum, so they're best suited to one- or two-day festivals, or festivals where you'll have overnight access to power. There are also larger power packs that offer multiple recharges, but which are generally too bulky and heavy to carry around all day.

Our seasoned reviewers have tested all of these power banks personally, and given them their stamp of approval. You can hit the 'More details' button to find out more about each one, and for a link to the full review, and there's also a handy specs table at the bottom of the page so you can see how the different options match up. Can't find what you're looking for? Our general best power bank guide has a wider range of options.

Power up

Specs compared

Note: the cards above will only show if the product is available in your region — that means there may be products featured in this table that you can't see above.

You could hardly say Netflix is a business in trouble, but it does have a problem: for a lot of its shows, viewing figures are declining sharply after the first season. According to Bloomberg, Beef lost more than 70% of its viewers going into its second season, while The Night Agent lost 50% of its audience in season two.

This seems to be a pattern repeated over many Netflix shows, including some that rack up impressive viewing figures in their first season. The streaming platform relies on subscribers sticking around, and these stats are apparently "a major source of concern" for the executives at Netflix.

So what's going on? While I'm not privy to the internal discussions at Netflix or the statistics that its executives are available to them, I am a Netflix subscriber of many years standing — and I have a few ideas about what's going on.

Viewing fatigue

There's a lot to get through these days, isn't there? Tens of millions of songs on music streaming platforms, more movies than you'll ever have time to watch in ten lifetimes, and of course the entire history of TV — with new shows appearing weekly. It's perhaps no surprise that we're all finding it hard to stick with successive series when there's so much more out there to watch and listen to.

The way that Netflix's stats work, is that a drop-off in viewing numbers for a second season also includes those who abandoned the show somewhere along the way during the first run of episodes. And if you're not getting grabbed episode after episode by the plot and the characters, it's all too tempting to click away.

That's a shame for slow burn shows and those that need time to get going, and perhaps we all need to learn to be a bit more patient. However, it goes some way to explaining why Netflix shows can shed a lot of viewers after the initial pull of the first few episodes — there's an awful lot competing for our attention.

The binge model

For the most part, Netflix continues to drop its shows all at once, so as soon as they're live you can binge watch an entire season. Sometimes it's great to be able to burn through a bunch of episodes, but it also means you can be done with an entire season very quickly.

This exacerbates the problem of gaps between series (of which more in a moment), but it also means shows can be quickly forgotten in the rush of everything else that's going on. Some of my favorite TV shows are those that come out week by week: I watch the episode, then I catch up on the recap podcasts.

It means shows last longer — not in terms of the actual running time, but in terms of how many days and weeks it takes to get through a season. I actually quite like being able to binge shows sometimes, but it does mean they can be quickly forgotten.

Season-to-season gaps

This isn't something that only affects Netflix, but we're still seeing huge gaps between seasons of shows — and unless the viewing experience is very special, that's likely to lead to waning enthusiasm from audiences as the months and years drag on.

Silo isn't a Netflix show, but the point is the same: as I was settling down to watch the third season a few days ago, even the initial recap montage had me confused (there was a mere 18 months between the end of season two and the start of season three). There were parts I didn't remember, and I had to head over to Wikipedia to get caught up.

Stranger Things is a Netflix show, and while I did manage to drag myself through it in its entirety, it was a struggle towards the end. The show lasted for just shy of a decade, and there are huge swathes of it that are no longer in my memory banks. It's not easy to produce television shows quickly, but the slow rollouts aren't helping their chances.

A trust issue

I've seen Netflix's regular cancellation of shows floated as a reason for second-series-syndrome, and I think this is an issue for program makers as well as audiences. If you don't know whether or not you're getting a second or third season, then you have to throw everything into the first one, and think more about wrapping it up neatly than extending it.

The Night Agent is one of the Netflix shows I've found it hard to stay with: the original rookie-on-the-run premise worked well and the first season was propulsive entertainment, but as it's continued, it's become more of a by-the-numbers action thriller. It's almost like they're making it up as they go.

Compare that with something like Bridgerton, which is a Netflix show I have managed to keep up with. It is of course based on a series of books (as is Apple TV's Slow Horses by the way), and that helps to ensure variety from season-to-season, with the focus switching between different characters and plotlines.

I'm not sure exactly how Netflix can fix the problem of viewing numbers declining in season two — I'm not a highly paid TV executive after all — but those are a few thoughts about why it's happening.

"We decided not to limit VPNs." These six words from Online Safety Minister Kanishka Narayan ended months of tension on Wednesday, confirming the government's U-turn on age-gating privacy tools.

VPN services are popular software that millions of people in the UK use every day to encrypt their online activities for better privacy and security. Yet, their ability to grant access to geo-blocked content has also been making enemies among democratic countries lately, as age verification laws spread across the world.

This friction has led some British lawmakers to dub VPNs a "loophole that needed to be closed," prompting a national consultation to investigate how kids use this technology.

The announcement of an upcoming UK teen social media ban has made this process even more crucial. Since then, many have speculated that it would have helped to tip the scales towards new VPN restrictions. And yet, that didn't happen.

"This is the right call, and a welcome recognition that VPNs play a crucial role in everyday cybersecurity," Justas Pukys, Senior Product Manager at Surfshark, told TechRadar, adding that protecting children online and preserving strong cybersecurity tools "can, and should, go hand in hand."

But why did the UK government choose to leave VPNs alone after all? And can this bold decision pave the way for a similar response in the rest of Europe?

Why the UK government will not age-gate VPNs

As the UK Science, Innovation and Technology Secretary, Liz Kendall, explains in a parliamentary statement, VPNs have legitimate privacy and security uses. The reason why, she explains, "we will therefore not age-gate or ban them."

Independent research conducted by Kendall's department has indeed found that privacy is the top reason UK children use a VPN. Only a small minority of them — between 7% and 10% — do so to bypass mandatory age checks.

The latest Ofcom report on the use of age assurance — which was also published on Wednesday — paints a similar picture. While confirming that VPN usage doubled in the UK following the enforcement of mandatory age verification, only "a relatively small minority of children" use these tools to access restricted content or features.

These findings mirror separate YouGov research commissioned by the VPN Trust Initiative, which revealed that a mere 1.4% of surveyed minors use a VPN specifically to access platforms meant for older demographics. Before that, a May 2026 study conducted by Internet Matters also found that only 7% used a VPN to circumvent age restrictions.

This evidence doesn't necessarily mean that children aren't trying to evade controls. Yet, they show how most young people do so simply by entering a fake birthdate or using a parent's login.

So, the onus to prevent kids from evading controls is now back on the platforms. But the government also shared the intention to "engage with VPN providers on voluntary action and strengthen guidance and support for parents."

NordVPN's Privacy Advocate, Laura Tyrylyte, welcomes the prospect of working with lawmakers to find a balanced solution, praising Kendall's decision.

"The Government is right to recognise the important role that VPNs play and to adopt an evidence-led approach," Tyrylyte told TechRadar.

And while arguing that "it should have been obvious from the start," Windscribe's CEO, Yegor Sak, explains that this move reassures VPN users in the UK that they can continue using VPNs. "Without worrying that a legal privacy tool is about to be treated as suspicious by default," he added.

Will other countries follow the UK?

UK wasn't alone in toying with the idea of age-restricting VPN apps.

The EU is also considering something similar following the release of its age verification app. On a national level, France is also evaluating VPN use as it gets ready to enforce its under-15 social media ban.

That's why Mozilla Product Policy Manager, Svea Windwehr, urges European governments to follow the UK's lead.

"We urge policymakers everywhere to address the root causes of online harms, and follow the UK's evidence-based approach in keeping VPNs accessible for everyone," Windwehr told TechRadar.

And while the wider industry is now hopeful that VPN restrictions will ultimately disappear from politicians' agendas, the tensions between children's safety and people's privacy have not been defused yet.

"If an online safety regime only works when everyone's location and identity are easy to verify, the problem is the regime. Not the tool that prevents constant identification," Sak from Windiscribe told TechRadar.

NymVPN's CEO, Harry Halpin, agrees with Sak on this, warning that UK lawmakers' action could still impact VPN users in the country.

"The problem is that the UK government is still pursuing its idea of connecting your passport to your internet usage," Halpin told TechRadar, arguing that this still "hinders free access to the internet even if VPNs are usable."

The road to ensuring age verification systems don't hurt our digital freedoms may still be long. But protecting the integrity of the VPN is certainly a step in the right direction that we hope more politicians will replicate.

As MEPs were getting ready for the summer break, the European Parliament revived a law to give Big Tech giants the green light to scan citizens’ unencrypted messages for child abuse material (CSAM). And the digital rights community is furious.

In March, the same lawmakers rejected blanket monitoring in favor of a "proportional and targeted" approach. Yet, by exploiting an unusual procedural loophole, the EP President Roberta Metsola managed to revive what's been dubbed Chat Control 1.0.

Critics have not only slammed the procedure as "undemocratic," but also warned that it could mean mass scanning — where everybody's data is checked — becomes permanent.

But how did a law voted down over three months ago end up on the fast track to be enforced? And what will be the lasting impact on our privacy?

How Chat Control 1.0 was revived

Due to the "rarely used" legal procedure adopted last week, an absolute majority was required to reject the proposal.

This meant at least 361 MEPs were required to vote against it — something critics say was difficult to achieve as many of them were already on holiday.

So, despite the majority of MEPs rejecting it (314 against, 276 in favor), the motion was sent to the Council for final approval, which is expected in September.

Initially intended as a stopgap while lawmakers debated the permanent Child Sexual Abuse Regulation (CSAR) bill — aka Chat Control 2.0 — the interim framework was in place from 2021 until it terminated in April of this year.

Since then, child safety groups and some MEPs have argued that the legal vacuum this caused required urgent action — a gap addressed by last week's vote.

However, Google, Meta, Microsoft, and Snapchat issued a joint statement in April pledging to "continue to take voluntary action" to execute CSAM scans — regardless of whether the interim scanning law was enacted.

The privacy backlash

Many critics didn’t like how the Chat Control gambit unfolded, calling Metsola's actions a political stunt. They allege she used a legal loophole strategically to schedule a vote during the final meeting of the legislative season to maximize its chances of passing.

A long-standing critic of the CSAM scanning law, former MEP for the German Pirate Party and digital rights jurist Patrick Breyer didn’t mince words, slamming Metsola's move as a "farce" that "damages democracy."

Robin Wilton, the Internet Society's Senior Director for Internet Trust, also told TechRadar that the "extraordinary bending of parliamentary procedure" required to pass the bill should concern everyone.

In a written statement to TechRadar, Roberta Metsola’s press office said, "it was not the President who brought this up or pushed for it" but that the issue was raised by other political groups during a meeting in June.

The lasting impact of Chat Control 1.0

While the temporary legal framework is expected to be reinstated soon, the more significant battle over CSAM scanning and digital privacy continues in the background.

Lawmakers are still discussing the terms of the permanent CSAR law, with negotiations reportedly stalling over the issue of targeted or mass scanning.

Critics are now concerned that last week's vote could steer the direction of the debates regarding the permanent law. And not in ways that would protect people's digital privacy.

Rand Hammoud, Director of the Security, Surveillance and Human Rights Programme and Regional Encryption Lead at the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT), fears that passing the temporary law risks legitimizing mass scanning and says that opposition may become "more difficult" to sustain.

Put simply, because the temporary law allows for mass scanning, the permanent legislation may be more likely to include the same provision.

Digital rights advocates have long argued that mass scanning is a privacy "disaster waiting to happen," calling for more targeted solutions. They believe that even when the scanning is "voluntary" — meaning when tech companies can choose whether to perform the scanning or not — it remains problematic.

For child safety groups, however, voluntary scanning is non-negotiable. According to Hannah Swirsky, the Internet Watch Foundation's (IWF) Head of Policy and Public Affairs, it would be a mistake to limit detection only to individual suspects.

"The scale of the issue with CSAM requires technology to be used widely across platform systems," Swirsky told TechRadar.

Either way, Hammoud from CDT Europe says finding the right balance between privacy and children's safety "demands careful, evidence-based lawmaking" — a standard she argues was lacking in the fast-tracked procedure last week.

What’s next for the privacy of chats?

Despite the temporary law expected to officially pass in autumn, some opponents of Chat Control are still hopeful.

Crucially, the vote showed that most MEPs remain unconvinced about the current legal framework being developed. And while there is deep disagreement on how to do so effectively, it is worth noting that people on all sides want to find solutions that keep children safe online.

As the EU institutions pull down the shutters for the summer, we can only hope that politicians are able to reach a compromise that upholds democratic principles while keeping children safe and defending citizens' digital privacy.