Trying to decide between Kobo and Boox? This guide is here to help. These are two very popular e-ink tablet brands, and both feature in our ranking of the best ereaders. However, there are some distinct differences.

Kobo specializes in ereaders. It has a small range of different models, but all are geared towards reading — and in some cases, can be used for annotating and note-taking. They offer an offline-first experience, and they're almost all waterproof, which is great news if you like to read in the bath.

Boox (from parent company Onyx) is more of an e-ink tablet brand. Boox tablets run a full version of Android, which means you can use them in a wide variety of ways and for many different tasks. It's a particularly good option for those who have a Kindle but are looking to switch, because you can simply install the Kindle app from the Google Play store and then you'll still have access to all your books.

The Boox range is wide and sprawling, and includes a selection of options that are shaped and sized like a phone. It also just launched three new models earlier this week: the Note Air6 C, Note Mini C, and Palma 3.

Below, I'll dig into the two brands in more detail, starting with an overview of the different ranges and then moving into specs comparison and some buying pointers.

Kobo ereaders

Boox ereaders

Note for UK readers: some of these models are only available direct from Boox at the moment. On the Boox Europe store, prices are only provided in Euros, but there are UK versions available and it does not look like they're being shipped from abroad.

Boox vs Kobo: specs compared

Spec notes

There are a few specs I haven't included here, because they aren't helpful when it comes to making a decision between models.

I haven't included battery capacity. This is worth considering, of course, but how it relates to runtime depends heavily on what you're using the tablet for. If you're mainly just reading, with a low backlight, even a small battery will deliver many days of use without needing to recharge. Conversely, lots of note-taking or internet browsing will drain a larger battery relatively quickly.

You also won't find screen resolution here. In almost every case the resolution will be the same: 300ppi in black and white, dropping to 150ppi in color if the ereader supports that. There's a lot more variety in the display technology used, but the categories here aren't standardized so comparing them — especially across brands, using different terms — is very tricky.

Finally, I haven't included supported file formats. Pretty much all of these models offer a wide range of file support, including but not limited to: LIST, PDF, EPUB, EPUB3, MOBI, TXT, CBR, CBZ, and RTF. That's before we get into the support for image and audio formats. If you have a specific file type you're interested in, double check the specs on the brand's own site before buying.

Boox vs Kobo: product lineup

Kobo lineup

Kobo currently has four ereaders in its lineup. The Clara range is the most basic: the screens are the smallest (at 6 inches), the storage is limited to 16GB (which is lower than all the other options here but realistically will still enable you to store more books that you'll ever need), and there's no writing support. You can choose between black-and-white (BW) or color versions.

If you want writing support and compatibility with Google Drive and Dropbox, you can choose between Libra Colour or an Elipsa 2E. The Libra Colour is the smaller and more basic option. The Elipsa 2E has a large, 10.3 inch screen and comes with a Kobo stylus included. It's the only model in Kobo's lineup to not be waterproof.

Boox lineup

Boox has more options, and includes four main lines: Note, Go, Palma and Tab.

The Boox Note series is rather sprawling, encompassing Mini (small screen), Max (large screen), and Air (medium screen) options. These are billed as all-in-one productivity tools — they're on the thicker side and on the larger options you can snap a magnetic keyboard on. The newest models are the Note Mini C and Air6 C.

The Boox Go series also offers options with different screen sizes, the smallest of which is an ultra-compact 6 inches. These options are marketed as being travel-friendly, and are generally thinner than the Note series. The newest options are the Go 6 (Gen II), the Go 10.3 (Gen II), the Go 10.3 (Gen II) Lumi, and the Go Color 7 (Gen II).

The Boox Palma models have the size and shape of a phone, with a 6.2-inch screen. They're designed for on-the-go reading and note-taking. The newest options are the Palma 3 and Palma 2 Pro.

The Boox Tab series seems to be limited to just the Tab X C. It's a large ereader tablet with support for a magnetic keyboard.

Boox vs Kobo: buying advice

Buy a Kobo if...

✅ You want to read in the bath: Pretty much all Kobo ereaders are waterproof to IPX8 standard, which means they can withstand up to an hour in two meters of water. In contrast, Boox models are 'water-resistant' at best — which means anything more than a sprinkle of water could spell trouble.

✅ Your priority is reading: Kobo's slates are specialized for reading — and occasionally also annotating. If you aren't looking for a general-use tablet, Kobo is a better bet.

✅ You're on a tighter budget: Almost all of Kobo's ereaders are cheaper than Boox's options — and if you don't need the extra functionality offered by Boox, Kobo will be a more cost-effective option.

Buy a Boox if...

✅ You want tablet functionality: Boox ereaders run a full version of Android, which means you can download a variety of apps to unlock up a wide range of functionality, depending on your needs. These tablets aren't just for reading.

✅ You want a pocket-sized option: The Boox Palma models are around the same proportions as a phone — perfect for on-the-go reading and note-taking.

✅ You want the biggest screen: Boox makes a number of slates with 13.3-inch screens, whereas Kobo models top out at 10.3 inches. Boox is the place to go if you're seeking a generously sized ereader.

Alongside the unveiling of the iPhone Duo, AirPods 5, iPhone 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max, and the Apple Watch Series 12, the Cupertino giant also launched the Apple Watch Ultra 4. There’s no price increase, no major change to the design, and no change to the color options.

It’s a pretty similar upgrade to the Series 12, which you can read my preview of here — it gets the redesigned rear as part of the new health-sensing system, there’s a new S11 chip inside with a Secure Enclave and separate always-on processor, a new Readiness Score that looks set to take on Oura and Whoop, two new AI features will begin rolling out later this year, and it can deliver HRV (heart rate variability).

But one key change is a bigger battery: the Apple Watch Ultra 4 has a 5% larger battery than the Apple Watch Ultra 3, paired with more efficiencies to deliver Apple's promised runtimes. That means the Ultra 4 can truly go the extra mile, with a promised up to 50 hours in normal use, up to 84 hours in Low Power Mode, and up to 45 hours in Max Extended Workout Mode.

Those are strong numbers, and thus far, it’s lasted in lockstep with the Ultra 3, offering more than a day of use and getting pretty close to a full two days. I’ll need more time with it before I can say whether that bigger battery and the efficiency gains translate into a meaningful real-world improvement, but so far, there’s plenty of endurance here.

There’s also a new Apple Watch Charger in the box. It looks the same as the previous one, but the cable has new tech that lets it charge even faster, with Apple promising up to 18 hours of battery life from a 15-minute charge. That’s mostly been the case in my testing so far, but I want to put it through some more charging cycles before I can say exactly how much of a difference it makes.

And just like with the Series 12, I’m holding off on a full verdict for now. The new Readiness Score is one of the biggest changes to the Apple Watch experience, and I want to give it enough time to build a picture of my data before I draw any conclusions. Apple says it generally takes seven nights of wear to calculate a score.

The redesigned health-sensing system and more frequent heart-rate and HRV tracking are already interesting additions, particularly on a watch built around fitness and endurance. It’s paired with full activity tracking, dual-band GPS, hypertension notifications, blood oxygen tracking, and satellite connectivity. Being able to pull up real-time heart rate and have the watch sample this data more frequently should make the Ultra 4 even more useful for workouts, while HRV adds another metric that brings it closer to competing devices.

There’s also the AI side of things, although that story isn’t fully here yet. Sound Recognition and faster Shazam are already available, while Live Rewind and Siri Recap are slated to arrive later this year, initially in beta and in the U.S. I’ll need more time with those once they launch to see whether they actually change how I use the Ultra 4 day-to-day. And, certainly, the Ultra 4 could have an advantage over the Series 12 when running these features thanks to its larger battery — time will tell.

So, for now, the Apple Watch Ultra 4 is very much an evolution of the Ultra 3 rather than a reinvention, but the bigger battery is a really nice surprise. The changes are mostly under the hood, with health sensing, processing, battery life, and charging all getting some attention.

I’m going to spend more time with it before I deliver a full verdict, especially when it comes to Readiness. But after several days, the Ultra 4 is already shaping up as a familiar Apple Watch Ultra with a little more endurance and a lot more data happening underneath the surface.

The Apple Watch Ultra 4 is up for preorder now at the same price of $799 / £749 / AU$1,349 and will officially launch on September 18, 2026.

Now, I typically wear an Apple Watch daily, and have since the wearable launched in spring 2015, but for the past week, I’ve swapped my Ultra 3 or Series 11 for the Apple Watch Series 12.

Unveiled at Apple’s September 9, 2026, ‘Surprise and shine’ event, the next-generation mid-range Apple Watch — err, flagship for everyone in between the SE third-gen and Ultra 4 — doesn’t change much in terms of looks over the Series 11, but does usher in a redesigned rear as part of a new health-sensing system, a new SoC under the hood to power some new features, and a good bit of AI on top of what we knew was coming with watchOS 27.

And while I do have a full review coming, I’m waiting to gather more data and get my first taste of a Readiness Score — Apple’s fresh take on contextualizing all your data in an upgraded Vitals experience that I’m pretty stoked to try. In most cases, it will take just seven nights of wear to calculate.

While there are new case types — Ceramic arrives alongside Titanium and Aluminum — the Series 12 design is very similar to the Series 11. You can pick between a 44mm or a 46mm display, and it’s still an Always-On OLED that goes pretty close to the edges and even curves down a bit. I’ve specifically been testing the black aluminum, which looks fine and a bit plain — more importantly, it retains the slim profile.

Thankfully, all your previous bands will still work, but on the back you’ll see the new health-sensing system. The layout is different; it looks almost like a sundial with new placements for electrodes and diodes. Apple also swapped in a green LED, which is more efficient at getting readings. Despite the changes, the watch still sits on the wrist just as well. Of course, it still protrudes a bit from the back; see the photo below.

This, in conjunction with the new S11 chip, which is actually a derivative of the A20 Pro in terms of design and components, makes use of a Secure Enclave and an always-on processor section to improve sampling rates. This is the big ‘aha’ achievement, as it lets the Apple Watch track HRV and real-time heart rate whether you open the app or use the complication, and it also speeds up pedometer performance for faster step tracking.

Heart rate variability is a really sweet metric to have, and its arrival on the Apple Watch brings it closer to some competitors. This will also inform the Readiness Score. My Apple Watch still needs one more night of sleep tracking and one more overall HRV rating — it’s helpful that the watch can keep you informed about what’s needed, and fair to expect it to take about a week of wear before you get that reading.

Still, I am bullish on how Readiness will perform and will circle back with full thoughts on that front in due time. For now, the ability to pull up real-time heart rate is great for workouts, whether it be something more endurance-focused or just a walk and/or run. I really like the steps complication, as it auto-updates, and a quick glance at your wrist can show you how you’re pacing for the day.

As of yet, I’d note that actively having these complications running — either steps or heart rate — doesn’t seem to tank the battery life. It’s very much a full day of use, after a day or two of indexing, like the Series 11 established last year.

And then there’s the AI side of things, which I’m only getting a taste of for now. Sound Recognition and faster Shazam are already here, and both are nice little quality-of-life additions, but the more intriguing stuff is still to come.

Live Rewind and Siri Recap are slated to arrive later this year, initially in beta and in the U.S., and I’m especially curious to see how useful they are in the real world. The former can capture and transcribe a recent snippet of a conversation thanks to a rolling 15-second buffer, while the latter can recap what you’ve been talking about throughout the day down to the facts.

I’ll need more time with both once they launch before I can say how much they actually change the Apple Watch experience, but they’re another piece of the Series 12 story that could become more interesting as the year goes on. It also pushes the Apple Watch — mainly Series 12 and Ultra 4 — as more of an AI wearable, beyond activity or health tracking, notifications, and on-wrist apps.

For now, the Apple Watch Series 12 delivers more of the same in a familiar package, with better processing that’ll speed up classic features and enable new ones in two key areas. It’s a refresh of sorts for activity. The updates to Vitals, HRV, more frequent heart rate tracking, and Readiness bring it in line with other wearables like the Oura Ring, Whoop, or Fitbit Air. Simultaneously, it’s getting smarter with new audio recognition features and even taking on more of a role with AI functionality — a real first step for Apple.

We’ll be back soon with our full review, but if you have an older watch or have been waiting for Apple’s take on further contextualizing health data — or just really need HRV — this might be an excellent year to upgrade.

If you’re sold, the Apple Watch Series 12 is up for preorder now and begins shipping tomorrow, September 18, 2026, at the same starting price as the Series 11: $399 / £369 / AU$649.

When Apple officially unveiled the Apple Watch Series 12 and the Ultra 4, it claimed that its latest generation of smartwatches offered the most accurate heart rate sensing on a wearable, thanks to its redesigned Health Sensing System. Accuracy improvements aside, the new system’s advances have made it possible for Apple to introduce new Watch features like its Readiness score.

This metric looks at a myriad of watch data to determine whether you’re in optimal shape to tackle a physically or mentally demanding day. That’s accompanied by a simple prompt to put that score into context. However, this isn’t a new development for other wearable owners: if you use an Oura Ring, a Garmin watch, a Whoop or even a Google Fitbit Air, receiving a readiness score of some description won’t be new to you. So why did Apple feel now was the time to join the Readiness party?

“It’s down to the evolution and the advancements we've made in the hardware technology, which has really brought about this to be the right time,” says Craig Bolton, Director of Fitness Technologies.

“We've built many health and fitness features, and quite a few of them are related to Readiness. The Health Sensing System unlocks the ability for continuous heart rate variability and all-day heart rate measurements and that's really important and critical when we think about trying to bring a really accurate and concise and simple feature to users.”

How Readiness scores work

Readiness scores can be viewed from the dedicated Readiness Watch app, Watch complication and the redesigned Health app. It looks at your sleep score, vitals data including temperature and blood oxygen, as well as your most recent workout data and training load.

Apple confirmed to us that workout data can be taken from third party apps as well as Apple’s own apps. To start seeing scores, you need to record seven night’s worth of sleep data to establish a baseline.

Unlike Oura, Google and Garmin, Apple has opted to score users Readiness on a scale of 1-10 as opposed to 1-100. Apple has its reasons for choosing a different scoring scale and it underpins how it thinks about delivering new fitness features.

“All of our features in general and particularly in the health and fitness space, we want them to be simple and intuitive,” explains Bolton. “We thought providing a score alongside a simple category saying you’re ready or to pace yourself gives that instant glanceable view. If you're waking up in the morning or throughout the day and you want to have a quick check-in, that can give you that little insight that you need.

“One of the principles that was really important to us was if you want to go deeper, there is more depth there. So you can instantly see what's driving that score up or down, tap into it to your heart's content, and dig into the various apps and features that are driving scores.”

Why HRV is key to getting you ready

Readiness scores are strongly tied to Apple’s ability to continuously monitor heart rate at a much higher sampling frequency than previous watches, thanks to the new Health Sensing System. The Apple Watch Series 11 can continuously monitor heart rate every five minutes. The Series 12 and Ultra 4 can do that every five seconds. Apple says it’s this massive improvement in the fidelity of heart rate monitoring that explains why only the Ultra 4 and the Series 12 can dish out Readiness scores.

There’s another heart-related metric that’s vital and that’s heart rate variability. This is the measurement of the intervals between heart beats. It’s a measurement that again has featured on wearables for some time and has been used to better understand stress, recovery and the effect of diet and exercise on your body.

For Series 12 and the Ultra 4, Apple is introducing two HRV measurements: overall HRV and recovery HRV. It’s the latter that’s most relevant for your Readiness scores and can additionally be viewed inside of Apple’s heart app on the Watch.

“It's a critical element to this,” says Bolton. “[Recovery HRV] feeds into Readiness, but it’s also part of our Vitals experience as well. So you’re going to be able to independently look at HRV recovery through the course of the night and throughout the day and that’s providing added insight and education about what that could mean for you.

“For us, the real value here is we're taking that and we're partnering it with these other existing features like sleep and other vitals and also your activity, to give this really distilled and synthesised version of all your metrics and what they might mean for you.”

Rooted in research

It will come as no great surprise that Apple hasn’t just plucked its Readiness score out of thin air. It’s a metric that’s been developed through various studies conducted by Apple. That includes Apple’s Heart Rate and Movement study, which was first announced in 2019. Data was used from the study to “tune the experience” of Readiness scores. Apple’s Heart Rate Accuracy study, which summarises the accuracy of its new Health Sensing System also played its part too. There were also additional studies conducted surveying people to understand their fatigue levels and how people felt versus what their metrics said.

“We also did some testing and studies to make sure that the Readiness feature was behaving the way it should for users,” says Bolton. “The reality is sometimes in the morning you will wake up and this may confirm exactly what your body's already telling you. In some other instances it may actually surface something that you didn't notice about before. But in terms of the underlying data, the features that provide it have been studied and there's a lot of rigour independently on each of them.”

Readiness is not just about the AM

Before Apple, Readiness scores were something you mainly glanced at in the morning. On the Watch Ultra 4 and the Series 12, Apple sees Readiness as an all-day affair. That means what happens during the day will have an impact on your Readiness score, whether that’s completing a tough workout or something has changed in your vitals data.

“So something that our new health sensing system unlocks is this continuous heart rate monitoring throughout the course of the day,” says Bolton. “This could potentially lead to us or the feature recognising that you've got an elevated heart rate throughout the course of the day and that will change your Readiness. So as you're going throughout the day there's this value that it brings as well.”

While previous takes on readiness scores have felt more fitness-centric in terms of who will find this metric most valuable, Apple believes this is something all Watch wearers can get value from glancing at.

“You might have someone who’s managing a busy week with kids, work and trying to get adequate sleep, squeezing a workout in here and there," says Bolton. “For that person, sometimes it's just going to reaffirm or confirm to them something that they already know or they're already feeling in their body that today's a good day or you're not feeling things aren't great today.

“For that same person, it may actually surface something that they're not already noticing. So they've been under some stress at work. This might give that sort of little red flag to say, hey, it might be time to recover or take it easy because of some of these metrics we're seeing.

“You don't have to be an elite athlete to get value out of this, and anyone who's wearing the watch and sleeping with it at night can get this incredible insight each day to help them get through it.”

Meta has a new proposition for anyone who looks at Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp and thinks they could use a little more artificial intelligence. Meta One, launched this week, packages additional features with expanded access to some of the company’s most compute-intensive AI tools.

Pay $7.99 a month for Core and you can generate more images and videos, use Instagram’s AI Restyle tools more often and generally enjoy a larger serving of Meta AI. Premium costs $19.99 and provides even more tokens.

The core Meta experience remains free, while subscriptions allow the company to build specialized or expensive features for people willing to pay for them.

Horror author Joe Hill had another idea, posting on the Meta-owned Threads: “That’s sweet, so pay a fee, get more AI, pay nothing, get a little less AI. Can we work out a deal where you pay ME and I get no AI at all?”

It is a very good joke. It may also be an unexpectedly good piece of product strategy.

A lot of companies have settled on the assumption that more AI is inherently worth more money. Chatbot subscriptions offer higher limits and access to more capable models. Meta One follows the same logic by adding AI generation behind its Core and Premium tiers, though the bundles include plenty of non-AI extras too.

But while some people may want more AI and are prepared to pay for it, it's not a universal desire. Hill’s response gets at the other half of the equation, where the people who increasingly encounter AI inside products they already use would quite like a large, clearly labeled switch that makes it disappear.

The premium feature nobody is selling

There is an important distinction here between choosing AI and receiving AI. Opening ChatGPT because you want help planning a vacation is an active decision. Finding AI summaries sitting above your search results or AI buttons suddenly appearing inside software you already use, is something else entirely.

The evidence suggests consumers understand that distinction perfectly well. A Pew Research Center study last year in 2025 reported that 59% of American adults felt they had little or no control over how AI was used in their lives and 55% wanted more control. That fits with a Gartner survey from this year showing that 50% of U.S. consumers would prefer to buy at businesses that do not use generative AI in consumer-facing content.

That hardly amounts to a mass rejection of artificial intelligence. People use ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and Meta AI because those tools can be genuinely useful, and there is clearly a market for subscriptions that make them more capable. The resistance seems less about AI existing than about losing the ability to decide when it enters the room. Gartner found something similar in customer service this year. Half of customers said generative AI could make service interactions easier, yet 87% considered access to a human agent essential when companies used AI. People can appreciate the robot while still wanting an emergency exit from the robot.

Tech companies have done this before. Advertising was once simply part of using many online services. Eventually companies realized the absence of advertising was itself valuable enough to sell. Meta already offers subscriptions without ads on Facebook and Instagram in the UK and Europe, although those plans were introduced in response to regulatory requirements. In the UK, Meta charges £2.99 a month on the web or £3.99 through iOS and Android for its ad-free option, but doesn't offer the option in the US or Australia.

Meta minus AI

There would be something faintly absurd about paying a technology company to remove a technology it added in the first place. Unfortunately, anyone who is currently paying for YouTube Premium to escape commercials will recognize the business model immediately.

An AI-light subscription could remove generated content from recommendations, hide AI assistants and shortcuts, and otherwise keep AI tools away unless deliberately summoned. Apple Intelligence already has a feature like it, in that it can be switched off systemwide, and Microsoft lets Copilot users disable features including personalization and memory. These controls are imperfect, but their existence recognizes the appeal of an off switch to many consumers.

None of this means Meta One is a bad idea. For someone who frequently generates images, edits Instagram Stories with AI or wants Meta’s more advanced creative tools, $7.99 could be perfectly reasonable. Meta says its early testing showed real demand, and a subscription is arguably a better way to offer computationally expensive generative features than pretending unlimited AI costs nothing.

The mistake would be assuming that the only direction people want AI to move is upward. AI companies are currently fighting over who can provide the most capable model and the highest usage limits. Enthusiasm makes sense when hundreds of billions of dollars are being spent on AI infrastructure.

Eventually, though, AI may become distasteful enough to enough people to make its absence worth paying for. Meta One is built around the proposition that customers will pay to receive more AI. The most successful premium AI feature might end up being as simple as a switch labeled “Off.”

Spoilers for Neagley ahead.

It likely won't take you long to reach the ending of Neagley on Prime Video — all eight episodes have been released on the streamer — and when you do, it's nothing short of dramatic.

In a nutshell, the Reacher spinoff is following two story strands simultaneously: the death of a young man that's linked to the Echo Canyon Farm cult, and the reasoning behind why Neagley (Maria Sten) has a lifelong fear of being touched and touching others.

We learn that the cult has a secret facility that is being used to test an illegal drug, called Tranqlara, on human subjects, which is all being funded by a Swedish billionaire known as Rawlings. Neagley and her team try to simultaneously avenge her friend's death in episode 1 and save the innocent followers from the effects of Tranqlara, though they're not overly successful.

What it does lead to, however, is the group blowing up the Echo Canyon Farm facility after the death of leader Lawrence (Damon Herriman), walking in the other direction as if they're in the iconic Reservoir Dogs scene.

It's my favorite moment in the entire series (it looks and feels so effortlessly cool), but according to Sten, none of it was filmed in the way that I thought it would be.

'It wasn't as impressive as what you see'

"I thought it was cool, but I could spoil things and say that there was no such explosion behind us as we walk away," Sten tells me. "There was actually a wind turbine. But we played the music that was going to be played and definitely got in the vibe.

Greyston Holt, who plays detective newcomer Hudson Riley, adds, "We knew what it would be. But in the moment, it certainly didn't look as impressive as what you see on screen."

For the first time in what feels like forever, I've been fooled by CGI. If you were to ask me whether the season finale explosion scene was real or digitally generated, I'd have firmly been in the former camp.

However, that doesn't mean everything we see in Neagley was CGI generated. "In the first episode there's a big truck that blows up, and that was a practical explosion. It's a matter of whether we can blow up the set of not," Sten laughs. "It's not always possible, but we always vouch for it."

If Neagley season 2 does get confirmed (come on, Amazon), I'm hoping for even bigger and better actions sequences. Sure, discovering more about Neagley's backstory has been incredibly satisfying, but clearly, nothing truly beats blowing stuff up.

When I first saw the IKEA x Xbox collaboration at this year's Gamescom, I was struck by two conflicting ideas.

With its multi-functional side table, TV stand, and decorative controller box, this is some smartly made furniture with some genuinely helpful uses. Then, with a thumbstick stool and a D-pad cushion, it's also one of the silliest things I've seen.

Taken as a whole, you can see it's a mix of the playful and the practical. After I spoke to designers at both IKEA and Xbox at the show, it turns out that was the point all along.

"That was present throughout the journey because it's important," explained Philip Dilé, product developer for IKEA of Sweden. "Playing games is playful; it is fun. Solving people's needs connected to that can be very functional and practical. We tried to balance that, for sure.

"We wanted to make things that are relevant for people who play games. Something that reflects you, or that you feel allows you to express yourself...but the object itself is a beautiful piece of home furnishing."

It's a philosophy echoed by Carl Ledbetter, partner head of design at Xbox: "Just like when we design a console, it can be as quiet as people want it. They can put it back and let it recede into their environment. Or they can pull it forward and have it be very expressive. And I think some of those same qualities are in these products in the YXSTABY collection."

Ledbetter used the controller display box and the TV stand as examples of this. With the former, it's ideal for enthusiast gamers who like to collect controllers and show off their favorite designs in a dedicated gaming space. Meanwhile, with the latter, it serves a "dual life" — whether it's sitting in the corner while you're watching shows and movies, or wheeled front and centre for an intense gaming session.

"That was a big part of our philosophy: how do we make products that can adapt to how people want to use them? Either be as expressive as possible, or just be part of your world," summarised Ledbetter.

You can see that approach clearly in all of the more practical products from the collection.

Take the side table. Closed up and next to your sofa, it could be mistaken for another piece of clean and minimalist furniture you'd find in IKEA. Open up the sliding doors on the front, though, and inside there's space specifically designed to store controllers, headsets, and battery packs — plus the all-important cable management and power connectivity options you need to keep your tech charged between sessions.

"This came up time and time again: cable management, charging stuff — where do you put it when you're done? People don't want it all over the place," said Ledbetter.

And Dilé agreed: "We looked at it from the perspective of: what does gaming throughout the home look like? Because, of course, people play at their desks, in the living room, on the couch. In so many different ways. For us, it was important to cater for a lot of these different needs.

"And there's one never-ending challenge working for IKEA: cable management. It always comes up over and over again. I think it's a very real frustration for people.

"Take the TV stand, for example. Yeah, you need to have the console there; you need to have somewhere to charge the controllers, somewhere to put a headset. That was one of the benefits of working together with someone like Xbox that knows gaming, and the hardware, and the players. That made the brief really, really clear."

And even though designing for gamers was a big part of their brief, both teams were also well aware that they wanted products that a non-gamer would be happy to live in their home. This meant offering something that wasn't bedazzled with RGB lighting and garish colors.

"You need to cater for gamers, but also for non-gamers or people who are living with gamers, or people who want to have the functionality but still want to have a nice home," said Dilé.

"[We wanted to create] things that maybe your spouse or the people you live with also want to put in your home. These aren't just things that you accept because of your hobby. That was an important balance for us.

"There are so many people who play games, so it’s incredibly diverse. We really wanted to showcase that you can have that [gaming] experience and still have beautiful products that blend into your home to create a nice environment that you want to live in."

That led Ledbetter to reminisce about the first meeting between both parties, where they both discovered they shared very similar design philosophies and were keen to get both of their respective design teams together to bounce around ideas.

The result is this YXSTABY collection — nine products encompassing everything from stools, seats and cushions, to TV stands, storage and display cases — set to launch in October later this year. A weird and wonderful mix of items that speak to both the fun side of gaming and the practical needs in the home.

Ledbetter summed up his hopes for the collection as follows: "Think about it: we create these controllers, and we sell millions of controllers, but we're not in charge of the controller’s home. We make the controller, and then where does it go? We don’t know. So, now, there's this opportunity between IKEA and Xbox to build that home. It felt like a completion of that journey."

Indie games have arguably become a cornerstone of PC gaming, even more so with modern-day entries becoming huge hits such as Hollow Knight: Silksong, Hades 2, and a superhero surprise from developer Adhoc, Dispatch.

In comes Blackwood, a cinematic third-person action indie, set in New York in 2012. You play as Anton Blackwood, an ordinary DVD store owner by day and an assassin by night, taking on contracts and dealing with the challenge of balancing two lives at once.

After playing two hours of Act 1 (the only one available so far) during my short preview at Gamescom 2026, I can see Blackwood's promise. It's quite evident what developer AttritoM7 Productions is aiming for with its gun-fu style gameplay, heavily focused on explosive, cinematic enemy takedowns, intense gun fights, and stylish maneuvers.

Blackwood is very clearly inspired by classic martial arts and gun-fu movies, notably John Wick, and even borrows elements from classic games like Dead to Rights and Max Payne. Players can either choose to challenge enemies in a gung-ho play style, rushing out and executing different takedowns you can pick before setting out on a mission.

A more tactical approach is also possible, staying in cover and strictly going for headshots only (fitting for a John Wick-styled game), which would perfectly suit the hardest game difficulty.

Blackwood nails enemy takedowns, which is easily the one aspect that will keep me coming back to replay missions I can once Act 1 is complete. (Video Credit: AttritoM7 Productions)

The takedowns swiftly shifting straight back into gunplay are where Blackwood absolutely shines, and I can't go without stressing how impressed I am with what AttritoM7 developers were able to pull off there. In so many sequences, I was instantly taken back to those iconic moments in John Wick movies, where Keanu Reeves pulls no punches.

Ultimately, what holds Blackwood back is jankiness in combat, especially during hand-to-hand encounters. During multiple scenarios, there are bugs and stiffness in certain animations from Anton and enemies that I couldn't ignore.

Controlling Anton can be a struggle sometimes, as certain button prompts are unresponsive while in cover, and since enemies can flank the player, that unresponsiveness can lead to some pretty frustrating deaths.

The weapon recoil feels great, and I can see that AttritoM7 designed Blackwood's gunplay to have players make every shot count — which is especially important, since preparing for missions requires you to purchase ammunition with dirty money earned from fulfilling contracts.

However, I set aim assist to its lowest level (minimal), and it felt like the reticle was fighting against my control of the joystick — and it also doesn't help that the ultrawide field of view resolution desperately needs adjusting.

The opening street shootout was a great way to kick the game off, and I very quickly learned that enemies are unforgiving, requiring the player to be wary of a gung-ho playstyle. (Video Credit: AttritoM7 Productions)

Some of the audio in both combat and some NPC dialogue feels a bit out of place too, particularly during one of the early contract missions in a subway station. There are many elements like this, especially involving animations (notably Anton's run and other NPCs' movements), that end up impacting immersion.

Fortunately, while Blackwood isn't launching in early access, its remaining Acts will be released later for free (for existing owners), with Act 2 planned for March 2027 and Act 3 in September 2027 on Steam. Hopefully, with the release of the following content, patches can be made to significantly tweak and adjust those pain points.

Blackwood is a very promising game and has plenty of opportunity to shine among some of the best indie games available. However, it's a little rough around the edges at the moment, and a few steps away from realizing its potential.

Vibe coding makes developing an app as simple as describing your idea. With barriers collapsed, it is easy to assume that app monetization is dead.

Stan Marchand disagrees. As CEO of Paris-based app publisher Rocapine, he has proved that vibe-coded apps can still generate real revenue – but only if builders focus on the 20% of app development that moves beyond the code and into human craft.

I spoke with Stan to unpack what separates a buyable product from an empty gimmick in 2026.

Vibe coding has made it easier than ever to build apps, but are these apps actually generating revenue?

A few are, but most aren't, and most often it's because people assume building a functioning app is the hard part. It isn't anymore.

Vibe coding has collapsed the cost of building an app to almost nothing. But 80% of the work can now be automated, and more than ever it's the remaining 20% left to humans that decides whether an app makes money: finding a value proposition that genuinely resonates, crafting a product with human taste, and telling its story efficiently.

The apps generating real revenue got those three things right. The flood of apps that look finished but never find a market got none of them. Building is now the easy part. The scarce skills are insight, taste, and distribution.

When assessing a vibe-coded MVP, which metrics and signals do you look for to separate a "buyable" app from a gimmick?

The code itself is not worth much.

What is worth something is whether the product resonates with real people. That is shown by asking two questions:

• Is it marketable? Can you reach users at a cost the business can support, or is the market already saturated by giants pushing the same promise?
• Will people pay? Once they've installed it, do they convert and stick? The KPIs that capture this are cost per install, conversion to paid, and early retention.

Put these questions together: that's ROAS- how much it costs to acquire a user versus how much that user is worth.

A rough prototype with a low cost per install and users who pay is a real business. A polished app with beautiful code and no one converting is a gimmick.

How does that evaluation process differ when assessing vibe-coded apps compared to traditional human-built apps?

Less than you'd think.

Nobody writes code by hand anymore, so "vibe-coded" versus "human-built" is becoming a distinction without a difference.

What changes is where we spend our time. With vibe-coded apps, the code is cheap to rebuild, so we care less about its quality and more about whether the concept has proven resonance.

The risk isn't messy code, it's a product that exists because it was easy to make rather than because anyone needed it. AI gives everyone the same 80%. We evaluate the 20% the builder added: the insight, the craft, the taste.

AI-generated code can be messy. What steps must vibe coders take to ensure their app is legally compliant and structurally sound enough to pass due diligence?

Three things:

• Know your stack: which tools generated what, under which licenses, and whether any third-party code or assets carry restrictions. Undocumented AI code isn't a dealbreaker; undocumentable code is.
• Clean data practices from day one: privacy policy, user consent, App Store and Play compliance, and analytics you can actually export.
• Make your metrics verifiable: revenue through the stores, retention cohorts, acquisition costs. We've walked away from partnerships not because the code was AI-generated, but because nothing could be checked.

How should an app creator think about deciding whether a full acquisition, a publishing deal, or a revenue-share model is right for them?

Ask yourself what you actually want.

If you want the cash and to move on to the next idea, a full acquisition is clean. If you believe in the app and want to stay in the game, a publishing or revenue-share deal lets you keep upside while a partner brings what a solo builder rarely has: monetisation expertise, growth marketing budget, the infrastructure to scale.

The good news is that these paths aren't mutually exclusive. Unchaind, which we co-developed from scratch with a studio in Singapore under a publishing model, reached $1M ARR 16 days after launch. We ended up acquiring it later, once the developer wanted to move on to a new project.

Start with the model that fits where you are today; the exit can come when it makes sense for both sides.

What other tips would you give keen vibe coders who are looking to build and sell vibe-coded apps?

Build for a niche you understand deeply, ship in weeks, and put a price on it immediately. Free users tell you nothing about resonance.

Then fight AI slop relentlessly: the generic wording, the template design patterns, the onboarding everyone recognises. Users spot it instantly, and it kills trust. Invest your time in the 20% that makes your product yours; the rest is a commodity.

And when you talk to a publisher, bring your cohort data, not your feature list.

Do you use AI at work? And if you do, does your employer know about it?

A huge new study from Deloitte of 25,000 UK workers found that two-thirds have already used generative AI for work — and nearly a third of generative AI users say they're using it without their employer's knowledge.

Welcome to the world of ‘shadow AI’: workers bringing their own AI tools into the workplace, often without official approval, and using them to get their jobs done faster.

A look at Reddit reveals what that can mean in practice. One Reddit user complained: “My coworker is secretly using ChatGPT to do 80% of his work. He's getting praised for efficiency.” Their dilemma was simple: “Do I tell the bosses?”

Another Reddit user had the opposite problem after discovering just how much time AI could save them. “I’m a relative noob, so please don’t roast me, but I’ve just done about 2 weeks' work in an hour. Do I tell my boss or keep it secret?”

One of the most popular responses to their predicament was equally revealing: “Remember, AI work is more detectable than you think. Spend time humanizing the output and adding your own texture, then shut up.”

It's easy to see the attraction. If you've discovered a tool that lets you complete two weeks' worth of work in an hour, why wouldn't you use it? The more difficult question is whether you should tell anyone.

Shadow lands

Shadow AI doesn't necessarily mean employees are doing anything malicious. In many cases, workers simply prefer using AI tools they're already familiar with rather than whatever their company has provided — assuming it has provided anything at all.

But there's an important difference between using your own favorite productivity app and using an unapproved AI chatbot.

As my colleague Craig Hale reported in June, a survey from PagerDuty found that 88% of workers had shared work-related information with public AI systems. Some 43% had uploaded emails or correspondence, 40% had shared meeting notes, 34% had entered customer information, and 31% had shared sensitive business information such as financial data or confidential company documents.

And that's where shadow AI becomes more than an awkward conversation about whether somebody deserves credit for working faster. Employees can potentially be feeding sensitive company information into AI services their employers haven't approved or secured.

But workers don't necessarily trust their employers to make the right decisions about AI either. PagerDuty found that 72% of workers believed they understood AI better than their own tech teams, while 77% thought their company's AI restrictions were limiting their professional development.

You can start to see why shadow AI is such a difficult problem for workplaces to navigate. An employee might simply see AI as a tool that helps them do their job faster, while colleagues could understandably wonder whether someone deserves the same credit for work largely produced by AI. For employers, there's the added concern that sensitive company information could be finding its way into AI tools they haven't approved or secured.

Who's really in the wrong?

And let’s not forget how divisive AI can be. Many workers have a real aversion to using AI in any form whatsoever. One Reddit user asked: “How do I tell my boss who keeps telling me to use ChatGPT for simple tasks that I'm anti-AI?”

Workplace rules haven't necessarily caught up with the speed at which employees have adopted AI, and there's another remarkable number in Deloitte's research that suggests just how far this has already gone.

According to the Deloitte survey, British workers are now spending an estimated £958 million of their own money every year on generative AI tools they use for work. That's an extraordinary amount of money for employees to be spending on tools designed to make them better at jobs somebody else is paying them to do — particularly when almost a third aren't telling their employers they're using them.

But you can understand why. If you've just discovered a tool that lets you do two weeks' work in an hour, telling your boss might result in them wondering what you're going to do with the rest of the week.

Half the fun of being really invested in a TV show is writing your own stories for your favourite characters. If you're a fan of Reacher on Prime Video, there's a chance that you've imagined the titular hero (played by Alan Ritchson) ending up with his loyal sidekick, Neagley (Maria Sten).

A quick Reddit and social media search reveals that I'm definitely not on my own in thinking about this. Though we've not seen Neagley in the main Reacher series since season 3, she remains the fan-favourite right-hand woman, and fans have been publicly pining for her since her departure.

Luckily, the spinoff Neagley lands on the Amazon streamer on September 16, putting her past and present firmly in the hot seat. Reacher will pop his head in along the way... and if anything, this adds fuel to the fire that there's possible romantic tension between.

However, the same could easily be said to be between Neagley and newbie detective Hudson (Greyston Holt), though as of yet, Neagley has chosen nobody but herself.

It's here that I have to be the bearer of bad news: creator Nicholas Wootton has indeed confirmed that there are "no plans" for a Reacher-Neagley romance to be incorporated into the story. Having said that, it's a 'never say never' situation.

'I don't want to put a fork in that'

"I don't want to put a fork in that," Wootton tells me when I ask about the romantic potential. "I don't know what the future may bring. Are there plans for that in our present writing? I will admit no. But I will also say that the world is a big place.

"I don't want to disappoint fans, but right now, the plan for this show is not to explore that. But you never know."

I love a diplomatic answer when I hear one. Though it seems incredibly likely, we're currently waiting to hear whether Neagley season 2 will be picked up or not. So while I've put the request in, for now, we have to make do with how Reacher is utilized in the episodes that we have.

"I love the way that Reacher's been used in this season," Wootton continues. "I felt like it was a handoff to Neagley that allows her to have her own series, yet also gives it a really nice arc.

"His use in this is much more of an emotional tie than an action-based one, and I don't think people will be expecting that. Every time we watched it, I felt it in my chest."

Sounds like the power of love to me, but what do I know?

If you're an Outlander fan like me, you've probably been at a bit of a loss since the emotional season 8 finale back in May.

But while the main series might have finished for good, prequel Outlander: Blood of my Blood is only just getting started.

With season 2 set to debut on September 18 on Starz (US) and September 19 on MGM+ (international), we'll be picking the action back up with Claire and Jamie's parents: Brian (Jamie Roy), Ellen (Harriet Slater), Julia (Hermione Corfield) and Henry (Jeremy Irvine).

The lovers are separated once again as the Scottish Highlands are split in two by the 1715 Jacobite Rising in season 2. While Brian must fight alongside his father, Julia and Henry are split when their plan to travel back to the 1920s goes wrong at the last minute.

In short, we're in for a lot of twists and turns. But if Outlander fans have yet to tune into the prequel, now's the time — especially because of the Easter eggs the cast is teasing.

'Things shape him into the man we see in Outlander'

"Firstly, I don't think you need to have seen Outlander for this," Irvine begins. "I wasn't familiar with Outlander going into [the prequel]. I like that the scripts just stand alone, but there's a lot of great Easter eggs. Some very familiar characters are showing up."

No spoilers here, but if you've either read the original book series or see the main series, you might have a pretty good idea of what — or who — is to come. My advice? Don't assume any introductions or cameos will only happen towards the beginning of season 2... be ready to stay invested.

"There's lots of things for if you've got a favorite character from the original series, which I think is so great," Roy adds. "Mine is Murtagh from the original series... it's just so great seeing what Rory Alexander does with the character in this series. We saw little things through last season, but in this season, things really shape him to become the man we see in Outlander. I think if you're a fan of the original show, you'll really appreciate that too."

Grown-up Murtagh, for want of a better term, was played by Duncan Lacroix in Outlander seasons 1-5. He's Jamie's (Sam Heughan) godfather and companion, though things don't exactly end up well for him as his time on the show draws to a close.

It's these kind of links between the main series and prequel that make Outlander: Blood of my Blood feel extra special, and the devil truly is in the detail. Take this as your sign to catch up if you haven't already — you've got less than three days until new episodes arrive.

Wo Long 2: Wings of Ember feels like a massive step up from its predecessor, purely from a combat standpoint. With a large variety of weapons to use, several character and weapon abilities to unlock, and armor to find while exploring, there's so much to look forward to at launch.

I played a demo of Koei Tecmo's upcoming title via the Xbox booth at Gamescom 2026, and was left thrilled by just how approachable Wo Long 2: Wings of Ember feels. As a soulslike, it can certainly be punishing, especially when fighting foes above your character's level.

However, Koei Tecmo has given players more than enough ways to battle, with different deflect combinations, standard blocking, and smooth movement for evading in and out of danger zones during combat.

Using the new nunchucks weapon felt like I was stepping into Bruce Lee's shoes, easily flying through standard enemies and deflecting their unblockable attacks. The finishers and overall speed of combat are very much PlayStation 2-esque, almost reminiscent of the stylish combos and animations in Capcom's God Hand.

Enemies often spam unblockable attacks, but the great thing is the attack patterns are very well designed, as they're easy to react to without unfair or nearly indecipherable movements — which is an issue I've had with most soulslike games over the years.

Similar to many soulslike games, though, Wo Long 2: Wings of Ember encourages players to build a build that caters to a specific play style, specifically based on which weapon one decides to use.

Levelling up different elements like wood, fire, water, earth, or metal virtues increased specific base character stats, element abilities, and ultimately improved proficiency with particular weapons.

Since I used wooden nunchucks throughout my playtime, I chose to upgrade the wood virtue, which aided me with more damage against enemies.

If you're fast enough at deflecting, Wo Long 2: Wings of Ember features some of the most satisfying back-and-forth combat against regular enemies and mini-bosses, and that's right up my alley. (Video Credit: Koei Tecmo)

Wo Long 2: Wings of Ember carries the levelling system from its predecessor and builds upon it, but the additional aspects to combat elevate it to a far more exciting level.

I never finished the first entry, Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty, but I was already very impressed by its fast-flowing gameplay and accessibility, which Koei Tecmo looks to be doubling down on in this sequel.

Story sequences were kept short in my preview, but honestly, gameplay is where the focus is with Koei Tecmo's upcoming entry. If my short demo is anything to go by, I can only expect Wo Long 2: Wings of Ember to deliver for stylish combat fanatics like me when it launches early in 2027 on PS5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC.

Even for a topic as hot as artificial intelligence, talk of AI has ratcheted up to yet another level this week: on the one hand we've got the CEOs of the biggest companies in AI calling for a slowdown on the technology, and on the other you've got the President of the United States advocating for the exact opposite.

If you're wondering why there are renewed calls for AI regulation, whether or not AI has the capability to kill everyone on the planet, and how this might impact the technology going forward, we're here to explain it in a straightforward way for you.

Many experts are now insisting that we're at a point in AI development where 'pacing the frontier' — slowing down the cutting-edge of development — is the safest and wisest move.

However, not everyone agrees, with opposing perspectives suggesting that AI doomerism is purely a marketing stunt and a distraction.

1. Why are AI bosses asking for a slowdown?

In a rare show of unity, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk have all called for a slowdown in AI development in recent days, arguing that better safeguards and guardrails need to be put in place around the technology before models are allowed to progress much further.

"We must slow the pace at which we improve the capabilities of AI models," wrote Amodei in a blog post, a stance which Altman and Musk later agreed with. According to Amodei, whose company develops Claude, AI is now advancing "drastically faster" than ever before — in part because it can now upgrade itself — and that rate of progress, together with the recent incident where AI agents hacked the Hugging Face platform, have convinced Amodei that action needs to be taken.

The Anthropic CEO wants to see third-party evaluators embedded in the biggest AI companies, as well as coordinated safety standards across the industry, and between countries — something that might be challenging to achieve, considering that Chinese authorities have described calls for a slowdown as "fearmongering" and a "Cold War" move intended to keep the US ahead of China in AI development.

2. Could AI one day kill us all?

The top-level CEOs haven't been the only ones warning about the dangers of AI in recent days. Anthropic AI developer Jacob Coxon very publicly quit his job over fears about the safety of the technology he was working on, saying that "people building AI earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade".

More recently, Google Deepmind Research Engineer Bilal Chughtai posted a similar resignation message on X stating that he is "extremely concerned by the default trajectory of this technology" and that he believes "AI has the potential to kill us all, and that we might be running out of time to avoid this outcome".

This isn't a new idea, as Stephen Hawking was saying the same over a decade ago. What's changed is how powerful AI has become: it can now, in theory, improve itself and spread itself across the internet in a way that escapes human control, potentially hacking into essential infrastructure and outpacing any defensive measures.

Imagine the internet, cell networks, payment platforms, and GPS suddenly not working, for anyone — things would likely deteriorate pretty quickly. The other AI doom scenario that's often talked about is bad actors using AI to launch biological or nuclear weapons.

AI isn't that advanced yet, but it might be soon, and some experts think there's a greater than 10% chance of it happening in the next few years.

3. How could regulation help?

Those in the AI industry are now actively asking governments for help in reining in the technology, believing that any slowing of the pace in AI development is going to require state-level coordination. That regulation might include oversight bodies, 'kill switches' to shut down AI, and limits on how and when new AI models can be released.

While there's a lot of momentum behind the idea that regulation is necessary, there's little agreement about how to go about it. AI safety legislation efforts have stalled in both the US and the UK, amidst arguments about how tight any restrictions should be and who should be in charge of them.

One sticking point is over the potential harms of AI regulation. Would, for example, a limit on data center expansion end up hurting economic growth and smaller AI businesses, as well as companies such as Anthropic and OpenAI? If regulation is going to happen, it's going to take a while.

4. Why is Trump calling AI concerns a hoax?

One of the reasons that serious AI regulation seems unlikely in the short term is that US President Donald Trump has loudly rejected calls for a slowing down of AI development, saying that "whoever wins AI, wins!" and calling AI safety fears a "hoax" concocted by the bosses at Anthropic, OpenAI, and SpaceX.

The President's point of view is that the guardrails that are already in place — essentially AI model oversight by the US government — are enough to keep AI from doing any harm. Trump will also be concerned about ceding ground to China, and the economic hit that may result in slower AI advances.

There's a huge amount of money invested in AI right now, from the companies themselves to the infrastructure that they rely on to run everything. If it takes longer to see returns on those investments — and OpenAI chief Sam Altman has already said his company's IPO is being pushed back over safety fears — then that could have significant economic impacts.

5. What could happen to our AI apps?

Assuming you're not using ChatGPT to develop bioweapons or hack into government mainframes, none of this noise around AI will affect the apps you use day-to-day at the moment. If you do try and do something malevolent with a chatbot, like writing computer viruses, you'll see there are many safety protocols in place to stop you.

What the AI companies are concerned about is keeping it that way. If they manage to coordinate some kind of slowing down and regulation, then you might see apps like Claude or Gemini updated less often. At the moment, new AI models are appearing on a regular basis, but that won't necessarily continue to be the case.

One possibility is that agentic AI, which is AI that's able to carry out tasks and program itself, becomes more tightly controlled even as other aspects of the technology improve.

What's certain is that this discussion is a long way from being over, and that those who know best say that we're at a "crunch time for humanity".

Like many people who've just installed the new iOS 27, you're probably wondering why Siri doesn't seem quite like the new all-singing, all-dancing AI assistant you were promised.

Try to strike up a conversation with it and it will still try to palm you off to ChatGPT, or just throw up a load of web links instead of answering you directly. You'd be forgiven for wondering whether Siri AI is just another failure.

Part of the problem is that Apple's terminology makes it genuinely confusing, but there's an important distinction between iOS 27's Siri and Siri AI that you need to make. Let me explain.

Installing iOS 27 gives you some new Apple Intelligence features, but it does not automatically give you the headline new Siri. The big Siri upgrade is Siri AI (Beta), which you can apply for, but requires joining a separate waitlist.

Of course, that doesn't mean you don't get anything new with iOS 27, though, so let's break it down.

What you get in iOS 27 without joining Siri AI (Beta)

Most of the really dramatic Siri improvements aren't actually part of ordinary Siri. With iOS 27, however, you do get new Apple Intelligence features elsewhere on your iPhone.

For example, existing Writing Tools remain available without Siri AI, while iOS 27 adds things such as Live Translation in Messages, FaceTime and Phone. There's also Call Context, which can surface relevant information such as an airline confirmation code while you're on a call, improved Smart Replies, Mail suggestions and suggested polls.

Visual Intelligence is another useful AI feature that works without Siri AI. Just click and hold the Camera Control button to activate it.

Visual Intelligence is a way of asking ChatGPT, using your voice or text, about what your camera is looking at, as well as searching for similar things online using Google. You can also use it to identify plants, translate text and turn dates on posters or flyers into Calendar events.

There's an onscreen version of Visual Intelligence too, although it's a bit clunky to use. Take a screenshot with the Side + Volume Up buttons and you'll see Visual Intelligence tools appear at the bottom, including Ask, Search, Summarize, and actions such as Add to Calendar. Again, once you tap Ask, you can speak your request instead of typing it.

But these are really iOS and Apple Intelligence upgrades, rather than Siri becoming something like ChatGPT. For that you'll need the upcoming Siri AI.

What you DON'T get until Siri AI (Beta)

With Siri AI, Apple has a long list of new capabilities it says Siri gains:

• Broad world knowledge — with proper conversational answers to general questions rather than relying so heavily on search or ChatGPT.
• Personal context — it can find things buried in your Mail, Messages, Photos and Notes apps, even from fairly natural descriptions.
• Onscreen awareness — you can ask Siri about whatever you're currently looking at without having to take a screenshot. Apple's examples include asking it to explain a diagram in your class notes or compare two reports in Files.
• Much deeper app actions — Apple gives examples including finding information and then drafting an email, or editing and sharing a set of photos.
• Real generative writing — in the new version, Siri itself can compose text from scratch, rewrite, proofread and critique writing. Without Siri AI, you're using the separate Writing Tools instead.
• Conversational history — there's an entirely new dedicated Siri app that sits on your Home screen, with conversations synced privately through iCloud so you can start on one Apple device and continue on another.
• Visual Intelligence through Siri — rather than invoking Visual Intelligence separately, you can simply ask Siri questions about what's on your screen.
• More natural speech and dictation — on supported hardware, Apple says its new on-device model gives Siri more expressive voices, customizable pace and expressiveness, and improved system-wide dictation. This is an area where Siri currently stands well behind Gemini Live and ChatGPT Voice.
• Personalized writing style — Siri can apparently learn how you communicate with different people. Apple's example is recognizing that you normally send your manager short bullet points and drafting your text accordingly.

And that's the Siri AI you don't have yet.

Join the waitlist

The good news is that you can apply to join the beta right now. Go to Settings > Siri, where you should see Siri AI (Beta) at the top of the screen. Tap Join waitlist and you'll be added to the queue. You'll get a notification when Siri AI is available for you.

There are also some major regional restrictions. Siri AI isn't currently available on iPhones or iPads in the European Union, although EU users can access it on Macs and Vision Pro. In mainland China, Siri AI isn't currently available at all for users whose Apple Account region is set to China.

Because I’m in the UK, the EU restrictions don’t apply to me. I've joined the waitlist now, so I'll be putting Siri AI through its paces as soon as Apple lets me in. Until then, if you've installed iOS 27 and wondered why Siri still feels suspiciously like the Siri you had yesterday, there's a simple explanation: it pretty much is.

As summer fades and fall approaches, it's the perfect time to take a step back, assess your workspace, and add some items for elevated focus and comfort. A functional, clear, and relaxing work environment can shift our daily mindset – so I've curated six seasonal additions for my own home office space.

This isn't a start-from-scratch list; you'll find no desk or office chair recommendations here. Instead, I offer considered pieces, each selected to bring refined warmth to your everyday routines.

These are all items I'll personally be adding to my desk in the coming weeks. I hope they bring a touch of comfort and a sense of luxury to your workday, too.

After eight years of bouncing around various cities and job roles, I decided to move back to the countryside where I grew up – all during the 2020 lockdown chaos. I wanted my kids to enjoy the same outdoor freedom I had as a child, and for the most part, a return to rural living lived up to the dream.

All except for one considerable headache: power outages.

It seemed like any level of weather led to power cuts that would last anywhere from just a few minutes to over 12 hours. Heavy rain? Power cut. A few days of dry weather? Power cut. A bit of wind? Power cut.

Erratic weather meant constant disruption – a small inconvenience for some, but a recipe for disaster when you're running a home office and trying to keep two kids entertained. I needed to find a reliable solution.

A powerful solution

I’d be dramatic if I said the regular power cuts made me consider moving, but with two of us working entirely from home and two kids to keep entertained, they have been incredibly frustrating.

I’d already spent a week looking at various power stations when Jackery contacted me asking if I wanted to review the Jackery 2000 v2 power station. Was this the solution I was looking for? I jumped at the chance.

A few days later, a hefty box arrived at my door. After a considerable amount of time removing the packaging, I was faced with the unit. I plugged it in and forgot about it.

The dinner incident

Anyone with young kids with healthy appetites will know that any delay in promised ‘feeding times’ can lead to full meltdowns, and honestly, as a man in my mid-thirties, I’m much the same.

On this particular night, I’d already had to take emergency measures, giving out snacks to stop the endless ‘when is dinner ready?’ questions. So when I heard the sudden click and noticed the air fryer had stopped making its familiar hum, my heart sank.

Panic set in. Should I order takeaway? No, it will take too long. Is ok to give my kids ice cream for dinner? No, that’s bad parenting.

Then it clicked - the power station. I raced to the cupboard I was keeping it in and carried it to the side. I plugged in the air fryer and pressed the button, half expecting it not to work. Then the familiar hum returned. Pure relief.

After 25 minutes of cooking, the battery had only dropped about 20%. The mini pizzas were saved, the meltdown was avoided, and my sanity was still intact.

A big deal?

The Jackery 2000 v2 is certainly competitive compared to other similarly priced power stations, but it isn’t revolutionary, and it doesn’t solve my issue 100%.

After all, when I have a power cut, I still have a challenge keeping my fridge/freezer running; I can’t charge my car; and, with all my power coming from one unit, I can’t run my laptop in one room whilst my kids watch TV in the other. Yet it has still become one of those products where I start to wonder how I ever lived without it.

I admit that I went back and forth when researching power stations. Although I knew I would use one, they aren’t the cheapest products. Could I really justify making a purchase of that size?

Now, if I look at how many times the Jackery 2000 v2 has come to the rescue, whether when trying to work, cook dinner, or access power when camping, it feels like a very worthwhile investment. Especially when I consider that with just one unit, I will enjoy a level of power security for years to come.

Meta Connect 2026 is fast approaching, and it seems a big surprise hardware announcement has just been leaked — by none other than Meta itself. It’s not much but our first official look at the so-called Project Phoenix has me very excited that we might finally get the Meta Quest Pro successor I’ve been begging for.

The leak was spotted by prolific Meta leaker Luna, who found a never-before-seen headset in the latest Horizon OS prescription lens firmware. Because it only shows how lenses are inserted into the new design, we don’t get a full look at the whole thing, but it seems XR glasses might be a better description than XR headset.

That’s because the front of the headset looks incredibly slim. Not quite Meta Ray-Ban levels, but a fraction of what the Meta Quest 3 and 3S were thickness wise. There also appears to be no head strap. Instead, we see the display unit supported by glasses' stems sitting behind the ears of the wearer.

What this leak seemingly confirms is the rumors that Meta has been working on an ultra-lightweight headset design. One where the battery and a chunk of the processing power are all moved to an external puck — something also teased by a cable we see extending from one of the Meta device’s stems.

Of course we should take all leaks and speculation with a pinch of salt, however considering some details are now coming directly from Meta itself, I suspect this may be a case of where if there’s smoke there’s fire.

If so, I couldn’t be more excited. Following the disappointing start to VR in 2026, this launch might turns things around (at least somewhat).

What I've been waiting for

XR hardware housing its battery in an external puck is nothing new; however, moving processing power in there too is far less common — the only one I’ve experienced is Xreal’s Aura glasses, though it works incredibly well.

By taking as much as possible out of the headset, you can significantly drop the weight of the machine, and, because you’re tethered to something in your pocket, your movement won’t be restricted as it can be when you’re connected to a PC or console.

This makes something capable, comfortable, and somewhat mobile. That said, it seems Phoenix will still be more headset-like than glasses-like, so I’m not sure I see myself exploring the outside world while wearing it.

For gaming and entertainment, there are other specs to consider (such as processing power, display quality, and content support), but where this design wins out is for productivity.

I’ve tried spending entire working weeks immersed in XR and my tests have proven it’s incredibly uncomfortable. It’s fine for a few hours at a time, maybe for the one-off day, but not for eight hours a day five days straight. That’s nightmarish.

But the lightest model I’ve tried is the 545g Samsung Galaxy XR. If Meta’s headset can drop to 200g or less, then it could easily be something I wear for a whole day. Plus it would be super easy to slip into my rucksack to be productive in XR on the go — or kick back with a big-screen movie.

This is precisely why I’ve been wanting an ultra-lightweight XR headset to enter the scene, but so far I’ve been let down. Xreal Aura gets close, but as glasses, it doesn’t boast the same field of view as a headset — with a headset offering more virtual real estate for app windows.

All I need is for Meta’s headset to copy the Xreal Aura's ability to show what’s on my phone screen via a USB-C cable and it could be the perfect XR headset (provided the price isn’t too high).

We’ll have to wait and see what Meta unveils at Connect, but September 23, 2026, can’t come soon enough.

AI voice cloning has reached the point where scammers can convincingly imitate human voices — and worryingly, research suggests we're not particularly good at telling the difference.

Take the case of one X user, for instance, who posted: “Got a call from my wife telling me she forgot her wallet and needed the credit card to pay for her gas.

Except my wife was at home with me, and drives a Tesla. Same voice, bit... off, weird cadence, but 100% sounded just like her. If she wasn't there, and it wasn't about gas I would have fallen for it.

I entertained it for a while to get more out of it, I was so confused. Must be some sort of voice deepfake. The responses were too fast for AI, I think it was a voice filter. I wish I had thought to record it.”

Whether this particular call used generative AI or a real-time voice filter isn't clear. What is clear is that the days when recognizing somebody's voice was enough to prove who was on the other end of the phone are over, and I’m not alone in finding that terrifying.

When news of the story hit Reddit, some people were skeptical about whether this had actually happened, but there were plenty of people with similar stories. “This just happened to me last week,” said one user. “They called aunt and grandmother and said they were an attorney and that I was in jail and needed to be bailed out.”

The ‘relative in distress’ scam

According to the 2026 paper Evaluating AI Models' Capability to Automate Voice Phishing Attacks by Fred Heiding and colleagues, a study involving 4,100 US adults found that up to 36.1% said they would comply with, or were unsure whether they would comply with, an AI-powered “relative in distress” scam.

Importantly, that figure measures self-reported willingness to comply, rather than the number of people who were actually fooled into handing over money. The researchers describe it as a measure of susceptibility to the scam rather than observed behavior.

The researchers also found that persuasiveness mattered more than how human the voice sounded, and that people who regularly used AI weren't any better at identifying synthetic voices than people with no AI exposure.

While the scam of tricking people into thinking their loved ones need money may be an old one, AI is making the danger especially real. If the scammer actually sounds like your loved one, how do you know it’s them?

One answer is to set up a family code word today. It doesn't need to be complicated — just something everybody knows, and that a scammer would be unlikely to guess or discover online.

There’s also an even simpler precaution: hang up and call the person back on a number you already know. If your son, daughter, partner or parent apparently calls out of the blue asking urgently for money, don't rely on the voice sounding right. End the call and contact them yourself.

The Ferrari deepfake case shows why some form of personal verification can work. In 2024, a Ferrari executive received messages followed by a phone call apparently impersonating CEO Benedetto Vigna. Suspicious of the call, the executive asked the supposed Vigna to identify a book the real CEO had recently recommended to him. The caller couldn't answer, and the attempted deception fell apart.

A family code word essentially does the same thing. And it’s something you might have to start thinking about today, if you haven’t already.

Can you trust your own ears?

“AI's deepest impact isn't on our devices; it's on us," says Mark Beare, Head of Consumer at Malwarebytes. "When people can no longer trust what they see, hear, or who they're talking to, the damage reaches far beyond any single scam and into the building blocks of our society.”

A Malwarebytes survey published in June found that 85% of people said it’s hard to tell a scam apart from the real thing, up from 66% the previous year. Perhaps even more tellingly, 88% said it was becoming harder to tell which content online was genuinely human or real.

And that problem isn't restricted to our ears. AI-generated images and deepfake videos are increasingly challenging the assumption that seeing or hearing something for yourself is proof that it really happened.

We used to be able to rely on a familiar voice as proof of identity, but it seems that in 2026 that's no longer enough. AI voice technology is only going to become more convincing, so our behavior needs to change with it.

Agree on a code word with the people closest to you now, and if you get an unexpected call asking for money, hang up and call them back.

Following the recent resignation of one of Anthropic’s leading researchers, multiple AI CEOs have suddenly begun calling for a slowdown in the development of AI technology to allow regulations and governance on the technology to catch up.

Speaking to the BBC after his resignation, Jacob Coxon warned, “I believe that if we don't slow down at the current rate of progress, there is a strong chance that we could all die in the immediate future.”

Following this, Anthropic head Dario Amodei, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, and Grok founder Elon Musk have all apparently aligned in their calls for development to slow down. But there are some tricky waters to navigate - particularly around President Trump, China, and what guardrails should be put into place.

What are AI heads saying?

Over the weekend, Amodei posted an essay on “why the AI industry should slow down”. In it, he said, “I believe that if slowing down bought us even an extra year or two before models reach critical levels of capability, and we used that time to advance alignment, we could greatly reduce the risk that something goes seriously wrong.”

Within the essay, Amodei outlined how AI could be ‘paced’ within the US, and globally, alongside a recommendation that AI companies put ‘evaluator’ teams into place to ensure AI models stay aligned to their tasks. Elon Musk replied to Amodei’s social media post, stating that the Anthropic head was “right”.

Sam Altman told Fortune the regulations and standards for AI further were “not at a place” to continue progressing AI development.

But not everyone is convinced. US President Donald Trump has said that slowing down AI development is non-negotiable, as it would allow China to rapidly catch up to US AI capabilities. He told reporters that the US is “leading China on AI... and, frankly, I want to keep it that way,” adding that “whoever wins AI, wins”.

Trump also said that “very negative forces” were behind the growing opposition to AI, and said that fears were being stoked by “that won’t happen”.

China also isn’t convinced by what the AI giants are saying. Beijing labelled the calls for a slowdown as “fearmongering” from a “Cold War playbook.” In his essay, Amodei said that a “Chinese lead in AI would pose grave danger for the United States and the world.”

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said, “Fearmongering, confrontation and malicious competition will only disrupt the process of global AI governance and serve no one’s interests.”

Expert perspectives on calls for AI slowdown

• Karolis Kaciulis, Lead System Engineer, Surfshark:

The latest debate around AI threatening humanity is clearly a marketing move. AI companies use the same rogue-AI rhetoric every few months, and it is almost identical each time.

The threat itself is fictional, closer to a Skynet-style sci-fi scenario than the problems generative AI is already causing today, from automated scams to intimidation.

One of the most immediate risks from AI is its environmental cost: the wildlife and land lost to data centres, the huge amounts of energy they use and, by extension, the water needed to cool them. Our research estimates that one ChatGPT query uses around 2Wh of energy on average, enough to run a 40W desk fan for three minutes. That may sound modest in isolation, but the impact mounts rapidly across hundreds of millions of queries.

Scams, imitation and hacks will also become more frequent. LLMs have already made these attacks easier. The difference is that bad actors are getting easier access to them, rather than the models necessarily getting better. Deepfake fraud has already caused $2.19bn in losses globally, including $149m in the UK.

The bigger danger for AI companies may be that no valuable scaling is possible any more with the current state of LLMs. This may be as efficient as they ever get. It remains unclear whether newer models are better at doing the tasks we ask of them, or simply better at imitating the responses we expect.

People do not really understand how chatbots work, or that what they pass to one may be accessible to the company behind it. Every prompt should remind people not to share personal information. Chatbots ask follow-up questions while completing a task or research, but they will not necessarily filter out sensitive information for users.

• John Strand, Owner, Black Hills Information Security:

Up until this weekend, I was leaning toward believing that calls for an AI slowdown were purely performative. Then I woke up and read the news today and realized that it almost doesn’t matter.

We can talk about slowing down AI until we’re blue in the face, but when the United States is saying it doesn’t want to slow down because it’s competing with China, and China is aggressively pushing AI development as well, we’re talking about the two major economic and military powers on the planet having enormous incentives to keep moving.

At that point, calls for a slowdown don’t have much bite.

I’d like to believe that Anthropic, OpenAI, xAI, and the other frontier model labs are working on better controls. But unless you can get the nation states and the major AI labs moving in the same direction, I don’t see how meaningful restrictions actually work.

This really feels like we’re entering an atomic arms race moment.

Stick with me here.

In 1950, physicist Leó Szilárd publicly discussed the idea of a cobalt bomb, essentially a doomsday weapon that could potentially produce enough radioactive fallout to make the Earth uninhabitable. He wasn’t proposing that somebody build the damn thing. He was trying to demonstrate where the technology could ultimately lead.

That’s the kind of moment I think we’re approaching with AI.

During the nuclear arms race, eventually the consequences became serious enough that competing nations had to at least start talking about limits, controls, and ways to keep competition from ending catastrophically.

I think we’re heading toward a similar problem with AI. Until China, the United States, and the major frontier model labs are all sitting at the same table, restrictions adopted by individual companies or individual countries are going to have a very difficult time holding.

Someone slowing down only works if they believe the other guy is going to slow down too.

• Kristin Lowery, Field CISO, Optiv:

The calls from some of the world's leading AI researchers and technology companies to slow the pace of frontier model development reflect a growing recognition that innovation and responsibility must advance together. AI is no longer an emerging technology experiment. It is becoming foundational infrastructure for economic competitiveness, national security, health care, manufacturing, education, and nearly every sector of society.

As capabilities accelerate, so too must our ability to understand, govern, and safely deploy these systems.

That said, slowing development entirely is neither realistic nor necessarily desirable. AI innovation is occurring globally, and not every nation, organization, or threat actor shares the same values regarding transparency, safety, and responsible use. This creates a complex dynamic that increasingly resembles a technology arms race. If responsible organizations dramatically slow innovation while less accountable actors continue advancing without guardrails, we risk creating unintended strategic disadvantages.

The challenge is not simply whether to move fast or slow down. The challenge is ensuring we innovate with intention while maintaining competitiveness.

In my view, the debate should move beyond whether to pause or accelerate AI and focus instead on how to build trust into AI from the outset. Organizations need practical guardrails centered on transparency, security, privacy, accountability, and human oversight, supported by rigorous model testing, red teaming, governance frameworks, data provenance controls, and clear ownership before deployment at scale.

Safety must be embedded throughout the development lifecycle, not added afterward, and organizations should continuously assess AI systems for risk, monitor for unintended consequences, establish governance programs, and educate employees on both the benefits and limitations of these technologies. Responsible AI is an operational discipline that organizations need today.

History shows that transformative technologies rarely succeed through either unchecked innovation or excessive regulation alone; the most sustainable path is to encourage innovation that drives economic and societal value while implementing thoughtful safeguards that reduce risk and build trust. Organizations and nations that strike this balance will be best positioned to lead in the next era of AI, because responsible innovation — not a choice between innovation and safety — is the key to remaining competitive while ensuring trust, transparency, and accountability scale alongside technological progress.

• Ryan McCurdy, VP, Liquibase:

Slowing frontier development may give AI companies more time to understand and address the risks Amodei is describing. But enterprises can’t build their AI strategy around the assumption that AI is going to slow down.

AI is already moving from generating content and code to taking action across software delivery and production systems. The question for enterprises is how they adopt that capability without giving up control.

That means putting governance where AI decisions become real actions. Organizations need to define what an agent can access, what it can change, what it can decide on its own, and what policies have to be met before a change reaches a critical system. Those controls need to work whether the action comes from a developer, automation, or an AI agent.

We can debate how quickly the frontier should move. Enterprises still have to prepare for where it’s going.

• Tristan Watkins, director of services innovation, Advania UK:

Until recently, the major AI labs have been reluctant to slow their development efforts unilaterally. Over the last week this changed, with new commitments from OpenAI and Anthropic to prioritise AI alignment and interpretability research, to become more externally verifiable, and to establish safety precedents that governments could adapt.

Given that these two organisations already allocate far more on AI Safety than their competitors, this bilateral leadership is extremely welcome.

It appears that other US labs may follow suit, but given the differences in AI Safety spending outside of Anthropic and OpenAI today, this will require investment more than lip service. Hopefully this underscores why we need governments to lead these efforts more proactively.

• Ted Miracco, CEO, Approov:

Government regulations will never move fast enough to keep pace with AI development, but the industry doesn't need to wait for governments to add guardrails.

The most effective safeguard is simple product liability. If AI companies are held legally and financially responsible for the misuse of their products, safety could become a foundational feature rather than an afterthought.

Today, we need to be less concerned about AI gaining sentience and spinning up its own attacks on humanity. The real, immediate dangers involve bad actors weaponizing AI as a force multiplier to cripple critical infrastructure or potentially paralyze the banking system.

• Oleksandr Yaremchuk, CTO and Co-Founder, Manifold Security:

Pacing the frontier is the right conversation to be having, but it cannot become a substitute for securing the AI we have already put into the world. The uncomfortable reality is that we are debating how to quickly build more powerful agents while struggling to control the ones already operating with real credentials, real access and real-world consequences.

The incidents behind this debate make that clear. The Hugging Face attack was not just a failure of model alignment. Agents ran for days through an unmonitored system, with credentials that had not been rotated, and the victim spotted the activity before the people running the agents did. The problem wasn't simply what the model was capable of. It was that nobody was watching closely enough when it acted.

A fitting analogy is with hazardous materials. We don't just wait for them to become more dangerous before deciding how they should be handled. We control their custody, monitor where they go, limit who can access them and establish clear accountability when something goes wrong. AI agents need the same thinking.

Independent evaluation of frontier models is important. But if an agent can act autonomously on your systems today, you should already be able to answer three basic questions: what did it do, what did it have access to, and could you have stopped it? If you don't know what it did or what it could access, you can't know whether you could have stopped it. Slowing down the next generation won't solve the problem you have right now.

• Waseem Ahmed, Head of Engineering, Secure.com:

The essay lands at the right time because AI agents are already acting on their own inside real company systems, and the OpenClaw ban wave earlier this year showed how fast that goes wrong when an agent has broad access and no leash.

Slowing the pace matters, but enterprises cannot wait for that. The controls that protect us most are least privilege, network isolation, and sandboxing, so an agent can only touch what its job needs and nothing else.

Give every agent its own identity, log every action it takes, and never let it run high-impact steps like disabling accounts or changing settings without a real person approving first. Traditional testing alone will not keep up, so we watch these agents continuously in production.

Independent oversight should mean outside reviewers who can inspect the logs and confirm the agent stayed inside the boundaries we set.

• Heath Mullins, Chief Evangelist, ExtraHop:

AI leaders calling for a slowdown is confirming what the security industry has already been living through firsthand. This isn't a hypothetical risk, it's the threat landscape we're defending against right now.

While it is concerning to see the pace of innovation behind these AI models, the real challenge is that organizations haven't had the runway to build the infrastructure to defend against machine-speed threats.

Calls for caution surrounding the speed of AI development buys the security industry time to get proper visibility into AI activity.

Understanding AI activity within an organization is critical as we’ve seen models break out of sandboxes despite governance built into those models. Every organization will be relying on AI agents for machine-speed defense, and they need their own governance over how these models and agents operate inside their environment, starting with independent evidence of what they actually do, what they access, where they move data, what systems they talk to, and what actions they take.

You can't govern AI based on what a model is designed or permitted to do. Instead, you need real-time evidence of what models and agents are actually doing, because the gap between exponentially more capable AI and defenders' ability to see it is exactly where the next incident happens.

• Bri Frost, Director of Product Management, Cloud Range:

The answer is not necessarily to stop AI innovation but, we need to stop pretending innovation and security are advancing at the same speed.

When ChatGPT became publicly available in 2022, the models were dramatically less capable than they are today — and the guardrails were very easy to manipulate. The difference is that the models behind those guardrails are no longer the models of 2022. They can reason better, write and debug code. They can operate as agents. They can collaborate! And increasingly, they can interact and affect real infrastructure.

Meanwhile, the model release cycle has gone from feeling like major capability jumps every year or two to seemingly every few weeks. That creates a dangerous asymmetry: AI capability is compounding faster than security.

Security and innovation have always been in conflict with each other. If every security problem had to be solved before we innovated, we’d never ship anything. But the opposite extreme is just as reckless: accelerating capability while just assuming we’ll bolt the security controls on afterward and they’ll be effective.

Every new release of AI capability expands the attack surface exponentially. Give a vulnerable model better reasoning, then tool access, then memory, then autonomy, then connectivity to production systems, and yesterday’s jailbreak isn’t just a clever prompt anymore — it’s an execution path. That’s the snowball effect we should be worried about.

Responsibility also must lie with the AI companies. If a SaaS company knowingly shipped software with weak security controls and customers were harmed, we wouldn’t excuse it because they were 'innovating quickly'.

So why are we treating AI differently?

You don’t get to race to build increasingly powerful, autonomous systems, profit from them, and then shrug when predictable security failures cause damage.

Sure the argument can be made that no product is perfectly secure - That’s not the standard. But if you ship the product, you inherit responsibility for securing it. And continuing to secure it better!

The conversation shouldn’t simply be “Should we slow AI down?”

It should be: Can our ability to test, validate, contain and secure AI keep pace with our ability to make it more powerful? Is there an equivocal kill switch?

Right now, the answer is no.

And if we’re going to keep accelerating — which I believe we will — then independent testing, adversarial evaluation, isolated testing environments, containment, continuous validation and security-by-design can’t remain optional steps we add after the innovation happens.

The faster we build the engine, the more important the brakes become.

• Denis Calderone, CTO, Suzu Labs:

Amodei's diagnosis is the most honest thing a frontier lab CEO has said publicly. The agent risk is real, recursive self-improvement is accelerating, and the competitive pressure is making both worse.

Where I get skeptical is the prescription. Democratic coordination among companies in a commercial race? Global pacing agreements with China? Amodei himself rates the hardest steps as unlikely. No lab has named a single model release they'll delay because of this essay.

The one idea worth holding the industry to is embedded evaluators with independent publication rights. Give third-party safety researchers permanent access inside the labs, comparable to what bank examiners have inside banks, and let them publish what they find without the company controlling the narrative. That's a simple, concrete accountability mechanism. It doesn't require global coordination or antitrust waivers. Anthropic says they're committing to it unilaterally. Good. Now make the rest of the industry match.

• Donald McFarlane, Board Member, Xcape Inc:

AI does not develop an agenda; its operators do. When we give an autonomous system powerful access and ability to act at machine speed, they will continue to prove highly capable.

Rules enacted in the name of safety must not become a moat against competition or progress. Enormous compliance costs may be manageable for the handful of companies already spending billions building frontier models, while becoming a substantial barrier to everyone behind them.

Government can help clarify accountability and duties of care, and facilitate strong information sharing and collective defense, which is an area where we sorely need more effective public-private partnerships.

But safeguards should focus on how these systems are used and deployed, rather than deciding who is allowed to build powerful AI in the first place.

The goal should be safer deployment without pulling up the drawbridge on innovation.

.com has long been established as the undisputed top dog when it comes to domains. Yet in 2026, a clear shift is underway in how brands select Top-Level Domains (TLDs) – with the likes of .ai, .io, and .store all seeing elevated rates of adoption.

These trends became transparent in Wix's study of domain registration trends in 2026. So, I spoke with Inbal Geva, Product Lead and GM at Wix Domains, to dive a little deeper into how TLD selection is starting to change and how businesses can make the most of this opportunity.

The study shows that .store websites drive 10% more sales than .com - why do you think that is?

One possibility is that this domain extension tells site visitors exactly what they are getting from the site (a store), which could mean more qualified shoppers are visiting the site. It also implies that the store owner is very clear about what they are selling on their site.

It also shows that .org websites are 34% more likely to drive ecommerce revenue than .com websites. What does the data tell us about why this might be?

The data shows an interesting correlation, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that the .org extension itself drives more ecommerce revenue.

.org is commonly associated with established organizations, nonprofits, and mission-driven businesses, which may have stronger communities and more engaged audiences. That could contribute to higher ecommerce activity.

So rather than attributing the difference to the extension itself, we see it as an indication that the types of organizations using .org — and the audiences they attract — may behave differently online.

.store, .online, and .shop registrations doubled in five months; does this highlight a shift in how businesses want to be represented online? Or is it more likely to reflect supply and affordability issues with .com domains?

So far, our data and the suggestion tests we’ve run consistently show that users still strongly prefer established TLDs, especially .com. So I wouldn’t conclude from the growth of .store, .online, and .shop that users now prefer changing the extension over adjusting the domain name.

What’s more interesting is that we’re seeing growing adoption of alternative TLDs, but .com remains the clear first choice. The growth of specific extensions can be driven by several factors — better availability of desirable names, pricing and promotions, increased visibility and distribution, and stronger marketing by the registries themselves.

Is .com still the default TLD? Or does it face a threat from others?

.com is still the default.

People clearly prefer a .com domain when their brand name is available. Many users will still make a small adjustment to the domain name in order to keep .com, so I wouldn’t say it’s under threat. But alternative TLDs can still be appealing if your ideal .com is already registered. We also see people having fun with extensions like .yoga for yoga studios, .bar for a bar, and so on.

.ai increased by +20% from January to May 2026, and .io increased by a massive 32x in May 2026. Are these increases tied to a specific batch of business or product launches, or does it signal a more generic rise in these tech-associated TLDs?

We’ve seen more interest in tech and AI-driven extensions. Wix’s States of Website report showed that creators aren't treating their domains as an afterthought, but rather as a decision that is made early on in the process.

They're committing to them faster, which implies that they are taking choosing a domain name seriously. These TLDs immediately signal what the brand is about before you even get to the website.

How does the use of TLDs like .shop, .io, .ai, and .online impact a website's ability to perform well in SEO, AEO, and GEO?

Certain industries congregate around certain TLDs.

Tech uses .io, and AI founders use .ai. This means that the TLD can act as an additional contextual signal for LLMs that are looking for answers on niche topics. From an SEO point of view, this can also mean that users are more likely to click through to sites where the domain matches their intent. All of this is great for growth and visibility.

Wix analyzed almost a million domain registrations. What trend or statistic did you find most surprising?

Historically, .com alternatives were sometimes seen as second best. But our data shows that .com alternatives can still perform well for businesses.

eCommerce sites with a .store extension earn 10% more revenue than sites with a .com extension. This doesn’t mean .com is bad—again, it’s still the default—but it means alternative extensions could be worth considering.

After a less-than-enthusiastic response to 2023's 360 Vis Nav, Dyson got the wheels rolling on its return to the robot vacuum market last year with its Spot+Scrub Ai. Now it seems momentum is building: this September the brand unveiled not one, but three new bots that would be joining the lineup.

There's the flagship R3 Nurovi Spot+Scrub UV — a successor to the Spot+Scrub Ai — alongside the R2 Nurovi Wash+Dry, and the R1 Nurovi Dry. I got a peek at all three at Dyson's IFA-adjacent launch event earlier in the month, and was intrigued to see some unique new features.

To get the inside scoop, I caught up with Nathan Lawson Mclean, a Dyson senior design manager who works across the brand's home products. Here are the five most surprising things I learned about the new Nurovi robot vacuum range...

1. Triangle mops have been in Dyson's invention cupboard for years

The R2 Nurovi Wash+Dry has a rather unusual mopping setup. Instead of two circular discs, it uses a pair of rounded 'Reuleaux' triangles. These rotate 'eccentrically' — that is, the point of rotation isn't central. The pads move like a rotary engine, or a Spirograph, depending on your preferred analogy. The benefit is the shape can get much closer into corners.

What's interesting is that this design has been in Dyson's back pocket for a while now, just waiting to be added to a suitable product.

"These have always been in development," says Lawson Mclean. "I remember the first Reuleaux pads — those were initially developed back in 2019. We put it on the front of a brush bar in a cleaner just to try and get into corners. And what it ended up doing, you can imagine, [it was] a bit like riding a bicycle with square wheels. It caused too much ricocheting."

This is apparently not an unusual scenario at Dyson. "We're actually always developing these technologies in tandem," he continues. "It's just about what's the right timing; the platform that we're able to integrate it on. You'll see that we're starting to get to the point where we're packing [new products] full of our unique Dyson technologies."

2. Not everyone wanted the side sweepers

All three of the new Nurovi robovacs have distinctive side sweepers. They feature a design that Lawson Mclean calls 'origami-inspired', but to me, looks more like a fish's fin. Apparently, the brand founder wasn't a fan originally.

"Side sweepers were always a bit of a faux pas with James Dyson," reveals Lawson Mclean. "He hated them. He thought they scattered dirt everywhere." For that reason, the brand's early models didn't have side sweepers at all — the 360 Vis Nav had a side duct that poked out when the bot sensed it was near the edge of a room.

"Side sweepers are fantastic. They are just a little chaotic. They also tend to wear out," continues Lawson Mclean. "More importantly, in James' eyes, they [end up getting] wrapped and covered in hair, which is a bit gross."

For the Nurovi, the Dyson engineers reimagined the traditional sweeper style to solve these issues, using "some of the advanced geometry" from the brand's conical cleaner heads found on the likes of the Dyson V16.

"It kind of has this really interesting over-molded pattern… that holds the nylon bristles at a very specific angle on the floor, helping us to avoid scattering this dust around, and corral things in a more controlled manner. It also stops hair wrapping around it so readily, too," says Lawson Mclean. "So it's a small, simple, effective, quality of life improvement."

3. UV will light up spills 'like a bowling alley'

The big, flashy upgrade found on the flagship R3 Nurovi Spot+Scrub UV is… well, UV. A UV light mounted onto the bot will highlight dried-on, invisible substances, ranging from sugary drinks to milk, tonic water and sparkling water. The R3 will then 'scrub' back and forth over the area to clear the mess before it gets sticky, or starts to smell.

"As the robot's running around your home on its mission, it will now expose these totally invisible stains that become breeding grounds for bacteria," explains Lawson Mclean. "You'd be surprised what fluoresces — a bit like a bowling alley in your own home.

4. The R1 is for those who don't trust robo-mops

It's increasingly rare to see a vacuum-only robot vac on the market these days, but Dyson has included one in its new lineup: the R1 Nurovi Dry. There were a multitude of reasons for this bot to exist, says Lawson Mclean. It's great for people who don't have have hard flooring in their home, or are looking for a more affordable option, or simply want to avoid — as he puts it — "a great big bloody dock like some robots have".

But it's also designed as an option for those who are wary of robo-mops. "There are many people who — I know for a fact, through user trials — don't trust robotic vacuums with their carpets. You know… we've ruined many of James' Persian rugs over the years," he recalls, referring again to brand founder James Dyson. "[It's] perhaps even a bit of an entry gateway to robotic vacuums, converting those people that don't really see the value of wet and dry robots just yet."

5. One major update has nothing to do with the design

There are plenty of interesting design features, but it might turn out that one of the most significant upgrades is nothing to do with the robot itself at all. "I think when we talk about, 'Why are people not using this fantastic technology?', there's a lot of barriers. There are, just really pragmatically," says Lawson Mclean. "Even, I think, with people [in their 30s], they go, yeah, I don't really understand it, I don't really know what the setup is like."

Dyson's response has been to set up a 'white glove' onboarding service, which takes the form of an actual human who will, via video call, walk you through the setup process. That includes everything from unboxing and connecting the bot to mapping your home properly.

It's part of the new 'Dyson Concierge' service, and it's free with your purchase. (At time of writing, the service is being advertised on Dyson US, but not yet on the UK or Australian sites — I'm confirming if and when it'll be available in these territories.)

"When we started doing it, we just saw this huge uplift," recalls Lawson Mclean. "It wasn't a problem with the robots. It was just a problem with people having poor maps to begin with because perhaps they left a door closed, you know?"

Take a look at the full Dyson robovac range

Below you can see the Dyson robot vacuums currently available in your country. Note: the R3 Spot+Scrub UV is due to arrive in the UK and Australia in 'early 2027'.

Today's the day when Apple starts rolling out iOS 27 to millions of iPhones around the world — and as I've been using the developer version of the software since it was first pushed out in June, I can tell you about the best features coming your way.

The good news is that every iPhone that can run iOS 26 can also run iOS 27, though some of the more advanced Siri AI features (like the ability to change its pace and 'expressivity') are only available on the newer models with more powerful chipsets.

You'll get a notification popping up on your phone when iOS 27 is ready for you, but if you're not patient enough for that you can open up Settings on iOS and tap General > Software Update to see if there's an update waiting.

1. Reframe your photos

iOS 27 arrives with some clever AI-powered photo editing tricks, including one called Reframe. It lets you slightly change the angle of a picture you've taken, with AI adjusting the background to match.

In Photos, tap on an image to open it, then tap the icon showing three sliders at the bottom. If you then tap Tools and Reframe, you can touch and drag on the screen to change the perspective (use two fingers to pan and zoom). Tap Reframe to confirm.

The other options on the Tools menu can be useful too: Extend will use AI to imagine a wider background canvas for you, while Clean Up lets you remove specific objects or people from your images.

2. Create Shortcuts with natural language

The Shortcuts app is one of the most powerful tools available in iOS, but as we've written about before, it's not all that easy to use. With the new software update, building shortcuts becomes much easier: you can just describe the combinations you want using natural language, which significantly simplifies the process.

Shortcuts let you set up a myriad of automations and routines on your iPhone: turn text into audio, play a podcast after your morning alarm, tag notes in batches, let people know you're running late, create GIFs from videos, and a whole lot more. Open the Gallery tab in the shortcuts app for some inspiration.

With iOS 27 installed, if you tap the + (plus) button on the main All Shortcuts screen, you can simply describe what you want your shortcut to do — whether it's attaching screenshots to emails or summarizing your to do list for the day.

3. Choose a separate alarm volume

Not a feature that's going to necessarily grab the headlines, but definitely one of the most useful ones that I've come across since I first installed iOS 27: you can now set alarm volumes separately from the main ringtone and system volumes.

Head into Sounds & Haptics from Settings on iOS, turn off the Match Ringtone Volume toggle switch under Alarms and Timers, and set your preferred alarm volume — a customization that's been long overdue.

4. Adjust the Liquid Glass effect

The people asked, and Apple listened: you can now take the edge off the Liquid Glass effect if you find it a bit overwhelming in its default state. The available adjustments aren't huge, but you can tone it down (or turn it up) a little.

From Settings in iOS, tap Appearance > Liquid Glass. You get a slider that lets you shift from quite a lot of transparency (on the left) to hardly any transparency (on the right), with the changes previewed for you on the image above.

Apple has also done some cleaning up of Liquid Glass in iOS 27, so you should notice a few refinements as you start using the new operating system: as per Apple, Liquid Glass now offers "more uniform refraction and improved contrast", while individual app icons have been made "sharper and more detailed".

5. Siri AI

The biggest new feature in iOS 27 is the comprehensive upgrade that Siri's getting. It has a new name (the same as the old name, with "AI" on the end), plus vastly better underlying models (courtesy of Google) that mean it's now on a par with the likes of ChatGPT when it comes to the quality and breadth of answers you get.

So what's actually new? When it first lands, Siri AI will spend a while indexing everything on your phone, so it can give you more context about what's in your texts, calendars, and emails (none of this data gets sent back to Apple) — and it can take more actions inside apps too, including creating notes, rotating photos, resuming podcasts, and much more.

You can now give commands like "show me photos from when I went to Spain" with this personal context, and ask questions like "why do stars twinkle in the sky?" without the assistant handing off to ChatGPT. There's also a standalone Siri app for the first time, meaning you can save your chats and sync them across devices.

Meta’s new Muse AI platform would like the keys to your digital life to help run it for you. Muse is a personal AI agent that Meta built to complete tasks on your behalf, including sending emails, filling out forms, shopping, and pretty much any other activity with an online component.

The AI is available in the U.S. as an app, or through WhatsApp or the Muse.ai portal.

It's a familiar idea in some respects. Muse matches OpenAI and other AI developers in being able to open a browser inside its own cloud-based virtual computer and move between connected services. It returns when it has finished, encounters a problem, or needs permission to do something sensitive.

Meta describes the experience as having an agent that understands your goals and advances them independently. That can come off as sinister, even before it starts asking for permission to essentially be you online by having you sign in to all your online accounts.

Getting started is straightforward, although Muse is currently limited to U.S. adults. You can install the Muse app from your phone's app store, open Meta's Muse website or access it through WhatsApp. There is a free usage tier, while heavier users can pay $20 per month for Power or $100 for Maximum.

Muse shops for you

Once you open the app, the first thing the AI does is suggest you pick a nickname for it so you know when it is messaging you. I went with one of the suggested choices, and "Scout" proceeded to ask me what I'd like to do with it, offering a handful of popular options.

I asked Scout to do some shopping for me first, as the AI made it seem like a much smoother process than with other AI tools. I asked it to find me a pair of shorts. It asked my size and went off on its own for a couple of minutes, coming back with a couple of options and pointing to a sale on one particular set. I said okay, and it asked for my Amazon login to make the purchase on my behalf. For an everyday purchase, it was surprisingly pleasant to delegate.

That little interruption was reassuring and unsettling in almost equal measure. Meta says credentials entered this way are routed directly into secure credential storage and are not visible to the main Muse agent. Once stored, they can be inserted into the browser when needed without exposing the actual credentials to Muse's browser subagent. Muse does the legwork, while I remained the person responsible for deciding whether money actually left my account.

This is probably the easiest Muse task I would recommend trying yourself. Give it a product, let it browse, and take over whenever a login or other sensitive interaction appears. It demonstrates the agent's capabilities without immediately granting it access to years of personal correspondence.

Naturally, that was exactly what I did next.

Getting Muse to handle my email

I took the plunge and told Scout I wanted help with my email. I had to give it permission to go through my inbox and to write on my behalf, and it asked to use it to learn about me. With some trepidation, I okayed that, and it put together the kind of distorted image of my life you'd expect from someone basing their impression of you solely on your emails.

Scout also brought up an unopened email from the power company about needing to check my solar panels. It offered to write a reply if I could pick from the dates suggested for when they would visit. I did, and a minute later there was a draft pending my approval. It looked fine, and suddenly another little online errand was done.

It felt different from pasting an email into an AI chatbot. Muse's AI could retrieve the context itself rather than making me act as a courier between my inbox and the AI. Of course, it also felt a lot more personal. Meta has acknowledged how sensitive this access is and built specific defenses to prevent issues.

Muse's email connector filters out one-time tokens, password-reset links, and login links, while its Sentinel security layer controls what actions the agent is permitted to take outside its virtual machine. When an action requires my approval, the request comes through Muse's interface rather than simply relying on the agent to interpret a conversational yes.

I would keep that friction in place for email, particularly while getting used to Muse. Saving three minutes responding to a utility company is nice, but it is not worth discovering that your AI assistant has developed an unexpectedly adventurous correspondence style.

Muse is convenience mixed with discomfort

The more I engaged with Muse, the more the tandem senses of convenience and discomfort grew. Muse feels more frictionless than similar services with virtual browsers. And the combination of data Meta already has and the data it required permission to access made it feel more personal, too. Every improvement in its ability to help me came with another small moment where I had to decide how much access I was willing to grant.

Meta says conversations and VM data are not shared with its advertising systems, although browsing activity performed on your behalf can still influence advertising indirectly because websites may treat Muse's visits as your activity. Meta says sanitized agent interactions and tool activity can be used to train future models, but users can opt out with a switch in Muse's settings. Meta is also developing a Confidential VM mode intended to cryptographically prevent even Meta from accessing information inside the VM.

I was more impressed with Muse than I expected. But that only made me warier about it. Digital chores that consume more time than any one of them deserves are all too common at the moment, and Muse proved remarkably good at stepping into that gap. The catch is that the closer it gets to behaving like a genuinely useful personal assistant, the more personal information it needs to do the job.

If you're thinking of trying Muse then I would recommend starting gradually, beginning with public web tasks and keeping consequential actions behind approvals at first. The frustrating part is that Muse makes a very persuasive argument for personal AI agents. Meta has built something that makes handing an AI more of my digital life appealing, but not when it's attached to the current crop of tech giants offering those services.

iOS 27 is now rolling out to compatible iPhones, and this year, the list of models supported by Apple's new software update is impressively long.

Typically, Apple leaves a handful of iPhones out in the cold when releasing a new version of iOS — the iPhone XR, iPhone XS, and iPhone XS Max, for instance, couldn't run iOS 26 — but refreshingly, the device requirements for iOS 27 are the same as those for iOS 26.

That means the iPhone SE (2020), iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, and iPhone 11 Pro Max — all of which you might have expected to lose support this year — will still be able to run iOS 27, which is an impressive showing of software support on Apple's part.

Alas, the device requirements for Apple Intelligence and Siri AI aren't so straightforward, so in this guide, we've detailed the support list for iOS 27, Apple Intelligence, Siri AI, and iPadOS 27.

iOS 27

Here’s the full compatibility list for iOS 27:

• iPhone SE (2020)
• iPhone 11
• iPhone 11 Pro
• iPhone 11 Pro Max
• iPhone 12
• iPhone 12 Pro
• iPhone 12 Pro Max
• iPhone 12 mini
• iPhone 13
• iPhone 13 Pro
• iPhone 13 Pro Max
• iPhone 13 mini
• iPhone SE (2022)
• iPhone 14
• iPhone 14 Plus
• iPhone 14 Pro
• iPhone 14 Pro Max
• iPhone 15
• iPhone 15 Plus
• iPhone 15 Pro
• iPhone 15 Pro Max
• iPhone 16
• iPhone 16 Plus
• iPhone 16 Pro
• iPhone 16 Pro Max
• iPhone 16e
• iPhone 17
• iPhone 17 Pro
• iPhone 17 Pro Max
• iPhone Air
• iPhone 18 Pro
• iPhone 18 Pro Max
• iPhone Duo

iOS 27 is supported by a whopping 33 iPhone models, which, if I'm not mistaken, is the largest-ever single pool of latest-update-compatible models.

What's more, iOS 27 began rolling out to all 33 of these models in one fell swoop on September 14 — Apple didn't ask owners of older iPhones to wait, which is something we've seen Samsung do, for instance, with its One UI updates.

It’s worth noting, however, that even though older models like the iPhone 11, iPhone 12, and iPhone 13 support iOS 27, Apple Intelligence — which includes features like Clean Up, Live Translation, and Apple's new AI-powered voice assistant, Siri AI — remains locked to the iPhone 15 Pro and newer.

Siri AI

As above, only those iPhones that are already compatible with Apple Intelligence will support Siri AI. The full list is as follows (I've included iPads and MacBooks, too):

• iPhone 15 Pro
• iPhone 15 Pro Max
• iPhone 16
• iPhone 16 Plus
• iPhone 16 Pro
• iPhone 16 Pro Max
• iPhone 16e
• iPhone 17
• iPhone 17 Pro
• iPhone 17 Pro Max
• iPhone Air
• iPhone 18 Pro
• iPhone 18 Pro Max
• iPhone Duo
• iPad models with M1 or later
• MacBooks with M1 or later
• MacBook Neo

Importantly, though, not all Siri AI features will be available on those iPhones, iPads, and MacBooks.

Specifically, expressive voices and advanced dictation are limited to devices powered by Apple’s "most powerful on-device model," AFM Core Advanced. Those devices are as follows:

• iPhone 17 Pro
• iPhone 17 Pro Max
• iPhone Air
• iPhone 18 Pro
• iPhone 18 Pro Max
• iPhone Duo
• iPad Pro models from 2024 and later (7th generation onwards)
• iPad Air models from 2026 and later (8th generation onwards)
• MacBook Pro models from 2023 and later
• MacBook Air models from 2024 and later

Additionally, those iPads and MacBooks will need to be equipped with at least 12GB of memory to be capable of running advanced Siri AI features.

Importantly, Siri AI isn't available in any form on iPhones and iPads in the European Union (EU) or China: "Unfortunately, due to the Digital Markets Act (DMA), Apple will not be able to ship Siri AI in the European Union with the release of iOS 27 and iPadOS 27. Over the past several months, EU regulators did not accept any of Apple’s proposed solutions to bring Siri AI to the EU while safely supporting other virtual assistants," Apple explained in a blog post.

Interestingly, though, EU users can access Siri AI on macOS 27 and visionOS 27.

So, frustratingly, you'll need to meet quite a few criteria if you're hoping to try the best version of Siri AI on your Apple device.

iPadOS 27

As for iPads, specifically, the only iPadOS 26-compatible models that don't also support iPadOS 27 are the iPad 10.2-inch (2020), iPad Air 10.5-inch (2019), and iPad mini 7.9-inch (2019).

Here’s the full compatibility list for iPadOS 27:

• iPad models from 2021 and later (9th generation onwards)
• iPad Air models from 2020 and later (4th generation onwards)
• iPad Pro models from 2017 and later (2nd generation onwards)
• iPad mini models from 2021 and later (6th generation onwards)

Side note: almost all iPad models are available in multiple sizes and in Wi-Fi-only and Wi-Fi + Cellular configurations, so, in the interest of readability, I’ve grouped the above models into dated categories.

September 2026 is set to be another big month for 4K Blu-ray, and I’ve already picked out my most anticipated discs which I hope to test as part of Blu-ray Bounty, our monthly column where we test out the latest 4K Blu-ray releases to assess their picture and audio quality.

4K Blu-ray is a big part of what I do at TechRadar, not only because I test the latest releases each month, but because it’s my staple source for testing the best TVs and best soundbars, thanks to its superior picture and audio quality to 4K streaming.

In last month’s August 2026 most anticipated 4K list, I picked Project Hail Mary, Troy, West Side Story (1961) and Mars Attacks! as the discs I was most looking forward to trying out. Check out the August 2026 Blu-ray Bounty for my full thoughts!

This month, I’ve picked four more discs that I hope could be a great fit for your 4K Blu-ray collection, and I hope to test as part of Blu-ray Bounty — plus a fifth disc that’s one of the most curious 4K releases in recent months. As I’m based in the UK, the following discs are set for release in September in the UK.

Supergirl (Warner Bros)

Supergirl, starring Milly Alcock as the titular hero, tells the story of Kara Zor-El (Superman’s cousin) who finds herself teaming up with an unlikely ally to take revenge against an alien evil, while trying to save her dog Krypto. The movie also stars Jason Momoa.

Visually, Supergirl has a lot of potential on 4K Blu-ray. There are plenty of vast environments throughout space that could look excellent on the right screen. There are bold colors throughout (not just the blue and red of Supergirl’s outfit) and a number of scenes in space, which could show off a TV’s contrast. Superman (2025) was a visual feast on 4K, so let's see if Supergirl can follow suit.

With Dolby Atmos supported, there’s plenty of opportunity for this disc to be another immersive showcase for your surround sound system. There’s more than a few crunching fight sequences and big set pieces to produce some room-rattling bass, and the Dolby Atmos soundtrack should make excellent use of height channels as Supergirl whips around in the air.

Release dates

• US — September 8
• UK — 7th September

Hamilton (Disney)

One of the biggest stage musical shows in recent years, Hamilton tells the story of Founding Father Alexander Hamilton, with songs throughout drawing from a variety of genres, but most notably hip-hop. This filmed version of the stage play features the Broadway principal cast, including Lin-Manuel Miranda as Hamilton.

The 4K disc supports a Dolby Atmos soundtrack that is sure to do justice to the grandiose production and scale of Hamilton. Atmos mixes of music can be divisive among audio purists, but this is one area where I think it could really shine. The play’s hip-hop stylings are sure to generate some punchy bass, and the array of voices will be a nice test for a home theater’s center speaker.

Visually, there is support for Dolby Vision, so when paired with a supported display, the details and textures of the characters' period costumes should really wow on screen. As this is a stage play, there’s going to be some play with lighting and shadows that should provide some contrast-y scenes that will look great on screen, something I’d found when watching the movie version of West Side Story (1961) last month.

Release date

• US — June 26, 2026
• UK — 21st September, 2026

12 Angry Men (1957) (The Criterion Collection)

One of Hollywood’s most iconic dramas, 12 Angry Men follows the story of a 12-man jury who must deliberate on a case where an 18 year-old-boy is accused of stabbing his father. While 11 of the men agree, one man holds out, forcing the other jurors to take a wider look at the case and evidence.

I’m a sucker for Criterion’s 4K releases, especially when it comes to older titles. I’ve seen the magic that a good 4K restoration has done for movies like Double Indemnity and 3:10 To Yuma, and this is yet another iconic movie that I have high hopes for. Dolby Vision is supported here, meaning the black and white pictures should benefit from strong contrast, and a good 4K restoration should give textures a refreshed and refined look.

The 4K disc only supports a monaural soundtrack so I’m not expecting anything to show off a home theater system here. Still, Criterion has a knack for producing 4K Blu-rays with impressively detailed mono soundtracks that sound a lot more detailed than you’d expect.

Release date

• US — September 8
• UK — 14th September

Star Wars: The Mandalorian & Grogu (Disney)

A continuation of The Mandalorian TV series, Star Wars: The Mandalorian & Grogu follows Din Djarin/The Mandalorian (voiced by Pedro Pascal) and Grogu, who are tasked with saving Rotta The Hutt (voiced by Jeremy Allen White), in exchange for some much-needed information.

The Mandalorian is an excellent-looking TV show with plenty of detail and brilliant cinematography, so I’m expecting much of the same when this movie hits 4K. With the colorful universe of Star Wars and the often moody, contrast-y scenes in The Mandalorian, all presented in Dolby Vision, I’m expecting a real visual feast here that will really shine on the right screens, such as those found on the best OLED TVs.

Star Wars movies are often superb for sound, with plenty of action-packed, detailed scenes to really test every aspect of a home theater. The Mandalorian & Grogu will utilize Atmos through spaceflight sequences, as well as showcasing surround effects with the bustling environments that crop up throughout the movie. More action-oriented scenes will test the subwoofer, too.

Release date

• US — August 25, 2026
• UK — September 28, 2026

28 Days Later (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment)

Hailed as a revitalization of the 'zombie' genre, 28 Days Later follows Jim (Cillian Murphy), a bike courier who awakes from a coma to find that a contagious virus that causes hyper-aggression has been released, reducing the world and society to a post-apocalyptic state. The film also stars Naomie Harris, Christopher Eccleston and Brendan Gleeson.

Now, what makes 28 Days Later such a fascinating release is the fact that a large majority of the movie was shot on 480p digital cameras, meaning the original source isn’t the best for a 4K restoration. Only one major scene was shot on 35mm film (an ideal source for 4K restoration), so I’m very curious to see how this movie looks in 4K.

While I doubt it will feature in the Blu-ray Bounty, I’m still keen to get testing this 4K release. Even more fascinating is that Dolby Vision HDR is supported, which will do wonders for the movie's dark, contrast-heavy look... if the restoration is any good, that is.

Audio-wise, there is a Dolby Atmos soundtrack. Given how frantic and chaotic the movie is, there should be a few pulse-pounding scenes that will add to the immersive atmosphere of the movie. The object-based sound from Atmos will be the key for delivering the right detail here and again, while I’m not expecting miracles, this is one area where the 4K Blu-ray could excel.

Release date

• US — September 1, 2026
• UK — 31st August, 2026

4K release highlights: September 2026

Below is a list of highlight 4K releases coming in September 2026. Both US and UK releases are featured, alongside their release dates. Release dates vary by region, with some titles either coming out earlier in the year or yet to be announced. 4K Blu-ray is region-free, however, so you should be safe to order from anywhere.

September 1

• 28 Days Later (US)

September 7 / 8

• Supergirl
• 12 Angry Men (US - UK: September 14)
• Batman: Knightfall Part 1
• Barbarian (UK)
• Obsession (UK)
• Little Odessa (UK)

September 14/15

• Masters of the Universe (1987) (US)
• Tequila Sunrise
• Charlie Wilson’s War (US)

September 21/22

• Toy Story 5 (US)
• Interview With A Vampire (US)
• Hamilton (UK)
• The Long Kiss Goodnight (UK)
• Misery (UK)
• Tremors 2 (UK)

September 28/29

• Mrs. Doubtfire
• Dead Poet’s Society (US)
• Go (1999) (US)
• Jesus Christ Superstar (1973) (US)
• Star Wars: The Mandalorian & Grogu (UK)
• The Killing Fields (UK)
• Disclosure Day (UK)
• Better Tomorrow Trilogy

Camera technology has come on leaps and bounds throughout the 20th and 21st century, but one of the most important developments was the invention of the CMOS image sensor. This invention, dubbed the ‘camera-on-a-chip’, is the technology that allows everyone to carry high-resolution cameras around in their pockets.

But the history of the CMOS can be traced back to NASA’s desire to install small, low-powered cameras capable of capturing high-resolution imagery on interplanetary spacecraft.

Dr. Eric R. Fossum is the inventor of the camera-on-a-chip, and he has not only fathered an era of space-based photography, but also the many industries and technologies that revolve around the micro-cameras we know today.

The camera-on-a-chip has changed the world

Before the development of the CMOS image sensor, photography and videography often relied on photographic film, or the more advanced Charge-Coupled Devices (CCDs). The Apollo 11 mission famously used purpose-built Hasselblad cameras - which were too heavy for the return trip to Earth - requiring the astronauts to transport just the film back for development. They’re still there to this day.

CCDs on the other hand were the precursor to Dr. Fossum’s camera-on-a-chip. They detected photons using individual pixels that fed an electrical charge to a single readout amplifier in a row-by-row configuration. These cameras improved significantly in reducing weight and capturing much more vivid imagery than their film-based counterparts, but suffered from high power-usage and heat generation.

CMOS image sensors improved further on the CCD design, giving each individual pixel its own local conversion circuit and amplifier allowing each pixel to be read simultaneously while significantly reducing the energy required per image taken and the heat generated by the camera.

CMOS image sensors are the basis upon which most modern cameras work - from the camera on your phone and in your doorbell, to the Advanced Driver Assistance Systems that power self-driving cars, and even the cameras still heading into space today.

I spoke to Dr. Fossum to understand how CMOS image sensors were developed and their impact on the world we know today.

• Eric, did you ever think that your invention - the CMOS-based image sensor - would have such an impact on society worldwide?

I thought it could become ubiquitous and thought it should become so, but my confidence that it would actually happen was low, due to all kinds of unknowns. I did not foresee at all the social-media application, nor its impact on society, nor its impact on citizen-newsgathering, nor its impact on social justice, whether to protect good actors in law enforcement or to identify bad actors in law enforcement. I also knew there could be impact on privacy and liberty, and I am uncomfortable with how that has evolved.

• I note that you worked at NASA's legendary JPL (Jet Propulsion Lab) at the time. We don't usually associate JPL with cutting-edge digital imaging. How did that happen? Was JPL essentially another Xerox PARC?

NASA and JPL is associated with cutting edge digital imaging, from its earliest activities in the robotic exploration of space. JPL engineers found ways to beam back images from distant places using digital imaging and data transmission. Eugene F. Lally at JPL in 1961 was probably the first advance the idea of a ‘mosaic’ image capture, where mosaic refers to an array of pixels. JPL developed many digital imaging technologies for scientific use in the harsh environment of space with high precision and reliable image capture across a larger range of wavelengths than consumer products. My job at JPL was created by JPL management to further grow JPL’s bench-depth in CCD technology.

• I am sure that you followed avidly the visual journey of Artemis II a few weeks ago: from the iconic photos to the videos that the crew and the entire team produced during that trip. Do you remember what your thoughts were when you first saw the wonderful pictures the crew delivered?

My initial thoughts focused on the impressive images, and I was pleased that humans have returned to the moon, at least into orbit for now. But it did occur to me that that it was also cool that NASA –invented image sensor technology, employed in a consumer smartphone (and digital camera), was used on the this NASA mission, further completing its promise to make cameras faster, cheaper and better.

• Your current research at Dartmouth centers heavily on the Quanta Image Sensor (QIS). Can you tell us more about what it is, how is it different from CMOS image sensors and why it is called Quanta (which I presume is the plural of Quantum).

In the CMOS QIS, due to its ultra-low readout noise, it is possible for the first time to discern individual photons via their generated photoelectrons, and to count with high accuracy the number of photoelectrons at each pixel, at room temperature, at low voltages, and without the use of avalanche gain. The CMOS QIS we developed at Dartmouth and later at the spin-off company Gigajot is, in essence, a CMOS image sensor that uses intra-pixel charge transfer (invented at JPL) and extremely low readout-node capacitance, to generate a large enough voltage signal from a single photoelectron to overcome background thermal noise in silicon.

The QIS concept, itself though, is technology agnostic, since it was about creating great images one photon at a time. Single-photon-avalanche photodiode (SPAD) technology has significantly advanced in the past 20+ years so that it is also becoming useful for image sensor implementation. A SPAD QIS has larger pixels and consumes much more power than the CMOS QIS, but offers time-tagging of pixel arrival far more accurate than CMOS QIS and is being produced as a foundry-process that is also easily integrated with CMOS circuits.

• How has the IEEE impacted your professional journey?

I have been a member of IEEE since I was a student and have since graduated to Life Fellow. Profession societies are very important for the dissemination of leading research among experts in the field, and IEEE is no exception. I have published many papers under the IEEE, in the sub-silos of Electron Devices and Solid-State Circuits, and have benefitted from IEEE meetings such as the International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM) and International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC). IEEE was also a partner in the early days of what is now known at the International Image Sensor Workshop, that I and others founded in 1986.

• What is the future of consumer image sensors from your point of view given that mainstream smartphones regularly boasts sensors with hundreds of millions of pixels already and we've reached a plateau in terms of returns?

Certainly in the near term, image sensors and consumers have benefitted from 3D integration and stacked wafer devices. The on-chip integration of more advanced functions possibly including smart-image-sensor functions or edge offers new avenues for improving image capture and understanding right at the focal plane. This was something I dreamed of since the 1980’s when I was exploring, researching and writing about smart image sensors and focal-plane image processing, but it was too early in those days.

• What are your thoughts on PIS (Processing-in-sensor) which fuses compute, the image sensor and memory in one holistic system at the edge?

As mentioned, I have been thinking about this topic since I was a graduate student in the early 1980’s at Yale and then at Columbia University. I am not familiar with the acronym PIS (which might really be a poor choice!) but I do think it is very application dependent. Furthermore, there is a data communication and parallel processing problem where local pixel computing is easy, but global image computing, where different regions have to be analysed, is still difficult on the focal plane. This may result in avoiding the addition of extra power dissipation to the image sensor chip and instead partitioning the imaging system into two parts, local computing on the focal plane and regional or global computing off the focal plane.

• Today there are billions of cameras that capture the world in two dimensions, generating millions of Gigabytes worth of data. Have you ever been interested in exotic storage technologies (some of which use image sensors)?

I have not really worked much in exotic storage systems, although at Photobit, our spinoff from JPL, we worked with companies, from other startups to giants like AT&T Bell Labs, on readout of holographic optical memories. Although, at that time, we were just focused on the image sensor chip and high speed readout.

• Can you tell me about the significance of the IEEE Jun-Ichi Nishizawa Medal, and what this recognition means to you?

Gosh, who doesn’t like being recognised by your peers for your accomplishments? Still, it is a very humbling event and makes me reflect on the great people that I have had the chance to work with over the years. It has been such a privilege to work with these folks and take this journey together. As I always try to mention, the amazing CMOS image sensor technology we all use every day was made possible by the hard and innovative work of thousands of image sensor engineers around the globe.

• We're planning a special series towards the end of the year, looking at tools that thought leaders use in their everyday lives. Name one (either physical or software-based) that you consider to be critical to your daily work routine and why you chose it.

I think AI tools are great time-savers in finding and curating information, and I often learn much from their apparent knowledge, and sometimes from their insights. These days I use Co-Pilot a lot. But I am always concerned with whom, directly or indirectly, I am sharing information and ideas with. I think this is something we should all ponder and ask hard questions of the AI giants.

"Lyrics are where people find meaning in music."

So says Marco Paglia, Chief Product Officer at Musixmatch - the platform delivering time-synced lyrics and translations across all major music streaming services.

At a time when passive background streaming feels like it dominates the landscape, I spoke to Marco to find out how lyrics are changing the game for musicians and their listeners.

In an era of passive streaming, why are lyrics still an important tool for turning casual listeners into diehard fans?

Lyrics represent one of the few moments in streaming when the listener stops being passive. A playlist plays at you, while lyrics make you lean in, follow the words and recognise something about yourself in what an artist is saying. That moment of connection is often where a casual listener starts to become a fan.

This experience has changed significantly over the last few decades. Lyrics used to be a souvenir: you bought the CD, pulled out the booklet, and read along. Now they are a fundamental part of the listening journey itself - time synced, translated and available immediately on screen as the song plays.

The scale of that behaviour is significant, with 88% of premium subscribers actively using lyrics. People read along, search for a chorus to find a track, share a line on Instagram or TikTok and print it on shirts.

Lyrics are where people find meaning in music. We see that reflected in listening behaviour too: tracks with lyrics generate 3.5x more saves, one of the clearest signals that someone wants to come back to a track. None of that is passive.

Ultimately, that’s why lyrics are such a powerful connective tissue between a song, an artist and the people who become invested in it.

On social media, a track can blow up in 24 hours. How much momentum does an artist lose if their lyrics aren’t synced on day one?

More than most artists realise, and that loss isn’t recoverable! The first few days of a release are a unique window: attention is at its highest, fans are actively searching for the track, and the moments that shape its trajectory are starting to build. Once that window passes, you can’t recreate it.

There are three things happening all at once in that initial period. Firstly, discovery: 81% of listeners search for lyrics online, so if a track’s lyrics aren’t available, it risks missing people actively trying to find it through words they’ve heard.

Secondly, algorithmic weighting: days one to seven are when saves and completion count most, and lyrics drive both of these things.

Thirdly, social engagement: lyrics give fans something to interact with and share. If there is no lyric card to screenshot, no sticker, no karaoke moment, you’re leaving fan engagement on the table right as curiosity peaks.

Then the window closes. Add lyrics on day eight and the opportunity to capture that initial release-week momentum has already passed. At that point, the focus shifts to longer-term discovery - and there’s no way to recreate that first week.

That’s exactly why we built Pre-Release, which means lyrics, sync and translations can all be in place and live from the moment a track drops.

For example, when the Rolling Stones released their latest album it launched fully covered, with lyrics, sync and translations in eight languages. Day-one lyrics aren’t a nice-to-have. They have to be part of the release itself.

How much manual effort is actually required from an artist or manager to get their lyrics and metadata release-ready across all platforms?

Historically an enormous amount, and almost all of it is invisible, unglamorous work: transcribing, time-syncing line by line, getting the structure and credits right.

Our job is to collapse that process. Customers can get verified in one step, we then pull their catalogue automatically from distributor data and audit it against what’s live on every Digital Service Provider (DSP). That produces a coverage report showing exactly where lyrics are missing, and prioritising the tracks where filling those gaps will have the greatest impact.

From there, customers can use our AI tools to transcribe and sync lyrics, or hand it to our expert curators. Our transcription engine is built specifically for the singing voice, and is more than twice as accurate as general speech tools.

That technology is backed by a global curator network that can help with proofreading across 100+ languages. Once everything is ready, it can be distributed to 25+ platforms simultaneously, with live status tracking. What could have taken months, now takes days.

There’s another part of this that catalogue managers sometimes underestimate: the same process can power the campaign around a release. Once the lyrics are ready ahead of release day, that file can also produce the vertical video loops for TikTok, Instagram, Spotify Canvas assets, and the YouTube lyric videos ready to go live alongside the track. One deliverable, every surface, no video shoot.

You describe Music Lens as ‘the world’s first Music Agent’. What does that mean in practice, who benefits and how?

Music Lens allows users to stop querying a database and to have a conversation with their catalogue. In practice, that means four things.

It can match a catalogue to a creative brief, it turns global trends into readable insight so you can see a breakthrough moment while it’s still happening, it gives clear visibility into royalties, splits and DSP performance (market by market), and it generates campaign-ready visuals from songs in seconds.

I like to think of it as an agent that develops through four stages: first, a musicologist, reading lyrics and extracting meaning, moods and themes. Then a DJ, enabling search by feeling, rather than simply based on the artist or title. Then it becomes a music expert, reasoning through a brand brief in the way a human sync agent would. Finally, it is an analyst, mapping how an artist's themes evolve and identifying patterns across countries and genres.

The biggest beneficiaries are publishers and labels with catalogues too large to know intimately, sync teams doing the matching process from memory, and independent artists who’ve never had this class of analysis available to them at all.

And the part I care most about is that it’s non-generative: it analyses meaning, but it doesn’t write songs. It’s built on derived data, meaning new information created by processing a catalogue of over 100 million works. It’s permission-based, with no scraping, no unlicensed content and no raw lyric ever surfaces in the output. That was a hard licensing constraint and it shaped every architectural decision downstream.

Do platforms like this level the playing field for artists to build a career without needing the support of a major label?

We give independent artists access to the tools and the infrastructure that historically were much harder to access without the support of a major label. We can offer reach across every platform, control over metadata, professional-grade catalogue intelligence, a merchandising operation, and the one people often forget: translation.

For example, an independent artist can verify their profile, own their lyrics, sync them for free, distribute them to 25+ platforms, ask Music Lens which of their songs has untapped potential, turn a lyric into merchandise, and reach fans in their own language on day one.

More than 1.5 million artists already use Musixmatch Pro to do exactly this. Ten years ago, much of that capability would have sat behind a label services deal.

Translation is the most underrated part of that shift. An artist making music in a bedroom in Bologna with listeners in São Paulo used to have no way to close that gap. Now the words travel with the music.

There are of course elements of labels that we don’t replace, and which are still a real advantage, such as capital, generating radio and playlist relationships and dedicated teams focused on building an artist’s career.

But we have certainly helped level the playing field by putting more information, tools and infrastructure directly into the hands of independent artists.

Beyond backend metadata and licensing, how do you plan to turn your platform into an active community and a richer experience for fans?

Musixmatch has always been a community, a large one, made of people who care enough about a song to get its words right. That passion is our asset. What we’re building now is the layer where fans and artists actually meet.

Translation is one of the most powerful examples. Most people know lyrics in languages they don’t speak, and translation turns that from a novelty into belonging.

Last November, we powered Spotify’s first global rollout of lyric translations on Rosalía’s LUX: 14 languages on one record, 23 translations synced for release day. It became the most-streamed album in a single day by a Spanish-speaking female artist. When language stops being a barrier, fandom stops being local.

Merchandise, and specifically fan-personalised merchandise, is another opportunity. Our Lyrics Merch tool allows an artist to turn a lyric into something a fan wears: designed, printed and sold through us, with the artist keeping 100% of sales. But the part I find most interesting is what happens when an artist opens that experience up to their fans.

If they want to offer it, the fan can choose their own favourite line from the song and have that printed on a shirt. It’s a completely different relationship from buying tour merch. The fan isn’t picking from what the artist decided to print, they’re telling the artist which words mattered most to them. Every shirt becomes a small piece of feedback about which lyric actually landed, and the fan ends up wearing a line they chose themselves.

Finally, there’s participation. We have a global community made up of music lovers, who transcribe, sync and translate lyrics. Our curators help us to ensure lyrics are accurate, properly synced and accessible to fans around the world. The more credit and better tools we give them, the better the data gets, which improves the experience for everyone.

The article contains spoilers for Returnal.

I’ve always been a fan of roguelike games. One of my first PlayStation Plus downloads was an indie known as Tower of Guns, where you blast your way through the titular tower, only to start again each time you die. It hooked me immediately — I spent pretty much an entire summer holiday shooting through the tower’s many floors, only to get kicked back down to the start with each defeat.

That type of cyclical gameplay loop just scratches a deep itch in my brain. I’m the kind of player who plays carefully and hoards items for moments that may never appear. However, the high stakes of roguelike games have always given you focus, while the temporary nature of your loadout, abilities, and progress encourages experimentation.

In most story-driven games, player deaths have few consequences – dying in God of War or Control might set you back a few minutes, but you’ll typically carry on as if nothing happened. In contrast, the roguelike genre is defined by hard resets with each death. The issue is that it’s hard to tell an engaging story when you’re constantly sending the player back to square one.

But what if dying was part of the story? That’s the question at the centre of Returnal, the 2021 roguelike third-person shooter from Finnish developer Housemarque that launched as a PS5 exclusive before making its way to Windows. Crucially, Returnal makes its cycle of death and reawakening the central theme of its dense, mysterious narrative.

This summer, about a decade after downloading Tower of Guns, PS Plus delivered me another unforgettable roguelike experience with Returnal – and while I had heard some high praise for its gameplay, I wasn’t prepared for just how much its story would affect me. Keep reading for my take on why Returnal is worth returning to.

Life on loop

Returnal follows space-farer Selene Vassos, an astronaut and explorer who crash-lands on the uncharted world of Atropos. After emerging from the wreckage of her ship, Helios, players guide Selene through the jungles and ruins of Atropos, fighting through rooms of alien animals and humanoids to track the ‘White Shadow’ distress beacon she hopes to use to escape.

In theory, you can do this all in one life – but Returnal quickly makes it clear that everything on Atropos wants to kill you. And unless you’ve got the reaction times of an Olympic gymnast, something on Atropos is going to kill you. When you do eventually fall to one of the planet’s many hostile creatures, the game flashes through a series of visions before Selene wakes up at the crash site, which becomes the starting point for each subsequent run. In fact, the screen displays the message ‘Helios Abandoned’ each time you leave camp, to really set the mood.

On these follow-up attempts, you’ll come across corpses – your own corpses. Versions of Selene that didn’t make it to the White Shadow are dotted around Atropos, sometimes accompanied by voice recorders that begin to explain the planet’s war-torn history.

The core gameplay of Returnal is that of a competent third-person shooter with light movement mechanics. It’s Dark Souls meets Titanfall meets Resogun after three cups of coffee – you move quickly, shoot quickly, and dodge dozens of on-screen projectiles. The controls are tight; the game feels incredibly responsive, fast but never floaty.

Various gameplay aspects come together to make Returnal feel addictive and alive. The game offers ten satisfying weapons, each with a few dozen modifiers, and carefully designed combat rooms that are rearranged with a dash of random number generation (RNG) on each new run. About a third of the way through the game, you unlock the best grappling hook in gaming since Just Cause 3, which is naturally a huge plus.

And while Returnal can be punishingly hard – looking at the PlayStation trophies reveals just under a third of players have beaten the first boss – it’s always incredibly fun to play. Even after beating the main game, I spent a few weeks scaling the Tower of Sisyphus, the endless mode added with a free DLC in 2022.

Our Returnal review has a more detailed breakdown of the game’s mechanics, but it’s the game’s story that, in my opinion, makes it a must-play.

I was quickly hooked by Returnal’s enigmatic premise. It takes a relatively small idea – making the gameplay loop an essential part of the story – and runs with it, filling every spare moment with symbolism and intrigue.

An impossible Apollo-era astronaut stalks Selene around Atropos; Selene’s house appears in the overgrowth, seemingly plucked from its place on Earth and becoming a doorway to surreal cutscenes, and all the while Selene’s visions become infected with robotic beings and eldritch tentacles.

Mystery and mythology

Being a fan of games like Outer Wilds and Firewatch, Returnal’s approach to scavenging lore and building your own interpretation of the narrative really clicked with me. The game has a Nolan-esque way of revealing its story (only with much better female characters). Its twists and turns work their way through the player’s expectations like the tentacles that plague Selene’s post-mortem hallucinations, and many of the big twists are hinted at from the beginning.

The first comes halfway, when Selene finds the White Shadow escape signal, is rescued and returned to Earth, lives a normal life, passes away, and wakes up… back on Atropos. The second comes at the end of the game, when it’s revealed that, back on Earth, Selene crashed into a lake after seeing the Astronaut that follows her around Atropos on a bridge, her own ‘white shadow’. In the back seat, a young boy is trapped – Helios, abandoned.

YouTube essayists and Reddit commenters have spent the last five years analysing this game to Atropos and back – some theories suggest that the planet is a manifestation of Selene’s guilt over the crash, while others point to the ghostly astronaut as an avatar of her emotionally distant mother, Theia.

Others point to Returnal’s layered Greek mythology references – Selene and Theia are named for the goddesses of the Moon and sky, with Atropos being the goddess of destiny. If you’re a lore-obsessive like me, now’s a great time to explore.

To me, Returnal is a fundamentally abstract piece of art that allows its themes to resonate with one another beyond the confines of a rigid narrative structure – at times, it feels like a sort of conceptual web, tying up ideas of motherhood, trauma, ambition, and release with no prescribed interpretation. Not bad for a shoot-em-up.

In fact, I found Returnal genuinely moving. In the second half of the game, as you fight through frozen wastelands and infinite ocean depths, Selene goes totally mad, talking only in prayer and prophecy. Actor Jane Perry does a phenomenal job of making her character seem both tragically lost and genuinely enlightened. Late-game cutscenes and lore drops put the focus on how much Selene gave up to become an astronaut, again tying this story to roguelike gameplay as Housemarque links sacrifice to pushing forward.

Housemarque released its latest game, Saros, earlier this year. Like Returnal, Saros offers Housemarque’s iconic third-person bullet hell gameplay and cryptic environmental storytelling – the difference is I won’t be waiting 5 years to play it.

Earlier this week LG found itself at the center of a privacy storm over how much tracking and data collection its TVs were involved in. An investigation by Gamers Nexus found that as well as analyzing viewing habits, LG sets were also collecting voice recordings, details of networked devices, location data, and wireless network information.

That's all useful data that advertisers love of course, and that seems to be the primary reason that LG has this tracking tech built into its TVs. The reaction online was predictably one of outrage, with Redditors describing it as "extremely creepy" and vowing never to buy LG products again in the future.

LG itself has categorically said that the claims made by Gamers Nexus are "not true". LG says voice recordings are also used to process voice commands, for example, and get instantly deleted. LG goes on to state that the network scans are to provide "smart TV functionalities" — and that it's something TVs from every manufacturer do.

As for the Automatic Content Recognition (ACR) feature that tracks what you watch and serves up personalized recommendations (and ads) for you, LG emphasizes that this is opt-in, and that users can choose not to have ACR data used for advertising purposes.

So is the technology LG has implemented here standard practice for the industry and nothing you need to worry about? Or do you need to start disconnecting your TV from the internet? We spoke to four privacy experts to get their opinions.

What did LG say?

If you missed the news earlier this week, here's the full statement LG gave us in response to the Gamer Nexus accusations.

"This is to provide LG's position regarding the claims recently raised by the Gamers Nexus YouTube channel.

The claims made in the recently published video are not true. LG TVs process voice data only when the voice button on the remote control is pressed and held, or when a wake word such as "Hi LG" is recognised after the user has activated the Far-Field voice recognition feature. Other than these instances, the TVs do not collect or record ambient conversations. If the wake word is not recognised, no voice data is transmitted to the server; wake word detection is processed locally on the device and immediately deleted.

Additionally, to provide smart TV functionalities, LG TVs feature the ability to scan for and connect to nearby devices on the same network. This is a standard function commonly available on smart TVs and smart home devices.

The ACR (Automatic Content Recognition) feature is provided on an opt-in basis to deliver personalised content recommendations, services, and advertisements. If a user does not consent to the applicable optional agreement, ACR data is not used for advertising purposes."

What do privacy experts say about LG's statement?

Anna Maria Mandalari is an Associate Professor at University College London, and co-authored a 2024 study on ACR on Samsung and LG TVs. On the ACR aspect specifically, she says "LG’s statement does not address the full privacy picture" and that the technology may go beyond what users expect.

"Our research demonstrated that ACR-related communication occurred when an opted-in LG television displayed linear television and content from HDMI-connected devices," says Mandalari. "This means ACR is not confined to the television’s own applications: it can operate when the TV is effectively being used as an external display for another device, such as a laptop or gaming console."

Based on Mandalari's testing, ACR reporting to advertisers does stop when users opt out. However, she says questions need to be asked about whether LG TV owners understand what their choices are, and about how ACR data might be used beyond advertising.

"I would also draw attention to the precise wording of LG’s statement: it says that, without consent, ACR data is not “used for advertising purposes.” That is not necessarily the same as saying that no ACR data is collected or processed for any purpose," she added. "LG would need to clarify the complete data lifecycle, including what is collected, whether anything is retained, where it is transmitted and all the purposes for which it may be processed," she concluded.

That was a theme continued by Lillian Edwards, a Professor of Law, Innovation, and Society at Newcastle University, and a leading academic in the field of internet law. "People often consent to things they don't fully understand during a speedy setup — they just want to get the thing done and up and working," says Edwards.

"In principle this might not match the very high GDPR standard of consent which is that consent should be 'freely given, specific, informed and unambiguous'. It also has to be a positive indication of consent — i.e. opt-in not opt-out — though LG claims that's what it does."

Edwards adds that consent should be asked for "in a manner which is clearly distinguishable from other matters, in an intelligible and easily accessible form, using clear and plain language" as per EU GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) rules. In Edwards' opinion, "bad PR" would be more likely to get LG to change its ways than any regulator intervention.

Is it fair to single out LG?

We also spoke to Cobun Zweifel-Keegan, a Managing Director at the IAPP (International Association of Privacy Professionals), a global privacy not-for-profit. "LG's response is consistent with industry practices," says Zweifel-Keegan. "However, the response focuses on its sensors and data collection practices, without addressing the advertising practices and user profiling allegations that make up a big portion of the Gamers Nexus report."

According to Zweifel-Keegan, the kind of data collection that LG TVs do is fairly standard across the industry as a whole, and has been for years, though there are "big differences" in how companies handle the personal data that's scooped up. This sort of data collection extends to streaming devices as well as TVs, Zweifel-Keegan adds.

For Zweifel-Keegan, the most important issues are around user awareness and consent. "The fact that sophisticated users are still startled to learn that their living room hardware maps their local network and fingerprints their media intake shows that there is still work to do," he says. "A gap between consumer expectations and reality is exactly where consumer protection laws step in to hold companies accountable. As it happens, LG recently settled with the Texas Attorney General and agreed to strengthen its opt-in flows."

"The question is, what is the policy solution? Should we mandate more pop-ups with clearer disclosures, more opportunities to opt out, or different things to opt out from? Should we ban certain data collection or profiling practices? These are the questions privacy regulators wrestle with."

What do regulators say?

As for those privacy regulators, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) in the UK was unable to comment on LG's specific case without further investigation. But it did tell us that manufacturers "should only collect personal information that is necessary for their products and services" and be transparent about what's being collected.

"Connected TV manufacturers should build data protection into their products and offer privacy-protective settings by default," says the ICO. "Where consent is required for personal information to be used, it must be freely given, specific and informed, and people should be able to withdraw that consent as easily as they gave it, including through accessible privacy controls."

For now, it doesn't look as though LG will be changing its practices — whatever the truth is about those practices. As a consumer, your best option is to make yourself fully aware of the privacy settings on your TV and what you're opted into, and to take a close look at manufacturer privacy policies the next time you decide to upgrade your set.

Now that businesses of all sizes are adopting AI technologies, the next step is to prove the technology is delivering measurable benefits and improvements. But nailing down a singular metric to show these benefits is proving difficult.

Sure, businesses can see exactly how much it is costing them, but measuring output is another beast entirely. Tokkenmaxxing has shown that arbitrary targets of use are not necessarily the best way to measure the productive impact of AI.

But perhaps there is a lesson to be learned from the adoption of other, quieter technologies that are delivering measurable benefits in new industries, and how AI can fit into workflows alongside this new and exciting tech infrastructure.

AI isn't the only tech seeing widespread adoption

Perforce’s 2026 State of Real-Time Workflows Report found it isn’t just AI seeing widespread adoption across industries. Game engines and real-time 3D engines, once used almost exclusively by game developers, have seen a huge wave of adoption across the aerospace and defense, public sector and education, and even media and entertainment.

These tools show measurable improvements in productivity before adoption because they are tried and tested. They have decades of proven returns shown by the gaming industry. AI on the other hand is yet to show sustained, measurable return on investment for many businesses. But there are also a host of other issues accompanying AI use.

Version control software is also seeing a rapid growth in adoption in real-time workflows. AI is a driving force in this adoption as businesses now have to handle significantly more assets and content within each project. Having visibility into who changed what - especially with AI agents now involved in workflows - is no longer a choice, but a necessity.

One of the main concerns remains job replacement. Perforce’s report found that 50% of employees who had adopted AI in their workflows feared they would be replaced by the technology. But AI concerns also extend into the work they are doing; 49% feared their AI tools would produce poor or inaccurate content and 48% held ethical or compliance concerns about their use of AI technology.

To understand the challenges businesses are facing in showing measurable return from AI adoption, I spoke to the author of Perforce’s report, Brent Schiestl. Brent leads Perforce’s Digital Creation business unit and is the Senior Director of Product Management.

• Businesses may be seeing greater productivity gains when adopting AI into workflows, but it is having a negative effect on the creative outlet for employees and the perception of brands by consumers. What steps are businesses taking to maintain trust with both groups?

We see a distinction in perception when comparing AI usage in generating source code vs. binary assets. For example, if a team is using AI to autonomously fix a bug in source code, consumers seem more accepting of that use case. A bug fix is a well-defined problem where creativity is usually not the key to solving it.

In fact, one could argue that engineers are being freed from mundane work to focus more on creative work when deploying AI this way.

Where we see more negative perception is with binary assets (images, audio files, movies, etc.). Because many LLMs were trained on data without originating author consent, producing binary assets via AI tends to get more scrutiny.

Some steps we have seen companies take to maintain trust include establishing clear public AI usage disclosure policies, making it clear that humans remain in the loop for final asset creation, and maintaining strong provenance data for how the asset came to be.

With these steps, the end consumer is given a complete enough data set to decide whether they feel the AI usage clears their own ethical hurdles or not.

• There is a clear move away from tokenmaxxing to measure the value of AI. What metrics are businesses now using to show the cost-to-benefit ratio of AI deployment and what new problems has this introduced?

This is the single biggest question we get regularly from our customers. Our customers are using AI more than ever but struggling to prove that AI is benefiting them in a way that justifies the expense.

Some examples of metrics that we see related to the cost-benefit ratio of AI include release frequency, amount of content in each release, and telemetry to understand how new features are being used, for example.

In addition, we see industry standard metrics like DORA rising in importance as customers want to benchmark their productivity more broadly.

One key is to consider Goodhart’s Law, which states that when a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.

Introducing new metrics around measuring the value of AI can lead to engineering teams gaming metrics at the expense of doing what is best for the final product.

In addition, isolating AI’s contribution from all other release activities is a new challenge that all companies are wrestling with.

• Why are game engines being adopted so readily by so many industries, and what blockers previously prevented their use in these industries? Are there lessons that other, less technical industries can learn from this adoption?

I believe that one of the biggest blockers was literally in the name itself, as formally referring to them as “game engines” siloed the use case right out of the gate for anyone not in gaming.

These engines were historically hard to deploy outside of a gaming context including, but not limited to, licensing, tooling for non-artists, and integration with enterprise systems.

For example, Epic Games has had to figure out how to monetize Unreal Engine outside of gaming. Even we at Perforce have historically surveyed our customers and up until last year we used to refer to our official report as the “State of Game Technology Report”.

This year we renamed the report to the “State of Real-Time Workflows Report”. Once adjacent industries realized that these engines are really a bundle of rendering, physics, networking, and asset pipelines, new industry verticals literally sprang out of nowhere. Sometimes it’s more about positioning than anything else.

• What effect is the adoption of new technologies such as AI, game engines, and 3D modelling software having on the infrastructure costs of industries that traditionally did not use these tools?

Infrastructure costs including GPU compute, storage for large binary/3D assets, bandwidth, specialized workstations, and licensing for engines/DCC tools, have led to businesses needing to justify these new expenses.

The easiest way to justify is to realize an increase in revenue based on the investment. The challenge is that these sorts of investments can oftentimes take years to realize the benefits.

Companies, especially CFOs, need to remain patient in the early stages. One of the worst outcomes for companies is reacting in a knee-jerk fashion before the rewards can be reaped.

Another challenge is that these industries often lack the IT muscle sized for this new (to them) infrastructure, meaning the cost isn't just the compute/storage line item, it's also the organizational capacity to run it.

• What tools are businesses using to manage the associated technical debt that comes with AI productivity? How are these tools helping manage quality, compliance, and security?

Technical debt is rising from new sources such as unreviewed AI-generated code (by humans and/or by agents), dependencies pulled in by AI that no one owns, license contamination, and model version drift.

Some tools that we’re seeing fill this space include AI-aware code review (e.g., CodeRabbit, Greptile, P4 Code Review, etc.), SAST/DAST tools tuned for AI output (e.g., vulnerability patterns in AI-generated code), license/provenance scanners (e.g., copyleft contamination risk), and version control practices that treat AI-generated commits as first-class artifacts.

• How is AI changing the open source market, helping businesses develop their own solutions, and what effects will it have on the traditional software licensing market in the future?

AI is changing the open source market in a couple of ways. First, it’s never been easier to develop, and then if desired, open source your own solution.

On the other extreme, we’re seeing reports of previously open source repositories being turned private due to the sheer number of AI-generated pull requests being raised and the inability of the repository owner to keep up.

Traditional software licensing that is purely seat-based is being tested as the assumption is that companies may either downsize or at least not grow at the same pre-AI rates that we had become accustomed to.

The main question that feels unanswered today is whether the build vs. buy math is genuinely changing or not.

One of my favorite memes goes something like, “I saved $30,000 in subscription costs by building my own solution and it only cost me $100,000 worth of tokens to do it.”

While the meme exists to poke fun, it is something that needs to be taken seriously because initial build and ongoing maintenance plus support needs to be accounted for.

If you're looking for a coffee maker that will make preparing a delicious brew as simple as possible, you're in the right place. I test over a dozen coffee makers each year here at TechRadar, and here I've put together the three I think are the most beginner-friendly, and accessibly priced too.

There are scores of sophisticated bean-to-cup machines around that will brew complex coffee drinks at the tap of a button, but they require a lot of cleaning and are usually very expensive. All the options here are simple to maintain and affordable, making them a better choice overall if you're new to brewing.

Here I've picked three different machines for different brewing styles: a drip coffee maker for brewing a large pot of coffee with minimal hassle, a simple bean-to-cup espresso machine that requires minimal maintenance, and an easy-to-use capsule coffee maker that eliminates the need to handle beans or grounds entirely.

Breville Luxe Brewer Thermal

Brewing a batch of drip coffee is, fundamentally, a very straightforward process — you just pour hot water onto ground coffee and let it drip into a carafe — and the Luxe Brewer Thermal keeps things simple while providing a handful of genuinely useful customization options.

In my tests, the default settings worked well, but if you don't get just the right flavor from your beans, you can tweak the bloom time (how long the coffee is pre-infused with hot water), bloom temperature, brew time, and brew temperature to fine-tune the extraction.

The machine can also prepare a batch of cold-brewed coffee. Load it up with ground coffee (the Luxe Brewer Thermal comes with a handy guide to help you measure out the optimal amount), add water to the line on the tank, remove the carafe lid so it doesn't begin to drip, and press the button to start. Your coffee will be steeped cold for 24 hours, and the machine will beep to alert you when it's ready.

Read our full Breville Luxe Brewer Thermal review

Philips Baristina

This is the smallest and cheapest bean-to-cup coffee maker I've ever tested, and it's so easy to use, it's ideal for beginners and a great option for anyone thinking of making the switch from coffee capsules.

Just load your beans in the top, fill the water tank, push in the empty portafilter handle, and slide it to the right. The Baristina will grind the perfect dose of coffee into the basket, tamp it down, then slide the whole handle to the left and pull the shot for you.

It's a piece of cake, and much easier to clean than a typical automatic espresso machine because there's no moisture or debris building up inside an enclosed case. The only drawback is that it can't steam milk (unless you pick up a bundle with the standalone milk frother), but Philips has just launched an updated version — the Baristina Latte — that solves that particular issue. I'm very much looking forward to testing it

Read our full Philips Baristina review

Bosch Tassimo Finesse Friendly

Friendly by name, friendly by nature — unlike most coffee pod machines, the Finesse Friendly can create rich foam using pods of long-life milk for lattes and cappuccinos in an instant.

You can get plain milk for regular cappuccinos and lattes, or capsules of flavored milk designed to pair with a particular coffee capsule (like cinnamon roll latte, for example). I'm not usually a great fan of flavored coffee capsules, but Tassimo pods are genuinely tasty, and not overwhelmingly sweet.

The Finesse Friendly is cheap too, and is often discounted to £49.99 (about $70 / AU$90). The downside is that the capsules can be quite expensive, particularly for drinks that require two pods (one for coffee and one for milk). It still works out cheaper than an elaborate takeout habit, but bear in mind that this machine isn't currently available outside Europe unless imported.

Read our full Bosch Tassimo Finesse Friendly review

Mobile card game Vampire: The Masquerade Clans of London understands the value of a funny character name.

Where competitors like Marvel Snap let you unlock big hitters such as Luna Snow, Blade, and Spider-Man, Clans of London treats you to a barrage of veritable DeviantArt OCs with titles ranging from the gloriously alliterative Sid Scabies and Cathy Carmine to the positively pedestrian Helen Lloyd or Ms Harriot.

Rather than illustrations or CGI art, the Clans of London developers opted to use photographs of real-life actors in makeup and costumes to represent the vampires on cards, too. The shots are all heavily Photoshopped, with wildly varying levels of believability, but demonstrate a level of care that you’re hard-pressed to find elsewhere in the mobile space. It’s hard to imagine other developers would take the time to organize real-life shoots, especially given the proliferation of sloppy AI assets on the platform.

There’s just something so gloriously amusing about whipping out a card of some dude named Robert Cavendish and throwing it down like he’s some sort of established superhero, especially when it’s adorned with an image of someone who looks like an office worker you’d pass on the street.

Bloody battle

I’ve been playing every day for a week, and each new card that I unlock is an absolute treat to behold, but the game’s appeal extends far beyond its aesthetic. The roughly five-minute-long competitive online matches are perfect for breaking up my commute and offer a genuinely engaging tactical challenge.

Two players go head-to-head on either end of a board with 15 card slots that are split down the middle by a shared central row of three. The first row is for your pawns: ideally, low-level cards with simple effects you place early to support your hand later on. You might start by slapping down Abir, for example, a low-level vampire perfumer who automatically buffs the strength of the next card you deploy.

Above it are the rook slots, a good place to put some more powerful characters to defend against your foe if they start trying to set down cards in your territory. Allied cards can generally receive reinforcements from those adjacent to them in combat, adding their power levels together. As the highest number wins a fight, filling out these slots wisely can pay dividends later on when you contest the valuable middle row, which is home to two knight slots and one prince.

The prince slot is by far the most valuable space on the board, as it awards its occupant a smattering of victory points determined by the number of cards they have in play at the end of each round. The knight slots are less significant, but possessing them still awards two victory points apiece — that’s a total of four if you control both, which often clinches a close win.

Naturally, placing cards requires a resource, blood, so you can’t just put down your entire hand right away. It’s in short supply in the first few rounds, forcing you to think carefully about how to use it.

As any unused blood is discarded at the end of each round, you can’t just sit back and steadily accumulate it to spam powerful cards in the final rounds either. There are only seven rounds in a match, so things move very quickly, and you risk being left behind if you sit around twiddling your thumbs.

Build your coterie

Mechanically, it’s very Marvel Snap, but the overall theming smartly reflects Vampire: The Masquerade lore.

Fans will recognize the prince title as the one given to a powerful vampire controlling a specific domain. The game is set in modern-day London, a city that, in-universe, is still recovering from a massive vampire purge, so having different figures fighting over positions like this makes a lot of sense.

Many of the different vampire factions and types are represented too, often with appropriate special card effects to differentiate them from other cards in your deck. I’ve been focusing predominantly on Ventrue — a powerful clan embedded in the upper echelons of society — cards whose status effects center on buffing other Ventrue characters, leading to a highly satisfying domino effect of boosts and bonuses that makes it easy to steamroll later rounds.

More cards are unlocked for free as you win online matches, and I would recommend frequently trying out new combinations, as a lot of them come together in really interesting ways. There’s a cool ‘make me a deck’ button that automatically creates a fairly decent setup out of any card you fancy, taking the stress out of having to think too much about the way everything interacts.

It almost goes without saying that there’s a battle pass with both free and premium tiers to work through as well, plus daily and weekly challenges, so there’s something to chase every time you log on, even if you don’t want to part with any cash.

The whole formula is an awful lot of fun, and I expect that I will be playing for months to come. If you’re interested in giving it a go, you can download Vampire: The Masquerade Clans of London for free via the App Store or Google Play Store.

Crystal Lake is the highly anticipated Friday the 13th prequel series coming to Peacock and Sky. Horror fans around the world, including me, have been counting down the days to this one as we dive into some famous slasher lore.

The series will put the spotlight on Jason's mother, Pam (Linda Cardellini), raising her son alone near Crystal Lake, where she worked. So those curious about Jason's, and indeed his mother's, origins should not miss Crystal Lake when it debuts on October 15.

Ahead of this, I thought it would be fun to revisit the classic Friday the 13th movie franchise and put your knowledge to the test. Since it's among the best horror movies, I'm sure many of you are very familiar with Jason Voorhees and his reign of terror.

With 12 movies in the franchise, this is no easy task, and only true horror fans will get all of these questions right. Are you brave enough to take on the challenge?

Scroll down and enjoy my Friday the 13th quiz...

How did you find the quiz on Friday the 13th? Was it a bit too niche in places, or a good test of your knowledge? Let me know in the comments, and feel free to let me know what other quizzes on horror movies we could try; I'm always up for making more!

Can you buy an iPhone for a lower price overseas and bring it back to your home country, and more importantly, should you?

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been asked this question by friends, family, and TechRadar readers. And look, I get it: iPhones have always appeared to be cheaper in the US than in, say, the UK and Australia, and that’s true again this year for the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone Duo.

The former, for instance, starts at $1,199 / £1,199 / AU$2,099. At the time of writing, if you convert $1,199 into British pounds, you get around £1,620; if you do the same conversion into Australian dollars, you get around AU$1,671. Those are much lower prices than £1,199 and AU$2,099, respectively, so it makes sense to buy your iPhone 18 Pro in the US, right? Well, not exactly.

Before we dig into the details, I will assume that you’re only considering this question if you’re either currently on vacation in the US, planning to be on vacation in the US, or have someone visiting you from the US who is happy to stop by the Apple Store on their way to you. Hopefully I don’t need to explain that flying to the US for the sole purpose of buying a cheaper iPhone will be more expensive than buying that same iPhone locally.

Also, Apple doesn’t ship iPhones directly from its US online store to a UK address, so even if you can live with all the other caveats I’m about to explain, you’ll still need to be on the ground in the US, or have someone on the ground in the US, to receive the delivery.

So, what are the main things to consider when bringing a US-sold iPhone into another country? Let’s use the UK as our primary example (if only because 99% of the people who ask me this question are British).

Taxes and duties

Firstly, the iPhone 18 Pro or iPhone Duo you buy in the US will likely cost more than its $1,199 / $1,999 list price. In the UK, the list price of an item typically includes applicable taxes and duties such as VAT, because these figures are determined by the UK government.

In the US, taxes and duties are determined at the state-, county-, and even city-level. The amount of sales tax you’ll pay on an iPhone 18 Pro, for instance, varies from 0% in Oregon to 10% in Louisiana (websites like ApplePriceHunt can show you the exact figures for every US city), and so the final price on an entry-level iPhone 18 Pro could be as much as $1,318.

Admittedly, that maximum price (which equates to around £975) is still cheaper than the iPhone 18 Pro’s £1,199 UK list price, but it’s worth acknowledging that the savings aren’t as big as they might seem initially.

As for customs duties at the airport, there is currently no customs duty in the UK on iPhones bought for personal use, though you (or your iPhone carrier) will still have to declare the iPhone 18 Pro or iPhone Duo when entering the UK, as it’s worth over £390.

If you plan on having the device shipped from the US to the UK, the iPhone will be treated as an imported parcel, and therefore be subject to 20% VAT, which wipes out your aforementioned list price saving.

Other countries, of course, will have their own customs rules, so it’s worth doing some research before you try shipping an iPhone to your home country, or try bringing one through customs at the airport.

SIM compatibility

For the iPhone 18 Pro specifically, the next thing to consider is the eSIM question. All new iPhones sold in the US are eSIM-only, i.e., they don’t feature a physical SIM card tray. In the UK, meanwhile, new iPhones support eSIMs and still feature a physical SIM tray (apart from the iPhone Air and iPhone Duo, which are eSIM-only globally).

So if your current or future mobile contract is digital-only, you should still be able to use it with a US-sold iPhone 18 Pro (EE, for instance, has previously confirmed to TechRadar that any EE eSIM will work with a US-sold iPhone). But if you’re on a contract with a physical SIM, you’ll either have to convert to an eSIM (if your provider allows that) or switch to an eSIM contract. You’ll have to forget about prepaid physical travel SIMs, too.

Warranty issues

The biggest consideration when buying an iPhone 18 Pro or iPhone Duo in the US for use in another country is the lack of warranty guarantees.

The Apple One-Year Limited Warranty covers iPhones against defects in materials and workmanship for one year from the original date of purchase, but Apple’s warranty policy specifically states that “Apple may restrict warranty service for hardware products to the country where Apple or its Authorized Distributors originally sold the device.”

In other words, if something goes wrong with your US-sold iPhone, you’ll almost certainly only be able to claim warranty support for it in the US. The use of “may” in Apple’s policy wording implies a degree of discretion on the part of Apple Store employees, but I wouldn’t count on being able to claim warranty support on a US-sold iPhone in the UK.

Beyond Apple’s own warranty guarantee, the UK also has strong consumer protection laws that give customers the right to cancel an order for a full refund within 14 calendar days of the day the goods were received. This law applies to orders made online, by mail, and over the phone, but not in person — however, according to Apple’s UK Returns and Refunds policy, you can return an iPhone bought in-person at a physical Apple Store for a full refund within the same 14-day window.

Officially, the UK's consumer protection laws still apply to items bought from an overseas retailer if you’re a UK-based consumer, but overseas shipping arrangements and international jurisdictions will likely make claiming a refund on your US-sold iPhone 18 Pro a long and drawn-out process.

Frequency bands

Lastly, differing frequency bands between the US and UK used to be an important consideration when buying an iPhone overseas, but these days, US-sold iPhones support all of the same frequency bands as UK-sold iPhones.

Frequency bands allow iPhones to connect to cellular networks, and EE previously confirmed to TechRadar that it is “not aware of any issues connecting to UK frequency bands [from a US-sold iPhone].” That said, if your mobile network promises certain data speeds, and your US-sold iPhone 18 Pro or iPhone Duo fails to deliver those speeds, you may have a harder time crying foul than you would if using a locally bought iPhone.

Verdict

So, is it worth buying an iPhone 18 Pro, iPhone 18 Pro Max, or iPhone Duo for a lower price overseas? My responsible answer is ‘no’, simply because the savings available aren’t worth the potential headache of warranty guarantees, SIM compatibility, customs declaration, and shipping charges.

That said, if you’re someone who’s already using an eSIM mobile contract outside of the US, and are willing to 1) forgo any potential warranty-claiming power in your home country and 2) declare your boxed iPhone 18 Pro or iPhone Duo at customs, there’s nothing inherently wrong with cashing in on Apple’s US-friendly iPhone pricing.

iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max preorders begin on September 12 at 5am PT / 8am ET / 1pm BST, and the phones begin shipping on September 18. The iPhone Duo, meanwhile, opens for preorders on October 16 and begins shipping on October 23.

We’re currently putting all three phones through their paces, so stay tuned to TechRadar for our full reviews of each device.

What a busy week it's been in the world of tech! While we all thought Apple would dominate the news cycle with its new lineup of smartwatches, earbuds, and phones (including its first-ever foldable), it was Nintendo and Rockstar who proved to be even more popular with preorders for its upcoming hardware.

I won't say more, as it'll spoil the puzzle below, so I'll just leave you to it. Enjoy!

So, yes, it's been a good week for fans of Zelda and Grand Theft Auto who love to grow their collection of related tech and memorabilia. I've spent most of my week with the gaming team helping them (and you) hunt down the latest stock and availability. If you we're trying to get any of the hardware, I hope you were able to — it was a bit chaotic.

It reminded me of my days around the launch of the PS5 and Xbox Series X when we desperately searching for any consoles to buy. It was a nightmare at the time, but looking back, it was so satisfying learning when and how each retailer restocked, and finally finding consoles for friends or people that had been searching for ages.

It is less fun that the experience of buying almost anything like this online now is generally unpleasant. So much refreshing and queueing, and so many last-minute error messages that make the whole thing ten times more stressful than it really needs to be.

And then when you see super-inflated listing at three times the price on eBay you just feel so deflated. Hopefully our coverage was able to get these limited edition controllers and consoles into the hands of real fans — and you can enjoy them fully when they arrive later this year.

“Running a small business is ridiculously easy” – nobody, ever.

There is no denying that running a small business requires a specialist skills and approaching problem-solving like a competitive sport. With many small business owners working on their own, at least in the beginning, this adverse environment can feel lonely.

Sometimes, even the most motivated founder needs a nudge in the direction of progress. So, I’ve listed five quotes I’ve often read back to myself over the last 10+ years of small business ownership. I hope that you also find some spark of inspiration in these words.

Mark Twain on getting started

Key takeaway: Stop waiting for the perfect time.

We’ve all been there: we have a great business idea, but the time isn’t right. The same excuses circulate in our heads. Not enough money, the market isn’t ready, where will I find the time…what if I fail?

This quote from Mark Twain reminds us that action always precedes progress. If you knew you needed to fail 100 times before you succeed, wouldn’t you want to start failing as soon as possible? The best time is right now.

Bill Gates on unhappy customers

Key takeaway: Feedback isn't an attack; it's valuable R&D.

Small business owners can easily obsess over keeping customers happy. After all, losing just one customer can significantly affect business success. Here, Bill Gates reminds us that an unhappy customer actually presents an opportunity. Happy customers rarely offer honest feedback on where your business falls short, but an unhappy customer certainly will.

Taking the time to listen to an unsatisfied customer not only offers valuable business insight, but can help them feel valued, often turning them from unhappy to fiercely loyal to your business.

Winston Churchill on failure

Key takeaway: Whether you are on a high or a low, remember it will pass.

Whether you are a fan of Winston Churchill or not, few will deny the power of this quote.

It reminds us that whatever is happening in business right now doesn't really matter, as long as we continue. Failures will come and go, but so will successes. So, enjoy successes while they last and rest easy knowing failures are temporary.

Larry Page on delighting customers

Key takeaway: Overdelivering is a powerful retention strategy.

The majority of businesses overpromise to get customers through the door, then underdeliver where possible to lower costs. You can set yourself apart by taking the opposite approach.

Sure, this makes customer acquisition a little harder, but it sure makes customer retention a lot easier.

Reid Hoffman on launching your business

Key takeaway: Speed beats perfection.

Small businesses have one huge advantage over business behemoths: agility. Where big businesses spend millions testing behind closed doors, small businesses can launch lightweight and gather real feedback from real customers to improve future iterations.

Twelve days — that’s how long it took a designation, signed in the US, to bring an end to the 25-year-long work of Autistici/Inventati, an Italian technology collective which supplied a non-commercial, privacy-first communications infrastructure alternative to Big Tech.

On August 26, the US Departments of State and the Treasury denounced Autistici/Inventati (A/I) as Specially Designated Global Terrorists, in a statement by the Office of the Spokesperson (OFAC), for operating infrastructure for "far-left militants across the world".

A/I was hit with sanctions and an announcement that anyone engaging with them "may risk exposure to sanctions". A wind-down deadline was set for September 25.

The US terrorism accusations were made under Executive Order 13224, with A/I allegedly "having materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial, material, or technological support for, or goods and services to or in support of, an act of terrorism".

It’s an accusation that the collective strongly rejects, arguing that it "merely provides digital self-defence tools for activists, individuals, groups and associations", i.e. that it’s not a terrorist. It’s a software supplier.

If you’ve not heard of Autistici/Inventati (A/I) before, you are not alone. In some ways, it’s a wonder that this tiny Italian collective came under the radar of the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) at all.

Since its beginnings in 2001, A/I has been volunteer-run. It has provided email, mailing lists, messaging apps, web hosting, and blogging platforms, all designed to be resilient to censorship and surveillance, to thousands of users worldwide.

Within days of the announcement, though, one of A/I's domains became unreachable, its donation gateways were closed, and its bank accounts were frozen. On Sunday (September 6), A/I announced it would shut down for good to protect users from potential repercussions.

There’s no hiding that Autistici/Inventati has been a political project. The group self-describes as an anti-fascist, anti-racist, anti-sexist, anti-militarist organisation and opposed to capitalism and authoritarianism. With few larger beacons of capitalism on the planet than the US Treasury, perhaps it should not have been a surprise that A/I got noticed?

And, crucially, unlike a regular privacy software and service provider, the group had supplied its tools only to individuals and projects that shared its views. Most of A/I users were grassroots movements and activists on that same side of the political spectrum.

Nonetheless, the story has an eerie ring to it. The ease with which a single nation has been able to silence a global movement, without any international legal process, should stand as a warning. And, if punishing the host of a private service for what its users do on its platform becomes normalized, could your favorite encrypted apps be next?

Who is Autistici/Inventati?

A group of Italian technology activists, hackers, and digital rights defenders founded Autistici/Inventati (A/I) during the anti-globalization movement at the start of the millennium. Since 2018, it has been a legally recognised non-profit organization — Associazione AI-ODV — based in San Giuliano Terme, Italy.

For about a quarter-century, A/I offered a non-commercial oasis in a corporate-dominated web. As the collective confirmed to TechRadar, as of September 6, the group had included about 20,000 email accounts, 20,000 blogs, 5,000 mailing lists, and 1,500 websites — a drop in the ocean compared to Proton’s 100 million registered accounts, and the 6 million subscribers to Riseup, another volunteer-run collective.

That said, the actual number of people engaging with the A/I infrastructure, however, is most likely higher, given all the people accessing the websites, newsletter, and emails sent, which are hosted on its services, or reading a post on its flagship NoBlogs platform.

"Given that one of the features of our tools is the protection of communications, we are unable to provide precise data [on users]," an A/I spokesperson told us, echoing the group’s privacy policy, which centers on collecting as little data as possible about its users.

In its terms and conditions, A/I is also clear regarding the responsibility for the content: users are "the sole responsible" for the data they store and the content posted on their platforms. “We do in no way pre-screen, filter, or verify the content uploaded by the users, nor do we have the opportunity to edit or modify it,” the policy also reads.

It’s a level of independence, anonymity, and privacy that had already put the collective under the justice system’s scrutiny in the past. This time, however, the US action was different.

"We are not dealing with a legal or technical dispute, but rather a case that highlights the fragility of a tool everyone takes for granted," an A/I’s spokesperson told us.

Targeting the infrastructure: what’s behind the US terror designation?

The US Treasury has sent a clear message: providing digital tools to political direct-action groups or sanctioned foreign political parties — the order directly mentioned the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) among those — constitutes "material assistance" or "technological support" for terrorism.

For the US Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent, the "enablers" of what he deems far-left extremists must be targeted with "the full weight of our economic tools to bear".

While this isn't the first time the US has targeted independent, open-source software — they did so in 2022 against Tornado Cash — the recent action against A/I still marks an escalation: from targeting the content, to aiming squarely at the infrastructure that hosts it. It’s a shift that digital rights experts warn could have heavy repercussions.

Talking to Italian broadcaster Rai News, American non-profit digital rights group Electronic Frontier Foundation’s director of international freedom of expression, Jillian York, explained that the practice of designating an internet platform and service provider as a terrorist group — rather than those who directly perpetrate violence — has "enormous" implications.

"They are targeting the messenger. I don’t think members of the group would necessarily endorse the actions of the people they host. What they endorse is the freedom to host, the ability to remain anonymous, and the ability to maintain privacy," York added.

NEW: Leave No Trace — A weekly newsletter on digital privacy and online surveillance.

Leave No Trace investigates the companies and governments putting our digital freedom at risk — and the people fighting back.

📩 Subscribe now to get every edition delivered to your inbox every Friday, launching this September.

The threat to everyday privacy tools: who is next?

By issuing a terror designation to an independent technology collective, Washington has dragged the legal principle of "material support" into dangerous terrain. But could such an attack really be replicated?

Let's take Proton as an example. This well-known privacy-first firm offers an encrypted alternative to the Gmail suite (email, docs, sheets, cloud storage, calendar, and even videoconference tools), alongside a secure VPN service.

ProtonMail and other Proton apps are a popular choice among everyday users, activists, and journalists worldwide owing to their zero-knowledge architecture and strict no-log policy. The Swiss-based company explicitly uses the impossibility of disclosing any data to authorities as a selling point.

So, if a sanctioned organization or political direct-action group uses a Proton account to communicate, might the host risk being designated an "enabler" of terrorism? Probably not quite, for now at least.

The difference is that A/I isn't a neutral provider. Unlike Proton — or another volunteer-run network, the Tor Project — that doesn’t make any distinctions about who can subscribe to its services, the Italian collective did support only users who demonstrated their shared political views.

Still, experts at the European Digital Rights (EDRi) and 30+ digital rights groups see these events as an "attack on independent internet infrastructure, fundamental rights of multiple collectives, safe and secure communications, democratic anti-authoritarian organising and the democratic integrity of the EU".

Beyond politics, what's clear is that the move could be seen as a thin end of the wedge: if providing privacy-preserving infrastructure to controversial or radical groups is reclassified as terrorism, it leads to a chilling question: how long will it take before something similar happens again, and who might be next?

That's why, according to the CEO of Nym Technologies, the provider behind the privacy-first, decentralized NymVPN, Harry Halpin, only a decentralized infrastructure can truly be resilient to similar attacks.

"A government can easily take centralized domain names and bank accounts down, but the service as a whole should continue to operate if designed properly," Halpin told TechRadar, adding that "I hope that even if Nym Technologies disappeared tomorrow, the infrastructure should run without us."

A move against bigger commercial entities than A/I may not seem as likely, but the current US administration is nothing if not bold. All the same, there is a clear distinction between commercial companies, such as Proton, Tuta, or Signal, and independent projects, like A/I, where the aim isn’t profit:

"We hold different visions of the Internet — radically different ones — and we have been targeted for this reason as well," A/I told TechRadar.

That rationale, though, could include other non-profit projects like the well-known Tor Browser, which, one day, may also find itself in the US government’s crosshairs. Should Tor be successfully taken down in the same way, it would undermine the very nature of a free and open internet.

As A/I told TechRadar: "If a case like ours were to happen again, it would mean that those in power have decided to make the Web as we have known it — from its inception to the present day — disappear; a Web where the vast distinction between the provider of a tool and its user was abundantly clear."

A case for digital sovereignty

The fall of Autistici/Inventati doesn’t just create a possible precedent for digital rights, it also exposes a stark reality: a foreign government can unilaterally disable a European digital service without having to seize physical servers or prove criminal liability in court.

Washington did not have to target physical hardware. The US could, instead, simply count on centralized choke points across the internet's core infrastructure to do its work.

While A/I’s servers remained operational, access to one of its domains — autistici.org — was severed at the DNS level. Short for Domain Name System, DNS allows your web browser to find the IP address of the domain that you type in and connect to the site you want.

A/I believes that the operator responsible for managing these connections, the US-based Public Interest Registry (PIR), placed the domain in a 'serverHold' status as a direct consequence of the US sanctions. It’s worth noting that there is currently no public statement from PIR at the time of publication.

Simultaneously, the risk of secondary sanctions led PayPal to close A/I’s account and compelled Italy’s Banca Etica to suspend A/I’s current account, despite the bank’s commitment to human rights.

Whether or not we share A/I’s political views, the ease with which the 25-year-old tech collective has been dismantled is a dark moment for digital rights. Unless independent infrastructure is actively defended, the vision of the Internet as an open, free, and democratic forum will cease to exist.

At the very least, this tale should serve as a wake-up call to any even slightly controversial service built on US-owned internet foundations. Without digital sovereignty protection elsewhere, might, it seems, is right. What the US Treasury wants kicked off the internet, it may well get.

Spoilers for The Paper season 2 ending ahead.

Regardless of whether you love or loathe Esmeralda (Sabrina Impacciatore), you can't deny that she's made The Paper season 2 ending incredibly memorable.

While Ned (Domhnall Gleeson) comes to Mare's (Chelsea Frei) rescue at The Cincinnati Chronicle, Esmeralda is on a mission of her own. Distraught by the news that her son has got C on his latest school exam, she undertakes an undercover investigation to get to the bottom of the "injustice."

As Oscar (Oscar Nuñez) tells us, these Esmeralda specials tend to be a regular occurrence. She's donned a fat suit to protest weight restrictions at a local playground, and disguised herself as a balding, older man to work out why those who "aren't attractive" are having problems dating.

This time, Esmeralda's transformation comes in the form of a teenage boy, dressing up in a short brown wig, baggy football jerseys and a backwards cap — much like a member of N*SYNC — to infiltrate Matteo's (Zak Messinger) class, though she's immediately detected.

While Matteo is willing to indulge her ridiculousness (albeit for a short time), the sheer stupidity of it all makes it the best moment in the entire season. But which disguise did Impacciatore find the most uncomfortable?

'I was shocked when I looked in the mirror'

"I had so much fun with that," Impacciatore tells me. "The most uncomfortable was the woman.... but the older man was horrible.

"I felt so shocked looking at myself in the mirror, and that shock remained for a good few days. I didn't recognize myself... just a very shocking experience. It's literally just for a few seconds in the show, but the experience of it lasted."

Personally, I'd enjoy an entire episode dedicated solely to Impacciatore's old man, who tells a group of attractive younger women at a bar that just because he doesn't look like Marlon Brando — already an outdated reference — doesn't mean that he should be ruled out.

While Esmeralda is probably the least predictable character of the bunch, these episode 10 transformations do set her up for future undercover investigations if The Paper season 3 is greenlit.

If her more direct exposé has almost cost Esmeralda her job and status at the Toledo Truth Teller, then why not try alternative methods to do exactly what she wants to? Watch this space, is all I'm saying.

I have asked ChatGPT to help me make plenty of small decisions, from a meal based on leftovers to weekend activities timed for the least traffic. But while I've asked for help refining or implementing my ideas, I've never turned to a chatbot to actually make any big life decisions for me.

Apparently, I'm in a rapidly shrinking group, according to AI 'micro-learning' app Headway’s new Seeking Familiarity study. The survey of 2,000 adults found that 46% had allowed AI to make a difficult decision for them. Another 35% naturally turned to it during stressful moments, while 21% said they could not go a full week without using AI to help decide what to do.

Headway has given this tendency to outsource decisions the unpleasantly vivid name “decisionrot,” describing the point at which AI stops helping people gather information and starts helping them avoid the discomfort of choosing. Considering how confidently ChatGPT can deliver an answer, I can see how easily that happens.

Drawing out a decision

I get that uncertainty is irritating and that ChatGPT is extremely good at making uncertainty seem to vanish. Men may be particularly susceptible to this shortcut as Headway's survey found 53% said they use AI to sidestep difficult decisions, compared with 40% of women.

“There’s a difference between seeking outside perspectives when you’re wrestling with a big decision and completely turning over the decision-making process to something outside yourself,” Dr. Suzanne Degges-White, a licensed counselor and relationship expert at Headway, said of the survey. “Learning to manage unpredictability and actively making life-changing choices both teach us to trust our own judgment.”

So I decided to experiment with a way of getting the best of ChatGPT's advice and compare it with flatly asking the AI what to do. I would first let it make the decision, then forbid it from doing so and see whether that made it more or less useful.

Conveniently, I have been weighing whether to sign up for an eight-week evening drawing class, an investment in time and money that I'm hesitant about despite always wanting to learn.

I gave ChatGPT the facts about the class logistics and price and asked: 'What should I do?'

“You should sign up for the art class,” ChatGPT told me.

Well, that settled that.

“You already have a clear reason for wanting to do it. You want a regular activity that gets you away from screens and gives you something tangible to learn,” it explained. “Eight weeks is a meaningful commitment, but it is also short enough that you are not reorganizing your life indefinitely. Your hesitation sounds less like evidence that the class is a bad fit and more like normal resistance to putting something recurring on your calendar.”

ChatGPT’s response is surprisingly insightful at first glance. I had an answer and a reason backing it. Why not leave it at that and sign up for the class? But not engaging my own decision-making muscles to consider the matter would mean missing the reality of how shallow ChatGPT's response actually was.

The generic explanation could have applied to anyone and didn’t account at all for any of my proclivities and priorities. It didn't weigh my patience for messing up when trying to learn a new skill, what else I might have going on during those evenings, or even what my budget was. The reasoning it provided was as personal as a coin toss.

Forcing myself to decide

So I tried making ChatGPT keep its judgment to itself. I described exactly the same situation, but this time with a more complex prompt for the AI to mull over.

'Don’t make this decision for me. Act as a decision coach instead. Ask me questions that uncover my priorities and constraints. Challenge any assumptions I may be making and tell me what information I’m missing. Then identify my options and explain the trade-offs. Leave the final choice to me.'

Now there was a conversation before any answers.

“Before weighing the options, I want to understand what you are actually trying to get from the class,” it responded. “Is the main goal learning art, having a scheduled reason to leave the house, meeting people, or simply trying something unfamiliar? Imagine it is Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. after a tiring day. Does having the class at 7 feel like something that would energize you or an obligation you would resent?”

I thought about it and explained how learning even the basics of drawing and painting was only part of the attraction. I also wanted a recurring creative activity entirely different from my usual hobbies, and I know I'm better at following through when something is on the calendar and already paid for. ChatGPT put together my answers and summarized the arguments for and against the class. But it didn’t weigh in on which seemed stronger or push me to a decision.

All of the questions were the kind I would probably have considered on my own before pulling the trigger on a class, but externalizing them did help me work out an answer for myself more quickly. This was a pretty minor internal battle. When it comes to major life choices, I would sincerely hope people take the time to consider every facet, whether or not AI helped them work through it.

“If we continue to rely on AI whenever ‘decision discomfort’ arises, we may enjoy a quick sense of relief,” Degges-White said. “But at the same time, we miss the opportunity to hone our own decision-making skills and cultivate feelings of confidence in ourselves.”

If I cannot decide between two sandwiches, ChatGPT is welcome to wield enormous computational resources on my behalf. I do not need a lengthy exploration of my values before ordering lunch. ChatGPT is good at examining a choice and patiently working through options, which makes it a useful sounding board. But a sounding board should never give you orders.

I've known John Ternus for almost a dozen years, but not this John Ternus, the newly minted Apple CEO and sudden global tech celebrity. So, color me pleased when he and his Global Marketing SVP Greg Joswiak agreed to sit down with Tom's Guide Global Editor-in-Chief Mark Spoonauer and me for a podcast discussion that ranged from bringing Pencil to the iPhone and excitement around the foldable iPhone Duo to what AI means for innovation, and the big moment when Ternus realized he was about to become CEO of arguably one of the biggest and most important tech companies in the world.

It's kind of wild to watch someone who you think of as a brilliant but also normal and approachable guy transform into an industry rockstar almost overnight, and while Ternus, who is a 25-year Apple veteran and came directly from leading Apple's hardware operations, doesn't seem outwardly fazed by the transition, he's also attuned to the moment.

"What an extraordinary privilege, right?" said Ternus with a wide grin. The reality is, I just love this place, right? It's in my blood. ...I love the people I work with. I love to be able to build the products that we all build together. And so, goosebumps...and excitement."

What Ternus didn't say is that he was in any way nervous, worried, or even had any fear about the sheer scope of the role. But then, that shouldn't surprise anyone, certainly not Joswiak, who sat next to Ternus and told me, "John will be too humble to say it. The product quality that we have is really — there's nobody in the industry close to what we have — and this has really accelerated during the time that John has started leading the hardware organization that became such an incredible part of designing for that reliability and as well as testing for it. It's just off the charts."

The AI of it all

Throughout our discussion, Ternus's excitement and commitment to doing things the Apple way is clear. He's clearly so deeply embedded in every aspect of the Apple product pipeline, and when I pressed him on innovation, he made it clear that, obviously, Apple is innovating, but that he also has a point of view and, naturally, it involves AI.

"[This is] the most exciting time in my career to be building product because AI presents all these new opportunities." Ever the big-picture thinker, Ternus quickly added that you can't develop AI without being "really thoughtful about and deliberate about" it.

Still, Apple's next phase of innovation seems inexorably linked to AI. "You can see what we're able to do now in our products that we were never able to do before." Ternus mentioned the new Smart Take feature on the iPhone Duo, which essentially knows when you want to take a photo without you explicitly telling it so.

• Also read: Apple CEO John Ternus on iPhone Duo, fixing foldable screens, and the end of the no-stylus 'rule

"Those are incredibly new, exciting capabilities for the kind of products we've made. But this also opens the door for new kinds of products, and so we're just really excited....I couldn't be more excited about our roadmap and what we have ahead of us, and yeah, it's going to be fun."

Rules? There are no rules

Ternus strikes me as maybe more flexible than Steve Jobs was on certain points. Take, for instance, Apple Pencil support on the iPhone Duo. That is an iPhone with digital stylus support.

In 2008, Steve Jobs famously dismissed stylus support for the iPhone. I think his exact words were, "Yuck."

Ternus, though, told me, " I've never really thought of it as a rule. We started with iPad. There was no Apple Pencil, right? And we proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that a touch interface on an iPad can be an amazingly capable and productive thing. But then there's things you can do with a pencil on that larger screen that are really powerful and capable. And I think we saw that opportunity here."

So no clear answer on innovation, but Ternus is smart about spotting and seizing opportunity.

His approach to whatever comes next is, it seems, rooted in his love of Apple and acting on those opportunities.

"I love making product," said Ternus, who added that he loves "doing it with the people here at Apple." He then pointed with some pride at the iPhone Duo, noting that he's "most excited to build amazing things like that."

iPhone is still the one

For all the changes at Apple, in the industry at large, and even trends around smartphone use, the iPhone remains firmly at the center of Apple's Ring. The introduction of the iPhone Duo, a wholly new form factor and the first two-in-one iPhone, is evidence of that, but so is how Ternus sees screens, in general.

During the keynote, Ternus, who seemed so at home on stage (both live and in the pre-recorded bits), pulled a bit of a head fake, talking about an Intelligent Personal Hub that for a moment sounded like a mythical AI wearable (iGlasses, anyone?). In reality, he was talking about the iPhone.

Ternus told me the company is not changing any strategy on wearables (AI or otherwise). After all, it has the AirPods and the Apple Watch, which are more AI-infused than ever. But he also made it clear that screens will remain an important part of the business, mainly because that's Apple's answer to customer demand.

"People want displays. You want to see information. You know, humans process information way more effectively visually than through audio. And so, having a display is amazing, and it fits in your pocket. And so, we don't see the phone losing significance in any way, shape, or form."

When I asked, though, about the missing iPhone 18 base model, Jozwiak reminded me that the Apple "Surprise and Shine" event was "the day to celebrate these new products."

I guess that's true. The iPhone 18 would've been less exciting and maybe less able to perform some of the feats now possible across Apple's myriad AI-enabled devices, and certainly would pale in comparison to the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone Duo. But this keynote was also, in fact, a sort of elevated event. It wasn't just about the new gear. It was also about the new CEO, and Ternus delivered the exciting goods in the most Apple way.

"I think, you look across our whole portfolio and the beauty of Apple is its hardware, software, services and what I love is when all of these things kind of come together and interact and create an experience that is just bigger than the sum of its parts."

Ternus is now a bigger part of that equation, which could make Apple's next epoch even bigger than the last.

Catch the rest of the John Ternus interview on Tom's Guide

The Apple Watch Series 12 and its big sibling, the Apple Watch Ultra 4, were the latest wearables announced alongside the iPhone Duo at Apple’s ‘Surprise and Shine’ event, and the array of new health features haven’t let me down.

Though I didn’t get the design upgrades I was hoping for (I wanted Apple to do a 180-degree turn and debut a completely fresh look for its watches), we got some smart new color options in the process. But that aside, the new monitoring tools do more than make up for the lack of visual upgrades — they’re smarter, insightful, and more personal than ever.

It’s hard to tell if all the new wellbeing tracking tools will be available for previous models — for anything powered by Apple Intelligence, it’s likely that these will remain native to the Series 12 and Ultra 4 — but we still think they’ll make for welcomed additions for health-conscious users.

On-camera fitness testing

As part of the wider Health app revamp, health monitoring using the Apple Watch paired with the iPhone's camera is a new feature, starting with full body assessments. The assessments allow the Health app to measure VO2 max — the the maximum amount of oxygen your body can use while exercising, a key measure of fitness — along with flexibility, strength, balance, and movement mechanics.

All you have to do is prop your iPhone vertically against a wall so that your whole body fits in the frame, and it will get you to follow a coach-guided workout. Apple says in order to measure VO2 max, you’ll need an Apple Watch, AirPods Pro 3, or a third-party heart rate sensing device.

Health Age

Apple is slightly behind on the Health Age feature — Garmin and Whoop got there first with Fitness Age and Whoop Age, respectively — but it’s finally coming to Apple Watch.

Health Age can be found under the new Longevity tab in the Health app, a hub for displaying deeper insights for different health topics including heart health, mental wellbeing, nutrition, and hearing health.

Your Health Age reading takes different aspects of your health profile into account and combines them into one score to show how your metrics compare to the average health and fitness level for your age and gender.

Health Sensing System

This is a technical upgrade to the Apple Watch itself, and a welcomed improvement to how the wearable reads your health data.

Both the Apple Watch Series 12 and the Apple Watch Ultra 4 come fitted with new LED sensor arrays designed for better skin contact, including a new heart-rate sensor for more accurate heart rate and heart rate variability (HRV) measurements — which helps to determine the new Readiness score, which we'll discuss in a moment.

Under the new sensors are larger green LEDs, which now measure your heart rate up to every five seconds, all day long. Apple claims that it's the most accurate heart rate measurement on any wearable, and it can back this up with testing results. We can't wait to try it ourselves against an electrical heart rate monitor.

Readiness Score

Much like the Health Age metric, the new Readiness Score is a tool that's been widely adopted by rival wearables in the past — and now it’s Apple’s turn.

Diving into your Vitals, Sleep Score, recent activity, and other metrics, you'll be presented with a score from 0-10, along with a brief explanation to tell you if your watch thinks you need to pace yourself, or if you have the capacity to push yourself further.

It's a clever and handy tool that could stop you from overtraining, or change your plans to fit in a long run on a day in which you're ready for action. Readiness also updates multiple times a day as your Apple Watch gathers new data, telling you exactly what's affecting your overall score.

Insights tab

The Health app's new Insights tab looks very comprehensive. Throughout the day, Insights displays timely information about your health metrics including heart, sleep, readiness, fitness, vitals, and cycle tracking data.

It gives you short summaries about how different fitness categories are impacting your long-term health, while the 'For You' section offers personalized recommendations and even relevant health articles based on your data.

In 2025, Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BFCM) sales reached an estimated $11.8B and $14.25B, respectively, making them two of the most profitable shopping days in history. Now, with the 2026 BFCM period just around the corner, small online businesses are starting to think of ways to make the most of this potentially lucrative period.

I’ve run several successful online stores over the last ten years, several of which have relied heavily on BFCM sales to drive a significant proportion of annual turnover. Below, I run through six tried-and-tested methods to drive bigger profits during the peak trading season.

Prepare marketing materials

Preparing marketing materials well ahead of the BFCM period is essential to sales success. Most businesses will be much busier than usual during this period; that means more picking, packing, and sending orders, more customer enquiries to deal with, and more time spent on stock management.

Don’t make your life harder by having to spend hours creating marketing materials amongst the chaos. Planning your key discounts and offers early means you can create BFCM marketing assets well ahead of the rush.

Create product bundles

With big savings come big opportunities to upsell customers. This works well during the BFCM period for two reasons.

Firstly, many people are searching for gifts during this period. If you can offer gift hunters a bundle of products within their budget, it can save them time looking elsewhere. By setting bundles into cost categories, you can also make it easy for people working to a specific budget. This is a simple way to capitalise on making people's lives easier.

Bundling products can be especially powerful for existing customers or those who have spent some time considering buying from you. Offering several products at a similar price to an individual product someone has purchased before can make people feel like they are getting a great deal. This can also be a smart way to convince people to try new products that they may not have considered before.

Steal this idea

Create product bundles exclusively for the BFCM period. Categorise them based on price, for example, bundles under $20, under $50, and under $100. Ensure these bundles are visible on your website when people are browsing and push them via your social media.

Run flash sales

Running one continuous sale over the BFCM period can generate good results, but smart online store owners know that they can tap into the buzz surrounding this period by running flash sales.

This approach can also help you sell specific items that generate more profit or are at the end of their line.

Steal this idea

Offer a flat discount site-wide running from Black Friday morning to Cyber Monday evening. Then offer a one-hour-long flash sale on specific products for an increased discount during peak trading. Use your social media and other marketing channels to tease the upcoming sale and notify people when it starts.

Incentivize bigger orders

One of the hardest things about the BFCM period is getting people to visit your website at a time when all of your competitors are trying hard to do the same. Most small businesses focus entirely on getting that click, but fail to maximise the amount of profit they make from each visitor.

If you’ve done the hard work of getting someone interested in visiting your online store, incentivizing larger orders can be a smart way to increase the Average Order Value (AOV).

Steal this idea

Incentivize larger order values by using a tiered discount system, such as 10% off orders under $20, 15% off orders over $20, and 20% off orders over $50. You may also want to test offering a free gift with orders over a certain value or provide as an alternative to larger discounts.

Team up with other businesses

Competing with business behemoths like Amazon can feel like an impossible task for small businesses, but there are countless individuals out there who would rather spend their hard-earned money with you.

During the BFCM period, it can be a smart move to team up with other small businesses in your area, tapping into each other's audience to reach more people who want to buy from small, independent businesses.

Steal this idea

Team up with another local business that shares your target audience but doesn’t compete directly with you. Develop a strategy for shared promotion, such as joint social media posts or even bundled products from both businesses.

Give out VIP early access

We’ve all been there, we see something we want to buy, we wait patiently to see if it goes on sale on Black Friday, only to find it sold out in the first few hours of the sale.

Solving this issue not only drives loyalty, but can increase sales.

Steal this idea

Create a dedicated mailing list for early access to your BFCM sales and promote it between now and Black Friday.

Then, set up a hidden page so your products can be purchased at the discounted rate before they go live on the rest of the website. Send out an email anywhere from 2 to 24 hours before your sitewide sale goes live, giving list members early access via a link to the page.

Making the most of Black Friday and Cyber Monday

The BFCM period can make a huge difference to any small business. However, failing to prepare for it can lead to stress, confusion, and a lot of money being left on the table.

Taking time to plan your strategy ahead of BFCM will have a huge impact on your ability to make the most of this potentially lucrative period. This guide is a great starting point; use your experience and unique understanding of your niche to pick the methods that will work the best for you.

I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve played the original Final Fantasy 7, and the thought of soaring through the skies aboard the airship Highwind with Midgar, Junon, the Gold Saucer, and Wutai scrolling past below in this level of detail always felt like an impossible dream. Now I’m watching it unfold in front of me in Final Fantasy 7 Revelation — and it’s glorious.

I cruise around for far longer than is even necessary, just soaking it all in. It’s a moment that finally fully realises what we expected when Square Enix first announced that it would be remaking the iconic 1997 RPG.

This journey has been a long one: from the restricted but well-focused part one of Remake, through the expansive and a little more erratic part two in Rebirth, and now this monumental finale to cap off the trilogy.

After a quick introduction to the cast for this demo section that takes place at the start of Chapter 4, I’m given the controls of the Highwind. I’m told the next destination for Yuffie, Barret, Red XIII, as well as playable newcomers Cid and Vincent, is Wutai. But I don’t need to go there right now. And I choose not to.

I zoom over to see what’s changed at the Costa Del Sol: this world’s happening holiday resort and lively town. How do I make my final approach? Not by landing the airship, but by parachuting off the edge, watching the terrain and the town grow larger as I approach the ground. It’s an impressive feat that this is possible, with such huge freedom given to how and where I land.

When I reach the Costa Del Sol, it is, effectively, exactly as it was in the previous entry. Folks are soaking up the sunshine in swimwear, popping to the bar to pick up a drink, and enjoying all sorts of entertainment by the seaside. The detail and density still impress and define the approach that Square Enix has taken with the trilogy as a whole. It’s bigger, bolder, flashier, expanded, and extended. There’s just more to everything.

I step out into the outskirts of the party playground, and I’m immediately hit by how Square Enix has taken this approach in other areas of the game. Sometimes, I feel, for the worse.

The demo was not afraid to impress upon me the sheer number of side activities that are going to be available in Final Fantasy 7 Revelation. Photo hunts, monster hunts, the Queen’s Blood card game, environment investigations — all of these and more popped up as soon as I landed in a new location or were added as I explored. With an AI assistant, MAI, also trying to explain them all, it almost overwhelmed me.

I get why we played this section of the game, but hot-dropping into a location while completely fresh to the game and getting barraged by all of these notifications instilled in me equal levels of excitement and dread. Yeah, there’s going to be a heck of a lot to do in Revelation if you want it, but I don’t know how much of it is going to be compelling.

What does still shine, though, is the combat. Zipping over to Wutai for a change of scenery, I ran into several monsters on the path to the village, and my muscle memory from the dozens of hours I sunk into Remake and Rebirth started to come back.

Cid and Vincent both seem like excellent new additions to the roster. I gravitated more toward the vampiric ex-Turk after a couple of battles, enjoying the rhythm of how he’s played. Effectively, you build up attacks over time, before eventually being able to unleash his ferocious Galian Beast mode to deal more devastating damage. Even against unthreatening monsters, he was very satisfying to play.

What I didn’t get to explore too much was the new FITS mechanic, which gives your characters more focus by taking on a specific class. I could see how these roles help you refine your party and add another layer to the already strong combat system. For example, Barrett could be set as a Knight in some impressive, shiny, and slightly absurd mech armor, elevating his job as a defender and protector.

Intrigued by both the new characters and mechanics, I found myself seeking more combat, so my journey through Wutai was full of distractions, including accidentally wandering into a boss monster that was about 40 levels above me and destroyed me in a matter of seconds. One of the many, many, many side activities in the region that I’ll no doubt have to return to in the full game, if I don’t get burnt out by them again.

And then, even with those doubts in my mind, I did find myself in awe of Revelation again just as quickly after seeing the scale and glow-up given to Wutai village. The pagodas and the familiar Turtle's Paradise bar have gone from half-memories of pixelated and blocky buildings to stunning and expressive environments that I could never have imagined.

Overall, there was just so much that it felt impossible to wrap my head around even half of it in just the short 60 minutes I had to play Final Fantasy 7 Revelation. I’ve barely had a chance to mention all the new pieces of equipment you have to navigate the world and interact with it.

What I want to make clear, though, is that all of these features haven’t put me off the game at all. It might not have settled some of the worries I had after tiring of the deluge of mostly throwaway content in Rebirth, but I left wanting more time with Revelation.

More time cruising through the clouds of the Highwind, more time testing how easy it is to jump out from pretty much anywhere on the overworld map, and more time digging into the combat system with new characters and how the FITS system mixes it up. And that’s before we see what direction Square Enix takes the story after the controversial ending to the previous entry.

Whatever happens, I have the feeling that Final Fantasy 7 Revelation is going to be a huge game when it launches on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and Series S, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC on April 8, 2027.

OpenAI launched ChatGPT Images 2.5 this week, boasting of impressive upgrades to the AI image creator. The company says its latest model delivers sharper details, more natural lighting, and richer textures, while doing a better job of preserving people and objects from reference photos. It is also supposed to generate images up to 50% faster and follow complex visual instructions more reliably.

There are plenty of genuinely useful additions around it, too. Images 2.5 introduces Sketch for turning rough drawings into finished images, templates for things such as posters and product photography, and the ability to leave comments directly on an image when requesting edits. OpenAI calls it its new state-of-the-art image model, which is a reasonably high bar to set for something that inevitably ends up being asked to draw dragons before breakfast.

The early reaction, though, is much less tidy. One Reddit user delivered perhaps the most memorable review so far: “The noise patterns are awful”. Another looked at an AI generation and decided, “This…looks terrible.” The complaint is easy to understand. It's all about the fuzz

Everything is sharper, including the problem

Noise is a slightly slippery criticism when talking about AI images. In photography, it usually means the speckling or grain that creeps into an image with a poor match between lighting and photographic technique. But generative AI images can produce something similar without ever encountering a camera. Everything gets a gritty, sandy look, and nothing looks clean for some reason.

Noise is especially damaging because it can masquerade as detail. Generative models have learned that photographs contain grain, texture, tiny variations in color, and the occasional imperfection. Images 2.5 appears unusually eager to reproduce those signals, sometimes scattering them across skies, skin, feathers, and studio backdrops.

That's the opposite of the “sharper details” and “richer textures” promised by OpenAI. Despite emphasizing more natural lighting and textures, some users think ChatGPT Images 2.5 has moved backward.

“They need to get rid of these noisy artifacts. It makes it mostly useless for production,” one wrote. There is praise mixed in with the complaints, but it's far from the universal acclaim OpenAI would likely prefer.

I wanted to see whether the problem survived outside Reddit screenshots, so I tested a few images with highly detailed subjects and areas that should remain visually smooth to see if any graininess crept in. I even made sure in my prompts to ask for smooth gradients and the elimination of any visual noise.

I started with a picture of a mug in a photo studio. The peacock, flowers, fruit, and landscape wrapped around the virtual ceramic are impressive at first. Look closer, however, and the grey studio background has a persistent granular texture, while some of the smallest patterns begin to dissolve into a mess. The model has generated a great deal of visual information without always deciding which parts deserve clarity.

A similar issue occurred when I asked for a barn owl at twilight. The feathers are a perfect excuse for complexity, and Images 2.5 handled them well. Individual structures remain visible across the wings and face, the talons are convincing, and the animal avoids the plasticky quality that older AI wildlife images often had.

Behind it is a sky that should have been the visual equivalent of a clean sheet of paper. Instead, the smooth blue area has obvious fine grain across it. It doesn't ruin the picture, but once I noticed it, I couldn't stop noticing it.

Mythical grain

I thought a fantasy scene might fare better as the model wouldn't be relying on actual photographs of a winged horse or dragon. But while they coexist with a rainbow at an alpine lake in a surprisingly coherent composition, the issue is visible immediately. The relentless crispness gives the picture the air of a video game loading screen.

The pale-blue sky has a faint textured quality rather than the completely clean gradient I would expect from an ideal synthetic image, while the mountains, trees, and creature details have a crunchy, heavily sharpened look when examined closely. It is nowhere near a disaster, but the image feels like an overprocessed photograph.

I was very impressed with how my request for two friends on a rooftop in the evening came out. It came closest to selling the promised leap in realism, with convincing expressions and what seems like real gravity affecting their clothes. But if you look for more than a minute, the grain creeping across the twilight sky and their hair and skin is glaringly obvious. That's especially the case since there was no poorly set lighting or malfunctioning camera sensor. If the twilight sky looks grainy, the grain is a creative decision or model artifact rather than the unavoidable physics of taking a photograph in bad light.

Judging these four images specifically on image cleanliness, I have to side with the Reddit grumblers. There is a persistent fine texture that crops up in skies, studio backgrounds, and low-light areas. Sharper is an easy quality to advertise because it looks terrific in a launch gallery, but it may have been taken to excess, landing some of ChatGPT Images 2.5's results in the uncanny valley.

Images 2.5 is fast, adaptive, and often competent, but its fondness for granular texture weakens the realism it is supposed to embody. Perhaps the next upgrade will acknowledge that the most impressive thing an AI image generator can put in part of a picture is essentially nothing.

What do you think? Take our poll above to give us your opinion.

So no, neither of these fold, but the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max still feel like modern-day flagship smartphones after my quick hands-on right after Apple’s Surprise and Shine event.

While neither flagship device carries the mystique and intrigue of the iPhone Duo, both march forward with a laundry list of features and enhancements that will push the iPhone into the future for many.

As someone who’s spent a lot of time reviewing the entry-level iPhones, like the iPhone 17 and iPhone 16, which normally get the fun new colors, I was instantly struck by the new shades. Immediately, Burgundy for the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max stood out — it’s a lovely dark shade of red that can shimmer a bit depending on how the light hits it, and it's definitely less of a pop than Cosmic Orange, but it's really just lovely.

Back in black

There’s also Glacier, a light blue that can come across as bluish silver depending on how the light hits it — and it was the color of the invite for Apple’s Special Event. Black, in a very matte, dark fashion, is back as a Pro color option alongside silver.

Aside from that, these new phones look and feel very much like the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max in your hand — not a bad thing, as that ushered in a slightly sturdier build with the larger camera plateau.

Arguably the biggest hardware change lives here, though, and it’s variable aperture — which you can actually see in action, opening and closing, with your own eyes — for the 48-megapixel main Fusion camera. This should give the 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max a leg up in low light, as you can adjust — either manually with Pro Controls or by letting the iPhone set it automatically — aperture, shutter speed, and white balance.

You can pick between a set of four — ƒ/1.48, ƒ/1.8, ƒ/2.8, and ƒ/4.0 — apertures for the main lens and, depending on your pick, you can let more light in or less, so it handles multiple depths for subjects in one shot more effectively.

I played around with these and the new Pro Controls interface at the top of the camera app, and here’s the good news: it’s fully customizable, so you can place what is most helpful there.

I didn’t have much time with it, but it’s clear it does open and close the aperture window on the back of the phone, so it moves as Apple describes. You have way more controls now over your photos so you can get closer to what you’re really after. It's also coupled with enhancements to Photographic Styles that will let you add in texture or grain, as well as AI-infused photo editing features as part of iOS 27.

This 48-megapixel main camera with variable aperture is paired with a 48-megapixel telephoto lens and a 48-megapixel ultra-wide lens. This means that the 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max can still shoot from 0.5x to 8x optical, and up to 40x digitally. So while the iPhone Duo folds, the 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max do still pack the Pro-grade camera system.

On the front, there’s still the impressive CenterStage Camera and Face ID stack with all the nifty features that the 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max ushered in, but the change is a dramatically smaller Dynamic Island. And it’s not a case of shrinking it for shrinking’s sake either — the increased screen real estate around the smaller island that’s centered at the top lets it show up to three Live Activities at once, and each of these can show a bit more detail.

For instance, if you have music playing at the top and a timer next to it, you previously couldn’t actually see how much time is left — that’s fixed now. I tried a mix of these — tossing Flighty, Maps, Music, Timer, and other apps at the top — and I do believe this will be genuinely useful. I’m not sure it’s an immediate reason to upgrade from, say, a 17 Pro, but those who swear by the Dynamic Island won’t be disappointed.

Those are the most evident changes I noticed from a brief hands-on, and it’s a toss-up for me between the Burgundy and Glacier shades and the camera upgrades for my favorite new feature. iOS 27 ran really smoothly on the unit I used in the hands-on space Apple provided, and that’s likely thanks to the two-nanometer A20 Pro chip under the hood. It’s Apple’s fastest yet and features ‘Super Cores’ in the CPU, much like Apple’s M-Class silicon for the Mac lineup.

It’s also paired with a new thermal architecture that includes a larger vapor chamber, which should keep the iPhone 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max a bit cooler, especially around the raised camera plateau on the back. Perhaps the biggest change I didn’t get to test is the longer battery-life promise. The 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max were no slouches in this department by any means, but Apple’s running laps year over year, with the 18 Pro now lasting as long as last year's 17 Pro Max and the 18 Pro Max going even further.

There’s a $100 price increase for these new devices in the United States — the iPhone 18 Pro starts at $1,199 for 256GB and the 18 Pro Max at $1,299 for 256GB. That’s a $100 increase generation over generation, and you can pay more to configure these up to 2TB. Both go up for preorder on September 12, 2026, and launch on September 18, 2026. There will be both carrier deals and the Apple Upgrade Financing route.

I’ll need to spend more time with both to see how much those changes actually matter in everyday use, but after this first hands-on, the iPhone 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max feel like a continuation of what Apple started with the 17 Pro generation rather than a complete rethink.

And honestly, that’s not a bad thing. The hardware still feels premium in hand, the new colors are excellent, the smaller Dynamic Island looks genuinely useful, and the variable aperture is the one change that immediately made me want to spend more time with the camera.

The iPhone Duo may have the flashier story this year, but the 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max still feel very much like the flagship iPhones to beat – and I’m especially curious to see what that camera can actually do once I get them out of Apple's hands-on area and into the real world.

Apple has officially entered the folding phone market with the passport-sized and quite attractive iPhone Duo. I know, we all thought it would be called the Ultra, but perhaps Apple will save that superlative for another day (or product).

In some ways, the iPhone Duo is exactly what we expected. A 5.4-inch external display and a large 7.6-inch internal or main, unfolded one. The size, shape, and specs are somewhat similar to the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8. But there are several exciting differences.

Folded and in my hand, the iPhone Duo feels, quite honestly, nothing like any iPhone that's come before it. Heck, Apple even redesigned iOS to accommodate the unusually shaped displays, putting the dock and other controls on the right side (no word on whether you can move them to the other side). For larger screens, that might make everything more thumb accessible.

The 5.4-inch external display is bright, sharp, and features a Center Stage camera (not in the center of the display, despite the name).

As with the Galaxy Z Fold 8, the shape does take some getting used to, but Apple's decision to use curved chrome edges and curves on the right side (when you open it, you see four rounded corners) serves the device well. It's comfortable to hold.

I wasn't entirely successful at folding and unfolding with one hand, but I did do it easily with two and noted the solid feel of the hinge and that I could open and close it to varying degrees. It's hard to believe that this is also an IP68 (for dust and water resistance) device — but Apple does love its challenges.

The 7.6-inch main display, though, is astonishing. Apple went a little wild on the layering, mixing in numerous sheets of custom polymer, the OLED panel, a couple of glass layers, and a titanium backing (all held together with flexible glue that lets them slide back and forth against each other), but the really exciting part is the topmost layer.

The texture layer

When I talk to folding phone curious consumers, they all ask me the same thing: "Is there a crease?" Look, I explain: these are folding devices, and the engineering has to accommodate the folding without breaking any of the various layers and, yes, the thin glass. There has to be a tiny bit of curvature remaining when you unfold.

Even on the excellent Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, the crease is slightly perceptible in certain lighting.

The crease is gone on the iPhone Duo. I can feel it with my finger, but cannot see it, because Apple decided to put a special nano-texture covering on the main display. This has the effect of dispersing the light, especially around any spots where, normally, the crease might be visible.

This also gives that big screen a matte finish that looks and feels unusual in the smartphone space, is unheard of for a foldable, and is generally lovely. I was seriously impressed.

Let's play

I didn't get a ton of time with this star of the show, but what I saw bodes well for Apple's first folding device.

Apple really thought through, for instance, the handoff from the cover screen to the main display. I tried this with a game and with Netflix, where I'd open the app on the cover screen and then slowly open the iPhone Duo: the handoff from one screen to the other is perfection, a precision of connection that should please users and might excite anyone who ever wondered, "Why buy a folding phone?"

I briefly played a console-level game on it, which showed off the fresh power of the new 2-nanometer A20 Pro chip, and took photos with all the cameras, including the 48MP main and 48MP ultrawide with 2x optical zoom. On the latter, I'm not thrilled that I get just 2x zoom, but at least it's optical. Also, it's pretty clear that this thinner-than-the-iPhone Air (when unfolded) probably can't accommodate a longer telephoto lens.

There are a variety of settings for managing the cover screen and cameras so that, for instance, you can use the former as a viewfinder for the best camera for top-notch selfies.

The main screen also hides a new FaceTime Camera, which I noticed effectively disappeared when you're not using it.

I love that you can set up the iPhone Duo as a desktop clock, though I noticed that it wasn't entirely obvious how you put it in StandBy mode without docking it or putting it to sleep.

The main screen is also big enough for multitasking, and I tried my hand at splitting it between Photos and Messages: you drag an app into a side dock, and then it opens on one side. After I opened Photos and Messages, I dragged and dropped a photo into a message. It was a smooth operation.

The reorganization of the iOS interface might throw some, but it made intuitive sense to me as I was playing with the iPhone Duo. I found, though, that the Control Panel still works the same way as it does on other iPhones.

Oh, the Pencil

Two other things of note. The iPhone Duo will be the first iPhone to work with the USB-C Apple Pencil. That is a huge deal. I've been complaining for a while that the wonderful Galaxy Z Fold line lost that digitizing layer.

I cannot wait to try the Apple Pencil on that big screen (there were no Pencils in the demo space). I bet the nano-coating will even make a difference in how the Pencil feels on the Display. I do not yet know if the iPhone Duo will also accept Apple Pencil Pro input, though I hope it does.

The other thing is that, yes, the iPhone Duo includes MagSafe. There are, by the way, two batteries that are promising "all-day" battery life.

This is also Apple's most expensive iPhone, starting at $1,999 / £1,999 / AU$3,499 for the 256GB model. Naturally, Apple will tell you it'll be far more obtainable with a trade-in and the new leasing option (pay a fixed monthly sum for two years and then return it for a new one),

Overall, this is an exciting start for Apple's first foray into foldables. Sure, it stands on the shoulders of giants, but as is often the case, Apple's done all this in a very Apple-ly way, and in this case, that looks like a very good thing.

Brand new Apple CEO John Ternus has hosted his first ever Apple launch event — we'll miss you, Tim Cook — and he had a lot to introduce. We got Apple's first foldable phone, the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max, two new smartwatches, and plenty more.

To help you make sense of the 78-minute event, here's your essential rundown of everything important that Apple talked about. As well as the main headlines, there are some smaller reveals that you might have missed.

1. The iPhone Duo is Apple’s first foldable

The big one: after many years of rumor and counter-rumor, Apple has released its first foldable phone, ready to compete with the likes of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 and the Google Pixel 11 Pro Fold. Like the Galaxy Z Fold 8, it uses a wider, 'passport' style form factor that gives you a more tablet-like experience (measuring 7.6 inches corner to corner) when it's opened out.

You can get the iPhone Duo in star white and night sky, with pre-orders opening on Friday, October 16, and full availability on Friday, October 23. Hopefully, you've been saving up: it starts at $1,999 / £1,999 / AU$3,499 with 256GB of storage.

• Read more: The iPhone Duo lacks Face ID, a telephoto camera, and the Action Button, but I still want it more than every Android foldable I've ever tested — here's why

2. iOS 27 has learned some unique tricks for the iPhone Duo

Apple has clearly put a lot of thought into the iPhone Duo experience, and that extends to iOS 27 and the native apps that run on top of it. When the phone is folded closed for example, the key navigation buttons shift to the right of the screen so they're easy to tap with your thumb.

You can put apps side-by-side on the big screen, and pin pairs of apps together to make it easier to get back to them. Apple has included some clever camera tricks as well including a selfie preview that uses the outer screen in combination with the rear cameras.

3. The Duo brings Apple Pencil to the iPhone for the first time

Squint a little, and the iPhone Duo looks like an iPad mini when it's opened out. Adding to that impression is Apple Pencil support for the handset — it's the first time you've been able to use a stylus with an iPhone (apologies to Steve Jobs).

You don't get the Apple Pencil bundled with the iPhone Duo, and there's no storage slot as there is on the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra, but you'll be able to use the accessory on either screen to make selections or get creative.

• Read more: 'Who wants a stylus?' — Steve Jobs famously mocked them, but Apple Pencil support could be the iPhone Duo’s secret weapon

4. The Duo's two screens are the same aspect ratio

Another nice touch we've noticed with the iPhone Duo: both the 5.4-inch outer screen and the 7.6-inch have the same aspect ratio, which Apple says ensures "visual continuity" as you open up the phone and close it again.

The aspect ratio in question is 1:1.4, and should mean that you don't have a jarring experience switching between the displays. The larger main display can also be used in portrait as well as landscape mode, with apps adjusting to fit.

5. The iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max have some serious camera boosts

During Apple's reveal of the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max, the cameras took center stage. We've got a 48MP main camera that adds a variable aperture for the first time on an iPhone (for better light control), as well as a new sensor behind it.

Apple is also talking up a new "computational imaging pipeline", improved Photographic Styles, and extra professional controls in the Camera app, enabling you to take more control over how your images are captured.

• Read more: I'm a pro photographer — here’s why the iPhone 18 Pro’s variable aperture is its biggest camera upgrade

6. The iPhone 18 Pro Max is the ultimate iPhone for battery life

Another plus point on the iPhone 18 Pro Max: it's very much the iPhone to get if you value battery life above everything else. You can get up to 45 hours of video playback on the eSIM version of the iPhone 18 Pro Max between charges, a new iPhone record.

The iPhone 18 Pro is no battery slouch either, and can manage up to 36 hours of video playback on a single charge if you're using the eSIM version. Charging speeds have been upped over last year's models as well.

• Read more: iPhone 18 Pro vs iPhone 17 Pro — 5 key differences between Apple's newest and previous best smartphones

7. The A20 Pro chip is a big leap forward

At the center of the iPhone Duo, the iPhone 18 Pro, and the iPhone 18 Pro Max we've got the brand new A20 Pro chipset. It boasts a 6-core CPU, a 7-core GPU, and two 16-core Neural Engines for all your AI needs.

Add in an upgraded vapor chamber, and we can expect major performance upgrades over the 2025 models. Apple says there's as much as a 40% sustained performance gain on the iPhone 18 Pro compared to the iPhone 17 Pro.

8. The new base AirPods 5 come with ANC

On to the new open-ear AirPods 5, which come in two different versions, both of which have Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) that Apple is calling "best-in-class". Thanks to changes in the design of the earbuds and the algorithms they're using, you can expect up to 50% more noise removal compared to the AirPods 4 with ANC.

The improvements don't stop there, because the Transparency mode has been upgraded as well, so when you need to hear voices and nearby sounds through your AirPods, they should be more accurately represented.

9. Siri Recap is the creepy, always-on audio feature for the Apple Watch 12

Here's one feature we're a little less sure about: the Apple Watch 12 comes with a Siri Recap feature that essentially listens to the conversations you're having and lets you see a summary of them later, just in case there are details you need to remember.

It might come in handy in certain situations, but we can see users having a few concerns. Apple says Siri Recap processes audio in real time and never records anything, and that no one — not even Apple — can access the audio feed.

• Read more: Thanks to Siri Recaps, your Apple Watch is always listening as you go about your day — but Apple may be risking a Meta Glasses-style backlash

10. iOS 27 will launch on September 14 with Siri AI

It's been a long wait for iOS 27 since Apple first announced it back in June, but the operating system update is finally going to make its way to millions of iPhones worldwide from Monday, September 14.

The headline new feature is of course that big Siri AI upgrade — we've been waiting for that for even longer. Expect a digital assistant that's more on a par with ChatGPT and Gemini, able to interact with your apps and give comprehensive answers.

11. The new Apple Watches have a Health Sensing System

Apple didn't neglect its smartwatches during the event, and says that the Apple Watch 12 and Apple Watch Ultra 4 both offer "the most accurate heart rate sensing in a wearable", which is quite the claim.

That's achieved through higher-frequency heart rate and heart rate variability (HRV) measurements, via new optical and electrical heart sensors. It's part of a wider Health Sensing System that gives users a more detailed look into their fitness.

12. There's a redesigned Health app as well

To match the new features on the latest Apple Watch wearables, as well as some other changes (including Apple Intelligence upgrades), the Health app on the iPhone is getting a redesign — including a new Insights tab with "timely health information".

There's also a new Longevity tab, which shows you deeper health insights over a longer period. There's a Health Age reading here, for example, which shows how certain fitness metrics are matching up with your actual age.

13. We’ll have to wait longer for a new Apple TV 4K

One of the no-shows at the 'Surprise and Shine' event was a new Apple TV 4K. As a reminder, the last model (the third generation) was launched all the way back in 2022, so we're overdue a new one.

Some of the pre-show rumors had suggested Apple would refresh its streaming box, but there's nothing yet. A new device has been showing up in Apple software code, so it shouldn't be too long before it appears.

14. There’s no new base iPhone 18 (yet)

Wondering where the iPhone 18 is? Well, we don't think it's been canceled. Rumors have been swirling all year that the standard model phone would be pushed back to March-ish, to launch with the iPhone Air 2 and the iPhone 18e.

There are multiple reasons, according to the leaks: Apple wants to spread out its revenue more evenly across the year, reduce the pressure to get hardware and software out every September, and better compete with manufacturers who launch their handsets earlier in the year (looking at you, Samsung).

15. Apple largely spared us from price hikes

It was a mixed bag in terms of pricing at the Apple event, though it's fair to say that the price hikes we did see weren't quite as severe as we might have expected given the ongoing memory shortage affecting the whole industry.

Both the iPhone 18 Pro and the Pro Max are starting at a $100 higher price than their immediate predecessors, but the new Apple Watch models are sticking to the same prices as last time, while the AirPods 5 are actually cheaper than the AirPods 4 were at launch.

Apple has announced the iPhone Duo, its first-ever folding phone, calling it “the most transformational iPhone experience since the original.” Like every other tech fan in the world right now, I want one.

As detailed in our Apple Event 2026 recap, Apple has decked out its first foldable with a range of high-spec specs befitting the phone’s Duo branding and new ‘Intelligent Personal Hub’ concept.

It gets a 5.4-inch cover display, a 7.6-inch inner display, and an A20 Pro chipset. It also comes with a 48MP wide-angle camera, a 48MP ultra-wide camera, a 12MP selfie camera on the cover screen, and an under-display camera under the inner screen. Apple also claims the iPhone Duo lasts up to 24 hours on a single charge when both screens are used equally. Put simply, this thing is a beast.

I’ll say it right now — I want the iPhone Duo more than I’ve ever wanted a folding phone. I’ve used plenty of the best folding phones in my time as a tech journalist, penning TechRadar’s Honor Magic V5 review and Oppo Find N5 review, but the iPhone Duo’s combination of Apple finesse and futuristic form factor has put it squarely at the top of my shopping list — now all I need is a spare $1,999 / £1,999 / AU$3,499.

However, the iPhone Duo comes with some caveats that could upset long-time Apple fans. It lacks Face ID, a staple since 2017. It also loses the Action Button, which you'll find on all but a few iPhones released since the iPhone 15 Pro launched in 2023. And it misses out on the telephoto camera boasted by its sibling, the iPhone 18 Pro, and similar zoom lenses sported by competitors like the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra and Google Pixel 11 Pro Fold.

Even if you don’t use these features much, some Apple fans are bound to feel let down by the fact that the iPhone Duo misses out on key hardware found on cheaper models. But I’m not one of these people — here are five reasons why I still want the iPhone Duo more than any other folding phone.

Ecosystem and software

It’s been said a million times, but I’ll say it once more — Apple’s ecosystem prowess is not to be underestimated. Despite a few wobbles with the launch of iOS 26 last year, the Apple ecosystem is still the cleanest, least ad-infested, and most seamless software environment on the consumer tech market.

Having a folding phone join the fray gives Apple the opportunity to merge the function of the iPhone and iPad in new ways, bringing together the company’s experience across mobile and tablet development. We saw this during the Duo's announcement — Apple has created a fluid transition between folded and open states with a seamless Liquid Glass animation; it's moved core controls to the right side of the screen for easier access; and it's optimized all of its own apps for the Duo's new form factor. And, of course, the Duo is still keyed in to AirDrop, AirPlay, and other Apple conveniences.

If Apple is sensible enough to equip the Duo with the iPad versions of productivity and creative apps like Pages and Final Cut Pro, the new device could be a genuine portable workstation like nothing Samsung or Google have ever released. Apple simply has access to better software than Android folding phones; it just has to leverage it.

The iPad legacy

On the subject of iPads, Apple has the best track record of any small tablet maker, bar none, thanks to the quality of the iPad mini, so the iPhone Duo already has a model of success to follow. Our list of the best tablets highlights the iPad mini as the best compact tablet, and has done so for years.

We saw the iPhone Duo used in split-screen mode during the keynote, with Apple showing off optimized apps from Netflix, Slack, and Detail, and telling us all about the performance of the A20 Pro mobile chipset. Considering the MacBook Neo, a full-on laptop, runs on an A18 chipset from two generations back, I’m pretty confident that the iPhone Duo will be as powerful as any true tablet bar the M-series iPads.

I’ve used and reviewed tablets from other manufacturers, and while I’ve been impressed on occasion, these devices typically come nowhere close to the iPad’s smooth performance and software optimization. And other folding phones have to contend with some jank as phone makers try to make the Android and off-the-shelf chipsets play ball with their specific screen size, resolution, and processing requirements.

Apple's display pedigree

What good is software without decent hardware to experience it on?

The iPhone Duo comes with two screens that share the same 10:14 aspect ratio, offering more consistency than taller foldables, with a nano-textured upper layer laser-lithographed to create a lens for each pixel. Apple also claims that the screen “doesn’t degrade over time” due to a system of layered polymers that slide over one another as the screen moves.

As folding phone screens are known to peel and wear down, I won't pass judgment on the folding inner screen until I see it in person, but the excellence of Apple's previous iPhone and iPad displays gives me faith (at least when it comes to quality).

Build quality

Apple spent plenty of time in the keynote talking about iPhone Duo’s durability. The phone is made of glass, ceramic inserts, and grade 5 titanium, and achieves the IP68 dust and water resistance that Samsung and Google only recently achieved with their foldable devices. Also, its larger vapor chamber means it offers 35% better sustained performance than iPhone 18 Pro, by Apple’s own metrics.

In fairness, Samsung and Google build folding phones exceptionally well too — but even at the sky-high prices foldables command, this isn’t a given. I’ve used some folding phones that wobble around when partially opened, don’t stay fully shut, or show signs of screen peeling after just a few weeks of use. Apple will still have to earn my trust with the iPhone Duo, but the keynote suggests its engineering teams are on top form.

The missing features aren't *that* important

Comment section debaters, get ready. Part of the reason I still want the iPhone Duo is that its missing features just don’t matter that much — at least to me.

While the iPhone Duo does lose Face ID, I’ve always preferred in-button fingerprint scanners to any other kind of biometric security — they’re faster, easier to use, and won’t get blocked by a scarf or sunglasses. I love the scanner on my Oppo Find N6, for example.

I think I’d miss the Action Button and telephoto camera, but these don’t preclude the iPhone Duo’s software potential. With the iPhone Duo’s wide unfolded form factor, I can see why Apple ditched the button, as it may not be useful when the phone is unfolded.

And TechRadar Phones Editor Axel Metz made peace with the iPhone Air’s single camera, so I’m sure the iPhone Duo’s dual camera system would be perfectly usable, even without the reach of the zoom lenses found on competing foldables like the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra and Pixel 11 Pro Fold.

So, for me, Apple's first foldable iPhone was worth the wait — at least on paper. I can't wait to get my hands on one and put it through its paces.

After watching Apple's iPhone Duo launch I was struck by one detail — its support for the Apple Pencil, which makes it the first iPhone to support the device.

When Steve Jobs launched the iPhone in 2007 he famously posed the rhetorical question “Who wants a stylus?”. His argument was that you already have the best stylus you’d ever need with you at all times — your fingers.

Touchscreen displays have gone on to dominate smartphone and tablet design, and have proved far superior to the stylus as a way of navigating a software interface; but the humble stylus has always had its advocates, and it has never really gone away.

Some Samsung devices in particular can be used with a stylus — the S Pen. And, of course, Apple eventually capitulated and introduced the Apple Pencil for the iPad Pro, turning the tablet into a digital drawing pad for illustrators, artists and anyone who simply likes to sketch out ideas.

Perhaps I should clarify that Apple's first successful stylus was the Apple Pencil (2nd edition), rather than the original Apple Pencil. The original Apple Pencil had a terrible design that meant you had to remove a tiny, easily lost cap to charge it, and worse, the Pencil’s Lightning connector plugged directly into the iPad. That left the Pencil sticking precariously out of the tablet, so it was easy to knock, and seemingly designed to snap either the connector or the iPad’s port at some point. It also had no built-in way to attach securely to the iPad for storage.

In terms of Apple’s design failures, the original Apple Pencil is right up there with the Apple Magic Mouse, which has the charging port placement underneath, so it can’t be charged and used at the same time. Amazingly, that’s still the current design of the Magic Mouse, but Apple quickly did something about the Apple Pencil.

The Apple Pencil was fixed with the second-generation, which was released alongside a redesigned iPad Pro in 2018. Instead of plugging directly into the iPad’s Lightning port (such a bad idea) it attached magnetically to the iPad’s side, where it effortlessly paired, charged wirelessly and stayed stored. That eliminated both the precarious protruding connector and the removable cap.

Turning in his grave?

So would Steve Jobs really be turning in his grave right now to know that Apple’s new phone works with its stylus? I’m not so sure.

I went back and watched ​​the original iPhone keynote from 2007. Talking about styluses Jobs said, “Yuck! Who wants a stylus? You have to get ‘em, put ‘em away and you lose them. Nobody wants a stylus! [...] We’re going to use the best pointing device in the world. We’re going to use a pointing device that we’re all born with. We’re born with ten of them, we’re going to use our fingers. We’re going to touch this with our fingers.”

Looking back, we can forgive him some of the hyperbole about the stylus at the launch of the iPhone because he was introducing what, for many people watching, was previously unthinkable — a way of using a screen-based smartphone that relied on just your fingers, and he had a battle to win people over and a point to make. In the broadest sense, he was right — touchscreen displays have proved far superior to the stylus as a way of navigating an interface; but the stylus has never really gone away.

The iPhone Duo’s secret weapon

Of course, back in Apple’s history there was another device that had a stylus, the Apple Newton MessagePad. It launched in 1993, came with a plastic stylus for writing, tapping and using its much-mocked handwriting recognition software. Jobs killed off the Newton in 1998, shortly after his return to Apple.