England vs Australia could well be the game of Nations Championship 2026 Round 4, with both sides needing to make huge improvements ahead of next year's World Cup. They're third in their respective groups, but weren't pulling up any trees ahead of the interval.

Les Kiss has since replaced Joe Schmidt at the Wallabies helm, and it's been a topsy-turvy start for the former rugby league player. After winning a double-header against Japan and even toppling South Africa, they were held by Argentina before a Bledisloe Cup annihilation at the hands of New Zealand.

Kiss is very much in the experimental phase of his tenure, but even so his decision to call up 37-year-old Kurtley Beale, five years after his last cap, has raised eyebrows. At the other end of the spectrum, Teddy Wilson, the uncapped son of former Wallabies captain David, has also been brought into the setup.

Four years after taking the England reins, Steve Borthwick retains the backing of the RFU, even if fans are disillusioned with results and the team's agricultural style. On the contrary, Borthwick was rewarded with a contract extension in September, and it's since emerged that he recently turned down the services of the legendary Shaun Edwards, the best defensive coach in the game.

Neither development has gone down well with supporters. Borthwick has, however, been dealt a rough hand with scrum-half Alex Mitchell out injured. Jack van Poortvliet replaces him at number 9 while Fin Smith has escaped injury to make up the half-back pairing.

Read on as we explain how to watch England vs Australia for free from anywhere in the world in the Nations Championship.

England vs Australia for FREE

England team: 15 George Furbank, 14 Tommy Freeman, 13 Henry Slade, 12 Seb Atkinson, 11 Immanuel Feyi-Waboso, 10 Fin Smith, 9 Jack van Poortvliet, 8 Ben Earl, 7 Ben Curry, 6 Ollie Chessum, 5 Alex Coles, 4 Maro Itoje (captain), 3 Joe Heyes, 2 Jamie George, 1 Fin Baxter.

Replacements: 16 Luke Cowan-Dickie, 17 Ellis Genge, 18 Will Stuart, 19 George Martin, 20 Greg Fisilau, 21 Henry Pollock, 22 Ben Spencer, 23 Marcus Smith.

Australia team: 15 Tom Wright, 14 Max Jorgensen, 13 Isaac Henry, 12 Len Ikitau, 11 Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii, 10 Declan Meredith, 9 Ryan Lonergan, 8 Harry Wilson (captain), 7 Fraser McReight, 6 Jeremy Williams, 5 Lukhan Salakaia-Loto, 4 Josh Canham, 3 Allan Alaalatoa, 2 Billy Pollard, and 1 Angus Bell.

Replacements: 16 Josh Nasser, 17 Isaac Kailea, 18 Taniela Tupou, 19 Rob Valetini, 20 Carlo Tizzano, 21 Tate McDermott, 22 Ben Donaldson, 23 Filipo Daugunu.

Watch England vs Australia for FREE

Yes. England vs Australia is free-to-air on Rugbypass TV in the US, on ITVX in the UK, on Virgin Media Play in Ireland.

Traveling abroad right now? You can use a VPN to watch England vs Australia for free as if you were right at home.

Use a VPN to watch England vs Australia live streams

A VPN is handy piece of software that can make your device appear as if it's back in your home country, so you can unlock your usual service. The best VPN right now? We recommend NordVPN – it does everything and comes with up to 75% off.

How to watch England vs Australia live streams in the US

England vs Australia is available to live stream for FREE on Rugbypass TV in the US.

You can tune in via the Rugbypass TV website or app, and it works with Chromecast, Airplay, AppleTV and Android TV.

Outside of the US? Use a VPN while you're traveling away from home to unlock your stream.

How to watch England vs Australia live streams in the UK

In the UK, England vs Australia is free-to-air on ITV1, with live streaming available via ITVX.

All you need is an account, a TV license and a UK postcode (e.g.HA9 0WS). Sign up here!

If you're out of the UK but still want to tune in, explore the VPN route set out above, which will help you access your accounts from anywhere.

How to watch England vs Australia live streams in Ireland

England vs Australia is free-to-air on Virgin Media One in Ireland, with live streaming available via the Virgin Media Play platform.

You will require an account, but no paid subscription is required.

Outside Ireland? You’ll need to download a VPN, as detailed above, to tap into your free Nations Championship stream from abroad.

How to watch England vs Wallabies live streams in Australia

In Australia, England vs Wallabies is available on Stan Sport.

Stan Sport costs an additional AU$20 per month on top of a Stan subscription. Stan subscriptions currently start at AU$4.99 per month for the first two months, before reverting to the standard price of AU$9.99 per month.

Not in Australia right now? You can simply use a VPN like NordVPN to watch the action as if you were back home.

How to watch England vs Australia live streams in New Zealand

In New Zealand, Sky Sport 2 NZ is showing the England vs Australia game.

You can access Sky Sport through satellite TV or get a live stream, with the Sky Sport Now subscription service starting at NZ$29.99 per day or NZ$59.99 per month.

Those outside of New Zealand for any part of the Nations Championship can use NordVPN to gain access to their home streaming service.

How to watch England vs Australia live streams in South Africa

The England vs Australia game is being shown on Supersport in South Africa.

You'll need to get a DStv access package to watch the Nations Championship 2026, with prices starting at Rs99/month for the streaming version.

Abroad right now? Just use a VPN and tell your device that you're back home and you'll be good to go.

How to watch England vs Australia live streams in Canada

In Canada, England vs Australia is being shown on Premier Sports.

You can tune in via the CA$29.99 monthly pass, the CA$79.99 six-month pass or a CA$139.99/year subscription.

If you're out of Canada but still want to catch the action, explore the VPN route set out above, which will help you access your accounts from anywhere.

We test and review VPN services in the context of legal recreational uses. For example:1. Accessing a service from another country (subject to the terms and conditions of that service).2. Protecting your online security and strengthening your online privacy when abroad.We do not support or condone the illegal or malicious use of VPN services. Consuming pirated content that is paid-for is neither endorsed nor approved by Future Publishing.

Over the last few years, Zoom has probably had one of the most intriguing journeys in the business world.

After booming during the pandemic, the company has since expanded its offerings to cover a huge range of enterprise needs, with contact center services alongside traditional video conferencing and expanding AI tools.

As the company looks ahead to its new AI-enabled evolution, I went to the Zoom Experience Centre in London to find out more.

Refusal to compromise

“When we look at EMEA, we think the landscape is shifting in how organizations think about the technology they rely on,” Louise Newbury-Smith, Zoom’s Head of UKI, explains.

“For years, the pattern has been pretty similar, an organization would adopt a platform and then have to manipulate their own way of working around that platform - we really want to reverse that.”

“There is still some of that friction…(but) what’s changing is that organizations are starting to refuse to compromise - they want platforms to work the way they want to work.”

Zoom opened its UK data center in November 2025, greatly improving the situation for organizations in the region, as data residency choices which didn't exist before are now in place, meaning the likes of local councils, NHS trusts and financial services firms can store their data locally.

Newbury-Smith notes that the EMEA region is not a secondary market for Zoom, but high growth opportunity, a point echoed by Nick Tidd, Head of Global Channel GTM, who said the region offers, “a truly remarkable opportunity for our customers and for our partners, when you look across the product portfolio.”

This opportunity is hooked onto AI, particularly the growing importance of the context layer, a situation where Zoom is ideally placed, Tidd says.

“Think of how Zoom is positioned across the product portfolio - capturing all of those conversations…(and) putting them into the context to capture them in the workflow is where we are very different to others.”

This move was expanded by Leo Boulton, Zoom’s Head of Product, Solution and Industry Marketing, who ran us through the company’s recent releases and product announcements, highlighting the importance of context in Zoom’s concept of “conversation to completion” in its new Unified Context Layer.

“Conversations come natural to us - the way that we work is through conversations, it’s just a natural part of how humans are,” he noted, “so getting the job done should also be a natural thing - not something that requires a change in behavior, but something that should naturally just be part of our everyday work.”

If this doesn’t happen, workers will resist change, Boulton notes - particularly when it comes to AI, which is why Zoom is looking to embed intelligence into work itself.

Context has become a critical part of improving AI performance and usefulness in recent months, and Zoom wants to ensure its tools are as up to date as possible - but this requires some key elements.

“Before AI can truly understand how people work and operate, we have to guarantee it has the highest-quality raw materials,” Boulton points out. “The conversation must be crisp, clear and understood with genuine eye contact – because only with the best ingredients can AI deliver the most value.”

Zoom has been working hard to improve the quality and fidelity of its audio and video for calls and meetings, including the upcoming launch of a real-time “voice smoothing” tool known as “touch up my voice” and a pose correction tool enabling for greater eye-to-eye contact to boost interpersonal connections.

The better your agents understand your business, the more effectively they can work for you, Boulton notes, as he demonstrated how users will soon be able to benefit from a live assist feature which offers proactive suggestions during a call, such as telling you to speak slower or faster.

Zoom Chat is also getting a significant upgrade, making it what Boulton said should be a shared space where people and agents will interact and work together.

“We don’t expect our customers to live entirely inside Zoom,” he said. “True adoption only happens when tools feel natural, which is why our context layer is open by design – bringing the intelligence directly into whatever interface people already choose to work in.”

So it’s clear that Zoom wants to be so much more than your classic video conferencing and chat platform - and its ability to get the most out of your information could make it a very handy tech partner going forward.

“The direction is super clear,” Newbury-Smith concludes, “we're building and serving our customers where they are.”

• iOS bans certain terms from auto-complete and swipe-to-type
• They include references to politics and drugs, researchers report
• The list could include more than 100,000 entries, apparently

Try and type out phrases like "sleepy Joe", "dictator Trump", or "Tibetan independence" on your iPhone, and you'll notice that you don't get auto-complete suggestions for them, and you can't swipe-type them — evidence of a 'gray list' of terms that has been discovered hidden in iOS.

The so-called gray list was discovered by researcher Derek Kauffman and reported by Reuters, and verified by an independent cybersecurity engineer. It's thought that there are at least 100,000 words and phrases in the list.

Other entries on the gray list, as reported by The Guardian, include "NSA spies", "question your sexuality", and even "Australia is a very bad place". References to drug use also seem to be unavailable through auto-complete or swipe typing.

There's no issue with typing out any of these terms and including them in any kind of message — but the point is that iOS won't try and auto-complete them like it will with other words and phrases, or let you type them through swiping.

More transparency

Apple is keeping its cards close to its chest: it didn't comment on the list directly in an email sent to Reuters, but did acknowledge that the iPhone keyboard was set up to avoid offering suggestions that might be inappropriate or offensive.

You may remember last year there was something of a kerfuffle over iPhones changing "Trump" to "racist" during dictation. It wasn't clear exactly what happened, but with any kind of AI-driven automation, these sorts of issues can arise.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation's David Greene told Reuters that while he could see the thinking behind a gray list for the iOS keyboard, "this is something users should be really well aware of and have some ability to customize".

For Kauffman as well, a bit more transparency from Apple about exactly what's going on here, and why, would be welcome. "It's a very light-touch form of censorship," the researcher told Reuters. "But at the scale that Apple is operating, it only takes a light touch to have a big impact."

Audio-Technica AT-LP7X: Two-minute review

For a company that’s been turning out high-quality turntable cartridges since the early 1960s, Audio-Technica certainly took its sweet time to begin manufacturing record players. Unless you count the ‘Sound Burger’ of the late 1980s (which I don’t, despite its re-release), it was the back end of 2009 before Audio-Technica delivered a turntable — but since then the dam has broken, and now the Japanese specialist is one of the most credible names around when it comes to record players at real-world money.

The AT-LP7X comes complete with the company’s AT-LT10 headshell and AT-VM95E MM cartridge attached — and also with a switchable moving magnet / moving coil preamplifier on board too. All of which means that setting up this record player is about as straightforward as it gets. And it’s compatible with just about any audio system you care to mention.

The quality of build and finish is well up to the standard this asking price demands, the height-adjustable isolation feet are another welcome feature, and the fully detachable dust-cover doesn’t harm the perceived value of the AT-LP7X either.

It’s not the most exciting listen, the Audio-Technica, and those who prefer a vigorous and/or front-foot attitude to their music will find it a little more laid-back than is ideal. The rest of us, though, will find quite a lot of solace in the turntable’s ability with detail retrieval and with rhythmic expression, in its even-handed attitude to frequency response and its careful lack of influence where tonality is concerned.

Audio-Technica AT-LP7X Review: Price and release date

• Launched on January 6, 2026
• Costs $999 / £699 / AU$1,799

The Audio-Technica AT-LP7X is on sale now, and in the United Kingdom it costs £699. It sells for around $999 in the United States, while in Australia you’re looking at AU$1,799 or thereabouts.

This makes it a deck for Proper Vinyl People, rather than an entry-level turntable (something that might even have some amplification in the plinth and some speakers bundled in the box), so its closest competition for the money is something along the lines of the Rega Planar 3. Take note though: unlike the A-T you've come here to read about, the Rega option won't come supplied with a cartridge — or even a preamp…

Audio-Technica AT-LP7X review: Features

• Integrated, switchable MM/MC phono stage
• J-shaped tonearm with AT-LT10 headshell and AT-VM95E MM cartridge
• Dual-axis gimbal

Any list of ‘features’ tends to be quite same-y when you’re discussing belt-drive turntables that sell at a realistic price. So the fact that the AT-LP7X has one more feature than is the norm is something worth discussing…

On the rear of the plinth, close to the stereo RCA left and right outputs, there are a couple of small switches. One is marked ‘phono/line’, the other ‘MM/MC’ — switch the first to ‘line’ and you engage the Audio-Technica’s integrated preamplifier, which amplifies the outbound signal to the point it can be connected to any amplifier, powered speaker or what-have-you with a line-level analog input.

The other switch allows you to tell the preamplifier if the turntable is fitted with a moving magnet or moving coil cartridge so it can adjust itself accordingly. And this is refreshingly unusual and welcome.

When it arrives, the AT-LP7X is supplied with a moving magnet cartridge — one of Audio-Technica’s well-regarded AT-VM95E designs. It’s prefitted to an AT-LT10 headshell positioned at the end of a 247mm J-shaped tonearm, and is preadjusted too. The tonearm features a dual-axis gimbal (to keep tilting to an absolute minimum) and has manual adjustment for tracking, height and counterweight integrated.

The set-up guide provided by Audio-Technica is admirably clear and succinct, and anyone with even remotely steady hands will be able to bring the AT-LP7X to a state of readiness in next-to-no time.

This is a belt-drive turntable with automatic speed adjustment — there’s a large rotary dial on the plinth that has ‘33’, ‘45’ and ‘stop’ positions, so there’s no need to faff around with the belt or what-have-you in order to change speeds. Speed is governed by an optical sensor-monitored motor designed to ensure rotational accuracy; to minimise the transmission of mechanical noise and/or vibration, it’s decoupled from the plinth by rubber bushings.

The stainless steel spindle has a thermal-plastic, sheet-type bearing to further help maintain precise rotational speed. Power comes via an external switching supply that isolates AC-to-DC conversion away from the turntable to suppress electrical interference.

• Features score: 5 / 5

Audio-Technica AT-LP7X review: Sound quality

• Smooth frequency response and even tonality
• Good low-frequency control
• Phono stage could be more involving

Use the AT-LP7X’s integrated phono stage to preamplify the signal on its way to an amplifier and there’s plenty to enjoy about the way the Audio-Technica goes about delivering music. No matter if it’s the opaque simmer of Bob Dylan’s Love Sick or the relentless build of ØXN’s Cruel Mother, this turntable is an even-handed and informative listen.

It certainly has a handle on frequency response. The low frequencies it generates could be a little less soft, it’s true, but in terms of allowing each area of the frequency range a similar amount of emphasis the AT-LP7X is an assured performer. It’s not especially keen on sticking its oar in where tonality is concerned, either — there’s a nicely neutral balance to the sound that allows the source material to dictate terms in this respect.

Despite the slight lack of substance at the bottom end, bass sounds are nicely controlled and there’s the facility with rhythmic expression that vinyl-fanciers routinely hold up as a major virtue of the format.

The midrange is open and informative, and the differences in timbre, character and technique between the two vocalists previously mentioned are made absolutely plain. At the top end there’s a serving of polite attack, and just enough bite and crunch to treble sounds to keep things interesting.

The Audio-Technica describes a reasonably well-defined soundstage and can position the participants in a recording on it with a fair amount of confidence. ‘Reasonable’ is an equally fair way to describe the AT-LP7X’s facility with dynamics, too — the ØXN recording builds in volume and intensity tenaciously, and this turntable does more than allude to these upshifts while stopping short of giving them full expression.

It’s more adept when it comes to detail retrieval, needing no qualification as to how impressively it handles the weighting and contextualisation of even the most minor occurrences in a recording.

The Audio-Technica’s overriding character is a little uninvolving, though — it presents music in a rather matter-of-fact way that has apparently traded excitement for a desire not to cause a fuss.

Some, but not all, of this attitude can be blamed on the integrated phono stage. Switch it off and instead connect the the AT-LP7X to a decent external alternative (an elderly Leema Elements, say, or a newer Pro-Ject Phono Box) and while it doesn’t suddenly turn the Audio-Technica into a snappy front-foot ball of energy, it certainly serves to bring a little more animation to the sound. All the things the turntable does well remain present and correct, but its attitude becomes a little more lively, a little more interested — and a little more interesting as a result.

• Sound quality score: 3.5 / 5

Audio-Technica AT-LP7X review: Design

• 157 x 450 x 352mm (HxWxD, inc. dust-cover)
• MDF plinth, acrylic platter
• Spring-based, height-adjustable isolation feet

No one in their right minds attempts to mess with the established design of a record player, of course — not unless they’re trying to justify some stratospheric asking price, anyway. And so with the AT-LP7X Audio-Technica has stuck closely to the long-established ‘rectangle with a circle on it’ template. The slightly curved corners of the plinth are as close as the company has come to deviating from the norm.

But just because the AT-LP7X hasn’t been ‘designed’ so much as ‘built’, that doesn’t mean Audio-Technica has withheld care and attention. The MDF plinth is very nicely finished, and stands on four hefty height-adjustable spring-based isolation feet that offer good isolation from external vibration to the main body. The 20mm platter is acrylic, and so smoothly finished that a slip-mat is an option rather than a necessity — its high-density design is yet another attempt to dampen vibration down to a bare minimum.

The AT-LP7X is supplied with a smoked Perspex dust-cover. This fits tidily around the plinth, and lifts all the way off rather than being hinged. With the dust-cover in place, the entire thing tips the scales at 7.6kg.

• Design score: 5 / 5

Audio-Technica AT-LP7X review: Usability and setup

• Adjust anti-skate and counterweight
• Select ‘phono’ or ‘line’ output
• Connect to amplifier or powered speaker

Audio-Technica has tried to make setting up the AT-LP7X as simple as possible. The tonearm already has its headshell and cartridge attached, and it’s pre-adjusted, so you need only dial in the appropriate amount of anti-skate and adjust the counterweight as per the set-up instructions. This is the work of just a moment or two, and then you’re good to go.

Or, at least, you are once you’ve connected the turntable to the mains and to your amplifier (or similar) using a pair of analogue RCA cables — Audio-Technica supplies all the necessary. Then select either ‘phono’ or ‘line’ output at the rear of the plinth (depending on whether or not your amplifier has a phono-level input) and make sure the other switch is set to ‘MM’ (if you’re using the supplied AT-VM95E cartridge).

To use the AT-LP7X, it’s just a question of getting the platter spinning at the correct speed and then carefully lowering the needle onto the vinyl. This is ancient technology by the standards of home entertainment, and there’s precious little complexity to it where the end user is concerned.

• Usability and setup score: 5 / 5

Audio-Technica AT-LP7X review: Value

If you need a phono stage to amplify the sound of that record player you’re thinking of buying, the AT-LP7X makes a lot of sense. Not only is it well-made and painless where set-up and operation are concerned, it’s got an integrated phono stage that can handle both moving magnet and moving coil cartridges — the value for money it offers in this respect is obvious.

If your system already features half-decent phono amplification, though, the Audio-Technica is not quite as compelling — because you’re spending money on a feature you’re unlikely to use once you’ve done the obligatory A/B comparison…

• Value score: 4 / 5

Should I buy the Audio-Technica AT-LP7X?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

Audio-Technica AT-LP7X : Also consider

How I tested the Audio-Technica AT-LP7X

I tested the AT-LP7X in two ways. Firstly with its integrated phono stage switched on, and connected to a line-level analog input on an Eversolo DAC-Z10 preamplifier — this in turn is connected to a Cambridge Edge W power amplifier driving a pair of Bowers & Wilkins 705 S3 Signature standmounting loudspeakers.

And then with the phono stage switched off and the connection from the turntable running to a Pro-Ject Phono Box preamplifier before being sent on to the Eversolo.

And then I listened to more records than was, strictly speaking, necessary.

• First reviewed: October 2026
• Read TechRadar's review guarantee

Commuting to work in the winter takes a different kind of strength. It's colder, wetter, darker — all things that are capable of sucking any remaining joy out of what is already a fairly joyless pursuit. As a two-trains-and-a-walk commuter, I have discovered that arming yourself with the right kit is key to making things more bearable. I've rounded up my winter commuter kitlist below.

First: the inclement weather essentials. That means investing in a decent collapsible umbrella that won't invert or break the minute the wind picks up. Rucksacks are a commuter's best friend, and opting for a weather-resistant build or a rain cover means there's no danger of your laptop getting drizzled on.

Next: comfort buys. I'm a caffeine fiend, and a hot coffee makes a morning commute feel significantly more manageable. I swear by the Yeti Rambler with — and this is important — the screw-down commuter cap. I've tested those '100% leaf-proof' claims thoroughly; I can chuck this upside-down in my bag and nothing will leak. If you feel the cold, a great rechargeable hand-warmer can be a game-changer, too. I have a LifeSystems one that can also double as a power pack.

Finally: entertainment. I like a Kindle for reading on the train, because there's no chance I'll end up doomscrolling. And for the walking part, I'll choose between over-ears that block out the background noise, or, if it's cold enough to warrant a hat, some in-ears. Scroll down for a closer look at my commuter essentials, with options at different price points to suit different budgets.

Commuter kitlist

Corsair Voxara: One-minute review

Corsair enters the microphones for streaming and wider mic market with this RGB-laden Voxara condenser model, a well-judged combination of specs and features for the price. If you’re looking specifically for a gaming or streaming mic and willing to pay a premium for audio quality and looks, the Voxara ticks the most important boxes. But it also makes some lofty marketing claims that aren’t relevant or helpful if you’re just trying to figure out if it’s worth the cash.

For example, the 25mm capsule this mic’s built around can capture enough nuance from your voice to record and broadcast rich, well-rounded audio, while hardware and software team up to suppress esses and plosives. However, the maximum 192KHz sample rate simply isn’t relevant to most users, and it definitely doesn’t make this USB-C model a studio-grade piece of audio equipment.

It’s worth knowing that to get the best sound, you’ll need to download Elgato’s Wave Link software. It’s a powerful app with a nice, clean UI, and the AI-driven Voice Focus feature is very effective at noise cancellation. Not everyone wants to have to install additional software, though, so if you want plug-and-play performance, this is a big caveat.

The mic housing’s built to a high standard and the circuitry seems to be top-notch too: there’s almost no unwanted noise when you use the tap-to-mute function at the head of the housing, and the 3.5mm monitoring input runs at a sensible output range with no crackle or distortion. So you’re getting strong vocal recording, easy controls, and a pretty intuitive digital display on the mic’s front, too. These are the big selling points here, along with the visual design. But if you want a subtler look that takes its design cues from pro audio, or a mic that really can claim to offer studio-grade functionality at a similar price, you need to look further afield at options like the Shure M7+ and Rode PodMic USB.

Corsair Voxara: Price and availability

• List price: $199.99 / £159.99 / AU$329
• Decent feature set and device compatibility for the price
• XLR + USB mics available in the same price bracket

It might not be specced to topple all rivals, but this debut model from Corsair nonetheless offers solid value for money for the build quality, Elgato software features, and crisp sound it delivers. Available now for PC, Mac, PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch, it’s got a broad enough compatibility list to be your battlestation mic – just as long as that battlestation doesn’t feature an Xbox.

It’s priced in a similar range to one of our favourite mics, the SteelSeries Alias, and well under Razer’s Seiren V3 Pro, which at $249.99/£249.99 represents the upper end of the gaming mic market. However, what’s hurting the overall value proposition is that lone USB-C connectivity. With Rode’s PodMic USB offering XLR and USB connections and now available for around the same price, you’d need to really like that RGB display on the Voxara.

Corsair Voxara: Specs

Corsair Voxara: Design and features

• Three RGB modes
• Shock mount and stand provided
• Well-placed controls layout

Is the Voxara well-designed? For gamers who want no-fuss, clear comms and an object on their desk that looks part of a traditional gaming setup, the answer is yes. It’s a familiar condenser design with a single cardioid polar pattern, a tap-to-mute button on top, and a scroll wheel on the bottom third, which can be used to adjust the mic, monitoring, and audio mix levels by clicking the wheel to toggle between those parameters. Finally, there’s an RGB mode cycle knob at the rear, which does what you’d expect.

To help you keep track of what you’re adjusting and make a note of your settings, there’s a digital display just below the RGB capsule shield. Bonus points go to Corsair for making this display automatically flip depending on whether the mic’s pointed up or down (if you’re using the supplied desk stand or a boom arm, for example). That’s a bit of forethought that keeps things simple to dial in, whatever your current setup.

Personally, I’d rather the RGB lighting wasn’t there at all, but I have to concede that it comes down to personal taste. I will say this much: given the peripheral market’s move away from copious RGB zones on mice, keyboards, and headsets lately, I wonder how quickly this model will look dated.

I digress. There are three lighting modes available: a solid colour mode, a multicolor effects mode, and a level meter that responds to the audio source. While they’re fun to play around with and customise when you first get the mic, when it comes to using the Voxara in real-world situations, I found two of these three modes distracting and fell back on solid colour mode.

When you’re concentrating on what’s happening onscreen, you really don’t want something so close to your face to be constantly changing the lighting conditions. And if you’re recording a podcast with a video element, the level meter in particular is an unwelcome distraction that pulls your attention away from what the hosts are saying.

One area I do find the lighting useful is when muting or unmuting the mic. There’s a ring running around the tap-to-mute surface that changes colour when you tap it, and it’s very handy to know at a glance if the mic’s hot or not. Particularly if you’ve been muted for a while and lost track.

All of the cosmetic-focused lighting is optional and customisable, so I’m not considering my negative experience with it a dealbreaker. But keep in mind that you’re paying a premium for that RGB. You need to be really sure that you’ll use and enjoy that functionality before shelling out; otherwise, there are non-RGB mics with great sound and better connectivity available.

As you’d expect from Corsair, the finish quality of the mic housing, shock mount, and stand is all immaculate and conveys the premium price positioning. The stand holds your mic precisely where you position it, and cable management is fairly easy with a hollowed-out vertical stand that the USB-C cable can thread through.

However, the stand doesn’t perform well against accidental desk knocks, so if you’re recording or streaming yourself, you’d better factor in the cost of a boom arm as well. If your broadcasting ambitions begin and end with clear callouts in Counter-Strike or Valorant, though, this shouldn’t become a problem.

Corsair Voxara: Performance

• No popping ‘P’ sounds or harsh esses
• Noise cancellation requires Elgato software
• Lack of XLR hurts its studio cred

I’m very impressed by how polished and usable this mic sounds without any tweaking. There’s no need for an additional pop shield on the Voxara, since it’s tuned to suppress esses and P sounds for a consistent and broadcast-ready sound.

And that, of course, is the most important thing about any mic, whether it’s marketed to gamers or anyone else. But as someone who’s worked with plenty of studio mics, I’m always very aware there’s a significant distinction between ‘good gaming mic’ and ‘good studio mic’.

Let’s start with the 25mm capsule. As with headphone drivers, bigger doesn’t always mean better in this category by default, but a large capsule of sufficient build quality is capable of capturing a wider range of frequencies and subharmonics in lots of detail. Right out of the box, if you record yourself speaking into the Voxara and listen back to the audio at any bitrate, you can hear that detail. For podcasting and Twitch streaming, it lends clarity and polish to your content. For in-game playcalling, it’s downright overkill.

So big points to Corsair for getting that right. But I have to take the marketing literature to task for selling this mic as ‘studio-grade’. It’s written in huge lettering on the product page, mentioned in the reviewer’s guide, and it’s simply not accurate.

The fact that this mic doesn’t have an analog input option makes it a non-starter as a studio kit. True broadcast quality requires that you keep full control of latency, preamp settings, gain amplification, and analog-to-digital signal conversion to retain as much fidelity and flexibility as possible. A USB mic builds all those elements into its internal circuitry, which makes it much simpler to use.

And that’s the compromise. You don’t need a separate preamp and mixer to get a usable signal from a USB mic, and most gamers don’t have that studio equipment lying around, so gaming mics usually feature USB inputs. But there’s an implicit tradeoff to that convenience in fidelity. It isn’t night and day, but it’s there. So the fact that this mic can technically record at 192Hz doesn’t mean it can go toe-to-toe with a Neumann U87 Ai.

XLR also makes simultaneous audio source recording far easier. You can run as many mics into a mixing desk as your desk inputs and DAW allow, but capturing multiple USB sources in real-time is a massive headache by comparison. Therefore, if you’re browsing the USB gaming mic market and see any product page copy talking about ‘studio quality’, go ahead and translate it to what the manufacturer really means, which is ‘sounds pretty good’.

With that point addressed, the Voxara’s sound quality is more than pretty good. And you can make it even more polished with Elgato’s excellent Wave Link software. This is a double-edged sword – it’s a well-designed and user-friendly app that packs tons of functionality into a clean shell, and it can also function as a gateway into professional DAWs. There are those – myself included – who prefer not to have to download software to use their peripherals, though, so I’m in a quandary about this one.

One feature in particular that’s got me conflicted is Voice Focus, an AI-powered noise suppressor that works very well indeed. On the one hand, I love that I have access to it, and on the other, I resent that it isn’t being handled automatically by the mic’s DSP.

I find it easy to forgive minor grievances like that when I hear how smooth and listenable the vocal recordings are, though. It’s not easy to bring a new mic to market, and Corsair has made a lot of shrewd judgments in order to make this such a compelling option. It’s spent big on construction materials and finish quality, as it always does across any product category, teamed up with Elgato to pool some vital knowledge, and used a 25mm capsule that distinguishes itself as soon as you plug it in. That’s an impressive debut. I’m not moved to disconnect my preferred mics just yet, but I can easily envision that Corsair’s future models will give them stiff competition.

Should I buy the Corsair Voxara?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

Also consider...

Is Corsair’s Voxara not calling out to you? Try these alternatives.

How I tested the Corsair Voxara

• 20-30 hours tested across in-game comms and recording
• Discord chat, in-game voice channels, Ableton recording, and Riverside podcast recording app tested
• .WAV recordings contrasted and compared between mic models

The first and most informal test for any gaming mic is the ‘How’s that sound?’ when you enter the Discord voice channel. Getting your friends’ feedback is an important piece of the puzzle, since they’re used to hearing your regular equipment and environment. If you sound clearer or richer with the new mic plugged in, they’ll hear it before you do.

That’s part of my standardised testing for any mic, including this Voxara. But I also run the mic directly into a DAW — Ableton Live in my case — and record a dry signal featuring a few minutes of speech. That lets me compare how the mic sounds with other models I’ve tested and identify the differences.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 was released during the period I tested this mic, and its DMZ mode gave me a great environment for in-game comms. Most of the time those comms amounted to confused chatter about how to do the objective, but valuable testing time nonetheless. Promise.

First reviewed October-November 2026

Read more about how we test

If you've ever used a shared e-bike in the UK, you'll know it can be a really convenient, cheap, and environmentally friendly way to get around. They're good exercise, too. But until now, their use has been largely unregulated — and that's created some big downsides, too.

Now Downing Street wants to change that. The UK government is putting forward a swathe of measures to tackle issues like e-bikes blocking the pavement, too few parking spaces, and problems with anti-social rider behaviour.

“I think the fact that we are consulting on this new licensing regime means that we can start to bring some order to the chaos that some people see in some parts of big cities where these e-bike schemes, rental schemes have popped up,” Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander told the Press Association.

"There are a small minority of people who choose to behave recklessly but sadly, that is true of any type of way that people move around in a town or a city, and you can’t legislate for the idiots. But we can take sensible steps to give local leaders more power over the way in which these types of schemes operate,” she added.

A law has already been passed to begin the process of licensing e-bike hire companies. What's new now is this public consultation, running until the end of 2026, during which citizens, lawmakers and e-bike companies can have their say.

Why is 'nuisance' e-bike parking still such a problem?

It's estimated that there are around 350,000 shared e-bike trips every day in London alone, and that's a lot of bicycles. In most regions, there are no rules about where bikes can be picked up from or left, and not enough designated parking spaces to go around — the accompanying apps simply direct users towards them via GPS.

That's led to plenty of overcrowding on the pavements, and e-bikes being left in areas that make life difficult or dangerous for pedestrians. Earlier this year, e-bike hire operator Lime apologised for one of its parked e-bikes forcing a blind man into the road with his guide dog. There have also been issues with riders not being able to complete journeys because of the patchwork of different rules and guidelines across individual London boroughs.

Anti-social behaviour from riders has been an issue, too: Users who hire the cycles when drunk, or in a way that endangers themselves other people around them. There have long been calls for the operators to take more responsibility for how their bikes are used.

Making the operators more responsible is difficult for councils that have no real powers and very little data about how the e-bikes are being used — at the moment they're relying on the goodwill of the e-bike companies and the voluntary agreements that are in place, which is something the government wants to improve upon and formalise.

What is the government proposing to do about it?

There's quite a bit to dig into when it comes to the new measures. The government says there will be new parking plans that make sure e-bikes aren't "inconveniencing the public" when they're not in use, and there will be fleet management plans too, designed to reduce bike overcrowding (think limits on the total number of bikes in an area).

In addition, fleets of bicycles will need to be properly maintained under the new guidelines, so you can be sure that you're getting on something safe when you ride a shared e-bike — and that pedestrians and other road users aren't going to be put in danger by a faulty battery or wheel.

Speaking of pedestrian safety, the proposals might also potentially cover insurance requirements for operators, so they'd be able to pay out compensation if someone got hit by a shared cycle and its rider. More parking spaces for e-bikes and more accountability for operators in regards to how their e-bikes are used are also planned.

With stronger rules in force, and closer partnerships with the e-bike companies involved, councils will have greater powers to punish those who are found to be in breach of the guidelines — whether that's leaving an e-bike in an appropriate and unsafe space, or getting behind the handlebars while intoxicated.

What have the e-bike companies said?

The e-bike companies are largely for the proposals. Certainty over the legitimacy of bicycle hire schemes means investment can be increased, while the confusion over current guidelines — which are largely voluntary and vary from council to council — isn't really helping any of the parties involved. Under the government's new proposals, hire companies might also get funding help for infrastructure like parking bays.

"We welcome the government’s consultation on national standards for shared e-bikes," said Georgia Heathman, Public Policy Manager at Bolt. "98% of Bolt rides already end with a correctly parked bike, which shows what clear rules and effective management can achieve. We want to see that standard applied consistently across the country, and support the consultation’s ambition to give local leaders the tools to licence schemes that suit their communities and raise the national bar."

"We recognise the current patchwork approach is confusing for riders, councils and operators, all of whom deserve greater clarity and certainty," commented Wayne Ting, CEO at Lime, which is the largest shared e-bike operator in the UK. "Today’s consultation is an important step forward."

The CEO of Forest, Agustin Guilisasti, chimed in with a call for "national standards", and for a "coherent, well-regulated" system going forward, while Prime Minister Andy Burnham said one of the main aims of the new consultation would be "giving communities more control over where [shared e-bikes] are parked and making sure companies and riders play by the rules".

Will this really solve the problem?

Time will tell, but there seems to be cautious optimism among those involved at the moment that new laws and regulations will make a genuine difference to the experience of shared e-bikes for those riding them and the general public at large. Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander is taking the lead here, promising that local leaders will ultimately get powers to "stop nuisance parking, tackle anti-social behaviour and make journeys safer".

"We hope licensing can be a way to provide suitable and well-enforced parking spaces for this highly popular, low carbon mode of travel and so help the government deliver on its own commitment to scale up shared mobility," Richard Dilks, CEO of shared transport organisation Collaborative Mobility UK (CoMoUK), told TechRadar. "Any regulation should protect the many benefits that these schemes bring, including boosting the rates of active travel, improving air quality, and reducing traffic congestion."

Mike Wordingham, Head of Policy at the Royal National Institute of Blind People, acknowledged that "tackling rider behaviour will be difficult, and it’s vital the desire for local flexibility doesn’t lead to a patchwork of regulations and inconsistency in implementing them".

"There's clearly a case for regulation of dockless e-bikes to ensure everyone can travel around cities safely and quickly," Anthony Breach, Director of Policy and Research at Centre for Cities, told TechRadar. "A key test will be how much responsibility the mayors have — different cities are different, and it's right that mayors can design policy on dockless bikes that work for the city as a whole."

"Regulations have costs, and we should expect there to be at least a small impact on cost and convenience," adds Breach. "But the lack of regulation of dockless bikes is also affecting the convenience and costs of other highway users, too. The challenge for government and the mayors is maximising convenience while minimising price across every form of urban transport."

E-bike operators are already testing in-app features like intoxication tests (via a response time analysis) and safe parking checks (via user-taken photos scanned by AI), but the consultation is an opportunity for everyone to have their say on the best rules and regulations going forward — you can contribute yourself here.

Shark PowerDetect Transformer: two-minute review

The Shark PowerDetect Transformer is a wired vacuum cleaner that combines an upright, stick and handheld vacuum all in one. It offers plenty of the premium features you might expect, including tangle-free brush bar and dirt-illuminating LED, but also comes crammed with smart features like automatic dirt, surface and edge detection.

The Shark PowerDetect Transformer admittedly isn’t the most easily wielded vacuum cleaner in its upright form — weighing in at 17.6 lbs / 8kg — but it has a trick up its sleeve. Press a single button and its vacuum pod pops off, turning it into a svelte stick vacuum with its own discrete dust bin. Need even more flexibility? Pop off the top section and it becomes a handy handheld vac. Switching between each system is seriously swift, which is really smart design.

On top of this, the PowerDetect Transformer also offers an excellent range of accessories for different tasks, so you’re not just limited to its talented DuoClean Detect nozzle. The HairPro Self-Cleaning Pet Power brush is great for getting pet hair off your rugs and furniture — with its anti-tangle tech preventing the bar getting clogged — and it also includes old classics like a crevice tool and a multi-surface brush. On top of this, it has built-in HEPA certified filtration and an anti-allergen seal, which the asthma sufferers in my house definitely appreciate.

In my book though, the thing that helps the PowerDetect Transformer rival the best vacuum cleaners is how hassle-free it makes sucking up crud from your carpets and hard flooring. Absolutely chock full of auto-detection features, it will dial the level of its suction up and down depending on your floor type, the amount of dirt it detects or the direction you’re dragging it in. Even smarter is its edge detection, which senses when you’re vacuuming against furniture and along room boundaries and directs its suction toward them to more completely do away with detritus.

I’ll admit that being smart doesn’t necessarily always translate being capable. Fortunately, all these smarts do make Shark’s vacuum seriously good at shifting dirt. Pretty much every test I put the PowerDetect Transformer through it aced, getting up coarse dirt from a hard floor and dust out of a shallow pile carpet in a single sweep. And when vacuuming room edges — the achilles heel of many vacuum cleaners — every single lentil I’d tossed down vanished in one movement. The fact pretty much all of this happened without me having to tap a single button is just the icing on the cake.

On top of this, its brush bars were able to remove a disturbing quantity of cat hair from my upholstery without getting clogged, making it easy to clean up after my champion shedder. However, while the bars themselves were great at avoiding tangles, I did find that a couple of times a snarl of hair got caught around the exit into the cyclone chamber, causing it to get slightly backed up. This only happened a few times and won’t matter much as long as you empty the vacuum often enough to stop the hose getting backed up, but it’s worth bearing in mind for the hairiest households.

Once you’re finished, emptying the Shark is also seriously straightforward. After using either its handheld or stick modes, clipping its vacuum pod back on triggers its self-emptying cycle, rapidly emptying its smaller dust bin. And when you want to empty the vacuum pod itself, all you have to do is press the bin switch to detach the larger bin, hold it over your bin and unhook a catch to open the bottom and jettison its contents.

Perhaps the one criticism I do have of the PowerDetect Transformer’s performance is it’s very loud — measuring it with a sound level meter, it hit 74dB during upright use and a raucous 82dB during its self-cleaning cycle. So if you have sensitive neighbors or, like mine, your cat tends toward the scaredy, it might not be the one for you.

Still though, all in all, the Shark PowerDetect Transformer is an impressive vacuum cleaner. Not only is it powerful, it’s smart, easy to use and flexible enough to vacuum pretty much every area of your home. Yes, wireless is always a nice to have — although its 8m cable meant I didn’t miss this as much as I thought I would — it’s loud and it occasionally gets a bit backed up. But I’m happy to forgive these minor quibbles given how much easier it makes day-to-day cleaning.

Shark PowerDetect Transformer review: price & availability

• Launched June 30, 2026
• Costs $529.99 / £499.99 / AU$699.99

Having launched on June 30, 2026, the Shark PowerDetect Transformer is widely available now. It goes for a list price of $529.99 / £499.99 / AU$699.99 — although at the time of writing, in the US, you can use the code TRIO at the checkout to save $130, bringing it down to $399.99.

That price is hardly chicken feed but, for what you’re getting, it’s still reasonable value. For example, the Shark PowerDetect Cordless — our current pick for the best vacuum cleaner out there — is priced at a roughly equivalent $429.99 / £499.99 / AU$849.99 and while unlike the Transformer it’s fully wireless, it can’t convert into a full, high-capacity upright. Meanwhile, the premium Dyson Gen5detect is much more spendy at $949.99 / £769.99 / AU$1,549, while rocking relatively similar features.

In return for your spend, you’re not only getting three vacuums in one but also a solid range of accessories. It comes with the classics such as brush and crevice tools but it also packs a stair tool, the HairPro Pet Power Brush for powered action against pet fuzz and an anti-allergen dusting brush. It also comes with a handy accessory bag to keep them all in.

Finally, the Shark PowerDetect Transformer comes in two tasty colorways: Chimera Blue — a dusky sky blue — and Deep Sage Green. Both of these really pop, especially with those gold highlights, although I’d say I just marginally prefer the former.

Shark PowerDetect Transformer review: specs

Shark PowerDetect Transformer review: design

• Flexible, modular design
• Stuffed with auto-detection features
• Wired only

Okay, I’ll admit when I first heard the name Shark Transformer, I was hoping I was going to be getting a toy robot that converted into a toothy, predatory fish. Fortunately, the design of this vacuum cleaner is nearly as cool. Its modular design makes it easy to switch between three different modes — heavy-duty upright vacuum cleaner, lightweight stick vac and flexible handheld — at the click of a button.

Moreover, unlike previous 3-in-1 vacuum cleaners Shark has created, this one is a hoseless design, meaning you don’t have to hook and unhook elephant trunk tubing every time you want to switch modes. Sliding the vacuum pod on and off the wand, it just clicks into place and connects to the vacuum’s airlock in one smooth movement. It’s clever design and makes selecting the right tool for your job feel effortless.

Naturally, as a result of this protean form, it’s quite hard to comment on the overall size and weight of the device. Because in its upright vacuum final evolution it’s a pretty bulky and hefty beast but pop off a couple of sections and suddenly you’re left with something super light and flexible. So it’s a bit of a quantum vacuum cleaner: a superposition of heavy and light at the same time.

Fortunately, when it comes to its appearance, the PowerDetect Transformer is far less paradoxical. I’m definitely picking up what Shark is throwing down here: in its stick and handheld modes, the Transformer looks seriously sleek and although the vacuum pod is pretty hulking, it’s still excellently engineered. On top of this, the colorways on offer are stunning — the deep sage green colorway I tested looks great but the chimera blue version is genuinely droolworthy. Genuinely, it gives me the same vibes as my sky blue MacBook Air and I wants it.

Setting the Shark up for the first time is pretty straightforward, even if compared to other wired vacuums there is some assembly required. Essentially, all you need to do is click the wand into place on the nozzle, slide the vacuum pod into its home on the stick and insert the hand vacuum into the top.

After this, you’re basically all set to start sucking up grit right away, because the Transformer neither has smart home features to set up or battery to charge. And don’t sweat this last omission too much — its eight-meter cable means you should be able to comfortably reach most areas of your home.

Alongside all of these modules, the Transformer also features all of the usual suspects in terms of accessories, such as the brush and the crevice tool. However, it doesn’t stop there: it also includes Shark’s HairPro Self-Cleaning Pet Power brush, a miniature brush bar tool with anti-wrap technology for getting pet hair and dander out from carpets and upholstery.

But by far its smartest tool is its DuoClean Detect nozzle. On top of its self-cleaning brush roll that picks up hair without getting tangled and targeted LED lighting for showing up barely visible specs of dirt, it’s also absolutely crammed with smart auto-detection features. Whether it’s sensing your floor type, adjusting to the quantity of dirt, directing suction forward or backward depending on the direction you’re moving in or automatically targeting its air inflow to gulp down detritus right up to the edge of rooms, it does all the hard work so you can just focus on practicing your Freddie Mercury impression.

Given all of these auto-detection features, the controls on the Shark PowerDetect Transformer are almost comically uncomplicated. There’s an on button… and that’s basically all you need to understand. If you’re a real control freak, you can manually set its suction to match hard floor, shallow pile or deep pile carpet but honestly I never needed to manually control this, as its auto-detect features did a perfectly effective job at dialing its suction up and down.

Finally, given I live with someone who both suffers from asthma and has the nasal sensitivity of a sommelier with a Neti pot, I definitely appreciate how the Transformer handles dust and disagreeable odors. Its HEPA-certified filtration and anti-allergen seal keeps all of that bronchial-irritating crud locked away. And once you’ve popped one of Shark’s odor-neutralizing cartridges into the nozzle, you can dial its stench-scrubbing capabilities up or down to remove any distressing scents the grime kicks up.

• Design score: 4.5 / 5

Shark PowerDetect Transformer review: performance

• Fantastic suction in almost every scenario
• Emptying is wonderfully easy
• Startlingly loud

Given how clever its features are, this vacuum cleaner is clearly a real bright shark. But how does that translate into real-world performance? After all, what good is the cold, calculating mind of a great white if it’s stuck in the ungainly body of a sunfish? Fortunately, you don’t need to worry on this front — the Shark PowerDetect Transformer cuts through dirt like a dorsal fin through water.

As I’ve already remarked above, the bulk and weight of the Transformer really depends on which mode you use it in. In its upright form, it’s definitely on the husky side — I lift weights multiple times a week, yet I still felt the effort of dragging it round. Fortunately, its two-axis joint makes it pretty easy to maneuver around furniture and once you strip it back to its stick or handheld forms, it’s considerably easier to wield.

Keen to really put the PowerDetect Transformer through its paces, I not only vacuumed my house top to bottom but conducted our full battery of standardized tests. First off, I sprinkled the contents of a teabag on a range of different flooring types to simulate the finer dust the Transformer would have to tackle. On my laminate flooring, the Transformer scarfed down those loose leaves in a single pass — even when repeating this test on my medium-pile carpet, the vacuum cleaner didn’t leave a single scrap behind.

Wanting to see how it fared with more substantial debris, I tried this same test with a small quantity of lentils. Once again, on a hard floor, the Shark snorted up every single pulse without hesitation. Admittedly, when I tried this out on carpet, it left behind three lentils out of about 50. But with a single swipe backward, its automatic direction sensing flipped the direction of its suction and it wolfed them down without issue.

Even trickier debris like pet hair didn’t seem to faze it. Trying it out on a ball of fuzz from my cat’s brush, the vacuum wolfed it down like cotton candy. I even put it to work on the cat’s favorite chair — which was so disgustingly furry that our previous vacuum cleaner had threatened to take industrial action — and yet Shark’s anti-hair wrap tool cut through it easily. And despite going up against upholstery more covered in hair than Hugh Jackman, it lived up to its name and didn’t get clogged or tangled.

So, all in all, I found its suction pretty impressive. But even more noteworthy are how those smarts I mentioned above improve cleaning performance across the board. Thanks to the Transformer’s Dirt Detect feature, during normal cleaning it regularly dialled up its suction strength to tackle denser piles of dust without me having to even think about it. And its edge-of-room performance is fantastic — trying to vacuum up lentils I scattered right up to the baseboard, the vacuum’s Edge Detect feature targeted its suction to pick up every last legume in a single sweep.

The Transformer’s other modes don’t offer quite as much smarts or power as the upright mode but they’re just as capable when tackling their own respective niches. The stick vacuum offers the same level of flexibility but a much lighter weight, making it the perfect tool for a quick runaround in a single room. Meanwhile, its handheld mode made short work of cleaning problem areas like the inside of my sofa and raised surfaces like my piano — without a bulky cyclone chamber attached, it felt so much more flexible than any other convertible vacuum handheld I’ve used.

And once you’re done cleaning, emptying the Transformer feels like a breeze, especially compared to older vacuums. Once you’ve used the stick or handheld vacuums, all you need to do is re-attach the vacuum pod and it will automatically suck out all the dust you’ve gathered into that main chamber.

Clearing out the vacuum pod itself is almost as easy. Detach it using the eject button and the dust bin and cyclone section come away, leaving the filter and vacuum components behind. Then all you need to do is open the bottom clip above the bin and it empties downward — far easier than banging it upside down against the bin till something finally dislodges.

Easy to clean though the Transformer is, I still wouldn’t say this process is absolutely foolproof. One thing I noticed a couple of times when emptying it out is that occasionally hair clogs would get snagged in the airlock into the vacuum pod, meaning that long fibers would start clogging up the main cyclone. Now, both my feline and my human housemates are world champion shedders, meaning this issue might not affect you as often, but it does make me worry you could quickly lose suction if you don’t stay on top of this.

One other slight drawback to the Transformer is a direct consequence of all its convenience and power: the noise. Reaching a volume of 74dB in upright mode and max volume of 82dB during its self-cleaning cycle, it hits the same rough volume as heavy traffic or a blender. While this didn’t bother the humans in my house that much, my cat HATED it — he found the noise while vacuuming upsetting enough but the automatic cleaning cycle sent him flying out of the room like he’d witnessed the Terminator itself. Turns out machines bellowing in rage without apparent human input is where he nopes out.

Ongoing maintenance of the device is a lot less stressful, fortunately. Although you need to clean the pre-motor filters of both chambers every month, the hand vac’s post-motor filter only needs cleaning every six months and replacing every 2.5 years, while the upright’s post-motor filter only needs cleaning once a year and replacing every three. Occasionally, you might also need to wipe those smart sensors to ensure they continue functioning properly but, all in all, this isn’t particularly punishing.

• Performance score: 4.5 / 5

Should I buy the Shark PowerDetect Transformer?

Buy it if…

Don’t buy it if…

Shark PowerDetect Transformer review: also consider

How I tested the Shark PowerDetect Transformer

• Tested it for several weeks
• Tried it out on a range of flooring and with different materials
• Set it to work on shed pet hair

I tested the Shark PowerDetect Transformer over a period of several weeks. To test its general suction, I scattered loose tea and lentils over hard floor and carpet to simulate how it would handle dust and larger debris and see how many passes it would take to suction them up. I also scattered both of these items along the edge of the room to see how well the Shark would maintain suction at the edges.

On top of this, I used it to clean my whole house several times, as well as trying it out in a few specific scenarios. I tested how well it sucked up shed fur from my pet cat, as well as trying its HairPro Self-Cleaning Pet Power brush on upholstery and on the stairs to see how it removed built up hair from soft furnishings. Finally, I used a sound level meter to record how loud it was in use, recording its max volume in both upright mode and during self cleaning.

I’ve been testing tech and gadgets for around 10 years, as well as editing reviews of smart home gear and appliances. When it comes to first-hand experience, I’ve tested an array of small appliances for TechRadar, including fans and coffee machines. You’ll also be pleased to hear I’m no stranger to vacuuming — otherwise, after 20 years of adulthood, the quantity of dust in my home would be approaching the level of an Egyptian tomb.

• Read TechRadar's reviews guarantee
• First reviewed: October 2026

• AI interviews are discouraging people from fully participating in the job application process
• Jobseekers who are already employed are less likely to accept an AI interview
• 58% of people who attended an AI interview despite reservations would refuse if other jobs were lined up

Automated interviews are becoming a turn-off for jobseekers, particularly if they already have a job, new research has revealed.

A survey from Use.AI of people looking for work in the UK, US, Canada, European Union, and Latin America found nearly a third (29%) of people already in work had withdrawn from a hiring process that involved an AI interview.

Meanwhile, just 14% of those without work withdrew, demonstrating the importance of finding work when unemployed.

Available for consideration

Intriguingly, while the specific figures concerning the 6731 survey subjects differ across all regions, the pattern of a split between those already employed and those who are not is repeated.

Use.AI’s findings indicate that a candidate’s willingness to participate in an AI interview can depend on several factors, including financial security and what other options the jobseeker already has.

Most of the jobs you see advertised today have AI filtering to hopefully determine the best candidates. The businesses going one step beyond this and detaching themselves from the interview process seem to be making a mistake.

“Employers spend considerable effort checking whether their screening systems evaluate candidates fairly. They should be equally interested in who decides to enter those systems in the first place,” said Matthew Freire, Managing Director of Use.AI.

“Offering applicants an alternative route to a human interviewer would allow companies to examine whether the format itself is influencing who remains available for consideration.”

Replacing hiring experts and people who know the job as interviewers may have saved time and money in the short-term. But if no one wants to be hired by a company that relies on AI interviews, then productivity is lost, and along with it, profit.

Automated Recruitment

Searching for a new job increasingly requires the submission of a resume for screening. Those CVs or applications might then find their way to a human, and a call may be scheduled. But many companies are relying on in-house and third party AI interviewers. It isn’t only potential employers, either – some recruitment agencies are staffed by AI interviewers, too.

All of this makes the job application process increasingly challenging, particularly if you’re someone who relies heavily on body language and facial signals. Succeeding in an interview often means building a rapport with the people on the other side of the table or display, and this is something that simply isn’t possible when the person asking the questions isn’t a person at all.

The graphical representation of a programmed LLM may appear smart and attractive, and they have the questions read to ask. But it is ultimately an elaborate piece of form-filling that doesn't demonstrate a person's ability to establish instant rapport and translate that into working relationships.

Watch Australia vs Samoa in a Rugby League World Cup 2026 semi-final from Allianz Stadium, Sydney, that's a classic tale of repeat vs revenge. A rerun of the 2021 final won by the Kangaroos, this last-four encounter has the potential to be an all-time classic.

Sure, Australia are yet to taste defeat as they chase a record-extending 13th world crown but Kangaroos haven't been at their smooth best in 2026. They needed two late Jack Bostock tries to squeeze past New Zealand 24-22 on opening night and even trailed in both pool games against the Cook Islands and Fiji before beating both by comfortable margins. Kevin Walters has again gone with Reece Walsh at fullback despite James Tedesco's recent NRL-winning exploits with the Roosters and will want his side to start much better than their three pool games.

Samoa were a disallowed try from beating Tonga in last week's 20-18 reverse, a game that had everything and lit up the tournament. Fullback Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow was among the try scorers for Ben Gardiner's side and has the game to do damage, as captain Jarome Luai leads his side for the second World Cup semi-final in a row. Wing Brian To’o and center Stephen Crichton have been among the NRL's best players for seasons, albeit with a slight 2026 dip, and must step up to gain revenge for that 2021 final defeat.

The winner will face New Zealand in next weekend's final.

Here's how to watch Australia vs Samoa from anywhere in the world – with FREE Rugby League World Cup 2026 streams explained.

Watch Australia vs Samoa for FREE

Australia vs Samoa is free in Australia and New Zealand today:

🇦🇺 Australia: 7plus
🇳🇿 New Zealand: ThreeNow

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How to watch Australia vs Samoa live streams in the US

Viewers in the US can watch Australia vs Samoa live on Premier Sports.

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How to watch Australia vs Samoa live streams in Australia

Australia vs Samoa is live on free-to-air Channel 7 in Australia, while you can stream the match via 7plus.

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How to watch Australia vs Samoa live streams in New Zealand

Fans in New Zealand can watch Australia vs Samoa for free on ThreeNow or on Sky Sport NZ, with live coverage on Sky Sport 1.

You can access Sky Sport through satellite TV or get a live stream, with the Sky Sport Now subscription service starting at NZ$29.99 per day or NZ$59.99 per month.

Those outside of New Zealand can use NordVPN to gain access to their home streaming service.

How to watch Australia vs Samoa live streams in the UK

You can watch Australia vs Samoa on Premier Sports 2 in the UK.

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How to watch Australia vs Samoa live streams in Canada

As with the UK and US, Premier Sports is showing Australia vs Samoa in Canada.

Premier Sports costs CA$29.99 on a rolling monthly basis, with savings available for longer-term plans.

If you're out of Canada but still want to tune in, explore the VPN route set out above, which will help you access your accounts from anywhere.

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• Google global head of data center energy says space data centers could cost up to 100 times more than terrestrial ones
• Amanda Peterson Corio's remarks came weeks after Google launched its first Suncatcher prototype, a roughly 1kW satellite that has since run Gemma 4 on an orbiting TPU, one chip at a time
• Corio says the real bottleneck on Earth is permitting rather than power, the same politics that backers of orbital compute claim they can escape

Google has spent the past month showing off AI chips working in orbit, but the executive responsible for powering its data centers back on Earth has just put a sobering price on the idea.

Speaking at The Information's recent WTF Summit in Napa Valley, Amanda Peterson Corio, Google's global head of data center energy, said data centers in space could cost up to 100 times as much as those built on the ground.

Her advice to the rest of the industry was simple and (pun intended) grounded: "Let's explore all the terrestrial options before we go extraterrestrial."

A very expensive proposition?

The remarks land at an awkward moment, because Google is testing exactly this kind of hardware right now. Its first Project Suncatcher prototype, built with satellite operator Planet, launched on SpaceX's Transporter-18 rideshare mission on October 1.

Google recently also announced its Hello World milestone: an onboard Gemma 4 model, running on a TPU, wrote a short haiku about being in space, which was downlinked as the satellite passed over Svalbard, Norway.

The company bills this as the first AI response from a data center-class TPU in orbit. That is a carefully measured claim, given that Starcloud put an Nvidia H100 into orbit a year ago and was running AI models on it within weeks.

Scale is the bigger caveat and one that can be easily overlooked amidst the hype: The satellite carries four TPUs but generates only about 1kW of solar power, so it can run just one chip at a time for roughly 20 minutes per session, according to The Next Web. A single 1 GW AI campus, the kind now under construction on the ground, draws about a million times that much power.

Google has described Suncatcher as a "moonshot" since it was unveiled a year ago, and project lead Travis Beals told NPR on launch day that he did not expect orbital compute to become cheaper than the terrestrial kind within the next five years.

Not the first or last skeptic of orbital datacenters

This did start a somewhat interesting conversation on Wall Street; Short seller Jim Chanos read Corio's statement as $5 trillion per gigawatt of compute, and posted on X that the gap between her view and the estimates of SpaceX management and bulls "should give pause to anyone trying to model this business out."

TIKR pushed the arithmetic further by examining recent claims: SpaceX's CFO told investors last month that new compute pays for itself in under a year at current rental rates. Built in orbit at up to 100 times the cost and rented at the same price, TIKR calculated that payback stretches to as long as a century, or about a decade even at a tenth of Corio's stated ceiling.

That matters because orbital compute underpins part of SpaceX's roughly $1.8 trillion market value at the time of writing. The company has asked the FCC for permission to launch up to a million data-center satellites, and Musk has posted that the orbital compute SpaceX deploys each month will probably overtake terrestrial compute around the end of 2028. Yet SpaceX's own IPO paperwork warned investors of "significant technical complexity and unproven technologies," and said its orbital data centers might never become commercially viable.

Corio is hardly the first skeptic. OpenAI's Sam Altman called the idea "ridiculous" under current conditions earlier this year, even as Nvidia lined up a Space-1 Vera Rubin module aimed squarely at orbital data centers.

This is an extremely interesting take from Google's end. Alphabet is one of SpaceX's largest outside shareholders, with a stake disclosed at 6.11% at the end of 2025, according to Bloomberg, and Google has reportedly been in talks with SpaceX about launching future Suncatcher hardware. Its energy chief has questioned and potentially poured cold water on a thesis that props up part of an asset Alphabet owns, while Google's own moonshot depends on cheap SpaceX launches arriving on schedule.

Corio's broader argument, somewhat ironically, was about the ground rather than the sky. According to The Information, she said the US has enough power and that the real bottlenecks are permitting and grid interconnection studies.

She blamed much of the local backlash against data centers on newer, less experienced developers, without naming any, and said Google prepays for grid upgrades over 15 to 20 years in more than 9 states, posts restoration bonds, and has stopped using nondisclosure agreements with local governments.

There is, however, a problem with this argument: Established firms such as Oracle have also faced local resistance, which complicates the idea that inexperienced newcomers are the problem. The backlash is anything but marginal: opposition has spread across the US, and Data Center Watch counted 75 projects worth about $130 billion delayed or blocked in the first quarter of 2026 alone.

There is a political angle built around these arguments that keeps orbital data centers in play, and SpaceX is essentially building on that promise. After this week's midterm elections, in which data center construction was a campaign issue in several races, including the contest for Texas governor, Musk posted, "Data centers in space looking pretty appealing right now."

Leaving the planet does not, however, mean leaving the permit queue; SpaceX's million-satellite request and Blue Origin's 51,600-satellite Project Sunrise both need FCC approval, and debris and spectrum concerns give regulators and rivals plenty to object to, just at a higher altitude. If power really is plentiful and permission is the bottleneck, as Corio argues, then orbit's main selling point is jumping that queue, and by her numbers it is a very expensive way to do it.

For now, until someone flies more than a kilowatt-scale test bed and publishes what it actually costs, the multiple between orbit and the ground, whether it turns out to be 3x, 10x, or as much as 100x, remains an educated guess. Corio's stated ceiling is arguably as unproven as Musk's timetable. Only one of those numbers, however, is already priced in considerably into a stock's current valuation, and SpaceX investors will be waiting for financials to back its CEO's claims with bated breath to say the least.

• Several industry analysts say Sony and Microsoft may need to scale back their "relentless push for higher-end performance" to avoid $1000 consoles
• Piers Harding-Rolls at Ampere Analysis says ambitions will need to be "moderated" to avoid breaching the hefty price point
• Rhys Elliott at Alinea Analytics anticipates that the PS5 will stick around well after the PS6 launches due to rising costs

Several industry analysts have suggested console manufacturers will need to temper their ambitions for next-generation hardware to avoid breaching the $1000 console launch mark.

Unlike last-generation, current-gen console prices only seem to be getting more expensive years after launch. Whether it's the ongoing DRAM crisis or the AI boom that's made components even more costly, the games industry is at a point where the future of affordable hardware is looking pretty grim.

There have been conversations over the past few years about what this could mean for next-gen consoles — namely the PS6 and Xbox's Project Helix — and whether manufacturers could ever reach a point where their hardware could breach $1000.

In an interview with TechRadar Gaming about rising costs, Piers Harding-Rolls at Ampere Analysis suggested Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo may have to scale back their ambitions for realistic graphics and higher performance if they ever want to avoid that huge price point.

"The relentless push for higher-end performance will need to be moderated," Harding-Rolls said.

Omdia's James McWhirter also suggested hardware stratification across tiers may be in the cards, including a cheaper Nintendo Switch 2 with more bundles that offer more value, and manufacturers may delay new hardware launches for the foreseeable future in a bid to wait out the rising cost of components.

However, this could also mean longer console generations. Rhys Elliott at Alinea Analytics anticipates the PS5 will stick around well after the PS6 launches, and cross-generation games may allow players the opportunity to delay their hardware upgrades.

"The next generation won’t replace this one so much as sit on top of it," Elliott claimed.

• Ericsson wants mobile networks to detect and track low-flying drones
• Cell towers could become additional surveillance tools against unauthorized aircraft
• AT&T and Erillisverkot have already tested Ericsson's network sensing technology

Ericsson is developing technology that could allow telecommunications networks to detect and follow drones without depending entirely on dedicated surveillance equipment.

Its Integrated Sensing and Communication (ISAC) system analyses radio signals bouncing off flying objects, using existing cellular infrastructure to identify their movements.

The company plans to begin limited commercial trials in 2027 before expanding availability to additional customers during 2028.

Ericsson turns cellular infrastructure into drone detection equipment

The technology uses radio transmission equipment at multiple cellular sites to identify objects flying within their coverage areas.

When signals encounter a drone, some energy returns towards receiving stations, allowing the network to examine the resulting reflections.

By comparing information collected from different locations, the system can estimate an object's position and follow its movements.

Ericsson says this approach could help identify small, fast-moving aircraft flying close to the ground, where conventional surveillance equipment sometimes faces difficulties.

The technology requires specialised radio equipment, computing resources and software rather than functioning automatically on every existing mobile network.

Its hardware requirements include Massive MIMO antennas, which use multiple transmission and reception elements to handle complex radio signals.

This technology has already been tested by AT&T around Arlington, Texas, while Finland's Erillisverkot also conducted similar trials.

Ericsson claims that both exercises successfully identified multiple drones and followed their movements using the network-based sensing approach.

Mobile networks could help address growing drone security threats

The proposed system comes as unauthorized drone flights increasingly disrupt airports and raise security concerns around military installations and other sensitive locations.

Flights at Jersey Airport in the Channel Islands near the UK were disrupted over Halloween weekend after repeated unauthorised drone sightings raised safety concerns.

Military facilities have also reported increasing incidents, prompting authorities to consider additional measures against unidentified aircraft approaching protected locations.

In Britain, military personnel have received legal authority to disable unauthorised drones detected around certain military installations.

Existing protection arrangements frequently depend on specialized detection equipment, although installing sufficient coverage across extensive territories can become expensive.

Ericsson believes cellular infrastructure could provide additional surveillance capabilities without requiring authorities to construct entirely separate monitoring networks.

“Mobile networks are useful as drone detection solutions because their antennas are already covering low elevations, close to ground level where drones often fly, unlike traditional radar,” said Ian Fogg, research director at CCS Insight.

“The new spectrum that should arrive with 6G will also make it easier to deploy sensing on wide channels, which further improves detection accuracy,” said Ian Fogg.

Beyond security applications, the technology could also monitor shipping movements, vehicle traffic and changing weather conditions around infrastructure.

However, Ericsson's proposed system is intended to complement established surveillance equipment rather than eliminate the need for radar installations.

The company must still establish how accurately its technology performs under different conditions, particularly where buildings, terrain and competing signals complicate detection.

The deployment will provide opportunities to assess whether mobile network sensing can deliver dependable results outside controlled testing environments.

Via The Register

Quordle was one of the original Wordle alternatives and is still going strong now more than 1,500 games later. It offers a genuine challenge, though, so read on if you need some Quordle hints today — or scroll down further for the answers.

Enjoy playing word games? You can also check out my NYT Connections today and NYT Strands today pages for hints and answers for those puzzles, while Marc's Wordle today column covers the original viral word game.

SPOILER WARNING: Information about Quordle today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.

Quordle today (game #1749) — hint #1 — Vowels

* Note that by vowel we mean the five standard vowels (A, E, I, O, U), not Y (which is sometimes counted as a vowel too).

Quordle today (game #1749) — hint #2 — repeated letters

Quordle today (game #1749) — hint #3 — uncommon letters

Quordle today (game #1749) — hint #4 — starting letters (1)

If you just want to know the answers at this stage, simply scroll down. If you're not ready yet then here's one more clue to make things a lot easier:

Quordle today (game #1749) — hint #5 — starting letters (2)

Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.

Quordle today (game #1749) — the answers

The answers to today's Quordle, game #1749, are…

• GREED
• SPINE
• STONY
• OPIUM

I got the most difficult word, OPIUM, first and the easiest last — but GREED still took me an age to get.

The issue was the number of possible positions of the three letters in wrong positions and even at the end it could have been “freed”.

Daily Sequence today (game #1749) — the answers

The answers to today's Quordle Daily Sequence, game #1749, are…

• PIANO
• COUCH
• CHIRP
• HEIST

Quordle answers: The past 20

• Quordle #1748, Saturday, 7 November: PROUD, ROCKY, FLAKY, MONTH
• Quordle #1747, Friday, 6 November: CHARD, THORN, COVER, OUTER
• Quordle #1746, Thursday, 5 November: SHINE, TAROT, VERGE, LANKY
• Quordle #1745, Wednesday, 4 November: JOIST, CROOK, DELAY, ICILY
• Quordle #1744, Tuesday, 3 November: TRIAL, STAID, LEVEL, BONUS
• Quordle #1743, Monday, 2 November: EXTRA, AMITY, LUPUS, EAGLE
• Quordle #1742, Sunday, 1 November: DROVE, PRIED, SHELL, BEGIN
• Quordle #1741, Saturday, 31 October: ANIME, SWARM, CHALK, RAJAH
• Quordle #1740, Friday, 30 October: ULCER, DIMLY, BRAIN, BEGUN
• Quordle #1739, Thursday, 29 October: PRUDE, MINUS, SAVOY, USHER
• Quordle #1738, Wednesday, 28 October: DEALT, FLUME, SLEEK, RELIC
• Quordle #1737, Tuesday, 27 October: ANKLE, HAVOC, SULKY, WHITE
• Quordle #1736, Monday, 26 October: ASSAY, GLEAM, MUCUS, WRING
• Quordle #1735, Sunday, 25 October: RAINY, BUSED, PROXY, UNDID
• Quordle #1734, Saturday, 24 October: TOXIN, SMART, MOUSE, STYLE
• Quordle #1733, Friday, 23 October: BLIMP, HOIST, FRIED, LURID
• Quordle #1732, Thursday, 22 October: DECAL, WIDTH, WOKEN, LEVER
• Quordle #1731, Wednesday, 21 October: MOIST, VALVE, VERSE, NORTH
• Quordle #1730, Tuesday, 20 October: COYLY, SAUNA, TRIAL, RASPY
• Quordle #1729, Monday, 19 October: EXIST, DECOY, HITCH, FLUID

Good morning! Let's play Connections, the NYT's clever word game that challenges you to group answers in various categories. It can be tough, so read on if you need Connections hints.

What should you do once you've finished? Why, play some more word games of course. I've also got daily Strands hints and answers and Quordle hints and answers articles if you need help for those too, while Marc's Wordle today page covers the original viral word game.

SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Connections today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.

NYT Connections today (game #1246) - today's words

Today's NYT Connections words are…

• CUT
• LEAK
• CONTEXT
• CARAT
• BUILT
• BLOWOUT
• CLARITY
• CHARRED
• COLOR
• KORN
• INSIGHT
• EXTENSIONS
• RIPPED
• TRIM
• JACKED
• PERSPECTIVE

NYT Connections today (game #1246) - hint #1 - group hints

What are some clues for today's NYT Connections groups?

• YELLOW: Available at the beauty parlor
• GREEN: Showing off their six-pack
• BLUE: A well researched plan will give you…
• PURPLE: They sound edible

Need more clues?

We're firmly in spoiler territory now, but read on if you want to know what the four theme answers are for today's NYT Connections puzzles…

NYT Connections today (game #1246) - hint #2 - group answers

What are the answers for today's NYT Connections groups?

• YELLOW: HAIR SALON SERVICES
• GREEN: MUSCULAR
• BLUE: THINGS THAT HELP MAKE SENSE OF A SITUATION
• PURPLE: VEGETABLE HOMOPHONES

Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.

NYT Connections today (game #1246) - the answers

The answers to today's Connections, game #1246, are…

• YELLOW: HAIR SALON SERVICES: BLOWOUT, COLOR, EXTENSIONS, TRIM
• GREEN: MUSCULAR: BUILT, CUT, JACKED, RIPPED
• BLUE: THINGS THAT HELP MAKE SENSE OF A SITUATION: CLARITY, CONTEXT, INSIGHT, PERSPECTIVE
• PURPLE: VEGETABLE HOMOPHONES: CARAT, CHARRED, KORN, LEAK

• My rating: Hard
• My score: 3 mistakes

After experiencing a rare moment of CLARITY as I put together the four tiles of THINGS THAT HELP MAKE SENSE OF A SITUATION I crumbled.

My two mistakes came with HAIR SALON SERVICES, where I was on the right track with COLOR and EXTENSIONS but couldn’t decide between CUT, TRIM and BLOWOUT. I got there eventually.

For the final eight I couldn’t see beyond KORN the band and kept thinking I was missing some obvious music-based connection but went for the gym body Green set instead.

Yesterday's NYT Connections answers (Saturday, November 7, 2026, game #1245)

• YELLOW: PIRATE'S PLUNDER: BOOTY, BOUNTY, SPOILS, TREASURE
• GREEN: KINDS OF SHIRTS: HENLEY, POLO, RAGLAN, RINGER
• BLUE: FIRST WORDS OF U.S. STATE NAMES: NEW, NORTH, RHODE, SOUTH
• PURPLE: ENDS OF STORM TYPES: CANE, CLONE, EASTER, SOON

Strands is the NYT's latest word game after the likes of Wordle, Spelling Bee and Connections – and it's great fun. It can be difficult, though, so read on for my Strands hints.

Want more word-based fun? Then check out my NYT Connections today and Quordle today pages for hints and answers for those games, and Marc's Wordle today page for the original viral word game.

SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Strands today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.

NYT Strands today (game #980) - hint #1 - today's theme

NYT Strands today (game #980) - hint #2 - clue words

Play any of these words to unlock the in-game hints system.

• TRICK
• WAKE
• STORE
• MUST
• JUNTA
• STUNT
• DART

NYT Strands today (game #980) - hint #3 - spangram letters

NYT Strands today (game #980) - hint #4 - spangram position

Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.

NYT Strands today (game #980) - the answers

The answers to today's Strands, game #980, are…

• KICKBOXING
• JUDO
• KARATE
• TAEKWONDO
• NINJUTSU
• SPANGRAM: MARTIALARTS

• My rating: Easy
• My score: Perfect

The only thing that threw me in this game was that the game words didn’t include Jujitsu.

Because I was expecting this, I threaded together NINJUTSU without ever knowing if it was one of the MARTIALARTS we were searching for — I now know that it describes the techniques employed by ninjas.

The closest I’ve ever gotten to partaking in one of these combat sports is imitating the opening titles of Hong Kong Phooey when I was a toddler. Then , as now, I can guarantee that I am not “quicker than the human eye”. However, I have worked as a janitor.

Yesterday's NYT Strands answers (Saturday, November 7, game #979)

• ZOOM
• RUSH
• WHOOSH
• FLASH
• WHIZ
• HURTLE
• STREAK
• SPANGRAM: WHATSTHEHURRY

• Raspberry Pi has raised the 16GB Pi 5's price by $80 to $385, more than triple its $120 launch price
• Company CEO blames lack of alternative 16GB DRAM supply, compounded by wider component shortages
• Raspberry Pi called the hikes temporary, but memory makers expect tight supply to last until 2028 to 2030

Raspberry Pi has raised the price of its 16GB Raspberry Pi 5 yet again, and the flagship board now sits far from the brand's budget roots.

In a blog post, company CEO Eben Upton confirmed an $80 increase that takes the board to $385, which is more than triple the $120 it cost at launch in January 2025.

The 16GB variants of Compute Module 5 increase by $40 in the same round, while the Raspberry Pi 500+, the company's keyboard computer that also offers 16GB of RAM, remains at its existing price.

A far-reaching memory crisis dictates prices

The threefold figure is cumulative rather than a single jump: The November 2026 increase on its own amounts to roughly 26%, but the rest built up over a run of rises that began in December 2025, when the 16GB Pi 5 went from $120 to $145. February added $60, leaving the board 70% more expensive than at launch, and April added a further $100.

That April 2026 round also brought a new 3GB Raspberry Pi 4, introduced to give buyers a cheaper middle option, with Upton saying at the time that the LPDDR4 memory used in the Pi 4 and Pi 5 had risen sevenfold in price over the previous year.

November's change also comes barely a month after Raspberry Pi raised prices on its 2GB boards by $12.50 each, having decided that shielding those models from earlier price increases was no longer sustainable.

Upton's explanation is more specific than a general complaint about RAM prices. He blamed "a lack of alternative supply for 16GB DRAM, compounded by other ongoing component shortages," which suggests the bottleneck is sourcing at that particular density rather than cost alone.

Raspberry Pi, for its part, has been qualifying additional memory suppliers through 2026 to widen its options, and the wording implies those alternatives remain thinnest at the top of the range.

Interestingly, despite the price increases, demand hasn't fallen but rather grown considerably. Direct sales of the Pi 5 rose 47% in the half, and Raspberry Pi says demand for the 8GB variants continued to grow despite higher prices.

For buyers, the new pricing produces some odd comparisons. The 8GB Raspberry Pi 5 lists at $175, which means the extra 8GB on the 16GB model now costs $210, more than an entire 8GB board.

The spared-but-similarly-specced Pi 500+ sharpens the point. For $25 more than the bare 16GB board, it pairs the same processor and memory with a 256GB NVMe SSD and a mechanical keyboard. It's no substitute for embedded projects that need the bare board's footprint, but for desktop use, the standalone 16GB Pi 5 is now difficult to justify once one considers the cost of a standalone SSD alone, even if the keyboard is considered a non-factor.

Buying a cheaper board and upgrading it isn't a workaround either, since Raspberry Pi firmware locks boards to the memory capacity they shipped with. For those who don't need 16GB at all, we have found that an 8GB starter kit can often be a better buy than the board on its own.

Upton's own advice is to avoid paying for memory you don't need by choosing lower-density variants or older models, or by optimizing applications. He also warned that some sellers are exploiting the shortage by inflating prices or misrepresenting products, and urged buyers to stick to approved resellers.

A "temporary" crisis might be an understatement

Raspberry Pi continues to describe the memory squeeze as temporary and says it intends to roll back its increases once costs fall. Its own definition of temporary is fairly elastic, though.

In the company's September results, Upton described the current cycle as "a large, but ultimately typical, instance of a phenomenon that periodically affects the industry," with meaningful new supply not expected until 2028.

Memory makers are gloomier still. SK Hynix titled a section of its third-quarter results "Memory supply shortage to persist through 2030," and Micron has warned that shortages could run into 2028 or beyond.

TrendForce, whose latest outlook Upton linked in his post, expects DRAM suppliers to keep prioritizing server products through the fourth quarter, leaving the wider market undersupplied even as contract prices rise slowly.

The entry-level boards, however, remain a bright spot, with the 1GB Pi 4 and Pi 5 still at $35 and $45, respectively. Rising prices risk putting the Pi out of reach of schools and kids, and for now the bottom of the range is still holding the line. At the top, though, the 16GB Pi 5 has become a premium product by necessity rather than design, and the CEO's optimism might not be shared by many consumers in the market for one in the near future.

• IO Interactive shares how it creates accurate Hitman World of Assassination Elusive Targets
• Senior level designer Marin Ansdal says there is no scanning involved and everything is "bespoke craftsmanship"
• Junior concept and character artist Lovisa Österman says it takes "hours" of studying before beginning the design process

IO Interactive has revealed that it hand-crafts all of its Hitman World of Assassination Elusive Targets rather than relying on traditional scanning.

With the release of World of Assassination's new Elusive Target mission, The Host, starring YouTuber JackSepticEye, TechRadar Gaming chatted with IOI about the ins and outs of designing these special updates, including how it constructs the most creative eliminations.

When asked how the studio achieves the likeness of celebrities and public figures, senior level designer Marin Ansdal said every character is created from scratch, and no motion-capture or scanning is involved in the process.

"Like many things in Hitman, it’s down to bespoke craftsmanship – we do not rely on scans at all," Ansdal said. "Instead, the character receives a hand-drawn concept and is modelled and textured by a character artist."

He added, "Oftentimes a great likeness is knowing when to supplement realism with caricature. This is a balance a real character artist can strike in a way that a scan just can’t."

Junior concept and character artist Lovisa Österman also explained how she begins the design process, revealing that it takes "hours" simply looking at references to ensure accuracy before the stages of creating the Elusive Target models.

"I spend hours pouring over videos and photos of the talent to really understand what their face looks like from every angle. And a heavy lifter is getting the textures right," Österman said.

"You can have the 3d mesh completely right and still not feel like it looks like the person. Because you really need the textures, the person's freckles and spots and flaws to really recognize them."

The studio also offered insight into its process for selecting the game's targets, confirming that the level designer and writer take over once a celebrity or public figure is on board.

Lenovo's ThinkPad X1 Carbon range has long been a favorite of ours, as well as a popular choice among business users. The Gen 14 Aura Edition builds on that reputation with modern hardware and a focus on productivity. It's an expensive laptop, but there's a big saving available at Newegg in time for Black Friday.

• Best for: Business professionals, executives, and remote workers who want a premium laptop for demanding everyday work.

• The deal: Newegg has reduced the price of the ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 14 Aura Edition laptop by $500 for Black Friday, bringing it down from $2,899 to $2,399.

Why we recommend it

Lenovo's X1 Carbon is designed for business users who spend much of their working day on a laptop. Its 1920 x 1200 IPS display provides more vertical space than a conventional Full HD screen, and the anti-glare coating and 500-nit brightness will help in brightly lit environments.

The Intel processor supports vPro technology for business management and security, and the integrated graphics are well suited to business tasks.

We gave the previous generation laptop a five-star review and an Editor's Choice award and our expert Collin praised its portability and AI-enhanced performance. He called it "a top choice for constantly moving business professionals."

He also said: "This computer is intended for the business professional whose day-to-day work depends on their needs. Still, one thing is for sure: they need something reliable, able to jump in and out of work, portable enough to go from place to place, has a great port selection for what may come and whatever they may need, and the ease of use that comes with a ThinkPad. It might be one of the best Lenovo ThinkPad laptops around — and it's definitely my favorite yet."

Price context & historical value

Lenovo's laptop is firmly in premium territory and expensive as a result. That said, a $500 saving is not to be sniffed at, especially when you're getting an Intel Core Ultra 7 365 vPro processor, 32GB of fast LPDDR5X RAM, a 1TB SSD, and a 14-inch touchscreen.

It's cheaper at Newegg than it is at Lenovo and given the specifications, I'd definitely recommend it.

Should you buy it?

✅ Buy Lenovo's ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 14 Aura Edition laptop if...

You want a premium business laptop with strong productivity specifications, enterprise-oriented features, and a touchscreen for working on the move.

❌ Skip Lenovo's ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 14 Aura Edition laptop if...

Your requirements are limited to browsing, email, and basic office applications. A considerably cheaper laptop will handle those tasks perfectly well.

• Shop all Windows laptops at Newegg for Black Friday

Ok, I'll come out and say it. Modern World of Warcraft, or Midnight, in all of its convoluted story-driven glory, with its systems on systems, its currencies on currencies, and high-octane pacing, isn't an MMO. It's just not. At least not to me.

I know that's a big ol' bold statement, and I get it; you're probably sat there thinking: "Zak, what the hell are you on about? Stop being an overly dramatic journalist trying to clickbait us all into reading your long-winded waffling diatribe". But hear me out before you reach for the Dirge.

If you boiled down the current iteration of the game in a pot, and stripped away the marketing hype, and the hyper-attentive gameplay, Midnight, retail, it's not actually that different from something like Call of Duty, or Overwatch. Not at its heart. It's seasonal; it's mostly queue-based, with as much commitment as I have to that chilli I cooked up three months back that's still sitting in my freezer.

Where it all began

I've been playing World of Warcraft since 2006. Over 20 years, stuck with the same video game, handing Blizzard my hard-earned cash for a monthly sub.

I've done it all. I was a Priest Class Leader at the age of 14, raiding in Molten Core, BWL and AQ40 (mad respect to Fracture Bloodfeather EU). I then main tanked through The Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King expansions on a Dwarf Warrior. After that, a Guild Leader and Raid Leader in Cataclysm and Mists of Pandaria, healing on my Priest. Finally, ending as a Retribution Paladin in Warlords of Draenor and beyond.

The game got me into UI development; it got me into PC building. I studied how to create textures and TGA files in Photoshop, built rudimentary addons with Lua, and created a reasonably successful UI series. It taught me about design, about triage, about optimization. I owe my career to this game in many ways.

But during the Legion expansion, going into Battle for Azeroth, something flipped. I'd gotten used to the pace, the tempo. I tolerated the timed high-end Mythic+ 5-man dungeons, the constant weekly epic treadmill, and how impatient the community had become.

And of course I managed to continually decode the never-ending slew of multiplying vertical progression systems and catch-up mechanics with ever more convoluted naming schemes, to stay at the top of my game.

But it wasn't long before I came to the realisation that I had no close community anymore. I wasn't making new acquaintances or friends in the same way I had through previous expansions; I didn't feel tied to any one guild, or server, or faction, or anything. And slowly, my love for the game faded.

The sub was paused on and off sporadically. I'd jump back in every expansion launch, trying to get into it, trying to convince myself that this was the one, but it was a constant struggle to stay committed, to enjoy it. In a world that felt so empty, so devoid of life. It turned into a lonely chore, rather than a fun pastime to rid myself of the day's stress, and I couldn't pinpoint why I was getting so burnt out by it. At least not until very recently.

The key concept: Time

The last few months I've been playing World of Warcraft: Classic, (of course on the run-up to the WoW Forever launch), and that, that has provided me with clarity on what it was I didn't understand was missing from Retail.

Vanilla Classic, even today, is still ridiculously popular. More so than Mists of Pandaria, or any other version of the rebooted game. It's odd, right? It launched in 2019, and yet the servers are still bristling with people running 40-man raids, doing PvP, and are home to thriving economies, guilds, events, and more. You can barely move in Stormwind on some servers. And that's despite the game being well and truly "worked out" years ago. But why?

Simply put, it's time. The game in its modern state, maybe accidentally, maybe on purpose, gave up what made it so special. What made it an MMO to begin with. All in an attempt to try and attract more people to the player base, and bring more subs in. And it did so by, conversely, becoming more accessible.

Because everything is so fast, and there's a constant treadmill with extensive catch-up mechanics, there's no commitment. You lose attachment to what it is you're doing, and as a result, nothing matters. On average, to go from level 1 to the max cap of 90 in Midnight, it can take anywhere between 12 and 18 hours. For an established player, it can be less than eight.

As a result, people hop about constantly. Is your class not performing well? Is another now at the top of the Mythic+ logs? Just create a new character, and in less than half a day you can be gearing up for high-end Mythic raiding.

Even worse still, if you're low on cash, you can get some from Blizzard's in-game store with three mouse clicks and a healthy chunk of your own cash. That will allow you to buy a slew of gear from the latest content directly on the game's player Auction House.

The modern games' profession systems are also a mess, and it takes a degree in data analytics to understand half of it at a glance. Hell, you can even skip the bulk of the levelling entirely if you want and just pay for a character boost if need be, no matter what state your account is in.

If you do decide to skip the boost, then even the levelling journey itself feels disconnected from the community. Most just spam dungeons and get pooled up with players from all over the continent, never to see them again, running them as fast as possible with mass AOE pulls.

Or if that's not to your taste, you pick a specific past expansion from the game's lengthy list to level through instead. In this case, you'll see no max-level players at all, only the select few that have chosen to also level in that specific piece of content.

This is all as you barrel through levels a mile a minute, learning new skills faster than you can acclimatise, and watch as your gear becomes redundant in less than 15 minutes.

What WoW: Forever & Classic get right

And this is what Classic and Forever get right. It takes an age to level; it really does. I have a 32 Hunter currently, a 21 Warrior, and a 21 Priest on Classic. I'm halfway to 60 (in number only) on that Hunter. It's one of the fastest classes to level in Vanilla WoW, and my playtime is 2 days and 1 hour to get that far. I could've levelled five classes in Retail in that time. And still, I've got another 4 to 6 days to get to max level, if I don't mill about.

And here's the thing: because it takes so long, I've done an incredible amount of extra content outside of levelling when I've got bored of it. I've spent time doing my professions to make money, because I'm prepping to get my mount at lvl 40. I've gone to Darkshore and explored various areas to get a special ghost nightsaber pet. I've grouped and travelled to dungeons like Deadmines and Stockades. All the while making some incredibly memorable runs with good people, with wipes, close calls, and quest lines that have taken an age to finish.

My gear matters too, and if I get something from a dungeon, or a particularly long quest line, it feels momentous; the power increase is tangible. I've even treated myself to an Epic level 37 bow, ready for later on, and it's just sat in my bank waiting. And then, of course, new spells, new talents, I've got my pet to look after; all of it feels that much more potent.

Socially too, I see people about when I'm levelling, high levels, low levels, you name it. And we help each other; we chat about gear, about specs, buff each other as we pass, talk nonsense.

I had a group of four players jump in to save me from dying to a difficult quest mob in Duskwood, for no other reason than to help. They gained nothing from it. That's just one example where I've made new friends in-game.

Because it takes so long to do anything in classic — to travel, to learn — and because the world is so dangerous, because it's not easily accessible (there aren't even any summoning stones in Forever), your decisions and commitments matter.

If I were to re-roll, it would take me another two days, maybe more, to get that character to 30. As a result, I've become attached to the people I've met, my gear, my character as a whole. Even my server. If I see a level 40 to 60, there's a sense of almost awe, like "yeah, one day I'll be that level, that kitted out; I wonder what that'll be like?"

It's aspirational, and the lack of catch-up mechanics contributes to that; it doesn't impede it. It's not that there's no vertical progression here either; there is certainly in Classic, and in fact arguably that's what makes it more interesting, not less.

Get to max level, and you gear up via dungeons. Then you're set for the 10-man raids. After that, you move into Molten Core, Onyxia's Lair, and Blackwing Lair. Finally, you're set for high-end content like Ahn'Qiraj and Naxxramas. It's a long journey upwards.

If you don't have good enough gear on your character, you'll underperform or be unable to compete on the next level of content. But all of that content from day one is still relevant. Catch a glimpse of those players running around the capital cities, and you're struck by it.

It's visually impressive; they've committed that time to the game, that character, that class, and they're powerful as a result. You can see it, certainly with no transmog.

Imperfection makes it more, not less, sociable

By all accounts, Classic World of Warcraft, and subsequently Forever, are flawed games. Certainly, from a shareholder perspective. You have this massive time investment from developers building content that only a select few will see. It takes an age to get to max level compared to modern WoW, and its slower pace can feel like drudgery in direct comparison to the live button-masher mode we have in Midnight.

But it's that lack of accessibility, that need for time, that gives Forever and Classic their sense of sociability. It makes you feel attached to the world, your class, your character, your race; it feels inhabited, and it's that that makes it feel like a true MMO.

World of Warcraft Forever is heavily based on Classic. Blizzard has stated that many, many times over. The entire game is built on or forged from the idea of what Classic might have looked like in an alternate timeline, where the developers added new content but stayed true to the original design principles.

They have arguably deviated in certain examples already, of course. For example, the game already features a number of quality-of-life improvements to classes, a group finder, and cosmetics.

From what I've seen, however, Forever is already on a good path. It'll be less vertical gear treadmill and more slight horizontal incline. From what we've seen so far, general levelling and gearing is almost on par with Classic, albeit mildly quicker.

What Blizzard needs to do, in this humble journo's opinion, is to keep the pace the same. Instead of rushing to deploy new content, or forbidding themselves from adding something on arbitrary, subjective "staying true to the Vanilla World of Warcraft experience" guidelines, they instead need to be asking, "does this reduce the time commitment, or make the game more accessible?"

If either answer is yes, then there's room for discussion.

Can Retail World of Warcraft be saved?

But what of the ailing beast? What of Midnight and its rapid-paced, cartoonish Mythic+ dominated landscape, filled with timers, rewards, and catch-up mechanics galore? What could be pulled from Forever beyond better shaders and volumetric fog? It's a challenging question to answer. Midnight has an active player base, people who love it. Those who live for the high-intensity and flip-flopping nature of chasing the meta. To change that game and make it more Classic, could be intrinsically unpopular.

And yet, we'll have to see exactly how well World of Warcraft: Forever does. If it is what we expect it to be and it dwarfs Midnight's player base by a considerable margin, it's not likely Blizzard will ignore that.

I genuinely believe slower-paced levelling, a lack of catch-up mechanics, and a simplified gearing system would dramatically improve Midnight, and in fact would've improved everything from the Battle of Azeroth expansion onwards. Whether that comes to pass, well, we'll have to wait and see. For now, you can find me buried headfirst in what World of Warcraft should have been, and probably should've stuck to, all those years ago.

• Accenture reportedly publishes new research paper littered with what appear to be AI-hallucinations
• The Leapfrogging Development paper has 15 inaccuracies that have been identified so far
• Accenture, which has been demanding its employees embrace AI, has denied that the errors were due to the technology

Top consultancy firm Accenture is under fire once again for publishing papers that include proven AI hallucinations.

The most notable of these, written in collaboration with IE University in Madrid, is titled “Leapfrogging Development: Unlocking Africa’s Potential in Global Value Chains with Artificial Intelligence” and has 15 inaccuracies.

The AI hallucinations were found by AI-detection software publisher GPTZero, which regularly performs analysis on significant new reports. It lists a total of 31 inaccuracies across three papers, with the lion’s share found in that single policy paper.

Spotting the fakes

GPTZero has plenty of previous experience in spotting citation issues with reports from large organizations. A similar scenario developed around auditing giant PwC in August 2026, with GPTZero highlighting their reports as making inaccurate and false claims.

With the Accenture-linked “Leapfrogging Development” report, GPTZero determined 15 AI hallucination inaccuracies, along with a further four flawed citations – that is, citations that don’t exist, exist with a different name, or simply don’t support the report.

“GPTZero contends that hallucinated citations are a clear and present danger to researchers, academics, consultants, students, and anybody else who happens to search the internet for information.”

Previous reviews of reports and research tainted with AI hallucinations have proved that any fake claims that appear in public documents that are published by well known organizations can be recycled and repeated. It’s like an internet version of “Chinese whispers.”

GPTZero adds that “Over time, these recycled hallucinations can ‘poison the informational well,’ even if the original publication is never read by humans.”

In short, AI hallucinations are more dangerous than thought, and Accenture seems prone to publishing them.

Dangerous citations

While the Leapfrogging Development report is the main issue discovered by GPTZero, it is not the only problem. Three documents were reviewed in total.

“Using an automated pipeline and our Hallucination Detector," reported GPTZero, "we surfaced three Accenture products containing a combined 31 hallucinated sources, numerous fabricated claims, and other likely signs of AI generation. To avoid making the same mistake as Accenture, a real human verified each hallucination.”

Speaking to The Telegraph (paywall), an Accenture spokesman claimed the issues surface by GPTZero were down to human error, adding “There is no evidence to support the conclusion that they were generated through AI hallucination. The report is being corrected ahead of a re-release. We will always embrace the opportunity to strengthen the quality of our reports.”

Accenture has recently specified its employees use AI more productively. While these papers are collaborative and produced beyond Accenture’s usual in-house process, they highlight continued AI-related struggles for the firm.

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Creative XF1: Two-minute review

For a cent short of $180 (or a penny short of £140) Creative will sell you its XF1 desktop stereo speaker system — and don’t imagine this money buys anything less than a fully featured and serious product. It may look a little frivolous, especially when its cork ‘wedge’ stands are attached, but the XF1 is all business. And besides, those stands elevate the speakers to the point they’re firing at your ears rather than your torso.

An active and bi-amped arrangement that requires the speakers to be wired together and one of them to be connected to mains power, the Creative XF1 has a total of 72 watts of power on board — ample in the context of the most likely use cases. Bluetooth connectivity is on board, too with codec compatibility including the high-end LDAC option, and the USB-C input on the rear of the main speaker allows for genuinely hi-res content to be an option. There’s also an analog socket for additional input flexibility.

Very acceptable specification is complemented by a more-than-adequate standard of build and finish, a couple of colour options (black or white, monochrome fans) and a control app that features a 10-band PEQ offering an enormous amount of end-user input into the eventual sound.

And that sound has plenty going for it. Good enough for our best stereo speakers guide? For this sort of money, absolutely. There’s not a huge amount of variation at the bottom end, it’s true, and not a whole lot of momentum either, but elsewhere the XF1 does good work. Detail retrieval is impressive, the simple scale of sound it’s capable of generating is almost startling, and there’s a real facility for midrange communication. Add in a fair amount of dynamic headroom, as well as a proper sensation of focus and separation even if you’re sitting very close to the speakers, and it should be apparent that a place on your shortlist is the very least the Creative XF1 deserves.

Creative XF1 Review: Price and release date

• Launched June 24, 2026
• Retails for $179 / £139 / AU$339

The Creative XF1 desktop stereo speaker system is on sale now, and in the United Kingdom it will cost you £139. It goes for $179 in the United States, while in Australia it sells for AU$339.

Usually, we wax lyrical about competing products at the level, but to do that here I'd likely need to delve into cheaper Bluetooth solo speaker options, bought twice and put in stereo mode. Even Ruark's Mk1 line (now into its third iteration) bijou stereo speakers are more than twice the price.

Know this: this is not a lot of money for such a proposition. Very few companies will give you more for less, although Logitech, with its Z407 is one notable example that can be yours for just a touch less than the Creative.

Creative XF1 review: Features

• 72 watts of Class D power
• Active, bi-amped configuration
• Digital and analogue inputs

Keep both the modest nature of the asking price and the equally modest physical dimensions of the XF1 uppermost in your mind and it's difficult not to be at least a little impressed by the way it’s specified.

There’s no facility to swap the orientation of the speakers — the one that takes care of connectivity and needs mains power is the right channel and that’s an end of it. Here’s where you plug in your sources using either USB-C (the XF1 can natively handle digital audio files of up to 24bit/96kHz resolution) or line-level analogue 3.5mm inputs on the rear of the speaker, and where you connect to the left channel using a supplied four-pin cable.

There’s also a pre-out for a subwoofer, an ‘energy saving’ switch that will power down an inactive XF1 if you set it to the ‘on’ position, and a button to initiate Bluetooth pairing. Wireless connectivity is on board the right speaker, too — the Creative uses Bluetooth 6.0, and is compatible with LDAC as well as the more common SBC and AAC codecs.

That four-pin cable carries all audio data from right to left, and all power requirements too. Creative has specified a block of Class D amplification for each of the drivers in the XF1 — each 19mm soft-dome tweeter gets 10 watts of power, and each 76mm mid/bass driver (designed using what Creative describes as ‘finite element analysis’ for minimal distortion) gets 26 watts to play with.

An all-in total of 72 watts should really prove ample in a system that’s almost certain to be no kind of meaningful distance from your ears when it’s in position — especially when you factor in the back-firing bass reflex port towards the top of the rear of each cabinet. Creative suggests frequency response from this arrangement is 55Hz - 40kHz.

• Features score: 5 / 5

Creative XF1 review: Sound quality

• Manages to sound spacious yet focused at the same time
• Good with detail retrieval
• Slightly plodding character to the low end

If you’re using the XF1 on a desktop, the chances are you won’t need to explore the outer reaches of its abilities where volume is concerned. If you’re sitting a greater distance from them, though, never worry that these little cabinets will sound lost. They’re louder than they look.

And no matter the volume level at which you’re listening, the Creative system sounds bigger than it looks, too. A 24bit/44.1kHz FLAC file of Lorde’s Shapeshifter sounds open and spacious, with plenty of air around the elements of the recording — but at the same time the speakers manage to focus the performance quite convincingly too. There’s a commonality to the way it presents the recording, a togetherness that’s by no means a given in systems like this, especially not systems that cost as relatively little as this. The idea of a soundstage is made more than just a notion.

With the qualified exception of the bottom of the frequency range, the XF1 does good work in identifying details in a recording and giving them the sort of context and weighting they require. It’s particularly adept in the midrange, where the smallest variations in tone or timbre or texture are picked up on — it serves to make voices sound characterful and individualistic. The tonal balance is never truly neutral no matter how you might finesse the PEQ settings, but the suggestion of heat does at least serve to mitigate the tweeter’s tendency to hit the highest frequencies with rather too much enthusiasm.

There’s a reasonable amount of dynamic headroom available, so if your music (or your movie, or your game) ticks off a big up- or downshift in volume or intensity, the XF1 doesn’t panic. It maintains its composure and its tonal balance, its frequency response doesn’t alter, and it does a reasonable job of putting meaningful distance between the most and least attacking sounds.

At the bottom of the frequency range the Creative is a little less assured and a little less successful. It hits admirably hard, but bass isn’t as well controlled as the rest of the frequency information, and can plod a little as a result — this has an unwelcome knock-on effect where rhythmic expression is concerned. And the low end is all rather one-note - there’s little of the variation or the fine detail available here that’s apparent elsewhere.

Switch to Bluetooth stream of Girl and Girl’s Call a Doctor and, broadly speaking, the XF1 maintains its attitude and fundamental character. Derail levels drop away just a fraction, and there’s a little less positivity where stereo focus and separation are concerned, but taken as a whole the Creative is a perfectly viable system where wireless music is concerned.

• Sound quality score: 4 / 5

Creative XF1 review: Design

• 191 x 100 x 155mm (HxWxD)
• Cork stands included
• Curved MDF cabinets

Desktop space is usually at a premium, of course, so the XF1’s 191 x 100 x 155mm (HxWxD) dimensions are usefully compact. And given that most desktops are lower than the ears of the person who’s sitting at it, the appearance of a couple of detachable cork stands that raise each speaker at an angle of 15° is very welcome indeed.

The speakers themselves are made almost entirely from MDF, and from the curves along each horizontal edge to the slightly soft-touch matte finish, they look a little more expensive than they actually are — and this is true no matter if you've chosen the white finish or the black of my sample. The standard of build and finish wouldn’t disgrace a system costing two or three times this amount.

• Design score: 5 / 5

Creative XF1 review: Usability and setup

• One physical control plus an LED tell-take
• Creative Nexus app
• ‘Wireless’ means a minimum of two wires

As far as setting up the XF1 is concerned, there’s really not much to it. As with most ‘wireless’ speaker systems, some wires are necessary — in this instance, there’s a wire from the right speaker to the left carrying all power and data, and another from the right speaker to a mains power supply. Make these two connections, pair a smartphone via Bluetooth and you’re good to go - or you may decide to go the whole hi-res hog and make a USB-C connection from a laptop or smartphone with a premium music streaming service on board.

There’s a single turn/push control dial on the front baffle of the right speaker, along with a tell-tale LED- here’s where you get control of power on/off, volume and input selection. And there’s also the Creative Nexus control app — it features precisely no playback controls, but it does allow you to check on firmware updates and let the system know if it’s on a desktop or not. It also gives access to a 10-band PEQ that has scope for custom settings as well as literally dozens upon dozens of presets, some of Creative’s own design, some uploaded by users.

• Usability and setup score: 5 / 5

Creative XF1 review: Value

As with most Creative systems, the sensation of value for money is pretty strong with the XF1. Sonically it’s not without its issues, as I’ve discussed — but it’s possible to weigh these against the things it gets right in audio terms, the standard of the build and finish that’s on display, the neat and tidy dimensions, and the amount of tweaking the PEQ allows and still conclude you’re getting your money’s-worth.

• Value score: 4.5 / 5

Should I buy the Creative XF1?

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Creative XF1 : Also consider

How I tested the Creative XF1

Naturally I position the Creative XF1 on my desktop, a speaker on either side of my MacBook Pro. Plugged into the mains, connected to each other and with a USB-C cable running from the laptop to the rear on the right speaker, I am able to access lots of hi-res content via the Qobuz and TIDAL apps. I also connect an iPhone 15 Pro and a FiiO M15S digital audio player wirelessly via Bluetooth — the latter allows use of the LDAC codec, and connecting it via its 3.5mm headphone output to the Creative’s corresponding input allows me to assess how effective (or otherwise) the XF1’s digital-to-analogue conversion is.

• First reviewed: October 2026
• Read TechRadar's review guarantee

Watch France vs Fiji live streams as Les Bleus, top of the Northern Hemisphere table at the halfway stage, host the winless Pacific Islanders in Lyon in Round 4 of the Nations Championship 2026.

Fabien Galthié's Bleus have two wins and one loss thus far in the tournament. Heavy July victories over Australia and Japan proceeded a 34-32 in a narrow defeat by New Zealand that confirmed the French as the Northern Hemisphere's dominant side. Galthié, though, has injury problems for the November internationals against Fiji, South Africa and Argentina, with Thomas Ramos, Fabien Brau-Boirie, Emmanuel Meafou, Thibaud Flament and Matthieu Jalibert all confirmed absentees. Antoine Dupont is back as captain, relegating Maxime Lucu to the bench despite the scrum half deputizing brilliantly earlier in the tournament. Louis Bielle-Biarrey starts.

Fiji have lost all three games thus far, to Wales, England and Scotland, albeit playing technical 'home' games in each of their opponents' countries didn't help matters. South Africa's 2007 World Cup-winning coach Jake White began his spell in charge with a 34-28 victory over Japan late last month. Jiuta Wainiqolo, ​Selestino Ravutaumada and Salesi Rayasi represent a talented back three but it's in the forwards that the Flying Fijians will have their work cut out, with former England number eight Nathan Hughes brought in to provide some international experience after switching nationality.

Read on as we explain how to watch France vs Fiji for free.

Watch France vs Fiji for FREE

Yes. France vs Fiji is free-to-air in the US, UK, Ireland and France. ITV1 and Virgin Media One will be showing it on linear channels, while online streaming is available via:

🇺🇸 US: Rugbypass TV
🇬🇧 UK: ITVX
🇮🇪 Ireland: Virgin Media Play
🇫🇷 France: TF1+

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Use a VPN to watch France vs Fiji live streams

A VPN is handy piece of software that can make your device appear as if it's back in your home country, so you can unlock your usual service. The best VPN right now? We recommend NordVPN – it does everything and comes with up to 77% off with this Black Friday deal:

How to watch France vs Fiji live streams in the US

Rugbypass TV are showing France vs Fiji for free in the US.

You can tune in via the Rugbypass TV website or app, and it works with Chromecast, Airplay, AppleTV and Android TV.

Visiting the US from France? Use NordVPN while you're traveling away from home to unlock your free stream.

How to watch France vs Fiji live streams in the UK

In the UK, France vs Fiji is free-to-air on ITV1, with live streaming available via ITVX.

All you need is an account, a TV license and a UK postcode (e.g.HA9 0WS). Sign up here!

Remember to explore the VPN route as set out above, which will help you access your accounts from anywhere in the world if you're abroad today.

How to watch France vs Fiji live streams in Ireland

France vs Fiji is free-to-air on Virgin Media One in Ireland, with live streaming available via the Virgin Media Play platform.

Outside Ireland? You’ll need to download a VPN, as detailed above, to tap into your free Nations Championship stream from abroad.

How to watch France vs Fiji live streams in Australia

Stan Sport are broadcasting France vs Fiji in Australia.

Stan Sport costs AU$20/month on top of a Stan subscription, which itself starts at AU$9.99/month.

Not in Australia right now? You can simply use a VPN like NordVPN to watch the action as if you were back home.

How to watch France vs Fiji live streams in New Zealand

In New Zealand, Sky Sport 3 NZ is showing the France vs Fiji game.

You can access Sky Sport through satellite TV or get a live stream, with the Sky Sport Now subscription service starting at NZ$29.99 per day or NZ$59.99 per month.

Those outside of New Zealand for any part of the Nations Championship can use NordVPN to gain access to their home streaming service.

How to watch France vs Fiji live streams in South Africa

The France vs Fiji game is being shown on Supersport in South Africa.

You'll need to get a DStv access package to watch the Nations Championship 2026, with prices starting at Rs99/month for the streaming version.

Abroad right now? Just use a VPN and tell your device that you're back home and you'll be good to go.

How to watch France vs Fiji live streams in Canada

In Canada, France vs Fiji is being shown on Premier Sports.

You can tune in via the CA$29.99 monthly pass, the CA$79.99 six-month pass or a CA$139.99/year subscription.

If you're out of Canada but still want to catch the action, explore the VPN route set out above, which will help you access your accounts from anywhere.

France vs Fiji Q&A

We test and review VPN services in the context of legal recreational uses. For example:1. Accessing a service from another country (subject to the terms and conditions of that service).2. Protecting your online security and strengthening your online privacy when abroad.We do not support or condone the illegal or malicious use of VPN services. Consuming pirated content that is paid-for is neither endorsed nor approved by Future Publishing.

Welcome to the October 2026 Blu-ray Bounty, where we test some of the latest 4K releases from each month. If you’re new here, you can read previous editions of the Blu-ray Bounty at the link.

4K Blu-ray is a big deal here at TechRadar, as not only is it our primary source for testing the best TVs and best soundbars, but we’re also collectors ourselves, always on the lookout for new discs to add to our own compilations.

This month, I’ll be testing four new discs, and if you hadn’t seen last month’s edition, we’ve upgraded our in-house home theater system. We’re now using a full separate AV system, consisting of a 5.1 Bowers & Wilkins 600 series range of speakers, all powered by the Denon AVC-3900H 9.4-channel AV receiver. We’re still using the LG G6, one of 2026’s best OLED TVs, as our display, and our tried and true Panasonic DP-UB820, the best 4K Blu-ray player on the market.

In last month’s September 2026 Blu-ray Bounty, I tested a mammoth 10 discs, with particular highlights including Supergirl and Star Wars: The Mandalorian & Grogu.

Interview with the Vampire (1994) (Warner Bros)

Based on Ann Rice’s 1976 novel of the same name, Interview with the Vampire tells the story of the relationship between Louis de Pointe du Lac (Brad Pitt), a man turned into a vampire by Lestat de Lioncourt (Tom Cruise). The movie cuts between 1791 Louisiana and 1991 San Francisco, where Louis is interviewed by reporter Daniel Molloy (Christian Slater). The movie also stars Kirsten Dunst and Antonio Banderas.

This 4K disc is a showcase for contrast. Candles are used continuously throughout the movie as a means of lighting, and create some really interesting contrast-y scenes. Black levels are rich and deep, and when paired with the candles, create powerful contrast that looks superb on our G6 OLED. The 4K restoration still keeps the movie low brightness, but does well to bump the luminosity in the right places.

Textures have been restored nicely, giving everything a 3D-like look, especially in close-up shots of skin. Colors have a true-to-life, natural look about them, shown in Lestat’s eccentric clothing. Fire has a lovely HDR punch, and with a bright display it truly pops on screen. Some film grain has been maintained, but the picture really has been refined here.

The Atmos soundtrack included delivers great detail too. As a flaming torch passes across the screen, the sound travels from the left front speaker to the right accurately with the movement on screen. As a mansion burns down, the roar of the flames produces a satisfying, detailed bass. During scenes with rain, there is a perceived sense of height thanks to Atmos’ object-based sound, even without height speakers in our setup.

Toy Story 5 (Disney Pixar)

The fifth installment in the Toy Story franchise, Toy Story 5 follows Woody, Buzz, Jessie and the other toys as they deal with the arrival of Lilypad, a tablet that becomes the new favorite of the local children, including the toys' owner Bonnie.

As you’d expect from a Pixar movie, the animation is incredibly crisp with rich textures that give the movie a nice depth. Colors pop on screen, with the red of Jessie’s hat and hair in particular looking incredibly punchy. Other colors like yellow, pink and green have a really nice look to them too, appearing true-to-life throughout the movie. In darker scenes, blacks are rich and inky on our LG G6 and contrast was strong, shown in the scene at the docks. If your TV supports Dolby Vision, you’ll be rewarded.

The 4K disc supports Dolby Atmos and Dolby soundtracks. During my testing, our system processed the soundtrack as Dolby Digital Plus with Dolby Surround and not the full Dolby Atmos, even though our other reference discs worked with Atmos. This may be something to bear in mind if you don’t have a full 7.1.4 channel Dolby Atmos system (this is the listed configuration on the case, so the disc may be compressing the soundtrack as a result).

The soundtrack is still excellent however, with plenty of detail and accurate sound placement. As humans exit a room chatting, the sound travels from the rear speakers to the front. Speech is crystal clear throughout and there’s plenty of power. As the gang run after a van, the bass produced is satisfyingly punchy from Bullseye’s gallop. There’s great balance as well between all other effects and the score, producing a wide soundstage. Despite a lack of height speakers, as Buzz flies through the air, there’s a perceived sense of height that adds to the experience.

Frankenstein (2025) (Netflix)

Directed by Guillermo Del Toro, Frankenstein is the director’s take on Mary Shelley’s novel of the same name. It follows the story of Victor Frankenstein (Oscar Isaac), a scientist whose reanimation experiments result in the creation of The Creature (Jacob Elordi), with dire consequences. The movie also stars Mia Goth, Christoph Waltz and Charles Dance.

Frankenstein is visually stunning on 4K Blu-ray. There are plenty of scenes with high contrast that really play with shadows to create engaging images shown best during night scenes as Victor works in the tower. The balance between light and dark tones is excellent, capturing the Gothic tone of the movie. Textures are crisp and true-to-life, especially with people.

Colors, while used somewhat sparingly, really pop when on screen, shown in the green, grassy fields during The Creature’s tale. Red is also striking, shown with blood and in some of the costumes the wealthier characters wear. HDR highlights, such as the Sun on the horizon, have a good punch too, which really showed up on our LG G6.

The disc supports an incredibly detailed Dolby Atmos soundtrack. One of the showcases for this was the re-animation scene. The crackling of thunder is mapped to each speaker with pinpoint precision, and as it rumbles, the bass produced by our subwoofer is weighty and fills the room. As the camera moves around the room, the sound accurately follows the action on screen. Other effects, such as Victor working with body parts, also sound visceral and realistic.

Little Shop of Horrors (1986) (Warner Bros)

An adaptation of the 1982 musical of the same name, which is itself an adaptation of the 1960 movie The Little Shop of Horrors, Little Shop of Horrors follows Seymour (Rick Moranis), a shy man who works in a run-down flower shop and falls for his co-worker Audrey (Ellen Greene). He buys a mysterious plant and names it Audrey II and it soon grows into a giant, talking plant that attracts customers. But Audrey II has some nefarious intentions.

A Dolby Atmos soundtrack is featured here and sounds fantastic. The Atmos mixes for all the musical numbers have a great balance between the instruments and vocals, all given equal clarity and power. Whether it’s the delicate strings and twinkling piano keys of songs like ‘Somewhere That’s Green’ or the punchy guitars and pounding bass of tracks like ‘Feed Me (Git it!’), the Atmos soundtrack is superb.

Visually, this is a great 4K restoration. Textures have been cleaned up and refined, most obvious in people’s skin. Colors are punchy and vibrant throughout the movie, from the green on Audrey II’s plant body to the brightness of a yellow cab. Black levels are deep, with strong shadows during night scenes cast by the stage-style lighting. While there is some film grain present, the picture has mostly been cleaned up, giving it a more modern look.

Blood Simple (StudioCanal)

Blood Simple follows the story of bartender Ray (John Getz) and his affair with his boss and bar-owner Julian’s (Dan Hedeya) wife Abby (Frances McDormand). Julian hires detectives to follow the pair and kill them if the affair is proven to be real. This was the directorial debut of the Coen Brothers, and McDormand’s on-screen debut.

The 4K restoration of Blood Simple is very good overall. Textures have been cleaned up well, shown predominantly in people’s skin and faces, giving them a more modern look. There is plenty of film grain still present here, more so in some shots than others. Colors, when used, such as the neon at the bar, have a good vibrancy.

Where this disc shines most though is in its darker scenes. Black levels are inky and there are plenty of high contrast scenes, with light and dark tones balancing well to create strong shadows across people’s faces.

The 4K disc supports a DTS-HD 5.1 MA soundtrack. While there isn’t a ton here to push your home theater system, the soundtrack still shows great detail. As a car passes Ray and Abby in the opening, the sound of it is mapped to the speakers accurately, passing from left to right on the front speakers. Speech is cleanly rendered and the piano-led noir score is crystal clear and balances well with other effects.

Inside Llewyn Davis (StudioCanal)

Inside Llewyn Davis follows the story of fictional songwriter Llewyn Davis (Oscar Issac), a struggling musician in 1961. Although the character of Davis is fictional, the story was partly inspired by the autobiography of folk artist Dave Van Ronk. The movie was directed by the Coen Brothers.

Inside Llewyn Davis looks great in 4K. Textures are refined and lifelike, from people’s skin to details in clothing. While the movie has a distinctive ‘hazy’ gray look, colors look natural and have some nice punch to them. Scenes in bars during performances show nice contrast, with deep black tones in shaded areas balancing well with stage lights and natural light seeping in.

A Dolby Atmos soundtrack is included, and it sounds brilliant. Songs have a great Atmos mix that are delivered with real clarity and detail, particularly ‘Fare Thee Well’ at the start of the movie. Live performances show off the wide soundstage, accurately rendering the echo from within a room as Llewyn sings in the opening scene.

Elsewhere, the sounds of New York City demonstrate plenty of detail, with the sounds of car horns and general conversation mapped to the rear speakers. As trains pull into a subway, the sound travels from speaker to speaker accurately. Speech and vocals are clear throughout and balanced well with other effects.

• Wi-Fi 7 upgrades are becoming more accessible without expensive networking equipment
• TP-Link BE5000 offers greater theoretical wireless capacity than cheaper BE3600 alternatives
• A 2.5GbE connection removes the conventional Gigabit Ethernet speed limitation

Finding an affordable way to upgrade an existing network to Wi-Fi 7 can be difficult, particularly when faster wireless speeds come with expensive equipment.

However, TP-Link's Omada range offers a potentially attractive alternative, with its BE5000 access point.

The business-oriented networking product combines faster wireless connectivity with a 2.5GbE Ethernet connection, free lifetime cloud management and an unusually generous five-year warranty.

BE5000 Wi-Fi 7 brings faster connectivity without expensive equipment

Unlike cheaper BE3600 alternatives, the BE5000 specification offers greater theoretical wireless capacity, making this option particularly interesting at its current asking price.

Its combined wireless rating reaches approximately 5,000Mbps, although actual transfer speeds depend on connected devices, network interference, and the surrounding wireless environment.

Wi-Fi 7 also introduces improvements such as Multi-Link Operation, allowing compatible devices to use multiple frequency bands for improved connectivity and network performance.

The inclusion of a 2.5GbE Ethernet port is another important advantage, particularly for users whose existing networking equipment supports connections exceeding conventional Gigabit Ethernet speeds.

This faster wired connection helps prevent the Ethernet interface from becoming an immediate bottleneck when wireless clients demand substantial network bandwidth.

The access point belongs to TP-Link's Omada Pro family, which caters to businesses requiring networking equipment with centralised management capabilities.

That distinction matters because buyers are getting equipment designed for professional networking environments rather than another basic consumer wireless access point.

However, prospective customers should remember that this product is an access point, not a standalone router capable of independently managing an internet connection.

It therefore requires an existing router or gateway, making it particularly suitable for people upgrading an established network rather than replacing their entire networking infrastructure.

Free lifetime cloud management and a five-year warranty sweeten the deal

Another interesting feature is the inclusion of lifetime cloud management without additional subscription fees, removing recurring management costs for supported cloud features.

TP-Link's Omada cloud platform allows administrators to configure, monitor, and manage compatible networking equipment without purchasing a separate hardware controller.

This arrangement can be particularly useful for small businesses operating multiple access points across offices, where managing individual devices separately becomes increasingly inconvenient.

The five-year warranty also deserves attention because networking equipment is generally expected to remain operational for several years after installation.

A longer warranty provides additional purchasing reassurance, particularly when comparing this business-oriented product against cheaper alternatives offering shorter coverage periods.

At approximately $89.99, the combination of BE5000 wireless capacity, faster Ethernet connectivity and subscription-free cloud management makes the offer particularly interesting.

Buyers should nevertheless check compatibility with their existing router, available PoE infrastructure and installation requirements before placing an order.

Lest we forget! It's that bittersweet moment once again as the whole of the United Kingdom (and indeed, the world) comes together to remember those we lost in the wars. This year, it airs on Saturday, November 7 at 9pm BST, with Clive Myrie hosting the poignant event from the Royal Albert Hall.

Myrie will be joined by musicians including Alfie Boe, James Emmanuel, Mica Paris, Rita Wilson and Tom Odell. We will also get stunning performances from the Band of Royal Air Force Regiment and the Bands of HM Royal Marines Portsmouth (Royal Band) and Collingwood.

Over the course of 90 minutes, audiences will also hear from veterans and their loved ones as personal and heartfelt stories are shared about those who fought for their countries. The theme this year is places of remembrance, as people explain how different locations — be it private gardens or public spaces — can help them reflect on what they have lost.

Here's how to watch Royal British Legion Festival of Remembrance 2026 online and on TV from anywhere for free.

How to watch Royal British Legion's Festival of Remembrance 2026 from anywhere

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

How to watch Royal British Legion's Festival of Remembrance 2026 in the UK

In the UK, Royal British Legion's Festival of Remembrance 2026 is available on BBC iPlayer for free. It will be on the platform from November 7.

You can also watch the show on the linear TV channel BBC One. It airs on Saturday, November 7, at 9pm BST.

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

Can you watch Royal British Legion's Festival of Remembrance 2026 in the US?

Royal British Legion's Festival of Remembrance 2026 is only available in the UK – on television and BBC iPlayer – so you can't find a broadcast or stream of the show in the States.

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

Can you watch Royal British Legion's Festival of Remembrance 2026 in Canada?

Similar to the US, Royal British Legion's Festival of Remembrance 2026 is not available to stream in Canada and is not on any television channels there.

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

Can you watch Royal British Legion's Festival of Remembrance 2026 in Australia?

Like in the US and Canada, Royal British Legion's Festival of Remembrance 2026 is not available to stream or watch on any TV channels yet.

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

Royal British Legion's Festival of Remembrance 2026 need to know

Royal British Legion's Festival of Remembrance 2026 - performers

• Alfie Boe
• James Emmanuel
• Mica Paris
• Rita Wilson
• Tom Odell
• Band of Royal Air Force Regiment
• Band of HM Royal Marines Portsmouth
• Band of Collingwood

Royal British Legion's Festival of Remembrance 2026 - which war does this commemorate?

While Remembrance Day is primarily to reflect on those soldiers lost in the First World War, the event now covers a lot of different wars.

This year, there are significant anniversaries for conflicts in Bosnia, as well as the end of the Gulf War and the Iraq War.

Essentially, Royal British Legion's Festival of Remembrance 2026 is an event for anyone to be involved in, regardless of when and where they may have suffered a loss.

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We test and review VPN services in the context of legal recreational uses. For example:1. Accessing a service from another country (subject to the terms and conditions of that service).2. Protecting your online security and strengthening your online privacy when abroad.We do not support or condone the illegal or malicious use of VPN services. Consuming pirated content that is paid-for is neither endorsed nor approved by Future Publishing.

I don’t know what I’d do without Google.

I rely on its search engine for answers to all my questions; I’m writing this article up using Google Docs; its Calendar and Gmail apps help run my life; my phone and tablet are both powered by Android; Chrome is my go-to browser of choice; Google manages my passwords and is my authenticator app for 2FA, and I watch an ungodly amount of YouTube — I could go on, but you get the picture.

It’s scary if you sit and think about Google's stranglehold over our daily lives for too long, and so I’ve been desperate to try and de-Google where possible. I was glad, then, when the Fairphone 6 Plus came across my desk.

The standard Fairphone 6 Plus runs Android 16, but the model I’ve been testing for the past month comes preinstalled with /e/OS. This custom mobile OS removes all proprietary Google services, tracking, and built-in Google apps, but is still technically a fork of Android, which means it plays nice with many Android-compatible apps (solving one of the biggest hardware barriers to de-Googling).

The /e/OS Fairphone 6 Plus is available exclusively through Murena for $699.99 / £583 (around AU$1,009); that's slightly more than the standard model, which retails for $649.99 / £569 (roughly AU$1,100).

Armed with this Google-free phone and a list of apps to install, I was ready to see if I could de-couple from Google once and for all.

But after one month of trying, I’ve given up.

What is de-Googling?

This steadily growing trend is, as the name suggests, an approach to choosing software and hardware that's devoid of Google’s interference — specifically, de-Googling involves choosing options that have stronger privacy protections for users and less data-tracking services.

But this isn't just a matter of hopping over to Apple's iOS ecosystem and calling it a day (iPhones, of course, can access almost all Google services). It’s about maximizing privacy in a way that doesn't lock you into a walled garden. For some, de-Googling is also about de-Americanizing — that is, finding hardware and software produced outside of the United States.

Especially in the wake of the US government sanctioning International Criminal Court (ICC) lawyers, which left them unable to access essential online services, and previous efforts to ban non-US citizens from accessing the top-tier AI models, it's understandable that some people want to find tech alternatives produced either in their home region or by more stable allies.

In my case, I used the Fairphone 6 Plus as my day-to-day smartphone, swapped my default search engine to DuckDuckGo, and installed services like Proton to manage my mail.

Instantly, I was glad to be able to access the /e/OS and platforms like its App Lounge (its built-in app store) without a login, which kept my activity anonymous to some extent.

I also liked the neat Advanced Privacy widget, which not only lets you block in-app trackers, hide your IP address, and disguise your location on the fly, but also includes a neat graphic showing how many data leaks you've been shielded from over the last 30 days. It gamifies the experience of de-Googling in a fun way.

And while Proton offers paid tiers, I was able to trial its encrypted mail service with a free account, keeping my costs just as low as they were before I switched from my previous Android phone (albeit with a more limited service).

But for all of these early wins, I started to rub up against the more frustrating realities of de-Googling just as quickly.

/e/OS lacks some must-have Android optimizations — even simple ones, like the option to arrange apps how you want across pages (instead, it takes the Apple approach of apps automatically filling up pages; you can’t create gaps or custom arrangements beyond folders and reordering them).

Others on Reddit have also flagged the jankiness of the aforementioned App Lounge and the difficulty in finding navigation apps comparable to Google Maps. I don't live in a major city, so this hasn't been a big red flag for me, but it's true that most Google Maps alternatives lack the coverage and public transport integration to be relied upon.

Plus, while you can use a free version of services like Proton (like I did), I’d need to pay $12.99 / £10.39 / AU$20.79 a month (or equivalent to $9.99 / £7.99 / AU$15.99 if billed annually) for the experience I got from Google for free, which does add up at a time when costs are rising, and I’d ideally be tightening my purse strings. Remember, too, that this is not a cheap phone.

My frustrations also went beyond the general chore of untangling Google from my life.

I butted up against issues with the Fairphone 6 Plus specifically — its sluggish chipset and good-but-not-great cameras left me wanting to go back to my Android-powered Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra on several occasions.

I do appreciate the Fairphone's modular, eco-friendly construction, and in our Fairphone 6 Plus review, we noted that its Snapdragon 7s Gen 4 chipset "starts sluggishly" before finding its feet in general use.

I'm also lucky enough to be able to test the best Android phones (like the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra) on a regular basis, so I've perhaps been spoiled by their flagship-level performance straight out of the box.

You may, therefore, not encounter the same hardware frustrations, but trying to de-Google on the Fairphone 6 Plus felt like a double-whammy of difficulty.

In for a penny…

The problem with de-Googling is that it’s full of friction points. And I’ve found that when it comes to tackling that friction, people are very binary — they either want next to none, or, if they’re willing to accept some, they’d also be willing to accept a lot to make their privacy-focused tech dreams a reality.

That is to say, if people want to go the proper de-Googling route — and my 'people', I mean the folks willing to put in the effort to find the best app alternatives, and change out their hardware — they are also likely willing (and have the technical confidence) to take the step of installing GrapheneOS on a Google Pixel phone.

The GrapheneOS/Pixel combination still has its drawbacks, but its privacy features are more robust than those you'll find in /e/OS, and newer Pixel models like the Pixel 10 Pro and Pixel 10a edge out the Fairphone 6 Plus in terms of hardware (which, crucially, would be the only Google involvement in this solution).

Meanwhile, anyone wanting to take the easy route could just switch to Apple.

The Cupertino company's privacy promises are bold (even following its push into AI), and while picking up an iPhone wouldn't technically be de-Googling in purists' eyes, iPhones are slightly better options than regular Android phones for the mildly privacy-conscious.

That leaves the /e/OS Fairphone 6 Plus caught between two paths.

Its privacy features are great, and again, Fairphone deserves credit for offering a truly sustainable smartphone solution. But as someone who was genuinely excited to try to de-Google, I'm not sure whether the trade-offs in both software convenience and hardware quality are worth the hassle.

Still, with some tweaks made to /e/OS and a more flagship-level Fairphone, I'd be willing to try again.

Tech companies continue to shoehorn AI into their product and services, whether it’s justified or not. Within fitness and health tech, we have more AI coaches and advisors than we can juggle — from Google’s Health Coach to Strava’s Athlete Intelligence — and AI interpretations of our stats, that often look suspiciously like the technology we had years ago, just with an LLM flair.

But the shareholders love it and it works to upsell customers, so the game continues. Garmin, however, has been pretty careful about how it has employed the term, and how it has actually used the tech to ‘enhance’ its best Garmin watches and its Garmin Connect+ platform. From a dig into the Garmin website, you’ll mostly only see the term AI attached to one feature: Connect+’s Active Intelligence, which it describes as 'AI-powered'.

Active Intelligence is designed to offer LLM-style feedback and advice within the Connect app on your phone. The pitch is that as the app gets to know you, the insights will become ‘tailored to you and your goals’, according to Garmin.

Garmin is a fairly careful, perhaps conservative, company among its peers. And I imagine there may have been a feeling it couldn’t not jump on this AI bandwagon, given wider industry trends. I asked Garmin COO Brad Trenkle how he sees AI’s role within the company.

“I think because Garmin is a very engineering-focused company, we tend to be very pragmatic in all of our decision making,” says Trenkle. “That has led us to be very thoughtful and discerning about our use of AI.

“One of the key tenets of how we've implemented AI across the company, not just in product but even internally in our own processes, is that any application of AI needs to keep a very keen sense of authenticity.”

It’s an interesting take, when AI front-ends within health and fitness platforms often purport or appear to want to give apps a more relatable or human edge — and seem faker or sycophantic as a result.

TrainingPeaks in the distance

Garmin remains keen to emphasize it’s a human-first company, as proved by the company’s most recent major acquisition, TrainingPeaks, in July.

TrainingPeaks does use some AI-based technologies in its platform but, fundamentally, it’s about matching an athlete (or schlub aspiring to be one) with the knowledge and expertise of a real, actual expert person. This is a platform made for coaches as much as athletes, a business model completely at odds with the current trend of simply getting ChatGPT or Claude to work up a training plan for you.

“We also have taken approaches that we think will give customers choice,” says Trenkle on the buy-out.

“Our recent acquisition of TrainingPeaks is an opportunity for us to make sure consumers who want to be able to engage with a human coach can do so through the TrainingPeaks platform. So we want to make sure that we meet customers where they are.”

Garmin is dabbling on both sides. Connect+’s controversial-at-launch Active Intelligence is a take on the flavor-of-the-month application of AI, using LLM tech to spit out easily intelligible summaries so folks don’t have to spend any mental energy on learning how to interpret their own data. And TrainingPeaks, for now, diligently swims against the AI sludge current. Long may it continue.

It’s also worth noting Connect+, despite receiving a mixed reception at launch due to Athlete Intelligence, is not all about AI. It also offers more classic Garmin-style bonuses like expert coach videos, Livetrack location sharing and offline Trails. Whether it’s worth the $6.99 monthly fee for you is something we’ll leave for another time.

“Some will want simple, basic answers to questions about their data that AI can help provide and create those insights. Others will embrace the idea of a human coach for motivation, accountability, and some of the things that maybe are a little more difficult to get through an AI bot or agent,” Trenkle explains.

He’s also bold on how much he believes Garmin understands its user base, versus the ever-growing competition.

“I think Garmin has shown through our history that we know our customers and we tend to know our customers better than our competition can know our customers, and part of the reason that we're able to do that is because we are vertically integrated, right? We're talking to our customers. We are customers of our own products ourselves,” says Trenkle.

I imagine some folks in the “engineering focused” Garmin eyeroll as much as I do at the attempts elsewhere to make AI a tightly integrated part of its fitness tech. But what the future holds for Garmin and AI? It’s still in the works.

Are you looking for a Garmin watch, but not sure what to get? Take our quiz below to find your perfect smartwatch.

• An Anthropic engineer has written about the thinking linked to AI coding
• We risk 'cognitive surrender' if we don't keep engaging with AI, he says
• However, the developer isn't arguing against the use of AI coding agents

The idea that our cognitive faculties might degrade through underuse in the age of AI isn't new, but it's been well summed up by Anthropic engineer Addy Osmani, who says that we risk losing key skills by letting bots do all our digital work for us.

"Nothing in my day-to-day forces critical thinking on me now that so much of my work runs through agents," writes Osmani (via Business Insider). He adds that "skills that you stop exercising are going to go away, and probably faster than you might guess".

As you might expect given his job, the software developer isn't suggesting that AI agents shouldn't be used in coding projects — but he is saying that it's important to protect our critical thinking skills, despite the temptation to simply accept everything AI offers up.

Osmani also offers a counter to the idea that it doesn't matter if we lose the skills required for jobs that AI can do better anyway: "Regardless of how much AI helped, a human has to take responsibility," he says.

Maintaining human ownership

Some level of cognitive offloading to AI is okay, Osmani argues, as long as human beings are still "maintaining ownership". It's when AI's output is accepted without checks and without any rigorous examination that we should start to be worried.

"You read the last answer well, so you skim the next one," explains Osmani. "You just scan the skeleton of the one after that. Then you get asked about a line and can't explain it, even with your agent's help... that's how cognitive debt accumulates."

The engineer has some suggestions about avoiding cognitive surrender. They include practising core skills, formulating ideas before asking AI, paying attention to what's generated, and making sure you understand the decisions AI has made.

Ultimately, while some skills will be lost as AI improves, we need to be deliberate in terms of those we're willing to let go, Osmani says — and not just let it happen without thinking. It's well worth considering the next time you ask for AI's help with something.

• Adobe for Startups enables new companies founded within the last five years to get its products for free
• Eligible companies will get 12 months of free access to Adobe’s AI-heavy tools
• Firefly Pro Plus, Acrobat Studio, and Semrush are available with the offer

Adobe is launching a new free suite of tools for new businesses, aiming to deliver easy solutions to founders that won’t break their startup budget.

Adobe for Startups will be open to eligible companies founded in the past five years, who will be able to use Firefly Pro Plus, Acrobat Studio including Adobe Express Premium, and Semrush completely free for 12 months.

Marketing the incentive as a way to build branding as early as possible, Adobe is inviting any business founded within the past five years and with under $15 million in funding to apply.

Creation, productivity, marketing

Approved applications to Adobe for Startups will get Adobe Firefly Pro Plus, its all-in-one creative AI studio, which lets you ideate into images, video, and audio. With Acrobat Studio, AI Assistant and Adobe Express Premium are provided for easy content creation and publishing.

Meanwhile, Semrush gives you access to search intelligence and marketing options, illustrating how you business is found online and how it can be optimized.

While program terms and criteria may differ depending on business location, Adobe for Startups offers a useful software platform for growth – and it will help ensure that startups are looking at Adobe's creative AI offering rather than those of competitors like Canva.

There are feuds upon feuds waiting to be settled at WWE Crown Jewel 2026, with Roman Reigns and Sami Zayn, Liv Morgan and Chelsea Green, and Cody Rhodes and Randy Orton set to air their grievances at the ANB Arena.

Crown Jewel has taken a long time to find its niche, but it's settled on a good one: twin showdowns between Raw world champions Roman Reigns and Liv Morgan, and SmackDown world champions Sami Zayn and Chelsea Green, to determine the best of the best. Raw took a clean sweep a year ago.

Although everyone gets to keep their respective Raw and SmackDown belts, the winners get their hands on the Crown Jewel ring.

Sami joined forces with Roman by becoming a member of The Bloodline in 2022. They were dominant together, but things turned sour when Roman accused him of betrayal. It eventually led to a confrontation at Royal Rumble in 2023, during which Zayn hit Reigns with a chair but was rounded on by the rest of the collective.

Liv could become the first wrestler to win the Crown Jewel twice, having reigned supreme by beating Nia Jax two years ago. This is personal for Chelsea, however, after Morgan sabotaged her during her fight with Roxanne Perez last month.

Here's where to watch WWE Crown Jewel 2026 live streams online from anywhere. Scroll down for the full Crown Jewel card.

How to watch any WWE Crown Jewel 2026 stream using a VPN

A VPN is handy piece of software that can make your device appear as if it's back in your home country, so you can unlock your usual service. The best VPN right now? We recommend NordVPN – it does everything and comes with up to 77% off.

How to watch WWE Crown Jewel 2026 live streams in the US

In the US, WWE Crown Jewel 2026 is being shown on ESPN Unlimited.

A subscription costs $31.99 per month or $319.99 per year, and includes coverage of all WWE Premium Live Events, NFL, NHL, NBA, soccer from Spain ESPN Originals, 30 for 30s and more.

You can also access ESPN Unlimited via a cord-cutting platform, such as YouTube TV.

Outside the US for Crown Jewel? Use NordVPN to access your usual streams.

How to watch WWE Crown Jewel 2026 live streams in the Rest of the World

Netflix is showing WWE Crown Jewel 2026 outside the US, including in Canada, the UK and Australia.

A subscription to Netflix starts at CA$7.99 / £7.99 / AU$9.99 per month.

There's a huge collection of past WWE shows to stream on the service or, for something fresh, discover the best new Netflix movies with our dedicated guide.

Use NordVPN to watch Netflix wherever you are in the world if you find your WWE access blocked.

We test and review VPN services in the context of legal recreational uses. For example:1. Accessing a service from another country (subject to the terms and conditions of that service).2. Protecting your online security and strengthening your online privacy when abroad.We do not support or condone the illegal or malicious use of VPN services. Consuming pirated content that is paid-for is neither endorsed nor approved by Future Publishing.

• Watch Wales vs Japan for FREE on Rugbypass TV (US) / ITVX & S4C (UK)
• Unlock your stream with NordVPN (save 77% this Black Friday)
• Saturday, November 7 at 4.40pm GMT / 11.40am ET

Saturday's Wales vs Japan live stream in the 2026 Nations Championship gives a little more meaning to the traditional Autumn internationals, as both sides seek a winning start to their trio of November matches at Cardiff's mighty Millennium Stadium.

The recent history of matches between the Dragons and Brave Blossoms has produced some fantastic games and close results – in the respective fixture this time last year, a dramatic last-minute penalty from Jarrod Evans secured Wales a one-point win. But you can bet that Eddie Jones's Japan side will come to Saturday's game well-drilled, tactically on point, and with muscle memory of beating the Welsh as recently as July 2025.

Although neither side can realistically qualify for the Nations Championship final, this month's games will serve as a good litmus test of how their respective preparations are progressing ahead of next year's World Cup. Steve Tandy's home side will be particularly desperate for a win, knowing that they face New Zealand and Australia next. If Louis Rees-Zammit, Jac Morgan, captain Dewi Lake and co fail to beat Japan, they'll be staring down the barrel of the wooden spoon; the same ignominy that has befallen the proud rugby nation at the last three Six Nations championships.

Read on below for our guide on where to watch Wales vs Japan on TV and get Nations Championship 2026 free streams online.

Watch Wales vs Japan for FREE

Saturday's game – along with every other match of the 2026 Nations Championship – will be streamed live and free across the US, UK and Ireland. The Wales vs Japan live stream is set to be shown on:

🇺🇸 US: Rugbypass TV
🇬🇧 UK: ITVX & S4C via BBC iPlayer
🇮🇪 Ireland: Virgin Media Play

What if you're abroad? Rugby fans from the US, UK and Ireland can use NordVPN to watch their usual streaming service from anywhere.

How to watch any Wales vs Japan stream using a VPN

A VPN is a handy piece of software that can make your device appear as if it's back in your home country, so you can unlock your usual streaming services. The best VPN right now? We recommend NordVPN – it does everything and comes with a 75% discount now.

Using a VPN is incredibly simple:

1. Install the VPN of your choice. As we've said, NordVPN is our favorite.

2. Choose the location you wish to connect to in the VPN app. For instance, if you're visiting Canada and want to view your usual US service, you'd select a United States server from the list.

3. Sit back and enjoy the action. Head to your usual local streaming service and watch the rugby.

How to watch Wales vs Japan live streams in the US

Wales vs Japan and all 2026 Nations Championship matches will be live streamed for FREE on Rugbypass TV in the US.

The dedicated rugby streaming platform can be watched on its website or mobile app, and through Chromecast, Airplay, AppleTV and Android TV.

Outside the US for Wales vs Japan? Use NordVPN to access your usual streams.

How to watch Wales vs Japan live streams in the UK

Rugby fans in the UK can watch Wales vs Japan for free on ITV.

TV coverage for Wales vs Japan is on ITV1 while you can also stream it live and on demand via the free ITVX website and mobile app.

For those who prefer to watch with Welsh commentary, the game will also be shown live on S4C and through that channel on the BBC iPlayer.

If you're outside the UK but want to tap into your usual coverage, check out NordVPN and follow the instructions above.

ITVX and iPlayer are free services, though you need to be in possession of a valid UK TV licence to watch their live streams, as this covers digital content consumption, too.

How to watch Wales vs Japan live streams in Ireland

As mentioned above, all Nations Championship 2026 games will be on free-to-air TV in Ireland.

Virgin Media 1 is showing Wales vs Japan, which means it will also be available to stream on the Virgin Media Play platform.

Not in Ireland right now? Check out NordVPN.

How to watch Wales vs Japan live streams in Australia

In Australia, Wales vs Japan will be on Stan Sport.

It costs $20 a month on top of a regular Stan subscription costing from $9.99 a month.

Away from Australia right now? Use a VPN to watch Stan Sport from abroad.

How to watch Wales vs Japan live streams in New Zealand

Sky Sport is the Nations Championship 2026 TV rights holder in New Zealand.

You can access Sky Sport through satellite TV or get a live stream with the Sky Sport Now subscription service starting at NZ$29.99 per day or NZ$59.99 per month and watch Wales vs Japan.

Missing the Wales vs Japan game? NordVPN will give you access to your home streaming service.

We test and review VPN services in the context of legal recreational uses. For example:1. Accessing a service from another country (subject to the terms and conditions of that service).2. Protecting your online security and strengthening your online privacy when abroad.We do not support or condone the illegal or malicious use of VPN services. Consuming pirated content that is paid-for is neither endorsed nor approved by Future Publishing.

As workers look for more ways to be productive at home and in the office, wearable technology has often proved a useful tool, offering quite literally a new dimension for users.

Augmented Reality (AR) headsets have been around for a few years, with Microsoft, Meta and Apple all among the big players getting involved - but these headsets have often proved clunky and overbearing.

AR glasses have instead offered a new opportunity for those looking for some extra assistance in everyday life - I went to try out the new Snap Specs ahead of their UK launch.

First impressions

Let’s get the obvious out of the way first - tech-enabled glasses (specifically those made by Meta) are under the microscope somewhat at the current moment in time, with rulings over what they can and can’t do emerging in courts across the world.

Snap has explicitly looked to offer a whole new kind of experience, with the new sixth-generation Snap Specs much more obviously an accessory - it’s pretty obvious when wearing them that (unless you’ve gone full Nathan Barley) these aren’t a typical pair of glasses.

The smooth black material is nice to touch, and sits against your face with no issues. Configuring the glasses takes only a few seconds, with control of the device mainly in AR, with two buttons on the arms of the glasses helping with recording and resetting if needed.

Unlike other AR glasses, the big selling point of Snap Specs is that they don’t need to be tethered to a smartphone, so you can wear them wherever you want - with a portable charging pad helping to top up battery life when needed.

As the Snap Specs are still fairly new, a lot of the app showcases and demos I saw looked to show off how AR can help entertain or educate - but there were some work use cases too.

My glasses came loaded with Google Docs, with typing carried out on a virtual keyboard which could prove perfect if you need to write up some quick thoughts or emails when away from your desk. You might get a few odd looks while typing in mid-air, but when inspiration strikes, needs must - and it can also connect to a Bluetooth keyboard if you’d prefer.

The glasses are also able to capture video clips up to 30 seconds and still images, useful for creative workers across the spectrum - whether you’re getting a picture of a billboard idea, or seeing something in the wild that would be perfect for your next piece of artwork, you can quickly grab an image or video without needing to whip out your phone.

Snap Specs also features a built-in browser, which does everything you would hope - but also doubles as a media viewer, so whether you need to work on or review a new presentation or promotional video, or just want to catch up on some YouTube, the glasses can be a useful tool.

The voice AI assistant was also fast and effective when answering my questions (even if I doubted its accuracy on finding the nearest tube station to our location), and using Google Maps with a heads-up display was an absolute game-changer, although again it might depend on how you feel walking down the street wearing a £2,000 pair of glasses.

Perhaps the most striking demo was the translation tool - when looking at someone speaking in a foreign language, their speech would be instantly translated and shown in a speech bubble overlaying them - essentially like subtitles when watching a TV show. This could be an incredible tool for business meetings in foreign countries, and might well be the killer app for technology such as Snap Specs.

So will the £1,999 Snap Specs be the future of work? Given that the more fun demos I saw involved playing dominoes, improving my football skills, a drawing tutorial and enjoying an interactive Harry Potter experience involving a pet owl and the sorting hat, I’m not sure it’s there just yet - but I can’t wait to see where the technology goes next.

TP-Link Archer 8 Ultra: One-minute review

It’s taken quite a while for Wi-Fi 7 to become a mainstream technology – even Apple hasn’t adopted it right across its product range yet – but TP-Link has just launched the first Wi-Fi 8 router in the somewhat imposing form of its new Archer 8 Ultra.

In fact, the final technical details for Wi-Fi 8 probably won’t be announced until 2028, but the key features of the new standard are well known, allowing TP-Link and other manufacturers to prepare new products that will introduce the new technology over the next couple of years. It’s also planning to release a number of mesh routers and range extenders that will use Wi-Fi 8 in 2027 as well.

It’s safe to say that a state-of-the-art router with Wi-Fi 8 will be massive overkill for most home users – after all, the Archer’s tri-band Wi-Fi and top speed of 19Gbps will leave most home broadband services trailing in its wake.

And, of course, it comes with a state-of-the art price tag too. However, the Archer 8 Ultra is a good opportunity to look at the new features that will shape the next generation of Wi-Fi technology.

TP-Link Archer 8 Ultra review: Price & release date

• How much does it cost? Pre-order for £699 (around $950), then £899.99 (around $1,199)
• When is it available? Released on November 15, 2026
• Where can you get it? Available in US, EU, UK

The Archer 8 Ultra is currently available for pre-order from TP-Link’s website, and will be officially launched on November 15, 2026.

The US pricing hasn’t been confirmed at the time of writing, but there’s a special offer for pre-orders in the UK for £699 (around $950), with the price rising to £899.99 (approx. $1,199) following the launch in November. There are currently no rival Wi-Fi 8 routers to compare it with, but that pricing makes the Archer 8 Ultra twice as expensive as a high-end, current-gen Wi-Fi 7 model.

• Value: 4/5

TP-Link Archer 8 Ultra review: Specs

TP-Link Archer 8 Ultra review: Design

• Solid build quality
• Very good selection of ports
• App is easy to use

Wi-Fi 8 focuses on extending range and signal power in order to improve reliability.

This means that the Archer 8 Ultra needs to provide some pretty heavyweight hardware. It’s built like a tank, consisting of a matte-black obelisk that stands 245mm high, 98mm wide and 226mm deep, and it houses no less than 18 internal antennae to help beam the Wi-Fi signal far and wide.

It also provides an impressive set of ports and connectors, including two 10Gbps ports that can handle the latest high-speed fibre broadband, and also double up for a wired network connection (LAN) for devices such as a PC or gaming console that needs maximum performance.

There are also four additional 2.5Gbps ports for additional wired connections and, somewhat oddly, a single 1Gbps port as well.

TP-Link’s Tether app is also well designed, allowing you to scan a QR code in order to quickly connect to the router’s new network. By default, the app creates two separate networks, with one network reserved for the high-speed 6.0GHz band that is supported by newer computers and mobile devices.

The second network combines the 2.4GHz and 5.0GHz bands in order to provide compatibility with older computers and mobile devices. That setup should suit most users, but more advanced users can connect to the Archer 8 Ultra via a web browser interface that provides greater control over your network settings.

• Design: 5/5

TP-Link Archer 8 Ultra review: Features

The new Wi-Fi 8 standard is a big step forward, and is awash with jargon and buzzwords, such as MAPC (multi-access point co-ordination), ELR (enhanced long range), and DRU (distributed resource units), and you can find out more about these on the TP-Link website.

But the TLDR version is that Wi-Fi 8 shifts the focus away from sheer speed and instead concentrates on improving both range and reliability for larger homes and offices, as well as public and outdoor venues that may have dozens or even hundreds of connected devices spread over a very wide area.

Of course, the 19Gbps speed of the Archer 8 Ultra certainly sounds impressive, but it’s not actually any faster than the top speed of 46Gbps that is already possible with current-generation Wi-Fi 7 devices.

Wi-Fi 8 also uses the same frequency bands – 2.4GHz, 5.0GHz and 6.0GHz – that are available with Wi-Fi 7 as well. This ensures that the Archer 8 Ultra will be backwards-compatible with existing computers and mobile devices that use Wi-Fi 7.

However, those buzzwords that we just mentioned are designed to improve the range and reliability of the Archer 8 Ultra, so that a single router can cover an area of 3,600sq.ft (although some regions may quote this as 3,000sq.ft due to differences in local regulations).

It’s also designed to support up to 200 connected devices, and includes a Multi-Floor Mode that can automatically configure the Archer network to work efficiently within homes, offices, and other buildings where people and devices may be spread across multiple floors and levels. Suffice it to say that if you live in a modest two-bedroom house or apartment, then the Archer 8 Ultra will definitely be what The Sisters Of Mercy refer to as ‘a slight case of overbombing’.

• Features: 5/5

TP-Link Archer 8 Ultra review: Performance

• Tri-band Wi-Fi 8
• Very few - if any - Wi-Fi 8 devices yet
• Still fantastic performance with Wi-Fi 7 devices

I’ve not come across any PCs or mobile devices that currently support Wi-Fi 8 but, as mentioned, Wi-Fi 8 does use the same frequency bands as Wi-Fi 7, so I was able to get some idea of the performance offered by the Archer 8 Ultra using an existing laptop with Wi-Fi 7.

The extended range and reliability of Wi-Fi 8 makes it a good option in my office, as I have a deadspot in one particular office at the back of the building. Unsurprisingly, both of the Wi-Fi networks set up by the Archer 8 Ultra were easily able to cruise along at the maximum 150Mbps provided by my office network when running the Ookla SpeedTest and for downloading large game files from Steam while connected to nearby devices in the same room.

And it didn’t bat an eyelid as I picked up my laptop and walked along the corridor to the Wi-Fi deadspot in the furthest back office.

The one disadvantage of the high-speed 6GHz band is that it has a shorter range than the 2.4GHz and 5.0GHz bands – which is why those bands are still used even on next-gen routers such as this.

However, the range and reliability of Wi-Fi 8 ensured that the 6.0GHz band was able to reach my back office and maintain full speed with no trouble at all.

Of course, it’s still early days for Wi-Fi 8, so the Archer 8 Ultra won’t be an essential purchase for many people right now, but it’s a fascinating look at a future world where we will be surrounded by Wi-Fi all around us, both at home and in the wider world outside (more so than we currently are).

• Performance: 5/5

Should I buy the TP-Link Archer 8 Ultra?