Articles by Desire Athow, Managing Editor, TechRadar Pro

Désiré has been musing and writing about technology during a career spanning four decades. He dabbled in website builders and web hosting when DHTML and frames were in vogue and started narrating about the impact of technology on society just before the start of the Y2K hysteria at the turn of the last millennium.

Then followed a weekly tech column in a local business magazine in Mauritius, a late night tech radio programme called Clicplus and a freelancing gig at the now-defunct, Theinquirer, with the late Mike Magee as mentor. After an eight-year stint at ITProPortal.com, where he discovered the joys of global techfests and transformed the publication into one of the biggest tech B2B independent publishers, Désiré moved to TechRadar Pro where he has been the editor for nine years.

He has an affinity for anything hardware and staunchly refuses to stop writing reviews of obscure products or cover niche B2B software-as-a-service providers. He is an avid deal hunter and can be found lurking around on various deals forums.

Articles by: Desire Athow

What are the 5 main features of a point-of-sale (POS) system?

By Desire Athow Last updated 27 May 26

There are five core elements of a point-of-sale system — and we explored how each one is essential for creating a smoother checkout experience

Adata UE800 1TB SSD on a window sill during our test and review process

Best USB flash drive 2026: Quick and compact storage in your pocket

By Desire Athow Last updated 19 May 26

Buying Guide We tested out best USB sticks and flash drives for speed, storage, and portability.

'The storm is here': Why you and your neighbors may be paying multibillion-dollar bill for AI data centers right now — but that may not last long as more US states join revolt against unjust 'socialist' approach to electricity bills

By Desire Athow Published 29 April 26

Exclusive The hidden cost of AI: How data centers are driving electricity prices higher across multiple states, affecting you and your neighbors.

Best laptop for AutoCAD deals in 2026

By Desire Athow Last updated 29 April 26

Running Autodesk's legendary software? I've tracked down the best AutoCAD laptop deals and prices on our top machines.

Data Search Technology Search Engine Optimization. man's hands are using laptop to Searching for information. Marketing ranking traffic website, SEO search engine optimization concept.

Best People Search Finder Service of 2026: Top Services Reviewed & Ranked

By Pawan Singh Last updated 24 April 26

Updated The best people search finder service can help you scour public databases to find friends and family.

Turn any location into an office with ASUS travel routers and portable monitors

By Desire Athow Published 24 April 26

"The future of space will look less like single-use expeditionary missions and more like a transport network": Pulsar Fusion's quest to build a nuclear fusion exhaust system for deep-space travel hits "first plasma" milestone

By Desire Athow Published 22 April 26

Exclusive Following a "first plasma" milestone, Pulsar Fusion outlines its ambitious plans for a nuclear fusion exhaust system for deep-space travel.

'Birds avoid turbines far more than prediction models assume': Spoor’s AI monitoring is changing how wind farms measure wildlife risk

By Desire Athow Published 18 April 26

Exclusive Spoor outlines its vision for AI-based biodiversity monitoring, using computer vision to scale wildlife tracking across wind energy sites.

'Building gigawatt data centers in the US is becoming increasingly difficult': Why Orbital is taking AI infrastructure into space to solve power and cooling issues

By Desire Athow Published 13 April 26

Exclusive Orbital outlines its vision for space-based AI infrastructure, using solar-powered satellites to overcome energy and cooling limits and scale compute beyond Earth’s grid.

'A more secure, scalable platform that runs on modern infrastructure and supports AI-native workflows': Why Cloudflare's new EmDash is the "spiritual successor" to WordPress

By Desire Athow Published 8 April 26

Exclusive Cloudflare outlines its vision for EmDash as a modern CMS designed to improve security, support AI-native workflows, and modernize how websites are built and managed.

Professor Graham Reed Director CORNERSTONE

'Silicon photonics is central to next-generation AI infrastructure': How light-based chips could solve AI’s growing bottlenecks

By Desire Athow Published 6 April 26

Exclusive A silicon photonics pioneer explains how light-based technology could reshape AI, computing, and data infrastructure.

An autonomous John Deere tractor working a field

'The farmer isn't disappearing — they're moving up the stack': How AI is reshaping the role of modern agriculture

By Desire Athow Published 5 April 26

Exclusive New robotics and AI tools are helping agriculture address workforce shortages while improving safety, productivity, and long-term sustainability.

'The navigation systems on board aircraft and drones will be off significantly': Why aging magnetic data poses a growing risk and how quantum sensors could help fix it

By Desire Athow Published 4 April 26

Exclusive Quantum diamond magnetometers could enable resilient navigation without GPS, while supporting defense, security, and future magnetic mapping systems.

'Building AI literacy, proficiency, and fluency': how the US National Science Foundation is planning a nationwide AI workforce expansion

By Desire Athow Published 3 April 26

Exclusive NSF outlines its nationwide plan to expand AI literacy, training, and adoption for workers, businesses, and local communities.

'Every living thing on Earth runs on the same programming language': How AI foundation models trained on DNA could transform plant biology

By Desire Athow Published 29 March 26

Exclusive How AI foundation models are moving from language into the biology of living systems and plant science.

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'A huge amount of network traffic now comes from machines talking to other machines': what rising data demand means for networks

By Desire Athow Published 28 March 26

Exclusive With AI reshaping operations, a telecom expert says networks and data centers are growing increasingly interconnected.

Businessman using a computer to backup storage data

Best cloud backup of 2026: ranked and rated by the experts

By James Capell Last updated 26 March 26

Updated We've tested and rated the best cloud backup services, to help you backup your files and folders directly to the cloud.

Holographic representation of cloud computing over open businessman's hand

Best free cloud storage of 2026: ranked, rated, and reviewed

By James Capell Last updated 26 March 26

We've tested the best free cloud storage services, to help you to back up your files, folders and other data safely and securely offsite.

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'AI can be relentless in a way that a human is not': With too few experts to go around, this startup is chasing a Matrix-style idea of “copying and pasting” expertise

By Desire Athow Published 18 March 26

Exclusive With too few human experts, this AI startup is chasing a Matrix-style idea of “copying and pasting” expertise.

MacBook Neo laptop on a desk with plant in background

Exclusive: $599 MacBook Neo easily beats $1,119 Dell laptop on Windows 11 benchmarks - yes, macOS may well be the best platform ever for Microsoft's OS

By Desire Athow Published 18 March 26

Exclusive Despite running a mobile CPU and Windows in a virtual machine, the MacBook laptop excelled in single-core CPU performance.

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“People aren’t put off by ‘used’ — they’re put off by uncertainty”: How the smartphone industry can build trust in refurbished devices

By Desire Athow Published 17 March 26

Exclusive Most smartphones still work when retired, yet fewer than 10% are refurbished — how can the industry close the gap?

"We're the layer that AI needs to get things done in the real world": MeatLayer is building a marketplace where AI hires humans to do jobs

By Desire Athow Published 17 March 26

Exclusive It sounds like dystopian fiction, but MeatLayer is building a marketplace where AI hires humans.

'Data is so ubiquitous nowadays, but we’re not necessarily coming up with new ways to protect it': Researchers develop ‘negative light’ signals that hide transmissions in plain sight

By Desire Athow Published 15 March 26

Exclusive Scientists demonstrate a communications method that hides data in natural heat radiation, making transmissions invisible to snoopers.

'People don’t trust bad AI voices': listeners rated a Chinese startup's synthetic voices higher for trust and realism than those from Microsoft, Google, and Amazon

By Desire Athow Published 11 March 26

Exclusive Listeners rated a Chinese startup's AI voices more realistic and trustworthy than those from Microsoft, Google, and Amazon.

“We intend to launch our first end-to-end commercial DNA Data Storage solutions before the end of 2026”: Biomemory outlines its DNA storage roadmap after Catalog deal

By Desire Athow Published 7 March 26

Exclusive French DNA storage pioneer Biomemory has acquired rival Catalog, and told us where it sees the technology in the years ahead.

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