Technology

Summer cooking doesn't have to mean a sweltering kitchen. Here's how I keep my cool during the warmest months.

We are delighted to announce the shortlist for the Mobile Industry Awards 2026!

The MIAs represent the gold standard of excellence in the industry - from the boardroom to the grassroots, the entrants represent the best and brightest the UK mobile industry has to offer.

The Mobile Industry Awards 2026 will take place on 17th September 2026 at the stunning Royal Lancaster London - the perfect setting for a night of fine dining, networking and industry celebration.

The MIA 2026 nominees are....

Best Mobile Service & Solution Provider

• ege
• Plan.com
• Salt Communications

Best Mobile/Gadget Insurance Service

• Asurion
• Barclays Tech Pack - powered by Likewize
• EE Gadget Cover
• insurance2go

Best Wholesale Service & Solution Provider sponsored by Business Mobiles

• eSIM Go
• VodafoneThree Wholesale

Best Customer Service (Business)

• Active Digital
• ege
• Pure Communication Group

Best Customer Service (Consumer)

• Envirofone
• Lebara Mobile
• Mazuma Mobile
• Saily
• Sky Mobile
• Talkmobile
• Tesco Mobile
• The iOutlet
• VodafoneThree

Best Place to Work (under 1,000 employees) NEW FOR 2026

• Bamboo Connect
• BusinessMobile.com
• Mova
• Pure Communication Group
• Saily
• The Big Phone Store

Best Place to Work (over 1,000 employees)

• EE Retail
• Tesco Mobile

CSR Initiative of the Year

• Active Digital – Closing the Gap on the Digital Divide
• Safer SIMs from EE
• Samsung Solve for Tomorrow
• Tesco Mobile’s Online Safety and Technology Grants
• VodafoneThree - everyone.connected: Closing the UK Digital Divide

Marketing Campaign of the Year

• GK Telecom Nationwide Omnichannel Customer Acquisition Campaign
• Lebara Mobile - The Smarter Choice
• Motorola - Brilliant Collection Launch

Sustainability Initiative of the Year

• Envirofone x ZSL London Zoo: Trade In, Give Back, Protect the Gorillas
• Likewize Circular Device Lifecycle Services
• The Big Phone Store
• The Fairphone (Gen. 6): The one that lasts

Sales Team of the Year (new for 2026)

• Belkin UK Sales Team
• Pure Communication Group
• VodafoneThree Indirect Sales Team Excellence

Team of the Year

• Samsung Mobile Experience (MX) UK & Ireland - Marketing, Omnichannel, Sales and Product team
• Tesco Mobile People team
• Virgin Media O2 CTO team
• VodafoneThree Discovery Team

Accessory Manufacturer of the Year

• Belkin International
• Motorola

Smartphone Manufacturer of the Year

• Apple
• Google
• Motorola
• Samsung
• TCL

Best eSIM Provider

• ByteSIM
• eROAMING eSIM
• EE Instant Connect
• Saily
• SureSIM

Best MVNO sponsored by GK Telecom Ltd

• iD Mobile
• Lebara Mobile
• plan.com
• Sky Mobile
• SMARTY Mobile

Best Network for Business

• BT + EE Business
• Vodafone Business UK

Best Network for Consumers

• Sky Mobile
• VodafoneThree

Best SIM Only Network

• iD Mobile
• Lebara Mobile
• Spusu Mobile

Innovation of the Year (Product or Service)

• Bamboo Connect: Optima and Device Intelligence Platform
• Freshwave 5G on Omni
• musicMagpie - 'Take it to Timpson' Trade-in Service
• Samsung – Galaxy S26 Series Privacy Display
• SIMPL’s Compass Platform
• SureSIM Travel ProtectO2 Satellite
• Vodafone Business - the UK's first commercial 5G network slicing service

Best Recycling and Refurbishing Service

• Likewize
• Mazuma Mobile
• musicMagpie
• Samsung in partnership with MTR
• The Big Phone Store
• The iOutlet
• VodafoneThree

Best Repair Service

• Likewize We Come To You Repair
• The Big Phone Store
• The iLab
• VodafoneThree Fix&Go

Distributor of the Year

• ege
• GK Telecom

Retailer of the Year (High Street and Online)

• EE
• musicMagpie
• The Big Phone Store
• The iOutlet
• VodafoneThree

For all awards updates visit our site www.mobileindustryawards.com - we look forward to seeing you on September 17 2026!

If you have any questions or queries about how to attend or enter, get in touch at kate.smith@futurenet.com

With alert volumes running into the hundreds of thousands, security teams have built habits around what to ignore. And attackers have learned to exploit them.

For years, security operations centers (SOCs) have dealt with sorting through the noise of security alerts by prioritizing vulnerabilities based on severity level.

As the enterprise technology stack became more complex with a growing number of endpoints, cloud infrastructure, and multiple identity systems, it became impractical, if not impossible, for SOCs to address every single alert that got flagged.

As a result, most teams have adopted an approach where they focus their efforts on mitigating the medium- and high-severity alerts and dismissing or deprioritizing those flagged as lower risk.

However, just because a threat is deemed “low risk” doesn’t mean it’s “no risk.” Recent large-scale analysis of enterprise security alerts found that around 1% of all incidents can be traced back to alerts initially categorized as low severity.

For an average enterprise with 450,000 alerts per year, this translates to approximately one real threat slipping by each week. Although the percentage sounds small, it does represent a number of real threats that are being dismissed instead of being addressed by security teams.

These findings challenge the current best practice of prioritizing alerts based on severity level. They raise a critical question for today’s security teams: how can they realistically consider low-severity alerts while managing the high volume of alerts they’re receiving every day?

Real Threats Are Hiding in the Noise

Companies get hundreds of thousands of security alerts every year, and that number can rise to over a million for the largest enterprises. At this scale, security teams might be dealing with thousands of alerts every single day, so it’s no surprise that several recent studies have found that over half of alerts are never even reviewed.

Given this volume, triaging alerts by severity has been a necessity to sort through the noise. Instead, SOCs focus their efforts on the threats that appear most impactful and urgent. This makes sense, of course, as it would be unwise (and potentially dangerous) to ignore a critical alert in favor of a low-risk anomaly that likely will never amount to anything.

However, when these low-severity alerts are ignored, they create the opportunity for real threats to persist undetected.

Attackers Favor Stealth

Threat actors would prefer to sneak in and remain hidden, quietly carrying out their attacks for as long as possible. Instead of launching high-impact attacks that would immediately raise alarm bells, they gain access and try to remain undetected so that they can move laterally throughout a network, escalating privileges and extracting data over time without raising suspicion.

Severity classifications don’t always reflect this reality. Alerts are typically categorized based on a number of factors, including how critical an affected system is, the impact if that system were to go down, known threat actor activity, and how confident the security system is that malicious activity is taking place.

For example, detection of mass file encryption might be categorized as a high-severity alert because it indicates ransomware execution, whereas a suspicious PowerShell command might be low severity because it could just as easily be legitimate activity from an admin. Yet in practice, that PowerShell command could be from an attacker downloading payloads, establishing persistence, or running recon within the environment.

In many cases, major security incidents are the result of a string of multiple low-severity actions that don’t appear malicious individually. This allows the attacker to continue conducting their activities for weeks or even months without being noticed.

Rethinking Alert Triage in the SOC

The challenge for modern SOCs is not only to work faster but to work with more complete information. Treating alerts as isolated events, each evaluated on its own merits and severity score, is a structural limitation that threat actors have learned to exploit.

Low-severity alerts rarely tell a complete story on their own. A login anomaly, a suspicious script execution, a privilege change, each one individually may be inconclusive or entirely benign. But when those signals appear across the same user, system, or time window, they describe something far more concerning. The ability to surface that pattern depends on whether the investigation goes looking for it.

This requires two shifts in how security teams operate. The first is contextual. Alerts need to be analyzed against what else is happening in the environment, not just against the criteria that triggered the original detection. The second is coverage. Teams cannot build a complete behavioral picture if a large portion of signals never get examined at all. When low-severity alerts are systematically skipped, the picture has gaps, and those gaps are where attackers persist.

The practical implication is that alert triage can no longer rely solely on human capacity to determine what gets investigated. The volume problem is real, and severity-based prioritization exists for good reason. But the teams best positioned to catch early-stage threats are those that have found ways to extend consistent investigative coverage across the full alert stream, not just the top tier, and correlate what they find into a coherent view of attacker behavior over time.

The question is no longer whether low-severity alerts deserve attention. The data shows they do. The question is how to build an operation that can actually give it to them.

We feature the best antivirus software.

This article was produced as part of TechRadar Pro Perspectives, our channel to feature the best and brightest minds in the technology industry today.

The views expressed here are those of the author and are not necessarily those of TechRadarPro or Future plc. If you are interested in contributing find out more here: https://www.techradar.com/pro/perspectives-how-to-submit

If you own one of the best Samsung phones, and have a habit of mislaying your wallet or keys, then the Samsung SmartTag 2 is exactly what you need. Samsung’s answer to the Apple AirTag, the dinky SmartTag 2 can be attached to, or inserted in, practically anything you can think of. If you lose said item, you can use your Samsung device to track it down.

And right now you can grab a 4-pack for the low price of just AU$71.06 at Amazon for a limited time. That’s just under AU$18 per tag, which is a surefire bargain.

If you're the proud owner of a Samsung Galaxy phone, then there are few more valuable accessories to add to your arsenal than the Galaxy SmartTag 2. Whether you’re always losing your keys, you travel often and don’t want your suitcase going missing, or are sick of losing your wallet, the SmartTag 2 will reunite you with them with no trouble. Make sure to apply the 5% coupon for the full saving.View Deal

The SmartTag 2 is incredibly simple to use. Just connect a tag to any object, register it with the SmartThings Find app and use Search Nearby to find your item. You can also make the Galaxy SmartTag 2 play a sound if it's near enough to find with its ringtone feature.

You can track the Galaxy SmartTag 2 so long as it stays attached and intact. And, don't worry, with a battery life of up to 700 days and IP67 rating for protection against dust and water, it will last long enough for you to find your items, even if they somehow find their way to the desert or the bottom of the pool.

If you're looking for an iOS compatible smart tag, try the Apple AirTag 2, which is also seeing a discount on the 4-pack at Amazon, now down to AU$132.82 thanks to a AU$6 saving at the checkout, but I’d wait to see if these drop in price further come Prime Day 2026 in Australia.

If you want a smart tag that works for multiple devices, including iPhones, Samsung Galaxy, and Google Pixel, try the much cheaper Life 360 Tile, which is now AU$55.95 for a 4-pack.

Amazon Prime Day starts in Australia on July 7, 2026, and runs to July 13. But just like last year, there are already early Apple deals available.

So we’re already checking prices every day across AirPods, iPad, Apple Watch, iPhone, Apple accessories and MacBook, and we’ll keep updating this page as new deals appear or prices drop.

Of course, not every Apple discount is worth buying, especially if a deal only applies to one colour, one size or a product that has been cheaper before. So we’re focusing on the Apple deals that are genuinely good after comparing to Apple’s official pricing and what else is available at Amazon or elsewhere.

Want discounts on more than just Apple? Check out our full Prime Day deals page for the latest discounts across all brands.

Quick links to the best Apple deals on Amazon

These direct links are the fastest way to check the main Apple categories on Amazon before =delving into the individual deals below.

• Amazon Prime Day: shop the main Prime Day sale
• Apple at Amazon: browse everything Apple in one place
• AirPods deals: check the best AirPods prices
• iPad deals: shop iPad offers at Amazon
• Apple Watch deals: see the best Apple Watch prices
• iPhone deals: check current iPhone deals
• Apple accessories: browse AirTags, chargers, cables and more
• MacBook price checks: find MacBook restocks and price drops

Best early Amazon Prime Day Apple deals

These are our favourite early Amazon Prime Day Apple deals. We’ve split them by product type so you can easily compare deals on AirPods, iPad, Apple Watch, iPhone, accessories and MacBooks.

If you don't see any products in a particular category, check back later as we'll be working hard every day to find more deals.

On June 26, Apple raised prices in Australia across Macs, iPads, Apple TV 4K and HomePod.

Check out our price rise guide to find out more.

Best AirPods Prime Day deals

AirPods are usually one of the easier Apple products to find discounted at Amazon. The cheapest option here is the open-fit AirPods 4, while AirPods Pro are the better choice if you want noise cancelling, while AirPods Max are great for anyone who wants over-ear headphones.

The AirPods 4 are a tempting buy if you want Apple’s latest open-fit earbuds without stepping up to the ANC model. Our AirPods 4 review found they sounded good and offered a secure, comfortable fit despite the lack of in-ear tips.View Deal

They have been cheaper before, but this is still a solid discount on Apple's noise-cancelling buds. If you're upgrading from an older pair of AirPods 2 or 3, they are worth a look, though Pro 2 owners have less reason to jump. Check out our review for the full story, including the new heart-rate monitoring feature and improved ANC.View Deal

It's hard to find Apple's over-ear cans with much of a discount, so this is worth checking if you're keen on a new set of premium AirPods. The AirPods Max remain expensive, but our Apple AirPods Max review praised their excellent ANC and superb audio performance.View Deal

I saw a small discount on Apple's latest release of its over-ear cans during EOFY at another retailer, but this is definitely a better offer from Amazon with select colours dropping AU$200 in price via the same listing. So, what's different and are they worth the cash? Well, if you're an Apple fan, then yes, they are, but the only thing new here is the H2 chip that offers better noise cancellation, voice isolation, adaptive audio and improved head gestures. Yeah, the only thing different...View Deal

Best iPad Prime Day deals

iPad deals can be tricky because Amazon often only discounts specific storage sizes or colours, and the deals tend to change rapidly. Sadly iPads also just got hit by Apple's price rises, so the base cost has gone up.

We think the standard iPad is the best fit for casual use, though the iPad Air is worth the extra cost, whereas the iPad Pro is aimed at those who really need the better screen and higher performance.

If you don't see any iPad deals below, don't worry, we'll add more as soon as we can. In the meantime, there are some discounted iPad accessories worth checking out.

This is a tempting discount on the 11-inch iPad Air (base price was AU$999 yesterday) if you want a fast, lightweight tablet for streaming, study or work without stepping up to an iPad Pro. The M3 chip gives it plenty of headroom for multitasking and creative apps, and our iPad Air 11-inch (2025) review noted its excellent screen and impressive battery life.View Deal

Apple did just bump the base price up from AU$599 to AU$749, so this deal is much pricier than it was last month, but it's still the best discount currently available on Amazon. The A16 chip is a good fit for streaming, browsing, note-taking, video calls and light productivity, while our iPad A16 review found it zippy for everyday apps. It doesn’t support Apple Intelligence, but that’s unlikely to bother most casual tablet buyers.View Deal

Still definitely an investment, but this could be a powerful laptop replacement if you work on the go a lot. The M5 chip gives it plenty of performance headroom, and if you use your savings to pick up a keyboard folio, it becomes a far more portable package than a MacBook. If you're using it for work, it may also be worth checking whether it is eligible for your tax situation.View Deal

This is a decent buy if you’ve got a compatible iPad and want Apple’s best stylus for drawing, note-taking and document markup. The squeeze and barrel roll controls are the main upgrade over cheaper Apple Pencil options, while Find My support helps if you accidentally misplace it. Just check your iPad model first, because it’s only compatible with select iPad Pro, iPad Air and iPad mini models. Or grab the discounted standard Apple Pencil from Amazon. View Deal

Best Apple Watch Prime Day deals

Apple Watch deals are worth watching if you use an iPhone and want fitness tracking, notifications and health features without paying Apple’s normal price.

Case size, colour and band choice can change the price, so if comparing options under the one listing, double check the exact model selected before hitting buy.

This is a tempting price for iPhone users who want a full-featured Apple Watch without jumping to the Ultra. The always-on display, ECG app, sleep score and fitness tracking make it a useful everyday smartwatch, while the 42mm case is the more manageable size. Our Apple Watch Series 11 review praised the improved battery life, though Series 10 owners have less reason to upgrade.View Deal

Best iPhone Prime Day deals

iPhone deals are often harder to judge than AirPods or iPad deals because Amazon discounts often apply to one colour or storage size.

If you don't see any iPhone deals below, check back soon, as they can change day to day.

Best Apple accessories Prime Day deals

Apple accessories usually aren't the deals people are most excited about, but they are useful add-ons if the price is right. AirTags, chargers, cables and Mac desk gear are also the kinds of Apple products Amazon tends to discount more often than iPhones or MacBooks.

This discount matches the previous lowest on Amazon and makes the 2m MagSafe Charger a solid buy if your bedside table or desk needs more reach than the standard 1m cable gives you. It supports faster wireless charging up to 25W with compatible iPhones, but you’ll need a 30W USB-C power adapter to get that top speed.View Deal

This four-pack is a decent buy if you want to cover keys, bags, wallets and luggage in one go, especially in an iPhone household. Our AirTag 2 hands-on found the new model easier to find from farther away and clearly louder than the original. View Deal

Matching the lowest price we’ve seen on Amazon, the Magic Trackpad is a handy upgrade for a Mac desk if you prefer gestures to a mouse. The large glass surface, Multi-Touch gestures and Force Touch support make scrolling and precise control feel more comfortable.View Deal

This is a useful spare if you still have Lightning-based iPhones, iPads, AirPods or accessories around the house. The 2m length is the main reason to choose it over a basic replacement cable, giving you more reach from a desk, bedside table or couch.View Deal

Best MacBook Prime Day deals

MacBook deals are hard to find at Amazon right now. We’re still doing our best to rustle up any discounts because MacBooks are one of the Apple products we are all excited about during Prime Day. Especially after the recent Apple price hikes that bumped up the base cost by as much as 17%.

There's not much worth recommending yet but check back as we'll be adding more deals as soon as the prices drop.

All the MacBook Neos on Amazon are currently listed as temporarily out of stock, but you can still order one from Amazon at this price to lock it in, and then Amazon will ship it out once available. With stock disappearing quickly, this might be one of your best ways to score the old price, as long as you don't mind waiting for delivery. View Deal

The MacBook Air M5 launched recently, so most of this saving comes from Apple's price hikes, but that means it's still a useful discount on Apple's newest lightweight laptop. In comparison, it's currently AU$2,099 from Apple. Want to know more? Check out our MacBook Air M5 review.

Also consider the 1TB SSD model for AU$1,897 — now AU$2,549 from Apple. Or the 24GB RAM, 1TB Air, for AU$2,197 — now AU$2,849 from Apple. View Deal

This 16GB MacBook Pro currently has a great discount from Amazon compared to buying it for AU$3,199 from Apple. There's very limited stock though so it will likely sell out fast.View Deal

Amazon Prime Day Apple deals 2026: key informationWhen is Amazon Prime Day 2026 in Australia?

Amazon Prime Day in Australia starts at 12am AEST on Tuesday July 7 and ends at 11:59pm AEST on Monday July 13. Early deals can appear before the sale starts, especially on Amazon devices and selected tech, so we are checking Apple prices before the event as well as during it.

Does Amazon Prime Day have Apple deals?

Yes, but not every Apple category gets the same treatment. AirPods, Apple Watch, iPad and Apple accessories are usually easier to find on sale at Amazon. iPhone deals can happen too, though the lower price often applies to one colour or storage size. MacBook deals are more hit and miss, but we are always looking for more discounts.

Do I need Amazon Prime to get Apple Prime Day deals?

A lot of Prime Day deals are Prime-exclusive, so you will usually need an active Amazon Prime membership to get the lowest prices. There may also be public deals anyone can buy, but if a price is marked as a Prime Day deal, check the Prime requirement before you plan around it.

Are early Prime Day Apple deals worth buying?

Sometimes. If an early price matches or beats what we have seen before, it can be worth buying before the main sale starts. If the discount is small, or if you do not need the product right away, it may be better to check back once Prime Day begins on July 7.

Will MacBooks be discounted during Amazon Prime Day?

Possibly, but MacBook deals are hard to find on Amazon right now. We are still watching for Prime Day price drops and restocks, because MacBooks are one of the Apple categories people look for during big sales. For now, check Apple’s official price first and compare any Amazon offer carefully, especially after Apple’s recent Australian price rises.

Is Prime Day or Black Friday better for Apple deals?

Black Friday usually has more retailers competing at the same time, so it can be better for broader Apple price matching. Prime Day is more Amazon-focused, but it can still be a good time to buy AirPods, Apple Watch, iPad, accessories and the occasional iPhone. If a Prime Day price is only a small discount and you are not in a hurry, Black Friday is often the best time to buy.

How do we choose the Apple deals on this page?

We look at the current Amazon price, Apple’s official Australian price, previous prices where we can check them, product availability and whether the discount is actually any good. We also use our own reviews and buying guides to help judge deals. A product won’t make it onto our list just because Amazon slaps on a large discount percentage.

Amazon Prime Day Apple deals: shopping tips

Prime Day can be a good time to buy Apple gear, but it’s also often hard to navigate. Amazon can show large percentage discounts from old prices, and Apple products often get small price cuts that only apply to one colour, size or storage option. So we created some steps that can help you work out whether an Apple Prime Day deal is worth buying.

1. Check Apple’s official price first

Start with the current price on the Apple website. That gives you a clean comparison point before you look at Amazon’s claimed discount. It matters more than usual this year because Apple recently raised Australian prices on a number of products, including Macs and iPads.

2. Look at price history, not just the discount badge

It's easy to get pulled in by a big percentage saving, but the current price is what matters. For Amazon deals, camelcamelcamel.com can show whether today’s price is actually low or just lower than an old list price.

It is also worth searching OzBargain.com.au to see whether the same product has been cheaper before and how other shoppers rated past discounts. If the deal still looks good after those checks, you can buy with confidence.

3. Figure out what features you actually need

A discount on an iPad Pro or MacBook Pro can look tempting, but the best Prime Day deal is not always the product with the largest saving. If you mainly want a tablet for streaming, browsing, note-taking and video calls, a standard iPad or iPad Air may be the better-value buy.

The same logic applies across Apple’s range. If you're buying a laptop, think about whether you really need a MacBook Pro or whether a MacBook Air is the better choice. If you're buying a phone, decide whether camera quality, storage, battery life or price matters most before jumping on a deal just because it has a big discount.

4. Be flexible on colour, storage and case size

Apple deals at Amazon often apply to one specific version of a product. That might mean one AirPods model, one iPad storage size, one Apple Watch case size or one iPhone colour. Check the exact model before you buy, and make sure the cheaper version is actually the one you want.

5. Check whether the price needs Prime

Many Prime Day deals need an active Amazon Prime membership. Some early deals are available to everyone, but others only show the lowest price once you're signed in with Prime. Also check the delivery estimate, especially if the product is coming from overseas or has limited stock.

6. Don't assume MacBooks will be the best category

AirPods, Apple Watch, iPad and Apple accessories are usually easier to find discounted at Amazon. MacBook deals can happen, but they are hard to find right now, and some listings have long delivery dates or limited stock. If you see a MacBook discount, compare it with Apple’s current price and check whether the saving is enough to justify buying now.

Is there a particular Apple deal you're hoping to see during Amazon Prime Day? Tell us about it in the comments below.

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for July 2.

The automaker became a case study in AI hubris, bringing back 350 "gray beard" engineers to teach its automated quality systems to build cars that don't suck.

The 19th annual competition includes photos made solely with iPhone cameras.

Premium subscribers can listen to narrations by both Jim Dale and Stephen Fry.

The tour heads to Illinois with Brian Campbell looking to defend his title.

Sony is bringing Modern Warfare 3, For the King 2 and more to all PS Plus subscribers in July.

From controllers and gaming keyboards to headphones and consoles, here are the top gifts to surprise the gamer in your life.

The new survey comes amid a campaign for governments to keep kids off social media.

A vulnerability in Apple's privacy-focused iCloud Plus feature allows attackers to discover users' real email addresses.

Free users will get just three hours a month of conversation focus, which amplifies the speech of the person you're talking to.

It might not be much longer before gamers cannot find physical versions of new games.

Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for July 2, No. 647.

There's no shortage of big shows and movies this month on Hulu.

Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle for July 2 No. 851.

Here are hints and the answer for today's Wordle for July 2, No. 1,839.