Technology

• US Army commits $447 million to surveillance balloons despite drone vulnerabilities
• Cheap drones continue challenging expensive military surveillance systems across modern battlefields
• Hezbollah attacks exposed growing risks facing large airborne surveillance platforms during conflicts

The US Army has awarded TCOM LP a contract worth as much as $447 million to continue producing, deploying, and supporting its Persistent Surveillance Systems-Tethered aerostat fleet.

The award signals continued confidence in large surveillance balloons despite increasing reliance across modern militaries on budget drones, satellites, and autonomous platforms.

Analysts have questioned whether these highly visible systems can remain effective against increasingly sophisticated adversaries capable of detecting and destroying fixed aerial assets.

A costly bet against a cheap threat

The Persistent Surveillance Systems-Tethered program traces back to 2016, when the Army merged two earlier aerostat efforts into one unified initiative.

Those tethered balloons proved valuable in identifying roadside bombs and tracking insurgent movement across Iraq and Afghanistan for over a decade.

TCOM has remained the Army's core partner throughout, having previously won a nearly $979 million contract back in September 2019.

That earlier deal covered engineering, logistics and operations support across facilities in Maryland, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Arizona.

Each aerostat can reportedly fly at altitudes up to 16,000 ft (4,880 m) and watch an area continuously for over 30 days straight.

Yet recent battlefield lessons from Lebanon suggest that the same altitude offers little protection against a determined, low-cost adversary.

Hezbollah fighters used a swarm of cheap drones to kill four Israeli soldiers and wound 61 others near Binyamina in October 2024.

Israeli officials later said Hezbollah was launching more than 10 drones daily against troops, alongside rockets and anti-tank fire.

One Israeli commander described the wider campaign bluntly, saying "this is full-scale war," after drones struck an Iron Dome battery on camera.

Al Jazeera reported that Israel's costly defense systems were rendered ineffective by drones costing only a fraction of what they threatened.

Betting on persistence over cheaper alternatives

American defense planners have pushed hard toward cheaper, expendable drone and satellite platforms as a modernization priority in recent years.

A large tethered aerostat is neither cheap nor easily replaced once it comes under serious attack.

It remains fixed in place and clearly visible, making it a plausible objective for any adversary armed with modern strike weapons.

That vulnerability has fueled quiet debate within defense circles about how long aerostat surveillance stays viable against a well-equipped adversary.

Still, the Army solicited bids from ten companies for this contract and received responses from only two, suggesting limited industrial appetite for this niche.

The agreement will run through July 20, 2031, suggesting that the service still values an aerostat's unmatched ability to loiter continuously over one location for weeks.

However, the Army is simultaneously investing in smaller, more distributed drone and satellite alternatives across its wider surveillance architecture.

Via Defence Blog

When it comes to long-standing TV franchises that I'm most terrified to cover, Star Trek is easily at the top of the list. With so many seasons, opinions, and legacies developing in popular culture since the mid-1960s and the original series, I feel like I'm a dunce constantly playing catch-up with something complex that keeps slipping from my grasp.

However, if I were to hedge my bets and choose two seasons to binge, I'd pick Star Trek: Voyager and Star Trek: Picard. Not just because they feel like the two iterations of the franchise that I can't afford to miss out on, but because I'm unashamedly in love with Jeri Ryan.

What Stars Watch

Everyone gets stuck on what to watch next — so let’s make that choice easier with the help of your favorite actors. What Stars Watch pairs the latest TV shows and movies with cinematic classics or underrated gems, based on A-List tastes. Read the full series here.

Trekkies will know her best for playing Seven of Nine in both shows, a former Borg drone who initially joins the crew of the Federation starship Voyager. By the time she tries to leave in Picard, she's promoted to Captain — but as of writing, a story of her time in charge has yet to materialize.

According to Ryan herself [via TrekMovie], she has already turned down a solo spinoff that "wasn't in line with the Star Trek legacy," so we could be waiting a while for the perfect fit... if it ever arrives.

If we can't get Seven of Nine back, let's go with the next best thing: Ryan's own recommendations for what to watch alongside your annual Voyager and Picard binges (it never hurts to freshen things up).

But when I ask her the question, her answer takes me completely by surprise, especially as she's considered the potential long-standing impacts of AI in relation to sci-fi itself.

'People aren't paying enough attention to AI'

"Not that they have anything to do with Star Trek directly, but given the AI situation, I think The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgment Day would be really good things to watch now," Ryan tells me.

"I think they'd be very timely. I feel like a lot of people, or not enough people, have paid attention to AI. I think a few more people could do to listen to how that ended up for humanity."

It's an unexpected and dark suggestion, but I certainly see the link. Like Star Trek, Terminator was ahead of its time, transforming the sci-fi genre into something iconic that would later serve as an archetype for TV shows and movies to come.

In fact, both movies go way beyond Arnold Schwarzenegger saying "Hasta la vista, baby," in dark sunglasses and a leather jacket. His Terminator Borg is the polar opposite of Seven of Nine, working as an assassin from the future intent on killing the woman who will supposedly give birth to a man who will save humankind from extinction.

By the end of Judgment Day, Terminator is a good guy, having been reprogrammed to protect instead of destroy. It's this conclusion, I think, that Ryan would like to reach... or at least remind fans that there is still light at the end of the tunnel.

If you look beyond Star Trek, protection against AI is something Ryan is clearly passionate about. In April 2026, she testified in support of the California Senate Bill 1050, which would "target false advertising by requiring clear and conspicuous consumer disclosures whenever a synthetic digital performer is used in state advertisements."

Would a Seven of Nine spinoff featuring a synthetic lead character flop if Ryan resolutely disagreed to it? Yes. But let's face it... we don't want that kind of spinoff anyway.

At this point, Ryan is leaving us with a lot of food for thought when it comes to what the future looks like, with some iconic sci-fi action sprinkled in for good measure. How can you not love her?

• Watch The Terminator on Prime Video in the US
• Watch The Terminator on Prime Video in the UK
• Watch The Terminator on Prime Video in Australia

With AI, the genie is out of the bottle, and there's no turning back. That's the overriding viewpoint across science and in Silicon Valley, where execs are increasingly building powerful systems. Beyond just building smarter machines, many among them have actually invoked quasi-religious imagery to describe the future.

Science and magic

SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk previously echoed science-fiction author Arthur C Clark when he likened scientific progress to magic.

Quote of the day

This article is part of TechRadar Pro's QOTD project to provide an insight into the minds of the brightest and most recognized figures in the technology industry today and in years gone by. Read the full series here.

In comments he made to students during an interview at the AeroAstro Centennial Symposium at MIT, Musk once again used colorful language to explain how he saw the progress we were making on AI.

In pursuing the goal of building advanced machine intelligence, beginning with AGI, he suggested there would be limited ways of controlling such an entity, and that any attempts to do so would be futile.

The following year after making these comments, alongside Sam Altman and other tech executives, Musk co-founded OpenAI, which spearheaded the release of ChatGPT and thrust modern AI systems into the mainstream.

The machine god

Musk's likening of AI to a demon has inherent connotations of danger or doom – which is appropriate, considering he and others have previously said AI is the biggest existential threat that humanity faces in the years to come.

For example, AI researchers Eliezer Yudkowsky and Nate Soares, published a book in 2025 called 'If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies' in which they laid out the case against building a superintelligent AI that could wipe us out.

These comparisons, however, are rejected by many others who see AI as unlikely to instigate science-fiction-type (or even supernatural-esque) doomsday scenarios. Chief among these voices is Jensen Huang, while just 3% of researchers say they were most worried about a scenario in which an out-of-contorl AI poses a threat to humanity.

The devices are joining foldables in the company’s growing lineup.

“It’s not red,” IBM’s design center manager patiently explained. “It’s magenta.”

The safety function officer wasn’t buying it. Between his fingers, he held up a small, rubbery disc that looked like a pencil eraser. “You know it’s red and I know it’s red,” he said.

The design manager didn’t back down. He insisted that what the man held was indeed magenta. The safety officer called his boss. The boss called Tom Hardy, Design Program Director at IBM. Hardy didn't flinch.

“It’s not red. It’s magenta.”

It was one of the boldest lies ever told in tech. And it made the ThinkPad iconic.

Years later, Hardy relayed the incident in an interview with Laptop Retrospective, detailing the design origins of the TrackPoint, the input stick resting in a central position of the ThinkPad keyboard since 1992.

Instantly recognizable today, the little red nub remains core to the ThinkPad’s identity. For anyone working in design, its history serves as a lesson on creative control and innovation.

Every designer knows red on black is a classic combination. So, for Hardy’s team, it was a no-brainer choice when first tasked with adding the TrackPoint to the system.

However, at the time, IBM instituted a strict color-code. For control systems like the TrackPoint, the standard was blue. Playing by the rules, the team toyed with that. According to Hardy, “it just didn’t sing like red did.”

They switched back to red. But there was a major problem with that.

Red was reserved for emergency power shutdowns. It’s the kill-switch color. Hardy knew, even then, the safety team had to approve the color scheme. There was no way they’d let it ship with a red cursor control. That simply wasn’t the way it was done.

Rather than fight and inevitably lose that battle, the designers got creative.

They scrapped every trace of ‘red’ in the documentation. They replaced it with ‘magenta’.

“The safety guys,” Hardy explained, “They may not know what magenta is, but they’ll know it’s not red.”

They may not know what magenta is, but they’ll know it’s not red.

Soon, the parts came in, labeled as magenta. No-one looked twice at them until the safety official snooped on a box of TrackPoints and demanded to know who approved the color for non-power related functions. He didn’t get an answer he liked. He threatened to shut down the whole production line.

Hardy got involved shortly after. Corporate on corporate combat ensued, arguing over the subjective difference between magenta and red. “The next stop in the line,” Hardy reminded them, “It goes to the CEO.”

Fighting his corner, he tells them, will be famed industrial designer Richard Sapper who created the classic ThinkPad design, as well as corporate graphic design consultant Paul Rand, the man behind the IBM logo. Both are color experts.

Even as the back and forth continued, Hardy’s team had linked up with the advertising team. The ad agency had poured millions of dollars into a campaign that was ready to launch. “So hot,” the adverts said with a close-up on the new TrackPoint, “We had to make it red.”

It was enough to make the safety team think twice. Later that day, an email was sent. It said: ‘Make them red.’

They’ve been the same iconic color ever since.

It's no secret I'm a massive ThinkPad fan ever since I got my paws on a T431s, but check out the best business laptops my team and I have tested.

A ban on open Chinese AI models under the guise of security might actually put our cybersecurity more at risk.

• Iconic musician Willie Nelson has launched a fight against data centers
• The singer-songwriter cites noise, light pollution, and water theft among other complaints, and underlines the importance of family farmers
• The 93 year old country music icon’s statement was issued on Instagram

Willie Nelson has issued a strongly-worded statement about the growing impact of data centers on rural locations across the US.

Texas has seen an unprecedented data center boom over the past few years, with 300 installations already in operation and a further 250 planned, and facilities centered around Dallas-Fort Worth, Austin, and San Antonio. Only Virginia has more data centers.

The writer of Wake Me When Its Over has had hit records and toured extensively for the past 70 years, and grew up in the Abbott, Texas area.

Data centers are concerning Texans

Nelson has a long history of political activism, notably forming the Farm Aid benefit in 1985 with Neil Young and John Mellencamp, to support and increase awareness of American family farms.

The growth of data centers has unsurprisingly concerned Texans for some time, with matters coming to increasing prominence in recent months.

Nelson’s words of concern over the increasing number of data centers and their impact on rural communities in America’s second-largest state is the highest profile intervention, however.

A post shared by Willie Nelson (@willienelsonofficial)

A photo posted by on

Nelson's unsurprisingly passionate and eloquent statement highlights many of the challenges that data centers pose.

With more facilities being built to handle AI processing, it could be argued that some data centers solve problems that don’t really exist, such as generative AI, a technology that Willie Nelson has previously expressed deep concerns about.

Willie Nelson and friends

Nelson is far from the only opponent of data centers, and is joined by others in the music community.

Georgia-born Gavin Adcock, who like Nelson grew up in a rural area, may have a very different persona but has also expressed opposition: “These rich, money-grabbing assholes that wanna slap a data center straight in the country,” and suggesting the facilities are built in cities instead.

Fellow Texan Tanya Tucker, meanwhile, has already issued a video in which she asks Texans to contact Gov. Abbott and request a pause on developments, noting “I’m concerned about the 765 KV of transmission lines coming through all the ranches in Texas, and destroying our property. It hurts. It’s gonna hurt our health, our wildlife, our water table, our water resources. It’s going to scar our land forever.”

While no tech companies have responded to Willie Nelson’s statement, Gov. Greg Abbott has stated that the Texas Legislature will begin hearings regarding data centers this week.

Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Strands puzzle No. 880 for July 31.

Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections puzzle No. 1146 for July 31.

Here are hints and the answer for today’s Wordle for July 31, No. 1,868.

It starts on the 4 Train, that straight-run subway line from Grand Central to Yankee Stadium, where I start to notice the red shirts. By the time I reach the massive gray stadium, people are circling the Bronx Bomber’s edifice like thousands of red ants, all queuing up for a rare baseball season sight: football (soccer) in Yankee Stadium.

Most of the shirts are for Premier League side Liverpool FC, but there's a smattering of Wrexham kits. Some of them look threadbare, and none feature the club’s newest sponsor: Firefox. The travel and away kits were unveiled just days before — too soon for die-hard fans to show their support for the team and its well-known but, by some measures, marginal web browser.

Walking through Babe Ruth Plaza, I follow behind the red shirts until I’m lined up behind fans who have come from as far as Arkansas and California to witness the pre-season match. None are musing about Firefox’s new Wrexham sponsorship or how Mozilla (Firefox’s parent) took over from United, which itself took over from TikTok.

The Reynolds effect

(Image credit: FX/Disney Plus)

The scrappy Welsh club enjoys outsized notoriety thanks to its owners, actors and entrepreneurs Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds, and the popular Hulu docu-series Welcome to Wrexham, which recounts the club’s rise from the ashes and ascent to, as of last season, just short of Premier League status.

While we wait to enter the stadium, the Liverpool team arrives late — following a day of storms and flight cancellations — on a pair of giant red touring buses to hearty cheers from the crowd. Everyone knows Wrexham, but the fans seem to be with Liverpool.

Lance Ulanoff / FutureLance Ulanoff / FutureLance Ulanoff / FutureHow does a browser and a keeper connect?

As we file in, I have time to think about the connection between Wrexham and Firefox. The kits, which I view later in person and on the field, are quite fetching. On top of the bold, red stretchable fabric is the iconic Firefox flame. It makes me think of the heat Mozilla hopes to generate around its best-known product.

The fit, though, between a scrappy football team and a portal you use to navigate the web, seems tenuous and as ill-fitted as the rectangular pitch they’ve somehow jury-rigged onto the baseball diamond. A covered home plate, third base, and right field jut out awkwardly, and much later a fan tells me the pitch looked kind of messy and maybe not a great experience for some of the players.

Lance Ulanoff / FutureLance Ulanoff / Future

It’s not that I don’t understand why Mozilla tied its sails to Wrexham. As I write this, Firefox sits, according to StatCounter, at 3.4% of the global browser market share. By contrast, Chrome has 69% and Safari almost 16%. Put another way, the browser wars are over.

It's not that Firefox is irrelevant, but it's not as relevant as it once was. There was a time, maybe 15 years ago, when I was firmly in the Firefox camp. I’d adopted it because I was working with so many developers, who were all using the leaner and (some thought) meaner platform. It was built on the premise of openness, running counter to Internet Explorer (RIP) and the fast-growing Google Chrome.

Over time, though, it started to suffer from the same resource-hogging issues as Internet Explorer. I eventually gave it up and migrated to Chrome, then had a dalliance with Microsoft Edge and have now settled on Chrome on the desktop and Safari for mobile. If I’m being honest, I stopped considering Firefox years ago.

(Image credit: Lance Ulanoff / Future)The most obvious answer

As the team took the makeshiift pitch and the stands filled with red shirts, I waited for Mozilla’s relatively new CEO Anthony Enzor-DeMeo and CMO John Solomon to arrive so I could quiz them about product plans and Mozilla’s dive into AI.

Enzor-DeMeo joined Mozilla in 2024 after stints at Roofstock, Better, and Wayfair. In each, the admitted nerd appears to have held positions relating to products, technology, and engineering. Solomon comes to Mozilla from Apple and Beats.

(Image credit: Lance Ulanoff / Future)

When Enzor-DeMeo finally does arrive, he looks younger than I expected and has a sort of nervous energy. It’s been a busy few days with a lot of interviews, and when I try to ask about Mozilla and AI, he tells me he doesn’t want to do any more. Still, he’s open and affable, explaining that he’s a die-hard It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia (Rob McElhenney is a series star) fan, so much so that when someone else says they love the show, he asks them to name their favorite episode and then, without waiting for an answer, tells us his.

Still, Enzor-DeMeo was not a closet fan of the beautiful game. Instead, Solomon, who comes from the much more culturally connected Beats brand, suggested this partnership. Enzor-DeMeo watched Reynold’s Welcome to Wrexham doc and thought, “Oh, this makes a lot of sense.”

(Image credit: Lance Ulanoff / Future)

I stared at him, wondering what he saw that I didn’t. Sure, a partnership with the Red Dragons, as Wrexham are also known (I even spotted their red dragon mascot wandering the pitch and hugging fans) makes some sense. You know, fire, dragons? And this would be Wrexham’s second tech sponsorship after TikTok, which was widely featured in early seasons of Welcome to Wrexham. Mozilla confirmed that as they film the new season, we will see the Firefox brand on display in some fashion.

I looked at Enzor-DeMeo, who was still enthusiastically talking about It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and asked him, “What’s the throughline from Firefox to Wrexham?” Enzor-DeMeo smiled and quickly answered, “Underdog.”

The only thing that would’ve made the moment more perfect is if an announcer suddenly screamed, “Goooooaaaallll!” But I got it.

(Image credit: Lance Ulanoff / Future)It's never just about money

If you’ve never seen the documentary, Wrexham AFC was the disintegrating center of a hardscrabble town that, despite over 150 years of footballing history, had been largely forgotten and fallen to the fifth tier of the English league system. Achieving Premier League status, a feat they very nearly accomplished last season, seemed impossible. Until Reynolds and McElhenney arrived.

Sure, there are people unhappy with the way celebrity and money have throw off the balance of a well-worn system, but if you watch the doc, you know that it was never enough to throw money and fame at it. It’s a very human story with equal measures of failure and success.

Firefox is surely the underdog in the browser game. Built on its own Gecko browser engine, it stands apart from Google, Apple and Microsoft, which all have a profit motive in having you use their platforms. Mozilla’s parent organization is non-profit, and although the Mozilla Corp, under which Firefox lives, is for-profit, its revenues are used to fund the non-profit effort.

Like its competitors, Firefox has AI features, letting you access the AI chatbot of your choice in a sidebar, and using AI to help you organize tabs. It does, though, seem a bit less interested in force-feeding AI.

Still, underdog status is no guarantee of a Cinderella story, and as the game drags on with countless missed shots and a handful of fouls, I wonder if Wrexham can embarrass Liverpool in front of its US fans. A moment later, Liverpool manages at roughly 60 minutes in to sail one over the outstretched arms of Wrexham substitute goalkeeper Callum Burton.

There’s no victory for the underdog this time, but it’s the pre-season, and Wrexham and its new sponsor Firefox should have many more chances to win on the pitch.

The new player will be a unified platform for all your local and streaming media.

• Amazon plans to launch 5,105 satellites to support new mobile networks
• The filing with the FCC highlights voice, data, emergency services, and Internet of Things support
• Amazon Leo already has over 390 satellites in orbit, enough to launch the plans ahead of the full deployment

Amazon has confirmed its “low Earth orbit” (LEO) satellite network has submitted an application to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to deploy a constellation of 5,105 satellites which will provide voice, data, messaging, emergency services access, and Internet of Things support for under the Amazon Leo Direct-to-Device (D2D) project.

The application follows Amazon’s merger with Globalstar, acquiring the US satellite telecommunications company’s operations, infrastructure, and global licenses and authorizations.

This step into orbit will see Amazon Leo’s existing satellites work alongside the Globalstar HIBLEO and C-3 satellite constellations, kicking off early D2D project support ahead of approval for the full network of comsats.

High-speed, low-latency

Much like Starlink, the Amazon Leo network is intended to bridge the connectivity gap between cities and remote communities. It aims to deliver high-speed, low-latency broadband for domestic and enterprise markets, as well as governments, with consumers gaining connectivity via the Leo Nano, Leo Pro, and Leo Ultra high-performance antennae. Meanwhile, mobile devices with satellite-capable chipsets can connect to the satellites without an additional antenna.

Apple iPhones and Apple Watch models are also supported, under a previous agreement to collaborate with Apple. Amazon Leo already delivers data for Emergency SOS, Messages, Find My, and Roadside Assistant to iPhones.

Other partnerships have also been announced that feed into the D2D project. “Telecom operators like Vodafone, DirecTV, Herotel, and Australia’s National Broadband Network [...] it plans to continue working with mobile network operators and other partners to deliver on its long-term vision for space-based connectivity.”

Beyond offering connectivity to remote locations, D2D can enable data support for global fleet management, remote operations for supply chains, and IoT connectivity.

Amazon Leo’s satellites

Following initial deployment in 2025 with 80+ launches with Arianespace, Blue Origin, SpaceX, and United Launch Alliance, Amazon Leo is aiming at 5,105 low Earth orbit satellites. These units are connected using optical links, capable of high-speed data transfer, with secure gateways networked across the planet, with fiber connectivity.

The D2D satellites are intended to operate across five orbital “shells” – essentially five groups that share the same altitude and inclination. Three shells will cover the mid-latitude, one shell will cover the high-latitude, and the fifth providing coverage for “near-polar” zones. Mid-latitude zones are the world's most heavily populated regions (North America, Europe, parts of Asia, and southern/central Africa) while the high-latitude coverage aims to deliver high speed internet to the Arctic and sub-Arctic circles.

With increasing demands for mobile data, not just for remote working but also Internet of Things applications, Amazon Leo could prove to be the solution that facilitates home and workplace automation around the world – assuming, of course, that it gets that FCC approval.

AI is supercharging demand for memory and other components, making devices more expensive.

The company’s latest fitness feature is designed to keep runners moving with a tailored audio experience.

Can AI judge human work from robot slop, or is every AI-detection tool out there completely worthless?

When gaming chair maker Secretlab announced the release of its very first home office chair, I wasn't shocked.

There's been a gradual trend with office chair makers like Herman Miller teaming up with Logitech to create a gamer-focused version of the Embody, alongside brands like FlexiSpot and Eureka Ergonomic launching its own line of gaming chairs.

On the flips-side, companies like Boulies, which has a long gaming heritage with its Master series, have branched out into office chairs (I still think the EP200 is the best value all-rounder, after over a year of constant use). With the rise of hybrid and remote working, it seemed like just a matter of time before Secretlab got in on the action.

I've been using mine for over a month now, and, as resident office furniture expert here at TechRadar Pro, I think the company nailed it. It's a world away from the magisterial Titan Evo, and I suspect Evo fans may not appreciate what the Atlas is doing here. But it's one of the top office chairs I've used precisely because it's such a terrible gaming chair.

The anti-gaming silhouette

I'm obsessed with gaming chairs that look right at home in an office. I've covered stealth gaming and office chairs for years. Those understated seats that don't draw attention on a Zoom call with the boss, but are perfect for late-night play sessions (the Corsair TC100 Relaxed is a good budget example).

On that score, the Secretlab Atlas is a total success. Now, it's not a gaming chair. But you can see it's taken inspiration from the Titan Evo. Sit them side by side and it's clear they share the same brand heritage, with those cleanly carved and subtle contours.

However, the design skips on two aggressive elements you'll find on pretty much every gaming chair: the racing-style bucket seat bolsters and the shoulder wings. Both are designed to lock you into position that's perfect for precision play on controller or M+K.

But an office worker needs that unrestricted extra space, allowing upper body movement. Fingers flying over the keyboard, constantly sweeping the mouse, and pivoting at the desk.

So, instead, it's got a sleek look - Secretlab calls it "our lightest silhouette yet", and I totally agree here. Because of that style, I find it works very well in the home office, even smaller ones. I carted it downstairs so my wife could use it in the dining room when she was working from home.

The Atlas blended in so well, feeling more like home furniture than any bulky leatherette bucket chair ever could. Weirdly, despite the higher backrest, it's far less noticeable than her office-engineered Boulies OP180 was.

Secretlab Atlas

Professionally styled in Dune, Cookies & Cream, and Black³, the base model Secretlab Atlas features a SoftWeave Plus Fabric covering over cold-cure foam for a firm, ergonomic fit. It's available in Regular and Large to accommodate your height and weight class.

Built for typing, not chilling

All the best office chairs my team and I have reviewed have one thing in common: adjustability.

Given Secretlab's experience, it's no surprise that the Atlas has plenty to help tailor the sit. That includes mechanisms for tweaking the seat depth, backrest, and armrests, as well as synchronous tilt.

What this means in practice is that you can lean back with your feet on the ground, and the backrest and seat move as one for continued support. Effectively, it's designed to keep your hips open to relieve pressure on your lower back.

It's a world away from the traditional gaming setup, where the backrest tilts and reclines independently. It's absolutely perfect for laying back, playing games, watching movies. But this mechanism also sends you into a horizontal slouch - one of the main reasons why so many modern chairs come with built-in footrests.

However, it's not as adjustable as many of the office chairs I've tested out. When our gaming editor Dash Wood spoke to Vincent Sin, the company's head of product development and industrial design, he explained: "What we found is that more often than not, with task chairs that have a lot of adjustments, it’s very confusing and people often will get it wrong. And I would say that’s worse than having something that automatically adjusts for you.”

But this brings me to the one adjustable element I actually would change. The chair does feel low to the ground - a view echoed in our Secretlab Atlas review.

The Large model does offer slightly more height over the Regular version, but I still think extra height range would've stripped away the only real complaint I have here. As an average man of average height, it's not a deal-breaker for me. But it's definitely something I've noticed during my time with it compared to other office chairs.

(Image credit: Future)The lumbar support gamble

Also missing is the adjustable or dynamic lumbar support I tend to see on more premium office and gaming chairs. The Titan Evo famously uses the 4-Way L-Adapt Lumbar Support System, giving you control over the lower back support.

Instead, the Atlas uses a simplified Re-Curve backrest. Again, Sin said this design choice was intentional. "People don’t know that having too much lumbar support is also a bad thing." Instead, the company pressure-mapped sitters to figure out where back support is needed and where it isn't.

Now, I'm not entirely convinced by that. I still think adjustable support is essential, especially for those who need lower back pain relief. I suspect economics and aesthetics are playing a bigger role here than anyone is prepared to admit.

For a chair costing over $500 / £400, I was a little concerned when I first parked myself into the Secretlab Atlas.

The results, though, surprised me. Maybe Secretlab are right: we are over-engineering modern office chairs.

Why firmness wins for the workday

So far, so gaming and office chair. But there's one major change with the Secretlab Atlas that I think makes it an ideal task chair, but absolutely useless for gaming.

It's firm.

I think a lot of people expect office chairs to feel like a well-worn armchair or a couch. Soft, cushiony, like sinking into a foamy cloud.

That squishiness feels good for an hour or two while working. And it's perfect for gaming - you want to feel snug, even during the sweatiest of battles. But it's not recommended for an 8-hour workday, 5 days a week where you're upright, typing away, maintaining your posture.

Now, I'm not saying you need to sit on a concrete slab at your desk. And the Atlas definitely doesn't feel that way. I appreciate support it has as I work, and actually look forward to sitting on it.

I'm not the only one convinced by it.

My pregnant wife is suffering chronic back pain during her pregnancy. She's hijacked the Secretlab Atlas because her softer office chair just made the pain worse. The Atlas eased the pressure. Her verdict (politely sanitized for this family-friendly publication: "It's ridiculously comfortable."

The Atlas is basically designed for a very different sitting profile. You'll immediately notice the difference coming from a Titan Evo or similar. So, it's not the best gaming chair, but it was never meant to be.

A VPN isn't a silver bullet. It can’t guarantee total security or anonymity online. Instead, it is a tool that allows you to hide your browsing data from your internet service provider (ISP), adopt a virtual IP address, and access geo-restricted content.

However, there are still a lot of misconceptions about what a VPN can and cannot do — a problem made worse by the exaggerated marketing claims pushed by some VPN companies.

Given that, it’s unsurprising that when we analyzed nearly 30,000 Google Play Store reviews of our four top-rated VPNs, a clear trend emerged: a lot of people aren’t getting the privacy and security protection they thought they were paying for.

In part, this stems from users misunderstanding what a VPN does. But it also shows that the industry needs to do a better job of setting realistic expectations.

On the whole, people are satisfied with their VPNs. Across our full dataset, just 35% of overall comments were negative. However, when we isolated feedback related to privacy and security, the proportion of negative comments rose to 41%.

This article is the second in a series investigating the real-world experience of using major VPN services, driven by our exclusive analysis of Android VPN reviews. The first article examined billing and pricing issues.

Lab-tested security vs Play Store reality

Proton VPN received the highest proportion of positive comments regarding privacy and security, with 68% of its feedback on the topic being positive.

That's significantly higher than Surfshark, which recorded a positive sentiment rate of just 31%. ExpressVPN (54%) and NordVPN (34%) sat in between.

It's worth noting, however, that all four services offer essentially equivalent protection and are among the most secure VPNs available. They all feature advanced encryption and proprietary protocols, and have been audited by third parties to confirm their security credentials.

So what’s causing the disconnect between our lab tests and real-world user experience? It seems that for many, it stems from several myths about what a VPN can actually protect you from.

Myth #1: A VPN stops every 'hacker'

When analyzing the Play Store reviews, we noticed that a significant number of people were concerned about the threat of hackers. And for obvious reasons — people lose money, privacy, and their health to malicious actors online every day.

Unfortunately, a VPN can't help in every scenario, and that seems to have left many disappointed.

One Proton VPN reviewer, for example, alleges it is the “worst app ever” because they had “been hacked by someone else while using this VPN.” Meanwhile, a NordVPN comment says that “hackers” had “managed to set up a way of getting passed [sic] the VPN on all my devices.” Another simply says: “got hacked the second day, don’t trust.”

However, others proudly claim that their VPN “protects my identity from hackers.”

Like most things, the reality is somewhere in the middle. While a VPN protects your data in transit (encrypting the data between your device and the server you’re connecting to), it does nothing to protect data you’ve already handed over to a third party — like an email address or password stored on an external database.

A standard VPN also won't stop you from falling victim to phishing scams, where an attacker tricks you into voluntarily entering your credentials on a fake website. However, VPN companies are increasingly releasing products to help prevent this.

If you're looking for more details on what a VPN can and can't do, check out the cheat sheet at the end of this article.

Myth #2: A VPN offers bulletproof protection

In our tests, these VPNs have never leaked an IP address. That would be a big deal. Yet across Play Store reviews, a surprising number of people report that their VPN appeared to fail.

One NordVPN reviewer said the app “did not hide my IP address from being tracked,” while a comment about Surfshark claimed it “failed to hide my IP address at least twice in the first 3 weeks.” Another noted that their VPN “leaks IP after some time [...] giving you a wrong sense of privacy and security.”

It’s impossible to diagnose the specific issues at play without more context. However, true encryption failures are extremely rare, particularly among well-regarded providers.

In reality, most reported leaks stem from configuration errors (like not having the kill switch enabled), browser tracking or basic steup errors. To make sure your connection isn't dropping data, always enable your app's kill switch and verify your real IP address is hidden using a diagnostic tool like Cloudflare's trace page.

If you’ve checked your settings and still suspect your VPN is genuinely leaking your IP address, leave a comment below and our team will see if we can help troubleshoot it.

Myth #3: A VPN equals total anonymity

Exaggerated marketing claims around online privacy seem to have influenced reviewers throughout the data. Some accuse providers of betraying them, writing reviews like "do not trust this app for privacy," while others complain about the amount of telemetry data collected by the apps themselves.

However, these reviews highlight an uncomfortable truth: masking your IP address only goes so far. Cookies, browser fingerprints, device information, language settings, and SIM card regions are all routinely logged, analyzed, and leveraged by advertisers and platforms to track your identity regardless of your IP.

A VPN is an important first step in improving your privacy, but if you continue to use services that monitor your every move, it’s not enough on its own. Check your browser, the services you use and you might find that there are other factors at play revealing your identity.

‘Not a catch-all’ — VPN providers' defense

We reached out to each of the VPN companies mentioned in this report for comment.

Proton VPN, NordVPN, and Surfshark all acknowledged that a VPN is not a catch-all solution for every digital threat. Instead, they highlighted additional security features they offer and noted that many reported issues stem from configuration errors and non-IP tracking rather than a failure of the VPN.

ExpressVPN did not respond to our request for comment.

Proton VPN highlighted its NetShield feature, which blocks ads, trackers, and malware domains. Addressing leak complaints, the company explained that genuine tunnel traffic does not leak, and that reported issues typically occur when split tunneling, connection dropouts, or browser extensions leave specific traffic outside the encrypted connection.

Surfshark pointed to its Web Content Blocker — which it says blocked nearly 1.2 million phishing and malware sites in the past month — and its Alternative ID tool, which generates email aliases to protect contact details.

Meanwhile, NordVPN, which said that it "does not advertise complete immunity," highlighted its next-gen antivirus and credential leak monitoring tools. It added that perceived IP leaks are frequently down to device configuration rather than an IP exposure.

Combined, it's clear that leading VPN companies are developing more comprehensive and effective cybersecurity products to accompany the core VPN technology. However, if the limitations — as well as the benefits — of these additional tools aren't communicated clearly, the industry risks creating the same expectation gap it appears to face with its core technology.

What a VPN can and can't do — A cheat sheetA VPN can:

• Encrypt your browsing traffic: Shield your internet activity from your Internet Service Provider (ISP), network manager, or public Wi-Fi admin.
• Spoof your location: Replace your real IP address with one in another location, making it harder for sites to track your physical whereabouts and help you access geo-restricted content.
• Bypass local network blocks: Circumvent restrictions imposed by Wi-Fi administrators, government censors, and geo-fenced content.
• Prevent bandwidth throttling: Stop ISPs from slowing down your speeds when they detect specific activities like streaming or torrenting.
• Secure DNS requests: Direct web address lookups through private, encrypted DNS servers to prevent ISP-level logging and DNS leaks.
• Protect your IP address against DDoS attacks and IP tracking by hiding your actual home IP address during gaming or P2P connections.

A VPN can't:

• Protect the data you share: It can't stop companies from collecting data you submit directly or protect that data if those companies suffer a breach.
• Prevent phishing: It can't stop you from falling for phishing, text, or phone scams, although many providers now offer tools that help on top of the VPN.
• Make you completely anonymous: Web cookies, browser fingerprinting, and account logins can still track your identity online regardless of your IP address.
• Block hardware-delivered malware: It offers no protection against threats introduced directly to your device via physical hardware (like infected USB drives).
• Protect against digital forensics: It cannot shield files or logs stored directly on your physical device if it is accessed with forensic tools.
• Remove existing infections: It cannot retroactively clean malware or spyware already installed on your system.
• Stop OS-level zero-day attacks: It can't stop sophisticated, nation-state spyware that exploits underlying vulnerabilities in your device's operating system.

Methodology

We collected almost 30,000 user reviews published on Google Play Store since the beginning of the year for the four VPN providers featured in this report using the google_play_scraper library.

As individual reviews often address multiple topics (e.g. streaming and security), we broke reviews down into sentence-level units. This expanded our analysis to over 47,000 entries, with individual entries permitted to sit across multiple categories when suitable.

Each sentence was assigned to specific categories using regex keyword filtering, and analyzed for sentiment using a pre-trained BERT model that took into account the user’s star rating.

While all machine learning sentiment pipelines carry a minor margin of error, every VPN provider was subjected to the exact same pipeline to ensure consistency and fair comparison. Human review was also conducted throughout.

Data processing scripts were developed in Python with AI assistance, and all final outputs were manually reviewed.

Health trackers collect some of our most private information, but data security is spotty among leading smartwatches, smart rings and other devices.

I don’t often consider ditching Android, but GrapheneOS, a privacy-focused alternative, poses an interesting question: what security features am I missing out on by using Google’s mobile operating system (OS)?

GrapheneOS is an open-source mobile OS, designed for Google Pixel phones (and soon Motorola devices), that promises better security capabilities like improved sandboxing, exploitation protections, and more complete vulnerability patching.

But what compromises does GrapheneOS ask you to make for all this added security — and more importantly, are they worth the trade-off? I spent a month testing GrapheneOS on a Pixel 8 Pro to find out.

The first glance

Switching to an alternative, specialized OS is never going to be as simple as setting up a regular Android phone. That said, after only 10 minutes setting up GrapheneOS via the GrapheneOS website, I quickly found myself looking at something that, at a glance, resembled the Android I normally use.

The GrapheneOS home screen is near app-less, but it’s by no means unfamiliar. The software keeps the functionalities of the Android app drawer and quick control panel, and the menus are near-identical. App icons also retain a similar design to Android proper.

Yes, it’s a strange feeling to load up an Android phone that doesn’t have a single drop of ‘Google’ about it. There’s no Play Store, Gmail, or Docs to speak of in GrapheneOS by default. But, if anything, this is an instant reminder that this software aims to take control of your data from Google and give it back to you.

What’s more, since the choices are now yours when it comes to your data, you can always choose to reinstate the tools you need.

Getting to grips

(Image credit: Future // Rob Dunne)

And so, my first port of call when using GrapheneOS for the first time was to reinstall the Google Play Store from within the software’s own App Store. That might seem like a bonkers move, but here’s why doing so is crucial.

GrapheneOS’s App Store is limited. Aside from a few essentials such as a calculator, camera, and the like, there’s little there. The key inclusions? Accrescent, a private app store primarily filled with open-source solutions to everyday phone uses, and the Google Play Store and Play Services.

But GrapheneOS sandboxes the Google Play Store and Play Services much like it would any other app. This means that, unlike on regular Android where, as several legal cases have proven, Google can pinch data as it likes, GrapheneOS restricts its background capabilities and general permissions.

This gives you control of all the usability features you’d see on the front end, such as notifications and location or network access, and there’s no need to worry about unwanted Google access behind closed doors.

What this also means is that, if you’re truly privacy-conscious, you can still install VPNs, antivirus software, password managers, and more that’d otherwise be out of reach if you relied on only what’s available directly.

Preventing overreach

One of the core principles of GrapheneOS is stopping unnecessary data sharing and reducing the risk of attacks that come from unnecessary data collection and coding. As a result, no app downloaded in GrapheneOS is quite what you’d get on regular Android, but thankfully, you’ll probably never notice — for two key reasons.

Key permissions, such as network or microphone access, are the user’s to permit before using an app, meaning you can ensure the apps you use have only the permissions they need. Meanwhile, background problems such as covert data sharing and storage risks are handled automatically by GrapheneOS.

In short, you can install all the apps you need, use them as normal, and know they’re not collecting or spreading your data in ways you’re unaware of. What’s more, aside from a few instances I’ll cover later, GrapheneOS is near flawless at policing this data.

If you’re after other, more technical protections, you can dive into settings. Aside from the regular Android options, you also get a new area called ‘Exploit Protection’. Here, you can set up your phone to protect against threats such as juice jacking (stealing data or installing malware via USB ports), or unwanted Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connections

With all of these options available, what quickly became apparent is how integral such settings are to keeping security measures from impacting everyday use. GrapheneOS’ features were explicitly in my control to ensure apps functioned properly without overreaching, and background processes either needn’t be tampered with or could be set once and left. All without remotely impacting overall device efficiency.

I used GrapheneOS with a Pixel 8 Pro for a month, and I never once noticed my battery life drain more than usual, nor encountered any unexpected performance dips. This is despite me using the phone for gaming — enabling only the Google services required to do so — streaming, and everything else I’d normally expect to do on my device.

The inevitable compromise

(Image credit: Future / Philip Berne)

Compared to other privacy-focused mobile solutions, GrapheneOS is without a doubt one of the least detrimental to your mobile experience. But it’s not perfect.

First off, if you want to use it, you need a Pixel phone. Ironically, despite the OS aiming to give you some distance from Google’s overreaching services, its devices are the only ones with the required security capabilities to install GrapheneOS properly. So if, like me, you’re used to literally any other Android device, you’re out of luck (though Motorola phones are supposedly joining the ranks soon).

Second, GrapheneOS is not flawless at everything. In the time I spent using the software, banking apps and Android Auto (once downloaded) proved to be near-impossible to get to work regularly. There’s a bunch of support available on the GrapheneOS website if you’re willing to tinker to fix issues, but again, it’s not quite the seamless compatibility you’d get with regular Android.

Would I make the switch to GrapheneOS?

From a month of using it, it’s easy to see why GrapheneOS is gaining traction. It’s super secure, even going as far as to patch VPN vulnerabilities before regular Android gets the chance, and, unlike the best privacy-focused phones, using it with a premium Pixel phone means there’s far less of a drop in performance.

That said, its current restriction to Pixel phones is far from ideal for techies, and there’s still just enough incompatibility with certain types of apps to be a frustration day to day. Google Pay doesn’t work, leaving you needing to use alternatives such as Curve or a paired smart watch; many banking apps limit functionality, and you’ll likely be left wondering if any app-related problems you encounter are down to the OS.

It’s also unfortunate that, as yet, there’s little reason not to make the Play Store your first install. Open-source app-lovers will find some comfort in the options available in the Accrescent store, but even, so there’s very little to choose between. Before you know it, your ‘Google-free’ phone is more of an Android device on a tighter leash.

So while GrapheneOS is brilliant in some aspects compared to most privacy solutions, it definitely leaves me wanting more. For now, it’s a ‘no’ from me.

Given time and wider compatibility, it’d be easy to recommend GrapheneOS given its added security capabilities in a world of growing threats. But with the availability of tools such as VPNs and antiviruses on regular Android, non-security-focused individuals are unlikely to see enough difference to warrant the current frustrations GrapheneOS can bring.