Technology

• Microsoft was meant to make EU-specific changes to Azure by last month
• ECCO has issued its second amber report against Microsoft
• The company must now engage in Plan B

Microsoft has failed to deliver a special, EU-specific version of Azure – a milestone it was meant to achieve by mid-April 2025.

The Washington tech giant had previously committed to building a Hoster Product for EU providers, promising features like multi tenancy support, unlimited virtualization and pay-as-you-go SQL Server licensing.

It all stems from a November 2022 antitrust complaint, when CISPE accused Microsoft of engaging in anticompetitive business practices that saw it favor its own Azure cloud over competitors.

Microsoft missed a major CISPE antitrust milestone

CISPE complained that it was more expensive to run Microsoft software on rival cloud platforms than on Azure, thus the company pledged to tweak some of its licensing terms to open up competition.

The European Cloud Competition Observatory (ECCO) published its second report on Microsoft, maintaining its amber rating – not a good look for a company that's been the subject of antitrust investigations on a global scale. "Some concerns exist but corrective actions have been proposed," ECCO explains.

"Although there have been setbacks, specifically in the delivery of a product-based resolution, both sides continue to engage in positive discussions," CISPE wrote.

CISPE Secretary General Francisco Mignorance commented: "It is disappointing that the proposed product did not deliver, but this is in not the end of the Agreement. Phase 2 opens the door to discuss alternative, commercially equivalent solutions that enable CISPE members and Europe’s cloud infrastructure providers to compete fairly, while still offering Microsoft’s productivity tools to their customers."

Microsoft must now propose alternatives – a Plan B – by July 10, 2025, or face potential new legal action. In the meantime, the UK's CMA continues to review the company's licensing tactics.

TechRadar Pro has asked the company for more details on the missed deadline, but we did not receive an immediate response.

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• James Gunn has dropped a big tease about Wonder Woman's DCU debut
• The DC Studios co-chief won't say when Diana Prince will return to the big screen
• But fans are convinced she'll be part of Gunn's next project, which could be a team-up movie

James Gunn has set tongues wagging among DC comic-book fans after he teased that Wonder Woman's DC Universe (DCU) debut might not as far away as many people think.

Posting on Threads yesterday (May 15), the DC Studios co-chief dropped the biggest hint yet that Diana Prince could be part of his and Peter Safran's new-look cinematic universe sooner than expected.

Asked by a fan if he could share any news on Wonder Woman's possible arrival in the DCU, Gunn replied: "Not to be shared publicly yet but yes. Encouraging."

Gunn shared a promising update on Wonder Woman's DCU debut on May 15 (Image credit: Threads)

Admittedly, it's not much to go on. However, given that Wonder Woman is the only member of DC Comics' Trinity – that trinity being, the company's three most popular heroes in Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman – not to get her own DCU project yet, it's nonetheless intriguing to hear Gunn talk up her eventual appearance in the DCU.

Fans have long questioned the decision not to announce a Wonder Woman film as part of Gunn and Safran's initial DCU movie and TV show lineup in early 2023.

At the time, Gunn's Superman movie, which arrives on July 11, was confirmed to be the first of numerous superhero flicks that'll comprise DCU Chapter One. The Brave and the Bold, a Batman film inspired by its comic-book namesake, was also unveiled alongside Chapter One's initial 11-strong slate.

Gunn did reveal a Wonder Woman-esque TV series as part of Chapter One's original lineup. However, while that show – Paradise Lost – is billed as a Game of Thrones-inspired story that'll be set on Themyscria, aka Prince's idyllic home island, the Amazonian won't be its lead character. Unsurprisingly, that irked some DC aficionados who felt that, despite Wonder Woman's enduring popularity, she was being overlooked.

Why Gunn's Wonder Woman tease has sent DC fans into a frenzy

Gal Gadot is the latest actor to play Diana Prince/Wonder Woman (Image credit: Warner Bros)

Gunn's Threads post comes hot on the heels of Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) CEO David Zaslav's own comments about the company's desire to capitalize on the popularity of four specific DC superheroes.

Speaking during WBD's Q1 2025 earnings call (as reported by Yahoo), Zaslav said: "When you look at the major characters... that James Gunn and Peter Safran are developing with their 10-year plan around DC, that is to build asset value globally [with] Wonder Woman, Batman, Superman, [and] Supergirl. So, we look at those as big asset builders and big differentiators."

Clearly, Zaslav wants WBD subsidiary DC Studios to take a more proactive approach to building the DCU around its most iconic metahumans – and, surprising no-one, that includes Wonder Woman.

Batman, Wonder Woman, and Superman teamed up twice in the now-defunct DCEU (Image credit: Netflix)

With Zaslav and Gunn publicly responding to queries about Diana Prince in recent days, fans have renewed hope that it won't be too long until the Princess of Themyscira is back on the big screen. And, if a new fan theory is to be believed, some observers believe she'll return in Gunn's next project, which – whisper it quietly – could be a team-up between Wonder Woman, Superman, and Batman.

Taking to Threads on May 10, Gunn revealed that he'd started working a new DCU movie. Curiously, though, he confirmed that it was a new project, i.e., not one of the seven that currently make up DCU Chapter One, aka 'Gods and Monsters'.

That post, coupled with his comments about Wonder Woman, have unsurprisingly caused a stir. So much so, in fact, that some fans claim he must be penning the script for a Trinity film. Indeed, a thread on the DCULeaks Reddit page is full of people theorizing that this is what Gunn is secretly working on.

Comment from r/DCULeaks

What's my take on the situation? A movie that brings DC Comics' three greatest heroes together would not only be (hopefully) absolutely brilliant, but would also help us to forget about the – how can I put this politely – less-than-ideal team-up we got with Zack Snyder's Justice League and Batman v Superman's undercooked third act.

Marvel has proved that people will flock to see their favorite superheroes unite on the silver screen, so there's no reason why the DCU wouldn't benefit from seeing Prince, The Dark Knight, and the Man of Steel join forces to take down a common foe.

That all said, it could be years before a Trinity film sees the light of day. Yes, Superman is ready to take flight in the DCU and, while Kara Zor-El isn't part of the Trinity, Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, which lands in theaters next June, will introduce wider audiences to the fourth main pillar Zaslav mentioned earlier this week.

But, until The Brave and the Bold's development gets off the ground, and either Paradise Lost or a standalone Wonder Woman film introduce us to the DCU's Diana Prince, I can't see a world where a Trinity movie would be the right project for Gunn to tackle next.

We live in hope, but if the now-defunct DC Extended Universe (DCEU) has taught us anything, it's that cinematic franchises need to walk before they can run, and making and releasing a Trinity movie before its legendary metahumans are all established in the DCU would be the opposite of that.

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• Figma launches new design and dev tools
• AI powers the suite
• Focused on giving teams ability to go from idea to product faster

Last week in San Francisco, design and development platform Figma unveiled four new tools aimed at giving users the full end-to-end package.

Figma Make, Figma Sites, Figma Draw, and Figma Buzz offers teams the ability to ideate and create everything from vector images to full-blown websites. And, as you’d expect, it’s all AI-powered for faster iteration.

At Config London, I got a more in-depth peek into exactly what these tools are capable of - and how they fit into Figma’s plans to create a platform that lets users go from idea to product launch without pause.

Create and launch at speed

One of the biggest issues facing businesses today is team siloing - where one hand doesn’t know what the other is doing (or, at least, has a different way of doing the same thing).

With that in mind, Figma has released four new tools alongside its beloved Figma Design and FigJam that almost entirely remove that problem.

Yuhki Yamashita, Figma’s Chief Product Officer, explained the thinking behind the new line-up, saying, “How do we help you do everything, going from an idea to a final product? And all the things that you will see in the future, too, will be anchored in this, in this framework of helping people go through this journey faster, explore more ideas, and make that process as efficient as possible.”

Figma CPO Yuhki Yamashita on stage during Config London (Image credit: Figma // Future)

Figma Make is an overarching tool for content ideation. Here, you can start from scratch or copy and paste existing designs from Figma Design, and collaborate on these with the rest of the team (Figma calls this a “multiplayer” tool). You can then port over into other apps like Figma Sites to tailor the design to suit the product.

What’s interesting here is the concept of throwing away designs. Effectively, what Figma wants is to make it easy to rapidly ideate, that if something doesn’t work, you can throw it out and start afresh.

During the press briefing, Yamashita said: “Our thought experiment was, how can we make it so easy for you to go from the idea into your head to something that is actually you can put in front of users and validate really quickly. And if it doesn't work, that's great. You can then move on to the next idea, or you can keep iterating from there.”

Figma Sites is an AI-powered website builder for all-in-one design, prototyping, and publishing. One of the chief purposes behind this is saving time - a space where developers can work on templates, responsive design, custom interactions, and transitions and motion effects. Using grids, and with a little help from AI, designing responsive sites looks and feels easy (assuming you know what you're doing, that is).

During Config London, I was treated to a brief, playful example - taking static words and prompting the AI to come up with three different ways to add some design sparkle, for example, repelling each word as the cursor hovers over it. However, as Yamashita later noted, there are more practical uses here such as connecting an API to the back-end.

There’s also the promise of future updates, with Yamashita saying, “we wanted to make sure that we could support scaled use cases, too. For example, a marketing site with tons of content, or maybe a blog. And with these kinds of content, it's much easier if we have a CMS, so that a non-designer can come in and comfortably edit that content in a way that's familiar to them. And this is something that's coming soon.”

(Image credit: Figma)

Figma Draw is, in a sense, Figma’s AI-powered answer to Adobe Illustrator. But it goes a little deeper than that, with the company keen to help designers make content that doesn't have a generic look and feel, while letting them freely express themselves and elevate their craft.

I saw a few examples of what the Figma community has already created during the event, some in hand-drawn stylings, others photorealistic images - and it’s fair to say, they’re certainly impressive. Yamashita explained, “We add things like texture and noise to make it feel much more organic, while still being a vector.”

Figma Buzz tackles the social media marketing side - once a product is launched, Buzz is a tool for promoting it online. But more importantly, it's a way to help those on the team who can’t or don’t use Figma Design to create content that matches brand guidelines. Built for designers and marketing teams, Yamashita called this “the purpose-built tool for on-brand asset creation” for dynamic and custom assets at scale.

He and his team asked themselves “how could it feel as simple as filling out a form, so that you can actually create some dynamic content?” Figma Buzz is the answer to that. Helpfully, the tool also connects to Figma Design, serving up all the features designers use, without “complicating the experience” for non-designers.

I saw this one in action on stage and came away impressed. In a matter of seconds (ok, maybe ten or so seconds), a single post was automatically localized 80 different ways, switching language, image, and national flag for the correct territories - all without removing that on-brand element.

Figma Buzz demonstration in action, creating social media assets in real-time (Image credit: Figma // Future)

You can check out Figma’s latest tools right now by clicking here and navigating to the Products section. To watch the full Config London keynote speech with Yamashita and Figma CEO Dylan Field, it's on YouTube here.

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• Samsung and Xiaomi have removed the AdGuard VPN app from their official app stores in Russia at the government's request
• Apple already killed AdGuard VPN in 2024, alongside at least 60 VPN apps
• Over 100 VPNs are currently unavailable in the Apple App Store, with 50 also unavailable in the Google Play Store

UPDATE: AdGuard confirmed to TechRadar that Xiaomi also removed its VPN app from its Russian App Store at Roskomnadzor's request on May 16, 2025, after publication. We edit the article to reflect this.

Yet another VPN service has disappeared from official app stores in Russia.

This time, Samsung has removed the AdGuard VPN app from its Galaxy App Store in the country at the Roskomnadzor's demand.

A day after, on May 16, 2025, the tech giant Xiaomi also did the same, killing the provider's VPN application from its Russian app store after receiving a removal order from the country's censoring body.

This comes as part of the Kremlin's actions against VPNs that have seen over 100 apps disappear from the Russian Apple App Store, including some of the best VPN services on the market.

Despite Google seemingly resisting most of these demands so far, recent data shows that at least 53 VPNs are also currently unavailable in the Google Play Store in Russia. AdGuard VPN, however, hasn't been affected yet.

"A regrettable development"

"Our app has indeed been removed from the Samsung Store in Russia – a regrettable development, in our view," AdGuard CPO, Denis Vyazovoy, told TechRadar.

The VPN service has received a synthetic email from Samsung (see image below) to inform that its "application information has been modified."

The change? "Russia was excluded from the sales country lists according to Russian government's request. This app is banned by Russian government," reads the email.

Xiaomi has sent a similar communication to the provider (see image below), noting that "Distribution of VPN applications in Russia is not allowed. Therefore, we have to remove your application from Russia."

AdGuard VPN was already among the virtual private network (VPN) services affected by the big purge from Russia's Apple App Store last year. Unavailable apps also include some of TechRadar's favorites, such as NordVPN, ExpressVPN, and Proton VPN, but also the popular Russian service Amnezia VPN.

The provider confirmed to TechRadar, though, that its app is still available in Russia's Google Play Store at the time of writing.

It's also worth noting that these removals only affect Russia-based users. The AdGuard VPN app is still available across all official app stores outside Russia.

Image 1 of 2

(Image credit: AdGuard)Samsung's email to AdGuardImage 2 of 2

(Image credit: AdGuard)Xiaomi's email to AdGuard

"We see this as part of a broader trend of restricting access to tools that help people protect their privacy and maintain access to an open internet," Vyazovoy told TechRadar.

The Kremlin's actions against VPNs have intensified since a law enforced in March 2024 criminalized the spread of information about ways to circumvent internet restrictions. This is likely the legal basis upon which the Russian censor body is issuing these demands to Big Tech firms.

Yet, experts have long called on these companies to uphold Russian citizens' human rights by refraining from cooperating with these demands and restoring censored VPN apps.

Vyazovoy confirmed to TechRadar that the service continues to operate through other channels and the provider is actively looking for ways to remain accessible to all users.

If you are using a Galaxy or Xiaomi smartphone, I recommend downloading the AdGuard VPN app from the Google Play Store, where the service is still available at the time of writing.

The provider also suggests downloading it directly from their official website to be sure to get the latest and safest version.

TechRadar needs you! We want to know what you think about the world of VPNs. Whether you're a novice or a VPN pro, we want to hear your thoughts. Don't worry, though, your responses are completely anonymous, and it takes less than five minutes to complete!

To take part, click the link below: https://futurenet.questionpro.eu/tr-vpn

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ISO 25000 defines "software security" as a key pillar of product quality, performance, maintainability, and reliability. But in practice, cybersecurity is often an afterthought, deprioritized in the name of speed and innovation, resulting in a growing disconnect between quality and security. The recent case of DeepSeek is a perfect example. Despite rapid product development and cost efficiency, the company failed most of its security tests, exposing major flaws in its risk posture.

This isn't an isolated incident. Across various stakeholders and industries, "quality" means different things depending on who you ask. Developers may view it as bug-free functionality, designers may point to user experience, and executives may care most about time to market, ROI, and customer satisfaction. Meanwhile, security often sits outside those priorities—treated as a compliance box or post-release concern.

The result? A widening divide. Organizations take an average of 55 days to fix just half of critical vulnerabilities. Attackers don't need nearly that long. Exploits from CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog often circulate within five days of discovery. That's a 50-day exposure window, and that's if you're among the faster teams. Most aren't.

To close this gap, teams must move beyond reactive security measures and adopt a proactive, integrated approach to quality—one that treats security as a core part of the development lifecycle, not something bolted on at the end.

Data Flow Vulnerabilities: The Hidden Security Risk

Modern quality assurance (QA) is built around fast, repeatable feedback. Fail a test, file a bug, and fix it before it hits production. Teams are fluent in this rhythm. But when it comes to security issues, the rhythm breaks. Often, the assumption is that vulnerabilities weren't detected in time. But the real problem isn’t just detection, it’s a breakdown in how security signals flow through the development lifecycle.

Security tools generate noisy and low-quality signals, leading to false positives and negatives. And, with the rise of proactive, left-sided practices—like threat modeling, IDE plugins, pre-commit hooks, and early scans—the volume of signals has only increased. Tools like SAST, DAST, and dependency scanners flood teams with thousands of alerts. Without a structured way to prioritize, sort, and assign these issues, developers fall back to what they know, and security becomes background noise, the divide deepens, and the path to resolution blurs.

To fix this, teams need to treat vulnerabilities like they treat bugs—because that's precisely what they are. Whether it's a flaky unit test or a known SQL injection risk, both represent a failure state and require prioritization. When security signals are pulled into the same systems developers already use—issue trackers, test automation, CI/CD pipelines—they get handled like any other failure, not ignored or delayed.

The Lag Is in the Handoff, Not the Discovery

Delayed security fixes put businesses, customers, and reputations at risk. It's tempting to think that catching vulnerabilities sooner will solve everything. But most teams already know where their weaknesses are. The current lag isn't about visibility. It's about propagation. Security alerts travel on a different track than everything else. QA teams test, triage, and file bugs as part of their day-to-day job. But AppSec alerts? They get forwarded. They live in separate tools. They sit on spreadsheets that no sprint team is ever going to open.

A single static scan can produce thousands of results; most go untouched without a structured way to sort through them. According to a Ponemon Institute survey, 61% of IT and security professionals struggle to remediate vulnerabilities effectively. Only 20% believe they can reliably detect vulnerabilities before an application is released.

Once a vulnerability is known to the public, the clock is ticking. Exploits circulate quickly. By the time a team triages the alert, assigns it, and discusses a fix, the damage may already be done. And the fallout can be painful.

Victims of data breaches underperform the NASDAQ by 8.6% after a year—and more than 11% after two years. Customers don't easily forget, either. More than half (66%) of U.S. consumers say they wouldn't trust a company again after a breach, and 44% believe cyber incidents directly result from poor security measures. That trust is hard to rebuild, and the "patch later" mindset won't cut it anymore. Businesses can't afford to wait until the next release cycle to address known issues. So, what's the better approach?

Everything changes if you reframe those alerts as just another signal source—equivalent to a failed unit test. Developers already know how to act on that kind of data. They know how to prioritize based on severity and reproducibility, when to flag issues for later, and when to fix them immediately. Security can fit that mold. It just hasn't been given a seat at the table.

Align Security with Agile and Continuous Deployment

Perfect software doesn't exist. Teams deploy with known bugs all the time because getting the product out the door matters more than perfecting every edge case. Security should be viewed similarly: not every vulnerability must be fixed before release, but every risk should be known, tracked, and managed. That's how mature teams work—not by pretending every build must be flawless but by making tradeoffs with their eyes open.

This doesn't mean every security issue needs to block deployment. Just like teams go to market with known minor bugs, they can also do it with low-priority vulnerabilities—so long as there's visibility and a plan.

Deploying with a known issue is one thing. Deploying with a critical vulnerability no one's aware of is something else entirely. When teams pull security data into the same locations they manage tests and bugs, those tradeoffs become more intentional. The product team knows what's at stake, the security team has visibility, and teams can jump on it fast if something changes.

Embed Security Testing Throughout the Development Lifecycle

Security is a lifecycle, not a checklist. It should be embedded into planning, implementation, testing, and monitoring. Address risks early in planning to prevent coding vulnerabilities, integrate testing findings into sprint cycles for timely remediation, and implement post-deployment scans to defend against new threats. This proactive, lifecycle-wide approach shifts security from a daunting challenge to a manageable process, prioritizing strategic risk mitigation over chasing perfection.

Additionally, all teams, regardless of size or resources, stand to gain from leveraging a comprehensive suite of tools that bring security, quality, and testing together under one roof. When signal sources are fragmented across disconnected systems, teams lose time chasing context and resolving conflicts between tools. But with a unified platform, organizations can centralize insights, reduce noise, and make faster, more informed decisions.

This integrated approach helps security shift from a bottleneck to a core enabler of speed and resilience. Instead of reacting to siloed alerts, teams can respond to prioritized, correlated findings within the workflows they already use—accelerating resolution without compromising risk management.

The Stakes Are Already Too High to Wait

The fastest, most effective teams don't just build quickly. They build securely by embedding security into the systems they already trust. They treat security bugs like any other failure and make tradeoffs based on visibility, not guesswork.

Teams that close the gap between security and quality will be better equipped to deliver resilient, high-performing software at speed. By integrating security throughout the development lifecycle—with structured prioritization, continuous feedback loops, and tools that unify signals across teams—organizations can reduce risk, protect their reputation, and earn lasting customer trust.

When done right, security becomes part of the rhythm of development, not a disruption.

We've made a list of the best patch management software.

This article was produced as part of TechRadarPro's Expert Insights channel where we 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/news/submit-your-story-to-techradar-pro

• Android users now can't upload all files to Nextcloud, just because Google revoked a permission
• Nextcloud says Google is punishing smaller competitors while protecting its own apps from restrictions
• Nextcloud users now get a worse app experience, not because of failure, but gatekeeping

The ability to seamlessly upload all types of files from Android to the cloud has become a baseline expectation for modern users, especially those who rely on services like Nextcloud to manage their data.

In a move that has sparked a backlash, Google has blocked full file upload capabilities in the Nextcloud Files Android app, citing “security concerns.”

This single policy change has significantly affected how users interact with one of the leading cloud storage services available today, raising broader questions about fairness, power, and competition in the digital ecosystem.

Nextcloud claims unfair treatment under the guise of security

While users can still upload media files such as photos and videos, a core feature for anyone seeking the best cloud storage for photos, Nextcloud has been forced to disable uploads for all other file types on Android.

According to Nextcloud, the issue stems from Google’s refusal to grant an essential file permission that the app has used since 2011. This is the “All files access” permission, which allows an app to read and write all files on a device’s shared storage, not just media files.

“To make it crystal clear: All of you as users have a worse Nextcloud Files client because Google wanted that. We understand and share your frustration, but there is nothing we can do,” the company said in a press release.

Nextcloud argues that this is not merely a technical issue but a strategic one. The company claims it is being boxed out, not for security reasons, but because it poses a competitive threat to Google’s own cloud ecosystem.

“Google owning the platform means they can - and are - giving themselves preferential treatment,” the company states, noting that Google’s own apps, as well as those from other Big Tech players, continue to enjoy the same permissions that Nextcloud has now been denied.

Google’s recommendation to use alternative frameworks like the MediaStore API or SAF has not solved the issue. Nextcloud explains that these options don’t meet its requirements, and reviewers have misunderstood their functionality.

The situation echoes Microsoft’s past tactics in limiting WordPerfect’s access to Windows APIs, a historical parallel that Nextcloud readily invokes.

Under the guise of user safety, Nextcloud claims, Google is making it harder to compete, particularly for smaller developers offering privacy-focused cloud backup solutions.

While regulators are tasked with addressing such concerns, Nextcloud notes that progress is slow. A collective complaint filed in 2021 alongside 40 other organizations for a similar issue has yet to receive a response.

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• iFi UP Travel connects wireless headphones to in-flight entertainment
• Stream audio over Bluetooth to in-car audio systems, too
• $99 / £99 / €99 (about AU$205)

iFi's new UP Travel solves two common issues for travellers: using your wireless headphones with in-flight entertainment that was made for cabled connections, and streaming music to in-car entertainment and other audio systems that don't do Bluetooth audio.

The UP Travel is a two-way Bluetooth adapter that you can use to stream from in-flight systems to your headphones, or from your phone to a vehicle or audio product's aux-in port.

The device enables you to pair and listen on two sets of headphones at once, though its battery is good for 10 hours, so it might not make it through the longest of flights.

It's got a mic with noise and echo suppression for clear calls when you're back on the ground, because why not.

iFi the friendly skies

The UP Travel isn't just a wireless dongle. It's a proper DAC too. Instead of having the Bluetooth chipset handle the wireless and the audio too, the Bluetooth module focuses purely on transmission and reception while the audio conversion is handled by a Cirrus Logic MasterHIFI DAC and iFi's bespoke clocking circuitry, just like in iFi's larger portable DACs.

The supported codecs cover all the essentials (although availability depends on your device and what it supports) including aptX Adaptive, aptX HD, aptX Low Latency, LDAC, SBC, AAC and LHDC/HWA. And in a nice touch you can change codecs, so for example you might want the highest possible quality for listening to music but switch to something with lower latency to stay in sync with the in-flight movie.

The iFi UP Travel is $99 / £99 / €99 (about AU$205).

The iFi GO Pod Air add wireless streaming to your wired IEMs. (Image credit: iFi Audio)

iFi has also launched a second travel-focused product, the iFi GO Pod Air. It's designed for audiophiles who don't want to give up their wired IEMs but who do need the convenience of cable-free listening. It transmits at up to 24-bit/96kHz and supports all the key high quality codecs.

It has built-in mics too, for calls. The GO Pod Air costs $249 / £249 / €249 (about AU$515).

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Technology is constantly changing the world and how we live in it. It’s become a critical part for every organization; most wouldn’t be able to operate without it. Some recent technology innovations are exciting — like AI. With all the buzz around AI, many organizations quickly jumped at the opportunity to implement it, while others were wary. Many feel like they “should” be using it and worry about losing their competitive edge without it.

While AI offers some great benefits, it's not necessary for every organization and use case. For some, it can be detrimental, causing a negative return on investment (ROI). If you’re considering adopting AI tools, there may be an alternative better suited to your needs: automation. Let’s discuss determining ROI and if AI is a worthwhile investment.

AI, automation, and weighing their value

Should you incorporate AI into your processes? Would AI bring good value or require too much work to set up? Does AI deliver a good ROI, or are there better options? These are likely all questions that arise as you consider whether or not you want to incorporate AI into your operational processes. Or maybe you’ve already started using AI and have realized it’s not all that you expected it to be.

AI and ROI potential

AI promises to improve efficiency, simplify manual tasks, and generally make our jobs (and lives) easier. However, about 75% of companies struggle to demonstrate a clear return on investment (ROI) for the AI tools they adopt.

ROI is a critical metric to measure; you want to ensure you have enough data to back the investment decision. In my opinion, it’s too early to tell AI’s ROI. We need more time to create a solid measurement framework. Despite this, you can get an idea of AI’s ROI potential for your business with specific indicators:

Leading indicators offer quick, apparent returns. For instance, AI can help put specific tasks, like troubleshooting customer issues, on autopilot. This can save time that your team can put toward revenue-generating tasks.

Lagging indicators take time to show their benefits. For example, customer satisfaction improves because AI enhances the self-service experience.

Consider the leading and lagging indicators specific to your organization and what success would look like for you in these terms.

Before investing in AI, the most important thing to consider is: does this use case need human-like intelligence, or does it fall into a more structured logic category? AI is complex, autonomous, and flexible. It excels in situations that require open-ended problem-solving. AI can adapt, reason, and evolve through interactions. It is great for tasks that require human reasoning, like helping a customer troubleshoot a problem in real time.

There are a few downsides to consider with AI. It comes with significant data and privacy risks and can be unpredictable. It may also require significant training to avoid undesirable outcomes and “hallucinations.”

Automation and ROI potential

Many use automation and AI interchangeably. While both can enhance productivity, efficiency, and ROI, they differ and offer distinct benefits.

Automation has been shown to improve ROI significantly. Automation differs from AI in that it executes pre-defined, rule-based tasks automatically. It’s ideal for situations where fast, reliable outcomes are necessary to achieve business goals. Automation is great for functions that don’t require human reasoning.

I like to call these "if this, then that" scenarios. For example, if a customer fills out a lead form on your website, you can have automation set to send a pre-written confirmation email automatically. Automation doesn’t require complex, human-like reasoning to execute a task. It saves time, maintains compliance, ensures data quality, and boosts employee productivity and satisfaction. It’s an excellent solution for repetitive tasks with clear, predefined outcomes.

Automation has a couple of downsides if you need help accomplishing more complicated tasks. Automation tools are limited — they can only achieve the tasks they are programmed to perform. They are not adaptable and can’t handle complex tasks. For example, automation can send a new lead a confirmation email, but it cannot interact with them independently. However, it can be argued that automation is still beneficial because it frees up valuable time that your team can use toward more complicated tasks.

Good ROI is critical — the right technology can help

Better productivity means better profit, no matter which way you slice it. Technology today can help you achieve both — but with so many options, it’s hard to know which tools are worthwhile. Before investing, you must carefully consider what use cases are better for AI versus automation and how these technologies will impact your organization and customers.

For many businesses, the need for technology is simply about increasing efficiency and saving time. Automation is an excellent solution for specific manual tasks that are a necessity to daily operations — such as document generation, contract management, or eSign software. If your team’s main bottleneck is administrative overhead, automation can provide immediate ROI, without the need for an AI solution.

We've compiled a list of the best document management software.

This article was produced as part of TechRadarPro's Expert Insights channel where we 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/news/submit-your-story-to-techradar-pro

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• SanDisk plans 256TB and 512TB SSDs using new Stargate controller
• Stargate will debut in enterprise drives launching in late 2025
• Company revenue down after WD split but roadmap remains highly ambitious

SanDisk, now operating independently as an SSD and NAND flash manufacturer following its split from Western Digital last year, has teased a new SSD controller called “Stargate,” designed to support extremely high-capacity enterprise drives.

Stargate, which confusingly shares its name with OpenAI’s Stargate project but obviously has nothing whatsoever to do with it, is part of SanDisk’s “Ultra QLC” platform, which aims to scale SSD capacities in the coming years.

During its earnings call, SanDisk CEO David Goeckeler said: “We have a new architecture coming out in the next couple of quarters that we call Stargate, new ASIC, clean sheet design, and then with BiCS 8 QLC… we just think that’s going to be a dynamite project.”

1PB SSD incoming

Goeckeler didn’t share further technical details, but Stargate is expected to debut in enterprise drives such as the DC SN670 series.

That line is scheduled for release in the third quarter of 2025 with 64TB and 128TB capacities, BiCS8 QLC (2Tbit/256GB per die), and PCIe 5.0 support.

Future versions may include PCIe 6.0 as capacity targets rise. SanDisk’s roadmap shows 256TB for 2026, followed by 512TB in 2027, with a 1PB target further out. Stargate is likely to play a central role in enabling those jumps.

The third quarter of SanDisk’s 2025 fiscal year was also its first as a standalone company. It reported $1.695 billion in revenue, a 10 percent decline from the prior quarter, and a $1.881 billion net loss, largely due to a $1.83 billion goodwill impairment.

SanDisk’s strongest segment was client SSDs, bringing in $927 million, followed by $571 million from consumer products and $197 million from the cloud division.

Source: ComputerBase.de

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• Mycelium might power electronics someday, if it stops biodegrading before the job is done
• The split-gill mushroom’s extracellular matrix may be the key to future green batteries
• Scientists dream of compostable batteries, but controlling fungal behavior remains a major challenge

Researchers from Empa, the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, are exploring the potential of fungal mycelium to create a compact, biodegradable battery.

Their goal is to use mycelium to produce “fungal paper” for battery electrodes - a concept that, according to researcher Ashutosh Sinha, remains in the experimental phase.

“We want to produce a compact, biodegradable battery whose electrodes consist of a living 'fungal paper,’” Sinha states, emphasizing that this vision is still a dream for now.

The dream of biodegradable batteries

The idea of a biodegradable battery made from living materials is ambitious. The team is working with the mycelium of the split-gill mushroom, a fungus known for its unique mechanical and biological properties.

This fungus is naturally biodegradable and, when combined with its extracellular matrix, produces a material with promising potential for sustainable applications in technology.

The aim is to develop a system that decomposes without releasing harmful waste - unlike conventional electronic devices - by using the natural properties of the material.

Empa researchers are now examining how the tensile strength of mycelium and its sensitivity to moisture can be applied in components like biodegradable sensors and batteries.

Working with living materials brings notable challenges. Mycelium’s biodegradable nature is both an advantage and a limitation.

On one hand, it could significantly reduce the environmental impact of batteries. On the other, its tendency to degrade raises concerns about its longevity and reliability in electronic devices.

Living materials also respond to their environments, making it difficult to predict or control their behavior consistently.

“Biodegradable materials always react to their environment. We want to find applications where this interaction is not a hindrance but maybe even an advantage,” said Empa’s Gustav Nyström.

The idea of a compact, biodegradable battery with fungal paper electrodes remains conceptual, and one of the biggest challenges will be refining the material to meet performance standards required in modern electronics.

Nevertheless, it represents a promising step toward more sustainable and environmentally conscious electronics.

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• A Greek couple thought it would be fun to use ChatGPT as a fortune-teller and have it "read" coffee grounds in their cups
• ChatGPT claimed the husband was cheating with someone whose name starts with E
• The wife is now filing for divorce over the AI tasseography response

A woman in Greece is divorcing her husband after ChatGPT played fortune teller and claimed her husband was cheating on her. According to a Greek City Times report, the couple asked the AI chatbot to look at a photo of the grounds left behind in her husband's cup of Greek coffee and practice tasseography, the ancient art of divining present secrets or future fates based on patterns left behind in tea leaves or coffee.

After looking at the residue at the bottom of their cups, ChatGPT had some shockingly specific things to say. According to the report, the AI claimed to see that the husband was secretly fantasizing about a woman whose name started with an “E” and was fated to begin an affair with her. In case that wasn't enough, ChatGPT's response to the woman’s own cup was to claim that the affair had already started.

Some people take fortune-telling seriously, but usually only from humans practicing divination. But what the husband saw as a quirky, funny moment, his wife saw as a serious and accurate description of reality. She told her husband to leave, announced to her children that she was ending her marriage, and served him with legal papers three days later.

Oracular AI

As a legal matter, it's hard to say how a judge will view this. There's no real precedent for citing a “robot oracle” as evidence of infidelity in a court of law anywhere (though there is one about declaring a house is haunted before you sell it in New York State). But what’s fascinating isn’t the legalities so much as what it says about culture.

Tasseography isn’t some novelty party trick; it's thousands of years old and practiced across coffee and tea-drinking cultures from Turkey to China and beyond. The idea that symbols and swirls in a cup could reveal your fate is a perfect example of how people see stories in randomness, whether a constellation or coffee residue.

That some people want to outsource mystic rituals to AI feels almost predetermined. This reported Greek marital strife is arguably a good reason not to do so, or at least not to call it wisdom. And it's not like ChatGPT actually knows how to read coffee grounds. It wasn’t trained on tasseography. What it can do is make educated guesses based on the patterns it sees in an image and what people have said about similar shapes or symbols on the internet. In other words, making stuff up in a convincing tone, just like a human would.

It turns out that a convincing tone is all it takes for some people. And it's not like this is the first instance. Tarot card reading with ChatGPT was an early demonstration of how flexible the AI could be in its activities. The same goes for making astrology charts and palm reading. But if you stop treating it like entertainment and like a real psychic answer, it can cause real emotional damage.

Then again, if your spouse is willing to believe an AI chatbot claiming psychic powers over your own contradictions, the issue might not be about the technology. So go ahead and ask ChatGPT to read your coffee grounds if you want a laugh. But maybe don't act like you're in a mashup of Black Mirror meets My Big Fat Greek Wedding and run out the door. Sometimes, your coffee is just coffee. And the swirl at the bottom of the cup is not the ghost of a digital Cassandra.

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