Technology

The new Federal Communications Commission report signals a major retreat from the former administration’s goal of connecting every American to gigabit-speed broadband.

Samsung’s best software features from 2026 are coming to the lower-cost S26 FE — but at $700, it’s certainly not cheap.

Samsung took to its own stage at Gamescom today to announce a slew of new Odyssey OLED gaming screens for 2027, including some very tasty world firsts.

Top of the new range is the Odyssey OLED G6 G60H, which boasts a 1440p Fast IPS panel, complete with a 600Hz refresh rate.

If that ridiculous refresh speed isn't enough, you can dial down the resolution to HD and benefit from 1100Hz, making this Samsung screen the fastest we've ever seen in that respect.

It also features AMD FreeSync Premium Pro VRR and is Nvidia G-Sync compatible.

If you want something bigger, the Odyssey OLED G7 marks the world's first 42-inch curved gaming screen in a classic 16:9 aspect ratio. It's a 4K OLED panel with up to a 165Hz refresh rate and an aggressive 1000R curve for an immersive finish.

For reference, Samsung says the G7 is some 72% larger than a typical 32-inch curved panel in its range for greater immersion, so it can fill even more of your field of vision.

(Image credit: Future)Bigger and better?

The new Odyssey OLED G8 is stacked with cool-sounding features – a 32-inch 4K tandem OLED with a 360Hz refresh rate that features Samsung's latest fifth-gen QD-OLED panel with its Penta Tandem tech and an RGB stripe sub-pixel layout for greater power efficiency, longevity, and sharper text.

The G8 also supports 'triple mode', so 4K/360hz isn't your only option. Drop down to 1440p, and the screen yields a 520Hz refresh rate. Or, if that's not enough, then Full HD output at 680Hz is possible.

Port-wise, Samsung has kitted it out with DP 2.1 UHBR20, two HDMI 2.1 ports, a USB-C with up to 98W of power delivery, plus a USB hub with two downstream ports and KVM support.

For ultrawide fans, the new Odyssey OLED G9 offers a 49-inch panel with a 5120 x 1440 resolution and up to 360Hz. It also has dual-mode power with 720Hz at 'dual HD' (2560 x 720) and a fifth-gen QD-OLED panel with Penta Tandem tech.

Samsung says the Odyssey OLED G9 offers up to 1300 nits of peak brightness at a 4K resolution in a 3% window for some punchy output.

Alongside the slew of new screens, it also reaffirmed its commitment to glasses-free 3D tech, with wider support mentioned for some of the biggest titles and the presence of HDR10+ gaming in some big releases, including the new Call of Duty, and upwards of 20 games supporting the standard by the first half of 2027.

• Nvidia GPUs are about to run out of road in Windows 10
• Game Ready Driver support finishes in just two months
• With the last such driver coming in October, you need to bear in mind issues around game performance optimization and fixes – but you'll still get security updates

Gamers running Windows 10 need to be aware that if they have an Nvidia GPU, they're only two months away from that graphics card running out of road for support with drivers.

VideoCardz reminded us that Nvidia's deadline for ditching Windows 10 support is now nearly upon us, with the final Game Ready Driver that supports the older operating system arriving in October 2026.

Does that mean you need to be thinking about upgrading to Windows 11 if you have an Nvidia graphics card?

No, it doesn't – well, not necessarily, although there is a major downside to remaining on Windows 10 after October of this year. In case you're at all unsure, let's dive into the exact ins-and-outs of what's happening here – as well as touching on the subject of whether Nvidia might just have a change of heart here.

You'll still be secure with an Nvidia GPU

(Image credit: Shutterstock)

The key point to remember is that while the Game Ready Driver that comes out in November 2026 won't support Windows 10, Nvidia will still provide security updates for your graphics card. As Team Green explained in a short FAQ: "Windows 10 driver support will transition to a quarterly security update for a period of three years where critical bug fixes will be delivered to end users through October 2029."

That means Windows 10 users will get an update every three months to fix any critical bugs or security flaws with the Nvidia drivers. This will continue for another three years, so effectively to the end of the decade.

At that point, when 2030 is about to roll around, you will then potentially be risking exposure to a vulnerability as any driver security holes will no longer be patched. But that's still a good long way off.

So what does the end of Game Ready Driver support really mean?

(Image credit: Shutterstock / Dean Drobot)

After October, Windows 10 PCs will only get the benefit of these quarterly security updates, and they won't be covered by Nvidia's regular Game Ready Driver packages. That means as new games come out, Windows 10 users won't get the performance optimizations that these driver releases contain – or bug fixes for these titles.

As time goes on, then, more and more PC games will be left out in the cold in terms of that tweaking and optimization. That's bad news, of course, although it doesn't mean those games will be somehow unplayable. In fact, in many cases they might be just fine – but there are no guarantees, and you may get subpar frame rates (indeed, that's quite likely to be the case to some extent).

Of course, existing games will continue to run just as they always have, and you shouldn't run into any issues on that score.

Could there yet be a reprieve from Nvidia?

(Image credit: Future)

If you're not happy about the idea of not getting the latest patches, tweaks, and optimizations for new PC games, then you'll have to seriously start to think about planning your upgrade to Windows 11.

Assuming you have an upgrade path, that is, because your PC may not meet the hardware requirements of the newer OS. (Although bear in mind that a simple BIOS tweak may be all that's needed to ensure compatibility with the TPM requirement). If you're looking at a major PC upgrade, or an entirely new rig, that's a painful prospect given the RAM crisis and all the price hikes around that.

As one Redditor puts it: "'This is terrible news considering PC prices."

However, as another gamer on that Reddit thread observes, there may yet be a glimmer of hope of a reprieve from Nvidia. If you recall, just a couple of months ago, Microsoft quietly extended consumer support for Windows 10 for a further year, through to October 2027.

Now, when Nvidia announced the end of driver support for October 2026, which happened last year, as far as Team Green was concerned, it was aligning the curtailment of Game Ready Driver releases for Windows 10 with Microsoft's original consumer support extension. But now Microsoft has pushed out extended support for another additional year to October 2027 – could Nvidia mirror this move?

It doesn't seem likely, in all honesty, and I'd think Nvidia would have announced this already if it was the intention. Concrete driver plans are likely already in place that can't be changed. That said, you never know – and we can't fully rule out the notion of a last-minute reprieve. Watch this space.

Apple Maps ads are rolling out in the U.S. and Canada. See where sponsored listings appear, how Apple handles privacy, and whether users can disable them.

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• Yamaha unveils two new compact streaming hi-fi products, due for release in November
• The WXC-70A is a compact streamer with Spotify, AirPlay, Roon, Tidal and HDMI connectivity, among others
• The WXA-70A has all that, and built-in amplification as well

Is there any kind of audio tech that Yamaha doesn't make? For a while, compact streaming gear was one, but after a decade, the brand is returning to the space.

These new gadgets are called the WXA-70A, and WXC-70A, which seems unnecessarily confusing, but here we are. You'll be able to buy Yamaha's new offerings from some time in November 2026, though an exact release date hasn't been offered yet.

Let's start with the Yamaha WXC-70, which you can see pictured above: the compact streamer. This is due to sell for £859 (about $1, 170, AU$1,700), so it's the cheaper of the two models.

It's designed to connect and empower a range of household audio devices such as turntables, speakers, and TVs, with an in-built calibration microphone which can analyze your room to best optimize its acoustic output.

The WXC-70A is controlled via the MusicCast app, which lets you manage your sources and outputs, and play music from various services. It also supports Spotify Connect, Tidal Connect, AirPlay and it's Roon Ready. It can also be tied into your smart home gadgets.

A big draw to the device is its range of connections. Input-wise, it takes RCA, optical, HDMI (including eARC), USB-A, ethernet and Bluetooth (but only SBC/AAC), and its outputs include various RCA, optical, coax, a Sub Out port, and of course Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.

Getting amped up

(Image credit: Yamaha)

The WXA-70A offers a little more, and costs more too at £1,199 (about $1, 630, AU$2,400). It measures the same size as the WXC-70A, at 22 x 26.7 x 7.3cm, but its 2.6kg weight (compared to the C's 1.9kg) shows there's more going under the hood.

Many of the features here are the same. It has the same calibration microphone, the same dials, the same MusicCast and smart home connections. It has the same inputs and largely the same outputs. You're paying more for its amplification skills.

The WXA-70A can output at 70W two-channel at 8 ohms, or 105W two-channel at 4 ohms, so it can pair nicely with bookshelf speakers or floorstanders. Basically, it's a powerful just-add-speakers small streaming hi-fi brain.

If you want something with even fewer boxes, Yamaha recently unveiled its latest streaming stereo speakers, which have all the connections built right in.

Of the expected $2.5 trillion that corporates are due to spend on AI this year, over $1 trillion is set to be allocated to IT services and dedicated software. That is a huge chunk of change for a technology that many are still grappling with and trying to understand how it fits with their business, team, and procedures.

A few years since the ChatGPT-enabled revolution started, we’re beginning to see the different approaches and challenges businesses are facing when implementing AI.

Ford's recent decision to bring back experienced engineers after AI systems failed to catch manufacturing issues offers an important lesson for every business investing in AI. At the same time, new research from Ramp and Revelio Labs, covering almost 22,000 US companies, found that organizations investing most heavily in AI are actually hiring more people, not fewer.

Together, these stories tell us something important. Everyone assumed AI would reduce reliance on people, but instead we’re seeing companies discover how dependent AI is on experienced people. AI may be changing how work gets done, but this alone isn't enough for growth and success.

AI is accelerating work, but experience still matters

Earlier this year, Ford re-hired 350 veteran engineers after AI and automated systems failed to deliver quality work, demonstrating that employees are critical to a successful AI rollout.

It’s also interesting to see this reflected in Ramp and Revelio Labs’ research that organizations investing in AI are hiring more people. Instead of neglecting hiring and skills development, companies increasingly need the right team members to help refine and improve sophisticated AI so that it performs better in the areas they need.

Success with AI still depends on understanding the skills people need to perform, at an individual, team and organizational level, then investing in development that reflects the realities of their work. But before organizations can build those skills, they need to know where expertise already exists. Too many businesses are sitting on critical knowledge without any clear view of who has it or where the gaps are.

One way to achieve this is building a skills ontology, a living record of the skills that exist across the organization.

Rather than relying on assumptions, businesses can identify where they overindex or underindex on capabilities, understand which teams have specialist knowledge and spot gaps before they become business problems. It also creates the foundation for workforce planning, internal mobility and more effective AI deployment.

The most valuable skills inside your organization

Now you have an effective skills ontology, you have an overview of what is going on in your organization. This helps you identify the subject matter experts (SMEs) that exist across a business, but whose knowledge has often never been formally captured - such as that mythical AI ‘power user’. Take Ford, which has said it is using its rehired employees specifically to train younger staff and reprogram AI tools.

Once you’ve identified where expertise exists, AI can help maintain that picture and keep it up to date as roles evolve. But understanding where the expertise exists is only the beginning.

Organizations need to validate that expertise, connecting people to targeted development opportunities and making it easier for SMEs to share what they know with others. Importantly, this learning should be embedded in work as much as possible rather than separated from it, so it improves performance where it matters most.

AI makes knowledge easier to organize and distribute, but it doesn’t create the judgement that comes from experience. It can surface patterns and recommend learning pathways, but it can’t explain why a process works, when to challenge it, or how to adapt it to the realities of your organization.

That’s why experienced team members remain essential. They contribute the context that enables AI, and everyone else, to use that knowledge effectively.

Turn expertise into a competitive advantage

At a time when many in areas like HR and Learning and Development (L&D) felt that AI would diminish their role, it's clear that this expertise is only becoming more valuable.

L&D teams have the opportunity to operate more strategically by owning the upskilling and reskilling agenda, turning their and team members’ expertise across the business into a competitive advantage, and putting the processes in place to create agile workforces that collaborate effectively with AI.

AI has put organizational expertise firmly in the spotlight, whilst also highlighting that too many businesses are sitting on a wealth of knowledge that exists only in the heads of experienced employees. Not only do they know and understand more about a business and its processes, but they can also provide judgement - a scarce resource that AI cannot replicate.

Getting this information out and deploying it across the business will create a workforce that becomes smarter every time someone learns, rather than losing knowledge when someone leaves, leading to fewer repeated mistakes, better quality and stronger internal mobility.

To get the greatest return from their employees and from AI, the top organizations need to ensure they are investing in identifying, sharing and scaling the expertise they already have instead of simply buying more software.

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Pour well-textured microfoam into espresso, guaranteed.

I compared the best sales analytics software for revenue teams, including ZoomInfo, Salesforce, Clari, Gong, and HubSpot CRM. See which platforms are best for account intelligence, forecasting, CRM reporting, deal analysis, and cross-system analytics.

The post Best Sales Analytics Software for Revenue Teams appeared first on TechRepublic.

Artificial intelligence may dominate today's headlines, but the most productive conversations I'm having across the technology ecosystem rarely begin or end with AI.

More often than not, they start with a business challenge.

Business challenges are driving the AI conversation

How do we modernize our infrastructure without increasing complexity? How do we strengthen our security posture while enabling innovation? How do we prepare our organization for AI without rebuilding everything from the ground up?

Those questions quickly lead to a realization: today's technology decisions are interconnected.

An AI initiative depends on cloud readiness. Cloud strategy influences cybersecurity. Identity, governance and data management underpin all of it. On paper, they look like separate line items. In practice, they're one system. If you pull on cloud, security moves with it; if you pull on AI, data and governance move too.

That's a significant shift, not only for organizations investing in technology, but for the partners helping them navigate it. Organizations are moving beyond asking whether AI matters. They're focused on how to implement it successfully.

That shift is happening across the industry.

Our fourth annual Direction of Technology Report, which surveyed more than 1,400 IT solution providers across 40 countries, found that nearly 75% of partners say AI is essential to their future. Yet the same research shows the conversation has become much broader than AI itself. Partners increasingly see services, specialization, cybersecurity and automation as the capabilities that will differentiate them in the years ahead.

To me, that's one of the most important signals in today's market, because the conversation isn't simply about adopting the next technology. It's about building an environment where technologies work together to solve real business challenges.

From experimentation to implementation

AI adoption is accelerating, but organizations quickly realize that successful AI initiatives depend on much more than selecting the right model or platform. They depend on secure infrastructure, trusted data, governance, integration and the expertise to bring those pieces together.

The market data tells a similar story.

Global AI spending is projected to exceed $2 trillion in 2026. Global Public Cloud spending is expected to surpass $1 trillion, while cybersecurity spending is projected to continue its rapid growth. These markets aren't growing in isolation but expanding together because organizations recognize that one investment reinforces the others.

That's why I believe the conversation is maturing.

The question is no longer, "Where do we start with AI?"

It's, "How do we build the right foundation to make AI successful?"

That requires a different approach from everyone in the technology ecosystem.

Customers aren't asking for another AI demonstration, but they’re asking questions like:

• How does AI fit into the technology investments we've already made?
• How will it integrate with our existing cloud environment?
• What does it mean for our security posture and governance?
• How can it improve productivity without creating unnecessary complexity?

Those are implementation questions, and I believe they'll define the next phase of AI adoption.

Technology will keep evolving, and AI will evolve fastest of all. What gives me confidence is not the pace of that innovation but the way the industry is organizing itself around the harder work of implementation.

No single vendor, provider or advisor holds every answer. Environments have become too interconnected for that, and the organizations making genuine progress are the ones drawing on combined expertise, weighing infrastructure, security, data and services together rather than in sequence.

The definition of success is changing with it. What matters is no longer how many technologies an organization can reach, but how well those technologies operate as one system in service of a business outcome. That, far more than any single breakthrough, will determine who ultimately gets value from AI tools.

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• Logitech Spot has spent the past 18 months measuring office environment comfort
• Now, it can work with 10 new partners to actively suggest changes
• Its API works with other data, like office floor plans

In 2025, Logitech announced a series of smart sensors designed to monitor the office environment in order to optimize worker productivity and comfort - and now, it has unveiled plans to expand its Spot sensors even further.

Spot has 10 new software and platform integrations, with partners spanning Robin and Zoom.

Ultimately, it means that Spot goes from beyond just displaying metrics in a dashboard, and will now act as a central brain that feeds data into existing workplace management platforms.

Logitech Spot is getting smarter with new integrations

Presence and occupancy, temperature, humidity, CO2 levels, VOCs, PM and barometric pressure are all metrics that Spot analyzes, with Logitech noting the aim is to provide a detailed look at how rooms are being used and what their environmental conditions are like.

With the company's CollabOS and Sync Cloud APIs, third parties can now integrate the smart data directly into the own platforms to adjust how rooms are allocated, check for unused meeting rooms, automatically check guests in, forecast demand and reveal environmental/comfort issues automatically.

Spot's data can also be used in conjunction with third-party software vendors' own data, like office floor plans and historical usage patterns, turning Spot into an accessory that offices should be able to just forget about, without having to interpret the data manually.

"Facilities and IT teams no longer have to guess where to cut costs or invest," Team Workspace Solutions GM Henry Levak said. "By connecting with the tools our customers already use daily, building healthier, automated, and far more efficient workplaces is easier than ever.”

Spot itself is available for $499, but it's also built into some other hardware and requires an active subscription to unlock its full connectivity powers.

Google adds pay-as-you-go pricing, spending caps and savings plans to help businesses manage Gemini Enterprise agent costs and unpredictable usage.

The post Google Adds Pay-As-You-Go Gemini Enterprise appeared first on TechRepublic.

OpenAI says its Jalapeño chip delivered up to 1.9 times more performance per watt than Nvidia Blackwell systems in its first published benchmark tests.

The post OpenAI’s Jalapeño Benchmark Promises Faster, Cheaper AI appeared first on TechRepublic.

• Nvidia is reportedly preparing to acquire Hugging Face for $12.9bn
• A 2023 investment round valued the company at $4.5bn
• Nvidia is on a roll of investing heavily in other companies

Nvidia has reportedly spent the past couple of weeks actively engaging with Hugging Face to explore an acquisition deal worth an estimated $12.9 billion, according to Business Insider reporting, citing an unnamed source familiar with the matter.

To date, the companies are yet to reach an agreement, but with the current valuation speculations, it would make a Hugging Face acquisition one of Nvidia's largest acquisitions to date.

Importantly, this wouldn't be the chipmaker's first run-in with Hugging Face – it took part in a $235 million funding round in 2023. At that time, Hugging Face's valuation was around $4.5 billion - making today's valuation nearly three times higher.

Nvidia and Hugging Face

While this may be one of Nvidia's biggest acquisitions to date, it's just one of a growing number, as the company recently admitted it had $18 billion committed to equity investments for the rest of the financial year, and it already holds $47.9 billion in private company stock.

However, there's still a shadow over the potential Nvidia acquisition, with Hugging Face previously turning down a $500 million Nvidia investment over concerns that a single shareholder could have such a big influence.

The high valuation also makes the prospective acquisition a costly one – at around 86x Hugging Face's annualized revenue ($150 million), Nvidia would be paying a premium for the platform's strategic position and existing relationships, against a backdrop of ongoing investments in models and development tools.

Regulator scrutiny might also question whether competing chipmakers and cloud service providers could be put at a disadvantage, particularly if Nvidia imposes hardware and software restrictions on the platform after a takeover.

Neither Nvidia nor Hugging Face responded to requests for comment.

• Salesforce and Anthropic reveal Claudeforce
• Greater expansion of Claude into Salesforce's services, including a new plugin offering 37 pre-built sales skills
• Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff says "Saaspocalypse" is "such nonsense"

Salesforce has extended its partnership with Anthropic to build Claude directly into the former's services.

Claudeforce will give Claude direct access into customer data and other information stored in Salesforce, allowing the AI to carry out everyday tasks and access information much easier than before.

This includes the launch of Salesforce in Claude, a new plugin offering 37 pre-built sales skills giving sellers and agents the ability to reason over live revenue context, automate pipeline updates, and take governed action right from Claude.

Claudeforce

In a blog post announcing the news, the company claimed that Claudeforce, "brings together the best of both worlds — Claude brings intelligence and judgment, reasoning, adapting, and deciding in real time. Salesforce provides the data, rules, and trusted workflows that turn that judgment into enterprise-ready action."

Along with the new plugin, Claude will also now be available in Agentforce, acting as a reasoning model for the Atlas Reasoning Engine, as well as powering Agentforce Vibes and Agentforce Coworker by default, and available in Agent Builder.

Claude will also become the "default model" for Slack, Salesforce noted, serving as "the intelligent backbone across every layer of the Slack experience".

“We believe frontier intelligence should be safe, trusted, and deeply capable, which is why the world’s leading businesses turn to Claude for their most important work," noted Dario Amodei, CEO & Co-Founder, Anthropic.

"Salesforce in Claude brings this same frontier intelligence into the systems where much of the world’s commercial activity happens. Through this partnership, companies can point Claude at the customer information and business context that they’ve been building in Salesforce for decades, and use it to actually run and grow their businesses.”

(Image credit: Salesforce)

The launch comes as Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff has once again pushed back against fears of a so-called “SaaSpocalypse” brought on by increased AI innovation.

“This SaaSpocalypse narrative has been such nonsense,” Benioff told CNBC. “Frontier models depend on CRM. They don’t replace it.”

Benioff noted that the company's latest financial results suggest AI is having a significant effect on its customer base, with nine of the 10 leading artificial intelligence companies using Salesforce and Slack, and spending on the platforms surging 435% from a year ago.

The CEO pointed to Claudeforce as a clear signal of Salesforce being a strong foundation for AI agents, noting models such as Claude rely on the customer data, business context and workflows housed on Salesforce’s platform.

“Salesforce is first and foremost in the data business,” the CEO said. “These AI models need this level of intelligence, security and controls for users.”

When was the last time you reviewed your cyber security standards? Let’s be clear: keeping a company secure is a constant task.

Cyber breaches are on the rise; according to the latest UK Government Cyber Security Breaches Survey, 4 in 10 businesses were compromised in the last 12 months. It’s important to remember businesses of all types and sizes are at risk – where there are gaps in security, attackers will take advantage.

Against this backdrop, plus high-profile cyber-attacks on companies including M&S and JLR, the government has reviewed its Cyber Essentials framework.

Its latest overhaul is raising the bar for organizations of all sizes.

Designed to provide the basic controls to protect businesses and their staff, if taken seriously, Cyber Essentials can make all the difference. Yet many businesses are still struggling to meet even baseline security standards.

Common issues such as a lack of budget, limited resources and a focus on other priorities are all factors holding organizations back – and they all make a major IT breach more likely.

Historically treated as a once-a-year compliance exercise, the latest ‘Denzel’ Cyber Essentials framework signals a clear and overdue shift towards implementing continuous cyber resilience. This means tougher standards which could catch businesses out.

Here are the key changes and how to approach them, to reduce the risk of a breach.

Implement a robust patching regime

Under the new framework, expectations have been tightened around patch management – the process of fixing a security risk or software error by installing updates – and vulnerability management.

Previously businesses could demonstrate compliance with patching requirements though documented processes and periodic updates.

In reality, teams find it hard to build in regular patching routines which work without affecting live services, due to downtime and continual testing. And that’s without taking into consideration all the third-party patches that need to be applied, as well as the critical operating system ones.

There is evidence that not addressing application issues and vulnerabilities is leading to more breaches. The 2026 Verzion Data Breach Investigations Report shows system compromise is now up to 61%, the highest it’s been over the last three years.

Timelines for applying critical patches have been made stricter, with a 14-day window to comply. Critical patches must be deployed consistently within this period, and businesses must be able to evidence their patching regime is working.

Companies will be afforded two chances to prove patches have been successfully deployed using a process called “double sampling”. If the first round of evidence has critical issues identified, a second chance will be given to fix it and prove it has worked – if it hasn’t, businesses will fail their certification.

IT teams should review systems now to determine if everything is being patched within the 14-day window. If not, they will need to work closely with operational teams to build up to the requirements in time for the next assessment.

Deploy Multi Factor Authentication (MFA) across the board

MFA remains one of the most effective controls against account compromise. The issue for many organizations is not a lack of MFA capability, but inconsistent deployment.

Businesses are likely to have MFA enabled for remote access such as Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) and Microsoft 365 services – but admin interfaces, cloud platforms and third-party services often do not follow the same practice, leaving companies exposed. Threat actors know this and use these weaknesses to try to gain access.

Under the new framework, if you have a cloud system which supports MFA then it must be enabled for all users, irrespective of whether it’s a free, included or paid-for option. Without MFA enabled, it’s an automatic certification failure.

This begs the question: do you know if MFA is enabled on all your cloud services? If not, how long will it take to turn this around?

Cloud services must be accounted for

Under previous versions of the framework, cloud services could be excluded from the assessment as it was argued they sat outside of the scope. This argument is no longer viable. Organizations need to provide a clear, well-defined document with evidence to support proper segregation of all IT Systems, otherwise they will automatically be viewed as within scope.

This means businesses must account for all services, regardless of where they are hosted. Given the flexibility of cloud solutions, this can quickly become a complex issue to gain appropriate visibility of all systems. If you are processing or storing data in a cloud service, this will be included. Typically, these are CRM platforms, HR software and financial systems, project management solutions, plus many more.

As it can take time to discover what’s in use and in scope, this is another area where organizations need to leave plenty of time to ensure all cloud services are covered.

Replace legacy hardware and update operating systems

A major change, and possibly the greatest headache, is the requirement to replace ageing hardware and software.

Recent retirement of the Windows 10 operating system is one area where businesses are under pressure to replace all their hardware to remain compliant. It doesn’t stop there – ageing IT infrastructure, along with major vendor services and solutions, all need to be replaced at some point. If organizations don’t plan ahead, they could be left with a mounting problem and not enough time to deal with it.

Once a vendor stops supporting a platform, the risk of a breach increases until this is addressed. Security patches will no longer be made available and given the time these systems have been out in the wild, it’s only a matter of time before another vulnerability is discovered and exploited.

In the short term, businesses should ensure they have a clear view of their assets in scope of Cyber Essentials and check vendor support dates (and when these run out) to avoid any hidden surprises at the last minute. In the long-term, a robust strategy for replacing all hardware as it is approaching end of life will save difficulty further down the line.

Don’t delay on a gap analysis

Core areas in the Cyber Essentials framework have been updated to reflect the fast-changing security landscape. It’s not all bad news, as businesses have time to turn things around. Organisations should read carefully through the new standards and consider how they apply to their own company.

Do not treat Cyber Essentials as a tick-box exercise and wait until a month before your next assessment. Do a gap analysis now and deal with the findings.

At the end of the day, it is absolutely worth the effort.

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Compare five top-rated Wave Accounting alternatives for 2026, including QuickBooks, Zoho Books, Xero, Sage 50, and FreshBooks, to find the right fit.

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• Whoop launches Meridian, its jewelry-inspired fitness tracker
• It's essentially a Whoop 5.0 with Milanese metal mesh and premium metallic finishes
• It 'keeps the same sensor array and tracking accuracy as the standard band'

If there's one thing Whoop hates, it's people taking their fitness trackers off. After all, you're losing valuable data.

That's why the Whoop MG comes with a charging puck that clips directly onto the wearable as you wear it, and it's why you get push notifications from the Whoop app whenever you remove the tracker, telling you it's 'off body'. But there are occasions when a fabric Whoop band would be inappropriate to wear — a wedding, perhaps, or a fancy dinner.

Enter Whoop Meridian: a sleek metallic fitness tracker with a Milanese mesh band and tapered silhouette, designed to look more like jewelry than gym.

According to Whoop, 'Meridian is designed to solve one of the biggest gaps in health wearables: the fact that most people take theirs off exactly when continuous tracking matters (sleep quality outside routine, recovery on off days, stress during social events).'

(Image credit: Whoop)

It offers the same sensors and tracking accuracy as a standard Whoop 5.0, and can be purchased as an additional accessory rather than a complete Whoop, if you so choose. In theory, Whoop members can swap their standard tracker for their Meridian band when needed and continue seamlessly tracking from day to night.

It's available in four colors: Gold, Rose Gold, Alloy (a generic metallic finish), and Black. It's priced at $149 / £119 / AU$219, and is available from today (Thursday 27 August).

Wearables have tried to capture the jewelry aesthetic before, to varying degrees of success: notably the Fitbit Luxe and Apple with the Hermes editions of its best Apple Watches.

However, I quite like the look of these Whoop bands: some shades like Rose Gold and Gold simply look like bracelets, while the darker, more robust colors almost feel like watch straps. If you can't stand to lose hours of valuable data, this could be a stylish solution.

I’ve been reviewing ereaders and epaper writing tablets for nearly a decade now and, in that time, I don’t think I’ve been more excited about an E Ink device as much as Amazon’s Kindle Scribe Colorsoft.

When it was announced in October 2025, I was keen to see how well Amazon had implemented the E Ink Kaleido 3 screen technology on the 11-inch note taker, especially since I found the 7-inch Kindle Colorsoft ereader to be one of the better-optimized displays in this category of tablets.

I had to wait over six months after it was initially available to buy in the US — living in Australia meant I could finally lay my hands on it in June this year — but I happened to try the 3rd-generation Kindle Scribe with frontlight first. Following that up with the Colorsoft version was probably a bad idea because I think the 2025 Kindle Scribe is arguably the best Kindle Amazon has made to date: it’s fast, the implementation of the monochrome E Ink Carta 1300 screen is fantastic and the battery life remains just as impressive as on any other Kindle.

The Kindle Scribe Colorsoft, in comparison, lacks luster. For the most part, it’s not really Amazon’s fault that its monochrome sibling outshines it — it’s the limitations of color E Ink display tech after all — but the one thing that really stands out to me is very much under Amazon's control.

Why so blue, Amazon?

I love the new wallpaper artwork on the 2025 release of the Scribes. They're beautiful, different and, after seeing them first on the 3rd-generation Kindle Scribe in black and white, I was keen to appreciate them in color.

All the lockscreen artwork looks blue on the Kindle Scribe Colorsoft (Image credit: TechRadar / Sharmishta Sarkar)

Strangely, the dominant color you see on the lockscreen artwork on the Kindle Scribe Colorsoft is blue. From the start screen, showing the silhouette of the boy reading under the tree, to the red-and-white balloon hovering over a lake and forest, every default artwork just looks… blue.

Now, I know some of this is due to the screen itself — the color filter array (CFA) layered over the screen tends to shift hues towards a grey-blue. But if Boox can ensure the other colors pop in the default wallpapers on its large-screen color devices, so can Amazon.

The wallpaper on the Kindle Scribe Colorsoft (left) looks duller compared to the Boox Note Air5 C (right) (Image credit: TechRadar / Sharmishta Sarkar)

I thought I’d get used to it but, two months on, and I’m left feeling… well, blue every time I wake up the Kindle Scribe Colorsoft. I don’t typically like displaying book covers on the lockscreen, but that’s what I’ve reverted to recently just to avoid the dominance of that one color.

It’s there in black and white

OK, I’ll admit that I sound like I’m nitpicking with the wallpapers, but it highlights one big issue with color E Ink displays — they’re darker than the monochrome E Ink Carta screens and, unless you bump up frontlight brightness, the colors don’t really pop. You can see that with not just the wallpapers, but with book covers and comics too on the Kindle Scribe Colorsoft.

This is because of the RGB layer integrated into the display and it affects every single color ereader and digital notebook, not just the Colorsofts. That means the ‘white’ background isn’t as white as it would be on a similar device using the E Ink Carta 1300 screen (like the 2nd and 3rd generation Kindle Scribes) which, in turn, makes colors look dull.

With excellent contrast and fast performance, the 3rd generation Kindle Scribe is the better Amazon digital notebook (Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar)

But increasing frontlight brightness to enjoy those colors means you’re draining battery life quicker. In the two months I’ve been using the Kindle Scribe Colorsoft, I’ve had to charge it every 2 to 3 days with an average use of 5 hours a day — mostly reading, but some writing too, and browsing the Kindle Store — with auto-brightness settings and Wi-Fi on. In comparison, the 2025 Kindle Scribe lasted me about 5 days on a single charge with the same settings and similar use case.

Annoyingly, the Colorsoft edition takes much longer than the standard Scribe to recharge as well.

Color isn’t always necessary

If color reading really is important to you, you’re better off with an iPad or a Samsung tablet to be honest — color E Ink just isn’t there yet. Moreover, most of us who use an ereader don’t necessarily even need color; we tend to mostly read text-heavy books and note-taking also, similarly, is mostly black ink.

On the Kindle Colorsoft Scribe, the color ink isn’t even as dark as I’ve seen on the Boox Note Air 5C, so it really doesn’t offer as much value for your hard-earned cash compared to some of its competition.

In comparison, its monochrome sibling is the overall better performer — as I’ve said in my Kindle Scribe (2025) review, it’s arguably the best digital notebook Amazon has made to date and, if it wasn’t so expensive, it would have scored full marks.

You'll be better served opting for a monochrome digital writing tablet, or even the Boox Note Air 5C if you want color (Image credit: TechRadar)

If you want a note-taking Kindle, I would still recommend the 2024 release of the Kindle Scribe — you might as well pick it up as long as it's still available. I suspect Amazon will discontinue it soon, but it’s a heck of a lot cheaper even at full price, is often discounted even outside of major sales and, according to Good Ereader, it will get the new software features that released with the current Scribe models, including Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive connectivity, AI search and the refreshed homescreen layout.

If you’re willing to explore other E Ink writing tablets, I’d suggest looking into the reMarkable Paper Pure or even the Boox Go 10.3 series if you prefer an Android device that will also double as an ereader. A word of caution on the Boox devices, though: you'll need to deal with some ghosting.

• United’s new Airbus A321XLR begins service soon, and it’s packed with tech
• It’ll mostly serve international, transatlantic routes with free Starlink-powered Wi-Fi
• The big surprise? Two Economy Plus rows with no middle seats

Just a few months back, I got to go inside United’s next-generation Boeing 787 Dreamliner, complete with a high-tech new interior, spacious seats, and some notable upgrades for Economy.

The 787 is a wide-body aircraft built for United’s biggest and longest routes, and now, the airline is bringing that same design philosophy to a much smaller plane and experimenting with something I’ve never seen on a United aircraft before: an Economy Plus row with no middle seat.

I’ve been inside United’s brand-new Airbus A321XLR, a single-aisle aircraft that’s designed to bridge the gap between narrowbody efficiency and widebody distance capabilities, and it’s a pretty fascinating look at where the airline’s cabins are headed.

There’s a new Polaris business-class seat with closing doors, a spacious Premium Plus cabin, 4K OLED screens at every seat, Starlink Wi-Fi from day one, and, yes, those two-seat Economy Plus rows, designed to give you a little more space without the dreaded middle seat.

And after spending time in all four cabins, I think United might be onto something.

Let’s start with the new Polaris business-class product. The A321XLR is a single-body aircraft with 20 Polaris seats, complete with closing doors on either the left or right side of the aircraft. They are pretty spacious, though a bit smaller than the Polaris seats on the 787 Dreamliner. Still, you get an ample seat with an electronic touchscreen control to let it lay flat, kick out the leg rest, or adjust many facets of the experience.

(Image credit: Future/Jacob Krol)

There are plenty of power ports, including two USB-C ports that top out at 60 watts, a standard wall plug, and a wireless charger. At the center of the experience is a 19-inch 4K OLED screen that’s touch-enabled and, with a button press, slightly pushes out from its base and lets you pull it forward for the perfect view. You’ll also find plenty of storage and a sizable tray table that I wish was a bit larger — still, it should fit a 14-inch laptop very comfortably.

(Image credit: Future/Jacob Krol)

That’s the most premium experience on board the A321XLR. The middle option of United’s three class offerings is Premium Plus, which features a very spacious recliner that rivals those in domestic first class on smaller single-body aircraft.

(Image credit: Future/Jacob Krol)

It boasts a 16-inch 4K OLED screen that can tilt and matches the size of the screen on the original Polaris product still in use on some aircraft. You’ll even find a wireless charger tucked under the armrest — a unique spot, but helpful. There’s also a standard wall plug for each seat — remember, Premium Plus is a 2x2 configuration — and a USB-C port tucked at the bottom of the OLED screen.

The tray table is pretty close to the size of what’s in Polaris and can be a good mini-desk for working in the sky, or, let’s be honest, enjoying whatever meal United is serving.

Finally, we move into Economy, which has a total of 118 seats split into 84 standard Economy and 34 Economy Plus extra-legroom options, including two with the middle seat removed.

(Image credit: Future/Jacob Krol)

With any of these seats, you get a punchy, vibrant 13-inch 4K OLED that’s touch-enabled; across the board, United is knocking it out of the park with the displays here. An intuitive interface offers plenty to watch, including Apple TV in the sky, plus access to music and podcasts from Spotify. A crisp, vibrant screen in each seatback will certainly elevate the experience everywhere.

United began the process of reintroducing screens on aircraft without them, and making them a key part of the ‘United Next’ cabin, back in 2021, and now the airline has close to 800 aircraft with screens in every seat, and should have a quarter of a million seat-back screens across its fleet by the end of next year.

Peter Wolkowski, United’s Head of Product Marketing, told me, “In our post-flight survey data, we just see kind of huge increases in satisfaction across the board when customers fly on an aircraft with screens versus one without.”

There’s a standard headphone jack and USB-C port built into every Economy and Economy Plus seat, meaning that every seat, even in Economy, gets at least one power source — that’s excellent. You also get two standard wall plugs per row, but those are shared.

Economy Plus with open middle seats is where the experimentation comes into play — it was my first time seeing these, and especially for a transatlantic flight, which are the routes the A321XLR will primarily be flying, if the price is right, it could really be worth the upgrade.

The main appeal is no one next to you in the middle, and for couples flying, this is pretty nice. You get plenty of elbow room, and the middle seat essentially has a metal table bolted across it, with two indents for cupholders and a padded rear.

I’m very curious to see pricing for these, and how much of a premium they command over standard Economy Plus.

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United is starting with only two of these rows on the aircraft, but if they prove popular, I wouldn’t be surprised if the airline expands this offering. Peter Wolkowski, United’s Head of Product Marketing, told me, “There’s a lot to love about this aircraft, but just having the ability to kind of test new concepts is really exciting.”

“We’re really eager to see how customers respond to [the open middle seat option], and if it is something that kind of performs well and customers love it, we’re going to look at more ways of doing that type of thing on other aircraft.”

I hope we continue to see this kind of experimentation with new seat types, and at affordable price points, rather than airlines just prioritizing the top end.

Rounding out the United A321XLR offering is 'Starlink from the start', meaning the plane is equipped with the right antennas and routers, as well as the proper certification, to offer Starlink Wi-Fi from its very first flights.

This means that any MileagePlus members can get free, fast Wi-Fi for as many devices as they bring, and in my testing, both on media flights and regular ones, it really improves the overall flying experience. No longer is there a concern about not being able to connect, whether that’s when you’re sending a text to a loved one or friend, or something else that requires a connection.

The A321XLR also features mood lighting, which United can split up by cabin — i.e., Polaris, Premium Plus, or Economy — to help set the mood for different parts of the flight, but also to potentially help combat jet lag.

So when does the A321XLR begin flying, and where is it headed?

Alongside the launch event at a hangar at Newark Liberty International Airport, United also announced new routes, and the A321XLR is a key part of them.

Starting September 1, 2026, the A321XLR begins with domestic flights, but later this year, the aircraft formally kicks off its international routes. In total, United announced 10 entirely new international destinations and 13 new routes for 2027.

The new routes are San Francisco to Okinawa, Japan; Washington Dulles to Toulouse, France; and several for Newark. The latter includes Newark to Luxembourg City; Marseille, France; Ibiza, Spain; Valencia, Spain; Terceira, Portugal; Ljubljana, Slovenia; Olbia (Sardinia), Italy; and Catania (Sicily), Italy.

If you like the idea of a flight on the Airbus A321XLR, it’ll be headed to Luxembourg from Newark, Washington, DC; to Toulouse from Newark; to Ibiza from Newark; to Valencia from Newark; and to Marseille from Newark.