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The carrier's prepaid offerings get the same price locks as its premium monthly plans.

• Mailchimp’s subtle updates are stacking up to challenge what we expect from SMB software
• Integrations with TikTok, Meta, and Google are finally making Mailchimp marketing feel connected
• Metrics Visualizer offers 40+ variables, but feels like overdue functionality rather than innovation

Mailchimp’s continued transformation from a straightforward email marketing service into a broader business platform seems less like a pivot and more like a quiet evolution.

Over the past year, the company has introduced more than 2,000 updates, most of them small but collectively significant.

These updates aim to simplify customer engagement and automate key marketing workflows, quietly nudging Mailchimp toward becoming a top CRM offering - at least in ambition, if not yet in capability.

Mailchimp expands beyond email marketing

At its recent FWD: London 2025 event, Mailchimp announced a wave of new features aimed at helping small and mid-sized businesses get more from their customer data.

These include direct lead integrations with platforms like Meta, TikTok, LinkedIn, Google, and Snapchat.

Marketers can now bring in social campaign leads more efficiently and feed them into Mailchimp’s upgraded automation flows for hyper-personalized messaging.

This, paired with over 100 new pop-up templates, seems like a step toward making Mailchimp feel less like a glorified newsletter tool and more like a proper pipeline manager.

“Mailchimp is evolving into the essential bridge between advertising and customer relationships for businesses, seamlessly connecting ad campaigns to powerful marketing automation that nurtures leads and drives sales,” said Ken Chestnut, Director of Global Partner Ecosystem, Intuit.

“We're closing the loop between advertising, marketing automation, and powerful customer insights, giving businesses the tools to engage at the right time and place of the customer journey, from attracting new leads and nurturing relationships to driving conversions and building lasting loyalty.”

Still, it’s hard to ignore that these features look like a patchwork of add-ons rather than a coherent CRM suite, at least for now.

Freya Doggett from Serpentine Galleries acknowledged the improvements but also hinted at the ongoing complexity many users still face.

“It feels like we're not having to do as much digging or joining the dots as much, which is really nice…Mailchimp really simplifies things that are complicated by nature.” It's a compliment, but a cautious one.

The new Metrics Visualizer introduces over 40 reporting variables across email and SMS channels.

Marketers can now assemble custom reports with much greater clarity, a welcome step for anyone still juggling data from multiple platforms.

If Mailchimp hopes to contend with true CRM systems or even compete with the best email marketing service options out there, this kind of cross-channel insight will be essential.

What’s still ahead might be more telling than what’s here now. Mailchimp is pushing toward becoming an all-in-one growth platform, but it's not quite the best website builder, nor a fully mature CRM system, just yet.

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Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, No. 269, for June 19.

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The current Federal Communications Commission has threatened to revoke licenses for broadcasters over their political coverage.

• Over half of tech workers secretly stay late to learn what they pretended to know, survey finds
• YouTube has become the go-to fix for real-time workplace panic and skill gaps
• Fake it in meetings, Google it later - this is the reality for modern tech workers

In the fast-paced environment of today’s tech-driven workplace, employees are feeling increasing pressure to keep up with constantly evolving tools and jargon.

An Adobe Acrobat survey of 1,000 full-time employees found nearly three quarter (71%) of those in tech roles say they use YouTube as a learning resource.

This means they are 35% more likely to use it over conventional online learning platforms - and honestly, I’m not surprised, as I do the same thing.

Just-in-time learning over formal training

The preference for YouTube isn’t just about convenience, it speaks to how learning itself is shifting.

Short, targeted tutorials often win out over structured syllabi when deadlines loom and productivity expectations run high.

When I need to quickly figure out how to format a spreadsheet, compress a PDF, or understand some unfamiliar acronym tossed around in a meeting, I don’t log into a formal course - I head straight to YouTube.

The videos are not only short, they are also illustrative, and you can also watch them at double speed, compressing the time you spend by half.

Unlike structured courses that require commitment and patience, YouTube offers just-in-time solutions, exactly what is needed when a deadline is looming.

That’s why I completely understand why many tech workers would quietly turn to a quick video rather than admit they’re in over their heads.

Adobe’s report claims over half of the surveyed tech employees have stayed late to learn skills they pretended to know during work hours, and nearly half admitted to nodding along in meetings without truly understanding the content.

These coping strategies suggest an environment where appearing tech-savvy carries more weight than actual proficiency. YouTube doesn’t solve the underlying skills gap, but it often softens the impact by offering practical help when it’s needed most.

For non-tech professionals, they are 123% more likely to struggle with cloud-based tools, and 156% more likely to lack competence in AI.

In education, almost half of professionals reportedly cannot merge PDFs, a basic function needed to manage instructional materials.

This misalignment between perception and reality reveals the urgent need for learning tools that meet workers where they are.

YouTube, for all its flaws, does just that. It’s fast, specific, and informal enough to make upskilling less intimidating.

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Search Live is here for Google's mobile users, and it finally lets you talk back to the search engine as you ask it questions.

Developers and beta testers can download the sparse, first public beta of iOS 18.6 now.

• Nintendo Switch 2 users are reporting console online bans due to the use of the Mig Flash tool
• The tool allows players to back up legally purchased games
• It raises the question of console and game ownership amid the industry's shift away from physical game copies

The build-up to the Nintendo Switch 2's launch was shrouded in controversy, due to the price of the handheld console and its $80 first-party games – and it's now gone a step further in the aftermath of its arrival.

As highlighted by Tom's Hardware, Nintendo Switch 2 users are reporting cases of console online bans due to the use of the Mig Flash, a tool used to allow players to backup legally purchased games, essential for keeping multiple game copies on a single Switch cartridge.

Before launch, Nintendo essentially suggested through the user agreement, it may 'brick' Switch 2 devices that have been modded. The agreement warns users: "Nintendo may render the Nintendo Account Services and/or the applicable Nintendo device permanently unusable in whole or in part". Based on user reports, "in part" appears to be the case, as access to all online services for banned users is no longer accessible.

This means multiplayer and access to the eShop to purchase digital games (both fundamentals to using a Switch 2) are gone, making the console an offline-only brick. It's a very similar measure to Sony exercising account bans to players caught jailbreaking or modding PlayStation systems – the only difference with the Switch 2 is that users state they aren't using pirated ROMs, but rather legal dumps of purchased games.

This further adds to the controversy of gamers losing ownership of games entirely; physical copies of games are slowly fading away, and players can have their games stripped away from them at any moment, even if piracy isn't involved, as Nintendo has just shown.

Analysis: Do you really own your Nintendo Switch 2 at this point?

(Image credit: Blue Pixl Media)

While I've berated Sony and Microsoft about this with their PlayStation and Xbox consoles, respectively, the Nintendo Switch 2 case is absurd to me.

Piracy is real, and I'm aware that Nintendo is trying to stamp it out from its Switch ecosystem, but when measures also affect those using legal game backups, it begs the question: Do you really own your Switch 2 handheld console?

The simple answer is no, because if you've purchased hardware at $449.99 / £395.99 / AU$699.99 or any price for that matter, and you can no longer access online services or be restricted (especially when you've done nothing illegal), then you don't have full ownership.

It's almost the equivalent of buying a gaming PC and using an Asus or MSI motherboard, and having it be bricked because the vendor didn't like what you did with the system. Yes, I know you can have Steam, Epic Games, or Battle.net bans, but the chances of that happening are slim, and you can easily make a new account.

With the Switch 2, the ban message states: "The use of online services on this console is currently restricted by Nintendo", which effectively means even if you create a new account, you still can't use online services on the same device. Not only does that affect owners, but it also ruins the value of reselling. It adds to the collection of Nintendo's anti-consumerism, and I'm expecting it to continue for a long while.

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It's not been a great week for calm beachside bathing: on Monday I was writing about all four Jaws movies coming to a streaming device near you, and now Netflix's new critical hit The Survivors will make you wary of what might wash up.

The six-part series has become one of the best Netflix shows with its 100% critical Rotten Tomatoes score. It's based on the book by Jane Harper and takes us to Evelyn Bay in Tasmania, where the body of a young woman from out of town washes up on the beach. What begins as a tragedy becomes an increasingly dark and complex drama about grief, guilt and resentment.

There aren't many laughs, as you've probably guessed, but according to The Guardian it's worth watching from behind your fingers: "The Survivors is a study in how raw grief and festering resentment warp everything – and how surviving a tragedy rarely means getting away unscathed." The portrayal of three mothers in particular "marks The Survivors indelibly out from the murder mystery herd."

What are critics saying about The Survivors?

Digital Mafia Talkies compared its power to that of Adolescence, the drama focusing on the misogyny that leads to a teen murder. "The Survivors covers a very wide array of topics, ranging from bad parenting to fragile masculinity. It delves into the concept of “nature versus nurture” and tries to answer if we become what our parents want us to be or if it all depends on the genes that we inherit and pass down... The results of these analyses are flawed but pointed enough to start some important conversations."

Screenhub Australia gave the show four out of five stars, partly because the opening episode appears to be going in a different direction from where the series ends up and partly because the reviewer couldn't find any of the characters remotely likeable. The show "does a solid job of setting up an intriguing premise. There’s plenty of suspects, and a few obvious red herrings that’ll no doubt end up having a skeleton or two in the closet. Taken as a pure whodunnit, it ticks all the boxes". Just not the likeable-lead one.

The New York Times (paywall) wasn't gripped immediately either, but became very involved as the episodes progressed. "Though it covers a lot of familiar angles, The Survivors outshines most of its brethren. The relationships here are knotty, the characters multidimensional in intriguing, moving ways. People can be both wonderful and cruel, loving but maybe not loving enough, loyal but also dishonest... The show picks up as it goes, and its plot lines nest like Russian dolls, giving the story a real sense of heft and potency."

The Survivors is streaming now on Netflix.

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Well, we all knew Prime Day was on the horizon, and Amazon has made it official. Prime Day is returning in 2025, kicking off on July 8.

Here’s the kicker, though – Prime Day isn’t just a two-day affair for 2025, it’s going to be a deal behemoth lasting four full days before wrapping at Midnight on July 11. That’s right, Prime Day is on the books for July 8, July 9, July 10, and July 11.

That’s a continued stretch of the word day, but as someone who’s covered more than a couple Prime Days – including for TechRadar among other pubs – it has me excited about the prospect of bargains. Surely, we can expect some deals that will last all four days – or even before and after the members-only shopping holiday is on – but it also might let Amazon usher in some other deal types.

Could it be a growth of Lightning ones or an expansion of invite-only? It could even be brands mixing up how they choose to start sales or when they begin. And for the Nintendo faithful, it could represent the time the console arrives on Amazon.

Either route, I’m assembling my 6 number of tips to make the most of Prime Day 2025 and how to find the biggest bargains.

It’ll be the time to buy Amazon devices

Considering it's Amazon's Prime Day 2025, it’ll be the time to score deep discounts on all sorts of devices made by the company. TechRadar’s US Deals Editor Mackenzie Frazier told me, "The best category during Amazon's Prime Day sale is hands-down its own lineup of smart home devices."

"It's“The retailer consistently offers record-low prices on its best-selling devices, including Fire tablets, Ring Doorbells, Kindle e-readers, and Blink security cameras. It's the best opportunity of the year to grab an Amazon device on sale for its lowest price," explained Frazier.

So if you've been holding out on scoring the new Blink Video Doorbell 2 or have been eyeing a big-screen Echo Show to use when you get off the waitlist for Alexa+ Early Access, waiting a few more weeks until July 8 might be the move.

Furthermore, while Prime Day 2024 didn’t bring many discounts on Kindles, the situation has changed. Not only did Amazon introduce the entry-level Kindle, a Paperwhite refresh, and an all-new Scribe in late 2024, but we've already seen discounts on them, making Prime Day 2025 potentially ripe for further discounts.

Keep an eye on prices now

One of my age-old tips is to ensure that the Prime Day deal is actually a genuine bargain. We’ve seen it time and time again during shopping holidays, but some companies raise their prices right before a sales window to bring the prices down. Meaning that it can show as a certain percentage off, but in all fairness, it’s not really an excellent deal.

So, you can keep tabs on the products you have now – maybe make a bullet list in a notes app or screenshot current listings – and then be ready for some quick math when Prime Day rolls around. You can also set items to your watchlist on Amazon.

We here at TechRadar will highlight deals that are truly deals and make it known, but you can also use a tool like “CamelCamelCamel,” a popular price tracking extension for Google Chrome, that makes it really easy to simply see the price history for a given item on Amazon.

Make a list of items you’re after

While you might encounter a Lightning deal that you just have to add to your cart, it’s best to go into these sorts of shopping events with an idea of what you’re looking for. Perhaps you’re hoping to score an LG OLED TV or a Sony Mini LED model from our list of best TVs, an iPad mini, or any other tech or non-tech device.

Having a list of what you’re looking for, housed on Amazon or elsewhere, can be really helpful and keep you on track to look for those items first, before diving into the numerous pages of deals that Amazon will likely want to showcase.

Expand your shopping beyond just Amazon

While Amazon has formally announced its Prime Day 2025 event, you can bet that other retailers will host Black Friday in July events or even just offer up excellent prices on sought-after products in the lead-up, after, and during the actual event. This means that it will be a great time to compare prices across the places you shop – think Best Buy, Walmart, and Target, among others like B&H Photo, Antonline, and Newegg.

For example, if you’re looking for an M1 MacBook Air, you’ll want to check Walmart. They’ve long been one of the main retailers to offer a bargain, and you get it new, in the box, whereas sometimes the most attractive price on Amazon is for a used or refurbished model.

You’ll likely find that Best Buy will serve up some competing TV deals to rival Amazon as well.

You don’t need to wait for Prime Day

While Prime Day will undoubtedly bring a ton of new deals, you don’t necessarily need to wait to find a deal on what you’re looking for. With a quick peek at Amazon right now, many smart home gadgets by the retailer and from other brands are discounted, as well as home goods, food, TVs, and tablets.

TechRadar highlights deals every day, and using those alongside a price tracker tool is a good way to measure how good an early deal is and if you should add it to your cart.

For instance, if a smart speaker or pair of headphones is already at an all-time low and fairly new, it might be wise to purchase now.

Make sure you have a Prime membership

Amazon Prime: 30-day free trial
If you've never signed up before, you can get a 30-day free trial of Amazon Prime to get access to this year's Prime Day deals. You get the same benefits as paid members, including free delivery and access to other services such as Prime Video, Prime Music, Prime Gaming, and more. You can cancel at any time during the trial to avoid paying the regular fee, which is $14.99 / £8.99 per month.

This one is self-explanatory, but you’ll want to make sure you have an active Prime membership as Amazon bills Prime Day 2025 as a members-only shopping event. You can sign up for a free trial if you aren’t yet a member, but after that, Prime costs $14.99 / £8.99 a month.

Last, but certainly not least, you’ll want to keep an eye on TechRadar as our experts will be hard at work sifting through all of the deals during Prime Day 2025 to find you the best of the best.

And if you’re after some deals now, we’ve already started tracking the best early Prime Day deals to shop right now. You can view the full list here, and I’ve shared my favorites below.

Today's best early Prime Day deals

Get a cheap streaming device with Amazon's standard Fire TV Stick on sale for just $20 at the retailer today. In our Fire TV Stick review, we found that the original version offered a cost-effective way to add essential smart features to your TV, including access to HD streaming apps, Alexa voice controls, and the ability to control other smart home devices.View Deal

The Apple AirTag is Amazon's top-selling tech gadget, and it's on sale for only $24 ahead of Prime Day. If you tend to misplace your keys or wallet or want to track your luggage, just attach the AirTag to anything you don't want to lose, and your iPhone will locate the item.

You can also buy an Apple AirTag four-pack for $74.99View Deal

Amazon isn't done with Apple deals - the retailer has the latest entry-level iPad, now available at its lowest price yet. While this particular model is outwardly extremely similar to the previous iteration, it features the powerful A16 chipset, making it a great choice for everyday browsing, shopping, and watching content.View Deal

The LG C4 OLED is ranked number one in our best TV guide, and Amazon has the 42-inch model on sale for its lowest price yet. The LG C4 boasts exceptional brightness, LG's latest Alpha 9 AI chip for enhanced performance, and impressive gaming features, including four HDMI 2.1 ports with 4K 120Hz, VRR, and ALLM support, as well as 144Hz certification from Nvidia.View Deal

The Fullstar vegetable chopper has over 100,000 positive reviews on Amazon and is always a customer favorite at past Prime Day sales. For just $26.97, you get four interchangeable blades, allowing you to chop, julienne, and slice your favorite veggies in a flash.View Deal

Processor: Apple M4
RAM: 16GB
Storage: 512GB

If you're looking for a powerful MacBook, here's a $150 discount on the upgraded 512GB MacBook Air, which brings the price down to a record low. We're not a huge fan of the massive surcharge Apple wants for a storage upgrade, but this is likely to be the lowest price we'll see for a while on this configuration.View Deal

The excellent Samsung Galaxy S25 Plus has just hit a brand new record-low price at Amazon. With a powerful chipset, excellent camera array, and expansive 6.7-inch display, the Galaxy S25 is a great all-rounder for most people. With this price cut, it's arguably one of the best value flagships on the market, too. Check out our Samsung Galaxy S25 Plus review for an in-depth overview of this device.View Deal

Dyson vacuums are consistently best sellers during holiday sales, such as Prime Day, and Amazon has a $120 discount on the highly rated V8 Plus model. Perfect for pet owners, it features powerful suction that works across hardwood floors and carpets and can transform into a handheld vac for quick and convenient clean-ups.

One of our favorite Android smartwatches at the moment, we rate the Galaxy Watch 7 for its health and fitness tracking and beautiful AMOLED display. Today's discount at Amazon brings a massive $100 upfront discount on the slightly larger 44mm size, which is a fantastic deal for one of the better smartwatches you can buy right now.View Deal

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We’ve known that Jeremy Allen White’s next big screen role would be as The Boss, AKA Bruce Springsteen, and now we have our first, formal look at the star ditching a chef’s coat for the look of an iconic, all-American rocker.

20th Century Studios has dropped the first trailer for Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere today ahead of the film's arrival in theaters on October 24, 2025.

It’s our first look at the latest artist biopic – arriving after those covering Bob Dylan and Elvis – and most importantly, we get to see how White's shaping up in the lead role.

Rather than telling the story of the iconic Born to Run album or the formation of the legendary E Street Band, Deliver Me From Nowhere focuses on the making of Springsteen’s Nebraska. It’s one of his best, in my opinion, and also one of his most enduring works.

The film “chronicles the making of Bruce Springsteen’s 1982 Nebraska album, when he was a young musician on the cusp of global superstardom, struggling to reconcile the pressures of success with the ghosts of his past.”

At 2:36, it’s a pretty packed trailer that sets the story, shows off White as Springsteen, highlights the impressive cast, and features a look at a live performance.

Now, I’m a pretty big Springsteen fan myself, hailing from the great state of New Jersey, and my hopes were extraordinarily high for Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere.

I’ve read the book it’s based on – Deliver Me from Nowhere by Warren Zanes – and the music has been on constant repeat for me, so I’m pretty hooked after the trailer.

It opens with White as Springsteen purchasing a new car – vehicles, transport, a common theme in the Boss’ work – and quickly presents the idea of Bruce searching for something. We then get a look at the recording process for Nebraska as well as the sessions around it – Springsteen on his own with an acoustic guitar, a harmonica, and his voice recording into a 4-track recorder.

There are also snippets of record executives, suggesting the creative battle over the album's direction will play a key role in the movie, and we also get our first look at a young Springsteen with his father.

And of course, we get some music. Springsteen devotees are sure to get shivers when the familiar tune of the album's title track kicks in, and another real highlight is a look at White portraying Springsteen on stage with the full E Street Band; boy does he rock Born to Run – and sounds good doing it.

The cast is also stacked, and looks great from the glimpses we got in the trailer. Jeremy Strong plays Springsteen’s manager Jon Landau; Paul Walter Hauser is guitar tech Mike Batlan, Stephen Graham plays Springsteen’s father Doug, Gaby Hoffman is Springsteen’s mother Adele, Marc Maron is Chuck Plotkin, David Krumholtz is Columbia executive Al Teller, and Odessa Young is Faye, a love interest.

Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere is set to hit theaters on October 24, 205, and if you’re looking for something to watch in the meantime, take a look at Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band on Disney+ or Blinded By The Light on another service like Prime Video.

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• MI355X leads AMD's new MI350 Series with 288GB memory and full liquid-cooled performance
• AMD drops APU integration, focusing on rack-scale GPU flexibility
• FP6 and FP4 data types highlight MI355X’s inference-optimized design choices

AMD has unveiled its new MI350X and MI355X GPUs for AI workloads at its 2025 Advancing AI event, offering two options built on its latest CDNA 4 architecture.

While both share a common platform, the MI355X stands apart as the higher-performance, liquid-cooled variant designed for demanding, large-scale deployments.

The MI355X supports up to 128 GPUs per rack and delivers high throughput for both training and inference workloads. It features 288GB of HBM3E memory and 8TB/s memory bandwidth.

GPU-only design

AMD claims the MI355X delivers up to 4 times the AI compute and 35 times the inference performance of its previous generation, thanks to architectural improvements and a move to TSMC’s N3P process.

Inside, the chip includes eight compute dies with 256 active compute units and a total of 185 billion transistors, marking a 21% increase over the prior model. Each die connects through redesigned I/O tiles, reduced from four to two, to double internal bandwidth while lowering power consumption.

The MI355X is a GPU-only design, dropping the CPU-GPU APU approach used in the MI300A. AMD says this decision better supports modular deployment and rack-scale flexibility.

It connects to the host via a PCIe 5.0 x16 interface and communicates with peer GPUs using seven Infinity Fabric links, reaching over 1TB/s in GPU-to-GPU bandwidth.

Each HBM stack pairs with 32MB of Infinity Cache, and the architecture supports newer, lower-precision formats like FP4 and FP6.

The MI355X runs FP6 operations at FP4 rates, a feature AMD highlights as beneficial for inference-heavy workloads. It also offers 1.6 times the HBM3E memory capacity of Nvidia’s GB200 and B200, although memory bandwidth remains similar. AMD claims a 1.2x to 1.3x inference performance lead over Nvidia’s top products.

The GPU draws up to 1,400W in its liquid-cooled form, delivering higher performance density per rack. AMD says this improves TCO by allowing users to scale compute without expanding physical footprint.

The chip fits into standard OAM modules and is compatible with UBB platform servers, speeding up deployment.

“The world of AI isn’t slowing down - and neither are we, " said Vamsi Boppana, SVP, AI Group. "At AMD, we’re not just keeping pace, we’re setting the bar. Our customers are demanding real, deployable solutions that scale, and that’s exactly what we’re delivering with the AMD Instinct MI350 Series. With cutting-edge performance, massive memory bandwidth, and flexible, open infrastructure, we’re empowering innovators across industries to go faster, scale smarter, and build what’s next.”

AMD plans to launch its Instinct MI400 series in 2026.

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• A Redditor was moving a huge slab of data from old drives to a new one
• They used OneDrive as a midpoint in an ill-thought-out strategy that left all the data in Microsoft's cloud service temporarily
• When they came to download the data, they were locked out of OneDrive, and can't get Microsoft support to address this issue

A cautionary tale shared on Reddit tells the story of a Windows PC owner who used OneDrive to store 30 years' worth of their data and lost the lot when their Microsoft account was locked, with no apparent way to regain access.

This is a nasty sounding predicament (highlighted by Neowin) to say the least, with the loss of what's described as three decades of "irreplaceable photos and work" which was transferred to OneDrive as a temporary storage facility.

The idea the Redditor had was that they needed to move that huge collection of files from multiple old drives where they were stored to a large new drive, and OneDrive was selected as the midpoint in that data migration journey.

So, they moved all the files off the old drives onto Microsoft's cloud storage service and prepared to transfer the data to the new drive, when they ran into a huge stumbling block. The Redditor was suddenly locked out of their Microsoft account (and therefore OneDrive, and all Microsoft services).

Now, this isn't a sensible way to manage this data transfer, of course (and I'll come back to outline why in a moment, in case you're not sure), but the point here is that the mistake happened, and the Redditor can't get any joy whatsoever from Microsoft in terms of trying to resolve the problem.

In their Reddit post, which is gaining a lot of attention, they say: "Microsoft suspended my account without warning, reason, or any legitimate recourse. I've submitted the compliance form 18 times - eighteen - and each time I get an automated response that leads nowhere. No human contact. No actual help. Just canned emails and radio silence."

They continue: "This feels not only unethical but potentially illegal, especially in light of consumer protection laws. You can't just hold someone's entire digital life hostage with no due process, no warning, and no accountability," adding that Microsoft is a "Kafkaesque black hole of corporate negligence."

Analysis: Microsoft needs to do better

(Image credit: Shutterstock)

Okay, so first up, very quickly - because I don't want to labor on the mistakes made by the unfortunate Redditor - this is not a good way to proceed with a drive migration.

In transferring a large slab of data like this, you should never have a single point of failure in the process. By which I mean shoving all the data into the cloud, on OneDrive, and having that as the sole copy. That's obviously the crux of the problem here, because once the user was locked out of OneDrive, they no longer had access to their data at all.

When performing such an operation, or as a general rule for any data, you should always keep multiple copies. Typically, that would be the original data on your device, a backup on a separate external drive at home (preferably two drives, in fact), and an off-site copy in a cloud storage locker like OneDrive. The point is that if you lose the original data, you can resort to, say, the external drive, but if that's also gone to the great tech graveyard in the sky somehow, you can go to the second drive (or the cloud).

Anyway, you get the point, but the Redditor chanced this way of doing things - figuring, no doubt, that as a temporary measure, it was fine to rely solely on OneDrive - but clearly, that wasn't the case.

There are a number of issues with the scenario presented here where Microsoft has fallen short of the standards that a customer would rightly expect.

Why did this happen?

First, there's the fact that the Microsoft account was simply locked with no notification or message provided as to why. The OneDrive user can only guess at why this ban was enacted (and the obvious guess is that some copyrighted material, or other content that contravened Microsoft's policies, was flagged in the uploaded files, which would trigger the account to be automatically locked). It's worth making it clear that we (obviously) don't have any idea about the contents of this data.

Secondly, with this having happened, the most worrying part here is the Redditor's description of how they feel like they're banging their head against a brick wall in trying to talk to Microsoft's support staff about how to resolve this. After all, this is essentially their whole life's worth of data, and there should be some way to at least find out what the problem is - and give the person who's been locked out a chance to explain, and potentially regain access.

For all we know, it could be a bug that's caused this. But if nobody at Microsoft's listening, nobody's investigating, probably. And if you do use OneDrive as a cloud backup, not having access to your data at a critical time is a frightening prospect indeed. (Which is why you must sort out those other local backups as an alternative, or indeed, another cloud service if you really wanted to push the 'data redundancy' boat out).

Hopefully, the Redditor will eventually get to speak to a Microsoft support agent - an actual person - to iron this out. In theory, all that data could still be on Microsoft's servers somewhere.

This incident has occurred at a time when Microsoft is pushing its account services on Windows 11 users, as you can't install the OS without one (well, you can by using loopholes, although the company is busy eradicating some of those fudges). Not to mention pushing OneDrive, Microsoft 365, and other services with ads in Windows, of course.

That broad drive is an unfortunate backdrop here when you consider another recent misstep recently brought to light. That was the highlighting of a potential problem with deleted Microsoft accounts (deleted by the user, that is), which could result in the loss of the key for the default drive encryption applied with new installations of Windows 11 24H2.

Again, that nasty little (albeit niche) scenario could lead to all the data on your drive disappearing into a blackhole, never to be seen again. It's another odd situation you could end up in with no recourse at all in this case - and this, along with the Redditor's awful plight, are predicaments that Microsoft clearly should not be inflicting on consumers.

We've contacted Microsoft for comment about this specific case, and will update this story if we get a response from the company.

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It’s only mid-June, and I'm fortunate enough to have already tested three new flagship mini-LED TVs for 2025. The bottom line is that these new TVs are seriously bright – brighter, even, than last year’s crop, and all three look primed to take their place among our list of the best TVs.

The three models I’ve tested are the Hisense U8QG, Samsung QN90F, and TCL QM8K, each with a 65-inch screen size. The Hisense and Samsung TVs have been fully reviewed, while my TCL review is currently in process.

Release pricing for the 65-inch model of these TVs is as follows:

• Hisense U8QG: $2,199 / £2,199 / AU$2,999
• Samsung QN90F: $2,499 / £2,499 / AU$3,499
• TCL QM8K (US-only model): $2,499

Even though it’s still relatively early in the year, US prices have already dropped for some of these TVs, with the 65-inch Hisense U8QG now selling for around $1,499, and the TCL QM8K for $2,199. The Samsung QN90F hasn't yet seen a price drop, but we expect it, along with other TVs, to get a substantial discount during the upcoming Amazon Prime Day sales event on July 8 through July 11.

If you’re in the market for one of the best mini-LED TVs, you may be wondering which of these three TVs is the best fit for you. To help guide your shopping journey, I’ll take you through the plus and minus points of each, starting with some revealing graphs of their measured performance.

Hisense U8QG

(Image credit: Future)

As you can see from the above chart, the Hisense U8QG has the highest peak and fullscreen brightness of these three TVs. The U8QG’s picture is seriously bright! It also has the highest HDR color gamut coverage, with 97.8% for UHDA-P3 and 82.8% for BT.2020 – both fantastic results for a mini-LED TV.

In my U8QG review, I praised it for its refined local dimming, which yielded pictures with powerful contrast and detailed shadows. Colors also looked rich, though the TV benefited from some pro-level adjustment to its default Filmmaker Mode for best results.

The U8QG’s high brightness makes it a great TV for watching sports, and helpfully my time reviewing coincided with the NBA playoffs here in the US. For daytime sports viewing, this is helped along by an anti-reflective screen, which does an effective job of limiting screen glare from windows, lamps, and overhead lighting.

One area where the U8QG’s picture came up short in my testing was off-axis uniformity – when viewed from a far off-center seat, contrast and color saturation both took a hit. The TV’s otherwise impressive 4.1.2-channel built-in speaker system was also prone to subwoofer rattling on movies with heavy bass, and I had frustrations with its Google TV smart TV platform when attempting to browse broadcast TV channels pulled in by its ATSC 3.0 tuner (a US-only problem).

Gamers will find plenty to love about the U8QG, which features three HDMI 2.1 ports with 4K 165Hz, FreeSync Premium Pro, Dolby Vision, and HDR10+ gaming support (though it would be better if the U8QG had four HDMI ports). Overall, the Hisense U8QG is a great TV, and also a great value at its current price.

Samsung QN90F

(Image credit: Future)

As you’ll see in the chart above, the Samsung QN90F isn’t the same brightness beast as the Hisense and TCL TVs, but its picture is still plenty bright enough to stand out for daytime viewing, and its Wide Viewing Angle feature and superior motion handling make it a perfect TV for sports.

Another QN90F feature that makes it perfect for sports, and also for watching movies in bright room lighting conditions, is its Glare-Free screen, a tech found in other flagship Samsung TVs, such as the Samsung QN990F 8K mini-LED and Samsung S95F OLED, that effectively eliminates mirror-like screen reflections from all light sources, lamps included. The one caveat here is that in such conditions, you’ll need to forgo Filmmaker Mode and instead use the TV’s Movie mode, which was the one we used for our QN90F measurements and evaluation.

Aside from having a near-flawless picture, the QN90F has clear, powerful sound from its 4.2.2-channel built-in speaker array, and an almost impossibly svelte, stylish design for a mini-LED TV.

Samsung’s Tizen Smart TV platform has seen numerous improvements over the years, and the latest version incorporates the Samsung Art Store, a subscription service that lets you “stream” artworks from museums around the world to display on the TV’s matte screen.

Gaming is a QN90F strength, and it leapfrogs over the competition with four HDMI 2.1 ports with 4K 165Hz, FreeSync Premium Pro, and HDR10+ gaming support, along with Samsung’s Gaming Hub for cloud-based gaming. We measured input lag in Game mode at a mere 9.5ms – about as low as it gets on TVs.

TCL QM8K

(Image credit: Future)

Although I haven’t yet published my TCL QM8K review, I have already spent enough time evaluating this TV to get a sense of its overall performance, and the news here is very good. As you can see in the chart above, peak and fullscreen brightness are about on par with the Hisense U8QG, and so is its HDR color gamut coverage.

(An equivalent model to the QM8K in the UK and Europe is the TCL C8K.)

Colors look rich, yet accurate on the QM8K, and its powerfully bright image and anti-reflective screen make it a great option for daytime sports viewing. Its picture looks uniform over a wider viewing angle than the Hisense U8QG, almost matching the Samsung QN90F in that regard.

The movies that I’ve watched on the QM8K so far have also looked great, with the new model equalling the local dimming prowess of its TCL QM851G predecessor. Motion handling is average, which is the same result we saw with the QM851G.

The QM8K has a powerful built-in Dolby Atmos/DTS:X speaker system with both side- and up-firing drivers that’s tuned by Bang & Olufsen. It also supports Dolby Atmos Flexconnect, which lets the TV transmit sound directly to wireless speakers instead of connecting a soundbar.

The QM8K also has solid gaming features, with 4K 144Hz (and 1080p at 288Hz) and FreeSync Premium Pro support. But with only two HDMI 2.1 ports, the specs for TCL’s TV lag behind its competition, and at 13.6ms, its measured input lag is also higher.

Which one to buy?

These are all very strong TVs when it comes to both performance and features. Given the current pricing, I’d be inclined to pick the Samsung QN90F, which combines excellent all-around performance with a stunning design, great sound and smart TV features, and superior gaming features and performance.

Not that I wouldn’t be happy with any of these TVs, but the Samsung offers a bit more, even if it may ultimately cost more.

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• A threat actor is offering two Cock.li databases for sale on the dark web
• Email hosting provider confirms authenticity of the database on sale
• Users are urged to change their passwords

A well-known email hosting provider, allegedly popular among hackers and cybercriminals, has been hacked, with sensitive information on more than a million users ending up for sale on the dark web.

The administration team for Cock.li confirmed someone had exploited a vulnerability in its now-retired Roundcube webmail platform - and that everyone who has logged in to its systems since 2016 is at risk.

“The hacker reports they took the “users” and “contacts” tables,” the announcement reads. “We were immediately able to confirm the validity of the leak based on the column count and samples provided.”

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Webmail users affected

Cock.li is a German free email hosting provider, focusing on privacy and advertising itself as an alternative to mainstream solutions - meaning it has apparently been used by people who don’t trust mainstream companies, as well as cybercriminals.

Recently, it decided to abandon Roundcube completely, after discovering a remote code execution (RCE) flaw being actively exploited in the wild.

"Cock.li will no longer be offering Roundcube webmail," the admins said at the time. "Regardless of whether our version was vulnerable to this, we've learned enough about Roundcube to pull it from the service for good."

Soon after that happened, the service was disrupted, and then a threat actor started selling two databases allegedly grabbed from Cock.li, for one bitcoin, claiming the databases contained sensitive user information.

The email hosting provider then confirmed the claims, and urged users to update their passwords.

The tables contained email addresses, first webmail login timestamp, last webmail login timestamp, failed login timestamp and counter, language, and a serialized representation of user preferences, which includes anything they saved into roundcube itself (different settings or signatures), for approximately 1,023,800 users.

The attackers also scooped up approximately 93,000 contact entries from roughly 10,400 users, including their name, email, vcards, and comments. Passwords, emails, IP addresses, and the data of anyone who never used webmail, was not compromised, the admins confirmed.

Via BleepingComputer

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