Technology

On the surface, the accounting and finance sector appears to be a great test case for AI integration. Work revolves around numerical data, while processes are structured and rules-driven.

It also seems an ideal environment for automation, giving scope for AI to process information at speed and scale. For that reason, it’s already being used to handle some of the sector’s necessary yet repetitive and time-consuming work, such as invoice capture, month-end reporting and anomaly detection.

But as confidence in AI grows and is integrated into more accounting and finance software, there’s a risk that organizations once fearful of the technology may go to the other extreme. At that point, there’s a danger that some professionals may lean so deeply into AI that they become detached from the numbers.

That matters because the decisions that sit behind the figures and spreadsheets are rarely driven by pure logic. Financial strategy is shaped by leadership judgement, organizational priorities, risk appetite, and sometimes (although none of us likes to admit it) internal politics.

That means a surprisingly large proportion of commercial decisions contain a human component that AI cannot, and probably should not attempt to, replace.

For many finance and accounting teams, the solution is to use automation to reduce cognitive load. Individuals are then free to focus on interpretation, creativity and decision-making. It keeps humans in the process exactly where instincts and experience are most needed.

Surfacing the truth

Numbers often create a sense of objectivity and certainty, but financial reporting still involves interpretation, context and judgement. So, when accounting and finance professionals engage with AI tools and automation, it’s important they maintain a firm grasp of their data.

But there’s also a moral dimension. Most UK accounting bodies have set out ethical codes and guidance on deploying AI in ways that preserve human oversight and authority, and protect sensitive data.

It’s an important consideration because, for the first time, we’re not simply asking technology to deliver calculations, as we might with a spreadsheet or a calculator. We’re asking for opinions and interpretations, while simultaneously hiding much of the methodology that gets us to the answer.

In some ways, it’s like comparing classic and modern cars. Open the bonnet of a car from the 80s or before, and you can see all the engine parts. You could buy a manual and (if you were brave) carry out a few repairs yourself. Today, if you open the bonnet of a new car, much of what you’re looking at is sealed, covered or controlled by software.

Sure, there are signs to add windscreen wash, but that’s about it. For everything else, we’ve handed control to diagnostic machines, telemetry and professional mechanics. It’s great not to get our hands dirty, but not so wonderful if the car breaks down miles from home.

The problem isn’t that the technology in new cars is bad. It’s that the further we move from understanding the systems we rely on, the harder it becomes to challenge them when something appears to be wrong.

A question of trust

For the same reason, finance leaders still need visibility into how AI-generated outputs are reached and the confidence to challenge them when necessary. That’s important because AI output is ultimately based on prediction, and prediction is not the same as verified truth.

Nevertheless, we tend to trust it—usually because it’s saving us time and feels authoritative. Published research supports this view: A study by KPMG and the University of Melbourne found that two-thirds of workers do not evaluate AI outputs for accuracy, despite more than half reporting that they had made AI-related mistakes in their work.

At the same time, research from Glean found that in one month, 77% of UK workers had to correct AI-generated work. Together, the findings suggest that while AI is becoming an increasingly trusted part of the workplace, human oversight and validation remain essential.

Keeping score 

Output confidence scoring could be one solution. Rather than trusting every AI-generated output, organizations can implement processes in which the technology itself flags lower-confidence outputs for human review before action is taken. This creates a better balance between automation and oversight. It also gives finance teams clearer visibility into the reliability and completeness of AI-generated outputs. 

In effect, confidence scoring creates an early warning system, helping organizations understand what AI is recommending and, importantly, how much trust they should place in those recommendations.

A word of warning: The responsibility for checking outputs should not sit exclusively with junior staff. It’s true that they need to learn the manual calculations and processes sitting behind automated systems so they can properly challenge the results.

However, the same principle applies to seniors. Their experience should not distance them from the logic behind the numbers. If anything, AI makes that visibility even more important.

There is also another, longer-term consideration. Every finance team has people who instinctively know when something doesn’t look right. They’ve spent years working with the data and understanding the processes behind it.

Some of that knowledge is written down, but much of it is gained from experience and built over time. If organizations become too detached from the systems and calculations underpinning their reporting, they risk losing some of the institutional memory that helps them challenge anomalies and spot potential issues.

The reality beneath the numbers

Productivity gains from AI and automation are creating more space for higher-value thinking rather than removing people from the process. The information surfaced by AI can ultimately help leaders make better decisions by revealing connections, patterns and insights that may previously have remained hidden within the data.

In many ways, this is not new: Leaders have always relied on summaries, dashboards, and reporting layers to help them make decisions. Indeed, the purpose of month-end reporting and executive summaries created by accounting and finance teams was always designed to deliver that information in an easy, digestible way.

But AI dramatically widens the gap between decision-makers and the operational reality beneath the numbers. Before AI, executives could ask their finance team to explain the rationale on which they based their reports. Even after the move from spreadsheets to software, those teams remained closely involved in creating the reports and could usually trace how the conclusions were reached.

With that in mind, the finance teams that benefit most from AI will likely be the ones that strike the right balance between automation and oversight—the ones that can delegate repetitive, manual processing tasks but don’t lose visibility into the data. If organizations surrender that understanding completely, then commercial judgement and entrepreneurial instinct may be blunted or misdirected.

Organizations may, therefore, ultimately prefer not to hand complete control to AI-enabled systems and instead focus on people-led automation. The goal should be confidence in transparent AI-supported workflows, not unswerving reliance on more opaque automated outputs. That stops AI from acting as a replacement for human judgement and transforms it into an extension of human capability.

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LG’s OLED TVs are often among the best TVs I test each year, and 2026 has been no different. Both the LG G6 and LG C6 earned full five-star ratings in my reviews, while the LG B6 also earned four-and-a-half, proving itself to be a fantastic affordable option.

On paper, all three of these TVs share a lot of the same features, especially for gaming, and they all scored highly for their picture quality, but how do they compare alongside one another in a real-world setting? I conducted this same test last year with the LG G5, C5 and B5 and in that instance, the LG C5 was my top pick, with the best balance of price and performance.

I’ve already compared the G6 and B6 this year, but now that I have access to all three TVs at the same time, I couldn’t wait to do a real world comparison between the three. The C6 has a new built-in processor (the same Alpha 11 AI Gen 3 the G6 uses), the B6 I tested hit new brightness heights and the G6 delivers even more impressive colors than its predecessor. All three still have big shoes to fill, so let’s see how they compare.

A quick note: I’m using the LG B6E here — a more affordable version of the LG B6 that I used for my review. While there is a price difference, LG has told me they are fundamentally the same TV; the B6E is missing some remaster features and has a plainer back panel, but still has important features such as Dolby Vision and the same gaming features.

Colors

All three TVs have excellent colors, shown here in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, but the G6 has the most impact due to its brightness, closely followed by the C6. (Image credit: Nintendo / Universal Pictures / Future )

The best OLED TVs often produce rich, vibrant colors that add real depth to a picture, and all three of these 2026 OLED TVs do the same across the board. Watching The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, the colors rendered on all three screens are stunning. The red and green of Mario and Luigi’s hats and overalls are both punchy and lifelike on each TV, and in this scenario, there’s not a lot to choose between them.

Any time the Lumas are on screen, there’s gorgeous visual pop with seriously bold colors on all three TVs, but this is where differences started to show. While there was a nice vibrancy on all three TVs, the G6 demonstrated the richest and brightest colors thanks to its higher peak brightness (more on that in the brightness section). I was surprised, however, at just how close to the G6’s colors were to those of the C6. The Lumas had the same color depth and luminosity (pun intended) on both.

While the G6 (left) has most striking colors, its brightness can get ahead of itself, shown in the grass here on Speed Racer. The C6 looks the most accurate. (Image credit: Warner Bros. / Future )

Switching to another colorful movie in Speed Racer, all three TVs again accurately delivered super-saturated, vivid colors throughout the movie. The bright decor of the Racer home, with its orange and blue walls, really explodes on screen and again, the G6’s brightness gives its colors the most outright impact. Clothing, such as Speed’s blue shirt and Pops Racer’s red and orange shirts, are vibrant with plenty of visual punch.

One thing I did notice while watching Speed Racer is that on occasion, the G6’s color luminance could get ahead of itself. Colors would sometimes lose the richness I’d seen, bordering on too-bright. The C6 on the other hand, kept that nice depth. This was true particularly in the bright greens of grass and in the neon signage along the various racetracks. The B6E did a very good job demonstrating the same gaudy colors as its step-up siblings, but didn’t quite have the same wow-factor as the other two.

A green tint that affects the accuracy of skin tones in this scene in Lawrence of Arabia is noticeable on the G6 (left) and B6E (right), whereas they appear more lifelike on the C6 (middle). (Image credit: Sony Pictures Entertainment / Future )

In terms of color accuracy, all three TVs did a good job, but I did notice that the G6 and B6E exhibited signs of a green tint that has been an issue for some LG OLEDs in the past. The C6 however, showed little to no sign of this green tint. The tint was particularly obvious in skin tones. Watching the opening scenes of Lawrence of Arabia, as a reporter interviews several outside Lawrence’s funeral, I could see people’s skin had a green/yellow complexion on the G6 and B6, which didn’t look right. The C6 showed a more natural skin tone. This was true in Speed Racer as well, shown most of all on several of the commentators.

Contrast and dark room viewingAll three TVs have strong contrast, shown here with in The Batman, where the lights from the machines balances with the dark surroundings. Warner Bros. / Future Again, all three TVs show strong contrast, but the C6 (middle) appears most accurate, with no sign of green tint. Warner Bros. / Future

All three TVs demonstrate impressive contrast, but the strength of the contrast depends on the scene. Watching The Batman in dark and ambient conditions, there’s a great balance between light and dark tones on all three screens. The scene where Bruce is in the Batcave early in the movie shows strong HDR highlights from the lamps, which contrast well with the dark surroundings. The G6’s higher brightness meant that light sources had more impact and created stronger perceived contrast than the other two models, but the C6 was a very close second.

All three TVs delivered deep blacks, and other dark tones looked authentic. In the subway scene, as Batman stands on the platform post-fight, I did notice that the green tint was prevalent on the G6 and B6E in darker room conditions. I found that dropping the G6’s contrast from 100 to 95 in the settings reduced the green tint significantly. On the B6, I couldn’t find a way to reduce it. On the C6, the picture looked accurate in its default settings, accurately portraying the gray color of the platform.

All three TVs have great shadow detail, but the G6 (left) has the added brightness to create greater shadow detail. The C6 is close, while the B6E does show some black crush. (Image credit: Warner Bros. / Future)

While all three TVs had great shadow detail as well as satisfying dark tones, I found on occasion that black crush could occur on the C6 and B6E. The G6 had better detail retention in dark areas such as creases in Gordon’s coat or the texture in Batman’s armor, showing better contrast balance and shadow detail overall. While there were some obvious differences between these three, it was clear all three demonstrated strong contrast overall, which is one of OLED’s main strengths.

Brightness and bright room viewing

In scenes with plenty of white and snow, the G6 (left) has the advantage, thanks to its stronger brightness (Image credit: Future)

Looking at these TVs together, the brightness differences are obvious. In terms of measurements, with all three TVs set to Filmmaker Mode, the G6 registered 3,004 nits peak HDR brightness — a staggering result for an OLED — while the C6 hit 1,427 nits, and the B6E clocked in at 808 nits. All of these numbers are increases over their predecessors (the G5 hit 2,268 nits, the C5 hit 1,180 nits, and the B5 hit 668 nits), resulting in more impactful pictures.

Fullscreen HDR brightness also jumped for all these TVs, with the G6 hitting 451 nits, the C6 hitting 248 nits, and the B6E hitting 148 nits. While the B6E’s boost over the B5 is minor, it’s a 50 nits jump for the C6 and a huge 120 nits boost for the G6. Fullscreen brightness is important for bright room viewing and for sports, as higher fullscreen brightness can be useful for displaying large areas of the same color on screen, say, a football field.

How did these numbers translate into real-world scenes though? Watching some footage of snow scenes from the Spears & Munsil UHD Benchmark 4K Blu-ray, the white of the snow has a lot more visual punch on the G6 than the other two TVs. But while the huge difference in brightness numbers may make this seem obvious, it’s not always been the case during my tests. It’s even clear on fullscreen brightness, as the opening shot of the demo footage shows the top of a snow-covered mountain, the G6 practically radiates brightness while showing the white sky, compared to the C6 and B6E.

Using brighter movie scenes, however, the perceived brightness becomes a lot closer. The white of the Mach 5 and Speed’s helmet in Speed Racer is still brightest on the G6, but the C6 still delivers plenty of vibrancy and brightness, and the perceived brightness gap isn’t as big.

In this desert scene from Lawrence of Arabia, the G6 (left) has the most impact, but all three TVs do a very good job rendering the bright white of the sands. (Image credit: Sony Pictures Entertainment / Future )

The same is true when watching scenes from the desert in Lawrence of Arabia. The white sands surrounding the well dazzle on the G6, but the C6 still has plenty of impact, with bold HDR highlights. Even the B6E does a decent job rendering the brightness, although it lacks next to the G6 and C6.

With more colorful movies, such as The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, the brightness again is much closer. The Lumas I mentioned in the color section still have plenty of pop on all three screens, and despite the G6’s much higher brightness, these Lumas are only a bit brighter compared to the C6 and B6E. Fireworks also shine on all three screens, and while the color of the fireworks shines brightest on the G6, they’re close on the other two screens.

For bright room viewing, the G6 (left) is the top dog, with both the C6 (middle) and B6 (right) showing clear mirror-like reflections. (Image credit: Future)

One thing that is undeniable, however, is which TV is best for bright room viewing. Most OLEDs struggle with bright conditions due to their glossy screens. While Samsung’s OLED Glare Free screen, most recently used on the Samsung S99H, is effective at eliminating reflections, none of these LG OLEDs use the same matte screen. This makes the G6’s anti-reflection so impressive, because not only does it do a great job reducing mirror-like reflections, but it maintains the crisp black levels OLED are known for. So impressive was the G6’s bright room performance, it became my choice of bright room OLED when I compared it to the Samsung S95/S99H.

This is one area where the C6 falls short. It has a very reflective screen, meaning trying to watch dark movies such as The Batman is impossible in Filmmaker Mode. The B6E seems to have some form of anti-reflection that does a better job reducing mirror-like reflections compared to the C6, but its lower brightness again affects bright room performance. For bright rooms, the G6 easily comes out on top.

Which to buy?

While all three TVs are fantastic, the C6 (middle) is my best value pick. (Image credit: Nintendo / Universal Pictures / Future )

Which LG OLED is best for you will ultimately come down to how much you want to spend. Each TV delivers fantastic features, excellent picture quality and is superb for gaming. Even their processors operate at similar speeds. For my money though, the best value model and my top pick is the C6.

A 55-inch C6 (the size I tested) is available at the time of writing for $1,499 / £1,499 / AU$2,495, whereas a 55-inch G6 will cost you $2,199 / £2,099 / AU$3,995. The C6 not only carries the same processor, but shows a more accurate, out-of-the-box picture with no green tint, and it’s the model with the biggest improvements over its predecessor.

The B6E is a bit of a steal at $799 / £899 in the US and UK for the 55-inch, which is an excellent price for a brand new OLED. In Australia, the B6 is AU$2,495 for the 55-inch, the same as the C6. While the B6E is best for budget buyers, it doesn’t deliver the same performance as the C6, hence why the C6 is easily my top pick of LG three 2026 OLEDs.

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As the worlds of networking and security increasingly collide, the role of network engineers is also evolving. IT teams are now on the frontlines of an organization's cybersecurity, monitoring what’s happening across traffic, users, devices to spot issues and threats early, and act before they escalate.

When network and security architectures are integrated well, complexity decreases while performance increases, security gets stronger and latency lowers; and overall, day-to-day operations become simpler.

With better visibility and AI-driven automation, organizations can spot and contain threats even faster, improve oversight across users, devices and applications, and build a more agile platform for digital transformation, including cloud adoption, branch modernization and hybrid working.

Perhaps the most significant evolution is that the old “detect, diagnose, fix” workstream for a network engineer is being replaced with a more proactive model. Aided by AI, networks can now learn from past behavior, flag early warning signs and trigger preventative actions automatically.

The payoff is more resilient infrastructure, a stronger security posture, and IT teams spending less time firefighting and more time moving the business forward.

From hardware-first to intelligent, software-defined experiences

Legacy enterprise networks were static and complex. Each organization had its own complicated mix of hardware, stitched together via multiple management tools that generally didn’t communicate very well with each other.

Diagnosing a network problem meant going through the process of elimination to isolate the failed system, then coordinating with multiple vendors to resolve it, which was often a time-consuming and error-prone affair.

Virtualization and automation have done much to improve upon that process already, helping today’s distributed enterprises achieve speed, scale and security across hybrid cloud environments, global data centers and remote workforces. However, AI is rapidly accelerating and opening up new avenues for this continual transformation.

AI-driven analytics provide visibility and context that traditional network tools never could. This allows IT teams to see patterns such as traffic flows, user behavior and performance metrics across siloed systems, all in real time. With this depth of continuous insight, networks can be fine-tuned dynamically rather than through manual and static configurations.

These capabilities reflect the move from static infrastructure to intelligent systems that can continuously adapt to the needs of the business.

Adaptive networking as the new normal

The traditional incident response sequence is well-worn: detection, diagnosis, escalation, and remediation. Even with automation, the process still depends on significant human intervention after the incident.

AI networking can predict potential disruptions before they happen by continuously analyzing telemetry data across the network. This is true whether it’s a failing device, an unexpected change in latency, or an issue due to environmental factors such as weather events. With the visibility provided by AI, IT teams have a comprehensive view of highly complex, multi-vendor network environments.

And once a potential problem is identified, an AI-driven network management platform can automatically recommend configuration changes to address the issue. While past reactive approaches focused on ‘the fix’, adaptive network management is preventative. AI enables IT teams to not only respond to problems faster, but to prevent them altogether.

What this means for network engineers

With AI-powered network management, IT teams are no longer spending their time chasing alerts or manually reviewing logs. Instead, they are interpreting insights and validating recommendations produced by AI systems.

This partnership between human expertise and AI marks the beginning of the "adaptive network era.” AI surfaces patterns, predicts needs and makes recommendations, while IT teams remain firmly in control with more context and foresight at their disposal than they’ve ever had before.

The business cases and practical benefits of AI network management stack up across a few key areas:

Resilience: Predictive analytics detect issues early, enabling remediation before users experience disruptions.

Efficiency: Routine diagnostics, reporting and configuration updates are automated, freeing IT staff to focus on more strategic priorities.

Cost Savings: In industries such as retail, finance and manufacturing, every minute of downtime means loss of revenue. Reducing outages and maintaining uptime directly impacts the bottom line.

Security: By continuously monitoring patterns and anomalies, AI enhances network defense and can help spot early signs of compromise that traditional systems may overlook.

More broadly, AI tools will bring a level of speed, reliability, and security that will reshape the networking experience. Complex network environments will be easier to manage, decision-making will be faster and more informed, and the process as a whole will be smoother and more reliable.

Of course, turning promise and potential into reality is more than just deploying new tools. AI is as good as the data it learns from. Enterprises need to ensure that their data pipelines are accessible and clean, and IT teams need visibility into how AI makes its recommendations and human-in-the-loop governance practices. High-quality data and trust are key, especially when automation affects live network traffic and security posture.

Building networks around people

Organizations are beginning to realize the value of networks that can adapt and recover from issues with minimal intervention. As AI is woven further into service provider operations, the tools enterprises receive will be redesigned to fit the day-to-day needs of the people using them.

Longer term, this points to a more user focused operations model, where dashboards tailor what they show and bring the right insights to the surface for each group, from administrators to business stakeholders and C level decision makers.

The most effective approach will blend human judgement with AI-powered analysis and recommendations.

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Criminals used to rely on lock-picking tools and crowbars to break into buildings. Today’s attackers can cause just as much damage and disruption by using phishing links, malware and sophisticated digital exploits to target products, systems and networks.

The truth is, today’s security challenge isn’t just physical – or cyber – but both. And keeping one step ahead of criminals is a full-time occupation. For those people tasked with researching and developing the latest products, it sometimes means using unconventional tactics, such as using professional lock pickers to test the security and resilience of new products.

While modern locks are still based on mechanical engineering, they are more advanced than they look. Improvements in design, materials, and manufacturing mean they are stronger, more reliable, and harder to tamper with. But there’s more to locks than just security.

Some systems can even use the motion of turning a key to generate a small amount of electrical energy, which provides energy to power extra functions without wiring or batteries. This means they are not just standalone locks but can also be used as part of wider digital access systems.

Used extensively in buildings such as offices, hotels, hospitals and other critical infrastructure, these modern digital access solutions can also connect to cloud-based platforms to manage who can enter buildings and restricted areas.

Bridging physical and digital security

However, digital systems have their own security risks, which means security teams need to anticipate and defend against a wide range of risks – from attempts to breach access platforms to phishing attacks – as well as other tactics designed to exploit human behavior.

This explains why some security personnel have to adopt a ‘hacker’s mindset’ to keep systems safe. And that means continuously testing, probing, and strengthening systems to identify vulnerabilities.

But what is becoming increasingly clear is that physical and digital security systems can no longer be treated as separate entities.

Many security solutions today employ both mechanical and digital technology, which means that resilience – the kind of resilience that keeps data centers safe, for example – depends on understanding how risks move across systems, people and environments.

Embedding resilience into design

That means continuously designing and testing products against existing real-world threats while also anticipating what might be around the corner. That includes building security into every stage of development, especially as technology evolves.

For instance, great strides have been made recently in terms of biometric authentication, including facial recognition and fingerprint scanning. Similarly, smartphones are increasingly being used to secure credentials for mobile-based access control systems.

Work is also currently underway to use artificial intelligence (AI) to analyze data in real time to identify unusual entry times, identify multiple failed authentication attempts, or spot any other anomalies that might suggest someone is trying to gain entry illegally.

Using AI tools in a positive way is important because it is also the source of some of the newest and, therefore, most unpredictable challenges. For example, there are now autonomous AI threat chains that can discover and exploit vulnerabilities unilaterally, moving from reconnaissance to exfiltration in record time without any need for human oversight.

The danger posed by cyber criminals has also become more complex due to the growing interconnectivity of digital products and services. In many ways, a world where all hardware and software are interconnected is an efficient and convenient one.

But it is also one where, if bad actors gain access to a single element, they may be able to compromise the whole network.

The importance of regulation and compliance

This is something that the European Union (EU) is actively addressing. For instance, the European Union’s (EU) NIS2 Directive relates to cybersecurity protecting network and information systems and significantly broadens both the scope and the obligations for compliance.

It also takes an “all-hazard” approach to security, which means protecting not just digital networks and systems, but also the physical environments in which they operate.

Similarly, the EU’s Cyber Resilience Act is designed to ensure that all digital products are safe from cyber threats.

Its goal is to ensure that connected devices and software are built, updated, and maintained with security in mind, helping protect users in an increasingly connected world.

And by introducing clearer requirements and standards, the CRA will help consumers and organizations identify products with strong security features and configure them more securely from the outset.

In both cases, not only is it incumbent on vendors to meet or exceed these rules and regulations, but also to keep customers, the wider industry, and other stakeholders informed about developments.

Not only must businesses contend with the usual challenges from phishing and malware, but the rapid growth of AI has introduced a new and unpredictable dimension to keeping out online criminals. Security – both physical and cyber – has never been more critical than it is today.

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Between frequent contamination recalls and rising food costs, growing indoors offers a safe and surprisingly simple alternative.

• AppleCare One is launching in the UK from August
• It'll be available for older devices as well as new purchases
• It's £16.99 per month for three devices, £4.99 p/month for each additional device

AppleCare, Apple's extended warranty for its devices, is expanding. A new AppleCare One bundle comes to the UK on August 4 2026 and could make it cheaper for you to cover multiple Apple products. It also lets you cover older devices rather than just new purchases.

At the moment, you've got 60 days from purchase to take out AppleCare+ coverage. That gives you free 24/7 tech support, subsidised battery replacements if your device's battery drops below 80% capacity, and unlimited accidental damage repairs including liquid damage.

AppleCare One expands the eligibility to cover devices up to four years old (one year for AirPods) provided they're in good condition. In some cases that may require a trip to the Apple Store to check the condition of an older device before you can add it to the plan.

One of the important changes is that Apple has expanded Theft and Loss coverage, which protects you for up to two incidences of theft or loss per year, to cover the Apple Watch and iPad as well as the iPhone. You can get that cover as part of AppleCare One, or take out a standalone plan for a single device.

The other key difference is that AppleCare One is a rolling subscription rather than a fixed term extended warranty — for example, if you upgrade your iPhone and trade in your old one, the AppleCare One plan will now cover your new iPhone.

As ever with bundles, how much you save depends on the particular products you have. But you can potentially save up to £11.48 per month compared to the cost of individual AppleCare+ subscriptions.

AppleCare+ has different prices for different models. AppleCare One is a flat rate subscription. (Image credit: Apple)How much can you save with AppleCare One?

AppleCare One is £16.99 per month to cover three devices. You can add additional cover for £4.99 per month per additional device.

Let's say you have an iPhone Air, Apple Watch Ultra 3 and a 13-inch M5 iPad Pro. Individually, AppleCare+ with Theft and Loss will cost you £11.99, £4.99 and £8.49 per month. That's a total of £25.47, so the AppleCare One bundle is going to save you £8.48 per month.

For more modest devices the savings are smaller, but the additional device eligibility may still make AppleCare One an attractive option.

For example I have an iPhone 16 Pro and an Apple Watch Series 10, both of which are currently covered by AppleCare+ with Theft and Loss, but I didn't take out cover for my iPad Pro and the 60-day window has long closed. I'm currently paying £15.98 per month to cover my phone and watch; it'd cost just £1.01 per month more to cover an eligible iPad or iPad Pro — although sadly my iPad is an M1 so it's too old to be included.

It's worth noting that the AppleCare One bundle is for devices on the same Apple account. That means you can't cover family devices linked to other Apple accounts, even if they're in your Family Sharing group. And for some older devices you may need to confirm that they're in "good condition" by taking them to the Apple Store.

As a long time AppleCare customer I think AppleCare One looks good, and it'll save you money if you have three or more devices to cover. My only worry is that it's a subscription, and if there's one thing we know about tech giants' subscription services is that their prices always go up.

AppleCare One launches in the UK on August 4 2026.

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• 2.2 million vehicles are susceptible to a Bluetooth-based attack in the state of California
• The vulnerability is due to dealer-installed security systems
• Researchers at the University of California San Diego found that the Acrisure-built security devices all rely on the same secure key

A vulnerability has been found in KARR and SWDS automobile security systems manufactured by Acrisure that enables remote control via Bluetooth. The vehicles had the security systems installed by car dealers in California, specifically as anti-theft and tracking devices. Thanks to this hack, however, it seems that vehicles can be unlocked, with some further control given to the attacker.

Researchers at the University of California San Diego found that the 2.2 million automobiles were purchased from Southern Californian dealers since 2017, although the secondary market means that the vehicles could be elsewhere in the US, and even as far afield as Japan.

Worryingly, the researchers also found a publicly-accessible database holding information about all vehicles with the security system equipped.

How Bluetooth controls these cars

The researchers determined that the automobiles were purchased from Honda, Toyota, Mazda, Ford, and Jeep dealerships, and the affected vehicles have the “KARR-SWDS” label on the driver-side window, with the anti-theft device mounted under the dashboard.

Usage is straightforward: a mobile app connects to the KARR security system over Bluetooth and includes functions such as locking and unlocking doors, controlling the horn, and flashing the headlamps. It can also prevent the car from starting, although this only works if it isn’t already running.

The problem is with the implementation, which the researchers discovered relied on the same secure key on the KARR security systems. Once cracked, all cars equipped with the same device were believed to be open to attack.

Changing the secure key isn’t an option, and neither is disabling the Bluetooth. Of particular concern is that researchers found that even if the buyer doesn’t pay for a subscription for the app and the KARR system, the hardware is still in place. Worse, it has the same access to the vehicle’s doors, ignition, horn, and headlamps.

“Removing the devices is not trivial,” UCSD compsci PhD candidate and paper co-author Yibo Wei said in the report on the research (which is fully released in August). “You have to open up the dashboard and cut and reconnect the wires that are deeply intertwined with the car’s computers and ignition system.”

The patch is in

Jerry Yu, also co-author, wrote “Instead of smashing a window to get access to a vehicle, thieves could simply connect remotely via Bluetooth to the device inside the vehicle, and make it unlock car doors.”

KARR has told media outlets that only vehicles installed “with certain Bluetooth-related components” are affected, and the company has issued a firmware update.

• Northrop Grumman's MRV launched with two satellite-servicing robotic arms
• Mission Extension Pods can stretch a satellite's working life by eight years
• The spacecraft can inspect, refuel, tow, and relocate active orbital satellites or even destroy enemy satellites

Northrop Grumman has launched its first Mission Robotic Vehicle (MRV), equipped with two robotic arms to inspect, repair, refuel, and relocate satellites already operating in orbit.

The spacecraft also carries three Mission Extension Pods (MEPs) that can extend a satellite's operational life by as much as eight years after installation.

Although introduced as a commercial servicing platform, the spacecraft's ability to operate alongside other satellites has already raised questions about possible military applications.

Satellite servicing technology also enables close-proximity operations

The MRV launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral, carrying MEPs intended for commercial satellites operated by Australia's Optus and Luxembourg's SES.

Northrop Grumman says the spacecraft can inspect satellites, install life-extension modules, tow spacecraft between orbital positions, and assist with clearing debris already circling Earth.

Those missions depend on two robotic arms that allow the vehicle to maneuver extremely close to other satellites without relying on direct physical contact.

The robotic arm system was developed through the Robotic Servicing of Geosynchronous Satellites program led by DARPA together with the United States Naval Research Laboratory.

Because those same capabilities allow precise movement around spacecraft, a future version could disable hostile satellites if governments requested such capabilities.

"I will leave it up to the U.S. government to decide how that capability might fulfill mission objectives that they have in that regard," said Northrop Grumman CEO Kathy Warden.

"It's our objective to offer our clients options for technology deployment, and for them to determine policy for when and how they might deploy that technology."

Military officials say orbital threats are already evolving

United States Space Force officials have repeatedly argued that rival nations already possess satellites capable of approaching and interacting with other spacecraft operating in orbit today.

The service says those developments require greater attention because several countries continue expanding technologies capable of operating near valuable military and civilian satellites.

"We're basically responding to a warfighting domain where our adversaries have already put interceptors in space, and we want to make sure that we rebalance that in terms of deterrence," said Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman.

A Space Force spokesperson later cited China's Shi Jian 21 satellite, equipped with a robotic grappling arm, while explaining examples of orbital interceptor capabilities already available.

Officials have also warned that close-proximity satellites could collect intelligence, interfere electronically, damage spacecraft components, or deliberately move another satellite from its assigned orbit.

Those evolving capabilities have prompted the Space Force to expand its focus on orbital warfare alongside traditional space operations.

The service's Space Delta 9 unit develops tactics for both defensive and offensive missions in orbit as those threats continue evolving.

The military is also planning larger space-based defense networks through the proposed Golden Dome missile defense architecture.

The Congressional Budget Office estimates the concept could require about 7,800 space-based interceptors if the program moves forward.

For now, the MRV remains a commercial tool, but how governments will apply comparable space security tech with AI tools and autonomous systems remains to be seen.

Looking for a different day?

A new Quordle puzzle appears at midnight each day for your time zone – which means that some people are always playing 'today's game' while others are playing 'yesterday's'. If you're looking for Sunday's puzzle instead then click here: Quordle hints and answers for Sunday, July 26 (game #1644).

Quordle was one of the original Wordle alternatives and is still going strong now more than 1,500 games later. It offers a genuine challenge, though, so read on if you need some Quordle hints today — or scroll down further for the answers.

Enjoy playing word games? You can also check out my NYT Connections today and NYT Strands today pages for hints and answers for those puzzles, while Marc's Wordle today column covers the original viral word game.

SPOILER WARNING: Information about Quordle today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.

Quordle today (game #1645) — hint #1 — VowelsHow many different vowels are in Quordle today?

• The number of different vowels in Quordle today is 4*.

* Note that by vowel we mean the five standard vowels (A, E, I, O, U), not Y (which is sometimes counted as a vowel too).

Quordle today (game #1645) — hint #2 — repeated lettersDo any of today's Quordle answers contain repeated letters?

• The number of Quordle answers containing a repeated letter today is 1.

Quordle today (game #1645) — hint #3 — uncommon lettersDo the letters Q, Z, X or J appear in Quordle today?

• No. None of Q, Z, X or J appear among today's Quordle answers.

Quordle today (game #1645) — hint #4 — starting letters (1)Do any of today's Quordle puzzles start with the same letter?

• The number of today's Quordle answers starting with the same letter is 0.

If you just want to know the answers at this stage, simply scroll down. If you're not ready yet then here's one more clue to make things a lot easier:

Quordle today (game #1645) — hint #5 — starting letters (2)What letters do today's Quordle answers start with?

• T

• F

• G

• W

Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.

Quordle today (game #1645) — the answers

(Image credit: Merriam-Webster)

The answers to today's Quordle, game #1645, are…

• TAFFY
• FIGHT
• GUILD
• WAGER

I don’t think I have ever played such a strategic game of Quordle.

Usually I just go for whatever word seems the most gettable. But in this game, with numerous possibilities for a word ending I-G-H-T, I held back in the hope that another word would give me that crucial fifth letter. And it did.

Daily Sequence today (game #1645) — the answers

(Image credit: Merriam-Webster)

The answers to today's Quordle Daily Sequence, game #1645, are…

• CREED
• ROGUE
• POOCH
• GRIPE

Quordle answers: The past 20

• Quordle #1644, Sunday, 26 July: STOMP, LIMIT, FUNKY, STEAD
• Quordle #1643, Saturday, 25 July: SALON, SHEEN, BURST, GOURD
• Quordle #1642, Friday, 24 July: DOLLY, EDIFY, LAGER, PRANK
• Quordle #1641, Thursday, 23 July: LADEN, EVICT, WOVEN, SHIRE
• Quordle #1640, Wednesday, 22 July: COYLY, SINGE, AWASH, AWOKE
• Quordle #1639, Tuesday, 21 July: TRUSS, AXIAL, SWINE, THING
• Quordle #1638, Monday, 20 July: ICING, SLICK, GAILY, RISEN
• Quordle #1637, Sunday, 19 July: SPURT, ACRID, THRUM, BLEEP
• Quordle #1636, Saturday, 18 July: KNAVE, TIGHT, BLEAT, CHAOS
• Quordle #1635, Friday, 17 July: CUMIN, PALER, GRASS, INBOX
• Quordle #1634, Thursday, 16 July: IGLOO, PLAIT, YEAST, AROMA
• Quordle #1633, Wednesday, 15 July: PROXY, BRICK, BROTH, SURGE
• Quordle #1632, Tuesday, 14 July: EBONY, AVOID, RODEO, CUTIE
• Quordle #1631, Monday, 13 July: VOICE, BISON, BURNT, BUILT
• Quordle #1630, Sunday, 12 July: STAIN, BINGO, LARVA, DICEY
• Quordle #1629, Saturday, 11 July: WORTH, PRONG, DINGO, DRUID
• Quordle #1628, Friday, 10 July: GREET, STEAK, DUSKY, HAUTE
• Quordle #1627, Thursday, 9 July: CRUMP, PHONE, SHINY, STONY
• Quordle #1626, Wednesday, 8 July: GHOST, TREND, EXALT, ALONG
• Quordle #1625, Tuesday, 7 July: ARRAY, SUITE, KIOSK, BOULE

Looking for a different day?

A new NYT Connections puzzle appears at midnight each day for your time zone – which means that some people are always playing 'today's game' while others are playing 'yesterday's'. If you're looking for Sunday's puzzle instead then click here: NYT Connections hints and answers for Sunday, July 26 (game #1141).

Good morning! Let's play Connections, the NYT's clever word game that challenges you to group answers in various categories. It can be tough, so read on if you need Connections hints.

What should you do once you've finished? Why, play some more word games of course. I've also got daily Strands hints and answers and Quordle hints and answers articles if you need help for those too, while Marc's Wordle today page covers the original viral word game.

SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Connections today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.

NYT Connections today (game #1142) - today's words

(Image credit: New York Times)

Today's NYT Connections words are…

• CART
• HORSE
• CARROT
• STICK
• KNITTING NEEDLE
• MAGNIFYING GLASS
• BEAM
• GRAVEYARD
• BELL
• ICICLE
• RINGS
• HEART
• PARADIGM
• STALACTITE
• DOPPLER
• VAULT

NYT Connections today (game #1142) - hint #1 - group hints

What are some clues for today's NYT Connections groups?

• YELLOW: Equipment used by Simone Biles and co
• GREEN: Thin and skinny
• BLUE: A word that rhymes with “lift” in common
• PURPLE: As seen whilst making a purchase

Need more clues?

We're firmly in spoiler territory now, but read on if you want to know what the four theme answers are for today's NYT Connections puzzles…

NYT Connections today (game #1142) - hint #2 - group answers

What are the answers for today's NYT Connections groups?

• YELLOW: GYMNASTICS APPARATUS
• GREEN: LONG TAPERED THINGS
• BLUE: KINDS OF SHIFTS
• PURPLE: ICONS ON A SHOPPING SITE

Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.

NYT Connections today (game #1142) - the answers

(Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today's Connections, game #1142, are…

• YELLOW: GYMNASTICS APPARATUS: BEAM, HORSE, RINGS, VAULT
• GREEN: LONG TAPERED THINGS: CARROT, ICICLE, KNITTING NEEDLE, STALACTITE
• BLUE: KINDS OF SHIFTS: DOPPLER, GRAVEYARD, PARADIGM, STICK
• PURPLE: ICONS ON A SHOPPING SITE: BELL, CART, HEART, MAGNIFYING GLASS

• My rating: Hard
• My score: Perfect

I managed to get through today’s game without making any mistakes but I am still classing it as a tricky game.

The reason for this is that I got extremely lucky once the game got down to eight tiles; unable to find a group, I just went with the four tiles that were in a line.

GRAVEYARD shift and PARADIGM shift I may have got, but DOPPLER and STICK needed a Google. Meanwhile, perhaps I do not do enough online shopping but CART aside the other three icons didn’t trigger me to connect them.

Yesterday's NYT Connections answers (Sunday, July 26, 2026, game #1141)

• YELLOW: BABY MILESTONES: CRAWLING, FIRST WORDS, ROLLING OVER, SOLID FOOD
• GREEN: OUTMODED CONSUMER TECH: BLACKBERRY, DISCMAN, DVD PLAYER, PLASMA TV
• BLUE: EXPRESSIONS FOR RAIN: APRIL SHOWERS, LIQUID SUNSHINE, SCOTCH MIST, WET WEATHER
• PURPLE: WHAT "SHELL" MIGHT REFER TO: CARAPACE, GAS STATION, PASTRY CRUST, ROWING BOAT

What is NYT Connections?

NYT Connections is one of several increasingly popular word games made by the New York Times. It challenges you to find groups of four items that share something in common, and each group has a different difficulty level: green is easy, yellow a little harder, blue often quite tough and purple usually very difficult.

On the plus side, you don't technically need to solve the final one, as you'll be able to answer that one by a process of elimination. What's more, you can make up to four mistakes, which gives you a little bit of breathing room.

It's a little more involved than something like Wordle, however, and there are plenty of opportunities for the game to trip you up with tricks. For instance, watch out for homophones and other word games that could disguise the answers.

It's playable for free via the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.

Looking for a different day?

A new NYT Strands puzzle appears at midnight each day for your time zone – which means that some people are always playing 'today's game' while others are playing 'yesterday's'. If you're looking for Sunday's puzzle instead then click here: NYT Strands hints and answers for Sunday, July 26 (game #875).

Strands is the NYT's latest word game after the likes of Wordle, Spelling Bee and Connections – and it's great fun. It can be difficult, though, so read on for my Strands hints.

Want more word-based fun? Then check out my NYT Connections today and Quordle today pages for hints and answers for those games, and Marc's Wordle today page for the original viral word game.

SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Strands today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.

NYT Strands today (game #876) - hint #1 - today's themeWhat is the theme of today's NYT Strands?

• Today's NYT Strands theme is… Let the journey begin

NYT Strands today (game #876) - hint #2 - clue words

Play any of these words to unlock the in-game hints system.

• BRINK
• CHART
• TIME
• STANK
• TICK
• PLAIT

NYT Strands today (game #876) - hint #3 - spangram lettersHow many letters are in today's spangram?

• Spangram has 12 letters

NYT Strands today (game #876) - hint #4 - spangram positionWhat are two sides of the board that today's spangram touches?

• First side: left, 8th row

• Last side: right, 8th row

Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.

NYT Strands today (game #876) - the answers

(Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today's Strands, game #876, are…

• PLATFORM
• TRACK
• TICKET
• COUNTER
• KIOSK
• BENCH
• SPANGRAM: TRAINSTATION

• My rating: Easy
• My score: Perfect

Another Spangram First for me today, although it did come in two parts as I saw “station” before making the connection for TRAINSTATION.

From here it was a case of collecting the more obvious railway-related words — PLATFORM, TRACK, TICKET — before connecting the less obvious like KIOSK.

A nice, easygoing start to the week.

Yesterday's NYT Strands answers (Sunday, July 26, game #875)

• GURU
• MAVEN
• PUNDIT
• EXPERT
• AUTHORITY
• SPECIALIST
• SPANGRAM: BIGBRAIN

What is NYT Strands?

Strands is the NYT's not-so-new-any-more word game, following Wordle and Connections. It's now a fully fledged member of the NYT's games stable that has been running for a year and which can be played on the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.

I've got a full guide to how to play NYT Strands, complete with tips for solving it, so check that out if you're struggling to beat it each day.

• US factories prepare to manufacture Ukraine's battle-tested MAGURA naval drones domestically
• MAGURA V7 reportedly destroyed an aerial target using Sidewinder missile technology
• Oregon and South Carolina will host future MAGURA drone production facilities

Ukrainian defense company UFORCE has signed an agreement with US boatbuilder RECONCRAFT to manufacture the combat-proven MAGURA naval drones domestically.

Reports from The Wall Street Journal has claimed the memorandum of understanding was recently signed at the Embassy of Ukraine in Washington, with production planned at facilities in Oregon and South Carolina.

The project will have the eventual goal of building hundreds, and potentially thousands, of units annually.

A combat-tested platform moves to US soil

MAGURA drones gained international recognition after repeated strikes helped push much of Russia's Black Sea Fleet away from Crimea.

The MAGURA family has since expanded beyond strike missions to include aerial drone launches, mine countermeasures and anti-submarine sonar towing, with the MAGURA V7 variant also capable of engaging helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft.

RECONCRAFT builds combatant craft for US and partner special operations forces, while UFORCE developed the MAGURA program from the outset.

Under the partnership, both companies will contribute manufacturing equipment, materials and personnel to support the new production lines in both states.

"Partnering with UFORCE combines our manufacturing expertise and capabilities with the combat-proven autonomy of the MAGURA platform,” said Joe Silkowski, co-founder of RECONCRAFT.

This allows "us to deliver greater capability to American warfighters faster than developing a new system from the ground up."

The agreement follows increased Pentagon interest in lower-cost autonomous platforms after recent conflicts in Iran revealed how expensive drone warfare can be.

Combat experience drives broader international interest

Ukraine reported what it described as the world's first successful naval drone strike against an aerial target during late 2024 using a MAGURA V7 armed with AIM-9 Sidewinder missiles.

In April 2026, MAGURA unmanned surface vessels also took part in the US-Philippines Balikatan military exercise, reportedly sinking a target ship during a live-fire demonstration in the Luzon Strait.

“Today’s combat environments show that autonomous warfighting capabilities are a must-have,” said UFORCE CEO Oleg Rogynskyy.

“UFORCE is exceptionally positioned to deliver capabilities already tested by some of the world’s most sophisticated militaries under the most demanding battlefield conditions.”

"Working with RECONCRAFT, we will help ensure these proven autonomous capabilities become available to the US,” Sean Plankey, CEO of UFORCE USA, added.

“It's exactly the kind of industrial partnership the Arsenal of Democracy is designed to enable."

As of the time of writing, neither UFORCE nor RECONCRAFT has indicated how US production could influence the price of future MAGURA drones.

Production in the United States is typically costlier than overseas alternatives, a dynamic long observed across industries from electronics to textiles.

It is one reason American companies like Apple choose to build their gadgets outside the country, with lower manufacturing costs and established supply chains.

Whether this same cost pressure will raise the price of American-built MAGURA drones compared to their Ukrainian-made counterparts is not yet known.

Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections puzzle No. 1,142 for July 27.

• WEKApod 3 reaches exabyte capacity through software alongside dense Micron storage
• NeuralMesh 6 turns 441.5PB of flash into claimed exabyte-scale storage capacity
• WEKApod 3 relies on compression to exceed raw storage hardware limits

WEKA has launched WEKApod 3, a storage appliance line built specifically to run its new NeuralMesh 6 software at rack-scale density.

The flagship Prime Max configuration claims 1.1 exabytes of effective capacity within a single 56U rack, positioning it as the first system to cross that threshold.

Using Micron's 245.76 TB 6600 ION SSDs across roughly 1,800 drives per rack yields only 441.5 PB of raw hardware capacity, well under half an exabyte.

Software tiering closes the capacity gap

This means that the advertised exabyte-scale capacity depends heavily on data reduction technologies rather than installed flash alone.

That configuration packs 70 NVMe drives into a compact two-rack-unit, two-node chassis for maximum density.

Fingerprinting, similarity hashing, deduplication, and compression run by default across every deployment, with write overhead kept below 5%.

WEKA claims up to 6x capacity savings specifically on AI training data, backed by a contractual guarantee covering both reduction ratio and performance.

This is where NeuralMesh 6 and WEKApod 3 genuinely function as one integrated product rather than separate announcements.

AlloyFlash tiering automatically routes latency-sensitive operations to TLC flash while sending bulk-capacity data to QLC drives, which run roughly 30 to 40% cheaper per terabyte.

Per-rack throughput reaches 10.2 TB/s with 210 million IOPS, figures WEKA says beat the next-best publicly available alternative by 114% in throughput density.

Jeremy Werner, senior vice president at Micron's Core Data Center Business Unit, said the architecture paired with Micron's 245TB SSDs delivers 15.8 petabytes within a single 2U footprint.

Steve McDowell, chief analyst at NAND Research, argued that inference workloads at production scale demand different metrics than training, pointing to tokens per rack and cost per inference as the numbers buyers should now track.

Constraints force storage vendors to rethink hardware entirely

WEKA points to several structural pressures behind this hardware approach, starting with a documented drop in US data center construction in 2025.

Grid connection queues in major markets now stretch four to seven years before new capacity comes online.

Morgan Stanley has forecast a 49-gigawatt power shortfall across the United States extending through 2028, compounding existing NAND supply constraints.

WEKA argues that inefficient storage directly competes with GPUs for the same limited rack space and power budget.

By managing its own hardware supply chain instead of relying on third-party OEM channels, the company says it can offer more predictable pricing and delivery timelines.

NeuralMesh 6 will hit the shelves in the second half of 2026, with existing customers upgrading at no additional cost.

WEKApod Nitro, Prime, and Prime Max are already orderable through WEKA's distributor network, with deliveries beginning in fall 2026.

Via Storage Review

As a Batman fan, I was disappointed to learn last week that The Batman Part 2 has been delayed until February 18, 2028, another four-month wait to add to add to its last (delayed) intended release date of October 1, 2027. This latest holdup is actually the fourth time the long-awaited sequel to The Batman has been delayed, with its initial release originally set to be October 2025.

Thankfully, there are plenty of ways to enjoy Batman content at home while we eagerly await The Batman: Part 2’s 2028 release. From Christopher Nolan’s iconic Dark Knight Trilogy to the awesome Batman: The Animated Series, there are tons of choices. And there’s no better way to enjoy Batman’s many adventures than with a 4K Blu-ray. I’m a 4K Blu-ray fan and collector, so I’m always testing the latest releases for the Blu-ray Bounty and finding new discs to test the best TVs and best soundbars.

Below, I’ve picked three of my favorite Batman-related 4K Blu-rays, not just because they’re my personal picks, but because they’re also great examples to show what 4K can do, especially for your home theater.

The Batman

Dark, contrast-rich and detailed, The Batman is one of my top 4K Blu-rays (Image credit: Warner Bros. / Future)

Where else to better prepare for The Batman: Part 2 than with its predecessor, The Batman. Matt Reeve’s The Batman follows Bruce Wayne (Robert Pattison) in his second year as Batman, where he must face The Riddler (Paul Dano), a revolutionary who uses a series of riddles and puzzles to test Batman, as Riddler plans to expose Gotham’s corrupt government and elite.

The Batman has become one of my main 4K Blu-rays for testing TVs. Due to its low brightness, some TVs can really struggle to accurately display the movie, compromising its dark tones. But, there’s also plenty of excellent-looking scenes with powerful contrast, balancing light and dark tones, that can really show off a TV.

The opening 20 minutes of the movie itself is all a big demo-reel for contrast. From the dark subway platform illuminated by overhead lamps as Batman fights a gang of thugs, to where we first see Bruce decoding Riddler’s clues in the Batcave, The Batman delivers truly dynamic and strong contrast, which I've found look superb on the best OLED TVs in particular.

There’s also a chance to show a display’s shadow detail, with plenty of scenes making use of shadows to create a captivating image. The aforementioned subway scene is one of these, with truly dark shadows creating a foreboding atmosphere that fits the gloomy tone of the movie.

There’s excellent detail throughout, with crisp textures that look refined and lifelike. Close-up shots show scars, wrinkles and stubble on people’s faces with impressive clarity, and texture in environments, like Mayor Mitchell’s house or the Batcave, are given a near-3D level of detail.

The Batmobile scene from The Batman is a superb audio experience (Image credit: Warner Bros. / Future )

The Batman is an audio showcase as well as a visual one. The Batmobile chase has become a reference scene I use for showing off a sound system. The ignition of the Batmobile’s engines deliver room-rattling, powerful bass that through a subwoofer can create some serious roar. The 4K disc uses a Dolby Atmos soundtrack that creates an immersive and detailed sound.

As the Batmobile chases Penguin across a busy freeway, serving traffic and blaring horns are accurately mapped to the action. As Penguin fires a spray of bullets at the Batmobile, the sound glides around a surround system, as I found when using soundbars such as the talented Samsung HW-Q990H. There are plenty of Atmos effects too, as rain regularly falls throughout the movie, effectively using the height channels of any sound system.

The Dark Knight

The Dark Knight looks excellent in 4K, with crisp, detailed visuals throughout (Image credit: Warner Bros / Future )

Arguably the most popular Batman movie ever made, The Dark Knight is the second movie in Christopher Nolan’s trilogy. It’s one that’s stuck with me ever since I saw it as a teenager in theaters in 2008. Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) is a couple of years into his time as Batman and he faces his biggest challenge yet, when he squares off with the unpredictable and chaotic Joker (played brilliantly by Heath Ledger).

Unsurprisingly, where this disc shines is in its IMAX sequences. These IMAX scenes show impeccable detail and crisp, 3D-like textures. In the opening bank heist scene, every detail is refined, from the creases in the robbers’ masks, to the texture in buildings of the densely packed city. Oh, and don’t be surprised when the ratio changes from widescreen to fullscreen: that’s normal for IMAX on home media.

Black tones and shadow detail are excellent during the film's night scenes too (of which there are plenty), and they look superb on an OLED TV. Contrast is also strong, particularly during the prison escort scene. As trucks move under the freeway, the overhead lights balance well with the dark, shadowed areas of the tunnel to create dynamic contrast.

The Dark Knight's IMAX scenes look superb on 4K, plus the disc's DTS-HD 5.1 MA soundtrack sound fantastic (Image credit: Warner Bros / Future )

This disc is also an audio powerhouse. With a DTS-HD 5.1 MA soundtrack, there’s some fantastic detail. During the tunnel escort scene, the whir of Batman’s bike riding through the tunnel is mapped perfectly to every channel. As perspective changes, so does the sound. Bullets are precise, flying from the front to rear channels when the movie is from Batman’s point-of-view, and every individual effect is audible, such as flying debris and swerving tyres.

Bass throughout the movie is truly powerful. Bullets have serious impact and the roar of the Batmobile’s engines delivers tightly controlled, but hefty low-end that reverberated through our testing room when I watched.

The score is a showcase in and of itself, with superb separation across different channels of the Samsung HW-Q990C soundbar I was using. In the opening scene, the scratching strings came from the left rear, the ticking sound from the right, and the heavy bass exploded from the subwoofer. Crucially though, every element was perfectly balanced, within the score itself and with all the action.

Batman Forever

Batman Forever's use of color looks brilliant on 4K Blu-ray (Image credit: Warner Bros / Future )

This pick will raise eyebrows, I’m sure. But, honestly, Batman Forever is the Batman movie I grew up with and despite its very corny nature, I enjoy it. It scratches the exact part of my brain that occasionally craves a nostalgic Batman fix. The movie follows Batman (played by Val Kilmer) as he does battle with the Riddler (Jim Carrey) and Two-Face (Tommy Lee Jones) as they attempt to take over Gotham.

While this may be a surprising choice for a lot of people, this is a seriously good-looking 4K presentation. Batman Forever uses a lot of bold and vibrant colors, and in 4K, they really pop on screen. The green of the Riddler’s gaudy outfit and the purple of Two-Face’s injured side compliment each other well. There’s also a lot of neon-esuqe lighting used in the movie, with light tubes, red detail on Two-Face’s minion’s guns and the shimmering greens of Riddler’s hideout and event space. All these colors have a gorgeous punch that looks sharp and dynamic throughout the movie.

Shadows are used a lot, with characters often standing over lamps or in shaded rooms to create strong contrast in images. The LG G6 OLED on which I watched this movie in our testing room celebrates these rich and inky dark tones, with the leather of Batman’s armor showing nice depth, but also balancing well as the light reflects off it. Shadow detail is excellent too, with textures in dark areas on screen legible (yes, even the strange texture of Batman’s armor). Skin looks realistic in the many close-up shots used, too.

Shadows and dark tones also look excellent on the Batman Forever 4K Blu-ray (Image credit: Warner Bros / Future )

This 4K disc also supports Dolby Atmos. There’s some excellent use of height channels throughout, with the sound of helicopter Two-Face uses to escape in the intro coming from overhead as I watched. Explosions have plenty of meat to them, producing some lovely low-end rumble during the movie’s more action-packed scenes. The sound of the Batmobile’s engines firing is another great demo for the powerful bass in the mix.

More subtle details are also fully audible. The sound of Batman’s batarang as he throws it is precisely mapped, with the sound eagerly following its trajectory. Bullets have great punch to them, and again these are accurately posited within the surround channels. Speech is consistently clear throughout too, even during the most chaotic scenes. You might not necessarily expect this movie to be such an audio showcase, but it really is.

Samsung’s latest foldables have arrived with much fanfare. There’s the uniquely proportioned Galaxy Z Fold 8, which looks to be the precursor to the foldable iPhone Ultra later this year; the more conventional-looking Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra; and Samsung’s thinnest and lightest flip phone ever in the Galaxy Z Flip 8.

The first two of those three phones boast Samsung's new Flex Titanium display technology, which gives them thinner, flatter, and more robust displays than any Galaxy foldables before them. And having spent time with the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra already, I’ve been impressed with the progress Samsung has made in reducing the appearance of the crease, specifically.

From front-on, you can hardly make out the crease at all, and at an angle, it’s less obvious than on the Galaxy Z Fold 7. Running my finger across the middle of the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra's display, there’s only a very subtle undulation running down the center. It’s so subtle that I’d wager you’ll stop registering that it's even there after spending a few weeks with the new phone.

And yet, for how impressed I am with the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra’s display, I know there’s already something better available.

Enter the contenderThe Oppo Find N6 (left) and Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra (right)FutureThe Oppo Find N6 (left) and Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra (right)Future

The Oppo Find N6 launched in March 2026, four months earlier than Samsung’s Z8 series, and the big selling point was the claim that Oppo had managed to remove the crease in the foldable screen entirely.

Now, while that isn’t strictly true — at some acute angles, you can still see the crease — what is pretty amazing is the fact you can run your finger across the entire 8.12-inch display and not feel any interruption on the part of the screen that bends when folded.

I’ve been fortunate enough to have used most foldables, including reviewing the original Galaxy Fold, and the screen crease has always been there.

Most of the time, when you’re looking straight-on at the screen, it does disappear as your eyes focus on the content, but have the light hit at a certain angle, or run your finger across, and you’re immediately reminded of the minor imperfection.

I was stunned when I first got my hands on the Oppo Find N6. Swiping my finger back and forth across the middle of the display and feeling nothing, I thought, 'This is the next frontier of foldables.'

The crease on the Oppo Find N6FutureThe crease on the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8Future

To make sure I wasn’t just looking at the Oppo through rose-tinted specs, I took it to the Samsung preview event so I could experience it side-by-side with the Z Fold 8 Ultra. And sure enough, the Oppo continued to impress with a screen that is smoother and flatter than Samsung’s, but not by much.

Which one is right for you?

The Oppo Find N6 (left) and Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra (right) (Image credit: Future)

Make no mistake, these are two very accomplished, flagship foldables. Both have similarly sized exterior and interior screens, and both are powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra is thinner, lighter, and actually readily available in multiple markets. It also has a brighter display (a peak brightness of 3,000 nits vs 2,500 nits on the Oppo) and the firm’s Galaxy AI, Now Brief, and Now Nudge features on top of Google’s Gemini assistant.

The Oppo Find N6 has the smoothest, flattest foldable display, an edge in the camera hardware, a bigger battery and faster charging — yet its availability is limited to just a few Asian markets at the time of writing.

So, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra wins by default, which doesn’t feel particularly satisfying as a conclusion, but this shouldn’t diminish the progress that’s been made.

The main issue with foldable displays has been conquered. The next major hurdle we need manufacturers to clear is price.

The Z Fold 8 Ultra is available for pre-order for a lofty $2,099.99 / £1,899 / AU$2,999, which makes it Samsung’s most expensive foldable ever (if we ignore the limited-run TriFold). The Z Fold 8 (from $1,899.99 / £1,699 / AU$2,699) and Z Flip 8 (from $1,199.99 / £1,149 / AU$1,949) are cheaper, but they’re still not cheap.

So, if a manufacturer can find a way to deliver the same premium features for under $1,200/ £1,200 / AU$1,500, it could open the foldable floodgates.

The contentious issue of data centers — and their impact on the environment and local communities — continues to make headlines, as the need for more computing power comes up against concerns about whether that extra capacity is worth the cost.

One of the natural resources that data centers need is water, and plenty of it, to cool down the chips running calculations. For regions already living through rising temperatures and climate change, that's a big ask, and it's understandably getting a lot of attention.

It's also something the tech giants building these data centers are aware of, and Google has just announced a strategy for using water more responsibly: "how we build is just as important as what we build," Google says. Here's what the plans are, and the size of the problem we're dealing with.

Data center water usage

Data centers are nothing new of course, and are needed for everything from hosting this TechRadar website to delivering movies on Netflix. With the rise of AI, however, there's been a need for more data center capacity, and a higher level of performance from data centers — which all adds to the amount of water needed for cooling.

If you find data center water usage figures confusing, you're certainly not alone. There's a lot of variation in the statistics used to measure it, for all kinds of reasons: data centers water usage can vary significantly from site to site, for example, and there's also the question of what counts as water usage.

Should the water needed to generate the electricity to power a data center be included, or not? What standard is used to measure water 'lost' to the environment if it's returned to the local water cycle? These questions are answered differently in different reports, hence the discrepancies in figures — and the problem is compounded by the fact that many data centers simply don't report their water usage at all.

Data center water usage is in the spotlight (Image credit: May Cloud/Unsplash)

While these figures are a little out of date now, a 2021 study put direct (on-site) data center water usage at 1.7 billion liters per day in the US, compared to a national water consumption of 1,218 billion liters per day — so that's less than 1%. As is often pointed out, golf course usage is about four times more.

A few points worth noting: that doesn't account for indirect water usage, and data center demand is rising fast (unlike, say, water for golf courses). Most importantly though, the significant impacts of data center installations are felt at the local level, not the national level. The largest data centers can use up the same amount of water as a town of 50,000 people, which has clear implications for the people in that town.

Many data centers are being built in water-stressed areas, and then there are the other factors to consider, like electricity demand and noise pollution. While water usage for data centers at a national level may be a small fraction, that doesn't mean it isn't a major problem at a local level, and the problem is getting worse.

What Google is proposing

There are five commitments that Google is making. First, more water will be added back into the system than is consumed by Google data centers by 2030, mostly by separate projects looking at more efficient water use and reduced waste (a little bit like planting trees to offset plane trips).

Second, the company is going to invest hundreds of millions of dollars into water infrastructure, to make sure areas where data centers are located are kept well supplied. Third, Google says it will use air-cooled or recycled water data centers in places where water is particularly scarce (these solutions use more electricity and are more expensive, but they don't demand as much water).

Fourth, Google is committing to being transparent when it comes to the water use of its data centers — something that is by no means standard across the industry at the moment. Fifthly and finally, Google says it will "pursue alternative and reclaimed solutions to protect water resources", including looking at reclaimed wastewater.

Google is using water stewardship projects to offset data center demands (Image credit: Google)

"We think it’s really important to sort of put a blueprint out there that communities can reference," Google's Ben Townsend told The Verge. "So if somebody else comes and says, 'we'd like to build a data center there', a community can say, 'well, here are five different things that really put the community and the watershed first... are you doing these?'"

Water usage is only part of the data center story, and it's a story that's becoming increasingly complex and multi-faceted. But positive action (or at least the promise of positive action) is better than nothing, and this may help to shift the industry towards more responsible and sustainable infrastructure.

Turning around public sentiment might be more difficult than cutting down on water usage though. While the hype from AI companies continues, and huge changes are being seen in areas such as software coding, there are still a significant number of people who aren't keen on generative AI and what it brings with it — even before getting to the issue of how many natural resources it uses up.

• Cloudflare finds kick-off time, not match importance, drove the biggest World Cup traffic swings
• Overnight matches more than doubled normal traffic in some countries, while daytime fixtures barely registered
• The tournament's biggest internet moment ironically wasn't the final but Argentina's 3-1 quarter-final win over Switzerland, which moved global traffic by a factor of 1.26x.

Although Spain's 1-0 extra-time win over Argentina closed out the FIFA 2026 World Cup, the tournament's biggest traffic pulls actually came days before.

Cloudflare has published its own analytics, tracking the likes of HTTP traffic, DNS, and security trends across a network spanning more than 330 points of presence in over 120 countries across June and July 2026.

While the analytics confirm some widely held assumptions about the World Cup, it also demolishes others, as it found it was not the final which moved the internet most, but a quarter-final involving Argentina.

A World Cup with plenty of interesting insights

Per Cloudflare's data, the Argentina vs Switzerland quarter-final topped every other fixture with a deviation factor of about 1.26, while the final ranked eighth.

Somewhat unsurprisingly, Argentina, the defending champions, also moved the most traffic during their run, at 1.18x that of a typical country, followed by France at 1.16x.

Matches played between roughly midnight and 8 am local time produced the biggest deviations, in some cases more than doubling normal traffic. The reason is straightforward: those are hours when almost nobody is online, so fans staying up or waking early to watch represent a large proportional swing.

Matches falling between 9am and mid-afternoon barely registered, since the people watching would have been online regardless. Early-evening kickoffs produced a smaller secondary lift, most visible on weekdays, as matches kept people connected during hours when usage would normally taper off.

(Image credit: Marvin Ibo Guengoer - GES Sportfoto/Getty Images)

Bosnia and Herzegovina illustrated both ends of this. When the national team played at 2 am local time, traffic at points more than doubled. When they played in the evening, traffic fell to around 70% of typical levels as people put their devices down and simply watched.

The clearest demonstration came from Brazil's 2-1 Round of 32 win over Japan on June 29. The same 90 minutes fell during ordinary waking hours in Brazil and in the dead of night in Tokyo. Japanese traffic ran at roughly double normal levels; Brazilian traffic sat about a quarter below normal. Two nearly parallel curves, opposite sides of the baseline, same match.

Grouping countries by the shape of their match-day traffic curves produced three clusters, and the split reveals something about how people actually watch.

The largest group (44 countries across 101 matches) saw traffic rise during halftime and hydration breaks, the familiar pattern of everyone reaching for their phone the moment play stops. A smaller group of eight countries across 18 matches did the exact opposite, with traffic falling during those same pauses.

The explanation turned out to be streaming. That second cluster (Algeria, Tunisia, Jordan, Egypt and DR Congo) showed a traffic mix dominated by multimedia and streaming requests, meaning a large share of viewers were watching the match online rather than on broadcast television.

Notably, hydration breaks had little effect in the streaming cluster but a clear one elsewhere. Cloudflare's reading is that a viewer won't close a stream for a three-minute cooling break but will for a fifteen-minute interval. In the majority of countries, though, even those three minutes were enough to produce a visible traffic bump: Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina showed the effect most strongly.

Requests to gambling industry sites rose overall from the opening game onward. The more interesting change was structural. Before the tournament, betting traffic followed a pronounced weekly rhythm; afterward it flattened into a near-constant profile, a consequence, Cloudflare suggests, of matches running at near-daily regularity for a month.

At the scale Cloudflare operates, it is genuinely difficult for any single event to leave a visible mark on aggregate global traffic. That the 2026 World Cup managed to do so is the clearest measure of how much the tournament meant to people online.

GameSir G8+ Bluetooth: One-minute review

The GameSir G8+ Bluetooth is the wireless mobile controller in the G8 family and bolsters compatibility from being simply mobile, to the Nintendo Switch, tablets, and PC. The same full-size grips, Hall effect joysticks and triggers, and programmable back buttons that made the wired versions of the G8 so impressive remain, and at $79.99 / £79.99 / AU$129, so does the price.

On paper, you’d think it’s a no-brainer to go wireless, particularly with the addition of a six-axis gyroscope adding to that strong core experience, but the wireless freedom you gain comes with meaningful trade-offs. Noticeably, the lack of passthrough charging and the lack of a headphone jack, both obvious casualties of the move to Bluetooth.

More importantly for iPhone gamers, the GameSir iOS app doesn't recognize the controller, which means the stick calibration, dead zone tuning, hair-trigger configuration, and back button mapping that make the G8 Plus so compelling as an option on other platforms go completely to waste. The Bluetooth connection itself also feels less locked-in than the wired experience on iPhone, with small stick movements occasionally getting lost along the way.

On Android and PC, the experience is significantly better. The app works, the back buttons are configurable, and there’s haptic feedback on offer as well (albeit with patchy support, particularly on mobile). For the first time, you can even use the G8 Plus with your Nintendo Switch. But if an iPhone is your primary device, the wired GameSir G8+ MFi delivers a more complete, more reliable experience for the same money.

(Image credit: Future)GameSir G8+ Bluetooth: Price and availability

• List price: $79.99 / £79.99 / AU$129
• Available from GameSir and major retailers
• Same price as the rest of the G8 range

The middle sibling, the GameSir G8+ Bluetooth launched in mid-2024 at $79.99 / £79.99 / AU$129, matching the rest of the G8 family.

Each variant has pros and cons, so the consistent price puts the onus firmly on the buyer to decide which set of trade-offs works best for their setup. GameSir has also released a couple of special edition color variants in some regions, including a Hulk and a Thanos Edition, which will set you back slightly more.

At this price, it remains highly competitive against the Backbone One 2nd Gen and is significantly cheaper than the Razer Kishi Ultra, though the Bluetooth limitations on iPhone mean it's not the straightforward recommendation the wired models are.

GameSir G8+ Bluetooth: Specs

GameSir G8+ Bluetooth

Price

$79.99 / £79.99 / AU$129

Dimensions

9.06 x 4.21 x 2.17 in / 230 x 107 x 55mm

Weight

0.69 lbs / 314g

Connection

Bluetooth 5.3, Wired USB-C (PC), Wireless Dongle (sold separately)

Compatibility

iOS, Android, Nintendo Switch, PC, macOS

Software

GameSir App (Android only)

GameSir G8+ Bluetooth: Design and features

• Comfortable, console controller-like ergonomics shared with the rest of the G8 range
• Bluetooth versatility across five platforms, but mode switching is a hassle
• Special edition designs are only available in certain markets

The G8+ Bluetooth is the first and only member of the G8 family that cuts the cord entirely. Wireless freedom and the versatility it brings are the entire pitch, and it helps broaden the G8’s platform compatibility too.

Unlike the original G8 Galileo and the G8+ MFi, which are limited to mobile only, this controller works with iOS, Android, the Nintendo Switch, PC (via wired USB-C or Bluetooth, with a wireless dongle sold separately), and macOS. Console gaming aside, in theory, that means the G8+ is ready to follow you anywhere on your gaming journey.

The reality, unfortunately, is a little more complicated. Each platform requires its own Bluetooth pairing mode, triggered by holding different button combinations on the controller. If you're a one-device person, this is a simple pair-once-and-forget situation, and you can skip to the next paragraph.

If you're hopping between platforms, as I was during testing, it gets tedious fast. Switching modes caused regular reconnection failures with devices the controller had previously been paired with, and keeping track of which mode goes with which platform isn't intuitive. It's workable, and we’re in first-world problem territory here for sure, but it's not the seamless experience it should be.

FutureFuture

On the plus side, turning it on couldn’t be simpler because stretching the controller open automatically powers it on and letting it close fully again powers it down. This isn’t a life-changing feature but certainly a nice convenience that worked reliably throughout testing.

A 1000mAh battery sits split across both grips, charging via USB-C. The GameSir app tracks each side independently, which is how I discovered the left and right grips drain at slightly different rates despite charging as a single unit. I saw a couple of percent drop over half an hour of active use, and the rated eight-hour battery life seems about right based on that.

The black colorway is a clean, classic look that feels more like a traditional controller than the grey and grey-and-white of its wired siblings. GameSir has also released rather jazzy Hulk- and Thanos-themed special editions in some regions, making this the only G8 variant with cosmetic variety, though they’ll set you back a little more for the paint job.

The build quality and overall shape match the rest of the family; it’s well designed and well built with the same full-size, Xbox-like grips, textured backs and a solid chassis. It’s comfortable to hold for extended sessions, and while at 11oz/314g it's the heaviest of the three on paper, the balance is good, and the weight didn't register during testing.

Case compatibility is a mixed bag, as is often the case with mobile controller grips. Without a USB-C connector going into the phone, there's no port angle to stress about, thankfully, but the physical cradle can still be tight.

My iPhone 17 Pro fit with a slim case on but sat at a noticeable angle towards the left side, which saw it protrude more than I’d like. There is a rubber pad on the phone deck that appears to serve the same purpose as the G8+ MFi's removable magnetic panel for camera bump clearance, but this one is glued down rather than magnetically attached.

GameSir’s marketing suggests this is still meant to be removed to accommodate camera bumps, but it really didn't feel like it wanted to come off, and I wasn't willing to force it. If you do take it off, don’t expect it to go back on neatly and expect to trap plenty of dust in the residue.

The D-pad shares the same feel as the rest of the G8 family: slightly mushy initial movement but with a clicky, short-travel feel once you commit to an input. Swappable ABXY caps and thumbstick caps carry over, too, as do the three alternate stick options, and they’re easily adjusted by popping off the magnetic faceplates.

Once again, however, GameSir only includes one of each of these replaceable sticks, so you can’t run the same option on both sides. One annoyance that cropped up here for the first time on any G8 I’ve tested: on iOS, the controller connects as a DualShock controller, so all on-screen UI elements in compatible games display PlayStation button labels.

GameSir doesn't include any PlayStation-legended alternative keycaps in the box, so you’ll need to remember that triangle is Y, for example.

(Image credit: Future)GameSir G8+ Bluetooth: Performance

• Hall effect inputs are excellent and responsive, but Bluetooth feels a step behind wired
• iPhone users lose app support, back buttons, and customization entirely
• Vibration motors remain largely a spec-sheet feature with no real-world use

As you’d expect, the core gameplay experience with the G8+ Bluetooth mirrors the other options in the G8 range. The Hall effect thumbsticks and triggers are smooth and precise with a high level of sensitivity.

Resistance in these is just right for my taste; I found I was able to confidently hold the sticks at a midpoint for fine adjustments without the sense that the stick was itching to return to its starting point. The triggers offer full analog travel with a responsive hair-trigger mode (assuming you can enable it, more on that shortly). In analog mode, I felt like I had a nice level of control and was able to modulate the throttle in Forza Horizon 6 with plenty of detail.

That said, the Bluetooth connection introduced a subtle but noticeable difference in feel I hadn’t experienced before with a GameSir G8. I couldn’t quite quantify it, but I didn't feel as locked-in using the G8+ Wireless as I did with the wired equivalents.

It's not consistent, obvious latency, or any kind of genuine stutter or interference; it's more that small thumbstick movements occasionally felt like they were getting lost along the way. Everything was perfectly playable, and my skill as a gamer is certainly not high enough for this to be a make-or-break thing, but if you're serious about your gaming, the wired experience is definitely tighter.

(Image credit: Future)

The biggest issue I came across, and the one that separates this controller from the rest of the G8 family, is the iPhone experience. It’s somewhat lacking. Because iOS sees the controller as a DualShock 4, the GameSir app doesn’t recognize the G8+ Bluetooth. That means no stick calibration, no deadzone adjustment, no hair-trigger toggling, and no back button mapping.

The two rear programmable buttons, labeled M1 and M2, ship unbound by default, and there's no way to configure them on iOS. They don't appear in the iPhone's native controller settings either because iOS thinks this is a DualShock 4, which doesn't have back buttons. On macOS, I was able to rebind other buttons through native system options, but back button mapping wasn't available there either for the same reason.

On Android, the picture is much better. The app recognized the controller (though admittedly it took a couple of attempts at first), and once connected, all the usual calibration, deadzone, hair-trigger, and back button configuration options were available. Gaming on the POCO X5 Pro was a smooth experience, with Fortnite and Call of Duty Mobile both running well after the usual game-side controller recognition quirks.

PC gaming was the most pleasant surprise. Connected via either USB-C or Bluetooth, the controller was recognized immediately as a PlayStation 4 controller and was fully mapped out of the box for both local and cloud gaming. Gyro tracking worked here too, which is a nice bonus for games that support it. On macOS, things were less smooth.

The controller initially tried to connect as a "GameSir G8" which required manual Steam configuration and then wasn't recognized in-game. Reverting to DualShock mode fixed the issue, and games worked with automated mapping after that.

Shoudl you buy the GameSir G8+ Bluetooth?Buy it if...

You're an Android user who wants one controller for phone, Switch, and PC
The Bluetooth versatility and full GameSir app support on Android make the G8+ Bluetooth a seriously flexible, wireless option. If you play across multiple platforms and want a single controller to handle them all, this could well be it.

You value wireless convenience over raw precision
No connections mean a simpler experience and fewer points of failure. It also brings a wider variety of devices into play.

Don't buy it if...

You're primarily an iPhone user
While it does work natively for games that play nicely with a physical controller, the lack of GameSir app support, non-functional back buttons, and DualShock workaround make the iPhone experience feel like an afterthought. The wired G8+ MFi is the better choice for the same money and with little drawback.

You want the tightest possible input response
Don’t get me wrong, the Bluetooth connection is perfectly playable, but it doesn't feel as precise and instantly responsive as the wired G8 controllers. If competitive precision matters to you, go wired.

Also consider...

Trying to work out if the GameSir G8+ Bluetooth is the one to get? Here's how it compares to other, similar controller grips.

GameSir G8+ Bluetooth

GameSir G8+ MFi Galileo MFi

Scuf Nomad

Price

$79.99 / £79.99 / AU$129.99

$79.99 / £79.99 / AU$129.99

$99.99 / £89.99 / around AU$179.99

Dimensions

9.06 x 4.21 x 2.17in / 230 x 107 x 55mm

9.02 x 4.20 x 2.13in / 229 x 106.8 x 54.2mm

6.93 x 3.70 x 1.34in / 176 x 93.98 x 34.03mm

Weight

10.72oz / 314g

10.72oz / 304g

0.5 lbs / 228 g

Connection

Bluetooth 5.3, Wired (USB-C), Dongle (sold separately)

Wired (USB-C)

Wireless (Bluetooth)

Compatibility

Android, iOS, Nintendo Switch, PC, macOS

Android, iOS

iOS

Software

GameSir App (Android only)

GameSir App

Scuf Nomad Companion App (iOS)

GameSir G8+ MFi
The G8+ MFi is the wired, Apple-friendly equivalent from the same family. It offers MFi certification, full GameSir app support on both iOS and Android, passthrough charging, a headphone jack, and functional back buttons on every platform. If you don't need wireless or Switch/PC compatibility, it's the more complete package.

For more information, check out our full GameSir G8+ MFi review

Scuf Nomad
The Scuf Nomad is an iPhone-only Bluetooth alternative with a lighter build, 16 hours of battery life, and an app that actually works on iOS. It's more compact, handles phone cases better, and has configurable rear paddles. The trade-off is no Android, Switch, or PC support and a higher price tag.

For more information, check out our full Scuf Nomad review

How I tested the GameSir G8+ Bluetooth

• Tested with multiple devices
• A wide variety of games tried
• Compared to other mobile controllers

I spent several days testing across iOS, Android, PC, and macOS, with a focus on comparing the experience to the wired G8 and G8+ MFi I'd previously reviewed.

I tested on an iPhone 17 Pro and POCO X5 Pro 5G, playing Fortnite, Call of Duty Mobile, and Forza Horizon 6 via Xbox Cloud Gaming on mobile, and Stardew Valley via Steam on PC. I evaluated Bluetooth connectivity, app compatibility, back button functionality, latency feel, vibration motors, and cross-platform mode switching.

Read more about how we test

First reviewed June-July 2026