Technology

• GitHub to launch two-tier (public and private) bug bounty schemes form July 27 2026
• Change comes in response to rise in lower-quality, AI-generated reports
• VIP researchers will earn around 3-4x more per report

GitHub has confirmed plans to evolve its bug bounty program into a two-tier system, which will come into force for reports submitted on or after July 27, 2026.

Under the new scheme, the Microsoft-owned coding platform will add a lower-paying public program that's available to the wider research community, under a higher-paying invitation-only program.

Product Security Engineer Catherine Cassell explained that the change comes in response to a growing backlog of low-effort, low-quality and AI-generated reports.

GitHub complains about AI-generated bug reports

For the new public program, GitHub will replace payout ranges with a single payment for each severity, spanning $250, $2,000, $5,000 and $10,000 for low, medium, high and critical. Cassell said this would help researchers know in advance what a valid finding could be worth, and it would also give insiders less of a headache having to decide where a report sits within a range.

Notably, the payouts are much lower than before, with the previous ranges paying out $500-$1,000, $2,000-$5,000, $5,000-$20,000 and $10,000-$30,000.

Invited VIP researchers under the second plan will earn around 3-4x more than researchers under the other scheme, depending on bug severity.

GitHub is also adding a HackerOne signal requirement for new researchers, giving them four opportunities to "establish a track record" – likely another response to rising AI-generated reports, which are typically of lower value.

"We want to build a program that attracts the research we value, creates an experience that reflects how seriously we take this work, and upholds the trust researchers place in us every time they submit a report," Cassell concluded.

Razer Kiyo V2 webcam: Two-minute review

Razer is a household name in the webcam space, with its Kiyo brand being one of the most popular choices for streamers and PC gamers. The latest Kiyo V2 is another sterling example of Razer's commitment to premium build quality and high-end components, and for the most part, it's a great product.

Delivering either 4K recording at 30 frames per second or 1080p at 60, the Kiyo V2 captures quality video with a high degree of customization via the Razer Synapse software. It's fairly pricey (don't expect to see it on our list of the best cheap webcams), but for a 4K webcam with this sort of build quality and feature set, it's actually quite competitively priced.

(Image credit: Future)

Coming in black, white, and pink colorways (mine is the pink 'Quartz' model), the Razer Kiyo V2 is an extremely well-constructed product. It's durable and pleasingly tactile. The base can be extended and rotated to capture the perfect angle, and it easily clasps onto any monitor; I tested it both with the two monitors in my home desktop setup and my laptop, and it snapped into place with no issues. It's a little heavy, however, so laptops with flimsier display hinges might struggle.

The design is a departure from previous Razer webcams, which typically opted for a singular large casing surrounding the lens construction. Instead, it's a smaller lens housing with an oblong body, immediately reminiscent of the Logitech MX Brio 705.

Not everything has been abandoned with this new design, however. The lens housing, like previous Kiyo models, includes a pleasingly tactile rim that can be twisted to close the built-in physical privacy shutter. I'm always a fan of privacy solutions like this, though given the large size of the glass lens face, it would've been nice to see a lens cap included to keep it dust- and scratch-free.

(Image credit: Future)

It would potentially be nice if the webcam could be detached from the attached mount in order to fit it to a different mount; many content creators will have their own video setups and may want to use their own camera stands. However, the mount does have a threaded screw connector on the base, letting you fit it atop most industry-standard camera mounts.

In terms of video quality, it's great. 4K video is sharp and colorful, and even zoomed in, I found I looked perfectly detailed in the footage I recorded. Color reproduction is great, and the camera performed well in a range of light conditions. Low-light performance resulted in some mild oversaturation, but I've seen worse performance in more expensive cameras. It also supports HDR, though only at 30fps even at lower resolutions.

The autofocus works well, but I found it was a little slow to adjust if I quickly moved closer or further from the camera. Having tested quite a few webcams in my time, I feel that a webcam in this price range should be a bit snappier to focus.

That big lens means that the default field of view is huge. A 93-degree FOV means that the Kiyo V2 is liable to capture not just yourself but the entire room you're in, but thankfully it's easy enough to tweak this via the zoom and crop tools in Razer's Synapse software.

(Image credit: Future)

On the topic of Synapse, it's still a frankly rather clunky piece of software, but for webcam users who want granular control over their hardware, it does a solid job. In addition to zoom and crop tools, you can also manually tweak the autofocus, auto exposure, and color balance.

The Kiyo V2's software-side feature set also includes a selection of AI-powered tools, which are covered prominently in the marketing material for the webcam. These include dynamic light correction and noise reduction, but these features already existed in Synapse, and to be honest, I'm not entirely clear on what AI brings to the table here.

(Image credit: Future)

Look, Razer: I get it. I'm sure there's tremendous pressure from your shareholders to make everything AI-powered, because it's the buzzword du jour. But anyone who actually wants AI in their webcam (for whatever inane reason) likely isn't going to be better served by the Kiyo V2 than any other cutting-edge 'AI' webcam, like the Obsbot Tiny SE.

One element that does actually benefit from the involvement of machine learning is the auto-framing feature, which uses AI-powered head-tracking to keep you in the center of the frame even if you move around. However, since the Kiyo V2 lacks a mechanized gimbal, it can't alter the frame while fully zoomed out and can only track you so far; it can keep you in center frame if you move by a foot or two, but it won't follow you around a room.

On the bright side, you don't actually have to use Synapse and the AI features at all. The Kiyo V2 works great straight out of the box; just plug in the bundled cable, and you're off to the races, assuming you're happy with the default wide-angle FOV.

(Image credit: Future)

Now, for the only real problem I have with the Razer Kiyo V2. It comes with a USB-C to USB-C cable in the box (the one with my review unit is pink, like the webcam itself), and as far as I can tell, you have to use this cable to access the full 4K functionality of the camera.

Considering that the cable is USB-C-exclusive, you'll need a free USB-C 3.0 port to make full use of the Kiyo V2. I tested it out with a USB-C to USB-A adapter, as well as using one of my own USB-C cables; no dice. It's frustrating, because USB-C ports can be in short supply for users connecting multiple peripherals, and the bundled cable is a bit short and inflexible.

(Image credit: Future)

Lastly, the built-in microphone is... fine, I guess. It's good enough for video calls, but anyone aiming to produce professional-level video content should definitely use a proper standalone microphone.

It's fair to say that the Razer Kiyo V2 deserves a spot among the best webcams on the market. There are a few niggling issues, but nothing that should ruin the experience for a gamer who wants a high-end webcam. For hardcore content creators, it remains a sound choice, but you should be aware of the downsides.

Razer Kiyo V2 webcam: Price & availability

• How much does it cost? $149.99 / £149.99 / AU$279.95
• When is it available? Available now
• Where can you get it? The US, UK, and Australia

At $149.99 / £149.99 / AU$279.95, the Razer Kiyo V2 is significantly cheaper than the brand's own older Kiyo Pro webcam. If you're looking for a high-quality 4K cam, it's not an unreasonable price.

Sure, you could easily get a cheaper 4K webcam, but you'll need to risk it on a less established brand, and you almost certainly won't be getting the same rich feature set seen in the Kiyo V2. Similarly effective models from other premium brands like Logitech and Elgato will cost a comparable amount, so I'm pleased to say that despite its reputation for pricey hardware, Razer got the price right this time around.

Razer Kiyo V2 webcam: Specs

Razer Kiyo V2

Price:

$149.99 / £149.99 / AU$279.95

Supported resolutions:

4Kp at 30fps, 1440p at 60fps, 1080p at 60fps

Sensor:

8.3 MP Sony STARVIS

Field of view:

93 degrees

Connection:

USB-C

Features:

Digital zoom, AI auto-framing, AI autofocus, dynamic color correction, HDR, mechanical privacy shutter

Software Integration:

Razer Synapse

Should you buy the Razer Kiyo V2 webcam?

(Image credit: Future)Razer Kiyo V2 webcam report card

Value

The Razer Kiyo V2 is still fairly expensive, but it's reasonably priced for a high-end 4K webcam and much better value than the previous Kiyo Pro.

4 / 5

Design

A fresh chassis design that retains the excellent physical privacy shutter of older Kiyos, but the forced USB-C is annoying.

4 / 5

Performance

Audio is merely decent, but the picture quality and color balance are fantastic and Razer Synapse packs a ton of extra features.

4 / 5

Avarage rating

A high-quality webcam with a broad feature set and more competitive pricing, the Razer Kiyo V2 is a great product with only a few small flaws.

4 / 5

Buy it if...

You want 4K
At this price point, the Kiyo V2 is competitive within the 4K webcam space - you could find cheaper ones, but only if you're willing to accept a drop in quality.

You need wide-angled recording
If you're aiming to capture a larger space (or multiple video participants), the 93-degree FOV of the Kiyo V2 is perfect.

Don't buy it if...

You're short on ports
Since it needs to use the bundled USB-C cable to access full 4K recording, the Kiyo V2 is a poor choice for anyone who already has lots of ports in use on their PC.

You're on a budget
At $149.99 / £149.99 / AU$279.95, the Kiyo V2 is still pretty darn expensive, even if it's far better value for money than the older Kiyo Pro.

Razer Kiyo V2 webcam: Also consider

Insta360 Link 2C
Our current top pick of the 4K webcams available on the market right now, the Link 2C offers superior low-light performance and autofocus while also offering the same high-quality video and AI features as the Kiyo V2.

Read our full Insta360 Link 2C review

Obsbot Tiny 2
The Tiny 2 from Obsbot delivers 4K video along with AI-powered tracking via its mechanical gimbal mount. For those who want a high-end video experience, this is a great pick.

Read our full Obsbot Tiny 2 review

How I tested the Razer Kiyo V2 webcam

• Tested the webcam in video calls and recording
• Compared image quality to other webcams
• 8+ years of experience reviewing computer hardware

I replaced my usual webcam (the Insta360 Link 2 4K) with the Razer Kiyo V2 for two weeks, using it for all my normal video calls during the workday. I also tested it in various different lighting conditions by recording video separately and comparing the clips side by side. Naturally, I installed (well, reinstalled) Razer Synapse to properly test out all the software-side features as well.

I've been testing and reviewing PC hardware for more than eight years, starting at the PC-building hobbyist magazine Maximum PC before making the leap to TechRadar's computing team. I put all of my knowledge and experience behind each and every one of my product reviews, so you can be assured that you're getting an informed and bias-free judgement.

Read more about how we test

• First reviewed July 2026

• Spotify is rumored to launch its own song ID tool
• Changes in the Android app were spotted, with references to 'Identify a song’, ‘listening’, and ‘analyzing’
• It could add a level of convenience when adding identified songs to a playlist, just like Apple Music's Shazam shortcut

There’s one thing that Spotify has over Apple Music, and that’s music discovery features, though the latter service has the edge when it comes to music recognition — but that could all change soon.

In a recent investigation from Android Authority, the outlet found lines of code in the latest version of the Spotify app which suggest the platform is working on its own song identification feature. Though this has only been found in Spotify’s Android app, we wouldn’t rule out the possibility of it launching on iOS.

As it is with every rumor, we’re taking this with a pinch of salt until more information surfaces, but Android Authority’s findings present some pretty convincing evidence, showing text that reads ‘Identify a song’, ‘listening’, and ‘analyzing’. It seems the feature will need access to your device’s microphone, and will display pop-ups when a song can’t be identified.

Essentially, it sounds like Spotify is developing its own in-house version of Shazam, which could act as a band-aid for many music fans out there who, like myself, rely on third-party music-recognition software to put titles to songs.

When Apple bought Shazam in 2018, it thrust the music-recognition platform right into the iOS experience. Instead of needing to use the standalone Shazam app, you can add the ‘Recognize Music’ tab to your iOS Control Center for easier access, and Shazam will be right there at your fingertips.

It also works wonders for quickly adding songs to your Apple Music library. When you Shazam a song, a pop-up reading ‘Add to Apple Music?’ appears and all of your tracks will be sent to your library. Until now, this level of convenience wasn't available for Spotify users.

Apple Music subscribers can add Shazam-identified songs to their Library through the handy Control Center button on iOS (Image credit: Future)

Since Apple took ownership of Shazam, Apple Music and its users have greatly benefited, but listeners who use Spotify, Tidal, and the rest of the best music streaming services have been missing out. Not all was lost however; last year Shazam rolled out a feature where each song you identified using the app would be automatically added to a special playlist in your Spotify account titled ‘My Shazam Tracks’.

I have to say, this small but effective feature has become one of my most-used tools for keeping tabs on new music, but if you Shazam quite a lot of songs from different genres, it creates a very messy-looking playlist.

Even after my Shazamed songs have been added to ‘My Shazam Tracks’, I still go back into the playlist to individually move songs into my other playlists — which is why a native Spotify song ID tool would go a long way, and would be even better if you can add it to your iOS Control Center.

Just think about it: you’re out and about and a song starts playing which you know you’ve definitely heard before, but can’t remember for the life of you what it’s called or who sings it. A simple swipe down to the Control Center and a tap of a button gives you the song title in seconds, and then it directs you to your Spotify Library where you can add your recently-discovered song to a specific playlist.

We’ve reached out to Spotify for a comment, who replied with the following:

"We're always exploring ways to improve our product and deliver more value to users, but we don't comment on speculation around possible new features and don't have anything new to share at this time".

• Prime Video and Netflix are planning new AI-generated homepages
• Netflix revealed its 'GenPage' tests ahead of a new Prime Video report
• Viewers aren't convinced that homepages are moving in the right direction

You're about to see a lot more generative AI in your streaming apps: Netflix has posted details of testing that it's doing with generative AI on its homepage, while Reuters reports that Amazon Prime Video is set for an AI-driven overhaul as well.

Starting with Netflix, the company has revealed it's working on a way of using generative AI to do a lot of the heavy lifting on the app homepage. That includes figuring out which recommendations each user should see, adapting to feedback and user behavior over time, and combining movies, shows, games, podcasts, and live events in the best way.

It starts with a prompt — "Given everything we know about this user and this request, what homepage should we generate to maximize user satisfaction?" — and Netflix seems pleased with the results. There are still some issues to work on though, like the AI model not knowing much about a movie or show that's only just launched.

User engagement increased in Netflix's internal testing, with the new 'GenPage' AI model applied, and recommendations became more relevant more quickly. What's more, the time needed to render the homepage went down. This is still in its early stages, and Netflix hasn't said when this will come to users or in what form, but it's now in the pipeline.

AI 'front and center' on Prime Video

Jeff Bezos wants more AI on Amazon's streaming service (Image credit: Getty / Mandel Ngan)

On to Amazon, and a new Reuters report says Amazon boss Jeff Bezos has personally decided that Prime Video will act as a showcase for AI in the near future, and that an upcoming homepage redesign will put AI "front and center".

That's according to people "with direct knowledge of the matter", so don't take this as confirmed just yet. The homepage overhaul project is apparently known as 'Lighthouse', and is said to be envisioned as a way of claiming some of the AI spotlight from rivals such as OpenAI and Anthropic.

We don't get too many details on what this is going to look like, but film and TV recommendations are going to have more AI injected into them, Reuters says. The AI will also be better at learning the personal preferences of viewers over time, and responding to voice commands.

You might see tiles on the homepage such as 'action movies from the 1980s', for example. The report doesn't give any indication of when this overhaul might start rolling out, but it's apparently already being tested with a select number of users in a variety of forms.

Our AI-driven interface futureNetflix Users Say They Dislike New Layout; Research Says Otherwise from r/netflix

With two of the big streaming giants apparently now committed to homepages controlled by AI, the next question is what users might make of it. There's so much to watch on each platform that some kind of filter or algorithm is needed, but is this AI-focused approach the right way to go about it?

Past homepage overhauls perhaps give us some clues: A major Netflix redesign rolled out last year was met with many online complaints, but the company's internal data showed that it was working, so it stayed in place. At the time there was speculation that more AI was on the way, and it seems that's now the case.

"I don't know if I'm alone," writes one Redditor, "but I hate the concept of 'personalizing' my content. No offense to anyone but AI so far has not been good at predicting anything about me... I personally do not want software to think for me."

The reactions to Prime Video's upcoming AI overhaul seem similarly downbeat. "This seems completely unnecessary," comments one user, while several suggest the move might even be enough to tip them into canceling their Prime Video subscription.

Hugging Face is probably not a name you'd heard before this week, but you likely caught the big news about OpenAI's model escaping its sandbox and to launch a cyberattack on the company.

In short, Hugging Face — which is kind of like the equivalent of GitHub for the machine learning (AI) world — was the victim of an AI agent that OpenAI was testing in terms of its ability to pull off exploits.

So how exactly did this happen? And what does it mean for the future of online security given the development of increasingly advanced AI agents? In this article I'll answer those questions, and explore some of the issues this event has thrown up, including the security threats posed by AI not just to companies, but to individuals.

How did this even happen — why didn't OpenAI have safeguards to stop the AI?

(Image credit: Getty Images / NurPhoto)

As you might expect, OpenAI did have safeguards in place, but the model managed to break through them.

The scenario was that OpenAI ran a controlled experiment using GPT‑5.6 Sol and an "even more capable pre-release model" to see how they fared on ExploitGym, which is a benchmark test that challenges AI to successfully exploit known security vulnerabilities.

In this security test, the model was placed in a sandbox, a "highly isolated environment" from which the AI shouldn't have been able to gain access to the internet at all. But the pre-release AI — which had its guardrails turned off, as OpenAI believed it to be safely imprisoned — craftily decided to cheat, found a way to escape its sandbox, and actioned exploits to breach Hugging Face (where the AI reasoned that it might find the answers to crack the ExploitGym tests).

Why is this a big worry?

(Image credit: Shutterstock)

It's a major concern simply due to the level of smarts exhibited by the AI. As OpenAI explained, the model "chained together multiple attack vectors" and used "stolen credentials and zero-day vulnerabilities to find a remote code execution path on the Hugging Face servers."

This was no mean feat, and Clement Delangue, CEO of Hugging Face, posted on X to say that it was "quite mind-blowing that all of this happened autonomously!"

In a blog post, Hugging Face observed that: "The campaign was run by an autonomous agent framework executing many thousands of individual actions across a swarm of short-lived sandboxes, with self-migrating command-and-control staged on public services."

The attacked was deemed so serious, it was reported to law enforcement agencies. As Simon Willison, a cocreator of web framework Django, pointed out in a blog post: "This was a sophisticated attack," further explaining that "Chaining together multiple attack vectors is exactly the kind of thing these new models can do, where previous generations of models might have failed."

The headline of Willison's post sums it all up rather neatly: "OpenAI's accidental cyberattack against Hugging Face is science fiction that happened."

The Django co-creator is also quick to dismiss conspiracy theories that this is somehow a marketing stunt by OpenAI to prove how advanced its AI models are.

The future of hacking?

(Image credit: Getty Images)

What should also be noted is the distinction between finding vulnerabilities, and being able to actively exploit vulnerabilities. AI being involved in the former could be very useful for bolstering security, but as for the latter — well, this Hugging Face incident is very much a clear illustration of why the makers of these models need to tread very carefully indeed.

While this was a 'white hat' (ethical) experiment, albeit one that went alarmingly awry, with real-world consequences, what happens when AI models start to become even more sophisticated along these lines — and criminals get hold of them?

There are obvious dangers in terms of the automation of attacks to make them far more regular occurrences, and the lowering of the bar in terms of the skills needed to be a successful hacker.

Dan Schiappa, President of Technology & Services at Arctic Wolf (responsible for threat-detection platform Aurora), warns: "Security teams should view this as a preview of what's ahead. As AI continues to lower the barriers to sophisticated cyber activity, organizations will need broad, deep visibility across their environments and the ability to investigate and respond at machine speed."

The ability to "respond at machine speed" is a hint at using AI for defense against AI bad actors, and that's another interesting facet of the Hugging Face incident. Simon Willison observes that Hugging Face was "unable to turn to OpenAI's models to help them fend off the attack", and that: "The frontier models [cutting-edge AIs] we have access to are increasingly being constrained in how much they can help us protect our software, heavily influenced by the US government's ongoing threat of export controls."

AI-driven attacks will doubtless be aimed at businesses and organizations, but could also be leveraged on a personal basis. Karolis Arbaciauskas, who is Head of Product at cybersecurity firm NordPass, tells us: "We don't need a nation-state actor or a Bond villain for this to go wrong. The most common emerging threats will likely be more mundane. For example, an [AI] agent could be instructed to dox a former romantic partner or settle an online grudge by hacking and stealing personal data, such as embarrassing photos or credit card details."

He adds: "AI models have become dangerously skilled at identifying software vulnerabilities. They've mastered every human hacking technique, from phishing to brute forcing. The difference is they can do it much faster than humans.

"I don't believe that we can patch software fast enough to keep up, so we must at least shield ourselves against the most obvious entry points. Encryption, strong unique passwords, passkeys, and multi-factor authentication (MFA) have never been more critical than they are right now."

The major AI firms are always talking about guardrails and safety, but it now seems like we should be thinking a lot harder about how more highly evolved AI models are going to fit into the future of cybersecurity — and how we can avoid a world where the danger of being hacked becomes a far more commonplace prospect, which is very much the biggest worry of all.

• Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot says Sony's plan to end physical game disc production won't have a major impact on the industry
• Guillemot says there are pros and cons to the decision
• He says, "I think it will not disturb the industry too much"

Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot doesn't think Sony's decision to retire the production of physical game discs will have a considerable impact on the industry.

Guillemot's comment comes from an earnings call following the release of its first-quarter 2026-27 sales (via VGC), during which the CEO was asked if Sony's plan to end disc production starting January 2028 could have a positive or negative effect on the future of the games industry.

While many disagree with Sony's decision, and some analysts predict it will endanger the $7.2 billion second-hand game market, Guillemot doesn't believe it will have a major impact on the industry at large.

Bold statements

"What we saw on the PC is that it helped to grow the market," Guillemot said. "There’s also some pressure for the future on the cost of machines, and being able to be only digital will help to have a more accessible machine, I would think.

"As you said, there are pluses and minuses, but I think it will not disturb the industry too much."

Sony announced its plan earlier this month and saw overwhelming backlash from fans. According to Wedbush Securities managing director of strategic planning Michael Pachter, Sony's plan to phase out discs in two years is now a threat to the used game market.

"Realistically, at least one-third of games have been sold historically as used, and the games that were sold also provided currency to the gamer who traded them in as cash to pay for new games," Pachter said. "Brick and mortar game retail is doomed."

Sega president Shuji Utsumi has also addressed the controversy and said that while the digital shift is "crucial," the company still understands the importance of physical media.

Similarly, former Nippon Ichi Software CEO Sohei Niikawa understands the decision "from a purely business perspective" but says physical editions are still "very important" to fans.

"If they’re going to go as far as eliminating physical packages, they may as well eliminate the hardware too," Niikawa said. "A television would be enough. Why would you need the console? If you’re going to get rid of physical games, you may as well go all the way."

Google DeepMind chief Demis Hassabis has spent years convincing the world that artificial general intelligence will be one of humanity’s greatest achievements. His latest essay on X.com is no less gushing about AI in many ways:

“This is a pivotal moment in human history. Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), a system that exhibits all the cognitive capabilities the brain has, is probably only a few short years away,” he wrote. “When we look back on this time in the decades to come, I think we will realize we were standing in the foothills of the singularity.”

But there’s a tinge of nervousness to the purple prose that sets it apart from some of the similar essays he has produced. He actually calls for some form of regulation.

“Urgent action is needed to address risks that might arise as we get closer to AGI. We’ve already seen the challenges frontier models pose for cybersecurity, and other threats including nuclear and bio risks may soon emerge as capabilities continue to advance.”

Coming from one of the people leading the race, it is a striking admission that even the builders are starting to worry about where the road leads. The problem is that this has become the defining tone of the AI industry. Every few weeks another executive tells us that machines capable of transforming civilization are just around the corner, then immediately follows it with a warning that society needs to move much faster to prepare. It is a sensible message, and probably a necessary one, but it is also becoming increasingly surreal.

(Image credit: Shutterstock)Excitement and fear

“AGI cannot be compared to standard technological breakthroughs, not even ones as consequential as the internet or mobile,” Hassabis wrote. “It is much more akin to the discovery of electricity or fire. If you stop to think about it, we’ve essentially found a way to make sand think. It’s miraculous.”

It’s a vivid way to illustrate how silicon chips begin with an abundant mineral, yet now power machines that can map proteins, compose music, and hold fluent conversations. The unsettling part is that the miracle is being pursued inside a commercial and geopolitical contest whose participants cannot agree on where the finish line is.

Hassabis is an optimist about what AGI could accomplish. He expects it to discover medicine, cleaner energy, and produce advanced materials that could loosen the limits imposed by scarcity. He describes its impact as ten times that of the Industrial Revolution at ten times the speed, which makes a five-year business plan look adorably quaint.

His warning is that the race is outpacing our understanding. Current models already pose cybersecurity problems, while biological and nuclear risks may become more serious as systems gain capabilities. More autonomous agents could learn to bypass safeguards, conceal their intentions, or improve themselves in ways their creators struggle to keep up with. OpenAI recently experienced this when one of its models escaped a sandbox and breached Hugging Face.

“Nobody in the world knows for sure what is going to happen from here, and even the experts disagree. When there is a large degree of uncertainty and the stakes are this high, proceeding with cautious optimism is the sensible and correct strategy.”

AI referee

Hassabis proposes a new US-led standards body. It would be funded largely by industry but overseen federally, staffed by elite technical experts and equipped to test advanced systems. Labs would voluntarily submit models for review up to 30 days before release. If the system proved effective, approval could become mandatory in the United States.

Evaluations would probe cybersecurity, biological threats, deception and attempts to evade guardrails. The body could update its tests, commission independent assessments and coordinate a slowdown if the danger became severe enough.

Pre-release testing makes more sense than waiting for millions of users to discover dangerous behavior by accident. Independent benchmarks would be harder for labs to train around, while shared standards could stop safety becoming a branding exercise. The difficult part is creating a watchdog independent enough to challenge the companies paying for it and legitimate enough to matter beyond America.

Hassabis knows technical safeguards will not settle what AGI means for employment, wealth, purpose or political power. Those questions cannot be delegated to engineers employed by firms with enormous financial stakes in the answers. Society must decide who benefits from abundance, who controls advanced systems and what happens if productivity rises much faster than wages. The public debate is trailing the technology by an uncomfortable distance.

“There is both huge excitement and uncertainty around AI, and both are warranted. But the future is not yet written, we must use this precious window before AGI arrives to shape this technology for the benefit of all humanity. What we collectively do now will determine how the next phase of civilization."

In a curious move, the social network is siphoning off its most popular features into separate apps.

• Windscribe said Bill C-22 won't change its privacy policies
• The bill would require service providers to retain user metadata
• Canada's Senate is set to discuss Bill C-22 in September

A Reddit user recently put a blunt question to Windscribe: is paying for a Canada-based VPN a privacy problem, given the surveillance bill working its way through Parliament?

The company's official support account answered without hedging. Windscribe will keep operating exactly as it has, the account said, with "no changes to our logging or privacy policies".

Canada is bringing in laws that genuinely complicate things for the company, Windscribe added, but that is internal work to sort out rather than something subscribers should expect to feel.

It's a calmer message than the one Windscribe was broadcasting in May, when it said it would sooner relocate its headquarters than start logging users. That put it alongside Signal and NordVPN, and made it one of the sharpest voices among the best VPN providers fighting the bill.

Bill C-22, formally the Lawful Access Act, cleared the House of Commons on June 18 and now sits with the Senate, which won't begin its study until Parliament returns in September.

Windscribe and Bill C-22: what the VPN provider saidIs paying for Windscribe a problem to privacy given they’re based in Canada and the likely upcoming Bill C-22? Would love to subscribe if not for this. from r/Windscribe

Pressed further in the thread, Windscribe drew a line between where the company is registered and where its infrastructure lives.

The incoming laws could see it served with a court order requiring it to start logging users, the support account acknowledged. Its answer is jurisdictional: a virtual private network (VPN) operating outside Canada doesn't have to comply with Canadian law.

That echoes the route the company has been signalling since May, when CEO Yegor Sak told the Globe and Mail he was actively exploring moving Windscribe out of the country.

Windscribe was also careful to separate provider obligations from user liability. No law currently stops Canadians from using a VPN, it pointed out, and the risk it describes only reaches customers if a provider stays put and starts logging traffic.

For anyone uneasy about the paper trail, Windscribe's suggestion was simple: pay in crypto, so neither the government nor a card issuer sees the purchase.

What's next for Canada Bill C-22

Introduced in March by Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree, Canada Bill C-22 would let the government compel electronic service providers to retain user metadata and build technical capabilities for law enforcement access.

The House passed it at third reading on June 18 after the government moved to limit debate, and the Senate is set to pick it up on September 21, according to Parliament's own LEGISinfo tracker.

Late amendments cut the maximum metadata retention period from twelve months to six and added a clause stating the act can't be read as compelling decryption, unless the provider already holds the keys.

Still, law professor Robert Diab argues that doesn't go far enough, since ministerial orders could still sweep up the metadata of people under no suspicion whatsoever.

The government has consistently rejected the surveillance framing, insisting the bill builds no backdoors and that authorities still need judicial authorisation to obtain data.

• The RingConn Gen 3 is now available to buy
• It offers features such as sleep apnea tracking, and up to 14 days of battery life
• To celebrate, RingConn has entered a partnership with Warner Bros.

The RingConn Gen 3 has arrived. After going up for pre-order in May earlier this year, it's now available to buy, starting at $349 (around £260 / AU$500). And to celebrate, it's entered an unusual partnership... or should that be Fellowship?

Let's have a look at the ring first. It offers haptic vibration alerts for health events (not notifications), which not even the best smart rings can do. Other features of note include vascular health insights, blood pressure and sleep apnea features. RingConn said the feature is 'the first smart ring brand to introduce sleep apnea monitoring with continuous SpO2 tracking every two seconds....all with no recurring subscription for premium insights.'

The key is in the specifics there, as other smart rings do offer reliable sleep apnea tracking. Recently at Samsung Galaxy Unpacked, the Samsung Galaxy Ring was cleared for FDA approval for its sleep apnea detection feature, so it's likely RingConn's claims are due to its specific sleep-tracking methodology regarding SpO2 measurement. We've reached out to RingConn for clarification.

Otherwise, the ring features compatability with iOS and Android, women's health tracking and activity tracking. With vibration alerts on, the Ring lasts 10 days, stretching to 14 with them off. It all seems very reasonably priced for a ring without an additional subscription, and we're almost finished with our RingConn Gen 3 review. Watch this space!

(Image credit: Future)Counting your steps to Mordor

It finally happened: a smart ring company entered a partnership with Warner Bros. to celebrate the 25th anniversary of The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (otherwise known as The Best One, and I'll hear no arguments otherwise). However, I certainly didn't expect it to be RingConn.

A press release states the partnership is 'bringing together one of fantasy's most epic film series and a new generation of wearable technology' as 'the collaboration celebrates the shared belief that greater awareness can empower better choices.'

Unfortunately, there doesn't appear to be a redesign of the Gen 3 ring to resemble the famous One Ring from the movies. The release says that 'to mark the partnership, RingConn will introduce exclusive film-themed rewards for eligible Gen 3 customers in the United States of America' — but it doesn't establish what those rewards actually are. In the words of Frodo: "all right then, keep your secrets".

For the third year running, we’re delighted to announce that the entries for the TechRadar Sustainability Awards are now open.

Sustainability has long been an elephant in the room within consumer tech. While an increased focus in recent years has moved us in the right direction, the conversation is shifting from future pledges to action being taken today.

As one of the largest consumer tech sites, we want to encourage progress and celebrate real-life implementation of better practices, from how products are made and used, to how materials are reused or recovered.

We’ve heard from some of the biggest names in tech over the past two years of Sustainability Awards – the likes of Bang & Olufsen, Acer and Belkin all shared their efforts with our team and sustainability partners at Seismic – as well as exciting newcomers to the space, but we’re doing more. So, this year, we’re growing the TechRadar Sustainability Awards to reach even more brands, celebrating those making genuine progress, setting clear commitments, and, most importantly, being honest and transparent about their journey.

If that sounds like your brand, a company you represent or even a brand you’re a fan of, entries for our 2026 Awards are open.

So, what’s new? This year, entry to the Awards is completely free for companies with fewer than 250 staff, but larger businesses can expect to pay a nominal fee to enter and support the research completed by our partners at Seismic. All businesses should be prepared to evidence their impact with relevant documentation, data and certifications. It’ll take us a few months to fact-check and verify the shared information, and we will announce our winners later this year.

We’re doing everything we can to bring integrity to our process, ensuring we celebrate meaningful impact rather than greenwashing claims. Seismic is an international team of experts on a mission to help businesses become increasingly impactful forces for good.

Seismic brings together sustainability strategists, Net Zero advisors, reporting specialists, B Corp & EcoVadis experts and communications consultants to help businesses lead the shift. Seismic will support us in reviewing entries and judging the winners, bringing an extensive knowledge of impact across a range of disciplines and business models.

We’ll be evaluating entrants not only for sustainable product innovation, but also their approach to people and overall business operations. This includes considerations such as environmental footprint tracking, circularity in product design and supply chain ethics. Winning brands will have the opportunity to license the official TechRadar Sustainability Awards winners logo for use in their marketing.

How to enter

How to enter

You can enter the TechRadar Sustainability Awards 2026 here until August 14th. There are seven categories to choose from, which are detailed below as advised by Seismic.

We also sat down with co-founder and CCO Andy Schmidt in the video below if you want more insight into our joint vision for these awards.

Sustainability Awards categories

Sustainability Awards categories

Embodied Carbon

The emissions associated with the manufacturing, transportation and disposal of products and materials - typically account for the largest portion of a tech device’s carbon footprint. For example, research shows that over 80% of a laptop’s lifetime footprint is created before it even reaches a user.

Meanwhile, energy use during a device's life remains a critical challenge. Estimates suggest that user devices now account for more global electricity consumption than networks and data centres combined and this is expected to increase in the next five to ten years.

This category recognises businesses that are taking decisive action to reduce both embodied and operational carbon emissions - from smarter design and material choices to improving the energy efficiency of devices when in use.

Hardware circularity

The tech industry is characterised by rapid innovation and frequent product obsolescence. As newer, more advanced devices enter the market, older models are often discarded, contributing to a growing e-waste crisis.

The disposal of this waste is a major concern, particularly as many electronic devices contain hazardous materials, like lead, mercury and cadmium, which can pollute soil and water if not properly disposed of. Designing products with short lifespans also accelerates resource depletion and encourages unsustainable patterns of consumption.

This category celebrates companies embracing circular economy principles, designing products for longevity, repair and reuse, and with closed-loop material recovery, helping to reduce waste and extend product life cycles.

Digital Inclusion

Digital inclusion is a critical sustainability challenge with social implications. While 95% of the global population has the theoretical potential to access the internet, almost half remain offline, often due to limited digital skills, financial barriers or lack of infrastructure. Bridging these gaps is essential to ensuring equitable access to technology.

This category celebrates initiatives that are helping to close the digital divide by making tech more accessible, affordable and inclusive for underrepresented or underserved communities.

Nature-positive Sourcing

While committing to ethical material sourcing and minimising the harmful impacts of raw material extraction is essential, the tech industry must now go further. We want to celebrate businesses that are evolving their operations from simply doing less harm to actively restoring our ecosystems. This category recognizes companies that champion nature-positive sourcing and can provide clear evidence of regenerative practices. We are looking for entrants who are leading the way with initiatives such as the ecological restoration of mining sites, responsible water stewardship, or the innovative use of bio-based and ocean-bound plastics

Energy Consumption

Addressing energy consumption is an ongoing responsibility within the tech industry. This category recognises businesses that can evidence what they have done to minimise energy consumption across their operations, manufacturing processes, and product design.

We want to celebrate companies that have implemented successful initiatives, investments in renewable energy, and energy-efficient technologies and practices to reduce their carbon footprint and promote sustainability. Crucially, as new technologies scale, we place a particular emphasis on how entrants are quantifying their AI usage within their company, and actively managing the effect this has on their overall energy consumption. For example, we’d love to hear about any responsible AI training materials you may have developed, to keep your teams mindful of their AI usage and the environmental impact associated. In addition, we want to know how you’re quantifying AI usage in your company, such as your number of active weekly users of AI through employees or customers.

Tech for Good

This refers to the use of technology to address pressing social, environmental and humanitarian challenges and to create positive impact in the world. It encompasses various initiatives, projects and innovations that leverage technology to improve people's lives, protect the planet and promote sustainability and equity.

We are looking for companies that can demonstrate their positive change using clear impact metrics. We want to celebrate businesses that go beyond narrative success stories by backing up their progress with quantitative data on the beneficiaries reached or proven long-term outcomes. We also understand that smaller companies might not have years of tracked metrics available yet. We’d love to hear about your progress too, whether that’s through early indicators, direct feedback from your stakeholders or case studies showcasing real-world improvements.

Supply Chain Sustainability

A truly sustainable tech industry is built from the ground up. For this award, we are spotlighting businesses that proactively address supply chain sustainability. We are looking for standout initiatives and practices that promote ethical sourcing, reduce environmental impact, and enhance social responsibility from start to finish. Whether you are a small business or a large enterprise, we want to celebrate companies that can back up their progress with meaningful action and transparency.

In my work, my absolute favorite days are the ones where I just get to take pictures. I’m testing a new camera or a new film stock, and so I’ve got nothing on the agenda other than heading to some locations that are beautiful or interesting (or, ideally, both) and capturing images of them. At the end of the day I’m normally tired, sweaty, have new blisters on my feet — and feel fantastic.

But those days are quite rare. Often I’m consumed with other things, the nitty-gritty of writing, work, life-admin and everything else. Trying to be more efficient, for money and time reasons, means that I tend to do my photography in big infrequent chunks — and some research I’ve seen is making me reconsider that approach.

The benefits of a regular photography habit for mental health are well-documented. British photo retailer MPB, in announcing its partnership with mental-health charity Mind, points to a study in the peer-reviewed journal Health which finds that taking a photo every day provides tangible benefits in terms of mental well-being.

British photographer, broadcaster and passionate nature advocate Chris Packham is a huge believer in the power of photography to effect a positive mental change. ‘Photography has always been a conscious way of addressing chronic or specific mental health issues in my life,’ he says.

‘When I'm peering down the lens, I'm so engrossed in the objective, so intensely involved with the technical and creative process, that the rest of the world vanishes. It's just me and the photo. The exterior anxieties are relegated to oblivion, and I get maximal relief.’

‘For me, photography is a key part of a portfolio of tried and tested therapies which consistently enhance positive mental health outcomes.’

And it’s not just taking photos! Even the simple act of viewing them can have a positive effect. MPB also cites a 2024 survey undertaken by Fujifilm, in which 80% of respondents reported that viewing old photos brought them feelings of happiness and calm, and helped to reduce anxiety.

(Image credit: Future)Building a daily habit

I'm grateful to MPB and Mind for making me think more mindfully about how I engage with photography. It's also worth noting that the retailer is putting its money where its mouth is, and donating £1 to Mind for every item bought or sold on its marketplace this August, working towards its goal of £50,000 a year for the charity.

The campaign has got me thinking that I’m missing out on the mindful benefits of a daily (or near-daily) picture-taking habit. When I’m using my camera, I’m not looking at my phone. I’m not even thinking about the cursed thing; it’s normally in my backpack. I think this could be of much greater mental benefit if I were doing it regularly for shorter sessions.

Our cameras editor Tim Coleman tried screen-free photography for a week and found it made him feel more immersed and connected with his shooting. Even when using a digital camera, it felt like a digital detox — something that people frequently say they want more of!

So if you, like me, tend to plan your photo-taking around long days that you only get to enjoy every so often — it might be worth thinking about ways you can incorporate a more frequent habit, too.

Bringing the camera on a walk to the station to capture details of your local community. Building a twenty-minute walk into your lunch break to see what sights unfold around you. It won’t just benefit your photography, but could also have a real, positive, tangible impact on your mental well-being.

• Huntress spots malicious Claude Artifact spoofing Claude Desktop, spreading SectopRAT malware
• Victims were redirected via Bing ads, infecting at least 29 organizations between July 21–22, 2026
• Claude removed the artifact after 7,000+ views; malvertising risks persist despite disclaimers on artifacts

At least 29 organizations have been infected with a Remote Access Trojan (RAT) after mistaking a public Claude Artifact for a legitimate Claude page.

A Claude Artifact is an interactive document, or piece of code, that the AI generates and then hosts on the Claude platform. It can then be shared with other people as an example, or proof of concept, for different solutions. The link to an artifact usually looks something like this:

claude[.]ai/public/artifacts/ca466f1f-21c0-42af-b329-8f1c7534a891

Claude Artifacts are often used for phishing and other forms of scams, and we’ve seen it in ClickFix attacks in the past. Claude responded by adding a disclaimer to every artifact, stating that the content is user-generated and thus unverified.

In this particular case, a malicious artifact was created to spoof the download page for Claude Desktop. Victims would get redirected to an attacker-controlled domain, where instead of the Claude app, they’d download SectopRAT, a remote access trojan capable of stealing credit card data, personal information, files, passwords, and more.

Promoting the scam

The artifact was then promoted on Bing, showing up at the very top of search results to people searching for “Claude Desktop App”.

For years, the cybersecurity community has warned about malvertising, urging users to double-check the domain before clicking on any links, even promoted ones. However, the problem here is that the ad takes the victims to the legitimate Claude domain, making scrutiny that much harder.

The campaign was spotted by security researchers Huntress, who said that between July 21 and July 22, 2026, their SOC “lit up with a swathe of unusual executable installs, Defender exclusions, and anomalous persistence across 29 organizations, all coming from ClaudeDesktop.exe.”

Claude has since removed the malicious artifact, but not before it raked up more than 7,000 views. It is possible that other organizations, outside Huntress’ field of view, also fell victim to this scam.

The advent of AI marks a new era in terms of how digital infrastructure is built, connected, and scaled. Each new generation of AI model demands exponentially greater GPU power, storage capacity, and interconnectivity.

As these workloads rise in complexity, the network responsible for moving data between GPU clusters and across data centers, also referred to as “scale-across”, faces mounting pressure.

Traditionally seen as a straightforward background utility, the transport layer is fast emerging as a strategic foundation for AI-driven infrastructures.

It is evolving from simply moving packets to intelligently orchestrating massive data flows with deterministic performance, low-latency, and seamless scalability.

AI-optimized data centers, built for training and deploying large-scale models, require dense GPU fabrics, vast storage, and, most importantly, high-bandwidth, ultra-low latency connectivity. As workloads increase, so too does the critical importance of Data Centre Interconnect (DCI) solutions.

The transport layer is no longer just a dumb pipe, but the backbone of the AI era, enabling real-time updates of AI LLMs (Large Language Models), continuous learning of those models, and the efficient movement of intelligence across a global digital landscape.

The demands placed on traditional networks by AI

AI training and inference pipelines generate overwhelming volumes of data. One large language model alone requires thousands of GPUs operating simultaneously, continually exchanging parameters, gradients, and checkpoints.

The outcome is a relentless demand for ultra-high-bandwidth, low-latency connectivity between clusters, whether across campus environments or regions, or out on the edge.

However, the traditional transport architectures developed to facilitate predictable enterprise or content delivery traffic buckle under the weight of emerging patterns.

East-west traffic has surged, bandwidth per node has soared, and latency requirements have tightened to microsecond precision. Simultaneously, operators face mounting pressure to control power and space consumption at the metro and edge layers, primarily because AI workloads are currently most ubiquitous here.

Scaling optical systems is clearly inadequate. Therefore, we must look at re-engineering the entire transport layer to support performance, agility, and efficiency.

What does it take to design an AI-first transport layer?

Next-generation transport layers need to evolve beyond moving bits quickly and adapt to the fluctuating demands of AI workloads. In practice, this means delivering ultra-high capacity and consistently low latency, while enabling the network to reconfigure itself as AI tasks switch between training and inference. This ensures that the transport network is transformed into an ecosystem as flexible and intelligent as the workloads it supports.

In addition to bandwidth scaling to meet demands, latency determinism is equally important. Distributed AI training depends on precise synchronization across thousands of GPUs, given that even marginal timing variations can stymie performance. Transport systems must therefore ensure reliable and constant optical path behavior, beyond simply average low delay.

Automation and energy efficiency are also critical to creating an AI-first transport layer. When power becomes a key enabler of data center growth, an AI-ready transport layer needs to sense, adapt, and optimize in real time, allocating capacity where it’s most needed, and shutting down redundant channels, seamlessly integrating with orchestration layers above.

Engineering architectures of the future

Today, overcoming the challenge of developing an AI-first architecture requires a new approach. The next generation of transport systems must be built on coherent optical technology capable of scaling above 400G and 800G. These advances allow operators to extract maximum capacity from existing fiber infrastructure while maintaining the low-latency performance which is essential to distributed AI training and inference workloads.

The evolution of software-defined optical control is equally important. Embedding intelligence into the transport layer facilitates real-time telemetry, closed-loop automation, and predictive optimization. Networks can monitor performance, anticipate congestion before it occurs, and dynamically re-route traffic to preserve stability and efficiency. Effectively, the optical layer evolves to be self-aware, adaptive, and capable of responding to changing workload demands.

IP-optical convergence is another area of advancement, unifying packet and optical transport under a unified control and management framework. This convergence reduces latency, rationalizes operations, and accelerates service provisioning. The advantages for hyperscale DCI environments include fewer network elements, reduced complexity and a more deterministic performance profile.

At the metro and edge levels, where space and power constraints are most stringent, compact modular DCI systems are emerging as a critical component of the AI ecosystem. Such platforms introduce high-capacity optical connectivity closer to compute resources, enabling real-time inference, analytics, and automation at the edge. Augmenting optical performance beyond the hyperscale core helps operators support increasingly distributed AI workloads and shorten the distance between data-generation and decision-making.

Such transformations are also supported by greater automation and more open orchestration frameworks. Modern transport networks are evolving into API-rich, software-driven environments that allow telemetry data from the optical layer to feed directly into higher-level AI and cloud management systems. This creates a feedback loop between application and infrastructure that, in practice, enables an adaptive network: one that learns, optimizes, and responds dynamically to workload patterns in real time.

5G + AI: the formula for success

The convergence of AI and 5G represents a new milestone in network evolution. As operators accelerate the deployment of 5G Standalone cores and distributed edge computing, the demand for high-bandwidth, deterministic transport now extends beyond data centers to cell sites, aggregation hubs, and metro edges.

AI is increasingly used to automate and optimize 5G operations, from traffic prediction and spectrum management to self-healing and real-time orchestration. These capabilities rely on the same transport tenets that power AI training: massive data movement, ultra-low latency, and intelligent routing.

As AI and 5G ecosystems grow in sophistication, they’re forming a unified, intelligent network infrastructure that seamlessly connects core clouds, AI clusters, and edge nodes. And today, optical transport systems that move terabits of training data between data centers will be able to support time-sensitive control traffic and AI-driven services at the edge in the near future.

Reimagining transport for the era of AI

AI is having a profound effect on all layers of digital infrastructure, but nowhere is this more evident than in transport. The optical layer is evolving from a passive conduit into an intelligent, agile system that anticipates demand, reconfigures dynamically, and continuously optimizes for performance.

This transformation is being propelled by advances in optics, automation, and converged architectures. These elements combined enable self-optimizing networks capable of sustaining AI and data-intensive services at a global scale.

Fundamentally, to meet the expectations of an AI-first world, transport networks must evolve into intelligent systems that are as dynamic and responsive as the workloads they carry. By rearchitecting the optical layer with agility, automation, and convergence at its core, the industry can lay the foundation for scalable, distributed intelligence across the global digital landscape.

Use the best business cloud storage to manage your data.

This article was produced as part of TechRadar Pro Perspectives, our channel to feature the best and brightest minds in the technology industry today.

The views expressed here are those of the author and are not necessarily those of TechRadarPro or Future plc. If you are interested in contributing find out more here: https://www.techradar.com/pro/perspectives-how-to-submit

It's time once more for yet another look through this weekend's best tech deals at Amazon UK. While there are far fewer offers right now compared to during major sales events, there are still some solid bargains up for grabs. I've picked out the 11 best deals I'd recommend.

• See all of today's best deals at Amazon UK

With back-to-school season upon us, there are some strong laptop deals up for grabs, with several great picks if you need a new device for the year ahead. My standout is this Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 5 for £499.99 (was £699.99), as it offers a solid set of specs for the price. There's an Intel Core i5 processor, 16GB of RAM, and a 1TB hard drive — everything you need for capable all-around performance.

Another popular pick is the Philips OneBlade 360 for £36.99 (was £54.99). This was a best-seller during Prime Day, so if you missed it during last month's sale, here's another chance to pick one up for a great price.

I've highlighted several more deals below on tech, appliances, and more, so do check them out if you're looking to treat yourself to a little shopping this weekend.

This weekend's 11 best deals at Amazon UK

Display: 16 inches
Processor: Intel Core i5
RAM: 16GB
Storage: 1TB

There's a terrific combination of specs for the price in this Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 5, including an Intel i5 processor, a performance-boosting 16GB of RAM and a large 1TB SSD. Even though some components are older now, these can still make work and everyday tasks a breeze. You also get the huge benefit of a larger 16-inch display that makes this ideal if you prefer a bigger screen size and don't need an easily portable option.View Deal

The Philips OneBlade 360 is a quick, simple and affordable electric razor that's suitable for a wide variety of face and body grooming needs. This jam-packed bundle was a little cheaper over Prime Day, but today's offer is still a solid one. This bundle includes the handle, as well as one spare blade, an adjustable comb, and a USB-A charging cable.View Deal

Get the highly rated Renpho smart scale on sale for under £20 this weekend. The smart scale has over 300,000 reviews on Amazon and holds a solid 4.6-star rating. You can use this smart device to measure your body fat ratio, BMI, and weight via the Renpho app.View Deal

The Ninja Blast Portable Blender is a powerful all-in-one portable blender — and it's now got a small price cut at Amazon. It has a 530ml container with a leakproof lid and sip spout, while the carry handle means you can take it with you to the gym or on your walks. It’s capable of blending ice and frozen fruit, as well as any liquids and powders, while one charge gives you up to two hours of battery life.View Deal

I actually bought a Levoit Core Mini for myself when moving into a new house that hadn't been lived in for a while to get rid of the dust and debris, and I also think it works as a great option for any allergy problems. What I like most is that it's small and quiet, so it is perfect for all sorts of spaces, such as the living room and bedroom. It's now also very affordable at 20% off.View Deal

Lenovo's more premium handheld gaming PC just dropped to its lowest-ever price on Amazon. It offers fantastic power and performance with an AMD Ryzen Z2 processor, 32GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD, and an 8.8-inch OLED display. Running on Windows 11 is a little clunkier than the smoother SteamOS, but it is an extremely capable, top-end handheld gaming experience that will run most titles with ease and with minimal tinkering in the graphics settings. It's also much better value for money after such a big discount.View Deal

The Ninja Luxe Café Pro is a professional-level coffee machine with a whopping number of different grind settings and many smart features elsewhere, too. You can keep your coffee warm after it’s brewed, while there are nine bars of pressure to get your coffee just how you like it to taste. A burr grinder provides the perfect consistency, and a clean function saves you from plenty of hassle. It has been around £50 cheaper before, but this is a strong deal outside of Black Friday.View Deal

The Dyson V8 is now older, but it remains one of the top affordable vacuums and also one of the best Dyson vacuums – period. This still more-than-capable vacuum comes with a couple of essential attachments for cleaning around the home. Given its age and basic features, it's a struggle to recommend it at its full price, but now that it's discounted so heavily at Amazon, it's an easy recommendation.View Deal

Ninja's recent space-saving air fryer is just £15 more than its lowest-ever price, which is still a bit of a steal for the popular and well-rated appliance. We loved it at TechRadar, scoring it full marks in our Ninja Double Stack Air Fryer review and even putting it in our best air fryer buying guide. Well-built and great-looking on any countertop, it offers five cooking levels across two drawers and two racks, while the 9.5L capacity is ideal for medium to big families.View Deal

Display: 14 inches
Processor: Intel N100
RAM: 4GB
Storage: 128GB

This is far from the best laptop you can buy, but I can't deny that it's cheap. The specs are incredibly low-end, with an entry-level processor, only 4GB of RAM and a small 128GB hard drive. At least it's a Chromebook, which can get more from weaker components, but this is only a good buy if you want to spend very little money on a very basic machine for infrequent, light use.View Deal

The Google Pixel 10a is our pick for the best bargain phone for its balance between affordability and functionality. It features a Tensor G4 processor and a display with a 120Hz refresh rate, which offers solid performance at this price point. You also get a Gorilla Glass 7i screen for better drop protection and scratch resistance. For £100 off, you can get this smooth and affordable smartphone for its lowest price yet, or save another £50 on top if you're OK with 128GB of storage.View Deal

The Shark Detect Clean & Empty Cordless Vacuum offers convenient automation features and versatile cleaning technology, including a special brushroll that works on both hardwood and carpeted surfaces. Its self-emptying dock doubles as a charging station, which makes it easy to keep fully charged, even though it runs for up to 40 minutes at full battery. For under £200, it's hard to pass up such a high-tech and highly rated vacuum.

CHANGEView Deal

Isn’t it funny that we take the flexible screen so for granted that we complain over a crease and lack of flatness? The screen folds to become half its size and unfolds to about the size of a mini-tablet, and we’re still not satisfied. I guess that’s what makes us — or maybe Samsung — human. You see, it wasn’t satisfied, either, at least with the already quite thin and pretty remarkable Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7.

That 4.2mm thick device that features two displays and yet is somehow lighter than the Galaxy S26 Ultra was close to flat and did have a less noticeable crease at the bend, but apparently Samsung thought it could do better, which is how we got the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, unveiled at Galaxy Unpacked on July 22.

That’s right, it’s now an Ultra device, though that has more to do with the other new entry in the folding lineup: the 4:3 ratio Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8. This new Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra is not, after all, a full-scale redesign and is, instead, a refinement that brings better cameras (an upgraded 200MP camera with an f-stop adjustment, a new 50MP ultra-wide that matches the Galaxy S26 Ultra), a new 5,000mAh silicon-carbon battery, an anti-reflective coating on the display, and, somehow, a thinner body.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 on the right and the new Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra on the left. Note the drastically reduced crease.Lance Ulanoff / FutureAnother look that also shows you the flatness of the new device.Lance Ulanoff / FutureThe slimming

At 4.1mm, you might be hard-pressed to notice the difference between Samsung's two most recent foldable flagships, though I can tell you that the chassis is now so thin, it barely squeezes in a USB-C port.

What is noticeable, though, is that the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra unfolds its 8.1-inch OLED display effectively flat, and the crease is all but gone. (The phone actually almost snaps to flat and is somewhat less adjustable between flat and folded modes.)

That’s due to the lightweight but also very strong titanium architecture behind that OLED panel. There has been a rigid titanium backplate behind the OLED panel since the Galaxy Z Fold 7, but the lattice work along the crease — in the center of the panel — has been totally redesigned from a seemingly infinite series of parallel holes to holes that start narrow on top but open up on the opposite side (it’s sort of an “A” shape). Stacked on top of that panel now is another far more flexible titanium alloy sheet (a mix of titanium and other metals like aluminum and chrome). It’s about as flexible as a sheet of paper (I touched it, I know) but with infinitely more strength.

Here's a cool look at the entire makeup of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra and Z Fold 8's new Flex Titanium technology. (Image credit: Future)

The combination of these two panels, which are sandwiched and glued together along with the OLED panel, an ultra-thin glass pane, and a plastic screen protector, all work in concert to allow the panel to be both 30% easier to open (a new chamfered display frame edge also assists here) and more inclined to pop out flat. And that makes the crease almost invisible.

I know all this because I met with Samsung Electronics and Samsung Display engineers in South Korea who worked together to bring the Z Fold 8 Ultra to life.

(Image credit: Samsung Display)

Even though I sort of understood how these elements worked together to make a flatter whole, I couldn’t entirely figure out how the rigid back plane was flexible enough to make the folding and unfolding possible, but Byung Duk Yang, EVP at Core Component Technology Team, Samsung Electronics, put a finer point on it for me.

Sitting next to a specially designed flexible display blow-out diorama featuring all those aforementioned panels hanging inside like so many curtains, Yang explained, “You’re right. Titanium is basically not flexible. We use a titanium plate already, but there are micro-holes to get the stretchability — so that is basic titanium. But this time we used the new titanium alloy — we needed some stretchability. That’s why it is not 100% titanium; it’s titanium alloy.”

The switch to the titanium alloy, which replaced a thicker polymer layer, is key because, with titanium’s ability to better withstand long-term deformation, it’s less likely that the now mostly hidden crease will grow more prominent over time.

As I noted, people tend to, with these foldables, fixate on the crease, but Yang explained that in designing these panels, Samsung Display has many considerations. “The crease itself is not our only top priority. We have to consider durability and surface quality.”

Stress testsOne of the benefits of the new Flex Titanium technology is that the folding phones will be more durable over time: the titanium plate and titanium alloy sheet both resist long-term deformation far better than the old polymer sheet. In Samsung's Gumi Automation Labs, it tests the Z Fold 8 and Z Fold 8 Ultra phone displays' bending and response.SamsungSamsungSamsung

I also traveled to Samsung’s Gumi Factory City in South Korea, where I witnessed the new Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra and its new sibling, the Galaxy Z Fold 8, undergo rigorous stress tests that included extreme heating and cooling, folding and unfolding tens of thousands of times, and ball-drop tests in which metal balls are repeatedly dropped on the screens from various heights.

From what I could tell, the Z Fold 8 and Z Fold 8 Ultra are quite resilient and, in the Z Fold 8 Ultras I saw, less reflective.

The new antireflective coating appears to do its part in helping the flexible display hide the crease. After all, less light is bouncing back to your eyes. And when I visited the Gumi testing lab, I saw how they used a special box with a dome of brilliant white light and a spectrometer to test display reflectivity. The light robotically moved around the Z Fold 8 Ultra panel to assess general reflectivity but also how the light might bounce off the crease. Results are gathered by a computer in a lab that runs 24 hours a day. We were, by the way, the first reporters ever to see it in person.

The new Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra is about as flat as it can get.Lance Ulanoff / FutureLance Ulanoff / FutureLance Ulanoff / Future

I’ve been pondering, though, what comes next for the Galaxy Z Fold lineup. Unless Samsung removes the USB-C port, it really can’t get any thinner. But the display could get at least one cool improvement; Samsung confirmed to me that they are thinking about how the Privacy Display on the Galaxy S26 Ultra might come to a future folding device. As you may recall, that privacy technology works at a pixel level to hide your screen from prying eyes, so it would require a very specific update to the flexible OLED panel.

In the meantime, though, consumers will have to consider this new Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, perhaps the thinnest, flattest, and fullest expression of Samsung’s foldable ambitions.

@techradar

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Huzzah, another weekend is upon us — and, amid the lack of new movies landing in theaters today (July 24), you might be inclined to stay at home and check one of the following seven must-see films and TV shows instead.

There are a couple of new releases we couldn't squeeze into this week's streaming round-up — sorry, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4 and The Dink. Nevertheless, I'm sure you'll find something to your liking from those we've listed below. So, take a look, load up one of the best streaming services, and sit back and enjoy one or more of them. — Tom Power, senior entertainment reporter

Stuart Fails to Save the Universe (HBO Max)

And what if I said that The Big Bang Theory spinoff Stuart Fails to Save the Universe was better than the original series? Nobody was expecting awkward comic book store owner Stuart's story to continue from the main show, but in hindsight, it's a glorious move.

Our titular heroic lead, on-off girlfriend Denise, and friends Kripke and Bert are brought back together when Stuart triggers a multiverse armageddon by accidentally breaking a device built by Sheldon and Leonard.

Has 'King of Sitcoms' Chuck Lorre done it again? You'll need to read my Stuart Fails to Save the Universe review to find out if it's th TV triumph that I never expected. — Jasmine Valentine, entertainment reporter

• Watch Stuart Fails to Save the Universe on HBO Max

Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender (Paramount+)

It's been 13 years since the gang defeated Lord Ozai and the Fire Nation, and attentions have turned to a new airbender called Tagah. Together, Aang and Tagah embark on a global quest to find the relic before a group called The Denied.

Aang is all grown up in Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender, but that doesn't mean the original magic has gone anywhere. The movie's understanding of perspective, movement, and detail is absolutely astonishing, moving through the Four Nations with such awe-inspired wonder that you'll want to live in each frame.

Time may have changed how they look, but their goofy and fun-loving personalities definitely haven't... and the animation captures exactly what has been missing from Netflix's live-action adaptation. — JV

• Watch Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender on Paramount+

72 Hours (Netflix)

In this new Netflix movie, Kevin Hart stars as a 40-year-old who ends up at a three-day bachelor party with strangers, resulting in yet another silly Hart-led venture that's perfect if you need of a laugh this weekend.

How did he end up there, you might ask? Well, he was mistakenly added to a group chat and went along for the ride, traveling from New York to Miami to join in the celebrations. Any excuse to party by the beach, I suppose.

It's not so idyllic though, as the trailer teases trouble with the law and other mishaps, including getting horribly stung by a jellyfish. Rather him than me. — Lucy Buglass, senior entertainment writer

• Watch 72 Hours on Netflix

Mortal Kombat II (HBO Max)

Flawless victory! Mortal Kombat II is now available to stream on HBO Max, so you can relive the action-packed video game adaptation whenever you'd like.

As far as weekend watches go, you really can't beat an over-the-top, violent thrill ride like this one. If you're a fan of The Boys, Karl Urban's portrayal of Johnny Cage has been widely praised, with some noting it's worth watching just for him. — LB

• Watch Mortal Kombat II on HBO Max

Pompeii: Out of Time with Tom Hiddleston (Hulu/Disney+)

Think you know the complete story of Pompeii? Hold that thought, because Marvel star Tom Hiddleston sheds new light on this cataclysmic event in one of the more poignant docudramas I've seen in a while.

A three-part National Geographic series, Pompeii: Out of Time follows Hiddleston as he retraces the steps of a trio of individuals caught up in the natural disaster. Armed with fresh archaeological evidence and backed up by a team of experts, Hiddleston explores how these people not only navigated one of the worst humanitarian crises of the ancient world, but who might also have even survived the deadly events of 79 A.D.

Part educational, part moving drama, Pompeii: Out of Time is out now in full on Disney+ and Hulu. — TP

• Watch Pompeii: Out of Time with Tom Hiddleston on National Geographic via Hulu (US) and Disney+ (internationally)

Ransom Canyon season 2 (Netflix)

I don't need all of my television to be profound, life-changing, or even that meaningful. Sometimes, I just want to switch my brain off and pretend I live in a picturesque, rural town like Ransom Canyon on the other side of the world where everyone has unrelenting drama except me.

In season 2, the land feud between the Double K and Fuller ranches has become more ferocious, local bar owner Quinn has left for New York despite her on-off relationship with rancher Staten, and mysterious newcomer Yancy has revealed to new love interest Ellie that he has a secret wife.

Season 1 was already a strong outing, but now that the show knows itself a little more, season 2 is easily on par with the strongest seasons of Virgin River, the streamer's most iconic "cozy drama" IP. — JV

• Watch Ransom Canyon season 2 on Netflix

Masters of the Universe (Prime Video)

One of numerous mid-2026 film releases that have bombed at the box office, Amazon has hoisted the proverbial white flag on its live-action Masters of the Universe movie's theatrical run. In short: that means you can now watch it on Prime Video.

Based on the Mattel-owned media franchise of the same name, the action fantasy flick tells the tale of Adam, the crown prince of Eternia and owner of an mystical weapon called the Power Sword that, when wielded, turns him into the superhuman known as He-Man. Together with his allies, the previously exiled Adam must realize his potential and overthrow the nefarious Skeletor, who seized control of Adam's home city of Eternos — and its throne — 15 years earlier.

Not sure if you'll like this flick? Read my Masters of the Universe review to see what I thought before you stream it. — TP

• Watch Masters of the Universe on Prime Video

• Weapons' prequel movie about Aunt Gladys is officially in the works
• Director Zach Cregger spoke at San Diego Comic-Con where he confirmed that the script is in progress
• Weapons was a huge success, with Amy Madigan winning an Oscar for her performance as Aunt Gladys

Get excited Weapons fans, because Aunt Gladys' story will be explored in a new prequel movie that's being written now.

During Collider’s Directors on Directing panel at San Diego Comic-Con, director Zach Cregger gave a status update and confirmed that the Gladys-led prequel was in the works.

“First of all, I’m really excited about the Gladys movie, and I loved working with Amy,” Cregger said. “I loved that character. For the movie Weapons, it really made a lot of sense not to dive into her backstory because the device of Weapons was to keep her very mysterious.”

He added: “However, there’s an amazing story to be told about where Gladys comes from and how she became what we know her as. It’s got a lot of twists and turns and mysteries and crazy things, like Weapons does. I think it’s going to be great.

"The script is in progress now, but we’re taking that super seriously, and it’s moving in the right direction. So yeah, it’s being written, is the short answer.”

Weapons was a huge horror hit last year. (Image credit: Warner Bros.)

Considering I gave Weapons a five-star review, I'm very excited for the Gladys prequel movie. Cregger is on a roll at the moment, as we have also seen the full trailer for his new Resident Evil movie.

His take on the beloved horror video game franchise is an original one, and will follow a medical courier named Bryan as he "unwittingly finds himself in an action-packed, non-stop race for survival", per the official synopsis.

That's not all, either. Following on from the success of A24's Backrooms, it was announced that Cregger is working on a Siren Head adaptation, another Creepypasta that is well loved by horror fans.

Despite the noise around frontier AI models, most of the non-tech economy still runs on spreadsheets, manual lookups, and legacy systems.

This is even more so the case in automotive repair, where the gap between what AI promises and what it actually delivers costs the industry real money.

The global auto repair market is worth over $1 trillion but the US alone accounts for more than $180 billion of that annually, spread across more than 250,000 businesses, with no single operator holding more than 5% market share.

The average American vehicle is now 12.6 years old, the oldest fleet on record, meaning more frequent repairs, more complex parts, and more pressure on workshops already running on thin margins.

Since 2022, repair costs have risen by 25%, well above general inflation. Despite all of this, the industry still matches parts largely through manual catalogue lookups, experience, and guesswork. This results in wrong parts getting ordered, vehicles sitting in shops and workshops absorbing the cost of returns, rework and lost technician time.

That problem exists across every market, but the US is where it is most apparent; the market is enormous, deeply fragmented, and has operated without AI-native infrastructure designed specifically for it. That reflects a genuine technical challenge that general-purpose AI has not solved yet and cannot solve in its current form.

Why general-purpose AI models fall short

General-purpose models are built for optimizing language, reasoning and creativity, but not to be ruthlessly precise within one specific industry. In industries like automotive repair, tolerance for error is close to zero. For example, if a model recommends a headlight that isn't the right fit, it holds up the technician repairing the car, delays the customer and costs the insurer paying for the repair considerably more.

When you benchmark leading general-purpose models against domain-specific automotive parts tasks, the results are stark. The best general models achieve around 5% precision on parts identification benchmarks. A well-trained human does considerably better, but is constrained by memory, catalogue complexity and time.

A model purpose-built for this problem, trained on proprietary original equipment manufacturer (OEM) data, normalized catalogue schemas, fitment rules and live transactional feedback, achieves over 90% precision on the same benchmarks - not just a marginal improvement but a different category of capability.

The data and architecture problem

There are structural reasons why the gap is that large. Automotive parts and repair data is not a larger version of generic text, it is a constantly evolving graph of relationships:

VINs, trims, sub-models, region-specific variants, supersessions, aftermarket substitutions and workshop-specific preferences. Much of this lives in fragmented OEM catalogues and proprietary formats not available on the open web.

The architecture required is different too; a parts decision in a real workshop needs to account for vehicle history, insurer regulations, supplier inventory, contractual pricing and technician preferences simultaneously, requiring a model built to ingest structured catalogues and enforce hard constraints, not one optimized for broad conversational usefulness.

Building the infrastructure that makes scale possible

Building a domain-specific foundation model is not a matter of fine-tuning a general base as the dataset has to be assembled through years of OEM agreements, schema normalization and continuous integration of repair, claims and inventory data.

The model needs to be wired into the systems that run the business, so that every accepted recommendation, return and job outcome feeds back in and compounds accuracy over time. The competitive advantage builds over time through the combination of proprietary data, deep integration and continuous learning. The longer the model runs, the better it becomes.

For the US market, this matters more than anywhere else; the scale of the opportunity, 250,000 repairers, a fleet getting older every year, costs rising faster than inflation, means the compounding value of getting parts right the first time is enormous.

The markets where this technology has been deployed in Europe and Asia-Pacific have demonstrated that the productivity gains are real and measurable. The US has, until now, had no equivalent infrastructure to access them.

What buyers and investors should be asking

For technology buyers in complex verticals, the right question to ask of any AI vendor is not how capable their model is in general, but how it performs on the specific failure modes that cost your industry money. In automotive repair, that means first-time-right rates, return rates and cycle time compression.

The same logic applies to investors: the size of a model is not a measure of how hard a business is to displace. The relevant questions are how hard the dataset is to assemble, how embedded the model is in operational workflows and how general the reasoning ability is within the domain.

General-purpose models will continue to improve and will remain valuable for a wide range of tasks. But the deepest, most durable value in AI will be created where models stop being generic assistants and start becoming invisible infrastructure, optimized for one hard problem at a time.

In automotive repair, that means fixing the parts problem that has taxed the industry for decades. In the US in particular, where scale amplifies both the cost of the problem and the value of solving it, that shift is overdue.

We've listed the best GPS fleet tracking systems.

This article was produced as part of TechRadar Pro Perspectives, our channel to feature the best and brightest minds in the technology industry today.

The views expressed here are those of the author and are not necessarily those of TechRadarPro or Future plc. If you are interested in contributing find out more here: https://www.techradar.com/pro/perspectives-how-to-submit

• Key specs for the Google Pixel Watch 5 have just leaked
• They suggest the device could use the same chip Google has used for years
• The RAM might be boosted by 50%, though

If you’ve been eyeing up the Google Pixel Watch 5, you might want to think twice before heading to the checkout. That’s because a new leak has shed light on the upcoming smartwatch’s specs, and while there’s one welcome change, another alteration has left some fans deeply disappointed.

The discovery was made by 9to5Google, with the outlet claiming to have unearthed the specs in a Google Play Console listing. There, the outlet says it came across a device codenamed “godric,” which it says is the Pixel Watch 5.

The entry apparently recorded the device’s chip as the Qualcomm SW5100. If that sounds familiar, it’s because it’s the same chip used in the Pixel Watch 2, Pixel Watch 3 and Pixel Watch 4 — in other words, there’s unlikely to be any significant performance uptick in the Pixel Watch 5, if this rumor is correct.

But it wasn’t all bad news. 9to5Google also found that the forthcoming Pixel Watch 5 will allegedly come with 3GB of memory, which is a 50% increase on the 2GB of RAM previous Pixel Watches were equipped with. That might go some way to offsetting the chip limitations and could help the device feel a little snappier in use.

A mixed reaction

This is what the Google Pixel Watch 5 could look like, according to previous leaks. (Image credit: The TideChart)

The news has received a mixed reception among Pixel Watch fans. Some Reddit users, for instance, were pleased to see the memory increase, with one saying “More RAM is a great move, if confirmed. It should make everything run more smoothly on the [Pixel Watch 5].” Another added that bumping up the memory “should help make Gemini more responsive for people who care about that.”

But not everyone was satisfied with the news. “As a Pixel Watch 2 owner, this is disappointing,” said one user on Reddit, before continuing: “Support for my watch is ending, but if I upgrade then I will have [the] same CPU.”

It’s not too surprising that the news that Google plans to use the same chip for four generations of the Pixel Watch has disappointed plenty of people. Any user holding out for a decent performance bump after so many years might feel a little let down, at least if the leak comes to fruition.

Still, it’s good news to see the memory finally bumped up by 1GB. With artificial intelligence (AI) models like Google Gemini now making their way onto all of the best smartwatches, the extra RAM should improve their operations on your wrist.

Will that be enough to make up for the subpar chip situation? We’ll have to see once Google finally lifts the lid on the Pixel Watch 5, which is expected to happen in August. Keep your eyes peeled.