Technology

There used to be a time when you’d buy an Apple app by paying for it once and never again. Then along came the idea of app subscriptions, and slowly but surely, Apple has started selling more and more of its software products through recurring payments. From iCloud+ to Apple TV, there are many ways to spend your cash on Apple’s wares on an ongoing basis.

Today, Apple flogs bundles of its own apps to its users, with Apple One in particular offering a cluster of apps for a single monthly price. And Apple hasn’t stopped there, with the Creator Studio package being introduced a few months ago for users of its artistic apps.

But while these app groupings ostensibly give you a way to get the software you need without paying multiple subscription fees, I’m starting to worry about how they restrict your choices and force you down avenues you might not want to travel.

Not only can they be expensive, but they’re also inflexible, giving you very little ability to customize them to your needs. If subscriptions are the future of app monetization, then Apple needs to do a whole lot better.

Enter the Creator Studio

(Image credit: Apple)

Apple likes to portray itself as the company of creatives — think about its “Here’s to the crazy ones” or “I’m a Mac” commercials of days gone by. And the firm already sells apps made specifically for this demographic, including Logic Pro, Final Cut Pro, Pixelmator Pro, and more. So it makes sense that Apple would want to offer a software suite that grants interested users access for a single fee, instead of requiring several payments, whether one-off or ongoing.

That’s what you get with the Creator Studio, which is priced at $12.99 / £12.99 / AU$19.99 a month or $129 / £129 / AU$199 a year. In return for your cash, you get a pass for the following apps:

• Final Cut Pro
• Logic Pro
• Pixelmator Pro
• Keynote
• Pages
• Numbers
• Motion
• Compressor
• MainStage

And yes, some of these apps — like Keynote, Pages, and Numbers — are already free, but pay the Creator Studio entry fee and you get “a library of high-quality, royalty-free photos and graphics, and powerful intelligence features” in addition to what comes with the toll-free editions, Apple says.

Considering Logic Pro alone costs $199.99 if you want to buy it outright (rather than pay an ongoing subscription), this package might seem like a rather good deal. But it’s not the price that I’m interested in — it’s the way app bundles like Creator Studio work.

Right now, there are two main app collections available from Apple: Creator Studio and Apple One. While Creator Studio contains the aforementioned creative apps, Apple One starts at $19.95 / £18.95 / AU$24.95 a month and comes with 50GB of iCloud+ storage, plus memberships to Apple TV, Apple Music, and Apple Arcade.

There are two additional tiers, with the most expensive costing $37.95 / £36.95 / AU$49.95 a month and throwing in 2TB of iCloud+ storage, Apple Fitness+, and Apple News+, in addition to what’s already in the entry-level option.

But what if you want to mix and match your apps and services from Apple? What if you want, say, Logic Pro and Final Cut Pro from Creator Studio, plus Apple Music, Apple Fitness+, and Apple News+? Well, you’re going to have to either take out the top Apple One bundle and separately buy those creative apps outright, or you’ve got to pay for memberships of two distinct ongoing subscriptions.

In this instance, combining Creator Studio with the most expensive edition of Apple One means paying $50.94 a month when all you want are five apps. The rest of the content you pay for is superfluous. Throw in AppleCare+, and you’re forking out even more.

Apple gives practically no flexibility or customization with its app collections. You can’t mix and match apps and services, and if there are some you want from both subscriptions, you’ve got to pay for both. That makes it an incredibly expensive way to go.

But with Apple seemingly getting evermore enthusiastic about subscriptions — and the revenue they bring in — don’t be surprised if this state of affairs continues.

Is there a better way?

(Image credit: Apple)

You might feel that, since Creator Studio is relatively new, Apple is still working out the logistics of how to sell the apps and services it contains. But Apple is no stranger to subscriptions. It’s been offering the likes of Apple Music and Apple Arcade for years now, so it knows a thing or two about how to structure subscription offerings.

Is the lack of flexibility here and the absence of any way to pick and choose apps a deliberate policy on Apple’s behalf? We can’t know for sure, but it’s not a good look.

While the Creator Studio might seem like a decent bargain on its face, it becomes considerably less so if you’re not interested in everything it offers and want to pair its apps with those from the Apple One bundle.

Considering how keen Apple seems to be on subscriptions, I’m surprised it doesn’t offer individual memberships for each component app within these packages. For instance, why is there no individual subscription for Pixelmator Pro? Instead, you’ve got to choose between a one-off fee or the full Creator Studio.

If Apple were to go down this route — and it's what I'd do if I were CEO-to-be John Ternus — it would instantly solve the problem of pairing different apps from different collections. You could simply add whichever apps you wanted to your own “build a bundle” package and get exactly what you need for a more acceptable price.

But that kind of process doesn’t seem to be anywhere on the horizon. There are no rumors saying it’s coming, no telltale clues nestled in Apple’s code. Don’t hold your breath for its imminent arrival.

Until we do get something like that, Apple customers are going to continue to feel ripped off by a rigid, inflexible system that is happy to take their cash in return for apps they don’t want or need. It’s a situation that’s in desperate need of a rethink.

Across 100 engineering organizations, 61% already run AI agents. Yet almost none trust them enough to bring them into production.

There are a few reasons for this. Firstly, agents are prone to making mistakes that humans know to avoid through experience. They move at a much faster pace, and by their nature operate autonomously. If something goes wrong, there’s often no audit trail or visibility into what they are doing across the organisation.

This is problematic when a rogue agent inevitably leaks credentials, hits unauthorized repositories, or burns through cloud budget before anyone notices.

This unreliability is why most organizations keep agents away from anything that matters.

However, the real problem is not the agents. It’s the absence of governance around using them. The controls already exist, and have for a long time.

They are the same principles that have been applied to human engineers for years: minimal privileges, audit logging, identity management, and scoped access. Though familiar, companies struggle to apply these fundamental rules.

To ensure organizations get off to a good start with deploying AI agents, they should implement three simple governance controls: isolate, scope, and approve.

Isolate by default

Start with isolated, ephemeral workspaces. Every task that is spun up from a clean template should be erased the moment it is completed. No shared state or bleeds between runs. This means that should something go wrong, the damage will be confined to that task, and nothing beyond it.

Then from that workspace, all agents should have zero outbound access by default. Not limited. Zero. An explicit ‘allowlist’ then defines exactly which domains, methods, and paths an agent can touch. Everything else gets blocked. And even with narrow access, sensitive systems such as GitHub or Salesforce should get read-only access also.

Your agent is in an isolated workspace. Network connectivity is limited. Now it’s time to control tool calls. Model context protocol (MCP), for instance, is how agents invoke external tools, including file systems, databases, and APIs. Without airtight guardrails, an agent can reach any MCP server available to it.

The danger is that this is a significant and largely invisible attack surface. Proxies that sit in front of those tools allow administrators to define an approved list, filter at the per-tool level, and log anything that tries to reach outside the boundary.

Scope permissions and real-time monitoring

Even a well-isolated agent can cause problems if it’s running with more permissions than it needs. Agents should never inherit a user’s full credentials. API keys should only carry the permissions required for that specific task, and nothing more.

In addition to scoped identities, there must be clear visibility. Streaming every request through real-time monitoring and alerting teams when an agent makes 10x its typical API calls, contacts a new domain, or starts burning tokens unusually fast will provide timely, and actionable signals.

Identity-aware LLM routing ties it all together. Authenticating users through existing SSO, and routing all model requests through centrally managed keys solves the problem of API key sprawl. Without this measure of control, hundreds of loose keys with no attribution or clear revocation path quietly accumulate.

Approve agentic tasks with a human in the loop

Think of an agent as a talented junior employee. High output, eager to help, but not yet trusted to push to production unsupervised. AI agents should generate output but not decide what ships. This is where human approval gates, backed by existing role-based access controls, come in. Humans must be held mutually accountable for their agent’s output. This is as much a mindset as a technical control.

However, there is one area where you should assist human oversight: model selection. Not every task should go to the same model. For example, regulated data has different requirements than content generation. Routing by policy ensures that compliance requirements are met without relying on individual developers to make the correct call every time.

Full audit trails make the whole lot accountable. Every prompt, every tool call, every model interaction should be mapped to an authenticated identity and exportable to whatever observability stack is already in place. It should always be clear which authenticated user sent which prompt to which model, and why.

Embed governance in your infrastructure, not your apps

Overall, the goal is to empower organizations with the confidence to deploy their AI agents safely without slowing down their developers, agents or the business. Ensure this happens by laying down a governance layer to make AI agent adoption sustainable. But there’s a catch. Implement governance at the infrastructure layer. There are two reasons why.

Firstly, it avoids duplicating policy for every AI stack you deploy. Secondly, it ensures a consistent governance across a very fast-changing world where agents, models, and harnesses will leapfrog each other monthly. You do not want to rewrite governance policies at the pace of AI change.

Done right, infrastructure-lever governance makes AI production ready. Security teams with visibility over what agents are doing will be more inclined to approve more, compliance teams with clear audit trails will sign off faster, and developers who trust the guardrails will be able to push further.

Those enterprises that build in governance now will not just have better security posture, they’ll outpace competitors waiting for sign-off to run their first pilot.

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"We've heard the feedback that this feature missed the mark," Meta wrote in a blog post.

HuggingChat is Hugging Face's free, open-source chat interface . It might be the most underrated AI tool available right now. You get access to over 120 open-weight models including Llama, Mistral, Qwen, DeepSeek, and Falcon, all without spending a cent. The newest addition is Omni, a routing layer that automatically picks the most suitable model for your request.

What makes HuggingChat worth paying attention to is the sheer scope of model access it bundles into a single free product. I've been reviewing B2B software at TechRadar Pro for the past 10 years and our team covers the AI space closely. Take a look at our 2026 best AI tools roundup and read our in-depth explainers on open-source platforms like OpenClaw and Moltbook.

What is HuggingChat?

HuggingChat is the conversational AI interface built by Hugging Face, the company behind the world's largest open-source AI model repository. Instead of locking you into a single proprietary model, it lets you chat with any of 120+ community-hosted, open-weight models directly from your browser.

It's aimed squarely at developers, ML researchers, and technically curious users who want to compare model outputs, test different architectures, or simply avoid handing their data to a closed-source provider. For anyone evaluating an open-weight model before self-hosting it internally, this is an obvious starting point.

The platform also works for general use cases: writing, coding help, document analysis, and Q&A. But it's at its best when the person on the other end knows what they're asking of each model.

HuggingChat: At a glance

Attribute

Notes

Underlying model(s)

User-selectable from 120+ open-weight models including Meta Llama, Mistral, Qwen, DeepSeek, Falcon, and Cohere Command R+

Best for

Developers testing open models, researchers, ML engineers, privacy-conscious users

Distinguishing functions

Multi-model switching, Omni routing, web search, custom Assistants, document upload

UI features

Clean single-column chat interface with persistent model selector and sidebar conversation history

Subscription costs

Free (unlimited), Hugging Face Pro at $9/month

API pricing

Via Hugging Face Inference API; pricing varies by model and hardware; starts from $0.03/hour for CPU instances

Buy it if…

• You want to compare open-weight models side by side. HuggingChat is the fastest way to test how Llama, Mistral, and Qwen handle the same prompt without switching tools.
• You need a free AI chat tool with no usage caps. Unlike many free tiers, HuggingChat doesn't cut you off after a certain number of messages per day.
• Avoiding vendor lock-in matters to your organization. Every model on the platform is open-weight, meaning you can evaluate it here and self-host the exact same model later.

Don't buy it if…

• You want a polished, feature-complete interface. There's no canvas mode, no voice input, and no image generation. That puts it behind ChatGPT and Claude for everyday productivity use.
• Consistent response speed is critical. Inference speed varies depending on server load, and the free tier runs on shared infrastructure. Peak hours can slow things down noticeably.
• You need mobile-first access. HuggingChat is browser-only with no dedicated iOS or Android app, which limits how well it works on the go.

My time with HuggingChat

My first impression was that HuggingChat is more of a research tool than a daily driver. The interface is minimal: a chat window, a model selector, and a sidebar. That's about it. Once I got past the expectation of feature parity with ChatGPT, I found myself appreciating how little gets in the way of just talking to a model.

The Omni routing feature is a genuine improvement. Rather than guessing which model handles a given task best, In my testing, Omni made sensible choices more often than not. For users who don't want to manage model selection manually, it reduces friction considerably.

Where I ran into friction was speed. During busier periods, response latency was noticeably longer than on paid commercial platforms. For quick back-and-forth conversations, that's tolerable. For longer document analysis tasks, it started to feel slow.

HuggingChat: Features

The model catalog is HuggingChat's biggest selling point, and it's hard to overstate how much value that represents for free. At the time of writing, you can chat with 120+ models including Llama 3.1 405B, Mistral Large 2, Qwen 2.5 72B, DeepSeek V3, Command R+ from Cohere, and several Falcon variants. The list updates regularly as new community models are released.

Web search integration is available and works well enough for pulling in current information, which helps avoid stale knowledge cutoff responses. It's not as tightly integrated as Perplexity's approach, but it does the job without requiring a separate tool.

Custom Assistants let you set system prompts, attach knowledge bases via retrieval-augmented generation, and share a pre-configured assistant via a direct link. This is particularly useful for teams who want a repeatable AI workflow without paying for an enterprise platform. Document upload is also supported, which lets you drop in a PDF or text file and ask questions against it.

HuggingChat's limitations are harder to ignore if you're coming from a commercial product. There's no image generation, no voice mode, no plugin system, and no equivalent of ChatGPT's canvas or Claude's Projects feature. For general productivity use, those gaps matter.

HuggingChat: User experience

The interface is clean and gets out of the way quickly. A new conversation starts within seconds. The model selector is easy to find, and conversation history is accessible from the sidebar once you're logged into a Hugging Face account. There's no learning curve beyond understanding what each model is good at. That knowledge gap is real for non-technical users.

Hugging Face has been transparent in interviews about positioning HuggingChat as the open-source community's answer to proprietary chat products. That framing shows in the design decisions: the priority is access and transparency over UX polish. For the target audience of developers and researchers, that's a reasonable trade.

HuggingChat: Customer support

Support for HuggingChat itself is primarily community-driven, via the Hugging Face Discord and forums. There's no in-product live chat or dedicated help desk for the free tier, which means troubleshooting usually involves hunting through documentation or community threads.

Hugging Face Pro subscribers gain access to prioritized support channels, and Enterprise customers get dedicated support. For individual users on the free plan, the documentation is thorough but the response loop can be slow if you hit an edge case.

(Image credit: HuggingFace.co)HuggingChat: Pricing

• Free: Full access to all 120+ models, web search, document upload, and custom Assistants with no daily message limits
• Hugging Face Pro ($9/month): 20x inference credits, 10x private storage, ZeroGPU priority access, Spaces Dev Mode, and early access to new features
• Team ($20/month per user) and Enterprise ($50/month per user): Adds SSO, audit logs, storage regions, SCIM provisioning, and dedicated support

The free tier is impressively generous and covers most use cases without restriction. Upgrading to Pro makes sense if you're a developer who also uses Hugging Face's broader platform for model hosting, inference, or dataset work. The credits and storage benefits extend well beyond HuggingChat itself.

There's no standalone HuggingChat subscription. The Pro plan is a Hugging Face platform upgrade, which means you're paying for the full platform rather than just the chat product. That's either good value or unnecessary overhead, depending on how embedded you are in the HF ecosystem.

HuggingChat: alternatives you should consider

• ChatGPT (OpenAI): The most polished AI chat product on the market, with voice mode, image generation, and a canvas editor. Better for general productivity but fully proprietary and locked behind a subscription for advanced features.
• Claude (Anthropic): Strong at long document analysis and nuanced writing. More consistent response quality than most open-weight models, though it's closed-source and doesn't offer model selection flexibility.
• Perplexity AI: A strong alternative if web search and real-time information retrieval are your main use cases. Less flexible on the model side but more tightly integrated with live web data.

How I tested HuggingChat

• Ran identical prompts across Llama 3.1, Mistral Large 2, and Qwen 2.5 to evaluate output consistency and quality differences.
• Tested web search integration, document upload, Omni routing, and custom Assistant creation over multiple sessions.
• Ran tests across different times of day to assess latency variability on the free tier.

Testing covered both technical tasks (code generation, document Q&A) and general use cases (writing, research, open-ended reasoning) to give a representative picture of day-to-day performance.

• Australian eSafety Commissioner views VPN detection as a "reasonable step" for tech companies enforcing age limits
• The watchdog notes that service providers must prevent workarounds under new industry codes
• Australia's position mirrors a growing global debate surrounding age assurance and VPNs

Australia's internet watchdog is keeping a close eye on VPN services as the country steps up its efforts to enforce strict online age verification rules.

According to documents obtained by The Guardian under freedom of information (FOI) laws, the Australian eSafety Commissioner expects tech platforms and service providers to actively block workarounds that allow users to bypass age-restricted content and social media bans.

The internal documents explicitly detail how the government plans to approach these privacy tools under its Unlawful Material Codes and Standards. Under the Codes, the documents state, "service providers must take reasonable steps to prevent workarounds like VPNs so eSafety will look at this when considering compliance with codes."

For everyday web users, this raises a troubling question: could turning on a virtual private network (VPN) to protect your personal data soon flag you as a circumventor?

As cybersecurity protections increasingly find themselves in the crosshairs of child safety regulations, digital privacy advocates are sounding the alarm.

The push for VPN detection

(Image credit: Unsplash / Brooke Cagle)

Under the new codes, the Australian government is placing the burden directly on industry providers to prevent the exposure of age-restricted material, defined by regulators as Class 1 and Class 2 material.

Because a VPN encrypts your internet traffic and spoofs your IP address, it can easily make you appear as though you are browsing from a different country, bypassing local geoblocks and age gates. That's exactly why VPN downloads skyrocketed after Australia enforced mandatory age verification for adult content last March.

However, Australian authorities are confident that platforms can counter this.

According to the FOI documents, the government's ongoing Age Assurance Technology Trial has convinced regulators that network detection is feasible. The documents note that "the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications, Sport and the Arts knows that tech companies can tell when a VPN is in use."

Consequently, the eSafety Commissioner is treating the detection of these tools as a fundamental requirement. The internal log clarifies that "this is similar to eSafety’s regulatory guidance for the social media minimum age, where eSafety considers VPN detection as a reasonable step to prevent underage users from having an account."

A global ripple effect?

Australia is far from the only country struggling to balance child safety legislation with the right to online privacy. The debate over whether to treat VPNs as essential security software or mere circumvention tools is heating up worldwide.

Recent analysis of Australia's age verification rules suggests that trying to plug these "loopholes" could severely compromise the digital safety of the broader population. In fact, some experts argue that demanding that platforms actively block VPN connections sets a dangerous precedent for civil liberties.

The ripple effect is already visible across Europe.

As the EU launches its own age verification initiatives, regulators are increasingly signaling that VPNs might be next in line for restrictions. Similarly, the shifting role of VPNs in the UK has prompted rigorous discussions about whether incoming social media bans could lead to VPN restrictions.

Ultimately, the eSafety Commissioner’s plan highlights a growing reality: as governments worldwide roll out strict age assurance mandates, child safety measures and VPN use are on a collision course.

Whether everyday Australians will still be able to freely protect their data on public Wi-Fi without being blocked from their favorite sites remains to be seen.

• Zoom Virtual Agent Receptionist is now available to any business
• As a first port of call, it frees up humans to handle more valuable calls
• Available from $24.99/month, it speaks 10+ languages and works 24/7

Zoom has announced the launch of a dedicated AI receptionist that customers can deploy within their existing business telephone system, meaning that prospective customers will no longer have to commit to migrating to Zoom Phone, as was previously the case.

By helping customers to avoid disruptive infrastructure changes and waste years of investment in other telephone solutions, Zoom could end up with even more paying customers who would otherwise have dismissed the tool due to the migration requirements.

The system is designed to supplement existing human teams by answering incoming calls and directing them to the right support channels.

Zoom's AI receptionist is now available to all, including non-Zoom Phone customers

"Businesses shouldn’t have to replace their phone system to benefit from AI," Zoom Phone GM Chris Moss wrote.

The company boasted that its virtual receptionist can speak more than 10 languages, will work around the clock and has built-in transcription to help agents later down the line.

It can automatically handle routine business questions and schedule appointments, but it will also transfer calls to the relevant people or departments wherever necessary. By pairing customers up with an AI agent first to hopefully answer some of the most basic and common questions, it frees up human workers time to handle the more valuable and complex interactions.

The virtual receptionist also promises to plug the gaps when human agents might otherwise be busy handling other calls, or our of hours when customer service would usually be unreachable.

According to the company's own data, one in two consumers say they'd switch to a competitor after a single bad experience. Around three-quarters (71%) also said they find calling a company more stressful than the issue itself.

Zoom Virtual Agent Receptionist is available now, priced at $29.99 per month for 100 minutes, or $24.99 with an annual commitment.

The first two episodes of new MGM+ crime drama The Westies are now streaming, but strap in — we've still got another six installments to go.

The new show follows the real-life Irish-American crime family of the same name, who ran the streets of Hell's Kitchen for decades from the 1960s. Basically, it's the perfect warm-up act for MobLand season 2 and The Gentleman season 2, which are both set to return in September.

Led by J.K. Simmons as patriarch Eamonn Sweeney, we've got an epic cat-and-mouse game afoot between our shady leads and the FBI, who have been tasked with bringing them to justice.

The trailer set up the high-stakes drama to come, but some fans weren't entirely happy with the teaser. Scroll through the YouTube comments on the clip below, and you'll see multiple fans complaining that The Westies looks far too tame for a mobster story.

In a way, they have a point. If you're tuning in looking for glory through guts and gore, you're not going to find it. However, that doesn't mean that intense action sequences are few and far between.

Not only have lead stars Simmons and Tom Brittney (James) seen the comments, they're the first in line to disagree — and they've got pretty good reasoning as to why.

'There's some stuff that I'm surprised we could get away with'

"God, no," Brittney says when I ask if The Westies felt tame when filming. "I think I saw that comment. Someone sent something to me about going, 'oh, I think it's tame.' And I was like... well, you better watch then.

"We can't put everything that's in the show into that trailer because you wouldn't be able to show it on TV as a teaser. Especially depending on the time that you're showing it. It's a brutal one. There's some stuff in this that I was surprised that they could get away with."

From a marketing standpoint, it makes complete sense that the best parts of The Westies, which would include the grittiest and most intense fights, won't be revealed immediately. They wouldn't even be in the two-episode premiere... think of them as a reward for investing in the new series long-term.

"If I may... don't watch the trailer. Watch the show," Simmons adds. We're both in it. You know it's gonna be good! So, just watch the show. July 12th. Or you could watch it on the 13th if you want. That's the beauty. Go crazy. Watch it on the 14th, whatever. Just watch it sometime in the first week, please."

You heard the man... lock in now, and reap the benefits as The Westies continues to drop on a weekly basis.

Hoo boy, is anybody else still coming to terms with X-Men 97 season 2 episode 4's ending? I know I am but, with a new chapter of the Marvel TV show set to drop very soon, it's time to re-compose and emotionally steel ourselves for whatever comes next.

So, when will this season's fifth entry — titled 'Weapon X, Lies, and DVDs' — make its debut on Disney+? Read on and you'll find out!

What is the launch time for X-Men 97 season 2 episode 5?

This week's installment sounds like it'll focus on James 'Logan' Howllet, aka Wolverine (Image credit: Marvel Animation/Disney+)

X-Men 97 season 2's next installment will air on Wednesday, July 15 at 12am PT / 3am ET in North and South America.

Viewers living elsewhere will also be able to catch it on Disney+, aka one of the world's best streaming services, on the same date. Depending on where you're based, though, the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) adjacent TV series' next episode will come out at a different time. Check out the list below for more details:

• US — 12am PT / 3am ET
• Canada — 12am PT / 3am ET
• UK — 8am BST
• India — 12:30pm IST
• Singapore — 3pm SGT
• Australia — 5pm AEST
• New Zealand — 7pm NZST

How many more episodes are there in X-Men 97 season 2?

DISC 02▶ X-MEN '97TRACK 04 00:00 ────◉─── 01:05Stream a new episode of Season 2 now, only on Disney+. pic.twitter.com/YuoCJfi484July 8, 2026

After this week's episode, there'll be four more episodes of X-Men 97's second season to enjoy.

Want to know the exact dates that the Marvel Phase 6 show's remaining entries will appear? Run your eyes over the below list for more on the schedule for the X-Men animated show's sophomore season:

• Season 2 episode 1 — out now
• Season 2 episode 2 — out now
• Season 2 episode 3 — out now
• Season 2 episode 4 — out now
• Season 2 episode 5 — July 15
• Season 2 episode 6 — July 22
• Season 2 episode 7 — July 29
• Season 2 episode 8 — August 5
• Season 2 episode 9 — August 12

• Cast confirms on social media that Mayor of Kingstown season 5 has officially wrapped production
• No official release date has been confirmed, but predictions suggest new episodes could be seen as soon as November 2026
• Plot details have largely been kept under wraps

If you've been keeping a close eye on all things Paramount+ in the last week, you might have noticed that Mayor of Kingstown season 5 has wrapped production.

Tobi Bamtefa, who plays Bunny on the show, confirmed the news on Instagram, adding in a caption, "To those about to start from season 1, I envy you. Your socks are about to get blown off in the best way possible. 5 seasons with no breaks!!"

New episodes of the Taylor Sheridan series are set to be the last ever, despite the crime thriller originally being mapped out to run for seven seasons.

The Hollywood Reporter speculated that the unexpected cut falls in line with other Paramount+ original series, none of which have ever exceeded a fifth season. However, the studio has never given an official statement on this.

With production now finished, thoughts turn to when we might see Mayor of Kingstown season 5 episodes released. No date has been confirmed as of writing, but that doesn't mean that we can't use context clues to hazard an educated guess.

Opinion: Mayor of Kingstown season 5 could be released as early as November 2026

(Image credit: Paramount)

Let's look back at the Taylor Sheridan TV canon to see what sort of release schedules have come before. Landman season 2 was released in November 2025, with filming having completed in early August 2025.

Similarly, Yellowstone spinoff Dutton Ranch wrapped production in March 2026, resulting in an incredibly quick turnaround, ready for its release in May 2026.

In short, Sheridan shows that only a matter of months is needed between filming and hitting the small screen as a finished product, which means — in a best-case scenario — we could expect Mayor of Kingstown season 5 to premiere as early as November 2026.

In Sheridan's world, anything is possible, but an exact release strategy will likely depend on what else is confirmed for Paramount+'s year-on-year schedule. We're expecting Dexter: Resurrection season 2 and Yellowjackets season 4 to arrive at some point before the year is out, and I don't think seeing Landman season 3 or The Madison season 2 is too far-fetched, either.

It all comes down to how much of a priority Mayor of Kingstown season 5 is for Paramount+, and that's a question that we just can't answer. However, the editing process starts now, and that can only be a good thing.

• Ireland's data center electricity demand reportedly rises 360% in ten years
• Data centers now account for 23% of the entire country's power consumption
• New data centers can now only be constructed if certain power demand considerations are met

Ireland’s data center electricity consumption has risen 360% in ten years, and now accounts for 23% of the entire country’s electricity demand in 2026.

With total residential consumption accounting for 28%, and data center demand rising quickly, it won’t be long before the server farms overtake the consumption of Ireland’s population of just over five million.

These figures come from an Ireland Central Statistics Office report, which shows data center electricity consumption has risen 10% year over year from 2024 to 2025, despite a moratorium on new data center grid connections enacted in 2021. In total, the country’s data centers consumed 7,663 GWh last year, despite the rest of Ireland's demand rising only 2% in the same period.

Ireland battling data center power demand

The 2021 moratorium, put in place by Ireland’s Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU), required the national grid operator, EirGrid, to stop processing standard power applications for data centers in the Greater Dublin Area. New data centers built after this ruling were therefore required to supply their own on-site energy or construct new projects in regions not subject to this restriction.

Consumption since 2021 has risen steadily, prompting the CRU to replace the previous moratorium with the Large Energy Users (LEU) Connection Policy, which subjects new data center projects to a set of measures designed to ease the level of consumption on the national grid, while also creating new sources of energy.

Data centers over 10 MVA are now required to construct on-site, flexible power generation that covers 100% of demand, while also sourcing at least 80% of their annual electricity from new, unsubsidized renewable projects within six years.

Ireland has become a hub for big tech. Many companies have built European headquarters in the country, with hyperscalers such as AWS, Google, Meta, and Microsoft building and operating the majority of Ireland’s 89 data centers to power cloud infrastructure and AI models.

As a result of the rapid increase in demand, Ireland now has the highest electricity cost in Europe, with Irish households paying around €480 ($550) more per year compared to the EU average. Higher electricity prices have been a catalyst for data center opposition, especially in the US, where working class communities are challenging new data center projects at an unprecedented scale.

This opposition has been a leading contribution to more than half of US data centers being cancelled or delayed, with US citizens citing rising electricity costs, concerns over water consumption, and fears of AI job replacement as the main causes for opposition.

Secondhand tech is an affordable alternative for must-have tech, but the RAM shortage is increasing the demand for it.

• A software update bricked Philips Hue Bridge Pro devices
• The bug required a very specific set of circumstances
• Philips Hue has promised free replacements to affected users

Over the last few weeks, reports have emerged of Philips Hue Bridge Pro smart home devices becoming bricked, and it looks like the culprit has now been identified. According to Philips Hue, the fault lay with a recent software update — but the company has won plaudits for what it's giving to customers in order to make amends.

The trouble started in late June when Philips Hue released software update 2071353020, which was intended to include “several small changes” that improved the product’s operations. Yet reports started flooding in that the update had caused people’s Hue Bridge Pro devices to fail and become completely unresponsive.

In a statement to Ars Technica, Philips Hue explained the very specific circumstances that caused the problem: “The issue affects users who disabled automatic software updates, remained on an older software version for an extended period, and then manually installed a firmware update after the update package had been stored on the Bridge for more than 10 days.”

As well as that, the spokesperson noted that “Our data shows fewer than 100 Philips Hue Bridge Pro devices have been impacted.”

Still, any disruption like this is a pain. If you’re affected, not only will you have to wait for a replacement to arrive, but you’ll also have to reconfigure your lights and settings from scratch. That’s the kind of disturbance that is made all the more irritating due to the fact that it occurred after users updated their software — something that people are often encouraged to do in order to get the latest bug fixes and improvements.

Free replacements

(Image credit: Philips)

While it’s always unpleasant to see a software update brick your device, Philips Hue has attracted praise for the way it’s responded. Not only has it issued a fix, but the company has promised that “We will replace affected Philips Hue Bridge Pro devices free of charge, regardless of warranty status.”

The decision has proved popular with Hue owners on Reddit, who've noted in one popular thread that it's a rare example of "big company actually making good". Another comment noted: “Considering the RAM prices too those Bridges went up in costs too. W to Philips on this one.”

If you haven’t updated your Philips Hue Bridge Pro for a while and think your device could be vulnerable according to Philips Hue's description, it might be worth getting in touch with the company first before attempting to update. The last thing you want is a bricked product on your hands.

And if you already have been affected, don’t spring for a replacement device just yet. You might be able to get a free replacement from Philips Hue, so be sure to explore that avenue first before spending a dime on anything new.

• Hisense has announced a phone with a detachable rear screen
• The front display is e-ink, and the rear one is LCD
• Currently the phone has only been announced for China, so it might not be widely available

We don’t see much experimentation in smartphone design anymore, so I always applaud when companies try something new. That’s exactly what Hisense has done with its new A10 handset, as this has two screens — and one of them is detachable.

Specifically (via GoodEreader), this has a 6.13-inch monochrome e-paper display on the front (it isn't clear if this is officially an E Ink one), and a detachable color LCD screen on the back.

It runs Android 16, but most of the specs haven’t been revealed yet, other than it using an octa-core 4nm chipset, which according to leaker Experience More is a Snapdragon one. In any case, it being 4nm means this won’t be a high-end phone, but then high-end specs would arguably be wasted on an e-paper screen.

According to Experience More, the detachable LCD display will be sold separately. This makes sense, since not everyone will necessarily want two screens.

But it’s an interesting idea, potentially giving you the benefits of both e-paper and a conventional phone display — and since the second screen is detachable, you don’t have to add the bulk or fragility of the second screen when you don’t want to.

The Hisense A10 without its detachable screen (Image credit: Hisense)The wrong way round

I can’t help but think that it would have made more sense to make the e-paper screen the detachable rear one. After all, for most people an e-paper display is more of a secondary device — one you might use to read a book or to conserve battery, but not for the majority of smartphone tasks.

There is a market for e-paper phones — those who desire simplicity or less eye strain are drawn to them for one, and they can help encourage people to use their phones less too, because there is more friction there than with an LCD or OLED display.

But they remain niche devices, and while the Hisense A10 in some ways gives you the best of both worlds, it could end up being even more niche, since it combines the niche of an e-paper screen with the niche of a dual-screen device.

So personally, I’d love to see this the other way around — giving buyers a conventional smartphone with the option of an e-paper attachment. But until a company gives us that, there’s always the Xteink X4 — a tiny ereader that can magnetically attach to the back of phones.

The trouble with this is that it doesn’t run Android or integrate with your phone’s apps, making it a bit more limited than a true dual-screen device would be. But it’s better than nothing.

As for the Hisense A10, that’s currently only announced for China, so you might have to import it.

• One of the original Xbox founders, Laura Fryer, suggests Sony is stripping away game ownership via an all-digital future
• It comes after PlayStation announced physical game discs won't be produced starting from January 2028
• Fryer claims Sony let Rockstar 'take the heat' by announcing a digital-only GTA 6 first

Sony is still under fire after its latest announcement of a future all-digital future for PlayStation games, as physical game copies are due to be axed — and not only are consumers livid, some gaming industry veterans are too.

As reported by Notebookcheck, Laura Fryer, one of the original founding members of Xbox, has recently condemned Sony's announcement ending physical game discs for future PlayStation games, and highlights the threat the move poses to game ownership.

The announcement from Sony has since resulted in major backlash regarding game ownership from thousands online, including a slight pushback (or support for physical media) from indie game developers like Astrolabe Games.

In this case, Fryer hasn't been shy about noting just how dangerous the end of physical game discs will be once 2028 arrives, especially since rumors suggest Microsoft may follow in a similar direction with its next Xbox console.

"Digital is convenient until someone else decides you've had enough, and there are some games and movies where I will never have enough of them," Fryer stated, which is arguably a valid statement since Sony recently removed over 500 purchased movies from users' libraries.

It's worth noting that Rockstar Games recently opened GTA 6 pre-orders, with the announcement that there won't be a physical copy of the game, which Fryer highlights as an important step to Sony's latest plans, stating: "Sony waited for Rockstar to make the first move, take the heat, and now they're going all in to make this the new normal."

Fryer even references Don Mattrick's infamous statement regarding an 'always online' Xbox One console experience, as she suggests that this is what Sony, Microsoft, and, frankly, Hollywood are doing today.

"When was the last time you put a disc in and the game just worked without a big download? All the major players, Sony, Microsoft, even Hollywood, they're all aligned here. Digital kills the used market, and it stops your old library from competing with new games on the next console."

That 'always online' future is closer than it ever has been, and with Sony also shutting down PS3 and PS Vita stores in 2027. That means whenever the PS6 (or future PlayStation consoles) eventually becomes a retro console like the PS3, there will be no way to play games on the system unless it's via digital means — and that directly eliminates game ownership completely.

• Marvel has published a giant new mural for Avengers: Doomsday
• It gives us a fresh look at its massive cast and villain-in-chief, Doctor Doom
• One MCU character is surprisingly conspicuous by their absence

Marvel has unveiled a huge new mural for Avengers: Doomsday that features all but one of its sizeable cast.

Shown for the first time at the Chinese fan convention Bilibili World in Shanghai last Saturday (July 11), the artwork gives us another look at the highly anticipated movie's heroic ensemble.

AVENGERS: DOOMSDAY - the final full film I had the honor of leading as Director of Visual Development at Marvel Studios.This illustration commemorates that journey & reveals the characters & their looks for the first time. #AvengersDoomsday pic.twitter.com/87l95XZZ7dJuly 11, 2026

The image, which was later shared online by former Marvel Studios Director of Visual Development Andy Park, also offers a fresh glance at Robert Downey Jr's Doctor Doom.

Predictably, we don't get to see Doom's likely scarred face — a reveal Marvel is surely holding back for the film's full release. Nonetheless, his iconic mask, coupled with those piercing, ice blue eyes, indicates that the Multiverse Saga's primary villain will be an emotionally cold, calculating, and formidable foe for our heroes to overcome.

Missing in action

Cyclops and the rest of the FoX-Men are part of this huge illustration (Image credit: Marvel Studios)

With San Diego Comic-Con (SDCC) 2026 — and, by proxy, this year's edition of Marvel's oft-anticipated Hall H panel — it's little surprise to see the comic giant starting to accelerate its promotional campaign for the next Avengers film.

What is eyebrow-raising about the Marvel Phase 6 flick's first official artwork, though, is the absence of a specific Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) character. And I'm not talking about heroes who weren't announced as part of Doomsday's initial 27-strong cast, such as Spider-Man, Wolverine, Deadpool, or Captain Marvel.

So, who is it? None other than Tenoch Huerta's Namor, aka the ocean-dwelling anti-hero and the MCU's first mutant, who was first introduced to MCU fans in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.

Huerta is the only actor confirmed to appear in Doomsday who isn't part of this mural (Image credit: Marvel Studios)

Namor's absence is certainly strange, especially as the rest of Doomsday's original cast reveal is part of this mural. The inclusion of Chris Evans' Steve Rogers, who wasn't part of the movie's initial line-up, but was eventually confirmed to be part of proceedings when Avengers: Doomsday's first teaser was released last December, makes Namor's non-appearance all the more bizarre, too.

Is this a simple albeit major oversight on Marvel's part not to include him in this artwork? Or does it indicate that Namor will only have a minor role/cameo to play in Avengers 5? With Namor appearing in Avengers: Doomsday's fourth teaser, I seriously doubt it's the latter. That said, I don't believe Marvel would purposefully cut him from this illustration. Hopefully, someone at Marvel Studios will shed light on this if they're asked about it at SDCC.

In the meantime, find out everything we know so far about Avengers: Doomsday. Once you're done, get the full lowdown on Avengers: Secret Wars, aka Doomsday's sequel that'll also cap off the Marvel Multiverse Saga.

UK tech retailer Currys has cut the price on a number of big name laptops, including models from HP, Asus and Microsoft.

The Surface Laptop 13.8", Copilot+ PC, powered by a Snapdragon X Elite processor and backed by 16GB of DDR5 memory and a 512GB SSD, sees the biggest discount. Usually priced at £1599, it's currently available for just £999, a solid £600 saving.

If that's not a big enough incentive for you, the laptop also features a Quad HD+ touchscreen and up to 20 hours of battery life, so you won't have to spend ages looking for someone to plug it in.

My top 4 business laptop deals at Currys

This Microsoft Surface Laptop runs Windows 11 and is powered by the Snapdragon X Elite X1E-80-100 processor. It features 16GB DDR5 RAM, a 512GB SSD, a sharp Quad HD+ touchscreen, and up to 20 hours of battery life.View Deal

This Asus Zenbook laptop runs Windows 11 and features an Intel Core Ultra 9 285H processor, 32GB DDR5 RAM, 1TB SSD, a sharp 2K touchscreen, and up to 15 hours of battery life for productivity daily.View Deal

This Asus Vivobook laptop runs Windows 11 and is powered by an Intel Core Ultra 5 225H processor. It includes 16GB RAM, a spacious 1TB SSD, a vibrant Full HD+ OLED display, and up to 20 hours of battery life.View Deal

This HP laptop runs Windows 11, powered by an Intel Core Ultra 5 226V processor, with 16GB DDR5 RAM, 512GB SSD storage, a responsive Full HD touchscreen, and up to 12 hours battery life daily.View Deal

Also on sale at Currys are two Asus laptops. The Zenbook 14 OLED 14" model is powered by an Intel Core Ultra 9 285H Processor and comes with 32GB of DDR5 RAM and a 1TB SSD.

It also comes with a 2K touchscreen and promises up to 15 hours of battery life, which will be more than enough to get you through a full working day

That model usually sells for £1399 but you can snap it up for £999 at Currys right now, a solid £400 saving.

If you need a larger laptop, the Vivobook S16 OLED S3607CA 16" model is powered by an Intel Core Ultra 5 225H Processor with 16GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD. It also comes with a Full HD+ OLED screen and up to 20 hours of battery life.

That model usually costs £999 but Currys has slashed the cost down to £599, which means you'll also save £400 with that one.

If you're after a laptop with a bigger-than-normal display, then HP's OmniBook 7 AI is the model you want. It features a 17-inch, Full HD touchscreen and is powered by an Intel Core Ultra 5 226V chip, backed up by 16GB of DDR5 RAM and a 512GB SSD.

That model promises up to 12 hours of battery life. It should be enough to get you through a full working day, but depending on what you're using it for, it might require a top up when you're out and about.

While the OmniBook 7 AI usually retails for £999, you can save £699 right now at Currys, which is a welcome £300 off.

For more top picks like this, these are the best business laptops we've tested and reviewed.

• Shop all laptops at Currys

Dimplex Rechargeable Cordless Desk Fan: two minute reviewSpecifications

Type: desktop

Speeds: 4

Oscillation: none

Dimensions (HxWxD): 6.7 x 11 x 7.4 inches / 17 x 27.9 x 18.7cm

Controls: power and speed buttons

Battery life: 4-15 hours

Noise level: 36dB to 43dB

Dimplex makes lots of floor, table and pedestal fans, and the Rechargeable Cordless Desk Fan is designed to address one of their weaknesses: they can only go where your plug sockets or extension cables can go. This affordable fan works as wired one via its USB-C port but also includes a rechargeable battery delivering up to 15 hours of air, or around four hours at full speed. That means you you can take it into the garden on a hot evening or take it to your bedroom and run it overnight.

The Dimplex Rechargeable Cordless Desk Fan doesn't oscillate but you can tilt it vertically up to 90 degrees, and it folds down almost flat so it's easy to keep in a drawer or toss into a bag. There are four speed settings here but the high speed one is not recommended while charging, as it depletes the battery faster than the USB-C connection charges it.

The fan works well and is fairly quiet, but it does make a noticeable drone at all speed settings; on a hot day, running the fan at high was very distracting. Of course all fans make some noise, but as this is a small fan with a 6.7 inch / 17cm diameter and 5.1 inch 13cm blades, you need to have it close to you to feel the benefit. In my home office the Dimplex on quiet setting at half a meter distance was noticeably louder than a much larger air circulator running at 50% speed one meter from me. If noise annoys, this may not be the fan for you.

(Image credit: Future)Dimplex Rechargeable Cordless Desk Fan review: price and availability

• Launched July 2025
• UK only
• £34.99 (about $50 / AU$70)

The Dimplex Rechargeable Cordless Desk Fan, model DXRCFN, launched in the UK in July 2025. It has a recommended retail price of £34.99 (about $50 / AU$70), making it the most affordable model in the current range of Dimplex cooling fans and about £10 more expensive than a similarly sized wired desktop fan. It isn't currently available in Australia, and Dimplex doesn't sell its home cooling products in the US.

This fan has been cheaper – it was £25.45 during Prime Day 2026 – but I wouldn't expect to see any price cuts during the summer months in the UK.

Value for money: 4/5

(Image credit: Future)Dimplex Rechargeable Cordless Desk Fan review: design

• Supremely portable
• Finger-friendly grille
• USB-C charging

The design of the fan is rather clever. It's been made for maximum portability, folding in on itself to resemble a small squashed football for travel or storage. It charges via USB-C and takes about four hours to charge fully. Because it's USB you can charge it with a phone charger or power bank, which makes it a good option for travelling. The battery is sealed inside and is not user-replaceable.

In addition to its internal bladed fan there's a circular louvred grille on the front that rotates and enhances the airflow. Although it spins quickly, the front grille is finger-friendly and won't hurt you or a child if you or they touch it (although you can lock it in place if you don't want it to spin).

The Dimplex fan doesn't oscillate, but you can adjust its vertical tilt by up to 90 degrees by moving the fan section up or down. It stays put without having to be screwed in place. Controls are simple, with just two buttons: power and speed. There's no remote control and no smartphone/smart home features.

Design: 4/5

(Image credit: Future)Dimplex Rechargeable Cordless Desk Fan review: performance

• Decent airflow for its size
• Four speed settings
• Distracting sound

There are four fan speeds — quiet, low, medium and high — and I found that for my home office desk the quiet setting delivered a nice breeze without making me feel like I was in a wind tunnel. High speed was a bit intense up close but worked well from a little further away. Dimplex recommends only using High when you're on battery power as it can still deplete the battery when you're recharging it; at its lowest, quiet setting I managed 14+ hours from a single charge.

The Dimplex moves a decent amount of air for its size and it's fairly quiet in terms of its overall volume, which ranges from 36dB to 43dB. However, it does make a noticeable and constant droning sound that rises in pitch as you increase the speed. All bladed fans make some motor noise, of course, but desk fans are designed to sit very close to you, which means any noise is much more noticeable. For me it was too distracting at any speed when I sat it on my work desk, although in the bedroom at its lowest setting it didn't keep me awake.

Performance: 3/5

(Image credit: Future)Dimplex Rechargeable Cordless Desk Fan review: should you buy it?

Value

Not much more expensive than a wired fan of similar size

4/5

Design

Designed for maximum portability with fold-flat design, but no oscillation feature

4/5

Performance

Good airflow for such a small fan but we found the noise a little distracting.

3/5

Buy it if...

You like to move it, move it

The Dimplex Rechargeable Cordless Desk Fan is super light and extremely portable, folding down small enough to put in a bag.

You get around

This fan charges via USB-C, runs for up to 15 hours and can be recharged from a power bank or phone charger.

You're in a small space

The relatively small fan blades mean this is best suited to desktop use or close-up positioning.View Deal

Don't buy it if...

Noise annoys

The fan's motor makes a noticeable drone that your reviewer found distracting.

You're far away

This fan only moves air a short distance, so you'll need something more powerful for larger spaces.

Your home's too hot

Fans like this one move air around but don't have any cooling features.

Dimplex Rechargeable Cordless Desk Fan review: also consider

It's twice the price, but the MeacoFan Sefte 6-inch portable air circulator is brilliant, delivering up to 22 hours of impressive airflow and whisper-quiet operation. That's £69.99, and the slightly larger and more powerful 8-inch is £79.99. Both are in high demand so if you want one you should move quickly: the same firm's 10-inch Sefte fans sold out very quickly and are currently out of stock.View Deal

Dimplex Rechargeable Cordless Desk Fan review: how we tested

I tested this Dimplex fan for a week during summery weather as both a desktop fan in my home office, and as a bedroom fan overnight. Both locations are in my house, where indoor temperatures were around 69.8°F to 75.2°F / 21ºC to 24ºC during the daytime and around 66.2°F to 68.0°F / 19ºC to 20ºC at night.

First tested July 2026

Evil Dead Burn is the sixth installment in the horror franchise, and unfortunately, I found the new movie to be the weakest one of the bunch. Considering the 2013 reboot wasn't great, I think that speaks to how much I'm disappointed in the most recent entry.

On the surface, Evil Dead Burn looks promising. It was directed by Sébastien Vaniček, who is most well known for his movie Infested. I liked that one a lot (mostly because spiders terrify me), and so I was excited for his take on the iconic Evil Dead series.

Vaniček's Evil Dead Burn follows a woman named Alice (Souheila Yacoub) who is grieving over the loss of her husband, William (George Pullar), as she seeks solace with her in-laws. One member of her late husband's family is played by Hunter Doohan, who stars in Netflix's Wednesday, and I must admit it was cool getting to see him in a horror movie.

One by one, the family transforms into Deadites, the malevolent, parasitic demonic spirits we've come to fear throughout the Evil Dead franchise. But it goes in a direction I really wasn't expecting.

I do want to preface my mostly negative review by pointing out that there are some good things about this movie. Horror fans with a thirst for gory set pieces will no doubt have fun, as there are indeed some great moments. Some stand-out scenes involve a dishwasher and a car door, and just thinking about them makes me cringe uncomfortably.

Unfortunately, there's not much else to it beyond some standout gory moments that will stick with you. It's not a patch on the Bruce Campbell-led movies we know and love, and pales in comparison to its predecessor, Evil Dead Rise.

Evil Dead Burn centers around a family terrorized by Deadites, but there's a lot of confusion here surrounding how people become possessed. Sometimes you need a transfer of bodily fluids, and sometimes possession takes longer than others. The inconsistency throughout the movies might frustrate fans, as sometimes, a simpler answer is best.

When the family members are possessed, horrible things happen. It is a very unforgiving movie because the Deadites are particularly cruel here, often to an extreme degree. I should warn people now that yes, there is violence towards animals if that bothers you, and the movie feels nastier than its predecessors as a result.

That's not necessarily a bad thing, as we expect to watch a horror movie to feel uncomfortable and scared. But Evil Dead Burn really struggles to balance these shocking, brutal moments with an actual story, to the point where it feels like you're just watching a montage of gory scenes.

There's also a frustrating overreliance on jump scares here, which previous Evil Dead movies steered away from. There's nothing wrong with a good scare, and horror fans love them, but when you have excessive ones you saw coming a mile away, it becomes tedious.

Sam Raimi wove a really cool horror story when he first created The Evil Dead, but this sequel adds very little to the lore. It's basically a long movie where family members brutally attack and maim each other, and by the credits, I was left with more questions than answers.

Even the post-credits scene isn't really worth waiting for, and since there was a three-year gap between Evil Dead Rise and Evil Dead Burn, it's a shame that's all we got.

Ultimately, Evil Dead Burn is another divisive horror movie that will work for some and not others. It really depends on what you want from a horror movie, and if you're content with some over-the-top gore and repeated easy-to-spot scares, then you'll definitely have fun.

If you want more lore with your gore, then you might want to revisit the previous movies instead. Evil Dead Burn doesn't add much to a long-running franchise, and I found it to be a disappointment.

• Agentic Atlas browser pulled as OpenAI focuses on one single app
• New ChatGPT desktop app includes built-in browser and agentic capabilities
• Could this finally be the 'superapp' we were promised back in April 2026?

Not even a full year after OpenAI launched its own, dedicated agentic browser, ChatGPT Atlas has been axed amid a broader ChatGPT reinvention and the introduction of what might just be the superapp we've been teased for months.

Launched in October 2025, OpenAI has confirmed that Atlas will stop working from August 9, 2026, however it's not technically the end of the company's browser ambitions.

Instead, the browser is simply being moved into the new ChatGPT desktop app and will form part of existing AI workflows without the friction of having to move apps.

ChatGPT Atlas pulled after 10 months

In April, Chief Revenue Officer Denise Dresser described the company's future as one that stops pursuing side quests and fragmented interfaces. She teased an upcoming 'superapp', and while the company didn't explicitly describe the new ChatGPT desktop app as that 'superapp', the significant overhaul and the integration of Codex, other agentic AI tools and a browser within the single app implies this could indeed be said 'superapp'.

"We’ll begin sunsetting the standalone Atlas browser, and will share information with users about how to transition to ChatGPT," the company wrote in a recent announcement.

The new app launch coincides with the introduction of ChatGPT Work, which adds new agentic capabilities in light of the fact that many Codex users are actually knowledge workers, not coders.

ChatGPT Work bridges the gap between generative and agentic AI by enabling users to complete longer-running tasks, rather than instructing the tool prompt-by-prompt. The tool can run both locally and on the company's cloud servers, allowing access from anywhere and continues progress regardless of the primary PC's state.

Further OpenAI tools are also being made available via Chrome extensions to keep some AI available within a dedicated browser environment.

“Don’t open suspicious emails.”

This used to be the baseline mantra with cybersecurity training. Spotting a counterfeit data request was once simple: poor spelling, questionable email addresses, or a direct request for cash accompanied by an incredible story of a prince or ageing millionaire. But those days are over.

Generative artificial intelligence (AI) makes prepping sophisticated attack flows (which would have taken months to code) available with just a few keystrokes: as a result, spoofing or phishing emails today are often compelling, topical and personalized, making them hard to spot.

With widely available phishing kits (like Evilginx), threat actors can create fake login pages or even CAPTCHA pages with a planted JavaScript injection attack with ease. In other words, there are now even more intelligent ways for threat actors to penetrate a system and steal data quickly, all with the help of AI.

What types of AI-enabled attacks are on the market?

Many AI-powered attacks aim to trick people into revealing sensitive information. The top three types of AI attacks that business leaders in the UK are concerned about are AI-generated phishing, business email compromise, and malicious AI agents. Of these, AI-generated phishing is one of the most concerning, and with good reason.

There are multiple types of phishing, including deepfake video calls and vishing (voice phishing), a tactic that uses phone calls or other voice messages to impersonate a person or organization.

In recent years, there have been high-profile successful deepfake attacks like the $25 million heist on the engineering firm, Arup, where an employee was tricked into giving away millions of dollars via a fake internal meeting that seemed real.

If a business’s infrastructure simply relies on an employee’s ability to spot a fake without proper training, this opens it to the inevitable reputational damage and financial loss resulting from an attack.

Cybersecurity skill gaps need to be addressed: Security teams need to train their workforce on why phishing continues to be a serious threat and how AI is being used by threat actors to enhance those attacks, because even with AI-driven defenses, employees who are poorly or inconsistently trained could unwittingly lead to devastating outcomes.

The future of cyber resilience with AI: Fighting AI with AI

Despite the malicious use of AI, AI is an excellent ally in combating cyber-attacks. Next-gen data security and cybersecurity solutions use AI to process large amounts of logging and monitoring data to find anomalies and outliers, block threats, and make recommendations or adjustments to security controls.

AI is also very good at spotting behavioral indicators of compromise (IoC) and correlating seemingly unrelated security activities, making it a must-have capability in the AI era.

The message has never been clearer: today, businesses need to embrace product offerings that apply AI in cybersecurity because the attackers already have.

Additionally, to achieve strong cyber resilience, cyber awareness must be a top priority. AI-powered training solutions can further enhance this by automating, adapting and personalizing the experience for employees, based on their role and their response to ongoing phishing simulations, making it more engaging, efficient and effective.

The double-edged sword of AI presents a conundrum for professionals across sectors. AI is a good investment for security, but a majority of businesses are not deploying it effectively enough yet, which allows attackers to gain an advantage.

AI is here to stay and will continue to impact cybersecurity for the foreseeable future. As organizations embrace the benefits of AI in their day-to-day operations, it becomes even more imperative for them to safeguard against malicious exploits to ensure the integrity and reliability of their business systems in an increasingly interconnected world.

We've featured the best firewall software.

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