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With the way so many new phones are just iterative upgrades these days, you don't always need to buy the latest device to get a powerful and capable handset. And if you go for an older phone, you can often bag a bargain. That's why I'm calling out this Google Pixel 10 at EE for £529 (was £899).

You need to log in to an EE account to see this substantial £370 saving, but it's worth setting one up as this is a record-low price for the Pixel 10. Plus, this offer is for the 256GB storage model. That's double what you find in the basic 128GB version — and all for only £30 more.

Better still, to really round out the offer, is the option to add a pair of Pixel Buds 2a to your order for just £1. These are fairly basic earbuds, but are usually priced at around £80, so it's hard to complain when you can get them for so cheap.

Overall, it's a fantastic price for a solid Android smartphone that offers speedy performance thanks to the Tensor G5 chip, excellent cameras, and useful magnetic charging. As far as budget buys go, this is going to be hard to beat as we head into Black Friday.

Today's best Google Pixel deal

Pixel 10: was £899 now £529
The Google Pixel 11 may now be available, but this is a fantastic record-low price for the capable and well-performing previous-generation model. The deal is even sweeter when you consider that you get 256GB of storage included, plus there's the option to add a pair of Pixel Buds 2a for just £1. With a speedy Tensor G5 chip, incredible cameras, handy magnetic charging options and a suite of genuinely useful AI features, you'll be hard-pressed to get a better phone for the money if you're on a tighter budget.View Deal

We awarded this device a respectable four stars when we originally tested it for our Google Pixel 10 review.

At the time, we rated it as one of the best Pixel devices yet — and it still stands up today, despite being a previous-generation model. As well as a bright and vibrant display, you get excellent all-around performance thanks to a powerful Tensor G5 chip, some of the best cameras on a smartphone, and useful modern charging features.

The fact that this deal is for the 256GB model is a huge bonus as well, as you'd usually need to pay a premium for that extra storage space — and it isn't usually good value for money. Considering the 128GB model is down to £499 right now, it's much easier to justify getting double the room for apps, photos, videos, and more for only £30.

EE has said this offer will be available until stocks last. I think if you're shopping for a bargain Android phone this Black Friday, this offer will likely be one of the best we see this whole sales period if getting the most for your money is what matters to you.

• Researchers say an abandoned Popcorn Time app could have enabled malware delivery to millions of devices through insecure updates
• The flaw let anyone controlling a defunct update domain push executable code to connected systems
• Security researchers safely disabled the updater, preventing potential compromise of millions of Windows and macOS devices

Security researchers recently discovered an abandoned torrent app which could have been used to deploy malware to millions of devices around the world rather easily.

Luckily enough, it seems that no threat actors discovered this vulnerability, and the researchers were able to legally close it and keep the devices safe.

Popcorn Time

A “torrent” is a popular way of downloading large files fast - instead of hosting the files on a single server and risking slow download speeds and downtime, hosting is split across numerous nodes in a network. Then, a small torrent file is created (.torrent) (usually around 100kb), which contains information about where the large file is hosted.

Users can then download and run it through a specialized torrent client (a computer program, basically). The client then connects to as many nodes as it can, downloading small chunks of the large file at the same time, significantly speeding up the download time.

Torrenting became hugely popular among cybercriminals and people looking to pirate copyrighted content (movies, commercial software, games). However for many people - especially those who weren’t tech savvy - the process was rather cumbersome. Downloading a client, finding a torrent file, then downloading the actual file and running it in a separate app was too much for many, which resulted in the creation of Popcorn Time.

This app looked and felt like Netflix, but instead of streaming from the company’s servers, it streamed movies directly from torrents. It became hugely popular roughly 10 years ago because it made watching pirated content remarkably easy. However, it was soon shut down, after legal pressure from the film industry. But since it was open-source, many spin-offs soon emerged, including Time4Popcorn.

Critical flaw

Eventually, this one was abandoned, but many people keep it installed on their computers, and that’s where trouble starts.

These clients, installed on millions of computers, came with an updater that tried to connect to the app’s abandoned domain ‘popcorntimeupd.xyz’ over unencrypted HTTP, and accepted any executable found there without verifying the digital signature. This is a vulnerability that’s now tracked as CVE-2026-30612, with a severity score of 9.8/10 (critical).

In theory, a threat actor could have obtained the domain and used it to push a malicious update to anyone who still had the app installed on their device. In practice, this was done by security researchers Eye Security. They registered the defunct domain and saw up to 3 million Windows and 350,000 macOS client connections to Time4Popcorn - residential ISPs, government and military networks, corporate devices. All of these had the app installed but apparently did not use it. Eye Security believes it was installed at one point and simply forgotten.

“If we were able to send an update, we could potentially get code execution on millions of systems,” Eye Security said, stressing that “the impact would be severe if this were to fall into the wrong hands.”

But instead of deploying malware, Eye Security wrote and pushed code that stopped and disabled the updater. It did not delete the app from people’s computers, nor did it collect host data or telemetry - it just instructed the app not to look for updates anymore.

It took the researchers from November 2025 to March 2026 to push the update to almost all computers and now, requests to the update domain are down by 98%. The remaining 2% seem to fall on Android devices, who apparently continue to be at risk.

Eye Security considered the remediation operation a success, after which it transferred the ownership of the domain (as well as 14 others it acquired) to The Shadowserver Foundation. It urged everyone to uninstall the app from their devices immediately, since it poses a major security risk.

Via BleepingComputer

• Privacy firm Proton has published a new Flock map
• The project details over 200,000 Flock cameras around the world
• It’s based on work by security researcher Joshua Michael

Flock's automated license plate reader (ALPR) cameras have barely been out of the news lately, from being used and abused to track innocent people to allegedly encouraging stalking and police overreach. If you're worried about running into them, privacy-focused firm Proton has published a Flock map that details the location of every one of these cameras in the United States and further afield.

The map is based on data collected and compiled by security researcher Joshua Michael, who discovered that Flock was leaking the locations of its own cameras through its servers. Flock has attempted to have Michael’s research website taken down, but as of right now, both it and the Proton map are still available.

Proton’s Flock map updates with the number of Flock devices visible in the website’s viewport. Zooming out to show the entire globe returns 214,073 cameras in active use, with 213,712 of those being used in the United States and Canada.

You can enter your zip code to find nearby cameras, or filter the results by Flock devices that are currently in service, those that are planned, devices that have been decommissioned, and those with unknown status. Results can also be filtered by US state and whether they can read license plates or allow users to find people by entering freeform search terms.

If you click on a camera result on the map, Proton shows you the device’s location with exact longitudinal and latitudinal coordinates, plus the date that it was entered into the dataset.

Proton and DeFlock

(Image credit: Proton)

Justifying its decision to publish the map data, Proton said that “You have a right to know who’s recording you when you leave home, especially when a private company controls the data and it’s unclear how law enforcement uses that information … Use it, make informed decisions about how you move through your own area and whether you need to reach out to your municipal leaders.”

It’s worth noting that Joshua Michael’s Flock map is probably an incomplete look at Flock’s inventory, as Michael made his map using a snapshot of data compiled in December 2025.

Michael says on his website that because this snapshot has been used as part of a research paper, Flock devices will not be added to it or removed from it. That means that any cameras that Flock has installed or decommissioned since December 2025 will not be visible on either Michael’s map or the one housed by Proton.

Although similar, there are some differences between the Michael/Proton map and the DeFlock campaign. The latter uses crowdsourced data to map ALPR cameras from Flock, but it also includes those from other companies (such as Genetec and Motorola) and has much more data for Canada than you’ll find on Michael’s map. However, at 144,457 devices in the US and 950 in Canada, DeFlock does not show anywhere as near as many cameras and sensors as the map you’ll find on Proton’s website.

Put together, though, the two mapping projects show the massive extent of Flock’s camera network. If you’re concerned that there’s more than just a tinge of Big Brother around ALPR systems, DeFlock and Proton’s latest effort could prove to be invaluable tools.

It's been an excellent year for tech releases, with the arrival of everything from new TV panel developments, to groundbreaking drones, to awesome spatial audio speakers, to a new breed of AI-connected screenless fitness wearable.

It's also been a really difficult year in tech, though, due to the component crisis and rising prices across nearly all products. In the middle of that tension, it only makes sense for us to find out which companies navigated the challenges best by asking the community of tech lovers out there — and so here are the first TechRadar Readers' Choice Awards.

The results are in, so below we've listed the TechRadar Readers' Choice Awards 2026 winners winners in every category, all 100% voted by you!

Phones & tabletsPhone of the Year

Apple iPhone 18 Pro

It’s no great surprise that readers chose the iPhone 18 Pro as the Phone of the Year. After all, this — along with the iPhone 18 Pro Max — scored five stars in our review, which is a rating we hardly ever give out to phones. But with its excellent camera system — complete with genuinely useful upgrades like a variable aperture and pro controls — plus an exceptionally fast chipset, great battery life, beautiful new Burgundy and Glacier colors, and a superb screen and software, the iPhone 18 Pro excels in just about every area. So its five stars, and Readers' Phone of the Year award, are well deserved.

Phone Brand of the Year

Apple

Given that the iPhone 18 Pro won Phone of the Year and that Apple’s handsets are well represented among the other Readers’ Choice award winners below, it’s hard to see how any other company could have won Phone Brand of the Year. Apple might not release as many different models as some brands, but it still has a phone for almost everyone — whether you want a high-end flagship, a top-tier gaming phone, a DSLR alternative, something more affordable, or even, this year, a foldable phone (though the Duo was released too late to be eligible for these awards). And not only has Apple covered most of the bases here, but all of its handsets excel and e with genuine upgrades compared to last year’s models.

Phones Innovation of the Year

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8

Given that the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 was the first passport-shaped foldable to arrive on the scene in Western markets this year, it's easy to see why readers voted it as the Phones Innovation of the Year. This new form factor makes it even more pocketable than a book-style foldable, but still gives you a large screen when it’s unfolded. The smaller cover screen also makes it perfect for one-handed use when you don’t need the large inner display, and coupled with flagship performance and high–quality displays, this is a great all-round phone — not just an innovative one.

Best Value Phone

Apple iPhone 17e

The iPhone 17e might not be the cheapest phone, but its lower price makes it highly affordable by iPhone standards, and it comes with double the storage of the iPhone 16e without upping the starting price. Plus, with features like MagSafe and an A19 chipset, you’re getting a lot for your money, so it’s no wonder this was voted Best Value Phone. iPhones tend to get updated for many years and hold their value well too, so this isn’t just good value on day one — it should also serve you well for a long time.

Best Mid-Range Phone

Apple iPhone 17

There’s no base iPhone 18 yet, and it’s a testament to just how good the iPhone 17 still is that readers have voted it the Best Mid-Range Phone. Everything that was good about the iPhone 17 at launch still remains so in 2026 — including its powerful A19 chipset, always-on display with ProMotion, and improved cameras. The iPhone 17’s price hasn’t dropped since launch (in fact, thanks to the ongoing RAM crisis, it's actually gone up), but you’re still getting a lot for your money compared to many other mid-range phones.

Best Folding Phone

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra

While the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 is the Readers’ Choice Phone Innovation of the Year, it’s the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra that readers think is the overall Best Folding Phone. This isn’t surprising either, as while the form factor here is nothing new, this is Samsung’s most polished, premium, and feature-packed foldable yet — so much so that it got ‘Ultra’ added to the name. For the first time, the foldable screen is essentially flat, with a near-invisible crease, and the Z Fold 8 Ultra also has a bigger battery, more power, and improved cameras compared to its predecessor, while still being slimmer, making for a phone that lives up to its ‘Ultra’ name.

Best Flip Phone

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8

Samsung is clearly still the king of foldables for now in readers’ eyes, since they’ve also voted the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8 as the Best Flip Phone. Arguably, this phone didn’t have much competition outside of the Motorola Razr line, but that doesn’t take away from its achievements, including new Horizontal Lock and Fan Cam features, which make it a major upgrade for recording videos. Coupled with a slightly slimmer design than last year, improved software, and a chipset upgrade, it’s no wonder the Z Flip 8 has flipped its way into readers’ hearts.

Best Camera Phone

Apple iPhone 18 Pro

The iPhone 18 Pro — along with the iPhone 18 Pro Max — have some serious camera upgrades, so it makes sense that readers would have voted this the Best Camera Phone. You’re getting a trio of 48MP cameras on the back, covering wide, ultra-wide, and telephoto (4x zoom) views, and in a rare move for phones, the wide snapper also has a variable aperture. That feature, coupled with new pro controls, gives you more power than ever to take control of your shots. But the iPhone 18 Pro still shines for point-and-shoot photography, too, and its cameras capture more detail than ever before.

Best Gaming Phone

Apple iPhone 18 Pro

The iPhone 18 Pro also takes the Readers’ Choice Best Gaming Phone award, and this makes total sense too, given the sheer amount of power on offer here. The phone has a seriously fast A20 Pro chipset paired with improved thermal management — so it can keep cool and maintain its smooth performance even over a lengthy gaming session. On top of that, the App Store simply has a better selection of high-end games than you’ll find over on Android, and they’re usually well optimized for Apple’s hardware.

Best AI Phone

Google Pixel 11 Pro

Between them, Samsung and Apple have swept almost all of these awards — but not quite all of them, as readers voted the Google Pixel 11 Pro as the Best AI Phone. Despite Siri’s recent AI makeover, this makes perfect sense, as Google has spent the last few years improving the Pixel’s AI features and more deeply integrating them into the operating system. The result with the Pixel 11 Pro is a phone with AI everywhere. You can tap into Gemini from any screen, and new features such as Rambler for voice dictation and Magic Capture for photography bring genuinely useful AI-powered upgrades to this phone's core functionality.

Cameras & dronesCamera of the Year

Sony A7R VI

From a shortlist that included the Canon EOS R6 Mark III, Sony A7 V, Leica M-EV1 and a trio of five-star DJI products, it was the A7R VI that topped your votes, and it’s easy to see why: Sony gave us highly-detailed images and blazing-fast performance in a single, well-designed model, rounding the package off by debuting its first new battery in almost a decade for class-leading endurance. We rarely use the word ‘perfect’, but for many photographers, the Sony A7R VI mirrorless camera will be just that.

Camera Brand of the Year

Sony

Readers voted the A7R VI as a double winner, the A7 V as the Best Mid-range Camera, the RX10 V as the Best Compact Camera and the 100mm F2.8 macro as the Best Lens winner — so it’s little wonder that the camera giant wins the Brand of the Year vote too. And the accolade is fully deserved; other leading brands have had a majorly quiet year by comparison, besides perhaps the relentless DJI. Sony’s mirrorless camera lineup is looking strong, and its lens range is formidable. If you can afford its admittedly pricey gear, it’s the ecosystem that has it all.

Camera Innovation of the Year

Antigravity A1

Antigravity was a complete unknown before this year, but the Insta360-seeded company burst onto the scene with the world's first 360-degree drone, the A1. Pipping DJI to the post, the Antigravity A1 is effectively an Insta360 X5 that flies, which means it shoots crisp 8K video of every angle, and when paired with the company’s goggles and motion controller, gives a flight experience that’s both immersive and intuitive. The possibilities for this tech are truly exciting.

Best Beginner Camera

Fujifilm X-T30 III

Love Fujifilm’s retro design but can’t stretch to the pricey X100 VI or X-E5? In steps the portable Fujifilm X-T30 III, fitted with the company’s entry-level 26MP APS-C sensor for sharp stills, 6K video with 10-bit color depth, a tilt screen, EVF and a flash. It’s an excellent entry point to the Fujifilm X-mount for photography-focused users, with very few rivals at its affordable price point, besides the recent OM PEN. The X-T30 III is set to become one of Fujifilm's best sellers.

Best Mid-range camera

Sony A7 V

The Sony A7 IV held onto top spot in our best mirrorless cameras guide for years and had only recently lost its spot to the Nikon Z6 III, only for Sony to wrestle it back with the mark IV’s successor. The Sony A7 V feels like the complete camera; its new processor, ‘partially stacked’ sensor and improved subject tracking autofocus deliver a boost in stills and video performance, even if the A7 V has the same 33MP resolution as its predecessor. The A7 V is a true all-rounder.

Best Professional Camera

Sony A7R VI

Of course the readers' Camera of the Year also scoops top prize in its individual category. With Canon doing its business last year, and Nikon remaining totally quiet, the A7R VI really stood out. and it's a solid upgrade of the A7R V, with a bump in resolution from 61MP to 66.8MP, but more importantly it’s a quicker stacked sensor that’s ultimately way more versatile. The completely new battery (for class-leading battery life) and Sony’s best autofocus and design yet add further polish to the Sony A7R VI.

Best Compact and Instant Camera

Sony RX10 V

We didn't see it coming, but nine years after the now-discontinued RX10 IV, Sony revived its series of bridge cameras, and made the best even better. It ditched the Cyber-Shot name and brushed up the Sony RX10 V’s design to feel more Alpha, but ultimately the shooting experience from the same 20.1MP 1-inch sensor and 24-600mm F2.8-4 lens combo is entirely familiar, and it's one that many enthusiast wildlife photographers will love. Add the chunkier battery, better autofocus and faster burst shooting, and it’s an even better, albeit pricier, all-in-one camera.

Best Action and Vlogging Camera

Insta 360 Luna Ultra

DJI was busy priming its twin-lens Pocket 4P camera to attempt to change the vlogging camera game, only for Insta360 to steal its thunder with the Luna Ultra, and what an innovative camera it is. Taking the compact, gimbal-mounted camera formula of the Pocket series, the Insta360 Luna Ultra went one step further by adding a 3x telephoto camera, and fitted the device with a clever detachable remote module, which can control the camera remotely and doubles up as a mic. Never has solo vlogging been easier.

Best Camera Lens

Sony FE 100mm F2.8 Macro GM OSS

At 10 years old, Sony’s 90mm macro lens was beginning to look a little dated, and so Sony macro photographers were delighted when the company released an entirely new model with a larger than life 1.4x magnification: the Sony FE 100mm F2.8 Macro GM OSS. Much like the similar Canon 100mm macro lens from 2021, Sony’s doubles up nicely as a portrait lens too, plus it's supported with image stabilization, compatible with teleconverters, and optically it's pretty much flawless.

Best camera accessory

Birdfy Bird Bath Pro

We’ve been reviewing bird feeder cameras for years, but it was the Birdfy Bird Bath Pro that made a splash in 2026 (pun intended). Amid warnings of the part that flat tray bird feeders can play in spreading avian diseases, in stepped this unique bird bath camera, with a more hygienic fountain, and that enabled us to observe a different kind of splashing and preening bird behavior from up close, with the same live feed and app notifications we've come to love from bird feeder cameras. The first generation product needs a little refining, but there's nothing else like it for bird lovers.

Best drone

Antigravity A1

The Antigravity A1 clearly made an impression on readers, picking up its second award here. It’s great to see a company besides DJI entering the drone space, and to do it so well with its first 360–degree drone. The Antigravity A1 shoots 8K video taken from any angle, and delivers an immersive flight experience through its goggles and motion controller. And with firmware updates and new accessories since the product's launch, Antigravity looks like it's just getting started.

ComputingComputing Brand of the Year

Apple

Apple shook up the computing world this year with the introduction of its affordable MacBook Neo, which combined a relatively low price tag with a premium design, all without making too many compromises when it comes to performance. It left Windows competitors scrambling to compete, so we ended up with a range of excellent affordable Windows 11 laptops arriving later — which means Apple had perhaps the biggest impact on computing in 2026, and readers clearly felt it.

Best Computing Innovation

Nvidia DLSS 4.5

Out of all the AI upscaling tech that's been helping PC gamers eke out more performance from their rigs, Nvidia's DLSS is by far the most advanced, and its 4.5 release brings better image quality, while Dynamic Multi Frame Generation does a great job of balancing image quality with high frame rates. Nvidia also added 6X Frame Generation, which allows compatible GPUs to reach incredibly high frame rates.

Best Value Laptop

Apple MacBook Neo

When Apple launched the MacBook Neo earlier this year for $599 / £599 / AU$1,049, it made a huge impact. It was a lower price than many of us were expecting, and no Windows 11 laptop, or Chromebook, that cost similar could compete. Sure, there were compromises to keep the price down, such as a lack of backlit keyboard, slow USB ports and just 8GB of memory, but the overall package offered incredible value for money. So, it was a bit of a shame that Apple increased the price a few months later to $699 / £699, making it less good value. Still, even with the price rise, you won't find a better laptop for the price.

Best AI Laptop

Apple MacBook Pro 14-inch M5 (2025)

After a few years where it felt like Apple was being left behind, it's beginning to roll out more of its Apple Intelligence (AI) features, and while it's still early days, the results are promising, with many of the tools featuring Apple's signature polish. Because the company has been including its Neural Engine in its chips for years, it actually has a bit of a head start when it comes to on-device AI, and the latest MacBook Pro is a great example of this.

Best Gaming Laptop

Asus ROG Strix Scar 18 (2026)

Gaming laptops don't come much bigger and brasher than the Asus ROG Strix Scar 18 (2026). It features desktop-grade performance thanks to a mighty RTX 5090 laptop GPU, plus a cutting-edge Intel Core Ultra 9 processor. Its huge 18-inch screen is also fantastic, powered by mini-LED technology, which makes modern games look gorgeous. However, all this power comes with a high price tag.

Best PC Gaming Handheld

Asus ROG Xbox Ally X20

While some PC gaming handhelds are going all-in on raw performance with cutting-edge components, the Asus ROG Xbox Ally X20 is more of a refinement of the existing ROG Xbox Ally — but that is actually a bit of a masterstroke, as it means it's cheaper than rivals such as MSI Claw 8 EX AI+. Don't think this is a budget device, however, and the Asus ROG Xbox Ally X20 features some nice improvements such as an OLED screen that looks fantastic, as well as improved buttons and TMR joysticks.

Best Gaming Keyboard

Turtle Beach Command Series KB7 TKL

The Turtle Beach Command Series KB7 TKL is an unusual gaming keyboard, because instead of a physical numpad, it has a built-in touchscreen that can give you quick access to macros, apps, and shortcuts that can give you a competitive edge. Thanks to its 8K polling rate, it's fast and responsive, and when you're not playing games, it feels great to type on as well.

Best Gaming Monitor

Samsung Odyssey OLED G6 G60SF

The Samsung Odyssey OLED G6 G60SF is a brilliant gaming monitor for people who are seriously into their competitive esports, thanks to its incredibly fast 500Hz refresh rate. Matched with ultra-low response times, and you have a monitor that will keep up with even the most frantic of games, and the OLED screen tech makes those games look incredible.

Best Gaming Mouse

Logitech G Pro X2 Superstrike

The Logitech G Pro X2 Superstrike more than earns its rare five-star rating thanks to its fantastic build quality and lightweight design that makes it feel comfortable no matter what your grip type is. It also features a unique haptic inductive trigger system that lets you fine-tune the mouse buttons to perfectly suit your playstyle.

GamingGaming Device of the Year

Turtle Beach Stealth Pro 2

The new Stealth Pro 2 headset from Turtle Beach is a fantastic premium headset that builds on everything great about its predecessor. The sound quality is spectacular, of course, but there's now improved battery life and solutions within its dock, a slick new lifestyle-friendly design, and a fantastic microphone all working together at the core of what makes it excel in gaming audio.

Gaming Brand of the Year

Turtle Beach

Gaming hardware behemoth Turtle Beach has released a whole heap of awesome gaming gear and devices in the past year or so, from pushing the boundaries of what a gaming mouse can be, deploying brilliant aesthetics to controllers, all the way to following up one of the best headsets of recent times with a superb successor.

Gaming Innovation of the Year

Turtle Beach MC7

A screen on a mouse?! Outrageous! But also: excellently innovative by Turtle Beach. In terms of changing perceptions about what gaming mice can do, the Command Series MC7 is a brilliant gaming product and should increase the functionality that gaming mice can offer players.

Best Console Accessory

Turtle Beach VelocityOne Race KD3 wheel

Offering a brilliant direct-drive bundle, the KD3 wheel is a fantastic addition to the budget end of the market and offers incredible value for money. The feedback from the 3.2Nm motor, pedal set, and even the aesthetics all play their part in making the VelocityOne Race KD3 a brilliant racing wheel.

Best Gaming Service

Xbox Game Pass

Having its price slashed this year, thankfully, is a big boon to players, and it has meant that Microsoft's Xbox Game Pass subscription still offers good value while also allowing players to jump into the likes of Gears of War: E-Day without paying the full price of a game.

Best Gaming Controller

Turtle Beach Pacific Skyline Wireless Controller

This might be the best possible controller for GTA 6. With a delightfully retro pastel aesthetic, this Xbox pad stands apart in a sea of comparatively boring-looking alternatives. It's got beautiful RGB lighting to boot, and competitive specs, including features such as remappable rear buttons and built-in audio controls, to back up the good looks.

Best Gaming Headset

Turtle Beach Stealth Pro 2

A premium headset that does it all, the Stealth Pro 2 from Turtle Beach is about as close to the full package as gaming headsets have gotten in the past year. It also had a tough act to follow, with its predecessor being so good too, and is worthy of its place as one of the past year's best.

Best Gaming Chair

Secretlab Atlas

Having thoroughly mastered the gaming chair, this year saw Secretlab branch out into something new. The Secretlab Atlas is a strong task chair that's perfect for work, relaxation, and, of course, gaming. The unique design incorporates a fantastic self-adjusting lumbar mechanism, which makes comfortable seating effortless.

TV & home theaterTV of the year

Sony Bravia 9 II

A TV needs to be sensational to stand out from the best TVs of 2026, and the Bravia 9 II is exactly that. Its RGB mini-LED panel delivers OLED-grade contrast and color, but with the brightness of mini-LED — and its audio system means it sounds as good as it looks.

Home Entertainment Brand of the Year

Sony

With multiple gongs in this year's reader-voted awards, it's not a surprise to see Sony pick up the Brand of the Year award too. Sony's focus on making premium products with innovative tech has yielded impressive results across TVs and soundbars, and its RGB technology and wireless speaker systems have been especially worth the wait.

Home Entertainment Innovation of the Year

Sony True RGB

True RGB is Sony's branding for its RGB mini-LED technology. Like other mini-LED displays, True RGB uses a very bright mini-LED backlight to deliver brightness that OLEDs can only dream of. RGB mini-LED takes the tech further, with each LED packing separate, independently controlled red, green and blue diodes instead of a single color. That means much better color accuracy and off-angle viewing. Sony isn't the only company to introduce this tech in 2026, but the way it designed its version has led to the most impressive results.

Best Gaming TV

TCL QM8L

The TCL QM8L is a superb TV for gaming thanks to its support for 4K at up to 144Hz across all four HDMI 2.1 ports, variable refresh rate at up to 288Hz, low latency, and impressive built-in audio as a bonus. We gave it a maximum score for gaming in our review, and said it's "a pleasure to game on" — and clearly the readers agree. This TV is TCL doing what TCL does best: delivering lots of fun for a way lower price than you expect.

Best TV for Sound

Sony Bravia 9 II

It's another win for Sony's flagship, this time for its Acoustic Multi-Audio+ sound system that has two full-range drivers, two subwoofers, two tweeters and a pair of angled beam tweeters to add height. With 80W of power, the Sony Bravia 9 II is impressively loud as well as beautifully detailed, and it sounds terrific in movies and music.

Best OLED TV

LG G6

The LG G6 stood out this year for massively improving its visibility in even very bright rooms, and it set a very high bar for OLED excellence overall this year. The picture quality is outstanding, it's phenomenal for gaming, and webOS remains one of our favorite smart TV platforms.

Best mini-LED TV

Sony Bravia 9 II

RGB mini-LED is spectacular, and right now nobody's doing it quite like Sony. The Bravia 9 II is the best backlit TV we've ever seen, breaking new ground when it comes to color and contrast, but maintaining the realistic, reference look that Sony strives for.

Best Value TV

TCL QM7L

The TCL QM7L is a remarkable achievement, reaching image quality shockingly close to the heights of TCL's flagships for a significantly lower price. Like its award-winning QM8L sibling, it's a superb gaming TV, and it's an excellent all-rounder with a good specification and a generally premium feel.

Best Projector

Anker Soundcore Nebula P1

It looks like you share our view of the Anker Soundcore Nebula P1: it's a lot of fun, and as a package it's hard to beat. The P1 takes the best bits of the much more expensive X1, including its nifty wireless speakers, and boils them down into a much more affordable portable projector package so you can enjoy big-screen fun anywhere.

Best Soundbar

Sonos Beam Ultra

The days when Sonos had the premium soundbar sector to itself are long gone, but the Sonos Beam Ultra puts the company right back at the head of the pack: five out of five stars-good as we detailed in our Sonos Beam Ultra review. It's an Arc Ultra but smaller, delivering superbly detailed and immersive audio in a really small package.

Best Wireless Home Theater Speakers

Sony Bravia Theater Trio

The Sony Bravia Theater Trio is an LCR system, which means it has left, center and right wireless speakers to create a much wider soundstage than the best soundbars alone can deliver. It delivers a powerful, warm and wide sound, and if you add a wireless subwoofer things get even more entertaining. In the world of giant-screen TVs, this is a really tempting option, as our voters clearly felt.

StreamingStreaming Service of the Year

Netflix

Netflix is always a controversial company, especially when it comes to price hikes — but there's a reason it can get away with all the rises, and that's because it's the best. Its own Netflix Originals continue to excite and delight, it makes smart buys from all around the world, and its documentaries are often superb. Add in excellent parental controls, apps for every conceivable device and a very affordable ad-supported tier and you can see why Netflix is a worthy winner.

Best Streaming Service for Movies

Netflix

Netflix's mix of original movies and bought-in blockbusters in a huge range of genres means there's always some movie magic to stream, whether that's the latest Wallace & Gromit movie (100% on Rotten Tomatoes), Godzilla Minus One, Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse or classics such as Jaws. Netflix's current movie catalog features some of the world's most celebrated filmmakers including Alfonso Cuarón, Martin Scorcese, Jane Campion, Christopher Nolan, James Cameron, Spike Lee and many more.

Best Streaming Service for Documentaries

Netflix

Netflix was quick to recognize the power of documentaries to deliver big drama with very low budgets, and its current slate includes a huge range that stretches from the hard-hitting to the heart-warming. From true crime reconstructions to spectacular shows such as American Symphony, Netflix's documentary department is full of must-watch stories.

Best Streaming Service for TV Series

Apple TV

The recently renamed Apple TV, formerly Apple TV+, may not have the massive catalogs of its streaming rivals, but when your line-up includes the likes of Slow Horses, Pluribus, Small Prophets, Hijack, Shrinking, Severance, Margot's Got Money Troubles, Widows Bay and more, it's clear that you're prizing quality over quantity. Apple's one-tier approach is refreshing: there's no need to pay more for ad-free viewing, higher resolution or spatial audio.

Best Free Streaming Service of the Year

Tubi

Like many readers we're big fans of Tubi: it's one of the finest free ad-supported streamers around, with a huge range of entertainment to choose from. Don't expect the very latest hit shows or blockbusters, but the catalog is impressively large and wide-ranging so there's always something fun to watch — and the ads aren't so frequent that they become irritating.

AudioHeadphones of the Year

Apple AirPods Max 2

As we said in our full AirPods Max 2 review, these cans are "doubtless the best noise-cancelling iPhone headphones on the planet" while also being incredibly comfortable and boasting some of the best voice capture on any headphones we've ever experienced. Clearly the readers felt the same way, and like us were able to overcome the fact that Apple kept that weird, weird case…

Audio Brand of the Year

Bowers & Wilkins

There's something undeniably elite, sophisticated and next-level about B&W's products, whether it's the luxurious five-star PX8 S2 headphones, the deliciously expensive earbuds, or its astounding new-generation Diamond-series speakers. Clearly, the readers agreed that the attention to both design and sound here is a cut above the rest.

Audio Innovation of the Year

Cambridge L/R S speakers

We called this set of bijou active speakers "an immediate pound-for-pound market-leader contender" in our five-star review. There are two channels of amplification for each speaker, and a full DSP crossover which acts as a PWM signal to each amplifier, for astounding accuracy, and custom connecter between the speakers for ensuring all of that comes through appropriately. Are they a tad over-engineered? Perhaps — but this is an innovation award, and it seems like that's exactly what the readers responded to.

Best Wireless Headphones

Sony 1000X The Collexion

What better way to mark a whole decade (yes, we feel old too) since Sony's now modern classic 1000X headphones landed than to distill everything that's ever been great about them into a solo, celebratory product? OK, they're the company's priciest set of wireless Bluetooth headphones yet but, as we said in our Sony 1000X The Collexion review, "their luxurious build, detailed sound, and top-tier comfortability help to justify their price tag."

Best Wireless Earbuds

Sony WF-1000XM6

Another Sony winner, and no one can argue with Sony's detailed sound quality. But Sony's buds are also always a leader due to their features, and the Quick Attention option, should someone need a quick word with you have the ANC on, alone is a good enough reason for the readers to have voted for these buds.

Best Open Earbuds

Shokz OpenFit Pro

We were happy to see that, despite their not-insignificant asking fee, these are getting the recognition they so fully deserve. The fit is secure and fuss free (aided by extra optional bands in the box, which are useful for sports), and the excellent active noise reduction is nothing short of class-leading. Read our full Shokz Openfit Pro review for the full match report, but as far as we're concerned, Shokz hit an ace here.

Best Value Headphones

Sony WH-CH730N

There's a strong set of features in Sony WH-CH730N for the money, plus competent sound and a nifty, foldable design. At such a low price, the all-round quality you get here is impressive, and Sony's budget headphones have been popular for years — evidently, the new model is landing with readers as well.

Best Value Earbuds

Earfun Air Pro 4 Plus

Earfun's built up a huge, loyal fanbase owing to its consistently good, affordable earbuds. The Earfun Air Pro 4 do nothing to buck that trend, delivering very good value for money, and premium features. So we're not surprised to see them as the readers' pick, and they're a deserving winner.

Best Value Open Earbuds

Anker Soundcore Aeroclip 2

Yes, we're into second-generation ear cuff-style open earbuds in 2026 and long may they reign! The Anker Soundcore AeroClip 2 are a solid upgrade over their predecessors, offering higher-resolution audio, better waterproofing, clearer calls, and a more tailored sound, as we explored in our Soundcore Aeroclip 2 review. They benefit from a bit of extra tuning to sound exciting, but they're a great option for fans of this clip-on design, particularly in the pictured 'Burgundy Red' finish. Very 'new romantic'!

Best Wired Headphones

Audio-Technica ATH-ADX7000

A huge win for a set of 58mm open-back drivers and A-T's known wizardry in the game. I'd caveat the win by saying you can't just buy these headphones and expect great sound from your source device — you have to buy a decent amp to drive them too — but we've covered it all in our five-star Audio-Technica ATH-ADX7000 review. Know this: get them properly powered and, as long as you don't care that other people will hear whatever you're listening to, they'll reward you with some of the best audio quality we've ever heard from headphones.

Best Wired Earbuds

Sennheiser CX 80U

When people ask us, "What's the cheapest way to get better sound from my phone?" our response is to name-drop these cheap 2026-release USB-C wired earbuds. For around $35 / £30 you really cannot expect more. OK, you don't get volume controls on the in-line remote and the mic isn't especially good in calls, as we note in our glowing Sennheiser CX 80U review — but you do get agile bass, clarity through mids and vivid, sparkling highs. Pair that with their surprisingly solid noise isolation and you’re looking at an awesome pair of wired buds for music.

Best Bluetooth Speaker

JBL Xtreme 5

JBL seemingly cannot go wrong when it comes to portable speakers, whatever their size — although it's worth noting that this is a big boy… but the triumph is big too. Truth be told, we've never met a JBL Bluetooth speaker we didn't like quite a bit, but this particular model? This is one of the best portable Bluetooth puppies we've ever tested — as our five-star JBL Xtreme 5 review emphasizes — so it's easy to see why the readers picked it.

Best Wireless Speaker

Bose Lifestyle Ultra Speaker

If your budget can stretch to it, there’s just so much to like about the Bose Lifestyle Ultra Speaker, and so little to take issue with — and we're happy that you think so too. In our Bose Lifestyle Ultra Speaker review we appreciated the tall, punchy and well-defined spatial audio performance from a winsome and well-made Wi-Fi speaker.

Best Portable Audio Player

Astell & Kern PD5

Astell & Kern's newest 'entry level' hi-res audio player (we put that in quotation marks purely because entry level for A&K may be different for the rest of us…) is a simple and deserved winner here. The hi-res digital audio player specialist knows what it's doing with quality portable music machines.

Best Turntable

Sony PS-LX5BT

This is Sony's joint-newest Bluetooth record player (the slightly pricier of a new duo), and because the PS-LX5BT features Bluetooth transmission via the aptX Adaptive codec, it'll give you better-quality streams if your receiver is up to it. Because of its onboard phono stage, it can also hard-wire to pretty much any system you care to mention — and to top it all off, Sony's made the whole thing automatic where playback is concerned. See our full Sony PS-LX5BT review for the full scoop on why this is the beginner-friendly player to beat — something the readers clearly agreed with.

Best DAC

Astell & Kern AK HC5

In our full-fat review of the HC5, we praised this little hi-res audio DAC for the spacious detail it brought to our portable music game, its classy build and finish and the fact that it really is portable. Essentially, it gives your phone, laptop or even your games console the audio skills of a top-end hi-res music player.

Best Stereo Speakers

Cambridge L/R S

A double win for the colorful little Cambridge speakers! These little beauties also won our readership's Audio Innovation of the Year gong too, and it means Cambridge's gamble with these all-new active speakers (the smallest and most-intriguing in a new three-strong range) has really paid off. As our Cambridge Audio L/R S review and the awards here prove, they're a winner.

Health & Fitness techHealth and Fitness Device of the Year

Apple Watch Ultra 4

It's always tough to push the Apple Watch Ultra off the top spot, and readers once again voted it to give it the top price, and that's because it's such a comprehensive best-in-class beast of a smartwatch. While it doesn't look much different from last year's design from the front, the Ultra 4's redesigned sensor array means it can record heart rate readings up to 60 times more often as older models, plus it (finally!) gets a Readiness score. It remains the smartwatch to beat for another year at least.

Health & Fitness Brand of the Year

Garmin

Garmin has had a good year. The hugely popular brand went from strength to strength this year, not only delivering another five-star watch with the Garmin Fenix 9 Pro (among other great adventure- and cycling-focused devices), but also delivering the wearable we named the best screenless fitness tracker of 2026 (and there have been quite a few) — the Garmin Cirqa.

Health and Fitness Innovation of the Year

Google Fitbit Air

Despite hot competition (including the Garmin Cirqa), our readers voted the Google Fitbit Air (which came first) the best health tech innovation of 2026. It was quite revolutionary in the fitness tracker field: up until it landed, the screenless space was dominated by the cripplingly expensive Whoop. The Fitbit Air broke this trend and used the power of Google's existing Gemini AI framework to democratize the AI element, delivering it at a lower price, while keeping the basics nice and cheap for under $100 / £90.

Best Smartwatch

Apple Watch Ultra 4

The Apple Watch Ultra 4 hasn't changed a huge amount since last year (or indeed, since its inception), but it's improving on an already-excellent model with increased battery life and a redesigned health-sensing LED array. This new 'Health Sensing System' takes heart rate readings 60x more often during the day, resulting in what Apple says is the most accurate heart rate detection ever on a wearable. Of course, it's also a fantastic smartwatch with a sumptuous screen and useful features.

Best Running Watch

Garmin Fenix 9 Pro

From a technical standpoint, this may be Garmin's finest watch yet, and the one on every serious endurance athlete's Christmas list. The Fenix 9 Pro takes Garmin's excellent Fenix 8 and adds a brighter screen, an all-titanium nano-moulded case, a new green light for improved visibility, better maps, InReach and Solar options, and loads more. We rated it a five-star triumph in our Garmin Fenix 9 Pro review.

Best Fitness Tracker

Garmin Cirqa

Although the Fitbit Air came first, we labelled the Garmin Cirqa as our ideal 'Goldilocks' tracker: cheaper than the Whoop, but more feature-rich than the Fitbit. Garmin's tracker lasts for over a week and features a tactile button to start-stop workouts and alarms, after which you get a haptic notification. This is a terrific way to interact with a screenless device and get assurance your workouts are being tracked, rather than opening up the app to manually start an activity.

Best Smart Ring

Oura Ring 5

Although there were other smart rings released from the likes of RingConn and Circular this year, the Oura won out again this year simply by virtue of its app's powerful smarts. You do need a membership, but Oura is a premium device, and new health insights along with a redesigned, slimmer ring means it's easy to see why the readers voted it as their pick.

Best Electric Toothbrush

Suri Core 1.0

Suri is the toothbrush company that creates simple sonic toothbrushes with sustainable elements, and it's managed to bring the price down a touch with the Suri Core 1.0, becoming more affordable while retaining its Apple-esque, good-looking design ethos. With the magnetic back attachment and simple dual modes, it's unspectacular, but a free brush head recycling program and a slick look go a long way to making it popular.

Best Connected Fitness Tech

Withings BodyScan 2

Withings' top-flight smart scale is this year's best connected tech entry, which offers so much more than just weight. The retractable handle enables the scale to run currents through the whole body, taking heart rate readings and cardiovascular snapshots in addition to all the usual metrics and a new 'vascular age' metric. Its accurate, reliable, and usable by the whole family with multiple profiles.

Home techHome Device of the Year

Philips Hue Essential

The Philips Hue Essential series is an affordable entry to smart lighting that doesn’t compromise on quality. Philips Hue Essential bulbs and LED strips are compatible with all devices in the Hue ecosystem, but work equally well on their own, with brightness, color reproduction, and responsiveness that rivals smart lights costing several times the price.

Home Tech Brand of the Year

Philips Hue

It's been an epic year for Philips Hue. At one end of the scale, the brand has made smart lighting more accessible with the budget-friendly Hue Essential series of bulbs and LED strips. At the other end, the new Philips Hue Bridge Pro lets power users connect over 150 lights in a single network and delivers exciting AI features — with lots more on the horizon. Smart lighting has never been so exciting.

Home Tech Innovation of the Year

Philips Hue Essential

If you like the idea of installing smart lights, but have been put off by the price, the Philips Hue Essential series is for you. This innovative collection of smart lights offers all the best features of the Philips Hue system without the hefty price tag, meaning that it's a game-changer for people put off by the price of whole-home smart lighting in the past.

Best Home Light Tech

Philips Hue Essential

Another win for Philips Hue Essential, though this one was inevitable given its other victories here. The Essential light range is affordable and versatile, offering brightness, color, and smart functionality that belies the products' modest price. In side-by-side tests, it’s hard to differentiate between these and their premium counterparts, and they’re fully compatible with automations, scenes, switches and sensors through the Philips Hue app. A perfect entry to smart lighting.

Best Home Security Device

TP-Link Tapo C660

When it comes to home security cameras, the TP-Link Tapo C660 checks off everything on our wishlist: easy installation, extra long battery life topped up with a solar panel, crisp 4K footage, and no subscription necessary to store it all. It’s remarkably affordable too, and if you have a large property, a multi-camera bundle will let you watch over it from all angles. For peace of mind, it's unbeatable.

Best Robot Vacuum

Dyson Spot+Scrub Ai

The ingenious Spot+Scrub Ai is designed to tackle stubborn dried-on stains that other robovacs can’t handle, using artificial intelligence to identify troublesome dirt and then mopping it repeatedly until it’s gone. Its self-cleaning is exceptional too, and overall it’s an excellent choice for little-and-often cleaning that will keep your floors looking immaculate.

Best Vacuum

Dyson V10 Konical Cordless Vacuum and Auto-Empty Dok

A winning pair — the ultra-light and super-maneuverable Dyson V10 Konical funnels hair to the center of the brushroll to prevent it wrapping around the spindle, while the Auto-Empty Dok removes all the hassle and mess of emptying the vacuum’s dust cup. A perfect duo for allergy-sufferers and pet-owners alike.

Best Air Fryer

Ninja Crispi Pro Glass Air Fryer

The Ninja Crispi Pro’s standout features are its clever glass cooking dishes, which let you store, cook, and serve food with no mess or hassle. The air fryer cooks quickly and quietly, whether you’re crisping up a few fries or roasting a whole chicken, and the dishes are a cinch to clean in the dishwasher when you’re done. Air frying should always be this easy.

Best Coffee Machine

Lavazza Assoluta

The Lavazza Assoluta takes the guesswork out of making espresso with a clever system that scans the barcode on your coffee beans, then tweaks the machine’s brew settings accordingly. Its built-in milk frother prepares creamy lattes and macchiatos without the need to master a steam wand, and its drinks menu is fully customizable. Want an extra shot in your cappuccino? No problem!

Best Value Coffee Machine

Philips Baristina

The Philips Baristina makes brewing espresso with fresh beans just as simple as using coffee pods. It handles dosing, grinding and extraction for you, and its ingenious design with a removeable portafilter handle makes it a cinch to clean compared to a typical automatic coffee maker. A perfect entry-level espresso machine — and accessibly priced, too.

Best Fan

Dyson Hot+Cool HF1

This compact fan will serve you well all year round, offering effective cooling during the summer and efficient heating during the colder months. It’s supplied with a remote, but we were most impressed by the Dyson Hot+Cool HF1's mobile app, which made setting timers and schedules a breeze — and even let us pre-heat a room so it was cozy when we arrived home.

One of the biggest issues with a lot of mini PCs is that they run on integrated graphics. Now, that's fine for most everyday tasks. But if you find it's holding back your video exports, rendering, or games, the DEG1 is the simplest, cheapest way to add a desktop GPU that I know of.

It comes from Minisforum, and designed for mini PCs with an OCuLink port, letting you add an external graphics card to your setup without needing a new rig. Currently, the Minisforum DEG1 is $109 (was $199) at Newegg.

• Best for: mini PC owners with an OCuLink port who want to add desktop graphics card and power supply.

• Why we like it: This is a quick way to give your PC an extra graphics boost with an externa graphics card. This dock has a full-length PCIe x16 slot that fits big cards like the Nvidia RTX 4090, a PCIe 4.0 x4 OCuLink connection that loses less performance than Thunderbolt or USB4, and support for standard ATX and SFX power supplies.

DEG1: was $199 now $109
An open-frame external GPU dock with an OCuLink 4i (PCIe 4.0 x4) uplink, a PCIe x16 slot for a full-size graphics card, support for ATX and SFX power supplies, and a power button with an LED. OCuLink doesn’t support hot plugging, so shut down your PC before connecting or disconnecting it. A GPU and power supply are not included. View Deal

Price Context & Historical Value

Don’t take the $199 list price too seriously, since the DEG1 launched in 2024 at around €90, so $109 is close to its original asking price rather than a 45% cut. It’s still a low price for an eGPU dock that handles cards as large as an RTX 4090. If your mini PC has OCuLink, it’s a good time to buy.

Should you buy it?

✅ Buy the Minisforum DEG1 if... your mini PC or handheld has an OCuLink port, you want the most graphics performance an external dock can deliver for the money, or you already have a spare desktop GPU and power supply.

❌ Skip the Minisforum DEG1 if... your computer only has Thunderbolt or USB4, since the DEG1 is OCuLink only, you need to plug and unplug it often, since OCuLink doesn’t support hot swapping, or you’d have to buy a GPU and power supply from scratch.

Also consider

DEG2 external GPU docking station: was $399 now $227
An external GPU dock with a PCIe x16 slot for a full-size graphics card, two Thunderbolt 5 (80Gbps) ports, one of which supplies 140W to the host, an OCuLink (64Gbps) port, an M.2 2280 SSD slot, 2.5G Ethernet, and USB 3.2 ports. It takes a standard ATX or SFX power supply. For the full discount use code GTWFF74. View Deal

Read more: We tested the best mini PCs

• Ofcom has published statistics on complaints it's received for Q2 2026
• The categories covered are broadband, landline, mobile, and pay-TV
• Complaints overall are down on the previous quarter, due to pay-TV

The Ofcom complaints statistics are in for the second quarter of 2026 (April to June), and some landline, broadband, mobile, and pay-TV providers have fared better than others. Overall, complaint numbers are down from the previous quarter, due to fewer being filed for pay-TV services.

You can check out a fuller list of figures collected by the UK communications services regulator on its website. The calculations are made based on the number of complaints per 100,000 subscribers, so it's worked out as a fraction of the customer base.

The broadband providers topping the complaints table this quarter are EE (up from last quarter), BT (the same), TalkTalk (down), and Vodafone (also down from last quarter). The least number of complaints as far as broadband goes were Plusnet, Sky, and Virgin Media. You can see the full results below.

(Image credit: Ofcom)

However, Plusnet was the most complained-about provider for landlines — with most of the complaints concerning how it handled complaints. Sky, Utility Warehouse, Virgin Media, and Vodafone recorded the fewest landline complaints.

Mobile and pay-TV

Virgin Media customers had quite a bit to complain about (Image credit: Virgin Media)

For mobile, the most complaints were received about O2 (mainly regarding faults, service, and connections) and Sky Mobile (mainly regarding changing providers). EE, Giffgaff, Tesco Mobile, Three, Vodafone, and iD Mobile registered the fewest complaints for mobile.

In the pay-TV category, EE and Virgin Media got the most complaints (four and three complaints per hundred thousand subscribers, respectively), while the least went to TalkTalk (just 0.2 complaints per 100,000 subscribers).

(Image credit: Ofcom)

The statistics as a whole make for interesting reading too. Of the four categories, broadband providers attracted the most complaints — an average of six complaints per 100,000 subscribers across all the providers.

Ofcom doesn't handle these complaints itself, but does set down rules that providers have to abide by. "Although Ofcom cannot help with individual customer complaints, by publishing these figures we can help customers to choose the providers and services that best suit their needs," says the regulator.

• Researchers showed AI agents can be hijacked through malicious AGENTS.md files placed in common download locations
• The attack abuses prompt-injection behavior, potentially triggering malware downloads or token theft
• Defenders are urged to treat Downloads folders as untrusted and inspect agent instruction files carefully

An AI agent was tricked into going rogue with nothing more than a simple markdown (.MD) file, with researchers warning this file format is the new malicious executable. With just a basic .MD file and access to a website, threat actors can get people’s agents to execute malicious code or share access tokens.

Researchers Forever Security claim to have seen the attack play out in the wild, but stopped it before it was able to do any meaningful damage. To pull it off, the attackers took advantage of a couple of things: 1) the fact that websites can download some file formats without user’s knowledge or consent; 2) the fact that .md files are not seen as malicious or dangerous by default; 3) the fact that AI agents will act on anything that’s written in the AGENTS.md file, regardless of what it’s inside.

In its report, Forever Security said it caught live malware on a real customer’s machine - an AGENTS.md file in the ~/Downloads folder. The document, disguised as ordinary engineering notes, was everything but ordinary - it turned the AI agent rogue, ordering it to deploy malware and exfiltrate session tokens.

Working on Codex and Claude Code

The researchers could not determine how the file made it to the Downloads folder and are assuming a browser picked it up from a website that was likely compromised in advance.

“Downloads is the one folder a website can drop a file into with no click and no permission. Together, that lets the web plant orders your own agent carries out. Markdown is the new executable,” the report reads.

During analysis, they tried to reproduce the attack using different agents and succeeded on both OpenAI Codex and Claude Code. The bad news is that this is not a bug, and there’s nothing for the companies to patch.

AI Agents are designed to follow the AGENTS.md file to the letter, “the same way a browser that renders a phishing page is working as designed.” Instead, the problem becomes the fact that the AI agent can read the folder to which the browser can write files easily. “The vector stays open,” they say. “Defenses built around a human break when an agent takes the human’s place”.

In this case, the attackers tried to get the AI agent to install a malicious npm package called ‘function-color’. Apparently, this is a piece of malware built two years ago during a separate malicious campaign, but managed to fly under the radar until now. This also means that AI agents can be tricked into downloading pretty much anything from the internet, including ransomware, infostealers, and remote monitoring and management (RMM) tools.

Prompt injection with a spin

In essence, this is just a spin on the old prompt injection attack. To defend against it, users should treat ~/Downloads as “hostile ground for agents,” the researchers said. They should not start Codex, Claude Code, or any agent, in that folder, since that is where the web can plant a file in. Other than that, users should look for instruction files they didn’t write, especially in the Downloads folder or a cloned repository. “Read it before you let an agent near it.”

Finally, users should check their agent’s own config for unexpected blocks or changed commands. In a project’s .claude/settings.json, users should look for an ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL, a proxy, or any other API endpoint they did not set themselves.

“Keep the brakes on. Leave approval gates and sandboxes enabled. Be very suspicious of anything that tells the agent to bypass them If you find one, rotate. Assume the token leaked. A stolen token is a live session, not just one caught request,” Forever concluded.

AI agents might not be malicious by default, but they are definitely gullible, and so far, that’s turning out to be a major security liability.

Via BleepingComputer

What’s in a name? When it comes to smartphones, quite a lot, actually. And some brands' product naming conventions are more straightforward than others.

The Oppo Find X10 series arrived last week, comprising two models: the Oppo Find X10 and Oppo Find X10 Pro Max. There’s no regular ‘Pro’ this year, and while there may yet be a Find X10 Ultra in 2027, Oppo’s decision to mix up its flagship naming strategy raised eyebrows at the Find X10 series launch.

Typically, flagship smartphone lineups include a standard model, a Pro model, and a larger Pro Max and/or Ultra model. Apple does it, Google does it, Samsung does it (sort of), and until this week, Oppo did it — the Oppo Find X9 series was made up of the Find X9, Find X9 Pro, and Find X9 Ultra. There was no ‘Pro Max’, but the sequence made sense nonetheless.

Why, then, has Oppo decided to scrap the regular ‘Pro’ and add a ‘Pro Max’ into the fold with this year’s Find X lineup? The reason, Oppo says, is to distinguish the Find X10 Pro Max from the Find X9 Pro as more than just a generational upgrade, and to avoid aligning the Find X10 too closely with its bigger, more premium sibling. Confused? Let me (and Oppo) explain.

The Oppo Find X10 (Image credit: Jamie Richards / Future)

“For the Find X10, though it’s a standard version, it’s better compared with the last generation [Find X9 Pro] because it’s empowered with Pro capabilities,” Jensen Jie, Smartphone Product Director at Oppo, explained (via translation) at a roundtable attended by TechRadar.

“And for the Find X10 Pro Max, you must have felt the change compared with the Find X9 Pro. Its competitiveness has been lifted remarkably — that’s why we wanted to name it ‘Pro Max,’ to send a message to users and the market.

“When we’re naming our products, one of the key considerations is that the users can understand the meaning [implied by] a name change,” Jie continued. “And for the Find X10 series, [we believed] there should be a standard version, because many users are more familiar with [the experience offered by] a standard version.

“We just talked about positioning; we have empowered the Find X10 with Pro capabilities this time. And for the Find X10 Pro Max, we have empowered it with the three 200MP camera system and a larger battery [than the Find X9 Pro]. It’s a big upgrade on the last generation — it’s a step forward. That’s why we used ‘Pro Max’, so we can articulate this upgrade clearly to the market and our users.”

The Oppo Find X10 Pro Max (Image credit: Tim Coleman)

Now, that’s a bit of a word salad — I’ll reiterate that Oppo’s answers were provided via translation, so some nuance may have been lost as a result — but I think I understand what the company is trying to say here.

In Oppo’s eyes, the Find X10 Pro Max is a better phone than the Find X10 Pro name would’ve implied. And the Find X10 couldn’t be called the Find X10 Pro, because doing so would make it seem like the same phone as the Find X10 Pro Max, but smaller, which it isn’t (versus the regular model, the Pro Max has a more powerful 2nm MediaTek Dimensity 9600 Pro chipset and a larger 200MP ultra-wide camera).

Of course, you’d think this conundrum could’ve been solved by simply calling the Find X10 Pro Max the Find X10 Ultra, but we’re expecting that very device to arrive sometime next year and be better still than the Find X10 Pro Max.

So I can (sort of) understand Oppo’s strategy here: the ‘Pro Max’ is being used to describe a product that’s better than ‘Pro’, but still not quite ‘Ultra’. That’s different to how, say, Apple uses the ‘Pro Max’ designation.

Still confused? Perhaps this might help: imagine for a moment that Samsung wanted to release an even better phone than the Galaxy S26 Ultra in the same generation. In that case, the Galaxy S26 Ultra we know might have instead been called the Galaxy S26 Pro Max (owing to its size and premium features), while Samsung would continue to call the Galaxy S26 the Galaxy S26. There’d be no Galaxy S26 Pro. That is, I think, what Oppo is doing here — but please correct me in the comments if you think I've got the wrong end of the stick.

I’m not entirely sure what Oppo means by “many users are more familiar with [the experience offered by] a standard version,” but it’s clear that Oppo thinks of the Find X10 as the true successor to the Find X9 Pro. And that sentiment rang true in our testing of the new device:

“The Oppo Find X10 costs £1,099 — exactly the same as last year’s Find X9 Pro at launch and £200 more than the standard Find X9,” we wrote in our Oppo Find X10 review. “That might sound like a mighty price hike at first, but the truth is that the Find X10 is more obviously a follow-up to the Find X9 Pro than the standard Find X9, and makes a case for its price point with some properly pro-grade features.”

Both the Oppo Find X10 and Find X10 Pro are available to pre-order now from Oppo directly; they'll begin shipping later this month.

• PHP disclosed a new RCE vulnerability, but exploitation requires a rare and specific configuration setup
• Unlike php2shell, the flaw will be fixed in the next regular release rather than an emergency patch
• Researchers say php2shell attacks remain limited so far, though widespread patching is still urgently needed

The PHP Security Team has discovered yet another remote code execution (RCE) vulnerability in the now-notorious programming code, but since the issue is not that easy to abuse, it won’t receive an out-of-bounds fix.

The organization recently published a new security advisory warning users about a session upload progress bug in PHP, tracked as CVE-2026-115560. In the advisory, the organization said the bug can only be abused “under an unusual combination of configuration and application code”.

“An application must set session.serialize_handler to php_binary or php_serialize in its configuration and then switch it to php at runtime with ini_set() before calling session_start(). Session upload progress must also still be enabled. Applications that never change the serialize handler at runtime can keep the feature enabled,” the advisory reads.

So, unless your setup has these exact settings, you’re not at risk. The PHP Security Team also suggests users set session.upload_progress.enabled=0 until the next regular bugfix release, to fully protect from this RCE vector, which they explained as “unlikely”. They also said this setting was listed as a mitigation for CVE-2026-109619, so users who applied it then should just keep it and do nothing else.

PHP2Shell

CVE-2026-109619 is one of two critical-severity RCE vulnerabilities recently discovered and dubbed “php2shell”, the discovery of which caused widespread panic, since the implications were monumental, to put it mildly.

PHP is an extremely popular programming language used to build websites and web apps. Some analysts claim that roughly 70% of all websites on the internet are running PHP, including banking, education, healthcare, and government sites. It was revealed that the PHP Security Team was working on a fix for php2shell and that a handful of security organizations knew, or were involved in the work. The bugs allowed threat actors to take full control over the websites.

The organizations were told not to break the news until a patch was released, in order not to alert cybercriminals of the existence of the flaws. However, information somehow leaked, and Amazon Web Services’ team saw exploitation attempts four days before the patch was due.

A few hours before the release, the CEO of security outfit Chainguard published container images containing fixes for the flaws, effectively breaking the embargo. The security community blamed him for what happened next - the number of attempted exploits grew to a few hundred, then a few thousands, then into the millions - all in a few hours following the release of the patch.

The PHP Security Team tried to mitigate the damage by issuing a “heads up” alert - telling IT teams to prepare and wait for the patch, which was scheduled for October 21.

Saved by ASLR

This mass exploitation campaign - apparently launched by multiple threat actors - is what caused widespread panic. According to different sources, healthcare, government, and education companies across Europe preemptively shut down their websites as they waited for the fix. However, despite the seriousness of the flaw and the speed at which threat actors picked it up - very few breaches actually happened.

As it turns out - exploiting php2shell is not as easy as it seems, likely thanks to a feature called Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR). This security feature randomly changes where a program’s code and data are stored in memory every time it runs, allegedly complicating things for the attackers:

“PHP2Shell doesn't seem trivial to exploit. I believe that part of the reason we’ve yet to see successful exploitation is that reliable code execution requires getting past ASLR, a memory protection that randomizes where code sits in memory,” said Yotam Perkal, Director of Security Research at Pluto Security. “That's hard to do remotely, and most of the public PoCs floating around (many of them vibe coded) simply don't work reliably on real systems.”

This is great news, but Perkal believes the best ASLR can do is buy security teams a little time: “I wouldn't count on it staying that way, though. Exploits will get better, and most PHP servers out there are still unpatched, so teams should patch and restart their PHP workers now. But compared with all the drama before and after the release, real-world exploitation so far looks pretty limited.”

Via BleepingComputer

Black Friday is on the horizon, but Amazon isn't waiting until next month to kick off this year's deals season. Several strong offers are already available across its range of own-brand smart home devices, so I've gathered the top 16 offers here if you're in the mood for some early shopping.

• Browse all of today's best deals at Amazon

Some of the best deals are found on smart home tech from Ring and Blink, including some super-cheap doorbells and cameras. One highlight is this Blink Mini 2K+ for just $16.99 (was $39.99), which is a very low price for the latest version of a handy and feature-rich indoor security camera.

Another standout to me is the brand-new Fire TV Stick 4K for $29.99 (was $59.99). That's a very early 50% discount on the upgraded version of Amazon's popular streaming stick, which offers a cheap way to add smart features to a TV and get easy access to all the major streaming services, such as Prime Video, Netflix, Disney+, and more.

Some of these offers end soon, so it's perhaps worth snapping those up if you want to bag them now. Although, with Black Friday about to get underway, it wouldn't surprise me if a lot of the deals return in a matter of days — or stay this low for the whole of next month's sales period.

Top 16 early Black Friday Amazon devices deals

Ring Wired Doorbell 2K

Ring Battery Doorbell 2K

Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K

Blink Mini 2K+ Indoor Camera

Blink Wired Doorbell 2K+

Blink Battery Doorbell 2K+

Blink Outdoor 4 Camera

Blink Mini Pan-Tilt Camera

Ring Wired Doorbell 2K Plus

Ring Battery Doorbell 2K Plus

Blink Outdoor 4 and Wired Doorbell 2K+ System

Amazon Fire TV Cube

Amazon Ember 32-inch 2-Series Smart TV

Amazon Ember 50-inch 4-Series Smart TV

Amazon Fire HD 8 Tablet

Amazon Fire HD 10 Tablet

Steam had a bad start to the week on Monday, with thousands of users reporting that a "loading user data" issue was preventing them from logging in — but it now seems to be fixed.

Reports about the problem spiked on Downdetector at around 4.30am ET / 9.30am BST on Monday, October 26. There were also countless reports on social media and Reddit of people experiencing the same issue.

There was no official statement or update from Valve about the problem, but here's how the gaming platform's outage played out today...

The story so far

• Many Steam reported being unable to log into their accounts today
• Most were reporting being stuck on a "loading user data" page
• The reports started at around 4am ET / 9am BST, but it now seems to be fixed

October 26, 2026 – 9:05 AMReports are on the rise

(Image credit: Downdetector)

Today's Steam issue has been a bit of a slow burn rather than a sudden outage, but reports are now increasing sharply.

On Downdetector, they've now hit a peak of almost 500 in the US and about 450 in the UK. However, it does seem to be a global issue according to a Reddit thread, with users in Germany, the Netherlands and Russia all saying they can't log in.

Over on the Steam Dashboard, there's no report of an official problem — so this appears to be a software bug or issue rather than a service outage.

October 26, 2026 – 9:12 AMThe screen of pain

Welp @Steam I have got the loading user data endless screen. Been trying to fix it for a good while but nothing is working. Even uninstalled everything. If you could get back to me as soon as possible that would be great thanks. https://t.co/Dywd32tdrBOctober 26, 2026

This is the screen that thousands of Steam users are reporting seeing right now — and it seems resistant to most of the commonly-known fixes.

Many users have reported closing their games and restarting their PCs, but without any joy. This also doesn't seem to be a maintenance outage — those typically takes place on Wednesdays at 00:00 UTC.

The Steam Dashboard continues to show no official issues, but hopefully we'll get some official guidance from Steam soon...

October 26, 2026 – 9:26 AMThis isn't an outage

(Image credit: Steam)

The Steam dashboard is green across the board right now, so we don't appear to be looking at a network outage.

That means all of Steam's traditional advice — from restarting Stream, to clearing your download cache or changing your download region — isn't really applicable or working for most people.

Some have reported that restarting their PC without an internet connection, launching Steam in offline mode, then re-connecting to the internet has done the trick for them, but many are reporting that it hasn't solved their issues.

October 26, 2026 – 9:40 AMYou're not alone

(Image credit: Downdetector)

Those Steam reports on Downdetector are very much going in the wrong direction — with the spike now near-vertical in the US and UK.

Almost everyone is reporting the same problem — being stuck on a "loading user data" page when trying to log in. Many are reporting that this happened after they cleared their download cache, but it isn't clear if that's a universal theme.

There's still been no official word from Valve on social media or other channels, but I'm trying to get a response now and will report back as soon as I hear anything.

October 26, 2026 – 9:54 AMWe're at four hours and countingProblem logging in to Steam from r/steamsupport

Today's Steam issues started at around 4am ET / 9am BST but there's still no sign of a fix or any successful troubleshooting tips.

The Reddit thread above continues to grow with comments from across the globe, from Japan to Spain — and while some are suggesting fixes (like turning off Wi-Fi, opening Steam, then turning on Wi-Fi again) they don't seem to be working for very many users.

I've contacted Valve for an official response and will update you as soon as I hear anything.

October 26, 2026 – 10:26 AMA possible fix?

(Image credit: Photo Oz / Shutterstock)

Strangely, there's been no official statement from Valve about today's "loading user data" issue yet, despite it starting over five hours ago.

This is, unsurprisingly, causing an increasing amount of frustration from gamers on X and Reddit. For some, quitting Steam, removing their PC from their network, reopening the app, and then re-connecting their PC to their network or Wi-Fi seems to do the trick — but many are also reporting that this doesn't work for them.

Hopefully, Valve will push out a fix for this bug soon — or at least tell an increasingly angry horde of Steam gamers when that might happen...

October 26, 2026 – 10:59 AMOn the mend?

(Image credit: Downdetector)

This is the first sign of a drop in Steam reports on Downdetector that we've seen in over five hours.

There's no been reports of an official fix, but it seems many are able to log into their Steam accounts again. Let's hope that trend continues...

October 26, 2026 – 12:03 PMSteam is back (for most)

(Image credit: Downdetector)

Good news, it seems that Steam's "loading user data" issue is now fixed — for most people, at least.

The reports on Downdetector have plummeted back to baseline levels, while many have reported on social media and Reddit that they can now log in again.

Valve never did comment on the cause of the issue, but it seems Steam fans can now go back to enjoying bug-free gaming sessions...

• UK government announces millions in funding for cyber protections upgrade
• £200 million will be invested in a new AI biosecurity lab, while a further £160 million will be funneled into a National Cyber Shield and National Exposure and Real-Time Vulnerability Centre
• AI is helping researchers discover new critical software vulnerabilities, and AI leaders have warned that AI tools could be used to develop new biological threats

The UK government has earmarked £100 million for a “world first” national AI Biosecurity Lab (AIBL) tasked with protecting the nation from emerging biological threats.

Leading AI firms, including OpenAI and Anthropic, have committed an additional £200 million worth of AI credits to be spent on their AI models.

The government is also planning to spend millions of pounds to ensure the UK is equipped to meet other emerging threats such as rapidly evolving AI-enabled cyber threats.

AI lab to host ‘world-leading scientific expertise’

The investment comes as part of the government’s budget announced on Wednesday. “AI will transform daily life,” Chancellor of the Exchequer Jon Healey said, “every firm, community, hospital, school, and every aspect of our economy can benefit.”

"I understand and share the concerns of working people, so I am setting out a distinctively British approach to AI. One that doesn't leave workers behind and defends our national interest, while ensuring the benefits of AI-enabled growth are felt right across the country."

Further details on the AIBL are yet to be revealed, but AI Minister Kanishka Narayan said that the facility would be a “major new global institution” home to “world-leading scientific expertise” that will help protect the UK against a range of threats “from cyber attacks to biological risks.”

“By backing British science, advanced chips and our own AI companies, we can strengthen our national security, rebuild Britain's industrial strength and create good, skilled jobs across the country,” Narayan said.

Numerous leaders in AI, such as OpenAI’s Sam Altman, have warned of the potential dangers of advanced AI models falling into the wrong hands. “No company can sufficiently mitigate these on their own; we will need a society-wide response to things like novel bio threats, a massive and fast change to the economy, extremely capable models causing complex emergent effects across society, and more,” the OpenAI CEO said.

Google DeepMind chief Demis Hassabis warned earlier this year that “threats including nuclear and bio risks may soon emerge as capabilities continue to advance,” adding that “urgent action” needs to be taken to secure the world against these threats.

More funding for UK cyber protection

The latest budget will also see the UK's AI Security Institute (AISI) receive an additional £120 million in funding. The AISI operates as an AI testing lab to determine the risks of frontier models.

A further £60 million will be invested in government plans to develop an AI-powered “National Cyber Shield” to shore up the nation’s AI defenses, alongside £70 million to be put towards the founding of a National Exposure and Real-Time Vulnerability (NERV) Centre that will use AI to hunt for critical vulnerabilities in infrastructure and the economy.

Researchers recently uncovered a critical flaw in the server-side scripting language PHP, upon which much of the internet is built. The researchers warned that the flaw could expose millions of websites to hacking, prompting numerous governments to take official websites offline while the flaw was patched.

The discovery of the flaw was credited to Ryan Austin, a researcher at cybersecurity firm Calif, who said that OpenAI's systems helped uncover the flaw - highlighting the rapid increase in AI-assisted vulnerability discovery.

Via BBC News

• A new Windows 11 feature is in testing, but it doesn't work yet
• It's an option to enable Intel's 'Advanced Performance Extensions' or APX to boost the performance of some apps
• This will benefit Intel's next-gen CPUs, and AMD's processors will be in line for this speed boost eventually, too

There's a new Windows 11 feature to boost the performance of apps that's been spotted in testing, but only PCs with Intel's next-gen desktop CPUs (codenamed Nova Lake) will benefit from this initially.

Windows Latest noticed that a regular Windows 11 watcher, XenoPanther on X, posted a screenshot of an option for 'Advanced Performance Extensions' (APX) which is present in a recent preview release of Microsoft's OS (build 29695).

Intel explains that APX "expands the entire x86 instruction set with access to more registers and adds new features that improve general-purpose performance."

This means that app developers can take advantage of this feature to speed up the performance of their software. How much of a boost any given app might get is, as ever, going to be variable, but some applications might end up with a nice performance bump (games probably won't get much benefit, in case you were wondering).

There are a couple of catches here, however, including that apps will have to be recompiled to take advantage of APX, although Intel observes that actual changes to the application's code aren't expected to be necessary.

It's worth noting that Linux already added support for APX some time back.

Analysis: there are barriers to entry – but AMD chips will get this

(Image credit: Windows Latest / Microsoft)

Right now, this APX toggle is present in Windows 11 test builds, but it doesn't do anything at all, which is hardly surprising given that there aren't any Intel CPUs which support the feature yet. What this shows is that Microsoft is preparing the ground for this capability, which will be supported with Intel's next generation of desktop silicon. These Intel Core Ultra Series 4 processors are expected to debut early in 2027, so they are still some way off.

Existing generations of silicon from the Intel Core Series 3 families and earlier won't ever get the benefit of APX, as this is something that needs to be baked into the chip at production. So, existing PCs will not get the speed boosts from this feature, which is a shame.

Theoretically, this could be an additional reason to upgrade your CPU, but there's another catch here in that Intel's Core Series 4 CPUs require a new processor socket, and therefore a new motherboard for your PC. So that means an extensive upgrade for a desktop PC – or an impossible one for laptop owners – meaning that both Intel and Microsoft could be hoping that APX is another way to shift some new laptops in difficult conditions when the market is dipping.

How about AMD processors? This is an Intel technology, as noted, so you might assume you can forget about seeing APX with a Ryzen CPU, but actually as Windows Latest points out, Team Red is collaborating with Team Blue to get the benefit of this feature.

With AMD involved, it's more likely that developers will use the feature, and that'll help Intel's case for its usefulness. However, again, the support needs to be baked into the chip, so the earliest this might happen on the Ryzen side would be the Zen 6 family – or possibly the following generation (rumors seem to favor the latter). At any rate, support is coming for AMD chips as well.

Meanwhile, some of the online commenters remain skeptical. One Redditor observes of this potential speed boost: "I'll believe it when I see it!"

Others aren't happy about the support here, and the need for an upgrade, complaining: "Imagine locking a performance boost behind a platform..."

But as noted, this is a feature that requires new hardware in the chip itself, it's not something that can be added to finished silicon.

As far as Windows 11 itself is concerned more broadly, Microsoft is busy working to boost performance in all kinds of ways, including applying a couple of new tricks to speed up the launch times of apps and menus. There's also a major goal to ensure that Window 11 runs better on 8GB of RAM, too.

• ChatGPT and Claude are now banned for government work in Sweden
• The AI platforms join DeepSeek on a list of non-approved AI tools over data security fears
• Microsoft CoPilot is still approved for use, but with much tighter security controls

Swedish officials are no longer allowed to use OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Anthropic’s Claude for government work due to concerns over security.

The government will allow workers to continue using platforms that are regulated and approved, such as Microsoft CoPilot, but concerns that sensitive information could be fed into unregulated platforms have been cited as a reason for the ban.

Unregulated platforms used by employees, also known as Shadow IT, could have “consequences for Sweden’s information security,” Mikael Wettercrantz, Chief Information Officer (CIO) and Director of Digitization explained.

Only use approved AI platforms for government work

A review of AI tools used by workers at the Swedish Transport Administration earlier this year revealed “problematic” uses of AI platforms for government work.

AI services used for official purposes without the correct enterprise contract and associated regulation can lead to sensitive information entered into an AI chatbot being fed back to the developer, and then stored to be used for training.

The lack of an enterprise agreement can also bring up problems when auditing the use of AI tools within an organization, and can lead to further data protection issues if data that should be protected under European regulations moves beyond the digital borders of Europe - such as when the information is processed in a data center in the US.

Government workers will continue to have access to Microsoft CoPilot for official work, but with tighter security controls following an internal review. A limited number of employees will continue to have access to ChatGPT and Claude through a “special platform for AI assistants,” the government said.

This isn’t the first time AI platforms have been restricted for government work in Sweden. The country followed many others in banning the use of DeepSeek for government work over privacy violation concerns related to GDPR.

Similarly, the United States has banned all products and services related to DeepSeek due to fears that Chinese data laws could allow authorities access to the company’s servers.

The US Department of Homeland Security also warned that the DeepSeek platform could contain “malware and other security vulnerabilities.”

Via Cybernews

CISOs and CIOs should not just chase the latest hype around AI that can escape sandboxes and morphing security threats, but bet on tried and true ROI of identity security.

It’s demonstrably true that the information security scene is transforming as agentic AI accelerates operational speed and potentially exposes new attack surfaces. Most AI providers have reported their latest generation models are so powerful that they are capable of escaping sandboxes and hacking organizations. Regardless if you believe this is hype, truth or genius marketing, what matters is this: information security leaders should rigorously check the basics of their discipline.

Yes, CISOs need to be ahead of the curve but this can’t be at the cost of dropping the ball on security and identity essentials. I say this because, all too often, even in sophisticated and otherwise mature enterprises, the latest breaches are still abusing the lack of essential controls, via credentials and permissions the agents should never have been able to reach.

And sometimes, thought leaders and experts attempting to understand and communicate rapid technology changes, are creating more confusion and distracting from first principles.

‘AI washing’ – the practice of overstating the importance of AI in a product, project or strategy – is real. We need to do more to demystify data security and separate hype from reality and place a higher value on specificity when we talk about risks.

The identity challenge

The industry's instinct to frame this as an "AI security" problem is understandable, but it is not actionable. For CISOs trying to reduce real risk, the more precise frame is identity.

For an example of what I’m talking about, consider onboarding. When people join an organization, they are granted privileges based on their needs, seniority and roles. A major part of contemporary information security is about staying on top of identity management, but that’s not easy.

In hypergrowth, companies hire very quickly. But IT leaders also need to stay abreast of many other people who need access to systems. These include freelancers, consultants, suppliers, auditors and work-experience temporary staff. That gap (unrevoked, over-permissioned, forgotten access) is exactly what autonomous AI agents exploited in the Hugging Face breach earlier this year.

The attack was novel. The underlying vulnerability was not. NHIs and human identities share the same failure mode: access granted, never reviewed, never revoked. That is the identity challenge, and it predates AI by decades.

A complex puzzle

IT today is complicated. CIOs stay in their roles for between three and five years. CISOs (and security staff generally) are in high demand, and organizations understandably turn to outsourcers for help. It’s easy for basic management disciplines like maintaining identity hygiene to get lost in the mix, such are the comings and goings of personnel.

And things are getting harder. Who owns an AI identity? Not every enterprise employs an identity specialist, so who is in charge when the identity is non-human? The CIO? What about the CISO? HR? How does the chief risk officer fit in?

It’s easy for tasks to fall between gaps. And even if onboarding is immaculate, who is running offboarding and the impacts on identity? The consequences of that question going unanswered are well documented. Verizon's 2026 Data Breach Investigations Report found that exploitation of vulnerabilities has overtaken stolen credentials as the top initial access vector for the first time in 19 years.

But credentials still drove the privilege escalation and lateral movement that followed. A vulnerability opens the door; an unmanaged identity walks through the building unchallenged.

And in the agentic AI era, who will be in charge of managing those NHIs that often have extraordinarily high permissions and license to roam? The Hugging Face breach answered that question in practice: nobody was. One over-privileged, unmonitored non-human identity provided cluster-admin access across two environments the moment it was compromised.

The AI was the intruder. Vulnerabilities have surged as an entry point precisely because AI agents are now extraordinary zero-day discovery engines, finding in hours what took human attackers weeks. But identity remains the common denominator: had proper least-privilege, just-in-time access and NHI governance been in place, the breach would have been contained even after the vulnerability was exploited. You cannot patch your way out of an identity problem.

Back to basics (and learning from the past)

If I think about a lot of the breaches I’ve seen, a lot of them relate to these seemingly obvious gaps that become chasms. It’s the left- behind orphan credentials, the ‘puppies with two owners’ and other grey areas that cause problems. ‘Hey. I thought you had this?’, people hear… when it’s too late.

To improve, we need to learn from the past, because we all know the famous quote (of uncertain authorship) about those who ignore history being condemned to repeat mistakes.

A relevant analogy here is cloud computing. Some of us lived through the datacenter wave, then the cloud wave hit. The Capital One breach of 2019 (over 100 million records exposed through a misconfigured AWS role) became the defining lesson of that era: cloud created vast new entitlement sprawl, and nobody was governing it. That breach, and others like it, drove the creation of Cloud Infrastructure Entitlement Management (CIEM) to bring least-privilege principles to cloud permissions at scale. AI is the current wave, and the pattern is similar.

Agents are being deployed with extraordinarily broad permissions, credentials are being embedded in pipelines without rotation or scoping, and ownership of who governs those entitlements is unclear. We will need the same focused response we built for the cloud. Not new acronyms, but the same rigorous application of least-privilege, just-in-time access, and entitlement governance, adapted to the new environment. And whatever wave follows AI will present the same challenge again. Identity is the constant.

Every wave reshapes the technology landscape, but the question of who (human or machine) has access to what, under what conditions, and for how long, never goes away. We just keep failing to answer it before the damage is done. If you weren't there, speak to a cloud veteran because so much of security today has to be about assembling teams of all talents. So use them and build consensus with clear allocation of who is responsible for what and a handover plan for when people leave or swap roles.

The current environment is replete with risks. Consider what AI has done to the act of building software: a non-coder like me can now spin up an app or deploy an agent in an afternoon. That is genuinely transformative, and dangerous. The population of people creating software that handles credentials, calls APIs, and interacts with production systems has exploded overnight, and most of them have never thought about identity hygiene in their lives.

Every time you use an LLM, you are storing credentials somewhere. As that population scales, so does the attack surface. We will see an avalanche of badly architected agents and apps built fast, deployed faster, and governed by nobody. It’s easy to offer up credentials to the world just as misconfigured AWS accounts led to major problems a couple of decades ago.

Today, everybody is excited about the abuses of agents running wild. These are hot stories, and yes, we should be concerned. But really, hackers are going to hack, just as they always have, and they will exploit any loopholes we offer up. The Verizon 2026 DBIR showed vulnerabilities are now the number one initial access vector, but identity is what converts a foothold into a catastrophe.

So many foundational security elements remain neglected like storing static credentials in plain sight. We can still do a lot more with Zero-Trust principles and enforcing least privilege to mitigate risks and reduce impacts. The tools exist and the discipline exists. CIEM was built precisely because the cloud created entitlement problems nobody had anticipated, and it worked, for organizations that adopted it seriously.

The same rigor applied to NHI governance and agentic AI today will determine whether the next wave of breach headlines features your organization or your competitor's. Let’s get the basics right and ensure we can walk at the same time as we try to run.

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• Microsoft Teams is using AI to upgrade its threat detection skills
• AI-powered tools will be used to analyze messages and spot phishing and other scams
• New tool will roll out in November 2026 to all users

Microsoft Teams is looking to help keep users safe from phishing attacks and scams with new AI-powered security protections.

The update, set to roll out soon, will see the new protection use AI to spot phishing and social engineering scams in the latest security boost to Teams users.

In a new Microsoft 365 roadmap post, the company noted how the upgraded Teams detection process will now use AI-powered phishing detection will use contextual conversation data to identify phishing and suspicious behavior - particularly in higher-risk messaging scenarios such as external first-contact chats.

Safe for work

"Microsoft Teams is introducing AI-powered, context-aware phishing detection to help identify phishing, social engineering, impersonation attempts, and deceptive intent," the company said in a Microsoft 365 Message Center update.

"The capability analyzes conversation context to identify suspicious behavior that may not include traditional indicators such as malicious links or files."

For even higher-stakes worries, the company notes that "additional protection may apply in certain regions or scenarios", hopefully keeping you safe from even the most devious threats.

The post doesn't explain exactly which AI platforms are being used to power the threat detection, but given the billions of messages and emails Microsoft systems process every year, it's fair to say the company has a solid base to run off.

The update is listed as being in development, with a scheduled rollout date of November 2026, when it will be generally available to all Microsoft Teams users across the world.

IT admins will not need to take any action to enable the new feature, and while it will analyze conversation context to discover suspicious behavior, Microsoft says it will not retain customer data for further AI training or other uses.

"This capability is used only for security protection and not for productivity, summarization, advertising, user monitoring, or other non-security purposes," Microsoft said. "Customer message content is not retained by the detection system for model training or other secondary uses."

AI has moved from pilot projects to the core of the finance function. Deloitte’s CFO Signals shows that close to 93% of CFOs now use AI across key operations, a dramatic shift from the tentative experimentation of just two years ago. The pace of adoption is undeniable but the organizations making the most meaningful progress won’t be the ones automating for the sake of it, they’re being deliberate in their choices.

Finance is full of tasks that look automatable but rely on context the data doesn’t capture. A spike in supplier costs might resemble a contract issue until you know it reflects a strategic shift agreed in a leadership meeting.

A variance might look like a warning sign until you understand it’s tied to a planned operational change. AI can highlight anomalies, but it cannot intuit the organizational nuance behind them. That gap between what the data shows and what the business knows is where trust can break down.

Finance teams need to know not only that AI can identify an issue, but when they can trust its interpretation and when human judgement needs to step in. This will be central to the next phase of AI adoption.

AI isn’t replacing judgement, it’s relocating it

I should be clear, the shift happening in finance isn’t about completely removing human judgement from the process, but slightly shifting where that judgement is used. Rather than having people spend their time checking every transaction or working through every variance, more of that initial analysis can be handled by AI, leaving finance teams to set the parameters, decide what needs attention and step in when something doesn’t quite fit.

That change is already reflected in how CFOs are using the technology. FTI Consulting’s Global CFO Survey found that nearly 70% of CFOs now rely on AI-driven insight alongside experience-based judgement rather than in place of it. So this is already a process that’s happening. In practice, judgement is still very much part of the role, but it is being applied further up the process, where the bigger decisions are made.

Trust shouldn’t be an afterthought

As we allow AI to take on more responsibility in finance, the question is no longer whether it can complete a task but whether finance teams are truly comfortable relying on the result.

That matters when dealing with sensitive data and decisions where a small error can have real financial or regulatory consequences. An AI tool that drafts a report is one thing. An agent that recommends a supplier, flags unusual spending or takes action on a payment is another.

Trust needs to be built into how these systems work, rather than added later through a policy document or training session. Finance teams need enough visibility into how an output was reached to challenge it when necessary, alongside clear boundaries around what an AI system can do independently and when it should hand a decision back to the team.

The model isn’t the bottleneck, the data environment is

The biggest obstacle to AI in finance is rarely the model. It’s the data underneath it. Finance teams have spent years stitching together information from accounting systems, expense platforms, procurement tools and spreadsheets. If those systems contain duplicate suppliers, inconsistent coding or outdated information, AI won’t fix the problem, it will simply accelerate the consequences.

Data quality needs to come before more ambitious AI projects. Clean, consistent and accessible financial data gives AI something reliable to work with. Fragmented data makes even sophisticated systems harder to trust. Much of the most important AI work happens before deployment: connecting systems, cleaning data and establishing a single, accurate view of financial information.

Once that foundation is in place, AI can do more than automate administration. It can help identify anomalies, understand spending patterns and give finance teams better information when decisions need to be made.

The real value sits in the unglamorous work: speeding up invoice processing, tightening expense categorization, spotting spend anomalies early or making planning data easier to surface. Starting with focused, practical use cases lets teams see how AI behaves in their own environment, where it genuinely helps, and what needs to change before expanding its role.

It’s a more realistic route than trying to transform the entire finance function at once. The organizations making progress are solving specific problems well, then scaling once they know the system works in the messy reality of their own data and workflows.

The finance team becomes more strategic

The real opportunity with AI is not to create a finance function that does less. It is to create one that spends less time on administration and more time on decisions that matter.

As AI takes on repetitive work, finance teams can focus more on analyzing the business, identifying risks and opportunities, and challenging assumptions. Instead of waiting for month-end to understand what happened, they can move towards more continuous analysis and decision-making.

AI does not remove the need for financial expertise. It makes that expertise more valuable, because people still need to decide what questions to ask, whether an answer makes sense and what action should follow.

The goal isn’t to automate everything

AI adoption in finance shouldn’t be measured by how many processes can be handed to an agent, but by whether teams can make better decisions with less administrative effort.

The key for CFO’s is knowing where AI can act independently, where it should make a recommendation and where human judgement is still needed. The finance teams that get this balance right will move beyond AI experimentation and turn it into genuine gains.

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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

• Samsung Galaxy Buds On go on sale, in Asia
• OnePlus Buds Clip are revealed, but you can't buy them either
• The clipping-bud market is getting overwhelming

If you've been idly browsing our best open earbuds guide, you might find your job getting a little more tricksy with each passing day. Why? Because it feels like more clip-on open earbuds are launching than there are days in the week. Case in point, two new options are here... sort of.

First up is the Samsung Galaxy Buds On, which we covered the launch of, at the start of the month. These are Samsung's debut open-ears, and they're finally going on sale on Tuesday 27th October... in Korea, at least. We're still waiting on global availability, but apparently some European websites have listed the buds (and have since had said listings quickly removed), which makes it sound like a worldwide roll-out is on the near horizon.

What about a brand new pair? The OnePlus Buds Clip have also been unveiled, and they sound like something I'd love to test. They have dual drivers, sound leakage prevention, an above-average battery life and automatic left-right detection so you can clip either bud on either ear and get the right music.

The catch? OnePlus retreated from the US and UK earlier this year. While the buds will sell in Asia, Europe and several other regions, you or I won't be able to buy them. And despite a market that continually makes me ask, 'How many is too many open earbuds?' that's a shame.

You have plenty of other options though, as I mentioned above; the clip-style open earbuds market is absolutely saturated at the moment. In fact, buying a new pair is pretty overwhelming.

Don't get c-lippy with me

(Image credit: Future)

According to sales figures, open earbuds are massive right now, and I get it. They're comfortable to wear, don't block out the world around you, have great battery lives (thanks to the typical lack of ANC), often cost less than alike standard in-ear buds, and don't sound all that bad any more.

This all explains why there are so many open earbuds on the market right now; in fact, most brands have multiple options. Bose recently unveiled two options. Shokz sells the OpenDots Air alongside its premium model. Soundcore recently shook up its range with two near-identical options. Many more entry-level audio companies such as Soundpeats, Baseus and Earfun have even more.

Competition is good, but to a point. Case in point: open earbuds don't have the scope for variety that, say, in-ear buds do, and 99% of the pairs I test feel largely the same. They fit the same, sound the same and work the same.

So it makes it harder for new buyers to know which pair they should be picking up, and I imagine many people are put off by the deluge. The frequency of releases also means it's easy to lose faith in your choice; a new option will be on shelves before you know it.

Want my advice? Cut out the noise and just buy from a brand you trust at a price that fits your budget (or use our suggestions below if you need pointers).

UK organizations are already feeling AI's effect on the bottom line: a recent study found that 66% of UK enterprises are experiencing significant AI-driven productivity improvements, with leaders reporting that AI is freeing up time specifically for strategic decision-making, not just automating routine tasks.

That shift matters as, despite advances, analytics remained a retrospective or heavy human driven insight tool for long – reactive and slow to respond. With deterministic rule-based architecture, hard code, and static workflows. It worked well enough in predictable use-cases, but not in in dynamic, data-intensive scenarios.

This is changing rapidly, as AI re-imagines traditional analytics into decision intelligence, and autonomous AI goes even further, making decisions, scenario planning, and activating context aware actions with limited or no human instruction based on autonomy dial. Where traditional automation executed predefined workflows, agentic AI systems working in squads analyze data from varied sources to make a chain of complex decisions.

For instance, an AI underwriting agent typically estimates a prospective borrower’s creditworthiness, tweaks loan pricing, routes paperwork, alerts supervisors to compliance concerns. decisions once made by people, now made by systems working in squads.

The scale of the opportunity is significant. The decision intelligence market in Europe, estimated to be $4.35 billion in 2025, is steadily advancing towards a projected value of $20.61 billion by 2035. UK organizations could be well placed to capture a meaningful share of that value if they move deliberately.

Drawing the line between AI and human judgement

The central challenge for any organization adopting decision intelligence is not the technology itself, it's deciding who gets to decide what and when. Several organizations lack a formal mechanism for deciding the extent of autonomy they should allow their systems. This frequently leads to ad-hoc practices, without any limit’s enforcement or governance of autonomy.

The fix is to re-invent or re-imagine clear business decision flow rights into the system from the outset - what an agent may act on independently, and what it must escalate to a person. Going back to underwriting agent example, it can reasonably price a loan or route paperwork on its own, but if it flags a compliance concern or encounters an applicant whose profile falls outside its constraints data, that decision should stop with a human, not get resolved by the agent guessing its way through an edge case.

The future enterprise is not about replacing human judgment but augmenting it through intelligent delegation. Enterprise Decision Intelligence systems, fueled by domain aware foundational models and machine-consumable context, can autonomously handle high-volume, full explainability, data-intensive decisions across supply chains, customer operations, pricing, and activation ecosystems.

Human expertise, meanwhile, remains indispensable for governance, ethical oversight, exception handling, and decisions where business context outweighs algorithmic certainty.

Profound potential, profound risks

The potential benefits are substantial. For instance, when beauty and fragrance retailers have implemented an AI decision engine that determined the right time and proposition for engaging each customer, it earned a double-digit ROI through strategic AI collaboration.

However, AI-based decision intelligence systems come with concerns such as cybersecurity risk, compliance failure, lack of transparency and accountability, and occasionally, improper outcomes.

Even the entry cost, especially when agentic AI is involved, can be quite high and can be optimized through enterprise intelligence foundation models. Above all, full implementation needs to be iterative, involving not only a technology upgrade, but also operating model changes, deep integrations, specialized talent, and a robust ethical and governance framework to build transparency, accountability, and trust in these systems.

As organizations build experience and confidence, they will be able to progressively transition from reactive analytics to proactive decision intelligence. The ones that get the human-AI division of labor right first, not just the ones that move fastest, will be the ones that capture the advantage.

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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