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Prime Day may be over for another year, but that doesn't mean that deals have completely vanished from Amazon. While the sheer volume of offers has dropped dramatically since last week's mega sale, I've spotted a handful of strong offers still live at the retailer this week. Here are my 15 top picks that I think are worth buying.

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

One standout that was not on our radar during Prime Day is the fantastic Nothing Ear (a) for £49 (was £69). These five-star buds rival the AirPods and other premium options in sound quality, noise cancellation, and battery life — all for a fraction of the cost.

Some deals I did actually spot last week and are either still available at the same low price, or are only marginally more expensive. They include the Philips OneBlade 360 for £42.99 (was £54.99), the Anker Soundcore Portable Speaker for £21.97 (was £29.99), and the Warmco Portable Handheld Fan for £25.49 (was £29.99).

Details on all of these deals and more from Amazon UK are below.

Today's 15 best deals at Amazon UK

These have been some of the most surprising earbuds we've ever tested, scoring a sweet five stars in our Nothing Ear (a) review – and now you can get them for their lowest price ever. Considering the latest AirPods are closer to £100, the fact that these offer massively superior sound and great active noise cancellation for half the price of Apple's popular buds makes these a no-brainer.View Deal

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

This Warmco Portable handheld fan is a slightly more high-tech and serious-looking device. Again, we haven't reviewed it, but it does have good Amazon reviews and the price is right thanks to this deal. According to the user reviews, this looks to be a surprisingly powerful little fan that's capable of 2.5 hours of operation per charge.View Deal

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

I'm not sure how I feel about smart rings, but our fitness editor, Matt Evans, is a big fan of the Oura Ring 4. He said it was "nearly the perfect fitness tracker" in our review, praising the design, ease-of-use, long-lasting battery and detailed health information it offers. This fascinating bit of tech is now down to its lowest-ever price on Amazon — but be warned that many sizes and colours have sold out.View Deal

The Nespresso Vertuo Pop is one of the best entry-level coffee machines around and it's now 50% off at Amazon. Use it with the included pods, and it does all the hard work for you with one-touch brewing, with the option of different brew sizes depending on how much you want to drink. As well as the Vertuo Pop machine, the bundle comes with coffee pods, mugs, spoons, and a milk frother.View Deal

The Fitbit Charge 6 is one of the simplest fitness trackers around, but it works very well and is still at a low price following Prime Day. It has a small screen that shows the time, how many steps you’ve taken, and your current heart rate as well. It’s subtle, so it fits on your wrist well – whether you’re at work or working out. Extensive battery life of up to seven days means minimal hassle, too.View Deal

Display: 14 inches
Processor: Intel N4500
RAM: 4GB
Storage: 64GB

I want to be clear that this is far from the best laptop you can buy, but I can't deny that it's incredibly cheap. The spec is incredibly low-end, with an entry-level processor, only 4GB of RAM and a small 64GB hard drive. At least it's a Chromebook, which can get more from weaker components, but this is only a good buy if you want to spend very little money on a very basic machine for infrequent, light use.View Deal

The iO range is usually a more expensive option in Oral-B's range of electric toothbrushes, but this is a decent deal on the entry-level option that's also bundled with a few handy extras. It doesn't boast many high-end features but it has the basic ones you really need to brush your teeth effectively and efficiently, including a two-minute timer and a visible pressure sensor. Plus, you get a charger pouch, refill holder, and a carry case included for free.View Deal

The Ninja Crispi was £10 cheaper during Prime Day, but this is still a great price for the manufacturer's portable air fryer. This bundle includes the PowerPod lid, plus two resealable glass containers to carry your dishes until you're ready to cook. According to our testing, it cooks exceptionally quickly, is easy to use and a breeze to clean, making this one of the best air fryer deals I've seen this year.View Deal

Display - 15.6 inches
Processor - AMD Ryzen 7
RAM - 16GB
Storage - 512GB

This is a great price for a laptop that comes with a well-performing AMD Ryzen 7 CPU. On top of that, you get 16GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD for storage, and incredible battery life, which represents good value for money. Overall, I think it's a solid everyday machine for the price.View Deal

If you want a cheap and basic Bluetooth speaker, then you can't go wrong with this Anker Soundcore for almost £20. Sure, it's not going to give you the biggest and boldest audio quality, but it's still a solid option at an affordable price. Battery life is an impressive 24 hours, too, so it's great to use around the home or take it with you when on the go.View Deal

Display - 15.6 inches
Processor - Intel Core 3
RAM - 8GB
Storage - 128GB

This version of the Lenovo Chromebook offers an impressive amount of power for the price. It includes a fairly basic Intel Core 3 processor, but you do get 8GB of RAM to boost performance, boot times, and load times. There's also 128GB of storage and battery life is excellent at 12 hours on a single charge. That's more than enough to last a full working day. At close to £200, it's a bargain for school or college, or just as a home laptop that you use for light use and everyday tasks.View Deal

I've got this arm for my dual setup at home and it works really well to hold up both of my monitors, making it easier and more comfortable to work and game across the pair of them. This particular model supports displays from 13 - 27 inches. is height adjustable, can be mounted in two different ways, and supports up to 360-degree rotation.View Deal

Graphics card: RTX 4050
Processor: AMD Ryzen 7
RAM: 16GB
Storage: 512GB

It's a rare thing these days to see a gaming laptop for around £600, and better yet, this Asus TUF actually features a decent RTX 4050 graphics card. If you're looking for the basics, then this machine is definitely going to cover you well for a great price. The RTX 4050, in combination with the Ryzen 7 chipset, is going to play all the latest games — and should do well, granted you're willing to tweak a few settings here and there on the most demanding titles.View Deal

Yep, it's not a tech deal, but it's an essential we all need to stock up on, and I think this is a very good price for a massive 72 rolls. Prime Day was a good opportunity to pick up household items like this, and while similar deals were available during the event, I think this is actually better than any I spotted last week.View Deal

Not all FIFA World Cup 2026 coverage is the same, and Brazil fans would do well to take note of that as 'A Seleção' take on Japan today in Houston, Texas.

For example, in the UK, Brazil vs Japan is on the ITVX streaming service and not BBC iPlayer, and that means you can't watch all those Samba skills in glorious 4K UHD.

But Brazil fans, listen up: there is a place you can watch the match at maximum resolution, and with Portuguese commentary, and all for free too.

The free-to-air CazéTV YouTube channel has the rights to show all of the FIFA World Cup 2026 coverage in Brazil, and in 4K UHD too. If you're a Brazil national currently abroad, then you can still access the stream.

Just pick yourself up a VPN, select a server in Brazil and then tune into CazéTV as you normally would back home. If you don't already have a VPN, then give Proton VPN a try.

We continuously test the best VPNs and we rate Proton very highly. It's great for streaming but, the reason we recommend it for CazéTV and Brazil is because Proton has more South American servers than an almost every other VPN provider, so you're not likely to run into capacity issues with other people trying to do the same.

But, just as importantly, Proton VPN also recorded the highest speeds over long distance connections (such as Europe to Brazil) in our recent tests, meaning that you should get a nice, clean, up-to-the-minute stream with no buffering or stuttering.

Watch Brazil vs Japan with Proton VPN Plus: $2.99 per month for 2 years

Proton VPN Plus is one of the best VPNs available. It has excellent server coverage in South America, and all over the world, and its 1548Mbps long distance connection speeds make it a great choice for super-smooth FIFA World Cup 2026 streaming of Brazil vs Japan and more. Give it a go.View Deal

Proton VPN comes with live chat support just in case you have any difficulties getting connected. It's also one of the most private and secure VPNs out there if you're looking to stay safe online, as well as do some soccer streaming.

There is a free version of Proton VPN but it's the paid one you'll need to get access to the Brazil server and the faster streaming speeds.

VPNs are completely legal to use. They're excellent for streaming your regular shows wherever your travel and providing privacy and protection from prying eyes for all of your online activities.

• The BBC has turned off its Long Wave (LW) service
• BBC 4 joins the digital-only party
• Radios will likely soon need to support digital to be viable

If you still rock a retro, decades-old radio (and live in the UK), you're probably going to have to pop down to your local electronics store, because it's well on its way to becoming defunct.

BBC 4, the last radio station in the UK to use Long Wave (LW) radio, has now been taken off the airwaves. And by that I mean, it's still going digitally and on FM analog radio, but it's the final station to be taken off BBC's Long Wave service — and thus, the power there has been switched off.

This follows a several-decades-long trend, which started in 1995 when the Beeb launched its first-ever DAB broadcast. Over time, digital-only stations and the slow shutdown of aging long-wave tech has made digital one of the preferred ways to listen.

Although several medium-wave and FM radio broadcasts persist, most people listen to their stations via digital audio in 2026, with spoken word and songs converted into binary rather than the warmer, imperfect oscillations of wave-based radio. And I've got to tell you: that's the way it'll continue.

Digital is the future

This format shutdown will reduce the complexity of the BBC's stretched multi-signal operation. In theory, it will increase accessibility — you can listen to digital signals wherever you are in the world, without needing to be within signal range — but some listeners with limited internet access or technological ability may be cut off.

For better or worse, this is the way it's going. The UK government is consulting on plans for TV to follow suit, with terrestrial TV proposed to be removed by 2034 or, possibly, 2044.

The proposals are facing the same criticism of reducing access to programming, though an eight-year lead-up gives people plenty of time to upgrade. That's especially true given that all of the best TVs these days are, let's face it, smart ones.

According to the BBC, roughly a third of a million viewers only have access to Freeview currently, and the corporation threatened that channels may be shut down if it's forced to support terrestrial for much longer. It'll depend on the consultation process.

It's too late for long wave radio though which, in the UK, now joins the dinosaurs and passenger pigeon in the category of 'things which are extinct'.

At least we know its death wasn't for nothing: it'll keep the BBC ticking along for a little while longer.

Enterprise AI has entered a new operational phase, moving rapidly from experimentation into production systems integrated into customer experiences, workflows, and software delivery pipelines.

However, as organizations operationalize AI, they are also introducing new complexity around infrastructure, governance, debugging, capacity planning, and cost control.

This complexity introduces new operational risks.

AI systems continuously evolve as prompts change, models are updated, agents become more autonomous, and infrastructure dependencies shift over time.

Without end-to-end visibility across the full AI stack, issues related to reliability, latency, output quality, or cost efficiency can gradually slip into production unnoticed: resulting in what many teams refer to as “invisible drift.”

As AI adoption scales, observability is becoming essential for helping engineering teams maintain operational control, reliability, and resilience in rapidly changing environments.

Multi-provider AI brings a new wave of platform engineering challenges

Organizations are increasingly adopting multi-model AI strategies rather than relying on a single provider. Recent research shows that more than 70 per cent of organizations now use three or more models in their production environments. This reflects a broader shift toward diversified model libraries, with teams are selecting models based on specific workload requirements such as latency, reasoning ability, operational risk, and cost efficiency.

This shift is creating a new generation of platform engineering challenges. AI environments now span evolving ecosystems of models, agents, orchestration frameworks, APIs, vector databases and infrastructure layers. As coding agents accelerate development, organizations are generating more code, dependencies, and operational overhead than teams can realistically manage manually.

At the same time, enterprises are accumulating significant LLM technical debt as they rapidly integrate new tools and frameworks. Tool sprawl, fragmented visibility, and constantly evolving AI architectures are making systems harder to govern, troubleshoot, optimize and secure. This makes AI observability essential, providing centralized visibility into model behavior, prompts, latency, hallucinations, token usage, infrastructure performance, and operational bottlenecks across complex multi-model environments.

Scaling AI safely, reliably and at speed requires control

As organizations race to scale their AI initiatives, operational failures are becoming more visible. Recent analysis shows that two per cent of all LLM calls returned errors, with rate limit issues accounting for almost a third of these (equating to approximately 8.4 million rate limit errors in total). This highlights the operational strain on systems as AI adoption accelerates.

At the same time, pressure to remain competitive is pushing organizations to move projects into production before operational controls have fully matured. Scaling too quickly introduces significant reliability, resilience, and governance risks. Real-time observability across the AI stack gives engineering teams the visibility needed to move quickly while maintaining high performance standards.

AI agents are adding yet another layer of complexity. Adoption of agent frameworks has doubled in the past year, leading to increased “agent sprawl”. These agents autonomously interact with multiple tools, systems, APIs, and datasets, making it harder for organizations to monitor behavior, diagnose faults, manage security risks, and maintain governance controls without deeper telemetry.

To manage this complexity, organizations need enterprise-grade observability that delivers end-to-end visibility across the AI stack (from development through to production). This includes visibility into prompts, model interactions, inference pipelines, infrastructure performance, latency, failures, and downstream dependencies. With comprehensive telemetry in place, teams can accelerate AI innovation while improving reliability, security, and operational controls at scale.

Four ways observability helps organizations scale AI more reliably

Organizations moving AI into production are increasingly treating observability as a foundational operational discipline, rather than simply a monitoring capability. Four practices are becoming particularly important as enterprises scale multi-model AI environments:

1.Managing multi-model environments more effectively

Teams are implementing gateways, routing layers, and evaluation frameworks that enhance their ability to select, assess, and manage multi-model environments effectively. These systems enable organizations to compare model behaviors, evaluate outputs, optimize workload placement, and enforce governance policies across various providers. AI observability provides the real-time data needed to support these decisions.

2.Reducing operational overhead and tech debt

Centralized visibility across prompts, models, inference pipelines, and infrastructure helps teams manage increasingly distributed environments. Observability reduces operational overhead and limits the accumulation of LLM technical debt as tools and frameworks evolve.

3.Improving agent reliability and preventing infrastructure failures

AI observability improves agent reliability and helps organizations eliminate failures caused by capacity constraints and infrastructure bottlenecks. Real-time monitoring of GPU utilization, throughput, latency, request failures, and workload behavior enables engineering teams to identify emerging scaling limitations before they impact production systems or user experiences.

4.Diagnosing faults and understanding agent behavior

Detailed tracing across prompts, workflows, APIs, orchestration layers, and infrastructure dependencies provides the operational context needed to investigate anomalies and identify root causes. This is critical for understanding how AI agents behave in real-world production environments.

Moving to a state of production-ready AI

Enterprise AI is now entering its operational era. As organizations move from experimentation to production, observability becomes the backbone for managing the growing complexity of multi-model architectures, autonomous agents, and distributed AI systems.

Without deep visibility into how these systems operate in production, organizations risk increasing operational failures, accumulating technical debt, and allowing invisible drift to undermine performance, reliability and governance over time.

AI observability provides the control needed to scale AI safely and effectively. Visibility across models, prompts, infrastructure, agents, and workflows helps teams build more governable, resilient and cost-effective AI systems.

Success in the next phase of AI adoption will depend on transforming experimental AI systems into disciplined production platforms that can be continuously evaluated, improved and trusted at scale.

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Searching for secure cloud storage often comes with navigating monthly subscriptions and trying to calculate exactly how much storage you need, often with upgrades later down the line that raise your monthly costs.

But right now, pCloud is offering up to 70% off on lifetime cloud storage plans. That means you pay once, and you have lifetime access to your cloud storage without having to pay every again.

You may be wondering just how much storage you get. pCloud lifetime storage plans range from 1TB to 10TB, giving you more than enough storage for large media projects, important files, workloads, and your entire portfolio of photos and videos. This deal is only available until July 8 2026, so snap up a lifetime of storage before it goes.

Today's top pCloud lifetime deal

1TB Lifetime Cloud Storage and Free pCloud Encryption with 70% OFF

This pCloud Lifetime deal gives your 1TB of secure, private storage. If you're looking for somewhere to store important documents and files for life, this is the deal for you.View Deal

2TB Lifetime Cloud Storage and Free pCloud Encryption with 64% OFF

pCloud's Premium Plus Lifetime plan raises your storage allowance to 2TB, making it an excellent choice for creatives looking to securely store their entire portfolio, or for professionals who want access to all their work files from anywhere.View Deal

10 TB Lifetime Cloud Storage and Free pCloud Encryption with 58% OFF

The pCloud Ultra 10TB Lifetime deal is the ultimate choice for a lifetime of storage. Store libraries of media and files without the fear of needing to buy more storage.View Deal

Full Feature BreakdownSecurity

All Incogni lifetime plans come equipped with free zero-knowledge TLS/SSL encryption. That that everything you store is encrypted before it is uploaded and only you have the only decryption key, allowing you to store confidential files safe in the knowledge that your data is secure. Your data is further protected by strict Swiss privacy laws, which offer some of the strongest data protections in the world.

Platform compatibility

You pCloud drive is accessible through the pCloud Drive desktop application across MacOS, Windows, and Linux. For on-the-go mobile access, the pCloud app is available on iOS and Android with the ability to automatically upload new data to the drive, helping to free up device storage.

Sync & Backup

pCloud offers real time synchronization and backup across every mode of access. You can also set select files and folders to be automatically backed up, ensuring you have access from everywhere on any device.

Collaboration and workspace tools

Invite both pCloud and non-pCloud collaborators to view and edit files in real time using secure shared links, folder invitations, and file requests.

Stream and view photos and videos with the built-in pCloud media player, and organize your photos using the pCloud Photos feature.

Make use of pDocs to create, edit, and collaborate on documents in real time with other pCloud users.

Master your photos using pCloud's built in Photo Editor tool with one-click filters, brightness and contrast adjustments, highlight and shadow controls, plus crop, rotate, and flip.

• Take a look at our full guide to the best cloud storage

• Valve's Steam Machine has seemingly sold out straight away in Japan
• Reservations are going for up to $3,000 in the US on eBay
• If you're tempted to look at cheap alternatives from Asia given all this, be very cautious around that idea

Given the price of the Steam Machine (and some other wrinkles with the device) it's not surprising that many gamers are looking for alternatives, but you need to be careful in that regard – although you may find it difficult to believe that some people are willing to pay a lot more than the official MSRP for Valve's gaming PC.

Before we come onto the tale of how much scalpers are reselling Steam Machine reservations for, the cautionary development is the likes of what appear to be super-affordable Steam Machine clones being offered over in China.

A prime example posted on Reddit is a white Steam Machine copy which claims to be built around a Ryzen 5 5500 processor with 16GB of DDR5 RAM, alongside an AMD RX 6750 GRE graphics card with a 2TB SSD. This is selling for the equivalent of $688 in China, so compare that to what Valve's charging for the Steam Machine with 2TB of storage: $1,349 in the US.

So, on the face of it, you're looking at not far off half the price for the Chinese clone PC, but there are a fair few weighty caveats attached which I'll come back to in a moment.

Meanwhile, while there are those searching for a bargain alternative to the official Steam Machine, at the other end of the spectrum there are those willing to pay something like double the asking price to secure one of the initial Steam Machine models to roll off the production lines.

As TweakTown noticed, there are people trying to resell their reservations for a Steam Machine on eBay. In case you didn't realize, Valve offered the chance to reserve a spot to purchase its gaming PC (using a randomized lottery system, rather than first-come-first-served), and some successful folks are effectively selling their place in the line.

Some of these auction listings are up for sale at approaching $3,500 over in the US (for the 2TB model), and TweakTown notes there appears to be a confirmed sale at $2,800. It's difficult to believe someone would pay that much, but it's seemingly true (unless the seller is engaging in shenanigans somehow).

On top of that, Notebookcheck.net highlighted another apparent indication of the popularity of the Steam Machine as Valve readies to open pre-orders (for those with a reservation). In actual fact, the device is already on sale in the Asian market, and the PC has already sold out in Japan. Seemingly retailer Komodo Station put the Steam Machine straight onto its shelves (rather than using a reservation system), and the PCs didn't hang about for long before they vanished.

Analysis: reasons to be fearful

(Image credit: Valve)

There's certainly a level of demand for the Steam Machine, then, although this could, and indeed I'd argue it's likely to be, a reflection of stock levels as much as it is demand. Nonetheless, there are disgruntled gamers over in Japan complaining on social media that they can't get a device.

This is also reflected in the apparent eBay prices for reservations in the US, although there's an important point to note here: most of these haven't sold (yet). In case you were mulling this route, bear in mind that you are placing a lot of trust in the seller to fulfil your order in the end. It's not an approach I'd recommend, and neither is buying a Steam Machine clone from Asia because it seems like a bargain and a half.

What are the dangers of the latter? Well, mainly that you don't really know what you'll be getting. If we take the highlighted example of the Chinese PC on Reddit above, there are some notable red flags with the listing, including that the Ryzen CPU is paired with DDR5 RAM that the platform it runs on (AM4) doesn't support.

On top of that, the RX 6750 GRE is a relatively chunky GPU, as several Redditors point out, and it seems highly unlikely that it'll fit in the chassis which is pictured for the device. What about the thermals, cooling solution, and fan noise, too? I'd be especially worried on those fronts.

Who knows: maybe you'll get a much larger box than the illustrated case, or components that are different to those advertised. I'm not saying this will necessarily be the case with the example product shown, but this is the concern with all of these kinds of offers from Asia, and it's why I'd take a hard pass on any such buying opportunity when it's being shipped outside of China.

Remember, there's the added cost of importing the PC to be considered as well, not to mention that if the device goes wrong or runs overly hot and unstable, then good luck with the returns process. There's also the potential security risks of a PC from an unknown vendor over in China that might be loaded with a dodgy version of SteamOS to trap the unwary.

In short, there are potential pitfalls aplenty, and if you want a more affordable alternative to the Steam Machine – or a living room PC with more performance and bang-for-buck like the so-called 'Stim Machine' – then buy something locally, and from a trusted (national) retailer.

Or just take the DIY path and build your own Steam Machine, which is the other option available to those who are unimpressed with Valve's pricing. Of course, you have to bear in mind that the RAM crisis – which forced up the price of the Steam Machine in the first place – will make this a much trickier endeavor than it would have been a year ago. There are also elements of Valve's PC that a DIY build won't be able to replicate, such as HDMI CEC support.

• Samsung wants NAND layer counts to reach four digits this decade
• Future M.2 SSDs could expand from 8TB to 32TB capacities
• Cell Multi-Bonding may replace traditional approaches to NAND density growth

Samsung has mapped out a NAND strategy stretching toward 1000-layer memory designs as demand for denser storage continues accelerating across industries.

The roadmap, disclosed during the IEEE/JSAP VLSI Symposium 2026, extends current vertical scaling plans far beyond existing commercial products.

At the centre of those ambitions sits a future generation of storage capable of pushing familiar SSD capacities into unfamiliar territory.

The route from today's drives to tomorrow's 32TB M.2 SSDs

Samsung expects its NAND technology to reach roughly 420 layers by 2029 before advancing beyond 560 layers during 2030.

Beyond that point, the company intends to explore architectures carrying between 900 and 1000 layers within future generations of flash memory.

Rather than constructing one towering NAND structure, Samsung plans to combine multiple stacks through its Cell Multi-Bonding technology approach.

The method joins separate NAND structures together inside one package to achieve densities that resemble a single 1000-layer device.

Samsung specifically discussed pairing two approximately 450-layer structures to approach the effective density associated with future four-digit layer counts.

According to company projections, this arrangement could increase storage density by as much as four times current generation solutions.

One example outlined during the presentation involved an 8TB QLC M.2 drive eventually scaling upward to reach 32TB capacities.

That scenario would allow substantially larger SSDs without increasing physical dimensions, preserving the compact M.2 format many users remember well.

The same scaling approach could eventually contribute toward enterprise drives exceeding 100TB while bringing Petabyte SSD discussions closer to reality.

The engineering problems standing between Samsung and a petabyte SSD

Samsung acknowledged that increasing layer counts introduces manufacturing complications that become progressively harder as structures grow vertically taller.

One major concern involves wafer warpage, where taller structures can deform during production and reduce manufacturing consistency or yields.

Another challenge comes from maintaining alignment accuracy across hundreds of stacked layers, requiring extremely precise overlay control throughout fabrication processes.

Even relatively minor deviations between layers can affect long-term reliability, performance, and manufacturing efficiency across finished storage products.

To limit deformation effects, Samsung plans to introduce an Upper Chuck Design intended to stabilise increasingly complex wafer structures.

The company also discussed Overlay Correction technologies intended to improve alignment precision as future NAND structures continue growing upward.

These developments arrive as conventional process shrinking becomes increasingly difficult, forcing memory manufacturers toward more elaborate vertical architectures.

Samsung has separately discussed a record-breaking 400-layer NAND generation that could help push AI hyperscaler SSD capacities beyond the 200TB barrier.

The company has also linked 430-layer NAND technology with a future where 100TB SSDs become increasingly mainstream across enterprise deployments.

Samsung will work with hafnia ferroelectrics in order to extend the practical layer counts beyond 1000 layers.

However, whether these designs eventually deliver mainstream 32TB M.2 drives or petabyte SSDs remains dependent upon manufacturing realities rather than roadmaps.

Samsung's latest roadmap nevertheless suggests the race toward NAND supremacy depends upon stacking ingenuity rather than shrinking dimensions.

Via The Guru of 3D

• Oracle admitted it needed a new approach back in February
• Now, the company has a new community-focused approach to MySQL
• Community roles and steering committee will ensure maximum quality

Oracle's VP of External Standards & Community Engagement, Heather VanCura, has revealed in a blog post the company's "next phase" of MySQL community engagement as it seeks to the open-source database project more transparent and collaborative.

The update comes after community criticism over Oracle's leadership of the project, and the company has finally responded with new governance frameworks.

In February 2026, Community Manager Frederic Descamps admitted the project was letting down community members. Descamps promised a "decisive" and "reinvigorated" approach.

Oracle announces "next phase" of MySQL

VanCura clearly acknowledged the role that community members have played in MySQL over the past three decades, referencing the need for visibility and deeper participation.

Under the new plans, Contributors can participate through code submissions, bug testing, code reviews, technical discussions and more. Experiences Contributors can become Committers, taking on responsibilities like code quality maintenance, and they're set to be guided by Mentors and Project Leads.

"Trust is built through transparent processes, clear decision-making, and meaningful opportunities for participation," VanCura added.

Oracle also launched a new Vulnerability Group and Technical Steering Committee. AWS, Google Cloud and Oracle will have representatives on the committee, but the company also noted the need for "additional perspectives from users of MySQL."

Percona co-founder Peter Zaitsev praised Oracle for its clear willingness to want to make changes (via The Register): "This is a step and in the right direction... Oracle has shown a desire to show more openness to the community in terms of sharing and including the wider community in the decision-making process."

Looking ahead, VanCura promises to share metrics with the community, engage in more discussions and uphold a high quality of contributions.

At SAP Sapphire in Orlando, Christian Klein put it plainly: “For the mission-critical processes of our customers, almost right just isn’t good enough.”

It was the line that crystallized the Autonomous Enterprise vision, and it is also the line that should reframe how every operations leader thinks about AI for the next eighteen months.

Sapphire made one thing unambiguous. AI is becoming visible at the top of the stack.

Joule (or your chosen equivalent) is being positioned as the new front door to enterprise software, with more than two hundred agents and over fifty assistants spanning finance, supply chain, procurement, HCM, and customer experience. Users will increasingly describe an outcome and let agents orchestrate the work across SAP and non-SAP systems.

That is the visible layer. There is also an invisible one, and it is the one that determines whether any of this actually delivers.

Agents only behave as well as the operational substrate they run on. They need systems that are healthy, observable, and consistent enough to act on safely. They need clean process telemetry, automated remediation when things break, and governance that extends across the hybrid landscape most large enterprises actually run. Without that foundation, agentic AI does not reduce operational risk. It multiplies it.

This is what future-proofing now means. Less about adopting the latest model, more about building the operational layer underneath it so that agents become a source of measurable outcomes rather than a source of new incidents.

The opportunity is significant for organizations that get this right. Two groups are forming. Those who have built the operational readiness to let agents execute, and those who will spend the next two years discovering they have not.

Pragmatism in ERP transformation

Enterprises are navigating significant transitions in their core systems, and the 2027 SAP ECC end-of-mainstream-maintenance deadline is the most visible forcing function. But the SAPinsider 2026 research surfaces a more interesting signal underneath it. AI readiness is now cited by 43% of organizations as the primary driver of their transformation investment, ranking above the deadline itself. The deadline creates urgency. AI readiness creates direction.

For many large enterprises, the preferred approach is not wholesale reinvention but incremental change. Brownfield migration has become a common starting point. It allows organizations to move existing systems to modern platforms while preserving established processes and minimizing disruption. In complex landscapes with extensive integrations and dependencies, that level of continuity is non-negotiable.

A brownfield approach also provides a structured path forward. It enables organizations to stabilize their core systems before introducing further innovation, including agentic AI. The transition to cloud ERP software plays a central role here. Managed, scalable environments establish the platform that supports both current operations and future capabilities, with continuous updates and easier integration of new services.

This foundation matters particularly for AI. As intelligent features become embedded within enterprise applications, cloud platforms provide the IT infrastructure needed to support them at scale. From advanced analytics to autonomous execution, AI capabilities are increasingly delivered as part of the platform rather than as separate tools.

During these transitions, most organizations operate in hybrid environments that combine on-premises and cloud systems. This state can persist for years, introducing complexity in governance, monitoring, and integration. Managing hybrid operations effectively requires clear definitions of roles and responsibilities, and an operational substrate that is observable, automatable, and consistent across the entire landscape.

As legacy solutions reach the end of life, organizations are reassessing how they support operations in this mixed environment, and the bar is rising.

AI as invisible infrastructure, AI as visible interaction

The Sapphire announcements make clear that AI is now operating at two layers, and both have to work.

At the interaction layer, AI is becoming the front door. Joule Work, the Autonomous Suite, and the broader agentic stack are designed to let users interact with enterprise systems through conversation and outcomes rather than screens and clicks. This is the visible AI, and it is what most of the industry will spend the next year talking about.

At the execution layer, AI is also becoming part of the underlying infrastructure. It will show up in observability, in automated remediation, in capacity and performance management, in the operational disciplines that have always determined whether mission-critical systems actually behave. This is the invisible AI, and it is what determines whether the visible layer delivers.

Lacking context is the number one reason enterprise AI projects fail to deliver value. Operational data, process telemetry, and the live state of the landscape are a critical part of that context. Agents that act on stale, incomplete, or unobservable systems will produce confident answers that quietly create new failure modes. Agents that act on a well-instrumented, well-automated estate will deliver the outcomes Sapphire promised.

This is why operational readiness is emerging as the real differentiator. Two groups are forming. Those who have built the foundation that lets agents execute reliably, and those who have never closed the gap between AI ambition and operational reality. The divide is not driven by access to technology. AI capabilities are increasingly available across major platforms. The divide is driven by whether the operational layer is ready to absorb them.

Positioning for long-term resilience

For enterprise and technology leaders, the convergence of cloud transformation and agentic AI presents a clearer opportunity than at any previous point in the SAP cycle. The path forward is not defined by rapid disruption but by deliberate, sustained evolution.

Future-proofing now means building the foundation that lets continuous improvement happen safely. It involves modernising core systems, embracing incremental change, and ensuring that emerging capabilities, especially agentic ones, can be integrated into operations without expanding the risk surface.

As AI becomes embedded across both the interaction layer and the execution layer, success will depend on how well organisations have prepared for both. The goal is intelligent operations that deliver tangible business outcomes, with AI serving as the enabler at every level of the stack. Resilience, adaptability, and operational discipline are the disciplines that will define long-term competitiveness in the autonomous enterprise era.

We list the best business cloud storage services.

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

• Windows 11's File Explorer is receiving major improvements via the latest preview update
• File Explorer should perform much faster, including mounting disk images
• The update is currently in the rollout process

Microsoft is still hard at work fixing pain points within Windows 11 for its users. While this case isn't focused on gaming improvements, it addresses an issue that should improve one of the operating system's fundamental aspects.

As reported by Windows Latest, Microsoft is rolling out File Explorer improvements with its latest preview update, KB5095093. The update includes much better speed and performance of the File Explorer and increased responsiveness when mounting disk images.

This is a long-awaited update for Windows 11 users, as File Explorer hasn't always been the most responsive or fastest, especially compared to macOS or SteamOS, both of which feature fairly responsive file managers.

It's also worth noting that PC hardware, specifically SSD speeds and storage space, can have an impact on loading times. Still, the onus has been on Microsoft to fix its Windows 11 File Explorer, which has been noticeably slow even with a high-speed SSD — so this update is very much necessary.

(Image credit: Surface/Unsplash)

Perhaps the most important improvement being rolled out is better performance for mounting disk images, which was arguably the worst aspect of Windows 11's File Explorer. This would often result in a five-minute wait for the disk image to fully open, and that's frustrating, especially for users with high-speed hardware.

Windows Latest also highlights that the 'Properties' tab on a file will be seeing a visual overhaul, with a more modern look using WinUI 3, as opposed to the Windows 95-era UI.

It's great to see Microsoft address these issues, seemingly as a wider attempt to improve Windows 11's functionality and appearance due to consistent user complaints. For sure, there's still more to be desired in the game performance aspect, but Microsoft should get praise where it's due.

My only concern is a potential update that could undo all of the hard work, since Windows 11 updates are notorious for breaking functionality, whether that's via File Explorer or as far as GPU stability — which have previously impacted Nvidia GPU users.

Sugar season 2 returned to Apple TV after a break, and we've been introduced to an intriguing new case against that moreish LA noir-style backdrop.

One of the best Apple TV shows gave us quite the twist in season 1, and we've seen Colin Farrell's detective John Sugar deciding to stay on Earth after many of his fellow aliens decided to leave. He's been searching for his sister while staying hidden as a human detective, but how long will he be able to stay undetected?

Here's what you need to know about Sugar season 2, episode 3.

What time can I watch Sugar season 2 on Apple TV?

Sugar's newest case involves an up and coming boxer whose brother has gone missing. (Image credit: Apple TV)

The US can expect the third episode of Sugar season 2 to be available on Apple TV on July 3 at 12am PT / 3am ET. Episodes will then drop weekly until the finale on August 7.

Internationally, look out for the below times:

• US – 12am PT / 3am ET
• Canada – 12am PT / 3am ET
• UK – 8am BST
• India – 12:30pm IST
• Singapore – 3pm SGT
• Australia – 6pm AEST
• New Zealand – 8pm NZDT

When do new episodes of Sugar season 2 come out on Apple TV?

Episode 1: Out now

Episode 2: Out now

Episode 3: July 3

Episode 4: July 10

Episode 5: July 17

Episode 6: July 24

Episode 7: July 31

Episode 8: August 7

As AI increasingly underpins competitive advantage, UK organizations face mounting pressure to build a workforce capable of using these technologies effectively and confidently.

Universities are central to this talent pipeline. However, many employers see a growing disconnect between what students learn academically and the skills required in today’s workplace.

UK job postings mentioning AI skills are now 127% above pre‑pandemic levels, highlighting how quickly employer expectations are evolving.

To close this gap, particularly amid the ongoing AI skills shortage, higher education institutions need to place greater emphasis on practical, applied training.

That means ensuring students are not only familiar with AI tools, but capable of using them confidently, critically, and responsibly in real-world settings.

Core competencies such as prompt engineering, AI-enabled data analysis, and translating AI insights into business outcomes are essential.

Without these skills, graduates risk entering the workforce underprepared.

Employer expectations are rising faster than graduate readiness

The standard for what constitutes an ‘AI-ready' employee is increasing. As AI shifts from experimental to embedded in everyday workflows, organizations expect new hires to use these tools effectively and with minimal onboarding.

At the same time, many employers lack the internal capacity to build these capabilities themselves. A significant proportion report limited hands-on AI use across their workforce, and relatively few have invested in structured training programs. As a result, businesses are increasingly looking to early-career talent to help close this gap.

However, many graduates still enter the workplace without meaningful exposure to AI in a professional context or an understanding of how it informs decision-making. Without stronger integration of practical AI experience into higher education, the gap between employer expectations and graduate readiness is likely to widen.

Equipping educators is critical to building AI-ready talent

Universities are on the front line when it comes to preparing students for the responsible use of AI, both during their studies and beyond. But this depends on educators themselves feeling confident in how these tools work in practice.

This includes understanding which tools are appropriate for different use cases, how to incorporate them into learning in a way that builds critical thinking rather than shortcuts, and how to demonstrate responsible, real-world usage. Yet many educators still lack confidence in this area, particularly when it comes to applying AI in daily teaching or administrative tasks.

The challenge is that when educators are not fully comfortable with AI, it becomes harder to equip students with the practical skills they need. To address this, institutions need to move beyond basic awareness and invest in meaningful professional development.

Educators should be supported to understand not just how to use AI, but where it adds value, where it falls short, and how to evaluate its outputs critically. With this foundation, they can then introduce low-risk, practical opportunities for students to engage with AI. For example, using it to break down complex concepts while strengthening independent reasoning.

Embedding AI throughout the student journey

Despite AI becoming increasingly prevalent in the workplace, many students still remain hesitant to use it during their studies. This is often due to uncertainty around what is permitted. Clear and practical guidance from universities is essential to remove this ambiguity, reduce anxiety, and support responsible adoption.

Once expectations are clearly defined, institutions can create learning environments that help students understand not only how to use AI, but when and why. Greater transparency fosters confidence and builds the kind of ethical judgement that employers increasingly value.

In practice, this means modelling responsible use of AI while encouraging reflection and critical thinking. Assessment methods may also need to evolve by shifting focus from the final output to the full process of learning, including research, drafting and iteration.

Regular feedback and check-ins also play an important role. Tools that provide insight into how work develops over time can help educators offer more targeted guidance and create space for open conversations around AI use. Over time, this approach helps students build transferable skills, such as evaluating their own work, applying sound judgement, and clearly articulating the reasoning behind their decisions.

Final thought

The gap between what universities teach and what employers expect, particularly around AI, continues to grow. But with clear frameworks, better-supported educators, and a more deliberate integration of AI across curricula, there is a clear opportunity to realign education with workplace needs.

By investing in AI capability at every level (from faculty development to student experience), universities can ensure graduates leave with more than theoretical knowledge. Instead, they enter the workforce equipped to use AI with confidence. In doing so, institutions play a vital role in strengthening the talent pipeline that organizations increasingly depend on.

We list the best recruitment platforms.

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

The return of Marvel's best-rated TV show is almost upon us, and with critical and commercial darling X-Men 97 set to return for its second season later this week, you'll want to know when it'll premiere on Disney+.

To spare you the trouble of searching for the release date and launch times for this season's first three chapters, I've rounded up the necessary information below. So, to paraphrase Cyclops: to me, my fellow Marvel fans!

What time can I watch the first three episodes of X-Men 97 season 2?

X-Men 97 season 2 will make its Disney+ debut on Wednesday, July 1. That's its global launch date, too, so North and South American viewers won't be able to watch this Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) project earlier than fans on other continents.

As for the exact time that its first three entries will arrive, they're expected to drop on July 1 at 12am PT / 3am ET. Based on those likely release times, we can work out when viewers in other nations should tune into one of the world's best streaming services to catch them, too:

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

X-Men 97 season 2 full release schedule

The countdown to mutant mayhem begins. Don’t miss the three-episode premiere of Marvel Animation’s #XMen97 Season 2 in one week, streaming only on Disney+. pic.twitter.com/iPIUkx15KgJune 24, 2026

Following this X-Men animated show's latest premiere, new episodes of the Marvel Phase 6 production will come out every Wednesday. That'll be the case until the season 2 finale airs on August 12, too.

For a quick rundown of the dates you need to know about, read on:

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

For more on the highly-rated TV series ahead of its return, remind yourself what happened in last season's finale via my X-Men 97 season 1 ending explained piece. Then, find out everything we know so far about X-Men 97 season 2.

Once you're done, read up on how to watch the X-Men movies in order and/or how to stream the Marvel movies in order.

What, like making a prequel series is hard? I should never have doubted the power of Elle Woods, who at this point feels like the pop culture equivalent of Mother Teresa to millennials.

Since the moment that Elle was announced by Prime Video, I've been it's number one hater. I've written opinion pieces about how its existence is going to destroy the sanctity of Elle's journey at Harvard, and I've spent hours stewing over how anybody could touch the side of Reese Witherspoon's career-defining performance. If we're getting another Legally Blonde project, make it about Elle's Supreme Court Justice years... right?

But oh, how the mighty have fallen. Having now watched all eight episodes of Elle, my hater-self is metaphorically standing in a dumpster fire of her own making. As someone prepared to loathe it, take this next remark with absolute seriousness and sincerity: this series is outrageously good.

In the blink of an eye, I once again felt like my 6-year-old self when the 2001 movie first came out — enraptured, inspired and completely at ease with who I am inside. How? Well, that's just what Elle Woods does, regardless of who is playing her.

But if you'd have told me at Lexi Minetree was actually an AI version of Witherspoon in her twenties, I'd have believed you. Minetree has all of Witherspoon's mannerisms down to a tee, has perfected her voice, and wholeheartedly understands the spirit of the woman we all know and love. It is, frankly, a miracle.

But Minetree isn't the only reason for Elle's success... absolutely everybody, and almost everything, is pulling their weight.

Elle is about to put the Legally Blonde haters to shame — and most of the film's lore holds up

When Elle turns 16, she's forced to leave her Bel-Air luxury lifestyle behind for Seattle, all thanks to a plastic surgery scandal that her father is embroiled it. With her new high school in the grip of the 90s grunge scene, our favorite pink tornado is once again a fish out of water, and she has to fight to fit in.

As I've pointed out, Minetree's freakishly brilliant understanding of Elle — and how unwilling she is to deviate from Witherspoon's blueprint — spearheads the feel-good fun, but let's look at what's happening around her.

Surprisingly, Elle isn't just a nod to Legally Blonde. There are also clear references to big nineties and noughties hitters including Mean Girls, Clueless, Freaky Friday and The Breakfast Club, and the nostalgic yearning is strong. From the corded landlines to the banging soundtrack, our young adult life from this time period is fully and lovingly represented.

As willing as I initially was to write our Seattle newbies off, they're also a treat of an ensemble. Bel-Air bestie Madison (Jessica Belkin) shirks the airhead sidekick stereotype in favor of a grounded spirit and unshakable loyalty, while high school mean girl Kimberly (Chandler Kinney) is hiding a true self that is the last thing you'd expect (no spoilers here).

British boy Dustin (Zac Looker) fuels Elle's curiosity for anarchy and change, while also providing proof that she can truly extract the best out of every walk of life. A more touching shoutout goes to the enigmatic role of Dean Wilson, which marks James Van Der Beek's final acting credit before his death earlier this year.

It's no surprise that my favorite side character is Eva Woods, played by the underrated powerhouse in June Diane Raphael. You only had to briefly see this woman in Parks and Recreation or Grace and Frankie to know how much she truly understands the superficial class, which she poignantly balances with a steady heart and sense of empathy.

Sadly, Perfect Day by Hoku is nowhere to be seen

(Image credit: Prime Video)

Now for the most important bit of feedback: the existing Legally Blonde lore. For the most part, I found that it adds to my love of the IP rather than takes away from it, especially when it answers some pivotal questions.

Without giving too much away, we'll find out how Elle gets Bruiser the Chihuahua (who's wardrobe is absolutely jaw-dropping, by the way), how Elle ends up back in Bel-Air in time for the events of the original movie, and how she begins to gain an interest in defending innocent people.

However, it's this last one that's a bit of a sticking point. For those of us who know the 2001 film better than we know ourselves, it's unspoken knowledge that Elle had zero interest in pursuing anything related to a law degree, but was only compelled to do so to win boyfriend Warner back.

That, in a nutshell, is the reason why Legally Blonde even exists. So the mere fact that Elle's rewritten history suggests that this inspiration came much earlier in her life doesn't completely sit with what we know of her adult life. It's clearly supposed to be a seedling for what's to come, but perhaps is a little overplayed.

Even so, I had such a good time watching Elle that I don't even care. The ebbs and flows of high school drama are deliciously played, the script is genuinely hilarious, and the overarching narrative plot is addictively compelling. I've been that engrossed that I'd even go as far as to say that it needs a second season, stat.

As someone who's amassed a vast collection of storage devices, from USB sticks to external hard drive over decades, there's no doubt about it - the Samsung T9 is one of the fastest portable SSDs I've ever used. It's one of my favorite rugged drives around.

And right now, the 1TB Samsung T9 has dropped to $180 (was $288) at Amazon. The drive works with Windows PCs, Macs, tablets, the iPhone 15 upwards, cameras, and even gaming consoles, so it's an useful addition to almost any setup and a great choice if you regularly switch between devices. In the UK, the price has also dropped on the Samsung T9 down to £199 (was £239) at Amazon.

For my money, this portable SSD is ideal for business and creative professionals, and students prepping for the back to school season thanks to read and write speeds of up to 2,000MB/s help reduce waiting around when moving large files or loading demanding applications.

Today's best Samsung portable SSD deal

With read and write speeds of up to 2,000MB/s, this compact portable SSD offers fast file transfers, broad compatibility, and 1TB of storage. It's an excellent companion for students, professionals, creators, and anyone carrying large files.

In the UK: now £199 was £239View Deal

Samsung says the T9 Portable SSD maintains those high transfer speeds even during longer file transfers.

Dynamic Thermal Guard helps control temperatures under heavy workloads, keeping performance consistent when you're copying hundreds of gigabytes in one go.

As you might expect, the rugged T9 can survive drops from up to 9.8ft, giving you extra peace of mind if you're carrying it between the office, classroom, studio, or client meetings.

In our review we praised the SSD's "great read speeds and its ability to sustain write performance," but did note, "Samsung didn’t attribute any IP-rated tests to the T9, and it isn’t water or dust-resistant."

AES 256-bit hardware encryption helps protect sensitive files, while Samsung's Magician Software keeps firmware updated, monitors drive health, and offers additional management tools to keep everything running as it should.

Samsung has long been one of the biggest names in flash storage, and the T9 combines speed, durability, broad compatibility, and useful security features in one pocket-sized drive.

Although 1TB will be plenty of room for documents, photos, videos, and creative projects, Samsung also sells 2TB and 4TB versions if you need even more capacity.

Also consider

Offering transfer speeds of up to 1,050MB/s, this portable 1TB SSD provides reliable storage for work, study, and everyday backups. Its compact design and broad compatibility make it easy to carry.

In the UK: Now £177.11 was £229View Deal

With Apple now raising prices across the board, Best Buy's 4th of July sale definitely caught my eye, with MacBook deals and discounts on the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air laptops. If you're looking to jump in before the price hikes really hit, here's what I've found for business professionals.

• See the full Apple sale at Best Buy

Right now, our favorite ultra-portable for business travel, the MacBook Air 15-inch (M5) is down to $1349 (was $1499 - alongside its 13-inch counterpart. For creative professionals, the cheapest MacBook Pro (M4 Pro) is now $1749 (was $1999). It's a staggeringly fast machine, and there are M5-powered alternatives available.

Check out the full line-up below. Whether you're looking for a lightweight laptop for work or a powerful machine for creative projects, there are plenty of offers worth checking out in Best Buy's Apple sale.

Today's top Apple MacBook Air deals

16GB RAM | 512GB SSD

Powered by Apple's latest chip, this lightweight laptop pairs fast everyday performance with 16GB of memory and a spacious 512GB SSD. Its large display offers plenty of room for work, creativity, streaming, and multitasking.View Deal

16GB RAM | 1TB

Powered by Apple's M5 chip, this compact laptop delivers fast performance with 16GB of memory and a spacious 1TB SSD. It's ideal for productivity, creative work, streaming, and everyday multitasking, whether you're at home or traveling.

In our review, we said it offered the "best mix of winning design, near-pro-level performance, and battery life you can find in an ultraportable."View Deal

16GB RAM | 512GB SSD

This slim laptop pairs Apple's M5 chip with 16GB of memory and a speedy 512GB SSD for responsive everyday performance. The generous 15-inch display gives you extra room for work, entertainment, creative projects, and multitasking.View Deal

Today's top Apple MacBook Air deals

24GB RAM | 512GB SSD

Built for demanding workloads, this laptop combines Apple's advanced M4 Pro chip with 24GB of memory for fast multitasking and creative projects. A 512GB SSD delivers quick storage access.View Deal

16GB RAM | 1TB SSD

Powered by Apple's latest M5 chip, this laptop delivers fast performance for work, creative tasks, and everyday computing. With 16GB of memory and a roomy 1TB SSD, there's plenty of speed and storage for demanding workloads and large files.View Deal

24GB RAM | 512GB SSD

Created for demanding workloads, this laptop combines Apple's M4 Pro chip with 24GB of memory to handle multitasking, content creation, and productivity with ease. A fast 512GB SSD keeps apps and files responsive throughout your working day.View Deal

48GB RAM | 512GB SSD

Featuring Apple's M4 Pro chip, this high-performance laptop pairs 48GB of memory with a fast 512GB SSD for demanding creative and professional workloads. The large 16-inch display offers plenty of room for multitasking and detailed projects.View Deal

• Shop the full 4th of July sale at Best Buy

• Netflix users are being asked to add email addresses to their individual profiles
• The platform says this will allow separate sign-ins while offering even more personalized recommendations
• It seems convenient on paper, but users think it could lead to another big crackdown

Sharing Netflix accounts today isn’t as easy as it was in the mid-2010s, but now the best streaming service has another account crackdown on the way that’s already getting under people’s skins.

A handful of users have noticed a new in-app pop-up asking each member in a shared account to add individual email addresses to their individual profiles, instead of using the account owner’s email address as the primary one. One of the most jarring parts about it is that the pop-up doesn’t clear unless the request is fulfilled.

This hasn’t rolled out to all Netflix account holders yet, but the company informed Ars Technica that the new sign-in update began on June 15, so we imagine a wider rollout is inevitable. The outlet also stated that this pop-up doesn’t apply to profiles that are labelled as belonging to children.

(Image credit: Reddit / scotti_dev)

Netflix households accounts have always been built on the traditional 'one email, one password’ foundation, allowing you to create up to five profiles to keep watchlists and recommendations separate from other members in your family. That’s all about to change, but why Netflix has decided to roll out yet another crackdown is the question that everyone is asking.

According to the details mentioned in the pop-up, this is purely a convenience reason. Having individual emails assigned to individual profiles under one account means you won’t have to keep relying on using the account holder’s email to sign in each time. It also means that if you ever need a verification code to log into Netflix, you won’t have to chase up the account holder for it in their inbox.

Additionally, the pop-up also says that adding an email address to your profile will make it a lot easier for you to recover the account when needed, and get personalized content recommendations with more features to come. On paper it sounds like Netflix is adding this requirement as a user experience enhancer, but subscribers are convinced it’s just another way for the company to surveil user activity.

When Netflix rolled out its password crackdown back in 2023, it ended an era of serial account sharing and that’s where the service decided one account was strictly for one household, the ‘Netflix Household’ in official terms. With its latest move, we believe that there’s more than meets the eye — and so do a vast majority of users online.

Bye Bye profiles on Netflix. So shady. Sheesh. from r/netflix

Over the past few weeks Reddit has seen a swarm of reactions following the first appearances of the pop-up, but the main concern expressed by users is the possibility of this morphing into a payment system, charging account holders to fork out extra just to add more profiles. “This is killing Netflix for me”, one user added.

Based on Netflix’s past crackdowns, the new requirement could also give the streaming giant another way to better distinguish between the activity of individual profiles, or even shift them to individual accounts later down the line. But while users have expressed outrage over this, some say they’ve found a workaround.

It appears that creating email aliases has helped some users get past the pop-up without giving Netflix all of their information, however this has only worked for those using Gmail.

One person in particular says that you can amend your Gmail address in order to create an alias, giving the example that if your email is ‘johnsmith@ gmail.com’ you could set up ‘johnsmith+kid1@gmail.com’. They go into further detail in their Reddit post, while others in the replies who use this workaround for other situations confirmed that it works.

As mentioned, this update hasn’t reached every Netflix subscriber yet and is rolling out slowly to start, similar to how the platform kick-started its password crackdown. Given Netflix’s history, we’re definitely keeping one eye open on this one.

• A post about Microsoft Edge has ignited a fierce debate on X
• The post asked who runs Edge on Apple’s macOS platform
• Users both praised and criticized Edge, but I still prefer Firefox

Apple and Microsoft are known to be arch-rivals in the tech world, so when X user Macfolio asked its followers “what kind of freak uses Microsoft Edge on a Mac?” they might have expected the debate to fall along partisan lines, with rival sets of fans lining up to berate each other’s products.

But while there was indeed a vigorous debate, it wasn’t the pile-on you might have expected. Instead, many users chipped in with reasons why they enjoy using the combination of Microsoft’s web browser and Apple’s macOS operating system.

X user @wiedymi, for example, described Edge as “the best browser for Mac.” User @secretised explained that when they used it, it was “the only browser that didn’t consume 4GB of RAM with four tabs,” while @osxdaily said “It’s actually pretty good!”

For others, the reason was more prosaic, with @asikunaa pointing out that “some internal government sites require you to use Edge actually because they don’t distribute the security certificates for Chrome.”

Meanwhile, user @tarekmohmd9 summed up what many people apparently felt, saying Edge on macOS has “the speed boost of Chromium without the horrible RAM management of Chrome, it’s great (faster than Safari, uses less resources than Chrome, supports most Chromium extensions unlike Opera and Firefox).” They finished succinctly by saying “it is excellent.”

Of course, not every response was positive. User @rafalo claimed that “I just downloaded it and uninstalled it after [five seconds].” And @LansorHQ simply asked, “What kind of freak uses Edge in general?”

Why I use Firefox instead

(Image credit: Shutterstock)

I’m a long-time Firefox user and have been rocking Mozilla’s browser for over 20 years. I’ve dabbled with other browsers, from big dogs like Chrome and Safari to more niche offerings like Opera and Vivaldi. And yes, I’ve spent plenty of time with Microsoft Edge, too.

Yet despite all that, I keep coming back to Firefox. There are a few reasons for that, and I’ve got to admit that a sizable one is inertia. After so many years of usage, Firefox feels comfortable and familiar. I like how it works and switching would be a chore considering how many extensions and tabs I have running.

But there’s a lot more I love about Firefox. I use both a Mac and a PC in my day-to-day life and Firefox runs on both, unlike the Mac-only Safari. I can also send tabs between any of my devices, which is helpful when I find something interesting on my iPhone and want to read it later on my Mac or PC.

As I've written about previously, it's also a genuine privacy-first browser that goes to great lengths to protect your data, which is something that I truly appreciate. It isolates cookies to stop them building a detailed picture of you, and Firefox limits access to my data that could be used to create a digital 'fingerprint' of my browsing habits.

So despite the debate on X, I won’t be switching to Microsoft Edge any time soon. But the discussion highlights that just because you use one operating system or another, you don’t have to be exclusively loyal to that developer’s own products — you can even switch to those made by their arch-rival.

• DC Studios won't alter its long-term vision for its cinematic universe
• That's what co-CEO Peter Safran told one reporter after Supergirl's disastrous launch
• The Milly Alcock-fronted film earned just $68 million during its opening weekend

It appears that it's damage limitation time for DC Studios.

After Supergirl launched — and subsequently bombed — at the global box office, the comic book giant's movie and TV division is seemingly refusing to alter its wider plan for its nascent cinematic universe.

Indeed, speaking to The New York Times (NYT) in the wake of Supergirl's disastrous opening weekend performance, DC Studios co-chief Peter Safran insisted that he, fellow studio head James Gunn, and parent company Warner Bros. "remain confident in" the long-term vision for the DC Universe (DCU). That's despite Safran's admission that the Milly Alcock-starring movie "didn't meet our box office expectations".

Such a statement is a, well, understatement. Following its June 26 release, the film formerly known as Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow suffered something of a catastrophic debut. As NYT's report noted, the DCU Chapter One earned a paltry $68 million worldwide — $38 million in North America and $30 million internationally — during its first four days in theaters.

To put the first of those figures in frighteningly bleak context, the much-maligned Spider-Man spin-off flick Morbius, aka the vampiric anti-hero film starring Jared Leto, made just $39 million in North America during its own miserably opening weekend in late 2022.

What makes Supergirl's performance all the worse is, at the time of publication, it holds a middling 56% critical score on review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes. Meanwhile, Morbius has been stuck at a life-draining 15% for almost four years. The fact that the second DCU Chapter One movie made $1 million less in North America than Morbius, then, should really set the alarm bells ringing at DC Studios HQ.

Why didn't Supergirl fly higher at the global box office?

Supergirl might have flown into theaters, but it's already crashed down to Earth with a bump (Image credit: Warner Bros. Pictures/DC Studios)

There are numerous reasons that can be pointed to, including the ongoing superhero fatigue debate, prioritizing a new Supergirl movie over, say, a film starring another of DC Comics' so-called Holy Trinity in Batman and Wonder Woman, and — perhaps most crucial of all — word of mouth. After all, where the last of those reasons is concerned, movies can live or die on what critics and/or general audiences not only think of them, but say about them. You can see what I thought of the Alcock-led adventure via my own Supergirl review.

But I digress. In my view, there's another major cause for Supergirl's incredibly poor performance worldwide — and it's got to do with two powerhouse animated film franchises: Toy Story and Minions.

Where the former is concerned, the critical reception to its fifth installment was as mixed as Supergirl's was. Heck, in my Toy Story 5 review, I gave it three out of five stars, which is the same score Supergirl earned.

Nevertheless, Toy Story's immense popularity means it can — for now, at least — withstand any negativity that comes its way. That much is clear based on its own worldwide ticket sales, which have seen Toy Story 5 rack up an almighty $585 million (per Variety) in its first 12 days in theaters.

Then we come to the other aforementioned billion-dollar-spinning film series in Minions. With its next story — Minions and Monsters — set to not only arrive on July 3, but also predicted to make a similarly huge sum of cash, the timing of Supergirl's release couldn't have been worse. Maybe if its launch had been held back until August when its biggest competitor would arguably have been the next Insidious film, it might have soared higher.

For more on the latest DCU project, check out my Supergirl ending explained piece to see how it potentially sets up Man of Tomorrow, aka the sequel to last year's Superman film. Alternatively, see when Supergirl might come to HBO Max.

• A new rumor about the DC Universe's (DCU) Batman is spreading online
• Various insiders claim an unlikely name has been cast as the Dark Knight
• Interestingly, said actor almost won the race to play Superman

James Gunn and Peter Safran have reportedly found the actor they want to play Batman in the DC Universe (DCU).

According to industry insider John Campea, an unlikely name has been tapped to portray the Dark Knight in Gunn and Safran's comic book franchise.

Campea wouldn't reveal the identity of said actor on the latest edition of his podcast, but says two different sources — one of whom is "well-positioned" to know these things, and neither of whom knows the other — linked the same star to the role.

So, who is this mystery individual? According to other leakers with less reputable track records, including MyTimetoShineHello, it's Tom Brittney.

Who is Tom Brittney and has he actually been cast as the DCU's Batman?

Tom Brittney's acting credits include Grantchester, Back in Action, and Greyhound (Image credit: Variety/GettyImages)

An English actor best known for playing the lead role in seasons 4 to 8 of British detective drama Granchester, Brittney won't be familiar to the vast majority of readers.

However, he's starting to make a name for himself in Hollywood circles. For a start, he was one of three individuals who made it to the final round of auditions to play Superman in the DCU. The others? David Corenswet, who won the race to play the Man of Steel, and Nicholas Hoult, who wound up being cast as Supes' archnemesis Lex Luthor.

Among other roles post-Granchester, Brittney had a small supporting role in hit Netflix movie Back in Action, which starred Jamie Foxx and Cameron Diaz. He'll next appear on the big screen in Lionsgate's Fall 2: Deadpoint, aka the follow-up to 2022 survivor thriller Fall, which is out in early September. If Brittney hasn't officially been announced as the DCU's Caped Crusader by then, expect him to field many, many, many questions about his potential casting during Fall 2's press tour.

"Great, Tom, but is there any truth to this rumor?", I hear you ask. At the time of publication, Gunn, who isn't shy about debunking hearsay — or, on the rarest of occasions, confirm a casting rumor — via social media, hasn't commented on the matter.

Admittedly, the DCU co-chief has his hands full with Man of Tomorrow, i.e. the sequel to 2025's Superman movie. Unless Gunn raises his head above the parapet to confirm or deny Brittney's involvement, we might not know until, well, tomorrow (June 30) when new scenes are expected to be filmed for Clayface, the next DCU Chapter One film.

Why new filming days for Clayface could confirm Brittney's casting as Batman

Well production for Clayface is back on the Wirral right now as teams are gearing up to film some pick up shots for the upcoming DC film releasing in October! Filming is taking place at the old Birkenhead Tunnel entrance from 30th June to 1st July!!!!#Clayface #DC #Movie pic.twitter.com/c0TddF20ELJune 28, 2026

According to X/Twitter use 4thdoctorstan74, Clayface's production crew will be back on Merseyside in the UK to shoot more material for the forthcoming body horror flick between June 30 and July 1.

Now, 4thdoctorstan74 has claimed that said crew will only be filming pick up shots. These are usually shot during the post-production process to, among other things, aid a movie's pacing and narrative flow. It's highly likely, then, that the film isn't underdoing any major reshoots ahead of its late October launch.

That said, I don't think we can completely rule out the possibility that one of these pick ups could involve Brittney if he has been hired to play Bruce Wayne and his vigilante alter-ego. After all, there have been countless rumors that Batman won't appear in Clayface, which feels like a huge misstep considering, you know, the titular villain is just one of the Gotham-based crimefighter's many foes. And, with Supergirl currently struggling to make an impact at the box office, it might be in Messrs Gunn and Safran's best interests to introduce the DCU's Batman as soon as possible to maintain interest in their nascent cinematic franchise.

If — and I honestly cannot keep stressing this enough — Brittney is set to portray the legendary hero in this DC comic book universe, it would make sense for his Batman to make his debut in Clayface, even if it's just a cameo, ahead of his standalone DCU film The Brave and the Bold. All eyes, then, are on Gunn's social media accounts and the north-west of England to see whether Brittney has been tapped to play the World's Greatest Detective.

In the meantime, find out everything we know so far about Clayface. Alternatively, find out how to watch the Batman movies in order or see if you agree with our ranking of the best Batman movies.