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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Missing in action

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

My top 4 business laptop deals at Currys

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

• Shop all laptops at Currys

Dimplex Rechargeable Cordless Desk Fan: two minute reviewSpecifications

Type: desktop

Speeds: 4

Oscillation: none

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

Controls: power and speed buttons

Battery life: 4-15 hours

Noise level: 36dB to 43dB

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Value for money: 4/5

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

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

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

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

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

Design: 4/5

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

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

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

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

Performance: 3/5

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

Value

Not much more expensive than a wired fan of similar size

4/5

Design

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

4/5

Performance

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

3/5

Buy it if...

You like to move it, move it

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

You get around

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

You're in a small space

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

Don't buy it if...

Noise annoys

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

You're far away

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

Your home's too hot

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

Dimplex Rechargeable Cordless Desk Fan review: also consider

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

Dimplex Rechargeable Cordless Desk Fan review: how we tested

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

First tested July 2026

Dimplex Rechargeable Cordless Desk Fan: two minute reviewSpecifications

Type: desktop

Speeds: 4

Oscillation: none

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

Controls: power and speed buttons

Battery life: 4-15 hours

Noise level: 36dB to 43dB

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Value for money: 4/5

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

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

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

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

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

Design: 4/5

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

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

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

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

Performance: 3/5

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

Value

Not much more expensive than a wired fan of similar size

4/5

Design

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

4/5

Performance

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

3/5

Buy it if...

You like to move it, move it

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

You get around

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

You're in a small space

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

Don't buy it if...

Noise annoys

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

You're far away

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

Your home's too hot

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

Dimplex Rechargeable Cordless Desk Fan review: also consider

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

Dimplex Rechargeable Cordless Desk Fan review: how we tested

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

First tested July 2026

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

ChatGPT Atlas pulled after 10 months

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

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

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

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

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

“Don’t open suspicious emails.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

We've featured the best firewall software.

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

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

• Majority unveils its compact Mini Shelford
• It is a DAB+ and FM radio, that also doubles as Bluetooth speaker
• There's a headphone jack, sleep timer and alarm too

Despite the recent death of long-wave, there's a lot to be said for radio listening, so you can tune in to sports broadcasts or catch the news when there's no mobile signal to speak of.

And now Majority has a new option, which is tiny, adorable-looking, as well as being lovely and cheap. This is the Mini Shelford (not to be confused with Great Shelford, a village just outside Cambridge, UK).

Costing just £49 (about $65, AU$100), the Mini Shelford goes on sale in August. It's a smaller version of another Majority radio, called the Little Shelford, with many of the same features but an even smaller footprint.

There are four finishes of the Mini to choose from: black, white, pink or green, and they're all adorable.

Chock-full of features

As you'd imagine, the Mini Shelford lets you listen to DAB+ and FM radio. You could still have enjoyed the Wimbledon final if you happened to be in a signal dark spot, then (not that I speak from experience or anything).

But the Shelford also works as a Bluetooth speaker: pairing a device lets you use the speaker to listen to audio content from your phone or other source device. Majority recommends it for "podcasts or audiobooks," implying the drivers aren't really tuned for music that hasn't already been devastated by the FM radio signal.

With a color display, the Shelford offers a few other useful features too, including an alarm clock and sleep timer. It has a headphone jack too, so you can go with wired audio if you want to listen to Radio 4 without anyone else knowing.

As you can probably tell by the name, the Mini Shelford is pretty small; Majority says the footprint is "13cm" though it's not clear what that means, and there's no weight provided.

Either way, it's portable so you can take it into the garden or move it around your bedroom. There's a rechargeable battery, although Majority hasn't announced how long it'll last. How does it sound? Leave it with us, we'd love to find out… 

Express AI, launched on March 31, 2026, is ExpressVPN's attempt to answer a question many AI users haven't thought to ask: who can read your chats? The platform offers access to five AI models inside a confidential computing environment, where prompts and outputs are cryptographically isolated from everyone, including ExpressVPN itself. That's a bold claim in a category where privacy policies tend to be long on language and short on enforcement.

The platform comes bundled with ExpressVPN's Pro plan at no additional cost, positioning it alongside the company's password manager, secure mail, and identity protection tools. I've been covering AI platforms and business software for TechRadar Pro for years, including our 2026 buying guide for vibe coders and our guides on OpenClaw and Moltbook.

For this review, I spent time using Express AI across a range of everyday tasks: drafting, summarising documents, and reasoning through technical problems, to see how it holds up against better-known AI platforms.

What is Express AI?

Express AI is a multi-model AI chat platform built by ExpressVPN and accessible at app.expressai.com. At launch, it offers access to five general-purpose AI models, each selected for a different task type. What separates it from platforms like ChatGPT or Claude isn't the model lineup, but the underlying architecture: every interaction runs inside a confidential computing environment where encryption keys are generated inside the hardware itself, mathematically isolating conversations from cloud providers, model operators, and ExpressVPN.

The platform targets professionals and individuals who routinely share sensitive information in their AI chats, such as financial questions, work documents, and personal communications, and want guarantees that their data won't be retained or used to train future models. It's particularly well-suited to users already in the ExpressVPN ecosystem, since access is tied to the Pro subscription.

Privacy claims in the AI space are easy to make and hard to verify, which is why ExpressVPN commissioned an independent audit from Cure53, a German cybersecurity firm known for rigorous assessments. The pre-launch review, conducted in February and March 2026, covered penetration testing, source code inspection, and analysis of the platform's cryptography and key management. Cure53 confirmed that Express AI processes user interactions within confidential computing enclaves and found no unresolved vulnerabilities at launch.

Express AI: At a glance

Attribute

Notes

Underlying model(s)

Five open-weight models: GPT OSS 120B, DeepSeek R1 Distill 32B, Qwen2.5-VL 32B, Qwen3.5 35B-A3B, and Nemotron 12B

Best for

Privacy-conscious professionals, sensitive document analysis, multi-model comparison

Distinguishing functions

Confidential computing, Ghost Mode, encrypted vault, side-by-side model comparison, zero data retention

UI features

Clean chat interface with per-model selection, credit tracker, file upload support

Subscription costs

Included with ExpressVPN Pro; no standalone free plan

API pricing

No public API access available at launch

Buy it if…

• You share sensitive information with AI tools. If your prompts routinely include personal, financial, or professional details, Express AI's zero-access architecture offers a layer of protection that mainstream platforms don't.
• You want multiple models without multiple subscriptions. The platform bundles five models covering everyday writing, document analysis, and coding in one interface, which reduces the cost and friction of juggling several accounts.

Don't buy it if…

• You're not already an ExpressVPN subscriber. Access requires a Pro plan, so you'd be paying for a full VPN suite alongside the AI platform. That's poor value if you only want an AI chatbot.
• You need API access or developer-level control. Express AI has no public API at launch, which makes it a non-starter for developers building on top of AI models.

My time with Express AI

The interface is spare and deliberately uncomplicated. You select a model, type your prompt, and get a response. There's no sidebar full of tools or settings buried three menus deep. I found the model-switching to be the most useful feature in practice: running the same prompt through DeepSeek R1 Distill 32B for a reasoning-heavy task and then Qwen2.5-VL 32B for document analysis took seconds rather than the tab-switching juggle that typically comes with using multiple platforms.

Ghost Mode worked as described: conversations disappeared after the session ended with no residual trace in the history panel. The encrypted vault stores past conversations behind a user-set password, which means chat history isn't accessible server-side, though a forgotten password loses the history permanently. That's a reasonable trade-off for the privacy guarantee, but it's something to keep in mind for anyone who relies on conversation history for workflow continuity.

One honest caveat: I couldn't independently verify the confidential computing claims beyond what Cure53 has stated in its public report. I'm taking the audit at face value, just as most users will. The 500 daily credits at one credit per prompt felt adequate for my testing but could frustrate users running long, iterative research sessions.

Express AI: Features

Express AI launches with five open-weight models rather than building proprietary ones from scratch. GPT OSS 120B handles everyday writing and reasoning; DeepSeek R1 Distill 32B is the pick for multi-step logic and research analysis; Qwen2.5-VL 32B reads and extracts data from images and documents; Qwen3.5 35B-A3B targets coding and complex prompts; and Nemotron 12B from NVIDIA handles technical and math-heavy workloads. In practice, having these in one interface means you can match the model to the task without maintaining separate accounts or API keys.

The side-by-side comparison tool is a standout. You can run the same prompt across multiple models simultaneously to compare outputs, which is especially useful when deciding which model to lean on for a recurring task type. Few standalone AI platforms offer this natively.

Ghost Mode and the encrypted vault address the two main categories of privacy risk. Ghost Mode auto-deletes conversations after each session, leaving no stored record at all. The vault stores history under user-controlled encryption: only the password set by the user can decrypt it, and neither ExpressVPN nor the model providers can access it. These aren't marketing claims; Cure53's February and March 2026 audit verified both mechanisms before launch.

File uploads are capped at 50 MB per file. The 2 GB of secure storage included with the Pro plan is sufficient for most document analysis tasks. I uploaded PDFs and images without friction, and Qwen2.5-VL 32B handled the analysis accurately in my testing. There's also a transparent credit tracker, which shows remaining daily usage clearly rather than burying it in account settings.

What's missing, at least at launch, is agentic capability. Express AI doesn't support tool use, web browsing, or multi-step autonomous tasks. It's a chat interface, and a deliberate one. For users who want AI agents to run workflows or integrate with external services, they'll need to look elsewhere. The no-API position also limits Express AI's appeal to developers, which may narrow the platform's audience more than ExpressVPN intends.

Express AI: User experience

The interface prioritises simplicity, which suits the platform's core audience. New users can start a conversation in under a minute. There's no onboarding tutorial or feature demo, but the layout is intuitive enough that most users won't need one. The Ghost Mode toggle and model selector are front and centre, so the two features that define the platform don't require hunting through menus.

In terms of design, it reads closer to a focused productivity tool than a full AI platform. That restraint works in its favour for privacy-conscious users who don't want complexity, but it may feel bare to anyone coming from ChatGPT or Claude's more feature-dense interfaces. ExpressVPN has described Express AI as part of a broader privacy ecosystem, suggesting the product will expand, but the launch version makes no concessions to power users hoping for immediate depth.

Express AI: Customer support

Express AI inherits ExpressVPN's customer support infrastructure, which includes 24/7 live chat via the main ExpressVPN site. Response times in my experience have been fast, typically under two minutes for live chat. Support agents are familiar with the VPN suite but may have limited depth on Express AI-specific technical queries, given how recently the platform launched.

The support documentation for Express AI is currently thin. The knowledge base covers setup and billing questions, but more detailed guidance on model selection, credit usage, and the encrypted vault is sparse. Given that this is a new product, that's understandable, but users who run into edge cases may find the documentation less helpful than they'd expect.

(Image credit: ExpressVPN)Express AI: Pricing

• Included with ExpressVPN Pro. Express AI is available at no additional cost to Pro subscribers, which makes it the most accessible pricing model for existing users.
• Pro plan starts at $7.49/month on a 2-year commitment, rising to $8.99/month on a 1-year plan and $19.99/month month-to-month.
• No standalone or free tier. There is no way to access Express AI without an active ExpressVPN Pro subscription.

The pricing is simple once you accept that Express AI is a bundled benefit rather than a standalone product. Pro subscribers get 500 daily credits, 2 GB of encrypted storage, and access to all five models alongside ExpressVPN's other features. For users who already pay for a Pro plan, Express AI costs nothing extra.

For users who don't need a VPN, the value proposition is murkier. The Pro plan at $19.99/month is competitive with some standalone AI subscriptions — ChatGPT Plus costs $20/month, for example — but you're paying for a VPN suite first and an AI platform second. ExpressVPN hasn't announced a standalone plan for Express AI, so that decision point will remain for the foreseeable future.

Express AI: alternatives you should consider

• ChatGPT (OpenAI): The most widely used AI platform, with broader model access, API support, and agentic capabilities, but no confidential computing or zero-access architecture.
• Claude (Anthropic): A strong alternative for writing and reasoning tasks, with competitive privacy policies, though prompts may be reviewed for safety and model improvement purposes.
• Lumo (Proton): A privacy-oriented alternative from the makers of ProtonMail, worth watching as it develops its AI toolset for privacy-focused users.

How I tested Express AI

• Used Express AI for drafting, summarising, and answering research questions across multiple sessions to assess model quality and response consistency.
• Uploaded PDFs and images to test the Qwen2.5-VL 32B model's ability to extract data and answer questions about uploaded content.
• Tested Ghost Mode, the encrypted vault setup, and credit tracking to confirm they behaved as described in the official documentation and Cure53 audit summary.

For this review, I used Express AI as a day-to-day tool across a three-day period, testing each of the five models for their stated use cases and comparing the experience against mainstream AI platforms I use regularly. I reviewed ExpressVPN's official product documentation, the public summary of the Cure53 audit, and third-party coverage from the March 2026 launch to verify the platform's privacy claims and pricing.

Express AI, launched on March 31, 2026, is ExpressVPN's attempt to answer a question many AI users haven't thought to ask: who can read your chats? The platform offers access to five AI models inside a confidential computing environment, where prompts and outputs are cryptographically isolated from everyone, including ExpressVPN itself. That's a bold claim in a category where privacy policies tend to be long on language and short on enforcement.

The platform comes bundled with ExpressVPN's Pro plan at no additional cost, positioning it alongside the company's password manager, secure mail, and identity protection tools. I've been covering AI platforms and business software for TechRadar Pro for years, including our 2026 buying guide for vibe coders and our guides on OpenClaw and Moltbook.

For this review, I spent time using Express AI across a range of everyday tasks: drafting, summarising documents, and reasoning through technical problems, to see how it holds up against better-known AI platforms.

What is Express AI?

Express AI is a multi-model AI chat platform built by ExpressVPN and accessible at app.expressai.com. At launch, it offers access to five general-purpose AI models, each selected for a different task type. What separates it from platforms like ChatGPT or Claude isn't the model lineup, but the underlying architecture: every interaction runs inside a confidential computing environment where encryption keys are generated inside the hardware itself, mathematically isolating conversations from cloud providers, model operators, and ExpressVPN.

The platform targets professionals and individuals who routinely share sensitive information in their AI chats, such as financial questions, work documents, and personal communications, and want guarantees that their data won't be retained or used to train future models. It's particularly well-suited to users already in the ExpressVPN ecosystem, since access is tied to the Pro subscription.

Privacy claims in the AI space are easy to make and hard to verify, which is why ExpressVPN commissioned an independent audit from Cure53, a German cybersecurity firm known for rigorous assessments. The pre-launch review, conducted in February and March 2026, covered penetration testing, source code inspection, and analysis of the platform's cryptography and key management. Cure53 confirmed that Express AI processes user interactions within confidential computing enclaves and found no unresolved vulnerabilities at launch.

Express AI: At a glance

Attribute

Notes

Underlying model(s)

Five open-weight models: GPT OSS 120B, DeepSeek R1 Distill 32B, Qwen2.5-VL 32B, Qwen3.5 35B-A3B, and Nemotron 12B

Best for

Privacy-conscious professionals, sensitive document analysis, multi-model comparison

Distinguishing functions

Confidential computing, Ghost Mode, encrypted vault, side-by-side model comparison, zero data retention

UI features

Clean chat interface with per-model selection, credit tracker, file upload support

Subscription costs

Included with ExpressVPN Pro; no standalone free plan

API pricing

No public API access available at launch

Buy it if…

• You share sensitive information with AI tools. If your prompts routinely include personal, financial, or professional details, Express AI's zero-access architecture offers a layer of protection that mainstream platforms don't.
• You want multiple models without multiple subscriptions. The platform bundles five models covering everyday writing, document analysis, and coding in one interface, which reduces the cost and friction of juggling several accounts.

Don't buy it if…

• You're not already an ExpressVPN subscriber. Access requires a Pro plan, so you'd be paying for a full VPN suite alongside the AI platform. That's poor value if you only want an AI chatbot.
• You need API access or developer-level control. Express AI has no public API at launch, which makes it a non-starter for developers building on top of AI models.

My time with Express AI

The interface is spare and deliberately uncomplicated. You select a model, type your prompt, and get a response. There's no sidebar full of tools or settings buried three menus deep. I found the model-switching to be the most useful feature in practice: running the same prompt through DeepSeek R1 Distill 32B for a reasoning-heavy task and then Qwen2.5-VL 32B for document analysis took seconds rather than the tab-switching juggle that typically comes with using multiple platforms.

Ghost Mode worked as described: conversations disappeared after the session ended with no residual trace in the history panel. The encrypted vault stores past conversations behind a user-set password, which means chat history isn't accessible server-side, though a forgotten password loses the history permanently. That's a reasonable trade-off for the privacy guarantee, but it's something to keep in mind for anyone who relies on conversation history for workflow continuity.

One honest caveat: I couldn't independently verify the confidential computing claims beyond what Cure53 has stated in its public report. I'm taking the audit at face value, just as most users will. The 500 daily credits at one credit per prompt felt adequate for my testing but could frustrate users running long, iterative research sessions.

Express AI: Features

Express AI launches with five open-weight models rather than building proprietary ones from scratch. GPT OSS 120B handles everyday writing and reasoning; DeepSeek R1 Distill 32B is the pick for multi-step logic and research analysis; Qwen2.5-VL 32B reads and extracts data from images and documents; Qwen3.5 35B-A3B targets coding and complex prompts; and Nemotron 12B from NVIDIA handles technical and math-heavy workloads. In practice, having these in one interface means you can match the model to the task without maintaining separate accounts or API keys.

The side-by-side comparison tool is a standout. You can run the same prompt across multiple models simultaneously to compare outputs, which is especially useful when deciding which model to lean on for a recurring task type. Few standalone AI platforms offer this natively.

Ghost Mode and the encrypted vault address the two main categories of privacy risk. Ghost Mode auto-deletes conversations after each session, leaving no stored record at all. The vault stores history under user-controlled encryption: only the password set by the user can decrypt it, and neither ExpressVPN nor the model providers can access it. These aren't marketing claims; Cure53's February and March 2026 audit verified both mechanisms before launch.

File uploads are capped at 50 MB per file. The 2 GB of secure storage included with the Pro plan is sufficient for most document analysis tasks. I uploaded PDFs and images without friction, and Qwen2.5-VL 32B handled the analysis accurately in my testing. There's also a transparent credit tracker, which shows remaining daily usage clearly rather than burying it in account settings.

What's missing, at least at launch, is agentic capability. Express AI doesn't support tool use, web browsing, or multi-step autonomous tasks. It's a chat interface, and a deliberate one. For users who want AI agents to run workflows or integrate with external services, they'll need to look elsewhere. The no-API position also limits Express AI's appeal to developers, which may narrow the platform's audience more than ExpressVPN intends.

Express AI: User experience

The interface prioritises simplicity, which suits the platform's core audience. New users can start a conversation in under a minute. There's no onboarding tutorial or feature demo, but the layout is intuitive enough that most users won't need one. The Ghost Mode toggle and model selector are front and centre, so the two features that define the platform don't require hunting through menus.

In terms of design, it reads closer to a focused productivity tool than a full AI platform. That restraint works in its favour for privacy-conscious users who don't want complexity, but it may feel bare to anyone coming from ChatGPT or Claude's more feature-dense interfaces. ExpressVPN has described Express AI as part of a broader privacy ecosystem, suggesting the product will expand, but the launch version makes no concessions to power users hoping for immediate depth.

Express AI: Customer support

Express AI inherits ExpressVPN's customer support infrastructure, which includes 24/7 live chat via the main ExpressVPN site. Response times in my experience have been fast, typically under two minutes for live chat. Support agents are familiar with the VPN suite but may have limited depth on Express AI-specific technical queries, given how recently the platform launched.

The support documentation for Express AI is currently thin. The knowledge base covers setup and billing questions, but more detailed guidance on model selection, credit usage, and the encrypted vault is sparse. Given that this is a new product, that's understandable, but users who run into edge cases may find the documentation less helpful than they'd expect.

(Image credit: ExpressVPN)Express AI: Pricing

• Included with ExpressVPN Pro. Express AI is available at no additional cost to Pro subscribers, which makes it the most accessible pricing model for existing users.
• Pro plan starts at $7.49/month on a 2-year commitment, rising to $8.99/month on a 1-year plan and $19.99/month month-to-month.
• No standalone or free tier. There is no way to access Express AI without an active ExpressVPN Pro subscription.

The pricing is simple once you accept that Express AI is a bundled benefit rather than a standalone product. Pro subscribers get 500 daily credits, 2 GB of encrypted storage, and access to all five models alongside ExpressVPN's other features. For users who already pay for a Pro plan, Express AI costs nothing extra.

For users who don't need a VPN, the value proposition is murkier. The Pro plan at $19.99/month is competitive with some standalone AI subscriptions — ChatGPT Plus costs $20/month, for example — but you're paying for a VPN suite first and an AI platform second. ExpressVPN hasn't announced a standalone plan for Express AI, so that decision point will remain for the foreseeable future.

Express AI: alternatives you should consider

• ChatGPT (OpenAI): The most widely used AI platform, with broader model access, API support, and agentic capabilities, but no confidential computing or zero-access architecture.
• Claude (Anthropic): A strong alternative for writing and reasoning tasks, with competitive privacy policies, though prompts may be reviewed for safety and model improvement purposes.
• Lumo (Proton): A privacy-oriented alternative from the makers of ProtonMail, worth watching as it develops its AI toolset for privacy-focused users.

How I tested Express AI

• Used Express AI for drafting, summarising, and answering research questions across multiple sessions to assess model quality and response consistency.
• Uploaded PDFs and images to test the Qwen2.5-VL 32B model's ability to extract data and answer questions about uploaded content.
• Tested Ghost Mode, the encrypted vault setup, and credit tracking to confirm they behaved as described in the official documentation and Cure53 audit summary.

For this review, I used Express AI as a day-to-day tool across a three-day period, testing each of the five models for their stated use cases and comparing the experience against mainstream AI platforms I use regularly. I reviewed ExpressVPN's official product documentation, the public summary of the Cure53 audit, and third-party coverage from the March 2026 launch to verify the platform's privacy claims and pricing.

Most AI assistants are built on a familiar arrangement: you get useful tools, the company gets your data. Lumo, launched by Swiss privacy company Proton in July 2025, refuses that deal entirely. Every conversation is protected by zero-access encryption, no logs are kept server-side, and your chats are never used to train the underlying models.

Lumo runs on a set of open-source large language models, including Mistral Small 3, OLMO 2 32B, and OpenHands 32B, with a routing layer that sends each query to the most appropriate model for the task. The client-side code is open source on GitHub and open to independent review. TIME named Lumo a Best Inventions 2025 special mention, recognizing the broader privacy architecture rather than raw AI performance.

TechRadar Pro has been reviewing business software since 2012. For more of our AI coverage, you can explore our AI tool roundup for 2026.

What is Lumo?

Lumo is an AI chat assistant from Proton AG, the Swiss company behind Proton Mail and Proton VPN. It handles everyday tasks: drafting text, summarizing documents, answering questions, writing and debugging code, and translating between languages. Unlike most mainstream AI tools, Lumo is designed so that neither Proton nor any third party can access your conversation history.

The platform targets individuals and teams who work with sensitive information and cannot pass it to Big Tech services. Lawyers reviewing contracts, journalists protecting sources, healthcare workers discussing sensitive cases, and privacy-conscious professionals who object to their inputs being fed into model training pipelines are all natural fits. Proton launched Lumo for Business in October 2025 to serve team deployments with admin controls and multi-user management.

A Lumo API is in development according to Proton's spring 2026 product roadmap, which would let third-party platforms embed private AI chat into their own workflows. For now, Lumo is available on the web at lumo.proton.me, and through iOS and Android apps.

Lumo: At a glance

Attribute

Notes

Underlying model(s)

Routes across Mistral Small 3, OLMO 2 32B, OpenHands 32B, and Mistral Nemo based on task type

Best for

Privacy-conscious users, professionals with sensitive workflows, existing Proton subscribers

Distinguishing functions

Zero-access encryption, Ghost Mode, no-log policy, privacy-respecting web search

UI features

Clean chat interface with dark mode (v1.2+), available on web, iOS, and Android

Subscription costs

Free (limited prompts); Lumo Plus at $12.99/month or $119.88/year ($9.99/month effective)

API pricing

API is in development; no public pricing structure published as of mid-2026

Buy it if…

• You regularly handle confidential information. Zero-access encryption means even Proton cannot read your saved chats, which matters enormously for legal, healthcare, or journalistic work that no mainstream rival can match.
• You're already a Proton subscriber. Proton Unlimited members get free access to Lumo's base tier at no additional cost, making it a natural addition to an existing encrypted workflow.
• Your business needs GDPR-compliant AI. Lumo is hosted on Proton's Swiss servers, subject to European data protection law, a real advantage for teams with regulatory obligations.

Don't buy it if…

• You need frontier-level AI output. Lumo's open-source models are capable for everyday tasks, but they fall noticeably short of GPT-4o or Claude on complex reasoning and nuanced long-form writing.
• Image analysis is part of your work. As of mid-2026, Lumo does not support image uploads. If visual understanding matters to your workflow, you'll need a different tool.
• You're a light user unwilling to pay. The free tier's prompt limits create real friction for anything beyond occasional queries, and Lumo Plus is harder to justify if privacy isn't a top concern.

My time with Lumo

You don't need an account to get started, just open a chat as a guest at lumo.proton.me and start typing immediately. There's a single text input, a web search toggle, and a Ghost Mode button for sessions you want to vanish when you close the window. I found the onboarding frictionless by any standard.

For routine tasks like summarizing a PDF, drafting a short email, or explaining a technical concept, Lumo performed competently. Response times were reasonable throughout. Where I noticed the ceiling was in longer, more structured outputs: the model occasionally lost the thread in extended conversations, and answers on analytical questions felt thinner than comparable responses from Claude or ChatGPT Plus on the same prompts.

Ghost Mode is useful in practice and cleanly implemented. One click opens a session that leaves no trace on any server when you close it. That's a meaningful practical feature for sensitive queries, and I haven't seen any mainstream competitor offer it this simply.

Lumo: Features

Lumo covers the standard AI assistant toolkit: document analysis, code writing and debugging, text translation, email drafting, brainstorming, and general Q&A. The routing system automatically directs coding queries to OpenHands 32B, general conversation to Mistral models, and deeper reasoning tasks to OLMO 2. You don't choose the model manually; Proton's routing logic decides what handles each query.

The privacy architecture is the main event. Zero-access encryption means saved chats are only decryptable on your own device with your password, and no server-side logs are kept. Your inputs are never used to train the underlying models, and the optional web search feature routes through privacy-respecting search engines rather than ad-supported services.

Lumo 1.1, released August 2025, upgraded the model stack and delivered meaningful speed improvements. Version 1.2 in October 2025 added dark mode, bug fixes, and basic chat personalization. Lumo for Business followed that same month at $11.99 per user per month (annual billing), adding team admin controls, usage management, and data handling aligned with GDPR, HIPAA, and CCPA.

The feature gaps are real. There's no image input, no voice mode, no plugin marketplace, and no memory system for personalized responses across sessions. For privacy-focused everyday use those absences are manageable, but power users comparing Lumo to ChatGPT's tool ecosystem or Claude's extended context handling will notice the difference.

Lumo: User experience

The interface is minimal, fast, and easy to navigate. A new chat takes one click, history is searchable when signed in, and the settings panel is straightforward. Dark mode arrived in v1.2, and the mobile apps on iOS and Android closely mirror the web experience with no major feature gaps between platforms.

Customization options are sparse by design: no system prompt settings, no pinned model preferences, no memory configuration. The routing logic is entirely automated, and you largely have to trust Proton's judgment on which model handles what. Users who want fine-grained control will find that frustrating; those who just want to start typing will appreciate how quickly they can get going.

Lumo: Customer support

Proton covers Lumo support through its help center at proton.me/support/lumo, which includes getting started guides, feature documentation, and troubleshooting articles. A community forum on Proton's user voice platform lets you submit and vote on feature requests. Account-based support tickets can be filed through the dashboard.

There's no live chat or phone support at any tier, which may cause issues for business users dealing with time-sensitive problems. Lumo for Business likely offers more direct support access, but Proton hasn't published detailed SLAs for that plan. For most users, the self-serve documentation is clear enough, but enterprise buyers should confirm escalation options before committing.

(Image credit: ProtonVPN)Lumo: Pricing

• Free tier: Guest access (no account required) with a limited number of prompts per session. A free Proton account unlocks encrypted chat history and more daily messages.
• Lumo Plus: $12.99/month, or $119.88/year ($9.99/month effective). Includes unlimited chats, document uploads, history search, priority response times, and access to all available models.
• Lumo for Business: $11.99 per user per month, billed annually. Adds team admin controls and compliance-ready data handling for GDPR, HIPAA, and CCPA.

The free tier is functional for sporadic use but constrained enough that the weekly prompt limit becomes friction quickly. At $12.99/month, Lumo Plus sits below ChatGPT Plus and Claude Pro (both $20/month), and the value calculation depends on how much the privacy guarantee matters to you. If you're primarily after output quality and don't mind where your data goes, there are more capable options at similar price points.

Proton Unlimited subscribers ($14.99/month or $9.99/month on annual billing) get free access to the base Lumo tier as part of their existing plan. Lumo is also bundled into the Proton Workspace Premium business plan alongside encrypted email, VPN, and cloud storage.

Lumo alternatives you should consider

• ChatGPT Plus ($20/month): OpenAI's platform offers stronger reasoning, image analysis, voice mode, and a plugin ecosystem. The privacy trade-off is significant, but capability-wise it remains the field benchmark.
• DuckAI (free): Duck.ai routes queries through multiple AI models via privacy-respecting proxies and requires no account. Encryption depth is less thorough than Lumo's zero-access approach, but it's a capable free alternative for casual use.
• Claude Pro ($20/month): Anthropic's Claude handles long documents and nuanced writing particularly well. It offers no comparable encryption architecture, but output quality on complex tasks is a step above Lumo.

How I tested Lumo

• Ran Lumo through document summarization, email drafting, code debugging, and general Q&A across multiple sessions to assess response quality and consistency.
• Tested Ghost Mode, web search with and without the toggle enabled, document uploads, and the iOS mobile app across both guest and signed-in access.
• Cross-referenced plans against Proton's official support documentation, product announcements, and other company material.

My testing spanned the web app and iOS client over several days. I compared output quality against Claude and ChatGPT Plus on identical prompts to gauge where Lumo sits in the current AI field. Privacy claims were assessed against publicly available documentation, open-source client code, and independent technical analysis.

Most AI assistants are built on a familiar arrangement: you get useful tools, the company gets your data. Lumo, launched by Swiss privacy company Proton in July 2025, refuses that deal entirely. Every conversation is protected by zero-access encryption, no logs are kept server-side, and your chats are never used to train the underlying models.

Lumo runs on a set of open-source large language models, including Mistral Small 3, OLMO 2 32B, and OpenHands 32B, with a routing layer that sends each query to the most appropriate model for the task. The client-side code is open source on GitHub and open to independent review. TIME named Lumo a Best Inventions 2025 special mention, recognizing the broader privacy architecture rather than raw AI performance.

TechRadar Pro has been reviewing business software since 2012. For more of our AI coverage, you can explore our AI tool roundup for 2026.

What is Lumo?

Lumo is an AI chat assistant from Proton AG, the Swiss company behind Proton Mail and Proton VPN. It handles everyday tasks: drafting text, summarizing documents, answering questions, writing and debugging code, and translating between languages. Unlike most mainstream AI tools, Lumo is designed so that neither Proton nor any third party can access your conversation history.

The platform targets individuals and teams who work with sensitive information and cannot pass it to Big Tech services. Lawyers reviewing contracts, journalists protecting sources, healthcare workers discussing sensitive cases, and privacy-conscious professionals who object to their inputs being fed into model training pipelines are all natural fits. Proton launched Lumo for Business in October 2025 to serve team deployments with admin controls and multi-user management.

A Lumo API is in development according to Proton's spring 2026 product roadmap, which would let third-party platforms embed private AI chat into their own workflows. For now, Lumo is available on the web at lumo.proton.me, and through iOS and Android apps.

Lumo: At a glance

Attribute

Notes

Underlying model(s)

Routes across Mistral Small 3, OLMO 2 32B, OpenHands 32B, and Mistral Nemo based on task type

Best for

Privacy-conscious users, professionals with sensitive workflows, existing Proton subscribers

Distinguishing functions

Zero-access encryption, Ghost Mode, no-log policy, privacy-respecting web search

UI features

Clean chat interface with dark mode (v1.2+), available on web, iOS, and Android

Subscription costs

Free (limited prompts); Lumo Plus at $12.99/month or $119.88/year ($9.99/month effective)

API pricing

API is in development; no public pricing structure published as of mid-2026

Buy it if…

• You regularly handle confidential information. Zero-access encryption means even Proton cannot read your saved chats, which matters enormously for legal, healthcare, or journalistic work that no mainstream rival can match.
• You're already a Proton subscriber. Proton Unlimited members get free access to Lumo's base tier at no additional cost, making it a natural addition to an existing encrypted workflow.
• Your business needs GDPR-compliant AI. Lumo is hosted on Proton's Swiss servers, subject to European data protection law, a real advantage for teams with regulatory obligations.

Don't buy it if…

• You need frontier-level AI output. Lumo's open-source models are capable for everyday tasks, but they fall noticeably short of GPT-4o or Claude on complex reasoning and nuanced long-form writing.
• Image analysis is part of your work. As of mid-2026, Lumo does not support image uploads. If visual understanding matters to your workflow, you'll need a different tool.
• You're a light user unwilling to pay. The free tier's prompt limits create real friction for anything beyond occasional queries, and Lumo Plus is harder to justify if privacy isn't a top concern.

My time with Lumo

You don't need an account to get started, just open a chat as a guest at lumo.proton.me and start typing immediately. There's a single text input, a web search toggle, and a Ghost Mode button for sessions you want to vanish when you close the window. I found the onboarding frictionless by any standard.

For routine tasks like summarizing a PDF, drafting a short email, or explaining a technical concept, Lumo performed competently. Response times were reasonable throughout. Where I noticed the ceiling was in longer, more structured outputs: the model occasionally lost the thread in extended conversations, and answers on analytical questions felt thinner than comparable responses from Claude or ChatGPT Plus on the same prompts.

Ghost Mode is useful in practice and cleanly implemented. One click opens a session that leaves no trace on any server when you close it. That's a meaningful practical feature for sensitive queries, and I haven't seen any mainstream competitor offer it this simply.

Lumo: Features

Lumo covers the standard AI assistant toolkit: document analysis, code writing and debugging, text translation, email drafting, brainstorming, and general Q&A. The routing system automatically directs coding queries to OpenHands 32B, general conversation to Mistral models, and deeper reasoning tasks to OLMO 2. You don't choose the model manually; Proton's routing logic decides what handles each query.

The privacy architecture is the main event. Zero-access encryption means saved chats are only decryptable on your own device with your password, and no server-side logs are kept. Your inputs are never used to train the underlying models, and the optional web search feature routes through privacy-respecting search engines rather than ad-supported services.

Lumo 1.1, released August 2025, upgraded the model stack and delivered meaningful speed improvements. Version 1.2 in October 2025 added dark mode, bug fixes, and basic chat personalization. Lumo for Business followed that same month at $11.99 per user per month (annual billing), adding team admin controls, usage management, and data handling aligned with GDPR, HIPAA, and CCPA.

The feature gaps are real. There's no image input, no voice mode, no plugin marketplace, and no memory system for personalized responses across sessions. For privacy-focused everyday use those absences are manageable, but power users comparing Lumo to ChatGPT's tool ecosystem or Claude's extended context handling will notice the difference.

Lumo: User experience

The interface is minimal, fast, and easy to navigate. A new chat takes one click, history is searchable when signed in, and the settings panel is straightforward. Dark mode arrived in v1.2, and the mobile apps on iOS and Android closely mirror the web experience with no major feature gaps between platforms.

Customization options are sparse by design: no system prompt settings, no pinned model preferences, no memory configuration. The routing logic is entirely automated, and you largely have to trust Proton's judgment on which model handles what. Users who want fine-grained control will find that frustrating; those who just want to start typing will appreciate how quickly they can get going.

Lumo: Customer support

Proton covers Lumo support through its help center at proton.me/support/lumo, which includes getting started guides, feature documentation, and troubleshooting articles. A community forum on Proton's user voice platform lets you submit and vote on feature requests. Account-based support tickets can be filed through the dashboard.

There's no live chat or phone support at any tier, which may cause issues for business users dealing with time-sensitive problems. Lumo for Business likely offers more direct support access, but Proton hasn't published detailed SLAs for that plan. For most users, the self-serve documentation is clear enough, but enterprise buyers should confirm escalation options before committing.

(Image credit: ProtonVPN)Lumo: Pricing

• Free tier: Guest access (no account required) with a limited number of prompts per session. A free Proton account unlocks encrypted chat history and more daily messages.
• Lumo Plus: $12.99/month, or $119.88/year ($9.99/month effective). Includes unlimited chats, document uploads, history search, priority response times, and access to all available models.
• Lumo for Business: $11.99 per user per month, billed annually. Adds team admin controls and compliance-ready data handling for GDPR, HIPAA, and CCPA.

The free tier is functional for sporadic use but constrained enough that the weekly prompt limit becomes friction quickly. At $12.99/month, Lumo Plus sits below ChatGPT Plus and Claude Pro (both $20/month), and the value calculation depends on how much the privacy guarantee matters to you. If you're primarily after output quality and don't mind where your data goes, there are more capable options at similar price points.

Proton Unlimited subscribers ($14.99/month or $9.99/month on annual billing) get free access to the base Lumo tier as part of their existing plan. Lumo is also bundled into the Proton Workspace Premium business plan alongside encrypted email, VPN, and cloud storage.

Lumo alternatives you should consider

• ChatGPT Plus ($20/month): OpenAI's platform offers stronger reasoning, image analysis, voice mode, and a plugin ecosystem. The privacy trade-off is significant, but capability-wise it remains the field benchmark.
• DuckAI (free): Duck.ai routes queries through multiple AI models via privacy-respecting proxies and requires no account. Encryption depth is less thorough than Lumo's zero-access approach, but it's a capable free alternative for casual use.
• Claude Pro ($20/month): Anthropic's Claude handles long documents and nuanced writing particularly well. It offers no comparable encryption architecture, but output quality on complex tasks is a step above Lumo.

How I tested Lumo

• Ran Lumo through document summarization, email drafting, code debugging, and general Q&A across multiple sessions to assess response quality and consistency.
• Tested Ghost Mode, web search with and without the toggle enabled, document uploads, and the iOS mobile app across both guest and signed-in access.
• Cross-referenced plans against Proton's official support documentation, product announcements, and other company material.

My testing spanned the web app and iOS client over several days. I compared output quality against Claude and ChatGPT Plus on identical prompts to gauge where Lumo sits in the current AI field. Privacy claims were assessed against publicly available documentation, open-source client code, and independent technical analysis.

Meta has released a new AI image model, one clearly designed to compete with ChatGPT and Google Gemini's Nano Banana 2. Meta AI has to not only convince people that AI can make the images they want, but that it will make images that are worth switching AI chatbots for.

To see how well it actually does in that context, I set image prompts for Meta AI and compared them to ChatGPT and Nano Banana 2. The tests, ranging from realistic wildlife photography to comics, are designed to test various aspects of AI image production. While all of the models arguably cleared a similar bar for good results, some definitely seemed to understand the assignment better than others.

Moon Orchard Ads

Fake ads from ChatGPT (left), Gemini (middle) and Meta (right) — click the image to open a full-size version (Image credit: ChatGPT, Gemini, Meta)

I asked each model to design a polished product poster for a fictional sparkling water brand called 'Moon Orchard', with the can saying exactly "Moon Orchard", "Black Cherry Lime", and "Zero Sugar", plus a clean headline reading exactly "Bright enough for midnight". This was a typography and product-design challenge as much as an image test, because AI models can make a gorgeous fake ad and still mangle the words like a haunted label printer.

All three produced stylish results, but they had different instincts. ChatGPT, on the left in the image above, created the most elegant poster, with a moody purple can, cherries, lime wedges, and a headline that felt like it belonged in a real campaign. Gemini, in the middle, looked the most like a magazine ad layout, but added extra label text and a glass with some of the drink inside. Meta, on the right, produced the most premium-looking can design, with condensation.

Fox photos

A photorealistic fox, by ChatGPT (left), Gemini (middle) and Meta (right) — click the image to open a full-size version (Image credit: ChatGPT, Gemini, Meta)

I next asked each model to create an ultra-realistic wildlife photograph of a red fox cautiously walking through a snow-covered forest at dawn. This was a realism challenge, with anatomy, fur texture, lighting, atmosphere, and natural movement. I wanted it like a real animal caught at exactly the right frozen moment.

ChatGPT delivered what I'd call the most dramatic image, with the fox moving toward the camera. Gemini was more restrained and natural in its profile shot. Meta was the most cinematic-looking, with the fox appearing more lifelike and the background almost like a green screen.

Garden invite

Party invites by ChatGPT (left), Gemini (middle), and Meta (right) — click the image to open a full-size version (Image credit: ChatGPT, Gemini, Meta)

As Meta is the platform for so many social media platforms, I then asked the models for a square Instagram post advertising a summer garden party, with a warm, stylish, realistic setting, fairy lights, a wooden table, drinks, flowers, and the readable text "Saturday Garden Party — 7 p.m.". This was a practical design test, because plenty of people use AI image tools for invitations, posters, and social posts.

Despite Meta AI's social media connection, it's ChatGPT that seemed to do the best with the prompt — the text looks like it's built into the design way better than the others. Gemini's lettering looked more like a framed flyer than a realistic Instagram post. And while Meta produced the most photographic table scene, it seemed more like a photo taken at the event rather than an invitation.

Robot pancake chef

A comic strip by ChatGPT (left), Gemini (middle), and Meta (right) — click the image to open a full-size version (Image credit: ChatGPT, Gemini, Meta)

The fourth prompt asked for a four-panel comic strip about a cheerful robot named Pip baking pancakes, while keeping Pip consistent across all panels. It also tested sequential storytelling. This was one of the strongest rounds for all three models.

ChatGPT's comic was easy to follow and was also the most amusing. Gemini had the cleanest cartoon polish. Meta did a great job in most ways, but gave the pancake a word balloon for some reason.

Noir cartoon

A noir cartoon by ChatGPT (left), Gemini (middle), and Meta (right) — click the image to open a full-size version (Image credit: ChatGPT, Gemini, Meta)

Finally, I asked each model to combine a noir setting with a Saturday morning cartoon. Specifically, a private detective investigating a mysterious missing cookie inside a 1940s suburban kitchen in black-and-white. The prompt tested style-blending, whether the models could make the scene feel like both a detective story and a cartoon.

ChatGPT did a good job balancing the noir mood with a cartoon detective with a dog sidekick. Gemini went for more of a classic detective drama intensity. Meta was the most comedic, with a canine detective exploring scattered clues amid plenty of visual jokes. Meta definitely did the best job in hitting both sides of the prompt.

ChatGPT told the story cleanly, and Gemini had the strongest noir atmosphere, but Meta made the prompt feel the most alive. It understood that a missing cookie mystery should be dramatic and ridiculous.

Five prompts turned out to be enough to show that these image generators have each developed their own personalities. Nano Banana 2 consistently impressed with realism. Meta AI took bigger creative swings than I expected, producing the funniest image of the test in the cookie detective challenge and some of the most polished commercial-looking visuals.

But ChatGPT stood out for seeming to understand what I was actually trying to achieve more consistently than its rivals. It repeatedly delivered images that matched both the wording and the intent of the prompt. The only category where I thought it was genuinely beaten was the film noir cookie mystery, where Meta more effectively embraced the ridiculous premise.

All three are capable of producing good results; the difference comes down to judgment. The best model is the one that understands what you meant. ChatGPT proved to be the strongest at making that leap, even if Meta sometimes stole the show.

Whether it’s a new agent, a new gateway, or a new monitoring layer, every time a security gap appears, the instinct is to close it with a new tool. It seems sensible in the short term, but over the years, the layers build up until enterprise security becomes one of the most complex and costly parts of running a business.

The result is a fragmented stack that is expensive to license, difficult to manage, and hard to justify to the board. Security teams are left with overlapping controls, integration headaches, and a user experience rife with friction. And to make matters worse, the whole bloated stack might well be pointed in the wrong direction.

Work moved, but security didn't

For most knowledge workers, the browser is where the working day begins and ends. From CRM to email, a growing number of enterprise applications are best delivered through a browser tab. Adding to this is the rapid adoption of generative AI tools, which employees use daily for drafting, analysis, and workflow automation. The browser is not a gateway to work but has become the workspace itself.

Security architecture has not kept pace with this shift. The controls most organizations rely on were designed for a different era, one built around corporate networks, managed devices, and applications behind a firewall. That model has not existed in its original form for years, yet it still underpins traditional security strategies.

As a result, there is a significant blind spot: Network and device-level controls can determine whether a user is allowed to reach an application, but they cannot see what happens once they are inside it.

When the stack stops at the door, critical information never crosses the threshold. For example, organizations may never see data is being accessed, how it is being handled, and whether it is copied into a personal email or pasted into a public AI tool.

The browser is the primary attack surface

Most workers use consumer browsers designed for the broadest audience possible. Because they’re not built for the rigors and needs of enterprise use, they’re soft targets.

Savvy threat actors can harvest credentials inside the browser session, and malware targets locally stored cookies and passwords. Data exfiltration increasingly happens not through network breaches but through routine user actions such as copying a customer record, downloading a report, or sharing a file with the wrong destination.

The rapid rise of AI tools has exacerbated the problem. Employees are pasting sensitive business data into generative AI platforms without understanding where it goes or how it is retained. Agentic tools that take actions inside business systems on a user's behalf are especially risky. They introduce a category of risk that most security teams have limited visibility into, and those interactions leave no trace on the network perimeter.

Legacy security tools were not built to see inside a browsing session. They inspect traffic, scan endpoints, and flag anomalies after the fact. By the time a control triggers, the action has often already happened.

Control needs to move to where decisions are made

With enterprise activity concentrating in the browser, the enforcement layer needs to follow suit.

The most important thing to reframe is moving from managing access to managing behavior. Traditional security tends to focus on whether a user is permitted to access an application.

That still matters, but the more consequential question is what happens inside the application once access is granted. A file downloaded to a personal device or a customer record pasted to a private email are the moments when data movement can turn into data loss risk. But most security and data protection stacks can’t see them.

Embedding security and data protection into the browser makes these moments governable because policy applies at the point of action, in real time, without disrupting the workflow. A user working with sensitive data can move it freely between authorized applications, while controls prevent it from reaching an unauthorized destination.

This is also where zero trust can be properly realized. Most implementations evaluate identity and device posture once, at login. A browser-native model assesses session context continuously, adjusting controls as circumstances change without interrupting the user. Enforcement follows the work, rather than waiting at the edge of the network.

Consolidation is the only way forward

Managing browser risk isn’t simply a case of throwing more tools into the stack. Many enterprises will find their stack is already full of layers that were built to compensate for consumer browsers. You have a virtual desktop interface (VDI) to control application access, and VPNs maintain network tunnels for SaaS tools that need a very different method of connectivity and protection.

Data loss prevention (DLP) solutions attempt to intercept data movement after the moment it happens, and cloud access security broker (CASB) layers mediate cloud access that the browser already intermediates.

Each is a reasonable response to a security gap, but together they establish an unwieldy infrastructure that was never designed to work as a whole. These systems force 100% of data through choke points (SASE cloud proxies) for inspection, creating performance bottlenecks and a poor user experience.

And as encryption cyphers strengthen toward post-quantum encryption standards, a significant portion of this traffic is blind to these break and inspect architectures.

Closing them from the inside by making the browser itself the primary point of governance removes the need for many of them entirely. The stack got this big by solving the wrong problem, and solving the right one starts with the browser.

We've featured the best endpoint protection software.

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

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

Need a fan to help you handle the ongoing heatwave, but found yourself facing empty shelves? Don't panic — there's still time to grab a great one, if you know where to look. I'm TechRadar's home tech expert, and I've scoured the web to find the fans that I'd buy with my own money, and which are still in stock for delivery this week.

First of all we have the Shark ChillPill, which I currently have in my bag, and is a lifesaver on public transport — or even if you're outside when the wind dies down and you're feeling uncomfortable. The fun colours are sold out, but it's still available in silver and grey. There's a Dyson Pure Hot+Cool HP00 still available to buy as well, and it will double as a heater when winter rolls around.

Dimplex's FlexBlade fan is still available, and blows a sheet of air over your bed. I used this fan when the temperature hit 35C and it was the only way I could get a proper night's sleep. I have a Meaco Sefte fan on my desk, and although Meaco's own storefront has been stripped bare, you can still grab its six-inch diameter air circulator at John Lewis if you're speedy. Read on for links to all these fans and more, but move fast — they won't be around for long.

Big-name fans still in stock

Shark ChillPill 3-In-1 Personal Fan Travel Bundle - Cloud

Dimplex FlexBlade Multi-Directional Bladeless Fan

Meaco Sefte 6" Desk Fan, White Charcoal

Dimplex DuoCool Smart Wi-Fi Cordless 2-in-1 Fan

DYSON Pure Hot+Cool HP00 Purifying Fan Heater

SHARK ChillPill 3-in-1 Personal Fan - Carbon

SWITCHBOT Battery Circulator Fan

For many small and medium-sized businesses, cybersecurity conversations center on endpoints like laptops, servers and cloud platforms.

Yet one category of device continues to sit quietly outside that focus: the printer.

Despite being deeply embedded in day-to-day operations and handling highly sensitive information, print infrastructure is still widely overlooked.

This lack of scrutiny is part of a broader challenge. New research shows 73% of UK SMBs fear data privacy issues in their current document management processes, highlighting widespread concern about how sensitive information is handled across both digital and physical workflows.

Yet 55% of UK SMBs consider printers a low priority in their cybersecurity strategy.

This worrying disconnect between the critical data printers handle and their low security prioritization creates a vulnerability that attackers can exploit to access sensitive workflows, intercept documents or move laterally within a network.

A growing blind spot in hybrid working environments

As we know, work no longer sits neatly inside the office. It happens across home networks, personal devices and shared spaces – environments that SMBs struggle to monitor or control. Today, print and scan workflows routinely handle sensitive data, from payroll and contracts to customer records.

Without visibility into who is printing what and where, organizations have no way of protecting that sensitive data. And it doesn’t take much – just one misdirected scan or a print job left in a tray can expose confidential information, often without any obvious sign that something is wrong.

According to Quocirca, 74% of SMBs have experienced a print-related data loss incident in the past year. A further 33% say documents printed on employee-owned home printers are now a top factor in data loss.

Behavioral factors further amplify the problem. Research shows 47% of UK SMBs believe that employees try to bypass their organization's print security guidelines. At the same time, 63% assume their printers are secure because they sit behind a firewall, and half do not consider them a security threat at all.

Together, these trends point to a clear security gap: while print workflows are handling increasingly sensitive data across distributed environments, they are not being secured, monitored or governed to the same standard as other endpoints.

Real risk in outdated hardware

Almost three-quarters (73%) of UK SMBs frequently worry about the risk posed by their outdated systems. Older printers running unpatched firmware and default credentials quietly process and store sensitive data while remaining unmanaged.

A compromised printer can serve as an entry point into wider business systems. If laptops and servers require active monitoring, printers do too.

Concerns are not limited to hardware. They also span cybersecurity exposures linked to connected printers, vulnerabilities introduced as scanned documents move through the cloud, and the risk of unauthorized access to print queues.

Alongside this are more visible, day-to-day issues, such as confidential documents being left unattended and the difficulty of tracking information once it exists in physical form.

These risks can be managed, but only if SMBs treat print and scan as part of the security perimeter.

Without this, resilience across hybrid workflows becomes guesswork. The future of work is not only about cloud and AI; it is also about securing the everyday document processes that move sensitive data across physical and digital environments.

Building control through visibility and smarter printing

Despite low prioritization, almost six-in-ten (63%) SMBs in the UK acknowledge print security needs improvement. To secure the future of work, organizations need secure print hardware foundations and protection that keeps pace with evolving threats.

Smart printing builds on these secure hardware foundations by embedding visibility, policy enforcement and audit trails directly into print and scan workflows.

Of UK SMBs that have adopted smart printing, 89% say it provides clearer visibility into printing and scanning activity across users and locations, 86% say it helps them meet compliance and security standards, and 85% say it improves enforcement of rules and restrictions.

Rethinking the role of print in cybersecurity

As we delve deeper into the future of work, printers need to be brought into the wider security strategy. A data breach originating from a printer can be just as damaging as one involving a compromised device or network, with the potential for significant financial loss, regulatory penalties and reputational harm.

Printers are not just office equipment. They are part of the digital infrastructure that supports modern work. As print and scan workflows become more digital and cloud-connected, printers deserve the same security attention as any other endpoint.

In practice, that means SMBs need three things: secure hardware as a foundation, security that keeps pace with new threats, and the visibility and control to maintain resilience at scale. Bringing printers into the security strategy is a practical step towards protecting sensitive data in a world where both work and risk are distributed.

We've reviewed and rated the best all-in-one printers.

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

Duck.ai is one of the only AI chat platforms where you can hold a conversation with GPT-5 or Claude Opus without registering an account. Launched by DuckDuckGo in early 2025, it sits inside the company's existing search and browser ecosystem. You can access it at duck.ai, through the DuckDuckGo browser, or via desktop browser extensions.

Two things set it apart from other AI chat tools. Every conversation goes through DuckDuckGo's anonymizing proxy before reaching the model provider, stripping out identifying information. Providers such as OpenAI and Anthropic are also contractually prohibited from using those chats for training purposes, which is a meaningful commitment that most direct-to-model platforms don't offer.

At TechRadar Pro, we've been reviewing business software since 2012. Our AI coverage includes an AI tools roundup and a 2026 vibe coding buying guide, among other platform reviews and news features.

What is Duck.ai?

Duck.ai is DuckDuckGo's AI chat service, designed so that you can talk to leading AI models without creating an account or sharing personal data. It's available at duck.ai, through DuckDuckGo's browser extensions, and inside the DuckDuckGo app on iOS and Android.

The service routes all conversations through a privacy proxy. Your prompts are anonymized before they reach the AI provider. DuckDuckGo also holds providers to strict contractual limits on data use, meaning chats are not stored on DuckDuckGo's servers and cannot be used for model training by either party.

It works for typical AI tasks: drafting emails, summarizing documents, answering questions, writing code, and general chat. Privacy-conscious professionals, freelancers, and anyone who wants frontier AI access without a recurring account will find it useful.

Duck.ai: At a glance

Attribute

Notes

Underlying model(s)

Free: Claude 4.5 Haiku, GPT-4o mini, GPT-5 mini, gpt-oss-120b, Llama 4 Scout, Mistral Small 3 24B. Plus: GPT-4o, GPT-5.4, Claude Sonnet 4.6, Llama 4 Maverick. Pro: adds Claude Opus 4.7.

Best for

Privacy-conscious users; general AI chat tasks; no-signup AI access

Distinguishing functions

Privacy proxy routing, no-login access, multi-model switching, voice chat

UI features

Minimal chat interface with left sidebar for model switching; chat history stored locally on device

Subscription costs

Free; Plus: $9.99/month or $99.99/year; Pro: $19.99/month or $199.99/year

API pricing

No public API — consumer product only

Buy it if…

• You want AI chat without an account. Duck.ai is one of few platforms giving you access to capable models, including GPT-5 mini, without registration or a credit card.
• Privacy matters to your workflow. DuckDuckGo anonymizes every chat through its proxy and holds AI providers to strict data-use agreements, making it a stronger privacy choice than signing up directly with OpenAI or Anthropic.
• You want multi-model value. The Plus plan at $9.99/month pairs GPT-5.4 and Claude Sonnet 4.6 with a full VPN and identity protection, making it genuinely competitive.

Don't buy it if…

• You need a developer API. Duck.ai has no API. If you're building products or automations on top of AI models, go directly to OpenAI or Anthropic.
• You already have a VPN. The paid plans bundle AI with VPN and identity services. There's no AI-only subscription tier, so you may end up paying for things you don't need.
• You depend on predictable limits. DuckDuckGo doesn't publish exact daily message limits, which makes it difficult to plan for high-volume or time-sensitive work.

My time with Duck.ai

I tested Duck.ai across the free and Pro tiers over several weeks. On the free tier, the experience is clean and fast with no friction, no sign-up, and six models ready to go. Switching between GPT-4o mini and Claude 4.5 Haiku is a single click. Both handled research queries and writing tasks without issue.

The Pro tier adds Claude Opus 4.7 with extended reasoning. The improvement shows on complex tasks: I ran the same multi-step analytical prompt across the free and Pro tiers. Opus 4.7 returned a more structured and well-reasoned response. For everyday writing or quick lookups, the free tier is more than enough. Pro earns its keep on specialist, multi-step work.

My one persistent frustration was the opacity around usage limits. DuckDuckGo's policy is to keep limits vague to prevent abuse. During testing I didn't hit a ceiling on Pro, but I can imagine high-volume users running into walls without much warning.

Duck.ai: Features

The defining feature is the privacy proxy. Every message goes through DuckDuckGo before reaching the AI provider. The company holds providers to contractual restrictions on data use, which matters most if you're typing sensitive information into an AI: prompts about financial decisions, health issues, or confidential business matters are much less exposed than they would be via a direct provider account.

The free tier's model roster is unusually strong for a no-login service. Alongside GPT-4o mini and Claude 4.5 Haiku, you also get GPT-5 mini and OpenAI's gpt-oss-120b, both capable models that would cost real money through direct API access. Meta's Llama 4 Scout and Mistral Small 3 24B round out the lineup for users who prefer open-weight options.

Paid subscribers get meaningfully stronger models. The Plus plan adds GPT-5.4 and Claude Sonnet 4.6, which excel at long-context tasks and following detailed instructions. The Pro plan goes further with Claude Opus 4.7 and extended reasoning, suited to the kind of multi-step analysis that trips up smaller models.

Voice chat, launched in February 2026, lets you speak to an AI model through an encrypted relay connection. Audio is not stored by DuckDuckGo or OpenAI after the session ends, keeping the privacy principles consistent. The feature currently uses OpenAI as the model provider, so model choice for voice is limited.

File uploads are not yet supported, which is a gap compared to ChatGPT or Claude.ai. If you need to analyze a PDF or document, you'll need to paste content manually. DuckDuckGo has indicated uploads are on the roadmap.

Duck.ai: User experience

The interface is intentionally minimal. There's no dashboard, no settings maze, and no onboarding flow. The left sidebar shows your chat history, stored locally on your device rather than on DuckDuckGo's servers. You switch models by clicking the current model name at the top of the conversation. New users can start a chat in seconds.

AI features are also fully optional. DuckDuckGo lets you hide Duck.ai buttons and AI overlays in search settings, which is a meaningful gesture from a company that treats privacy as more than a marketing position. The option to disable AI without losing other features is something many platforms don't offer.

Duck.ai: Customer support

DuckDuckGo maintains detailed help documentation at its Help Pages site, covering Duck.ai's privacy policies, model availability, usage limits, and subscription management. The documentation is well-organized and answers most common questions without requiring you to contact anyone.

There's no live chat or phone support channel. For subscription or billing issues, you can reach support through the subscription settings menu, but response times aren't publicized. Businesses planning to rely on the Pro plan for critical work should factor this in when evaluating the service.

(Image credit: DuckDuckGo)Duck.ai: Pricing

• Free: Six models, no sign-up, with unspecified daily usage limits.
• Plus: $9.99/month or $99.99/year, which adds GPT-4o, GPT-5.4, Claude Sonnet 4.6, and Llama 4 Maverick, plus VPN, Personal Information Removal, and Identity Theft Restoration.
• Pro: $19.99/month or $199.99/year, which adds Claude Opus 4.7, extended reasoning, and 2x usage limits versus Plus.

The free tier is one of the best no-login AI offers available right now. Getting GPT-5 mini and Claude 4.5 Haiku at zero cost, with genuine privacy protections, is a hard proposition to dismiss. The Plus plan at $9.99/month undercuts both ChatGPT Plus and Claude Pro (each $20/month) while providing access to frontier models alongside a bundled VPN.

The Pro plan at $19.99/month is harder to recommend to most users. Claude Opus 4.7 with extended reasoning is a premium experience, but only for tasks that genuinely require deep multi-step analysis. There's no standalone AI-only option, so if you already pay for a VPN elsewhere, you're likely paying twice. The subscription is available internationally with localized pricing: UK users pay £9.99/£19.99 per month for Plus/Pro respectively, and most EU countries are priced at EUR 9.99/19.99 per month.

Duck.ai: Alternatives you should consider

• ChatGPT: OpenAI's direct interface costs $20/month for Plus and offers GPT-4o access alongside file uploads and image generation, two features Duck.ai currently lacks. The downside is that ChatGPT requires an account and uses conversation data for service improvements unless you opt out.
• Claude.ai: Anthropic's own interface gives you Claude Opus at $20/month on the Pro plan and is stronger for deep reasoning work. It requires registration, doesn't offer multi-model switching, and has weaker privacy protections than Duck.ai's proxy approach.
• Perplexity AI: A strong alternative if you want AI answers grounded in real-time web search. Perplexity Pro costs $20/month and supports file uploads, though it doesn't match Duck.ai on privacy routing.

How I tested Duck.ai

• Ran identical prompts covering research queries, email drafting, and complex analytical tasks across the free, Plus, and Pro model tiers to compare quality and speed.
• Reviewed DuckDuckGo's published privacy documentation, provider contracts policy, and help pages to assess how well its privacy proxy claims hold up.
• Tested the subscription sign-up, model switching, voice chat, and local history access on both desktop and mobile across several sessions.

Response latency on the free tier is slightly higher than a direct ChatGPT session, consistent with traffic being routed through a proxy. The difference was small enough that it wasn't noticeable mid-conversation. Pro-tier responses were fast regardless of model choice, with Claude Opus 4.7 taking marginally longer on extended reasoning tasks — which is expected given the additional processing involved.

Duck.ai is one of the only AI chat platforms where you can hold a conversation with GPT-5 or Claude Opus without registering an account. Launched by DuckDuckGo in early 2025, it sits inside the company's existing search and browser ecosystem. You can access it at duck.ai, through the DuckDuckGo browser, or via desktop browser extensions.

Two things set it apart from other AI chat tools. Every conversation goes through DuckDuckGo's anonymizing proxy before reaching the model provider, stripping out identifying information. Providers such as OpenAI and Anthropic are also contractually prohibited from using those chats for training purposes, which is a meaningful commitment that most direct-to-model platforms don't offer.

At TechRadar Pro, we've been reviewing business software since 2012. Our AI coverage includes an AI tools roundup and a 2026 vibe coding buying guide, among other platform reviews and news features.

What is Duck.ai?

Duck.ai is DuckDuckGo's AI chat service, designed so that you can talk to leading AI models without creating an account or sharing personal data. It's available at duck.ai, through DuckDuckGo's browser extensions, and inside the DuckDuckGo app on iOS and Android.

The service routes all conversations through a privacy proxy. Your prompts are anonymized before they reach the AI provider. DuckDuckGo also holds providers to strict contractual limits on data use, meaning chats are not stored on DuckDuckGo's servers and cannot be used for model training by either party.

It works for typical AI tasks: drafting emails, summarizing documents, answering questions, writing code, and general chat. Privacy-conscious professionals, freelancers, and anyone who wants frontier AI access without a recurring account will find it useful.

Duck.ai: At a glance

Attribute

Notes

Underlying model(s)

Free: Claude 4.5 Haiku, GPT-4o mini, GPT-5 mini, gpt-oss-120b, Llama 4 Scout, Mistral Small 3 24B. Plus: GPT-4o, GPT-5.4, Claude Sonnet 4.6, Llama 4 Maverick. Pro: adds Claude Opus 4.7.

Best for

Privacy-conscious users; general AI chat tasks; no-signup AI access

Distinguishing functions

Privacy proxy routing, no-login access, multi-model switching, voice chat

UI features

Minimal chat interface with left sidebar for model switching; chat history stored locally on device

Subscription costs

Free; Plus: $9.99/month or $99.99/year; Pro: $19.99/month or $199.99/year

API pricing

No public API — consumer product only

Buy it if…

• You want AI chat without an account. Duck.ai is one of few platforms giving you access to capable models, including GPT-5 mini, without registration or a credit card.
• Privacy matters to your workflow. DuckDuckGo anonymizes every chat through its proxy and holds AI providers to strict data-use agreements, making it a stronger privacy choice than signing up directly with OpenAI or Anthropic.
• You want multi-model value. The Plus plan at $9.99/month pairs GPT-5.4 and Claude Sonnet 4.6 with a full VPN and identity protection, making it genuinely competitive.

Don't buy it if…

• You need a developer API. Duck.ai has no API. If you're building products or automations on top of AI models, go directly to OpenAI or Anthropic.
• You already have a VPN. The paid plans bundle AI with VPN and identity services. There's no AI-only subscription tier, so you may end up paying for things you don't need.
• You depend on predictable limits. DuckDuckGo doesn't publish exact daily message limits, which makes it difficult to plan for high-volume or time-sensitive work.

My time with Duck.ai

I tested Duck.ai across the free and Pro tiers over several weeks. On the free tier, the experience is clean and fast with no friction, no sign-up, and six models ready to go. Switching between GPT-4o mini and Claude 4.5 Haiku is a single click. Both handled research queries and writing tasks without issue.

The Pro tier adds Claude Opus 4.7 with extended reasoning. The improvement shows on complex tasks: I ran the same multi-step analytical prompt across the free and Pro tiers. Opus 4.7 returned a more structured and well-reasoned response. For everyday writing or quick lookups, the free tier is more than enough. Pro earns its keep on specialist, multi-step work.

My one persistent frustration was the opacity around usage limits. DuckDuckGo's policy is to keep limits vague to prevent abuse. During testing I didn't hit a ceiling on Pro, but I can imagine high-volume users running into walls without much warning.

Duck.ai: Features

The defining feature is the privacy proxy. Every message goes through DuckDuckGo before reaching the AI provider. The company holds providers to contractual restrictions on data use, which matters most if you're typing sensitive information into an AI: prompts about financial decisions, health issues, or confidential business matters are much less exposed than they would be via a direct provider account.

The free tier's model roster is unusually strong for a no-login service. Alongside GPT-4o mini and Claude 4.5 Haiku, you also get GPT-5 mini and OpenAI's gpt-oss-120b, both capable models that would cost real money through direct API access. Meta's Llama 4 Scout and Mistral Small 3 24B round out the lineup for users who prefer open-weight options.

Paid subscribers get meaningfully stronger models. The Plus plan adds GPT-5.4 and Claude Sonnet 4.6, which excel at long-context tasks and following detailed instructions. The Pro plan goes further with Claude Opus 4.7 and extended reasoning, suited to the kind of multi-step analysis that trips up smaller models.

Voice chat, launched in February 2026, lets you speak to an AI model through an encrypted relay connection. Audio is not stored by DuckDuckGo or OpenAI after the session ends, keeping the privacy principles consistent. The feature currently uses OpenAI as the model provider, so model choice for voice is limited.

File uploads are not yet supported, which is a gap compared to ChatGPT or Claude.ai. If you need to analyze a PDF or document, you'll need to paste content manually. DuckDuckGo has indicated uploads are on the roadmap.

Duck.ai: User experience

The interface is intentionally minimal. There's no dashboard, no settings maze, and no onboarding flow. The left sidebar shows your chat history, stored locally on your device rather than on DuckDuckGo's servers. You switch models by clicking the current model name at the top of the conversation. New users can start a chat in seconds.

AI features are also fully optional. DuckDuckGo lets you hide Duck.ai buttons and AI overlays in search settings, which is a meaningful gesture from a company that treats privacy as more than a marketing position. The option to disable AI without losing other features is something many platforms don't offer.

Duck.ai: Customer support

DuckDuckGo maintains detailed help documentation at its Help Pages site, covering Duck.ai's privacy policies, model availability, usage limits, and subscription management. The documentation is well-organized and answers most common questions without requiring you to contact anyone.

There's no live chat or phone support channel. For subscription or billing issues, you can reach support through the subscription settings menu, but response times aren't publicized. Businesses planning to rely on the Pro plan for critical work should factor this in when evaluating the service.

(Image credit: DuckDuckGo)Duck.ai: Pricing

• Free: Six models, no sign-up, with unspecified daily usage limits.
• Plus: $9.99/month or $99.99/year, which adds GPT-4o, GPT-5.4, Claude Sonnet 4.6, and Llama 4 Maverick, plus VPN, Personal Information Removal, and Identity Theft Restoration.
• Pro: $19.99/month or $199.99/year, which adds Claude Opus 4.7, extended reasoning, and 2x usage limits versus Plus.

The free tier is one of the best no-login AI offers available right now. Getting GPT-5 mini and Claude 4.5 Haiku at zero cost, with genuine privacy protections, is a hard proposition to dismiss. The Plus plan at $9.99/month undercuts both ChatGPT Plus and Claude Pro (each $20/month) while providing access to frontier models alongside a bundled VPN.

The Pro plan at $19.99/month is harder to recommend to most users. Claude Opus 4.7 with extended reasoning is a premium experience, but only for tasks that genuinely require deep multi-step analysis. There's no standalone AI-only option, so if you already pay for a VPN elsewhere, you're likely paying twice. The subscription is available internationally with localized pricing: UK users pay £9.99/£19.99 per month for Plus/Pro respectively, and most EU countries are priced at EUR 9.99/19.99 per month.

Duck.ai: Alternatives you should consider

• ChatGPT: OpenAI's direct interface costs $20/month for Plus and offers GPT-4o access alongside file uploads and image generation, two features Duck.ai currently lacks. The downside is that ChatGPT requires an account and uses conversation data for service improvements unless you opt out.
• Claude.ai: Anthropic's own interface gives you Claude Opus at $20/month on the Pro plan and is stronger for deep reasoning work. It requires registration, doesn't offer multi-model switching, and has weaker privacy protections than Duck.ai's proxy approach.
• Perplexity AI: A strong alternative if you want AI answers grounded in real-time web search. Perplexity Pro costs $20/month and supports file uploads, though it doesn't match Duck.ai on privacy routing.

How I tested Duck.ai

• Ran identical prompts covering research queries, email drafting, and complex analytical tasks across the free, Plus, and Pro model tiers to compare quality and speed.
• Reviewed DuckDuckGo's published privacy documentation, provider contracts policy, and help pages to assess how well its privacy proxy claims hold up.
• Tested the subscription sign-up, model switching, voice chat, and local history access on both desktop and mobile across several sessions.

Response latency on the free tier is slightly higher than a direct ChatGPT session, consistent with traffic being routed through a proxy. The difference was small enough that it wasn't noticeable mid-conversation. Pro-tier responses were fast regardless of model choice, with Claude Opus 4.7 taking marginally longer on extended reasoning tasks — which is expected given the additional processing involved.