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You could be sitting on a treasure trove of fantastic iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple TV games and not even know it.

Apple Arcade might be one of the most underrated gaming services on the market right now, with many Apple One subscribers not even realizing that it is included in all tiers of the service. You can also subscribe to it separately and you could even be able to access a generous free trial right now if you're reading this on a shiny new Apple device.

But what exactly is Apple Arcade, how much does it cost, what kind of games can you play on it, and, perhaps most importantly, are any of them actually good? I've spent the last week really sinking my teeth into the service in order to find out and deliver this ultimate guide to everything that you need know.

From all the basic facts to a bumper list of my personal game recommendations and even a personality quiz to match you to titles that you might like, everything here is intended to help you walk away an expert in all things Apple gaming.

The ultimate guide to Apple Arcade

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No idea where to start? This is our comprehensive breakdown of everything that you need to know about Apple Arcade from how much it costs to the kinds of games that are included.

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Apple Arcade review: is the mobile gaming service still worth it in 2026? Here's our definitive verdict

I've played all 279 Apple Arcade games — here are the eight best

I spent a week playing every single game available on Apple Arcade to bring you this definitive list of the ones worth checking out first.

What kind of iPhone gamer are you? Find out — and get game suggestions — in our quiz

The Apple Arcade controllers I've tested and recommend to improve your gaming

I've spent the last week really getting to grips with the Apple Arcade service, trying out all of the available games and experimenting with its major features.

Ultimate Guide to Apple Arcade

(Image credit: Apple / Future)

This article is part of our Ultimate Guide to Apple Arcade: the definitive guide to everything that you need to know about the gaming service. Be sure to browse the full series here.

The experience has been great so far, thanks to the many console-quality games out on the platform. I'm talking titles like Sonic Dream Team, Hello Kitty Island Adventure, Cult of the Lamb, Fantasian, and so much more.

Although they're all perfectly playable with touch controls, loads of Apple Arcade games (including all of the aforementioned titles) offer full controller support. Hooking up a compatible gamepad is the perfect way to get an even more console-like experience, and really recommend getting your hands on one if you want to make the absolute best and most comfortable playing sessions.

For iPhone players, I would recommend three of the best mobile controllers on the market today: the Backbone One, Backbone Pro, and Razer Kishi V3 Pro. They're all formidable choices, though each has its own distinct advantages. The Backbone One, for example, is the most portable and cheapest of the three, while the Pro and Kishi V3 Pro are more comfortable and have better software features. I've also included the GameSir G8 Plus Galileo as a worthy budget alternative, though it doesn't offer quite as seamless an experience as the others.

For iPad gamers, the Razer Kishi V3 Pro XL is one of the few options that's compatible with massive tablets. It can even fit the truly huge 13-inch iPad Air and Pro models.

Finally, those playing on Apple TV are best served by more conventional options: the Xbox Wireless Controller and DualSense Wireless Controller. If you want something a little quirkier, the cute CRKD Neo S is a strong choice.

Recommended Apple Arcade controllers

Backbone One

Backbone Backbone Pro

Razer Kishi V3 Pro

Razer Kishi V3 Pro XL

GameSir G8 Plus

Microsoft Xbox Wireless Controller

Sony DualSense Wireless Controller

CRKD Neo S

• Instructions hidden as white text in a Word document can make Microsoft 365 Copilot silently alter the file it is drafting and copy the instructions into the output
• Each poisoned document becomes a carrier, so the attack spreads through ordinary internal workflows without the original malicious file and needs no macros, malware, or code execution
• Microsoft has shipped two mitigations across a 144-day disclosure, including a model upgrade, and the attack was still reproducible by the researcher

A security researcher has published a proof of concept showing that instructions hidden inside a Word document can cause Microsoft 365 Copilot to silently alter the file it is drafting, then copy those same instructions into the finished document, so the next person to use it becomes a carrier too.

Håkon Måløy, a data scientist with a doctorate in applied machine learning, disclosed the technique as the third installment of his Context Collapse series, after a 144-day coordinated disclosure with the Microsoft Security Response Center.

The reason this is being reported ahead of a fix is that it still works despite multiple attempts by Microsoft, as he notes that no robust mitigation for the broader vulnerability class is currently available.

A clever attack designed around Copilot's approach to text

The underlying attack belongs to a family known as cross-domain prompt injection, or XPIA. An attacker writes instructions in a natural-language document, formats them as white text on a white background at a small point size, and shares the file.

Because Copilot for Word strips formatting before passing text to the underlying language model, the model reads text the human never sees. This is true even for documents that are not opened by the user on purpose: The attack can trigger either when a user manually attaches a document to Copilot or when Copilot, working in Work IQ mode, searches the user's OneDrive for relevant files and finds the malicious one on its own.

It is also more dangerous than other exploits because of one key element: propagation. The hidden prompt in Måløy's proof of concept had two parts. One instructed Copilot to alter the document being drafted, in his demonstration halving every financial figure in a quarterly report.

The other instructed Copilot to copy the prompt into the new document and conceal it, framed innocuously as source tracking and readability formatting. Copilot did both, appending the instructions in white text and mentioning neither action to the user.

The disclosure timeline is the most uncomfortable part of the report. Måløy reported to MSRC on March 6 2026. Microsoft confirmed the behavior on March 31 and shipped a first mitigation in early April via a reworked Edit with Copilot experience, which successfully blocked his original prompt wording. He reproduced the attack with different wording the same week, and a second case was opened.

The second fix, on July 14, consisted of upgrading the underlying model to GPT-5.5. Måløy broke it the following day using GPT-5.6, then voluntarily offered Microsoft a further two-week delay to attempt another mitigation. The class still reproduced on the disclosure date, indicating that although a fix is in the works, the exploit is still possible to run.

A complicated issue that lacks a proper resolution

The issue goes far beyond Microsoft Word: an AI assistant must ingest untrusted content to determine whether it is relevant or hostile. But the content enters the same context window as the system prompt and the user's actual request, so by the time the model evaluates whether the text is an attack, the attacker's tokens have already shaped that evaluation.

As Måløy puts it, "the content being inspected participates in the act of inspection."

Microsoft confirmed it had reviewed the findings in a statement to The Register but stopped short of indicating a timeline for a complete fix:

“We have addressed the findings reported by the researcher and thank them for working with us through coordinated vulnerability disclosure," the company said.

"To address this class of risk, we use a defense-in-depth strategy with safeguards that block malicious instructions at multiple points and help keep tasks aligned with users’ requests. We are continuously strengthening these safeguards as the technology and threat landscape evolve. We encourage customers to install the latest updates, use multiple layers of security protection, treat content from unknown sources with caution, and review AI-generated content before using or sharing it.”

Måløy's recommendations are to treat externally sourced documents as untrusted when using them with Copilot, review attachments before starting an AI-assisted draft, and review Copilot's output carefully before sharing or reusing it.

He also suggested that generated documents should carry provenance metadata that records source material and model edits, which would not prevent injection but would make an infection traceable after the fact.

With Copilot extending further into agentic products that create and manipulate documents with less human oversight, the scope of how exploits like this could affect workflows (and users) will widen rather than narrow, and a complete solution is not yet in sight.

Whether you're a die-hard mobile gamer or a newcomer to the world of portable play, Apple Arcade will likely have something for you.

Ultimate Guide to Apple Arcade

(Image credit: Apple / Future)

This article is part of our Ultimate Guide to Apple Arcade: the definitive guide to everything that you need to know about the gaming service. Be sure to browse the full series here.

The subscription service gives you access to hundreds of games for your iPhone, iPad, Mac, or Apple TV, ranging from revamped mobile classics including Angry Birds Reloaded and Doodle Jump 2+ to original and exclusive games in massive franchises such as Sonic the Hedgehog with Sonic Dream Team. All of the included titles have absolutely zero ads and no microtransactions, meaning that they offer a more premium, console-like experience than you would get with many other App Store titles.

Most Apple phones now come with a free three-month subscription to the service, giving you the perfect opportunity to take your shiny new hardware for a whirl. Even if you're using an older device, there's still a one-week free trial that new subscribers can take advantage of, in order to see what the service offers and work out whether it's a good fit for them.

The only problem? With so many titles on offer it can be hard to know where to start, even if you're already a subscriber. That's why I've created this short personality quiz, which is designed to find out what kind of gamer you are and deliver a selection of recommendations. The recommended games have been personally tested by me, and are what I believe should suit your taste.

Did you find this quiz useful, or do you think I missed the mark with my picks? Let me know in the comments, and don't hesitate to drop your own game recommendations if you have them!

The pro-immigration leader is facing backlash at home and abroad after roughly 60,000 people crossed from Morocco into the Spanish enclave.

(Image credit: Jorge Guerrero)

It's been a huge week for me here at TechRadar. I managed to convince my boss that it was a good idea for me to sit at my desk for five whole days and play all 200+ games available as part of the Apple Arcade service on my phone.

Ultimate Guide to Apple Arcade

(Image credit: Apple / Future)

This article is part of our Ultimate Guide to Apple Arcade: the definitive guide to everything that you need to know about the gaming service. Be sure to browse the full series here.

If it sounds like a ridiculous idea, that's because it really is. Honestly, in my rush to get paid to play some games on my phone, I don't think I actually considered just how long the task would take. That became painfully apparent when I actually started on Monday, and the fact that I was about to spend hours and hours flicking through apps set in.

Still, I managed it — even if the quest ended up sapping up all of my free time. I spent entire evenings lying on the sofa planting crops in Stardew Valley+, whole meals with one finger guiding an escaping explorer in Temple Run Legends, and my hour commute with both eyes glued to Suika Game+ . If I had just one hand free at any given time this week, I was using it to play an Apple Arcade game. Thankfully, I didn't have to drive anywhere.

Now, to be clear, I didn't spend an equal amount of time in all of them. It's easy to sink a few hours into the pixel survival action of Vampire Survivors+, for example, but literal torture to do the same in Play-Doh World (which is basically just a sensory experience for toddlers).

Still, I can now say with confidence which ones are truly worth getting into and, while the following eight picks are by no means an exhaustive list of everything worth playing on the service (just look at the honorable mentions for even more greats), they are the games I've had the most fun with so far and will coming back to time and time again in the weeks and months to come.

Top eight8. Squiggle drop

Squiggle Drop is one of the biggest surprises I've had while exploring Apple Arcade. It's an easy-to-understand puzzler that has you drawing shapes to complete different objectives and, with basic graphics and a spartan interface, looks like a pretty simple game.

That simplicity is one of its biggest strengths, however. The controls are eminently approachable; just drag your fingers around the screen to draw, and all of the levels have multiple solutions that reward creativity and mean that you never feel like you're truly at a loose end.

There's loads of variety to boot. One mission could have you drawing a container to save a birthday cake from the rain, while another might require a more complex creation to catch an underwater fish.

With more than 250 puzzles (some of which are pretty darn difficult), rotating daily challenges, a raft of achievements to obtain, and even an in-game town that you build as you progress, it's the perfect game to pick up and play when you get a few spare moments in an otherwise busy day.

7. Lego Star Wars: Castaways

(Image credit: Gameloft)

Lego Star Wars: Castaways is yet more proof that you should never judge a book by its cover (or, I guess, an app by its icon art). What I thought was going to be a generic kids' game turned out to be a really approachable and quite charming MMO.

You create a custom Star Wars hero and drop into a shared hub world that you can explore while surrounded by other real players, before dropping into iconic locations from the movies (explained in-game as a training simulation) to battle waves of Stormtroopers, Tusken Raiders, Battle Droids, and fearsome bosses like Darth Vader either solo or with up to three friends.

There are four character classes to unlock, focusing on ranged laser blaster combat, powerful force skills, team support, and stealth, and they all have meaty upgrade trees in addition to a range of distinct weapons to try. Character customization is also strong, and you can unlock loads of different hats and outfits using currency you obtain by completing quests and missions.

I had a lovely time with it as an adult, but there are some smart safety features that make this a great pick for children as well. Your character name, for example, is chosen from a random selection of suitably Star Wars-sounding words (I foolishly flicked past 'Jar-Jar Skywalker' when it popped up as an option) and numbers. There's also no direct text or voice chat function, though you can communicate through a small selection of emotes.

6. Angry Birds Reloaded

(Image credit: Rovio)

Angry Birds is a game that needs no introduction. This legendary early App Store sensation spawned countless sequels, spinoffs, theme park rides, a TV show, and even two popular animated films with a third set to release later this year.

Reloaded is basically the definitive Angry Birds game, bringing together the levels from the classic Angry Birds and its sequels Angry Birds Seasons, Angry Birds Space, and Angry Birds Stella (the latter two aren't even available on the App Store in their original forms anymore, making this the only way to officially play them) in addition to loads of new ones.

It offers the classic bird-slinging action that made the series so popular, now spruced up with shiny new graphics that look lovely even blown up on a big screen. All of the new content means that it's a joy to dip into even if, like me, you completed all of these games back in the day.

For newcomers, it's the absolute best that the series has ever been, with the best-looking graphics, all the greatest levels, and absolutely no ad interruptions. Get it downloaded, and find out why it was such a hit.

Top five5. Disney Dreamlight Valley Arcade Edition

(Image credit: Gameloft)

If after a busy day you just want to kick back and escape to a fantasy world, then Disney Dreamlight Valley is for you. This life simulator thrusts you into a magical town filled with iconic Disney characters that has fallen into disarray. A mysterious malevolent force is taking over in the form of dark roots that sap away memories, and it's up to you to get rid of them all and restore everything to its former glory.

From relaxing farming to designing your own cute cottage and customizing your outfits, everything here seems designed to bring nothing but the most chill vibes. There's a good sense of progression as new areas are steadily unlocked while you play, bringing the worlds of new Disney franchises into the mix.

On that note, it's hard to overstate the joy of interacting with some of the company's best characters. I've never been a massive fan of Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, or Goofy, but even I can't stop myself from smiling when I unlock childhood favorites like Ratatouille's Remy, Wall-E's Eve, or Peter Pan's Tinker Bell.

Although you can pick up Dreamlight Valley on other platforms, the Arcade Edition comes packed with all of the latest free updates and access to the biggest paid expansions at no extra cost. It looks great and controls well on a phone, too.

4. Sid Meier' Civilization 7 Arcade Edition

The Arcade Edition of Sid Meier's Civilization 7 is the real deal, bringing all the strategic brilliance of the latest Civilization game to mobile with few real compromises aside from some missing DLC.

If you're unfamiliar with the franchise, it tasks you with building and governing a historical society from the ground up in a randomly generated world. You build cities, conquer territory, develop new technology, and interact with other competing societies. Whether you form trade alliances and live peacefully alongside your neighbours or wage war is entirely up to you.

Unlike past games, Civilization 7 added the ability for your empire to evolve, giving you the choice to swap between different cultures for unique bonuses, special buildings, or exclusive units.

The level of depth here is simply unparalleled in the mobile space, and as games can take tens of hours at a time, it's great to be able to take it all on the go.

Top three3. ‎Taiko no Tatsujin Pop Tap Beat

(Image credit: Bandai Namco)

Taiko no Tatsujin is a name you'll recognize if you've even been to an arcade in Japan. It's a simple but addictive rhythm game all about hitting a big drum in time with the beat, a gameplay perfectly suited for a touchscreen.

Tap either side of the on-screen drum in time with the blue icons or either side of the middle for the red ones, with bigger notes needing both sides at once. It starts off simple, but as the difficulty ramps up, beats that you have to hold are introduced, alongside ones that have you hammering the screen as quickly as possible with your fingertips.

The song selection is brilliant if, like me, you love Japanese music with a good mix of J-pop hits, Vocaloid classics, and music from popular anime. If that's not your speed, there are plenty of original songs, a whole load of classical music, a few tracks from Western blockbusters like Indiana Jones, plus viral sensations such as Baby Shark.

Nothing quite compares to the joy of mastering a song and, with so many to choose from and a wide range of difficulty levels to beat, Taiko no Tatsujin Pop Tap Beat is almost impossible to put down.

2. Sonic Dream Team

(Image credit: Sega)

What if I told you the best new 3D Sonic the Hedgehog game of the last decade was an Apple Arcade exclusive? It sounds hard to believe, but Sonic Dream Team is so good that I would recommend it even if you're not a Sonic the Hedgehog fan.

This 3D platformer has the iconic blue hedgehog navigating a series of dense worlds with impeccable dream-like visuals, hopping between floating platforms, boosting your way down high-speed rails, and dispatching enemies with homing attacks. The action certainly isn't as fast as some of the 2D Sonic the Hedgehog games, but the precise controls mean that it feels excellent nonetheless.

It's not the longest experience on Apple Arcade, lasting just a couple of hours, but it is highly replayable with six swappable characters (including a rare Cream the Rabbit appearance), each with their own distinct pacing and unique roster of abilities to experiment with, a ranking system to chase high scores, tricky challenge stages, and unlockable powers.

There are also loads of collectibles to seek out, so true completionists have plenty to chip away at even after the credits have rolled.

1. What the Golf?

If I were forced to pin down one overall favorite among everything that I played this week, then What the Golf? is the obvious choice.

It's an unapologetically ridiculous physics-based game that is only really about golf in the loosest sense. Levels are incredibly creative, and no two are the same, having you putt everything from hot dogs and cars to live horses and entire houses into the hole.

It's consistently surprising and endlessly amusing, with mechanics and even the game's perspective shifting on a level-by-level basis. It's all underpinned by an expressive, minimalist art direction, a sleek interface, upbeat music, and a barrage of punny humor. The brilliant use of haptics also deserves some credit, giving everything you punt a distinct feeling of weight to it.

In addition to a lengthy main campaign, there is a generous selection of daily courses, bonus episodes, special events, online leaderboards, and more. Indie game fans will recognize loads of crossovers and references, too. It's nothing short of a joyous time.

Even more picksHonorable mentions

(Image credit: Sega)

I wanted to keep my recommendations concise and varied, with a good mix of genres, art styles, control methods, and so on represented. That doesn't mean that I don't have loads more recommendations, though, so here are some more strong picks that didn't quite make the full list for one reason or another.

• Fantasian is a sprawling RPG adventure with a beautiful miniature art direction.
• Monument Valley+ and Monument Valley 2+ are two stunning indie puzzle games that play with perspective in interesting ways.
• NFL Retro Bowl '26 offers a surprisingly meaty football simulator delivered through charming pixel-art graphics.
• Stardew Valley+ combines relaxing farming with social simulation as you build relationships with a cast of memorable characters in a cozy town.
• Suika Game+ has you merging different fruits in an easy-to-understand puzzler that's taken the internet by storm.
• Puyo Puyo Puzzle Pop is an exclusive entry in the long-running Puyo Puyo series that's filled with its trademark Tetris-like puzzle battles.
• MySims and MySims Kingdom are both expansive, feature-complete ports of classic The Sims spinoff games.
• Vampire Survivors+ brings the viral wave survival game to mobile — be warned that hours can vanish in the blink of an eye.

• Kaspersky says empty web pages are watching you, and the research backs up the warning
• Over 90% of parked domains now send visitors somewhere malicious, and clearing your cookies will not help
• Blank pages are also a problem: many 'Coming Soon' placeholders are quietly fingerprinting your device

Kaspersky has unveiled a rather underreported attack vector which is increasingly being used by threat actors to harvest private data from unsuspecting victims: registered websites that are yet to be developed.

Its warning focuses on parked domains, the registered web addresses that have no real website behind them yet, arguing that the blank screens and "Coming Soon" placeholders users dismiss as harmless are frequently doing work in the background.

The company says simply loading one of these pages can trigger silent collection of a visitor's IP address, approximate location, User-Agent string and cookie identifiers, and that operators go further by building browser fingerprints through other techniques, then feeding the result into advertising networks to assemble targeted profiles without consent from users.

Browser fingerprinting sans the permissions

The mechanics Kaspersky describes are worth understanding, because fingerprinting is the part most readers will not have encountered, and the part that conventional privacy habits do not touch.

For context, a cookie is a file placed on your machine that you can delete, thereby limiting tracking. A fingerprint is not stored on your machine at all. It is derived from how your specific hardware and software combination renders a test image, draws 3D graphics, or processes an audio signal, producing a value distinctive enough to identify the same device across unrelated sites.

Browser fingerprinting, the method used to capture such data within a browser session, is attractive to trackers because it is considerably harder to shake off. A private browsing window prevents your machine from keeping a local record of the visit, but it does not change how your hardware renders the test image, so the fingerprint it produces remains largely the same.

Such domains can also cause more direct damage than selling one's information to advertisers. Kaspersky says threat actors embed scripts that bounce visitors onward to fraudulent platforms, adult content, or online casinos. It flags typosquatting as a particularly acute risk, in which a domain differing from a well-known brand by a letter or two can capture mistyped traffic, landing the user on a phishing page or triggering a drive-by download.

This isn't the first time the problem has been reported, either, as recent research from Infoblox finding that in large-scale experiments, over 90% of the time, a visitor to a parked domain was routed to illegal content, scams, scareware, antivirus subscription traps, or malware.

Kaspersky recommends several ways to mitigate the risk, including avoiding suspicious links, clearing cache and cookies after an unintended visit, and using software that blocks web tracking.

Clearing cookies is worth noting, though: it addresses the cookie identifiers Kaspersky mentions, but by the company's own explanation it does nothing about fingerprinting, because there is nothing stored locally to clear.

Parked domains, including blank pages that appear inert, are now a routine part of criminal infrastructure rather than digital litter and should be treated with caution. At best, you give away more information than you meant to. At worst, you become the victim of an attack you never saw coming.

Remember when mobile gaming was fun?

Back in the day, you could just scroll the App Store, pick out an icon or two that you liked the look of, and have a new game downloaded and ready to play in just a few moments.

Ultimate Guide to Apple Arcade

(Image credit: Apple / Future)

This article is part of our Ultimate Guide to Apple Arcade: the definitive guide to everything that you need to know about the gaming service. Be sure to browse the full series here.

Booting them up, you’re not confronted with a 29.68GB additional download that you have to stay on one screen to complete, a wall of sketchy in-app permissions to accept, or a page demanding that you sign in with some iffy third-party account — just a neat little self-contained experience designed to help you kill a few hours on the train.

Though they seemed simple, many of the best App Store games were quietly revolutionary. Angry Birds and Fruit Ninja pioneered intuitive touch-screen controls, while Doodle Jump smartly utilized the iPhone’s accelerometer to show how hardware features could become core gameplay mechanics.

Statista estimates that there are now more than 180,000 mobile games available on the App Store. But when was the last time you installed one that felt genuinely exciting, rather than like a thinly veiled scheme to force ad views, harvest personal data, or pressure you into pricey Gacha Pulls? That’s exactly where Apple Arcade comes in.

Back in time

Puyo Puyo Puzzle Pop is an incredible Apple Arcade exclusive entry in the long-running puzzle series. (Image credit: Sega)

Having spent the last week diving into all 200+ of the titles available on the service, I can’t help but think that Apple’s highly curated library of mobile titles feels like a journey back in time to the App Store’s glory days.

The whole experience is completely seamless. You sign up for $6.99 / £6.99 / AU$9.99 a month and can immediately jump into browsing the games. They’re all contained in a dedicated Arcade tab in your iPhone’s App Store, so there’s no ambiguity about whether the app you’re looking at is part of the service or not.

Although the selection here is nowhere near as expansive as the regular games tab, it feels genuinely curated and cuts out huge amounts of clutter and spam.

No matter what you like to play, there’ll be at least a few games for you. An impressive variety of genres are represented in the catalog: there are plenty of massive role-playing games (RPGs) that you can sink hours into, be that Trials of Mana+ or Final Fantasy+, fast-paced racers such as Asphalt 8: Airborne+ and Sonic Racing, head-scratching puzzlers in Monument Valley+ and Lego Builder’s Journey, and so much more.

Jetpack Joyride 2 adds new missions, weapons, upgrades, and more. (Image credit: Halfbrick Studios)

Those iconic early mobile titles I mentioned earlier? They’re back too in new and improved forms that make them a nostalgic joy to revisit. There’s a full-on Angry Birds remake with enhanced graphics and extra levels, an expanded Doodle Jump sequel that updates the hand-drawn graphics and adds new environments, and a Temple Run successor that trades the endless format for challenging levels that are better-suited for short bursts of play.

The innovation of the early App Store is there too. RPG Fantasian wows with incredible art direction that sees you exploring hundreds of beautiful real-world dioramas that were digitally scanned into the game, while bonkers sports simulator What the Golf? takes full advantage of punchy iPhone haptics to add real weight to its wacky physics challenges.

No distractions

No ads makes it easier than even to lock-in in rhythm games like Taiko no Tatsujin Pop Tap Beat. (Image credit: Bandai Namco)

The games are all entirely devoid of ads and microtransactions, so you never have to deal with a frustrating splash screen or pop-up that takes you out of the action.

This means that most of the games will work entirely offline as well, just like they did back in the day. I had practically given up playing mobile games on my commute before getting into Apple Arcade simply because it was so hard to find titles that wouldn’t kick me out the second my train went into a tunnel.

There are no sign-in screens anywhere, and most games don’t even request permission to send push notifications. Your progress will even automatically sync to the cloud so you can continue playing on your iPad, Mac, or Apple TV when you get home.

Oh, and you don’t need to worry about your privacy in all this either. Apple says that all of the games in the service have no third-party tracking software and don’t collect any advertising data. All that, to me, is certainly worth paying for.

I’ve tested dozens of smart glasses for TechRadar, but every time I get a new pair of Meta Ray-Bans to try, I’m reminded why they’re so popular — because yet again my past three weeks with the Ray-Ban Meta Optics have been a joy.

Mostly.

Much like Meta’s previous smart specs, you’ll find a host of technological features crammed into the eyewear.

There are speakers for open-ear audio, which is perfect for listening to casual tunes, taking a call, or hearing the AI’s responses to your queries — with the glasses’ microphones also doing a great job at picking up what you’re saying with minimal noise disruption.

Dedicated earbuds will sound better for sure — the bass isn’t as emphatic as I like with Meta’s Optics glasses (or its other models) — though I did enjoy listening to music through my glasses for hours on end with no major complaints.

(Image credit: Future / Hamish Hector)

As mentioned, there’s also Meta’s AI, which is accessed through the connected phone app and voice commands on your specs. It can answer questions you ask it and, with your permission, see what you see by accessing the Meta Optics’ camera to provide additional context to your questions, and interact with connected apps to play music requests or tell your health and fitness stats.

I’m not a big AI user except when I’m on holiday or just generally acting like a tourist. On our honeymoon, my wife used Look and Ask to check the ingredients on hair care products to make sure she wasn’t allergic, and I got the AI to supply me with phrases to use when I realized my limited Spanish wasn’t going to cut it.

The AI’s also perfect for identifying landmarks and telling you more about historic sites. I relied on it so much on a trip I took to Italy with my other Meta glasses a while ago — it helped me understand the ruins of Pompeii and better learn the history of the Colosseum.

A photo taken with my Meta Optics (Image credit: Future / Hamish Hector)

Beyond identifying foreign signs and buildings, the cameras are ideal for first-person video. I used them to snap photos and videos of my wife and me, and they came out really well — they're the ideal way to record memories digitally, as you can still live in the moment rather than being cut off behind a phone screen.

I’ll talk more about cameras in a moment, but before that I want to focus on the key way the Optics is different to Meta’s other Ray-Ban smart specs: it's comfort and fit.

Built to last all-day

Meta’s smart glasses are chunkier than non-intelligent eyewear, which can make them feel more rigid and less comfortable than regular specs. To make the Optics better suited to all-day wear (something I can confirm they handle effectively after wearing these glasses for hours on end over the past few weeks), you’ll find interchangeable nose pads and adjustable temple tips to help you sculpt them to your face shape.

The correct nose pads have helped the specs sit better on my head without slipping down, while the temple tips can be carefully manipulated (either at home or at an optician) to help the Optics grip your face without applying too much pressure to the sides of your head.

(Image credit: Future / Hamish Hector)

If you’re considering getting some yourself, my final design note is this: pay extra for transition lenses.

The Ray-Bans I’ve been testing are outfitted with the Transitions XTRActive option, meaning they change between clear and shaded when exposed to sunlight — even when I’m in the car — and the lenses changed so quickly as I moved between different environments (something I noticed a lot when going between indoor and outdoor spaces on my honeymoon to Tenerife).

My non-smart eyeglasses boast Transitions Gen S lenses, and I’m also happy with them, or you can opt for polarized Transitions if you want even more light protection, if you’re also willing to pay a bit extra.

Regardless of which type you opt for, Transitions lenses are essential because they maximize the usefulness of your smart specs. Without them, you’re limited to either clear glasses you can only use indoors or on darker days, or shaded glasses that can only be worn outdoors when the sun is brightly shining.

Why did there have to be a but?

Now, the elephant in the room is that Meta’s smart specs are facing increasing amounts of scrutiny from the public because of their cameras.

News stories showcasing bad actors harassing women, recording secretly by modding their specs, or revealing that Meta contractors might be able to see more of your recorded content than you realize have been populating our timelines throughout 2026.

The upshot seems to be a wave of negativity: I conducted a poll through one of my recent stories, and over half of all respondents said they think smart glasses should be banned.

For its part, Meta is doing plenty to combat these issues: it cracked down on Facebook Marketplace listings for glasses modding services and issued an update to prevent the camera from working if the recording light on your smart eyewear is disabled, and it’s also tackling Instagram profiles belonging to creeps like pickup artists who promote using the glasses to harass people.

I still think more needs to be done on the privacy side of things — at the very least being much more explicit about what features share captured content with Meta, though ideally all of your content would remain private through an Apple-like Private Cloud Compute server setup.

I want to just love my smart glasses (Image credit: Future / Hamish Hector)

As of now, I’m admittedly very nervous to wear my Meta Optics. I haven’t been worried about going around wearing my Meta Ray-Ban and Oakley specs in the past, but with growing public anger over the way smart specs are being misused, I have a genuine concern someone will see me wearing them and act violently towards me.

Or I could simply be banned from entering a space while wearing them. Some Comic-Cons, offices, and courts don’t let you in wearing Meta-style smart glasses. Especially for something as essential as prescription glasses, and pricey ones at that, being constantly nervous while wearing them or barred from entering certain spaces isn’t ideal.

There is genuinely so much to love about the smart glasses, and if you haven’t yet got a pair and wear prescription eyeglasses, the Meta Ray-Ban Scriber Optics styles are the ones I’d most highly recommend.

Two-minute review

It’s been almost seven years since Apple Arcade launched, and we’ve seen the service grow from one that focuses predominantly on experimental indie games to something more diverse and broadly appealing. Big exclusive releases like Hello Kitty Island Adventure and Fantasian successfully put it on the map and helped justify the subscription cost, but where exactly does Apple Arcade sit now that many of its best titles have come to traditional console and PC platforms?

Ultimate Guide to Apple Arcade

(Image credit: Apple / Future)

This article is part of our Ultimate Guide to Apple Arcade: the definitive guide to everything that you need to know about the gaming service. Be sure to browse the full series here.

Although I’ve dabbled with it on and off over the years (mainly through the various free trials available to Apple users), I put my head down and spent the last week truly immersing myself in the service with a shiny new iPhone 17 Pro Max to find out. I’ve now played all 279 games (yes, every single one — even those designed for literal toddlers like Thomas & Friends: Let’s Roll+ or My Little Pony: Mane Merge. The latter is surprisingly good, to be fair).

First and foremost, the thing I’ve enjoyed the most about my time with the service has been just how seamless it all is. Finding something to play is as easy as opening up the dedicated Arcade tab in the App Store or the dedicated Arcade app and having a quick scroll. Everything included with the service is neatly categorized into key genres like strategy, sports, card, puzzle, and so on, with new and popular games prominently displayed in case anything catches your eye.

(Image credit: Future)

Once you’ve chosen a game and got it installed, you simply boot it up, and you can get right to playing with no annoying sign-in screens, additional downloads, or intrusive pop-up ads. It all just works, which is the kind of premium experience you would expect from the Apple brand. You can even access everything offline and, as someone who has loaded my phone up with games before a 14-hour flight only to discover with horror that they all require internet account linking or substantial content downloads, it’s hard to overstate how valuable that can be.

The actual game library is pretty compelling too. The fact that many once-flagship games have come to consoles and PC does definitely diminish the appeal slightly if you have access to other platforms, but it’s still a good offering on the whole. It ranges all the way from full-on console to mobile conversions such as Sid Meier’s Civilization 7 Arcade Edition, MySims Kingdom, and Cult of the Lamb Arcade Edition to high-quality originals like Sonic Dream Team.

Loads of nostalgic mobile titles are also present in enhanced, ad-free form, and I’ve really enjoyed going back to the moreish endless running action of Subway Surfers in Subway Surfers+ and Jetpack Joyride in Jetpack Joyride+ and its exclusive follow-up Jetpack Joyride 2. That’s not to say that everything here is a winner, though. Some of the games, like racer Gear.Club Stradale seem fun at first but offer little depth, while a small chunk of the library are just samey card games (Gin Rummy+, Crazy Eights+, Spades+, Hearts+, etc.) with reused animations, assets, and sound effects that just feel like filler.

Still, there’s plenty to sink your teeth into for the relatively modest monthly price, and it’s well worth checking out if you have a compatible device. If you’re a subscriber to any Apple One plan, you already have access to Apple Arcade, so giving the service a go is a no-brainer.

Price and availability

• Costs $6.99 / £6.99 / AU$9.99 a month
• 12 month $49.99 / £49.99 / AU$79.99 plan available
• Also part of Apple One

When it originally launched in 2019, Apple Arcade cost just $4.99 / £4.99 / AU$7.99 a month. This has since gone up to $6.99 / £6.99 / AU$9.99, representing a slight $2 / £2 / AU$2 increase. Even with this factored in, the service is still decent value: it currently offers more than 270 games, and if you play just a few of those every few weeks you’ll definitely be getting your money’s worth.

You can save some cash and make it even better value by purchasing a 12-month plan, which is priced at $49.99 / £49.99 / AU$79.99. Various free trials are also available, with most new Apple devices including a complimentary three-month subscription. If you subscribe to any Apple One plan, access to Apple Arcade is already included.

Features and interface

• Built-in to the App Store
• Also part of the dedicated Games app
• Offers family sharing

For a mobile gaming service, Apple Arcade has a decent set of features. You can access the service through a prominent tab in the App Store, or via the dedicated Games app. You can add friends from your contact list in order to see what they are playing and compare your high scores.

If you want to play together, the likes of Crossy Road Castle offer full online multiplayer while titles such as Mini Motorways or Pac-Man 256+ let you set up competitive score-based challenges with a shared leaderboard in the Games app. These challenges last a set number of days and don’t require everyone to be playing at once, smartly helping you stay connected without the pressure of working out a dedicated play time that works with everyone’s busy schedules.

Unless you’re accessing the service through the Apple One Individual plan, you can share your Apple Arcade subscription with up to six family members at no extra cost, which means you shouldn’t struggle to find people to play with.

(Image credit: Future)

As with most Apple services, the entire Apple Arcade interface is simple but effective. The Arcade tab on the App Store is simply laid out with a good number of categories to browse. New or popular additions alongside games with ongoing events are highlighted so you can jump right in. It all looks and feels carefully curated, which is a big plus.

Although I tested the service using an iPhone, Apple Arcade is also available on a wide range of other Apple devices. It’s also compatible with iPad (and I’ve used it in the past on an iPad Mini), Apple TV, Mac, and even Apple Vision Pro.

Of course, game availability, compatibility, and performance can vary between devices, but it’s still good that you can access your games in a wide variety of formats.

The vast majority of titles can be played without a controller, though many still allow you to hook up a compatible gamepad such as the DualSense Wireless Controller, Xbox Wireless Controller, or many of the best mobile controllers if you prefer.

This is definitely the way to go on Apple TV, where the small included remote could otherwise be quite limiting.

AppleAppleAppleGame library

• Solely focuses on games
• Some good exclusive titles
• A little bit of filler

The Apple Arcade library is entirely devoted to games, and it includes a good range of them. The absolute highlights for me are the exclusive entries in popular console franchises, like Cooking Mama: Cuisine!, Taiko no Tatsujin Pop Tap Beat, or Puyo Puyo Puzzle Pop. They take key series mechanics and smartly rework them for a touch screen format while sprinkling in a few interesting twists.

Sonic Dream Team is a particularly good example of this, borrowing heavily from other Sonic the Hedgehog titles but introducing a unique dream-world setting and the ability to swap between multiple characters on the fly with their own distinct abilities.

They’re all graphically impressive and run smoothly, at least on recent iPhones. Many of them would hold up right alongside the full console entries, which really helps Apple Arcade feel like its own platform rather than a collection of mobile ports.

That’s not to say that there aren’t many ports available on the service. You can play versions of big hitters like Sid Meier’s Civilization 7, Cult of the Lamb, Disney Dreamlight Valley, Stardew Valley, PowerWash Simulator, Vampire Survivors, Dredge, both MySims and MySims Kingdom, and much more. The selection definitely skews towards older games, however, which is somewhat of a shame.

SegaSegaRovioGameloft

There are also plenty of enhanced mobile classics like Subway Surfers+, Smash Hit+, and Jetpack Joyride+, which all have microtransactions and ads removed. There are also some cool exclusive sequels such as Jetpack Joyride 2 and even an excellent exclusive Angry Birds remake in Angry Birds Reloaded, which is crammed with new content.

More casual gamers have plenty of great experiences to choose from, and the family demographic is similarly well catered to with a number of titles specifically designed for younger children.

My only real complaint with the library is that there is definitely a bit of filler. Do you really need multiple apps for different card games, for example, or two competing Sudoku apps?

The number of great Apple Arcade exclusives that have been ported to console and PC is also unfortunate, namely games such as Fantasian and Hello Kitty Island Adventure.

On one hand, I’m glad that more players will be able to experience them, but on the other, losing exclusives does hurt the value proposition of the service. If you own other platforms and only want to play one or two games, it’s worth checking if they’re now available to buy outright elsewhere.

Should I use Apple Arcade? Use it if…

You pay for Apple One
If you pay for Apple One, then you already have access to Apple Arcade. Checking out some of the games on offer is a no-brainer. You might find a new favorite.

Apple is your primary platform
If you own multiple Apple devices and are interested in gaming, then Apple Arcade is perfect for you. One subscription allows you to play across iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple TV.

You want a subscription for the whole family
The game library is brilliantly varied, with picks for the entire family no matter what genres or types of games everyone prefers. With the ability to share your subscription with up to six family members, it’s a cost-effective choice.

 Don’t use it if…

The games you want to play are available elsewhere
Loads of great Apple Arcade titles have been ported to other platforms. If you own an Xbox, PlayStation, or Switch and are thinking about subscribing, it’s worth checking that the games you want to play are not already available there.

How I tested Apple Arcade

• Tested for over a week
• Have previously used the service
• Tested using an iPhone 17 Pro Max

I have used Apple Arcade on multiple occasions over the years, mainly through free trials and an Apple One family plan on my old iPhone 15 Plus and iPad Mini. I made the jump to Android back in 2025, so I lapsed until this week, which I spent rigorously testing all of the available games using an iPhone 17 Pro Max and a 12-month membership provided by Apple for coverage purposes.

I mainly played games using touch controls, but still evaluated the functionality of multiple compatible controllers, including the Xbox Wireless controller and DualSense Wireless Controller in addition to some of the best mobile controllers like the Razer Kishi V3 Pro, Backbone One and Backbone Pro.

Read more about how we test

First reviewed December 2019

• Meta rebuilt storage systems after slow data repeatedly stalled expensive AI GPUs
• SSD caching dramatically reduced AI dataset loading times from hours to minutes
• Meta replaced complex metadata lookups with a faster unified storage architecture

Meta says storage systems have failed to keep pace with AI computing power, creating delays that leave costly GPUs waiting instead of processing workloads efficiently.

According to the company's engineers, storage bottlenecks remain a major cause of GPU stalls, increasing operating costs while slowing research progress and extending development timelines.

To address those delays, Meta redesigned its storage architecture, arguing that faster movement of data can unlock greater value from expensive AI hardware investments.

Meta rebuilds storage architecture to keep GPUs working

Meta's engineers explained that the company operates hundreds of exabyte-scale storage clusters supporting Facebook, Instagram, Reality Labs, Meta AI, advertising systems, databases, and internal data warehouses.

Those services rely on a foundational storage layer called Tectonic, which manages object storage, file systems, block devices, and data placement across HDDs and SSDs.

The company has increasingly shifted from traditional file storage toward BLOB storage because massive AI datasets require unified access methods with significantly higher performance.

When GPU servers request information from storage, repeated metadata lookups across several layers create latency that interrupts AI training pipelines and delays overall processing.

Meta responded by rebuilding the metadata subsystem into a unified schema backed by ZippyDB while allowing clients to retrieve data directly from storage servers.

Instead of routing every transfer through application servers, the redesigned software uses an embedded client capable of streaming information directly from the Tectonic storage layer.

To support distributed AI deployments, Meta placed regional BLOB-storage systems beside GPU clusters, reducing delays associated with transferring information across distant infrastructure.

It introduced distributed caching using unused GPU host memory, producing an average cache hit rate of 80%, while metadata became accessible within 1 to 2 ms.

The engineers further added hedged reads alongside dynamic concurrency controls, stating that "the new BLOB-storage stack is now capable of serving AI workloads without causing GPU stalls."

SSD caching cuts hours from AI data ingestion

Meta examined lengthy delays experienced before AI training even began, when researchers transferred enormous dataset snapshots from BLOB storage into regional GPU facilities.

Instead of loading every dataset directly from slower storage drives, Meta created multiple cache layers that keep frequently used data much closer to GPU servers.

That approach introduced multiple caching layers, using GPU memory as L1, SSDs inside GPU hosts as L2, and regional flash-backed BLOB storage as L3.

Traditional HDD storage remained the authoritative data source, while faster cache layers supplied frequently requested information before slower disks became necessary during processing.

Meta’s redesign produced sharp gains in ingestion speed, cutting a previous 150-minute loading process down to just 10 minutes.

A separate job that once required 89 hours to complete now finishes in just over three hours from start to finish.

Citrini analyst Jukan notes that high-capacity storage has traditionally been judged mainly by its cost per terabyte of capacity alone.

He argues that idle GPU time can outweigh any savings gained from cheaper storage if data arrives too slowly each day.

This suggests that the cost of flash storage is economically rational whenever eliminating idle time costs more than the flash itself each hour.

Via Blocks and Files

If you're a die-hard iPhone user, then there's a strong chance that you already have access to Apple Arcade and don't take full advantage of it. The gaming service is currently included with all tiers of the Apple One subscription — an all-in-one bundle that also includes the likes of iCloud Plus, Apple TV Plus, and Apple Music in one monthly fee.

Ultimate Guide to Apple Arcade

(Image credit: Apple / Future)

This article is part of our Ultimate Guide to Apple Arcade: the definitive guide to everything that you need to know about the gaming service. Be sure to browse the full series here.

Even if you don’t pay for Apple One, a free three-month trial of Apple Arcade comes bundled with every new iPhone, iPad, Mac, or Apple TV, plus, the service is available as a standalone subscription if you don’t want it bundled with anything else. Sounds great, right? But what actually is Apple Arcade, how much does it cost, and is it really worth the price?

I’ve spent this week getting to grips with all things Apple Arcade, from diving into some of its biggest exclusive games to comparing it to other competing services, in order to bring you this comprehensive breakdown of everything you need to know about it. Read on and become an Apple Arcade expert.

What actually is Apple Arcade?

Apple Arcade is a gaming subscription service by Apple designed for its iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV and even Apple Vision Pro devices. It launched in September 2019 and gives you access to a huge library of more than 200 premium games that you can download and play offline.

Unlike many titles that you might download from the App Store, Apple Arcade games are wholly devoid of both ads and in-app purchases. They are complete experiences that you can dive into without the risk of annoying interruptions or being asked to shell-out real world cash for in-game items or downloadable content (DLC).

What kind of games are included?

There are more than 200 games available on Apple Arcade, with options across a wide variety of genres. This includes a selection of high-quality original games such as fast-pace platformer Sonic Dream Team, cozy life simulator Hello Kitty Island Adventure, and beautiful role-playing game Fantasian.

There are also some ports of console and PC games, such as hit strategy game Sid Meier's Civilization 7 Arcade Edition, Disney life sim Disney Dreamlight Valley Arcade Edition, and indie roguelike Cult of the Lamb.

You will also find loads of premium versions of existing mobile titles with no ads or microtransactions in the likes of Doodle Jump 2+, Fruit Ninja Classic+, Bloons TD 6+, and much more.

You can use our quiz below for some hand-picked recommendations.

How much does Apple Arcade cost?

The Apple Arcade standard plan costs $6.99 / £6.99 / AU$9.99 a month.

You can save some cash by opting for an annual plan instead, which is $49.99 / £49.99 / AU$79.99 — a saving of $33.89 / £33.89 / AU$39.89 compared to 12 months of monthly payments.

No matter which of these two options you choose, you can share your Apple Arcade subscription with up to six family members at no extra cost.

Apple Arcade is also available as part of all Apple One tiers (Individual, Family, and Premier). Unlike Apple Arcade, Apple One is not available in an annual subscription format, so you can only pay for it on a monthly basis. You can view and compare all of the options below.

Plan

Price

Included services

Sharing limit

Apple Arcade

$6.99 / £6.99 / AU$9.99 per month

$49.99 / £49.99 / AU$79.99 yearly

Apple Arcade

Up to six users

Apple One Individual

$19.95 / £18.95 / AU$24.95 per month

Apple Arcade, Apple Music, Apple TV Plus, 50GB iCloud Plus

One user

Apple One Family

$27.95 / £24.95 / AU$34.95 per month

Apple Arcade, Apple Music, Apple TV Plus, 200GB iCloud Plus

Up to six users

Apple One Premier

$39.95 / £36.95 / AU$52.95 per month

Apple Arcade, Apple Music, Apple TV Plus, Apple News Plus, Apple Fitness Plus, 2TB iCloud Plus

Up to six users

How to claim your Apple Arcade free trial

In most regions a new iPhone, iPad, Mac, or Apple TV now comes with a three-month free subscription to Apple Arcade. The offer is only valid for 93 days (that's roughly three months), so if you have an eligible device you should consider claiming it quickly if you're interested.

To do so, simply follow these four simple steps

1. Open the App Store on the eligible device
2. Tap the Apple Arcade tab at the bottom of the screen
3. The offer should appear automatically
4. Follow the on-screen instructions to redeem it

If you're not eligible for a complimentary three-month subscription, there's no need to worry — because new subscribers can still claim a one-month trial via the App Store.

Whether you claim three months or one month, bear in mind that a valid payment method will be required in order to get set up. This will be billed at the standard subscription price when your promotional period is over, so remember to cancel your subscription if you want to avoid any charges.

You can find out how to do this on the official Apple Support page.

Do you need a controller to play Apple Arcade games?

The CRKD NEO S is a good pick for Apple Arcade. (Image credit: CRKD)

You don't actually need a controller to play the majority of Apple Arcade games. On iPhone and iPad, almost every title supports full touch screen controls and can be enjoyed without any extra hardware.

If you're playing on Mac, many titles support keyboard and mouse controls.

On Apple TV, you're most likely to need a dedicated gamepad as there are only a few titles that work well with the included remote.

Of course, lots of games still allow you to use a controller on any device even if it's not strictly required and I'd recommend it if you're after an even more console-like gaming experience.

You can see some models that I've personally tested and would recommend for Apple Arcade below.

What about the competition?

If you're strictly looking for a gaming subscription service for your iPhone, then Apple Arcade doesn't really have much direct competition.

The biggest alternatives on that platform are cloud gaming services such as Amazon Luna, which you can access through your iPhone's web browser. These stream games to your phone directly from a cloud server, which means that they require a constant internet connection and cannot be accessed offline.

They also don't work too well with on-screen controls, which means a controller like the dedicated Luna Wireless Controller is required for anything but the most casual titles.

That said, cloud gaming does have some big advantages. You can access full console or PC games, including massive titles such as Fortnite, Fallout 4, or Shadow of the Tomb Raider. As they do not rely on your local hardware, they can also offer high-end graphics features such as maximum in-game settings and ray tracing — though slow or choppy internet can negate this by introducing visual artifacts.

If you have access to an Android Phone, Google Play Pass is a potential alternative. It's cheaper than Apple Arcade but similarly grants access to loads of mobile games with zero ads or microtransactions. It also includes some productivity apps, meaning that it's a little more versatile than the strictly gaming-focused Apple Arcade.

That said, its software library feels much more chaotic and less curated. It also lacks the compelling exclusive releases that I think really bring a lot of value to Apple Arcade.

Apple Arcade FAQsDo Apple Arcade games work offline?

Yes, all Apple Arcade games work offline. This means that you can play them on your iPhone or iPad when you're out of the house and don't have a steady internet connection.

Is it worth getting Apple Arcade?

Apple Arcade can be worth getting if you frequently play mobile and want a more curated, premium experience. The lack of in-game ads and microtransactions means that you don't have to worry about annoying distractions or impulse spending, while many of the exclusive games are high-quality experiences that are worth playing.

Do I lose my games if I cancel Apple Arcade?

You will lose access to Apple Arcade games if you cancel your subscription. You don't need to worry about losing any progress, however, as your save data is stored by Apple via iCloud. This means you can pick up exactly where you left off if you resubscribe at a later date.

Can games leave Apple Arcade?

Although it is uncommon, games can leave Apple Arcade. When this happens you can keep playing the game for a short grace period, before it becomes unavailable on your device.

• Cloudflare summary logs a typhoon, two earthquakes, power failures, and thirteen government exam shutdowns
• It also identified a fiber cut, drone damage to an AWS region, and a botched DNSSEC key rollover
• The report's sharpest finding is that Tanzania's accidental power blackout looked almost identical in the data to its deliberate election-day shutdown in 2025

Cloudflare has published its latest account of what recently knocked chunks of the Internet offline, and the list reads like a catalogue of everything that can go wrong at once: a typhoon, two earthquakes a minute apart, a national power failure, ten government shutdowns timed to school exams, a fiber cut, drone damage to a cloud region, and a routine cryptographic key update that briefly made every .de website in the world unreachable.

Drawn from traffic telemetry on Cloudflare Radar, it is a useful reminder that the systems most people treat as a utility are held together by a surprisingly small number of things.

With geopolitics in the Middle East shaping traffic in Iran, the UAE, Iraq and Sudan, Cloudflare found that not only did the former's traffic drop even after a shutdown ended two months ago, but the UAE seems to be one of the most affected by the on-again, off-again US-Iran conflict thanks to two AWS facilities being struck by Iranian drones.

An accidental blackout and a government shutdown look similar from the outside

Cloudflare's insights tend to make for an interesting read on how the connected world functions, often defying expectations about traffic, online activity, and user behavior, with the recent FIFA 2026 World Cup being an excellent place to start.

When it comes to the most severe disruptions, one would turn to Iran's approach, which cut off internet access during its conflict with the US, an engagement that also had ramifications for most of its Gulf neighbors.

Interestingly, Radar began picking up signs of restoration on May 26 2026, ending an 88-day shutdown that had left the country almost entirely offline since February 28, but it never reached peak pre-conflict levels.

By May 27, traffic had returned to 40% of pre-outage levels, consistent with reports that access was being reintroduced selectively. It has since climbed as high as 90% before settling at roughly 59% of pre-shutdown levels, suggesting that more stringent restrictions may be in effect even as the country grapples with a war that threatens to reignite at a moment's notice.

The most consequential item on the list, as a result of the conflict, is ironically the one that does not look like an Internet outage at all. HTTP traffic to AWS me-central-1, the cloud region in the United Arab Emirates, has remained low, matching AWS status reports at the end of April 2026 stating that the region had been damaged by the conflict in the Middle East and could not reliably support customer applications.

This followed earlier reports in March of physical damage to facilities in both the UAE and Bahrain caused by drone strikes, with two UAE facilities directly hit. It also highlights an interesting insight: A cloud region has become the sort of concentrated dependency that a submarine cable used to be, with the added complication of being a physical target that is much easier to locate than an undersea cable.

(Image credit: Shutterstock)

The longest single disruption came from Super Typhoon Sinlaku, the strongest storm of the 2026 Pacific typhoon season so far, which tracked through the Mariana Islands in mid-April and passed just north of Guam. The island avoided a direct hit, but tropical-storm-force winds knocked out power, disrupted water systems, and took connectivity with them. Traffic from the territory fell as much as 80% below expected levels on April 13 and 14.

Venezuela lost connectivity on June 24 when two major earthquakes struck northern Venezuela within roughly a minute of each other, at Yumare and San Felipe, followed by an aftershock near the coast outside Caracas, coinciding with a fall in traffic visible across Fibex Telecom, which serves an estimated 1.6 million users.

Three days later, a power outage in Tanzania produced a sharp drop in HTTP traffic lasting at least five hours, with Cloudflare drawing parallels to the country's election-related blackout in 2025.

Saint Lucia lost most of its connectivity on June 21 when traffic on Karib Cable's network fell to essentially zero by 21:00 UTC and remained flat for the better part of a day, reportedly due to a fiber cut near the island. Karib Cable is one of the largest providers there, so the loss was registered nationally, with the country's overall traffic falling by around 60% compared with the previous week.

In terms of a self-inflicted wound, Germany takes the cake: On 5 May, DENIC, the registry for the .de domain, performed a DNSSEC key rollover, the routine periodic replacement of the cryptographic keys used to sign a zone's DNS records, and the process began producing invalid signatures.

Because DNSSEC-validating resolvers only trust answers whose signatures match the current published keys, a mismatch is read as evidence of tampering, so resolvers worldwide rejected every .de lookup and returned errors until normal service resumed at 23:15 UTC. To users, it did not appear to be a cryptographic failure. It presented as German websites not loading, email bouncing, and apps timing out. It resulted in global .de query volume going up during the outage rather than down, indicating that users were, as a result, looking for ways to access said sites, amplifying the failure, at least statistically.

Taken together, Cloudflare's insights about the quarter are less a parade of exotic failures than a fairly consistent argument about concentration.

One registry's keys gate an entire national domain for the whole world. One provider carries enough of Saint Lucia's traffic to take the country with it. One cloud region hosts applications that have no idea they are under attack by a drone strike, causing unintended blackouts. The causes are both ordinary and extraordinary. It is the dependencies, however, that are extreme, making the case for redundancies worldwide.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day has spun its way into theaters — and there's something about the Marvel movie's end credits scene that's dominated my thoughts since I left my screening.

I've already written about the post-credits stinger in my Spider-Man: Brand New Day ending explained piece, but I didn't elaborate on what it could be teasing. That's because, based on a new theory I have about this Spider-Man film's end credits scene, I deemed that discussion worthy of its own article.

It goes without saying, but full spoilers immediately follow for Spider-Man: Brand New Day. If you haven't seen it yet: bookmark this page, read my Spider-Man: Brand New Day review to see if it's any good, and then watch it at your local theater. Once you've completed those steps, re-open this page — it'll be worth the wait, I promise.

Alright, let's first review what happens in Spider-Man 4's post-credits scene, which centers on the Spidey Tracker app developed by Ned Leeds.

Initially, a flashing marker, accompanied by an automated voice message that says "New Spider-Man sighting", indicates that the titular hero is still in New York City. However, the message soon starts saying "Location unknown", which highlights that Spider-Man's actual whereabouts are, well, unknown. Cue the app zooming out to try to find Peter Parker.

Eventually, the app zooms out far enough that it not only shows us the entire Earth, but also that the popular Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) character can't be found. That's until the app moves away from our world, lays down a new pin that indicates Spider-Man is somewhere in space, and ends with the voice message saying "Location found."

Where'd you go, Peter? (Image credit: Sony Pictures/Marvel Entertainment)

What does that mean? The obvious answer is that Spidey is no longer planet-side. I know, shock, horror. What isn't clear, though, is why he's in space. Again, there's an easy answer for this: it's got something to do with Avengers: Doomsday and/or its sequel Avengers: Secret Wars.

That pair, which come out on December 18, 2026 and December 17, 2027, mark the end of Marvel Phase 6 and the divisive Marvel Multiverse Saga. And, while current Spidey star Tom Holland isn't confirmed to appear in Doomsday, the fan-favorite A-lister will, by virtue of his popularity, feature in one or both of the aforementioned films. So, it would make a ton of sense if Brand New Day's end credits stinger is teasing his involvement in Doomsday and/or Secret Wars.

Nonetheless, what if — and I realize this is a huge if — the Spidey Tracker isn't picking up Holland's Spider-Man, but one of his fellow webheads?

All three live-action iterations of Spider-Man joined forces in 2021 MCU movie Spider-Man: No Way Home (Image credit: Sony Pictures/Marvel Entertainment)

Now, I know that's a stretch, but hear me out. After all, everything we learn about the Spidey Tracker in Brand New Day suggests it's tailored specifically to the MCU's Spider-Man, so why would it detect another wallcrawler, such as Tobey Maguire or Andrew Garfield's, instead?

Well, for one, we don't actually know that the Spidey Tracker has been custom-built for Holland's version. If it hasn't, there's no reason why it wouldn't detect one of his multiversal variants.

That multiversal aspect is perhaps the most crucial part of my theory, too.

The next two Avengers movies will be the culmination — and celebration — of every Marvel Universe we've seen on the big screen. That includes the MCU, the original Fox X-Men franchise, and — based on myriad rumors that have been circulating online for months — the realities inhabited by Maguire and Garfield.

It would be a huge opportunity missed if we don't see Andrew Garfield again before the Multiverse Saga ends (Image credit: Sony Pictures)

Furthermore, Avengers: Doomsday's story synopsis has already confirmed that it'll revolve around the threat posed by Incursions.

These multiversal calamities occur when the barriers between two universes break down, and lead to a collision that permanently destroys one or both worlds. As such, Doomsday will feature heroes from three distinct universes — the MCU, original FoX-Men, and The Fantastic Four — battling to save their realities.

But are these the only universes we'll visit in Avengers 5? It would be a glaring error if Marvel overlooked Maguire and Garfield's worlds in Doomsday and/or Secret Wars, and I don't think anyone believes that the comic giant would.

It's for that very reason, then, that I believe Brand New Day's post-credits scene isn't actually showing us that Holland's Parker has gone off-world. No, I'm convinced that the Spidey Tracker is actually picking up Maguire or Garfield's Spider-Man — and, of the two, it's the former that it's detected.

Think about it. Doomsday's first proper trailer appears to suggest that the FoX-Men have successfully navigated an Incursion. I speculate more on this in my Avengers: Doomsday trailer breakdown article, but essentially, the teaser's first few seconds show Charles Xavier/Professor X shielding his eyes from a humungous, blinding explosion. Of course, this might not be the final moments of the FoX-Men destroying another world to save their own, but what else could cause such a massive and bright blast if not the destruction of an entire universe?

And what's that got to do with Maguire's Spider-Man? Well, maybe it's his reality — aka the Sam Raimi Spider-Verse — that's being annihilated in that scene. If so, it's possible that a giant mega-Incursion involving the MCU, Fantastic Four-Verse, FoX-Men universe, and Raimi-Verse happens at the same time in Doomsday, which results in the FoX-Men proactively destroying the Raimi-Verse because their reality is most at risk of colliding with it.

Should that be the case, it would explain why the Spidey Tracker detects Maguire's Peter Parker instead of Holland's and subsequently backs up my admittedly wild theory.

I wouldn't be shocked if Tobey Maguire's Peter Parker shows up in Avengers: Doomsday

There's the tiniest shred of evidence that I might be onto something, too. During a cute chat with kids on the Celebrity Surprise YouTube channel, Holland was asked if Maguire would appear in Spider-Man: Brand New Day. Holland's reply? "He's not in the movie [Spider-Man 4], but... yeah, I... yeah, careful now."

The implication here is that Holland knows something about when and where Maguire's version of the character could show up next. Holland is famous for having loose lips when it comes to MCU spoilers, too, so the fact that he stops himself here before he reveals something is, in itself, revealing.

Does he know that Maguire will feature in Doomsday and/or Secret Wars? I wouldn't be shocked if he does. After all, Holland, Maguire, and Garfield all shared the screen in 2021's Spider-Man: No Way Home. If they still keep in touch, it's plausible they've discussed their possible involvement in one or both forthcoming Avengers films, with Maguire potentially telling them — in the strictest confidence — that he's in Avengers: Doomsday. For the sake of my offbeat theory, I hope that's the case.

In the meantime, learn everything we know so far about Avengers: Doomsday, get the lowdown on Avengers: Secret Wars, and find out how to watch the Marvel movies in order.

Banning phones in schools. Yay or nay? It's certainly a topic that's raised debate on both sides in recent years as more states look to enforce stricter rules. Interestingly, however, it does appear that public opinion is starting to sway heavily towards the 'pro ban' camp.

A new report from the Pew Research Center has just concluded that an overwhelming 77 percent of adults surveyed now support a ban on phones in the classroom. That's a massive increase from the 36 percent reported just two years ago.

The ban on phones in the classroom is generally considered distinct from a full ban on devices in schools - commonly referred to as a 'bell-to-bell' ban. Support for a full ban remains firmly split in the Pew report, with 48 percent of adults supporting a full ban in comparison.

Teachers have long been overwhelming advocates of stricter rules. A 2024 survey by the National Education Association found that a whopping 90 percent of teachers supported a ban on phones in class, whereas this 2025 survey by RAND found that 70 percent of school principals believe bans have a positive effect in school. Now, however, it appears that the general public is increasingly on board.

But what do you think? At TechRadar, we're interested in hearing what our readers have to say. I've attached a poll just down below, and we'd also love to hear your concerns in the comments, if you have any.

Do you support a phone ban in the classroom? The case for a ban

(Image credit: Lance Ulanoff / Future)

• Studies have suggested an improvement in suspension rates
• Evidence for improved performance is more mixed

On a gut level, it certainly feels like phones should be out of the classroom. As adults, we're increasingly recognizing the perceived downsides of doomscrolling, social media, or other common phone-based habits. I know I've certainly felt frustrated at my own tendency to be distracted by my phone during work hours.

Luckily, we don't have to just rely on gut feeling; however, as there is in fact some evidence to suggest that phone bans in schools result in better outcomes for students.

Perhaps the most convincing report I've seen is from the Education Next Journal, which collated evidence from Florida's state-wide ban in 2023. While other states have followed suit, Florida is a particularly good case as it was the first state to actually institute a ban. In short, the data is strong here.

Interestingly, the report suggests a higher suspension rate in the first year of the ban, followed by a return to a base level, followed by an overall decrease. Test scores remained steady in the year after the ban but then massively improved in the second year. That suggests it takes a while for any positive changes to be evident.

Another excellent report is from the National Bureau of Economic Research, which studied students from 40,000 schools nationwide between 2019 and 2025. In this study, students reported a greater sense of well-being post-ban as well as decreased suspension rates long-term (after a temporary increase).

This report's findings are a little less cut-and-dry than Education Next's, however, as it didn't find any meaningful effects on test scores. Overall, the report still skews toward viewing a ban favorably, and crucially reports on students' own sense of well-being.

The case against a ban

(Image credit: Future)

• Parents cite child safety as a concern
• Questions remain around other tech devices

So are there any arguments against a ban? Well, the answer is actually yes; there are a few, and they're mostly fielded by concerned parents.

The most common point I've seen raised is the issue of safety in schools. Some have commented that they'd prefer for their child to have a phone in the case of an emergency on school grounds.

Even though I don't have kids, I can certainly empathize with parents in this case. Sadly, we know that violence continues to be an issue in schools, so it's a very good point that absolutely shouldn't be ignored when exploring this topic.

One other point that I've seen raised, and one that certainly also holds weight, is that even with a phone ban, children may still be distracted by other forms of technology in the classroom. If a child still has a laptop, for example, then they may still have access to social media, messaging, and so on.

This was actually suggested by the authors of the National Bureau of Economic Research report as one of the reasons why test results didn't improve in their study. Certainly, it could suggest that you really need a holistic approach to technology as a whole in the classroom. Banning smartphones could just be the start.

• New accessory for Luna Ultra synchronizes the camera with the user's head movement
• POV Head Tracker simplifies shooting hands-free first-person footage
• It costs $69.99 / £67.99 / AU$115.99

Do you ever shoot first-person-view (FPV) video content? Well, Insta360 has a new accessory that's designed to simplify the whole experience: the POV Head Tracker. And it might just tempt you to switch to the Luna Ultra.

The coin-sized 0.2oz / 6.4g device connects to the Luna Ultra compact vlogging camera over Bluetooth and, once paired, it synchronizes the camera with your head movement in real time, for what Insta360 says is "immersive POV footage".

It's designed to completely free up your hands, but goes one step further than a simple chest mount by synchronizing head and camera movement, so you shouldn't have to worry at all about composing the shot.

To me, the POV Head Tracker sounded like a dream accessory for shooting video solo — so I had to try it out for myself.

Tim ColemanTim ColemanTim ColemanA game-changing accessory?

The IPX4-certified device measures just 1.0 x 1.0 x 0.5 inches and comes in a hard0shell USB-C battery case along with an ear mount, strap, clip, adhesive mount and motion adapter. It has has a 7-hour battery life — enough for a full day of shooting.

Insta360 also sent me a neck mount that's designed to hold the Luna Ultra. With the camera slotted into the neck mount and the POV Head Tracker in the supplied ear mount — which is right ear-only — I gave the combo a spin to see if it delivers on its lofty promises.

Setup takes a few seconds, via a simple device calibrate process: you look straight ahead for three seconds, then look straight down for three seconds. Done.

Once the devices are paired and calibrated, you control which way the camera points simply by where you look. Doing a hands-on product review? Look down at the product. Doing a travel vlog and the point of interest is off to the left? Look left. It really is that simple.

It really was like the camera was my second pair of eyes — and it's the biggest nod so far to Insta360 founder and CEO Liu Jingkang's 'photography robot' vision, which I spoke to both him and Insta360 about.

To the leftTim ColemanTo the rightTim ColemanStraight ahead!Tim Coleman

Is the POV Head Tracker perfect? I'm not so sure. It appears as though you can't use Insta360's Mic Pro simultaneously via Bluetooth, plus I found the tracker strayed off sync a little, and that slight difference was highlighted when employing the Luna Ultra's tighter 3x telephoto camera rather than the ultra-wide.

The Luna Ultra with POV Head Tracker felt like a camera setup from the future.

I needed to recalibrate the device from time to time (which can also be done by looking straight ahead and then double-tapping the Luna Ultra's button that recenters the camera).

Still, that's where the camera's detachable LCD screen module came in handy — you can leave the camera on the neck strap over your chest, but view what the camera sees on the detached module, for example if you do need to recalibrate or zoom.

The Luna Ultra with POV Head Tracker felt like a camera setup from the future. A future where people walk around with discreet cameras strapped to their chests, recording what they're looking at. Whether you want that future or not is another matter; but for now Insta360's new accessory feels like a revolutionary device.

It's another form of camera intelligence akin to the Luna Ultra's subject-tracking skills which, when combined with the detachable module, is like having a cameraperson filming you. These smart features make life for solo creators so much simpler, and broaden the range of shots possible.

The POV Head Tracker costs $69.99 / £67.99 / AU$115.99 while the Luna Ultra Neck Mount costs $24.99 / £23.99 / AU$39.99.

(Image credit: Tim Coleman)

TechRadar's reviews crew has been working as hard as ever this month, putting dozens of gadgets and gizmos through their paces to find the ones that are worth recommending. In this Reviews Recap, I've pulled together just our very favorites; the products that impressed us enough to score 4.5 or 5 stars in our tests.

This month, we called the formidably tough new GoPro Mission 1 Pro a "fantastic all-round vacation camera", fell in love with the Marshall Stanmore IV speaker's "rumbling bass and amp-inspired aesthetic", and declared the Samsung S95H "one of the best OLED TVs [we'd] ever tested"... despite its rather controversial design.

We were also won over by smartwatches from both ends of the price spectrum. The flashy Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 impressed our reviewer with its slimmed-down design, slick apps, and intuitive UI — we called it "a great option for hardcore exercisers". The Amazfit Active 3 Premium comes in at a fraction of the price, yet still manages to look great and offer a strong range of features. According to our tester, it's good enough to "hang with entries from the major names in the industry".

Scroll down to explore all of our top-rated gadgets from the past four weeks, across all of our physical product categories. Note: only the products that are available in your region will display as cards.

5-star products

DJI Osmo Pocket 4P

Read our full review

Pros

• Dual cameras for two distinct looks
• Majorly attractive 4K footage, with natural color and tonal depth
• Clever accessories improve user experience
• Great subject-tracking performance

Cons

• Top-heavy design
• Gets warm when handling processor-intensive tasks
• Limited to 4K resolution
• Currently no protective case or sleeve for the camera

HEDD Heddphone D1 over-Ear Headphones

Read our full review

SAMSUNG S95H OLED TV

Read our full review

Pros

• Bright, colourful picture quality
• Superb gaming features and performance
• Effective anti-reflection

Cons

• Divisive new design
• Pricey
• No Dolby Vision

Amazfit Active 3 Premium smartwatch

Read our full review

Pros

• Excellent health and fitness tracking accuracy
• Great value for the price
• Looks fantastic

Cons

• No automatic workout detection

4.5-star products

Amazon Kindle Scribe (2025)

Read our full review

Angry miao AngryMiao AM Infinity.97 wireless gaming mouse

Read our full review

Pros

• Fantastically slick and responsive
• Versatile wireless connectivity
• Innovative swappable battery mechanic

Cons

• More expensive than its rivals
• Lack of a dedicated DPI switch is a shame
• More basic software

Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 smartwatch

Read our full review

Iniu SnapGo Air 10000mAh Power Bank

Read our full review

Pros

• Seriously fast charging
• Slim, stylish design
• Neat LCD screen
• Handy dual cable / loop

Cons

• 10,000mAh doesn't stretch to many charges these days

ASUS ROG Strix Scar 18 (2026) gaming laptop

Read our full review

Eufy Omni S2 robot vacuum

Read our full review

Fluance RT87 turntable

Read our full review

GoPro Mission 1 Pro action camera

Read our full review

Marshall Stanmore IV speaker

Read our full review

Pros

• Stunning sound quality with hard-hitting bass
• Impressive detail with LDAC
• Beautiful, striking design

Cons

• No Wi-Fi connectivity
• Some may wish for a voice assistant
• Visually very similar to its predecessor

Austrian Audio The Arranger Over-Ear Wired Headphones

Read our full review

Pros

• Direct, informative and wide-open sound
• Don’t sit in judgement on less-than-perfect recordings or source equipment
• Remain comfortable even after very long listens

Cons

• Nothing special about the look or the materials
• A balanced cable costs extra
• Profoundly unsexy colorway with no optional alternatives

DREO Turbopoly Fan 765s

Read our full review

Pros

• Tons of precise control
• Ultra-powerful top settings
• Even flow of air
• App, remote, or touchscreen controls
• Lots of speeds and special modes
• Can be a tabletop or pedestal fan

Cons

• A bit noisy at higher settings
• Potentially too many customization options
• Settings can feel confusing
• No misting capabilities
• Can't be used cordless

Sony RX10 V camera

Read our full review

Pros

• A perfectly struck balance of quality and superzoom versatility
• Latest processor and autofocus improve wildlife photography performance
• Big boost in battery life over predecessor
• Improved ergonomics and key controls added, including a joystick

Cons

• Expensive
• Built-in flash and top LCD removed
• Slightly sluggish lens zoom
• 'Just' a 25x optical zoom

Alienware AW3426DW QD-OLED Gaming Monitor

Read our full review

Pros

• Fantastic, consistent brightness
• Great HDR performance with Dolby Vision
• Punchy colors
• Smooth 280Hz refresh rate

Cons

• Deeper curvature could improve immersion
• Toggling HDR on OSD sometimes causes display lockout

Bose Lifestyle Ultra Speaker

Read our full review

Pros

• Tall, well-defined and notably punchy sound
• Good looks complemented by great standard of build and finish
• Happy to work in a multi-brand multi-room system
• Alexa+ is among several good control options

Cons

• Needs greater Bluetooth codec support
• Could conceivably sound wider
• ‘TrueSpatial’ is not as effective as Dolby Atmos

TCL TCL PlayCube portable projector

Read our full review

Pros

• Compact
• + Rotating design for tilt
• Bright projection
• Google TV built-in
• Comes with a durable case for travel

Cons

• Expensive
• Audio volume limited
• Limitations on battery life

Margo Howard had a lot of life experience and used it to offer advice for years as "Dear Prudence" for Slate. She died this week at the age of 86.

(Image credit: Michael L Abramson/Getty Images)

It's a bold new experiment and it's already won a prize. Residents in a jam-packed slum, many of them living in one-room tin shacks, help design their apartments in a brand new building.

(Image credit: Viraj Nayar for NPR)

There are a lot of sacrifices being made to usher in the latest technological age. Jobs, businesses, even whole industries are at risk of disappearing.

Now we can add homes to the list - as new electricity infrastructure for data centers in the state of Georgia means 30 homes are to be bulldozed and 330 parcels of land seized.

The good news is that the additional power will allow for extra data center capacity. And those same people who lost their houses can look forward to having their own personal AI agent to help to find a new place to live.

Losing homes for AI

In case you missed it, Mark Zuckerberg has announced yet another five year plan for AI, saying that billions of people will soon have their own personal AI agents - something that will require a data center buildout far beyond anything we’ve currently seen.

These agents will be “working on your behalf 24/7 to achieve your goals in whatever the domain is that you care about,” Zuckerberg said. They’ll basically do everything you already do, manage your relationships, sort your finances, even manage your household tasks.

So when AI frees everyone from the burdens of being human, what are we left to contend with? We get to channel the world's resources, climate, homes, and personal information and in return, AI can live your life for you. You’ll have so much free time to do… something else? Maybe listen to the tuneful hum of the local data center?

The promises of AI seem to add up to human replacement. The main reason businesses are chewing at the bit to adopt AI technology is because it promises to cut one of their main expenses: labor. The levels of productivity will stay the same, or maybe even improve, but profits will skyrocket thanks to significantly reduced operating costs.

There will be new jobs in new never-before-thought-of sectors, or so we are told. But is this just a way to placate those losing their jobs to AI technology?

At present, AI is cutting through the entry level positions and administrative work that used to be a good way into a new industry. AI is therefore replacing existing workers, while simultaneously shutting them out from moving to other industries. Lets not forget that many workplaces are implementing AI interviewers that suck what was left of human interaction (much of which is a facade) out of the job seeking process.

As an added kick in the teeth, once you’ve lost your source of income your energy bills will likely rise as data centers attach to an already strained electricity grid. Many US electricity providers have upped bills as a way to pay for infrastructural upgrades to provide new connections for data centers. And don’t forget the air quality will get worse as more and more gas-burning turbines power up to meet the demand for power.

I still believe there is some good AI can do for the world, particularly in science and medicine. But the main benefit I expect AI to provide to the workplace is a revitalization of labor unions. Despite decades of union busting and a general decline in membership as the old guard retires, this new threat to workers will hopefully act as a catalyst to return labor unions to their former glory.

The more members they have, the stronger they are. No amount of AI agents can change that.