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Humanoid robot shipments surged 272% as Chinese vendors captured 97% of shipments, led by AGIBOT and Unitree amid growing workplace adoption.

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Corsair Nightsword V2 Wireless: Two-minute review

(Image credit: Future)

I really wanted to like the Corsair Nightsword V2 Wireless. I've had good experiences with Corsair's mice in the past – having been a big fan of both the M65 Ultra RGB and the Scimitar Elite Wireless SE – so I was hopeful that the new Nightsword would be a contender for our ranking of the best gaming mice.

For those not in the loop regarding Corsair's wide range of gaming mice, the original Nightsword launched nearly seven years ago. Needless to say, I wasn't really expecting another model, but I suppose if The Witcher 3 can get a new expansion more than a decade after its release, anything is possible.

The problem I'm having with the Nightsword V2 is that it doesn't really feel like a 'version 2' of its predecessor. For starters, the design has been changed a fair bit, with the RGB lighting scaled back and the thumb button layout slightly altered. It still maintains the ergonomic overall shape with a nice, comfortable thumb rest, but it's ditched the indent pattern that covered the original mouse.

All that wouldn't cause me to dislike this mouse, though. The problem is that the Nightsword RGB had one very cool feature: adjustable weight tuning. Six mounting points and two different sets of miniature metal weights allowed you to adjust the overall weight of the mouse, with nifty software that automatically detected the mouse’s center of gravity in real time, allowing you to fine-tune your experience to make the mouse feel perfect for you.

It was one of the key selling points of the Nightsword RGB, and Corsair focused heavily on it in its marketing. But in the Nightsword V2, it's nowhere to be found; gone, reduced to atoms.

It's a real shame, because I liked that addition a lot. Not enough gaming mice have tunable weight. It made the Nightsword feel more unique, and removing that feature makes the V2 feel... well, a bit bland, if I'm being honest.

It's certainly not a bad gaming mouse, with an ergonomic chassis that sits comfortably in the hand and a high-quality sensor for fast-paced gaming, but I'd fundamentally struggle to recommend it over some other more exciting options out there. Sorry Corsair, but this one feels like a step backward, not forward.

Corsair Nightsword V2 Wireless: Price & availability

• How much does it cost? $129.99 / £119.99 / AU$189
• When is it available? Available now
• Where can you get it? Available globally

While you could pay more for a gaming mouse these days, the Corsair Nightsword V2 Wireless certainly isn't cheap. Clocking in at $129.99 / £119.99 / AU$189, it sits towards the pricier end of the market, though the build quality and high-spec internals do at least attempt to justify the price.

Although it's a technical upgrade from the original Nightsword RGB, the removal of the tunable weight features stings even more at this price point. Considering that there are plenty of other gaming mice on the market with comparable specs, it's difficult to justify recommending the Nightsword V2 Wireless specifically over similar offerings from other manufacturers, or even Corsair itself.

The Nightsword V2 Wireless is available now in all regions, either directly from Corsair or from assorted third-party retailers.

Corsair Nightsword V2 Wireless: Design

• Robust, ergonomic design
• No more tunable weight
• Thumb button grouping may be frustrating for some users

(Image credit: Future)

As I noted further up, this feels like a very different mouse from the original Nightsword – though at first glance, they appear quite alike.

Corsair has stripped back the RGB lighting a bit for the Nightsword V2, with the only RGB zones now being the scroll wheel, the Corsair logo, and an odd little strip on the raised rear underside edge of the mouse that isn't even visible most of the time. Feels like a bit of a waste of an LED to me, but it doesn't feel worth penalizing Corsair for that.

(Image credit: Future)

I'll start with the parts I liked. Removing the indent pattern from the Nightsword V2's predecessor was definitely a wise move, as those tiny grooves were just begging to be filled with grime after months of regular use. The main body of the mouse that rests beneath your palm now has a smooth matte finish, with a pattern of raised texturing (rather than the old indentation) on either side to help improve grip. The skates are standard PTFE, which offers a good amount of glide on traditional mouse mats and hard desktop surfaces.

In terms of buttons, we've got 11 in total: the two main mouse buttons, a scroll wheel with both a regular click function and left-right tilt inputs, one multifunction button behind the scroll wheel, three thumb buttons (one of which is the 'sniper button'), and two extra vertically-aligned buttons beside the left mouse button, which turn the sensitivity up and down by default. All of these are fully programmable in Corsair's iCue software or Web Hub, so there's a good degree of versatility here for users who like to tweak their mouse inputs.

You also get plenty of flexibility in terms of sensor control and connectivity. The Corsair Nightsword V2 Wireless supports tri-mode connectivity, with a physical switch on the underside of the mouse letting you easily swap between Bluetooth, wired, and direct wireless connections (with a bundled USB-A dongle and adapter as well as a power cable). There's also a slot on the underside that can house the dongle, making it easy to take the Nightsword V2 Wireless on the go.

The Corsair Marksman S sensor supports up to 33,000 DPI, and this mouse also includes up to 8,000Hz polling rate support (though not in Bluetooth mode), both of which can be tweaked to your liking in iCue – though for my money, 8K polling is a bit of a gimmick that will only really benefit the absolute highest tier of skilled esports players.

(Image credit: Future)

The whole thing feels pretty durable and well-constructed, sitting comfortably in the hand for palm and claw grip styles. Fingertip grippers should be advised that mice with thumb rests are simply not designed for them, so you probably shouldn't have clicked on this review in the first place – go buy yourself the excellent Logitech G Pro X2 Superstrike instead.

The buttons are sturdy with a good degree of tactile feedback, though I wasn't overly impressed by the scroll wheel; there's no free-scroll mode, and it lacks the firm motion bump of higher-quality scrollers. The grouping of the buttons on the side of the mouse is also a little awkward, at least for users with large hands like me; while trying to use the sniper DPI button in Valorant and Marathon, I kept accidentally hitting the thumb button immediately above it, using a noisy ability when I was trying to quietly take aim at enemy players. Having scanned through the digital archives of several other reviewers, it seems that thumb button positioning was a bit of a frustration with the original Nightsword too, so it's a shame to see this issue hasn't been addressed.

Of course, I have to further discuss Corsair's baffling decision to eliminate the tunable weight feature of the Nightsword. As someone who loves the Logitech G502 Lightspeed Wireless so much I've bought two of them, due in part to its magnetic tunable weight system, I can't help but feel that Nightsword V2 Wireless could have been a serious competitor to my favorite mouse.

(Image credit: Future)

All the other features I like from the G502 Lightspeed are there: a thumb rest, a sniper button, tilt wheel inputs, and a dongle for low-latency wireless connectivity. But removing the weighting system means I can no longer find the perfect balance of heft and handling that I love about my G502, and I'm left simply confused as to why Corsair would remove it for this new iteration of the Nightsword.

At the end of the day, this is a mostly well-designed mouse with a few noticeable foibles, but I can't help but dream of what could have been. It no longer feels like the Nightsword has anything to set itself apart from the crowd, or even from Corsair's own selection of mice; the ergonomic design with a thumb rest is shared by Corsair's M65, Dark Core, and Ironclaw models, for example.

Oh, and as TechRadar's resident southpaw, I have to note that there's no left-handed model available here. I'm pretty sure they call us lefties because we're left out so often – even if I've personally managed to adapt to using my mouse right-handed.

Corsair Nightsword V2 Wireless: Performance

• Comfortable even for lengthy gaming sessions
• No noticeable input latency even in 1K polling mode
• Long battery life

In practical use, the Corsair Nightsword V2 Wireless is perfectly competent and comfy to use for extended periods thanks to its ergonomic shape and thumb rest. I'm a palm-type grip user, and I didn't have any issues whatsoever with hand or finger strain even after a solid six-hour run in Marathon (the new season is about to start, and I had priority contracts to finish, alright?)

I tested the Nightsword V2 in both 1K and 8K polling rate modes, and frankly didn't notice much of a difference whatsoever – but to be clear, that's not really an outright criticism, as I found the mouse to be highly responsive both in terms of movement and clicks regardless of which polling mode I was in.

(Image credit: Future)

I prefer a fairly high DPI, especially for shooters, and the sensitivity here is great. High-skill users who want a really sensitive mouse may want to look for one with a 40K+ DPI sensor (which will probably cost you more), but the 33K Marksman S sensor in the Nightsword V2 ought to be plenty for the majority of PC gamers.

Aside from the issue I mentioned further up regarding the tight grouping of the thumb buttons leading to potential misinputs, I found that the buttons generally felt great. With optical switches for minimal input latency and improved longevity, the main mouse buttons have a decent amount of travel and a firm, satisfying click. The same goes for virtually every other button on the mouse; no cheap, flimsy feeling or wobbliness here.

I actually quite liked the feel of the sniper button (when I wasn't accidentally firing off an ill-timed energy blast instead of lining up a headshot, anyway). It has a good tactile response, so I know when it's been clicked even with my headset on during a noisy firefight, but it doesn't require much force at all to actuate, meaning that it's easy to hold down for careful aiming.

(Image credit: Future)

I did have to remap some of the default button settings, because having the DPI up/down adjustment set to the two side finger buttons just didn't feel right – I opted for the typical setting of the button behind the scroll wheel to swap between DPI presets instead.

The good news about remapping is that you no longer need to install Corsair's iCue software to tweak your peripherals. It's still available, but like a few other PC hardware manufacturers (including Razer), Corsair now offers a fully functional in-browser web app.

The Corsair Web Hub, which I mentioned earlier in this review, allows you to access all the usual software-level modifications for your Corsair devices all within an super-simple browser page. As someone who has long bemoaned the plethora of proprietary software tools for PC peripherals, it's immensely refreshing to be able to do everything I want to do in a regular browser tab, with no downloads required. I arguably can't really say that this is a point in favor of the Nightsword V2 specifically, but good work on the new Web Hub, Corsair.

Lastly, the battery life on the Nightsword V2 Wireless is seriously good, with Corsair rating it for up to 170 hours of use. Across seven days of regular use (more than eight hours a day on average, since I used the Nightsword V2 both for my daily work and gaming after hours), I didn't need to charge it once after my initial testing with the wired configuration.

Should you buy the Corsair Nightsword V2 Wireless?Corsair Nightsword V2 Wireless: Scorecard

Value

At $129.99 / £119.99 / AU$189, the Corsair Nightsword V2 Wireless isn't cheap, though the high-quality construction helps justify the price somewhat.

3/5

Design

The ergonomic design is comfortable in the hand and whole mouse feels durable, but the thumb buttons are too close together and the lack of tuneable weight is a real shame.

3/5

Performance

The Nightsword V2 is snappy and responsive with nice tactile clicks from its optical switches, and also offers a long battery life.

4.5/5

Average rating

While it's a mechanically decent mouse that will appeal to fans of ergonomic designs, the Nightsword V2 simply doesn't do enough to stand out against the competition.

3.5/5

Buy the Corsair Nightsword V2 Wireless if…

You want something comfortable
The ergonomic shape and thumb rest make the Corsair Nightsword V2 Wireless a comfy mouse to use for long gaming binges.View Deal

You want lots of buttons
11 programmable buttons (including scroll wheel tilt inputs) mean you can do a lot of different things at once with this mouse – great for MMO and MOBA players.View Deal

You don't want to charge your mouse often
With up to 170 hours of battery life and customizable sleep options in the Corsair Web Hub, the Nightsword V2 can go for days and days without needing to be plugged in.View Deal

Don’t buy it if…

You liked the original
Despite being a reasonably good gaming mouse, the Nightsword V2 throws away the most unique feature of the Nightsword RGB.View Deal

You're a fingertip gripper
The elevated thumb positioning of fingertip-style mouse grips is ill-suited for the ergonomic thumb rest design of the Nightsword V2 Wireless.View Deal

You’re left-handed
Granted, this applies to more than two-thirds of the gaming mice on the market, but it's still a shame for lefties.View Deal

Corsair Nightsword V2 Wireless: Also consider

Logitech MX Master 3S

It's a few years old now, but if it ain't broke, don't fix it. The MX Master 3S is simply one of the best ergonomic mice money can buy, making it a strong alternative to the Nightsword V2 if you're specifically looking for a mouse built for comfort. Read our full Logitech MX Master 3S review.View Deal

Razer Deathadder V4 Pro

If you're a PC gamer looking for something a little more serious, the Deathadder V4 Pro from Razer packs low-latency optical switches like the Nightsword V2 but also delivers much higher maximum sensitivity thanks to its 45K DPI sensor. Read our full Razer Deathadder V4 Pro reviewView Deal

How I tested the Corsair Nightsword V2 Wireless

As usual for peripheral reviews, the Corsair Nightsword V2 Wireless became my regular mouse for just over a week while I was testing it out, replacing my daily driver, the Logitech G502 Lightspeed Wireless.

I used it every weekday for my regular work at TechRadar, which in terms of how I use my mouse, is mostly just clicking stuff in my browser and sometimes highlighting text. More pertinently, I used it to play a whole bunch of games: Warframe, Marathon, Valorant, Overwatch, and Apex Legends all currently feature in my regular gaming rotation, and I also used it for Slay the Spire II – though I doubt it had my impact on the quality of my gameplay in that particular title. I'm still really bad at the Necrobinder.

First reviewed May 2026

Mubadala could back Akita’s $12.6 billion AI data center, a project that could add major Japan-based AI capacity if its power plans hold up.

The post Japan’s Akita AI Data Center Now Estimated at $12.6B appeared first on TechRepublic.

Garmin Fenix 8 Pro microLED: One minute review

The Garmin Fenix 8 Pro microLED is both a fantastic always-on, lifestyle-support smartwatch, and a 51mm, titanium-bodied multisport watch bulked out with the kind of rugged design that could survive the entire Die Hard franchise. It's absolutely one of the best Garmin watches ever made, but also one of the most expensive.

Of course, the headline ‘brightest smartwatch screen ever built’ feature of this microLED edition is justifiably front and centre, but it also provides the 8 Pro microLED with best-in-class performance, screen clarity and brightness.

It’s bursting at the seams with activity, performance and health tracking features backed up by snappily accurate sensors, which enabled real-time monitoring of everything from shifts in barometric pressure outside in the hills to automatically detecting the start of another eight-metre vertical rep in the indoor climbing wall.

Once you dial the brightness up to maximum in the settings (despite all the hype, the default is befuddlingly set to 75%) the step up in brightness from AMOLED is dazzlingly obvious, and contributes to an impression of increased definition too. In fact, the watch screen is so bright that I could easily use the inbuilt mapping mode to navigate in direct overhead summer sunshine while wearing sunglasses, which is a quality of life gamechanger for outdoor adventurers. And putting it side by side against a maxed-out-brightness iPhone in these conditions really hammers home the benefits of the 4,500 NITs of light coming from those microLEDs.

This next-level brightness is maintained even when viewing the watch face from an acute angle, which can be surprisingly useful when glancing at your watch mid-run or taking quick compass bearings, for instance.

Despite the Garmin Fenix 8 Pro microLED’s 51mm, beefed up form factor (it’s 1mm thicker and 3 grams heaver than the already-thick AMOLED version) I quickly grew used to wearing it 24/7 so that I could really dig into Garmin’s lifestyle, training and health monitoring features. It’s chunky, of that there’s no doubt, but I found the combination of a supremely comfortable, flexible strap and well-designed watch body surprisingly easy to wear all-day and overnight. For the first time in a long time, possibly ever, I found that the sleep monitoring data matched my lived experience almost exactly, which gave me faith in the smartwatch to provide useful, actionable data and insights into how to improve the duration and quality of my sleep without feeling ‘nagged’ to do so.

(Image credit: Future / Matt Ray)

As befitting a true multisport smartwatch, I took the Garmin Fenix 8 Pro microLED everywhere from trail running around London to hiking national parks in sideways rain and from snowboarding at 50mph down a French Alp in -18°C windchill to scaling routes in an indoor climbing wall. I was consistently impressed with the automatic tracking and accuracy of the various activity modes once they’re activated (and there are a lot of modes, including eight running sub-modes and not just Snowboarding but Backcountry Snowboarding too).

I love data but I hate lots of pain points in the tracking experience, so the ability of this smartwatch to intelligently detect and log activity is unsurpassed, in my experience. I found that this smartwatch wasn’t flustered by extreme conditions or environments and the battery life remained consistent even as the iPhone in my pocket was spluttering and dying in sub-zero temps.

Speaking of battery life, it’s nominally less than the AMOLED version, but in practice I got at least four days life on a single charge with Always-On Display on and was pleasantly surprised by its longevity. In situations where battery life was critical, I got used to toggling off the Always-On screen, which made battery life jump to 10 days+. Unlike some smartwatches, there was no perceptible lag when turning your wrist to activate the screen so you don’t sacrifice much usability with this setting.

I also appreciated the rugged design, which shrugged off knocks and scrapes when high in the mountains. Ironically, the biggest impact was when I punched the bezel into a plastic hold when climbing indoors and made the whole wall shake. The sapphire screen remained resolutely unmarked and while I did scrape the very edge of the adonised black finish off the bezel, the titanium itself was undamaged. I look forward to the time when the form factor can be shrunk down, but until then the durability of this smartwatch will see you through despite its egregious, easily-knocked size.

On paper, the brightness upgrade of microLED over AMOLED seems like a ‘nice to have if you have the cash’. But in practice, the real-world experience of discovering unexpected performance and quality of life improvements from a brighter screen are compelling. The upgrade is worth it, and makes me hopeful for the future of microLED technology coming to other smartwatches.

Garmin Fenix 8 Pro microLED: Price and availability

(Image credit: Future / Matt Ray)

• $1,699.99 / £1,399.99 / AU$3,399.99
• A significant leap above the Garmin Fenix 8 Pro AMOLED
• In a price class of its own for a multisport smartwatch

The Garmin Fenix 8 Pro microLED retails for £1,399.99, $1,699.99, AU$3,399.99

That breaks out from the upper reaches of multisport smartwatches and approaches the terrain of luxury connected watches such as Tag Heuer’s Connected Caliber E5. So, you need to be convinced of the benefits of brightness, because that’s 100% what you’re paying for.

• Value score: 4/5

Garmin Fenix 8 Pro microLED: Scorecard

(Image credit: Future / Matt Ray)

Category

Comment

Score

Value

The pinnacle of performance comes at a steep price but the benefits are fully visible.

4/5

Design

Reasurringly robust, visually premium and the 51mm size is surprisingly comfortable.

5/5

Features

Garmin’s full suite of functionality.

5/5

Performance

Snappy HR, accurate sleep monitoring, tracked everything from snowboarding to rock climbing.

5/5

Garmin Fenix 8 Pro microLED: Should I buy?

(Image credit: Future / Matt Ray)Buy it if...

You want screen technology that blows the competition away

You better enjoy the living daylights out of brightness because that’s what you’re paying for, but it really is next-level and surprisingly useful.

You’re an adventurer

A brighter, sharper screen pays dividends when navigating or monitoring performance in both bad weather and the blazing glare of a midday sun alike.

You want a 24/7 smartwatch

Yes, that microLED screen adds even more to the bulk, but thanks to a comfortable strap design and high-performance sensors this is a smartwatch that delivers excellent lifestyle monitoring.

Don't buy it if...

You’re not looking for maximum screen brightness

The Garmin Fenix 8 Pro AMOLED has some advantages including a slightly less thick and heavy watch chassis, marginally better battery life and it’s a lot less expensive.

You don’t want to pay a premium to be a first adopter

Given the clear benefits, we have to hope that microLED technology will appear in a less ultra-premium package, eventually.

You’re looking for maximum battery life

Those 400,000 LEDs can be a significant load on battery life, making the Garmin Fenix 8 Pro AMOLED the winner there.

Also consider

Garmin Fenix 8

The obvious choice to save a few hundred - almost all the features, bar satellite connectivity and those 400,000 microLEDs in practically the same chassis.

Read our full Garmin Fenix 8 review

Apple Watch Ultra 3

If you’re already within the Apple ecosystem this the natural titanium-cased choice for seamless multisport support.

Read our full Apple Watch Ultra 3 review

How I tested

I wore the Garmin Fenix 8 Pro microLED over several months, including stints wearing it 24/7 overnight and for very varied activities and workouts including trail running, indoor climbing, snowboarding, weight lifting, sailing and cycling. I was in 35°C heatwaves and -18°C blizzards, from sea level to 4,000m.

First reviewed: August 2026

UmanWrite gives you a full AI-backed toolbox to transform AI-generated text into human-sounding copy in moments.

The post This Tool Makes AI Copy Sound Human, and It’s Only $79 for Life appeared first on TechRepublic.

The Shards is now streaming on Hulu for US viewers and Disney+ internationally, as it adapts Bret Easton Ellis' novel of the same name.

In my The Shards review, I was pleased to note that it was a welcome return to form for Ryan Murphy. I was also impressed by how well he adapts the source material into a sexy, glamorous yet dangerous TV series.

If you're here, you're wondering when the next episodes will stream. Much like the two episode premiere, we also get two episodes this week.

Here's what you need to know about the release of The Shards episodes 3 and 4.

What time can I watch The Shards episodes 3 and 4 on Hulu?

For US viewers, both The Shards episodes 3 and 4 will drop on Wednesday, August 12 at 6pm PT/ 9pm ET.

Here's when you can stream the new episodes in other countries.

• US – Thursday, August 13 at 6pm PT / 9pm ET
• Canada – Thursday, August 13 at 6pm PT / 9pm ET
• UK – Friday, August 14 at 2am BST
• India – Friday, August 14 at 6:30am IST
• Singapore – Friday, August 14 at 9am SGT
• Australia – Friday, August 14 at 11am AEDT
• New Zealand – Friday, August 14 at 12pm NZDT

When do new episodes of The Shards come out?

(Image credit: Hulu)

After this week's double bill, episodes of The Shards will premiere on a weekly basis until the finale on Wednesday, September 9. We do have another double bill coming up too, which is good news for those who don't like to wait.

For dates as well as the episode titles for the upcoming The Shards releases, take a look below.

• The Shards Episode 1 “Pilot”: Out now
• The Shards Episode 2 “Don’t You Want Me”: Out now
• The Shards Episode 3 “Help Me! Rhonda!”: Wednesday, August 12
• The Shards Episode 4 “Robert’s Party”: Wednesday, August 12
• The Shards Episode 5 “Murder on the Dancefloor”: Wednesday, August 19
• The Shards Episode 6 “Homecoming Part One”: Wednesday, August 26
• The Shards Episode 7 “Homecoming Part Two”: Wednesday, August 26
• The Shards Episode 8 “Hamlet”: Wednesday, September 2
• The Shards Episode 9 “Stairway to Heaven”: Wednesday, September 9

When you ask businesses about how they are innovating their ways of working, one word will come up time and again: Agile. Agile delivery. Agile workflows. Agile everything.

The term has been so overwhelmed by buzzwords, supposed best practice guides, and misguided strategy documents that it has almost lost all meaning.

In fact, if many organizations that believe they’re operating in an Agile manner were to take a step back and take an objective look at their ways of working, they would quickly come to realize they have not moved away from legacy command-and-control structures.

In this fog of misunderstanding, a series of myths has taken hold that have made the role of Agile professionals far less clear-cut, making it harder for organizations to put this invaluable methodology into practice.

One root of these problems lies in a tendency for people to narrow Agile’s scope, approaching it as a tick list of processes to adhere to rather than a fundamental shift in how people work and deliver for a business.

It is critical that Agile professionals equip themselves to fact-check these myths as they come up in their work. Every failed project done in Agile’s name diminishes the luster attached to the methodology, increasing the risk that future businesses will reject this powerful way to improve program and project management.

Myth 1 – “Agile delivery leaders are just administrators”

Agile professionals are often seen principally as bureaucratic note-takers, or schedulers – the people who organize everyone else’s work.

This view misses the point: their real value is as facilitators and protectors from distraction. Good Agile professionals create the space for teams to focus, and align delivery with outcomes rather than just activity.

Myth 2 – “Agile professionals are the scrum police”

Some believe Agile delivery operates within a top-down hierarchy, with Agile professionals in place to enforce frameworks and control how team members spend their time.

This is quite wrong: Agile professionals work with teams, coaching them to make better decisions, remove friction, and build confidence in delivery – without resorting to outdated command-and-control methods.

Myth 3 – “Agile delivery must be technical”

It’s a common assumption that Agile delivery leaders require a deep technical background. Technical awareness can certainly help, supporting a deeper understanding of the team’s tasks and challenges, but it isn’t the core of the job.

The real skill lies in understanding people and processes, then creating the conditions for specialists to succeed. In most projects, the need is for strong communication and facilitation across the entire team rather than strategic decision-making or technical troubleshooting.

Indeed, in some circumstances ‘hands-on’ Agile delivery leaders who think they know best can create conflict within teams, damaging morale and motivation in the process. Think of it like athletics: coaches don’t need to run faster than the athletes; their task is to help the athletes run faster.

Myth 4 – “Certification equals capability”

A certificate may prove that somebody knows about an Agile framework, but it does not demonstrate that they’re capable of applying it in practice.

The best Agile professionals succeed through experience, attitude, and ‘soft’ skills. They know from experience how to adapt Agile values and principles to particular circumstances; when to challenge people, and when to simply step back and get out of their team’s way.

Like any profession, being truly effective at the job requires skill, practical experience, and professional characteristics appropriate for the role. A piece of paper doesn’t make you agile; effectiveness with people and process does.

Myth 5 – “Agile delivery leaders are cheerleaders”

Contrary to popular belief, Agile delivery isn’t principally about arranging team socials or keeping everyone upbeat during stand-ups.

The value lies in keeping people aligned and productive under deadline pressure and/or changing priorities; after all, no plan survives contact with the enemy. Agile delivery leaders are there to create stability within an uncertain environment: they help teams stay focused on what matters, and shield them from distractions so they can maximize time spent ‘in the zone’.

That said, there is value in boosting morale – and championing a team’s achievements is one way to do this. According to the “broaden-and-build” theory of psychologist Barbara Fredrickson, positive emotions broaden our thought-action repertoires, enabling us to develop skills and resources that improve our long-term productivity.

One famous study from the "Journal of Labor Economics" showed that happiness at work leads to improved performance, especially in jobs where creativity and initiative are key.

Myth 6 – “Agile delivery leaders must remove all blockers for their teams”

While impediment removal is without doubt a core responsibility for an Agile delivery leader, the reality is that teams solve most of their own issues – perhaps with the assistance of a little coaching or support.

Nonetheless, sometimes a challenge is too big, distracting or political for them to handle, and Agile delivery leaders must step in – often by representing the team with stakeholders and at governance layers: this can be helpful in reducing the ‘noise’ around the team and the number of distracting interactions that take team members away from the core task.

As captured in the proverb: “Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime,” effective Agile delivery leadership is about enabling, not babysitting.

True Agile

So Agile is a much more subtle and responsive discipline than the stereotypes present – and it must be led by subtle and responsive practitioners. The approach can generate huge benefits – saving time, handling change more elegantly, reducing project failure rates and, above all, creating better products and services that more effectively meet customer needs and objectives.

These goals are achieved by working with people – rather than by tinkering with processes – to surface problems early in the development process, resolve them quickly and with a minimum of fuss, and avoid interfering when the team is already functioning effectively.

High-performing teams depend on trust, accountability and continuous learning. Leaders who foster those qualities are more likely to deliver successful outcomes, creating teams that stay focused, take ownership of their work, and continuously improve how they operate.

This is a role that is all about empowerment; when they’re doing their job well, much of an Agile practitioner’s work occurs out of sight. So how do you know when you’ve got a really great Agile delivery leader? When their team runs perfectly well without them.

This may not sound like the smartest business model for the practitioner, but it’s definitely the best outcome for the client’s own business – and that, ultimately, is what Agile is all about.

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

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

• OpenAI expands Daybreak with Blue and Red tiers for defensive cyber work
• New GPT‑5.6‑Cyber model offers high compliance for authorized vulnerability research
• Access remains restricted due to dual‑use risks and reduced safeguard operation

OpenAI has announced two new tiers for its Daybreak dedicated cybersecurity project, each offering a different model with different levels of compliance. It also used the opportunity to introduce a new security-focused AI model, as well.

Hackers and criminals are increasingly abusing AI to improve and speed up the creation of phishing emails and malicious code, and with the introduction of AI agents, they’ve also used it to automate entire attack processes. The AI community responded by placing strong guardrails, making sure their models do not comply with requests to build malware, or hack other companies.

These guardrails ended up being a two-edged sword, because as they slowed down attackers, they also slowed down the defenders.

What is Daybreak?

To give the cybersecurity community the upper edge, companies like OpenAI started creating dedicated cybersecurity initiatives that provide a vetted list of companies state-of-the-art models, free of guardrails. The company also provided them with pre-trained AI agents, as well as access to a pool of shared knowledge.

Initially launched in June 2026, Daybreak originally included GPT.5-5-Cyber (a model optimized for security work), Codex Security (an agent that can analyze codebases, identify vulnerabilities, validate findings, and help develop patches), Patch the Planet (an initiative with Trail of Bits to find and fix vulnerabilities in open-source software), Daybreak Cyber Partner Program (lets approved cybersecurity companies such as Cloudflare or Cisco integrate OpenAI's cyber capabilities into their own products and services), and Trusted Access for Cyber (the governance/access system for organizations doing authorized cybersecurity work with these capabilities).

Now, OpenAI has expanded Daybreak with two access tiers, Daybreak Blue, and Daybreak Red.

The company says Daybreak Blue is “the recommended starting point for most defenders, supporting vulnerability discovery, secure code review, malware analysis, incident response, and patch validation. Companies opting for this tier can expect access to frontier general-purpose models, including GPT‑5.6 Sol, whose safeguards have been tailored to authorized defensive security work.

Daybreak Red, on the other hand, provides access to OpenAI’s “purpose-trained cybersecurity models for authorized vulnerability research, exploit validation, and security testing.” This tier offers the brand new GPT‑5.6‑Cyber, built on GPT‑5.6 Sol and trained to improve capabilities on several specialized cybersecurity tasks such as finding zero-day vulnerabilities and developing exploit chains.

This model is also more compliant and less likely to refuse certain higher-risk, dual-use cyber tasks.

Complying with "dangerous" requests

Request compliance is the name of the game here. OpenAI says the new model addresses feedback from security researchers who “encountered persistent refusals with the earlier model.” General-purpose GPT-5.6 Sol, for example, will comply with just 1.5% of the requests usually given by cyber-defenders working on codebase analysis or vulnerability identification. This percentage increases to 2.0% with Daybreak Blue access.

GPT-5.6-Cyber, on the other hand, completes 95.0% of requests, OpenAI says, up from 57.3% of the previous model, GPT-5.5-Cyber. We weren’t able to independently verify these claims, though.

While it doesn’t outright say it, OpenAI considers these models relatively dangerous to use, which is why they’re locked behind the Daybreak Cyber Partner Program. However, the program is now expanding, allowing these companies to embed the models behind their own products, managed services, or cybersecurity engagements, and offer them to clients of their own.

Those who wish to be a part of the program directly can do so by applying to join online now.

“Models running with reduced safeguards carry risks beyond standard model usage, whether from misuse or misalignment. Despite these risks, we believe that democratizing access to frontier intelligence for defenders is crucial to accelerating and automating cyber defense,” OpenAI said.

“Daybreak Blue and Daybreak Red access are available for approved individuals⁠ and organizations conducting authorized work. We control access through identity verification, account security, monitoring, approved-use restrictions, and legal attestations.”

• Wix launches Symphony, a standalone AI agent platform designed for SMBs
• AI agents work to understand your business, then complete essential tasks on your behalf
• Symphony comes with a built-in quality layer, helping ensure trust.

Wix, one of the world’s biggest website builders, has today launched Symphony, a new platform which aims to provide SMBs with a proactive team of AI agents that are built around their specific business needs, goals, and workflows.

The company says Symphony will allow business owners to move away from working alone to operating with a tailored AI team in just minutes.

What is Symphony?

Wix claims Symphony has been built on the experience and unique data it has accumulated while supporting hundreds of millions of businesses worldwide.

The company highlights how, unlike typical AI tools that simply act on instructions, Symphony learns the business, taking the time to understand its unique needs rather than offering a one-size-fits-all solution.

At the center is Maestro, Symphony’s central AI agent. Maestro understands what is happening across the business, identifies what needs attention next, and coordinates the right agent for each job.

Operating much like a team of humans, Symphony’s AI agents work across approved workflows, executing tasks and connecting to the tools that the business already uses. It then reports back, offering updates, analytics, and flagging key actions for approvals.

Each day your agents will also have a ‘morning meeting’, providing a summary through a simple app of work completed, highlighting what still needs to be completed, and identifying new opportunities based on business activity, customer behavior, and current trends.

Symphony also provides a built-in quality review layer, with a separate agent checking work before it is presented, helping support accuracy.

According to Wix, Symphony is available through a tiered subscription model.

“We built Symphony to be the go-to AI agent orchestrator for SMBs,” said Ronny Elkayam, COO of Wix.

“It is purpose-built for how small businesses operate, combining Wix’s two decades of SMB expertise with a coordinated multi-agent system that can learn how a business works, take action and help owners grow with more speed and confidence. With Symphony, any business owner can have the team they need to scale.”

"I big, I punch," is probably the most effective and concise way of summing up the last three seasons of Reacher on Prime Video. Alan Ritchson's titular hero has slammed, drop-kicked, and battered his way through three separate stories to date, but Reacher season 4 has something new to offer.

Instead of honing in on Reacher's past or personal vendettas, our eight new episodes are ones of political espionage. Adapting the Lee Child novel Gone Tomorrow, he instead becomes embroiled in a CIA conspiracy after suspecting a woman on a New York City subway train is actually a suicide bomber. It's drama that makes you think, for the first time ever in this franchise.

It's a big tonal swing, and probably a risk that the crime drama needed to take four seasons in — but that doesn't mean it's completely paid off. In a nutshell, getting to the bottom of a big city political scandal has never made me yearn for the small-town days of seasons gone by more.

Clearly, this is part of Reacher's big-picture thinking. Seasons 1 and 3 were based in more rural locations, with seasons 2 and 4 respectively based in New York and Philadelphia. We already know that Reacher season 5 will be set in Oklahoma (like the novel Make Me), and I'm desperate to get there.

Does Reacher really have the chops to dig deeper into its punchy action? Probably not. I doubt we'll see the show stray back into these waters again, and there's good reason why.

Jack Reacher isn't the right action hero to lead a political espionage investigation

If the line "Oh no, I got it wrong!" is your signal to the audience that a dramatic twist is about to take place, then you're likely in over your head. This dialogue passes Reacher's lips halfway through season 4, with our bullish hero a fish out of water, scrambling through a plot that's much bigger than he could ever properly cope with.

On the one hand, I like that this level of insecurity humanizes Reacher more. There's always been more to him than just being muscle and meat hooks in a T-shirt, but now he's able to put his money where his mouth is. Selflessness, understanding, and the ability to be vulnerable flow out of Reacher abundantly in a way it never could have before, and I appreciate that.

However, let's not do this kind of storyline again. Our overarching threat is simultaneously too complicated to fully sink your teeth into and too mundane to actually bother caring about it. The armchair detectives among us will work out who is the 'villain' underpinning Reacher's latest disaster in a matter of seconds, and between season 4's beginning and end, you'll need a notepad and pen to keep up.

I think that an obstacle hidden in plain sight is the fact that Reacher himself doesn't have the same gravitas in a city as he does in a town. Plop him in the centre of Georgia, and he'll obviously scare the crap out of everyone around him. But in New York and Washington, D.C., he's a mere fly in the ointment. Add in a subpar storyline, and Reacher season 4 isn't exactly making its mark in an already oversaturated genre.

However, this might be Reacher's best supporting cast to date

(Image credit: Prime Video)

But let's stop being a Debbie Downer... It's clobbering time! For surface-level viewing, Reacher season 4 is ticking every box you'd expect after its last three seasons, and that makes for some satisfying weekly viewing.

The secret weapon, however, is its supporting cast, which may just be my favorite of all we've had to date. New additions Tamara Green (Sydelle Noel), Jacob Merrick (Christopher Rodriguez-Marquette), and Russell Plum (Kevin Weisman) are Reacher's unlikely gang of allies, and the uneasy friendships that develop between them are the relationships that you're really rooting for.

Together, the awesome foursome drive the excitement of the piece, and help us paper over anything that isn't really gelling together in the story itself. We're desperate for them to break the rules and stick two metaphorical fingers up at authority, and they routinely indulge us. Best of all, our trio of newcomers pulls out all of Reacher's caring traits that we're desperate to see, even if they all make a few bad decisions along the way.

Without giving anything away, there are definitely some distasteful tones bubbling underneath the surface, particularly around how the story approaches sex work and, well, women in general. But hey, who cares when Reacher is going to punch something and take his shirt off, huh?

Reacher season 4 begins airing on Prime Video from August 12.

• Spotify is introducing AI Persona tags in mid-September
• The platform aims to improve user transparency by differentiating real artists from AI-generated ones
• Spotify only reviews an artist's profile and images, and not the music itself

Spotify has fallen short on the AI transparency front compared to some of the other best music streaming services, with users pining for a fix — and now the platform is taking its biggest step yet towards combatting AI slop.

The streaming giant announced today (August 11) the arrival of new AI Persona tags, which are designed to differentiate human artists from ones that are AI-generated. Spotify says these tags will roll out to mobile in mid-September, and will appear in an artist’s profile banner, ‘About’ section, in Search, and in song rows in playlists.

Once they become available, users can be safe in the knowledge that the artists they’re listening to haven’t been generated by AI. Spotify added that artists with AI Persona tags will be excluded from all personalized recommendations by default, ensuring that your music-discovery regime remains uninfected by slop.

(Image credit: Spotify)

Though AI Persona tags won’t roll out for another month or so, Spotify says artists can already disclose if their profile is AI-generated. If an artist declares this, a tag reading ‘AI Persona’ will appear next to their name. ‘We hope artists will be transparent, so we are giving them the opportunity to disclose,’ the service shared in its announcement — but it’s not putting all its trust into self-disclosure.

Instead, Spotify says it will take matters into its own hands if need be, and will conduct reviews of profiles where it thinks an artist’s images have been created using generative AI to imitate a lifelike persona. If Spotify detects that an artist profile might be AI-generated, it will display a tag that reads ‘Likely AI Persona’, and the artist will be notified and given the option to self-disclose or appeal.

It’s taken Spotify a long time to catch up to the likes of Deezer when it comes to improving its transparency on AI-generated music. Deezer was the first major audio streaming service to roll out tags that explicitly say if a track has been AI-generated, and recently its Head of Research told us why we need AI filters more than ever.

Spotify’s own AI Persona tags mark a big shift for the platform, and will certainly improve the user experience by giving listeners more peace of mind. However, Spotify’s feature comes with an important caveat.

It reviews the profile only, not the music

(Image credit: Spotify)

AI Persona tags are just one of the ways Spotify has been working towards improving transparency for users. Verified by Spotify was launched a few months back — this is a certification feature that shows if an artist is legitimate, but it’s not as watertight as we’d hoped it would be.

Additionally, Spotify’s SongDNA gives listeners a comprehensive overview of the creatives behind their favorite songs, while AI Credits give artists the opportunity to share where and how they’ve used AI in their music production. It’s not as upfront as Deezer’s methods, but the measures are in place nonetheless, and AI Persona tags are the cherry on top.

That said, AI Persona tags target an artist’s public image, not how the music was made, which could present some issues, as it still leaves room for AI-generated music to slip its way onto the platform.

If Spotify detects that an artist is human-presenting, how are we to know that artist won’t upload AI-generated music to their profile? There’s nothing stopping that artist from publishing slop, because Spotify reviews their name, imagery, and public identity, not the music they upload.

It’s a tricky one, because while Spotify has measures in place that evaluate music and artist image respectively, it doesn’t have a comprehensive tool that reviews both components simultaneously, which again isn’t as upfront as Deezer.

As far as AI-generated content in Spotify goes, I’ve been one of the lucky ones who hasn’t encountered this issue. Because my love for physical media and radio impacts what I listen to on Spotify, I suspect that my algorithm has been trained enough to push AI slop out of my recommendations.

I do think that on top of my streaming habits, Spotify’s anti-AI music measures have helped to keep the fence up and block out unwanted songs to a certain extent — I just wish its approach to tagging was a bit more robust.

• Spotify is introducing AI Persona tags in mid-September
• The platform aims to improve user transparency by differentiating real artists from AI-generated ones
• Spotify only reviews an artist's profile and images, and not the music itself

Spotify has fallen short on the AI transparency front compared to some of the other best music streaming services, with users pining for a fix — and now the platform is taking its biggest step yet towards combatting AI slop.

The streaming giant announced today (August 11) the arrival of new AI Persona tags, which are designed to differentiate human artists from ones that are AI-generated. Spotify says these tags will roll out to mobile in mid-September, and will appear in an artist’s profile banner, ‘About’ section, in Search, and in song rows in playlists.

Once they become available, users can be safe in the knowledge that the artists they’re listening to haven’t been generated by AI. Spotify added that artists with AI Persona tags will be excluded from all personalized recommendations by default, ensuring that your music-discovery regime remains uninfected by slop.

(Image credit: Spotify)

Though AI Persona tags won’t roll out for another month or so, Spotify says artists can already disclose if their profile is AI-generated. If an artist declares this, a tag reading ‘AI Persona’ will appear next to their name. ‘We hope artists will be transparent, so we are giving them the opportunity to disclose,’ the service shared in its announcement — but it’s not putting all its trust into self-disclosure.

Instead, Spotify says it will take matters into its own hands if need be, and will conduct reviews of profiles where it thinks an artist’s images have been created using generative AI to imitate a lifelike persona. If Spotify detects that an artist profile might be AI-generated, it will display a tag that reads ‘Likely AI Persona’, and the artist will be notified and given the option to self-disclose or appeal.

It’s taken Spotify a long time to catch up to the likes of Deezer when it comes to improving its transparency on AI-generated music. Deezer was the first major audio streaming service to roll out tags that explicitly say if a track has been AI-generated, and recently its Head of Research told us why we need AI filters more than ever.

Spotify’s own AI Persona tags mark a big shift for the platform, and will certainly improve the user experience by giving listeners more peace of mind. However, Spotify’s feature comes with an important caveat.

It reviews the profile only, not the music

(Image credit: Spotify)

AI Persona tags are just one of the ways Spotify has been working towards improving transparency for users. Verified by Spotify was launched a few months back — this is a certification feature that shows if an artist is legitimate, but it’s not as watertight as we’d hoped it would be.

Additionally, Spotify’s SongDNA gives listeners a comprehensive overview of the creatives behind their favorite songs, while AI Credits give artists the opportunity to share where and how they’ve used AI in their music production. It’s not as upfront as Deezer’s methods, but the measures are in place nonetheless, and AI Persona tags are the cherry on top.

That said, AI Persona tags target an artist’s public image, not how the music was made, which could present some issues, as it still leaves room for AI-generated music to slip its way onto the platform.

If Spotify detects that an artist is human-presenting, how are we to know that artist won’t upload AI-generated music to their profile? There’s nothing stopping that artist from publishing slop, because Spotify reviews their name, imagery, and public identity, not the music they upload.

It’s a tricky one, because while Spotify has measures in place that evaluate music and artist image respectively, it doesn’t have a comprehensive tool that reviews both components simultaneously, which again isn’t as upfront as Deezer.

As far as AI-generated content in Spotify goes, I’ve been one of the lucky ones who hasn’t encountered this issue. Because my love for physical media and radio impacts what I listen to on Spotify, I suspect that my algorithm has been trained enough to push AI slop out of my recommendations.

I do think that on top of my streaming habits, Spotify’s anti-AI music measures have helped to keep the fence up and block out unwanted songs to a certain extent — I just wish its approach to tagging was a bit more robust.

Stamped on artist profiles, it’ll help listeners figure out who’s an AI musician, and who isn’t.

A new open world model from LTX shows how open-weights models can be used and customized by anyone.

"I big, I punch," is probably the most effective and concise way of summing up the last three seasons of Reacher on Prime Video. Alan Ritchson's titular hero has slammed, drop-kicked, and battered his way through three separate stories to date, but Reacher season 4 has something new to offer.

Instead of honing in on Reacher's past or personal vendettas, our eight new episodes are ones of political espionage. Adapting the Lee Child novel Gone Tomorrow, he instead becomes embroiled in a CIA conspiracy after suspecting a woman on a New York City subway train is actually a suicide bomber. It's drama that makes you think, for the first time ever in this franchise.

It's a big tonal swing, and probably a risk that the crime drama needed to take four seasons in — but that doesn't mean it's completely paid off. In a nutshell, getting to the bottom of a big city political scandal has never made me yearn for the small-town days of seasons gone by more.

Clearly, this is part of Reacher's big-picture thinking. Seasons 1 and 3 were based in more rural locations, with seasons 2 and 4 respectively based in New York and Philadelphia. We already know that Reacher season 5 will be set in Oklahoma (like the novel Make Me), and I'm desperate to get there.

Does Reacher really have the chops to dig deeper into its punchy action? Probably not. I doubt we'll see the show stray back into these waters again, and there's good reason why.

Jack Reacher isn't the right action hero to lead a political espionage investigation

If the line "Oh no, I got it wrong!" is your signal to the audience that a dramatic twist is about to take place, then you're likely in over your head. This dialogue passes Reacher's lips halfway through season 4, with our bullish hero a fish out of water, scrambling through a plot that's much bigger than he could ever properly cope with.

On the one hand, I like that this level of insecurity humanizes Reacher more. There's always been more to him than just being muscle and meat hooks in a T-shirt, but now he's able to put his money where his mouth is. Selflessness, understanding, and the ability to be vulnerable flow out of Reacher abundantly in a way it never could have before, and I appreciate that.

However, let's not do this kind of storyline again. Our overarching threat is simultaneously too complicated to fully sink your teeth into and too mundane to actually bother caring about it. The armchair detectives among us will work out who is the 'villain' underpinning Reacher's latest disaster in a matter of seconds, and between season 4's beginning and end, you'll need a notepad and pen to keep up.

I think that an obstacle hidden in plain sight is the fact that Reacher himself doesn't have the same gravitas in a city as he does in a town. Plop him in the centre of Georgia, and he'll obviously scare the crap out of everyone around him. But in New York and Washington, D.C., he's a mere fly in the ointment. Add in a subpar storyline, and Reacher season 4 isn't exactly making its mark in an already oversaturated genre.

However, this might be Reacher's best supporting cast to date

(Image credit: Prime Video)

But let's stop being a Debbie Downer... It's clobbering time! For surface-level viewing, Reacher season 4 is ticking every box you'd expect after its last three seasons, and that makes for some satisfying weekly viewing.

The secret weapon, however, is its supporting cast, which may just be my favorite of all we've had to date. New additions Tamara Green (Sydelle Noel), Jacob Merrick (Christopher Rodriguez-Marquette), and Russell Plum (Kevin Weisman) are Reacher's unlikely gang of allies, and the uneasy friendships that develop between them are the relationships that you're really rooting for.

Together, the awesome foursome drive the excitement of the piece, and help us paper over anything that isn't really gelling together in the story itself. We're desperate for them to break the rules and stick two metaphorical fingers up at authority, and they routinely indulge us. Best of all, our trio of newcomers pulls out all of Reacher's caring traits that we're desperate to see, even if they all make a few bad decisions along the way.

Without giving anything away, there are definitely some distasteful tones bubbling underneath the surface, particularly around how the story approaches sex work and, well, women in general. But hey, who cares when Reacher is going to punch something and take his shirt off, huh?

Reacher season 4 begins airing on Prime Video from August 12.

• Facial recognition systems are expanding to the London Underground
• British Transport Police say images will be checked against a watchlist
• Privacy groups are calling the technology intrusive

The debate over public surveillance and privacy is only getting more intense, with the British Transport Police (BTP) the latest organization to stoke the fires: it's expanding a trial of Live Facial Recognition (LFR) technology across several London Underground stations from today.

As per the BTP's official statement, this will start at Victoria and then rotate around other stations until November. "Our deployments are intelligence-led and focused on identifying people wanted by the police or courts, including those suspected of serious offences and those who may be breaching bail conditions or court orders," says the BTP.

The cameras work by comparing scanned faces to a watchlist of suspects and criminals wanted by the police. If there's a match, it's reviewed by a police officer — if not, the image is "immediately and permanently" deleted. The tech is already in use at other transport hubs in London, but is now being expanded to the Tube.

As for opting out of being surveilled, the police say the cameras will come with clear signage, and that "alternative routes" will be available too — which presumably the criminals can also sneak through. It's not clear if sunglasses and a hood would help you avoid being scanned, but you might be politely asked to remove them.

A 'dystopian' expansion

A map of Victoria Tube station showing the alternative routes (Image credit: British Transport Police)

According to the BBC, the BTP are looking out for people wanted in connection with serious offences, including sexual assault, robbery, and knife crime. Police intelligence data will be used to select the stations covered by the cameras, with the aim of reducing violence and harassment.

However, as the BBC points out, scans of some 530,000 faces across UK railway stations since February have resulted in zero matches, zero arrests, and one false identification. That's based on the BTP's own deployment logs, suggesting that to date the technology isn't helping much.

Big Brother Watch director Silkie Carlo suggests that the tech "treats the public like suspects" and is a "disturbing and dystopian expansion" of facial recognition systems. The privacy rights group has long been campaigning against the use of these cameras, arguing that they're intrusive and unnecessary.

The reaction online has been mostly negative too: comments in one Reddit thread question the effectiveness of this type of facial recognition, and air concerns about more nefarious uses of the tech further down the line. However, others also point out that public transport stations are already extensively covered by camera monitoring.

• Facial recognition systems are expanding to the London Underground
• British Transport Police say images will be checked against a watchlist
• Privacy groups are calling the technology intrusive

The debate over public surveillance and privacy is only getting more intense, with the British Transport Police (BTP) the latest organization to stoke the fires: it's expanding a trial of Live Facial Recognition (LFR) technology across several London Underground stations from today.

As per the BTP's official statement, this will start at Victoria and then rotate around other stations until November. "Our deployments are intelligence-led and focused on identifying people wanted by the police or courts, including those suspected of serious offences and those who may be breaching bail conditions or court orders," says the BTP.

The cameras work by comparing scanned faces to a watchlist of suspects and criminals wanted by the police. If there's a match, it's reviewed by a police officer — if not, the image is "immediately and permanently" deleted. The tech is already in use at other transport hubs in London, but is now being expanded to the Tube.

As for opting out of being surveilled, the police say the cameras will come with clear signage, and that "alternative routes" will be available too — which presumably the criminals can also sneak through. It's not clear if sunglasses and a hood would help you avoid being scanned, but you might be politely asked to remove them.

A 'dystopian' expansion

A map of Victoria Tube station showing the alternative routes (Image credit: British Transport Police)

According to the BBC, the BTP are looking out for people wanted in connection with serious offences, including sexual assault, robbery, and knife crime. Police intelligence data will be used to select the stations covered by the cameras, with the aim of reducing violence and harassment.

However, as the BBC points out, scans of some 530,000 faces across UK railway stations since February have resulted in zero matches, zero arrests, and one false identification. That's based on the BTP's own deployment logs, suggesting that to date the technology isn't helping much.

Big Brother Watch director Silkie Carlo suggests that the tech "treats the public like suspects" and is a "disturbing and dystopian expansion" of facial recognition systems. The privacy rights group has long been campaigning against the use of these cameras, arguing that they're intrusive and unnecessary.

The reaction online has been mostly negative too: comments in one Reddit thread question the effectiveness of this type of facial recognition, and air concerns about more nefarious uses of the tech further down the line. However, others also point out that public transport stations are already extensively covered by camera monitoring.

• Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick defends Grand Theft Auto 6's $80 base price
• He says, "Our goal is to deliver way more value to consumers than what we charge them"
• The CEO says GTA 6 will be "an incredible bargain"

Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick has defended Grand Theft Auto 6's $80 base price, saying Rockstar Games will "overdeliver" on the experience.

Speaking during a Q&A session after the publisher's Q1 FY27 financial report, Zelnick explained that the game's cost has everything to do with maximizing price by delivering on an experience that will last for consumers.

"Our goal is to deliver way more value to consumers than what we charge them," Zelnick said when asked why it decided to leave NBA 2K27's base pricing at $70 compared to GTA 6, which is priced at $80, and how Take-Two will go forward with pricing other "premium" AAA titles. "And the truth is that the real cost of a AAA video game is a whole lot lower today than it was 20 years ago.

"Pricing has not kept pace with inflation. And our goal is to continue to overdeliver for our consumers because how you feel about any experience is the intersection of the experience itself and what you paid for it."

He continued, "So, to say that we expect that Grand Theft Auto 6 will be an incredible bargain as experiences go is a gross understatement, because Rockstar Games is known for overdelivering."

Zelnick also pointed to GTA Online, which is now 13 years old but continues to draw in millions of players every year, suggesting that a premium experience will keep players engaged, no matter the cost.

"Remember, we're 13 years after GTA Online was launched and people are still highly engaged," he said. "We have record-setting engagement at times. So, that's our goal.

"Our goal is not to maximize price. So, in this case, I think what we've decided to do makes a whole lot of sense in the context of what we're delivering. And that's the lens through which we're going forward as well."

GTA 6 will launch on November 19 with two editions: the Standard and Ultimate Edition. While the former costs $79.99 / £69.99, the more expensive $99.99 / £89.99 Ultimate Edition will offer additional content. While initially criticized by fans, Zelnick told analysts during the Q&A that it's selling more than the Standard Edition.

Take-Two also reported earnings of $1.39 billion during GTA 6's pre-order period, which Zelnick called an "exceptional start to pre-orders," but couldn't share specific sales numbers.

• Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick defends Grand Theft Auto 6's $80 base price
• He says, "Our goal is to deliver way more value to consumers than what we charge them"
• The CEO says GTA 6 will be "an incredible bargain"

Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick has defended Grand Theft Auto 6's $80 base price, saying Rockstar Games will "overdeliver" on the experience.

Speaking during a Q&A session after the publisher's Q1 FY27 financial report, Zelnick explained that the game's cost has everything to do with maximizing price by delivering on an experience that will last for consumers.

"Our goal is to deliver way more value to consumers than what we charge them," Zelnick said when asked why it decided to leave NBA 2K27's base pricing at $70 compared to GTA 6, which is priced at $80, and how Take-Two will go forward with pricing other "premium" AAA titles. "And the truth is that the real cost of a AAA video game is a whole lot lower today than it was 20 years ago.

"Pricing has not kept pace with inflation. And our goal is to continue to overdeliver for our consumers because how you feel about any experience is the intersection of the experience itself and what you paid for it."

He continued, "So, to say that we expect that Grand Theft Auto 6 will be an incredible bargain as experiences go is a gross understatement, because Rockstar Games is known for overdelivering."

Zelnick also pointed to GTA Online, which is now 13 years old but continues to draw in millions of players every year, suggesting that a premium experience will keep players engaged, no matter the cost.

"Remember, we're 13 years after GTA Online was launched and people are still highly engaged," he said. "We have record-setting engagement at times. So, that's our goal.

"Our goal is not to maximize price. So, in this case, I think what we've decided to do makes a whole lot of sense in the context of what we're delivering. And that's the lens through which we're going forward as well."

GTA 6 will launch on November 19 with two editions: the Standard and Ultimate Edition. While the former costs $79.99 / £69.99, the more expensive $99.99 / £89.99 Ultimate Edition will offer additional content. While initially criticized by fans, Zelnick told analysts during the Q&A that it's selling more than the Standard Edition.

Take-Two also reported earnings of $1.39 billion during GTA 6's pre-order period, which Zelnick called an "exceptional start to pre-orders," but couldn't share specific sales numbers.

The Open Compute Project is pushing fleet-scale hardware management for AI data centers as APAC operators contend with rapid capacity growth, higher rack densities, and tighter power availability.

The post OCP APAC Summit Highlights AI Data Center Management as Power Constraints Grow appeared first on TechRepublic.