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• Hays study finds 78% of organizations are struggling with skills shortages
• Four in five professionals would work for a foreign company
• Physical relocation is no longer a necessity of working abroad

The global tech job market is in flux, and new research from recruitment platform Hays claims three in five tech professionals are eyeing up a change, either by switching employers or stepping back into the contracting market.

And with nearly four in five (78%) organizations already grappling with skills shortages, the gap between tech demand and supply could be about to widen.

Hays' research also illustrates how worker dissatisfaction had made prospective job-seekers more willing to consider international job opportunities.

The tech job market is changing

More professionals are open to working abroad, but relocation is no longer a must. In the UK and Australia, more than four in five say they'd consider an overseas role, echoing a growing trend of remote, cross-border employment.

However, just half of those surveyed said they'd be willing to physically relocate – suggesting the post-pandemic flexibility is reshaping traditional career movement and progression.

On the whole, 86% of permanent specialists and nearly as many (83%) contractors are open to working for companies abroad.

Although contracting (8%) is gaining in popularity, changing organizations (53%) remains the most common job change. Workers cited job security (51%) as a key concern, but career progression opportunities (42%) and staff recognition/appraisal (32%) are also motivating factors.

The report also revealed that those working across AI, ML, cybersecurity and network engineering could be among the most likely to seek a job change, with technical and solutions architects more likely to stay put – probably due to the long-term project nature of their roles.

"The findings from our study highlight the importance of effective employer branding and the need for organisations to optimise their employment proposition by truly understanding what professionals value the most in a potential employer," noted Hays Global Head of STEM James Milligan.

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Viltrox AF 50mm F2 Air: one-minute review

This isn’t my first Viltrox lens review, and nor it will it be my last, because the Chinese lens maker is on a roll, producing a string of excellent optics for users of all skill levels and budgets. Coming in at the opposite end of a recent cinema lens that could cost up to $200,000, the 50mm f/2 Air costs less than $200 / £200 / AU$320, and offers excellent value for money.

It’s a tiny and lightweight prime that's available for Sony E and Nikon Z mounts – I had the latter for this review – with a decent maximum f/2 aperture for defocusing backgrounds. You don’t get the sharpest detail or creamiest bokeh I’ve ever seen – for those you'll want to check out the excellent Viltrox 135mm f/1.8 LAB – but the Viltrox 50mm f/2 is an excellent casual lens for enthusiasts, especially for portrait photography, and an ideal foil to a standard zoom.

I’d have preferred the lens’s minimum focus distance to be a little closer, which would bolster its everyday photography credentials, while a couple of external controls to speed up changing settings, such as an AF / MF switch, would be welcome. However, the Viltrox AF 50mm F2 Air delivers performance and image quality that belie its price – and the fact it squeezes proprietary camera-brand alternatives with its aggressive pricing is the cherry on the cake.

(Image credit: Tim Coleman)Viltrox AF 50mm F2 Air specsViltrox AF 50mm F2 Air specs

Type:

Standard prime

Mount:

Nikon Z-mount / Sony E-mount

Sensor:

Full-frame

Focal length:

50mm

Max aperture:

f/2

Minimum focus:

1.67ft / 0.51m

Filter size:

58mm

Dimensions:

Φ68 x 58.6mm

Weight:

7.8oz / 220g

Viltrox AF 50mm f/2 Air: Price and availability

• Available for Sony E and Nikon Z mounts
• $199 / £229 / AU$319 list price, but it usually can be found for less

Hovering around the $200 / £200 / AU$320 mark and often available for a little less, the Viltrox AF 50mm f/2 Air is an excellent value prime lens, especially when you considering its build quality and optical performance.

Price-wise, it reminds me of the old Canon EF and Nikon F-mount cheap nifty fifties for DSLRs, being an affordable first prime for enthusiasts. There's bad news for some though – Viltrox's lens is only available for Sony E and Nikon Z lens mounts.

Viltrox AF 50mm f/2 Air: Design

• Weighs just 7.8oz / 220g
• No external buttons or controls
• Available for Sony E and Nikon Z mounts

The 50mm f/2 Air lens is, as the name suggests, designed with an emphasis on light weight over absolute performance – it’s positively featherweight, especially compared to alternatives such as Nikon’s own Z 50mm f/1.4.

It’s a small lens, too. I paired the 50mm f/2 Air with a Nikon Z6 II, and I could barely feel the lens. It's not often that I'd describe a camera / lens pairing as rear-heavy, but that's the case here.

This is also excellent value, with a sale price often dipping under $200 / £200 /AU$319, and the list price only a little more. For context, the Nikon-own f/1.4 lens is double the price (and double the weight), while Nikon's Z 50mm f/1.8 is four times the price.

Image 1 of 4

(Image credit: Tim Coleman)Image 2 of 4

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(Image credit: Tim Coleman)

Viltrox’s lens well made too – a rugged metal barrel and rear mount instil confidence, even though there’s no proper weather-sealing to speak of (such are the compromises with such a low-cost lens).

There's a generously sized focus ring with smooth and easy rotation, and that’s it for controls. No AF / MF switch, no optical stabilization, no focus distance limiter – this is a simple bit of gear.

The lack of controls could, depending on which camera you pair the lens with, make changes to camera settings a little fussy. My camera doesn’t have an AF / MF switch, and because the lens doesn’t either I need to dive into a menu to switch between the two focusing methods, which can be frustrating.

Otherwise, there's little to talk about regarding design – this is a simple and lightweight optic that accepts 58mm threaded filters and comes supplied with a decent lens hood.

(Image credit: Tim Coleman)Viltrox AF 50mm f/2 Air: Performance

• Bright maximum f/2 aperture ideal for portraiture
• Fairly limited close-focusing capabilities
• Snappy autofocus speed

This is no pro-quality lens, but for beginners and enthusiasts the optical quality and performance of the Viltrox 50mm f/2 Air are perfectly sufficient.

The bright, zoom lens-beating maximum f/2 aperture ensures plenty of light intake and makes this lens great for low-light photography, as well as for defocusing backgrounds for dreamy portraits. Bokeh is smooth enough – I didn’t really spot the ugly ‘onion ring’ effect that can be evident in cheap optics.

(Image credit: Tim Coleman)

Optical clarity is perfectly acceptable, even if this isn't the sharpest 50mm lens I’ve used. With a little extra sharpening in post, most users should be perfectly happy with the results.

I shot all images in JPEG and uncompressed raw, and with lens corrections switched off there are slight signs of chromatic aberration, but the Viltrox has a reasonable handle on such distortions.

Image 1 of 3

Note the minor lens flare in the bottom middle of the frame when shooting straight towards sunlight (Image credit: Tim Coleman)Image 2 of 3

For head and should portraits, bokeh is generally big, smooth and round, with a little cat's eye shaping the corners (Image credit: Tim Coleman)Image 3 of 3

There's little sign of bokeh fringing either (technically known as longitudinal chromatic aberration) (Image credit: Tim Coleman)

I found the 1.67ft / 0.51m minimum focus distance a little limiting for close-up shots – the maximum magnification is a modest 0.11x. This isn't really a macro lens in any way, and perhaps even less of an everyday lens, with portraiture being its strongest suit.

With such a small and lightweight collection of ashperical (ASPH), ED and IF lens elements, the 50mm f/2’s STM autofocus motor has an easy job – those lens elements are moved with ease for quick and precise autofocus. Not once did I perceive sluggish autofocus on account of the lens rather than the camera.

Image 1 of 4

Shot using the maximum f/2 aperture, vignetting is evident in this bright scene (Image credit: Tim Coleman)Image 2 of 4

I stopped the aperture down to f/5 at which point vignetting is pretty much gone (Image credit: Tim Coleman)Image 3 of 4

Using the f/2 aperture helped to isolate the tree in the foreground. Chromatic aberration is well controlled, but vignetted means the corners are a little dark. (Image credit: Tim Coleman)Image 4 of 4

Stopped down to f/5, brightness is more consistent throughout the frame. (Image credit: Tim Coleman)

Overall, the Viltrox AF 50mm F2 Air is a capable performer, especially when you consider its compact size, low price and bright maximum aperture. For users on a budget who are looking to step up from a standard-zoom kit lens, this is an ideal choice.

Viltrox AF 50mm F2 Air sample galleryImage 1 of 6

(Image credit: Tim Coleman)Image 2 of 6

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(Image credit: Tim Coleman)Image 5 of 6

(Image credit: Tim Coleman)Image 6 of 6

(Image credit: Tim Coleman)Should you buy the Viltrox AF 50mm F2 Air?Buy it if...

You want a low-cost fast prime

Mirrorless lenses can get pretty pricey, but the Viltrox 50mm f/2 Air is a true nifty fifty – it’s that cheap second lens you can pick up after a kit lens.

You have a small full-frame or APS-C camera

Mirrorless lenses can get pretty big and heavy, and aren't always the best fit with a number of today’s compact, rangefinder-style mirrorless cameras. Not so the Viltrox 50mm f/2 – its light, small, and pairs wonderfully.

Don't buy it if...

You’d like quick access to manual controls

There’s only one external control on the lens, and that's a focus ring. All other changes need to be made in-camera, which, depending on your camera’s external controls, could prove to be a menu-diving time sink.

You shoot a lot in adverse conditions

The Viltrox 50mm f/2 lens isn’t weather sealed. Its build quality is solid enough, but you’ll want to think twice about shooting with it in poor weather.

(Image credit: Tim Coleman)How I tested the Viltrox AF 50mm F2 Air

• I've used it over a loan period of several months
• I paired the lens with a Nikon Z6 II
• I've used it in a range of scenarios, generally in fair weather, and checked image quality at the various aperture settings

I paired a Z-mount version of the Viltrox AF 50mm F2 Air with a Nikon Z6 II for several months, during which time it has seen moderate use, generally in fair weather. Size-wise, the camera and lens are perfectly balanced, with no hint of wrist strain due to front-heaviness.

To test optical quality I’ve snapped portraits with the aperture wide open at f/2, and also taken series of images at each aperture setting to compare sharpness and check for lens distortions.

• First reviewed June 2025

In a world where enterprises now manage their unified communications (UC) platforms, such as Microsoft Teams, on a global basis, why are these same enterprises all too often still procuring and managing telecommunications services on a country-specific or regional basis?

Surely there would be material efficiencies and cost savings to consistent global management of all communications – a truly ‘unified’ approach – rather than the inconsistent and disparate management of telecoms?

The answer lies in the legacy – and indeed current – business models and chosen strategies of the big telcos. And the solution lies in a new breed of multinational cloud telephony providers.

Telecoms: a rapidly restructuring industry, post pandemic

The modern telecommunications industry has been restructuring at pace since the pandemic, as it reinvents itself to serve the demands of remote and hybrid staff and teams in the modern workplace. The big telcos may well have led the first restructuring dimension, but they have more reluctantly joined the bandwagon of the second, and their broader business model simply isn’t suited to the third.

From on premises to the cloud

To be fair, the big telcos were at the forefront of the industry’s first restructuring dimension - the shift from on premises implementations to cloud-based business phone systems. In this shift telecoms essentially became just another form of data service delivered over fiber and 4G/5G broadband network that they themselves provided. This perfectly aligned with their broader strategies as network operators.

Critically, moving services to the cloud enabled users to make and receive phone calls wherever they had internet access, be that at work, at home or on the move. Their phone numbers were able to travel with them rather than being tied to a physical desk or location. And, furthermore, enterprises were able to strip out the legacy switches and equipment from their offices and sites, thereby freeing up the time and cost of supporting, upgrading and replacing that equipment.

The rationale for users and companies alike was sufficiently strong that 71% of the telecoms market had shifted to the cloud by 2024.

From standalone to UC-integrated

The second restructuring dimension suited the big telcos far less. But, in the end, it was unavoidable due to the customer demand. This shift involved the integration of telephony into broader UC platforms, such as Microsoft Teams.

Out-of-the-box Teams is incredibly rich – messaging, channels, meetings, video calls and much more – but telephony is the missing piece that needs specific and additional integration.

More and more companies have understandably been doing this integration to achieve ‘truly unified’ communications, from both a user experience and IT management perspective. Furthermore, it also means that telephony content can be included in the enterprise’s AI data set for fast-growing agent capabilities such as Copilot.

This shift to UC-integrated Teams telephony was by no means instantly popular with the big telcos, given a significant proportion of the value added was provided by Microsoft through its cloud phone system functionality.

Microsoft’s ability to monetize that through license extensions effectively impaired profitability for the major telcos. In the end, however, customer demand won and now more than a hundred telcos have joined the bandwagon on Microsoft’s Operator Connect and Direct Routing programs.

From geography-specific to global

But now, a third restructuring dimension is rapidly taking hold in the multinational enterprise world. Until recently, multinationals have necessarily been working with multiple – often tens of – country-specific or regional telco vendors, each with their own contracts, tariff structures, administration portals (if indeed any at all), support services, and invoices.

But why would these multinationals want to maintain such a regional patchwork of telco vendors when they are now managing Teams on a singular, global basis? Not only do they want their telephony integrated with their UC platform, but they also want the management of the whole communications stack to be globally consistent. Why have tens of telco vendors when you can just have one?

Enter a new breed of multinational cloud telephony providers

However, global service provision simply isn’t suited to the big telcos because now, primarily as broadband providers, their businesses remain physical in nature. What was once copper wires into buildings for telecoms, is now fiber into buildings for broadband, and the physical natural of those ‘last mile’ connections simply isn’t conducive to a global strategy.

It is this defense against the big telcos, combined with the size of the market opportunity in Microsoft Teams telephony, and the compelling customer business case for multinational consolidation of vendors, that has led to a new breed of multinational cloud telephony providers.

These multinational cloud telephony providers capture all three industry restructuring dimensions: cloud-based, UC-integrated and multinational service provision. With one global vendor, multinational businesses can avoid the inefficiencies, wasted resources and fragmentation of working with multiple telcos in different regions, and move to a simplified world of one global contract, one global tariff and one global management portal.

LINK!

This article was produced as part of TechRadarPro's Expert Insights channel where we 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/news/submit-your-story-to-techradar-pro

North Korea will send thousands to support reconstruction work in Russia's Kursk region. North Korea has already supplied combat troops and conventional weapons to back Russia's war against Ukraine.

(Image credit: 朝鮮通信社/AP)

According to the latest iPhone 17 rumors, Apple is tipped to shake up its flagship smartphone lineup this year with new designs, new specs, and an entirely new model.

Indeed, the much-rumored iPhone 17 Air has been speculated by many to take the place of the iPhone 17 Plus, swapping it for a thin-and-light version of the larger non-Pro Apple phone.

However, as TechRadar readers will know, Apple has been beaten to the punch on this one – we recently covered the announcement of the Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge, which reworks parts of the Galaxy S25 Plus and Galaxy S25 Ultra into an impressively thin handset.

You can ead to our hands-on Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge review for a full breakdown – in short, it’s wonderful, but doesn’t come without compromise. The spec sheet suggests that the battery was one of the big targets – the Galaxy S25 Edge comes with a 3,900mAh battery, down from the 4,900mAh battery found in the Galaxy S25 Plus.

But as we've also covered, new rumors have made waves for predicting an iPhone 17 Air battery size that’s even smaller than tech fans might expect, at a surprisingly small 2,800mAh.

For reference, that’s almost 2,000mAh smaller than the 4,674mAh cell found in the iPhone 16 Plus – meaning the iPhone 17 Air could have just 60% of the battery capacity of the phone it’s set to replace.

Though battery life varies by usage, our iPhone 16 Plus review recorded 16 hours and 29 minutes of web browsing – 60% of which is just under 10 hours.

Add in the unavoidable fact that batteries degrade over time and use up a small amount of charge in standby, the prospect of going a full day without charging may begin to seem unlikely.

However, if you ask me there’s no need to panic. There are two specific reasons why a small battery capacity might not be such a big deal for the iPhone 17 Air.

Silicon carbon, capacity saviour

Supposedly leaked renders of the iPhone 17 Air point to a single camera system housed in a bar (Image credit: Front Page Tech / ‪@Zellzoi‬)

Firstly, the iPhone 17 Air could be the first Apple device to use a silicon-carbon battery, rather than a conventional lithium-ion battery.

Silicon-carbon batteries, as their name suggests, use silicon in the anode of the battery, enabling a much greater energy density and improved power efficiency.

That could be just what the iPhone 17 Air needs to push it over the line of true battery life usability.

I’ve tested multiple phones that use silicon-carbon batteries and been impressed with each one; my trusty Oppo Find X8 Pro is still performing admirably in the battery department.

Granted, that’s a huge phone with a 5,910mAh battery, but my point is it still outperforms expectations thanks to its silicon-carbon technology, and that’s a pattern across the handsets that make use of it.

Surprising optimizing

Even though its battery has a relatively small capacity, the iPhone 16 still pushes through a full day of use (Image credit: Future)

Next, we have to consider Apple’s history of getting great performance from smaller than average batteries.

Apple never lists the capacity of its batteries, but unofficial teardowns have revealed that the vanilla iPhone 16 sports a battery capacity of 3,561mAh.

That’s a half-decent capacity, but doesn’t quite live up to the 4,000mAh cell found in the Samsung Galaxy S25 – and both pale in comparison to the Google Pixel 9’s impressive 4,700mAh battery.

However, in our testing, Apple’s most recent baseline flagship kept up with its competitors. Our iPhone 16 review records about 13 hours of usage, while our Pixel 9 review found Google’s flagship lasted for between 13 and 14 hours. That’s not a lot of difference for a gap of more than 1,000mAh.

The key is Apple’s optimization – we don’t know the exact science, but Apple’s longstanding commitment to maintaining a closed, stable mobile ecosystem means its hardware and software are literally built for each other.

This is likely to bring some benefit to the iPhone 17 Air; I’d guess that Apple is paying even more attention than usual to its synthesis of software and hardware with this rumored all-new design.

So there you have it: two reasons why a small battery isn’t the end of the world for the rumored iPhone 17 Air. Be sure to let us know whether you’re looking forward to the iPhone 17 series in the comments below.

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The Florida Panthers repeated as Stanley Cup champions, becoming the NHL's first back-to-back winners since Tampa Bay in 2020 and '21 and the third team to do it this century.

(Image credit: Lynne Sladky)

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for June 18.

TV chef Anne Burrell, who coached culinary fumblers through hundreds of episodes of "Worst Cooks in America," has died. Medical examiners are set to determine what caused her death.

(Image credit: Andy Kropa)

Commentary: The Google Gemini features on my Samsung Galaxy let me be more spontaneous in my shopping adventures.

• Google’s Veo 3 Fast generates 720p AI videos twice as fast as standard
• Gemini Pro users can create three videos per day
• Flow Pro users pay just 20 credits per clip

There's a strawberry made of glass that someone is cutting like it's made of jelly, then the same thing happens to several other berries and the Pokémon Charizard. A woman dips tongs into a platter of molten rock and takes a bite of the apparently delicious treat before spreading some on a waffle and taking a bite.

These aren't a cough-syrup-induced hallucination; it's the latest trend in ASMR videos, created with Google's Veo 3 and other AI movie generators.

You might have seen these and other bizarre videos on your TikTok algorithm. I’m not the biggest proponent of ASMR videos and their gentle whisperers, rhythmic tapping, and other soporific audio, but I understood the appeal. I'm not so sure the AI version is just as good. These aren’t your traditional low-fi lo-fi tapping-and-brushing videos.

@softcrunchai

♬ original sound - SoftCrunchAI

Google Veo is definitely the most popular choice of AI video generators for ASMR. As good as the model is at producing realistic videos (for a given value of realism in this case), it still creates videos with a sheen of artificiality, lacking the errors and imprecision that are the hallmark of human-made ASMR.

Friends of mine who are much bigger fans of ASMR claim it's not just the sounds and voices that entice them. It's the intimacy and immediacy that they like. One said that the 'tingle triggers' are there in the AI videos, but it's just not the same.

AI ASMR @impossibleais

♬ green to blue (slowed + reverbed) - daniel.mp3

That's not a universal opinion, though. These videos rack up millions of views. The comments are full of both excitement and confusion, with people unable to explain why they like the videos, or who are amazed how they can't stop watching them.

Part of the appeal might be novelty. Anything new will have a fanbase at least for a little while, and Veo’s video quality is unlike anything most people have seen before. It mimics natural lighting, shadow, and realistic camera motion. Perfect glass statues of Pokémon that can be cut in half with ease, because they're all AI-generated, are an eye-catcher for sure.

As fun as it is, I wonder if anyone seeking a pure ASMR experience will choose an AI video. The sounds may scratch that auditory itch, but I wonder how many lists of favorite ASMR videos will include them.

Not every AI trend has to make sense. Some of them very much don't. AI ASMR may have a niche place in the overall ASMR ecosystem. Still, I don't think the majority of people who fall asleep to sweet whispers will prefer the sound of simulated glass crunching under an invisible knife.

@impossibleais

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• Meta AI prompts you to choose to post publicly in the app's Discovery feed by default
• Meta has a new warning pop-up, but accidental sharing remains a possibility
• You can opt out of having your conversations go public entirely through the Meta AI app’s settings

The Meta AI app's somewhat unique contribution to the AI chatbot app space is the Discovery feed, which allows people to show off the interesting things they are doing with the AI assistant.

However, it turns out that many people were unaware that they weren't just posting those prompts and conversation snippets for themselves or their friends to see. When you tap "Share" and "Post to feed," you're sharing those chats with everyone, much like a public Facebook post.

The Discovery feed is an oddity in some ways, a graft of the AI chatbot experience on a more classic social media structure. You’ll find AI-generated images of surprisingly human robots, terribly designed inspirational quote images, and more than a few examples of the kind of prompts the average person does not want just anyone seeing.

I've scrolled past people asking Meta AI to explain their anxiety dreams, draft eulogies, and brainstorm wedding proposals. It's voyeuristic, and not in the performative way of most social media; it's real and personal.

It seems that many people assumed sharing those posts was more like saving them for later perusal, rather than offering the world a peek at whatever awkward experiments with the AI you are conducting. Meta has hastily added a new pop-up warning to the process, making it clear that anything you post is public, visible to everyone, and may even appear elsewhere on Meta platforms.

If that warning doesn't seem enough to ensure your AI privacy on the app, you can opt out of the Discovery feed completely. Here's how to ensure your chats aren’t one accidental tap away from public display.

(Image credit: Meta AI screenshot)

• Open the Meta AI app.
• Tap your profile picture or initials, whichever represents your digital self.
• Tap on "Data and Privacy" and "Manage Your Information."
• Tao on "Make all public prompts visible to only you," and then "Apply to all" in the pop-up. This will ensure that when you share a prompt, only you will be able to see it.
• If that doesn't seem like enough, you can completely erase the record of any interaction you've had with Meta AI by tapping "Delete all prompts." That includes any prompt you've written, regardless of whether it's been posted, so be certain.

Private prompts

Of course, even with the opt-out enabled and your conversations with Meta AI no longer public, Meta still retains the right to use your chats to improve its models.

It's common among all the big AI providers. That's supposedly anonymized and doesn't involve essentially publishing your private messages, but theoretically, what you and Meta AI say to each other could appear in a chat with someone else entirely in some form.

It's a paradox in that the more data AI models have, the better they perform, but people are reluctant to share too much with an algorithm. There was a minor furor when, for a brief period, ChatGPT conversations became visible to other users under certain conditions. It's the other edge of the ubiquitous “we may use your data to improve our systems” statement in every terms of service.

Meta’s Discovery feed simply removes the mask, inviting you to post and making it easy for others to see. AI systems are evolving faster than our understanding of them, hence the constant drumbeat about transparency. The idea is that the average user, unaware of the hidden complexities of AI, should be informed of how their data is being saved and used.

However, given how most companies typically address these kinds of issues, Meta is likely to stick to its strategy of fine-tuning its privacy options in response to user outcry. And maybe remember that if you’re going to tell your deepest dreams to an AI chatbot, make sure it’s not going to share the details with the world.

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• The Trump Organization says a new T1 Phone will launch in August
• It will apparently be "designed and built in the United States"
• But experts say the phone is more likely to have Chinese origins

The Trump Mobile T1 Phone is undoubtedly one of the strangest phones ever made, mixing odd specs (a 3.5mm headphone jack) with ones that make no sense ("5000mAh long life camera"). However, it also comes with a big claim that it'll be "designed and built in the United States."

Given that analysts recently told us that "the idea of making iPhones in the US is a stretch", is this really possible? Or will the manufacturing reality of the "sleek, gold smartphone" be a bit more complicated?

We asked smartphone supply chain experts for their verdict on the Trump Mobile T1 and whether it really can meet those lofty "made in the USA" goals.

With the T1 arriving in August for $499, it could theoretically steal some thunder from the rumored iPhone 17 – but there are good reasons to suspect that Apple won't be losing any sleep over its unexpected, gold-colored rival from Trump Mobile...

The claim

The Trump Organization has made some typically bold claims about the T1 – it's been billed as the phone that will spark a new era in US phone manufacturing.

In a press release, the Trump family business stated that the T1 is "proudly designed and built in the United States for customers who expect the best from their mobile carrier". Elsewhere, the site claims it has been "built for patriots by patriots".

(Image credit: The Trump Organization)

Expanding on the claims, Eric Trump stated on "The Benny Show" podcast that "eventually, all the phones can be built in the United States of America".

Yet the Trump Mobile site is short on specific details about how and where the Trump T1 phone will be made. According to experts, there are good reasons to suspect that this will be ambitious at best...

The reality

(Image credit: The Trump Organization)

• Experts agree the Trump phone won't meet its "made in the USA" claims
• It will likely be a modified Android phone from a Chinese manufacturer
• But the Trump Mobile T1 could theoretically still be assembled in the USA

The Trump Mobile T1 won't meet the strict definition of "made in the USA" for a few reasons, experts say – and these also explain why moving iPhone manufacturing to the USA is unlikely in the near future.

Firstly, "made in the USA" has a high bar. Professor Tinglong Dai, who teaches at the Johns Hopkins University Carey Business School, told us: "The FTC [Federal Trade Commission] has a strict standard for “Made in USA”: all or almost all parts and processing must be domestic. Judging by that standard, the claim is unrealistic."

But there could be ways around that. "The Trump Organization’s “built in America” language isn’t an official designation, so there’s plenty of wiggle room for them to make that claim," Dai added.

Ben Hatton, market analyst at CCS Insight, agrees. "Our expectation is that the T1 Phone will work around this by virtue of assembly in the US using parts from elsewhere," he told us.

On that subject, TechRadar's Editor at Large, Lance Ulanoff, also noted: "There's just one company that builds phones in the US, Purism. Its specs don't match up. Even if it is assembled somewhere in Trump Castle, they're still almost certainly sourcing components outside the US."

So, what phone will the T1 be based on? That's still something of a mystery. "The phone will probably be a custom-modified Android smartphone from a Chinese manufacturer," Ben Hatton from CCS Insight told us. That seems highly likely – we tried putting the T1's specs into GSMArena's phone finder for existing phones, and it came up blank.

Why can't phones be made in the USA?

(Image credit: ArcGIS StoryMaps)

So what does all this mean for the grand ambition of manufacturing phones in the US? And why isn't it possible?

"The main challenge is that we don’t have an end-to-end tech supply chain, and the U.S. lacks the manufacturing capacity for several key components. Even if we do, the lack of skilled workers would be a main bottleneck," Dai explained.

Ben Hatton from CCS Insight agrees that a true "made in the USA" phone is unlikely to happen for a long time, if ever. "The US is unlikely to have enough labor with the right skills for this to be achievable in anything other than the long-term. The costs of labor would then go through the roof due to this skills shortage," he added.

"Upending 50 years of supply-chain evolution by making companies move facilities would also mean totally reshaping these chains by making the US the ‘focal point’ rather than China," he concluded. In other words, it's completely unrealistic and not compatible with the complexities of smartphones or our globalized tech world.

To sum that up, Professor Tinglong Dai concluded: "A bigger issue is that there’s really no such thing as a fully domestic supply chain.” You may have read the classical essay, “I, Pencil” – even for something as simple as a pencil, you’re talking about dozens of countries behind it, and that’s before the current global supply chain era," he noted.

To see the equivalent for an iPhone, check out the excellent 'Mapping the iPhone' infographic from ArcGIS StoryMaps, which shows just how complex smartphone supply chains are.

So while The Trump Mobile T1 may carry the "made in the USA" boast, experts agree it'll be at best "assembled in the USA" – and even that hasn't yet been officially confirmed ahead of its August launch.

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• Asus RTX 5080 now doubles as AI hardware and a surprisingly cool SSD bay
• PCIe lanes aren’t just for GPUs anymore, thanks to Asus’ hybrid hardware approach
• Asus is developing Multi-LM so AI devs can offload models straight to onboard SSDs

The unusual GeForce RTX 5080 GPU, first spotted a few weeks ago with an SSD slot, is no longer just a hardware oddity.

Asus North America has now confirmed the ProArt RTX 5080 SSD Edition is a real product.

As unusual as it may sound, the decision to pair high-performance graphics processing with solid-state storage is part of a broader plan involving artificial intelligence and local model development.

A hybrid GPU-storage design targeting AI development

Despite Asus remaining tight-lipped on a release date and shipping configuration, some technical details have begun to emerge, alongside a few unanswered questions.

One of the biggest surprises is the 90-degree rotated GPU layout - Asus modified the printed circuit board (PCB) design so that the GPU is mounted perpendicular to the usual orientation.

This is not a configuration found in any other RTX 5080 models, suggesting a custom approach that accommodates the SSD and improves airflow.

Asus claims this layout helps the SSD benefit from, “airflow provided by the card’s fans,” although the SSD is not in direct contact with the main heatsink.

It is instead cooled via a secondary heatsink and passive airflow, reportedly keeping the SSD about 10 degrees Celsius cooler than a typical M.2 drive mounted on a motherboard.

The SSD integration also exploits PCIe bifurcation, meaning unused PCI Express lanes are reassigned to support the drive.

The company has previously applied this approach to RTX 4060 series cards, which did not fully saturate the PCIe interface, leaving enough bandwidth for an M.2 slot.

Now, with the RTX 5080 ProArt edition, the idea is refined to suit high-end AI workflows, although it introduces trade-offs, the GPU may not always have access to all PCIe lanes, potentially limiting peak performance under certain workloads.

Perhaps the most significant revelation lies in Asus’ software ambitions - the company is developing a tool called Multi-LM, intended for developers working with large language models.

Asus says, this tool will “allow AI developers to offload models directly to the storage, potentially enabling local model development without needing constant memory swaps to slower system drives.”

This will be of interest to those looking for the best LLM for coding, and positions the RTX 5080 SSD Edition as more than just a gaming card; it could become one of the best AI tools for local inference and prototyping.

Asus has only released a single render of the card and has not confirmed performance metrics or availability.

The question of whether this concept delivers meaningful real-world gains or just adds complexity remains unanswered.

Via Videocardz

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Look, I get it: there’s not much else more special in the gaming or tech world than the smell of a new console freshly unboxed.

Add in that the new console of the moment is the Nintendo Switch 2, and with it all the promise of new exclusive games and hours, days, nights spent in Mario Kart World, and it’s not surprising that tracking down new stock of the Nintendo Switch 2 isn’t easy.

But I’m not fussed.

Well, okay, I’m a little fussed; I have a decent dose of FOMO tickling my gaming synapse as I see others on social media with their box-fresh Switch 2 consoles, while I remain flopped on my sofa with my aged original Nintendo Switch.

However, I’ve resisted the urge to splurge my hard-earned cash on the Switch 2. In part because I’m probably one of the few people who doesn’t get all giddy at Mario Kart (at least not since Mario Kart 64). On the other hand, there’s not yet a glut of big new first-party exclusive games for the console.

Yet my big reason to wait is all about bundles.

The wating game

(Image credit: Future)

Alongside looking after the phones and tablets vertical at TechRadar, I also manage the site’s deals team, so I spend a good bit of time tracking sales events and chewing over deals from the likes of Amazon, Best Buy, Currys, Argos, Walmart and more.

While I don’t expect the Switch 2 to drop in price in the next couple of years, let alone anytime soon, I think we could see some compelling Switch 2 bundles as the inevitable march towards the winter (at least in the Northern Hemisphere) holiday season.

With said season comes an Amazon October sales spree and Black Friday, which is far less of a day of sales and more like weeks of bargains for the discerning shopper to pursue. And a good suite of those deals falls on games and gaming hardware.

So I’m forecasting that come November time we’ll see more varied Nintendo Switch 2 bundles, specifically from major retailers; I doubt these will add up to a discounted Switch 2, but instead could bundle the console with a new game or two, or a Switch 2 Pro controller, all at a price that's notably cheaper than buying each part separately.

I’m calling it now: there’ll be a Donkey Kong Bananza Switch 2 bundle.

As such, I think I’ll kick my FOMO to the curb for now and hold out for a handful of months before I seek out the new Switch.

I have previous form on this, as I remember holding out for an original Switch bundle, which I snapped up during the Black Friday period of 2017. I think this snagged me the console and Super Mario Odyssey for a decent price, leaving me with some change to snap up Breath of the Wild; don’t ask me for specifics as we’re talking the best part of a decade ago, though.

Now the gaming landscape has changed a little in that time, with the likes of the PS5 and Xbox Series X even increasing in price as they age. So compelling console bundles might be a thing of the past.

Yet I’m willing to cling to hope and wait for a Switch 2 bundle that catches my eye. If nothing else, there should be more exclusive games for the new console as 2025 marches on.

In the meantime, I’ll take the money I could have splurged on the Switch 2 and see if I can get any gaming bargains in the early Prime Day deals; wish me luck, or come and join me.

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Goliath had been paired with several female tortoises before, in hopes of producing a hatchling, but the process wasn't successful until earlier this month.

(Image credit: AP)

President Trump is the first U.S. president in 116 years that the NAACP hasn't invited to the annual convention. The group says Trump is attacking democracy and civil rights.

(Image credit: Win McNamee)

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(Image credit: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

• GL.iNet Flint 3 is a powerful Wi-Fi 7 router with 2.5GbE ports at a bargain early bird price
• Supports OpenWrt, VPNs, and mesh with wide plugin compatibility
• It's the follow-up to the Slate 7, the world's first mobile Wi-Fi 7 router

The GL.iNet Flint 3 (GL-BE9300) may be the cheapest Wi-Fi 7 BE9300 router currently available, and with four 2.5GbE LAN ports plus VPN support, it could be a no-brainer for buyers looking to take advantage of Wi-Fi 7 speeds on a budget.

The tri-band router, designed for home users and small offices, is available for pre-order now. Super early bird buyers had the chance to grab it for just $119, but that tier quickly sold out. Early bird pricing is set at $139, while the standard pre-order price is $159. The MSRP is listed at $229.90, with orders expected to ship in mid-July 2025.

The Flint 3 builds on GL.iNet’s more compact, travel-oriented Slate 7, which the company launched a few months ago priced from $120.

Solid VPN performance

The Flint 3 is powered by a 1.5GHz quad-core Qualcomm processor, probably the IPQ5332, and paired with 1GB of DDR4 RAM and 8GB of eMMC storage.

It runs a customized version of OpenWrt 23.05 (Linux 5.4.213) and includes GL.iNet’s Admin Panel v4.7. The OS supports over 5,000 plug-ins, with built-in tools for privacy, tunneling, and ad blocking.

On the networking side, the Flint 3 is fitted with five 2.5Gbps Ethernet ports, one for WAN, one WAN/LAN, and three dedicated LAN ports. These support up to 10Gbps link aggregation.

It supports WiFi 7 across the 2.4GHz (688Mbps), 5GHz (2882Mbps), and 6GHz (5765Mbps) bands, and includes four foldable external antennas. A USB 3.0 port allows for smartphone tethering or use with a cellular dongle.

The router’s VPN performance is rated up to 680Mbps on both WireGuard and OpenVPN-DCO. This is slightly below the 900Mbps seen on the older Flint 2, but still solid for encrypted traffic.

It also includes features like AdGuard Home, failover support, load balancing, and mesh networking. Power is provided via a 12V/4A DC input, and power draw is listed as under 25W under normal load.

Compared to more expensive BE9300 routers on the market, Flint 3’s early pricing and hardware mix make it a standout. Competing with similarly priced routers like the TP-Link Archer BE550 may be tough at full MSRP, but right now, it’s among the best WiFi 7 deals available.

Via CNX Software

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