Feed aggregator

Most business leaders are aware that AI adoption in their organizations has moved faster than the governance around it. When we surveyed 250 finance decision makers in mid-market organizations, we found that 83% of teams were already using AI, yet only 53% had a formal framework for its safe use.

If finance - a function with some of the highest standards for data accuracy and compliance - is operating with that kind of governance gap, it is reasonable to ask whether other departments across the business look any different.

That gap represents a risk - and it's a risk that sits squarely with the business and its leadership. So how do you encourage innovation when it comes to AI without losing control of the risks it brings?

There is an international standard designed specifically to address this: ISO/IEC 42001. It is not a compliance exercise to tick a box; it is a practical framework for governing AI responsibly, with direct implications for how business leaders evaluate the software they rely on.

For SaaS businesses, ISO 27001, the standard for information security management systems, has become the norm. It's a key requirement, providing assurance to customers about how the business ensures Confidentiality, Integrity and Availability for the data it hosts and processes on their behalf.

ISO/IEC 42001, published in 2023, is its counterpart for AI: the first international standard governing how organizations develop, deploy and oversee AI systems. Whether or not you pursue certification yourself, it should be a key reference point when evaluating any AI-powered software you use.

Why we need a standard for AI security

It's not even four years since the public launch of ChatGPT heralded the boom in use of generative AI. Not only has the technology moved at an incredible pace since then but so has its adoption in business.

We've all been told that AI will transform productivity and change the world of work forever. So it's not surprising that many organizations have been racing to buy licenses and get people using it. In organizations that haven't done so, it's likely that staff are using it on the side anyway - which creates another problem: "Shadow IT".

"Shadow" AI use seems to be rife. Among the finance decision makers we surveyed, in almost half (46%) of organizations where AI hadn't been officially adopted, people were using AI assistants anyway and 30% were using AI-powered forecasting and analysis. It would be surprising if the picture looked much better elsewhere in the business.

So it's worth asking: where is the data we have spent so much effort protecting, through ISO standards such as ISO 27001, now going - and do I have visibility and control over it?

The scale of ungoverned AI use matters in any organization. ISO 42001 provides a structured way to ask the right questions, whether you are reviewing your own internal AI use or evaluating a software vendor.

How ISO 42001 helps business leaders

Certain parts of an organization have particularly high standards for data accuracy and integrity - finance teams producing regulatory reporting, legal teams managing case records, HR functions handling sensitive employee data. ISO 42001 helps ensure those standards are reflected in the AI tools and processes you use, whatever your context.

Transparency: ISO 42001 requires that AI outputs can be explained and traced. Whether AI is producing a report, performing an automated workflow or flagging an anomaly, you as the human in the loop should be able to explain what the system did and why. That human in the loop is a key component of the standard.

Accountability: ISO 42001 stresses clear ownership of AI systems and their outputs. That means the use of any AI in business-critical workflows should have a defined owner who is responsible for its performance and governance.

Risk management: ISO 42001 requires ongoing risk assessment for AI systems over and above those in place for ISO 27001. This doesn't usurp what you have currently in place. It complements current risk evaluation through a focus on AI and the implementation of controls to help manage that identified risk.

That means identifying what could go wrong, how likely that event is and ensuring the right controls are in place to mitigate it. Those risks might include data accuracy, model performance degrading, security of sensitive business data and the risk of AI acting on outputs that have not been adequately verified.

The questions you should ask

ISO 42001 offers you a useful way into important conversations with software vendors, whether or not they've achieved formal certification. It prompts some important questions.

- How are the vendor's AI systems developed, tested and monitored? The ideal response would show documented processes for keeping things accurate and trustworthy, with the human in the loop clearly built into the processes.

- How does the AI product produce its output? What happens when an output is incorrect or unexpected? It's worth understanding whether the AI outputs come from a layer bolted onto a core system and drawing on verified data from that system - or whether they are generated predictively, the way a large language model would work.

- How does the vendor manage the risk of AI model performance changing over time? One of the frustrations of using AI is that LLMs can become less good at a task they did well before. You need to know your vendor is on top of this issue.

- What accountability exists within the vendor's organization for these AI capabilities? You need a relationship with a vendor that's prepared to take responsibility for its product and the data that flows from it.

- Does the vendor use your data to train or improve its AI models? This is a question that more business leaders are asking, and rightly so. Your data should never be used to improve a third-party model. Look for vendors who operate a zero-retention policy, meaning your data is used only in a live, read-only state and is never fed back into AI training processes.

However capable AI gets, it will not be replacing human decision-making and accountability at the top of organizations in the foreseeable future. That remains the job of leaders who need to know they are putting their names to decisions grounded in complete, accurate and trustworthy data from their own systems.

ISO 42001 is the mechanism by which you can hold AI to the same standards of accuracy, transparency and accountability that rigorous organizations have always required. It will not slow down AI adoption. But it will ensure that adoption does not come at the expense of the controls that protect your organization and your reputation.

We've featured the best AI chatbot for business.

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

A new acronym is starting to appear in boardrooms, investor conversations and executive debates: MANGOS - Meta, Anthropic, NVIDIA, Google, OpenAI and SpaceX.

It is being used as shorthand for the new power cluster of the AI era, and perhaps as the successor to FAANG as a symbol of where technological gravity now lives.

Here is my take: MANGOS is not the destination. It is the opening move.

Over the next five years, some companies that dominate their markets today, icons of an era, businesses that once seemed structurally unassailable, may lose relevance, decline, or be replaced by new leaders. At the same time, new companies will emerge from places nobody is currently watching.

This has happened before. It will happen again. What is different this time is the speed and the depth of structural change required to survive it.

The world is being reshaped by AI. But the companies that will win are not the ones that simply add AI to what they already do. They are the ones who rebuild themselves around it entirely.

The tool-adoption trap

There is a seductive but dangerous interpretation of AI transformation that goes something like this: deploy a copilot here, add a chatbot there, automate a few workflows, report efficiency gains to the board, and move on.

That approach may create efficiency gains, but it does not create an AI-native company.

The companies building genuine competitive advantage right now are not asking, “Where can we use AI?” They are asking a harder question: “If we were starting this company today, with AI as a native capability rather than a retrofit, what would we look like?”

The answer, almost always, is dramatically different from what they look like now.

This is not a technology shift. It is a company redesign. And the gap between those two ways of thinking is where many organizations are currently losing.

What AI-native actually means

The term AI-native is used loosely, so let me be precise about what I mean by an AI-native mindset. It has concrete, structural implications that go far beyond which tools a company deploys.

The first is re-engineering the org chart to unlock AI outcomes, not to preserve legacy structures.

Most organizational hierarchies were designed for a world of information scarcity, where value came from controlling access to data, expertise and decision-making authority. AI inverts that logic. Information is becoming abundant. The constraint is now judgment, creativity and the ability to act on signals faster than competitors.

An org chart built for the old world can suppress the outcomes the new world makes possible. Redesigning for AI is not about simply cutting headcount. It is about rethinking where human judgment actually adds value, and structuring the organization so that AI amplifies it rather than working around it.

The second is increasing talent density with genuine intentionality.

AI adoption does not happen organically at the pace this moment demands. When transformation requires a cultural shift as fundamental as this one, where every employee’s relationship with their work is changing, organic adoption is too slow.

It has to be a CEO mandate, driven from the top, resourced seriously and measured against real outcomes. The companies that treat AI training as an optional benefit will be outrun by the companies that treat it as a core operating requirement.

The third, and the one I find most underappreciated, is eliminating before automating.

There is a reflexive impulse in most organizations to reach for automation as the response to inefficiency. But the highest-value process is often the one that should no longer exist.

Before you make something faster, you need to ask whether it needs to happen at all. Automating a broken process at scale just produces broken outcomes faster. The discipline of elimination, of genuinely questioning whether a workflow, a layer of approval, a reporting structure or a product feature actually needs to exist, is harder than automation, and more valuable.

The fourth is relentless commercial focus.

AI investments must drive measurable revenue growth or profitability. This sounds obvious, but in practice, it is where many transformation programs lose their way. The excitement of the technology can become its own justification. It cannot be.

Every significant AI investment should have a clear line of sight to a commercial outcome, not eventually, not in theory, but in a timeframe that the business can actually hold itself accountable to.

In commerce, this distinction is already becoming visible. The winners will not simply add AI tools to search, customer service, merchandising or operations. They will rethink how decisions are made across the entire business, from product discovery to fulfilment, customer experience, media and profitability.

The hidden risk for today’s market leaders

If you are a market leader today, you face a specific and uncomfortable dynamic.

The capabilities that got you to dominance, your processes, your organisational structure, your institutional knowledge, your partner ecosystem, are also the things that can make transformation hardest. They are not only assets. If left unquestioned, they can become anchors.

New entrants do not have this problem in the same way. They are building AI-native from day one, without legacy infrastructure to protect or organizational politics to navigate. They will not necessarily announce themselves before they are ready. By the time many incumbents recognize the threat, the gap may already be significant.

This is not a reason to panic. It is a reason to move with urgency that many large organizations are not currently demonstrating.

MANGOS is the beginning, not the ceiling

The MANGOS companies are defining much of the infrastructure of the AI era, and their influence on how the next decade of business is conducted will be profound.

But the history of technology tells us something important: infrastructure enablers and application-layer winners are usually not the same companies.

The railroads did not own all the businesses that the railroads made possible. The internet infrastructure companies of the 1990s did not capture most of the value that the internet created. MANGOS is building the rails. The question for every enterprise leader is what they are going to build on them.

The winners of the next era will be the companies that take AI infrastructure as a given, build organizational and commercial models designed specifically for an AI-native world, and execute with relentless focus.

They will come from industries nobody is currently betting on. They will emerge from markets that look mature or even declining. They will be led by people who understood earlier than everyone else that this is not an upgrade cycle. It is a redesign.

The game is on. Execution based on experimentation driving bold outcomes is what will make the difference.

We've featured the best AI website builder.

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

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

The recent fatal shootings by ICE officers in Texas and Maine come at a time when the federal agency has hired a huge number of officers quickly. Some law enforcement experts worry that this kind of a hiring spree can lead police agencies to cut corners in vetting new hires.

(Image credit: Gregory Rec)

Nutrition advocates and public health experts are mystified by the decision to eliminate SNAP-Ed, given the Trump administration's embrace of the Make America Healthy Again agenda.

(Image credit: Rachel Wisniewski for NPR)

Sisters Theresa Alethia and Danielle Lussier call themselves the Sisters of the Little Way of Beauty, Truth and Goodness. Their order plans to help victims of abuse.

(Image credit: Natosha Via for NPR)

These maps show that the redistricting battle President Trump initiated has so far had a particular impact on largely Black congressional districts in Republican-led states.

(Image credit: Rahul Mukherjee)

Advisers to the Food and Drug Administration are weighing the evidence for seven different peptides. Favorable votes would pave the way for easier access.

(Image credit: Sarah Silbiger)

Transportation officials have removed a growing list of safety materials that mention bike lanes from federal websites. Safety advocates warn that's undermining proven measures for reducing crashes.

(Image credit: Kevin Dietsch)

The New York Times reported earlier this month that security concerns had led the Secret Service to urge Trump to fly home from Turkey on a different jet.'/>

The New York Times will argue in court Thursday that the White House is abusing the justice system to intimidate reporters over a story that angered President Trump. 

(Image credit: BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images)

The online outcry over the renaming of a summer festival illustrates the unease over the data center boom in the South.

(Image credit: Stephan Bisaha)

Trump administration signs nuclear cooperation agreement with Saudi Arabia, Trump ramps up aggression against Iran despite declining support, House passes Pentagon funding bill.

In life, you often have to meet something at what it is, not what you want it to be. This is the logic that I need you to apply to Ransom Canyon season 2 when you watch it, as all eight episodes drop on Netflix on July 23.

This Western drama soap opera hybrid serves to entertain, but it doesn't ever aim to cross a boundary. It's not striving to be the best TV show of 2026, or do anything remotely challenging or ambitious. Ransom Canyon is a show that stays in its subtly cringe and often stereotypical lane... and for that, I'm thankful.

I don't need all of my television to be profound, life-changing or even that meaningful. Sometimes, I just want to switch my brain off and pretend I live in a picturesque, rural town on the other side of the world where everyone has unrelenting drama except for me. Enter Double K ranch owner Staten (Josh Duhamel), local bar owner Quinn (Minka Kelly) and an eclectic ensemble of characters.

When Netflix commits to the soap opera bit, it ticks the genre boxes incredibly well. Season 1 of Ransom Canyon was already a strong outing, but now that the show knows itself a little more, season 2 is easily on par with the strongest seasons of Virgin River, the streamer's most iconic "cozy drama" IP.

The catch? Season 2 is releasing just weeks after the epic Yellowstone spinoff Dutton Ranch released on Paramount+, which was widely praised by fans and critics (including me) alike. With both shows in such close proximity of each other, it's easy to see how weak the cowboy drama in Ransom Canyon actually is.

Ransom Canyon season 2 is a love story with cowboying on the side — that's an important distinction

Here's where the two shows differ dramatically: Dutton Ranch is a Western drama that sprinkles complex love stories in between. Ransom Canyon is a love story that sprinkles Western drama in between.

Once we've understood this, we know that we can't directly compare them... as much as we want to. The two have completely different functions and goals, and it's highly likely that the fanbases won't fully cross over. That being said, I think following straight after the return of Beth Dutton (Kelly Reilly) and Rip Wheeler (Cole Hauser) in the Yellowstone spinoff will undoubtedly hurt Staten and Quinn's second outing.

On the surface, season 2 puts a lot of emphasis on the ongoing land feud between the Double K ranch owned by Staten and the Fuller ranch next door, now owned by dubious newcomer Yancy (Jack Schumacher). But by the time we've reached the season 2 finale, it feels completely inconsequential.

This is because we're really being driven by the romantic drama that intertwines the Ransom Canyon residents rather than the mechanics of the town itself. Nobody really cares who owns what or who works where, as long as the right people settle into the relationships that are clearly destined for them.

If Netflix hadn't have hyped the feud up in its marketing, I don't think I'd have noticed that the cowboying actually lets Ransom Canyon down so easily. Taylor Sheridan ain't in these parts, and I think it will always show.

But it's a sensational soap opera — as is cast newcomer Patricia Clarkson

(Image credit: Netflix)

As a flat-out soap opera, Ransom Canyon season 2 is delicious. The indecisively infuriating will-they-won't-they dynamics run wild, the dramatic breakups are deployed at the perfect time, but when it comes down to it, things draw to a close in exactly the way you think they will.

It's almost a comfort to know what you're going to get at an end result, to have something that's often more stable than your actual life (well, if you remove all of the fictional chaos ). Even though tensions between Staten and Quinn remain front and centre, not a single supporting character feels underused.

With each connection feeling like a fulfilling one, we're really getting a lot of bang for our buck when it comes to narrative sustenance. An extra shoutout must go to newcomer Patricia Clarkson, who joins the series as Quinn's firecracker mother, Claire. I've honestly got no clue how the show scored such a uniquely legendary talent, but they've certainly not been complacent about it.

Is Ransom Canyon season 2 more of the same? Essentially, yes. Is that a bad thing? No, that's exactly what we want. If you overlook the cowboying, you'll probably fall in love with each and every character as much as I did... and soap opera historically aren't my thing. If you can't trust the opinion of a reformer hater, who can you?

Fliki is a popular AI video generator, trusted by more than 12 million users worldwide and 50,000 companies, including brands like Meta, ByteDance, Oracle, and PayPal. You can create and edit AI videos with natural-language prompts using its AI Copilot.

In this article, we’ve put Fliki to the test, evaluating its features, pricing, and real-world in-app experience to help you find out whether this AI video editor lives up to its claims and whether it’s the right tool for you.

Fliki: Plans and pricing

Fliki is a fairly limited free video editing software, which gives you three credits per month, or 36 credits for the entire year. You can export videos with a maximum length of one minute in 720p resolution, along with access to 300 standard voices. All other video and audio generation features are limited on the free plan and restricted by the number of credits you receive.

We found the provision of just three credits per month quite stingy. For instance, generating a one-minute AI video costs around 0.8 credits. If it includes an AI avatar, it can cost around 5.3 credits alone. This means you can't do much with the free plan besides testing out the platform.

To get the most out of Fliki, you'll have to subscribe to one of its paid plans. Its Standard plan starts at $28 per month. Right now, you can get 50% off the subscription, bringing the effective price down to $14 per month. With this plan, you get 2,160 credits for the entire year, along with an expanded export length of 15 minutes in 1080p resolution, which disappointed us a bit. Kapwing, for instance, allows you to export videos in 4K quality at around the same price.

You can check out Fliki by clicking here.

(Image credit: Fliki)

That said, you get unlimited access to various video and audio tools, along with features like voice cloning, custom voices, and Brand Kits. You also get access to various templates, which help you create content using pre-built video layouts. This plan also includes several collaboration features, such as the ability to bulk-create videos from a single CSV file, an AI assistant, and Zapier integrations. However, it still does not include team collaboration, which is again a letdown.

Then there's the Premium plan, costing $88 per month, or $44 per month with the current discount. Here, the maximum export length increases to 40 minutes, but the resolution remains capped at 1080p. Some additional features include unlimited AI avatars, custom fonts, faster exports, and team collaboration.

If you've exhausted your credits, you can purchase top-up credits if you have an active subscription plan. These additional credits are valid for up to 180 days and remain active even if your subscription is canceled during this period. You can get 60 credits for $10, 130 credits for $25, and so on, all the way up to $2,500 worth of credits.

Fliki: Features

Fliki houses as many as 54 tools to create and edit videos and images, supporting various use cases. For instance, you can create social media reels, TikTok videos, or a faceless YouTube channel with Fliki.

There’s also the popular AI Avatar feature, which helps you build avatars of your own and reuse them in your videos. Besides this, you also get an AI Script Writer, voice cloning, a subtitle generator, and a pretty fun Talking Photo feature.

That said, we found Fliki’s AI avatars to be based largely on real people, rather than offering the wide range of outlandish and fictional characters we get with a site like Kapwing.

(Image credit: Fliki)

These are better viewed as use cases rather than standalone features. The core feature remains the same: generating videos and images through prompts. These prompts can be in the form of scripts, reference images, videos, or even audio. Editing tools include background removers, translators, and screen recorders.

Fliki has made a lot of recent additions to its available tools, making it a more complete video generation and editing platform. For instance, it has introduced new models such as Flux Klein 2, Nano Banana 2 for images, Kling 3.0, Seedance 2.0 for video, native audio, multi-shot, and P-Video for video and lip-syncing needs.

You can also use your own media in video workflows, along with 130 new character-driven voices in 20+ languages. As recently as February 2026, Fliki rebuilt its voices to include a wider range of emotions, such as laughing, sarcasm, and deadpan, all of which can be fine-tuned using natural language descriptions.

Fliki now also supports YouTube-licensed music protected by copyright. It has also expanded its character library, allowing you to create and reuse AI characters across multiple projects.

(Image credit: Fliki)

One of its most exciting additions has been the ability to create stop-motion story videos with needle-felted wool puppet looks. Another addition is TikTok auto-publishing, which allows you to post videos created through Fliki directly to TikTok by linking your account in Workspace Settings. You can either publish them immediately or set up a drip schedule to release episodes on TikTok.

Fliki: Interface and in use

Getting started with Fliki is very easy. We used a Google account to sign up for the platform, which took less than a minute. Once you’re in, you’re greeted with a dashboard featuring a black background, along with various features highlighted in small red rectangular tabs below a prompt box.

On the left-hand panel, you’ll find all the settings you need for your video creation, including Media, Subtitles, Audio, AI Copilot, and various templates. However, note that not all of these will be accessible if you’re on the free plan, as several features are locked behind Fliki’s paid tiers.

(Image credit: Future)

The best part about editing with Fliki is its AI-powered editing assistant, where you can type in plain English what you want. For instance, you can ask it to make the intro slower or add a text overlay at any point in the video.

Besides this, you get two ways to build a video. The first is an at-a-glance scene reel laid out horizontally with a full timeline, while the second is a traditional timeline with functions like zooming and snapping, giving you more control.

Fliki has also overhauled its dashboard, giving it a more intuitive layout with a fresher look and easy-to-access tools.

Fliki: How we tested

We used the free version of Fliki to check out its AI video generation capabilities. We entered the following prompt: A woman in a red coat walks across a rain-soaked city street at night, neon signs reflecting in the puddles, camera slowly tracking alongside her (the same prompt we use for all our AI video testing).

We were impressed by the sheer number of customization options that Fliki offers. Once you enter the prompt, you have to select the video duration you want, with the minimum being 30 seconds. This was a bit disappointing, as we’d have liked to see shorter video generation options as well.

(Image credit: Future)

However, Fliki gets to work once you make the selection and generates a detailed script for you. You can edit this script before moving ahead with video generation. Besides this, you get a lot of options to customize your video right before the generation process starts.

(Image credit: Future)

For instance, you can choose the format and template, selecting between portrait, square, and landscape modes, along with the type of character you want. You can also select the AI model you want to use for generation, although most of them are Pro features. Besides this, you also have the option to select a voiceover, add captions, or choose an AI avatar.

(Image credit: Future)

We found this to be pretty convenient since you can make all the required selections in one place and don’t have to go back and forth through the platform making edits afterward. Once we were done with all the selections, we clicked on Generate Video. The actual video rendering process took less than a minute.

(Image credit: Future)

However, since the free tier does not allow you to create AI videos on its own, we were a bit disappointed by the output. The final video consisted of still images with voiceovers instead of a full-fledged video, like we got with Kapwing.

Fliki: Alternatives

While Fliki is a pretty good AI video generator and editor, it does have a few strong competitors. The first one would be Adobe Firefly, which costs around $8.49 per month, around 40% cheaper than Fliki during the discount period.

The biggest advantage of Firefly is its robust workflow features, which allow teams to build virtual storyboards and collaborate in real time, something that Fliki restricts to its highest-tier plan. You also get access to Adobe Express Premium and Photoshop with all its paid plans. That said, its video editing capabilities are still in development and are not as good as Fliki’s.

Another competitor is Kapwing, which comes with better AI avatar generation capabilities. While Fliki depends heavily on real-life characters, Kapwing gives you a lot of fictional character generation options, such as Dracula, vampires, and everything else you can imagine.

Kapwing also supports 4K video exports of up to 120 minutes, whereas Fliki restricts exports to just 1080p, which is certainly not enough in the modern content creation landscape. That said, Kapwing is a bit more expensive than Fliki, costing $16 per month. However, its free plan is more robust, allowing you to create AI videos instead of videos with still images and voiceovers.

Fliki: Final verdict

We used the free version of Fliki to check out its AI video generation capabilities. We entered the following prompt: A woman in a red coat walks across a rain-soaked city street at night, neon signs reflecting in the puddles, camera slowly tracking alongside her (the same prompt we use for all our AI video testing).

We were impressed by the sheer number of customization options that Fliki offers. Once you enter the prompt, you have to select the video duration you want, with the minimum being 30 seconds. This was a bit disappointing, as we’d have liked to see shorter video generation options as well.

However, Fliki gets to work once you make the selection and generates a detailed script for you. You can edit this script before moving ahead with video generation. Besides this, you get a lot of options to customize your video right before the generation process starts.

We've tested a range of video makers and editors, including the best video editing software, the best video editing apps and the best free video editing software.

The incident is stirring debates over the need for stronger AI guardrails and the extent to which AI agents are capable of acting on their own.

(Image credit: Michael Dwyer)

Samsung’s new Galaxy Z-series foldables have been officially unveiled, and pre-orders have also kicked off in Australia.

We’ve covered Samsung’s pre-order offers through its Australian eStore here, but retailers and telcos across the country are jostling for your attention with their own pre-order deals.

The best outright pre-order deals are direct from Samsung with up to AU$650 in savings, while the best telco deal is from Vodafone, with savings of up to AU$1,000.

In case you missed the Galaxy Unpacked last night, you can check out our live coverage of the launch. As for the handsets themselves, you can also read our first impressions of the newly redesigned Z Fold 8, Z Fold Ultra and the Z Flip 8.

I’ve collected the best outright and telco deals for the 2026 Samsung foldable range below, with links taking you straight to the pre-order pages:

Best Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 pre-order deals

Trade in any qualifying device (with a value of at least AU$1) and you can get an extra AU$150 credit off the Fold 8 with this exclusive pre-order offer. If you bundle the Fold 8 with a Galaxy Tablet, Watch, Buds, Ring or other accessories, use the code UNFOLD2026 to take $150 off your entire cart (until July 25, which then drops down to AU$50 off until August 14). You can also redeem Rewards Points to save more, and check out with PayPal for an extra AU$150 off. But that’s not all — if you want more storage, our exclusive code TR-FOLD8 will take another AU$200 off the 1TB model.View Deal

While Amazon isn't discounting the device per se, you’ll receive a AU$300 Amazon credit and 20% off selected Samsung accessories.View Deal

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 | Vodafone Small Promo Plan | 80GB | 24 months | AU$128.28p/m

Vodafone is offering a AU$700 handset discount and discounting its Small Plan by AU$13p/m off (plus mobile data boosted to 80GB), but what makes it the best telco deal is the addition of a AU$300 credit when you trade in an old device. View Deal

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 | Optus Small Choice Plus Plan | 60GB | 24 months | AU$126.18p/m

If you’re not looking to trade in your old phone, Optus slightly beats Vodafone’s offers with a AU$750 handset discount for the Galaxy Z Fold 8, as well as a AU$15p/m off plan fees for the first 12 months.View Deal

Best Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra pre-order deals

Like the Z Fold 8 above, the bonus trade-in credit here is also AU$150 on qualifying devices, and the Unpacked Eco-Voucher and PayPal savings also apply, and using the TR-FOLD8 exclusive code will take AU$200 off the 1TB model.View Deal

Like the Z Fold 8 above, pre-ordering from Amazon will net you a AU$300 credit and 20% off selected Samsung accessories.View Deal

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra | Vodafone Small Promo Plan | 80GB | 24 months | AU$140.78p/m

The AU$700 handset discount and AU$300 trade-in bonus credit from the Z Fold 8 above also apply here, with the monthly cost at AU$140.78p/m with Vodafone's cheapest plan.View Deal

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra | Optus Small Choice Plus Plan | 60GB | 24 months | AU$138.69p/m

Like the Z Fold 8 above, Optus is offering a $750 discount on its Ultra sibling, as well as a AU$15p/m off plan fees for the first 12 months.View Deal

Best Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8 pre-order deals

The trade-in credit for the Z Flip 8 is lower at AU$100 during the pre-order period, and the potential savings from the UNFOLD2026 Unpacked Eco-Voucher (AU$150 off during the first 72 hours) and checking out with PayPal (a further AU$150 off) apply here, too.View Deal

Just like its more premium siblings above, pre-ordering the Galaxy Z Flip 8 from Amazon will give you a AU$300 credit and 20% off selected Samsung accessories.View Deal

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8 Ultra | Optus Small Choice Plus Plan | 60GB | 24 months | AU$94.92p/m

Optus is also giving the Z Flip 8 a $750 discount like the two more premium handsets above, as well as a AU$15p/m off plan fees for the first 12 months.View Deal

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8 | Vodafone Small Promo Plan | 80GB | 24 months | AU$105.36p/m

The Z Flip 8 gets a smaller AU$500 handset discount at Vodafone, but the trade-in credit is the same at AU$300 like the Z Fold 8 and Ultra. The monthly cost of AU$105.36p/m with Vodafone's cheapest plan makes it more expensive than Optus' offer above.View Deal

Other retailer pre-order deals

Want to check out what else is out there? These other retailer offers are also available:

• JB Hi-Fi: Get a AU$300 JB Hi-Fi gift card if you pre-order any of the 2026 Samsung Galaxy Z-series phones
• The Good Guys: Get a AU$300 The Good Guys eGift Card and free delivery if you pre-order any of the 2026 Samsung Galaxy Z-series phones

Don't ask me what happened in any single episode of The Big Bang Theory, because I honestly can't remember.

Across 12 seasons, a myriad of in-jokes, long-standing gags and endless scientific lore were created, and you can bet your bottom dollar that hardcore fans won't have forgotten a single thing.

This level of detail initially made me nervous to try watching new HBO Max spinoff, Stuart Fails to Save the Universe.

Our titular heroic lead, on-off girlfriend Denise (Lauren Lapkus), as well as friends Kripke (John Ross Bowie) and Bert (Brian Posehn), are brought back together when Stuart (Kevin Sussman) triggers a multiverse armageddon by accidentally breaking a device built by Sheldon (Jim Parsons) and Leonard (Johnny Galecki).

Clearly, the spinoff is its own thing, but there's enough of a TBBT connection to assume that you'll need to know the ins and outs of the main season in order to enjoy it.

That's not the case, though. Not only can you be a Big Bang dunce and still have a whale of a time watching — and perhaps more importantly, always understand what's going on — Stuart Fails to Save the Universe is actually designed to contradict the existing IP lore, according to creators Zak Penn and Bill Prady.

'You're not obligated to be consistent'

"One of the wonderful things about moving from universe to universe is you're not obligated to be consistent," Prady tells me.

"We're in a different universe. When we were doing this, I was always reminded of an episode of Doctor Who where the Doctor is confronted with the with the inconsistency in the episode that they're in. He points out that time is more of a vague 'timey-wimey' kind of thing, and I think we had a lot of that going on to say, 'This is a different universe, and that's how it is in this universe.'"

Even from episode 1, which drops on HBO Max on July 23, you can see how it would break your brain to try and conform to the rules and regulations of TBBT.

Stuart and the gang are frequently confronted with alternative versions of themselves and others are each aware of completely different things... and that's before we consider that there's always an overarching physical difference to each universe visited.

"We kind of approached it like we're not trying to construct this perfectly organized science fiction idea," Penn adds. "In fact, we want to both violate the ideas that we set up and then have the characters acknowledge that that's what we've done. We do that quite a bit.

"There's characters all over the season mentioning that things don't really make sense... nobody can follow it. That was a deliberate choice because. The show isn't designed to be something that's a puzzle to figure out perfectly."

As the saying goes, if you can't beat them... be bewildered by the choices being made around you. Trust me: part of the fun is trying to keep up with the multiverse madness and second-guessing what comes next — and you'll never, ever be right.

• Report finds 80% of Gen Z investors now rely on AI for guidance, 58% would let it advise more actively
• AI tools are democratizing investing because they’re free/cheap and convenient
• Transparency, citations, and clear safeguards are still in demand

New data from Opinium has revealed 80% Gen Z investors now use AI for investment-related guidance, putting them far ahead of Baby Boomers (17%) and Gen X (47%).

But younger investors seem to be using it much more than just educational reasons, such as explaining terminology or researching investments – they’re even using it in actual decision-making.

The report added nearly three in five (58%) of Gen Z investors would be likely to use AI to decide where to invest their money. While this is still lower than the total number of younger investors who would use AI, it still means more than half are trusting tools like ChatGPT and Gemini with how they allocate their money.

Is AI democratizing investing for everybody?

The report also quantifies the generational gap in trust, with only 29% of Gen Z investors not trusting AI-generated information compared with 49% across all age brackets. But trust actually rises after users have experienced artificial intelligence, with 72% of users noting they trust it.

What the data also implies is that artificial intelligence has made investing more accessible to more people – 43% say they started using AI tools because it was free, and 41% valued its speed and convenience.

More than a third (38%) of female investors said they felt more comfortable asking AI than a person compared with 27% of male investors, highlighting the technology’s impacts in democratizing investing.

Opinium notes that AI chatbots could be helping to reduce the embarrassment associated with beginners asking basic questions.

Trust is more important than ever where finances are invovled

But when it comes to trusting machines with financial decisions, users still demand high levels of trust. The most frequently cited trust-building measures include seeking evidence that the information is both accurate and current (28%), cross-checking it against data elsewhere (25%) and transparency about the sources used (23%).

“Trust still depends on transparency,” Opinium Associate Director James Nicandrou wrote. “Investors want to know that information is accurate and easy to verify.”

“As AI becomes more widely used in financial decision-making, clear safeguards and signposting will be crucial to helping people use these tools confidently and responsibly.”

All in all, the study shows how younger people are increasingly beginning their investment journeys by asking AI assistants to explain concepts and compare options, but the same trust and accountability that enterprises are battling when trying to implement organization-wide AI is also proving to be just as important for the end user.

While the precise figures differ, Yonder research with the FCA also found that consumers are increasingly using AI for personal finances – 72% said they use it to summarize and explain information, while 61% ask it to suggest actions on their behalves.

Earlier Freetrade research also sets the foundations, noting how 91% of its respondents lacked confidence in investing. One of its suggestions was to improve education for younger adults, with senior analyst Dan Lane noting that “the greatest advantage you can give your investments is time.” With the latest trends revealing that younger adults are getting to grips with investing thanks to AI, accessibility certainly looks to be improving.

The company will need to issue a fix for nearly 20,000 vehicles.

The publishing platform has integrated Pangram to look for AI.

• Egyptian developer demonstrates how to block ads with an ESP32-C3 "SuperMini" board
• ESP32 ad-blocking dongle costs just $5 to build
• 537,000 blacklisted domains are stored in the device’s 4MB of flash memory

When online ads become a problem, ad-blocking software is a good idea, used in conjunction with dedicated hardware like a Raspberry Pi running Pi-Hole. But what if the device is rebooting or otherwise out of action? Egyptian developer ZedAxis claims to have developed a solution that might inspire a rethink on how online whitelisting and blacklisting is processed.

Relying on a sub-$5 ESP32-based mini board, the device somehow squeezes over 500,000 domains into paltry 4MB of onboard flash storage.

The build has been demonstrated on YouTube, with the video of the “DNS sinkhole” apparently providing how simple it is to set up. All the hard work has been done by ZedAxis, with the code available via GitHub.

What is an ESP32-C3?

ZedAxis has built the compact Pi-Hole substitute from a $5 ESP32-C3 “SuperMini” board, easily available from online stores (currently £3.50 on the UK Amazon). These devices feature USB-C for power, Bluetooth 5.0, and crucially for a project like this, Wi-Fi.

The board has been paired with a USB adapter and a 3D-printed case to enable it to be plugged into a power source – in this case, the back of a router, but it could be a TV, console, or any other always-on device with an unused USB port. Direct access to the device is available through a web dashboard, it supports mDNS for easy discovery, and can download over-the-air (OTA) updates.

Code for the project is available on the developer’s GitHub, where the unusual compression that shrinks over 500,000 domains into 4MB of flash storage is explained.

Isn’t that a lot of domains for 4MB?

Strictly speaking, 4MB should not be able to hold 500,000 domains. As described on the project’s GitHub, the actual figure is around half that (141,000 taking up “~2.5 MB of RAM”). So how are the 537,000 domains squeezed into 4MB of RAM?

The board chosen is specifically free of PSRAM (so it just has the flash) and rather than 32-bit or 64-bit, hashes the domains into 40-bit FNV-1a, an algorithm designed for speed and low-collision rates. So, 141,000 domains can be squeezed into 0.7MB of flash, with under 50 KB of RAM apportioned for matching the blacklisted ad domains.

In most cases, the blacklist is limited to around 250,000 domains as OTA firmware updates need around 1.3MB of the flash. But this can be determined when the device is set up and the first blacklist pull is made. Other features are set to be added to this project, including set up as a DHCP server.

The big question is, could this be adopted by, say, small businesses looking for a reduction in broadband bandwidth being eaten by ad networks?