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A major flaw in Apple's Hide My Email feature exposes users' real email addresses to anyone who can look them up online.

• Excel continues to grow as a popular esport
• The Microsoft Excel World Championship’s (MEWC) inaugural Landmark Battle took place on the weekend of July 11th, 2026
• Four competitors went to cell-to-cell, but there was only one winner

The Microsoft Excel World Championship’s (MEWC) inaugural Landmark Battle has declared its first winner, Ireland’s Diarmuid Early, who previously won the Excel World Championship in December 2025.

The MEWC’s Landmark Battle featured four competitors, with Early joined by Andrew Ngai, Jaq Kennedy, and Nicolas Micot. Lasting a mere 30 minutes, the game wasn’t simply a “landmark event” – it took place at four physical landmarks.

Co-sponsored by ASUS, the competitors were forced to compete outdoors in New York, London, Paris, and Australia, all typing and CTRL-Ving furiously on ExpertBook Ultras with handy wireless portable external displays. The Statue of Liberty, Big Ben, the Eiffel Tower, and Sydney Harbour provided the literal landmarks for the event.

Get up Early to win

The MEWC is not a new event, first being held in 2021, with the 2022 broadcast on ESPN.

The competition pits Excel experts against each other to solve complex challenges posed by other Excel experts, not doubt with a few Microsoft Certified Professional qualifications buried among their other achievements in the world of business data management.

These aren’t boring, C-suite outcomes, however. On this occasion, the competitors took the Around The World in 80 Days-inspired Excel challenge, the latest in an inventive selection. This was conceived to reflect remote workers, whose endeavors are “across client sites, airports, cafés, co-working spaces, and remote locations, instead of behind a desk in an office.”

Andrew Grigolyunovich is the founder of the Microsoft Excel World Championship. "The Landmark Battle was unlike anything we've done before," he said. "Watching elite competitors perform from some of the world's most iconic landmarks, powered by ASUS, showed just how far Excel Esports can go."

Previous events have seen competitors tasked with completing jigsaw puzzles using Excel, slot machine games, and the 2D Excel-based platformer, Modelario.

Early’s win – which ironically enough, was late in the game – gave him a last-minute 40-point lead over Andrew Ngai, but due to the worldwide nature of the game, no one knew who had won until the game was over.

As you can see in the YouTube video, each competitor was accompanied by just a cameraman, and you can see the reactions as the results are confirmed.

Esport, or Excel-sport?

Esports have become big business in recent years, but events tend to circle around games such as League of Legends, Dota, or CS:GO.

As esport events go, Microsoft Excel is not the obvious spectator sport. But if you have the skills to make magic with formulae and numbers arranged in rows and columns, they might be a dead cert for next year’s Microsoft Excel World Championship.

The qualifiers for the 2026 world championship have already commenced, with the event again taking place in Las Vegas – and Early appears to be a dead cert to triumph again.

The movement to preserve online privacy runs counter to the business model of many big tech companies, which have devised profitable business models that hinge on capitalizing on personal data users surrender by using their platforms. This reality cannot be divorced from the facts that prominent figures, like former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, have often made remarks like the following.

Don't be evil

Schmidt, who was Google chief at the time, was being interviewed on CNBC when he was asked whether users should feel comfortable sharing their data with Google.

Quote of the day

This article is part of TechRadar Pro's QOTD project to provide an insight into the minds of the brightest and most recognized figures in the technology industry today and in years gone by. Read the full series here.

His statement in response came as a surprise given how much Google had claimed (during this much simpler era of Silicon Valley) to care about user privacy.

These arguments, after all, are the same used by those who are adamant that we must break encryption in the name of safety, as well as those who defended the now-clear government surveillance programs disclosed by the NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.

Worry versus harm

Scrutiny intensified in the months after these comments, with Google attempting to assuage concerns by reiterating policies around data anonymization despite continued criticism.

Co-founder Larry Page then tried to help the situation in mid-2010 by saying users should distinguish between "worry versus harm".

He tried to imply that bulk collection of data, including harvesting data from private Wi-Fi networks via Street View cars, may be harmless if that data has no utility. He challenged detractors to specifically name individuals harmed by such practices.

Then, a couple of years later, Google faced several federal fines, including a then-record $22.5 million penalty after the firm was found to have bypassed default privacy settings on Apple's Safari browsers. The EU also argued that controversial privacy changes breached European law.

• Belkin has launched a new power bank that also includes a light
• This can function as a night light, a fill light, or even an SOS signal
• The power bank has a 10,000mAh capacity, but currently it's only available in China

It can be hard to stand out when launching a new power bank, but Belkin has certainly tried with the Belkin BoostCharge Pro Power Bank 10K, which is capable of much more than just charging your phone.

Beyond packing 10,000mAh of power, it also includes a pop-out LED light, complete with a motion sensor and controls to adjust its brightness.

One obvious use for this is as a bedside night light, which might be handy when staying in a hotel. But it also has a flashing mode, which helps it attract attention; in this mode, it could function as an SOS signal — which could be reassuring if you’re out in the wilderness. And it could also be used as a fill light for photos and video calls, when the ambient light isn’t ideal.

(Image credit: Belkin)Compact and capable

Beyond that, this Belkin power bank has a built-in braided USB-C cable and a USB-C port, so you can charge two devices at once. It outputs 45W of power; if you’re charging two devices, the primary device gets 30W, and the other gets 15W.

It also has a small circular display showing the remaining battery percentage. This screen also contains controls for the LED light — a light which is unlikely to draw much power, so you hopefully won’t be sacrificing much charging potential by using it.

It comes in at 118 x 60 x 32mm and 257g, so the light doesn’t appear to add much weight or bulk, but sadly it’s only available in China for now, with JD.com listing it for 329 yuan (roughly $50 / £35 / AU$70). Since Belkin has a global presence, though, this may well launch elsewhere too.

Commentary: Beyond proving the ChatGPT maker didn't steal Apple's trade secrets, OpenAI needs to prove to everyone else that AI devices are a good idea.

The comments came following widespread reports earlier in the week that those stops would be put on pause after two immigrants were fatally shot by ICE agents in early July.

(Image credit: Saul Loeb)

Flood sirens blared early Thursday in Comfort, Texas, as the Guadalupe River rose more than 30 feet in three hours, the U.S. Geological Survey said. The storm could bring even more rainfall than last year's deadly Fourth of July floods.

(Image credit: Brandon Bell)

The $399 Signal Ring by Vital Signals claims to deliver cuffless, calibration-free blood pressure readings from the finger.

• A joint Insider/Der Spiegel/Le Monde investigation published leaked documents showing a Chinese-authored, three-level plan to contain and defeat Starlink
• The plan, presented to Russian officers at a secret forum in 2023, highlights a three-level approach to contain and destroy SpaceX's Starlink
• A separately signed June 2023 Moscow protocol also commits Russia and China to jointly build a hypersonic-missile-defense system based on technology Russia had never before been willing to share, even with allies

Starlink is the world's largest satellite constellation ever built, and as a result, it also doubles as the backbone for many civilian and military communications channels.

With approximately 10,400 satellites in low-Earth orbit as of June 2026, SpaceX's low-Earth-orbit satellite internet network covers nearly 160 different countries and territories while delivering low-latency communications (20-40 milliseconds) that often make it a better choice than GEO systems that have a baked-in round trip delay of 500-700 milliseconds.

Its potential for military use, until recently, was downplayed by many in the industry, but it has formed the backbone for communications for Ukraine in the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war earning it the ire of the Russian government and renewed focus from China, which has already covertly begun to prepare for an eventuality where it would have to disable the network.

A secret meeting that highlighted growing Chinese-Russian military co-operation

With China affirming that its 'no limits' partnership with Russia is still very much in play as early as 2025, a year-long investigation spearheaded by The Insider, Germany's Der Spiegel, and France's Le Monde indicates that both players may have already considerably broadened its scope beyond what was visible earlier, especially when it came to their respective military ambitions.

Starlink, which Russians consider a key hindrance to their campaign in Ukraine, forms the backbone of the latter's communications even as the former are cut off from access as the conflict continues to evolve in what is now the 5th year of fighting.

For China, it represents a growing threat, underscored by the US military's increasing reliance on SpaceX, which is not only the Pentagon's most important space contractor but also helps the US government deploy and service its military-grade version of Starlink: Starshield.

Chinese military officials and engineers met with Russian officers in November 2023 at a summit in Guangzhou to discuss how to tackle Starlink, presenting a 3-pronged plan of action: diplomatic pressure, jamming, then cyberattacks, and, alternatively, physical destruction.

Not only would both China and Russia aim to leverage their considerable weight in diplomatic forums to hinder Starlink's growth by imposing regulatory pressures, but they would also invest in electromagnetic-jamming infrastructure to render existing satellites useless in certain geographic areas, even as they collaborated within each other's ecosystems.

Perhaps more troubling for Elon Musk and SpaceX would be the cyberwarfare and physical warfare component, where plans to leverage "access spoofing, virus infection, and the exploitation of vulnerabilities" meet plans to "eliminate" satellites already in orbit altogether.

Given that these plans were first discussed in 2023, one can assume they have evolved considerably since then, even as drone warfare, laser-based weaponry, and anti-satellite missiles have made major inroads, as modern militaries prepare for asymmetric warfare in future conflicts.

For example, Chinese researchers at the Northwest Institute of Nuclear Technology in Xi'an have reportedly built a ground-based microwave weapon capable of targeting low-orbit satellites, as per local media

With China and Russia also agreeing to deploy an air-defense solution as part of the "Working Protocol" signed in Moscow, which is expected to dwarf existing capabilities, including Russia's S-500, the revelations indicate that China is not passively but rather actively supporting Russia in its ongoing endeavors.

This makes for a tricky subject to broach for Elon Musk and a White House that backs him: the former has taken a conciliatory stance toward China even as Tesla depends on the market for sales, houses its largest and most efficient plant, and has previously resulted in favorable lease terms and loans in play from the Chinese government, while the latter might tip his hand based on 'national security' concerns that could make for an uncomfortable situation much like how it has played out for Nvidia after Beijing intervened.

Starlink might be an important piece of the pie for both the US government and Elon Musk, but the response from both to Chinese plans for the service might considerably differ as a result, given what is at stake for both entities.

Don’t want your chatbot conversations to be used for AI training? Here’s what to do.

President Trump, who for years has sowed doubt about the security of American elections, is scheduled to give a primetime address Thursday night about election integrity. Trump has long contended, without evidence, that he won the 2020 election

(Image credit: Alex Wong)

Pollen, wildfires, and other airborne particles can turn summer into a respiratory nightmare. We tested 15 top units using a custom smoke bomb test. These are the best air purifiers for removing smoke, allergens and more from your home's air.

The iPhone's virtual assistant got a glow-up with iOS 27 and finally lives up to Apple's 2011 promise. In my early testing, Siri is just here to get things done.

Orange skies and heavy smoke covered large parts of the U.S. on Thursday as Canada and Minnesota grapple with wildfires. Hazardous air quality is expected to continue.

(Image credit: Spencer Platt)

• Neo Beta robot hands have human-level dexterity
• They use tendon-like controls instead of in-hand motors
• They're waterproof and can perform many skills normally reserved for human hands

Neo's new robot hands are so good and lifelike, you might assume that they're gloved human hands, and then you might wonder why someone is swinging a hammer at them.

In a new demo video recently released on YouTube by Neo Beta robot parent company 1X, you can watch a pair of Neo Hands screw in a lightbulb and pull the chain switch (before someone inexplicably shatters the bulb with a hammer), pluck grapes off a bunch and drop each one in a container, carefully pickup a screw, unzip a jacket (a bit creepy), and even open a small bag of Funyuns onion ring snacks.

In that last bit, someone swings a hammer at the hands while they work, which they pay no mind to, before the bag is unsealed.

It even expertly builds a small Lego stack. Okay, okay, they're the larger Duplo blocks, but it still does as good a job as your average kindergartner.

The hands move slowly but also with a grace and ease you might mistake for humanness. This appears to be down to the underlying technology.

As 1X described it, the rubber-covered, waterproof hands use a "closed-loop tendon-driven system". This means that 1X moves the motors or servos out of the hand and back along the arm, which keeps the hand smaller and more supple. Those motors are then connected to an intricate system of tendon-like connectors that are pulled and released to enable the robot hands' movement and manipulation. That style of control more closely resembles our own hands, which, while including muscle, are also filled with tendons that are pulled inside the forearm.

1X says the fingers, palm, and thumb have 25 degrees of freedom, but, as evidenced in the video, they can also over-extend backward in a rather unnatural or certainly more-than-human way.

The robot hands feature some impressive strength, too, lifting a 20 lb. dumbbell and then, with just one finger, curling a smaller pulley weight.

Naturally, the fingers include sensors so that the hands and robot know when it's gripping something and how much force is or should be applied. That's how the Neo robot hand avoids breaking that light bulb (unlike that hammer).

Next-level grace

I know, just last week, we heard about a pair of robots performing gall-bladder surgery on a pig. You'd think that those humanoid hands must've been far more graceful. However, those robots each simply gripped a pair of laparoscopic controls so that the finer control, where the cutting and suturing was done, happened at the end of those devices. No robot hand directly manipulated the scalpels.

While Neo's robot hands will be useful for all kinds of home helper chores when the $20,000 Neo finally arrives in consumer homes (early adopters may be receiving them now), the hands are also useful for helping itself: In the video, a Neo Beta robot uses the hands to pick up its MagSafe-style charging puck, which it carefully attaches to its robot hip.

1X writes that these hands will deliver new real-world training data to its robotic development, and one would assume this will ultimately make the Neo robots even better home helpers, companions, and enablers (all those Funyuns).

Here are hints and the answer for today's Wordle for July 17, No. 1,854.

Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle for July 17, No. 866.

Here are some hints and the answers for the NYT Connections puzzle for July 17, No. 1,132.

You'll have to give your thumbs-up -- or some kind of biometric approval -- when the AI agent needs to use a password.

I hope the rumored OLED screen doesn't send prices through the roof.