Articles by David Nield, Freelance Contributor

Dave is a freelance tech journalist who has been writing about gadgets, apps and the web for more than two decades. Based out of Stockport, England, on TechRadar you'll find him covering news, features and reviews, particularly for phones, tablets and wearables. Working to ensure our breaking news coverage is the best in the business over weekends, David also has bylines at Gizmodo, T3, PopSci and a few other places besides, as well as being many years editing the likes of PC Explorer and The Hardware Handbook.

Articles by: David Nield

AI just helped researchers read a 2,000-year-old Mount Vesuvius scroll that’s too charred to ever be opened — as X-ray images reveal ancient stoic philosophy

By David Nield Published 25 June 26

Researchers are getting new insights into life and literature from the first century, via previously inaccessible text.

A hand holding a phone showing The White House app

'I deleted it and it came immediately back': White House staff are having an official app foisted on to their phones and they hate it

By David Nield Published 25 June 26

The controversial White House app is a compulsory install for a lot of federal workers, who aren't best pleased.

Is your Amazon Echo haunted? Viral video captures ‘terrifying’ moment the smart speaker emits ‘guttural sounds’ during a simple family bedtime ritual

By David Nield Published 24 June 26

The new and improved Alexa+ seems to have got a bit too expressive in a counting task.

‘A nightmare for repairability’: Early Google Home Speaker unboxing reveals design choice that many users won't be happy with

By David Nield Published 24 June 26

According to an early look at the new Google Home Speaker, there's a controversial choice regarding the power cable.

A Fitbit Air on a wrist next to the inside of a Fitbit Air showing damage from DEET or insect spray

A Fitbit Air user has found out the hard way that the tracker doesn't mix well with one particular substance

By David Nield Published 23 June 26

If you're heading into the great outdoors with your Fitbit Air, maybe take heed of this tale of woe.

This screen-free Wi-Fi streamer promises to save you from Spotify algorithms — turn the Atonemo NTS Radio Player’s dial to choose from 16 ‘Infinite Mixtapes’ and hook it up to your speakers for 24-bit / 192 kHz lossless audio

By David Nield Published 23 June 26

This radio player forgoes screens and complications to make music listening straightforward (and it can hook up to your phone).

Should you hold off on the Oura Ring 5 and get the Oura Ring 4 instead? Here's our verdict

By David Nield Published 22 June 26

The Oura Ring 5 is the latest flagship model, but can you find better value by going for the Oura Ring 4 instead?

A Street View image from Georgia next to the Google Street View camera

After 19 years, Google Street View has finally added a 'beautiful', long-awaited country — and Geoguessr fans are calling it a 'great addition' to the geography game

By David Nield Published 22 June 26

Georgia is the latest country to be added to Google Street View, and some of the views are spectacular.

A YouTuber tried using an ice machine to cool down his Nvidia RTX 3060 rig —and it went about as well as you might expect

By David Nield Published 22 June 26

Cooling a GPU with a modified ice machine doesn't sound like a great idea on paper, and it didn't really work out all that well either.

A person using a touchscreen Windows 11 laptop.

Microsoft acknowledges a Windows 11 bug affecting the Recycle Bin, and 'fed up' users think AI coding is to blame

By David Nield Published 21 June 26

If you're seeing issues when deleting files from the Recycle Bin, you're not alone — here's what's happening.

Mobile phone displaying a Claude login screen.

'This might actually force some actual brain cells to fire': Norway is banning younger school kids from using generative AI

By David Nield Published 20 June 26

Norway is taking steps to limit how generative AI can be used in schools from the start of the next school year.

Your Samsung Galaxy phone has a hidden Wi-Fi menu that lets you check for dead zones around your home — here's how to find it

By David Nield Published 20 June 26

There's a useful Wi-Fi scanner built into every Galaxy phone, but it's not particularly easy to get to.

New Google Health 5.02 update gets praise from Fitbit fans for being ‘solid work’, but some still say that ‘nobody wants' the AI coach

By David Nield Published 19 June 26

Google Health 5.02 is appearing on devices now, and looks to be getting frustrated users back on side.

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The Jaye Band is 'the world’s most discreet minimalist smartwatch' and wants to save you from your smartphone addiction

By David Nield Published 18 June 26

If you're looking for something to wean yourself off too much screen time, the Jaye Band could be the answer.

CrankGPT is a hand-powered, fully offline AI bot powered by a Raspberry Pi and 8GB of RAM — and I'm all for apocalypse-ready chatbots that don't need data centers

By David Nield Published 17 June 26

If you want to protect your privacy and be kinder to the environment, you can run a local AI using a hand crank.

'The whole Gemini migration has been a dumpster fire': Gemini calls are broken on Android Auto and users are switching back to Google Assistant

By David Nield Published 16 June 26

Multiple user reports suggest Gemini calls being borked in Android Auto — here's what we know.

How will the UK's social media ban actually work? Here's the full list of affected apps — and 5 things you need to know

By David Nield Published 16 June 26

The UK social media ban is one of the most significant pieces of tech legislation in the modern era — but how is it going to work?

Brain experts tell the UK government there's 'very little' scientific evidence that phones are harming kids — but a social media ban is going ahead anyway

By David Nield Published 15 June 26

A few words from the academics speaking at the Science, Innovation and Technology Committee in the House of Parliament.

A foldable iPhone concept against a multi-colored background.

'You're designing for a dynamic range of sizes and aspect ratios': Apple keeps on dropping hints that an iPhone Fold is on the way

By David Nield Published 14 June 26

We think the folding iPhone will launch in September, but it's not official yet — despite these signs from Apple.

A hand holding a phone aloft at a concert to record an artist

Phoebe Bridgers has rekindled the 'phone-free gigs' debate again — I fully support a ban and this poll shows most tech fans do too

By David Nield Published 13 June 26

The indie singer-songwriter is the latest high-profile artist to tell fans they can't have their phones at live shows.

After a 'potential jailbreak', Anthropic is shutting off access to its Mythos 5 and Fable 5 models under national security orders from the US government

By David Nield Published 13 June 26

Anthropic is pulling its latest Mythos 5 and Fable 5 models after a directive from the US government.

Someone hacked his Whoop to see which of his colleagues raised his stress levels the most and I need this immediately

By David Nield Published 12 June 26

This is one of the best uses of a Whoop and Claude Fable 5 we've seen: matching heart rate levels to meeting attendees.

Here are 21 new features in iOS 27 that Apple didn't have time to mention during its WWDC 2026 keynote

By David Nield Published 12 June 26

iOS 27 is going to bring more updates than you might think when it starts rolling out in a few months.

The risks are 'real, measurable, and increasing': Canada is the latest country to move to ban social media for under-16s

By David Nield Published 11 June 26

Canada has tabled a bill that will stop under-16s from accessing social media, though it's not law yet.

This California city just approved the use of Flock drones as first responders, but residents are worried about 'militarization and surveillance'

By David Nield Published 10 June 26

Stockton, California, just invested millions of dollars in Flock drones to act as first responders.

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