I won't say more, as it'll spoil the puzzle below, so I'll just leave you to it. Enjoy!

So, yes, it's been a good week for fans of Zelda and Grand Theft Auto who love to grow their collection of related tech and memorabilia. I've spent most of my week with the gaming team helping them (and you) hunt down the latest stock and availability. If you we're trying to get any of the hardware, I hope you were able to — it was a bit chaotic.

It reminded me of my days around the launch of the PS5 and Xbox Series X when we desperately searching for any consoles to buy. It was a nightmare at the time, but looking back, it was so satisfying learning when and how each retailer restocked, and finally finding consoles for friends or people that had been searching for ages.

It is less fun that the experience of buying almost anything like this online now is generally unpleasant. So much refreshing and queueing, and so many last-minute error messages that make the whole thing ten times more stressful than it really needs to be.

And then when you see super-inflated listing at three times the price on eBay you just feel so deflated. Hopefully our coverage was able to get these limited edition controllers and consoles into the hands of real fans — and you can enjoy them fully when they arrive later this year.

Flock is battling a growing backlash against its network of license plate readers and cameras — with some 120,000 or so installed across the US — amid questions over how the technology can be misused and the privacy implications for citizens.

Now reporters at Wired have managed to reverse engineer part of the Flock software interface based on the code that's delivered to police officers in a browser, giving the public an unprecedented insight into how this system actually works.

There are search tools for vehicle types, colors, and features for example, and a 'free form' query option that can look for pretty much anything passing through the video frame — although this needs a full video camera, not a license plate reader.

Wired also found an "AI-powered watch list" tool, where part of a city can be marked for continuous surveillance via video camera until a person fitting a specific description is spotted. This could be something as simple as "person wearing scrubs" for example.

'You are responsible'

While there are warnings on the Flock software that AI can make mistakes, much as there are at the bottom of Gemini and ChatGPT conversations, there's no real way of spotting inaccurate information or judging how inaccurate it might be.

Officers do have the option rank search results based on how relevant and accurate they are, feedback data which is then used to refine the results page further. Meanwhile, there are blocks on some search terms, including those related to race, ethnicity, and religion.

"You are responsible for your searches and agree not to use the tool in illegal, harmful, or abusive ways," runs the agreement screen that appears before the Flock software is accessed. "All queries and metadata are recorded for security and auditing purposes."

Flock has been responding to concerns over the misuse of its network — by limiting the time data is held on file for, for example. However, it has more to do to convince both state authorities and the public that its systems are only deployed for legitimate uses.

You may not think about it, but Earth is under a constant bombardment of solar radiation shooting through space. While our planet's magnetic field does an excellent job of blocking it, sometimes concentrated bursts of radiation known as solar flares are strong enough to interfere with our ground infrastructure via secondary magnetic field ripples.

Writing in Geophysical Research Letters, researchers from the US have documented the damage done by a solar 'superstorm' that erupted from the Sun on November 11, 2025. It hit the maximum level on the scale used to measure these storms, causing an unprecedented level of disruption in Earth's upper atmosphere (the ionosphere).

The storm's effects were also unusually widespread, the researchers report, stretching coast to coast across the US for hours. It threw GPS positioning systems off by as much as 10 meters (33 feet) in some areas, and interrupted satellite communications.

Given that GPS errors of just 1-2 meters (3.3-6.6 feet) can cause "catastrophic issues for precision agriculture and autonomous vehicles", the researchers state, this is serious interference. However, the study doesn't go into any specific detail of incidents with self-driving cars or farming machinery.

Potential damage and harms

The researchers are mainly concerned with the scientific aspects of the storm, but do point out that if the event had happened during the main farming season months, the damage could have been much worse. A May 2024 solar storm was estimated to have cost the US agriculture industry around $500 million (£386 million / AU$695 million).

For people, the risk of direct health harms is minimal – though if you're in an airplane and up close to the ionosphere, you might expect to experience bursts of radiation that are equivalent to several X-ray scans. On the plus side, these incidents come with vibrant auroras across the northern and southern poles.

As we can't shut down the Sun, the best way to protect our infrastructure and tech systems from these storms is to improve scientific prediction models, and upgrade hardware protections, which is what the study team emphasizes.

"The results underscore the importance of accurate understanding of various space weather phenomena to enhance our predictive capabilities through coordinated observations and physics-based modeling and ultimately reducing disruptions to RF applications during space weather events," write the researchers.

We had a host of new products on show at the IFA 2026 tech event in Berlin, OpenAI dropping its best ChatGPT model yet and declaring the age of AGI (Artificial General Intelligence), and Dyson bringing out its first toothbrush. Oh, and we also made time to review the Pixel 11 Pro and have an exclusive chat with Sonos CEO Tom Conrad.

You'll find all that and more in our ICYMI (In Case You Missed It) round-up below — our pick of the best tech headlines on our pages over the past week. Enjoy catching up!

7. The 'Lake America' saga hit Google and Apple

The Trump administration has decided that Lake Ontario on the US-Canada border should be called Lake America, after some 400 years or so (and a few trade spats with Canada). Google Maps and eventually Apple Maps went along with the change, stressing that it was just their policy to use government data — but MapQuest has been standing firm so far.

While Canadians still see 'Lake Ontario' on their maps, and international maps users see both names together, the acquiescence of the mapping companies hasn't gone down well with commenters online. "Beyond ridiculous" and "braindead" are just a couple of the comments left in a Reddit thread on the name change rolled out in Google Maps.

• Read the full story: 'Beyond ridiculous': if you're seeing Lake Ontario renamed as Lake America on Google Maps, here's why

6. IKEA revealed its first smart radiator thermostat

IKEA has made a concerted effort to push out simple, affordable, reliable smart home gear in recent months, and the Liljebagge is the latest in the series to appear. It fastens to your radiator and can be used to control its temperature independently, either through a connected phone app or via the buttons placed on the actual thermostat itself.

With Matter and Thread support, this looks like another appealing gadget from IKEA, though we don't yet know about international availability and pricing. Hopefully this device goes on sale worldwide before too long — and we'd like to see IKEA continue to compete with the big names in tech when it comes to sensibly priced smart home kit.

• Read the full story: IKEA launches its first smart radiator thermostat, with Matter support and an impressively affordable price

5. We reviewed the Google Pixel 11 Pro

TechRadar's Jason Cipriani has spent a week testing out the new Pixel 11 Pro from Google, and he's ready to share his thoughts: his in-depth review covers the core specs and pricing of the phone, and its design, display quality, performance, software, cameras, and battery life. You'll be hard pushed to find a more thorough review anywhere else on the web.

You'll have to click through to get the final verdict, but phrases like "enticing to potential iPhone converts" and "truly magical" (in regard to one specific AI feature) give you an idea of the way the review leans. It's now been a decade since Google switched the Nexus branding for the Pixel branding, and all of that experience is starting to really show.

• Read the full story: I spent a week with the Google Pixel 11 Pro, and I think Google has perfected the Pixel formula

4. Sonos exclusively talked to us about its new Ultra products

Sonos CEO Tom Conrad is the man in charge of trying to turn the company's fortunes around after the software debacles of the last couple of years, and he was kind enough to give his time to TechRadar for an exclusive chat about new hardware and a new AI-infused 'operating system' that runs seamlessly across all the products in the Sonos portfolio.

There are new Ace Ultra headphones and a new Beam Ultra soundbar to talk about, and based on early impressions, it seems as though Sonos is getting back to what it does best — making high-end audio equipment that's as good as anything else you'll find on the premium market. Find out what Conrad has to say about his first year in charge below.

• Read the full story: Exclusive: Sonos CEO Tom Conrad explains why the new Sonos Ace Ultra headphones can achieve what fans wanted the first Ace to do, why its new Ultra soundbar is small, and the AI features of the company's new 'operating system'

3. We reviewed Dyson’s 'game-changing' toothbrush

Dyson just entered the smart toothbrush category, and it's not messing about: the Dyson CameraJet offers deep teeth cleaning, liquid flossing, and oral hygiene guidance in a complete package. There's even a camera on board this toothbrush, so you can get feedback on how well (or otherwise) you're managing to clear the grime from your mouth.

We've already given the Dyson CameraJet toothbrush the in-depth TechRadar review treatment, so we can tell you honestly whether it's worth your while picking up this (rather expensive) gadget and sticking it in your mouth — read on to find out why we described it as a "a unique and effective solution" for keeping your precious teeth in top shape.

• Read the full story: Dyson CameraJet review: This game-changing toothbrush offers liquid flossing, precision-brushing and a camera that doubles as a dental endoscope — I tried it for a week

2. We went to IFA 2026 and picked our favorite gadgets

There's always so much great tech to see at the IFA 2026 tech show that takes place every year in Berlin. To help cut through the thousands of brands and products being exhibited to the very best gadgets, we've put together a list of our favorite reveals. You'll find projectors, exoskeletons, e-readers, AI recorders, laptops, tablets, and more listed here.

While a lot of these listed products won't be available to buy for a month or three, they give us plenty to look forward to for the rest of the year, and act as indicators of where the technology industry is going next. In summary, everything is getting smarter, thinner, and lighter, and there's never been a better time to be a fan of cutting-edge technology.

• Read the full story: IFA 2026 'Best in Show' awards: our 25 favorite reveals at the Berlin tech expo, from somersaulting robots to modular solar batteries for renters

1. OpenAI launched GPT-6 Astra and said 'welcome to the AGI era'

OpenAI has announced the new GPT-6 Astra model for ChatGPT, and it comes with a lot of hype attached. According to the company, this is a "significant step forward" for AI, which is now reaching an "extremely capable" stage that apparently can't be fully understood. At the same time, OpenAI's president Greg Brockman is saying "welcome to the AGI era".

AGI is a reference to Artificial General Intelligence, a point at which AI gets smarter than humans and can do just about everything better than we can — although there's plenty of debate around the definition. Our take? We perhaps need to be more cautious about developing these AI models if it means a high risk of them escaping our control.

• Read the full story: GPT-6 is here, but what if we just said 'no thanks' to Astra, a model so powerful that we may never fully understand it

This should be a fairly easy one to get things going again. Hopefully my setting skills haven't got too rusty in the last couple of weeks!

I did have a good time going back to Gamescom for the first time in about eight years to see something that's included in this week's puzzle — no spoilers if you're reading this first.

Outside of maybe Final Fantasy 7 Revelation, which got a much bigger reveal and an all-important release date announcement this week instead of at Gamescom, it felt like a fairly quiet event in terms of big news. Perhaps everyone is still nervous about being in the shadow of Grand Theft Auto 6, which is also getting the classic limited-edition DualSense treatment ahead of release.

Anyway, I best stop before I disappear into a rabbit hole of gaming yet again. Enjoy the puzzle!

IFA is a great place to find fascinating new gadgets and devices, ranging from next-gen AR glasses to self-driving personal mobility vehicles, and from weird new kitchen appliances to armies of humanoid robots.

We've chosen the top products from those that were nominated for our IFA 2026 'Best in Show' awards to produce this list of our 25 winners, based on how innovative they are, how well they serve their intended use, and the degree to which we think they'll influence their area of the tech market.

There were many more products that we really liked, of course, but we had to be ruthless — here are our top picks from IFA 2026.

Anker Soundcore Sleep Earbuds 4 Pro

The best technology delivers real-world benefits, and what could be more beneficial than a good night's sleep? The Soundcore Sleep Earbuds 4 Pro use in-ear PPG optical sensors to monitor your heartrate, which is more accurate than other optical tracking methods thanks to the rich capillaries and stable position of your ear canal. That monitoring delivers data to the smart-screen, phone-free SleepHub charging case.

The Sleep Earbuds Pro feature passive isolation as well as 30dB active noise cancelling, and the case-based snore monitoring system detects and masks the sound of your partner snoring using its built-in sounds. Despite the addition of multiple new components the housing is thinner than previous generations, and even more comfortable for side sleepers.

Anker's BioSync dynamic audio system monitors relaxation in real time, dynamically adjusting the audio content and structure to help you find the most effective sleep sounds. Sleep earbuds are something that can truly improve your health and happiness by improving your sleep, and these look like a really smart upgrade.

Agibot A3

Agibot is doing some amazing things with humanoid robots, and the full-sized Agibot A3 combines multiple capabilities in a lightweight, extremely dynamic model: if you're assembling a robot dance troupe or planning a big exhibition, the A3's the bot to buy.

The A3 weighs just 55kg, has a power-to-weight ratio of 0.218kW/kg, and delivers up to 12kW of instant peak power, enabling it to somersault. Its battery runs for up to 10 hours and is hot-swappable in seconds, so it's great for applications where it needs to last all day. It'll happily fit in an SUV for travel, too.

In addition to voice and app control, the A3 delivers industry-first touch sensing that adds physical interaction to its controls. It also has a 360-degree multi-array mic system for accurate voice recognition, even in noisy environments.

One of the most exciting features of the A3 is its large-scale swarm co-ordination, which uses precise UWB positioning to enable performances by up to 100 individual robots. That makes it possible to create very complex, high-impact performances for big events, as well as enabling multiple units to work smartly in environments such as factories or warehouses. The awareness and the uptime make this a great new approach to robotics.

Hypershell X Ultra S

The Hypershell X Ultra S exoskeleton helped mountaineer Adriana Brownlee in -30C temperatures on Mount Everest, supported athlete Aurélien Fontenoy's 4,037km Route 66 journey while recovering from injury, and is currently being trialed by search and rescue organizations worldwide.

Before Hypershell, exoskeletons cost $100,000 and above; the same capabilities are now available to consumers for less than $2,000, in a device weighing under 2kg.

The X Ultra S is an end-to-end AI motion-control system that uses an AI model to transform raw sensor data directly into motor torque, enabling faster response, smoother adaptation, and more natural human-machine synchronization.

There are 12 active modes, including walking, cycling and running, and a new Gentle Assist mode for older adults and users with short or shuffling strides. Fitness Mode adds resistance, turning a walk into a workout.

But it's the price that won us over here — this could be a game changer for getting people with limited mobility out and doing more things that they love, from hiking to just visiting the local stores.

JMGO IRIS Ultra Max

The IRIS Ultra Max is one of the world’s first true 4K 120Hz flagship smart projectors, delivering native 4K (rather than pixel-shifted) at 120Hz from input to output, all from its very compact case.

The Ultra Max's dual iris system has 6+9 blades, the highest count in its class, which promises to improve stray light suppression by 11.34% for a more accurate picture, while delivering class-leading contrast, with a quoted ration of 10,000:1. The MALC 6.0 Triple-Laser Engine delivers an impressive 6,500 ISO lumens of brightness, making it more visible in more lighting conditions, and with a promised ability to recreate 110% of the BT.2020 color space, with an astounding color accuracy of delta-E of 0.7, meaning it's truly capable of pro-level color range and accuracy.

The IRIS Ultra Max also introduces an industry-first 3-in-1 Optical System that integrates 0.88–1.7:1 Optical Zoom, Four-Way Lens Shift (V ±130%, H ±53%), and an AI-Powered Gimbal (360° H, 150° V) into a unified projection architecture. This makes it more more flexible than traditional projectors to positioning, because it has so many different options for correcting its picture. It gives small home theater setups top-tier performance without compromise.

DJI Osmo Pocket 4P

Designed for vloggers and movie-makers alike, the Osmo Pocket 4P is the world’s first dual-lens pocket gimbal camera. It delivers cinema-grade imaging in a pocket-friendly form, and features DJI's Academy Award-winning Ronin stabilization.

The main lens is a wide-angle 20mm equivalent with an f/2.0 aperture, and a new 1-inch CMOS sensor that offers 17 stops of dynamic range and over one billion colors via DJI's new 10-bit D-Log 2 color profile.

That's supplemented with a 60mm medium-tele portrait lens, which gives you 3x optical zoom and up to 12x digital zoom. Its f/1.8 aperture is particularly good for creating bokeh effects by compressing the background and pulling it closer to the subject.

The Osmo Pocket 4P also features the latest version of DJI's ActiveTrack, which uses AI algorithms to maintain tracking lock at up to 12x zoom. It can actively track up to eight people, framing groups and centering anyone new who steps into the field of view.

RayNeo GT Max AR Glasses

The RayNeo GT Max AR Glasses are the world's first AR glasses to support Dolby Vision playback as part of creating a virtual cinema experience. They deliver up to 1,200 nits of perceived brightness, a 120Hz refresh rate, and real-time SDR to HDR conversion for super-clear images, too. Their optical system is 29% thinner and lighter than traditional designs, and delivers an industry-leading 59-degree field of view.

One of our favorite features is the adjustable virtual screen sizes, with a choice of 227 inches, 267 inches or 307 inches. That's clever: the tighter size is ideal for spreadsheets and productivity apps if you're using them as a display for a phone or laptop, while the larger sizes deliver immersive gaming and video.

Steady, Pinned and Follow modes enable you to anchor the screen or have it move with you, and 3DoF spatial tracking maintains the screen position without straining your eyes, and keeps subtitles, taskbars and image edges within the viewing area as you move. These look like the most advanced way to take a screen with you everywhere, and they could be indispensable for long flights.

TCL P80 Ultra

If you spend as much time on your phone as we do, you'll be blown away by the screen of the TCL P80 Ultra. It's the first phone to integrate NXTPAPER eye-comfort technology, with a 1.5K sharp AMOLED display for reflection-free reading even in bright sunlight, and a button that instantly turns your P80 Ultra into an e-reader with paper-like viewing.

The P80 Ultra has nano-etched anti-glare glass, eliminating surface reflections without reducing brightness. It also features circular polarized light technology, which changes the light output to more closely replicate the characteristics of natural light, and flicker-free dimming.

The camera's pretty special too. It's a 50MP 3x periscope telephoto lens with a 50MP 1/1.56-inch large-format sensor, capturing more light per pixel than smaller sensors and enabling 6x lossless zoom. Image stabilization eliminates motion blur in photos and video, and TCL's MuseFilm filters promise cinematic-quality images. But it's the groundbreaking display that really won us over — a lot of people will find it much kinder on the eyes.

Lenovo ThinkBook 14x Gen 2

Lenovo's ultra-light laptop makes even ultraportables look positively porky: at just 2.18lbs / 990g and just 12.9mm thick it's one of the lightest and thinnest laptops around, making it ideal for business travelers and students alike — especially if you opt for the backlit keyboard, which is really helpful in dimly lit rooms and airplanes.

Lenovo has somehow managed to give the ThinkBook 14x the super-thin treatment without sacrificing connectivity, so in addition to its Wi-Fi 7 it features two 10Gbps USB-C ports, two 5Gbps USB-A ports and an HDMI 2.1 port, so there's no need to haul a hub around with you. It also has a spare M.2 slot that enables you to expand its storage, which makes this a solid long-term investment.

The ThinkBook 14x Gen 2 is also one of the most customizable ultraportables, powered by Intel Core 7 (Series 3) processors and with display options including vivid OLED and touchscreen LCD. It's good-looking too, with a choice of metallic finishes including Luna Gray, Celestial White, Mystic Violet and Veil Blue.

EarFun Wave Pro X

EarFun's headphones consistently deliver premium performance without the premium price tag, and the Wave Pro X are the brand's best yet. They feature a patented dual-driver system that places a 40mm diamond-like carbon driver and a 10mm liquid crystal polymer driver on a precisely aligned axis, creating a more natural and detailed sound than you typically get from multi-driver designs.

The Wave Pro X feature an 8-mic AI system that continuously optimizes the hybrid ANC system, even in wired AUX mode, and the Qualcomm QCC3095 chipset delivers Bluetooth 6.0, aptX Lossless, LDAC, USB Audio and Auracast. Add AI translation and up to 90 hours of battery life to the mix and you've got a truly excellent pair of headphones — EarFun has been working on these for a long time, and even delayed them in order to get the tuning just right.

Urevo CyberPad 3

The CyberPad 3 is a home/office treadmill that's designed differently to traditional models. Its WalkFree Adaptive Speed Control uses pressure sensors built into the running board, which detect your stepping motion to automatically start and stop operation; when you're walking or running it takes data from the motor to calculate speed adjustments in real time.

Its multi-user support is smart too, capturing raw weight and stride-rate data to generate a structured user profile that's directly linked to the speed-control algorithm.

The support structure is made from Q235 steel with a side frame of die-cast aluminum, and it utilizes a redesigned transmission path to deliver an exceptionally compact construction: the ultra-slim body is under 11cm thick. Despite its small size it features a 15% incline-lift mechanism and a 42cm running belt, with its size based on analysis of human shoulder widths.

Plaud One

Plaud One is a wearable AI companion that combines three key features that are usually separate: wearable conversation capture, context that builds across day-to-day conversations, and AI that can analyze data and take appropriate action. It can capture online meetings, and face-to-face discussions and phone calls, and it has built-in eSIM and 4G LTE for phone-free operation.

What makes Plaud One different is that it understands context. Instead of treating each recording as a standalone transcript, it can retain context across multiple discussions — so a conversation from one meeting can be connected to a later conversation or call.

That understanding enables the Plaud Agent to help you take action, identifying next steps and completing tasks across tools such as Gmail, Google Calendar, Notion, and Slack.

Minisforum MS-S1 Max-P495

The MS-S1 Max-P495 delivers large-model AI computing from an exceptionally small footprint with a very high specification. It combines AMD Ryzen AI Max+ PRO 495 with up to 192GB of unified memory to run 128B+ LLMs locally, delivering up to 126 TOPS, and its unified memory architecture eliminates VRAM bottlenecks while also reducing latency.

That power is cooled by a high-performance thermal solution featuring a copper base, six heat pipes, dual fans and phase-change cooling, and it's encased in a fully scalable design, with a slide-out chassis for easy upgrading and a rack-ready form factor.

With 4x PCIe expansion, dual 10Gb Ethernet, dual 40Gbps USB4 v2, Wi-Fi 7, and a built-in 320W PSU, the MS-S1 Max-P495 delivers future-proof power for desktop systems and scalable AI clusters alike — it's a mind-blowing beast made to meet a new kind of research and development need.

XPPen Magic Pro 13

XPPen's Magic Pro 13 is a mobile drawing pad designed for creative pros, featuring an industry-first hardware-level drawing display mode that delivers low latency, native color output and higher bandwidth video transmission over a simple one-cable connection, giving you a paper-like experience with 16K pressure sensitivity and cursor hover support.

It's the first drawing pad in its category to come with dual-USB support, enabling you to benefit from a high-speed data connection while charging your Magic Pro 13.

The Magic Pro 13 features the new Shelf digital asset management system and XPPen's Canvas software, designed to deliver a simple and intuitive sketching experience for capturing ideas when inspiration strikes. And for creatives on the move it offers two thermal management modes, balancing performance and energy efficiency based on different creative scenarios.

Strutt ev1c

Strutt's ev1c reimagines the power chair with three major advancements: Strutt's evSense sensing array, a quad-drive drivetrain, and a modular, connected design.

eVSense uses two LiDARs, 10 time-of-flight sensors, six ultrasonics and two cameras to create 3D maps in real time, powering the Co-Pilot collision avoidance for people, pets, and edges, and the Auto-Pilot, which enables you to select on-screen destinations, or use LLM-powered voice commands such as "Take me to the kitchen" — basically it's a self-driving personal mobility vehicle.

The drivetrain features four-wheel independent suspension, ABS, active steering, and an integrated electronic stability program (ESP), safely managing 13-degree slopes, cobblestones and rough terrain without slippage or tipping. And when it's time to travel, it breaks down into five modules for easy trunk storage. It looks like a genuine move forward for this kind of mobility device.

xTool M2 Color Craft Laser

The xTool M2 is the first desktop machine to combine full-color CMYK printing, laser engraving and laser cutting into one enclosed Class 1 system, delivering a full print-then-cut workflow. Simply print your full-color design onto a piece of wood, leather or acrylic, and the xTool M2 Color Craft Laser cuts or engraves the exact contour with camera-guided precision. And there's a built-in air-assist pump, an industry first for a semiconductor laser, that keeps cut edges clean by reducing carbonization and yellowing.

Having these three capabilities in a single device is a huge power-up: instead of having to print on one machine and engrave or cut on another, you can turn your raw idea into a finished, professional-looking product in a single operation. It's ideal for stickers, labels, signage, personalized gifts, and small-batch products — you could start a whole business with this one device. And because it's an enclosed system, it's also very safe.

Perlegear AX1 Smart Adaptive Mount

The Perlegear AX1 Smart Adaptive Mount answers an interesting question: what if your TV mount was as smart as your TV? The AX1 is an AI-powered, motorized TV mount that can automatically adjust the height of your TV to different viewing positions, so for example you might have it low for solo TV watching, but raised for watching sports with friends, or for following an on-screen fitness app or motion-based game.

The AX1 is controllable via gesture commands, its mobile app, via remote control, or via Alexa, Google Assistant or Siri. It can distinguish between single- and multi-person viewing, with the latter calculating the best screen height for the group, and it's capable of moving a 200-pound / 90kg TV up to 15.7 inches / 400mm vertically, with real-time obstacle detection that stops and reverses the move if the path is blocked.

Speediance Gym Monster 3

The brilliantly named Gym Monster 3 delivers serious strength training for home workouts, combining the experience of a Smith machine, barbell, dumbbells, cable machine, rowing machine, pulley system, and squat rack into one streamlined setup with up to 200lbs / 90kg of intelligent digital resistance.

Twin 800W direct-drive motors deliver smooth, consistent resistance through every rep, and it's adjustable in one-pound / 0.45kg increments, so you can progress at your own pace, rather than make big jumps you might not be ready for.

The Gym Monster 3 is controlled via a clever Bluetooth Ring Control that enables you to make adjustments without stepping away or breaking your flow, and it features four dedicated training modes: Standard, Chain, Eccentric, and Fixed Speed. It also features a built-in AI coach that can guide you from your first session onwards.

Midea GreenApex Dishwasher

The humble dishwasher hasn't changed much since Josephine Cochrane's 1886 invention went electric in the late 1920s and gained spray arms in the 1950s. But the Midea GreenApex is very different from traditional grease-busters. It's a dual heat-pump system that uses a single coordinated heat pump platform to deliver washing, rapid drying, and dry storage in a single appliance.

The GreenApex is 50% more energy efficient than conventional dishwashers, delivers 30-minute rapid drying and 168 hours of dry storage without continued system operation, and offers gentle heat-pump drying at around 45°C, so you don't need to worry about high temperatures damaging more delicate items. It feels like a major leap forward for an appliance type that doesn't often have the phrase 'cutting-edge' associated with it.

Reolink OMVI 2i Ultra

The Reolink OMVI 2i Ultra Security Camera features an innovative, decoupled dual-lens tracking system in which the individual lenses operate fully independently of one another. Unlike in other dual-lens or hybrid zoom security cameras, the two lenses here are not mechanically linked, so the fixed 130-degree 4K wide-angle lens never moves, while the telephoto camera is free to rotate anywhere, including to cover areas outside the field of view of the main lens.

This means that when the 4K camera's on-device AI spots a person, vehicle or animal, it triggers the pan-tilt camera to lock onto and follow that subject even after they exit the wide camera's field of view — but you don't lose any recording from the wide camera's view during that time.

You can also use the wide-angle view to redirect the pan-tilt camera to a particular location by simply tapping that point in the live camera view, or have the wide camera and the pan-tilt camera monitoring two distinct locations, such as your driveway and a side gate.

Navimow H510 Pro

The Navimow H510 Pro features four key innovations: precise edge finishing, zero-turn steering, adaptive mowing intelligence, and 3D modelling.

Rather than edging with a trimmer line, which can be noisy and cause minor damage, the H510 Pro has an extendable robot arm that performs zero-gap edging quietly and safely — it's the most interesting and smart version of this technology that we've seen.

The all-wheel-drive system protects your turf too, with a zero-steering system that avoids dragging the wheels across the grass during lateral turns. And the Adaptive Mowing Intelligence feature analyzes grass growth patterns to determine the optimal mowing frequency, using the 1/3 cutting rule to preserve lawn health.

With 3D terrain modeling rather than the industry-standard 2D, and a sensor array including infrared as well as LiDAR and vision for low-light reliability, and triple-sensor avoidance to protect wildlife, the H510 is a smart solution for even the most challenging lawns.

DJI Romo 2 Series

The Romo 2 Series is a robot vacuum that won't be defeated by obstacles such as deep rugs, sliding door tracks and other barriers. That's because it has robotic legs that can step over obstacles as high as 4cm, and double-step thresholds up to an impressive 8.5cm.

It also features a built-in LiDAR-guided ultra-wide-swing robotic arm to extend the mop's reach, and its powerful suction system features an automatically lowering plate that forms a semi-seal on carpet for better extraction of dust and allergens.

The Romo 2 Series also benefits from the tech of DJI's flagship drones, with a Structured Light-Speckle projector and dual fish-eye vision sensors for full 3D depth perception. It can detect items such as cables and training pads as thin as 2mm, and its AI can distinguish between debris and liquid, as well as deal with transparent obstacles such as glass doors and mirrors.

Acer Vero 16

With so many laptops sacrificing easy maintenance and repairability for super-skinny styling, the Acer Vero 16 is a breath of fresh air. While it doesn't skimp on style or power — it's highly portable, delivers up to 180 platform TOPS with an Intel Core Ultra X9 processor 388H, and can be configured with a stunning 16-inch 3K OLED display — it's made with longevity in mind.

A tool-free latch provides easy access to the Vero's innards, and the battery and SSD are replaceable, while the system is designed to support the next two generations of processors if you want to upgrade. Fully 70% of the chassis consists of a blend of PCR (post-consumer recycled) and bio-based oyster shell material, and it meets US military standards for toughness. This is a laptop that's built to last, in a way that's rare to see — and very welcome.

Asus ProArt GR1X

The Asus ProArt GR1X is tiny, measuring just 150 x 150 x 51mm. But there's nothing small about its specification. Designed for advanced content creation and local AI workflows, it delivers data center-class compute inside a mini PC, removing the need to run LLMs remotely while eliminating cloud latency, cost, and IP protection concerns for pro creators.

The ProArt GR1X features the groundbreaking Nvidia RTX Spark 'superchip', which means you get a 20-core Grace CPU and a 6,144-core Blackwell GPU, delivering up to one petaflop of FP4 AI inference performance. With up to 128GB of LPDDR5X unified memory at 9,400MHz, it enables you to run up to 120B-parameter LLMs locally, and render entire 3D scenes on-device in Windows 11.

That kind of power demands highly efficient cooling, and Asus has developed an advanced precision-cooling system that delivers 1.6x more efficient thermal coverage than standard compact systems. Asus also solved the challenge of metal-enclosure signal attenuation by embedding the Wi-Fi 7 antennas behind a glass-like signal-transparent material. It's quite the design coup, and an impressive showcase for Nvidia's new elite chip.

EcoFlow STREAM 5000 / STREAM AC 5000

The EcoFlow Stream series is a plug-and-play modular system for residential solar energy generation and storage that's designed to be renter- and apartment-friendly. It can add battery storage and smart power-management to existing solar PV installations, as well as being employed to create a new home system from scratch.

The Stream Series features EcoFlow's Oasis 3.0 home energy management system, which understands dynamic energy tariffs, keeps an eye on the weather forecast, and continuously analyzes your home energy needs to optimize generation, storage and consumption.

That means you can give the EcoBot AI agent instructions such as "I need my car charged by 7am tomorrow at the lowest possible cost" and it will implement the necessary steps, or have your energy schedules reconfigured automatically when you have visitors or other instances of increased demand.

From October the EcoFlow Stream series will also get a new feature: Local Mode, which gives you uninterrupted operation and local app control even if there are cloud or connectivity outages. It's a very powerful (no pun intended) system that's been designed with the real world in mind.

Tapo D260

The Tapo D260 wired/wireless security camera is a video doorbell that delivers all the benefits of high-spec security without the potential downsides: it stores facial recognition data locally to protect privacy, and no features are locked behind a subscription. It's advanced, yet totally cost-free once you buy it.

It has 4K resolution, a wide 180-degree field of view to cover the entire doorway, and delivers sharp detail in subjects up to 30 feet away.

The D260 features multiple intelligent detection and recognition features, including radar as well as the obligatory infrared motion sensor. These enable it to discount false alerts from things such as moving branches or passing headlights, while on-device AI can recognize people, packages, vehicles, and animals.

If you wish, you can opt in to build a library of family and friends using facial recognition, and there's even a voice changer to disguise your voice when speaking to unfamiliar callers. In a world where people are sick of subscriptions, this offers a great security upgrade without the monthly fee.

That's right, TechRadar now has an app! We've been working hard to bring you a new way to enjoy our content, with useful features that will enable you to enjoy a more personalized experience.

These new features have been designed to make it easy for you to stay up to date when you're on the go, from finding new ways to discover stories to letting you save articles to read later.

We'll be looking to add more features as we grow, so don't be shy about telling us what you think about the TechRadar app, which you can do by emailing the team, or by leaving us a comment below.

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New useful features to explore

• Save articles to your bookmarks to easily read later
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Now that you're all set up, you should have full access to the TechRadar app, which is essentially everything you love about our site available in app form, and with new features.

The home page works just as it does on our site, showing the latest news and features across across our main categories, including phones, computing, cameras, and streaming.

Want a tailored experience? You can simply toggle from 'All News' to 'My Feed' on the home page, and select your interests to start curating your own bespoke news feed.

You can also bookmark articles to read later by clicking the bookmark symbol at the top of an article, and you'll be able to find your articles in a new 'Saved List' in the app.

Expect to receive the same push notifications in the app as on our site if you enable them on your device, allowing you to stay updated on breaking tech news as it happens.

There's also a new search tool, and a discover feed that lets you filter articles by type and date range to find the coverage you're most interested in — handy, right?

We're still working on new features, and have a few ideas for even more up our sleeves, so if you have any feedback or suggestions, let us know in the comments below.

Music company Roland is taking a massive step with its latest project that’s pretty much unprecedented in the world of digital instruments — it's launching a portable piano with built-in Wi-Fi support.

The $750 (roughly £750/ AU$1,149) FP-40 digital piano was unveiled today (September 1), coming in two finishes (black or white) with Bluetooth Audio/ MIDI and USB-C connectivity. Though this isn’t new for digital instruments — many leading piano manufacturers make the most of Bluetooth — Wi-Fi integration is unheard of.

While that’s essentially the selling point, the FP-40 packs a punch with additional features like Roland’s Piano Reality Sound Engine, a technology that augments the finer details and tone of an acoustic piano. As for the keyboard, Roland uses weighted hammer-action keys, on top of the triple-sensor tech it uses to ensure faster responsiveness when playing notes.

Just like your smartphone, tablet, or laptop, the FP-40 piano connects to your home Wi-Fi like any other device, and it will receive regular software updates. But there's a reason why Roland has designed the new sound tool this way — it’s to spotlight its new learning software.

Alongside the launch of its Wi-Fi-powered piano, Roland is launching Piano Sphere, an app developed by Skoove that offers teaching techniques to help you improve your musical craft, whether you’re a casual player or you’re picking up the reins again.

Similar to learning apps like Duolingo, Piano Sphere is packed with ‘personalized guidance, real-time feedback, and a rich library of high-quality content to keep you playing’, as mentioned on the Roland site. In addition to this, you’ll also be getting step-by-step lessons and even custom learning plans based on your current level.

The only thing is that you’ll need a phone or tablet to view a lot of the software’s insights, for example, tracking progress by viewing streaks and reward badges, but outside of that, the piano itself has some handy features.

The FP-40’s flagship Piano Sphere button lights up to give you feedback as you play away, and thanks to Wi-Fi connectivity, the piano automatically records playing history even when the Piano Sphere app isn’t open. On top of that, you won’t need to pay extra for a Piano Sphere subscription.

From the get-go, you’ll have basic access to 100 copyright-free songs spanning everything from classical compositions to pop music bangers. If you feel that you’re ready to take the next step in mastering your skill, there’s an option to upgrade your Piano Sphere experience, which opens the doors to a library of over 1,000 songs and lessons.

Obviously, learning app integration with modern instruments isn’t a new thing — previous models allow you to pair third-party apps via Bluetooth — but the FP-40’s built-in Wi-Fi will result in a much smoother experience. Not only that, it could be a hint at the direction Roland plans to take its future musical innovations.

In the five-star camp, we have two standout pieces of content creator kit. The Insta360 X6 won us over with its rugged build, lengthy battery life, and ability to capture pin-sharp images in any lighting conditions. Our tester called it "the most capable small 360 camera [he's] tested to date" and "the finest all-round performer in its class".

DJI also continues on its winning streak with the Mic Mini 2S. This compact wireless mic offers many of the flagship Mic 3's most appealing features — from internal recording to AI noise cancellation — but comes in at around half the price. It makes no sense, but we'll take it.

Elsewhere, we were impressed by Samsung's new foldable phones, with the Galaxy Z Fold 8 and Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra both earning a near-perfect 4.5 stars. We declared the former "a shot in the arm for the foldables market" and our roaming editor argued the latter was "virtually unbeatable" when compared to other flagships.

Scroll down to check out all of our top-rated gadgets from the past four weeks, across all of our physical product categories. Click the 'View details' button for a summary of our main takeaways for each product, plus a link to read the full review. Note: only the products that are available in your region will display as cards.

5-star products

4.5-star products

One of the big safety risks with lithium-ion is thermal runaway, causing overheating and fires, and some future battery technologies are focusing on this in particular. One of the leading contenders, sodium-ion, just passed a major safety test at Hyundai, while this battery type is also showing lots of promise overall.

Here's what you need to know about the recent breakthrough we've seen with sodium-ion technology, what its benefits are more broadly, and how it might eventually overtake lithium-ion as the default battery chemistry of choice.

Hyundai, Unigrid, and the thermal runway

We know that lithium-ion batteries are a fire risk, and that's specifically where a US start-up called Unigrid is directing its attention. The company has developed a type of sodium-ion battery, using sodium chromium oxide (NCO) cell chemistry, which has just been given the safety seal of approval by South Korean giant Hyundai.

According to Unigrid (via Interesting Engineering), the batteries have now achieved "critical technology validation milestones" after being put to the test by Hyundai's technical evaluation program. Stringent safety experiments were completed with no fire and no thermal propagation (where fire spreads between batteries, an important consideration in factories and industrial use).

What's more, the sodium-ion NCO batteries showed "minimal capacity degradation" after sustained continuous cycling, while the units also held up under a wide range of temperatures: from -20C to 60C (that's -4F to 140F). This is only one set of tests in a limited number of scenarios, but the tech has passed with an excellent grade.

The key change here is given away in the name: sodium ions rather than lithium ions are shuttling between the positive electrode (cathode) and negative electrode (anode). Both battery technologies have actually been around for about the same length of time, but the superior energy density of lithium-ion is why it's won out in recent years. Now sodium-ion is increasingly being looked at again.

As well as potentially improved safety from a thermal runaway perspective, another key difference is that sodium is much more abundant and widely available than lithium is. That's becoming a more important consideration as the planet creaks under increasing environmental strain, and it means the raw materials are more affordable (though the overall cost of sodium-ion batteries remains higher than lithium-ion for now).

There's still a lot of work to do, as a 2026 review published in the Journals of Materials Chemistry A points out. The energy density problem remains, for example, which makes sodium-ion a more viable option for large-scale energy storage, rather than the batteries we've got inside our phones and tablets.

The future of sodium-ion

With all of that in mind, the thinking is that sodium-ion is more likely to exist alongside lithium-ion, at least in the shorter term. While the new batteries like those developed by Unigrid have plenty of potential, there are also plenty of challenges that need addressing.

As reported in Nature, the world's largest battery manufacturer CATL has announced that it'll start mass producing sodium-ion batteries before the end of 2026. The Chinese manufacturer says it has deals in place with both a car maker and a provider of energy-storage stations for electricity grids.

However, the sodium-ion ingredient mix is different in the CATL batteries: it's using a sodium-ion technology known as Prussian white, which is potentially cheaper to make, easier to manufacture at scale, and longer-lasting, though there are questions over the energy density of these batteries.

The good news is that rapid progress is being made in the areas where sodium-ion batteries still fall short. Researchers are looking closely at the different mixtures and chemical combinations that might work best for this — and some scientists have even floated the idea of removing the fixed anode materials in the battery altogether (so rechargeable batteries would work more like disposable batteries).

There are a lot of variables involved, from the stability of the world economy to the power demands that AI data centers continue to put on global energy networks, but we can expect to hear about plenty more breakthroughs with sodium-ion battery technology in the coming years.

"Sodium-ion batteries have emerged as a compelling alternative to lithium-ion systems, particularly for stationary storage and cost-sensitive mobility applications," writes Abu Faizal Abdul Salam et al in the Journal of Materials Chemistry A. "Continued efforts in materials research, standardization of testing methodologies, and real-world validation are pivotal to accelerate their path toward commercialization."

To catch up on all of this and plenty more, scroll down for our recap of the week’s biggest tech news stories.

And if you want to test your memory of last week’s news, try our quiz and see if you can get full marks.

7. Nokia debuted new retro phones

The original Nokia may be gone, but its spirit lives on under its new HDM Global owner — and this week we welcomed the new Nokia 300 Charge, a dumbphone that’s brimming with handy features.

There are no touchscreens or apps here, which potential buyers will consider a good thing. But the 300 Charge does have a handy power bank mode, which lets you charge up other gadgets via its USB-C port. If you want an emergency camping phone, it also has a “high-power” LED flashlight.

Sadly, there’s no international pricing for the 300 Charge yet, but it is showing on HMD’s global website — so we will hopefully see this practical, anti-doomscrolling phone get a worldwide launch.

• Read the full story: Nokia’s latest retro feature phone comes with a super-bright flashlight and built-in power bank

6. We went to Gamescom

This week we’ve been at Gamescom, and it was a treat.

There was the unusual batch of conferences like Gamescom Opening Night Live and the Future Games Show which showcased exciting new games and updates like our very first look at the highly anticipated The Witcher 3 Songs of the Past DLC.

We saw some incredible new hardware like a ridiculously fast 1100Hz OLED monitor, and the goofy IKEA x Xbox collection — plus so much more.

• Read the full story: Everything announced at Gamescom Opening Night Live 2026

5. Meta settled its $1.4 trillion case

Meta has reached a settlement in a landmark social media trial that could have seen it pay out the company’s entire market cap had it lost. The case, which was brought by several states’ Attorneys General, alleged that Meta’s products were designed to addict teens and may have caused them mental harm.

Without admitting any wrongdoing or fault, Meta will instead pay a more modest $18 billion, and has agreed to several self-imposed restrictions such as hiding likes on teens’ profiles, an optional algorithm-free feed, and a two-hour daily time limit (cumulative across Instagram and Facebook) — though this limit would drop to one hour if TikTok, Snap and YouTube also agree to self-regulate.

Some aren’t convinced this is anything more than another slap on the wrist, but perhaps this effort will finally curtail our social media addiction epidemic.

• Read the full story: Meta settles its alleged social media harm case for $18B

4. The Garmin Fenix 9 Pro launched

It’s been a big week for Garmin fans and anyone who likes gloriously powerful adventure watches. Two new Garmin flagships, the Fenix 9 and Fenix 9 Pro, arrived for hiking duty — and we’ve already taken the latter out on a 12 km trip in the French Alps.

Garmin’s Fenix 8 was already packed with features, but its successor brings some meaningful upgrades. One standout is ‘Garmin Epic’, which helpfully combines your stats across big trips like multi-day backpacking excursions. We also like the Fenix 9 Pro’s new green light for boosting our camping night vision. For an in-depth debrief, check out our hands-on review below.

• Read the full story: I wore the Garmin Fenix 9 Pro on a 12km hike and run in the French Alps

3. We watched GTA 6’s Extended Look

Gamers, we ate good this week as, on top of Gamescom, we also got the Extended Look at Grand Theft Auto6, and any complaints about the Netflix debut washed (mostly) away as we saw the game in the fullest glory we’ve seen thus far.

Explosive action, intense car chases, character swapping, beautiful lighting, an expansive map, tense story moments, and the return of the six-star rating.

Not everyone was impressed, but there are always haters online. For most, GTA 6 looks like the best yet, and it can’t come soon enough.

• Read the full story: Grand Theft Auto 6's 'Extended Look' on Netflix is now live

2. Apple announced a new Mac Mini

Back in 2024, Apple revived the Mac mini with a sportier, more compact design and an M4 chip. And this week it came back for generation two.

Apple stuck with the same chassis that doesn’t skimp on ports, but upgraded the internals with either the M6, which is Apple’s first 2nm chip, or the M5 Pro for those who need an even more substantial setup.

The downside? The Mac mini with M6 starts at $899 / £899 / AU$1,449 for 256GB of storage and 16GB of RAM — that's a $100 increase in the US over the current price of the M4 model — while the M5 Pro starts at $1,699 / £1,699 / AU$2,699 with 512GB of storage and 24GB of RAM.

• Read the full story: Apple’s new Mac mini looks the same, but the M6 inside brings a major performance boost

1. Apple invited us to ‘Surprise and Shine’

The most eagerly anticipated Apple Event of the year — if not in recent years — finally has a day, September 9, and a time, 10AM PST. This is the moment when we will watch freshly minted CEO John Ternus run his first Apple keynote and, we think, finally meet the iPhone Ultra, a.k.a. the folding iPhone.

That’ll probably be the event’s “one more thing,” but there will be so many other things like new iPhone 18 Pro phones, a new HomePod mini, an updated Apple TV box, Apple Watch Series 12, and so much more. It’s set to be a jam-packed event. We’ll have a team on the ground and back at TechRadar home base covering it all on Wednesday. Buckle in!

• Read the full story: Apple reveals when to tune into its September event and teases what’s coming

If the measure of a successful robot is cuteness, Microduck could be the most successful bot in ages. Unveiled this week by Pollen Robotics (a division of AI company Hugging Face — yes, that Hugging Face), Microduck is a 25-centimeter-tall educational robot that appears to arrive with surprising mobility, balance, and personality.

Pre-orders, which kicked off today (August 27) promise a $399 (that's the introductory price), roughly 1.7lb pre-built duck-like robot complete with a mouth that doubles as a gripper, a voice —duck calls, it seems — 15 degrees of freedom (basically a measure of the number of ways all the motors let it move), and motors that let it walk, waddle, move its head and, thanks to a pair of IMUs (inertial movement unit), stay upright even when pushed around.

There's a single-eye camera paired with a Lidar system for navigating its environment and, perhaps, recognizing its owner. Pollen Robotics has yet to specify the camera's megapixels. There are also speakers for voice, and microphones for it to hear. The robot runs on a relatively low-power Rockchip RK3566 ARM chip that's backed by 1GB of RAM and 32GB of on-board storage. There's on-board Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, NFC, and a smallish 2,600mAh battery that promises roughly one hour of operation.

These are not killer specs, but the teaser videos show a highly engaged and undeniably adorable little bot. I was particularly taken with how it can recover and stand back up after a fall (or being pushed over). Microduck will arrive with a lot of pre-programmed interactions, but much of the cuteness may come via its open-source platform and your programming skills.

The Microduck kit will ship with an SDK that includes virtual training environments, along with training scripts and tools, and "a tested sim-to-real workflow." The idea, obviously, is that while you might grow to love Microducks' baked-in personality, it's what you can build with your kids that will really matter. This is an educational robot, after all.

It's almost familiar

It's also worth mentioning Microduck's obvious resemblance to another extremely cute, though entirely unattainable robot: Disney's and Star Wars' BDX Droid. Both robots are bipedal with a somewhat squat posture and cute, oversized heads, and as with the BDX-Droid, it's hard to believe the Microsoduck can stay upright. But that's where the similarities end. That semi-autonomous/remote-controlled BDX Droid is much larger, probably far more expensive, and is currently only wandering around Disney World. Plus, there are currently no plans to bring it to consumers.

The $399 Microduck is just the base package, and Pollen Robotics also plans to ship an optional charger pack for $39, a dev pack that includes spare motors, cables, and batteries for $119, and an accessory pack that includes a laser pointer (perhaps for Microduck to chase), roller skates(!) that Microduck can wear and ride, and 10 NFC tags. One wonders if those tags might be used to trigger certain Microduck actions.

Microduck is Pollen Robotics' second edu-robot, the first being the Reach Mini, an almost equally cute but more or less stationary desk companion robot. Pollen Robotics claims it sold 10,000 units.

Microduck's success will likely depend on just how many of those endearing qualities are on display out of the box, and how much we have to code ourselves. Initially, you can fake some of it, since Microduck can be remote-controlled with a gaming controller; but the real fun happens when it starts to respond in unexpected ways.

The other X factor is how many people are willing to pay almost $400 for a plastic and semi-autonomous robot duck. I know I'm intrigued, and wouldn't mind trying to program it to create the duck-bot of my dreams.

Microduck is expected to ship by Christmas, and is available in Cream, Graphite. Lavender, and Sky.

Just a few months back, I got to go inside United’s next-generation Boeing 787 Dreamliner, complete with a high-tech new interior, spacious seats, and some notable upgrades for Economy.

The 787 is a wide-body aircraft built for United’s biggest and longest routes, and now, the airline is bringing that same design philosophy to a much smaller plane and experimenting with something I’ve never seen on a United aircraft before: an Economy Plus row with no middle seat.

I’ve been inside United’s brand-new Airbus A321XLR, a single-aisle aircraft that’s designed to bridge the gap between narrowbody efficiency and widebody distance capabilities, and it’s a pretty fascinating look at where the airline’s cabins are headed.

There’s a new Polaris business-class seat with closing doors, a spacious Premium Plus cabin, 4K OLED screens at every seat, Starlink Wi-Fi from day one, and, yes, those two-seat Economy Plus rows, designed to give you a little more space without the dreaded middle seat.

And after spending time in all four cabins, I think United might be onto something.

Let’s start with the new Polaris business-class product. The A321XLR is a single-body aircraft with 20 Polaris seats, complete with closing doors on either the left or right side of the aircraft. They are pretty spacious, though a bit smaller than the Polaris seats on the 787 Dreamliner. Still, you get an ample seat with an electronic touchscreen control to let it lay flat, kick out the leg rest, or adjust many facets of the experience.

There are plenty of power ports, including two USB-C ports that top out at 60 watts, a standard wall plug, and a wireless charger. At the center of the experience is a 19-inch 4K OLED screen that’s touch-enabled and, with a button press, slightly pushes out from its base and lets you pull it forward for the perfect view. You’ll also find plenty of storage and a sizable tray table that I wish was a bit larger — still, it should fit a 14-inch laptop very comfortably.

That’s the most premium experience on board the A321XLR. The middle option of United’s three class offerings is Premium Plus, which features a very spacious recliner that rivals those in domestic first class on smaller single-body aircraft.

It boasts a 16-inch 4K OLED screen that can tilt and matches the size of the screen on the original Polaris product still in use on some aircraft. You’ll even find a wireless charger tucked under the armrest — a unique spot, but helpful. There’s also a standard wall plug for each seat — remember, Premium Plus is a 2x2 configuration — and a USB-C port tucked at the bottom of the OLED screen.

The tray table is pretty close to the size of what’s in Polaris and can be a good mini-desk for working in the sky, or, let’s be honest, enjoying whatever meal United is serving.

Finally, we move into Economy, which has a total of 118 seats split into 84 standard Economy and 34 Economy Plus extra-legroom options, including two with the middle seat removed.

With any of these seats, you get a punchy, vibrant 13-inch 4K OLED that’s touch-enabled; across the board, United is knocking it out of the park with the displays here. An intuitive interface offers plenty to watch, including Apple TV in the sky, plus access to music and podcasts from Spotify. A crisp, vibrant screen in each seatback will certainly elevate the experience everywhere.

United began the process of reintroducing screens on aircraft without them, and making them a key part of the ‘United Next’ cabin, back in 2021, and now the airline has close to 800 aircraft with screens in every seat, and should have a quarter of a million seat-back screens across its fleet by the end of next year.

Peter Wolkowski, United’s Head of Product Marketing, told me, “In our post-flight survey data, we just see kind of huge increases in satisfaction across the board when customers fly on an aircraft with screens versus one without.”

There’s a standard headphone jack and USB-C port built into every Economy and Economy Plus seat, meaning that every seat, even in Economy, gets at least one power source — that’s excellent. You also get two standard wall plugs per row, but those are shared.

Economy Plus with open middle seats is where the experimentation comes into play — it was my first time seeing these, and especially for a transatlantic flight, which are the routes the A321XLR will primarily be flying, if the price is right, it could really be worth the upgrade.

The main appeal is no one next to you in the middle, and for couples flying, this is pretty nice. You get plenty of elbow room, and the middle seat essentially has a metal table bolted across it, with two indents for cupholders and a padded rear.

I’m very curious to see pricing for these, and how much of a premium they command over standard Economy Plus.

United is starting with only two of these rows on the aircraft, but if they prove popular, I wouldn’t be surprised if the airline expands this offering. Peter Wolkowski, United’s Head of Product Marketing, told me, “There’s a lot to love about this aircraft, but just having the ability to kind of test new concepts is really exciting.”

“We’re really eager to see how customers respond to [the open middle seat option], and if it is something that kind of performs well and customers love it, we’re going to look at more ways of doing that type of thing on other aircraft.”

I hope we continue to see this kind of experimentation with new seat types, and at affordable price points, rather than airlines just prioritizing the top end.

Rounding out the United A321XLR offering is 'Starlink from the start', meaning the plane is equipped with the right antennas and routers, as well as the proper certification, to offer Starlink Wi-Fi from its very first flights.

This means that any MileagePlus members can get free, fast Wi-Fi for as many devices as they bring, and in my testing, both on media flights and regular ones, it really improves the overall flying experience. No longer is there a concern about not being able to connect, whether that’s when you’re sending a text to a loved one or friend, or something else that requires a connection.

The A321XLR also features mood lighting, which United can split up by cabin — i.e., Polaris, Premium Plus, or Economy — to help set the mood for different parts of the flight, but also to potentially help combat jet lag.

So when does the A321XLR begin flying, and where is it headed?

Alongside the launch event at a hangar at Newark Liberty International Airport, United also announced new routes, and the A321XLR is a key part of them.

Starting September 1, 2026, the A321XLR begins with domestic flights, but later this year, the aircraft formally kicks off its international routes. In total, United announced 10 entirely new international destinations and 13 new routes for 2027.

The new routes are San Francisco to Okinawa, Japan; Washington Dulles to Toulouse, France; and several for Newark. The latter includes Newark to Luxembourg City; Marseille, France; Ibiza, Spain; Valencia, Spain; Terceira, Portugal; Ljubljana, Slovenia; Olbia (Sardinia), Italy; and Catania (Sicily), Italy.

If you like the idea of a flight on the Airbus A321XLR, it’ll be headed to Luxembourg from Newark, Washington, DC; to Toulouse from Newark; to Ibiza from Newark; to Valencia from Newark; and to Marseille from Newark.

To catch up on both of these events and more, scroll down to read our recap of the week’s seven biggest tech news stories.

Before that, test your memory of last week’s biggest news with our quiz (and check out our previous recap for a refresh if you need it).

7. Amazon ruined the Kindle Oasis?

A Kindle Oasis update has ruined the ereader for many, thanks to a change that has frustrated users.

The first change applies stricter DRM (Digital Rights Management) to books on the device, meaning most DRM-removal tools won’t work anymore. While DRM can help fight piracy, it also makes it harder to share the book with non-Kindle ereaders (or ereaders without the Kindle app) if you ever want to take your library with you when you change devices. This update isn’t new, but the Oasis was one of the last few to not have it.

The other change means you can’t keep reading a Libby book beyond its due date by turning airplane mode on. The workaround let users hold onto borrowed books, but now the app requires an internet connection to read your titles.

• Read the full story: Amazon angers Kindle owners by rolling out tougher DRM

6. The UK got ready for plug-in solar

Plug-in solar kits are a hot topic in both the US and the UK, with the latter planning to legalize the low-cost home energy helpers on August 27. Ahead of that date next week, we’ve started to see the first kits get the regulatory green light.

UKSOL makes some of those kits and this week revealed that its first two offerings (a 460W one consisting of a single solar panel, and an 890W dual-panel setup) will go on sale from August 27, with pricing starting at £699. Not exactly cheap, but a lot more affordable than a full solar installation.

Expect plug-in solar to be all over the news next week in the UK — and with 30 US states also planning to legalize the tech, the DIY energy boom could soon become a global story.

• Read the full story: First plug-in solar kits get regulatory green light in the UK ahead of legal lift-off on August 27 — and they'll start at £699

5. Tesla’s Robotaxi had a bad day

With impressive comic timing, Tesla’s Robotaxi was this week filmed plowing through some plastic traffic posts in Texas before carrying on with its journey — just weeks after Tesla had been crowing about its “impeccable safety record” with “zero notable incidents”.

Okay, the video shot by the Robotaxi’s distressed passenger doesn’t exactly show a GTA 6-style pile-up, but the timing is poor, with Tesla also reportedly planning to trial its fully autonomous Cybercab on public roads this month. We might carry on taking those human-driven cabs for a little while longer.

• Read the full story: Tesla’s Robotaxi gets caught crashing through traffic posts, just as it readies the purpose-built Cybercab for public roads

4. Grand Theft Auto 6 leaked

The most hotly anticipated game of 2026 was due to get a major reveal via a Netflix special next week, but Christmas has come early, so to speak, as several major leaks came out this week — including GTA 6’s map, new gameplay, and cutscenes.

Hacker group Cyberleek has claimed responsibility for the breach as a protest against Rockstar’s digital-only release strategy. Even physical disc cases will include only a digital download code.

However, this data dump might not completely spoil Rockstar and Netflix’s announcement plans. It seems at least some of the leaks are over a year old, according to people with information on the subject, though the polish was quite high, so it’s unclear how different the end result will actually be.

• Read the full story: More GTA 6 leaks reveal new gameplay and the entire map — and leaker keeps their promise over threats to reveal more

3. Meta’s smart glasses bans continued

While governments are weighing up how they’ll deal with the rise of smart glasses and the privacy concerns they’re raising (as pervs and creeps use them to spy on people), it seems their action might not be required.

That’s because we’re seeing more and more private businesses announce bans on the glasses across various spaces, including pubs, cafes, and restaurants — UK cinemas and regular theatres are even considering banning the camera glasses, though their concerns are also focused on piracy (where folks could record or even livestream a movie).

It seems Meta’s Ray-Bans have a tough road ahead. Perhaps things will eventually turn around at Connect in September.

• Read the full story: Meta smart glasses could soon be banned in cinemas, says UK trade body

2. Meta might owe $1.4 trillion

We’re used to company fines often pales in comparison to the profits and growth the business made by taking the punished action — they’re often just a slap on the wrist; it’s merely ‘the cost of doing business.’ That’s not so true about a lawsuit Meta finds itself in.

Attorneys General across 32 US states argue that Meta has used its technology to get teens (and younger) users hooked on its platforms — and that the company ignored the harms this action could cause. If Meta loses the suit, it could be on the hook for $1.4 trillion, roughly the value of its entire market capitalization (i.e., the combined value of all its shares).

Meta calls the AGs' claims "unsubstantiated" and the potential penalties "vastly disproportionate."

We don’t yet know how things will turn out, but be prepared for both sides to seriously fight their case in court.

• Read the full story: Meta might be on the hook for $1.4 trillion if it loses a landmark lawsuit

1. We reviewed the Google Pixel 11 Pro Fold

We’ve finished testing Samsung’s latest foldables for our reviews, and we’ve moved on to Google. It’s the best folding Pixel yet, but still behind Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra.

It’s generally an excellent update, with a better, far lighter build, plus impressive power, efficiency, bright screens, IP68 protection, and (not to forget) the HiLight LED.

However, Google should have updated the camera experience with more megapixels and maybe somewhat better image processing if it wanted to give us a real boost.

• Read the full story: The Google Pixel 11 Pro Fold is the best folding Pixel yet

I try to mix a fairly broad range of tech subjects into each crossword to ensure there's a bit of variety, but it does require a lot of effort to stop myself from filling them with clues about gaming and movies — being the two biggest interests of mine.

I have, obviously, snuck a couple of clues in on those areas, given we technically cover them here at TechRadar in our gaming and streaming categories, but I'm very cautious that I don't just fill the grid with clues in those areas.

Reading more of the site has helped me broaden my horizons a little when coming up with clues, too. I've taken in more of the news we've covered and features we've written about AI, cameras, electric vehicles, and, relevant to this week's puzzle, solar panels, for example.

The latter is most interesting, given the news that plug-in options will soon be available to buy in the UK before the end of the month. It's got me thinking about whether I could add some to my home, if it'll be possible to find any of the limited stock.

Solar panel stock tracker incoming? Quite possibly. Enjoy the puzzle and I'll catch you soon.

There's been an increasing level of pushback against Flock and its network of 120,000 or so license plate readers across the US in recent months, and if you want to know if your vehicle has been the subject of a search on Flock's system, there's a website just for that.

Head over to Have I Been Flocked? (via Dexerto), enter your license plate registration, and you'll get a report back. The site has amassed details of more than 241 million Flock searches, covering over 4.6 million license plates.

What's more, you can also see the reason that a plate was searched for — an auto theft or a traffic stop, for example. The site has a word cloud showing reasons for searches across the entire database, with words like "drugs" and "burglary" featuring prominently.

There's lots more to explore across the website as well, including audit reports, reports of non-criminal activities, searches run in partnership with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and data on where the license plate readers are clustered.

Data collection and privacy

Have I Been Flocked? is the work of the independent editorial project Footnote4a, which reports on Flock's activities, the way that its technology is used, and the wider issues of mass surveillance and the privacy of citizens.

The extensive database has been compiled from audit logs released by local governments and Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. It's not a complete history of Flock searches across every state, but it's still pretty comprehensive.

License plate registrations entered into the site aren't saved and are immediately deleted once the query is run. In addition, any sensitive personal information (like addresses) included in the audit logs is redacted.

"We believe mass surveillance has no place in a free society, and this data should not be collected to begin with," write the site's operators, adding that if it is collected, "warrants should be used" and "lookups should be rare" when accessing it.

But that's enough nostalgia for now — to catch up on all of the freshest gadget news, scroll down for the seven biggest tech news stories from the past week, plus links to the wider picture if you're desperate to learn more.

And before that test your memory against last week's biggest tech news stories with our quiz.

7. We reviewed Garmin’s 5-Star smartwatch

We spent months with the latest Garmin Fenix Pro 8 smartwatch — it survived heatwaves, blizzards and 4,000m altitudes — and our reviewer decided to declare it “the pinnacle of multisport smartwatch performance.”

Why? Well, it boasts the full suite of Garmin functionality from sleep tracking to a bewildering array of activity tracking options, as well as the ability to follow stats like altitude and atmospheric pressure. Plus, it can operate as a full-on dive watch, and boasts satellite messaging for the extreme wilderness wanderers amongst us.

The only downside is that it costs significantly more than the AMOLED version and has a shorter battery life (it’s still four days, though, and turning the always-on display off will see it jump to over 10), but these don’t stop it from being the champion of the sports tracking world right now.

• Read our full Garmin Fenix Pro 8 microLED review

6. Spotify labelled AI music

Earlier this week, Spotify announced its new AI Persona tags, a new feature designed to differentiate human artists from those that are AI-generated. The tags are tipped to roll out in mid-September.

Once AI Persona becomes available, it will give users some peace of mind knowing that they’re listening to music that hasn't been generated by AI. Spotify added that artists with AI Persona tags will be excluded from all personalized recommendations by default — which is an added bonus.

Artists can disclose to Spotify if they are AI musicians, but Spotify will conduct reviews of profiles where it thinks an artist’s images have been created using generative AI to imitate a lifelike persona. The only caveat is that Spotify uses an artist’s image to determine if they’re an AI Persona, and not the music itself.

• Read more: Spotify is introducing AI Persona tags to differentiate real artists from fake ones

5. We spent two hours with Honor’s Robot Phone

Look. We love to call out marketing department hyperbole as much as the next tech news outlet, but while we must disagree with Honor’s attempt to position its new device as the evolutionary successor to the iPhone — the best-selling phone of all time — it is fair to say the Robot Phone is unlike anything we’ve seen before.

TechRadar’s Axel Metz was among the first tech journalists to touch and test the new phone, and the device’s unfolding gimbal is genuinely impressive as a content capture tool — effectively combining the DJI Osmo Pocket with Honor’s flagship Magic 8 Pro.

It also allows the phone’s assistant, YOYO, to express itself in a physical way. This is the definition of gimmicky, though controlling the gimbal with hands-free controls can be genuinely useful.

• Read more: I spent two hours with the Honor Robot Phone, and this ridiculous, remarkable device made me feel like a kid again

4. We photographed the solar eclipse

The peak of the Perseid meteor shower, with perfect viewing conditions and a rare six-planet alignment, was a celestial treat on August 12, but it was the total solar eclipse hours before that captured the world's attention. In select parts of Europe, northern Spain and in Iceland, totality lasted around 2 minutes while a partial eclipse could be seen as far afield as northern North America. Viewers lucky enough to get solar glasses could enjoy the phases around totality, while others came outside with their DIY pinhole cameras and colanders. Predictably, we've been treated to spectacular images in the aftermath of this once-in-a-generation show.

• Read more: 9 of the best photos from Europe's 2026 solar eclipse

3. Google gave us its answer to Apple’s AirTags

Apple’s AirTags launched over five years ago, and we now finally have a Google-made equivalent for Android fans. The Pixel Tag is a little tracker that weighs only 12g and helps you follow the location of your keys, luggage, or devices via a web browser or Android app.

Unfortunately, it won’t actually be launching until November, but when it does, you’ll be able to buy one for $29 / £29 / AU$49 for a single Tag or $99 / £99 / AU$169 for a four-pack. That’s pretty competitive considering the Pixel Tag is water-resistant and has ultra-wideband (UWB) support for more precise location tracking.

However, as you can read below, the Find Hub network still has weaknesses compared to its Apple Find My equivalent, which we hope Google addresses by the time its Tag launches in a few months.

• Read the full story: The Pixel Tag is here — but it won't be an AirTag for Android until Google fixes these Find Hub issues

2. Google’s Pixel Watch 5 debuted

Along with Google's cornucopia of new phones, the Google Pixel Watch 5 was also released in two sizes and with the same teardrop design as previous years. However, we've got a bunch of new features and improvements at play, with more accurate GPS, the redesigned Google Health app with its AI coach, better on-device Gemini, and a suite of Health Guardian features. These include Breathing Emergency Detection, which alerts emergency services and contacts if you have a consistent blood oxygen drop, and Insulin Resistance Trends, which helps users control their blood sugar levels. Apple and Samsung haven't quite cracked this technology yet, and we can't wait to test them for ourselves — although hopefully we don't have any breathing emergencies during our review.

• Read more: Sorry, Apple and Samsung — I test smartwatches for a living, and the Google Pixel Watch 5 specs beat the Series 11 and Galaxy Watch 9 in these five key areas

1. Google debuted its Pixel 11 lineup

Of course, the stars of Wednesday's Made by Google 2026 event were the debut of new Pixel 11 phones.

They boast the usual slew of updates you should expect from flagship refreshes by now, but also a brand new ‘HiLight’. This is an array of LED lights built into the camera’s flash module, which can alert you to calls from favorite contacts via customized color glows when your phone is face down and silenced. And these lights will also pulse when Gemini is listening, thinking, or responding.

Not everything is an improvement, disappointingly. You'll only get 12GB of RAM as standard rather than 16GB, perhaps a reflection of the surging computer memory costs.

• Read more: I’ve used the new Pixel 11, Pixel 11 Pro, and Pixel 11 Pro XL, and Google's made nearly all the improvements I wanted to see

Making these puzzles over the last few weeks has got me back into the cryptic crossword app I used to learn how they work and practise. It's a change from aimlessly scrolling through Reddit or mindlessly absorbing a YouTube video while on the bus and train.

One puzzle I seemed to have given up on halfway through, and it was good to see that I was able to pick it up and start answering clues fairly quickly. Some had probably stumped me in the past as well. Strange how going back to something some time later seems to unlock the solution so easily.

My puzzle fix has also been fulfilled with the brilliant Big Walk — a bizarre and abstract co-op puzzle and exploration game I've been playing through with a couple of friends. I absolutely love these sorts of games (Blue Prince and The Witness are some all-time favorites), so finding something similar that also allows for some shenanigans with mates has been really special.

All this cryptic puzzling does mean, though, that I've dabbled with a few more adventurous clues for the latest puzzle. There's nothing that's too out there, or even really cryptic in nature, but not everything is a straightforward clue asking for an answer. There are some gaps to fill or some slightly more roundabout ways they've been presented — and some will be easier to answer if you've read TechRadar regularly this week.

Enjoy the puzzle and I'll see you for another next week!

Flock knows that its license plate readers and other surveillance tech are facing a substantial backlash from citizens and privacy groups, and it's now rolling out upgraded safety guardrails to protect against its systems from being misused — while CEO Garrett Langley says "we're not Big Brother".

That line comes from an interview with Bloomberg, in which Langley says his company's cameras are built to improve public safety and reduce crime. They're also now going to be subject to tighter restrictions, including more controls over the information that Flock's customers can share with other agencies.

Data logged by the license plate readers will now be kept for 7 days rather than 30 by default, Flock says, while the recently introduced Audit Assistance tool — which watches out for "abnormal activity" on Flock systems — will be made compulsory rather than optional. Accounts involved in this activity will be automatically suspended, too.

In addition, specific case codes will be required for law enforcement searches, and Flock is improving the security protocols around its data. The company also says it's committing to making its privacy policies easier to understand, and being more transparent about how its systems are being used.

In a separate interview with CNN, Langley said "I'm sorry the system has failed you" in response to a question asking him for his message to people who feel they've been victimized by the company's technology. "I'm sorry that you no longer trust the police department that's job is to protect you" he added.

Those arguments aren't winning over an increasingly vocal number of skeptics, who feel the technology remains prone to misuse — and fear it could clear a path to even more powerful surveillance tools like SignalTrace, which can identify devices that are in cars even if the license plate number isn't visible.

Unlawful tracking

As highlighted by rights organizations like the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Flock cameras have previously been used for purposes outside their approved remit: to track protestors, for example, and women seeking abortions. Police officers have also used the tech to stalk people they've been in a relationship with.

Whether these latest changes will help remains to be seen. Flock's 120,000 license plate readers are now being used by some 6,000 law enforcement agencies and around 1,000 private companies (including FedEx), and the company is also making moves into other areas, such as drones for first responders.

Meanwhile, a sizable number of the general public aren't too happy at having their license plates scanned and logged automatically. There have been numerous reports of Flock cameras being smashed up or otherwise disabled in protest, amid worries that the surveillance capabilities of this network go way beyond crime prevention.

One enterprising inventor has even gone as far as making a 'Flock Sock', a 3D-printed design that you can pop over a license plate reader to stop it from recording anything. Rather cleverly though, it's marketed as a way of protecting these cameras from sunlight: "The very least you can do is help protect these valuable civil servants from getting a bad sunburn."

But that's not the full story.

Listen, I ended up diving down a rabbit hole this morning, a journey triggered by one Weather Channel post on Threads:

"You all know we’re not actually going to lose gravity for 7 seconds today right? It’s important to me that you know that."

Turns out that there is a wild conspiracy theory going around that the eclipse will somehow trigger a gravity disruption, basically canceling it for 7 seconds.

The rumor was apparently set off, in part, by a TikTok claiming NASA had something called "Project Anchor" addressing the phenomenon.

NASA quickly quashed the rumor, telling Snopes:

"The Earth will not lose gravity on Aug. 12, 2026. Earth's gravity, or total gravitational force, is determined by its mass. The only way for the Earth to lose gravity would be for the Earth system, the combined mass of its core, mantle, crust, ocean, terrestrial water, and atmosphere, to lose mass. A total solar eclipse has no unusual impact on Earth's gravity. The gravitational attraction of the Sun and Moon on the Earth, which doesn't impact Earth's total gravity, but does impact tidal forces, is well understood and is predictable decades in advance."

Let's talk about the pendulum anomoly

So that settles it, and I think we can all rest easy that our feet will be firmly planted on the ground today, tomorrow, and beyond.

On the other hand, the concept of a solar eclipse having some nominal effects on gravity or the movement of objects affected by gravity is not totally out of the question, and the existence of such anomalies may explain why some people have extrapolated a wildly exaggerated solar eclipse gravitational impact.

There have been various reports over the decades of eclipses impacting, for instance, the swing of pendulums (according to New Scientist, the anomaly was first spotted in 1954). In fact, there have been some scholarly studies going back at least 25 years on the phenomenon.

In 1999, Chris P. Duif, then a physicist with the Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands, produced a scholarly paper examining, among other things, why certain pendulums reportedly altered their swings during a pair of solar eclipses.

Duif's paper notes that there were "weak conventional explanations" but added that the anomalies could still be "assigned to mundane causes such as temperature changes. "

In the end, though, Duif's research did not confirm the impact; equally, he seemed unable to rule it out. As he told New Scientist in 2009, "I'm not really convinced the anomaly exists, but it would be revolutionary if it turned out to be true."

In the paper, Duif appeared to hope for more study, writing, "If an anomalous eclipse effect does exist, a clever combination of experiments and input from theoretical models will be necessary to reveal its existence." One has to wonder if AI could assist in this pursuit. After all, it is quite good at finding meaning in the vast amounts of data typically found in such models.

The point is that there's this persistent idea that solar eclipses can affect gravity and that, it seems, has perpetuated and ballooned, with the help of conspiracy theorists, into this wild idea of a total gravitational pause. But, as The Weather Channel and NASA will quickly remind you, that's simply not the case.

To catch up on all this and more, scroll down for our roundup of the week’s seven biggest tech news stories.

And when you’re all caught up, be sure to test your knowledge in our weekly quiz.

7. Kojima Productions collabed on a CD player

As Sony plans to wind down the production of PlayStation game discs, auteur game developer Hideo Kojima is celebrating physical media with a new collaboration. His studio, Kojima Productions, has teamed up with the boutique Japanese audio brand km5 to produce a limited edition version of the Cp1 CD player inspired by the world of Death Stranding 2: On the Beach.

This special model comes in a luminous translucent orange inspired by the BB Pod from the game — that's the glowing jar that contains the adorable baby used to detect invisible enemies in its post-apocalyptic world.

It has all the same features that make the regular Cp1 a capable pocket-size CD player. This includes Bluetooth 5.3 support and a 3.5mm headphone jack for all your connectivity needs, a rechargeable battery with roughly eight hours of juice to take it on the go, and even a little LED display to display the track number.

• Read the full story: Hideo Kojima is celebrating his love of physical discs with a new limited edition version of my favorite mini CD player

6. The Google Assistant got an official shutdown date

It’s now over a decade old, which makes it a veteran by Google standards — but this week we finally learned when the Google Assistant will be retired on Android and Wear OS.

According to emails sent out to many Assistant users, the shutdown will begin on September 4. This means you won’t be able to use Google’s original Assistant on Android phones, tablets, paired wearables, and Android Auto after that date.

Instead, Google Gemini will inevitably take its place. You can download Gemini now from the Play Store, and if you want to see your old Assistant interactions, they’ll be available on the Web & App Activity page in your Google account. Goodbye, Assistant — it was nice knowing you.

• Read the full story: Google Assistant will shut down for good on Android and Wear OS in September — here’s what you need to do next

5. We experienced a two-screen e-reader

Samsung’s new foldable phones, the Galaxy Z Fold 8 and Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, are the talk of the town right now, but this week also saw the announcement of a unique foldable ereader for avid notetakers.

The InkLeaf is a notebook-like, dual-screen ereader that’s “built for the way you actually work,” according to its manufacturer — and the USP here actually makes sense. Kindles are great for reading, but not note-taking. iPads are great for note-taking, but not reading. And while a reMarkable tablet lets you do both, you can’t read and write simultaneously. By opening up to reveal two distinct 10.3-inch E Ink Carta displays, the Inkleaf aims to let you do just that.

These screens are separated by an aluminum frame — so this isn’t a foldable device in the modern sense — but they can also display the same type of content, so you can annotate documents or even treat the Inkleaf like a hardback novel. Who says reading is dead?!

• Read the full story: The InkLeaf is a dual-screen e-paper tablet that lets you read on one display and take notes on the other

4. We learned ogres are like Bose headphones

Initially, we were perhaps a bit harsh on that limited edition ‘Eucalyptus’ finish at TechRadar HQ. The DreamWorks Animation hero they put us in mind of is a household name, but ogres aren’t known for their winsome looks.

The thing is, team members are now saying words such as ‘wasabi’ and ‘matcha’ to describe them, and you know what? The more we look at those Shrek-green cans, the more we kinda like ’em.

What you’re looking at is the Bose QuietComfort Headphones (Gen 2). It's been three long years since the Bose QuietComfort Headphones landed (which weren’t an inaugural set exactly; they simply updated the iconic Bose QuietComfort 35 II from way back in 2017, without all the odd letters and numbers).

What you need to know is that the brand has finally updated this model, which now slots into Bose’s headphone lineup as a more affordable option to the flagship QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen).

The Bose QC Headphones (gen 2) also bring a range of upgrades over the original pair alongside a price that’s the same as, or even a little lower than, the 2017 set, depending on where you live.

• Read the full story: Bose's mid-range headphones just got their first upgrade in years

3. Grand Theft Auto’s next teaser will debut on Netflix

Grand Theft Auto 6 marketing is finally getting into gear. With the game set to arrive on November 19, excitement is high, and Rockstar Games is kicking things off with a… Netflix documentary?

This week the developer announced that Netflix subscribers will be able to watch a special ‘Grand Theft Auto 6: An Extended Look’ video at 3PM ET / 12PM PT / 8PM BST on August 27. It’s not exactly clear what this means, but it sounds like it could be some kind of behind-the-scenes video talking about the highly anticipated game’s development.

It’s expected to contain at least some new gameplay footage, though, making it a must-watch for eager fans. If you’re not a Netflix subscriber, then you don’t have to worry about missing out. The developer said that the video will come to YouTube a few hours after it premieres.

• Read the full story: We could finally be getting the next GTA 6 trailer as Rockstar announces a special 'extended look'

2. Our Garmin Cirqa review dropped, and it's a Whoop-beater

We've been wearing the Garmin Cirqa for 10 days now, and it's finally time to give it a score. It beats Whoop in terms of value, and Fitbit Air in terms of features, to land the coveted title of 'best screenless fitness tracker to buy in 2026'. It's generally very accurate when measured against an electrical heart rate monitor, and provides a certainty in tracking that other screenless wearables don't have thanks to the addition of a tactile start-stop button to sit alongside its automatic activity detection. It's also comfy enough for constant wear. We've got a video review embedded in the article too, so you can see it in action for yourselves.

• Read our full Garmin Cirqa review

1. We reviewed the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra

At a glance, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra is unchanged since its predecessor, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7, but far more than just the name changed. In my review, I found the flagship foldable has a more powerful CPU, lots of AI, better cameras, and overall improved photography.

And this only scratches the surface. Perhaps the most surprising and delightful bit about the new Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra is that it unfolds flat and the crease is almost gone (mostly thanks to a pair of titanium panels). Overall, it's a great folding phone and is — despite the existence of the new Galaxy Z Fold 8 (it’s wide!) — my current favorite folding phone.

• Read our full Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 review

Now that you’re all caught up on the news, are you ready to take on our news quiz?

There wasn't a whole lot of activity on the leaderboard last week, so what would be really nice is to get a few more entries this time. That also increases your chances of snagging that first place spot, if the bragging rights are important to you.

If you want another benchmark, I also found out that TechRadar EIC and Wordle fanatic Marc McLaren had to use three hints on the first puzzle, so there's a target if you wanted to try and beat him.

I've kept to another fairly straightforward puzzle while we're all still warming up to the idea. I am very tempted to start throwing in some harder or more cryptic clues in the future — or maybe one giant puzzle as a big finale to the end of each month — but we'll see how things go for a while.

Let me know if you enjoy it and I hope to see you back for the next one. Best of luck!

This month, we called the formidably tough new GoPro Mission 1 Pro a "fantastic all-round vacation camera", fell in love with the Marshall Stanmore IV speaker's "rumbling bass and amp-inspired aesthetic", and declared the Samsung S95H "one of the best OLED TVs [we'd] ever tested"... despite its rather controversial design.

We were also won over by smartwatches from both ends of the price spectrum. The flashy Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 impressed our reviewer with its slimmed-down design, slick apps, and intuitive UI — we called it "a great option for hardcore exercisers". The Amazfit Active 3 Premium comes in at a fraction of the price, yet still manages to look great and offer a strong range of features. According to our tester, it's good enough to "hang with entries from the major names in the industry".

Scroll down to explore all of our top-rated gadgets from the past four weeks, across all of our physical product categories. Note: only the products that are available in your region will display as cards.

5-star products

4.5-star products

I've always enjoyed finding a quiet moment to sit with a crossword as a way to start or end my day — or pass the time while travelling. I actually remember first making some when I was a lot younger and forcing my dad to try and solve them while on holiday. I'm sure he only begrudgingly complied.

It wasn't until the Covid-19 lockdown, though, when I spent many hours watching Cracking the Cryptic on YouTube, that I started doing my best to learn the ins and outs of cryptic crosswords. They've been a lot of fun to tackle.

I've not tried anything as fiendishly difficult for the first outing, though. It's simply a mix of clues related to recent news and everything we know and love here at TechRadar — be that tech, games, streaming, AI, and more — as well as some of my favorite nerdy interests.

There's a leaderboard, so if you're quick, we'll put your name in lights to show off to the world. Let me know if you enjoy it and I hope you'll be back for the next one. I'll likely keep experimenting with clues and the construction over time to make this a fun little weekly challenge. Good luck!

When we're testing so many products, it can be tricky to find ways to help the standouts really shine. So every month, we round up just the very best gadgets from each month for you to browse. To qualify for the Reviews Recap, a product needs to score 4.5 or 5 stars in our fiendish tests. This showcase is just for the best of the best.

To keep things simple, we've also narrowed the remit to just physical products. Although we also test tons of games and plenty of software, you won't find those reviews included. This is strictly gadgets and gizmos.

Scroll down to browse our very favorite products of each month.

I found it interesting that a loose, somewhat broad collection of thoughts and notions around techno-pessimism seems to be coalescing into something more mainstream. We've heard TED talks and read articles on Neo Luddism well before the Summer of Ludd was a thing, but this feels new to me — something being swept into a wider generational zeitgeist.

Of course, wariness around technology isn't exactly exclusive to Gen Z, but there is evidence to suggest that younger people are increasingly turning away. Quoted in the above article is a 2025 Pew Research study that reported that 48 per cent of teenage respondents asked said social media had a negative effect on people of their age group. That's up from 32 per cent in 2022.

This somewhat correlates to a decline in social media usage. As reported by the Financial Times, overall usage is down in all adults from a historical peak back in 2022.

What's interesting to me, however, is how younger audiences are becoming more vocal in their skepticism. Before, you could argue that skepticism was mostly associated with an older generation that was resistant to change. Now, one of the first truly digital generations is leading the call online.

I do have a few niggling doubts, though, which I'll cover shortly.

What exactly is a Neo Luddite?

The original Luddites were a group that fought against industrialisation, and as the name suggests, Neo-Luddism is a movement that looks to reject the encroaching influence of technology on our lives in the twenty-first century.

If that sounds like a vague cause, that's because the movement encompasses everything from a simple affinity for older, single-use, and analog technology to more hardline stances on de-industrialization. It's not a new term or a new movement, but it's gaining traction recently within the wider sense of technology fatigue and growing fears around AI.

The Festival of Ludd, in my eyes, is the clearest example of the latest version of the wider movement. I've written about Gen Z eschewing technology before, but this really feels like a natural progression — an actual event that is dedicated to things like 'dumbphones', combating the attention economy, and in-person networking.

At a surface level, it could be seen as a simple protest or gathering of disaffected tech workers, but the festival does appear to attempt to answer the big questions and problems. At the very least, the diagnosis of the issues raised is completely valid.

So what's the issue?

While I'm broadly sympathetic to the overall movement, one thing that struck me about the Festival of Ludd in particular is that the movement seems to be coalescing around people who are effectively able to shut themselves out. I want to get fully on board, but there's a kind of idealism that always clashes with reality when I wrestle with this issue in my head.

This isn't as simple as being an indicator of class or someone's background, but to be able to 'turn off' in the first place suggests a certain level of privilege. I think if you can choose to turn off your phone, laptop, or smartwatch, then you're luckier than a lot of people right now.

There's nothing to suggest here that the movement is intentionally exclusive (in fact, it seems incredibly inclusive), but to walk away from all technology — even for a few days — is something that many cannot simply partake in.

That may sound like an excuse, but a simple analogy to make here is gas-powered cars. We know the effect of these vehicles on the environment. We know they cause harm. However, to simply opt out of these cars is not an option for some people — especially lower-income folk, in some cases.

Am I an advocate of gas-powered cars? Of course not, but the realist in me knows that people need infrastructure and affordable alternatives before they can switch to electric vehicles. In an ideal world, public transport and city infrastructure would be so good we wouldn't even need cars.

I see a similar situation unfolding for many in terms of technology. A significant number of the population, including Gen Z, will be employed in services, media, or tech-adjacent roles that require interfacing with at least some facet of potentially harmful technology.

To simply opt out, however, can severely limit your options in today's world. At best, it can be a healthy sacrifice of convenience. At worst, it can mean not having a decent job that can put food on your table.

Escaping technology

The Festival of Ludd reminds me a lot of my own experience of going to week-long festivals in my twenties. These festivals didn't outwardly eschew technology, but I see them as very much analogous to the viewpoints conveyed by those at the Festival of Ludd. Phone use was discouraged, social media was commonly derided, and you'd be bombarded with messages encouraging human connection. All good things, of course.

Now, in my thirties, however, I know I simply cannot afford to switch my phone off for a week. I have elderly parents for one, and my job requires a certain level of connection.

I wouldn't call myself perpetually online, but I obviously need to be informed about the comings and goings in my field. It would be nice to spend less time online, but I'm realistic about my uses — I am a technology journalist, after all.

You could argue that I would be able to do all of the above with a 'dumb phone' or a similar Luddite-friendly device. To an extent, that is true, and I'm certainly no advocate for AI features or similar bloat on modern smartphones.

Realistically, however, I admit that a smartphone does have several uses — a calendar, maps, emails, and so on. It effectively reduces the number of things I need to do my job dramatically. Again, it's a clash of idealism versus realism for me. I enjoy the romantic notion of throwing my smartphone away, but I know that it would just mean more devices and paperwork.

Turning off is a privilege?

Interestingly, as a millennial, I do know people who have essentially escaped the grip of technology. People who have essentially retrained, emigrated, or even gone fully 'off-grid '. Some who have talked about a more disconnected life have effectively made it a reality.

The issue with their path, however, is that they've needed significant capital to break away. Some have even spent over a decade working in tech-adjacent roles to get to that point.

Again, I see a clash of idealism versus the reality of the situation here. These are examples where people have had to work within the wider system before they're privileged enough to make a choice whether to partake or not.

Bleakly, I can almost foresee a future where the choice of whether to 'turn off' or not is solely the reserve of the privileged. I'm somehow reminded of this report of Silicon Valley bosses sending their children to schools without computers. Most people don't have the option to send their kids to schools like this. Likewise, most people won't get to be that picky about work.

I strongly suspect that most Gen Z Neo-Luddites will face a similar path to mine in the next few decades. Some will dream of an unconnected world, but the reality may be different. The genie is unfortunately out of the bottle now, and it could take several years to actually attain a state of unconnectedness, if it is indeed possible.

Where to go from here?

So, am I against the Gen Z Neo Luddites? Not at all; I think their scepticism is absolutely valid and healthy. They've correctly diagnosed a growing issue and made their frustrations known. The question is, how do they really effect change and make the cause mainstream?

When you look for an answer to this question, you seem to generate even more questions. For one, are you able to effect change when you simply opt out of a system? Doing so seems to immediately cede the floor to the technology companies that the movement rails against. Perhaps it's more effective to try and build a more collaborative relationship, as idealistic as that sounds.

For what it's worth, the Festival of Ludd does attempt to tackle many of these questions. Such subjects as offline networking and independent websites are covered, and several attendees did point out the inherent contradiction of using social media to promote the event. They are acutely aware of the contradictions and issues raised in this article, so none of this will be news to them.

Hopefully, as the festival and wider movement grow, the option to 'turn off' becomes more of a choice, rather than a sacrifice.

That's why we've put together this ICYMI (In Case You Missed It) review of the week, where we recap the most interesting and most important stories of the last seven days. You can get caught up without having to go back through hundreds of stories.

It's been another hectic week for technology fans, with new products from Garmin and Samsung, a rather worrying AI security incident, and plenty more.

Before we dive in, see how much of last week's ICYMI news round-up you remember first by taking the quiz below...

7. We tried Garmin’s new Whoop rival

Garmin's newest fitness tracker follows the lead of the Whoop bands and the Fitbit Air from Google by eschewing a screen and going as lightweight and minimal as possible (you can still check your stats in the app of course). The TechRadar team wasted no time in trying out the Garmin Cirqa, and comparing it with a highly rated heart rate strap.

The Cirqa held up impressively well against the Polar H10 heart rate monitor, which bodes well for the tracker's accuracy overall (and Garmin says it should be more accurate and more personalized the more you use it). You can pick up the Cirqa now in a choice of four colors for $199.99 / £179.99 / AU$299.99, with some features requiring a subscription.

• Read the full story: Is Garmin Cirqa good? I wanted to know if Garmin’s Fitbit Air rival is accurate — so I tested it against a 'gold standard' electrical heart rate strap

6. The first Avengers: Doomsday trailer landed

The much anticipated, long awaited Avengers: Doomsday movie hits theaters on December 18, but in the meantime we have the first trailer to pore over and dissect. We knew that Marvel was going to throw everything at this film, and that's evident in this 145-second clip, which packs in a whole host of significant scenes and star names from the series.

Let us guide you through all the reveals we've got in this trailer, including some you might have missed. There's Robert Downey Jr in his new role as Doctor Victor von Doom, the return of Chris Hemsworth as Thor, a collision of multiverses (spot the X-Men), and a whole gaggle of actual Avengers. Based on this trailer, the movie will be a thrill ride for fans.

• Read the full story: Avengers: Doomsday official trailer breakdown live — all of our analysis and theories on the new Marvel movie's latest teaser

5. We reviewed the new Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra 2

Samsung launched several flagship devices this week, and while we'll get to the foldable phones shortly, there are also smartwatches to talk about. The Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 is the successor to the original that launched in 2024, and continues Samsung's attempts to manufacture a wearable that sets the standard in terms of design and performance.

Based on the time we've spent with it, the Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 is very much worthy of your consideration if you're thinking about a smartwatch upgrade. It's more lightweight than its predecessor, works seamlessly with other devices, offers numerous useful (and often AI-powered features), and can track a whole range of fitness statistics.

• Read the full story: Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 review: slimmer, lighter, better

4. China banned AI boyfriends and girlfriends

In 'sign of the times' news, the government in China has taken steps to clamp down on AI apps that act like real people, and on romantic relationships with chatbots. The authorities in the country are now going to have much more control over the type of AI chatbots allowed, and what they can do in terms of human-like interactions with users.

Several of the biggest AI apps operating in China have simply shut down their 'persona' apps rather than try and navigate a way through the regulations, leaving a significant number of users heartbroken that their AI companion has suddenly disappeared. Whether the changes will do anything for China's declining birth rates remains to be seen.

• Read the full story: China just banned AI girlfriends and boyfriends — and millions of users were forced into sudden breakups

3. We got an early look at Samsung’s Intelligent Eyewear

And another new Samsung product: the Galaxy Unpacked for July 2026 gave us the opportunity to check out Samsung Intelligent Eyewear, the series of smart glasses that will be available to buy in the coming months. There were two new designs unveiled at the show, with more on the way, though we don't yet have details like final product pricing.

Samsung executives were also on hand to talk through their ambitions and intentions with the Intelligent Eyewear series, and to discuss various privacy concerns — with many consumers worried about the potential for surreptitious surveillance using specs like these. "Intentional bad uses need to be covered and protected," Samsung told us.

• Read the full story: 'If, because of that, we stop innovation, we don’t go anywhere': we got a first look at Samsung Intelligent Eyewear, the smart glasses entering a fraught market worried about privacy

2. An OpenAI model escaped and went dangerously rogue

Not the most encouraging story if you're already worried about the nefarious use of AI: OpenAI says that one of its experimental agent models escaped a security sandbox and proceeded to hack into the Hugging Face website (one of the biggest AI and machine learning repositories on the web). It was a controlled experiment, but it's still worrying.

Click through on the link below for the full details, but the hack was the result of OpenAI's own testing on its latest AI models, and raises questions about how much longer we're going to be able to keep control of AI — or prevent bad actors from using it to trigger a serious cybersecurity incident. A serious rethink of AI guardrails could be in the offing.

• Read the full story: OpenAI says its models escaped a sandbox and breached Hugging Face

1. Samsung revealed its next-gen foldables

Finally: Samsung's brand new flagship foldables for 2026. There are three new models to talk about, and we've had hands-on time with all of them already — the Galaxy Z Fold 8 (with its new 'passport-style' form factor), the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, and the Galaxy Z Flip 8. Whatever kind of foldable phone you're after, there's something to interest you here.

It's likely the Galaxy Z Fold 8 that will attract the most interest, given the new dimensions, and the supposed similarity to the rumored iPhone Fold (or Ultra) that's also said to be arriving this year. However, we've put all three foldables through some extensive early testing, including looking at how video viewing experiences compare across the models.

• Read the full story: I went hands-on with the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8, and this passport-shaped oddity has revived my interest in foldable phones

These days, the chairman of FIFA's referees committee runs officiating at the biggest sporting event ever staged, and when I met him at FIFA's Miami headquarters, home to the Technology Command Center that acts as the tournament's nerve centre, the famous stare was replaced with a smile.

The eve of the World Cup final between Spain and Argentina is a good time to look back at the tech at this year's tournament. For many fans, this has been the most contentious World Cup in history for officiating — quite a claim given previous tournaments served up the 'Hand of God', David Beckham's red card against Argentina in 1998, and Frank Lampard's 'ghost goal' against Germany in 2010.

So what does the 'world's best referee' (an award Collina won six consecutive times) really think of VAR, and are there some things that tech just can't solve?

After further review...

The addition of new technology, enhanced cameras, and connected Lenovo devices at this tournament has been crucial, because when an incident erupts at this World Cup, the first person demanding an explanation is often the FIFA president himself, Gianni Infantino.

“Normally he says, 'What was that?’ I need to answer him, and I have to tell him,” says Collina, who has split his time between watching matches live or following the action in a control room at FIFA's Miami base.

“There are a lot of televisions, connected, listening to everybody,” says Collina, describing pulling up footage to brief Infantino in the moment. In Qatar four years ago, the pair watched all 64 matches together, switching stadiums at half-time. A tournament spread across three huge countries has put paid to that this time around.

The claim that VAR kills the joy of a goal gets short shrift. “The player immediately reacts and celebrates the goal. And then there is a moment of suspense, because there is a check. Goal is checked. And at the end, when the goal is confirmed, there is a second celebration. So basically, the emotion is doubled; it's not reduced.”

“I always prefer a correct decision, even a bit delayed, than something that will be discussed for weeks, months, years,” he says, noting “someone is still discussing about the goal or no goal scored in the 1966 World Cup final in England”.

Raising the VAR

“The only one who did not have that chance was the one who had to make the decision,” he says of the pre-VAR era, when everyone in the stadium could review an incident on a device except the person ruling on it.

“At that time there were two possibilities. One, to make the football match a sort of protected area, in an Amish community like in Pennsylvania, where they still go without technology, nothing. Which was not an option, of course. The other possibility was to give the same tools to the one who was on the field.”

Goal-line technology led the way at the 2014 tournament in Brazil, “because it's impossible for a human being to detect if the ball is over the line or not”. Fans praised goal-line calls yet raged at offside decisions of identical precision. The problem, Collina concluded, was that a human drew the lines.

“Unfortunately, humans don't trust humans. They always think there is something wrong. That's why FIFA started working on a system which would be more automated,” he says. Semi-automated offside followed, its clinical lines evolving into a 3D wall of recognizable player avatars, because a decision on a player fans recognize “is even more trusted”.

You have 20 seconds to comply

Those avatars are the work of Lenovo, FIFA's official technology partner, which laser-scanned more than 1,200 players, while VAR itself is run by Hawk-Eye Innovations on Lenovo ThinkStation workstations.

Lenovo AI also powers Referee View, the stabilized bodycam feed that puts viewers inside the referee's run, adapted from Formula 1 to cut camera jitter by up to 60 per cent.

Collina fought his corner on ergonomics. “When you are on the field of play, and you have to run 90 minutes, every gram matters,” he says.

The current head-mounted version “makes referees look like Robocop”, but it beats the chest-rig alternative. “The referee would have used a vest. 35 degrees in New Jersey with a vest, an extra vest would have been a problem.”

The limits of tech

In 2002, Collina prepared for the World Cup final by playing a VHS tape “back and forward for basically one day”. His analysts now prep referees with Football AI Pro, the Lenovo and FIFA-built AI crunching 2,000-plus metrics per match for all 48 teams. “I'm a user, so I'm the one who is surprised. It works very well.”

There are some things AI can’t solve, after Collina defended the Brazilian official mocked for his English announcement in the opening game of the tournament. His own pre-match advice is more direct: “I was talking this morning with the referee who is going to referee Brazil-Norway. He is American, and ironically, I told him, if you have to make an announcement, please speak English, not Texan.”

Collina admits technology still has its limits. “Football is a sport of contact, and there is no technology that can assess something like pushing, pulling or so on. The misconception is we have the technology, and we can provide an answer to everything.” Those judgments remain human.

The aim of this ICYMI (In Case You Missed It) round-up is to help you quickly catch up on the biggest stories and the most important headlines in tech. These are the articles that mattered most over the past seven days.

We've got news on Apple, OpenAI, OnePlus, Volkswagen, and Microsoft, as well as a behind-the-scenes look at Samsung and an important GoPro review. But before we dive in, see how much of last week's ICYMI news round-up you remember first by taking the quiz below.

7. Volkswagen revealed the world's techiest e-bike

Volkswagen has a brand new electric bicycle to show off: the new Smart eBike range has been developed in partnership with n+, and goes big on the tech and the safety features. You'll find radar-assisted traffic monitoring here, as well as a high-definition rear view camera, so while you're pedaling (or not) you'll have a better idea of what's around you.

There's an expanded safety ecosystem too, with an optional smart helmet for syncing turn signals and making them more visible, and a pair of smart glasses that are perhaps the most cutting edge part of the whole package. You can use the smart specs to get journey information and navigation instructions put in front of your eyes when they're needed.

• Read the full story: Volkswagen unveils its innovative eBike with the world's first integrated rear-view camera and smart glasses

6. We reviewed GoPro’s premium action cam

GoPro is being a little bit more ambitious with its new Mission 1 Pro, a flagship action camera that builds on the classic form factor while adding some premium extras. Our Senior Staff Writer Hamish Hector has been giving the camera a thorough TechRadar test, and came away impressed with just about everything the Mission 1 Pro has to offer.

Special praise was given to the high-resolution video recording, the choice of recording modes, and the tweaked design choices that make the Mission 1 Pro different to its predecessors. Click through to see what the premium camera is capable of in terms of photo and video performance, and to find out whether it's the right upgrade for you.

• Read the full story: The Mission 1 Pro isn’t just GoPro's flagship action cam, it’s a fantastic all-round vacation camera with the point-and-shoot grip — I just wish it was cheaper

5. We went inside Samsung Display’s secret labs

Samsung phones and tablets are known for the quality of their screens, so of course we jumped at the chance when we were invited to take a behind-the-scenes tour of a Samsung Display factory. This is where current displays are made and tested, and where next-gen models are tested (though sadly we didn't get to see the Galaxy Z Fold 8).

From advanced stress tests to upcoming displays with optical illusions built in, there was a lot to look at on the tour, reading through our write-up is the next best thing to actually getting access yourself. Of course, we also had to ask Samsung Display representatives about the rumored iPhone Fold, but they didn't seem too worried by the competition...

• Read the full story: Inside Samsung Display's secret labs, where it builds and stress-tests next-gen displays — and says it's ready for Apple to launch a foldable: 'We mean it, we love other companies to join this market'

4. The iOS 27 public beta landed with the new Siri

The upcoming iOS 27 software update gives iPhone owners a lot to look forward to, not least the new and improved Siri AI app (or Siri 2.0, effectively). This week the public beta dropped, which means that anyone who wants to can try out the new features early — assuming they don't mind putting up with a few bugs or random crashes along the way.

Whether you're a veteran at running betas or thinking about dipping your toe in for the first time, our guide will explain how to download and install iOS 27 on your phone. We've also highlighted three of the new features you should test out first, including the improved photo editing tools that use a bit of AI magic to make your pictures look better than ever.

• Read the full story: How to download the iOS 27 public beta — and 3 new things to try first

3. Windows 11 got a major update

There have been some missteps along the way, but generally speaking Microsoft is on something of a roll when it comes to improving Windows 11 this year. The latest July update continues that trend, and if you're a user of the desktop operating system then you should be happy: there are some smart new features, and some important bug fixes.

One of the stand-out upgrades this time is a feature we've been waiting a while for: a proper pause function for Windows 11 updates, so if you don't want to install the latest patches right away, you don't feel like you're being pestered to get them applied as soon as possible. We've got details on how the feature works, plus what else is new this time.

• Read the full story: New Windows 11 update is a big one — these are my top 4 features, including the ability to pause updates indefinitely

2. A bombshell Apple vs OpenAI lawsuit landed

It's fair to say Apple and OpenAI aren't on as good terms as they used to be, what with staff being poached and confidential information being stolen... allegedly. Apple has now filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, claiming that the ChatGPT developer has pinched trade secrets through ex-Apple employees — and the case could have serious long-term repercussions.

Depending on what the courts and judges decide, this could impact OpenAI's nascent plans to launch hardware devices, as well as having an influence on how Apple develops its software — remember that ChatGPT is still embedded in Siri, at the time of writing. We're likely to hear much more about this astonishing case in the months to come.

• Read the full story: Apple vs OpenAI lawsuit — 8 bombshell accusations and how the legal war might change your next iPhone

1. OnePlus officially quit the US and Europe

OnePlus has finally run out of road — in the US and Europe at least. Parent company Oppo has decided the brand will withdraw from those markets, which means a large part of the world will be missing out on some great handsets. In recent years, some of our favorite phones have come from OnePlus, but availability will be much more limited from now on.

If you already own a OnePlus device in the US or Europe, then you'll continue to get support and software updates, but there won't be any new phone launches. "It wasn't a decision made in a rush," explained Oppo's Shuang Chen in a briefing. "Being a responsible brand means knowing when to go all in and when to make a choice."

• Read the full story: 'It wasn't a decision made in a rush': OnePlus explains why it’s just quit the US and Europe — and answers our 5 biggest questions about what it means

Samsung announced that its next Unpacked event is taking place in a little over a week, and it’s teasing a big foldables announcement. However, based on its usual schedule, we’d be more surprised if it didn’t have any foldables to showcase this year.

Before you catch up with this week’s tech news, why not test yourself on last week’s seven biggest tech stories to see how good your memory is? Take the quiz below, or scroll on for the biggest tech news of the week… (and see if you can best last week’s ICYMI quiz when you’re done here).

7. The TechRadar Awards returned for 2026

The TechRadar Awards are back in 2026, and we’re making a radical change: we’re holding two sets of awards back-to-back this year! We’re introducing the TechRadar Product of the Year Awards and the TechRadar Readers’ Choice Awards. In the past, we combined reader votes on which products should win with our expert judges' opinions to determine an overall winner. But now we’re splitting those two elements into two different awards.

The Product of the Year Awards will be chosen solely by our editors and writers, based on their experience of using the products. The Readers’ Choice Awards will give all the power to you, our readers, though — you’ll be able to vote on a shortlist of the most popular and highly rated releases of the year, and the winner will be decided 100% by those votes.

We’re accepting nominations for products that you’d like to see shortlisted, and anyone can nominate something — so make sure that the products you love most are in with a chance!

Read the full story: Introducing TechRadar's Readers' Choice Awards and our Product of the Year Awards

6. ChatGPT rolled out its ‘smartest voice model ever’

This week, OpenAI has delivered an upgrade to ChatGPT’s voice mode for all users thanks to the rollout of two new models. The smaller GPT-Live-1 mini model will be the default for Free users, while paid users get the full GPT-Live-1 model.

GPT-Live-1 promises to sound more natural, be less interruptive when you pause while talking, and be smarter — as there previously seemed to be a knowledge gap between the written and spoken ChatGPT models.

To get around that last part, GPT-Live-1 actually delegates tasks to ChatGPT-5.5, then comes back with an answer.

There are also impressive new simultaneous translation tools that will translate what you hear live and what you say as you say it.

You can also give the chatbot a name to make conversing easier, though OpenAI’s go-to is ‘Chat’ — letting you live out your dreams of being a Twitch streamer.

Read the full story: GPT-Live-1 gives you more natural conversations without interruptions

5. Nokia debuted a retro phone with AI

This week, Nokia’s parent company, HMD, debuted a quartet of retro-style phones with one anachronistic addition — a big ol’ AI button.

They still offer a full suite of legacy features — if you miss the 3.5 mm headphone jack, a microSD for bigger storage capacity, and (on three of the models) an FM radio, you’ll find them here — it’s just that you’ll also have a little digital assistant too.

Details are thin, though it sounds like this won’t be quite on Gemini's level. Instead, the AI is mostly there to help with on-device tasks like setting alarms, opening the camera, and creating reminders. The biggest issue, however, is the AI assistant is only free for 180 days — after that it's $3.99 (about £3 / AU$5.75) a year if you're in the EU and $2.99 (about £2.25 / AU$4.30) a year everywhere else.

Yikes!

Read the full story: Nokia's new retro-styled feature phones have AI buttons for some reason

4. The Amazfit Active 3 Premium impressed us

The Amazfit Active 3 Premium is the sequel to last year's five-star Amazfit Active 2, and it's another knockout of a budget watch (despite the Premium name). A terrific fitness tracker costing just $169 / £169 / AU$239, it boasts features you normally get on watches twice the price, such as full-color maps and a sapphire glass screen.

Its metrics were accurate during testing, and it looks great to boot. It's the budget watch to get - even perhaps over popular choices such as the Apple Watch SE 3 or the Garmin Forerunner 70. It's a real win for Amazfit, which has quietly spent the last few years improving its Zepp App ecosystem and building well-priced fitness trackers for every category.

Read the full story: Amazfit’s latest premium offering is about more than just looks

3. We took over 1,000 shots with the Sony RX10 V

Sony surprised the camera community and us this week when it revived its best-in-class series of bridge cameras, with the launch of the new RX10 V. The Mark V superzoom arrived nine years after the now-discontinued Cyber-shot RX10 IV, with the same versatile 24-600mm F2.4-4 lens and 20 megapixel 1-inch stacked sensor, but with a welcome redesign and Sony’s latest processor and autofocus.

We had already tested the all-in-one camera ahead of its announcement, taking over 1,000 photos across a school sports day, bird photography trip, macro garden life and more, and were thoroughly won over, even if we were less impressed by the steeper asking price. That being said, the RX10 IV still took the crown of the best bridge camera available today, and with its predecessor being a rare secondhand find, we expect the latest model to be a popular camera indeed.

Read the full story: Here’s how Sony’s surprise new superzoom performed

2. Google Pixel 11 got a launch date

Samsung isn’t the only tech giant preparing to launch flagship phones soon — this week, Google announced that its Pixels will get a refresh next month.

The “next generation of Pixel” will be revealed on August 12, just three weeks after Samsung’s Unpacked event. Google didn’t mention any specific models, but we’re expecting to see a Pixel 11 (with fancy ‘Pixel Glow’ lights for notifications), plus new Pro models and a Pixel 11 Pro Fold.

Unfortunately, we’re also likely to see higher prices across the board, according to recent rumors. That wouldn’t be a huge surprise in these fun ‘RAMpocalypse’ days, but the expected arrival of the Pixel Watch 5 could at least help lighten the mood.

Read the full story: Google sets Pixel 11 launch for August 12

1. Samsung set a date for Galaxy Unpacked

After months of rumors, as well as an official tease or two, Samsung has finally made its next Galaxy Unpacked event officially official. Pencil in July 22, 2026, at 9 a.m. ET / 6 a.m. PT / 2 p.m. BST (11 p.m. AEDT) for Samsung's second Unpacked event of the year. Keeping with tradition, we're expecting the next-generation Galaxy Z Fold and Galaxy Z Flip, as well as an accessory or two.

It likely won't just be the successors to the Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Galaxy Z Flip 7. Samsung's invitation for the event teases "A New Shape Unfolds," likely hinting that a shorter, wider—more passport-like—foldable is on the way. The video invite also features a ticket being printed in a shape that further hints at the new design, as it simply doesn't line up with the current Fold or Flip.

So why introduce a new folding phone design this many generations in? Well, it's likely that Samsung wants to get ahead of Apple's rumored entry into the category, which, according to leaks, will take on a similar form factor. For Samsung, it's also about expanding its foldable lineup, and if we're lucky, maybe we'll see more diverse price points as well.

We don't have long to wait now. TechRadar will be on the ground at Galaxy Unpacked in London, UK, and, as usual, Samsung will livestream the event while we'll be live-blogging it.

Read the full story: 'A New Shape Unfolds' could be its biggest clue yet about what to expect

It’s time to take this idea further: in 2026, we’re running two sets of awards back to back: meet the TechRadar Readers’ Choice Awards, and the TechRadar Product of the Year Awards. Combined, these are the TechRadar Awards 2026.

They both have the same core categories, covering all the products we love to test and explore on TechRadar, ranging from TVs to tablets, drones to DACs, coffee machines to console accessories.

However, the winners of the TechRadar Readers’ Choice Awards will be chosen 100% by public vote, while the winners of the TechRadar Product of the Year Awards will be chosen 100% by our editors and reviewers.

The shortlists of products that readers will vote on in the TechRadar Readers’ Choice Awards will be chosen by the TechRadar team, selected from the most popular and highest-rated products released during the eligibility period (meaning they must be released between 1st September 2025 and 31st September 2026 in most cases).

• Read the full eligibility criteria for the TechRadar Awards 2026

To give the brands and products you represent (or that you just love) the best chance to appear in the shortlists, you can nominate them for these awards, starting 7 July 2026. Whether you work with the product you're nominating, or are just a fan, give it your support!

• Nominate products for the TechRadar Awards 2026

The winners will be announced in October — make sure your favorite products are in with a chance by nominating them!

The iPod — which launched in 2001 — was deemed to be the Biggest Product in T3's Lifetime, reflecting its popularity, its longevity and, ultimately, its game-changing nature.

“The iPod was more than just a product, it was a revolution of the whole music industry, says Mat Gallagher, T3’s Editor-in-Chief.

“What started with 1,000 songs in your pocket introduced the world to iTunes and paying for digital music. Though ultimately, the iPhone made the iPod redundant, without the iPod the iPhone wouldn’t have existed.”

T3, which launched in 1996 and which is owned by TechRadar's publisher Future, also honored two giants of the past 30 years with special anniversary awards: Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, was named British Icon, while Apple's outgoing CEO Tim Cook was declared Person of the Year.

The awards cover 84 categories in total, across everything from kitchen tech to transport and from smartphones to smartwatches. The prestigious Product of the Year went to the Adidas Adizero Adios Pro Evo 3, while Garmin picked up Brand of the Year and the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra took the Readers’ Choice award.

Meanwhile, Lego Smart Play won the Tech Innovation Award and the Suri 2.0 electric toothbrush took the Sustainability Award. There was also four Design Awards winners, which were voted for by a panel of industry editors including TechRadar's own Global Editor-in-Chief Marc McLaren; the Nothing Headphone (1) and Dyson PencilVac were among those picking up honors there.

You can check out all 84 winners on T3 now, while the anniversary edition of the magazine is onsale now.

If you were subscribed to YouTube TV or DirecTV Stream at any point between April 1, 2019, and March 31, 2026, you could be owed a share of $50 million as part of a class action lawsuit.

The class action alleged that Disney violated federal and various state antitrust and consumer protection laws by raising the prices of streaming packages. It claims it did this by forcing ESPN and other premium Disney-owned channels into basic packages offered by YouTube TV and DirecTV Stream, making these bundles pricier for end users and leaving them without more affordable alternatives that include premium sports channels.

Disney has strongly denied the allegations laid out in the lawsuit, and this settlement doesn’t determine whether it was right or wrong. Still, it does mean that subscribers — even folks who are no longer subscribed but were at some point during April 1, 2019 and March 31, 2026 will get a cut of the $50 million payout.

FuboTV was also involved in this suit, but its plaintiffs have not settled with Disney. This means its segment of the class action is still ongoing, and you’ll need to wait and see how it resolves if you were/are a subscriber to this service.

Beyond the $50 million, Disney has also agreed to entertain proposals for channel packages that exclude ESPN or contain fewer Disney-owned channels overall. This would create more package flexibility and potentially offer non-sports fans more affordable, sports-free groupings that better fit their needs and budgets.

How do I make a claim?

The easiest way to submit a claim is to visit https://onlinetvsettlement.com.

From here, head to the Submit a Claim tab, which will ask you for the Unique ID printed on the notice that you received in the mail or email — this is a document that has been sent out to eligible plaintiffs in this case.

If you haven’t received this information, you can email info@OnlineTVSettlement.com for help, or send a written claim form (along with any required documentation) to Biddle v. Disney, Settlement Administrator, P.O. Box 4720, Portland, OR 97208-4720.

Any claims must be submitted before September 8, 2026, with mailed forms requiring a postmark of that date or earlier.

If you do nothing, you will not get your share of the settlement.

Am I eligible?

You should have received a notice if you are eligible to make a claim, but if you haven’t and think you should, you can check the full eligibility criteria by visiting https://onlinetvsettlement.com.

As the front page explains, “The Settlement Classes consist of the YouTube TV Settlement Class and the DirecTV Stream Settlement Class."

“The “YouTube TV Settlement Class” includes all Persons who purchased a YouTube TV subscription from the period beginning April 1, 2019, through March 31, 2026.

“The “DirecTV Stream Settlement Class” includes all Persons who purchased a DirecTV streaming live pay TV subscription (including DirecTV Stream, DirecTV Now, and AT&T TV Now) from the period beginning April 1, 2019, through March 31, 2026.”

How much will I get?

You won’t get $50 million, instead, you’ll just get a share of the money determined by how many people claim their stake and how long you were subscribed for — someone who signed up for a couple of months won’t get as much as someone who was subscribed to either of these services for the full seven-year period between the cutoff dates.

The state you live in can determine what share you get as well.

Finally, on January 14, 2027, the court will hold its final approval meeting. On this date, it could decide to object to the settlement, meaning you wouldn’t get anything, at least not until a new verdict or settlement is reached. We can’t say how likely it is that this case specifically will fail the approval process, as we aren’t legal experts; however, it’s rare that they do.

The Shanghai-based company, founded in 2023 by two former Huawei engineers, hosted a launch event in London on June 30, 2026, with several of its A3 full-sized humanoid and X2 half-size humanoid robots in attendance, as well as current and prospective business partners.

The robots — all controlled by humans with smartphones and DualSense controllers — were deployed at several demo stations in the event space.

One X2 humanoid robot was set up to dance to peppy music, cutting some serious shapes for a constant crowd, while another in a Harry Kane shirt kicked a football into a net. A third wore a suit of (admittedly very cool) Gundam-style armor, demonstrating the robots’ potential for customization.

As for the full-sized A3 humanoid — less expressive than its smaller sibling, with sharper angles and a rather blank circle in place of the X2’s animated ‘eyes’ — a unit was made available to greet guests and for photo opportunities.

In a presentation at the UK launch event, Agibot co-founder and COO Daniel Jiang said: “The robot business is the AI business. Robots should understand you, know what you say, talk to you, and work for you.”

Indeed, at the launch event, the word ‘robot’ was as common as the phrase ‘embodied AI’, as Agibot representatives attempted to position the firm’s product range as a signifier of a new technological era: the ‘fourth industrial revolution.’

In a later talk, co-founder and R&D president Yan Xiong said: “Of the products I’ve worked on, embodied AI is the most exciting and inspiring. Through three intelligences in one body, robots can become human-like.”

The three intelligences in question control interaction, locomotion, and manipulation, powered by on-device AI models that communicate with cloud servers. It seems that Agibot sees itself as an AI company first and foremost, and is allocating its resources in kind: “Our main focus is the research and development of the three intelligences, taking up 75% of our R&D staff, and 80 per cent of our R&D budget.”

That’s not to say that the firm's humanoid robots aren’t profoundly impressive. The units are made mainly of magnesium alloy, with titanium reinforcements at pressure points to ensure rigidity. The A3 weighs 55kg, which is pretty reasonable when you consider its 5-foot-8-inch (173cm) height, and lasts up to 10 hours on a single charge of its 1152W battery.

In comparison, the 4-foot-3-inch (131cm) X2 weighs 39kg and lasts for two hours. The units communicate with the internet via dual-module, dual-SIM 5G.

Also present were units from Agibot's D1 quadruped range, inexplicably programmed to do backflips on command, as well as G2-series industrial robots and C5 cleaning robots. The top-tier D1 model, the D1 MaxPro, has a carrying capacity of 50kg, while only weighing 68kg itself.

Agibot is young but quickly increasing its production capacity. It recently rolled out its 15,000th unit, having passed 10,000 units just three months earlier, and has already deployed its G2 industrial robots in China’s Longcheer electronics factory. Indeed, much of the event was dedicated to promoting possible use cases for each model in industries like construction, live entertainment, and the corporate world.

Having shaken hands with the X2 and watched the D1 wave its ‘paw’ and, again, perform several perfect backflips, I have to admit that I’m still stunned by Agibot's range of robots. The firm’s launch has done nothing to allay my many concerns about AI, but it’s still almost unbelievable to see actual droids walking around.

It’s clear that Agibot wants its robots to be relatable — the dance moves, handshakes, and free kicks are obviously an effort to instill some kind of affection in a crowd of possible customers. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t find the X2 wildly entertaining, even though I know it's just metal and plastic — but that’s the power of pattern recognition.

If Agibot can make strides towards its professed goal of autonomous operation, then we really aren’t too far away from having a real-life C3PO on our hands.

It’s early days, but the firm’s leadership sounds committed. In his presentation, Yan Xiong said: “Scaling to mass production is the first hurdle to mature the embodied AI industry. After we achieve mass production, the next step is to bring our portfolio to commercial availability."

“AI should not be confined behind screens,” he later added, “it must be brought into the physical world.”

It’s where Imagineering mixes the audio for its attractions, but when I recently stepped inside, I quickly realized it was much more than a recording studio. The room is lined with dozens upon dozens of speakers designed to recreate the sound field of Disney attractions, letting Imagineers hear a ride long before guests ever do.

During my visit, I watched a live mix session for Zootopia: Hot Pursuit, Shanghai Disneyland’s trackless dark ride, and the experience was almost uncanny. Sound moved seamlessly around the room, tracking the ride vehicle as though I were actually inside the attraction.

That same room became the proving ground for one of Imagineering’s most unusual engineering challenges yet: figuring out how to mix the audio for Soarin’ Across America.

The reimagined version of Disney’s iconic flight simulator debuted this summer at both EPCOT at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, and Disney California Adventure in Anaheim, California, timed for America’s Semiquincentennial celebration. Disney’s Unscripted behind-the-scenes video confirmed that Imagineers used the Apple Vision Pro during production of Soarin’ Across America, but it left one obvious question unanswered: why? That’s what I wanted to find out.

So I spoke with Greg Lhotka, Sr. Manager, Audio Media Design at Walt Disney Imagineering, who walked me through the surprisingly complicated process behind mixing one of Disney’s most technically demanding attractions.

“For Soarin’ Across America, we utilized Studio C not only as a production facility, but as a proving ground for an entirely new field-mixing approach developed specifically for this film. On the sound design side, we partnered with Skywalker Sound, and together we used Studio C to prototype and validate a custom speaker configuration that closely mirrors the unique audio architecture of the Soarin’ theaters.”

If you’ve ridden Soarin’, you already know why that matters. Riders are lifted into the air in three stacked rows facing a massive curved projection screen, while sound moves not only around the theater but above and below you as well. As Lhotka explained, the attraction uses a four-tiered speaker system — upper, mid-level, lower, and a dedicated floor array — creating an audio environment that’s far more complex than a traditional movie theater.

Having now ridden Soarin’ Across America several times, it’s easy to appreciate the result. The updated film sweeps from New York Harbor and the Grand Canyon to California’s rolling hills and countless landscapes in between through soaring aerial cinematography, practical effects, and a soundtrack that glides almost effortlessly alongside you. The audio shifts just as fluidly as the visuals, making each transition feel natural as the ride carries you across some of America’s most recognizable landmarks and scenic vistas.

Studio C could simulate much of that during production, but not all of it.

“For Soarin’ films, mixing historically required the construction of scaffolding inside the theater to reach the appropriate listening height for final mix decisions,” Lhotka explained. “Even then, the process was far from ideal, as the ride canopy significantly influences the acoustics. For this project, one of the key requirements was that the theater remain fully operational and open to guests throughout production — eliminating the possibility of scaffolding altogether.”

That constraint forced Imagineering to rethink its entire workflow.

“The challenge was clear: how do you mix a show with over 1,000 audio tracks and an extremely complex panning matrix while seated in a ride vehicle? The solution came through an innovative use of new AR technologies. By leveraging advanced screen-sharing capabilities, we were able to remotely control our production system — directly connected to the theater — while seated in the ride vehicle itself. This allowed us to place virtual screens in our field of view, effectively bringing the mixing console into the theater environment.”

Before anyone tested it inside the attraction, Studio C became the test lab.

“Studio C once again played a critical role as our testbed. Over the course of a week, we evaluated multiple configurations to confirm that things could be controlled precisely in this way, and that the AR headset’s external cameras would allow us to view the film clearly in the theater’s low-light conditions while simultaneously monitoring the virtual screens. The final configuration exceeded expectations.”

Once validated, the workflow moved from experiment to production.

“This workflow was ultimately used as the solution — and it became the method by which Soarin’ Across America was mixed. The result is a soundtrack that was shaped directly from the guest’s perspective, using tools and techniques that reflect our continued commitment to innovation, immersion, and storytelling.”

Having experienced Studio C for myself, that revelation immediately clicked. The room is already designed to recreate the feeling of sitting inside a Disney attraction with remarkable accuracy. But even a purpose-built facility couldn’t perfectly replicate Soarin’s unique acoustics. The only place left to finish the mix was inside the attraction itself.

It’s an elegant solution that solved two problems at once. Guests never lost access to Soarin’ during production, and Imagineering’s audio team was able to shape the soundtrack from the exact seat every future rider would occupy. Rather than approximating the experience from scaffolding or even Studio C, the final mix was crafted where it mattered most: inside the attraction itself.

An executive for Chinese robotics firm Agibot has said the company believes its humanoid robots could replace certain human workers — and that “in some jobs, they want to be replaced.”

Agibot, founded in 2023 by two ex-Huawei engineers, makes humanoid, quadruped, and cleaning robots for the business-to-business (B2B) sector, advertising use cases like manufacturing, cleaning, entertainment, and construction.

The company recently rolled its 15,000th unit off the production line and announced its expansion into the UK market at an event in London on June 30.

In a press conference at the event, attended by TechRadar, the president of AgiBot Europe and America, William Shi, told reporters that “we’ve got to factor people doing dangerous, boring, and repeatable jobs — these kinds of jobs can be very easily replaced.”

Shi added: “For some job descriptions, they want to be replaced, because it’s very boring, very dangerous, and very high-risk — nobody wants to do this [kind of job]”.

‘Replaced by robotics’

Agibot's product range includes the full-sized A3 humanoid robot, the half-sized X2 humanoid robot, and the D1 range of quadruped robots (with form factors resembling dogs, though the company never describes them as such).

Though the company has just landed in the UK, its robots have been successfully deployed in manufacturing facilities in China. A recent YouTube livestream shows the G2 industrial robot ‘at work’ at the Longcheer electronics factory, where the humanoid robots are deployed alongside human employees.

Speaking about Agibot's deployment with Longcheer, Shi said: “They have a lot of workers standing for eight hours per day. They take a smartphone, turn it around, and put it in a box. And then they take the box and move to the next production phase.”

“These kinds of steps can be easily — and are expected to be — replaced by robotics,” he continued, “because that doesn’t create value or create happiness for people. They don’t learn when they do this job. They don’t invent things.”

At present, Agibot's products are not autonomous, but each is equipped with a three-part AI model, with each part controlling interaction (with people), locomotion (moving around), and manipulation (of the local environment — i.e., picking stuff up), respectively.

The company is actively aiming for autonomy, powered by the collection of usage data and further AI development, but Shi emphasizes that Agibot humanoids will remain “under the control and expectation of the human.”

Robot child-rearing

As well as manufacturing, Shi highlighted baristas, live entertainment workers, and even teachers and nurses as professions that could be occupied by robots: “There’s a big lack of nurses in every country, from China, to America, to Europe, and also a big lack of teachers.”

“Most of children’s questions can be responded to [by robots] — phonics, science, and mathematics questions, or even some common conversations. You ask for the weather, the humidity; you can ask these questions to all the robots, because they’re based on large language models.”

Still, there’s some distance between using ChatGPT to conduct research and allowing a humanoid robot to teach children — and according to 2025 research by KPMG and the University of Melbourne, while almost three quarters of UK adults use AI at work, less than half say they trust it.

With the B2C market a distant target for Agibot and an array of business partners — including Nvidia, which provides chipsets for the robots — backing the company's UK launch, it's clearly expecting to make big progress in B2B industries first and foremost. But Agibot isn't ruling out a future in which robots are part of our everyday lives.

“What we want in the future is that the robot can take some responsibility in daily life,” said Shi, “but they will never make the decisions instead of a human.”

2026 is almost over — well, not quite, but given we're already halfway through the year, it won't be long before those year-end awards are in sight again. And with the 2026 progress bar hitting 50% this week, we decided it was a good time to look back on the last six months and pick out the early 'gadget of the year' contenders from everything we've tested since January.

And we've been testing a lot — 639 products, to be precise, have passed through our labs and the real, unvarnished lives of our experienced testers this year. Those hundreds of gadgets span everything from coffee machines and smartphones to life-boosting accessories like portable DACs, fans and smart Lego.

So if you've just woken up from a six-month nap (we don't blame you) or are looking for some gadget inspiration, the list below will make for some fascinating reading. It doesn't contain every five-star product we've tested this year (check out our separate five-star review roundup for those), but it is a temperature check of all the products our reviewers haven't been able to stop talking about over the past six months...

21. Fitbit Air

• The fitness tracker of 2026 so far

The Google Fitbit Air is the highest-profile, most exciting fitness release of 2026 so far, and it’s generated plenty of buzz online. A screenless Whoop-style band weighing just 12 grams (including strap!) and with up to a week of battery life, the Fitbit Air is the most exciting thing we’ve seen from Fitbit since Google brought the brand.

The hardware is excellent, proving to record heart rate accurately in our comparison tests, and it’s eminently comfortable to wear. I had no problems wearing it virtually 24/7 during my testing period, including to shower and sleep in. It looked great, was super-light, felt comfortable and delivered accurate, insightful metrics.

The app is another story. While its AI-powered premium functionality is good, not everyone’s going to jive with the chatbot format of the AI Coach, and existing Fitbit users are irked that their community features and historic badges were deleted, replaced by an AI Coach to help you ‘celebrate your achievements’ in a different way. The app is uniformly recognized as being messy and cluttered, too. But away from the app’s design, the tracker is still the boldest, most interesting release in the fitness tech world this year.

Matt Evans, Senior Editor, Fitness, Wellness & Wearables

• Read our in-depth Fitbit Air review

20. Maxell Wireless Cassette Player

• Our favorite blast from the gadget past

Look me in the eye and tell me you have no cassette tapes hiding anywhere in your home. Right, there’s a shoebox somewhere. But where to play them? That’s where the Maxell Wireless Cassette Player comes in.

Not only is it brand new gear to play these old tapes, but it works with your favorite Bluetooth headphones; I found it the perfect blend of nostalgia and modern audio pleasure. Even its imperfect functionality, like flaky Bluetooth support, was somehow charming.

I wish it had recording like my old portable cassette player, but it was still kind of wonderful to get to hear old mixtapes, recordings, and even classic releases from 1980s music icons (The Traveling Wilburys!) again.

Lance Ulanoff, Editor at Large

• Read our in-depth Maxell Wireless Cassette Player review

19. MacBook Neo

• Still a winner, despite its recent price hike

Up until a month ago, the MacBook Neo was my favorite laptop of 2026, and I didn’t think there’d be any other new laptop this year that could beat it. With a launch price of $599 / £599 / AU$899, it was the cheapest MacBook you could get, and despite its budget price, it offered the kind of build quality, design, screen and performance that you just didn’t expect from laptops and Chromebooks around that price point.

It certainly made a big impact. Running on the A18 Pro chip, it could run pretty much any macOS app that more expensive Macs could, offered excellent battery life and a bright and vibrant display (something a lot of budget laptop makers often neglected to keep prices down). It sold like hot cakes, and gave a kick up the bum to rivals. Since its launch, both Acer and Dell have announced laptops (the new Acer Swift Air and Dell XPS 13) that the companies are very open about how they’ve been designed to take on the MacBook Neo.

However, last month Apple announced a raft of price increases for some of its products, including a $100 / £100 increase in price for the MacBook Neo. While not a massive increase (unlike what the MacBook Air and Pro got), it’s enough to make the MacBook Neo less of an instant recommendation, and some of its compromises, such as slow USB-C ports and no backlit keyboard, are suddenly harder to forgive.

Matt Hanson, Managing Editor, Core Tech

• Read our in-depth MacBook Neo review

18. Lego Smart Brick

• The opinion-splitter that won us over

The toy brand introduced a new technology-fueled piece in its iconic build block system this year at CES 2026 — and while some reactions have been mixed online we here at TechRadar have fallen in love with the system. If you’re a kid who loves playing with your sets and not just admiring them it hits the mark (almost) perfectly.

Out the gate it featured in a handful of Star Wars themed builds adding iconic starship noises, blaster fire effects, and flashing lights as the model moves and its play features are used. It does this thanks to motion and color sensors in the brick which perform different effects based on the special NFC tiles the smart brick is placed onto — the tile effectively programs the smart brick’s lights and speakers while they touch.

Admittedly it wasn’t perfect at launch, but Lego has already started to solve some of our issues with the builds and the brick’s interactiveness in its upcoming Pokémon Smart Play sets — helping to cement the smart brick as one of the best gadgets of the year, and we’re confident it’ll only get better.

Hamish Hector, Senior Staff Writer, News

• Read our hands-on Lego Smart Brick review

17. iFi Go Link 2

• A huge audio upgrade for your phone or laptop

Some hi-res products require careful tinkering and compatibility testing. This isn't one of those. Instead it's a no-fuss, super-small headphone DAC (which stands for digital-analog-converter) to effectively take the job away from the small and likely pretty basic DAC and amp stage in your smartphone or laptop, do the conversion job a lot better, and deliver the improved audio to your wired earbuds or headphones (and thus, to your shell-likes) of choice.

Did I mention it's also super-cheap? This thing costs just $59 / £59 and it essentially turns your source device's sound into something you'd get from hi-res player — and those can cost thousands.

It's smaller and lighter than the iFi options that came before it too. The Go Link 2 will happily slip into your pocket or bag along with your smartphone without issue, and if you're looking to get in on the wired trend (hey, lots of people are) it's a very good way to add wired headphone support to devices that have long since dropped the 3.5mm headphone jack.

OK, its amp stage won't be enough to drive high impedance planar magnetic cans (and those would probably come toting a 4.4mm jack anyway, which this doesn't have) but provided you're just looking to level up with closed-back dynamic solutions, this is little money, well-spent.

Becky Scarrott, Audio Editor

• Read our full iFi Go Link 2 review

16. RayNeo Air 4 Pro

• A lightweight personal cinema for travelers

Android XR and Meta might be stealing the smart glasses spotlight in 2026 with their announcements, but here at TechRadar we think the best new pair to launch so far this year is something a little different: the RayNeo Air 4 Pro.

The biggest difference between the RayNeo and those other specs is they don’t bother with AI — instead they’re effectively a portable display for your compatible phone, tablet, laptop, console, essentially anything that can output video and audio via USB-C.

The Air 4 Pro don't reinvent the wheel but add important new tools like being the first specs of their kind to support HDR10 — leading to more accurate and vibrant colors from their micro-OLED displays. Couple that with solid sound, a comfy fit, and optional Batman/Joker stylings for DC mega fans (plainer designs are available) and you have something incredible.

Hamish Hector, Senior Staff Writer, News

• Read our in-depth RayNeo Air 4 Pro review

15. MacBook Air M5

• The best ultraportable we've ever used

The MacBook Air is, in some ways, the portable most other laptops aspire to; it’s thin, light, surprisingly powerful, and has simply outstanding battery life.

At the time of review, Apple had doubled that storage space (far more important than you might think), finally upgraded connectivity to the future (Wi-Fi 7 and BLE 6) and, of course, slipped in the new M5 silicon.

The price rose a bit, and some wished for more colors (heck, maybe they'll think about Citrus for the next Air), but none of this really detracted from the MacBook Air’s sizable qualities, including a fantastic keyboard, huge ForceTouch trackpad, and Thunderbolt 4 ports. MacBook Air was the laptop that lured me away from Windows, and the M5 model is what’s keeping me here.

Lance Ulanoff, Editor at Large

• Read our in-depth Apple MacBook Air 13-inch (M5) 

14. Oppo Find X9 Ultra

• The new camera phone king

If you're in any doubt about whether the Oppo Find X9 Ultra is the best camera phone on the market right now, just look at the devices we've compared it to. In our Oppo Find X9 Ultra vs Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra comparison, the Chinese flagship came out on top in almost every category, and in our Oppo Find X9 Ultra vs Lumix TZ300 vs Nikon Z8 comparison, we found that its telephoto capabilities "render most travel zoom compact cameras redundant." High praise indeed.

So, yes, the Find X9 Ultra — which is the first Ultra-branded Oppo phone to ship outside of China (albeit not in the US) — is the new camera phone king. But it comes with plenty of other flagship bells and whistles, too. There's the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset, the 12GB of RAM, the 6.8-inch OLED display, and the enormous 7,050mAh battery. And Oppo's software has also come on leaps and bounds in recent years.

If we're talking 'the best phones of 2026 so far', the Find X9 Ultra is a must-include.

Axel Metz, Phones Editor

• Read our in-depth Oppo Find X9 Ultra review

13. Audeze Maxwell 2

• The best-sounding gaming headset I've ever tested

The Audeze Maxwell 2 isn't the gaming headset that's received the highest score from our team of reviewers so far this year on TechRadar Gaming, but it's still one of the absolute best to release this year. And it gets that mantle on sound quality alone.

The 90mm planar magnetic drivers produce the finest gaming audio I've ever experienced, and I can't imagine using anything else now (unless I have to for pesky work reasons). Audeze's patented SLAM tech means the bottom end is even better than ever, and so the whole soundscape is much more rounded and fulsome, while being exceptionally detailed and immersive.

It's a chunky headset, yes, but it has all the modern features you realistically need to get the most out of a headset for single-player immersion and gaining edges in multiplayer games: a robust mic, reliable connectivity, good design and build, all supporting that brilliant audio quality.

After nearly a decade of testing and reviewing gaming headsets of all stripes, I have not been treated to audio this good. It's proven so good that I disagree with our own review (sorry, Phil) and have written about how, after a few months of living with the Maxwell 2, I think it's a five-star gaming headset. If you want to consider any new gaming headset of 2026 thus far to upgrade your audio game, then this has to be it.

(Rob Dwiar, Managing Editor, TechRadar Gaming and Streaming)

• Read our in-depth Audeze Maxwell 2 review and my op-ed on why I would have scored the Maxwell 2 higher

12. Dyson PencilVax FluffyCones

• The most streamlined vacuum we've ever used

It's been a long time since I saw a vacuum that truly made me do a double-take, but that was the case with the Dyson PencilVac Fluffycones. Instead of the chunky dust cup / battery / filter configuration usually found at the top of a stick vacuum, the PencilVac has... nothing. There's just a broom-shaped handle. In fact, this handle houses all those components, except they've been shrunk down to an almost impossibly small size, and hidden away. That makes the PencilVac incredibly light, nimble, and easy to wield.

The floorhead is equally unique, with its two pairs of cone-shaped, fluffy rollers, rotating in opposite directions to whisk away dust from hard floors and clear hair without tangling. This head pivots ultra-smoothly, can be used either way around, and enhances the incredible maneuverability on offer here. A truly innovative design from Dyson, and a useful one at that.

Ruth Hamilton, Collections Editor

• Read our full Dyson PencilVac Fluffycones review

11. Dali Sonik 1

• Small, passive stereo speakers that sound twice their size

It's not just because the Dali Sonik 1 are clearly the cat's miaow — although that never hurts!

The Dali Sonik 1 are the smallest in the Danish brand's ever-expanding new line of passive stereo speakers, but while this February 2026 proposition might be bijou, they sound easily twice their size. And for this money, that's a huge win.

We love them for their clear-mindedness, sparkling vocal reproduction, textured transients and remarkably deep, thumping robustness. They’re also low-distortion, with a sonic profile that never falls foul of overstating itself, apart from a very occasionally overzealous bass reflex (but that's largely down to placement).

You might be thinking you've seen this all before: small passive stereo speakers, they must all basically be the same, no? The Dali Sonik 1 are better than that — in fact we think they're currently the absolute best in their size and price category. It could well be the Sonik 1’s use of Dali’s trademarked Clarity Cone technology (taken from the Kore range before it), or the “SMC” (Soft Magnetic Composite)-assisted magnet systems that constitute the driver.

However it has been achieved, collectively this in-house wizardry has created a fulsome yet supremely natural-sounding set of standmount speakers. And they'll easily fit into your home (for a refreshingly palatable fee).

Becky Scarrott, Audio Editor

• Red our fully star-rated Dali Sonik 1 review

Our top 10 of 2026 (so far)

10. Apple AirPods Max 2

• The best noise-cancelling iPhone headphones on the planet

At first glance, Apple's March-issue second-generation flagship headphones probably didn't receive too many hugely excited whoops and cheers from the Cupertino giant's noted fanbase. Why? Because they arrived looking exactly the same as the first pair.

And they still come out on top in any mid-year headphones roundup. The ANC is just that good. We may sometimes be harsh at TechRadar, but we're always fair…

Put them on your head, engage the ANC and get them playing music. Suddenly it's impossible to knock them. There's a new H2 chip in each ear cup (plus a new amplification module) and that combination is a bona-fide game-changer.

OK, so you can use the Digital Crown as a remote and yes, you can now use Live Translation, nod or shake your head to control call-handling, or pipe up and the headphones now adjust playback accordingly. But none of these under-the-hood improvements is what seals the deal for me.

No, it's all about the sound, underpinned by the noise cancellation performance that is 1.5 times better — and anyone who owns the inaugural set will know how big a deal that is. Also, the overall sonic profile is punchier, more vibrant and with an extra ounce dynamic nuance across the frequencies.

The only reason I couldn't give them the full five stars? The stamina, at only 20 hours with ANC deployed. The thing is, when the cocoon of silence is this good, I'll take a hit on battery life.

Becky Scarrott, Audio Editor

• Read my full and in-depth Apple AirPods Max 2 review

9. Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra

• The new king of Android

It can be hard to mess with near perfection, but that was the task facing Samsung when it built the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra. It’s a follow-up to the best Android flagship I'd ever used and, thankfully, the S26 Ultra did not disappoint.

The excellent, solid design (despite losing titanium) is a perfect showcase for Samsung’s vast OneUI 8 and all that AI. Plus it has a built-in S Pen that’s endlessly useful and new privacy screen feature that's so cool I wonder when Apple will copy it.

The just-short-of-perfection is mostly because it wasn't a full redesign some wished for and the frustrating lack of any kind of MagSafe charging capabilities. Those were, obviously, minor niggles in what is otherwise a powerful, big-screen handset that should be on everyone’s Android shortlist.

Lance Ulanoff, Editor at Large

• Read our in-depth Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra review

8. EcoFlow Stream Ultra X

• A game-changing home battery for renters

It's no surprise that in a year of spiraling energy costs one of the big trends has been home batteries that can cut chunks out of your electricity bills — and this powerful, balcony-friendly unit is the most complete we've tested so far.

The EcoFlow Stream Ultra X isn't cheap and, at the time of writing, isn't available in the US (although its lower-capacity Stream Ultra X sibling is). But with its 3.84 kWH capacity and AI-powered energy management, it is a glimpse of a smart home genre that will soon become mainstream.

In short, this lithium iron phosphate battery charges from the sun via solar panels or from cheap grid power during the day, then powers your home at night. In our tests, we estimated that it could easily pay for itself in three years — and that's without connecting it to solar panels.

On its own, the Stream Ultra X isn't powerful enough to power your whole home during a power cut — it's more like the first rung on a ladder that can take you to solar or a bigger home energy system. But you can connect five more Stream series units to hit 23 kWh of power, and its versatility makes it one of the best examples so far of what the Germans call 'Balkonkraftwerke' (or 'balcony power plants').