Technology

If you're looking for fast, dependable storage for a NAS or desktop computer, Seagate has you covered with a number of great brands. IronWolf is built for always-on network storage, while the BarraCuda is a terrific budget choice for everyday PCs.

The Seagate IronWolf 4TB NAS hard drive is currently available for $235.99 at Newegg. Designed specifically for NAS systems, it combines 4TB of CMR storage with a 5400 RPM spindle speed, a generous 256MB cache, and SATA 6Gb/s connectivity.

AgileArray technology, rotational vibration sensors, and support for workloads of up to 180TB per year make it well suited to multi-bay NAS enclosures that stay powered on around the clock.

The 2TB Seagate BarraCuda hard drive costs $139.99, but you can get $10 off by applying coupon code EPF5424. The HDD spins at 7200 RPM, includes a 256MB cache, and offers SATA 6Gb/s connectivity.

Which HDD should you buy?

✅ Buy the 4TB IronWolf if...

If you run a NAS for backups, media streaming, or shared files, the IronWolf is the better investment. Features such as CMR recording, RAID-focused firmware, vibration protection, and three years of Rescue Data Recovery Services are all designed for continuous operation inside multi-drive systems.

See what our expert Mark thought about the larger 8TB model in his recent review.

✅ Buy the 2TB BarraCuda if...

The BarraCuda is aimed more at traditional desktop use rather than network storage, although it can be used in a NAS. Its faster 7200 RPM speed makes it a good choice for storing photos, videos, and large files, while keeping costs lower than high-capacity SSDs.

The IronWolf drive offers 4TB CMR storage, 5400 RPM performance, a 256MB cache, SATA 6Gb/s connectivity, rotational vibration sensors, and support for 24/7 operation.View Deal

The BarraCuda HDD delivers 2TB of storage, a 7200 RPM spindle speed, 256MB cache, SATA 6Gb/s connectivity, and energy-saving power modes for dependable everyday performance.View Deal

Why we recommend them

The IronWolf HDD is engineered specifically for NAS environments. It supports continuous 24/7 operation, includes health management features on compatible NAS platforms, and is designed to maintain reliable performance when several drives are working together.

The BarraCuda HDD focuses on versatility and offers plenty of capacity for everyday computing, a healthy 256MB cache, and dependable performance for general-purpose desktops, making it an easy recommendation if you simply need more space.

Take a look at our round up of the best NAS drives.

Price Context & Historical Value

The IronWolf's dedicated NAS features help justify its premium over standard desktop drives, especially if your data is stored in a RAID array or accessed throughout the day. The current price isn't the cheapest however. It was $169.99 at Newegg at the start of July and briefly dipped down to $154.99.

Meanwhile, the BarraCuda delivers excellent value for anyone looking to add affordable high-capacity storage without moving to a more expensive SSD. $129.99 is a good price, although in May it was available for $110, and in April it was just $89.

The Catch: What to know before you buy

These are mechanical hard drives, which makes them great for NAS purposes. Neither can match the speed of an NVMe SSD for booting Windows or launching demanding applications.

The IronWolf is intended for NAS systems, so many of its specialist features provide little benefit in a standard desktop PC. The BarraCuda is more versatile, but it lacks the workload rating and RAID optimizations, which is where the IronWolf shines.

• Shop all internal desktop hard drives at Newegg

Lenovo's Yoga Slim 7x is down to $1,411.24 at Best Buy, saving you $423.37 from its usual $1,834.61 price.

This premium 14.5-inch Copilot+ laptop combines Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Elite processor with a sharp high-resolution touchscreen, alongside 16GB of LPDDR5X memory and a 512GB SSD. Its 14.5-inch IPS touchscreen offers a crisp 2944 x 1840 resolution, while Windows 11 Pro provides business-ready features.

Weighing just 2.9 pounds, it's designed to easily slip into a backpack.

Should you buy it?

✅ Buy the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x if...

Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x is a solid choice if you want a lightweight premium notebook for office work, web browsing, video meetings, coding, and creative tasks. The high-resolution touchscreen, 16GB of memory, and Snapdragon X Elite processor make it well equipped for multitasking, while Windows 11 Pro adds extra flexibility for business tasks.

❌ Skip the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x if...

You may want to look elsewhere if you rely on software that still performs best on traditional x86 processors or need plenty of built-in storage. The integrated graphics are suited to everyday workloads rather than demanding gaming or professional 3D applications, and the 512GB SSD could fill up quickly if you work with large media files.

Powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite 12-core processor, this laptop pairs 16GB LPDDR5X memory with a 512GB SSD, 14.5-inch 2944x1840 touchscreen, Windows 11 Pro, integrated graphics, backlit keyboard, weighing 2.9 pounds.View Deal

Why we recommend it

The Yoga Slim 7x balances performance, portability, and display quality in a slim premium chassis. The combination of a sharp 14.5-inch touchscreen, modern Snapdragon X Elite platform, 16GB of fast LPDDR5X memory, and a lightweight design makes it an attractive everyday laptop for anyone who spends long hours working away from a desk.

In his four and a half star review, our expert Isaiah said the Yoga Slim 7x was "a spectacular laptop built for AI using Qualcomm's Snapdragon Elite X CPU" and the OLED screen meant it was "one of the best-looking I've ever used". He was also impressed that the Slim 7x "truly can provide all-day battery life depending on your activity and screen brightness levels, keeping your charger stored away for a while."

Price Context & Historical Value

A saving of more than $420 makes this one of the more substantial discounts seen on a premium Copilot+ laptop with these specifications. Considering its premium display, Windows 11 Pro, and Snapdragon X Elite processor, the current price represents much better value than paying full retail.

The Catch: What to know before you buy

This upgraded model is sold with a one-year warranty from Velztorm rather than Lenovo, and it doesn't include dedicated graphics or external display connectors. Those limitations are worth keeping in mind if your workload depends on high-end graphics performance or extensive wired connectivity.

It's also worth noting that there's a newer Gen 11 version of the Yoga Slim 7x with a Snapdragon X2 Elite chip. This model received a four star review from our expert Lewis.

• Shop all laptops at Best Buy

With the new school year approaching, it's the ideal time to check that your tech is up to the task. One area you may be looking at for an upgrade is your laptop, and fortunately, there are dozens of deals available in the back-to-school sales. So, I've taken a look and picked out 10 of the best laptop deals I'd recommend right now.

The biggest battle when it comes to bagging the best bargain is between these two options: the Dell XPS 13 or the MacBook Neo. With a student discount, both can be yours for $599.99, which is outstanding value for money for a pair of powerful and efficient laptops.

The choice, ultimately, comes down to whether you prefer a Windows or an Apple device, as I really don't think you can go wrong with either if you want a capable laptop for school, college, and general use.

Alternatively, if you have less (or more) to spend, then I've picked out several other options that are on sale and I think are worth buying in the back-to-school sales. There's everything from super-cheap Chromebooks for basic use starting at $159, to performance powerhouses that come with the extra juice you might need for more demanding or creative tasks such as coding, photo editing, or video editing.

Have a browse through all of my recommendations below, which I've chosen based on the opinions of our expert testers, my experience hunting down laptop deals for TechRadar, and exactly what you get for your cash.

Today's best back-to-school laptop sales

• Amazon: big savings on laptops
• Apple: up to $150 gift card
• Best Buy: up to $600 off laptops
• Dell: up to $900 off
• Lenovo: up to 33% off laptops & tablets
• Walmart: laptops from $199.99

10 of the best back-to-school laptop deals

Display - 13.4 inches
Processor - Intel Core 5
RAM - 8GB
Storage - 512GB

The Dell XPS 13 has regularly been one of our favorite laptops here at TechRadar, and this brand-new version continues that trend. With an Intel Core 5 processor, 8GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD, it has everything you need for solid all-around performance at work or college. Students can also save an extra $100, bringing the price down to a ridiculously low $599.99.View Deal

Display: 13 inches
Processor: A18 Pro
RAM: 8GB
Storage: 256GB

The MacBook Neo just got a price bump, but students can get it cheaper again thanks to Apple's education discount. The latest MacBook packs a 13-inch Liquid Retina display, an A18 Pro chip, 8GB of RAM, 256GB of storage, and up to 16 hours of battery life, all for under $600, which is fantastic value. Discounts have been better in the past, but I think these will be rarer to see over the coming months and this price likely won't be beaten over Black Friday.View Deal

Display - 14 inches
Processor - Snapdragon X
RAM - 16GB
Storage - 512GB

This is a solid discount on a modern laptop powered by one of the efficient Snapdragon X CPUs. As well as excellent levels of all-around performance, this device boasts a huge all-day battery life, so you won't need to worry about being attached to a charger at all times. There's even 512GB of SSD storage, which you don't often see in combination with those other strong performance components at this price point. This is an all-around excellent laptop for everyday, college and business use.View Deal

Display - 16 inches
Processor - Intel i3
RAM - 8GB
Storage - 128GB

This version of the Acer Chromebook Plus offers a solid amount of power for the price. It includes 8GB of RAM and an Intel i3 processor, boosting performance, boot times and load times. Storage of 128GB is a bit underwhelming, but you do get a large and bright IPS display, and decent battery life of around 12 hours — that's more than enough to last a full working day. At a little under $350, it's a smart buy for school or college, or just as a home laptop for light use and everyday tasks.View Deal

Display - 14 inches
Processor - Intel Core Ultra 5
RAM - 16GB
Storage - 512GB

Here's one of the best deals on a modern, all-purpose, and well-rated laptop in Dell's latest sale. You can now get $550 off this machine, which features a powerful Intel Core Ultra 5 processor, a healthy 16GB of RAM, and a decent 512GB SSD. With all of those components, you'll have no issues with all of your everyday computing and work needs. And at 14 inches, it's an easily portable device, too. Altogether, it's an excellent value all-around option and a laptop we scored 4.5/5 in our review.View Deal

Display - 16 inches
Processor - AMD Ryzen AI 9
RAM - 32GB
Storage - 1TB

There's a massive $500 price cut on this powerful high-end laptop, which boasts an AMD Ryzen AI 9, a performance-boosting 32GB of RAM and a large 1TB SSD. This is a great pick for business and productivity needs, with enough power to multitask with ease and battery life that lasts a full day.View Deal

Display - 14 inches
Processor - Intel Core Ultra 5
RAM - 8GB
Storage - 256GB

If you want a flexible device that's just as easy to use for work and admin jobs as well as casual web browsing and streaming media, then this Acer Chromebook Plus Spin 14 is an excellent buy. It mainly features entry-to-mid-level components, but there's enough power to keep up with light daily use. Plus, you get the added benefit of a versatile 14-inch touchscreen, effectively giving you a laptop and tablet in one.View Deal

Display - 16 inches
Processor - Intel Core Ultra 7
RAM - 16GB
Storage - 1TB

This powerful and versatile HP OmniBook Flip offers impressive performance for the price, with powerful components such as a modern Intel Core Ultra 7 processor, a healthy 16GB of RAM to boost performance, and a decent 1TB SSD for storage. You can comfortably handle everyday tasks, demanding work, video calls, media streaming and more with this laptop, all with the option to flip it around to a 16-inch touchscreen tablet when needed, too.View Deal

Display - 13.6 inches
Processor - Apple M5
RAM - 16GB
Storage - 512GB

Our reviewer called the newest MacBook Air M5 "the best ultraportable I've ever used" and awarded it 4.5-stars, so it's every bit as good as its already excellent predecessor. As well as the powerful and efficient M5 chip, the latest MacBook Air boasts a slick 13.6-inch Liquid Retina display, 16GB of RAM, and a 512GB SSD as standard. Those are solid overall specs for all-around use, productivity, and creative tasks. This is the best offer we've seen since the recent price hike, too.View Deal

Display - 14 inches
Processor - Intel Celeron N4500
RAM - 4GB
Storage - 64GB

This HP Chromebook 14 is a basic device, but it's cheap, making it a great buy for light use such as general browsing and schoolwork. It also boasts full-day battery life thanks to the lean but perfectly functional Chrome OS from Google, meaning it's best suited for students or those always on the move. If you have around $200 to spend and need a cheap laptop, then it's one of the best options right now.View Deal

Engineering discipline in software development has been under the spotlight since AI started being used by devs to generate code, with many teams worried it’s causing unnecessary risk. Headlines have been full of cautionary tales about bugs created by hastily shipped code or senior executives taking vibe coding into their own hands.

Nevertheless, teams are finding ways to build trust in AI-generated code. Google’s 2025 DORA survey concluded that AI has an amplifying effect on organizations' processes - quality processes enhanced by AI lead to higher quality outputs, and more of them.

Our own research shows that most teams aren’t being haphazard with safeguards or accepting AI outputs at face value. Most teams are being more rigorous and giving their outputs the same scrutiny as the work of a teammate. That tells us a lot about how the best-performing teams are learning how to work with AI.

Seventy-six percent of enterprise teams are reviewing AI-generated work at least as rigorously as human-written work. Teams using AI to accelerate their work are seeing results from using proven engineering practices to ensure code is reviewed and tested sufficiently.

Rather than being inherently unstable, the rise of AI-generated code has emphasized that guardrails are the bedrock of consistently reliable software.

Treat AI as a virtual teammate

Teams treating AI-generated code as if it was produced by a human tells us something about how mature teams are using AI. The engineers using AI most effectively treat it as a virtual teammate. They stay in charge of the decisions and they use AI to accelerate the execution.

To make AI adoption an iterative process that improves over time, starting with low-stakes, repeatable tasks and applying stringent checks to outputs gives the tech a chance to work properly without expecting immediate results.

As MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory reported, AI coding’s widespread adoption doesn’t mean it can handle all aspects of large-scale software engineering by itself. Releasing to production is higher stakes than writing code, for example. Scrutiny from real humans is vital to prevent errors and hallucinations from impacting the business.

At this early stage of AI being used in workflows, it’s positive that 43% of teams are treating AI code like human-written code, with 33% applying even stricter checks. Even the best developers on a team aren’t above the processes and guardrails that guarantee reliable software deployment at speed. AI should be approached in the same way.

Trust in AI follows the risk curve

As with any new technology, introducing AI to the software lifecycle is a learning process. Our data shows trust in AI varies greatly depending on the stage of the software lifecycle, indicating that teams are building confidence with appropriate caution.

A pragmatic approach is being taken at the best-performing enterprises. Thought leaders from Gartner, Forrester and Google’s DORA team all highlight that organizations seeing success from AI-assisted development are strengthening their engineering controls and building up success over time.

This tallies with where AI is trusted to perform. The vast majority (82%) now use AI during the build stage, dropping to 58% at release where production risk is highest. Using AI primarily for earlier stages of software development is a rational step to make sure failures don’t impact the wider business.

This doesn’t betray a lack of confidence in the technology. Almost half (46%) of teams are confident in the performance of AI-generated code, indicating that its more cautious use in production is a measured business decision rather than skepticism.

Outputs are much easier to review and refine before the release stage. With many businesses still lacking full observability, teams often only hear about mistakes in live code once users notify them. Despite claims that software development could eventually be fully automated, teams are showing a clear awareness of where human oversight is essential.

Rather than making blanket judgments about AI’s capabilities, they are taking a more nuanced view, which bodes well for the future of AI-assisted software delivery.

Combine speed with discipline to win

There is continuity in how mature teams are making sure AI-generated code is fit for purpose, but it’s still having a seismic impact on the role of software engineers. When I speak with developers, their feedback is unanimous: the time AI saves is invaluable for focusing on neglected parts of their process.

AI moves the cognitive load from writing code and building configuration to reviewing and directing it. With time freed up, teams have more scope to prioritize observability, test coverage or disaster recovery scenarios - crucial elements of software hygiene that too often get overlooked.

AI adoption is increasing documentation quality according to the DORA report, suggesting that many teams are taking the opportunity to improve the broader engineering practices that support reliable software delivery.

As it takes on more of the mechanical aspects of software development, engineers become increasingly responsible for the work that matters most: validating outputs, understanding risk, and ensuring outputs align with business objectives. If someone asks “why did we build it this way?” it’s a problem if no one can answer the question without asking AI. Humans must be in the loop.

The organizations that benefit most from AI will not be those with more automation, they will be the ones that combine AI-driven speed with engineering discipline and a strict adherence to repeatable processes.

AI adoption is a DevOps challenge

The debate around AI-generated code often focuses on whether the technology can be trusted in DevOps. In most cases, teams have been building this trust iteratively without throwing away human judgment to get the best results.

As AI capabilities continue to improve, the gap between high-performing teams and everyone else is unlikely to be determined by access to the latest model.

The engineers and teams that will thrive are the ones who pair AI’s capabilities with their own judgement.

We list the 10 best vibe coding tools.

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

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

• Star Wars Zero Company will take 30-40 hours to beat the main campaign
• The game won't feature New Game Plus mode, romance systems, or branching story paths
• Post-launch content is also unconfirmed at this time

Bit Reactor has confirmed that Star Wars Zero Company will take up to 40 hours to finish, and it won't have a New Game Plus mode.

The single-player turn-based tactics game is one of my most anticipated titles of the year, and ahead of its launch next month, the studio has conducted a community Q&A to answer a long series of questions.

One of the first questions asked how long the campaign will be, and lead producer Caydence Funk has confirmed that "Depending on your difficulty level and experience with the strategy genre," it's estimated that it can take between 30 and 40 hours for the average player to beat.

It's also confirmed that the story will be linear with no romance systems or branching paths.

"While we are excited about pushing the genre forward with a more cinematic approach, this is still a turn-based tactics game at its heart where adept skill and strategy are needed to overcome tense combat challenges," Bit Reactor said. "That said, there are story moments that can alter based on who you have in your squad, but the overall story is a linear one from beginning to end."

Personally, 40 hours is the ideal length, and a linear story means I can experience everything the story without having to worry about missing out on additional storylines.

"As far as exploration goes, yes, you’ll have the ability to explore a section of some planets prior to engaging in turn-based combat on them," the studio added.

"This is a minor facet of the game that we feel adds a unique, immersive quality to Star Wars Zero Company. These small segments are a chance for you, as Hawks, to conduct the espionage that Zero Company excels at, and are main-story-only segments that can affect the subsequent combat by granting Intel and Advantage Points."

Unfortunately, the game won't launch with New Game Plus mode, so new playthroughs will have to be completely fresh, "but players will unlock certain customization options on subsequent playthroughs" through progress.

Zero Company is set during one of my favorite Star Wars eras, the Clone Wars, so I'm very excited to experience a new story during this time period.

We can expect battles across the galaxy with the Separatist Alliance, a team consisting of a Clone Trooper, a Mandalorian, a Jedi Padawan, an Umbaran sniper, and more, as well as the appearance of Anakin Skywalker.

Customization will also play a big role in the game, and while players can't have an entire team of Clone Troopers, Bit Reactor confirmed that you'll have access to Clone armor cosmetics with the ability to customize your team's armor from the start. Outfits don't impact gameplay, but Clone Trooper helmets will provide a voice modulation effect, which sounds neat!

Even cooler, The Clone Wars TV series voice actor Dee Bradley Baker will provide his iconic voice to the character Trick and additional Clone Troopers, but the full cast has yet to be announced.

As for additional content, good news, there are no plans for microtransactions to be added to the game; however, the "Arc Trooper" Armor Set is only part of the "Grand Army of the Republic" Cosmetic Pack for the Deluxe Edition, but players will still have access to other cosmetic options in the base game.

The game also won't have mod support, and "right now" post-launch content isn't confirmed because Bit Reactor is "focused on making the best game we can at launch."

Star Wars Zero Company launches on August 27 for PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, and Series S.

• Varonis Threat Labs uncovered Dolphin X, a powerful RAT with 329 features across 10 categories
• Its standout “AI Profiler” ranks victims by usage and sends summaries to attackers daily
• Malware is sold on the dark web via subscription tiers, starting at $80 per month

What if malware could talk to its operator and tell it which of the infected victims is worth paying attention to, and which not? A few years ago, this might have been science fiction but today, thanks to breakthroughs in Artificial Intelligence (AI), not only is it possible, it’s also already available on the black market.

Security researchers Varonis Threat Labs recently disclosed finding a rather revolutionary remote access trojan (RAT) called Dolphin X.

Even without advanced AI capabilities, the RAT is quite potent, acting as an infostealer, a Hidden Virtual Network Computing (HVNC), a DDoS botnet, or a loader. Just its infostealer capabilities are nothing short of impressive - it can target more than 300 applications to steal browser passwords, enterprise credentials, cryptocurrency wallet data, DevOps secrets, and different sensitive files, and it comes with 329 features split into 10 categories.

AI Profiler

However, the AI capability is the one that stunned the researchers. Called “AI Profiler”, the feature ranks victims by app usage, browsing history, and more, sending a daily summary to the attackers.

The malware is now being offered on the dark web, where other criminals can subscribe to one of three tiers. The basic tier costs $80 per month, while the top tier is around $230 per month. Lifetime subscription costs $1,140 for basic access, and goes up to $3,420 for the top tier.

"Dolphin X’s collection scope reaches well beyond browser passwords to SSH keys, cloud tokens, and DevOps credentials," Varonis said in its write-up. "On the wrong machine, a single infection could expose access to an entire production environment."

"Its use of AI is also interesting because it shows us how AI is being integrated into more cybercrime tooling."

• Live heart rate data will be free for Garmin Cirqa users
• Early testers noticed it had been put behind the Connect+ subscription
• The new tracker costs $199.99 / £179.99 / AU$299.99

We've already put the newly unveiled Garmin Cirqa through an extensive hands-on testing session, and came away very impressed. However, there were complaints from those who had early access to the device that live heart rate data was locked behind a paywall.

Now Garmin is taking that negative feedback on board: as reported by seasoned tech reporter Ray Maker (via Android Police), live heart rate data will be available to every Cirqa user "in the coming days", with or without a Garmin Connect+ subscription.

The subscription, which applies across all of Garmin's wearables, has been the subject of much debate since it launched last year. For $6.99 / £6.99 / AU$12 per month or $69.99 / £69.99 / AU$120 a year, it gives you access to more metrics and more insights about the fitness data you're amassing.

Live heart rate readings aren't usually locked behind Connect+, so it's strange that Garmin initially made this the case with the Cirqa. Whatever the reasoning or confusion, the anomaly is now being dealt with, which is good news.

The rise of subscriptions

Good news update! Garmin will be making a change to Garmin Connect Mobile in the coming days, so you'll now be able to see Live HR from Cirqa during a workout (previously, you could only see workout Average HR unless you had Garmin Connect+). See...feedback works. Sometimes. :) https://t.co/q5qL8T4YhZJuly 22, 2026

If you're new to the Garmin Cirqa (and it was only announced a few days ago), it takes on the likes of the Whoop wearables and the Fitbit Air by giving you a capable, lightweight wrist tracker without the distraction (and battery drain) of a display.

Both the Cirqa and the Fitbit Air offer basic tracking features and functionality for free, with a pile of extras available if you sign up for a subscription. With Whoop bands, like the Whoop MG, a subscription is compulsory, otherwise it's pretty much useless — plans start at $199 / £169 / AU$299 per year.

As we've written about before, it's a sign of the times that so many tech devices, from smartwatches to security cameras, now come with monthly subscriptions attached — usually stealing away the best features for the device in question.

If you're tempted by a Garmin Cirqa and its display-free design, it's available for $199.99 / £179.99 / AU$299.99 direct from Garmin, with availability from tomorrow, July 24 — and you will be able to record real time heart rate data, via the accompanying Garmin app.

Since Dutton Ranch season 2 was renewed a week before the season 1 finale, I assumed it would be a good few months — perhaps even until the end of 2026 — before we'd hear any solid updates from Paramount+ or its cast. But thanks to Variety's explosive interview with star Ed Harris, who plays vet Everett on the Yellowstone spinoff, I was wrong.

“Prior to signing on for it, I was talked to quite a bit about what the season was, and what my character was going to do — and that I was one of the four main characters,” Harris said. “And that wasn’t really the case."

He continued: “I said, ‘I’m feeling underused and inconsequential,’ and they kind of went, ‘Oh'. I’m being told my character will have a little bit more to do [in Season 2]. I was just a little frustrated, to tell you the truth.”

@varietymagazine

Ed Harris says he felt “misled” about his “inconsequential” role on “Dutton Ranch,” and that halfway through filming Season 1, he was telling his team to “get me the f--- out of here.” “Prior to signing on for it, I was talked to quite a bit about what the season was, and what my character was going to do — and that I was one of the four main characters,” Harris said. “And that wasn’t really the case... I said, ‘I’m feeling underused and inconsequential,’ and they kind of went, ‘Oh.'” Harris explained that when he actually watched “Dutton Ranch,” he thought it was “pretty good,” and he felt his character was “relatively important to the story.” However, during filming, “it didn’t feel that way.” “I’m being told my character will have a little bit more to do [in Season 2],” he says. “I was just a little frustrated, to tell you the truth.”

♬ original sound - Variety

According to Variety, Harris explained that when he actually watched Dutton Ranch, he thought it was “pretty good,” and felt his character was “relatively important to the story.” However, during filming, “it didn’t feel that way.”

These potentially controversial comments are the ones making headlines, but for me — a self-proclaimed hardcore fan of the show — they aren't the most interesting takeaway from Harris' interview.

Not only are there heavy hints about when we're likely to see new episodes released, but the certainty of Harris' belief in season 2 indicates that a new showrunner has been found.

Dutton Ranch season 2 episodes will likely arrive in late 2027 as Harris confirms February 2027 filming schedule

Do a little bit of social media digging and you will find that there's more to the interview with Harris than the clip Variety has chosen to run with. Journalist Marc Malkin has posted the full footage to his Instagram, where Harris confirms that Dutton Ranch season 2 is due to begin filming in 2027.

I'll be honest with you: this is a lot later than I was expecting. However, it does confirm that we'll be seeing episodes in late 2027 (or slightly later, depending on if there are any other production hitches).

(Image credit: Paramount+)

Now let's examine what Harris allegedly knows about his season 2 character arc. For plans to already be so firmed up, this must mean that a new showrunner has been appointed to take over from Chad Feehan, who exited the show just weeks before the season 1 premiere.

This could easily have been a remark made by producers just to keep Harris happy enough to carry out his two-season contract with Dutton Ranch. But the fact that neither Paramount, nor Taylor Sheridan or 101 Studios chose not to comment on Harris' interview makes me feel hopeful that Sheridan has quietly resumed his position as showrunner.

Call it delusion if nothing else, as this is what I've always wanted to happen with the Yellowstone spinoff. But it's a smart move — with season 1 performing so well for Paramount+, everything needs to be perfect to keep up momentum. Annoyingly, it's likely that the showrunner won't be announced until season 2 begins production.

When the trio of Samsung Galaxy Z 8 foldables — the Galaxy Z Fold 8, Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, and Galaxy Z Flip 8 — arrive in consumers' hands in the coming weeks, they will be among the first mainstream handsets, aside from the Motorola Razr Fold, to feature silicon-carbon batteries. That's a big deal for the industry, but perhaps an even bigger deal with Samsung, which, a decade ago, had one of the biggest negative smartphone battery stories in a generation.

That was way back in 2016 when the Note 7, an otherwise excellent phablet (yes, that was a thing), occasionally blew up because of battery manufacturing imperfections. Ever since then, Samsung has not only had a perfect record; it's often been at pains to explain the lengths it goes to ensure smartphone battery stability and safety.

Now, as it introduces a relatively new and somewhat untested battery technology — silicon-carbon — Samsung is again making the effort to dive deep into the construction and chemistry of these new-fangled power sources to show just how much care and effort it's putting into the new tech, and into its new foldable phones.

What is silicon-carbon?

All three new Galaxy Foldables feature silicon-carbon battery technology (Image credit: Future)

Silicon-carbon is not a wholesale refashioning of lithium-ion battery technology. Instead, it replaces a key component of the battery makeup, swapping the negative electrode (graphite) for silicon-carbon. This material allows for higher density (more power in less space) and far faster charging speeds. It's part of the reason why Samsung can, despite not making the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra any thicker than the Z Fold 7 (it's actually 0.1mm thinner when unfolded), make the battery larger — it's now 5,000mAh.

With Samsung now having a solid decade of battery safety under its belt, perhaps no one is questioning the quality, let alone the safety, of this new battery technology. But Samsung clearly wants to shout about it, and has been sharing extensive details.

In a recent briefing ahead of the July 22 Galaxy Unpacked event in London, Samsung executives walked us through a near-atomic-level chemistry class to explain how it's custom-building the silicon-carbon batteries to ensure they work as expected.

"With Samsung's highest standards, we carefully verified the silicon-carbon battery so that our users can trust it and use it with competence," said Samsung EVP Moon Sung-hoon.

As for what that means, Samsung told us it fully redesigned the cathode, separator, and anode, which means that, at an atomic level, Samsung is managing the chemical reaction inside the battery that delivers the power to your next Galaxy Z Fold device.

Samsung wouldn't share the exact amount of silicon-carbon that's in the batteries, but it did confirm that its new Z Fold 8 Ultra, Z Fold 8, and Z Flip 8 phones in every region would feature the new battery technology.

On coatings and voltage management

Even though we didn't learn the percentage of each battery element in the Galaxy Z8 phones, Samsung dove deep into the component construction, explaining that, in an effort to manage the reactivity of the silicon-carbon cells, it "innovated every single part of the battery system. This is why we call it the system level of innovation at battery."

A Samsung executive showed off a colorful illustration to detail all the work (sadly, I cannot share it with you here). But here's what I learned.

To the anode layer, Samsung's engineers added a micro-carbon coating, which offers protection to the layer without, thanks to carbon's natural pores, constricting it during charging and discharging,

On the cathode layer, they "injected additional atoms" to manage the naturally higher voltage and stability of the cells. To maintain that higher voltage, they added a solid electrolyte interface (SEI) that adds a "small coating to the anode cells". This also manages the cell reactivity.

Finally, for the chemical reaction that occurs in the battery, Samsung added a "hyperporosity separator," which has larger holes without reducing the stress or durability of the cell's separators, and therefore helps maintain stability.

While most of us non-chemical engineers might feel like we've just about wrapped our minds around this information, this is an unprecedented level of battery construction detail, which I don't think Samsung would have shared if not for its history with batteries.

For consumers, though, this may not matter as much as the fact that these are larger-capacity batteries in smaller frames that charge far faster than their predecessors — and that will feel like a win for most Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, Z Fold 8, and Z Flip 8 owners.

For our early impressions of all three new phones, check out our hands-on Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra preview, hands-on Galaxy Z Fold 8 preview, and hands-on Galaxy Z Flip 8 preview.

• Guardio Labs found CVE‑2026‑48294 in Adobe Acrobat Chrome extension, enabling cross‑site data disclosure
• Attackers could steal WhatsApp Web chats if victims opened malicious landing pages with extension active
• Adobe patched the flaw in version 26.7.2.0; update recommended for 314M extension users

If you have Adobe Acrobat’s extension for Chrome, and you like chatting through WhatsApp Web, there is a potential security vulnerability you might want to address.

Security researchers from Guardio Labs discovered a “universal cross-site scripting (UXSS)-class cross-origin data disclosure vulnerability”, which is another way of saying that a website could use the flaw to read the contents of a different website, loaded in a separate tab.

The vulnerability was found in the Adobe Acrobat Chrome extension and is now tracked as CVE-2026-48294. It was given a severity score of 7.4/10 (high), and affects versions 26.5.2.2 and earlier. Guardio Labs dubbed it “HermeticReader” because of what it exploits.

"Insultingly ordinary" setup

The extension comes with different integrations, such as Google Drive or, in this case - WhatsApp Web. The WhatsApp integration component, internally known as "Hermes" is where the bug was found.

In theory, an attacker could create a new landing page and share it with the victim via email, instant messaging, SEO poisoning, or other methods. If the victim 1) has the vulnerable version of the Adobe Acrobat Chrome extension installed; 2) has WhatsApp loaded in a separate tab; and 3) opens the malicious landing page, it could trigger the extension’s vulnerable code path and allow the attackers to access everything the victim has on their WhatsApp.

Some sources argue that threat actors could use this vulnerability to pull one-time passcodes delivered via WhatsApp.

"The setup is almost insultingly ordinary: an attacker-controlled page, dressed to look like the kind of page you land on via search results, marketing emails, etc.," Guardio Labs wrote in its analysis.

"The visitor, who already has the Adobe Acrobat extension installed, opens that page. The page wakes up a dormant engine inside the extension, reaches directly into WhatsApp Web. Seconds later, the rendered WhatsApp Web view - the chat list, contact names, messages, the profile name, the text of whatever conversation is open - the whole WhatsApp in the attacker's hands."

Adobe has since publicly acknowledged the issue and thanked Guardio Labs’ researchers for their help. It has also fixed the problem in version 26.7.2.0 that’s currently available for download. The extension has more than 314 million users.

Via The Hacker News

Prime Video just got a massive free upgrade that should be on your radar if you're interested in playing popular video games like Fallout 4, Fortnite, and EA Sports FC 26 on your TV at no extra cost.

From today, Amazon Prime subscribers using Fire TV devices in the US or UK will be able to access Amazon Luna titles from directly within the Prime Video app. Luna is the company's cloud gaming service, and lets you play entire games by streaming them directly to your device like you would a TV show or movie — simply pick what you want to play in the new games tab, connect your phone (or a compatible gamepad) to use as a controller, and you can dive straight in, with no download required.

You don't need to pay extra for this either, as a formidable library of games is already included with your Prime subscription. This includes a wide range of casual GameNight titles designed for playing with a group of family or friends (including an exclusive Angry Birds and digital versions of popular board games like Clue and Exploding Kittens), in addition to some more hardcore titles available on a rotating basis.

If you want even more games, you can upgrade to Luna Premium for an additional $9.99 / £8.99 per month.

Prime placement

The move comes as Amazon tries to get more eyes on its game streaming service, which many Prime subscribers don't even know they have access to.

"You could argue we're the largest paid gaming subscription in the world," Amazon GM of gaming Jeff Gattis laughs in a conversation ahead of today's reveal. "Problem is, not enough people know about it."

Although he argues that the service is "really easy to get to if you know where you're going," he reckons the decision to initially roll it out via a dedicated Luna website and app that you "have to actively seek out and go find" has inadvertently created too many "friction points" for otherwise potentially interested users.

"It's crazy how much value we're putting in to the Prime tier," he added. "The fact that we just had the World Cup, and the you could play FC 26 if you're a Prime member for essentially free is is amazing. But again, it's only as good as people's ability to know about it."

In addition to the prominent positioning of the new games tab, Amazon is currently working on brand awareness campaigns to help get the word out.

According to Gattis, Fire TV is also just the beginning of a wider rollout that might see the update coming to the Prime Video mobile app, and so be in front of even more eyes, in future. "The grander vision is to get it to everywhere Prime Video is, and so we're excited just for more people to discover the benefit," he teased.

Overall, he believes that all of this will help align Luna more closely with the core principles that make other Amazon services like its e-commerce offering so successful. "It's convenience," he adds, "and I think it's value. And when you think about Amazon, what are the things that it does well worldwide?"

• ServiceNow CEO Bill McDermott calls for move from "AI chaos to AI discipline"
• Comments come after OpenAI model infiltrated Hugging Face
• McDermott says ServiceNow tools come with a "kill switch" to prevent such incidents

ServiceNow CEO Bill McDermott has laid out why his company's AI offerings have an advantage over the competition, partly because of built-in controls which can cut off access when needed.

Speaking to CNBC, McDermott said ServiceNow's tools are helping businesses move “from AI chaos to AI discipline.”

“We have a kill switch that stops AI agents that go rogue, so those things don’t need to happen, and they wouldn’t happen when companies run ServiceNow,” McDermott said

Not going rogue

McDermott's comments come shortly after the much-publicized incident which saw an OpenAI model breach online repository Hugging Face.

The incident was part of an experiment from OpenAI as part of its testing of GPT‑5.6 Sol and an “even more capable pre-release model” to see how well they would perform on the ExploitGym benchmark.

Hugging Face co-founder Thomas Wolf has called the event "a wake-up call", telling the BBC it, "will be one of the most common types of cyber attacks we see", adding that most firms are not aware that the "game has changed".

Many large software firms have experienced some disquiet over their increasing use of AI, however McDermott dismissed concerns this growing AI competition could affect ServiceNow retaining customers.

“If you look at the terms of our contracts, they’ve actually gotten longer,” McDermott said, noting that greater AI adoption should actually increase demand for tools such as those provided by ServiceNow.

“There’s going to be more AI. There’s going to be more incidents, and all these things drive more and more volume to ServiceNow,” he said.

The news came as ServiceNow reported its latest earnings, with subscription revenues of $3,877 million in Q2 2026, representing 24.5% year-over-year growth and 23% in constant currency

• South Korean government discloses ten‑month cyberattack on the National Diplomatic Academy’s online education system
• Data stolen included user IDs, names, emails, and encrypted passwords of at least 6,000 individuals
• MFA shut down IT systems, deployed enhanced security, and delayed disclosure due to diplomatic sensitivity

Current and former employees of the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), as well as other government personnel, may have had their data siphoned out by cybercriminals in an attack that lasted for ten months.

The South Korean government has disclosed an attack against the online education system of its National Diplomatic Academy. The system, set up in 2022 by the country’s premier institution for educating and training diplomats, apparently contained a security vulnerability that unnamed threat actors managed to exploit.

In an announcement published on the official website of the South Korean government, both the details about the flaw, as well as about the attackers, were not disclosed.

Thousands are affected

However, it did note that the attack took place between April 2025 and February 2026. During these ten months, cybercriminals were able to steal user IDs, names, emails, as well as encrypted passwords of trainees in the National Diplomatic Academy Online Education System.

Unique identification information, sensitive information, mobile phone numbers, home addresses, and photos were not compromised, it said.

In response to the attack, MFA shut down its entire IT infrastructure and deployed “enhanced security measures”, without elaborating what these measures were. It urged all employees to remain vigilant of incoming emails, and to reach out if they receive anything “suspicious”.

While the official announcement lacks details, BleepingComputer reported that the attack impacted “at least 6,000 individuals, 350 of them being current government attachés dispatched abroad.” Citing an MFA spokesperson, the publication said the Ministry decided to disclose the incident with a five-month delay due to the “sensitive nature” of the attack, and the need to thoroughly analyze it before going public.

"We recognized this issue in February, but we announced it five months later because of the sensitivity of the matter regarding our diplomatic and security affairs, and the need for careful review and analysis," said South Korea Foreign Ministry's spokesperson Park Il.

Via BleepingComputer

From the scourge of Generative AI to the RAM crisis, from PlayStation axing discs to Xbox cutting legendary studios off at the knees, it seems like gaming is under attack from every angle. The industry is in dire straits, with studios seemingly no longer able to bank on the success of AAA blockbusters or Live Service behemoths like it used to. Even the biggest game ever, the upcoming Grand Theft Auto 6, has had a troubled announcement, with its $80 price tag and discless contents getting people’s backs up.

It’s easy to feel helpless when seemingly insurmountable problems hit a medium you love, and speaking out feels like you’re merely howling into the void. But based on historic events, it's true that when enough gamers make themselves heard — and when they vote with their wallets — positive changes can occur, bad decisions can be reversed and better futures can be laid. Hey, even Xbox rolled back its Game Pass price hike (to an extent).

So we want to hear from you — which issue are you most concerned about? Participate in our poll below and tell everyone what you think. No doubt many if not all of these issues are interconnected. For instance, I can’t help but laugh at the cruel irony of the RAM being used to power the Gen AI tools for the purposes of developing games more cheaply is pushing up the price of the systems for playing those games. Of course, there’s no easy fix to any one of them, but we’ll follow up by dissecting the results and discussing the potential routes to bring gaming out from the dark place it’s currently stuck in.

On the hunt for a pair of headphones that will deliver satisfying sound without clearing out your bank account? Good affordable headphones are tricky to come by, but they do exist — you just need to know where to look.

Here at TechRadar, we test dozens of pairs of headphones every year, and in amongst them we've unearthed some wallet-friendly wonders. I asked TechRadar's audio specialists which headphones they'd recommend to buyers on a budget, and rounded up their suggestions for this article.

If it's true wireless in-ears you're after, you'd struggle to do better than the Nothing Ear (a) buds, which Audio Editor Becky Scarrott awarded a perfect five stars, calling them "a resounding home run" for the British startup and praising the noise cancellation, sound quality and battery life in particular. In the over-ear arena, Becky loves the CMF Pro. In her tests, she was impressed with the "superb" sound quality, and pleasantly surprised to discover "the sort of... personal sound profile curation [we're] more used to seeing in headphones much higher up the food chain".

Read on for more budget-maximizing buys — and hit the 'View details' button for a summary of what we thought of them in our tests, plus links to the full reviews.

Top cheap earbuds and headphones

Nothing Ear (a)

Read our full review

Pros

• Fun, zealous, expansive sound
• Vastly improved active noise cancellation
• Smaller, more pocketable case

Cons

• No wireless charging support
• No flagship sound profile curation

JLab Go Pods ANC

Read our full review

Pros

• Solid ANC
• Lightweight build
• Truly low price

Cons

• Poor eartip fit
• Lean battery life
• Aggressive transparency mode

Soundpeats Clip1

Read our full review

Pros

• Fantastic listening test
• Comfortable build
• Competitive value

Cons

• Low max volume
• Cheap-feeling case
• Touch control issues

OneOdio Focus A6

Read our full review

Pros

• Sensational sound quality
• Extensive software features
• Comfy, quality construction

Cons

• On-ear controls are a little sensitive
• ANC is good rather than game-changing

CMF Headphone Pro

Read our full review

Pros

• Excellent hearing tests; unexpected at the level
• Emotive, circumaural sound
• Exemplary battery life

Cons

• ANC isn't amazing
• Energy slider feels a tad gimmicky
• No hard carry case or USB-C charger in the box

Huawei FreeArc

Read our full review

Pros

• Top-tier sound
• Competitive price
• Comfortable fit

Cons

• App download pains
• Middling battery life
• Would benefit from ANC

Sony WH-CH720

Read our full review

Pros

• Great sound balance
• Lots of detail in audio
• Effective noise cancellation
• Full of useful features

Cons

• Sound feels constrained
• Noise cancellation leaks in low sounds
• Plastic feels a little cheap

Great news for 4K Blu-ray fans: the huge half-price sale on Criterion Collections discs is still running at Barnes & Noble, and Amazon has some of the same discounts running too. Slightly more concerning news: the sale ends on July 26, so you only have a few days left to pick up some new discs!

• View the full Criterion sale at Barnes & Noble
• View the Criterion sale at Amazon

At Barnes & Noble, absolutely everything is a flat half-price, which makes things easy (and a stone-cold bargain). At Amazon, quite a few discs are half-price, but some have smaller discounts than B&N (or no discount at all). But I've included that sale too, because a lot of people like to start with Amazon for the convenience.

Obviously, there's a huge range of stuff to choose from, so your best bet is to browse the full sale directly, but I've picked out 12 options that I think are particularly tempting. And if you don't have a 4K Blu-ray player yet, don't forget to check our guide to the best 4K Blu-ray players, all tested by us!

Criterion 4K Blu-ray sale — quick links

• View the full Criterion sale at Barnes & Noble
• View the full Criterion sale at Amazon

Criterion 4K Blu-ray sale: 12 titles I'd recommend

Save 50%

The Criterion Collection Eyes Wide Shut

Save 50%

The Criterion Collection Wall•E

Save 50%

The Criterion Collection The Princess Bride

Save 50%

The Criterion Collection No Country for Old Men

Save 50%

The Criterion Collection The Before Trilogy (Before Sunrise / Before Sunset / Before Midnight)

Save 50%

The Criterion Collection Bruce Lee: His Greatest Hits (The Big Boss / Fist of Fury / the Way of the Dragon / Enter the Dragon / Game of Death)

Save 50%

The Criterion Collection Sentimental Value

Save 50%

The Criterion Collection Seven Samurai

Save 50%

The Criterion Collection Dazed & Confused

Save 50%

The Criterion Collection Thief

Save 50%

The Criterion Collection After Hours

Save 50%

The Criterion Collection The Secret Agent

• View the full Criterion sale at Amazon
• View the full Criterion sale at Barnes & Noble

Last year, thousands of customers at one of the UK's biggest banking groups were locked out of their accounts. This cut people off from their own money, leading to declined cards, missed payments.

Across the UK, major banks and building societies racked up more than 800 hours of unplanned tech and systems outages last year. That's more than a month of disruption spread across the financial services millions of people rely on every day.

I don't believe this is bad luck or just a one-off error. It's something deeply structural and predictable. And it won’t fix itself.

The structural problem underneath the headlines

The headlines zero in on the disruption or the compensation bills or the apologies over social media. What gets missed is why it keeps happening in the first place.

Here's what I think is going on: In a lot of these cases, data is sitting in silos, systems don't stay properly aligned and no one has clear ownership of the key domains. So when something changes in one place, it doesn't stay contained. It ripples through other systems in ways that aren't always obvious.

A dependency breaks somewhere downstream, a third-party service doesn't behave as expected and the impact becomes harder to trace than it should be. Recovery slows because teams are spending time working out what actually changed before they can even start fixing it. This isn't a legacy technology problem or a budget problem. It's a data ownership problem, and the people running these organizations know it.

The UK's particular problem

Banks aren't short on ambition, and there’s no shortage of investment or early deployment. In fact, the vast majority of AI initiatives are now moving from pilot to production.

But complete rollout is a totally different story. In the US, around a third of banking executives say their AI initiatives consistently reach full deployment. In the UK, barely one in ten can say the same, and UK respondents are more than twice as likely to say projects never make it past the pilot stage. I don't think this is a technology gap. It's an organizational one.

UK institutions have spent years digitizing on top of legacy infrastructure, acquiring new capabilities without properly integrating them. Each layer adds complexity, more handoffs and more unclear ownership. That's the accumulated cost of organizational decisions that were easier to defer than resolve.

At that rate, UK banks risk getting lapped not just by their US peers but by the fintechs who are already drawing customers away.

The governance bottleneck

There's a second structural problem looming beneath the data fragmentation issue. Decision-making in financial services is still highly centralized. The majority of major tech investments still require C-suite approval, with only a handful of these delegated to the data or digital leaders closest to the systems and best placed to act. By the time approval arrives, the moment to act decisively has passed.

Those who've got it right have named who owns what. Decision rights sit closer to the people actually doing the work, governance is folded in from the start, not as an afterthought. And when things go wrong, which is inevitable, recovery comes faster because nobody has to spend the first hour working out who's responsible. That's the kind of margin most banks can't currently rely on.

What the minority are doing differently

Only a handful of financial services firms are planning to move to product-led, cross-functional team structures with clear data ownership and accountability. I'd argue that's the operating model most likely to produce faster delivery, clearer accountability and fewer of the outages that result in front-page headlines.

Among firms that have embedded intelligence directly into live customer journeys, results are already showing up. Real-time fraud alerts, payment resolution support and event-driven interventions are all cited as direct drivers of customer loyalty. These are the outcomes when data is clean and teams have the authority to act on it.

In a market where switching has never been easier, that's the difference between keeping a customer and losing one.

What the outages are really telling us

Last year's outage headlines prompted understandable focus on compensation and consumer protection. But I think that's the wrong question. The more important one is why these incidents keep happening, and what it would take to stop them.

That comes down to knowing who owns what, giving teams the authority to act at speed and building governance in from the start rather than adding it on when something breaks.

Banks can't keep treating these as isolated incidents. They're symptoms of operating models that haven't kept pace. Until that changes, the next outage isn't a question of if. It's when.

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• Dataintelo reports that the used video game market is worth $7.2 billion
• The firm thinks that Sony's decision to end the production of discs will cause it to decline
• Analysts say the market will "keep shrinking and eventually disappear"

The second-hand video game market could be in danger as a result of Sony's decision to end production of physical discs starting in January 2028.

A new story from CNBC included analysis from market research firm Dataintelo, which reported that the used game market was worth $7.2 billion in 2025 and predicted it could grow to $13.8 billion by 2034.

The figure represents all pre-owned games, console hardware, accessories, and peripherals, but consoles account for 42.3% of revenue, with North America being the biggest part of the market. That's compared to Europe, which captured 28.3% of global second-hand revenue last year.

The company explained that the second-hand game market is fuelled mainly by affordability concerns, an interest in retro gaming, and a "digital-to-physical gaming transition."

With Sony's plan to phase out discs in just two years, there's now a threat to the used game market.

"Realistically, at least one-third of games have been sold historically as used, and the games that were sold also provided currency to the gamer who traded them in as cash to pay for new games," said Wedbush Securities managing director of strategic planning, Michael Pachter. "Brick and mortar game retail is doomed."

However, physical discs and the second-hand market aren't likely to disappear all at once. Kazunori Ito, director of equity research at Morningstar, explained that the market will "keep shrinking and eventually disappear."

"There is an important difference between players accepting that shift because they see value in it, and having it effectively forced on them by taking away the alternative," Ito said.

"Most would prefer to make that transition in their own way and at their own pace, rather than having it driven by the end of physical discs."

In Sony's announcement earlier this month, it called it a "natural direction" for the company, arguing that the transition from physical to digital discs "will enable us to align more closely with how most of our community prefers to access and play games today."

While fans continue to push back against the decision, analysts have determined that the PlayStation company won't change its mind.

"Their current profit margin has been too weak for years now, so they feel like they must act," explained Dr. Serkan Toto, CEO of Japanese game industry consultancy firm Kantan Games. "From an economic perspective, digital sales just make too much sense especially for platform holders."

A recent report from Circana senior director and video game industry advisor Mat Piscatella also suggested that the digital market is in Sony's favor right now, explaining that only seven PlayStation games "have sold more than 100,000 physical units year-to-date" in the US.

Middleware has traditionally been treated as a background process. Enterprises could afford to have this layer connect systems and data with minimal oversight – but that autonomy is no longer compatible with the scale and complexity of modern data flows.

Large enterprises, retailers, and financial institutions consist of transactions sprawled across a disconnected web of middleware.

IBM MQ, Apache Kafka, Apache ActiveMQ, RabbitMQ, and TIBCO are only a few of these environments, and each creates a step that introduces failure points where data can back up or stall completely.

This reality no longer aligns with the direction enterprises are heading. As organizations accelerate investments in agentic AI, the effectiveness of those systems increasingly depends on their ability to understand the operational environments in which they operate. Many large organizations are steadily advancing toward petabyte-scale volumes and agentic AI embedded throughout their processes.

Yet they overlook the need to secure the foundation on which these additional investments are built. These technological improvements depend on a deeper understanding of operational systems and a strong application base. As AI-powered operations and high transaction volumes become the norm, middleware teams can no longer afford to rely on disjointed oversight and fragmented structures for their middleware systems.

Closing the Context Gap for AI Operations

Across industries, agentic AI needs system awareness to function effectively. In a recent McKinsey & Company article, 33% of organizations cited data limitations, and 29% cited tech platform limitations as among the top three roadblocks to scaling AI.

These challenges are especially pronounced for businesses with complex, fragmented middleware landscapes. In many enterprises, these limitations stem not from a lack of AI investment, but from fragmented operational environments that prevent systems from accessing complete business context.

Without interconnected views across an organization, agentic AI struggles to understand how brokers, queues, topics, routes, and dependencies fit together across live environments. This means AI could generate insights, but they might not fully reflect the realities of the operational environment. In practice, this could look like a middleware system surfacing a “small” discrepancy that is actually a larger issue beneath the surface.

For example, a queue backlog in one broker may appear isolated, but it could signal a larger downstream application failure or potential architecture limitations. In a retail environment, this could manifest as delayed order processing, while in financial services, it could impact payment workflows and customer experiences. Misinterpreting these signals is problematic because middleware teams operate with little to no room for error.

Much of the information needed to build operational context already exists throughout growing enterprise telemetry. The challenge lies in the scale of the information operators would have to evaluate.

From Data Overload to Operational Intelligence

Enterprises are building increasingly large telemetry repositories, which offer significant potential. There is no shortage of data, and if organizations analyze it correctly, technology leaders could use it to move away from reactive monitoring and toward predictive insight generation. The issues surface when trying to manage this data in real time and detect signals with enough time to act.

The volume of this middleware telemetry is often too dense for operators to evaluate by hand, making its potential obsolete without practical ways to analyze it. Enterprises need ways to tie this information back to actual system behavior at scale. Raw data can show what happened, but enterprises need a broader understanding of what those signals mean for the overall operational picture.

Making AI and Telemetry Work Together

Organizations must correlate operational activity across traditional and real-time telemetry to prevent growing data volumes from hindering issue detection. This means establishing a telemetry foundation that allows businesses to view the entire production environment.

With a strong foundation, predictive intelligence is positioned to ingest, index, and query data without disrupting production workflows. Historical operating data, including communication paths and processing routes, could help AI read signals, identify issues early, and respond quickly and accurately. AI could interpret individual events in the context of applications, message flows, transaction paths, and business outcomes.

With operational context, agentic AI can identify anomalies more accurately and provide recommendations grounded in a deeper understanding of system behavior across platforms and environments. It could gather data over time and surface optimization opportunities for queue depths and message flows, alongside other functions such as automating repetitive connection testing and log analysis.

This framework would yield recommendations grounded in business realities and give middleware teams a chance to break away from routine logging and focus on designing scalable architectures for enterprise data flows.

Building for an AI-Driven Future

Enterprises can no longer treat the middleware layer as an afterthought. Fragmented integration architectures provide little transaction-level visibility and allow errors to compound unnoticed.

Data growth and AI-powered analysis are exposing the limitations of these legacy middleware standards. Organizations need full oversight of the interconnected systems that carry a transaction from one step to the next, as well as established connections between telemetry and business activity.

When enterprises build a strong foundation of operational context, AI can help businesses transition from reactive awareness to insights that predict what might go wrong in the future. In this environment, the organizations that pull ahead will be those that leverage AI and telemetry to turn raw data into meaningful business outcomes.

As enterprise AI adoption matures, competitive advantage will increasingly depend not only on the sophistication of AI models, but also the quality of operational context available to them.

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• Samsung has raised prices for the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra and the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8
• This is likely in large part due to rising memory costs
• However, prices in South Korea are substantially lower

As expected, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra and Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8 cost more than their predecessors, with the Z Fold 8 Ultra’s starting price being $100 / £100 / AU$100 higher than the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7’s, and the Z Flip 8’s being $100 / £100 / AU$150 more than the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7’s.

Given the rising prices of memory, that’s not entirely surprising, but what you might be surprised by is just how much of a better deal South Korea is getting, with the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra starting at just ₩2.58 million there. As the Korea Times points out, that’s 20.4% lower than the US price and a whopping 44% lower than the European price.

The difference in pricing for the standard Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 is even greater. We don’t have a previous model of this to compare to (since the Z Fold 8 Ultra is the successor to the Z Fold 7), but this phone starts at $1,899.99 / £1,699 / AU$2,699, with that US price being 23.2% higher than Korea’s, while in Europe, buyers are paying 48% more.

The table below details the full price rises this generation, but in South Korea, people are paying less for the Z Fold 8 series than other places were charged for even the Z Fold 7 series.

Phone

256GB

512GB

1TB

Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra

$2,099.99 / £1,899 / AU$2,999

$2,299.99 / £2,069 / AU$3,299

$2,699.99 / £2,409 / AU$3,899

Galaxy Z Fold 7

$1,999.99 / £1,799 / AU$2,899

$2,119 / £1,899 / AU$3,099

$2,419 / £2,149 / AU$3,549

Galaxy Z Flip 8

$1,199.99 / £1,149 / AU$1,949

$1,399.99 / £1,319 / AU$2,249

N/A

Galaxy Z Flip 7

$1,099 / £1,049 / AU$1,799

$1,219 / £1,149 / AU$1,999

N/A

Home-field advantage

So, what’s going on here? Well, the Korea Times reports that, during a press conference on the sidelines of the Galaxy Unpacked launch event, Samsung Electronics co-CEO Roh Tae-moon said, “The support, feedback and encouragement from Korean consumers have been the foundation for strengthening the Galaxy brand's global competitiveness. In recognition of the importance of the Korean market, we will continue striving to offer Galaxy devices at the most competitive prices in Korea and maintain that policy going forward.”

So, in other words, Samsung is rewarding its home market for supporting the company. But that explanation is unlikely to satisfy Samsung fans from other countries, given that this shows Samsung could clearly charge less and still turn a profit — after all, it’s not going to be losing money on South Korean sales.

Now, there will be other factors in the differing prices, such as different taxes, but while from one perspective this could look like a nice gesture from Samsung, from another it looks like most of the world is facing unfair prices.

In any case, one other interesting detail from this press conference was Roh’s claim that the three models offered this year are “the complete form" of Samsung’s foldable line, with two models no longer offering enough variety now that foldable phones are becoming more mainstream.

I’m not sure what that says about the Samsung Galaxy Z TriFold, if that’s not part of the “complete form”, but it does suggest there will be more Galaxy Z Flip models in the future, which goes against a rumor hinting that the Galaxy Z Flip 7 would be the last one. So, that’s some good news at least.