TechRadar News

Fall — or spring, if you live in the southern hemisphere — has arrived. And, while that means the nights are about to get longer or shorter for you, some things will stay the same — including the release of new movies and TV shows on the world's best streaming services.

After last week's top-heavy TV series round-up, its follow-up has done a complete 180 and delivered a bonanza of new films to enjoy, including two of the biggest hits of 2026 on Disney+ and HBO Max. So, what are you waiting for? Scroll on to find out more. — Tom Power, senior entertainment reporter

Toy Story 5 (Disney+)

I'm going to be frank: Toy Story 5 doesn't have a friend in mine. Indeed, as I said in my Toy Story 5 review, it's not terrible, but it's certainly a "a few Lightyears away from the Disney film series' best entries".

Still, if you're a sucker for a new Toy Story project, or any Pixar film for the matter, you can check out the multi-billion dollar-spinning movie franchise's latest outing on Disney's primary streamer. This time around, Woody, Buzz, Jessie, and company have to contend with the prospect of being replaced by high-tech toys and devices, so it's a timely albeit predictable fifth outing for the fan-favorite toys. — TP

• Watch Toy Story 5 on Disney+

Backrooms (HBO Max)

Did you know Backrooms filmmaker Kane Parsons was only 20 years old when he made his feature film directorial debut? It's all that most outlets could talk about before his much-anticipated adaptation of the viral internet phenomenon hit theaters.

Well, nobody's talking about his age now, because Backrooms, which has arrived on HBO Max, was a major hit for A24 earlier this year. I enjoyed it up to its final act (I don't think it stuck the landing), but my colleague Lucy Buglass ended her Backrooms review by giving it five out of five stars, so it comes highly recommended from one of us!

I could tell you about its plot, but the less you know about this one, the better, believe me. — TP

• Watch Backrooms on HBO Max

Unabomber (Netflix)

What happened to that tiny little boy from Room? Well, he grew up to play domestic terrorist Ted Kaczynski for a Netflix movie, that's what.

Jacob Tremblay stars as the self-titled Unabomber, who was behind a series of mail bombs that killed its recipients in 1994. However, instead of following the man as each fatal moment unfolds, Unabomber takes us back to his Harvard days in 1958 and examines what led him to becoming the infamous domestic terrorist.

It's really answering the question that we're endlessly dying to know: what makes someone kill another? In this case, it's a mix of bullying and becoming the subject of severe psychological experiments. Oof. — Jasmine Valentine, entertainment reporter

• Watch Unabomber on Netflix

Brothers (Apple TV)

What would you do if you took a long-standing rumor and decided to run with it? If you're Apple, you fully lean into the fact that Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson are related, and create a TV show titled Brothers.

The famously close friends, who some observers believe are half-brothers, play fictionalized versions of themselves in this new Apple TV comedy series that — yep, you guessed it — plays along with the fact that they may be blood relatives.

Obviously, the whole thing is played for laughs, but I suspect Brothers will do little to dispel the gossip that the A-listers might be closer than everyone, including themselves, initially thought. Will we ever find out for sure? If an incredibly reluctant McConaughey ever takes a DNA test, sure, but don't gets your hopes up... — TP

• Watch Brothers on Apple TV

The Love Hypothesis (Prime Video)

Prime Video isn't loosening its grip on young adult romantic drama just yet. The Love Hypothesis , which is based on Ali Hazelwood's book namesake, is the latest in line of its banging 2026 genre content.

In a nutshell, Olive (Lili Reinhart) is a third-year biology PhD candidate at Stanford researching early pancreatic cancer detection. In order to convince her best friend Anh (Rachel Marsh) that she has completely moved on from a crush, Olive impulsively grabs and kisses Adam (Tom Bateman) in the lab hallway.

The two make a mutually beneficial agreement to fake date each other... though that fakeness doesn't last for long. Personally, I think the strongest love story here is between the two besties, but the new movie ticks all of the rom-com boxes that it needs to. — JV

• Watch The Love Hypothesis on Prime Video

Jackass: Best and Last (Paramount+)

How many times can you put explosives in your butt, dangle on a wire over a pool of alligators, or get slapped to the ground by a giant mechanical hand? 11, if you count all the movies, which sign off with Jackass: Best and Last.

Expect more of the same idiotic vibes with a touch more sentimentality. Johnny Knoxville, Steve-O, and the rest of the gang return for more outrageous and hilarious stunts, and my jaw is still on the floor after all of these years.

What you really won't expect is how strangely moving the whole thing is. Do I really believe this is the end? No. Surely these guys will be the Cher of final farewell tours, but what do I know? Well, apart from the fact it's out on Paramount+... — JV

• Watch Jackass: Best and Last on Paramount+

A Different World (Netflix)

This 10-episode series feels worth watching purely because one of its main characters is called Dwayne Wayne. Hilarious names aside, A Different World is Netflix's revival of the hits 1990s sitcom of the same name, and follows a freshman and her ride-or-die crew juggling school, romantic drama, and family legacy at a historically Black college.

Can the 2026 version live up to the huge shoes it has to fill? Time will tell. But, with multiple original cast members returning to the new show, I'm more than willing to give it a shot. — JV

• Watch A Different World on Netflix

Ace Combat 8, the latest installment in Project Aces' long-running arcade flight sim series, is here. Packed inside this game's cargo hold is a medley of melodrama, mission types, and a beautiful new look, but it's somewhat over capacity when it comes to cutscenes.

Review info

Platform reviewed: PC
Available on: PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC
Release date: October 2, 2026

You'll discover this right from the off: Ace Combat 8 is the first game in the series where its cutscenes are entirely from a first-person perspective.

You step into the shoes of Rex, a pilot in service with the navy of the Federation of Central Usea (FCU). Sotoa, a nation of former nomads, has decided to emulate the Mongols of our reality and has conquest in mind, with the FCU already almost completely subjugated at the start of the game. Said shoes are likely very damp, with events kicking off on a life raft after the helicopter you were in went down.

Soon, you're back in the sky as a navigator for Jan "Rex" Cope, the original Rex, who is the mythical Wings of Theve of the game's subtitle. This strongly evokes the Ghost of Kyiv, a mythical pilot heavily propagandized early in the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian War, but Cope soon comes a cropper and gets killed, forcing you to take over his role.

A huge part of the game's narrative is about propaganda and the role that social media plays in modern warfare. Wings, as a pilot, can't be allowed to die, so you need to fill in and lead his Joker Flight unit. The former Rex, however, doesn't disappear; his spirit serves as a near-omniscient narrator for the rest of the game's escapades.

Flying without wings

(Image credit: Bandai Namco Entertainment)

What escapades they are, too. Over the course of the game, which is significantly longer than Ace Combat 7 (with my playthrough clocking in at around 18 hours to complete all 30 missions), you'll do almost everything you could reasonably expect a pilot to do. Dogfights, close air support, attacks on enemy ships, and more.

Best bit

(Image credit: Bandai Namco Entertainment)

Engaging the afterburners, breaking through the clouds, and shaking off an enemy missile never loses its charm.

Joker Flight will accompany you through most of it, and happily, every member has a well-fleshed-out personality. There's Ellington "Professor" Baxter, an easy-going and ever-professional former university lecturer; Tasha Severskaya, an ex-stunt pilot; and William "Noise" Coster, a taciturn musician who provides soundtracks to some of your battles.

While this lineup gets chopped and changed as you progress through the story, it's these three at your side for the vast majority of the game. They're great, and they make the entire squadron feel cohesive, and the stakes feel real when one of them gets in trouble.

The same can't be said for the wider crew of the Carrier Endurance, your home away from home. Your commander and D.D., a propaganda officer of the shadowy Enso Order corporation, are broadly cliched, and spending time with them feels tedious.

Unfortunately, you'll be watching a series of lengthy cutscenes before you're actually flying a plane, and the prologue mission is effectively another cutscene as you escape the vexatious aim of The Shadows, Sotoa's elite pilots.

(Image credit: Bandai Namco Entertainment)

There's occasionally mild participation encouraged of you, such as standing up at attention or shaking someone's hand by pressing a button. I'm genuinely somewhat surprised that the series is bold enough to give us QTEs again, after the infamous tragicomedy of the "press triangle to fist pump" moment in Ace Combat: Assault Horizon.

You're not out of the woods when you're done with the first mission, though. Scattered throughout the game like little narrative landmines are cutscenes that go on for far too long and rarely give you a payoff worth your time. It feels like an Ace Combat game that was co-developed by Hideo Kojima at several points. But for all of this opera, the ending feels remarkably flat.

Without spoiling anything, the game spends hours building up a foe who then crumbles within a few minutes of dogfighting. Then it does it again! It makes the stakes feel wasted.

Cloudy with a chance of missiles

(Image credit: Bandai Namco Entertainment)

None of that matters, though, when you throttle up, break the sound barrier, and punch through the clouds in pursuit of an enemy, or dive, shrieking, towards a tank that you're about to remind about the superiority of being able to move in three dimensions. What clouds, too.

If I may digress for a moment, Ace Combat 8 has by far the best-looking clouds in any game I've played. They rely on proprietary software called Cloudly, and it leads to them feeling far more lifelike than ever before. Beautiful and light on the outside, dense in the middle, like an inverse cookie, they look and feel absolutely stupendous.

Ace Combat has always had a knack for making you feel like an ace, and this new entry is no exception. Wheeling around the sky like Maverick, pulling off impossible maneuvers in a plane like an A-10 Thunderbolt, and pulling up from a collision course at the last possible moment all fulfil the fantasy that the title promises.

Here, you are the greatest pilot to ever live. Difficulty is very well-balanced, too, with the Shadows feeling noticeably tougher, harking back to the days of facing off against enemy aces in F-22 Interceptor on the Mega Drive, if you're as old as I am.

(Image credit: Bandai Namco Entertainment)

The problem is, spectacular clouds aside, there doesn't seem to be all that much that separates this game from Ace Combat 7. It harkens back to Ace Combat 5 in a lot of ways: for instance, you can give wingmen commands again and pick their aircraft, but it doesn't seem to make a ton of difference in-game.

Missions are broadly successful or unsuccessful regardless of how you command your wingmen, while loadouts only really matter to the extent of picking roughly the right aircraft for the mission. This leads to the issue of wondering why you'd choose to play this game rather than Ace Combat 7, other than the clouds looking nicer, especially as you can buy it with all DLC for a fraction of the price.

I'm realising how negative a lot of this sounds, and that really does just come down to how cumbersomely crowbarred in a lot of the story is. Once you've been through it and are willing to skip cutscenes, you're left with a brisk, exciting, fun game. It is perhaps emblematic of both the best and worst aspects of the Ace Combat series, with a narrative that feels it has earned plaudits that it doesn't deserve, while the meat of the game is absolutely fantastic.

One key measure of this is that I've been going back to it since I beat it, unlocking new aircraft from the large Aircraft Tree and replaying missions with different loadouts. I'll likely lose a lot of hours to the multiplayer, too, because, once again, it lacks a lot of what there is to dislike.

It's a game that is infuriating in its bloviation, but when you soar above the clouds and take down enemy jets, hearing their cries of confusion over the radio, you won't care anymore. A great, gorgeous game, but one that likes the sound of its own voice just a little too much.

Should you play Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve?Play it if…

You're jonesing for a new arcade flight sim
There’s really nothing else quite like a new Ace Combat game, and it’s well worth getting if you want an exciting, more arcade-like flying experience.

You want to live out all your Top Gun fantasies
There’s no official Top Gun crossover like the Ace Combat 7 DLC, but that doesn’t mean the game doesn’t deliver the same high-octane excitement as the film series.

You want to see the prettiest clouds in gaming
The Cloudly tech behind Ace Combat 8’s fluffy clouds is the real deal. They’re beautiful, realistic, and honestly the best I’ve ever seen in a game.

Don't play it if…

You're not a fan of melodrama worthy of a Telenovela
The storytelling here is easily the weakest part of the package. It sets up a lot that doesn’t land and is told through overly long, melodramatic cutscenes.

Accessibility features

Accessibility settings are limited, but are present. The game features a colorblind mode that changes the green HUD to violet. There are also text-to-speech settings present.

In addition to these, you can also choose between two flight models: one that gives you more granular control over your aircraft and one that makes the game handle much more simply, making it more like After Burner.

How I reviewed Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve

To review Ace Combat 8, I finished the entire main storyline and then went back to play several missions in Free Mission mode.

I ran the game at high graphics settings on my Nvidia RTX 4070-powered gaming PC and had a generally solid 60 fps that only dipped during particularly hectic moments. I’m yet to go online, but I'm looking forward to trying it out once the servers are populated.

I played the game using a standard Xbox Wireless Controller, which worked perfectly throughout.

TechRadar Crossword

Missed a previous puzzle? You can browse the archive and play all TechRadar Crosswords right here.

I'm technically on holiday today, but the crossword cannot stop for anything, so here's another entry in our weekly puzzler.

Don't worry, it's all been prepped ahead of time, so I'm not spending my break coming up with clues. Expect another mix of recent news and general tech trivia in this week's puzzle, which I hope will add a brief bit of fun to your Friday as you challenge for the top of the leaderboard.

Right, I'm off to the coast to enjoy this last bit of sun we're likely to get here in the UK before autumn/fall truly sets in. I'll probably end up doing a crossword or two!

• A developer says Claude Code just deleted 48,000 of their vital files
• The incident occurred in just 103 seconds after the AI agent was set to work
• It’s a serious warning over the damage an AI agent can do

There’s been a lot of recent discussion around artificial intelligence (AI) agents going off the rails and hacking other companies’ websites in a potentially dangerous orgy of subterfuge and destruction. But what if the damage was much closer to home and involved an agent going rogue on your own files? Sadly, that’s exactly what Claude Code just did to one hapless developer.

In a now-deleted post on Reddit, a shocked developer said that Claude Code had just deleted 48,218 files that they had been working on in a live project tree. And all it took was 103 seconds for the AI to wreak its agentic havoc. “This can’t be real” was the coder’s stunned refrain.

The user had tasked Claude Code with rebuilding a mirror of their ongoing project. Unfortunately, the agent discovered that the build_mirror.py script could not refresh the mirror in place, leading to it deciding the best course of action was to create its own cleanup script based on an older copy of the project. This previous project contained 7,332 files.

Although the script used certain safeguards to prevent it deleting linked directories, an oversight meant that only junction-level folders were protected — any nested directories below these folders were apparently seen as fair game by the script. It promptly removed 55,550 files that, when accounting for the 7,332 files successfully copied from the old project mirror, meant that a huge 48,218 files were obliterated in just over a minute and a half.

And because the damage extended to the .git project’s ‘objects,’ ‘refs’ and ‘logs’ folders, there was no way to recover the files and undo the catastrophe. The files were just gone in a puff of smoke.

Somewhat amusingly, the agent posted a message reading “Craig — stop and read this. I broke something,” before detailing its path of destruction. But it probably didn’t seem very funny for the unlucky developer who lost all their work at the push of a button.

Poor code hygiene

(Image credit: Generated with Gemini )

Although it can be tempting to set an AI agent to work on tedious and laborious tasks, doing so is not without its risks, as this case demonstrates. All it takes is one mistake and a huge amount of work can be undone in seconds.

Part of the blame lies with the original poster, who said in an archived copy of the post that “I was not properly using GitHub or another method for immediate corrections, even though it should have been branching.” Had they been uploading their commits to GitHub or a similar site, their work might have been backed up and salvageable after Claude Code’s reign of terror ended. As one Redditor put it, “Been using GitHub as a save button since before you youngins knew what an AI even was.”

Other commenters pointed out that the developer ran an AI agent — which is known for its tendency to go off-piste — on a live database containing precious data that they couldn’t afford to lose. Good code hygiene, that is not.

And while one person argued that the simplest advice is “Do not let programs run commands on your machine,” even avoiding AI agents altogether would not remedy the poor practices that led to major changes being made on a live production environment without a proper backup.

This incident is a neat reminder of the inherent risks of assigning sensitive or risky work to an AI agent. As we’ve seen in the numerous hacks perpetuated by AI agents, these bots are often laser-focused on their tasks and are willing to take any measures necessary to accomplish them. If that means deleting 48,000 or your files or exfiltrating data from another firm’s website, so be it.

• Graz University researchers found decades‑old flaws in file‑notification subsystems across Linux, Windows, macOS, and Android
• Side‑channel attacks can infer keystrokes, visited websites, or even steal credentials via unprivileged access
• Linux shipped partial mitigations (CVE‑2025‑68788); Microsoft and Apple acknowledged but did not patch, demo expected at ACM CCS 2026

Researchers have found a vulnerability in all major operating systems which could, in certain scenarios, allow threat actors to steal login credentials, or track which websites the target is visiting. OS makers, on the other hand, don’t seem all too phased about it.

The bug is described as a side-channel attack - a type of attack in which threat actors simply observe how the system operates and extract valuable secrets through indirect clues. For example, by monitoring how much power the chip takes at any given moment in time, attackers can observe and extract passwords.

It was discovered by security researchers from Austria’s Graz University of Technology: Sudheendra Raghav Neela, Xufan Zhao, Jeanette Angelika Wultsch, Hannes Weissteiner, Florian Draschbacher, Stefan Gast, and Daniel Gruss.

Notifying the system

This particular side-channel vulnerability was found in the file-notification subsystem running in pretty much every OS in existence today. The subsystem is built to notify applications when files on a system change. Not what has changed, just that a change occurred. The bug is allegedly quite old, too.

"We found decades-old bugs on [these operating systems], all rooted in the file-notification subsystems that every modern OS ships to inform applications when files change," said Sudheendra Raghav Neela, a doctoral student at TU Graz, in an email to The Register.

On Linux, the subsystem is called inotify and it’s been affected since 2005. On Android it’s FileObserver (affected since 2008), and on Windows - ReadDirectoryChangesW - flawed since the year 2000. On MacOS, it’s called FSEvents, vulnerable since 2007.

In the paper, the researchers claim file event information can help attackers conclude what other users on a computer are doing. They can launch an inter-keystroke-timing attack, inferring what users are inputting (both locally and remotely), reveal which websites they visit, and possibly even steal login credentials through UI redress.

The problem stems from the fact that unprivileged users are allowed to access the file notification subsystem. This primarily relates to files that can be read by multiple users, but apparently, there are quite a few files on a system that fall into that category.

No patch

"On Linux, watching a readable directory leaks events on files inside it you cannot even read: watching /dev/input gives a notification on every keystroke, which we turn into a local inter-keystroke timing attack with a 93.1–100% [keystroke accuracy] score across seven users and a remote (SSH) one at 100%,” Neela said.

The percentage range means the attack won’t work in all cases, which is more-or-less standard with side-channel attacks. They are notoriously difficult to pull off, which is also likely why most OS makers barely flinched at the news.

All of them were notified of the findings roughly a year ago, and most of them never bothered to address it. Linux introduced some mitigations, including CVE-2025-68788, which prevents inotify from generating certain “access” and “modify” events for special files. The fix was shipped to multiple kernels and Linux distros, but it addresses only part of the broader attack techniques that the researchers described.

Microsoft and Apple apparently acknowledged the findings, but apart from that - did very little. Microsoft told the researchers the behavior of ReadDirectoryChangesW was "by-design", although the feature is undocumented. They believe the ability to monitor file paths across users is not a vulnerability worthy of a patch. The report does not mention Apple doing anything about it, either.

Combatting mould and controlling moisture in your home doesn’t have to be an expensive investment; at least that’s what Robert Dyas is proving with its budget-friendly dehumidifier.

The home and electrical retailer is currently listing the Daewoo 700ml dehumidifier for £34.99, built for tackling humidity levels in smaller spaces. It’s also worth noting that it’s not available on the flagship Daewoo online store, so not only is it the cheapest we’ve seen, but it’s unclear whether it’ll be restocked on the Robert Dyas store if it were to sell out.

Cheap alternatives to pricier tech brands are somewhat of a rising craze, especially among users who aren’t fussed about devices with all the bells and whistles. Earlier this week, Lidl announced the return of its £80 dehumidifier, but it’s more than double the price of Daewoo’s own. While it’s a lot cheaper, it’s also a lot smaller.

Daewoo’s dehumidifier is a lot smaller than other cheap models we’ve seen recently, with dimensions of H:11.0 x W:16.0 x D:11.0 cm and a water tank with a 700ml capacity. While this requires frequent emptying, it’s an ideal fit for smaller spaces in your home (rooms sized up to 12m² to be exact), meaning it’s lightweight and easily portable.

Functionality-wise, Daewoo’s mini dehumidifier doesn't sound too dissimilar to what other budget rivals have to offer. To prevent overspilling, the appliance is fitted with an alarm system, which alerts you when it detects a full water tank. Its product listing also states that the dehumidifier can extract up to 300ml of moisture per day.

One of the biggest concerns with dehumidifiers is the noise level, because there’s nothing worse than running one overnight and having it disturb your sleep with its raucous operational sounds. Luckily, Daewoo’s dehumidifier functions at a low noise level, making it a great fit for bedroom spaces while you’re getting your beauty sleep.

Compared to other models out there, Daewoo’s dehumidifier is one of the smallest options we’ve seen. But in spite of its compact size and basic features, if you’re sticking to a certain budget and don’t need a massive appliance, this option gives you the best of both worlds.

If you're unsure which type of dehumidifier best suits your needs, you can check out our guide to desiccant and compressor dehumidifiers.

Spoilers for MobLand season 2 episode 2 ahead.

Start talking, copper. That's the delicious line we were left on last week, as MobLand season 2 episode 1 gave us our first look at the new villain, Frankie (Johnny Flynn).

He's been picked by Colin (Toby) as a "knight in shining armor" to ride into battle on behalf of Kat McAllister (Janet McTeer), allowing her to take control of London from the Harrigans without ever being directly involved herself.

At the moment, Conrad (Pierce Brosnan) is too busy fighting with Kevin (Paddy Considine) and paying no attention to Harry (Tom Hardy) to be able to fully recognize this. Even Kevin doesn't understand what's coming, with Harry describing Kat as "Her mob has eight trillion in cash and the world's biggest nuclear arsenal."

This week, they're in for a nasty wake-up call. MobLand season 2 episode 2 is now on Paramount+, so let's dig a little deeper into what's actually happened.

Jan has a suspicious car accident while Conrad's health worsens

We start episode 2 following Gina (Teddie Allen) and Eddie (Anson Boon) as they party the early hours away and arrive back at their flat with their bodyguards, with Harry watching them from a car further down the road.

Jan (Joanne Froggatt), meanwhile, is at a spin class, ignoring Harry's "urgent" calls as she begins to drive back home. Before she gets there, her bumper is hit from behind by another car, with the American driver incredibly apologetic. Jan, infuriated, is having none of it, and the pair exchange numbers before she angrily drives away.

At the same time, Colin visits his local library only to get a call from Kat as he's checking a book out (see, even gangsters think it's cool to utilise public services). She gives him the go-ahead to spring Frankie into action, telling Colin to "show her what he's got."

We've really got a lot of plates spinning at once, as Conrad goes to see a doctor. The doctor tells him that Conrad is showing signs of focal atrophy, meaning that his sense of instinct, strategy, and restraint is diminishing to allow any natural sense of anger and aggression to take over, unchecked. Conrad tells him to forget that the appointment ever happened, adding, "I'm f**ing fine."

Outside, Conrad threatens a parking ticket officer with a gun when a fine is left on his car window. Maeve (Helen Mirren) calls from home, suggesting that they should invite Seraphina (Mandeep Dhillon) out to dinner to "bury the hatchet." Zosia (Jasmine Jobson) is revealed to have been tailing Conrad the entire time at Harry's request.

Kavanagh works out a mole is in the force

(Image credit: Paramount+)

At the police station, DCI Kavanagh (Ophelia Lovibond) assembles the few officers she feels she can trust to run through the events of episode 1. With the waiter witness recanting his statement after being threatened by Harry, Kavanagh is convinced that there's a mole in the force leaking information to him.

Not only is she right, of course, but she's also correct in assuming that Finch (Warren Brown) is among the potential suspects, leaving him out of the meeting. Her plan? Feed the rest of the team false information to make Harry think that the Harrigans are in the clear before they pounce.

The American driver, who we now know is called Jamie, calls Jan and offers to give her £5,000 directly, as his insurance company is saying they'll take months to process the claim. Jan barters for £6,000, to which Jamie agrees. He tries to take her out to dinner to do the handover, but Jan pushes back by suggesting a morning coffee instead.

Harry phones and Jan finally picks up, telling her that he's found Gina. The pair meet in a local park, where Harry tells her about Gina's YouTube shakedown scheme and that she's living with Eddie. Harry remains convinced that he can pull her back from the brink of being involved in organised crime, but Jan thinks the moment has passed. "You see yourself as the antidote, but you're the poison," she tells him.

At the Harrigan's house, Maeve tries to get Conrad's dogs put down, for no appropriate reason, without telling him. Paul (Emmett J. Scanlan) refuses to phone the vets without Conrad's knowledge, so Maeve organises a home visit. The doctor confirms that both dogs are in good health, leaving Maeve to unsubtly find out how to do the job herself (spoiler: with antifreeze).

Frankie is told about the Harrigan's as Seraphina squeals to Kat

(Image credit: Paramount+)

Colin arranges to meet Frankie in a nail salon, where the latter is already getting a pedicure. Colin begins to tell him about the Harrigan's empire, and how the drugs and other criminal enterprises are "there for the taking" because the family itself is spiralling into chaos. The way to get to them, obviously, is through Harry.

In an unnerving power move, Frankie decides to give Colin a pedicure himself. He asks what would happen if he was to say no to "f**king Harry up," with Colin responding that he's got enough evidence on Frankie to "get him locked up for the rest of his life." Frankie responds with a thinly-veiled threat concerning Colin's wife.

We get another history lesson from Colin when Frankie asks about the best way to get to Harry, this time about the French Catholic who assassinated King Henry IV of France in 1610, François Ravaillac. Ravaillac's execution was to be tied to four horses who each pulled his limbs in different directions, implying that the Harrigan's have four horses that would have the same metaphorical impact on Harry.

Conrad invites Seraphina to dinner, who is immediately suspicious of Maeve's intentions. She reluctantly agrees, but immediately phones the number Kat gave her in episode 1 to reveal Conrad's plans. The voice on the other end of the phone is revealed to be Jamie, Jan's car accident stranger.

Gina and Jan meet, with Gina laying on the success of her YouTube shakedowns thick. Jan tells her about the divorce, with Gina trying (badly) to hide how much her family's dysfunction has been affecting her. Eddie arrives to meet Gina, immediately getting feisty with Jan, who mildly threatens him in return.

Colin correctly guesses that Bella will be the best way to get to Harry

(Image credit: Paramount+)

While Colin is at home watching TV with his wife, Frankie rings to ask who Harry's four horses might be. Colin lists off the Harrigan's who are most likely to crack, while also telling him about Jan and Gina. However, he guesses that Kevin's wife Bella (Lara Pulvey) will be the best bet... and he's right.

As luck would have it, Harry makes his way to see Bella to discuss what Gina and Eddie have been up to together. They have a stilted conversation about parenthood, with Harry opening up about Jan asking for a divorce. Bella thinks that Kevin would feel insecure if he were to know that Harry was there with her alone, despite nothing going on between them.

As he leaves, we see Jamie and Jan meet up for coffee. Jamie gives her £7,000 in a white envelope, which is even more than she asked for. Jamie tries to get to know her and ask about her life, but Jan immediately leaves once she's got the money.

We also see Eddie take a call from Maeve to ask if he's got rid of Gina, which was her request in episode 1. Eddie says that he doesn't want to, claiming that the pair work well together as a team.

Frankie leaves Bella for dead — and makes sure Conrad knows it

(Image credit: Paramount+)

Jamie rings Seraphina as she gets ready to meet Maeve and Conrad, and tells her not to go to the restaurant. He doesn't say why, but claims it's important... and she obliges.

Then, a lot of things happen at once. We see Maeve and Conrad arrive at the restaurant, with Maeve remarking that Seraphina is "rude" for being so late. As more time passes, Conrad is inclined to agree, but he's then called away when a waiter says there's a call for him on the main phone. He's confused as to how anyone would know he's there, but we know it's not Seraphina — she's tried calling Conrad's phone, which Maeve declines.

At the same time, Paul and Fergus (Jack Archer) go for a drink outside a nearby pub. As Fergus admits that he's worried about his family's safety now that he's working in organised crime, Paul heads in to get another drink at the bar. While he does, a man in a van arrives as asks Fergus for directions to the nearest A-road. As Fergus approaches, the van door opens and a masked man shoots Fergus point-blank in the head.

Also at the same time, Harry tries to leave Jan a voicemail about moving abroad for a fresh start as Kevin calls Bella to check on her. Harry is sitting outside Gina's flat, shooting a bunch of masked men arriving nearby. He checks that the pair aren't hurt before leaving.

Bella, meanwhile, isn't so lucky. Masked man shoot down the outside security before storming the house, leaving Bella to make a run for the basement while still on the phone to Kevin. Kevin says that he's on his way, but it's too late... Frankie, who appears once the rest of the men have gone in, gets to her first.

As Conrad reaches the restaurant phone, Frankie finds Bella cowering in a downstairs bathroom, pointing a gun with a silencer directly at her. Conrad answers the phone, as Frankie picks up his to say just one word: "Bang."

• Microsoft pledges $10 billion to support the Middle East's technological ambitions
• A $400m subsea cable expansion is also in the works
• The company stressed push for its educational support schemes

Microsoft has revealed plans to spend more than $10 billion in the Middle East between now and 2030, spread across the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait.

Although the company already has substantial infrastructure already rooted in the region, including cloud regions for the UAE, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, it hopes that further investment will help increase regional access to its cloud and AI tools.

Microsoft President Brad Smith noted the region's ongoing digital transformation, appearing to also acknowledge the impacts of geopolitical conflicts. "We will build on the work we have done to stand by these countries’ governments and people through a period of significant challenges," Smith wrote in a blog post.

Microsoft invests $10bn to support Middle East technological transformation

The company also announced a series of initiatives that will fall under the $10 billion plans, including expanding cloud and AI infrastructure, improving local digital resilience, strengthening cybersecurity and backing educational schemes.

"Our responsibility is not only to invest in the technology that enables that progress, but to help provide the digital resilience, security and continuity it depends on," Smith added in another post.

Naturally, clean energy generation and a close eye on both water consumption and replenishment are core to the company's upcoming projects.

On the resilience front, Microsoft plans to invest a further $400 million in subsea and terrestrial cables by the end of the decade, building on top of its existing SeaMeWe-6 subsea cable which has points in Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Microsoft is just one of the 16 companies that look after the cable, which stretches from Singapore to France.

In a bid to pacify job concerns, Microsoft also asserted that it will upskill more than 4.2 million people across the Middle East by 2030 – around 8% of the four countries' combined populations (but a bigger percentage if you only consider working citizens).

I've recently been re-watching Star Trek: The Original Series on DVD - you know the ones, in the colored clamshell cases with unaltered special effects. Just as Kirk intended. That got me thinking about how to bring the Enterprise into my workspace. Because despite the rumors, tech journalists aren't exploring life beyond our own solar system nearly as often as you'd think.

Now, I can't afford to rebuild my office into an exact replica of the bridge of the Enterprise (my wife simply won't allow it, unfortunately). But what I can do is find some cool Star Trek home office gear that at least lets us pretend we're boldly going where no one has gone before, even when we're just replying to emails from the captain boss.

Starfleet-approved home office gear

FAMETEK Star Trek TNG USS Enterprise Bluetooth Speaker

The Unemployed Philosophers Guild Star Trek Transporter Heat Transforming Mug

The Unemployed Philosophers Guild Star Trek Sticky Notes Booklet

Open Road Brands Star Trek Starship Chart Silver Metal Sign

VINYL REVOLT Art Home Room

Star Trek: The Next Generation 2-set tumblers

The Unemployed Philosophers Guild Star Trek Memo Pad

Star Trek Desk Lamp

Silver Buffalo Star Trek NCC-1701 Fleece Throw Blanket

GRAPHICS & MORE Star Trek United Federation of Planets Coaster Set

The Unemployed Philosophers Guild Trek Captain's Log Large Notebook

GRAPHICS & MORE Star Trek United Federation of Planets Chrome Plated Metal Envelope

GRAPHICS & MORE Star Trek Starfleet Command Mouse Pad

Bomb Pop Boutique Desk Organizer

Numskull Accessory Locker & Storage Stand

UHURU Wireless Gaming Mouse

Workman Publishing Star Trek: Light-And-Sound Communicator

Entertainment Earth Klingon Insignia Chair Capes

• A new PlayStation Portal software update has been released
• The update introduces a new 80% default charging limit to ensure the device's long-term battery health
• Players can increase the limit manually, but Sony advises against it

Sony has rolled out a new PlayStation Portal software update to improve stability and support the device's long-term battery health.

As detailed in the version 7.1.7 patch notes, the update "introduces changes to how your PS Portal charges in order to support the long-term battery health of your device" and means that it will now charge to just 80% by default.

While 80% is the default limit, users can increase the cap at any time in Settings > System > Battery; however, Song strongly recommends the alternative as it could impact the PS Portal's longevity.

"Selecting a charge limit over 80% might impact battery performance and overall stability, reducing long-term battery health," the patch notes.

It's reasonable to want to charge your device to 100% every time the battery depletes, but Sony's new default charge limit sounds like a great solution if you want to keep your PS Portal in good shape for a long time.

The full version 7.1.7 patch notes can be read below.

• This update introduces changes to how your PS Portal charges in order to support the long-term battery health of your device. After updating, your device will charge to 80% by default. You can change the charge limit at any time in Settings > System > Battery.
  • Selecting a charge limit over 80% might impact battery performance and overall stability, reducing long-term battery health.
• Make sure to update your PlayStation Link device to the latest device software version to connect to PlayStation Portal.
  • To update your PlayStation Link device, connect it to a PS5 or PC using its PlayStation Link USB adapter. For more details visit the guides below.
• We've improved system software performance and stability
• We've improved the messages and usability on some screens

• Gemini 3.8 Live now includes custom avatars to go with the AI's voice
• Avatars could be used for customer service, training and more
• Gemini 3.8 Live can switch between 97 languages automatically

Google has lifted the wraps of its latest Gemini 3.8 Live model, and with it come avatars you can select to make it feel more like you're speaking to a human. Sort of.

It's all possible through a combination of Gemini's real-time speech capabilities and low-latency video generation, so it looks like your chosen avatar is effectively lip-syncing to the text that Gemini is reading out to you.

Research scientist Shuo-yiin Chang and software engineer CJ Zheng said it now feels like AI has a much more "visual presence" - so that's...nice?

Gemini now takes on the body of your chosen avatar with Gemini 3.8 Live

Avatars are designed specifically for enterprise users, but rather than company employees talking to an avatar to get their work done, Google sees it more as showing off what's possible for its customers' end users. In other words, avatars could be used for customer service, receptionists, training and more.

From launch, businesses will be able to select from a library of preset avatars, but they can also create custom avatars to fit a company's branding, for example with a relevant logo on its uniform.

On the safety front, Google asserts that videos of its avatars include SynthID watermarking to verify that they are indeed AI-generated. "This imperceptible watermark is woven directly into the audio and video output, helping to ensure AI-generated content remains detectable to help minimise misinformation and misattribution," the company wrote.

In a separate post, Google also revealed that Gemini 3.8 Live can now support 97 languages and automatic language switching to make multilingual conversations more seamless. A more hardcore version of that model, 3.8 Live Extended Thinking, outperformed GPT-Live-1 Astra and Grok Voice Think Fast 2.0 across multiple benchmarks while still ending up cheaper to run per hour of input audio.

• A new trailer has been released for DC Studios' Clayface
• The body horror movie will take shape in theaters worldwide this October
• It features a really cool Easter egg that's renewed hope over a Batman cameo

DC Studios has release one final trailer for Clayface — and it contains a specific Batman reference that's set tongues wagging among comic book fans.

Revealed yesterday (September 24), the movie's latest teaser offers a fresh look at its body horror vibes, slick cinematography, and Matt Hagen's tragic villain origin story. Thankfully, the DC Universe (DCU) film's latest round of footage doesn't reveal the titular character's final, grotesque form, meaning audiences will have to check it out in theaters if they want to see Clayface in all of his gruesome, malleable glory.

The comic book flick's new trailer arrives five months after Clayface's first "super freaky" teaser. Two months later, Clayface trailer #2 was unleashed upon the world and left fans with many, many questions — the most pressing of which was whether the shapeshifting villain's primary foe Batman would appear.

Even if the Caped Crusader does show up in the DCU Chapter One movie, Clayface's cast and crew are doing their best not to give away what would be one of the film's biggest surprises. That said, fans have spotted a very specific Batman Easter egg in Clayface's final trailer that's sparked new hope that the Gotham City-based vigilante will make an appearance — even if it's just as a silhouetted cameo — in the James Watkins-directed feature.

Why a musical motif in the new Clayface trailer has excited Batman and DC Comics fans alikeComment from r/DC_Cinematic

So, what's this big Batman reference that some DC fans noticed in Clayface's newest teaser? Skip to the 1:30 mark of the trailer and you might recognize a very familiar motif that plays as the forthcoming film's title card appears on the screen.

Batman fanatics won't need me to explain this Easter egg to them. For those not in the know, though, the brief musical snippet we hear is an exact replica of Clayface's theme from fan-favorite 1990s TV show Batman: The Animated Series (B:TAS), which you can watch right now on HBO Max.

Now, this doesn't give any indication that the Dark Knight will have a walk-on part in DC Studios' next big-screen offering. After all, despite reports that studio co-heads James Gunn and Peter Safran have cast an unlikely star as the DCU's Batman, the pair have consistently denied that anyone has been hired to play Bruce Wayne and his superhero alter-ego in their nascent cinematic franchise.

Nevertheless, the use of Clayface's theme from B:TAS has captured some fans' imagination — and with good reason. Clayface's story is heavily inspired by 'Feat of Clay', a two-part tale from B:TAS that's viewed as some of the best storytelling in the beloved cartoon's four-season run.

If nothing else, fans are excited about this musical nugget because, if Clayface is half as good as 'Feat of Clay' is, it could be the best DCU movie so far. Throw a Batman cameo into the mix, though, and it'll generate even more headlines than many of us expected when it's released on October 23.

For more on the upcoming comic book film, find out everything else we know so far about Clayface.

• GrapheneOS will work with the Motorola Signature 27
• This will be the first non-Pixel phone to support the operating system
• Some future Motorola phones are also expected to support it

It must be very difficult for a mobile operating system to tempt users away from Android or iOS, but on a small scale at least GrapheneOS seems to be doing so — and it’s now a little bit easier to get ahold of.

You see, this privacy-focused operating system that’s been built on top of the Android Open Source Project (AOSP), was previously limited to Pixel phones — which is somewhat ironic given it’s likely to appeal to people who want to escape Google’s grasp. But now it’s finally coming to a Motorola phone too.

The device in question is the newly launched Motorola Signature 27. This is a high-end handset, powered by the brand-new Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 chipset — making it even more powerful than the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S26 series. It also has a 6.8-inch screen and four rear cameras, so this is set to compete with the absolute best Android phones.

But unlike most of those rivals, you’ll be able to install GrapheneOS on it, as confirmed by the GrapheneOS X account. In fact, you might not even need to install it, as versions of the handset that ship with GrapheneOS pre-installed in place of Android are apparently planned too.

However, it’s unclear when that will be, or even when the Motorola Signature 27 will ship at all — though Motorola’s US site says to expect it sometime in November.

The GrapheneOS App Store (Image credit: Future // Rob Dunne)Hopefully the first of many

Whenever it does land it’s sure to be expensive (though pricing hasn’t yet been announced), but the GrapheneOS team have spoken about bringing its operating system to some future Motorola phones too, including possibly some lower end ones.

That said, there are some issues to solve, with the team previously saying (via Android Police) that “it's mostly due to how Qualcomm handles it. The latest Snapdragon flagships have the best security features. We'll also need Motorola to start paying them for longer updates below flagships."

So in other words it sounds like the use of this new chipset, alongside long-term software support, is why the operating system is being brought to the Motorola Signature 27 specifically.

Still, it’s nice to see GrapheneOS become at least slightly more widely available, and perhaps if previous chipsets were an issue, we might start seeing it brought to other Android brands once they launch phones with Qualcomm’s new silicon.

This is probably never going to be a truly mainstream OS, but by combining most of the familiarity of Android (including access to the Google Play Store if you choose to install it), with increased privacy and security features — particularly when it comes to what data is shared with Google and apps — it’s a very promising alternative to the big names for more privacy-conscious users.

Summer is officially over, and the cooler weather is a perfect excuse, if you needed one, to cosy up at home with a Lego kit. So what does Lego have new in for October? It's not quite as extensive a lineup as I've seen in previous months — and there's a disappointing lack of Spooky Season sets — but there are still some gems worth checking out.

One standout addition is the Santa Holiday Countdown; a jolly Mr Claus perched in a chimney with an adjustable countdown clock set into it. Listen, I know it's too early to be thinking about holiday season, but apparently Lego didn't get that memo — and I have a feeling this one is going to be popular. If you're an early celebrator, there's also a Buddy the Elf (complete with candy canes, one of the four main food groups) joining the lineup.

For UK residents and fellow Bristolians in particular, I'm very pleased to see Aardman making an overdue Lego debut. You can now swap plasticine for bricks and build your own Wallace & Gromit on motorbike and sidecar. And while this US lineup is sorely lacking in new kits for Halloween, Brits can at least have the option of a couple of new Wednesday themed sets. Have fun sorting out all those black and gray bricks.

Scroll down to explore all the new Lego sets for October.

New Lego for October: US kits

Jump down the new UK launches

Lego Santa's Holiday Countdown

Lego Pokémon Iconic Trainer Moments Poké Ball

Lego Buddy the Elf

LEGO® Christmas Stocking

Lego Pokémon Up-Scaled Red Minifigure

Lego Marvel Avengers: Doomsday Quinjet

New Lego for October: UK kits

Lego Ideas Wallace & Gromit

Lego Santa's Holiday Countdown

Lego Pokémon Iconic Trainer Moments Poké Ball

Lego Buddy the Elf

Lego Icons Bookshop: Book Nook

LEGO® Christmas Stocking

Lego Wednesday Backpack

Lego Wednesday Nevermore Academy

Lego Pokémon Up-Scaled Red Minifigure

Lego Marvel Avengers: Doomsday Quinjet

Video doorbells used to be fixtures in sci-fi media as futuristic tech, but fast-forward to 2026, almost anyone can install one in their home for not much money or effort, with a lot of the best video doorbells making for an easy home security upgrade.

But if you still find those options a bit pricey, the Blink Video Doorbell System discounted to just AU$27.99 ahead of Amazon’s Prime Big Deal Days sale next week, should certainly make for a no-brainer addition to your home.

This discount matches the Blink Video Doorbell System’s last all-time low price during the last Prime Day sale in July. It’s worth noting, though, that many of the features are locked behind the AU$4.95/m Blink Basic or AU$15/m Blink Plus subscription plans, so those costs should be considered if you want video storage, person detection and more. Amazon is also offering a bundle with two Blink Mini 2K+ cameras for AU$48 or 74% off, perfect for a good starter home security system.View Deal

In our Blink Video Doorbell review, we called it one of the easiest security systems to install, with two different mounting options to suit any household, and setting it up within the Blink mobile app with the included Sync Module Core (which serves as the central system hub) takes just three steps.

Our tester found that it has good image quality at 1440p resolution and 30 frames per second, stable video connection, a wide 150º horizontal field of view and battery life rated for up to two years via three AA lithium batteries.

There’s no included indoor chime, but you can pair this doorbell with a Blink Mini camera that’s sold separately (but you can also buy a bundle with two Blink Mini 2K+ cameras for AU$48) or connect via the Alexa app on your phone to an Amazon Fire Stick or Amazon Echo Show to let you see who’s at your door on your TV or smart display.

As mentioned above, lots of features are locked behind a subscription plan, including video recording, cloud video storage, video sharing, person and vehicle detection, even photo capture. The Blink Basic Plan applies to just one device for AU$4.95 per month or AU$49.95 per year, while Blink Plus lets you add an unlimited number of Blink devices for AU$15 per month or AU$150 per year. For most households, though, the former is a good starting point at a reasonable price, which is made even more enticing by the device’s whopping 72% price drop.

Want to explore your options? Amazon has also discounted more Blink video doorbell models and cameras here.

Spoilers for Stuart Fails to Save the Universe episode 10 ahead.

We've finally arrived at the end of Stuart Fails to Save the Universe (SFtStU) and episode 10 certainly didn't let us down. In fact, it's the closest to The Big Bang Theory (TBBT) that we've been since 2019.

Although Sheldon (Jim Parsons) and Leonard (Johnny Galecki) don't appear in the finale — remember, they built the multiversal machine that Stuart (Kevin Sussman) has been responsible for breaking, this season's finale takes us back to where it all began in a different way.

Indeed, as Kevin, Denise (Lauren Lapkus), Kripke (John Ross Bowie), and Bert (Brian Posehn) arrive in yet another alternate universe, they're confronted with others versions of themselves filming the HBO Max show in front of a live studio audience.

Aside from Georgie & Mandy's First Marriage, creators haven't used a sitcom studio multicam format since TBBT itself.... but the Easter eggs don't stop there.

For Posehn and Bowie, the entire thing was "surreal," but could it indicate more of what we can expect to see in the future, including the already greenlit SFtStU season 2?

'It felt like the old show but wildly different'

"Episode 10 definitely felt the most surreal for me," Posehn told me.

"It was interesting because it was the only time during the entire run of this show that we had a studio audience there," Bowie added. "It felt like a real mix of being like the old show, but also feeling wildly different."

"We were back on that same stage, weren't we? Stage 25," Posehn continuds. "That's our old stage, so that was really weird."

You heard correctly. As the gang point out, while leaving the live studio audience behind, they've been plopped onto Stage 25 on the Warner Bros. studio lot in Burbank, California. The stage was named lot is officially named "The Big Bang Theory Stage" in honor of the aforementioned sitcom's 10-season run.

Fun fact: Stage 25 is one of only five stages on the entire lot to be named after a show, with the other four being The Ellen DeGeneres Show, E.R., Friends, and Two and Half Men. Stage 25 is part of the public lot tour, but that's the closest we've been to reviving its TBBT spirit, until now.

"The whole thing was just extremely trippy and fun," Bowie agreed.

I hope more of these incredibly obvious tributes to the original series are made in Stuart Fails to Save the Universe season 2, purely for the fun and whimsy of it. I don't massively mind if Sheldon and Leonard never turn up, but I do want Chuck Lorre to bring George Cooper back to life... but that's another story.

• Thunderobot uses SSD storage to help its 64GB laptop run huge AI models
• The M7000 can reportedly run GPT-OSS-120B despite having 64GB of memory
• Phison's aiDAPTIV+ technology turns part of the SSD into an AI cache

Thunderobot has released the AI Master M7000, a 16-inch mobile workstation built around AMD's Ryzen AI Max+ 395 processor.

The M7000 comes with 64GB of LPDDR5X-8000 memory and Radeon 8060S integrated graphics for demanding workloads.

Its 768GB drive incorporates an 85GB caching layer designed to help AI workloads handle models exceeding available system memory.

AI workloads get an unusual storage assist

The M7000 uses LPDDR5X-8000 memory, while its processor provides 16 cores, 32 threads, boost speeds reaching 5.1GHz, and an XDNA 2 neural processor.

AMD rates the neural hardware at 50 TOPS, while the Radeon 8060S configuration reaches as many as 40 compute units for graphics and accelerated workloads.

Thunderobot says the device can run GPT-OSS-120B locally, despite having 64GB of physical memory available for applications and operating-system requirements.

Its unified memory architecture allows processor and graphics resources to access shared memory, supporting workloads that frequently move substantial model data.

The additional cache comes from Phison’s aiDAPTIV+ technology, which uses part of the internal storage to hold data associated with artificial intelligence workloads.

Rather than functioning as conventional RAM, this arrangement keeps selected information on the SSD when unified memory capacity becomes restrictive during demanding workloads.

Such information can include Key-Value cache, less-active mixture-of-experts components, and model data that applications may require again during processing.

Phison has also shown this storage approach with computers carrying considerably less memory, including a 32GB laptop running the same 120B model.

The technology addresses a limitation faced by large local models, where available memory can restrict the performance of certain workloads.

A 160W mobile workstation with unusually high specifications

Thunderobot gives the M7000 a 160W operating profile supported by two fans and three heat pipes for sustained processing.

The device also uses a 2560×1600 display running at 165Hz, with 500-nit brightness and complete sRGB coverage for color-sensitive work.

Power comes from a 99Wh battery, while the chassis weighs 2.45kg despite its workstation-oriented hardware and cooling requirements.

The display and cooling configuration add considerable hardware capability without changing the notebook’s emphasis on local computing.

For connectivity, this device includes OCuLink, USB-C supporting 40Gbps transfers, HDMI 2.1 FRL, 2.5Gb Ethernet, and a UHS-II microSD reader.

OCuLink provides another high-speed connection for compatible external hardware, giving users added expansion options beyond the laptop's built-in resources.

Thunderobot lists the M7000's Chinese retail price at 24,999 yuan, which converts to roughly $3,733 based on current exchange rates.

That figure places the device well beyond typical gaming budgets, despite the company's product lineup historically centering on gaming hardware.

This device instead reads as an artificial intelligence laptop, given how conspicuously its marketing and branding lean toward AI use cases.

Yet it remains surprising that the caching arrangement still falls short of matching genuine additional system memory in practice.

Via Videocardz

• Cache-to-Cache lets separate AI models exchange internal information without generating text
• A learned Fuser converts one model’s internal data for another
• C2C uses selective gating to control which layers receive information

Researchers from Tsinghua University have published a paper describing a technique that lets separate AI models exchange information without producing any text.

The method, called Cache-to-Cache (C2C), has already been accepted at ICLR 2026 and ships with open-source code available to developers.

It targets a specific inefficiency present whenever multiple language models work together inside a shared pipeline.

Skipping words entirely

When two AI models cooperate today, one has to turn its thinking into written sentences before the other can read them.

That writing step takes real computing time and throws away small details buried inside the first model's raw thinking process.

Every AI model keeps a working memory of everything it has processed so far, known technically as a cache.

C2C skips typed language entirely by letting one model pass that working memory straight into a second model's memory bank.

A small assistance program called a Fuser handles this handoff, reshaping and rotating the information so the second model can actually use it.

Different AI models store their memories using completely different internal layouts, sizes, and structures from one another.

Simply dumping one model's raw memory into another would likely confuse it or cause its answers to fall apart.

To prevent that, C2C includes a smart filter that decides which pieces of incoming memory are worth absorbing immediately.

Some internal layers accept the new information right away, while other layers keep reasoning independently without any outside interference.

According to the researchers, this setup makes AI models run between 100% and 150% faster during shared collaborative tasks.

That upper figure works out to roughly two and a half times quicker than the usual back-and-forth typing process.

The team also reports accuracy gains as high as 14.2% when models work together instead of operating entirely alone.

Compared against older setups where models still communicate through typed text, accuracy reportedly improved by 3.1% to 5.4%.

Why does this method have limits

This approach currently works only with open-weight models, since it requires direct access to a model's internal cache and layer structure.

Most popular AI tools, the kind ordinary people chat with online, hide those internal details completely from outside users.

That means everyday apps like certain chatbots cannot use this shortcut unless their own creators build it in privately.

Nobody outside these companies currently knows for certain whether anyone has started using a similar method internally.

The research team argues that typed language has always slowed machines down since it forces them to think like humans do.

That argument deserves some caution, since the same team that built the system also ran every test proving it works well.

Whether this speeds things up as much as claimed will depend on other external testing of the system.

• Durabook Z14I-DX3 rugged laptop has three 14-inch, sunlight-readable 1,200-nit touchscreens
• At 9.8 kg and a mammoth 137.5 mm thick, it may suit vehicles and fixed positions rather than dismounted crews in the field
• It could also be targeting customers at command posts and in drone teams

Durabook's latest rugged workstation laptop is less a notebook and more a capable folding command post, bringing power, durability, and plenty of screen real estate in tow.

The Z14I-DX3 pairs a conventional rugged clamshell with two extra full HD touch panels hinged to either side of the lid.

When folded, the side panels sit over the main display for transport; when opened, the three 14-inch screens form a mammoth 48:9 workspace for a client base that is expected to be overwhelmingly military.

Built around today's command post needs

While Durabook's press release says it is now available to order, it doesn't list a price on-site and instead directs users to request a quote for what it calls one of the most unique rugged laptops on the battlefield.

Durabook pitches the machine at defense, public safety, utilities, field engineering, and maritime users, describing it as a mobile command center where drone control and telemetry, mission maps, live video, and sensor data sit side by side instead of being juggled on a single display.

It also goes out of its way to make the screen component legible in all environments while focusing on utility: all three panels are 1,200-nit DynaVue sunlight-readable touchscreens with finger, water, glove, and stylus modes, and brightness can be synced across the set or adjusted per panel, as per Durabook's announcement.

This design choice makes the most sense when you consider who the workstation laptop serves: military customers. Each panel can run a separate application, so a drone team could keep a live feed on one screen, a map on another, and telemetry or communications on the third.

A single AC power adapter powers the whole setup, which can be configured with up to an Nvidia RTX ADA 5000 GPU that caps at 682 TOPS of AI performance, enabling offline image recognition and video analysis through on-device AI support.

Its I/O offerings also cater to the assumption that it might be plugging into military hardware, much of which uses legacy connections: Thunderbolt 4 and Wi-Fi 7 sit alongside two serial ports, VGA, an ExpressCard 54 slot, and a 41-pin pogo docking connector, plus dual gigabit Ethernet, HDMI, a smart card reader, and dual SIM with eSIM, with GPS, 4G, and 5G as options.

Durabook durability credentials include MIL-STD-810H testing for shock, vibration, altitude, freeze/thaw, high and low temperature, temperature shock, humidity, explosive atmosphere, and solar radiation, plus MIL-STD-461G for electromagnetic emissions and susceptibility, and an operating range of -29°C to 63°C.

Its weight class, however, rules it out as a portable device you can run around with, with a listed weight of 9.8kg (21.6 lb) and a thickness of 137.5 mm when closed, not including an adapter or carrying case.

This matters for drone teams that may already be carrying other hardware, including the drones they often deploy themselves; the Durabook offering suits fixed positions, shelters, or a vehicle better than a device that can be lugged around with relative ease.

For now, a 'workstation' class laptop that offers plenty of durability, a last-generation AI GPU, and a low-powered CPU might check a lot of battlefield boxes, but would be hard to compare in terms of raw performance to modern gaming laptops or even traditional workstations, both of which pack in significant amounts of power even if they skip the two additional screens - but that might just be the point.

Looking for a different day?

A new Quordle puzzle appears at midnight each day for your time zone – which means that some people are always playing 'today's game' while others are playing 'yesterday's'. If you're looking for Thursday's puzzle instead then click here: Quordle hints and answers for Thursday, September 24 (game #1704).

Quordle was one of the original Wordle alternatives and is still going strong now more than 1,500 games later. It offers a genuine challenge, though, so read on if you need some Quordle hints today — or scroll down further for the answers.

Enjoy playing word games? You can also check out my NYT Connections today and NYT Strands today pages for hints and answers for those puzzles, while Marc's Wordle today column covers the original viral word game.

SPOILER WARNING: Information about Quordle today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.

Quordle today (game #1705) — hint #1 — VowelsHow many different vowels are in Quordle today?

• The number of different vowels in Quordle today is 4*.

* Note that by vowel we mean the five standard vowels (A, E, I, O, U), not Y (which is sometimes counted as a vowel too).

Quordle today (game #1705) — hint #2 — repeated lettersDo any of today's Quordle answers contain repeated letters?

• The number of Quordle answers containing a repeated letter today is 2.

Quordle today (game #1705) — hint #3 — uncommon lettersDo the letters Q, Z, X or J appear in Quordle today?

• No. None of Q, Z, X or J appear among today's Quordle answers.

Quordle today (game #1705) — hint #4 — starting letters (1)Do any of today's Quordle puzzles start with the same letter?

• The number of today's Quordle answers starting with the same letter is 2.

If you just want to know the answers at this stage, simply scroll down. If you're not ready yet then here's one more clue to make things a lot easier:

Quordle today (game #1705) — hint #5 — starting letters (2)What letters do today's Quordle answers start with?

• S

• F

• G

• G

Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.

Quordle today (game #1705) — the answers

(Image credit: Merriam-Webster)

The answers to today's Quordle, game #1705, are…

• SWEAR
• FLOOD
• GUPPY
• GROAN

A close call today.

Even though I only had nine letters left — and four of them were J,Q, X and Z — I still made very hard work of getting GUPPY. In my defense, though, “gummy” is a far more likely word, isn't it?

Daily Sequence today (game #1705) — the answers

(Image credit: Merriam-Webster)

The answers to today's Quordle Daily Sequence, game #1705, are…

• CAROL
• RAVEN
• PARER
• PERKY

Quordle answers: The past 20

• Quordle #1704, Thursday, 24 September: TOPIC, METRO, SCALP, FREED
• Quordle #1703, Wednesday, 23 September: SHEET, BLAND, JOIST, GUAVA
• Quordle #1702, Tuesday, 22 September: COMFY, LOBBY, DRESS, PANEL
• Quordle #1701, Monday, 21 September: WAXEN, HIPPO, PETAL, LEASH
• Quordle #1700, Sunday, 20 September: DERBY, LIMBO, GAWKY, REIGN
• Quordle #1699, Saturday, 19 September: SCOPE, HEIST, PULSE, CHAMP
• Quordle #1698, Friday, 18 September: MUCUS, MIRTH, APPLE, TILDE
• Quordle #1697, Thursday, 17 September: CRIER, CHIRP, NEIGH, FREER
• Quordle #1696, Wednesday, 16 September: SPEAR, PRICE, BLUNT, FISHY
• Quordle #1695, Tuesday, 15 September: SHUSH, LITHE, DELTA, BUGLE
• Quordle #1694, Monday, 14 September: ZEBRA, LEGAL, RATIO, TROLL
• Quordle #1693, Sunday, 13 September: LUCID, SPRAY, MANGE, EMAIL
• Quordle #1692, Saturday, 12 September: SUPER, BRUSH, RESET, SOWER
• Quordle #1691, Friday, 11 September: PLUSH, PAINT, RIVAL, AFOUL
• Quordle #1690, Thursday, 10 September: AGENT, EXILE, TITAN, PUREE
• Quordle #1689, Wednesday, 9 September: HAPPY, GONER, SMACK, MOTIF
• Quordle #1688, Tuesday, 8 September: FLUNG, DIARY, HALVE, BERTH
• Quordle #1687, Monday, 7 September: VISIT, CLANK, FEVER, OCEAN
• Quordle #1686, Sunday, 6 September: PILOT, HONOR, BOWEL, TAUNT
• Quordle #1685, Saturday, 5 September: GNASH, GEEKY, WHELP, PUTTY