TechRadar News

Can AI-driven NAS tech be sentimental? UGreen CEO Samuel Zhang seems to think so.

Launching the company’s new smart-home technology suite, he started by recounting a personal story. It was a hot summer’s day, and his family gathered in the backyard for a barbecue. They cooked together, chatted, played, and just had a genuinely fantastic time. But weeks later, when Zhang went to check his photo gallery and relive that cherished day, he was left feeling disappointed. The family hadn't taken any photos.

This, he said, got him thinking about home cameras — devices that are typically used for security. But, Zhang said, “it [a home camera] should see more than just danger — it should also be able to witness the joys of everyday family life”. And this, he said, was one of the key points of inspiration for UGreen’s new suite of local smart-home AI technology.

I got the chance to hear about, and see, UGreen’s home hubs, cameras, digital photo frames and more at IFA 2026 in Berlin. Here’s what I learned — and how the technology could transform the smart home.

Keeping it local

(Image credit: UGreen)

At the heart of UGreen’s smart-home suite is the new HomeAgent. This is an ‘agentic AI local hub' that brings local storage, computing, and control all together in a single device. Through this hub, users can connect up a range of UGreen AIoT devices, such as cameras, smart speakers, and digital photo frames, plus some select third-party products.

A crucial part of the HomeAgent’s appeal is its reliance on local storage and computing. This means that any data that runs through your hub — be that photos, videos, voice inputs, or other files — is processed locally, rather than through a corporate cloud server.

At a time when trust in large corporations is strikingly low, and major data breaches seem all too common, this could be a massive selling point for security-savvy customers. Keeping data local also removes the need for costly Cloud subscriptions, making the initial investment feel that bit more worthwhile.

There are three HomeAgent models scheduled for release. The first is the UGreen HomeAgent HA100, which is the most basic option. It provides all of the core functions you’d need from the hub, but offers slightly less processing power, memory, and storage, among other things, than its siblings. The HA100 Pro is the step-up model, which offers heightened performance, with 205 TOPS (as opposed to the standard HA100’s 26 TOPS), a 10GbE LAN port (compared to the HA100’s 2.5GbE), and a more advanced CPU.

The final boss, if you will, of the HomeAgent trio is the MA100. This is powered by the NVIDIA Jetson Thor T5000, and offers far superior AI performance to the other two models, and considerably more memory and storage.

However, this is certainly reflected in the price, with the MA100 commanding a list price of $19,999, compared to the HA100 Pro, which costs $5,999 and the HA100 at $1,799. Early bird offers are available, which make the HomeAgents about half-price across the board. Shipping is set to commence in early 2027.

AIoT in action

(Image credit: UGreen)

So what does UGreen’s smart home AIoT tech look like in person? Well, pretty impressive.

I was able to check out a demo, and take a closer look at all of the HomeAgent products, and other devices you can connect up to it. UGreen had a HomeAgent connected to a smart speaker, and a camera, among other things.

I tried walking towards a door, and a UGreen smart security camera started blaring after I walked past a certain point, telling me that I was on private property. This data is processed locally through the HomeAgent, so if you ask your connected smart speaker about any unusual activity, it can tell you if anyone approached your door, whether that was a delivery worker, or something more nefarious.

The smart speaker UGreen showed off has a new AI assistant, named Uliya. You can use the smart speaker to do just about anything around your home. You can ask Uliya to remind you of where you were at a specific time, to close the curtains, to play music, or even to identify the location of your pet and cast a live video feed. The functionality you get will vary depending on how invested you are in UGreen’s AIoT ecosystem, but the capabilities are pretty broad.

You can also ask Uliya to give you a summary of captured events throughout the day, display memories on a UGreen smart photo frame in real time, or to show you highlights from a special day — circling back to Zhang’s desire to revive memories that had been lost in time. One function I really liked was the ability to create an Away mode, so that when you step out of the house, lights will turn off, curtains will close, and a robovac will get to work.

UGreen’s new HomeAgents appear to be incredibly capable, feature-rich, and innovative products, and their local handling of data could be game changing for some households. At the product launch, Zhang said “In the future, we hope every family can have a HomeAgent”; and it'll be interesting to see how families adopt such tech moving forward.

• G7 urges governments and organizations to begin transitioning to quantum‑resistant encryption
• Warning highlights risk from future quantum computers able to break current standards like AES
• Guidance: inventory cryptographic assets, prioritize critical systems, and adopt phased PQC strategies

The G7, a collection of some of the world’s most powerful economies, is urging organizations to adopt quantum-resistant encryption as soon as possible and minimize the risk of losing sensitive data to technologically advanced threat actors.

Virtually every industry in the world today relies on encryption (the process of converting readable data into scrambled, unreadable data so that only someone with the correct key can decode and access it) to protect sensitive information. Banks, telecommunications providers, defense organizations, and practically everyone else are using some form of encryption - most probably AES (Advanced Encryption Standard).

Decrypting the protected data without the encryption key is considered almost impossible, since the computational effort necessary to pull it off would simply be too large. However, since quantum computers work on a fundamentally different principle, it is believed that once they are mature enough, they will be able to “crack” today’s encryption standards.

G7's advice

Now, the G7 has urged government and organizations to remain ahead of the curve by deploying “quantum-resistant encryption”:

“To protect themselves from the threat brought by CRQCs (cryptographically relevant quantum computers), organizations should begin planning their PQC transition now and should aim to complete their transitions within any the timelines set out by their national cybersecurity authorities,” the warning reads.

“In addition to quantum-related risks, organizations that delay their PQC transition may lose competitive advantage or may be excluded from contracting opportunities, including public procurement.”

The G7 advises governments and organizations to take a number of steps, including identifying critical systems and prioritizing them. They should adopt a phased and risk-based strategy, start their transition early, and inventory their cryptographic assets. They should also map their dependencies and develop a transition plan.

“To limit transition-related costs, they should opt to purchase products that integrate PQC and replace their systems with quantum-safe ones as part of their standard renewal schedule. As such, starting the transition early could result in lower migration costs overall. Planning and conducting their PQC transition properly would enable organizations to prevent insecure implementations and avoid increased exposure to conventional cyber threats.”

• OpenAI hid an incident where a model hijacked a wiki page to use as an AI agent communication board
• The incident was hidden while the company dealt with the fallout of the Hugging Face attack
• The company is now working on a framework for disclosing incidents of 'misalignment'

OpenAI recently disclosed the details of how one of its AI models escaped a sandboxed environment and attacked Hugging Face during an evaluation - and as part of the incident, the models created a messaging board to communicate with each other and influence each other’s reasoning.

OpenAI has now disclosed that shortly after this incident, agents undergoing testing again escaped their ‘secured’ environment and hijacked an obscure German wiki to use as a messaging board. Per Reuters, OpenAI leadership kept the incident hidden while they dealt with the fallout from the Hugging Face incident.

Now that OpenAI has acknowledged its role in the incident, the company has said it is “past time” to put together an incident disclosure pipeline when its models escape testing and slip into third-party networks.

Who is at fault when models do what they’re designed to do?

Before the two incidents, OpenAI said it, “treated misalignment largely as a research question, which gets communicated in research publications”. But now that models are behaving in previously unknown ways and having real-world impacts, the company said it would change its approach “to expand for this new phase of model capabilities”.

The company labelled the most recently disclosed incident as “an instance of misalignment similar” to the Hugging Face breach.

I myself am guilty of reporting on AI breaking out of containment as going ‘rogue’, but these models are doing exactly what they are designed to do. OpenAI’s detailed disclosure of the Hugging Face incident showed that the models were pushed to try and solve a benchmark test by cheating, which is exactly what caused the cyberattack to happen.

OpenAI said that both itself and “the larger AI community do not yet have a clear standard for how to report misalignment that shows up during training, evaluation, and deployment, including examples that don’t look like traditional security incidents but could provide insight into AI behavior and future risks”.

The company added that it is “working on a framework and will share it in upcoming weeks, and in parallel we’re working with dozens of government regulatory agencies worldwide on these issues”.

“When you combine this 'breakout' with the Hugging face breakout, it's starting to display a pattern,” said Ashley Knowles, Lead Cybersecurity Consultant at Black Hills Information Security. “I struggle here with not getting too doomsday-ish but realistically, this is showing a pattern of concerning behavior.”

“I'm wondering if this race to become 'first' is undercutting security measures that need to be taken to properly secure and guard AI agents as they're in development. My concern grows when you consider that OpenAI is also resisting further investigation. Adding onto that, the release and promise that Astra can evade human monitoring. The pot is brewing…”

Dell is running a surprisingly small Labor Day sale this year with hardly any laptop deals in it. However, there is one offer that rises above the rest and is really the only one that matters if you're shopping for a new device in today's sales: it's this Dell XPS 13 for $699.99 (was $999).

• Browse the full Dell Labor Day sale

Yep, I'm shouting about this one again, as I still don't quite believe that you can pick up one of our favorite and highly-rated laptops for such a terrific price. This particular model boasts a 3.4-inch 2.5K touchscreen display, an Intel Core 5 CPU, 8GB of RAM, and 512GB of storage.

That's a decent all-around mid-range spec, which will have no issues with general everyday use, college and university work such as essay writing and research, and also allow for a bit of multitasking if you enjoy a bit of streaming in your downtime.

And, better still, if you're an eligible student, you can save another $100 off the sale price, bringing it to a super-low $599. When it comes to powerful, efficient and affordable laptops in this year's sales, I truly think that this one is hard to beat.

Dell XPS 13 Labor Day deal

XPS 13 Laptop: was $999.99 now $699.99
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 a 13.4-inch touchscreen display, Intel Core 5 processor, 8GB of RAM, 512GB SSD, and excellent battery life, 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.View Deal

Our 4.5-star Dell XPS 13 review explains exactly why we think this is such a brilliant little laptop. We had lots of praise for the gorgeous display, fantastic battery life, solid overall performance, and sleek design. It hits everything you'd want from an all-purpose laptop at a stunning price in today's market.

More of today's best Labor Day sales

• Amazon: 45% off TVs, AirPods, air fryers & vacuums
• Apple: iPads, AirPods & MacBooks from $99
• Appliances: up to $1,200 at Samsung
• Best Buy: 60% off appliances, TVs, laptops & more
• Casper: up to 30% off mattresses
• Dell: laptop deals from $249.99
• DreamCloud: up to 60% off mattresses, 66% off bundles
• Home Depot: 40% off appliances, furniture, grills & tools
• Lowe's: $1,000 off appliances, patio & tools
• Nectar: up to 50% off mattresses, deals from $349
• Saatva: up to $625 off luxury mattresses
• Samsung: up to $2,000 off 4K, QLED & OLED TVs
• Target: 45% off clothing, tech & furniture
• Walmart: 58% off back-to-school, furniture, & clothing

• GPT-6 Astra has arrived, and it's being called AGI
• This includes by Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang
• Huang's celebratory X post also promotes Nvidia's GPUs, saying we need to get 400K of them online

Over the weekend, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang took to social media to celebrate OpenAI’s latest achievement — “AGI has arrived” in the form of GPT-6 Astra. And of course it was developed using over 100,000 NVIDIA GPUs.

According to OpenAI, Astra represents a "significant step forward" for AI, with OpenAI's president Greg Brockman also saying "welcome to the AGI era" as Astra was debuted — with the company promising that GPT-6 boasts incredible aptitude at tasks across software engineering, science, mathematics, and professional workflows.

It’s also said to be much better at agentic work, meaning you can delegate tasks to GPT-6 with less fear that the AI will misunderstand your intent as it works independently.

We haven’t yet given GPT-6 a full shakedown — the update is steadily rolling out to subscribers — but if OpenAI’s claims live up to the hype, Astra could be quite the capable tool, and may actually live up to those early AGI claims, even if this isn’t the first time Jensen Huang has heralded the arrival of AGI.

But what is AGI, and why does it matter if Astra is AGI or not? Well, as Huang himself suggests, AGI matters because it’s a reason to quadruple the number of Nvidia GPUs OpenAI is using.

(Image credit: OpenAI)What is AGI?

Let’s address the elephant in the room. AGI, or artificial general intelligence, isn’t a well-defined term, so judging if we have or haven’t achieved AGI is a bit like judging if a piece of art is a masterpiece or not.

Broadly speaking, AGI is an artificial system that can beat humans across any task that involves thinking or reasoning. Crucially, it should also be able to adapt to new problems by applying what it has learnt in training. For example, an AGI could learn a new skill to overcome a challenge posed to it without being retrained or reprogrammed — it just applies what it knows to evolve itself.

Think J.A.R.V.I.S from Marvel. It’s a very powerful assistant that helps Tony Stark across all fields, even how to deal with otherworldly threats like Loki, without needing to be trained on each individual problem.

Does AGI matter?

Okay, but does it matter if it’s AGI or just a very, very smart AI?

For most of us, not really. An AI doesn’t need to be very good at everything to be a majorly useful tool. It doesn’t matter if your AI doctor can understand the deep complexities of the vast universe, it just needs to be able to diagnose your illness and suggest treatment. An AI lawyer doesn’t need to be able to comprehend five-dimensional topology to defend you in court.

It's not just me saying that; Jensen Huang recently admitted that AGI doesn’t matter — this was before his social media praise for OpenAI — noting that the term is effectively meaningless.

However there’s one important reason for achieving AGI, and it’s about reaching what comes after: ASI, or artificial superintelligence.

ASI would be an AI no human could ever hope to match, let alone beat. It would be able to grapple and solve problems humans aren’t capable of even understanding. AGI is distinctly not ASI, but its ability to self-train and develop tools for itself suggests that an AGI will eventually construct ASI through a process called recursive self-improvement.

For Hitchhiker’s Guide the Galaxy fans, it’s like how the supercomputer Deep Thought couldn’t find the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything, but could build the computer which would be able to find the question.

(Image credit: OpenAI)

Perhaps more importantly, AGI is an investment buzzword, and there’s more than a hint of that in Huang’s celebratory post. Because while he says Astra is the product of 100,000 Nvidia Grace Blackwell NVLink72, he adds that if we want to see bigger and better improvements we’ll need to bring 400,000 GPUs online next.

To do this OpenAI and Nvidia will need a heck of a lot of investment, and will also need to build more data centers, just as communities across the US and rest of the world are pushing. back against their construction.

The arrival of AGI could represent the last opportunity for investors to make it big in AI, or any stock, before ASI takes over productivity. So they need to invest as much as they can now (or keep their investments in AI) before they’re left behind. For data centers, the big concern is they are pollution nightmares that merely take from a community with no promise they’ll actually succeed long enough to give back. The advent of AGI would suggest that the AI hype has been justified all along — the bubble won’t burst, and local communities could finally reap the reward of accepting data centers.

I’m not saying Huang or OpenAI are definitely misleading us, or even just being hyperbolic. It's possible that Astra is in fact our first taste of AGI. I’m just pointing out that companies and CEOs have a massive incentive to claim that we’ve achieved AGI, even if they later make the same claim about the next new model — I won’t be surprised if GPT-7 is later called 'the debut of AGI'.

(Image credit: Future)

My point is that we won’t really know if or when we achieved AGI until much later, when we can look back with hindsight and see when our AI models reached a turning point in their ability to evolve.

In the moment, though, we will know if an AI is useful and can provide some genuine benefit to us. We’ll do that as a collective, as individuals and businesses not directly associated with OpenAI get their hands on the new model and determine whether or not it makes their life significantly easier. Try Astra out if you can, learn about the experience of others with the tech, and decide if you think it’ll be worth paying to be able to access it.

Don’t get caught up in the hype, and don’t worry about whether it's AGI or not. In time it’ll be very clear if it is — and we won’t need a social media post to convince us.

If you're looking for the ultimate upgrade to your TV's sound, then the Samsung HW-Q990F is one of my top picks, and it's available for a near record-low price of $999 at Best Buy right now.

The Q990F has 11.1.4 channels and packs 23 speakers across the four units, consisting of a front soundbar, two rear speakers, and a subwoofer. It supports both Dolby Atmos and DTS:X formats, so you're well covered.

It's one of the best soundbars that I've tested in the last few years, and even though it's from last year, it's rare to see its price drop below $1,000.

Today's best Samsung HW-Q990F deal

HW-Q990F 11.1.4 channel Dolby Atmos soundbar (2025): was $1999 now $999
The Samsung HW-Q990F is a fantastic soundbar. It delivers a sound that's both powerful and detailed, as well as offering an immersive Atmos experience. It also houses HDMI 2.1 ports that support 4K 120Hz for those looking for an extra slot for their game console. At $999, this is a near-record-low price for a five-star soundbar system. View Deal

Phenomenal Dolby Atmos performance

(Image credit: Future)

Samsung's flagship soundbar systems have solidified their place at the top of the market over the last few years, balancing performance and features with bang-for-your-buck value. The Q990F continued that trend when it was released last year.

The biggest change between the Q990F and its predecessor wasn't its sound, but rather a redesigned compact subwoofer. While I worried that this would affect the Q990F's bass performance, I was happily proven wrong.

The Q990F's smaller subwoofer still delivers plenty of punch that, when cranked up, can shake a room. But it still manages to offer precise bass that can pick out individual details, as I found when the Batmobile's crunchy gear changes happened in The Batman.

Elsewhere, the Q990F still offers superb, accurate detail, as I found when watching Star Wars: A New Hope. As TIE Fighter laser bolts flew past, the sound trajectory was mapped to the soundbar with real precision. Even the score and the X-Wing's engines were well mapped to the rear channels. Overhead flight was a perfect demonstration of the Q990F's Atmos abilities too.

The Q990F also offers plenty of useful features, particularly for gaming. Its built-in HDMI 2.1 ports, which support 4K 120Hz, can be helpful to those with multiple consoles. And having tried the ports out, they produce top-notch gaming performance too.

Shop more of today's best Labor Day sales

• Amazon: 45% off TVs, AirPods, air fryers & vacuums
• Apple: iPads, AirPods & MacBooks from $99
• Appliances: up to $1,200 at Samsung
• Best Buy: 60% off appliances, TVs, laptops & more
• Casper: up to 30% off mattresses
• Dell: laptop deals from $249.99
• DreamCloud: up to 60% off mattresses, 66% off bundles
• Home Depot: 40% off appliances, furniture, grills & tools
• Lowe's: $1,000 off appliances, patio & tools
• Nectar: up to 50% off mattresses, deals from $349
• Saatva: up to $625 off luxury mattresses
• Samsung: up to $2,000 off 4K, QLED & OLED TVs
• Target: 45% off clothing, tech & furniture
• Walmart: 58% off back-to-school, furniture, & clothing

Having reviewed multiple iterations, the Geekom A5 has remained one of our favorite mini PCs for work and study for a long time now. If you're looking for a well-built compact desktop, there's a lot we like about this little machine.

And right now, the Geekom A5 is down to $419 (was $719) at Best Buy. That's cheaper than it is at Amazon, where it's priced at $479. But you'll need to act fast, because the clock is ticking on this deal, which ends in a few hours.

The mini PC is powered by the AMD Ryzen 5 7430U, with 16GB upgradeable RAM and 1TB SSD. In our own tests, we found it has enough performance for everyday office work and multitasking, and remains impressively quiet even under sustained use.

A5 Mini PC: was $719 now $419
AMD Ryzen 5 7430U | 16GB RAM | 1TB SSD

The Geekom A5 combines a six-core Ryzen 5 7430U processor, 16GB DDR4 RAM, 1TB NVMe SSD, Radeon Vega 7 graphics, Wi-Fi 6, 2.5GbE Ethernet and Windows 11 Pro.View Deal

Why we recommend it

The Ryzen 5 7430U has six cores and 12 threads, with boost speeds up to 4.3GHz. Combined with 16GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD, that's a solid specification for office work, browsing and everyday multitasking.

In our four-star review, Windows 11 ran smoothly and the A5 performed better than mini PCs based on lower-end Intel N100, N150 and N300 processors.

There's an impressive selection of connections for such a small PC, too. You get two HDMI 2.0 ports, two USB-C 3.2 ports, four USB-A connections and 2.5GbE Ethernet, alongside Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2.

It's also easy to get inside the A5 if you want to upgrade it at a later date. The two DDR4 SODIMM slots support up to 64GB of RAM, giving you plenty of scope to add more memory if your needs grow.

Price context & historical value

Best Buy has reduced the Geekom A5 from $719 to $419, saving you a substantial $300. That's almost 42% off the regular price and means you can pick up a 16GB/1TB Windows 11 Pro mini PC for comfortably below the $500 mark.

You'll need to move quickly if you want it at this price, however, as the offer will end very soon.

Should you buy it?

✅ Buy the Geekom A5 if...

You want a small Windows PC for working from home, studying or general everyday computing without having to cope with entry-level processor. We found the Ryzen 5 7430U to be more than capable of handling most everyday tasks, and the 16GB of RAM and 1TB SSD provide plenty of headroom.

❌ Skip the Geekom A5 if...

You need a mini PC for demanding creative applications or serious gaming. Performance is comfortably above many entry-level mini PCs, but the older Ryzen 5 7430U and integrated Radeon Vega graphics are well behind newer AMD platforms with DDR5 memory and more powerful integrated GPUs.

The Catch: What to know before you buy

Despite its Ryzen 7000-series name, the Ryzen 5 7430U is based on AMD's older Zen 3 architecture and uses Radeon Vega graphics rather than the newer integrated GPUs found in some other Ryzen mini PCs.

It has enough performance for everyday office work and multitasking though, while remaining impressively quiet even under sustained use.

• Shop all mini PCs at Best Buy

Ask a CISO why they bought their newest cybersecurity tool, and they’ll have a clear answer lined up.

It stops a specific technique, closes a particular gap, or satisfies a compliance requirement.

However, it's often less clear how the tool fits in with the rest of the stack.

Does it make the overall system stronger, or simply add another layer of complexity to manage?

Research indicates most security professionals already believe they’re juggling too many tools, with over half saying they don’t properly integrate together.

This is a pattern I call ‘additive by default,’ and it results in stacks that grow without a plan, becoming broader but not necessarily deeper or able to match today’s threats.

Start with the outcome, not the technology

I find this additive approach is often due to focusing on specific emerging threats or identified weak points, so decisions are made with a tactical eye rather than a broader strategic view.

Part of the problem is that most organizations have never precisely defined the security outcome they are trying to achieve. Without a shared, specific language for the problem, every new purchase becomes additive, because there is nothing solid to measure it against.

Take asset labelling, which is a core capability most organizations know they need, so they invest in a tool, populate a configuration management database (CMDB), and assign criticality scores. Job done, right? But labelling an asset only answers the question of what it is, and says nothing about how that asset connects to everything around it, or what happens when a policy needs to be enforced against it.

Labelling, visibility and enforcement are three distinct jobs, not one. Solve the first and the second and third remain wide open, so another tool gets bought to cover visibility, then another for enforcement. Each purchase solves its own narrow question perfectly well.

However, none of them were ever asked to work as a single, continuous capability, because nobody defined that as the actual requirement in the first place.

What if asset management labels fed into visibility views and the same reflected how policy is drafted and then enforced? Now you have a strategic problem solved with interoperable capabilities.

How much of your stack is really putting in the work?

Gartner’s most recent Leadership Perspective Survey saw CISOs noting this as a common issue, with just 20-30% of tool capability actually being used in some cases. The instinctive response to this is to cut the stack down, however, that instinct solves the wrong problem.

A good exercise for working out the value of the stack is to evaluate every tool, new or already deployed, against three plain questions.

Does it offer continuous validation against a given threat - and what, specifically, does it validate? Is it still operationally relevant? And is it effective, right now, in the environment you have today? A tool can pass one or two of these and still be failing you.

Virtual Local Area Networks (VLANs) are a good example of this. Twenty or thirty years ago, when networks were typically static and everything likely sat inside a single data center, VLAN-based segmentation was genuinely effective. It matched the environment it was built for.

That environment has since changed almost beyond recognition. Workloads move between on-premises systems, cloud and containers, and nothing stays fixed for long. VLANs are still deployed across many stacks today, still technically doing the segmentation job they were built for. Yet their effectiveness has dropped sharply because they offer none of the continuous validation a hybrid, constantly shifting estate actually requires.

Effectiveness has an expiry date that has nothing to do with whether the tool still runs. Success should be measured by whether the system as a whole still holds up, not by how many tools remain switched on.

Consolidated security, not consolidated tooling

Gartner identified that most organizations are pursuing a vendor consolidation strategy. While this approach certainly reduces unnecessary spending and keeps budgets under control, it’s not necessarily solving the biggest problem.

Consolidated tooling and consolidated security are not the same thing, and it’s an assumption that leads to disappointment. Reducing the number of tools alone achieves little if the underlying processes remain fragmented or teams continue to operate against different objectives.

No data center I have walked through was built entirely by one manufacturer. Racks, switches, storage and cabling come from a dozen suppliers, yet they operate as one coherent system because they were designed to fit together. Security should work the same way.

The goal is not necessarily fewer vendors, but every control, whoever built it, feeding into the same continuous picture of identification, visibility and enforcement.

What to ask instead

Before completing the next security purchase, consider how well a new tool fits into the stack you already have, not just what it claims to do on its own.

A tool that deploys cleanly, validates continuously rather than only at go-live, and feeds its findings back into the tools already in place is doing real work. One that arrives as a fresh, isolated source of alerts is just adding to the noise, however good its individual detection rate looks in a demo. That means comparing what the tool was bought to solve against what it is actually delivering today, checking it against newer capabilities, and being willing to redeploy or renegotiate rather than automatically renew or even retire.

Ultimately, the strongest security programs are not defined by the number of tools they deploy, nor by the number they eliminate. They're defined by how effectively every control works together when it matters most.

We've rounded up the best endpoint protection software suites.

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

Most desktop chargers are purely functional, but the robot-shaped Ugreen Uno manages to make something as mundane as powering your devices surprisingly fun.

Right now, the Ugreen Uno 100W GaN fast-charging block is now $60 (was $80) at Amazon. It's one of our favorite quirky gadgets for the office, scoring the full 5 stars in our review.

The Uno has a small TFT display that shows different facial expressions depending on its charging status, and its removable magnetic feet complete the little desktop robot design. In the UK, Ugreen's 100W charging block is now £40 (was £56) at Amazon.

Uno 100W 4-Port USB C Wall Charger: was $79.99 now $59.99
The quirky Uno combines 100W GaN charging with three USB-C ports, one USB-A port, a TFT expression display, removable magnetic feet, four-device simultaneous charging and multiple built-in safety protections.

In the UK: now £40 (was £56)View Deal

Why we recommend it

In his rave five-star review of the Uno, our expert Harry said: "With an impressive power output, quad-port design and quirky robot form, the UGreen Uno Charger 100W establishes itself as one of the best wall chargers on the market. It’s modestly priced against competitors, delivers super-fast charging and displays entertaining emojis, making it the ideal charging companion."

The Uno is a desk accessory that can add some personality to a home office without loosing practicality. Its display cycles through expressions including smiling, blushing and even an eating animation while charging, with a suitably cool expression appearing when charging completes.

More importantly, there's a capable 100W GaN charger inside that lets you power four devices simultaneously, The top two USB-C ports can each deliver up to 100W when used individually, making it suitable for more demanding devices such as laptops.

The port placement on top also makes sense when it's sitting on a desk, while its compact 2.05 x 1.93 x 3.23-inch dimensions are impressive considering the number of ports and power available.

Price context & historical value

Amazon has reduced the price of Ugreen's Uno 100W charger from $79.99 to $59.99, knocking $20 off the usual price. You're inevitably paying something for the unusual design, but you're getting four charging ports and enough output to handle many USB-C laptops.

This isn't the cheapest I've seen it though. It was on sale for $45 towards the end of last year. Even so, I think this is still a great deal and one I'd recommend snapping up.

Should you buy it?

✅ Buy the Ugreen Uno 100W charger if...

You want to replace several chargers with one device that also adds some personality to your home office. With three USB-C ports, USB-A and up to 100W of power, it can handle your laptop, phone, tablet and headphones simultaneously while taking up little desk space.

❌ Skip the Ugreen Uno 100W charger if...

You only need a charger for your phone or another low-powered device. The Uno is overkill for that job, and you can find considerably cheaper single-port chargers if you don't need its 100W output, four ports or quirky display.

The Catch: What to know before you buy

The 100W figure is the maximum available output rather than 100W from every port simultaneously. Power is shared when you're charging multiple devices, although the top two USB-C ports can each provide up to 100W when used individually.

It doesn't come with any charging cables, either, so you'll need to provide those yourself. The display also isn't particularly bright, which can make its expressions harder to see from some angles.

• Shop all chargers at Amazon

Bigme B6 Color: Two-minute review

If you’re looking for a cheaper Kindle Colorsoft alternative, then there’s a strong chance you’ll come across the Bigme B6 Color.

This ereader is cheaper but still boasts a six-inch color e-ink screen, 64GB of storage, and 4GB of RAM paired with a MediaTek Helio P35 processor.

That’s an entry-level smartphone SoC from 2018 and would be a poor choice for a standard tablet, but it is actually pretty powerful for an ereader, being significantly faster than the chip found in the Colorsoft or other similarly priced competitors like the Kobo Clara Color.

The Bigme B6 Color needs that added juice because, unlike mainstream options, it runs on a modified version of Android 14 like a standard tablet rather than a locked-down custom OS.

This means you can expect oodles of added functionality like downloading apps from the Google Play Store or reading online articles in the surprisingly capable web browser. If, like me, you’re coming over from a Kindle, you’ll still be able to access your entire library via the Kindle App in addition to exploring new options like Kobo Books or Google Play Books.

FutureFutureFuture

The freedom of Android means getting your own ebook files on the Bigme B6 Color is a breeze via the included Type-C cable or by making use of its microSD card slot.

The Bigme B6 Color also boasts a little mono speaker. It’s a bit tinny, but it means you can use the device to listen to audiobooks and podcasts in a pinch. It’s impressively versatile, and all of this functionality is packed into a sleek and premium form factor that is easily pocketable and can be used one-handed.

But what's the reading experience actually like? Text is sharp, and there is minimal ghosting when flicking between pages, so novels are a breeze — even at night, thanks to a backlight with a good level of brightness and adjustable warmth levels.

I’ve had a perfectly pleasant experience with comic books and manga as well. Monochrome illustrations look pin sharp, while the color screen elevates color splashes. I do wish the colors were a little richer, though, as they’re slightly more washed out than on the Colorsoft.

It’s sometimes spoiled by the many bugs in the operating system, but the biggest issue with the Bigme B6 Color is undoubtedly its battery life. Android is much more power-hungry than most ereader operating systems, and it really shows here. With the brightness cranked up, the battery meter steadily ticks down with every page turn.

I managed to squeeze only about five hours out of a single charge flicking through manga on the Kindle app. That was closer to ten hours for a basic PDF novel stored in the system files, which would at least see you through a full week of reading, but it's still a fraction of the multi-week usage a Kindle Colorsoft or Kobo Clara Color would give you.

To make matters worse, the battery life drops quickly when the ereader isn’t even in use. Tossed in my bag with its screen off, it lost about 10% charge each day, so you’re forced to shut it down fully every time you put it away or risk sitting down for a long train ride and finding it out of juice (something that happened to me more than once in even my relatively short testing period).

(Image credit: Future)Bigme B6 Color review: Price & availability

• Costs around $179 / £149 / AU$280
• Available via the Bigme website and other retailers
• Comes with a case

At the time of writing, I can find the Bigme B6 Color on sale for around $179 / £149 / AU$280. You can find it on the Bigme website in all regions. Shoppers in the US can also find it at Amazon and Newegg, while in the UK it’s also available via JoyBuy. In Australia, you can find it on AliExpress too.

There are three colors available: black, white, and light green. It also comes bundled with a magnetic protective case. It’s a nice case too; my review unit came in black with a navy one, and it attaches neatly to the back via strong magnets and puts the ereader to sleep when closed.

The Bigme B6 Color comes with 64GB of storage, and the value is extremely strong when you consider that the Kindle Colorsoft costs $279.99 / £269.99 / AU$449 for just 32GB of storage and doesn't come with a case.

• Value score: 4.5/5

Bigme B6 Color review: Specs

Display type:

Kaleido 3 Color E-Ink

Screen size:

6-inch

Resolution:

300ppi in B&W; 150ppi in color

CPU:

MediaTek Helio P35

Frontlight:

Warm and cold

Storage:

64GB (expandable)

Battery:

2,100 mAh

Speaker:

Mono

Water protection:

None

Software:

Android 14

Connectivity:

WiFI, Bluetooth

File support:

Epub, PDF, etc.

Dimensions:

108 x 149.3 x 6.98mm (4.25 × 5.88 × 0.27 inches)

Weight:

~176g (~6.2oz)

Bigme B6 Color review: Design & display

• Compact and lightweight
• Color display
• Physical buttons… sort of

The Bigme B6 Color is sleek and compact at 108 x 149.3 × 6.98 mm (or 4.25 × 5.88 × 0.27 inches). It’s easy to slip into a pocket or bag.

The back and sides are a matte plastic material that feels pleasant in the hands, while the bezel around the screen is shinier and smoother. The black model that I’ve been testing is quite plain-looking aside from a silver Bigme logo on the rear and a red power button.

If you look closely at the top, you’ll see a small grille for the speaker and a microphone hole. Flipping it over to the bottom reveals the USB Type-C charging port, a small LED charging indicator, and a slot for the microSD card.

Given that Bigme is a smaller brand, I’m really impressed with the build quality overall.

It’s lightweight at under 200g / 7.1oz but reassuringly solid in the hands. The materials used feel equivalent to those by Amazon or Kobo-maker Rakuten — something really worth commending given just how much cheaper the Bigme B6 Color is than those brands’ equivalent models.

(Image credit: Future)

The ereader's six-inch color e-ink display sits above a little row of grey buttons. These aren’t proper buttons in the traditional sense, and they don’t click like those of a Kindle Oasis. Rather, they’re little shortcuts printed on the screen that are tied to certain system apps.

The first opens your library, which shows any ebooks or PDFs you have saved on the device’s storage. The next is an AI button tied to BigmeGPT, an AI assistant of questionable value, but I’ll get on to that in more detail later.

The middle one opens the file manager, and the next takes you to the home screen. The fifth and final button is a settings shortcut.

I’m in two minds about these. On the one hand, some of them are useful to have, like the home screen button or library shortcut, but others, like the AI button, haven’t been pressed more than once or twice in my entire time testing the device.

I couldn’t find a way to rebind the buttons in the system settings, sadly, though even if you could, you would still be stuck with the printed icons.

• Design score: 3.5/5

Bigme B6 Color review: Android software & apps

• Freedom of Android
• Google Play Store access
• Stock apps are poor

Unlike a conventional ereader, the Bigme B6 Color runs on Android 14 and comes with the Google Play Store installed. This allows you to download a wide range of Android apps, all the way from chat services like Discord to social media apps such as Instagram and Facebook, or even some games.

Of course, the screen is a major limitation, and although you can technically watch the latest TechRadar YouTube video on your device, the low refresh rate makes for a pretty unpleasant experience.

That said, Android has some big advantages, namely allowing you to download a wide range of ereader apps. The Kindle app, for example, works fantastically and delivers a comparable experience to using an ereader made by Amazon. Favorites like Libby, which lets you access books from local libraries, are accessible too, and you can even use the ereader’s web browser to download files directly from sites like Internet Archive. Audiobook and podcast apps are also excellent.

The freedom is fantastic and will be a breath of fresh air if you’re used to locked-down ecosystems.

This isn’t a stock version of Android, though. Everything is wrapped in a custom skin created by Bigme, and it’s far from a smooth experience.

(Image credit: Future)

There are lots of stock apps, and some are quite buggy. The built-in BigmeGPT AI, for example, crashes instantly if you lose your internet connection. It’s not particularly useful when it does work either, offering only basic text and image generation features.

There’s also the screen saver app that lets you change the image on your lock screen. I used BigmeGPT to generate a few wacky pictures to use as screensavers, only to discover that it doesn’t seem to work very well when you select an image from system files, often defaulting to the default option (a childish cartoon of some bears sleeping in a forest) instead.

Other stock apps include a basic calendar, music player, dictionary, voice recorder, and translator. They all seem to work alright, but are so basic I can’t imagine them being very useful.

The overall interface also has some issues. System notifications will randomly pop up in Chinese from time to time, and it can all freeze up while you’re in menus. I even had the settings app crash entirely on a few occasions.

• Software score: 3/5

Bigme B6 Color review: User experience

• Reading is great
• But the battery life dampens the experience
• Not a tablet replacement

Despite the rough edges in the software, if your number one concern is the reading experience, the Bigme B6 Color does deliver. 300ppi resolution is more than sufficient for the small 6-inch screen and means that text looks very crisp. The backlight is effective too, offering sufficient brightness for reading in dimmer spaces or even a pitch-black room.

As I mentioned earlier, the colors could be better as they look more washed out than those of the Colorsoft, but they’re still decently accurate and help liven up illustrations. Browsing the web is also surprisingly smooth, though the refresh rate does hamper the experience. Even so, you can still browse news websites easily if you want to catch up with current events on the go.

(Image credit: Future)

The biggest issue encountered while trying to use the Bigme B6 Color as my main ereader was its battery life. It really does run out quickly, and I struggled to adjust to plugging it in for a top-up every night, having become used to only charging my Kindle every few weeks.

Although it does run Android, I wouldn’t view the Bigme B6 Color as a replacement for a conventional tablet. You technically can use productivity apps (WPS Office even comes installed out of the box to tempt you), but the experience is poor, again, thanks to that slow refresh rate. To Bigme’s credit, the brand advertises the B6 Color as an ereader rather than anything else — so I’m not deducting any points for this.

• User experience score: 3.5/5

Bigme B6 Color review: Performance

• Snappy performance
• Usable web browser
• You can even watch YouTube videos

The Bigme B6 Color performs fantastically with its 4GB of RAM and MediaTek Helio P35 chipset.

Don’t get me wrong, these would be awful specs for a phone — but on a relatively cheap ereader? Everything is butter smooth as far as an e-ink screen allows. Loading is fast, pages turn with no lag, and it doesn’t immediately lose your place if you send an ereader app to the background. It boots from sleep almost instantly as well.

(Image credit: Future)

I have had no issue accessing my favorite news websites (including TechRadar, of course) using the built-in browser. I even managed to get YouTube videos playing on it, which is pretty impressive for this kind of device. After using the Bigme B6 Color, my usual Kindle feels unbearably sluggish.

Storage is generous out of the box to boot, and, having downloaded a load of books and a handful of apps, I still have more than 40GB of free space left.

Not shabby at all for this price!

• Performance score: 4.5/5

Should I buy the Bigme B6 Color?

Bigme B6 Color

Amazon Kindle Colorsoft

Kobo Clara Color

Display type:

Kaleido 3 Color E-Ink

Kaleido 3 Color E-Ink

Kaleido 3 Color E-Ink

Screen size:

6-inch

7-inch

6-inch

Resolution:

300ppi in B&W; 150ppi in color

300ppi in B&W; 150ppi in color

300ppi in B&W; 150ppi in color

CPU:

MediaTek Helio P35

Unspecified dual-core MediaTek

MediaTek MT8113T

Frontlight:

Warm and cold

Warm and cold

Warm and cold

Storage:

64GB (expandable)

32GB

16GB

Battery:

2,100 mAh

2,310 mAh

1,500 mAh

Speaker:

Mono

None

None

Water protection:

None

IPX8 water-resistance

IPX8 water-resistance

Software:

Android 14

Proprietary

Proprietary

Connectivity:

WIFI, Bluetooth

WIFI, Bluetooth

WIFI, Bluetooth

File support:

EPUB, PDF, etc.

EPUB, PDF, AZW3

EPUB, EPUB3, FlePub, PDF, MOBI, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP, TIFF, TXT, HTML, RTF, CBZ, CBR

Dimensions:

108 x 149.3 x 6.98mm (4.25 × 5.88 × 0.27 inches)

127.6 x 176.7 x 7.8 mm (5.02 x 6.96 x 0.31 inches)

112 x 160 x 9.2 mm (6.3 x 4.4 x 0.36 inches)

Weight:

~176g (~6.2oz)

219g (7.73oz)

174g (6.1oz)

Buy it if...

You want an affordable color Android ereader

The Bigme B6 Color is surprisingly cheap for a color ereader running on Android. It's a good buy if you don't want to be locked down to one specific ecosystem.

You don't mind some jank

The software here takes some getting used to and can be buggy at times, but that shouldn't be much of an issue if you're used to fiddling with Android systems.

Don't buy it if...

You need long battery life

The Bigme B6 Color's biggest flaw is its battery life. Avoid picking one up if you need an ereader you can toss in a bag in sleep mode for a few weeks or one you don't have to charge every day or two.

Bigme B6 Color review: Alternatives

Kindle Colorsoft
Far superior battery life makes the Kindle Colorsoft a great alternative to the Bigme B6 Color. You lose the freedom of Android, but gain a much sleeker and smoother experience in return. Bear in mind it is much more expensive, though.

Read our in-depth Kindle Colorsoft review

Kobo Clara Color

The Kindle Clara Color isn't much more expensive than the Bigme B6 Color. Its processor is much slower, however, and it has far more limited storage.

Read our in-depth Kobo Clara Color review

How I tested the Bigme B6 Color

• Used as main e-reader for a month
• Popular e-reader apps tested
• Compared to similar models by brands like Amazon

To review the Bigme B6 Color I used it as my primary e-reader for just over a month. This meant using it for about forty minutes each way on my commutes to and from our office in London, during which I enjoyed a variety of novels, comic books, and manga.

Throughout my time with the e-reader I compared my experience to my hands-on usage of similar devices, including the Amazon Kindle, Amazon Kindle Colorsoft, and Kobo Clara Color.

Read more about how we test.

First published September 2026

• Creative Assembly says Total War: Warhammer 40,000's new Warcore engine improves almost every aspect of the game
• From rendering and animation to "the sheer volume of projectiles" that can be handled on screen at once
• The studio says the scale has been upgraded, creating "a bigger play area for all the planets, all the solar systems, the whole galaxy"

Creative Assembly has shared just how much its new Warcore engine has enabled it to improve almost every aspect of Total War: Warhammer 40,000.

In an interview with TechRadar Gaming at Gamescom 2026, lead designer Joy Dey and battle product owner Dave Petry discussed the upcoming strategy game and offered insight into how the updated Warcore engine delivers a bigger and better scale than previous Total War games.

"One thing the engine has allowed us to do is take the Total War into space, because we now need a bigger play area for all the planets, all the solar systems, the whole galaxy, really," Dey said. "And I think that's the biggest, biggest thing for the campaign."

Petry added that the engine has also let the studio easily manipulate assets in the game's 3D space and improve other features like rendering and animations, explaining that it was a "required engineering" for the team's vision.

"The rendering of things, being able to improve how we render things and the quality that we are rendering things at, the animation system, our ability to sort of build modular animations in a more modern way, and the retooling of all of that, so that we can build faster and better," Petry said.

"Just frankly, almost everything, and just in how we build and how we tool to be able to make our games a higher quality and at a better rate, right?"

The battle system also sounds amazing, with Petry mentioning the game's Havoc system and saying the engine manages to deal with physical explosions "much better" when it comes to destroying the environment, as well as the number of projectiles on screen.

"So you know, being able to bring in these these tools to be able to solve these new problems that get brought up by these really awesome games is something that we felt we absolutely had to do," he continued, "and it extends to model changes, like being able to just handle the sheer volume of projectiles that we are now spitting out of seemingly absolutely every orifice when it comes to this game.

Petry added, "It was just absolutely necessary to build that new foundation to work from."

Total War: Warhammer 40,000 launches sometime in 2027 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Series S, and PC.

On the lookout for your next gaming laptop? Today is a good time to consider picking one up, as most big specialist retailers are currently hosting Labor Day sales with decent price cuts. Price cuts that help offset the spiralling costs of components and PCs, at least.

I've been looking through various retailers like Amazon, Best Buy, Walmart, Dell, and a few others to try and find the best deals. While the annual Labor Day sales are usually associated with grills or appliances, I've actually found some great discounts that can save you some serious cash today. Check out my full list just below.

Highlights include these Gigabyte A16 laptops for $1,159 (was $1,299) and $1,518 (was $1,849) at Best Buy and Walmart, respectively. Both of these are very, very strong contenders right now if you're looking for outright value, as you get 32GB of RAM right out of the box alongside one of the latest RTX 5000 series graphics cards.

Another great, albeit high-end option, is this Acer Predator Helios Neo 16S for $1,899 (was $2,199) at Best Buy. It's pricey, but you get 32GB of RAM, a high-end RTX 5070 Ti graphics card, and a 240Hz OLED display, which really justifies the hefty price tag. If you want a no-compromise machine for playing all the latest titles smoothly, then this is a great option.

Labor Day gaming laptops — quick links

• Best Buy: gaming laptops starting at $699
• B&H Photo: up to $1,000 off Lenovo, Acer, Asus
• Dell: up to $600 off premium Alienware laptops
• HP: 34% off HP and HyperX Omen laptops
• Lenovo: 10% extra off with code BUYMORELENOVO
• Walmart: up to $600 off MSI, Gigabyte, Acer

This week's best Labor Day gaming laptop deals

Cyborg 15.6: was $1299 now $899
Graphics card: RTX 5050
Processor: Intel Core i5-13420H
RAM: 16GB
Storage: 512GB

It's tough to find a good, cheap gaming laptop these days — really tough, in fact. This MSI Cyborg at Walmart is a rare example of a sub-$1,000 machine that doesn't suck, however. With a Core i5 and RTX 5050, it's good enough to tackle a wide range of games, granted you're modest with your performance expectations. The RTX 5050 is capable of playing the latest games, but you'll likely have to tweak your graphical settings down a little on the most intensive titles.View Deal

Graphics card: RTX 5060
Processor: Intel Core i7-13620H
RAM: 32GB
Storage: 1TB

This Gigabyte Gaming A16 is one of the cheapest machines I've seen in recent months to feature 32GB of RAM — something that used to be commonplace on most mid-range gaming laptops. That's a massive boon for smooth frame rates, and the RTX 5060 graphics card and Core i7 chipset should pair nicely, even if the processor is a little older now. View Deal

Gaming A16: was $1849.99 now $1518.43
Graphics card: RTX 5070
Processor: Intel Core i7-13620H
RAM: 32GB
Storage: 1TB

Here's another great value listing on a Gigabyte A16, this time over at Walmart. This machine is essentially the same as the Best Buy deal above, but you swap out the RTX 5060 graphics card for the slightly higher-end RTX 5070. That should get you a nice little bump in performance, although this machine does still have an older chipset, so it's not as capable as the higher-end machines with RTX 5070 graphics cards. View Deal

Graphics card: RTX 5060
Processor: Intel Core Ultra 7-255H 
RAM: 32GB
Storage: 1TB

Newegg's sale has a ton of discounted machines right now, but my favorite is definitely this MSI Stealth 16 AI. It's on the pricey end for a machine with an RTX 5060, but this particular configuration features an OLED display and 32GB of RAM, which are two massive bonuses. You'll not only get as much performance as possible out of the graphics card, but all your games will look great on this machine's premium display. View Deal

Predator Helios Neo 16S: was $2199.99 now $1899.99
Graphics card: RTX 5070 Ti
Processor: Intel Core Ultra 9-275HX
RAM: 32GB
Storage: 1TB

For a no-compromise option, I'd recommend this Acer Predator Helios, which is currently on sale at Best Buy. The savings aren't huge, but I think the price is right here considering you get an RTX 5070 Ti, Ultra 9, 32GB of RAM, and a high-end OLED display. You'll have no issues with all the latest titles with this machine — and everything will look fantastic thanks to the OLED display.View Deal

Graphics card: RTX 5060
Processor: Intel Core 7-240H
RAM: 32GB
Storage: 1TB

This Alienware 16 Aurora is a little on the pricey end for a machine with an RTX 5060 graphics card, but you do get 32GB of RAM right out of the box alongside a lovely premium design. If you're a fan of Alienware's understated, yet futuristic aesthetic, then you'll like the 16 Aurora - and it has plenty of power to offer great performance on its 16-inch 120Hz display. View Deal

Internet security teams are not short of information. Threat intelligence feeds run around the clock, vulnerability scanners flag thousands of issues a month, and high-profile CVEs dominate the news cycle before most teams have finished their morning coffee.

What is far harder to come by is proof. Raw data is one thing, but what about evidence that the controls sitting in your environment actually detect and respond to the way real attackers behave, in your specific network, today?

That gap is what purple teaming exists to close, and it is where the surprises tend to show up. Running these exercises with organizations that have invested heavily in their security stack, I have repeatedly seen gaps nobody expected, missing telemetry, misfiring detections, and attack paths nobody was watching.

The problem was never simply being under attack. It is being under-validated, and mistaking spend for assurance.

Why so many programs that look mature on paper still fail

Here's a pattern I keep running into with otherwise well-resourced organizations: every control on their books checks out, reports are signed off, tooling is deployed, leadership reassured. None of that holds up once a real attack runs through the environment. The cracks show almost immediately.

Ask where the actual gaps sit, and a familiar list comes back. Some systems feed logs in real time, others barely at all, leaving the SOC with a patchier picture than the dashboard implies. Detection rules are tuned to a generic attacker, not the one likely to show up here. And when something does trigger, it can sit unactioned for hours, since no one owns it.

None of this is exotic, just the ordinary, unglamorous consequence of tools and processes configured once and assumed still to work. With luck, those gaps surface in a simulated exercise before a real attacker finds them.

Part of the problem is what gets measured in the first place. Running standard techniques against a host already flagged as compromised only confirms which rules switch on. That's coverage, nothing more. It won't tell you whether the excess permissions, trust relationships, or misconfigurations in your real environment are exploitable, since that activity looks like normal use and was never built to trigger an alert.

Real validation looks different. It starts with the organization's own risk profile, not a generic library of techniques, and treats configuration and permissions as the real cause, not something a new detection rule can patch over. Only testing your own environment tells you which gap you're actually facing.

What's worth measuring, and the case for continuous validation

Treating validation as an ongoing discipline rather than a one-off exercise also changes the output you’re looking for.

You don’t want another report that sits in a folder until next year's audit; you want to create a living, prioritized backlog. This is a running list of gaps that have been proven to matter, ranked against the paths an attacker could realistically use, not against theoretical severity scores.

It’s an important distinction because a CVE rated critical in isolation may be unreachable in your environment, while a modest misconfiguration sitting on a well-trodden attack path can be far more urgent.

The most valuable information a security team can generate is not a longer list of vulnerabilities, but evidence of which exposures are actually exploitable, mapped against real behavior, and prioritized against genuine business impact.

This is why it is critical to avoid relying purely on agent-based validation. Because an agent is already embedded within the network or on an endpoint, it inherently shortcuts a lot of attack paths and bypasses defensive controls. It assumes the attacker has already achieved a foothold at that specific location, giving you an artificial view of your actual perimeter and lateral resilience.

Alongside the process itself, cadence is another important factor here. An annual or ad hoc test captures a single snapshot, and environments do not stand still between engagements: new services get deployed, configurations drift, staff change. Shifting from ad hoc testing towards an operationalized, continuous cycle of testing, validating, remediating, and retesting is what keeps that backlog tied to the environment as it is right now, not as it was assessed to be six months ago.

The ability to close a validated gap before it can be exploited as an attack path enables the organization to shift from reactive footing to a more proactive stance.

Breaking down the walls between red, blue, and the business

None of this works if validation happens in a silo. The most consistent driver of a strong outcome I have seen is not a tool; it is collaboration between people who are technically on the same side but often operate as if they are not.

Red and blue teams that only meet at the end of an engagement, via a report, tend to treat findings as a scorecard, something to defend or dispute rather than act on. An open-book approach changes that dynamic entirely. When offensive and defensive teams compare notes on what they are seeing, what they expected to see, and why, as the exercise unfolds, gaps get identified and understood together.

If a defensive team cannot follow a technique or lacks the telemetry to see it, that is not a failing to hide; it is the exact information the exercise exists to surface.

Clear ownership matters just as much as clear findings. An alert with no defined owner is functionally the same as no alert at all, so part of building this collaboration is agreeing, in advance, on who acts on what.

That communication cannot stop at the SOC door, either. Validation findings need to travel outward too, translated into terms a business audience can act on: which risks are real, which are theoretical, and where investment will actually reduce exposure. Security teams that build this bridge consistently get faster remediation and fewer arguments about priority, because everyone is working from the same evidence rather than competing assumptions.

Moving towards more coordinated action is another step towards preempting risk, delivering smoother and more effective operations than an isolated response where fixes happen team by team.

Resilience is proven, not assumed

None of this is an argument against investment in tools or people. Rather, it’s an argument for asking a different question that identifies risk. It's time to stop asking, "Are we safe?", because no environment stays safe indefinitely. The question that matters is whether you're resilient enough to validate an exposure and respond before it turns into a breach.

Confidence built on assumptions collapses the moment a real adversary tests it. Confidence built on shared, ongoing validation does not, because it has already been tested, refined, and proven against the way attackers actually behave in your environment.

We've listed the best Linux distros for forensic and penetration testing.

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

• LG TVs reportedly monitor your entire home, not just your viewing
• The report says TVs can capture audio when the screen's off
• Invasive monitoring may be widespread across manufacturers

LG is at the center of another online privacy storm focusing on its smart TVs. A new investigation by Gamers Nexus and independent security researchers, detailed in full in 135-minute YouTube embedded below, says that LG TVs are tracking "everybody in the household" — even when the TVs appear to be off, or unplugged from your local network. And they're looking at your other devices too.

The result, Gamers Nexus says, is "216,000,000 Spy TVs" reporting on millions of other devices in the US alone.

The report comes just over a month after LG was accused of installing adware on PCs and recording guests in your home, claims that LG refuted in a statement. However, this new report could be even more damaging because LG's own marketing pitch to businesses says that "we know who's in the LG household. We know which devices are there. We know what you're exposed to on TV and we know how to extend that reach into mobile."

The Gamers Nexus video features clips of three separate LG executives saying either "We own the glass", "we own the TV", or both.

What does "we own the glass" mean?

The "we own the glass" is a pitch to advertising buyers, and it's based on ACR, aka Automatic Content Recognition. That's the controversial system that analyzes what you watch on TV irrespective of what app or service you use, collating that data to be used for personalized marketing.

Gamers Nexus says that LG TVs gather much more than viewing data, including voice recordings, details of other local devices, geographical location and details of nearby wireless networks.

LG's sales pitch is that LG advertising can give marketers the big picture of everything you and I do on our TVs — and extend advertising from the LG TV to other devices, such as our phones: "within an LG household, we can help extend [an advertising] campaign footprint to the other devices in the household."

It's a very long and detailed video, but the key claims here are that LG TVs' advertising functionality goes much further than you might know or expect, and that it goes so far and gathers so much data that it becomes "intrusive and grotesque".

And as Gamers Nexus note at the end of the video, they're certain that other manufacturers are doing much the same. "If you want Flock cameras on your living room wall, this is how you get Flock cameras on your living room wall," they say.

The online reaction so far is primarily outrage: writing on r/gadgets, grahag says: "Every appliance in my house is an LG... I will never buy an LG product again" while BirnirG says "I hope nobody will buy their products after this... if I buy your product I own it, they don't 'own the glass' or anything any more." Another Redditor summed it up as simply as "It's extremely creepy."

As we've noted before, TV margins are very tight and manufacturers are increasingly turning to advertising in order to bring in more money. But there are growing concerns that firms are not doing this with customers' consent, and that changes to data use are buried in new versions of the T&Cs or privacy policies that nobody ever reads.

We have, of course, approached LG for comment and we'll keep you updated.

• Rhysida ransomware group breached Berlin’s state government, stealing 1.44 million files weighing in at around 5.8TB
• Attackers demanded 30 BTC (~$2.3M); Berlin refused, leading to full leak online
• Leaked data reportedly includes water supply info, staff records, and emergency plans

A cybercriminal group known as Rhysida allegedly broke into the network of Berlin's state government and exfiltrated 1.44 million files. They then tried to extort the government entity for money and when that failed, they leaked it all into the dark web.

According to multiple sources, the group first claimed responsibility for the attack on an underground forum, where it shared a small sample of the stolen files and demanded Berlin pay 30 bitcoin (around $2.3 million) in exchange for deleting the files.

Berlin recognized the attack in a press release, and said it would not be negotiating with the attackers, and instead launched a full-scale investigation into the incident, which it described as an “extremely serious crime and an attack on the state of Berlin.”

Evaluating the leaked files

A few days later, Rhysida decided to leak it all online - and Berlin is now reviewing the leaked files and is assessing the damage:

“After the publication of the stolen data from the Berlin administration, these files are being evaluated at full speed,” a press release, published on the Berlin.de website (machine-translated), reads.

“An additional steering unit has been set up in the Senate Chancellery under the leadership of the Chief Digital Officer (CDO), Florian Hauer, which coordinates the review, examination and evaluation of the leaked data and supports the two Senate administrations concerned in informing and advising the affected citizens and companies.”

According to German public broadcaster Tagesschau, the archive counts 1.44 million files and totals 5.8 terabytes. At the same time, the Chaos Computer Club (Germany's largest and best-known hacker organization) claims the archive contains sensitive data on the city’s water supply, personal data of admin staff, various employment references, and emergency plans.

Via Reuters

• Microsoft is working to speed up boot times
• Over at IFA 2026 a Microsoft executive said that 'we've made significant gains' with startup speeds and more
• The exec also underlined Microsoft's commitment to get Windows 11 running more smoothly on 8GB PCs

Microsoft is readying a major boost to the performance of Windows 11 that should speed up boot times.

Windows Latest reports that at IFA 2026 last week a Microsoft exec confirmed improvements to boot speeds are inbound.

This was Mark Linton, who is VP of Windows & Devices at Microsoft, who told the tech site: "We've made significant gains on things like boot time, Windows Hello responsiveness."

Windows Hello is the secure login that's offered with Windows 11 – often facilitated via an infrared-supporting webcam and facial recognition – and that happening more swiftly, alongside a faster boot time, should mean you arrive at the desktop in a far more timely manner.

This work isn't in testing just yet, we're told, but Microsoft is still tinkering with ramping up boot performance in internal builds.

Analysis: performance promises are underlined

(Image credit: Windows/Unsplash)

The use of the word 'significant' is promising, and Windows Latest talks about getting to the lock screen 'almost immediately'. In fairness, Windows 11 already boots nippily (on my PC certainly), so we could be looking at effectively booting in the blink of an eye – fingers crossed.

As noted, this isn't even in preview builds of Windows 11 yet, but it should be here before too long. It's part of a larger effort and Microsoft's broad promise to make Windows 11 faster in general, ensuring that menus perform more responsively, and that apps load more swiftly (the latter is already rolling out in the form of a CPU boosting feature known as 'Low Latency Profile').

This performance boosting work is all the more important considering that 8GB laptops are making a resurgence – thanks to the RAM crisis pushing up notebook prices – and so Microsoft is also working to ensure that Windows 11 is more performant with that lesser memory configuration. Speaking of which, Windows Latest said that Microsoft also underlined its commitment to make sure that the desktop OS will run better on 8GB over at IFA 2026.

Linton said of Windows 11 that: "We're continuing to improve on the fundamentals," adding that: "We're optimizing so that 8 gig of RAM runs great on machines as well."

However, the exec didn't provide any estimates of what kind of performance jump might be expected – although that's hardly surprising at this early stage of the game.

When I receive an Earfun product to check out, I can usually count on it being way better quality than its price would suggest. And with the brand's gadgets seeing some solid discounts in the Labor Day deals, you can get an opportunity to enjoy them too.

In particular two of the brand's devices, both of which I've reviewed, have seen some discounts that you can't miss. And they're both pairs I'd consider buying if I were looking for something in the sales.

If you want a pair of over-ear headphones, then the Earfun Wave Pro is calling out for you. It's now available from Amazon for $59.99, down from $79.99, and we gave these cans an almost-perfect 4.5/5 review back when they launched in 2024. A new model called the Wave Pro X just launched, but they're pricier, so these older headphones are still easy to recommend.

People who'd rather use in-ear earbuds should look to the Earfun Air Pro 4, as you can get the white model for $68.37 at Amazon, which is 24% off from their $89.99 asking price. These earbuds were feature-packed (perhaps too much, as I said in my review), but they're great value for money. The newer Air Pro 4 Plus are better, but they haven't seen a discount, so I'd be happy settling for the non-Plus models.

If you see something else from Earfun discounted, we can recommend the brand; I've used them plenty beyond the standard review process. Just check out to see if we've reviewed it, because some of the brand's products are fantastic, and others are just 'good'.

• See every Labor Day deal live now at Amazon

Today's best Earfun deals

Wave Pro: was $79.99 now $59.99
It doesn't seem that Amazon's ever sold these over-ears for cheaper than $59.99 before, making this a great sale. You have to be an Amazon Prime member to enjoy the discount, though.View Deal

Air Pro 4: was $89.99 now $68.37
If you're interested in picking up these earbuds, bear in mind that only the white model are fully discounted. The black versions are available for $10 off, but the blue pair aren't discounted at all.View Deal

Not quite the cans or buds for you? We've got a roundup of the 9 best headphones/earbuds we've seen in the Labor Day sales that's broader.

Also, don't forget to check our more general Labor Day tech deals roundup with 70+ deals on appliances, TVs, laptops, fall must-haves, and more.

And above all, have a lovely day — and enjoy the music!

Shop more of today's best Labor Day sales

• Amazon: 45% off TVs, AirPods, air fryers & vacuums
• Apple: iPads, AirPods & MacBooks from $99
• Appliances: up to $1,200 at Samsung
• Best Buy: 60% off appliances, TVs, laptops & more
• Casper: up to 30% off mattresses
• Dell: laptop deals from $249.99
• DreamCloud: up to 60% off mattresses, 66% off bundles
• Home Depot: 40% off appliances, furniture, grills & tools
• Lowe's: $1,000 off appliances, patio & tools
• Nectar: up to 50% off mattresses, deals from $349
• Saatva: up to $625 off luxury mattresses
• Samsung: up to $2,000 off 4K, QLED & OLED TVs
• Target: 45% off clothing, tech & furniture
• Walmart: 58% off back-to-school, furniture, & clothing

• Microsoft reports phishing campaign using ASCII smuggling to bypass spam filters
• Attackers insert invisible characters into keywords, tricking filters and AI agents
• Defenders should normalize Unicode tags and flag unexpected invisible code points as suspicious

Cybercriminals are using the “ASCII smuggling” technique to make sure phishing emails pass security filters and land in people’s inboxes, experts have warned.

ASCII is a character encoding standard that turns characters and words humans can read into numeric values that computers can understand. It can also be used to create characters that aren’t even displayed on the screen (essentially “invisible” ones) but can still be read by the machine.

In a new report, security researchers from Microsoft found crooks are abusing this fact to distribute phishing emails. Most email providers offer solutions that filter out spam emails. These filters look for certain keywords and phrases, such as “funding”, “credit”, “loan”, and similar, and automatically send such emails to the spam folder.

Ongoing campaign

By adding a set of invisible characters in the middle of these keywords, the attackers can break them apart and thus “confuse” the filters.

While the human sees the word “funding” in their email, the security solution is seeing something like “fun[a long string of characters]ding”. This technique has been adopted from prompt injection attacks, where crooks would use ASCII smuggling to deliver malicious and invisible prompts in the emails.

Therefore, when a victim asks their AI agent to summarize the email, it ends up working on a prompt that could be anything from extracting sensitive data, to deploying malware.

Microsoft is saying the campaign has been ongoing for months, and while it peaked in February 2026 with more than 2.3 million emails every day, and has been in decline ever since, it remains active to this day. In early February, Microsoft observed a cluster of almost 150 sender domains, all themed around finance. These domains accounted for almost all (96%) of all the spam emails Defender for Office 365 flagged under ASCII smuggling.

Defending sounds relatively simple, though. IT teams should normalize Unicode tag characters and other invisible code points before applying any keyword detection. They should also consider all unexpected tag-block characters as suspicious.

Via BleepingComputer

You probably have tens, if not hundreds of passwords floating around across all the online accounts you use every week. In fact, the average person has over 150 passwords. It's not easy to remember them all, making it more attractive to keep them simple and similar - but that can lead to a serious chain of account theft.

That's why password managers like Keeper exist. They generate strong passwords and store them passwords in a secured vault to keep them safe from hackers and prying eyes. They even autofill your credentials to make logging in to your account faster and easier.

Keeper has cut prices on its personal, family, and business starter plans by up to 50%. Keeper regularly scores highly in our reviews, and includes great features across Personal, Family, and Business plans.

Get up to 50% off Keeper plans

Keeper is offering 50% off its Personal and Family plans, making it even more affordable to secure both personal and household accounts. The Family plan covers multiple users with five secured vaults, making it perfect for shared accounts without the hassle of mixing browsers and reusing passwords.

Keeper Business Starter is discounted by 30%, and is an excellent choice for small teams looking for a credentials control platform without the complexity and hassle of enduring an enterprise rollout. It includes centralized management, secure password sharing, and role-based access, cleanly organizing your passwords without unnecessary complications.

The full terms and pricing are available on the Keeper site.View Deal

Why we recommend Keeper

Our Keeper review highlights the platform's zero knowledge architecture and device level encryption that helps keep your password vault secured against unwanted intrusions.

Where Keeper really shone was in our usability and convenience testing. We loved how Keeper uses biometric security to access your vault, rather than requiring a master password with each log in. By using a facial scan or fingerprint to verify that its actually you accessing your vault, it adds a fast but secure method of verification to ensure its you, and not a nefarious actor.

For households, the Family Plan includes five private vaults, allowing you to quickly share Wi-Fi or streaming passwords using Keeper's shared vaults.

The Business Starter plan covers 5 users, covering an unlimited devices, shared team folders, user activity reporting for IT admins, and a free Family Plan for every team member.

These discounts apply to the first year only, so the value is highest for new customers or anyone switching from a monthly plan. After that, pricing goes back to standard rates.

• Invoke Studios head Dominic Guay says Warlock: Dungeons & Dragons has "deep-cut" inspirations from the tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG)
• He adds that the game will still have a mystery for new and experienced Dungeons & Dragons players
• Guay says, "We wanted players coming fresh, with no knowledge of D&D, to kind of figure things out as they play"

Warlock: Dungeons & Dragons draws much inspiration from the tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG), but Invoke Studios head Dominic Guay says the game will still offer mystery for even experienced D&D players.

In an interview with TechRadar Gaming at Gamescom, Guay discussed the many "deep-cut" D&D elements Invoke applied to Warlock, such as monsters, items, and spells; he also touched on the game's setting, Darkon, a realm within Ravenloft's Domains of Dread.

Players can explore Darkon's open world and uncover its secrets in the classic D&D way, which will take "tens of hours," confirming Warlock isn't a 100-hour campaign.

"There have been books written about it. Some of it is deep cuts, but it's still really good material we tapped into," Guay said, but explained that it didn't want to create a D&D game whose world experienced fans are already familiar with.

"We don't want to create a game where if you know D&D, you're like, 'Oh, I know everything,'" he said. "We want players to live that mystery of figuring out, what's that place, what are the rules of that place? So a lot of players are familiar with Ravenloft, which is another Domain of Dread, and that'll give them some insight into some of the things happening.

"But we wanted players coming fresh, with no knowledge of D&D, to kind of figure things out as they play."

Guay also confirmed Warlock has many D&D tropes, whether that's finding a secret door or dodging a trap, suggesting the game will be authentic to the TTRPG.

"We're doing these things in a way that's trying to replicate the feeling, but in real time without rolling down dice or doing these kinds of things," he said.

Warlock: Dungeons & Dragons is slated to launch in 2027 for PS5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, and PC.