TechRadar News

Indian tech brand Noise has teamed up with Bose for a brand new pair of open earbuds, the Noise Master Buds Open.

These clip-on buds are a first for Noise in the open ear segment, but join its existing Master series lineup, that includes over-ear headphones and in-ear buds — which were also built alongside Bose.

And lucky me — I’ve already tried the Master Buds Open for myself. I got hands on with the brand new open earbuds at IFA Berlin 2026, and spoke with Noise about its collaboration with Bose and the fancy features crammed into its latest creation.

Bose sound at an affordable price… kinda

(Image credit: Future)

Allow me to start with something of a disclaimer. The Master Buds Open aren’t a fully fledged Bose product, they simply feature ‘Sound by Bose’ technology. This means that the audio giant helped to tune the sound on the Master Buds Open, and there’s a specific Sound by Bose EQ option for the model.

We’ve seen other brands use Sound by Bose tech in the last year or so, with Baseus making use of a partnership in its Inspire line (including the XH1 headphones), and Skullcandy teaming up with the ANC giant for products including the Method 360 ANC (which we rated very highly).

However, Noise has a closer relationship with Bose than most, as the latter has invested in the Indian company across recent years, and the pair have already developed a number of audio products together, including the Noise Master Buds 2 and Master Buds Max.

Although the new Master Buds Open don’t quite offer the exceptional build and sound quality we’ve come to expect from products like the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds Gen 2, this collaboration certainly heightens the perceived value of Noise’s affordable audio gear, and helps it to stand out as a relatively recent entrant in competitive markets like the US, UK, and EU.

Getting hands on

(Image credit: Future)

Anyway, let’s talk about my time getting hands-on with the Noise Master Buds Open.

I have to say, when the buds were brought over to me, they made an excellent first impression. They come in a beautiful case with appealing metallic details, and the buds themselves look incredibly sleek and almost futuristic — especially in the slick Silver colorway.

In use, the Master Buds Open also felt supremely comfortable. I find that some clip-on earbuds have the tendency to either feel a bit tight, or almost too loose, but in my short time with the Master Buds Open they seemed to master the clip-on feel, with a secure yet comfortable fit and almost weightless on-ear sensation.

Sonically, the Master Buds Open performed about as well as I expected, although I should preface my thoughts by noting that the unit I tried was a prototype, and so the Master Buds Open may sound a little different at launch.

Naturally, I made use of the Sound by Bose EQ option, and I’d say the earbuds performed decently overall. A representative played me a bit of I’m Alive by Céline Dion, and I was treated to clear vocals, with fairly prominent bass (as far as open ears go), and well-separated guitars in the mid-range.

I also had the chance to play some songs of my choosing, and switched over to Can’t Resist by Jamback. In this house track, I realized that treble was pretty forward, meaning that drums higher in the frequency range were particularly prominent. Bass was also decently weighted, although you won’t get the pounding low-end that some of the best wireless earbuds can provide.

Was I blown away by the audio on offer from the Master Buds Open? Perhaps not — at least not at this stage. But they did perform pretty well overall, especially when you consider their price. I was told that the Master Buds Open will release for about €119 (around $140 / £100), which is relatively affordable — especially when you consider that Bose’s Ultra Open Earbuds have a list price of $299 / £299 / AU$449.95.

A surprising highlight

(Image credit: Future / Noise)

While the Master Buds Open will undoubtedly face stiff competition from similarly priced rivals like the Anker Soundcore AeroClip, they did impress me with their comfort and looks.

But one thing struck me more than any other: their surprisingly feature-rich companion app. Not only did I find Noise’s app to be incredibly easy to use and navigate, but I also couldn’t believe how much functionality it had to offer.

There’s a spatial audio setting, designed to offer “dynamic and realistic” audio, as well as a Gaming Mode if you need low-latency audio — a nice touch for keen mobile gamers.

On top of this, the Master Buds Open have customizable touch controls, multi-point, Find My Device capabilities, and a Focus Mode, which locks the buds’ controls when you just want to zone in on your tunes and avoid accidental touch commands. Of course, there are also EQ settings, including a fully customizable equalizer, and mics built in for taking calls on the go.

Noise was also keen to show me that the Master Buds have a built-in AI assistant. This enables you to ask questions with your voice, read chat history, and transcribe meetings or discussions. That’s quite a lot of functionality for buds in this price-range.

While there’s no specific launch date for the Master Buds Open just yet, Noise has said that they’re set to launch on their website and with some major online retailers from late September 2026.

Steve Jobs, Tim Cook, and now John Ternus: those are the three Apple CEOs of the 21st century, and I've seen them all in action. From keynotes to deep product dives during WWDC, each had his own presentation style, but what Jobs and, eventually, Cook shared was an uncanny ability to focus attention through the force of their personalities. Now it's Ternus'...er...turn. He's far from untested in these situations but has never led a major Apple keynote. That changes on Wednesday, September 9, when Ternus leads Apple's "Surprise and Shine" event at Apple Park in Cupertino, California.

In many ways, this should be a predictable event; the product lineup is widely rumored. Here are the anticipated highlights:

• Apple's first folding iPhone, the iPhone Ultra with two rear cameras and a truly creaseless design
• iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max (while they hold back the iPhone 18)
• AirPods 5 with ANC
• Apple Watch Series 12 with continuous heart rate tracking
• Apple Watch Ultra 4 with a new S Chip and blood pressure monitoring
• Apple 4K TV box with an A18 Chip and more RAM to support AI
• HomePod mini 2 with deeply integrated Siri AI
• A possible HomePad combo device with some robotic elements

Things get interesting, though, when we try to assess what kind of Apple Event keynote Ternus will run. The new CEO could take a page from the Tim Cook playbook and appear briefly on the Steve Jobs Theater stage before handing it over to a series of canned product-launch videos.

I find that hard to believe. First of all, Apple has had since April to plan for a keynote built around John Ternus, a 25-year Apple veteran who is, unlike Cook, a true technologist. Ternus might relish staying on stage to explain, in depth, some of Apple's most exciting new products.

Alternatively, Ternus could let the videos handle all the product launch walkthroughs except for the folding iPhone Ultra. Sure, it's the world's worst-kept secret, but imagine if Ternus officially launched his time as CEO with a memorable "One more thing."

TechRadar Editor at Large Lance Ulanoff (left) with John Ternus shortly after he was announced as Apple's incoming CEO. (Image credit: Lance Ulanoff / Future)

Ternus has some charisma, and it would make sense for Apple to lean into showcasing that on stage, live.

Maybe he'll spend some time talking about the official launch of Siri AI and how it ties together all of Apple's new products. Siri will be in evidence on the new HomePod, AirPods, Apple Watch, Apple TV 4K, iPhone 18, and Apple Watch models. Not to mention the entire recently updated Mac, MacBook, and iPad lineup. Ternus could do one of Steve Jobs' classic live demos that weaves an exciting story of life at home with Apple products and Siri AI. Maybe he'll even joke and ask everyone in the theater to turn off their WiFi (if you know, you know).

Ternus also faces a critical test in how he reassures Apple fans and detractors that it will be more careful than others with the expansion of AI across almost every part of Apple's business without breaking privacy promises or adding to the growing outrage over resource use and data centers.

People will be looking to these moments to understand who Ternus really is and compare him to Cook and even Jobs (yes, inevitably, all roads lead back to Steve Jobs).

Many people have asked me if I expect Ternus to put his own stamp on the event, and I think the answer is yes. It's a massive opportunity for him (and Apple), and one I think that he is fully aware of. All eyes will be tuned in to learn about Apple's latest iPhone lineup and to confirm that folding phone, but also, and maybe even mostly, to see Ternus in action on Apple's biggest stage. It is, in truth, his moment to shine.

If you're building a new PC or upgrading an aging boot drive, you'll definitely want to check out the Kingston NV3 1TB internal SSD, now $157 (was $216) at Newegg.

An established name in the storage arena, Kingston built the NV3 as the successor to its popular NV2 line, and the jump to a Gen 4x4 controller brings a meaningful speed increase - it can hit read speeds up to 6,000MB/s.

But it keeps the single-sided, compact M.2 2280 form factor that fits easily into laptops and small-form-factor builds.

NV3 M.2 2280 1TB PCIe: was $215.99 now $156.99
PCIe 4.0 x4 NVMe M.2 2280 SSD rated for read/write speeds up to 6,000/4,000MB/s, with lower power consumption and reduced heat versus the previous NV2 generation.View Deal

Why we recommend it

The headline number is up to 6,000MB/s of sequential read performance, and independent testing has generally found the NV3 hits close to its rated speeds, putting it in the same territory as several established TLC-based drives despite using cheaper QLC NAND.

Kingston keeps costs down with a DRAM-less design that relies on Host Memory Buffer, borrowing a slice of system RAM instead of including a dedicated cache chip. For typical use, booting, loading applications, and gaming, that trade-off is barely noticeable, and it's part of how Kingston is able to price the NV3 competitively.

The single-sided M.2 2280 layout keeps the drive slim enough for thin laptops and small-form-factor desktops, and Kingston's reputation for reliable, mainstream storage gives some reassurance on a component you don't want to think about after installing it.

Price Context & Historical Value

A $59 drop from $215.99 to $156.99 is a substantial discount, around 27 percent off, on a capacity and speed class that typically runs cheaper than this. It's worth double-checking Newegg's price at checkout since SSD pricing shifts often, but this discount looks like a genuine markdown rather than an inflated list price.

Should you buy it?

✅ Buy the Kingston NV3 1TB if... you want a fast, affordable PCIe 4.0 boot drive for a new build or upgrade, you need a compact single-sided M.2 2280 drive with low power draw, or you're a mainstream user whose workloads are mostly reads rather than sustained large writes.

❌ Skip the Kingston NV3 1TB if... you regularly write very large files such as video footage and need consistent sustained write speeds, you want a drive with a dedicated DRAM cache rather than Host Memory Buffer, or you need more than 1TB in a single drive.

The Catch: What to know before you buy

This is a QLC, DRAM-less drive, so sustained write performance drops noticeably once its SLC cache fills, which matters most for large, continuous file transfers rather than everyday use.

• See all Labor Day deals at Newegg

• OpenAI rolled out GPT‑6 Astra, its most advanced AI, with “critical” cyber capabilities
• Astra can autonomously find and exploit unknown flaws; release limited to vetted Daybreak participants
• Staggered rollout sparked user frustration; Altman apologized, promising broader access soon

OpenAI has begun rolling out GPT-6 Astra, its latest and most capable artificial intelligence model.

In an announcement published on its website, OpenAI said Astra represents a “significant step up in cyber capabilities”, meeting the company’s “Critical” threshold.

This threshold, the company explained, means that under the right circumstances, the tool can find “previously unknown security flaws and develop new ways to exploit them across many well-protected systems without a person guiding each step.”

Apologies for a messy rollout

OpenAI also said Astra improves on functions such as computer use, software engineering, and science, and that it should be better at staying oriented, compared to previous versions.

Just like many of the previous models, Astra’s release has been marred with controversy. Roughly a month ago, OpenAI said the model’s “critical” cybersecurity capabilities prompted it to pause some internal development and trigger safety protocols.

In response to early findings, the company scaled up certain security controls and even paused activities that do not meet its newly established security requirements.

It now decided it was time to release the model, but still not to the general public. Instead, it opted for a staggered release, giving it first to a limited group of companies participating in the Daybreak program, a cybersecurity initiative that gives vetted organizations (cybersecurity and otherwise) specialized AI tools for vulnerability research and threat detection.

This did not sit well with many ChatGPT users, especially those paying a monthly subscription. As The Verge reported, CEO Sam Altman was apologizing, mere hours after launch, for the “messy rollout” of Astra.

Initially, all Plus, Pro, Business, and Enterprise users were supposed to gain access to Astra, as well as those accessing through OpenAI API, Microsoft Azure, and AWS Bedrock.

“We are working towards getting Astra in everyone’s hands as quickly as we can,” Altman said on X. “I know it is frustrating and I appreciate the patience. It should be quick.”

Via CNBC

It’s been a tough 12 months for the smartphone industry. Memory prices are up, unit sales are down, and a generally poor outlook for the future has not only forced the cancellation of specific models (the Nothing CMF Phone 3 Pro), but also entire brands (RIP OnePlus).

On paper, then, it doesn’t seem like a particularly great time for any mobile company to be expanding into new markets, but that hasn’t stopped Indian brand Lava International from doing just that: today (September 4), it’s launching its first product in the UK, the Lava Agni 4N 5G.

Intended to compete with the Google Pixel 10a, Nothing Phone (4a) Pro, and more of the best cheap phones, the Agni 4N costs just £499 and is available via Amazon. It boasts decent specs and a competitive price — but is that enough to lure prospective customers away from the brands they’ve known for years?

Ahead of the Agni 4N’s UK launch, I spoke with Devneet Bohidar, Head of Product, Smartphones, at Lava, to find out more about the company, the phone, and why Lava believes now is the right time to take on Samsung and Google in a “highly informed” market.

TechRadar: What should unfamiliar UK consumers know about the Lava Brand, and what are the key selling points of the Agni 4N?

Devneet Bohidar: Lava has been part of India's mobile phone industry for 17 years, with its own hardware and software design capabilities, R&D centres and an annual manufacturing capacity of over 42 million handsets. Over the years, we have built our strength around product, quality and the consumer experience, with a clear focus on delivering value to consumers.

The Agni 4N boasts a 6.67-inch AMOLED display (Image credit: Lava)

We are now bringing Agni, Lava’s flagship smartphone series, to the UK for the first time, with the aim of delivering a premium smartphone experience at an accessible price point. Positioned in the £400–£600 segment [the phone costs £499], the Agni 4N brings a combination of flagship-grade performance, premium design, and a clean, user-first software experience to the UK mid-tier segment. It is powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 8350 5G processor and is paired with 8GB LPDDR5X RAM and 256GB UFS 4.0 storage.

The device combines this with an aluminium alloy metal frame and premium glass back, giving consumers a more flagship-like design and build at a mid-tier price point. We have also paid close attention to the camera experience. The smartphone has a 50MP OIS main camera and a 50MP front camera, with both supporting 4K 60FPS video recording.

On the software side, our in-house AI platform, Vayu AI, is a major part of the Agni 4N experience. Rather than treating AI simply as another application, we have integrated it into the phone as an intelligent AI companion. It provides access to Expert AI Agents and features including AI Text Assistant, AI Call Summary, AI Photo Editor, AI Image Generator, and document and image analysis. The idea is to make AI more approachable and useful for everyday tasks, learning, creativity, and productivity.

Finally, we believe the clean software experience is an important part of what differentiates Lava. The Agni 4N comes with stock Android 16 and zero bloatware. This reflects our philosophy of giving consumers a clean, user-first device experience without unnecessary pre-installed applications.

The broader proposition is therefore simple: the Agni 4N brings premium design, strong performance, capable cameras, powerful AI, and a clean software experience to consumers, without compromising on the areas that matter most to the everyday smartphone experience.

The Lava Agni 4N is available in Phantom Black (above) and Lunar Mist (Image credit: Lava)

TR: Recent studies suggest battery life and price are the top drivers of purchasing decisions in the US. Does Lava’s own research reveal the same trends for the UK market, and, if so, is the Agni 4N also competitive on these fronts?

DB: While our UK entry is still at an early stage, what we have consistently seen is that consumers are becoming more conscious of the overall value and experience they receive from a smartphone, rather than looking at brand name alone. That is particularly relevant in the mid-tier segment, where we believe consumers are looking for strong hardware and software offerings without having to move into flagship pricing.

On battery and charging, the Agni 4N is equipped with a 5,000mAh high-density battery with intelligent power optimization. It also supports 66W fast charging, taking the device from 0 to 50% in under 19 minutes. Together, this is designed to give consumers dependable battery performance while ensuring they can quickly top up the device when needed.

So, while we would not want to claim that our UK research has established battery life and price as the definitive top two purchase drivers without sufficient UK-specific data, the Agni 4N is designed to be competitive on both dimensions.

TR: Why is now the right time for Lava to enter the UK market? It’s mature and competitive, production costs are going up, and consumers have less money to spend — it doesn’t seem like an obvious moment for a new challenger brand to enter the scene.

DB: The UK is one of the most tech-aware markets in the world. Consumers here understand technology beyond just brand names and are increasingly looking at the overall experience and value a product delivers. That is exactly the kind of consumer we have built the Agni 4N for.

The UK is also an important technology market globally. The architecture that underpins virtually every smartphone chipset comes from ARM, which is based in Cambridge. For us, establishing credibility in such a technologically aware and demanding market is significant. If we can build trust and acceptance here, it gives us confidence in our ability to take an India-designed and engineered smartphone proposition to other global markets as well.

It is about giving consumers another choice and allowing the product to earn consideration on its own merits.

Devneet Bohidar, Lava

What we have observed is a degree of repetitiveness in product launches in the £400–600 segment. Consumers are becoming more aware of specifications, software, and the overall experience, but we believe the value being offered at these price points can be stronger. That is where we see an opening for Lava.

The Agni 4N is our response to that opportunity. [...] For us, it is about entering a market where consumers are highly informed, competition is strong, and the product has to justify itself on its merits. Our approach is deliberately measured: start with one product, launch online through Amazon, learn from the market, and build from there.

TR: Lava’s Managing Director, Sunil Raina, recently told The Hindu that “being a Chinese-averse market worked as an opportunity for Lava. People in the UK are seeking higher quality products at a lesser price.” What makes you confident that you can lure budget-conscious consumers away from mainstay brands like Apple, Samsung, and Google, all of which offer sub-£600 smartphones?

DB: As our MD, Mr. Sunil Raina, has said, we see an opportunity in the UK to offer consumers a different proposition, one that combines quality, performance and value. But for us, the opportunity is not simply about moving consumers from one brand to another. It is about giving consumers another choice and allowing the product to earn consideration on its own merits.

We have tried to approach the product without making compromises on the areas that matter to consumers. [...] And for after-sales support in the UK, Lava has partnered with SBE Ltd, an established UK electronics repair and after-sales service provider. The smartphone comes with a 24-month handset warranty, including a two-year replacement warranty for hardware defects, giving customers added assurance after purchase.

We are also realistic that Lava is a new brand for many UK consumers. We are not expecting brand awareness to change overnight. Our approach is to launch with the Agni 4N, initially through Amazon, put the product in the hands of consumers, learn from their feedback, and build credibility through the experience we deliver.

As for how the UK version of the Agni 4N differs from the Indian version of the same phone, it features Near Field Communication (NFC) payment support, but otherwise, it’s a largely identical device.

“The core product proposition remains the same,” Bohidar told me. “Rather than creating a completely different UK product, our approach has been to take a product developed and proven in India and adapt it where necessary for the requirements and usage patterns of UK consumers.”

Whether UK customers embrace the Angni 4N is a different question entirely, but whatever happens, it’s good to see a new player with the confidence to take a risk in an unfamiliar market. Apple, Samsung, and Google might be the brands of choice in the UK right now, but it doesn’t have to be that way forever.

It seems like the Garmin Fenix 9 (and the ultra-premium Garmin Fenix 9 Pro) has just been unveiled, but we're already seeing price crashes on the previous generation, the Garmin Fenix 8. The Labor Day sales are in full swing, and Amazon is offering some lowest-ever prices on the Garmin Fenix 8 range.

Right now, you can get the smaller 43mm Garmin Fenix 8 AMOLED discounted from $999.99 to just $749.99, a 25% saving and the cheapest a Fenix 8 has ever been on Amazon (and therefore, likely anywhere else), according to our deals-tracking tools. That's in its fetching Silver and Whitestone color, and even though 43mm is relatively small for a smartwatch, its chunkiness means the 43mm version is eminently wearable for all wrist sizes throughout the day.

If you're looking for something heavier duty, though, there are savings on larger sizes, and models equipped with Solar Power Glass or ultra-tough Sapphire glass screens.

The Labor Day sales also cover this Garmin Fenix 8 Pro model with inReach (was $1,199.99, now $949.99 at Amazon), which allows you to use satellite messaging with a subscription and can connect to your phone's data plan. This is available in both 47mm and the massive 51mm size for the same price, with larger watch sizes also netting you increased battery life.

Check out both deals in full below.

Today's best Garmin Fenix 8 deals

Fenix 8 (43mm): was $999.99 now $749.99
Save an impressive $250 off the listing price of the Garmin Fenix 8. You can normally find them discounted to around $850 during sales events, but this is the cheapest Fenix 8 model we've ever seen. The 43mm size discount is only available in Silver and Whitestone, with black models costing more.

Garmin Fenix 8 (47mm): was $999.99 now $838.99

Read our full Garmin Fenix 8 reviewView Deal

Fenix 8 Pro (47mm, AMOLED): was $1199.99 now $949.99
Save another $250 off the top-end Garmin Fenix 8 Pro. An unbelievable watch, as well as all the cool stuff in the Garmin Fenix 8, you get two-way satellite connectivity, allowing you to send emergency messages for free (and two-way messaging with a Garmin inReach subscription) along with LTE connectivity to make it a true smartwatch.

Garmin Fenix 8 Pro (51mm): was $1,299.99 now $1,049.99

Read our full Garmin Fenix 8 Pro (MicroLED) reviewView Deal

When I reviewed the base Garmin Fenix 8, I gave it five stars and called it "rugged, expensive perfection", and our writer Matt Ray gave the same coveted full marks to the Garmin Fenix 8 Pro.

Even though they're no longer the latest model, you can pick one up at a discount and be safe in the knowledge that you're getting a really top-quality adventure companion that'll last you for years to come.

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

Labor Day signals the end of summer and the start of a new season - fall. As we prepare for colder temps, football games, and Halloween, Amazon's Labor Day sale has everything you need while saving you money at the same time.

• Shop Amazon's full Labor Day sale

You can find deals on a variety of fall essentials, including decor, home appliances like coffee makers and crockpots, and air purifiers as we get ready to spend more time indoors. You can also find record-low prices on TVs if you're looking for a new display for football season, and my personal favorite: cheap Halloween finds to decorate the inside and outside of your home.

You'll find my favorite fall finds at Amazon's Labor Day sale below, and keep in mind that these are limited-time offers that end on Labor Day proper (Monday, September 7).

Amazon Labor Day appliance deals

Keurig K-Mini Mate Single Serve K-Cup Pod Coffee Maker

Crock-Pot 7-Quart Manual Slow Cooker

Cosori Turboblaze Air Fryer

Amazon Fall home deals

Village Candle Warm Apple Pie Large Glass Apothecary Jar

Ivydale Artificial Fall Fake Mums for Outdoor Decoration

HyeFlora 5pcs Artificial Fall Eucalyptus Leaves

Amazon Halloween deals

OCATO 200" Halloween Decorations Spider Web Outdoor

Dazonge 2-pack Halloween Ghost Decorations With Remote Lights

Auderwin Solar Spot Lights Outdoor Waterproof, 2 Packs

Amazon TV deals

Samsung Samsung 32-Inch Class HD H5000F Smart TV

Samsung Samsung 65-Inch The Frame LS03F 4 K QLED Smart TV

Hisense Hisense 65" U7 Mini-Led ULED 4k UHD Smart Google TV

Amazon air purifier deals

Dreo Tower Fan for Bedroom

Levoit Air Purifier for Home Pets Hair Allergens in Bedroom

Levoit Smart Air Purifier for Home Large Room

Amazon Patio & outdoor deals

Brightown Outdoor String Lights

Suunyn Folding Adirondack Chair With 2 Cup Holders

Tiki Patio Smokeless Fire Pit

• Gemini AI gave three hikers bad advice about a mountain ascent
• The trip took much longer than Gemini had said
• US officials and volunteers eventually rescued the stranded group

A cautionary tale from California if you often find yourself using AI bots to plan your outdoor adventures: a gang of climbers had to be rescued from Mount Shasta in Siskiyou County after Google Gemini gave them inaccurate information about the scale of the challenge ahead of them.

As reported by the Siskiyou County Sheriff's Office (via Engadget), Google's AI breezily told the three inexperienced hikers that they should prepare for an eight-hour trip to the peak, and to pack simple carbohydrates instead of fats because fats "take too long to digest".

More than 16 hours and a serious knee injury later, off course on their return trip and in the dark, the group was no doubt regretting the decision to seek advice from a disembodied AI rather than a human being that had actually been up Mount Shasta.

Thankfully, the hikers were recovered the next morning by a team made up of staff from the Siskiyou County Sheriff's Office, rescue volunteers, and the US Forest Service climbing rangers. The unlucky trio did have to spend a night in a makeshift camp in the Mud Creek Canyon part of the mountain, however.

A lesson learned

Always be wary of what AI bots tell you (Image credit: Apple / Shutterstock / mundissima)

"It is always advisable to call the local USFS Mount Shasta Ranger station ahead of your trip to ensure you have the most accurate information, and to never rely solely on AI for your trip planning," read a statement from the Sheriff's Office, which also emphasized the importance of the 12pm turnaround time for those attempting an ascent.

The hikers had set off at 3am expecting to reach the peak by 11am, but they didn't actually make it all the way up until 7pm. On the descent in the dark, they went off-route into the canyon, with one group member sustaining an injury, and called for help.

While one hiker did have AllTrails on their phone, that device died on the trip. “We relied too much on AI rather than our own critical thinking," the climbers told rangers after the ordeal, as reported by SFGate.

As useful as AI can undoubtedly be when searching the web for information, bots like Gemini have never been up mountains, treated injuries, managed finances, or changed electrical wiring. For any important queries, you should always double-check linked sources and other references to verify the information you're getting back.

Lanterns is about to hit its midpoint. Indeed, once the increasingly popular DC Universe (DCU) show's fourth episode arrives, we'll be halfway through its first season.

So, when will the Green Lantern TV series' next chapter be released? And what fresh evidence will Hal Jordan and John Stewart uncover as part of their alien murder-mystery investigation?

I can't answer the latter because, well, spoilers — but I can tell you when episode 4 will come out, so scroll on to learn more.

When does episode 4 of Lanterns come out?

Titled 'The Weenie' — yes, that's its actual name — Lanterns episode 4 will launch in the US and Canada on Sunday, September 6 at 6pm PT / 9pm ET.

Obviously, many of you don't live in North or South America, so when will the DCU Chapter One show's next installment be available in your world region? The answer is Monday, September 7 — and you can find out when it'll be released where you are below:

• US — Sunday, September 6 at 6pm PT / 9pm ET
• Canada — Sunday, September 6 at 6pm PT / 9pm ET
• UK — Monday, September 7 at 2am BST
• India — Monday, September 7 at 6:30am IST
• Singapore — Monday, September 7 at 9am SGT
• Australia — Monday, September 7 at 11am AEST
• New Zealand — Monday, September 7 at 1pm NZST

Where can I watch Lanterns episode 4?

Shields up, gang (Image credit: DC Studios/HBO Max)

If you've read previous articles like this, you'll already know where Lanterns' fourth episode will be available. If you're new around these parts, though, I can tell you that it'll make its debut on HBO Max, aka one of the world's best streaming services, in countries that this platform has launched in.

Because HBO Max isn't available globally, some of you might be wondering where you can check out the sci-fi crime-drama's forthcoming chapter. Fear not, because the below list highlights where else it'll be available to stream:

• US — HBO and HBO Max
• Canada — Crave
• UK — HBO Max, Sky Atlantic, and Now TV
• India — JioHotstar
• Singapore — HBO Max
• Australia — HBO Max
• New Zealand — HBO Max

How many more episodes of Lanterns will there be?

"...and that's how many more episodes there'll be of Lanterns season 1" (Image credit: John Johnson/HBO)Read my Lanterns coverage so far

- Lanterns episode 1 ending explained: is [spoiler] really dead?
- Sinestro in Lanterns explained
- Lanterns' Manhunters explained
- Lanterns' Guardians of the Universe explained

In season 1, there are a total of eight episodes to enjoy. Once this week's entry is out, there'll only be another four to look forward to before Lanterns' debut season draws to a close on October 4 in North and South America, and October 5 everywhere else.

With new episodes releasing every Sunday in the Americas and every Monday on other continents, here's the full release schedule for the rest of the series' first season:

• Lanterns episode 1 — out now
• Lanterns episode 2 — out now
• Lanterns episode 3 — out now
• Lanterns episode 4 — September 6/7
• Lanterns episode 5 — September 13/14
• Lanterns episode 6 — September 20/21
• Lanterns episode 7 — September 27/28
• Lanterns episode 8 — October 4/5

If you're picking up a 10GbE NAS device like the Ugreen NASync DXP6800 Pro, now $1100 at Amazon, you'll need suitably fast networking hardware if you want to take advantage of those speeds.

So, I'd strongly recommend grabbing the TRENDnet TEG-S762 switch for $92, which has two 10GbE RJ45 ports alongside four 2.5GbE connections.

Connecting the NAS to one of the switch's 10GbE ports gives it a much faster route to other compatible devices on your network. That can substantially reduce the time it takes to transfer large backups, photos, and video files compared with using standard Gigabit Ethernet.

6-Port 10G Switch: $91.99
This unmanaged switch provides two 10GbE RJ45 ports, four 2.5GbE connections, 60Gbps switching capacity, a fanless metal design, wall mounting and compatibility with existing Cat5e or better cabling.View Deal

NASync DXP6800 Pro NAS: $1099.99
The Ugreen NASync DXP6800 Pro combines six SATA bays, two M.2 slots, dual 10GbE, Thunderbolt 4, a 10-core Intel Core i5 processor, 8GB DDR5 memory and multiple RAID options.View Deal

Why we recommend these two products

The DXP6800 Pro goes well beyond basic network storage. Its 10-core Intel Core i5-1235U processor and 8GB of DDR5 memory give it plenty of processing power, and the RAM can be expanded to 64GB if your requirements grow.

The powerful unit features dual 10GbE ports for those faster speeds. You get six SATA drive bays plus two M.2 NVMe slots, along with two Thunderbolt 4 ports. It supports RAID 0, 1, 5, 6 and 10, as well as JBOD and Basic configurations, giving you plenty of flexibility when deciding how to balance capacity, performance and redundancy.

The TRENDnet TEG-S762 is a particularly good match because its two 10GbE RJ45 ports let you take advantage of the NAS's high-speed networking rather than limiting it to slower Gigabit or 2.5GbE connections.

Price context & historical value

The diskless Ugreen NASync DXP6800 Pro has previously dropped as low as $969.99 earlier this year, so this isn't the best price we've seen. But it's the best price we've seen at the moment. For comparison, it's currently the same price at Newegg, too.

The TRENDnet TEG-S762 adds another $92 to the cost, but that's a relatively small addition alongside a four-figure NAS if you don't already have suitable networking hardware. It also lets you connect other compatible devices through its four 2.5GbE ports. It has been cheaper in the past, but only by a few dollars.

Should you buy it?

✅ Buy the NAS and switch together if...

You regularly work with large amounts of data and need fast centralized storage for photography, video editing or other creative work. The combination makes sense if several computers or other devices need regular access to the same large project files.

❌ Skip the NAS and switch together if...

You only need somewhere to back up documents, photos and other everyday files. A six-bay NAS with a Core i5 processor, Thunderbolt 4 and high-speed networking is overkill for basic home storage, and a considerably cheaper two- or four-bay model should be sufficient.

The Catch: What to know before you buy

Ugreen's DXP6800 Pro is diskless, so the $1,099.99 price doesn't include any hard drives. Filling six bays with high-capacity NAS drives can easily add a substantial amount to the final cost, particularly if you want enough drives for a RAID configuration.

You'll also need suitable networking hardware if you want to use its 10GbE capabilities. The TRENDnet TEG-S762 provides the necessary 10GbE RJ45 connection without requiring an SFP+ adapter, while its fanless design makes it particularly suitable for a home office or studio.

• Shop all products in Newegg's Labor Day sale

OLED monitors are great for creative work, but they don’t tend to be cheap. I’ve found a major deal on the 27-inch ASRock Phantom monitor (PGO27QSA) for $300 (was $465) at Newegg for Labor Day.

For your money you get a QHD OLED panel (2560 x 1440) with HDR10 support, a 0.03ms response time, a wide range of ports and a fully adjustable stand. On the content creation side, the all-important color coverage hits 99% DCI-P3 color coverage, with factory calibration of Delta E < 2 out of the box.

27-inch Phantom QHD OLED Monitor: was $465 now $299.33
This 27-inch OLED monitor combines 2560 x 1440 resolution, HDR10, 240Hz refresh rate, 0.03ms response time, FreeSync Premium, dual HDMI 2.1, dual DisplayPort 1.4 and a fully adjustable stand.View Deal

Why we recommend it

The big attraction of this monitor is the OLED panel, which can individually control its pixels rather than relying on a separate backlight. This allows it to produce genuinely deep blacks and excellent contrast that can be particularly useful when you're creating or editing visual content.

At 27 inches, QHD provides a good balance between desktop space, image detail and physical size. The 2560 x 1440 resolution provides considerably more working space than Full HD. For content creators, it boasts 99% DCI-P3 color coverage and Delta E < 2 factory calibration.

For more options, take a look at our roundups of the best gaming monitors and the best monitors for work, gaming and more.

Price context & historical value

$299.33 appears to be the lowest price so far for the ASRock Phantom monitor at Newegg. That's particularly impressive given that it only arrived at the retailer recently with a $465 price tag. The previous low was $333.33 last month.

Should you buy it?

✅ Buy the 27-inch ASRock Phantom Gaming monitor if...

You work with photography, video or other visual content and want to move from an LCD to OLED without spending a fortune. You also get HDMI 2.1 and DisplayPort 1.4 connectivity, with two of each ports providing plenty of flexibility for connecting multiple computers or other devices.

❌ Skip the 27-inch ASRock Phantom Gaming monitor if...

You need lots of pixels for large timelines, detailed layouts or several applications side by side. QHD is a useful step above Full HD, but a 4K monitor provides substantially more working space and detail for those kinds of professional creative tasks.

The Catch: What to know before you buy

The quoted 200-nit brightness is the specification I'd pay particular attention to. That's relatively modest, especially if you work in a brightly lit room or want a display primarily for high-brightness HDR content. There's also no built-in webcam or speakers, so you'll need separate hardware if either is important for your workspace.

• Shop all products in Newegg's Labor Day sale

If you're looking for 32GB of DDR5-6000 RAM, you might be tempted by Newegg's Labor Day deal on the 32GB (2 x 16GB) Corsair Vengeance kit for $490 (was $605).

That's a reasonable deal given the list price, but I've found a much cheaper alternative that offers the same capacity and memory speed.

The Patriot Viper Venom RGB kit is $410 at Newegg, a solid $80 cheaper. For your money, you get two 16GB DDR5-6000 modules with CL36 timings, Intel XMP 3.0 and AMD EXPO support, aluminum heat spreaders and customizable RGB lighting.

32GB Viper Venom RGB DDR5-6000 RAM: was $411.99 now $409.99
This 32GB kit includes two 16GB DDR5-6000 modules with CL36 latency, 36-36-36-76 timings, 1.35V operation, Intel XMP 3.0, AMD EXPO, aluminum heat spreaders, thermal sensors, on-die ECC and RGB lighting.View Deal

32GB Vengeance DDR5-6000 RAM: was $605 now $490
More expensive than the Patriot RAM deal, this 32GB dual-channel kit combines two 16GB DDR5-6000 modules with CL30 latency, 30-36-36-76 timings, 1.40V operation, Intel XMP 3.0 support, onboard voltage regulation, and low-profile aluminum heat spreaders for broad compatibility. For the full discount, use code LDSF234View Deal

Why we recommend it

The Patriot kit supports both Intel XMP 3.0 and AMD EXPO profiles, making it easier to configure its rated memory settings on compatible Intel and AMD systems.

You also get an aluminum heat spreader, thermal sensor and RGB lighting that can synchronize with compatible Asus, ASRock, MSI and Gigabyte motherboards.

Patriot provides its own Viper Venom RGB software as another option for controlling the lighting.

Price context & historical value

Viper Venom's $2 reduction from $411.99 to $409.99 isn't much of a Labor Day discount on its own, so I wouldn't buy this kit because of the sale label.

The value comes when you compare it with the Corsair Vengeance alternative (I've detailed that right here). Even after applying Newegg's coupon to bring that kit down from $604.99 to $489.99, you're still paying $80 more than you would for the Patriot RAM.

Should you buy it?

✅ Buy the Patriot Viper Venom RGB DDR5 kit if...

You want 32GB of fast DDR5 memory and don't see a good reason to spend another $80 on the Corsair kit. Both give you 32GB across two 16GB modules running at DDR5-6000, making Patriot the much cheaper route to the same capacity and rated speed.

❌ Skip the Patriot Viper Venom RGB DDR5 kit if...

You want the tighter memory timings offered by the Corsair Vengeance kit. Patriot's RAM is rated at CL36 with 36-36-36-76 timings, whereas the Corsair alternative runs at CL30, so the extra money does buy you lower latency.

The Catch: What to know before you buy

Compatibility is the important limitation here. Newegg specifically states that the Viper Venom kit isn't compatible with Intel Core Ultra Arrow Lake processors, so don't buy it for a newer Intel system without checking your motherboard and CPU compatibility first.

For supported systems, Patriot lists compatibility with AMD 600 and 800 Series platforms alongside Intel 600 and 700 Series motherboards, including Z690 and Z790.

• Shop all products in Newegg's Labor Day sale

Immersion is crucial for gaming, and high-level image quality can single-handedly elevate that. While 4K QD-OLED monitors have been on the market for a long while, ultrawide gaming enthusiasts like myself have been searching for a way to attain the same image quality with a 21:9 aspect ratio display.

In come LG's 5K2K QD-OLED monitors, in both 45-inch and 39-inch variants, providing exceptional visual quality for PC gaming via the 5120x2160 display resolution. With tandem OLED technology, brightness is higher, deep black levels (contrast) are essentially unmatched, and efficiency is greater.

This is thanks to tandem OLED tech using multiple OLED layers, which directly helps reduce issues like brightness dimming while allowing HDR to blossom.

The LG UltraGear 45GX950A-B QD-OLED gaming monitor is available for $1,359 (was $1,999.99) on Amazon for Labor Day, thanks to a generous 32% discount, making the ultrawide more affordable. With the 5K2K resolution driving the display, games can be enjoyed to a greater extent, especially thanks to the 800R curvature.

It's important to note that this display and its counterpart require a powerful, beefy GPU, something along the lines of an RTX 4080 Super or RTX 5080, as the 5120x2160 has 33% more pixels than a 4K resolution.

(Image credit: LG)Today's best LG UltraGear 45GX950A-B QD-OLED deal

The LG UltraGear 45GX950A-B is one of the best OLED gaming monitors on the market, addressing immersion in almost every way possible. With a 5K2K display resolution, dual-mode (for 1080p competitive at 330Hz), and an 800R curve, you can't go wrong.View Deal

Alienware has introduced strong competition to LG's offerings, with its flagship 5K2K AW3926QW at a significantly lower price ($1,099 / £999 / AU$1,999.80), but it hasn't launched across all regions yet. The AW3926QW also doesn't have the same 45-inch display size or the 800R curve that provides that extra level of immersion.

If you need a big display with the desk space available for it, the LG UltraGear 45GX950A-B is a no-brainer — especially with its price knocked down significantly.

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

The pantheon of US crime dramas is peppered with ruthless, hyperreal villains who have risked it all for a shot at the American Dream. Michael Corleone, Tony Montana, Keyser Söze, Tony Soprano, and Marsellus Wallace are but five of the fictional strongmen now synonymous with getting things done by hook or by crook.

In the 30 years since the inception of the Grand Theft Auto franchise, Rockstar Games has evolved cinematic storytelling in video games to the point that you could, quite feasibly, add Tommy Vercetti, Toni Cipriani, Carl ‘CJ’ Johnson, Niko Bellic, and Michael De Santa to that list.

In the slipstream of Grand Theft Auto 6’s Extended Look, multiple questions emerge about what has become the most-anticipated video game of the 21st century. Most notably, will we soon be able to add Jason Duval and Lucia Caminos to this scurrilous list of ill-gotten individuals intoxicated by life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness?

As a former developer at Rockstar Games and seasoned industry pro, Mike York is well positioned to explain what the condensed 26-minute slice of gameplay reveals about the lead characters and the title itself.

Miami twice

(Image credit: Rcokstar Games)

“I see a heavier tone and a slower pace,” York says of the follow-up to 2013’s GTA 5, which was set in San Andreas, a fictionalised version of California. This time, Rockstar has returned to Vice City, their neon-hued take on the sun-blasted, Floridian playground of Leonida, to bring the couple to life in a Bonnie-and-Clyde-style misadventure befitting the studio’s wild and vivid creative vision.

“Jason moves around very slow and methodical. That's the first thing I noticed. He seemed like a robot — a Terminator —walking through every scene and mowing people down with no emotion,” suggests York of the US military veteran, mirroring some of the observations – and criticisms – that have accompanied the exclusive Netflix promo since it launched last week.

Will the male lead stand up against the aforementioned icons, who have helped cement Rockstar’s brand as pixelated pioneers in these imagined, open-world environments?

York continues: “I want to see that. Niko Belic, for example, is a great character. He was witty and had some great lines, which is why GTA 4 became one of my favourites in the series. I hope we see more of that because right now, Jason seems quite deadpan and monotone.

“Rockstar usually gives us a bunch of neat characters who are funny and have their own flair. I don't know if we're going to see that with Jason, but I hope we do,” he comments. Certainly, if you rewatch the Extended Look, Jason’s demeanour – he warns Lucia to stay cool in the opening seconds as they become embroiled in a meth lab shootout and then scolds her for being late when the pair drive to meet aged accomplice Brian Heder – is of a more self-contained, uptight and introspective personality than his vivacious, chameleonic, and combustible counterpart.

Perhaps that’s the point. As switchable characters, will Lucia provide the Yin to Jason’s Yang? “I think that's what they're going to do,” continues York, pinpointing the passage where the duo emerges at the Effluvia rooftop bar.

“There's that moment in the trailer where they get in an elevator, and he says: ‘Sometimes I'm just more comfortable when I have to use a gun’. She replies: ‘Just be charming!’ Lucia's got this attitude where you can tell she's trying to break him out of his shell. She's the one that probably goes into missions gung-ho, all guns blazing.”

Wired for sound

(Image credit: Rcokstar Games)

Indeed, there are further clues about the duo’s depiction in the fluorescent, 80s-colored Extended Look soundtrack. When the focus is on Jason, People Are People by Depeche Mode (featuring the line “I can't understand. What makes a man hate another man? Help me understand”) is used for context. Meanwhile, Lucia’s section of the clip, which sees her marching into Zeke’s Gadgets store to shoot up the place and flipping the bird at a swarm of cops when they make their escape from a second robbery, aptly uses global chart-smashing Devil Woman as the musical backdrop.

“With evil on her mind… She’s gonna get you!” warns the enduringly improbable British pop star Cliff Richard, in a phase that could be seen as Rockstar’s opportunity to showcase a central theme of female empowerment and mutual respect between sexes that has been almost entirely absent from the GTA series. In the toxic shadow of an era defined and divided by the manosphere, could this be an attempt to reset this predominant tone against countless accusations of misogyny that have stalked each title?

“A lot of their games have been viewed in that light. It'd be cool for them to shake that up and flip it on its head,” confirms York. Currently working on Six Days in Fallujah for Highwire Games in Seattle, Washington, he joined Rockstar New England – a studio based in Andover, Massachusetts – in 2012, leaving three years later after playing an active role in the development of GTA 5 and its online incarnation.

Red Dead detention

(Image credit: Rcokstar Games)

York’s induction into the much-mythologised studio’s work culture would prove to be prophetic. On his first day, he was instructed to play Red Dead Redemption in full – for the first time, in fact – to prepare for what was coming down the track: extensive animations on its Western-themed successor, where he was charged with designing multiple animal models intended to maraud across the North American frontier at the turn of the 20th century.

Elsewhere, his portfolio – including trailers for Dead Island: Riptide, Fortnite, The Walking Dead, Borderlands 3 and Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines – suggests York could illuminate the top-secret processes that underpin the massively hyped Extended Look, which is only the third official piece of formal storytelling to accompany GTA 6 and pulled in more than 30m views on Netflix in four days.

“We weren’t told anything about trailers, and then, all of a sudden, my animations would end up in one. It’d be like: ‘There's one of my shots!’ I only found out once they were completely released, and we were all watching it.” He says this level of secrecy is baked into the studio’s DNA. “They try to instill in all their employees that you don't say anything anywhere. If you look up most of the people at Rockstar, they don't have any social media presence because they're scared to. I was. When I worked there, I didn't say anything ever.”

Across the industry, how does the decision-making play out for this type of media content? “You don't want to spoil it or give too much away. You want to hint and leave things to the imagination, get people to want to find out what the story is. But things are changing. More and more studios and companies are releasing big deep dives, reveals, and whole chunks of gameplay. We're getting to see a lot of stuff that we never used to back in the day.”

Face off

(Image credit: Rcokstar Games)

York was impressed by many components of Rockstar’s mega preview, in particular the visual clarity, use of lighting, and the lifelike physics deployed in specific graphical elements, such as the movement of individual characters’ hair.

However, he also admits being disappointed by some of the “rough” facial animations. He explains: “It doesn't seem like they're using MetaHuman capture technology. It looks like they're still doing it the old-school way, like in GTA 5. It's very similar to that. That might be because of the limitations and what's important.

“I’ve worked with Unreal Engine 5. The high-fidelity facial animation has hundreds of bones in the face. When you add those to the character, it slows everything down. This is the type of stuff you put in cutscenes for The Last of Us Part 2, for example. You want it to look super realistic. On GTA 4, they're not doing that. Everything they show is in-game footage. It's the cinematic version of the character, which still needs to be low-resolution enough so it can do all these things without bogging down the rest of the game.”

York pinpoints other features – citing the weapon wheel and mini map – that also look “a bit outdated and weird”. “The whole UI doesn't really match the style of game and what we're used to,” he comments. “Rockstar has a big and very talented team. If they wanted, they could go in and change those elements before a final release. Will they do that? That's another question because there’s probably a lot of other stuff they're sweating about.”

(Image credit: Rockstar Games)

That said, he praises the overarching LOD (Level of Detail), suggesting that – to date – only the CD Projekt Red team behind the once maligned but now widely celebrated Cyberpunk 2077 has been able to match it. “There are levels to this shit,” he states. “Rockstar are the kings of that.”

Despite any minor quibbles, the Extended Look has reassured York – who runs York Street Gaming on YouTube – that GTA 6 will set a new high bar stretching years into the future. “People will still say it's one of the best games of all time,” he says. “It will perform really well and become something we'll be able to play for a decade later like GTA 5. Online will come out and probably be an ever-evolving metaverse which will carry the franchise forever.”

Grand Theft Auto 6 will be released for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and Series S on November 19, 2026.

• Lenovo showed Project Swan at IFA 2026, a concept notebook whose 14-inch display rolls out horizontally to a 17-inch 16:9 panel, at 17.9mm and 1.6kg
• It is 90g lighter and 2mm thinner than the vertical ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 Rollable that Lenovo already sells, pointing to a maturing lineup from the computer giant
• It has a compelling business case for people who currently carry a portable monitor for work, but given the current model's pricing, it may come at a significant premium versus the solution it competes with

Lenovo showcased Project Swan at Innovation World during IFA 2026, a proof-of-concept notebook that functions as a 14-inch machine in its compact form and expands into a larger 17-inch 16:9 display when more space is needed.

The laptop measures 17.9mm thick and weighs 1.6kg, and targets customers who do a lot of multitasking, side-by-side document review, presentations, dashboards, and creative workflows.

The model currently has no price tag, no ship date, and no named processor, beyond the company's statement that both concepts, including the fanless AeroBlade, will be powered by Intel at launch this year.

Pitched at users leveraging a portable monitor with a large budget in tow?

Lenovo's Project Swan isn't exactly a new product offering, but an improvement on something the same company already offers. Lenovo already sells its sibling, the ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 Rollable, which went on sale in June 2025 and does the same trick vertically by expanding a 14-inch panel to 16.7 inches, costing at least $3,300 at launch.

Comparing that relatively astronomical price tag to a traditional 14-inch laptop that could cost as little as $1000 from the same company and a portable monitor starting at $200 makes for a very daunting comparison, especially for business buyers, where it could make the difference between a fleet purchase and a niche buy for executives.

It does have some upgrades in thickness and weight over the Gen 6, however: the Gen 6 Rollable is 1.69kg in a chassis 19.9mm thick, while Project Swan is 1.6kg at 17.9mm, shaving off both 90 grams of weight and 2mm of thickness, signaling a maturing technology versus an actual ground-breaking product.

The larger screen and the mechanism to roll it does come with a penalty, however; the ThinkBook 14 Gen 9 announced in parallel with it is 1.3kg at 17.7mm of thickness, beating it soundly in the former and slightly in the latter metric. Against Project Aeroblade, which clocks in at 830g, the weight difference is nearly twice that of the fanless design that Lenovo can currently produce.

The people who benefit are those who need two documents open simultaneously and cannot rely on a second screen being where they are going: contract reviewers, auditors on client sites, translators, analysts comparing a model against its source, consultants presenting across a table without a projector.

For that target audience, the alternative today is carrying a portable USB-C monitor, and the weight calculus favors Project Swan tremendously: A 15-inch portable monitor typically runs 700 to 900 grams, and a comparable 1.3kg ThinkBook plus a screen is around 2.1kg in the bag against the Swan's 1.6kg, with no secondary cable to manage.

Whether Project Swan arrives at an acceptable price point determines whether the rollable laptop becomes more than a pricey proof of concept or a viable solution for many users who need a large screen with portability and weight constraints in tow. For now, Lenovo's impressive offering points to an evolution, not a revolution, in a segment that has drawn a lot of interest but little corporate purchase intent because of concerns about price, durability, and repairability, making it a fringe purchase at best for most.

Sonos recently announced that it's launching a new soundbar to fill the gap between the Sonos Beam (Gen 2) and the Sonos Arc Ultra — it's called (perhaps predictably) the Sonos Beam Ultra. It's launching on September 29th 2026, and it costs $699 / £699 / AU$1,099.

It's small, like the regular Beam, but it features nine drivers to deliver 7.1.2 channels of Dolby Atmos, including upfiring drivers (which the Beam doesn't have).

Sonos' promise is that it's a bigger, more expansive, and meatier home theater experience than the regular Beam, and I got a chance to listen to a demo — though we'll have a full and in-depth review later when we can test more thoroughly.

(Image credit: Future)

But my time with the Beam Ultra was enough to really impress me. We started by listening to some music in Dolby Atmos, and the soundbar was extremely good at separating the sound from the hardware — the audio felt spaced across the whole room in front of me, rather than feeling like it was emitting from a compact soundbar.

Bass dispersion was really impressive, as was a feeling of 'airiness', in a good way, to vocals and positional instrument effects. Every element felt like it was able to float in the room very naturally and individually.

Switching to something bass-heavy, which is an area Sonos says it specifically wanted to improve, what stood out to me was the weight of the mid-bass. Often, in smaller speakers, this is where things fall off — they might be tuned to give good punch at their lowest point, but can't always maintain good strength as they move towards the mid-range.

There was no problem with that here: bass felt really solid throughout the range. Being a small soundbar, it's not like it can hit hard on really low-end frequencies, but there's loads of presence across the bass, so it feels satisfying.

(Image credit: Future)

Switching to movies and TV, we watched a clip from the Apple TV+ show Widow's Bay, emphasizing the improvement to the clarity of the center channel — dialogue came through clear over background noise.

But the real test was watching Sinners, in the big music scene of I Lied to You, which has become a common demo scene for companies to use. I was so impressed by the positional Dolby Atmos effects of elements that were way off to the side — the width was far better than other small soundbars, and was better than most big soundbars I've tested.

There's a real sense of instruments being positioned right in the far forward corners of the room, a good six feet beyond the edges of the TV we were watching, let alone beyond the edges of the small soundbar.

However, when we get it in to review, I want to test the height channels more deliberately. I wasn't feeling a lot of height effect from the demo — which might have been for a few reasons, so I can't cast judgment against the Beam Ultra for it yet. We'll be keeping an ear out for it, though.

I also got to try the same scene using the Sonos system's new ability to add some portable speakers as rear satellite speakers for surround sound. Two Sonos Play speakers were brought in and placed just behind me, and they instantly connected to the soundbar without needing the app at all.

A little tone emitted from the Beam Ultra to indicate that the Plays had connected themselves, but all the detection and connection is done invisibly by the system, and it seemed really slick.

The Plays made for a really good set of rear speakers in the demo, too — I got really clear positional effects from them, and they have a great dynamic range for movies.

Sonos confirmed that with the Plays (or a pair of Sonos Move 2 speakers, or static rear options such as the Sonos Era 100) connected, it can describe the system as a 7.1.4-channel setup, though the extra two height channels will be virtualized.

I was surprised that Sonos went with the small size of the Beam for a soundbar to sit below the Arc Ultra in its range, because I assumed that would mean a compromise on how expansive it would be — that's definitely not a concern for me anymore, and I'm really looking forward to hearing how it handles our movie library in our test rooms.

In the packed halls of Gamescom with so many games to see, it's easy to get tetchy if a session goes on for too long when there's another appointment you have to rush off to see. Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve was a rare exception where I wished I had more to go on than I was given.

On one hand, the Ace Combat series' appeal is a straightforward one. It captures the thrill of flying a fighter jet locked in aerial dogfights without the intimidating knowledge of actually operating an aircraft like Microsoft Flight Simulator, but with more control than a rail shooter like Star Fox.

A new instalment coming just a few years after a new Top Gun movie is even more tantalising for anyone eager to take to the skies like Tom Cruise.

Back to Strangereal

(Image credit: Bandai Namco Entertainment)

That the series also takes place in an alternate world called Strangereal, which nonetheless looks like our own, means you can enjoy the immersive realism without being drawn into the awkward politics of any real-world conflicts.

For the mission I got to play, titled 'The Fall of the Numbered Fleets', there's already a sense of a meaty narrative to get into, as my squadron, Joker Flight of the Federation of Central Usea (FCU), is tasked with launching an offensive to strike fleets belonging to the invading forces from the Republic of Sotoa.

An added wrinkle is that you also have to contend with a once-friendly squadron nicknamed the Sharks, who have recently defected.

(Image credit: Bandai Namco Entertainment)

This drama plays out during the mission; banter zips between your fellow wingmen Baxter and Tasha over the radio as you approach the targets on Newfield Island before being interrupted by enemy Sotoan chatter when you manage to deal damage to their fleet and supplies. And of course, it's only a matter of time before the Sharks turn up as sparks fly between factions that wouldn't be out of place in an anime if it wasn't for the game's realistic aesthetic.

Although you have targets to destroy, there are also different approaches you can take to tackle an objective, such as customising your loadout at the beginning. While there's a lot of information on the UI that can feel intimidating, it felt readable when a missile is definitely locked onto a target, while an outline below makes it clear where your bomb will drop when trying to sink ships.

There's a simple satisfaction to see the green display change from 'Hit' to 'Destroyed,' but if you really want to showboat, you can even switch to the camera looking back to enjoy the explosion in your wake.

Cloud control

(Image credit: Bandai Namco Entertainment)

If 2019's Ace Combat 7: Unknown Skies had already set a new bar for the series' realistic visuals and combat aircraft, then Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve raises it again, not just with Unreal Engine 5 but also with Bandai Namco Aces' own upgraded Cloudly tech.

That said, I spent most of my time a little too close to the ground (a prompt repeatedly telling me to pull up) when trying to aim for targets on land and sea to properly experience getting into the clouds. Yet that showcased another visual leap too, as all the objects you see are rendered at a 1:1 scale. So instead of flying over flat textures or miniatures, you really do feel immersed in the world. That also allows for setpieces such as a moment when you can fly your aircraft through a tunnel to reach an airbase stationed on the other side.

But for anyone who enjoyed the sheer action spectacle of Top Gun: Maverick, it wasn't the action alone that made it a great watch; it was all the other human drama unfolding in between the training, so that you become invested in the characters you want to succeed. Even though I'm not sure any of the characters in Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve are likely to have the same star power and charisma as Tom Cruise, that is something I still wish I could have seen more of in this relatively brief Gamescom demo.

(Image credit: Bandai Namco Entertainment)

As the first entry to have its story play out through a first-person perspective, it's surely meant to provide a more immersive way to spend time in the company of your wingmen, not just during mission briefings but also when catching up in the canteen or other bouts of R&R.

Having the in-mission banter is nonetheless also a key element, as are the small narrative choices you can make, such as in the demo where Baxter wants one of the Sharks pilots captured alive and asks that you only shoot around his cockpit, to which you can agree, or not.

But with the game's launch not far away, and arriving in time for the series' 30th anniversary, it's looking like Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve is going to soar to a whole new plane.

Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve releases on October 2, 2026, for PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, and Xbox Series S. Advance access is available from September 28 for those who pre-order the deluxe edition.

Following the aftermath of the Manchester Airports Group cyberattack - where hackers made off with the data of 8.7 million people - the hackers have now posted the entire database for sale on the dark web.

The group behind the attack, FulcrumSec, attempted to get Manchester Airports Group (MAG) to pay for the security of the database, promising that it wouldn’t be released if the company paid a settlement. But as all companies should do when faced with extortion, MAG didn’t play ball.

Now FulcrumSec wants to try and maximise the damage of the cyberattack, and has listed the database containing email addresses, phone numbers, vehicle registrations and postcodes online in the hopes a fellow hacking group will find value in the data.

What happens when extortion fails, and why didn’t MAG pay?

In the past, when companies faced ransomware attacks or data breaches, they would sometimes quietly pay the hackers for their silence.

Companies feared serious reputational harm and loss of business would cost more in the long run than the perpetrators were asking for. But this created an incentive for hackers to carry out more attacks.

After all, if companies aren’t kicking up a fuss about being hacked or reporting the attack to the authorities, hacking groups can launch more attacks on other companies that are completely unaware of their tactics.

(Image credit: Future)

Got an opinion for us? Here’s how you can submit your perspective

In order to counter this, authorities and cyber experts from around the world issued guidance that under no circumstances should companies pay for the safe return of their data. By removing the incentive from ransomware attacks and data breaches, the hope is that hackers will get bored or not see enough ROI, and therefore stop.

But the 500GB database of data on over 8.7 million people is ripe pickings for other cybercriminals looking to launch highly specific phishing attacks or scam campaigns. While FulcrumSec may not make any money from the attack, they can seriously enhance the damage of the attack by offering the data for free for others to use.

A successful scam or phishing attack can steal banking and financial details, allowing other groups to steal even more money off the back of the attack.

Expert perspectives on MAG extortion and customer data

• Dray Agha, senior manager of security operations at Huntress:

While Manchester Airports Group followed official guidance by refusing to pay the ransom, the release of 8.7 million records creates an immediate risk for passengers.

The release of 8.7 million records creates an immediate risk for passengers

We expect other criminals to use this freely available database of vehicle registrations, postcodes and contact details to craft highly convincing phishing attacks.

Anyone who has used parking, lounges or Wi-Fi at these airports must treat unexpected messages about their travel with extreme caution.

• Muhammad Yahya Patel, vCISO and cybersecurity advisor for EMEA at Huntress

The "free release" model is deliberately designed to maximise harm and reputational damage as a warning to the next target.

It's a marketing campaign aimed at every other organisation watching

Publishing almost nine million records for free isn't just punishment for MAG it's a marketing campaign aimed at every other organisation watching.

Pay up, or your customers' data gets handed to every fraudster and scammer on the internet at no cost. Refusing to pay a ransom is the right call. But nearly nine million people are now paying a different price for a decision that was never theirs to make.

• Danny Jenkins, Co Founder & CEO at ThreatLocker

Unfortunately, once data is made public, it can’t be hidden again. The most important thing consumers can do is focus on basic cyber hygiene. Use a unique password for every website, learn how to identify phishing scams, and monitor your credit report.

Be highly suspicious of emails that create a sense of urgency, offer something that seems too good to be true, or ask you to reset your password.

Be highly suspicious of emails that create a sense of urgency, offer something that seems too good to be true, or ask you to reset your password.

When in doubt, look up the phone number for the alleged sender yourself, rather than using a number provided in the email, and call to confirm whether the communication is genuine.

• Brian Higgins, security specialist at Comparitech:

Whilst the airports breached in this attack don't appear to have had any financial data compromised the risk to affected or associated customers is very real. With so much other information freely available in the wild it is vital that airport users stay highly vigilant for some time to come.

Research advice from trusted sources like the NCA or Information Commissioner and share it with your family and friends.

Any and all unsolicited contact; whether online, by telephone or even home visit approaches, should be viewed as suspicious. Never engage until you've taken time to check credentials/veracity etc.

Research advice from trusted sources like the NCA or Information Commissioner and share it with your family and friends. Look for ways to increase digital and physical security like two factor authentication on Apps and devices or Smart Home tech.

When this breach was first reported by the Manchester Evening News the comments were quite telling. Affected parties were quick to identify potential vulnerabilities over and above the breach of financial and banking details.

Home addresses, vehicle registrations and time spent away from home all add up to some excellent opportunities for criminal exploitation, not to mention the usual follow-up phishing campaigns common in this type of incident.

As AI makes data aggregation swift and easy consumers are waking up to the fact that criminals can monetise successful breaches in increasingly inventive ways. It’s no longer enough for data owning organisations to advise post-attack vigilance and turn to their backups.

Victim communities rightly expect better protected networks and systems over and above established norms. As the marketplace grows less fearful and more angry when breaches are made public we may see more emphasis on cyber crime prevention which can only be a good thing.

• Denis Calderone, CTO at Suzu Labs:

The 8.7 million number is attention-grabbing, but it deserves some context. MAG has confirmed that the vast majority of those records are email addresses collected through airport WiFi sign-ups.

A much smaller subset includes phone numbers, vehicle registrations, and postcodes from customers who actually completed parking or lounge bookings.

What remains unclear is whether the data was exfiltrated directly from that third-party environment or whether it was pulled back through MAG's network first.

No payment data, no passwords, no passport information. So despite this affecting airports, which is obviously a sensitive subject, the actual data sensitivity for most affected individuals is relatively low.

What's more interesting to us from a technical standpoint is the attack path. MAG told The Register that attackers compromised one of their internal systems and then went on to steal files from a database hosted by a third party. That's a pivot upstream into a data provider, not downstream into operational systems.

What remains unclear is whether the data was exfiltrated directly from that third-party environment or whether it was pulled back through MAG's network first. That distinction matters for understanding where detection controls failed and who was responsible for monitoring the egress.

The UK's Civil Aviation Authority has a Cyber Assessment Framework for Aviation, developed with the NCSC, that mandates strict separation between IT systems and operational technology.

We don't know whether MAG was formally operating under that framework at the time of this incident, but I would be very interested to find out. Because the segmentation appears to have held here. Flight operations, baggage handling, terminal systems, etc., all were unaffected.

The lateral movement went upstream toward a data provider, not downstream toward the systems that keep planes in the air.

• Seemant Sehgal, CEO and Founder at BreachLock:

This data was initially collected because passengers needed a login, and somewhere along the way, the sensitivity of what was accumulating in that database stopped getting the same scrutiny as the network itself.

Whoever held it for ransom understood its value better than the organization storing it did

Vehicle registration details, postcodes, and contact information across three major airports are a profiling dataset, and whoever held it for ransom understood its value better than the organization storing it did.

How do I submit my own perspective on emerging news?

If you have an expert perspective you would like to share on an emerging story or particular topic, please get in contact here: benedict.collins@futurenet.com

• Afterworld is the first Paradox grand strategy game with an original fantasy setting in a decade
• Director Dan Lind says this brings a level of "design freedom" that would be possible in few real-world settings
• He also wanted "to do something different" after working on historical games for so long

The recently revealed Afterworld stands apart from the rest of the recent Paradox Games portfolio. It's the studio's first title in a decade to take place in an original fictional setting, this time post-apocalyptic North America, rather than a real-world historical one.

The game is being directed by studio veteran Dan Lind, who has been working at Paradox for almost twenty years. He started out on Europa Universalis 3, working his way up to eventually become game director of the supremely popular Hearts of Iron 4 — a massive-scale WW2 sim.

In an interview with TechRadar Gaming at the company's Stockholm HQ, Lind explained that not being tied down by history allows for a whole new level of "design freedom."

"I worked for like 15 years on just Hearts of Iron and history, so you want to do something different," he said. "That was a big motivator."

He also thinks that Afterworld, which features a map based on just part of one country rather than a chunk of the globe, will be able to fill a specific niche in Paradox's offering.

"Looking at our games, I think there's a niche in between a couple of them that we're not tapping," he explained.

"I think there's another different, fresh grand strategy game experience that you can have at a bit of a smaller scale, but with more detail basically. Also having worked with 'crunchy' games such as Hearts of Iron, I wanted to see if we could find a way to make the game easier for people to get into."

He continued: "It's kind of a bit 4X like this, and you can start scaling the mechanics over time. It makes it so much easier, right? It's hard to do that with a historical setting, unless you're doing something like a migration era, but this game can also tap a lot of those ideas."

The company's current office in central Stockholm. (Image credit: Future)

He also revealed the surprising origin of his pitch for the game, which he's wanted to bring to life for over two decades.

"I think the first draft for this was super long ago. I'm not sure; it might have been like 2011 or something," he began. "We used to do these brainstorms at the pub, where the idea was to just come up with a bunch of games."

The team would sift through all of them at the end of the night, deciding which were "a terrible idea" and which were "actually an interesting idea."

"This was a good idea. I had one that was playing DNA chains through primordial soup, which we rejected, but this one was something that was pretty cool.

"I've always believed that you could do grand strategy games at slightly different scales. It doesn't always have to be big; the entire world. It can be just as interesting, but you've got to add details in the other direction as well.

At that point, it was a different scale. It was even smaller; I would say it was maybe the size of three states or something like that. When I was working on Hearts of Iron and a bunch of other stuff, I always had this in the back pocket as something I wanted to try and get back to."

Naturally, the idea evolved over time as Lind became "more and more interested in things that were...less board game, more simulation," leading to the current scale and focus on deep societal simulation.

"Now I'm shifting it more to groups of people, but not country level."

Afterworld is set to launch for PC in the future.

• GoPro CEO Nick Woodman has released a statement following concern around the company's "merger" with Starman
• He provides assurances that the company is committed to making consumer cameras
• But there are no concrete commitments – and a disclaimer list that's longer than the statement itself

GoPro has been in the spotlight over the past couple of days following the announcement of its "merger" with Starman Optical Inc, a private optical photonics company that few of us had heard of before two days ago.

The announcement caused a heap of speculation among GoPro enthusiasts, much of it negative. Consumer cameras were barely mentioned, with GoPro's output being described as "industry-leading imaging solutions featuring innovative, advanced optics, market-defining technology and an associated IP portfolio."

A quote from GoPro CEO Nick Woodman described GoPro's ambitions following the merger to be to grow across "commercial and defense markets as a leading American imaging and optical solutions company, addressing important areas of national security related to cameras, optics and AI infrastructure".

For a lot of people — myself included — alarm bells started ringing. It sounded a lot like GoPro would be pivoting away from consumer cameras. This backlash has clearly reached Woodman, as he has released a follow-up statement. In a letter addressed directly to the "GoPro community, fans and customers", he provides assurances that the company is still wholeheartedly committed to making cameras, and that there are no plans for this to change.

"Making amazing cameras for all of you is our core DNA and reason for being and that will never change!" Woodman says.

He describes how GoPro's improved financial situation following Starman's wiping of its debts will allow the company to "innovate, invent and advance the future of consumer and professional content creation". He acknowledges that GoPro is going to become a more "diversified" company, but that this should improve its financial situation and allow it to keep on making and releasing cameras.

And he finishes with one more assurance that GoPro is going to keep on making "the world’s highest-performance cameras and building the products, services and innovations that help you capture life’s most exciting moments. "It’s what we were founded to do and it’s what we will always do", says Woodman.

An uncertain future

The GoPro Mission 1 Pro on test for TechRadar. (Image credit: Future)

Reading Woodman's full letter, there are a couple of things that immediately jump out. One is that he stops short of making any concrete commitments — nary a hint of "we plan to release [X] number of cameras by [X] date" or anything similar. Another is that the list of disclaimers at the bottom is twice as long as Woodman's actual statement. In the disclaimers, we are unambiguously reminded that "forward-looking statements" are subject to "risks, uncertainties, and assumptions", and that material outcomes in reality may differ.

As evidence to support GoPro's commitment to image-making, Woodman points out that the company has accrued more than 2500 patents over the last 24 years. Which is very commendable, but the discerning reader will likely point out that these patents were all made before GoPro was bought up by a defense-focused AI optics company. As such, they don't do much to address the substance of people's concerns.

So, while it is nice to see Woodman saying something directly to GoPro customers following the alarmingly vague statement that was made to announce the merger, I wouldn't fully relax just yet. Ultimately, the real test of GoPro's commitment to cameras is going to come over the next few years as we see what the company releases.