TechRadar News

• Company chiefs are farming off more work to AI than their underlings, a new study suggests
• Almost 40% of C-suite leaders are relying on AI to complete tasks, despite privacy and security implications
• The survey, by Adobe Acrobat, explored the use of AI in workplaces across the UK

New research has demonstrated a an apparent disconnect between AI use and responsibilities concerning sensitive data.

Adobe Acrobat's “The Rise of AI Documents in the Workplace” report surveyed 2,000 UK adults on their use of AI in the workplace, claiming found that almost 75% of C-suite leaders are happy to share their work documents with AI tools for tasks that include marketing, translating, and data analysis. These are all documents that are likely to hold confidential information.

Conversely, just 20% of non-management employees are comfortable with this type of AI use, with a sizeable chunk (almost two-thirds) avoiding AI tools completely.

Wide AI adoption

The report highlighted several revelations about the adoption of AI within companies in the UK. While the 74% of C-suite leaders using AI might be a surprise, it’s just the first of several stats from the report that paint a picture of widespread AI adoption in among company chiefs.

Within that group, 37% use AI to save between 3 and 5 hours of work each week, and 35% use the technology to perform analytical tasks (which might include data).

Yet the figures concerning employees outside of the C-suite paint a different picture. Here, 59% don’t use AI tools at all. This figure is not unusual throughout the report, which illustrates that in most cases, AI use among those with “non management responsibility” is considerably lower – often more than 50% less.

Could this be due to a general reluctance to use AI, or perhaps something more specific, such as feeling AI use is banned, or its use might highlight weaknesses within a team?

Secure-suite?

The results also highlight concerns over AI use and training, with 19% of respondents highlighting a “lack of training or clear guidance.” This is something that probably needs addressing, not least from a security and privacy angle.

For IT departments and anyone tasked with information management and data security, the report’s findings make for difficult reading. The obvious conclusion to draw is that company chiefs are dropping sensitive information into AI chatbots, potentially saving time – but also risking other issues.

Adobe Acrobat’s survey found 22% of organizations adopting AI tools had data security and privacy as their biggest concerns and challenges. Similarly, 20% were concerned about accuracy and errors generated in AI outputs.

• Xiaomi opens reservations at JD.com for the Xiaomi Smart Storage, its first NAS, with prices starting at CNY 2,699 for a 4 TB two-bay unit
• The box pairs the same entry-level Realtek RTD1619B chip Synology used in its 2023 DS223 models with more generous RAM and faster networking than what Synology offered, in addition to an HDMI port
• The China-only launch gets considerably cheaper per terabyte as one moves up the storage ladder and currently ships in three different trims (4TB, 8TB, and 16TB)

Xiaomi has opened reservations on JD.com for its Xiaomi Smart Storage, its first Network Attached Storage (NAS) device, ahead of general availability, running from August 27 to September 26 2026.

The reservations follow an earlier crowdfunding phase, Xiaomi's usual route to market in China for new product categories, which rewards the urgency and scarcity that often come with steep discounts on its products.

Three configurations are listed for the Smart Storage NAS, all bundled with drives out of the box: the entry model is CNY 2,699 for 4 TB, made up of two 2 TB hard disks; the middle option is CNY 3,499 for 8 TB; and the top configuration is CNY 5,499 for 16 TB.

(Image credit: Xiaomi)A small, capable NAS with a competitive price tag in tow

The Xiaomi Smart Storage NAS is priced extremely competitively when you factor in US NAS drive prices. Its baseline 4TB SKU, which uses 2 x 2TB HDDs, costs ~$402, while the 8TB and 16TB trims, both using a similar dual-HDD configuration, cost $521 and $818, respectively (converted using Google's published mid-market rates).

For context, one of the cheapest 8TB NAS drives on Amazon costs about $250, and the highest-end Xiaomi offering includes two of these, suggesting you get a capable NAS without drives for about $300 at the top end of the offering.

The math is even more skewed when one considers that two 2TB NAS HDDs cost nearly as much as the entry-model NAS offering, making Xiaomi's offering essentially free, at least by US standards once you deduct the cost of storage.

The dual-bay unit is small compared to other NAS offerings, at 200.5 by 85 by 161 mm and about 2.3 kg, wrapped in an aluminum alloy frame. Its two SATA bays accept either 3.5-inch or 2.5-inch drives, and it runs a Realtek RTD1619B quad-core ARM processor with 4 GB of RAM and 32 GB of onboard storage, plus 2.5-gigabit Ethernet, HDMI, and USB-A.

The underlying RTD1619B isn't new: it is the same quad-core Cortex-A55 running at 1.7 GHz that Synology put in the DS223 and DS223j, its entry-level two-bay boxes, back in 2023. Anyone expecting Xiaomi's first NAS to arrive with something exotic will be disappointed.

That said, Xiaomi has been noticeably more generous with the chip than Synology was. The DS223j shipped with 1 GB of RAM and the DS223 with 2 GB, both over a single gigabit Ethernet port. Xiaomi gives users 4 GB and a 2.5-gigabit port, plus an HDMI output that neither Synology model has. This makes it a meaningfully better configuration on the same foundation, and the HDMI port makes sense since the Realtek part descends from the company's media processor line and supports media playback.

Xiaomi advertises a relatively modest maximum capacity of 60TB (2 x 30TB drives) and also sells a companion UPS accessory for 349 CNY. Xiaomi's competitors have been advertising 124 TB and 132 TB support on similar hardware. The reservation window for Chinese customers interested in grabbing it closes on August 27. Independent testing and any verdict on the software that Xiaomi integrated will have to wait until units are in reviewers' hands, however.

• OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is worried that powerful companies are dominating the evolution of AI
• Altman has also expressed concern over AI’s potential for acting autonomously and possibly escaping human control
• The comments are believed to be a reference to his rival, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei

Are too few companies wielding undue influence on the direction of AI? That seems to be the belief of OpenAI’s Sam Altman, who has warned against a scenario where the people don’t have a say in how AI changes the world. Speaking to the David Senra podcast, Altman expressed a desire to see "society and the models... co-evolve."

While this may seem desirable, a byproduct of this thinking might be harder to accommodate. Altman also expanded on his view that governments should not regulate AI, expressing a view that prefers the existence of liberty over the possibility of safety.

Altman is the latest tech founder to appear on David Senra’s weekly podcast, which started in 2025 with Spotify’s Daniel Ek as the guest.

Evolving together

Altman’s view is he sees AI evolving alongside human acceptance of the technology. “Society and the model will evolve together,” he said. “The right approach is for people to deeply control the future.”

However, he revealed that things haven’t moved quite as fast as he thought they might when OpenAI first released GPT-4. “I thought when we got to GPT-4, which was back in 2023, that very quickly after that there was going to be much more disruption.” One of Altman’s expectations back then was software businesses being more widely and directly impacted by AI.

While the inertia in the economy has reduced the impact in that regard (for the moment, at least), Altman is excited about AI’s ability to unlock small business opportunities. “We are about to see the greatest boom in people starting smaller businesses than we have ever seen… AI is empowering that.”

Liberty and open models

Altman’s view of liberty and the need for open models puts him in direct opposition to Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, who, in June 2026, stated that the latest Mythos model could prove a risk to the financial sector and infrastructure and present a challenge to cybersecurity.

For Sam Altman, this is the wrong way around. “There are a lot of people who are so nervous about the magnitude of those risks and get so taken by that and feel a need to protect the world,” he said. “Like, you know, ‘We should trade off a lot of liberty for safety.’”

Interestingly, most major Chinese AI companies release open-weight (the open source of AI) models, enabling them to match Anthropic and OpenAI. While Anthropic is yet to release an open weight model, OpenAI has released two: gpt-oss-120b and gpt-oss-20b.

But will the people and small businesses derive long-term advantage from OpenAI’s liberty-based open models or stick with Anthropic’s closed, "safe" models?

• The Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition has released a preview of select winning images for its 62nd year
• Wildlife Photographer of the Year is developed and produced by the Natural History Museum, London
• The full set of 100 winning images will be exhibited at the Museum following the full winners’ announcement on October 16

The winners announcement of the Natural History Museum's Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition is one of my favorite dates in the photographic calendar. It seems like every year the winning and commended photographers outdo themselves in capturing vivid, fascinating stories from the natural world.

One thing I also love doing is poring over which cameras the winning photographers are using to capture their spectacular shots. As such, when the Museum released this set of preview images to whet our appetites ahead of the full announcement, I headed straight to the caption information — and discovered to my great interest that the two most-used cameras on the list so far are both Nikon DSLRs!

The full list of cameras used to capture the sixteen shots on the full list is a real mixed bag. As well as a selection of pro and prosumer mirrorless and DSLR cameras, there’s also a DJI Mavic drone and a Leica Q3 43 compact. However, the two cameras that featured most prominently — with two images apiece, representing a quarter of the full list — were the ten-year-old Nikon D500 and the Nikon D850!

(Image credit: © Dewald Tromp / Wildlife Photographer of the Year)

The highly commended image ‘Eye of the Storm’ by Dewald Tromp from South Africa, depicting a chameleon battling its way through a sandstorm in Nigeria (above), was captured using the Nikon D850, as was American Ralph Pace’s image of a sea hare gliding through eelgrass in Monterey Bay (below).

(Image credit: © Ralph Pace / Wildlife Photographer of the Year)

Jack Crawford in the UK has been highly commended in the 15-17 Years bracket for his perfectly timed moment of a swift flying underneath the looming bulk of a 747 — shot on a Nikon D500 (below).

(Image credit: © Jack Crockford / Wildlife Photographer of the Year)

And Canadian Shane Gross strapped his Nikon D500 into an Aquatica AD500 underwater housing to capture his highly commended, half-in half-out image of a school of bigeye trevally off the coast of the Seychelles (below).

(Image credit: © Shane Gross / Wildlife Photographer of the Year)

One thing’s for sure — the DSLR isn’t dead just yet!

If you want to be able to see these images for yourself when the exhibition begins in October, you can grab tickets here.

The D850 and D500

The Nikon D850 is a hugely popular full-frame DSLR. (Image credit: Future)

The Nikon D850, released in 2017, is a wildlife photography legend. A full-frame DSLR with a generous 45.7MP resolution, its 153-point AF system may not be as sophisticated as the flagship mirrorless cameras that have succeeded it, but it’s still incredibly tenacious and accurate for moving subjects.

With its pitch-perfect handling and large optical viewfinder, the D850 is a joy to shoot with and has captured many spectacular wildlife images since. There’s a reason that when Nikon came to release its mirrorless wildlife specialist the Z8, the manufacturer branded it as a new D850.

The smaller, more affordable Nikon D500. (Image credit: Future)

The D500, meanwhile, was released a year earlier — meaning it has just marked its ten-year anniversary! Even so, this capable APS-C shooter made a reputation for being a speedster, thanks to its 10fps burst rate that could go up to 200 RAW files, as well as its simply superb autofocus system. As such, it has been embraced over the years by many wildlife photographers without the budget for the D850 — and as this year’s WPOTY results go to show, this stunning camera still has its share of devotees.

• AI authorship is increasingly employed for web pages, Pew Research Center report claims
• Over 33% of pages published since the launch of ChatGPT reportedly show signs of AI generation
• Of the 10,000-page sample used in the study, 10% of pages had signs of AI authorship

An incredible 35% of web pages published since the launch of ChatGPT show signs of AI authorship, new research has claimed.

A study from the Pew Research Center, which used automated tools to assess a sample of 10,000 web pages, also found that in the entire sample – based on data from the Common Crawl project – almost 10% of all pages had signs of AI creation.

The “How Much of the Internet Is Written With AI?” report also found that certain types of websites are more likely to feature some AI generation, while detecting some of the key fingerprints of AI-generated text, which goes beyond em dashes.

AI is writing more and more web pages

The report – which was compiled using a machine learning model tasked with looking for signs of AI authorship – found that 9.6% of all pages in the sample of 10,000 appeared to have been written by AI. While that may seem a small amount, the sample from Common Crawl dates back to the beginning of the World Wide Web, over 30 years ago.

In keeping with other research (such as AI on the Internet), the data indicates that “large shares of recently published pages on the internet were likely written or substantially edited by AI.”

Reassuringly, the data highlights the interesting point that the majority of the suspected AI-generated web pages published in 2026 are .com domains and, as such typically commercial. In contrast, just 1% are .edu (US-based educational facilities) and 0.8% are .gov.

Is it written by AI?

Using its evaluation of 490,000 English-language web pages, the Pew Research Center also established some more useful indicators (“common features”) of AI text generation.

The em dash is regularly held up as an example of AI writing, as is the use of the Oxford comma. The em dash appears “twice as frequently” in pages published since 2023, while Oxford commas have a 63% increase. The report authors note that these aren’t solitary indicators (“Humans use these in their writing too!”)

Other “tells” offer a more reliable giveaway of AI-generated writing, as demonstrated by the report. Certain words and trends are listed by the research, including "delve," "interplay," and "testament," which have apparently “more than doubled in usage.” The report lists numerous examples of “AI-typical vocabulary.”

Meanwhile, the negative parallelism, which you might have seen as “it’s not just X, it’s Y,” has almost trebled in use.

It might be increasingly difficult to identify an AI-generated web page these days, but if it comes from a .edu or .gov domain, it is overall more likely to have been written by a human.

• IBM connects two box-shaped cryogenic modules into a single environment and cooled them below 15 millikelvin, linked by a thermally shielded tunnel carrying quantum cables between cells
• The cooling technology is established dilution refrigeration; what is new is an enclosure that offers up to twelve times more wiring area and lets modules sit side by side with shorter interconnects in tow
• IBM plans to install Nighthawk chips later this year, with a roadmap targeting 1,000 programmable qubits by 2027 and establishing fault tolerance in 2029

IBM has joined two cryogenic modules into a single environment at its Poughkeepsie facility and cooled the combined system to below 15 millikelvin, bringing it as close to absolute zero as possible.

The company said this was an important milestone on the road to IBM Quantum Starling, the fault-tolerant machine it intends to deliver in 2029.

IBM said the temperature is more than 180 times colder than deep space, and it is only part of the announcement, which furthers quantum computing considerably.

A story beyond temperature

Superconducting qubits need to sit a few thousandths of a degree above absolute zero, and a dilution refrigerator gets them there. To date, IBM has housed these inside tall cylindrical cryostats, one processor per can, an approach that dictates how every IBM Quantum System One in the field currently operates.

IBM has not replaced the refrigerator but rather modified the container: its new cryogenic cells are box-shaped, built from solid aluminum panels and framing, roughly three times the size of a kitchen fridge.

Their rectangular shape has an advantage: they can stand in a tight row rather than being spaced out as cylinders must be, and openings in the side walls let quantum cables run from one cell into the next. Multiple layers of thermal shielding wrap those cables to form what IBM calls a protected cryogenic tunnel, keeping the link between processors at operating temperature rather than forcing signals out through a warm gap and back down again.

IBM's achievement is demonstrating that it can run two previously independent cooling cells as one low-temperature environment, while offering 0.53 square meters of available wiring space and 2.75 cubic meters of vacuum chamber volume per cell.

IBM says this is up to twelve times more wiring room than its most widely used systems and addresses the constraint that has been quietly throttling superconducting quantum computers: every qubit you add needs control and readout lines running down into the cold, each line carries heat, and a cylinder runs out of cross-section long before one runs out of qubits.

Not only is IBM's new approach much more scalable than its previous ones, but it's goal here is different than what one would think at first glance given that It has already hit 1,000 qubits (its Condor processor already did so physically on a single chip in December 2023); its new approach is to have programmable qubits usable for computation across linked processors, a much different task than what IBM has already demonstrated.

Its 2027 target refers to qubits you can actually address and run a calculation on, spread across several chips linked together. That is a harder thing to deliver than a raw count, and IBM's roadmap, which also aims to have a fault-tolerant machine by 2029, is a reach by any measure, but one that is promising for a company that is at the forefront of quantum computing research and has just shown a bleeding-edge cooling enclosure to further its cause.

• The Future Games Show will return with three digital showcases at Gamescom 2026
• It will air on August 26, offering a look at over 40 games
• FGS Live From Gamescom will immediately follow, and the FGS Best Of Gamescom will return on August 30

Opening Night Live has officially wrapped, but there's plenty more to come from Gamescom 2026, as the Future Games Show will return with three digital showcases — here's how you can watch.

Future Games Show at Gamescom is the first of the three broadcasts and will air the same day the industry event kicks off, on August 26 at 10AM PDT / 1PM EDT / 6PM BST / 7PM CEST / 1AM CST.

You can tune in to the digital showcase at Twitch, YouTube, X, TikTok, Facebook, and GamesRadar+.

Hosted by Resident Evil Requiem stars Nick Apostolides and Angela Sant’Albano, fans can expect a guide through more than 40 games, including 13 world premieres, exclusive reveals, and developer deep dives "from some of the industry’s most exciting and creative studios."

Some of those include a behind-the-scenes look at Tides of Annihilation from Eclipse Glow Games, a closer look at samurai swordplay action game Onimusha: Way of the Sword, a new trailer for Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault from Digital Sun Games, and a trailer for Trees Hate You, a comedy adventure, and many more.

FGS Live From Gamescom will immediately follow the main showcase on August 26, hosted by FGS channel presenters Nathan and Jules, and feature more world premieres, trailers, news, and interviews from the Gamescom Koelnmesse convention centre.

This includes Apart, a new third-person adventure horror game from Turnkey Games; Nivalis Nights, a slice-of-life sim set in a cyberpunk city; a cozy coop horror game called Haunted Paws; We Are So Cooked, a 1-4 player co-op physics-stealth game; and the sequel to retro first-person shooter (FPS) Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun.

Finally, FGS Best Of Gamescom will return on August 30 at 10AM PDT / 1PM EDT / 6PM BST / 7PM CEST / 1AM CST, and bring viewers the "best of" the Gamescom show floor, including gameplay demos, booth tours, exclusive developer interviews, and a recap of all the week’s biggest announcements.

• The first trailer for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Songs of the Past has been revealed at Gamescom
• The trailer showcases Geralt, a new region, monsters, and a weapon
• CD Projekt Red level design lead Miles Tost confirms, "This is Geralt's last adventure before we pass the torch on to Ciri" in The Witcher 4

CD Projekt Red has unveiled the first look at The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt's third and final expansion, Songs of the Past, and it looks incredible.

Songs of the Past, which is being co-developed with Fool’s Theory, a studio whose leadership is made up of The Witcher 3 veterans, was revealed during Opening Night Live at Gamescom. While we still don't have a specific release date, the expansion's first trailer gave us a taste of what to look forward to.

We see Geralt of Rivia returning for a brand-new journey as he explores a new region, Letten, takes on creepy monsters, and wields a new chain weapon that can grapple enemies, first showcased in the first Witcher game.

CDPR Level design lead Miles Tost took to the stage during Opening Night Live at Gamescom to share a few more details about the game, including what players can expect.

"We had this idea for one more story with Geralt for a while, but we couldn't quite figure out how to fit it into our busy schedule," Tost said. "Luckily, our friends from Fool's Theory and they hired a bunch of old veteran Witcher three developers, including my mentor, Peter Jennings, and here we are today."

He continued, saying, "This is Geralt's last adventure before we pass the torch on to Ciri, and we wanted to go out with a bang. So this chain is a weapon that is new in the game, but many people, perhaps hardcore Witcher fans, will realize that this is a weapon we first showed in The Witcher 1 intro, and we will talk about that in many more things here at Gamescom."

On Letten, Tost called it "a whole new, unique region that has a unique identity," filled with quests, new monsters, adventures, and exploration.

"Just like the things that Witcher fans love," he said. "But it's an almost uncannily idyllic place that, however, has a dark secret lurking just underneath the surface. And as it is a Witcher game, this kind of secret requires a true professional witcher to solve."

Alongside the expansion trailer, the studio also announced The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Remastered, a free upgrade featuring all-new improvements and revamped gameplay features, arriving on September 29 for all platforms.

The developer also confirmed that all those features will be in Songs of the Past as well.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Songs of the Past is slated to launch in 2027, followed by The Witcher 4, which CDPR has confirmed is targeting a 2028 release window.

Every time that a new Garmin smartwatch appears we know that our list of the best Garmin watches on the market is likely to be disrupted, and from what we've seen so far that certainly seems to be the case with the brand new Fenix 9 and Fenix 9 Pro.

These wearables take over from the Fenix 8 and the Fenix 8 Pro at the very top of Garmin's product range, but are they the right buy for you? How much do they offer above and beyond the older models, and how do they compare to what's already available?

If you're weighing up a potential Fenix 9-themed upgrade, here's what you need to know in terms of what's new and what you get for your money.

All the models

If you're interested in a new Garmin Fenix 9, there's no shortage of models to pick from: there's the standard Fenix 9 in three sizes, the Fenix 9 Pro in three sizes, and the Fenix 9 Pro with InReach in three sizes.

On top of that (try and keep up at the back), there's a Fenix 9 Pro Solar model in two sizes, and a Fenix 9 Pro Solar with InReach model in two sizes.

Our comprehensive pricing table might make everything a little easier to digest.

Garmin Fenix model

43mm

47mm

51mm

Garmin Fenix 9

$999.99 / £859.99 / AU$1,599

$999.99 / £859.99 / AU$1,599

$1,099.99 / £949.99 / AU$1,749

Garmin Fenix 9 Pro

$1,099.99 / £949.99 / AU$1,749

$1,099.99 / £949.99 / AU$1,749

$1,199.99 / £1,029.99 / AU$1,899

Garmin Fenix 9 Pro Solar

N/A

$1,099.99 / £949.99 / AU$1,749

$1,199.99 / £1,029.99 / AU$1,899

Garmin Fenix 9 Pro with InReach

$1,199.99 / £1,029.99 / AU$1,899

$1,299.99 / £1,199.99 / AU$2,049

$1,399.99 / £1,209.99 / AU$2199

Garmin Fenix 9 Pro Solar with InReach

N/A

$1,199.99 / £1,029.99 / AU$1,899

$1,299.99 / £1,199.99 / AU$2,049

You can also check out the key specs of the Fenix 9 and Fenix 9 Pro models below: we've compared the two 43mm OLED versions to make it a little easier to understand.

Component

Garmin Fenix 9 (43mm AMOLED)

Garmin Fenix 9 Pro (43mm AMOLED)

Price

From $999.99 / £859.99 / AUTBC

From $1,099.99 / £949.99 / AUTBC

Dimensions

43 x 43 x 13.8 mm

43 x 43 x 13.3 mm

Weight

61g

62g

Case/bezel

Titanium, fibre-reinforced polymer

Titanium

Display

416 x 416 px, AMOLED

416 x 416 px, AMOLED

GPS

Multi-band, GPS + Beidou + Glonass + Galileo + QZSS + SatIQ

Multi-band, GPS + Beidou + Glonass + Galileo + QZSS + SatIQ

Battery life

10 days (49 hours activity mode)

10 days (up to 50 hours activity mode)

Connection

Bluetooth, ANT, Wi-Fi

Bluetooth, ANT, Wi-Fi

Water resistant?

Yes, 10ATM

Yes, 10ATM

Memory

64GB (7,000 songs)

64GB (7,000 songs)

(Image credit: Garmin)Mapping upgrades

The on-board map is of course core to a lot of outdoor activities with the Fenix 9 series, and there are some useful-looking tweaks coming here. They include a new perspective view, which lets you see what's coming up more easily, at various different zoom levels, and there's more storage across the board with more map content already preloaded.

There's extra RAM inside these watches compared to their predecessors too, which Garmin says will make getting around the map on your wrist more fluid and responsive — panning is apparently now 30% faster, for example. Those are genuine improvements that should be noticeable if you're making the jump up from an older Garmin Fenix smartwatch.

New activity features

(Image credit: Garmin / Future)

There are some new activity features to talk about. The Fenix 9 watches offer stamina zones and stamina curves, to check how your endurance levels change over time, in relation to your training and fitness. The rucking features have been expanded meanwhile, to support pack changes during activities, and to enable more specific target metrics.

There's good news for regular indoor rowers. The new wearables are able to read data off selected machines directly, covering power curves and power zones, while the watches are able to calculate VO2 Max and certain other metrics from rowing sessions — which wasn't the case before. It means more detailed fitness insights from your rowing sessions.

Improvements to LiveTrack and location tracking

(Image credit: Future)

We're already big fans of the Garmin LiveTrack feature, which lets you share your real-time location, route, and associated stats with other people, and it's getting better on the LTE version of the Fenix 9 Pro. Sharing can now be done inside Garmin Messenger from your wrist, with some preset messages available, and improved notifications.

There's also a brand new feature called Garmin Locate, which again works through Garmin Messenger from the other end: Here a contact requests your location, as a one-time share, if they need to know where you are. It's all a bit more elegant and social, but it does mean you're getting gently pushed more towards Garmin's own messaging platform.

(Image credit: Garmin)Garmin Epic

An 'Epic' is a new idea from Garmin, arriving with the Fenix 9 series. Essentially, it lets you selected group activities and workouts together, almost like a folder in a filing cabinet: the examples Garmin gives are backpacking trips, cycling stage races, and strength plans. Data from individual sessions can be collected in an Epic, and viewed and analyzed together.

At first glance, it looks like an interesting expansion of what you can do with your Garmin, and you can create these Epics from past activities too — potentially letting you unlock new insights from records going back years. Notes and photos can be added along the way as well, together with health data collected between the main activities of each Epic.

• The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Remastered has been announced
• The free upgrade arrives on September 29 for all platforms
• This remastered version features up to 40 new visual and gameplay improvements

CD Projekt Red has announced The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Remastered, a free upgrade featuring all-new improvements and revamped gameplay features for its blockbuster RPG game.

Revealed during Opening Night Live at Gamescom 2026, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Remastered will arrive next month on September 29 for all available platforms and is free for current owners of the game. On top of that, players who own only the base game can claim the two included expansions, Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine, at no extra cost.

The news came as a shock to fans, and the gameplay trailer is filled with too many brand-new features to count; even from the footage, you can tell there are some big visual and technical differences, and I can't wait to start another playthrough.

To make everything easier, I've put together a list below of every single new improvement mentioned in the trailer, whether it's upgraded visuals, a revamped combat system, new monster behaviour, or PlayStation 5 Pro support. Seriously, there's a lot!

What's included in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Remastered?

• Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine expansions (at no extra cost if you don't own them)
• Upgraded visuals
• Enhanced combat
• Improved traversal and movement
• New witcher Signs FX
• Revamped mount handling
• Enhanced monster behaviours
• A skill tree revamp
• Transmogrification
• Expanded photo mode
• New finishers
• Cross-platform mod support
• Immersive meditation
• Refined animations
• New quest tracking
• UI improvements
• Looting rework
• Refreshed motion blur
• New accessibility features
• Updated textures
• Foliage shading rework
• Tutorial modernization
• HDR improvements
• GTAO
• Improved menu navigation
• Global lighting rework
• New shading model
• Subsurface scattering
• New tone mapper
• PlayStation 5 Pro support
• Xbox Play Anywhere support
• Nintendo Switch 2 exclusive features
• Nvdia DLSS 4.5
• AMD FSR 4
• Intel XESS 2.0
• Path tracing on PC
• Ray reconstruction on PC
• Raytraced hair
• Native DX12
• Rendering parallelization

The announcement also came right before CDPR showcased the game's third and final major expansion, Songs of the Past, which is due to launch in 2027.

Elsewhere, fans can also look forward to The Witcher 4, which CDPR has confirmed is targeting a 2028 release window.

• GTA 6 leak hunters now face fake downloads designed to compromise their computers
• The suspicious ISO reportedly disables Windows security tools after execution on affected systems
• A tiny 50KB payload allegedly sits inside a gigantic 113GB file

Keen Grand Theft Auto 6 fans searching for leaked copies now face another risk: a huge ISO file is reportedly circulating across torrent sites.

The file is said to measure 113GB, yet online testers claim almost all that space consists of empty data rather than genuine game assets.

Their analysis reportedly found a small malicious program hidden inside the file, making the download appear far more dangerous than it normally would.

The huge size made it feel genuine

The suspicious file reportedly began circulating on torrent sites after renewed interest in leaked GTA 6material and claims of a complete game build.

However, testers who examined the ISO reportedly found that it contains 99.99% empty zeroes, leaving only about 50KB of data identified as malicious code.

“I did some reverse engineering and confirmed that it is fully fake and full of viruses,” said @Aidas29506493, an online researcher on X.

The 113GB figure was created to make the file resemble a legitimate game release while concealing a much smaller payload, which could be ransomware.

Yet file size alone provides no evidence that an alleged copy contains authentic game assets or executable code from Rockstar.

The alleged code reportedly includes commands designed to weaken Windows Defender and interfere with other security tools on affected computers.

Such behaviour would allow the malware to operate with fewer protections after someone launches the downloaded file on Windows.

The analysis also reportedly found a PowerShell command that adds the system drive to Windows Defender's exclusion list for scanning.

Another command was said to terminate security software, although independent verification of those findings remains limited at this time.

Malware risk rises alongside GTA 6 leak interest

The alleged ISO follows a series of GTA 6 leak claims that have generated substantial interest across gaming communities online.

A leaker known as Cyberleek has reportedly shared gameplay material and the game's fictional Leonidas map, while demanding changes from Rockstar.

Take-Two Interactive has also sought information from Microsoft that could help identify users connected with three Discord servers reportedly linked to leaks.

Those developments have increased attention around unofficial GTA 6 files, creating conditions that criminals can exploit with convincing fake downloads.

This situation also shows why unreleased game files can carry greater security risks than ordinary pirated software already available publicly.

Gamers downloading such files may expose passwords, personal files, browser data, or other information if malicious code gains access without warning.

Rockstar has scheduled the official release of Grand Theft Auto 6 for November 2026, giving players a legitimate alternative to unofficial copies elsewhere.

Until then, claims surrounding leaked builds and supposed ISOs should be treated cautiously because the files cannot be independently verified as genuine.

This case provides a strong warning, but further independent testing would be needed to establish every technical claim about the file itself.

Via Toms Hardware

Gamescom Opening Night Live 2026 has officially concluded, and the two-hour-long show was jam-packed with a deluge of game announcements and reveals.

From an official release date for the upcoming free-to-play open-world action game Ananta to our very first look at the highly anticipated The Witcher 3 Songs of the Past DLC, it offered a solid set of trailers — especially compared to some previous years.

If you weren't able to catch the show live, there's no need to worry about missing out. Here are the major announcements in the order that they happened to get you fully up to date.

Everything announced at Gamescom Opening Night Live 2026

• Nodus Fall — a new co-operative action game from Genshin Impact maker Hoyoverse
• Rainbow Six Tactics — new strategy spinoff launching in 2027
• Gears of War: E-Day — our first look at the villain in new cinematic story trailer
• Ananta — the free-to-play open world RPG is launching January 15, 2027
• Silent Hill Townfall got a new story trailer showing some creepy enemies
• Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy got another gameplay trailer ahead of release this week
• Sea of Remnants got a new gameplay trailer showing cute puppets and naval action
• Crimson Desert Enhanced announced with new content
• Tides of Annihilation trailer revealed new story details and gameplay
• Lofsong — announced for console and PC
• Megaman Dual Overdrive launches in 2027, and a crossover Pragmata skin is on the way
• Rayman Legends Retold launches on October 1
• PUBG Ded Net announced with a new gameplay trailer
• Control Resonant got an awesome new gameplay trailer
• The Blood of the Dawnwalker trailer revealed new story details and third-person action gameplay
• Game of Thrones: War for Westeros got a new gameplay trailer showing Daenerys and Jon Snow — launches in early 2027
• Dust Origins — a new isometric action game from Airship Syndicate
• Exodus got a new gameplay trailer showcasing a new character, a talking octopus named Salt — out April 7, 2027
• Warlock revealed as a new D&D game launching in 2027 for PC and console
• 1001 Threads of Mizan revealed — new narrative game
• Silver Palace: House of Greed got a new gameplay trailer
• Monster Hunter Outlanders — mobile spinoff got a new trailer
• Metro 2039 got a cinematic story trailer ahead of its February 2027 release
• Hitman World of Assassination - The Herbalist ft. rap legend Snoop Dogg DLC launching for free on August 27
• Aion 2 got a new trailer
• Afterworld, a new strategy game from Paradox Interactive, announced
• Petit Planet — life sim got an adorable new trailer

A new Mega man skin is coming to Pragmata. (Image credit: Gamescom)

• Mewgenics — comes to consoles on September 8
• Alien Fireteam 2 got a new gameplay trailer
• 1666: Amsterdam got a new trailer ahead of its early access release today
• Showa American Story got a wacky new gameplay trailer, launching on PS5 and PC this year
• Road Kings got a new trailer showing off plenty of trucking action
• Stage Tour — upcoming Guitar-Hero-like music title got a brand new look showcasing setlists and ways to play ahead of December 10 launch
• Crazy Taxi multiplayer reveal trailer
• Turok Origins got a new cinematic trailer
• Gravehounds, furry shooter, got a gameplay trailer ahead of 2026 launch
• Lego Skylines — reveal trailer for bricky city builder game
• Transport Fever 3 got a new trailer, launches September 26
• Exterminauts announced
• Path of Exile full 1.0 release on December 11, will be free-to-play
• Heroes of Might and Magic 3 Remake revealed in cinematic trailer showing the reimagined strategy title

Snoop Dogg is officially coming to the world of Hitman in upcoming DLC. (Image credit: Gamescom)

• No Law announced for 2027
• Project Zeta revealed as a new team-based MOBA
• Cinder City announced with a new trailer, available wishlist now
• Ontos announced with a creepy first-person trailer, launching 2027
• Pony Island 2: Panda Circus launches April 27, 2027
• Zoopunk gameplay reveal trailer shown
• There are no Ghosts at the Grand got a new trailer and is launching December 2026
• Roco Kingdom trailer confirmed closed beta test for October 27
• The Defiant announced
• Tarae the Unbound announced with a gameplay trailer
• Like or Die — quirky social media battle royale announced
• Final Fantasy 7 Revelation gets a new cinematic trailer

Gamescom Opening Night Live 2026 final announcement

• The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Remastered — announced as free upgrade with loads of new content
• The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Songs of the Past new cinematic footage shown

What did you think of this year's Opening Night Live show? Let us know in the comments or by voting in the poll below.

I’ve played about an hour of the Gears of War: E-Day campaign, which is shaping up to be a brilliant Xbox 360 throwback. Does E-Day reinvent the wheel? No, at least if the two missions that I’ve played are anything to go by, but everything that makes Gears of War good is present and accounted for.

My hands-on kicked off at the start of Act 2 of the campaign, with the fictional city of Kalona still grappling with the early stages of the mutant Locust invasion. Series hero Marcus Fenix and his rag-tag team of survivors, which includes long-time ally Dominic Santiago along with newcomers Mags Carter and Lucas Reyes, are holed up in the besieged city hall.

There are murmurings of a gigantic creature the group has just taken down — presumably a boss fight at the end of the previous chapter — and you’re quickly drafted into the military effort to take back the city.

Duck and cover

(Image credit: Xbox)

Your first goal is to head to a nearby Thrashball stadium (a familiar in-universe sport that looks like a weird hybrid of football and rugby), which involves traversing the crumbling streets and crossing a giant mechanical bridge. Obviously, things aren’t so simple — with countless Emergence Holes (or E-holes for short) opening and spewing out waves of foes as you make your way over.

Locust enemies are aggressive and, while they don’t pose much threat in isolation, can employ some pretty formidable tactics. The basic rifle-wielding drones will stick to cover like glue, popping up intermittently to spray your team with bullets. They can be hard to keep track of in large numbers, so be careful that those armed with shotguns don’t manage to flank you, as a few close-range hits will shred your health bar in seconds.

Tossed grenades and groups of fast-moving, dog-like Feral Wretches keep the pressure up by forcing you to change cover frequently, preventing fights from devolving into opposing sides taking pot shots at each other across the battlefield.

The steady introduction of new enemy types, from lethal snipers to giant bazooka-equipped brutes, kept the handful of encounters I experienced fresh with some interesting scenarios, like covering another squad located on the other side of the bridge, thrown in there too.

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It’s classic Gears of War action, elevated by meaty gunplay.

Chipping away at enemies from a distance is relatively ineffective and awkward (unless you manage to scoop up one of the powerful Breechshot rifles from a fallen enemy sniper to pop a few heads), but the up-close action is beautifully slick. The Gnasher Shotgun remains an absolute beast, with blowing an enemy in half a wonderfully satisfying reward for pulling off the perfect flank.

Once Fenix gets his hands on a prototype chainsaw bayonet, you know that I was sawing practically anything in my path to pieces in a glorious explosion of gore and viscera.

Free roam

(Image credit: Xbox)

The latter portions of my hands-on had me tackling one of the game’s new ‘open district’ missions, and it’s about what you would expect from the name. You’re dropped into a large chunk of the city and granted the ability to explore it freely with a little map to guide you. It doesn’t feel like a true open world as you’re very much guided towards the next objective, though there are some optional side missions to discover and plenty of collectibles to scoop up.

The mission in my preview was a basic wave survival challenge that had me hunkered down in a car dealership with some non-player character (NPC) soldiers. It’s not the most exciting concept, and I’m hoping some of the side content available in the full game is more adventurous. I didn’t feel like my time was wasted, however, as completing it unlocked some powerful weapon mods.

Modding your guns is a new feature introduced in E-Day (presumably somewhat inspired by the similar upgrade system in strategy spinoff Gears Tactics) that lets you customize your gear by improving stats such as magazine size or fire rate. It can sometimes even change how an entire gun operates, for example, having your pistol fire in a two-bullet burst at the cost of long-range accuracy.

(Image credit: Xbox)

The whole formula feels a bit retro, which is far from a bad thing. You don’t really get decent story-driven shooters these days, and the promise of a roughly 14-hour campaign alongside a suite of multiplayer modes to dive into afterwards is the kind of experience I crave as a palate cleanser between mega live-service releases.

It definitely helps that E-Day looks simply amazing from a technical perspective. Xbox has developed a bit of a reputation for delivering some visually stunning titles this generation (look at the borderline photorealistic fidelity of Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2), and E-Day is shaping up to be the best-looking yet. Its art direction blends 1980s retro charm with grand Gothic architecture and a distinctly alien, unfamiliar edge, all presented with ray-traced lighting, geometrically complex models, and flawless texture work.

I found myself poring over every detail, soaking in the signs and posters advertising services, the little notices stuck to the front of shops, the names of all the train lines in a subway station; it’s a lovingly crafted world that truly feels lived in.

If I had one complaint, it’s that it all doesn’t really look much like the world of the first Gears of War. That game is admittedly set more than a decade later, on a different part of the planet, but its cars and buildings in particular seem so much more modern than those of E-Day that it just doesn’t line up in my head. Were companies still making new vehicles and updating their storefronts while hundreds of vicious creatures were pouring out of the ground?

This is nitpicking, of course, and it’s not hard to suspend your disbelief when it’s in the service of some truly beautiful design. I’m excited to see even more when Gears of War: E-Day releases for PC and Xbox Series X and Series S on October 6, 2026.

• Paradox Interactive has revealed the upcoming grand strategy game Afterworld
• It's set in a post-apocalyptic America that players can attempt to rebuild
• It's intended to be the studio's most "easy to learn" and "approachable" title yet

Paradox Interactive has revealed Afterworld, an upcoming post-apocalyptic title that looks like the perfect cross between franchises like Fallout or Mad Max and the company's popular grand strategy games.

Created by Paradox Development Studio, the same team behind Crusader Kings 3 and Hearts of Iron 4, Afterworld takes place in an entirely original vision of post-apocalyptic North America filled with resources to exploit, territory to conquer, and rival groups to trade resources, ally with, or wage war against.

Initially, the game is all about building up some semblance of civilization by creating a home and choosing the laws and ethics of your tribe, with the scale gradually developing until you're going head-to-head with other emerging powers to decide the fate of the continent.

Paradox InteractiveParadox InteractiveParadox InteractiveParadox InteractiveParadox InteractiveParadox Interactive

Different playable factions let you start your story as everything from apocalypse survivors that have just emerged from a hidden vault to fanatical zealots already familiar with the brutal new world.

“This is the first world we’ve gotten to build from scratch in a long time, and the first one we've had the pleasure of destroying before the game starts," explained game director Dan Lind.

"The old world is still out there in fragments, waiting to be found. What comes after it is entirely up to the players.”

Paradox InteractiveParadox InteractiveParadox InteractiveParadox InteractiveParadox Interactive

With its "small-scale" starting hours, Afterworld is intended to be the studio's most "easy to learn" and "approachable" title yet — which is good news given the complex systems of games like Hearts of Iron 4 can be incredibly tricky to pick up.

This doesn't mean that surviving is going to be easy, though: the world is full of dangerous old technology and unknown horrors. It's also home to the Ancients, immortal leaders that survived the apocalypse and now dominate the wasteland.

It also sounds like there is going to be a lot of depth, with the developer promising that the experience "as rich and complex" as fans have "come to expect" from its games.

Afterworld doesn't have a release date yet, but can wishlist it on Steam today.

• Meaco has launched two tower fans, standing 19 and 26 inches tall
• Both are very quiet, with eco and night time modes
• The larger model can be controlled via Meaco's smartphone app

Meaco makes some of the best fans we've tested here at TechRadar, and it's just launched two new tower models to help you keep cool during the next heatwave.

Meaco's line of air circulators proved exceptionally popular earlier this summer, and all of its tabletop and pedestal models are completely sold out — with no more stock expected until October. Both of these new tower fans are available to buy right now though, priced under £100 each.

The taller of the two tower fans stands 26 inches tall and costs £99.99, while the smaller model (intended for use on tables, desks, and kitchen counters) is a compact 19 inches and is £69.99. Both are powerful, quiet, and ideal for sleep thanks to their dedicated night time modes that lower the fan speed and turn off sounds, as well as their glow-in-the-dark remote controls that let you control them from the comfort of your bed.

Sefte 19in Tower Fan: £69.99
This smart-looking tower fan is ideal for keeping you cool at your desk or in the kitchen. Move it to your bedside table in the evening, and its night mode will lower the volume to a whisper-quiet 22dBA so you can sleep soundly, even during a heatwave.View Deal

Sefte Smart 26in Tower Fan: £99.99
The taller of Meaco's two new tower fans offers smartphone compatibility, so you can set cooling schedules to keep pets comfortable, fine-tune the settings without waking your child, or activate the fan before you come home from work.View Deal

Both offer 12 fan speeds, with the smaller model providing a maximum flow rate of 17.27m³ per minute, and the larger fan an impressive 34.41m³ per minute. There are also four oscillation angles (45 degrees, 90 degrees, 135 degrees and 180 degrees) so you can focus the cooling on just one person, or spread the airflow across a larger area.

The larger fan offers app connectivity, letting you operate it from anywhere using your phone, and set cooling schedules (ideal for pet owners).

Cool comfort

Our reviewers awarded both the Meaco Sefte 8in Portable Air Circulator and Meaco Sefte Pro 10in Table Air Circulator four and a half stars out of five, praising their quiet operation, ability to move a large volume of air, and rechargeable batteries that allow you to use them anywhere in your home.

I bought the eight-inch model myself, and it proved invaluable on uncomfortably warm nights, effectively pulling in cooler air from outside when placed near an open window. I have high expectations for the two tower fans, and hope to bring you full reviews of both very soon.

Back in June, Rockstar Games announced that Grand Theft Auto 6 — perhaps the most anticipated game of all time — would only be available as a digital download, with physical boxes containing redemption codes rather than discs.

Days later, Sony sent shockwaves through the gaming community by announcing that it would cease production of all PlayStation discs in January 2028. With Xbox on unsteady ground and Nintendo already relying on controversial game-key cards for many of its releases, Sony’s decision felt like the beginning of the end for physical gaming media.

Still, as someone who grew up buying games at brick-and-mortar stores, it's a real shame to just let physical games fade away — especially when physical media has made such a comeback in other industries.

On top of being a lifelong gamer, I’m also a DJ and huge music nerd — so the recent news has made me think about vinyl’s return to popularity in the music industry. With that in mind, I spoke to four experts from across the worlds of gaming and music to find out whether a similar revival could be on the cards for physical games.

Preservation and profit

(Image credit: Geography Photos/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

Sony’s decision to stop making physical game discs hasn’t come out of nowhere. Physical game sales have been in decline for years, with Gamespot reporting that 80 per cent of all PlayStation software sales in the latest fiscal year were digital.

John O’Shea is co-CEO and creative director at the National Videogame Museum in Sheffield, UK. He tells me that Sony’s decision will have wider impacts on how we preserve and share games going forward: “What we’re hearing from communities is that people are worried that some of the games they care about deeply might become less accessible to them as a consequence of being digital only.

“It’s brilliant [at first] because you can access whatever you want,” he continues, “but what’s tricky is if it gets taken down or delisted from the catalogue.”

(Image credit: Shutterstock / robtek)

O’Shea adds that, in the UK, video games are not archived with as much care as other forms of media: “The wider challenge is that there is not currently an integrated framework for video game conservation. Individual companies should, and rightly do, pursue their own business focus, but where something exists in a digital format, copies can’t easily be made within a legal framework.”

The decline in physical game sales has tracked with a decline in brick-and-mortar gaming stores. Leading US retailer GameStop has closed more than 700 of its domestic stores since early 2025, and the once-mighty UK retailer Game has been reduced to a section in sporting goods store Sports Direct.

Khalil Madim is assistant manager of London independent game store Game On. He tells me that the business is preparing to shift away from selling games altogether: “We might change the entire business to electronic maintenance and parts for PCs. We want to do something that you really need a person for.”

Game On already does most of its trade through its repair service. The store opened in 2009 as a combination game and repair shop, but the latter has taken priority due in part to low margins on new boxed games.

“When it all becomes digital, we might be out of the business,” he continues, “it will impact us so badly. The customers aren’t happy as well – when they buy a game for, say, £10, they can sell it back to us for £5, or they can hand it over to friends or family. But when it’s a digital copy, they can’t do anything.”

The vinyl comeback

(Image credit: Victrola)

Gaming retail finds itself in a similar tricky situation to the vinyl industry at the advent of digital downloads and music streaming.

According to the Recording Industry Association of America, LP and EP vinyl sales in the US fell from more than $1.5 billion in 1978 to just $6 million in 1993 – a fall of more than 99 per cent. However, in 2025 LP and EP sales crossed the $1 billion mark for the first time in more than 40 years. Vinyl has also surged in popularity in the UK, with the BBC reporting in 2023 that the industry was at its healthiest since 1990.

Tom Durston runs record store Inverted Audio in south London, as an extension of his blog of the same name: “I’ve been buying records since I was 13 years old, and I used to buy video games as well. Back in the 90s you had to buy a game [in person]. You’d have the little box, and the artwork – it’s the same as a record.”

Durston tells me that his store succeeds because of the curation that physical media requires: “I’ve essentially built a platform for my music taste – over the years an international community of readers has trusted me to filter out good music. We’re a record store, but we’re also an editorial platform.”

He adds that physical media requires more investment from producers, which engenders more investment from consumers: “If you have a physical format, you’re introducing quality control – is it worth pressing 500 records, for example? If not, there’s no point.”

The community Durston mentions is about more than where you buy your media. For DJ and artist manager Madison True, physical media gives people something to connect over in a world of fleeting digital interactions.

True’s ‘Vinyl Bitch’ workshops bring beginner female, non-binary, queer and trans DJs together over a pair of turntables: “The thing we try to cultivate is that community, that love, and that discussion. It’s so cool to see people that I know or those that have never met each other become homies by the end of the night, and it’s because they’ve come together over this piece of physical media.”

True continues: “How cool is it that people can come together no matter their sexual identity, or gender, or religion, and come together and talk about how cool something looks and sounds? You wouldn’t get that if it wasn’t physical.”

Could physical games have a comeback?

(Image credit: Analogue)

Before setting out to write this article, I thought that the best hope for gaming was to mirror record labels’ investment in nostalgic special editions – even without a disc, gatefold covers with new artwork and box sets with bonus goodies and collectibles could be enough to make owning a game feel worthwhile.

The issue is that the games industry is more centralised than the music industry. Sony licenses the creation of PlayStation discs and is the sole manufacturer of PlayStation consoles, meaning indie developers can’t just opt out of working within their system.

As such, John O’Shea says that gamers are keen to hold on to anything that gives them a sense of ownership: “In the fan community, there’s a subjectivity of stories that’s really important. Anything that feels like it’s allowing less of a sense of ownership for the game’s players in the communities is going to have an emotional response.

“With video games, it’s the players that bring games to life, and the players want to have a sense of ownership in return.”

I'm not a gamer. It's not that I've never gamed. In fact, I've frenetically mashed game controller buttons on every conceivable console and platform. It's just that I don't think about it when I'm not gaming and, if you ask my adult children, I am terrible at it.

My youngest, now 28, is an avid gamer, and, in fact, a gaming writer. Having written multiple lengthy features for a wide range of gaming publications and played more hours of more games than I've spent trying to draw or learn guitar, they are a true gaming expert.

"It won't matter," they told me as they examined a PS5 game I handed them, curious if Kena: Bridge of Spirits was any good and if they thought it was worth playing. The comment was not related to the game. They were talking about the PlayStation Blackout.

Starting this week, games preservation site DoesItPlay launched an online grassroots campaign, PlayStation Blackout Week (August 23 to 30), to protest Sony's decision to cease all physical game media production in January 2028. As part of the protest, which is under the hashtag # PlayStationBlackout, DoesItPlay called for "No logins, no play sessions, no purchases on any of Sony’s platforms.”

This X post pretty much captures DoesItPlay's core argument:

'One more time: EVERYONE will be negatively impacted if we let Sony erase physical media. Not just physical buyers. Digital will get more expensive and you will have no form of ownership anymore. Physical going away doesn't mean the rest gains something. Quite the opposite!"

Big Boss potential

The potential economic impact of such a protest is massive. After all, PlayStation Network alone has a reported 125 million monthly active users, paying anywhere from $10.99 to $19.99 a month, not to mention whatever they pay for additional games and in-game purchases.

And yet, my own gaming expert was telling me it won't matter (echoing sentiment I've found across social media). Part of the problem, my expert told me, is that the hardcore gamers, the ones who might rally the pro-physical media troops, are all at Gamescon. That's right — a site deeply enmeshed in gaming culture may have chosen the exact wrong week for its protest.

Still, I think there's something larger at work here. Yes, the outcry when Sony announced the change was loud and lusty, but just because some people with a platform are making noises, that doesn't mean everyone is upset or willing to protest the impending change.

Had Sony proposed this change 20 years ago, I could understand the concern. In 2006, Sony's PlayStation network was brand new. Most people bought games on disc, and for many years after, they also bought pre-owned games at GameStop. Discs were part of gaming culture. Since then, though, we've had the rise of the networks, including PSN, Xbox Live (now Xbox Network), and perhaps more important, Steam, which probably did more than any other platform to move games off physical media.

There's another reason my gaming pro might've said the blackout won't matter: Gamers have moved on. A recent report noted the lowest physical game sales since 1995 (there's also a huge gaming console sales slump).

People's game libraries are mostly in the cloud these days.

Getting owned

Regardless, a vocal minority complains that the loss of physical media means the end of game ownership. Except that's not true, either. We don't own the games we buy, no more than we own any of the software we purchase. It's all nothing but licenses to use the games and software.

Here's how Sony describes the agreement between it and its customers when it comes to the games they buy:

“The Software is licensed to you, not sold. You are granted a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, and personal license to play or use the Software for your private, non-commercial use on the system or device it was intended for.”

It's a license to play, not own.

It's not that I don't understand the frustration or even sadness at the loss of physical media. I have literal shelves of classic software boxes. They're fun to look at, though almost entirely useless, since all the platforms and hardware have moved on. Gamers might be a different breed, holding onto old consoles and the games they bought to play on them for decades, but in my house, that's not the case. Our Nintendo Wii and GameCube are stuffed onto shelves gathering dust. No one has touched them in years.

The most avid gamers, ones who play at near-competitive levels, are most interested in the next big thing. Take, for instance, the upcoming GTA 6 launch. My games expert mentioned that, and how the insane leaks tie to this protest.

Again, they're not interested in the protest, and are instead fixated on the leak and how messed up it is. They've even avoided looking at the GTA 6 clips, so as not to spoil the big game reveal in November.

This plan is broken

Put another way, it seems all the efforts to make Sony relent are having, if not the opposite effect, basically no effect at all. DoesItPlay is talking to a devoted few who still clutch their physical media like water canteens in a desert. The GTA 6 leaker, Cyberleek, who has implored Sony to "do better," is drawing attention mostly to his shenanigans, and I don't think he's inspiring people as much as he's making some think he might be ruining the fun of the most important game launch in 15 years.

There is, in all this, a fundamental truth about physical media: it always has its season, and then that season inevitably passes. Storage media is the perfect analog, because every time we think we have a physical storage medium for the ages, it's supplanted by a new, better, and higher-capacity alternative. I have drawers full of dead media, including Zip Drives, Jaz Drives, 3.5-inch floppies, 5-inch floppies, and more.

Even if Sony was to relent, and continue making physical game media for a few more years — and it won't — the hardware to play it will age out. We'll end up with something better or, more likely, the last physical gaming media holdouts will switch over to the cloud, and that will truly mark the end of physical media.

As my own gaming expert said, #PlayStationBlackout doesn't matter. People's attention is elsewhere, and all true gamers really care about is how quickly the GTA 6 teaser will shift from an exclusive Netflix launch to YouTube. Talking and thinking about anything else is pointless.

Remember that big leak about Microsoft having begun developing a version of Windows that was built around AI, before eventually abandoning the project? Well, it's surfaced again, this time with some interesting new information on just how focused Microsoft was on Copilot, which I think is quite telling — or indeed worrying for those who believe Microsoft might be backtracking on AI somehow.

Windows Latest has gone back over the leak (which was first reported by our sister site Windows Central last month) with a fine-tooth comb, and the tech site flagged up some fresh details that flew under the radar at the time.

To recap briefly, the concept of the OS shown, codenamed 'Project Aion' — with the leaked material dating back to 2024 — was a lightweight web-based version of a Windows operating system that streamed apps to the desktop (as opposed to running them natively on the PC) and put Copilot at the heart of the experience.

This was a horror show of an idea for many, of course, and what Windows Latest starkly highlights here is the extent to which Microsoft was building Aion around AI. In a SharePoint site in the leak, it's described as a "Copilot OS" and a cross-platform system that can span all devices and is generically known as an "Agent OS".

The broader idea, is said to be of an operating system fashioned around "an agent that marshals and organizes all the capabilities of our computers and our clouds on our behalf", and that this is known as an "agent of agents" or the "outside agent".

"The version that Microsoft will build should be known as Copilot OS or the Outside Copilot," the top-level description on the SharePoint site observes. Another term mentioned is a "self-driving OS", which hints at the desire to build an autonomous platform powered by AI here.

Copilot is envisioned as being the "primary way people express, entertain, and educate themselves, and complete tasks across all aspects of their lives".

But Aion is dead, right? Yes… but hold up a minute

(Image credit: Getty Images)

So, what's the big deal here? Windows Latest breathes a sigh of relief that the "odds are already in favor" of this abandoned Aion concept staying dead and buried, arguing that Microsoft is clearly backtracking on AI features these days. And that's very true — there's no denying that Microsoft has reversed course on pushing AI quite so hard as it did in 2025.

But I don't think we can declare that 'Aion is dead' quite so readily. Yes, that exact concept may be buried, but there are nuances here. For me, what Windows Latest has surfaced shows just how serious Microsoft was about exploring the idea of a fully AI-driven desktop. More to the point, an operating system that was effectively an 'agent of agents', or an overseeing AI pulling the strings of a collection of smaller dedicated agents working within the framework of that system.

Here's the thing: Microsoft's efforts to rein in AI within Windows 11 certainly exist (although I wonder about how much of this is for show, frankly). The software giant is currently delivering its best effort to please the disgruntled masses, and a big part of that is fixing Windows 11 — but another hefty piece of the puzzle is to place less emphasis on AI and shoveling more Copilot features into the desktop OS.

But don't be mistaken here: Microsoft still very much sees AI as the future. The company just realizes that it can't be vocal about that right now, especially given that the RAM crisis has forced 8GB laptops back onto the scene, as notebook makers, including Microsoft itself, try to cope with hefty spikes in the cost of manufacturing these devices.

It's a bit embarrassing to be talking about Copilot+ PCs needing 16GB of RAM for AI features when Surface models have had to be reintroduced packing 8GB to get their price down to a vaguely palatable level. Indeed, talk of Copilot+ devices seems to have evaporated this year, as if Microsoft feels this is best brushed under the carpet for now. While a recent leak from Lenovo talked about 'Non-Copilot' laptops with less than 16GB of memory (as flagged by Windows Latest), this kind of spec talk isn't something you'll hear from Microsoft.

Downplaying AI is the tactic for now, but not forever

(Image credit: Microsoft)

For me, it's clear enough that Microsoft is downplaying AI in a strategic manner for the time being, and likely through to next year. The next big thing, however, remains AI agents in Windows, even if Windows 11 isn't going to be transformed into next-gen Windows Copilot (or whatever a more AI-centric desktop platform might be called).

Microsoft is still very busy working on those agents. These entities will begin the shift towards an operating system that's built around AI, with smaller-scale agents executing dedicated tasks on the local PC (with the user's permission, of course, to access stuff). This will be a gradual ramping up of AI usage within Windows 11 (and while folks who hate AI and everything it stands for won't have to go anywhere near these agents, doubtless the idea is that minds will be changed eventually).

I think it's also telling that in Microsoft's recent roundup of the progress it's made in fixing Windows 11, the company talked about future improvements for the OS later this year, and a central aim was to streamline resource usage so the operating system runs better with 8GB of RAM. Interestingly, a few other goals were listed alongside that, and one of them was to make "voice more natural and fluid to interact across the apps you use every day". If you recall, part of the initial sales pitch for AI in Windows 11 was Copilot Voice (and Vision), so I think the importance placed on voice functionality here reflects a broader AI goal that's still in the background.

Ultimately, I think Microsoft is still pushing towards an operating system that's built around AI; it's just that the timeline to reach this end-game objective has been pushed further out. While Project Aion as leaked before was too big a concept, it clearly shows how Microsoft ranks the importance of AI for the future — and I think it's a mistake to think this idea is somehow 'dead' or derailed.

As far as I'm concerned, this remains the destination where Microsoft is heading with next-gen Windows: a lightweight (possibly modular) OS focused on AI, and one that leverages the cloud and streamed apps, too. I think the leaked Project Aion shows us the future as Microsoft wants to realize it, but what it doesn't mention at all is what I think will be another key driver for the software giant: subscription charges.

The golden ticket for Microsoft is to get consumers subscribing to the Windows platform (as businesses do – well, enterprises anyway). AI agents as Windows add-ons with a small monthly (or yearly) fee attached seems a likely way to bring this monetization method into play while making minimal waves (and I recently discussed how there are signs that this is already happening).

That will eventually turn into a grander scheme, and Windows could, over time, end up getting a lot closer to the Aion or Copilot OS concept than some might imagine — although admittedly, that could still be a long way off.

Remember that big leak about Microsoft having begun developing a version of Windows that was built around AI, before eventually abandoning the project? Well, it's surfaced again, this time with some interesting new information on just how focused Microsoft was on Copilot, which I think is quite telling — or indeed worrying for those who believe Microsoft might be backtracking on AI somehow.

Windows Latest has gone back over the leak (which was first reported by our sister site Windows Central last month) with a fine-tooth comb, and the tech site flagged up some fresh details that flew under the radar at the time.

To recap briefly, the concept of the OS shown, codenamed 'Project Aion' — with the leaked material dating back to 2024 — was a lightweight web-based version of a Windows operating system that streamed apps to the desktop (as opposed to running them natively on the PC) and put Copilot at the heart of the experience.

This was a horror show of an idea for many, of course, and what Windows Latest starkly highlights here is the extent to which Microsoft was building Aion around AI. In a SharePoint site in the leak, it's described as a "Copilot OS" and a cross-platform system that can span all devices and is generically known as an "Agent OS".

The broader idea, is said to be of an operating system fashioned around "an agent that marshals and organizes all the capabilities of our computers and our clouds on our behalf", and that this is known as an "agent of agents" or the "outside agent".

"The version that Microsoft will build should be known as Copilot OS or the Outside Copilot," the top-level description on the SharePoint site observes. Another term mentioned is a "self-driving OS", which hints at the desire to build an autonomous platform powered by AI here.

Copilot is envisioned as being the "primary way people express, entertain, and educate themselves, and complete tasks across all aspects of their lives".

But Aion is dead, right? Yes… but hold up a minute

(Image credit: Getty Images)

So, what's the big deal here? Windows Latest breathes a sigh of relief that the "odds are already in favor" of this abandoned Aion concept staying dead and buried, arguing that Microsoft is clearly backtracking on AI features these days. And that's very true — there's no denying that Microsoft has reversed course on pushing AI quite so hard as it did in 2025.

But I don't think we can declare that 'Aion is dead' quite so readily. Yes, that exact concept may be buried, but there are nuances here. For me, what Windows Latest has surfaced shows just how serious Microsoft was about exploring the idea of a fully AI-driven desktop. More to the point, an operating system that was effectively an 'agent of agents', or an overseeing AI pulling the strings of a collection of smaller dedicated agents working within the framework of that system.

Here's the thing: Microsoft's efforts to rein in AI within Windows 11 certainly exist (although I wonder about how much of this is for show, frankly). The software giant is currently delivering its best effort to please the disgruntled masses, and a big part of that is fixing Windows 11 — but another hefty piece of the puzzle is to place less emphasis on AI and shoveling more Copilot features into the desktop OS.

But don't be mistaken here: Microsoft still very much sees AI as the future. The company just realizes that it can't be vocal about that right now, especially given that the RAM crisis has forced 8GB laptops back onto the scene, as notebook makers, including Microsoft itself, try to cope with hefty spikes in the cost of manufacturing these devices.

It's a bit embarrassing to be talking about Copilot+ PCs needing 16GB of RAM for AI features when Surface models have had to be reintroduced packing 8GB to get their price down to a vaguely palatable level. Indeed, talk of Copilot+ devices seems to have evaporated this year, as if Microsoft feels this is best brushed under the carpet for now. While a recent leak from Lenovo talked about 'Non-Copilot' laptops with less than 16GB of memory (as flagged by Windows Latest), this kind of spec talk isn't something you'll hear from Microsoft.

Downplaying AI is the tactic for now, but not forever

(Image credit: Microsoft)

For me, it's clear enough that Microsoft is downplaying AI in a strategic manner for the time being, and likely through to next year. The next big thing, however, remains AI agents in Windows, even if Windows 11 isn't going to be transformed into next-gen Windows Copilot (or whatever a more AI-centric desktop platform might be called).

Microsoft is still very busy working on those agents. These entities will begin the shift towards an operating system that's built around AI, with smaller-scale agents executing dedicated tasks on the local PC (with the user's permission, of course, to access stuff). This will be a gradual ramping up of AI usage within Windows 11 (and while folks who hate AI and everything it stands for won't have to go anywhere near these agents, doubtless the idea is that minds will be changed eventually).

I think it's also telling that in Microsoft's recent roundup of the progress it's made in fixing Windows 11, the company talked about future improvements for the OS later this year, and a central aim was to streamline resource usage so the operating system runs better with 8GB of RAM. Interestingly, a few other goals were listed alongside that, and one of them was to make "voice more natural and fluid to interact across the apps you use every day". If you recall, part of the initial sales pitch for AI in Windows 11 was Copilot Voice (and Vision), so I think the importance placed on voice functionality here reflects a broader AI goal that's still in the background.

Ultimately, I think Microsoft is still pushing towards an operating system that's built around AI; it's just that the timeline to reach this end-game objective has been pushed further out. While Project Aion as leaked before was too big a concept, it clearly shows how Microsoft ranks the importance of AI for the future — and I think it's a mistake to think this idea is somehow 'dead' or derailed.

As far as I'm concerned, this remains the destination where Microsoft is heading with next-gen Windows: a lightweight (possibly modular) OS focused on AI, and one that leverages the cloud and streamed apps, too. I think the leaked Project Aion shows us the future as Microsoft wants to realize it, but what it doesn't mention at all is what I think will be another key driver for the software giant: subscription charges.

The golden ticket for Microsoft is to get consumers subscribing to the Windows platform (as businesses do – well, enterprises anyway). AI agents as Windows add-ons with a small monthly (or yearly) fee attached seems a likely way to bring this monetization method into play while making minimal waves (and I recently discussed how there are signs that this is already happening).

That will eventually turn into a grander scheme, and Windows could, over time, end up getting a lot closer to the Aion or Copilot OS concept than some might imagine — although admittedly, that could still be a long way off.

At next month's September Apple Event, we expect the tech giant to introduce the Apple Watch 12 alongside the new iPhone.

While rumors are sparse about what new additions the Series 12 will have, we've had a year with the Apple Watch Series 11, and we think it's an excellent smartwatch that's packed with insightful features — and it's currently on sale.

Amazon has the Apple Watch 11 on sale for $299 (was $399), which is a $100 discount from its original price and only $20 more than the record low.

• Shop more daily deals at Amazon

The Apple Watch Series 11 was released at last year's September Event and is the thinnest and most durable Apple smartwatch, and is 2x more scratch-resistant than its predecessor. The smartwatch uses 5G connectivity for improved connectivity, while still offering an impressive battery life of up to 24 hours. Health features include hypertension detection and advanced sleep monitoring, which provide a personalized Sleep Score with helpful insights to help you sleep better.

Get the Apple Watch 11 on sale for $299

Watch Series 11, 42mm: was $399 now $299
Ahead of next month's rumored Apple Watch 12 release, Amazon has the Apple Watch 11 on sale for $299 - just $20 more than the record-low price. The Series 11 is Apple's thinnest and most durable smartwatch, with upgrades like 5G connectivity, 24-hour battery life, and new health and sleep insights.View Deal

The Apple Watch 12 is expected to launch at the same price as the Series 11, which is $399. While it's guaranteed to have new features, most people will be satisfied with everything that the Apple Watch 11 has to offer, and it's $100 cheaper.