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• Acer's CEO claims RAM supply is still "quite large"
• Jason Chen does acknowledge that PC prices will rise in Q4, though, by up to 20% on average
• However, those prices will fall by mid-2027, the CEO predicts, asserting that: "It's impossible for the shortage to last until 2030!"

Not everyone is being totally downbeat about the RAM crisis, with Acer's CEO stating that he's hopeful that PC prices will drop from the middle of 2027, even if price rises are on the cards for the rest of this year.

VideoCardz higlighted a (translated) report from Taiwan's Economic Daily News that shares the most recent thoughts of Jason Chen, chief executive of Acer, on the RAM crisis.

Chen asserts that there isn't much of a DDR4 and DDR5 memory shortage at present, and that the "supply is quite large" for this RAM — we must bear in mind there may be some nuances lost in translation there — and also that there isn't much shortage of processors either.

The CEO does acknowledge that the prices of components are currently "fluctuating" at a high level, and that PC prices will continue to climb in the fourth quarter of 2026, with an average price rise of between 5% to 20%.

However, the good news, according to Chen, is that he believes PC prices should drop from mid-2027, and with more chip production coming online — especially in China — the memory shortage won't last for the rest of the decade.

Chen is pretty firm on that one, claiming that, "It's impossible for the shortage to last until 2030!"

Analysis: new hope for some stability?

(Image credit: Unsplash / Liam Briese)

As to whether there isn't much of a RAM shortage currently, almost everyone else begs to differ on that — although I accept that Chen's meaning may be altered in translation somewhat here, as noted, and perhaps the gist is that supply isn't as bad as some in the industry would have you believe.

Whatever the case, Chen is clearly sounding a more optimistic note than most. There have certainly been some analysts and prominent industry figures who are suggesting that the RAM crisis will indeed last until 2030, and those are the people who Chen is clearly directing that last comment at. The CEO does appear to be talking more about the Chinese market than the global picture here, though, and we should also bear that in mind.

Still, it's a relief to hear some more positive thinking on the RAM crisis, although there's one point that everyone can agree on: namely that prices are going to rise over the rest of 2026 and into 2027. Even Chen's predicted fall in PC pricing isn't forecast to come about until the middle of next year, and so for the time being, it's clear enough that we're stuck with rising prices.

The cost of RAM in particular has been soaring of late — against all odds, as it was already exorbitantly high — and GPUs are now being subject to some worrying price hikes (the top-end in particular is getting ridiculous), with more to come I expect. It's not pretty out there for consumers, and nothing is going to get better for some time — the question for me right now is: how much worse might things become?

I hope Chen's more positive noises here are indicative of at least some stabilizing around high pricing for PCs and components alike.

President Trump has unveiled his latest plan to combat concerns around AI by appointing a new "czar" to oversee the technology, and also establish an "AI force" to help enforce this.

However there's just one problem - as anyone who actually pays attention to the technology industry news cycle will be well aware of, Salesforce recently revealed its latest interface platform for AI.

Its name...AIforce.

Which AIforce is best AIforce?

Unveiled at its recent Dreamforce 2026 event, AIforce was the headline announcement for the company, promising no less than a new way of interfacing with the data and AI together to help unlock productivity and efficiency in the workplace like never before.

Described by Salesforce CEO and Chair Marc Benioff as "really the most exciting thing I've ever seen for Salesforce," AIforce was a huge presence at the show, one of the biggest technology conferences on the calendar, with posters and displays splashed around the venue.

The problem is, no-one seems to have told President Trump.

Let's be honest, the man is hardly a master of coming up with good names for anything ("Space Force"/"Big Beautiful Bill"/"Gulf of America") - and is currently seeking out views on an alternative name for the concept of Artificial Intelligence itself.

In a typically rambling post on his Truth Social site, the President noted that his administration “will not in any way hinder or stifle the Growth of this incredible Industry. Rather, we will cherish it, help it, and watch over it, as it grows!”

He also linked the idea of the AI Force to his creation of the Space Force, which he claimed was a “tremendous SUCCESS.”

The President gave no further details about the AI Force, such as when it might be announced or launched, nor who he had in mind to lead it. Luckily for all of us know, Trump has insisted that “Only High I.Q. individuals need apply!” for the position of AI Czar.

Mr Benioff - maybe it's time to give the President a call and avoid a copyright issue?

• Disney has denied that ad-free tiers on Disney+ will start showing ads during movies and shows
• Last weekend, reports emerged that ad breaks would become commonplace for all fans
• Some users closed their accounts over the incorrect claims

Disney+ fans have been left angered — and then confused — after incorrect reports suggested they'd be subjected to ads even if they were subscribed to one of its ad-free experiences.

Last weekend (September 19/20), images were shared on the ResetEra forums and other social media platforms that showed an updated Subscriber Agreement for European users.

One screenshot of the revised document appeared to indicate that even those subscribed to the more ad-free expensive tiers — i.e., Standard and Premium — might soon see "promotional content, sponsorship, and advertisements before/after playback of Content and in channels, live/as-live, special events, and any third-party services content".

Soon: No more escaping ads on Disney+! https://t.co/ouAhn2xsF2September 21, 2026

Understandably, it didn't take long for users to lash out at Disney over the supposed change. As fan fury gained traction online, numerous outlets picked up on the story and ran with it, too, further fueling subscriber indignation.

However, it turns out that everyone had jumped the gun. In a statement shared with German language website anime2you.de, Disney said the rumors weren't accurate, and clarified that ad-free subscribers wouldn't start to see traditional ad breaks while watching movies and TV shows. Furthermore, a moderator post on the Disney+ Reddit page confirmed Disney's stance, adding that "nothing" has changed for Standard and Premium customers.

Responding to a request for comment from TechRadar, Disney reaffirmed that Standard and Premium users wouldn't be shown during movies and TV shows.

Before publishing this story, TechRadar also investigated whether ads had been added to the Standard and Premium experience. And, while trailers and other promotional materials appear before and after a movie or TV show begins (NB: Disney+ has done this for a while now), we confirmed that ads do not interrupt your viewing experience on these plans.

A minor inconvenience, or a big blow?Comment from r/entertainment

So, why the confusion? As explained in the aforementioned Reddit thread, Disney — and other corporations, for that matter — occasionally make changes to their terms of service agreements. These tweaks are made to make things clearer for anyone who reads such documents — and, by proxy, reduce the legal risk posed to major companies.

The irony, of course, is that, by updating its user agreement, Disney didn't make things easier to understand, because this online maelstrom wouldn't have happened if it had.

Comment from r/entertainment

As much as the House of Mouse has tried to limit the damage created by this, the episode has further eroded trust with small sections of its fanbase and, as the above Reddit posts exemplify, even led to some viewers canceling their Disney+ subscription.

Admittedly, those that have unsubscribed over this will be a mere drop in the ocean of the streamer's 100 million+ user base. Nonetheless, it's done a small but seemingly significant amount of damage to the reputation of Disney+. We'll see if it takes a further hit if, in October, the entertainment giant announces the inevitable yearly price hike to Disney+ and Hulu that's been a staple of the industry for the last few years.

Work as you know it will be a relic of the past.

You wake up, pour a coffee and join a call. The first ten minutes are spent talking about why a colleague typed 1524 units in cell B4 of your shared spreadsheet. It should be 1759 units, obviously.

In the afternoon, you complete your third rewrite of an offer for a new prospect. You get a message just as you finish it. The scope has changed. Again.

This is a normal day for most knowledge workers. In five years, this type of day will seem archaic, and as strange as it sounds, we’ll probably miss it.

We’ve been here before after farming gave way to factory work, and then that turned into the knowledge work most of us do today. New tools automated the old jobs, and the nature of work changed with them. AI agents are doing the same to desk jobs.

Brilliant and useless at the same time

We recently worked out how to turn AI from a just question-and-answer machine into something that does actual work. Coding is a clean example. Two years ago, AI coding was mostly defined by autocomplete and small scripts. Today, engineers at Anthropic report AI now writes up to 90% of their code, with some no longer coding by hand at all.

So why do hallucinations and basic errors still happen? Every few weeks a new example makes the rounds: a model can’t count how many Rs are in strawberry; another insists you walk to the car wash because it is only 50 meters away (stepping through the suds, sprayers and rollers doesn’t seem like a great idea). The labs patch each one and a fresh embarrassment turns up the next day.

AI researcher Andrej Karpathy calls this jagged intelligence. Models crack extremely complex problems and then trip over something a child would get right. The lesson is that you can’t tell in advance which you’ll get.

In other words, you can’t extract a human from the process, drop in an agent and assume the output is fine.

What to hand over

What an agent can be trusted with hinges on two questions. What does a mistake cost, and what does checking it cost?

Error cost is the damage when the model gets it wrong. A hallucinated citation in a court filing is expensive, i.e. fines and reputational damage. A rough draft of a meeting summary not so much.

On the other hand, verification cost is how easy it is to check if what the agent produced is right. Mathematics sits at the inexpensive end of the spectrum, since proofs can be checked programmatically whereas a business strategy sits at the highest end, as you need deep expertise to properly evaluate it.

Gauge your tasks against those two questions. The higher a task scores on either, the more human verification, oversight and expertise is needed.

One point to keep in mind here is that what we see as one task can often involve several. Customer service, for example, might look like one task, but there is a big difference between routine first-level interactions, which have lower verification costs and clear escalation paths, and more complex second and third-level interactions, where the cost of errors and verification is much higher.

Klarna found this out very publicly, going hard with automation then hiring people back once quality dropped. CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski's conclusion was that customers need to know a human is always there if they want one.

Why partial automation makes people more valuable

ATMs spread through banking in the 1970s, and there are now more than 400,000 of them in the US alone. The obvious prediction was fewer bank tellers. Instead, the number of tellers went up, and so did their wages.

Radiology is the modern version. AI tools now read some scans better than people do. Radiology departments aren’t sitting idle, however. Open positions can’t be filled and demand has never been higher.

Nobel-winning economist Michael Kremer’s O-Ring theory describes how modern knowledge work is multiplicative rather than additive. In other words, one faulty step drops the value of the whole output to zero.

In automation, a single weak link sinks the whole output, unless a human catches it. That makes the remaining humans more valuable rather than less; they're now gatekeeping a far larger volume of higher-quality work. Demand only falls when the whole chain automates, and as long as jaggedness and hallucination are with us, that's tough to picture.

The focus effect

Automation frees up time, and where that time goes decides whether any of this pays off. If it’s spent well, it goes to the bottleneck tasks, like building relationships with a potential client, understanding what a client really needs and making judgement calls, it can improve the quality of the finished work and raise the bar for what gets automated next.

But to make this happen, leaders have to identify what agents can do, actively hand them over and then restructure processes so people can move to this higher value work rather than babysitting the machine.

Five years from now

Picture this: a dozen agents running in parallel, drafting offers, qualifying leads, clearing support tickets. The tedious and repetitive work is gone. Your cognitive load is higher because you’re having to mentally juggle all these tasks, giving feedback, while making sure nothing slips through the cracks.

Protect your mental bandwidth, keep the agents working for you rather than the other way round and spend what you get back on the things only you can do.

Otherwise, we’ll look back in a few years and wish we could argue about cell B4 again.

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CareerBuilder is a popular job site that aggregates numerous listings and lets job seekers search through them seamlessly. Users can upload resumes and get matched with employers and also receive ongoing job opportunity alerts.

Founded way back in 1995, CareerBuilder is one of the earliest job sites still operating today. It once had the largest market share of job sites in the U.S. but gradually lost ground to rivals like Indeed and Glassdoor. It remains fairly popular, though, with users across the US, Asia, and Europe.

I reviewed CareerBuilder to help you decide if it’s a good option out of the many job sites to choose from. What do you gain from it, what are its pros and cons, and is it better than the competition? I’ve answered these questions in detail, so read on to learn what CareerBuilder offers.

CareerBuilder: Plans and pricing

CareerBuilder follows the pricing model used by most job boards. Job seekers use the site for free, while employers pay to promote job listings and gain access to the resume database. You can check it out by clicking here.

It’s a business model that works well for both parties. Job seekers find opportunities without paying, while businesses pay to connect with qualified job candidates.

Pricing for employers starts at $299 per month. The Lite plan, for $299 per month, allows 1 active job listing and 500 resume views on CareerBuilder’s database. Using algorithms, the job listing is matched with fitting resumes from CareerBuilder's database, and the employer receives ongoing email alerts about resume matches.

The Standard plan, for $399 per month, allows 3 active job listings per month while other features remain the same. For $599 per month, the Pro plan allows 5 active job listings.

CareerBuilder offers discounted prices for businesses that commit to paying annually instead of monthly. Large enterprises can also negotiate directly with the sales team and secure bulk discounts.

Unlike several job sites I’ve reviewed, CareerBuilder offers no free plan for employers, and I consider this a disadvantage. Some sites allow employers to post 1 or 2 job listings for free, then pay for advanced features like access to the resume database. In this case, there’s no free plan or a standard free trial.

CareerBuilder: Features

CareerBuilder connects job seekers to employers advertising job listings in numerous niches. For job seekers, it’s free to use, but employers pay for promoting job listings.

Anyone can sign up as a job seeker and scour CareerBuilder’s job listings, with filtering by location, type (full-time or part-time), date posted, and specific keywords.

For instance, if you’re looking for a full-time software engineer role in Denver, Colorado, you’ll adjust the search filters to get the exact results matching your query. If you need a part-time job at a local retailer, you can also adjust filters to get exact matches.

(Image credit: CareerBuilder)

You can also upload your resume to CareerBuilder’s database, and employers can find you in this database. This means that you don’t always have to go seeking jobs, but jobs can come to you. If an employer thinks your resume is a very good fit, they’ll contact you for further interviews.

(Image credit: Uploading a resume to CareerBuilder)

I like that CareerBuilder sends job alerts tailored to users’ resumes and previous searches. Some of the best roles are hiding in plain sight, so you won’t always find them when searching, but CareerBuilder’s email alerts can quickly point you to them.

For some jobs, you can apply with one click, but others can require a multi-step process. Either way, I found the application process as straightforward as it gets.

CareerBuilder provides some profile insights that I found valuable. I received alerts when employers viewed my profile (even if most didn’t send job offers) and when my profile appeared in search results. These insights tell users about the employers and job searches their profiles match, and they can optimize further to get the right roles.

I also like that CareerBuilder offers salary data, though not as detailed as rivals like Glassdoor. This data makes it easy to research pay ranges for expected jobs, based on location, roles, and other data.

I’ve discussed the features job seekers get on CareerBuilder, so let’s now look at what employers get on this platform. First, businesses gain access to a vast resume database from which they can select suitable job candidates. Just as job seekers search for jobs with filters like location and title, you can filter through resumes to find candidates that match your preferences, then contact these candidates with potential offers.

Of course, businesses can create job postings for candidates to view on the CareerBuilder job board. I like that CareerBuilder provides an AI assistant that helps generate compelling job descriptions. With many businesses posting similar roles, a compelling description makes yours stand out to job seekers.

Notably, CareerBuilder offers job syndication, where job listings are published not only on CareerBuilder but also on partner sites and niche job boards. This syndication increases the reach of your job posts and makes finding good candidates easier.

A centralized dashboard makes it simple for businesses to sort and save resumes, monitor applications, and keep tabs on conversations with candidates.

CareerBuilder offers standard features that employers find on rival job boards. My main complaints are the relatively high costs and lack of a free plan, even one with restricted features.

Pricing starts at $299 per month for 1 active job listing and goes up to $599 per month for 5 listings, which I consider steep. Large businesses can negotiate discounts, but the pricing remains relatively high. I’ll advise only medium-sized and large businesses with bigger budgets to get a CareerBuilder employer account, but it doesn’t suit small businesses.

CareerBuilder: Ease of use

CareerBuilder offers a modern, visually appealing interface that I found easy to navigate. The interface sports a white background and a few bright colors to highlight buttons, icons, and features, giving it a modern, minimalist look.

Filtering job listings, uploading resumes, and scouring resume databases felt noticeably easy. This sleek, easy-to-navigate interface benefits both job seekers and employers.

(Image credit: CareerBuilder )

You can access CareerBuilder from a web browser or download the iOS or Android app. The smartphone app allows for easy, on-the-go access, particularly for browsing job listings and quickly applying to available jobs.

CareerBuilder: Support

You can access CareerBuilder from a web browser or download the iOS or Android app. The smartphone app allows for easy, on-the-go access, particularly for browsing job listings and quickly applying to available jobs.

CareerBuilder: The competition

CareerBuilder has many competitors, as it operates in a crowded job board industry. I’d have mentioned Monster as a rival, but both are owned by the same company. Glassdoor and Snagajob are then the main rivals I’d like to highlight.

Glassdoor operates a job board like CareerBuilder, but its strength lies in massive salary data, company reviews, and interview prep tips for job seekers. CareerBuilder also provides salary data, but its dataset is nowhere as close as what’s available on Glassdoor.

Snagajob is built for a specific niche of hourly, part-time, and seasonal jobs in retail, restaurants, and related industries. You can also find such jobs on CareerBuilder, but I think Snagajob is better for seeking hourly, temporary roles at retail stores, bars, restaurants, warehouses, etc. However, CareerBuilder offers a broad set of jobs, both full-time corporate and hourly roles, that you won’t find on Snagajob.

CareerBuilder: Final verdict

CareerBuilder is good for both people seeking jobs and businesses seeking to connect with the right job candidates, although prices are relatively high for businesses. It’s a reliable platform that connects job seekers with the right opportunities from businesses.

However, I’d note that CareerBuilder doesn’t offer much to differentiate itself from the competition. It feels like just other job boards do. That’s not really a flaw, but just something to note when comparing CareerBuilder against other job boards.

For more picks, we've tested the best recruitment platforms and the best job sites.

• Logitech report finds not even a third of companies involve IT/AV teams at the early stages
• Failed audio and dropped connections are costing workers time
• Businesses should use tech downtime as a productivity metric

Logitech's latest Workplace Experience study has claimed technology teams are often brought into projects far too late, after important decisions about offices and meeting spaces have already been made, and it's leading to suboptimal tech and friction that could be impacting worker productivity.

In the UK, for example, fewer than one in three (31%) workplaces involve their IT and Audio-Visual (AV) teams before space planning begins.

It means that tech decision-makers are then having to piece together hardware in a room that's already being designed, rather than being able to integrate the smartest solutions from the ground up.

IT teams should be involved in office planning, Logitech says

With hybrid working now commonplace, Logitech's data found that failed audio and dropped connections alone caused a median productivity loss of 12.2 minutes per person per poor meeting.

Despite poor IT team involvement, most business leaders agree that a strong workplace experience has a direct link with productivity (86%) and collaboration (90%).

However, upgrading tech and involving more teams from the get-go isn't quite so straightforward. Only half (56%) feel confident that have the right ROI data to justify workplace experience investments, with only 29% treating it as a core business strategy today.

Logitech's solution focuses firsts and foremost on aligning teams more closely. The report calls for greater collaboration between IT, HR and Real Estate earlier on in projects. By itself, planning rooms as a well-coordinated team could reduce long-term costs associated with upgrading legacy and unsuitable hardware.

But to further help with ROI justification, the study also introduces tech downtime as a metric, with impacted productivity serving as sufficient proof that office spaces need to perform better.

Unsurprisingly, things took absolutely no time at all to kick off in MobLand season 2.

Turkish gangster Gakbu has been eliminated during a messy meeting at the dog track, but that feels like the least of Harry's (Tom Hardy) concerns.

Not only has Jan (Joanne Froggatt) asked him for a divorce, but Harrigan arch-rival Kat (Janet McTeer) as acquired her own version of Harry via Colin (Toby Jones), who has so far only been described as a "prick on a scooter."

But even they can do the world of damage. So, when does MobLand season 2 episode 1 arrive on Paramount+?

What time can I watch MobLand season 2 episode 2 on Paramount+?

MobLand season 2 episode 2 will drop on one of the world's best streaming services in the US and Canada on Friday, September 25 at 12am PT / 3am ET.

Here's when it will be released in other nations globally:

• US – 12am PT / 3am ET
• Canada – 12am PT / 3am ET
• UK – 8am BST
• India – 12:30pm IST
• Singapore – 3pm SGT
• Australia – 5pm AEST
• New Zealand – 7pm NZST

When do new episodes of MobLand season 2 come out?

(Image credit: Paramount+)

MobLand season 2 will have a total of 10 episodes, with new entries airing weekly. That gives us the following schedule:

• Episode 1: out now
• Episode 2: September 25
• Episode 3: October 2
• Episode 4: October 9
• Episode 5: October 16
• Episode 6: October 23
• Episode 7: October 30
• Episode 8: November 6
• Episode 9: November 13
• Episode 10: November 20

I do most of my gaming on the PS5, but I still think the Xbox has the superior controller because it's more comfortable and intuitive. If you're a fan too and want to pick up a new one for your console, PC, or mobile device, you'll be pleased to see the Xbox Wireless Controller is down to £39.99 (was £59.99) on Amazon.

This is a return to the lowest price I've seen this year, and so it's a price that's unlikely to be beaten until Black Friday in November. Even then, I expect it will only be up to £5 cheaper than this, based on previous price history during major sales events, so there's potentially only a slightly smaller saving up for grabs if you want to be patient.

While the white and black versions are down to this low price, you can also get the Shock Blue, Velocity Green, Pulse Red, and Deep Pink colourways for £42.99 if you'd prefer to add a bit of pizzazz to your gaming setup. That's just £2 more than previous record-low prices for these more adventurous colours.

Today's best Xbox controller deal

Multiple colour variants of the latest Xbox Wireless Controller are now available from as little as £39.99 at Amazon. This well-loved and easy-to-use gamepad is compatible with most Bluetooth-enabled devices, such as Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S consoles, PCs, tablets, and mobile phones. This is a good price to bite on as I've only seen these controllers for £5 less in the past, and that hasn't happened for a long time.View Deal

A gamepad that "offers a more premium feel without the price tag," is how we described it in our four-star Xbox Wireless Controller review. As I mentioned up top, our review also praises the design and feel of the controller, making it a very comfortable and satisfying gamepad to use.

And while more premium options from the likes of Razer and Turtle Beach may offer more fancy features and stylish touches compared to the relatively plain official controller, it simply gets the job done — and does it well. All for a reasonable price, too, especially after this current discount.

• Google's Gemini AI broke out of a testing environment and hacked into three third-party companies
• The agents guessed passwords and used a public repository of passwords to hack into computer systems
• The incident occurred in May 2026, with AI testing lab Irregular stating that the incident was caused by the "same issue" that caused incidents by Anthropic and Meta

Google’s Gemini has joined the ranks of AI models that have been involved in testing-turned-breakout events, alongside Meta, Anthropic, and OpenAI.

During capture-the-flag testing by AI lab Irregular, Google’s model autonomously accessed three computer systems belonging to third-party companies by guessing passwords and accessing an online repository of publicly listed passwords.

Google said that the incident occurred in May 2026, potentially marking it as the earliest AI models to escape testing ahead of the other incidents that took place in early July.

Google Gemini jumps the gun

“In a standard evaluation, the model found public information online and guessed credentials to access websites it thought were part of the test,” Heather Adkins, vice president of security engineering at Google, said in a statement. “In all three of these instances, the model stopped.”

Google also noted that a bug in the testing environment was responsible for allowing agents access to the internet. Contrary to incidents disclosed by other AI developers, Google’s agents ceased their intrusion once they had determined they had accessed company systems outside of the testing environment.

The testing was being conducted by Israeli AI lab Irregular. Irregular was also conducting the testing of Meta and Anthropic models during AI testing breakouts in July.

“This is the same issue that was already reported and does not represent a materially separate incident,” an Irregular spokesperson said in a statement (via CNBC). “All relevant labs were notified in late July, and affected entities were contacted as part of the investigation.”

Google said it was informed of the incident by Irregular in late July.

Debate over AI safety intensifies

The first disclosures of AI testing break outs - alongside several subsequent disclosures of more recent incidents - have coincided with increasing opposition to AI and the upcoming midterm elections in the United States, where AI has become a make-or-break topic.

The debates currently raging circles around who should control the pace of AI development. Some big tech leaders, such as Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, have aligned their views with those of President Trump. Trump recently stated that AI development cannot be allowed to slow down because “whoever wins AI, wins!”

Huang’s views follow a similar line. The Nvidia head has argued that AI companies should pace themselves, rather than being subject to oversight. At Dreamforce 2026, he argued that AI companies should, “run as fast as you can...but if you feel at any given point in time the company’s out of control or the product’s not going to be safe, take a pause and make sure you get it right.”

Other AI heads, such as Anthropic’s Dario Amodei and OpenAI’s Sam Altman, are more skeptical. Following the resignation of an Anthropic researcher, Amodei published an essay arguing in favor of ‘pacing the frontier’ - where AI companies slow development to advance alignment and regulation.

Numerous political action committees (PACs) have been channeling millions of dollars of funding into pro-AI candidates, with Nvidia setting up its own PAC to help shift US policy in the company’s favor.

Several previously pro-AI data center candidates have shifted their tone in response to their constituents' views which have become increasingly hostile to AI technology. Numerous states have also rolled-back tax exemptions for AI data centers after seeing billion dollar revenue losses.

As prices rise and the war in Iran continues to push up fuel prices, working class communities are banding together to oppose AI data centers that have pushed up energy costs and bills with new grid connections and unprecedented electricity demands in regions with existing capacity constraints.

Home security is going in all-new directions this year. I tested Abode’s sensors for gates, garages and more in my home.

With striking speed, the widespread debate around data centers has become a fault line in American communities, cutting across political parties and forging unexpected alliances.

German Chancellor Freidrich Merz conceded that the night spells "disaster" for the political center, but assured the public he'd push ahead with his federal agenda of tax and welfare reforms.

(Image credit: Michele Tantussi)

While many Republican candidates, even in some critical tossup races, still back President Trump's baseless claims about election integrity, some GOP voters say they are ready to move on.

(Image credit: Colin Hubbard)

The U.S. gets nearly a third of its pork from Iowa. One family is making the switch from pigs to more sustainable specialty mushrooms and trying to show other pig farmers how they did it.

(Image credit: Madeleine Charis King)

United Nations head António Guterres returns to New York for his final U.N. General Assembly as diplomacy falters over wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, and the global body faces deep divisions.

(Image credit: Zhang Fengguo)

Eighteen suspects who were arrested in the July 2021 killing of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse were being extradited to the U.S. on Sunday to face justice in Florida.

(Image credit: Odelyn Joseph)

John Boyd Jr., president of the National Black Farmers Association, says soaring diesel costs are deepening a farm crisis as farmers face sharply higher fuel costs in the middle of harvest season.

(Image credit: Paul Morigi)

Reporters from CNN, MS NOW and Politico say they were prevented from entering the White House grounds after President Trump announced plans to ban all three outlets.

(Image credit: JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images)

For years, cybersecurity experts have warned about the risks of autonomous AI systems being used to identify vulnerabilities, evade defenses and launch attacks at machine speed. Until recently, however, those concerns remained largely theoretical.

That changed when an autonomous AI agent powered by OpenAI models reportedly breached its intended testing environment, gained internet access and targeted external systems, including infrastructure associated with AI platform Hugging Face and another three or four organizations.

OpenAI described the event as an "unprecedented cyber incident" and warned that similar occurrences could become more common as frontier AI models become increasingly capable and autonomous.

With 86% of enterprises already deploying AI, only 34% say they trust the technology, highlighting a growing gap between adoption and confidence. As organizations race to integrate AI into business processes, security operations and decision-making, this incident raises difficult questions about governance, containment, accountability and risk.

If AI has indeed crossed a cybersecurity red line following the OpenAI incident, the conversation must now shift from what these systems might be capable of doing to how organizations can safely control, monitor and defend against them.

Weaknesses in OpenAI

The OpenAI attack raises serious questions about the effectiveness of the safeguards and containment measures designed to restrict autonomous AI systems. If reports are accurate, an AI agent was able to move beyond its intended testing environment, gain access to the internet and interact with external systems, indicating that existing controls were either insufficient or incorrectly implemented.

Importantly, this appears to be as much a human governance and configuration issue as a technology failure. AI systems only operate within the boundaries defined by their developers and operators. The testing environment should not have provided a pathway that allowed the agent to become internet-facing or interact with external infrastructure without appropriate controls and oversight.

AI agents can process information far faster than any human, compressing tasks that might take a traditional attacker a week into just a few hours. By analyzing vast datasets in real time, they can assess multiple attack paths simultaneously and uncover opportunities for exploitation with remarkable efficiency.

Reports suggest attacks conducted by OpenAI, Anthropic and Meta are extremely disruptive than those carried out by humans. Their ability to operate continuously, execute actions in parallel and make decisions at machine speed can generate a substantial increase in alerts, investigations and response activity for security teams, while also raising the risk of widespread unintended consequences.

When a human launches an attack, we have some concept and understanding of the side effects that may occur. However, with AI attacks, autonomous systems can operate at machine speed, pursue multiple objectives simultaneously and adapt their approach in real time, making their actions and potential consequences far less predictable.

Organizations are clearly struggling to understand what AI tools are already in use within the business.

The challenge that enterprise risk and governance teams now face is how do they map, manage and block these services to protect enterprise data?

Traditional cyber defenses may struggle against AI-powered attacks

Traditional cyber defenses are largely designed to recognize known patterns, attack techniques, vulnerabilities or trigger events. Once suspicious activity is detected, security teams investigate the incident, determine its cause and impact, and then implement appropriate containment and remediation measures.

However, AI-powered attacks rarely follow a single attack path. AI agents can simultaneously test multiple techniques, identify vulnerabilities at speed and rapidly adapt their approach when a particular route is blocked. This allows attacks to evolve far quicker than traditional defensive processes were designed to handle.

Traditional tools currently deployed in most organizations are still quite reactive. They wait for a known event to happen and be fully confirmed before carrying out a counter reaction such as, isolating devices, removing phishing emails or executing predefined incident response playbooks, to help remediate and ultimately stop the incident in its tracks.

On the other hand, AI powered attacks can overwhelm existing security teams. While, AI defensive tool sets are being embedded into security technology to mitigate attacks, many still rely on a “human in the loop” to respond to threats, but only once they have all the information to then confirm 100% that it is a genuine attack and not a false positive.

This can be a significant challenge for Security Operations Centres (SOCs), Managed Detection and Response (MDR) providers and Extended Detection and Response (XDR) platforms as excessive alert volumes and false positives can consume valuable analyst time and resources.

As AI becomes more deeply integrated into security operations, it has the potential to enrich threat intelligence, accelerate investigations and automate routine decision-making. However, organizations should expect a period of adjustment as these tools are deployed and refined, with false positives remaining a challenge until models and workflows are properly tuned.

Over time, as security teams develop greater confidence in AI-driven capabilities and gain a better understanding of emerging attack techniques, these tools will help organizations detect, investigate and respond to threats at a speed and scale that would be difficult to achieve through human effort alone.

Steps to strengthen cyber defense

Resilience is a key word that is being used very heavily by the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) ensuring that businesses can defend against any form of attack. This starts by understanding what needs to be protected, identifying critical systems, data and business processes that would have the greatest impact if compromised.

Once established, assess the most likely attack paths including third-party and supply chain risks. If a managed service provider (MSP), supplier or business partner was compromised, would abnormal activity be detected quickly enough to prevent further damage?

Organizations should also assess their external boundary. What can an attacker see about me? What information is already out in the public domain that would be advantageous to an attacker? What externally facing vulnerabilities do you have? When was the last time you had a vulnerability assessment or penetration test? These are all questions security teams should be asking.

The growth of AI-assisted vulnerability discovery is increasing pressure on organizations to keep pace with patching and remediation. But there are automated tools to help enable quicker patching to try and keep on top of the thousands of vulnerabilities released every week.

Many organizations focus on external threats but it’s critical to also prepare for when an attacker breaches the internal infrastructure and networks.

Limiting the damage

How can you limit the damage once they are inside? This is where role-based access control (RBAC), segregation of duties and to some respects zero trust is key.

This should also include areas like cloud hosted infrastructure as a service (IaaS) or platforms as a service (PaaS), Azure, AWS and Google, and ensuring that other ways of getting to these platforms through tokens, SSH keys, certificates and APIs are all treated with the same containment and separation of duties as you would with a normal user account.

Review the AI tools already in use across their environment. A growing number of platforms can help identify AI capabilities embedded within existing software, as well as uncover unsanctioned or "shadow AI" tools being used without formal oversight. Once organizations have visibility of their AI estate, they can implement appropriate governance, controls and risk management measures to reduce potential exposure.

Organizations should also consider AI-specific purple teaming exercises. Using AI-driven tools, these simulate attacks against the organization while working alongside defenders to evaluate whether existing controls, monitoring and response capabilities are effective.

This helps identify gaps in visibility, detection and response, allowing organizations to understand why certain attacks may have been missed and what improvements are required. They also provide valuable insight into how AI-powered threats might target an organization's external attack surface and whether current security controls can respond effectively.

There is no doubt that AI tool sets are here to stay purely from productivity improvements that organizations gain. But businesses need to make sure that they understand what is being used, where it's being used, how it's being used and how to defend against things that might happen because of what's being used. If not, they risk creating security blind spots that attackers – whether human or AI agent - will be quick to exploit.

We've featured the best endpoint protection software.

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

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

Dreame X60 Pro Ultra Complete review: two-minute review

Dreame’s flagship X60 Pro Ultra Complete is one of the most feature-filled, efficient and reliable hybrid robot cleaners this writer has so far reviewed — and I've reviewed many. Its class-leading 42,000Pa of suction power is certainly attention-grabbing, but the cleverness of this autonomous floor bot goes well beyond brute suction force.

Like some Roborock models, the X60 Pro Ultra is equipped with a retractable LiDAR turret that allows the unit to scoot under the lowest of furnishings with a floor clearance of just 3.5 inches (9cm). Better still, it can also tackle thresholds up to 3.9 inches (10cm) in height, so doorways and awkward transitions are much less likely to bring its cleaning mission to an abrupt halt.

Dreame has also addressed one of the biggest weaknesses of robot cleaners – getting properly into edges and corners. Where most premium bots are able to extend one of the mops by a couple of inches, this one is capable of extending it's edge-cleaning mop to an extremely impressive seven inches (18cm), and you can see the amazing results of this when it's working along skirting boards and around chair legs. Likewise, its front side-mounted sweeper brush can also reach up to four inches (12cm) into corners for a much more thorough sweep.

Dreame appears to have thrown everything it has into this flagship model, and the results are very impressive. Granted, it’s expensive, possibly over-engineered and perhaps more robot cleaner than most people actually need, but if your idea of luxury is never having to sweep or mop floors again, this model is a very tempting proposition, despite some minor anomalies in the obstacle avoidance department. The fact it comes with a surfeit of extra accessories — including spare dust bags, filters and rollers — is the icing on a very substantial cake.

Dreame X60 Pro Ultra Complete review: price & availability

• List price £1,299 / €1,499 / $1,699.99 (X60 Max Ultra)
• Launch date July 2026
• Availability UK and parts of Europe

(Image credit: Future)

At the time of writing, the Dreame X60 Pro Ultra Complete is available in the UK for £1,299, with retailers including Dreame, Amazon and John Lewis & Partners listing it. It is also available in most parts of Europe, priced at €1,499, with some discounts taking it to a much lower €1,199.

In the USA, Dreame is concentrating on the X60 Max Ultra Complete, a slightly different variant with lower suction power (35,00Pa) than the UK-spec X60 Pro Ultra Complete. You can purchase the Max version via the US Dreame store for $1,699.99 or Amazon where it shifts for a slightly discounted $1,614.99.

At the time of writing, the Dreame X60 Pro Ultra doesn't seem to be available in Australia yet.

In the UK, the X60 Pro Ultra Complete is firmly in premium robot-vacuum territory, so there are plenty of alternatives worth considering. The Roborock Saros 20 is an obvious rival that offers a similarly sophisticated low-profile design for a shade under £1,000 and the Ecovacs Deebot X8 Pro Omni is another strong contender, particularly if mopping performance is a priority. Dreame’s own X40 Ultra is also worth considering if you want many of the flagship brand’s features without spending X60 Pro Ultra money.

However, for design, performance, impressive specs and the horde of spare parts it comes with, the X60 Pro Ultra Complete is difficult to ignore. While its combination of 42,000Pa of suction power, extendable cleaning hardware and highly automated dock puts it firmly at the expensive end of the market, I think it's a price worth paying.

• Value score: 4.5/5

Dreame X60 Pro Ultra Complete: specs

Robot dimensions (W x H)

13.77 x 3.5 inches / 35 x 8.9cm

Cleaning dock dimensions (H x W x D)

19.64 x 17.95 x 15.35 inches / 49.9 x 45.6 x 39cm

Suction

42,000Pa

Cleaning dock bin size

3.38 quarts / 3.2 liters

Clean water tank size

4.43 quarts / 4.2 liters

Dirty water tank size

3.17 quarts / 3 liters

Navigation & obstacle avoidance

Pathfinder VersaLift ToF LiDAR paired with AI OmniSight System 3.0 + LED

Carpet detection

Yes

Threshold crossing

ProLeap with dual retractable legs for up to 3.93 inches (10cm) clearance

Mopping functions

Dual heated rotating mops + dock-based maintenance

Robot noise level

65dB at five feet

Dreame X60 Pro Ultra Complete: design

• Whopping suction power
• Can climb tall thresholds
• Mop extends by up to seven inches

Before we take a look at design of the X60 Pro Ultra's robot and dock, I should add that, right out of the box, this model has been extraordinarily reliable and more efficient than the majority other models I've reviewed these past few months.

Robot vacuum cleaners are among the easiest of smart home products to set up and this one was one of the most efficient. Yes, it arrived in a large box but because it comes with just three main parts — the robot, the dock and its clip-on ramp – I had it on the floor and ready to map my open-plan area within minutes. And, boy, did it map it well, even to the point of accurately pre-naming the four spaces it had located – Living Room, Dining Room, Kitchen and Hall — simply by noting the type of furnishings in each room.

This was a great start, in my opinion, because most robot vacs normally settle for generic terms like Room, 1, Room 2, etc. Of course, it's extremely simple to change the names of the rooms and just as easy to divide or merge them, but to have a robot that maps a living space so accurately from the off is a major plus.

I was also pleasantly surprised to discover the true meaning of this model's 'Complete' moniker because I spotted a huge array of accessories in the box. Most floor bots only come with a spare side brush, a spare dust bag and, occasionally, a tiny bottle of floor cleaning solution. But this model comes with three extra dust bags, a spare side brush, two dust box filters, three pairs of extra mop pads, a large one-quart (1L) bottle of cleaning solution and, rare for any robot, a spare pair of roller brushes. This is a major boon given that these are all items that one would normally need to purchase further down the line of ownership. Chapeau to Dreame.

Finally, if you purchase this bot today, sometime in 2027 you'll be able to use it in cahoots with Dreame's next sci-fi offering, a staircase-climbing robot module called the Cyber X. Unveiled at IFA Berlin, this amazingly clever slice of robotic tech functions as an autonomous carrier for the X60 so it can be transported up and down stairs. Can’t wait to see that in operation.

(Image credit: Future)Robot design

The Dreame X60 Pro Ultra is available in black or white and is a striking example of just how much robot vacuum design has advanced. From the outside, it remains recognisably circular, but almost every component here has been engineered to tackle many of the shortcomings that have made some robot cleaners largely frustrating to live with. In short, this is a robot designed not simply to clean the floor, but to get into more places, deal with more types of mess and spend less time getting stuck.

While not especially unique, the X60’s retractable LiDAR turret is one of its smartest design flourishes. Rather than permanently sitting proud of the robot, the turret can retract to help the machine achieve an incredibly low 3.50 inch (8.9cm) profile. That might not sound like much on paper, but it makes a substantial difference in practice, allowing the X60 to venture underneath beds, sofas, TV cabinets and any other furnishings with a minimum floor clearance of just 3.54 inches (9cm).

Dreame has also addressed another common robot-vacuum weakness: thresholds. My home doesn't have any thresholds but if it did, this is the model I'd choose because its two pop-out legs give it the ability to climb double-layered obstacles up to 3.93 inches (10cm) and single steps up to 2.04 inches (5.2cm) in height, giving it an impressive ability to move between areas of the home without requiring any makeshift ramps. It also means far fewer situations where you return home only to discover that your expensive robot has spent half the day stranded on the lip of a doorway.

(Image credit: Future)

The X60 Pro Ultra's class-leading figure of 42,000 Pascals of suction is colossal even by today's standards, and this is especially useful when engaging the robot's Large Particles Boost mode which gives the X60 Pro Ultra additional oomph when it encounters larger pieces of debris.

Combined with the unit's twin tangle-free rubber rollers and a retractable pressure plate that creates a semi-sealed vacuum chamber, this level of suction is particularly relevant for pet owners, where clumps of hair can present a much greater challenge than everyday dust. Moreover, the X60 Pro Ultra also features an obligatory spinning side brush which extends much further than the norm — up to four inches (12cm) — for better corner cleaning.

(Image credit: Future)

Many modern floor bots feature at least one mop that's able to extend by a couple inches when cleaning along skirting boards, in corners or around furniture legs. But this one takes mop extension to a whole new level of stretch by offering a reach of seven inches (18cm). When I first saw this in operation I thought a piece of furniture had ripped its arm out of a socket. The spinning mop pads, meanwhile, are thermally efficient and exert up to 15 Newtons of downward pressure, providing considerably more physical contact with the floor than a robot that merely drags damp pads behind it.

When it comes to robot vacuum cleaners, navigation and obstacle avoidance are arguably just as important as suction because all this fancy hardware is pretty pointless if the robot can’t find its way around the home.

(Image credit: Future)

The X60 Pro Ultra’s impressive navigation system is built around Dreame’s advanced VersaLift retractable hybrid LiDAR, which scans its surroundings using lazer beams to create detailed maps of the home and plan efficient cleaning routes. It’s also backed by AI-enhanced 3D Proactive Light Detection and intelligent obstacle recognition of around 320 object including, according to Dreame, 'tiny objects of 10mm'. We'll have to see about that.

On the battery front, this model is fitted with a 5,000mAh battery that recharges from empty to full in about 100 minutes and, according to Dreame, is capable of charging 25% of its capacity in about six minutes.

Score ref: 5/5

Dock design

The Dreame X60 Pro Ultra’s charging dock is as impressive as the robot itself. With its tall, sophisticated design and glossy facade replete with a subtle pinstripe effect, this is one robot dock you might not mind having centre stage. More importantly, it’s packed with a raft of technology that's designed to keep the X60 in readiness for action with minimal human intervention, aside from periodically discarding the dock's dust bag and servicing the two water tanks.

Speaking of which, you get the usual dual water tank combo comprising a 4.43 quarts (4.2L) fresh water tank and a smaller 3.17 quarts (3L) tank for the filthy stuff. Instead of tainting the sink area with stinky water, I always flush the contents of the dirty tank into the toilet bowl and then give the container a quick rinse under a tap. This model also comes with a liquid floor detergent dispenser situated next door to the dock's dust bag department.

The Dreame X60 Pro Ultra comes with one of the most stylish docks on the marketFutureBig water tanks for the mopping systemFutureA bigger-than-average dust bag with detergent dispenser on the leftFutureThis dock cleans itself without human interventionFuture

As to be expected in this day and age, the X60 Pro Ultra dock also takes care of all self-cleaning duties, including preparing the mop pads before use with scaldingly hot water. Since the mops themselves are thermally efficient enough to retain heat, the floor has a better chance of being properly cleaned. When the robot returns to the dock, the mop pads are washed with hot water — apparently 212F (100C) — before drying them using hot air to help prevent build-up of bacteria and nasty smells.

The dock is also fitted with a generous 3.38 quarts (3.2L) dust bag, which is larger than those fitted to many competing robot vacuum docks. This means that more debris can be stored before you need to replace the bag, reducing one of the few genuinely tedious jobs associated with owning a robot vacuum. The fact you get three spare bags with this specific 'Complete' model can be considered a major bonus.

Score ref: 5/5

• Design score: 5/5

Dreame X60 Pro Ultra Complete: performance

• Supreme vacuum power
• Very good navigation
• Average obstacle avoidance

Navigation performance

To give you some idea of how impressive Dreame's current crop of robot vacs are, I installed this model's stablemate – the extra-large Matrix10 Ultra – in our village hall where it has been running for the past eight months without any hiccups. The hall is a huge 130 square meters — two-thirds of a singles tennis court – and divided into various sections, including two toilet areas and a kitchen.

Where other robots I've installed in the hall have had issues where their LiDAR-written maps have been corrupted due to the vast size of the work space and presumably the reflective windows surrounding it, the Matrix10 Ultra has not had any issues at all. In fact, it continues to this day, having successfully completed 395.65 hours of reliable operation over an area of 25,018 square meters, equivalent to a massive 6.18 acres. Not bad for a robot vacuum cleaner!

Needless to say, this model's navigation is equally impressive in the way it has mapped my home, negotiated a lot of furniture including a cluttered dining area, and never once having got lost, trapped itself under furniture or snowplowed a loose rug.

Mind, its first mapping session did produce one amusing moment when it reached the area around our garden door. Since this model uses LiDAR to navigate, its laser beam had scanned beyond the open door towards the garden, thinking it had detected another room. All LiDAR robots do this but very few have the ability to scale a tall threshold. This one, of course, has excellent ability in that department so you can see where this is heading. In fact it was sheer luck that I happened to enter the room just as it was in the process making a beeline for the garden. You've got to laugh.

Another thing I should add is that I have had to raise the valance on the lounge sofa because the camera and laser system treats fabric valances as a solid obstacle. I personally don’t consider this a major issue because almost every LiDAR-governed robot I've reviewed has also refused to punch through a sofa or bed valance. To rectify this I now occasionally tuck the sofa's valance up out of the way so the X60 can clean underneath.

Score ref: 5/5

Obstacle avoidance

(Image credit: Future)

Having read the glowing headlines on Dreame's website about this robot avoiding objects as small 10mm (0.39 of an inch), I simply had to give it a go by placing some much smaller items than usual in its path, including a Hue remote, a phone cable, a small bottle of essential oil and a tiny lighter. I made sure I'd selected every option in its intelligent obstacle avoidance setting and crossed my fingers as it proceeded to travel from the hall to the kitchen.

While it deftly avoided all the objects I usually test robot vacs with — including the low circular dog chew, remote and phone cable — I was very surprised when it thundered straight over the bottle and lighter as if they weren't even there. While I don't consider this a major strike against the X60's obstacle avoidance — many other robot vacs have fared worse — I do think that if a company is going to state that their robot can avoid objects as tiny as 10mm, they really need to back it up with a level of real-world performance that matches the claim.

While the X60 is no match for the DJI ROMO when it comes to obstacle avoidance, I still think it deserves a respectable 4/5 because it has avoided everything else in its path for the last six weeks, and I have never once had to remove the roller brushes to extricate something it had tried to swallow. In short, I'd say this model's obstacle avoidance is better than average but with room for improvement.

Score ref: 4/5

Vacuuming

I've been using the Dreame X60 Pro Ultra for the past six weeks and have never had to think about it. I've never looked at a rug after hearing it perform a scheduled task and thought it needed another clean with a cordless stick vac, I've never had to untangle it from the tassels of a rug, and I’ve never had to extricate an item too big to swallow from its rubber rollers.

Nevertheless, needs must so I scattered my usual potpourri of obstreperous ingredients over the hardwood kitchen floor and a similar handful over a piece of carpet, and watched it do its thing.

FutureFuture

For a robot vac faced with far more detritus than it would ever come across in the real world (at least I'd like to think so), the Dreame X60 Pro Ultra made surprisingly short work of cleaning up the scattered cornflakes, muesli, oats and rice, swallowing up both the fine particles and larger ones with impressive consistency, even though it needed two passes to complete the task. The X60's 42,000Pa suction rating and Large Particles Boost Mode clearly paid dividends here, though I should add that this bot is louder in volume (up to to around 68dB) when cleaning in full-power mode.

I then applied the same test to a carpeted rug and it performed just as well though, again, it required two passes – one horizontal, the other vertical – to fulfil the task. Yes, there were a few small flakes left behind on the periphery but that's because they had been flung beyond the working zone I had previously programmed.

Score ref: 4.5/5

Mopping performance

(Image credit: Future)

As I've stated umpteen times before, I'm no fan of robots that also mop and would much rather have a vacuum-only robot with a huge dustbin in its dock. For mopping I generally prefer sticking to my Roborock F25 Ultra wet-and-dry vac or use a paper towel to wipe up a small spill of milk.

However I can see the appeal of having a robot for hard floor-cleaning duties if it mops practically every day. And this model excels at just that, partly because of the incredible reach of its extendable mop that genuinely cleans to the edge, in corners and around table legs, and partly because its clever blue Proactive Light Dirt Detection system does seem to spot stains better than other models I've tested.

Anyway, for my extreme kitchen test I accidentally-on-purpose spilt a glass of milk and programmed the X60 to run a zone clean. After about five minutes of mop preparation, including heating the pads using hot water, it trundled over and mopped up half the milk before returning to the dock. I thought that was that until I realized it was having its mops washed in readiness for the second run I had previously programmed.

I'd say the final results were perfectly acceptable given that I would never command a robot to mop up a spill when I can perform the task a thousand times quicker with some paper towels.

The main take away here is that its day-to-day performance has definitely been a cut above many of its competitors and there's no denying the practicality of the robot's extendable mop arm which really does work wonders.

Score ref: 4.5/5

Dock performance

I have nothing but good things to say about the X60 Pro Ultra's dock. Yes, it's a pretty large item to have in a small space but, on the plus side, I think its reflective pin-striped glass-like facade is one of the most attractive finishes I've seen since the Roborock 10R.

From a functional point of view, this dock does everything from emptying the robot's dust bin and servicing the robot’s mop system with hot water, washing the mops and then drying them, to self cleaning its own mop tray at the touch of a button on the app.

Only once did the dock's suction not correctly empty the contents of the robot's bin after a full house clean, and this was because I had activated the Hair Compression setting in the app. I'm not sure how this function works but the robot's bin was so tightly clumped with loads of winter-shed hair from my two labradors that the contents refused to budge when the dock's suction kicked in. Thankfully I've had no repeats of this since switching off the Hair Compression setting and, as a result, I am not losing any sleep over it.

Score ref: 5/5

• Performance score: 4.5/5

Dreame X60 Pro Ultra Complete review: app functionality

• Extremely comprehensive
• Brilliant for tech nerds, not so much for luddites
• Encourages a lot of experimentation

The Dreame X60 Pro Ultra’s Dreamehome app is extraordinarily well featured, giving you an almost ridiculous level of control over what the robot does, when it does it and how it cleans each area of your home. The problem is that it can initially feel like you’ve been handed the controls to an airliner.

As per usual, once the X60 has mapped your home, the app presents a detailed map that lets you merge or divide individual rooms, define cleaning zones and set no-go areas and virtual barriers. You can specify whether particular areas should be vacuumed, mopped or given both treatments, and adjust cleaning intensity according to the room or floor type.

(Image credit: Future)

There are also extensive options for scheduling and short-cut tasks, along with a myriad of settings for suction power, water usage, mop behavior, carpet type, floor direction, obstacle crossing, obstacle avoidance, even if you want pet hair in the robot's bin to be compressed.

The sheer depth of the Dreamehome app is undeniably impressive, but it does come with a steep learning curve that encourages a lot of experimentation. It can also take a while to work out where everything lives, particularly if you’re the sort of person who prefers to press a couple of buttons and get on with more important things. Nevertheless, once you’ve mastered this app, it becomes one of the X60 Pro Ultra’s biggest strengths.

• App functionality score: 4/5

Should you buy the Dreame X60 Pro Ultra Complete?Dreame X60 Pro Ultra Complete: score card

Section

Notes

Score

Value for money

While in the premium bracket, I think the Dreame X60 Pro Ultra Complete is fair value for money, especially given the on-board tech and huge amount of included spares.

4.5/5

Design

Slick, sophisticated and impressively engineered, the X60 Pro Ultra and its glossy dock ooze premium quality.

5/5

Performance

The X60 Pro Ultra delivers outstanding vacuum performance and better-than-average mopping, but its obstacle avoidance system could be better.

4.5/5

App functionality

The Dreamehome app is impressively comprehensive, offering deep control over all aspects, but its sheer number of settings can feel overwhelming.

4/5

Average rating

4.5/5

Buy it if

You want great vacuum performance

Powerful 42,000Pa suction tackles stubborn household detritus with aplomb

You have hairy pets

This model has several functions designed with pets in mind

You have low furniture and high thresholds

The X60 cleans beneath very low furniture and climbs most thresholds

Don't buy it if

Your home is cluttered with tiny toys

The X60 most likely won’t evade small toys like Lego bricks

You're not very tech savvy

The X60 Pro Ultra's surfeit of features may overwhelm less technical users

Your home is on the small side

This model would be overkill, as would the large dock

How I tested the Dreame X60 Pro Ultra Complete

TechRadar takes its product testing very seriously so I lived with the X60 Pro Ultra for a few weeks having set up various weekly schedules and routines to gauge how efficiently it performed the tasks it was designed for. I also monitored the amount of times I had to rescue it from entanglement or some other anomaly but, aside from some minor obstacle avoidance issues, the X60 functioned reliably throughout its trial.

If only to prove its capability for cleaning up heavier doses of debris and mopping up spills, I also performed a few extreme tests that no robot should have to endure in its lifetime.

First reviewed September 2026.