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It's time for TechRadar's annual tech awards, and this year we're doing it differently. For the first time, we have a complete set of categories where the winners are chosen 100% by you, the TechRadar readers.

The TechRadar Readers' Choice Awards 2026 comprises nearly 100 categories, but we know that not everyone is interested in voting in every one, so on this page you can vote in just our TV, Streaming and Audio categories.

These include soundbars, projectors, Bluetooth speakers, headphones and earbuds, as well as televisions and streaming services. You can vote in the survey just below — or follow the links to see other specific categories, or to vote on the full list instead.

The shortlists were chosen by TechRadar's editors based on the best products we've tested or the most popular products of the year. You'll need to vote before 00:01am PST / 03:01am EST / 08:01am BST on Wednesday October 7th 2026 for it to be counted.

• All categories
• Phones & Cameras
• Computing & Gaming
• Fitness & Home Tech

(function(t,e,s,n){var o,a,c;t.SMCX=t.SMCX||[],e.getElementById(n)||(o=e.getElementsByTagName(s),a=o[o.length-1],c=e.createElement(s),c.type="text/javascript",c.async=!0,c.id=n,c.src=["https:"===location.protocol?"https://":"http://","widget.surveymonkey.com/collect/website/js/tRaiETqnLgj758hTBazgd1GOZHMIb3uitvQgoxiM5UYE0S0L9PFhCA_2FLWzu4ePLV.js"].join(""),a.parentNode.insertBefore(c,a))})(window,document,"script","smcx-sdk");

Once the deadline has passed at 00:01am PST / 03:01am EST / 08:01am BST on Wednesday October 7th 2026, we'll tally your votes to find the winners in each category.

We'll announce the winners in our big TechRadar Awards 2026 Week, starting Monday October 19th. We'll reveal the winners of the Reader's Choice Awards, as well as the winners of our TechRadar Product of the Year Awards, which are chosen solely by our expert judges.

How many products will do the double? We'll be curious to see — but right now, all you can do is vote for what you think should win, so vote away!

It's time for TechRadar's annual tech awards, and this year we're doing it differently. For the first time, we have a complete set of categories where the winners are chosen 100% by you, the TechRadar readers.

The TechRadar Readers' Choice Awards 2026 comprises nearly 100 categories, but we know that not everyone is interested in voting in every one, so on this page you can vote in just our Computing and Gaming categories.

These include laptops, PC gaming peripherals, console accessories, monitors, gaming services and more. You can vote in the survey just below — or follow the links to see other specific categories, or to vote on the full list instead.

The shortlists were chosen by TechRadar's editors based on the best products we've tested or the most popular products of the year. You'll need to vote before 00:01am PST / 03:01am EST / 08:01am BST on Wednesday October 7th 2026 for it to be counted.

• All categories
• Phones & Cameras
• TV & Audio
• Fitness & Home Tech

(function(t,e,s,n){var o,a,c;t.SMCX=t.SMCX||[],e.getElementById(n)||(o=e.getElementsByTagName(s),a=o[o.length-1],c=e.createElement(s),c.type="text/javascript",c.async=!0,c.id=n,c.src=["https:"===location.protocol?"https://":"http://","widget.surveymonkey.com/collect/website/js/tRaiETqnLgj758hTBazgd1GOZHMIb3uitvQgoxiM5UZiQnSnCuL9BlcqF_2BCL4WPf.js"].join(""),a.parentNode.insertBefore(c,a))})(window,document,"script","smcx-sdk");

Once the deadline has passed at 00:01am PST / 03:01am EST / 08:01am BST on Wednesday October 7th 2026, we'll tally your votes to find the winners in each category.

We'll announce the winners in our big TechRadar Awards 2026 Week, starting Monday October 19th. We'll reveal the winners of the Reader's Choice Awards, as well as the winners of our TechRadar Product of the Year Awards, which are chosen solely by our expert judges.

How many products will do the double? We'll be curious to see — but right now, all you can do is vote for what you think should win, so vote away!

It's time for TechRadar's annual tech awards, and this year we're doing it differently. For the first time, we have a complete set of categories where the winners are chosen 100% by you, the TechRadar readers.

The TechRadar Readers' Choice Awards 2026 comprises nearly 100 categories, but we know that not everyone is interested in voting in every one, so on this page you can vote in just our Computing and Gaming categories.

These include laptops, PC gaming peripherals, console accessories, monitors, gaming services and more. You can vote in the survey just below — or follow the links to see other specific categories, or to vote on the full list instead.

The shortlists were chosen by TechRadar's editors based on the best products we've tested or the most popular products of the year. You'll need to vote before 00:01am PST / 03:01am EST / 08:01am BST on Wednesday October 7th 2026 for it to be counted.

• All categories
• Phones & Cameras
• TV & Audio
• Fitness & Home Tech

(function(t,e,s,n){var o,a,c;t.SMCX=t.SMCX||[],e.getElementById(n)||(o=e.getElementsByTagName(s),a=o[o.length-1],c=e.createElement(s),c.type="text/javascript",c.async=!0,c.id=n,c.src=["https:"===location.protocol?"https://":"http://","widget.surveymonkey.com/collect/website/js/tRaiETqnLgj758hTBazgd1GOZHMIb3uitvQgoxiM5UZiQnSnCuL9BlcqF_2BCL4WPf.js"].join(""),a.parentNode.insertBefore(c,a))})(window,document,"script","smcx-sdk");

Once the deadline has passed at 00:01am PST / 03:01am EST / 08:01am BST on Wednesday October 7th 2026, we'll tally your votes to find the winners in each category.

We'll announce the winners in our big TechRadar Awards 2026 Week, starting Monday October 19th. We'll reveal the winners of the Reader's Choice Awards, as well as the winners of our TechRadar Product of the Year Awards, which are chosen solely by our expert judges.

How many products will do the double? We'll be curious to see — but right now, all you can do is vote for what you think should win, so vote away!

It's time for TechRadar's annual tech awards, and this year we're doing it differently. For the first time, we have a complete set of categories where the winners are chosen 100% by you, the TechRadar readers.

The TechRadar Readers' Choice Awards 2026 comprises nearly 100 categories, but we know that not everyone is interested in voting in every one, so on this page you can vote in just our Phones and Cameras categories.

These include tablets, ereaders, drones and more, as well as various phones and cameras awards. You can vote in the survey just below — or follow the links to see other specific categories, or to vote on the full list instead.

The shortlists were chosen by TechRadar's editors based on the best products we've tested or the most popular products of the year. You'll need to vote before 00:01am PST / 03:01am EST / 08:01am BST on Wednesday October 7th 2026 for it to be counted.

• All categories
• Computing & Gaming
• TV & Audio
• Fitness & Home Tech

(function(t,e,s,n){var o,a,c;t.SMCX=t.SMCX||[],e.getElementById(n)||(o=e.getElementsByTagName(s),a=o[o.length-1],c=e.createElement(s),c.type="text/javascript",c.async=!0,c.id=n,c.src=["https:"===location.protocol?"https://":"http://","widget.surveymonkey.com/collect/website/js/tRaiETqnLgj758hTBazgd9Ec9qB_2BuU04g7oiBmBg8SM69ndwobqWxlVYe7psMqMd.js"].join(""),a.parentNode.insertBefore(c,a))})(window,document,"script","smcx-sdk");

Once the deadline has passed at 00:01am PST / 03:01am EST / 08:01am BST on Wednesday October 7th 2026, we'll tally your votes to find the winners in each category.

We'll announce the winners in our big TechRadar Awards 2026 Week, starting Monday October 19th. We'll reveal the winners of the Reader's Choice Awards, as well as the winners of our TechRadar Product of the Year Awards, which are chosen solely by our expert judges.

How many products will do the double? We'll be curious to see — but right now, all you can do is vote for what you think should win, so vote away!

It's time for TechRadar's annual tech awards, and this year we're doing it differently. For the first time, we have a complete set of categories where the winners are chosen 100% by you, the TechRadar readers.

The TechRadar Readers' Choice Awards 2026 comprises nearly 100 categories, but we know that not everyone is interested in voting in every one, so on this page you can vote in just our Phones and Cameras categories.

These include tablets, ereaders, drones and more, as well as various phones and cameras awards. You can vote in the survey just below — or follow the links to see other specific categories, or to vote on the full list instead.

The shortlists were chosen by TechRadar's editors based on the best products we've tested or the most popular products of the year. You'll need to vote before 00:01am PST / 03:01am EST / 08:01am BST on Wednesday October 7th 2026 for it to be counted.

• All categories
• Computing & Gaming
• TV & Audio
• Fitness & Home Tech

(function(t,e,s,n){var o,a,c;t.SMCX=t.SMCX||[],e.getElementById(n)||(o=e.getElementsByTagName(s),a=o[o.length-1],c=e.createElement(s),c.type="text/javascript",c.async=!0,c.id=n,c.src=["https:"===location.protocol?"https://":"http://","widget.surveymonkey.com/collect/website/js/tRaiETqnLgj758hTBazgd9Ec9qB_2BuU04g7oiBmBg8SM69ndwobqWxlVYe7psMqMd.js"].join(""),a.parentNode.insertBefore(c,a))})(window,document,"script","smcx-sdk");

Once the deadline has passed at 00:01am PST / 03:01am EST / 08:01am BST on Wednesday October 7th 2026, we'll tally your votes to find the winners in each category.

We'll announce the winners in our big TechRadar Awards 2026 Week, starting Monday October 19th. We'll reveal the winners of the Reader's Choice Awards, as well as the winners of our TechRadar Product of the Year Awards, which are chosen solely by our expert judges.

How many products will do the double? We'll be curious to see — but right now, all you can do is vote for what you think should win, so vote away!

It's time for TechRadar's annual tech awards, and this year we're doing it differently. For the first time, we have a complete set of categories where the winners are chosen 100% by you, the TechRadar readers.

The TechRadar Readers' Choice Awards 2026 comprises nearly 100 categories, ranging from phones to drones, TVs to ereaders, Bluetooth speakers to air fryers.

In for survey below, you can vote in every one of the our categories — but don't worry if you want to just vote in the areas you most care about, we've got you covered. Just below are links to vote in limited areas only, so you don't have to go through all the questions.

The shortlists were chosen by TechRadar's editors based on the best products we've tested or the most popular products of the year. You'll need to vote before 00:01am PST / 03:01am EST / 08:01am BST on Wednesday October 7th 2026 for it to be counted.

• Phones & Cameras
• Computing & Gaming
• TV & Audio
• Fitness & Home Tech

(function(t,e,s,n){var o,a,c;t.SMCX=t.SMCX||[],e.getElementById(n)||(o=e.getElementsByTagName(s),a=o[o.length-1],c=e.createElement(s),c.type="text/javascript",c.async=!0,c.id=n,c.src=["https:"===location.protocol?"https://":"http://","widget.surveymonkey.com/collect/website/js/tRaiETqnLgj758hTBazgd9Ec9qB_2BuU04g7oiBmBg8SMRWWbwp2rtH2cNhb97fmKf.js"].join(""),a.parentNode.insertBefore(c,a))})(window,document,"script","smcx-sdk");

Once the deadline has passed at 00:01am PST / 03:01am EST / 08:01am BST on Wednesday October 7th 2026, we'll tally your votes to find the winners in each category.

We'll announce the winners in our big TechRadar Awards 2026 Week, starting Monday October 19th. We'll reveal the winners of the Reader's Choice Awards, as well as the winners of our TechRadar Product of the Year Awards, which are chosen solely by our expert judges.

How many products will do the double? We'll be so curious to see — but right now, all you can do is vote for what you think should win, so vote away!

It's time for TechRadar's annual tech awards, and this year we're doing it differently. For the first time, we have a complete set of categories where the winners are chosen 100% by you, the TechRadar readers.

The TechRadar Readers' Choice Awards 2026 comprises nearly 100 categories, ranging from phones to drones, TVs to ereaders, Bluetooth speakers to air fryers.

In for survey below, you can vote in every one of the our categories — but don't worry if you want to just vote in the areas you most care about, we've got you covered. Just below are links to vote in limited areas only, so you don't have to go through all the questions.

The shortlists were chosen by TechRadar's editors based on the best products we've tested or the most popular products of the year. You'll need to vote before 00:01am PST / 03:01am EST / 08:01am BST on Wednesday October 7th 2026 for it to be counted.

• Phones & Cameras
• Computing & Gaming
• TV & Audio
• Fitness & Home Tech

(function(t,e,s,n){var o,a,c;t.SMCX=t.SMCX||[],e.getElementById(n)||(o=e.getElementsByTagName(s),a=o[o.length-1],c=e.createElement(s),c.type="text/javascript",c.async=!0,c.id=n,c.src=["https:"===location.protocol?"https://":"http://","widget.surveymonkey.com/collect/website/js/tRaiETqnLgj758hTBazgd9Ec9qB_2BuU04g7oiBmBg8SMRWWbwp2rtH2cNhb97fmKf.js"].join(""),a.parentNode.insertBefore(c,a))})(window,document,"script","smcx-sdk");

Once the deadline has passed at 00:01am PST / 03:01am EST / 08:01am BST on Wednesday October 7th 2026, we'll tally your votes to find the winners in each category.

We'll announce the winners in our big TechRadar Awards 2026 Week, starting Monday October 19th. We'll reveal the winners of the Reader's Choice Awards, as well as the winners of our TechRadar Product of the Year Awards, which are chosen solely by our expert judges.

How many products will do the double? We'll be so curious to see — but right now, all you can do is vote for what you think should win, so vote away!

Got your iPhone 18 Pro Max on preorder but can't quite decide on the perfect plan to pair it with? I think I've found a contender for the best overall option right now.

It's Mint Mobile's latest new-customer promotion, which lets you take out a line on any of the carrier's excellent prepaid plans for just $15/mo. That includes the annual unlimited data plan - which usually clocks in at $30/mo.

Even without the discount, Mint's unlimited plan is competitive and much cheaper than many competitors, so the deal is just the cherry on top. While you'll have to pay $180 upfront, you'll lock in an unlimited data plan for an almost unbelievably cheap $15 per month.

Overall, the Mint unlimited plan includes unlimited talk, text, and mobile hotspot. There are a few restrictions, such as 50GB of 5G data and 20GB of mobile hotspot, but these are still pretty generous for the price - especially at $15/mo.

Mint Mobile's latest deal for new customers

Mint Mobile unlimited data plan: was $360, now $180
Mint Mobile's latest plan deal is the perfect pairing for the latest iPhone 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max. Right now, you can get any of the carrier's plans for just $15/mo, including the high-end annual unlimited plan. Paying just $180 upfront, you're locking in a huge amount of value here for not a lot of cash. If you've been curious about trying Mint Mobile, then now's a great time to jump on board. View Deal

• See more: check out today's best deals on phones at Mint Mobile

Note, if you're looking for a great all-in-one deal at Mint, then the carrier also has some great discounts on the latest Google Pixel 11 and Samsung Galaxy S26. If you're interested, I've attached further details just down below.

Also available at Mint Mobile

Google Pixel 11 series: $450 off, plus a half-price unlimited plan at Mint Mobile
Mint Mobile's latest deal on the Pixel 11 series is the perfect pairing with Google's new flagships. Right now, you don't even need to trade-in to get an excellent $450 discount on these new devices. On top of that, you can also get a full year of unlimited data for just $180 - that's half the usual price. Put together, this is a great deal, although it's exclusive to new Mint customers. View Deal

Samsung Galaxy S26 series: $500 off, plus up to $400 off with a trade-in at Mint Mobile
Mint Mobile's latest deal on the Galaxy S26 series is one of the best I've ever seen from the well-known prepaid carrier. Not only can you get a record-breaking $500 upfront discount on a brand new device, but you'll also get a full year of unlimited data for just $180 - half price. On top of that, you can also trade-in for an additional discount of up to $400 off, which is enough to cover the entire cost of the standard Galaxy S26.

Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra: was $1,300 now $1,100View Deal

Got your iPhone 18 Pro Max on preorder but can't quite decide on the perfect plan to pair it with? I think I've found a contender for the best overall option right now.

It's Mint Mobile's latest new-customer promotion, which lets you take out a line on any of the carrier's excellent prepaid plans for just $15/mo. That includes the annual unlimited data plan - which usually clocks in at $30/mo.

Even without the discount, Mint's unlimited plan is competitive and much cheaper than many competitors, so the deal is just the cherry on top. While you'll have to pay $180 upfront, you'll lock in an unlimited data plan for an almost unbelievably cheap $15 per month.

Overall, the Mint unlimited plan includes unlimited talk, text, and mobile hotspot. There are a few restrictions, such as 50GB of 5G data and 20GB of mobile hotspot, but these are still pretty generous for the price - especially at $15/mo.

Mint Mobile's latest deal for new customers

Mint Mobile unlimited data plan: was $360, now $180
Mint Mobile's latest plan deal is the perfect pairing for the latest iPhone 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max. Right now, you can get any of the carrier's plans for just $15/mo, including the high-end annual unlimited plan. Paying just $180 upfront, you're locking in a huge amount of value here for not a lot of cash. If you've been curious about trying Mint Mobile, then now's a great time to jump on board. View Deal

• See more: check out today's best deals on phones at Mint Mobile

Note, if you're looking for a great all-in-one deal at Mint, then the carrier also has some great discounts on the latest Google Pixel 11 and Samsung Galaxy S26. If you're interested, I've attached further details just down below.

Also available at Mint Mobile

Google Pixel 11 series: $450 off, plus a half-price unlimited plan at Mint Mobile
Mint Mobile's latest deal on the Pixel 11 series is the perfect pairing with Google's new flagships. Right now, you don't even need to trade-in to get an excellent $450 discount on these new devices. On top of that, you can also get a full year of unlimited data for just $180 - that's half the usual price. Put together, this is a great deal, although it's exclusive to new Mint customers. View Deal

Samsung Galaxy S26 series: $500 off, plus up to $400 off with a trade-in at Mint Mobile
Mint Mobile's latest deal on the Galaxy S26 series is one of the best I've ever seen from the well-known prepaid carrier. Not only can you get a record-breaking $500 upfront discount on a brand new device, but you'll also get a full year of unlimited data for just $180 - half price. On top of that, you can also trade-in for an additional discount of up to $400 off, which is enough to cover the entire cost of the standard Galaxy S26.

Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra: was $1,300 now $1,100View Deal

After years of treating faster, bigger, and more capable AI as something approaching a moral imperative, the people running some of the world’s most powerful AI companies suddenly agree that perhaps everyone should ease off the accelerator.

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei kicked off the latest round with an essay titled “We Must Pace the Frontier,” warning that AI capabilities are advancing faster than the safeguards needed to contain their risks. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis quickly endorsed the idea. It's extraordinary that the leaders of companies locked in one of the most expensive technological races in history are publicly agreeing that the race itself needs to slow down. One awkward detail is buried beneath the sudden outbreak of corporate caution. Namely that nobody involved has said which forthcoming frontier model will arrive later because of it.

“Pacing the frontier” can mean almost anything until somebody attaches a calendar to it. None of the companies supporting Anthropic’s proposal has publicly identified a forthcoming model it intends to delay as part of the initiative, nor has anyone defined whether slowing down means an extra week of safety testing, six months between major generations, or something more dramatic. For now, the most concrete commitments concern independent evaluators, monitoring, safety standards and coordination rather than an announced reduction in the cadence of frontier-model releases

It's odd enough to stand out even to those outside the tech space. U.S. vice president JD Vance said he felt “a little bit weird" about the fact that you have so many frontier AI tech companies kind of coming to the government and begging the government to regulate them, and that it came off as “a bit of a Trojan horse.” His skepticism does not settle whether regulation is necessary, but it highlights the contradiction running through the current debate.

Altruism or exclusion?

There are good reasons for the sudden anxiety. Amodei has warned about AI enabling cyberattacks, bioterrorism, economic disruption, and eventually systems humans could struggle to control. His latest proposal calls for independent safety evaluators with deep access inside frontier labs, coordination among companies on shared standards, and international cooperation around particularly dangerous capabilities.

That's rather different from the plain-English meaning of slowing development. Anthropic’s own recent history is ambiguous, as it paused external cyber evaluations of prerelease models and briefly stopped internal ones. It also paused higher-risk reinforcement-learning environments for several weeks.

Meanwhile, the frontier has continued moving. Anthropic released Claude Fable 5.1 and Mythos 5.1 this month, while OpenAI debuted GPT-6 Astra. Those launches preceded Amodei’s latest public call for an industry slowdown, but show the strange starting point for this new era of restraint. The companies asking everyone to discuss slowing down have just spent the month pushing the frontier forward.

If the companies genuinely believe development is moving dangerously fast, they already control their own research schedules and release calendars, while government regulation raises a separate question about whether rules designed with the biggest labs could also make life harder for smaller competitors.

Apocalyptic distraction

There is another problem with all this talk of existential danger. The more Silicon Valley discusses hypothetical superintelligence destroying humanity, the easier it becomes to overlook the considerably less cinematic ways AI is already hurting people.

Karolis Kaciulis, Lead System Engineer at consumer cybersecurity company Surfshark, argues that warnings about AI threatening humanity can amount to a “marketing move” that distracts attention from existing harms. “The threat itself is fictional, closer to a Skynet-style sci-fi scenario than the problems generative AI is already causing today, from automated scams to intimidation,” he said.

That skepticism deserves space alongside the warnings from AI executives. Generative AI is already making phishing, deepfake fraud, and automated scams cheaper and easier to scale. Questions remain about privacy, how information submitted to chatbots is handled, and the environmental cost of the infrastructure required to run increasingly large AI systems.

There is also a legitimate debate about how much progress the industry’s endless procession of model releases actually represents. Benchmark numbers climb, but determining whether each new large language model represents a profound new capability is considerably harder than reading a launch-day chart.

AI companies simultaneously warning about AI's power while still pushing ahead and sidelining safety comes off as bizarre to the average person. Amodei’s proposal is new, and judging it entirely by whether a company delayed a model by four days would be unreasonable. But his ideas need an independent evaluation system to have any muscle. The next step needs to be measurable, or it's irrelevant.

After years of treating faster, bigger, and more capable AI as something approaching a moral imperative, the people running some of the world’s most powerful AI companies suddenly agree that perhaps everyone should ease off the accelerator.

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei kicked off the latest round with an essay titled “We Must Pace the Frontier,” warning that AI capabilities are advancing faster than the safeguards needed to contain their risks. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis quickly endorsed the idea. It's extraordinary that the leaders of companies locked in one of the most expensive technological races in history are publicly agreeing that the race itself needs to slow down. One awkward detail is buried beneath the sudden outbreak of corporate caution. Namely that nobody involved has said which forthcoming frontier model will arrive later because of it.

“Pacing the frontier” can mean almost anything until somebody attaches a calendar to it. None of the companies supporting Anthropic’s proposal has publicly identified a forthcoming model it intends to delay as part of the initiative, nor has anyone defined whether slowing down means an extra week of safety testing, six months between major generations, or something more dramatic. For now, the most concrete commitments concern independent evaluators, monitoring, safety standards and coordination rather than an announced reduction in the cadence of frontier-model releases

It's odd enough to stand out even to those outside the tech space. U.S. vice president JD Vance said he felt “a little bit weird" about the fact that you have so many frontier AI tech companies kind of coming to the government and begging the government to regulate them, and that it came off as “a bit of a Trojan horse.” His skepticism does not settle whether regulation is necessary, but it highlights the contradiction running through the current debate.

Altruism or exclusion?

There are good reasons for the sudden anxiety. Amodei has warned about AI enabling cyberattacks, bioterrorism, economic disruption, and eventually systems humans could struggle to control. His latest proposal calls for independent safety evaluators with deep access inside frontier labs, coordination among companies on shared standards, and international cooperation around particularly dangerous capabilities.

That's rather different from the plain-English meaning of slowing development. Anthropic’s own recent history is ambiguous, as it paused external cyber evaluations of prerelease models and briefly stopped internal ones. It also paused higher-risk reinforcement-learning environments for several weeks.

Meanwhile, the frontier has continued moving. Anthropic released Claude Fable 5.1 and Mythos 5.1 this month, while OpenAI debuted GPT-6 Astra. Those launches preceded Amodei’s latest public call for an industry slowdown, but show the strange starting point for this new era of restraint. The companies asking everyone to discuss slowing down have just spent the month pushing the frontier forward.

If the companies genuinely believe development is moving dangerously fast, they already control their own research schedules and release calendars, while government regulation raises a separate question about whether rules designed with the biggest labs could also make life harder for smaller competitors.

Apocalyptic distraction

There is another problem with all this talk of existential danger. The more Silicon Valley discusses hypothetical superintelligence destroying humanity, the easier it becomes to overlook the considerably less cinematic ways AI is already hurting people.

Karolis Kaciulis, Lead System Engineer at consumer cybersecurity company Surfshark, argues that warnings about AI threatening humanity can amount to a “marketing move” that distracts attention from existing harms. “The threat itself is fictional, closer to a Skynet-style sci-fi scenario than the problems generative AI is already causing today, from automated scams to intimidation,” he said.

That skepticism deserves space alongside the warnings from AI executives. Generative AI is already making phishing, deepfake fraud, and automated scams cheaper and easier to scale. Questions remain about privacy, how information submitted to chatbots is handled, and the environmental cost of the infrastructure required to run increasingly large AI systems.

There is also a legitimate debate about how much progress the industry’s endless procession of model releases actually represents. Benchmark numbers climb, but determining whether each new large language model represents a profound new capability is considerably harder than reading a launch-day chart.

AI companies simultaneously warning about AI's power while still pushing ahead and sidelining safety comes off as bizarre to the average person. Amodei’s proposal is new, and judging it entirely by whether a company delayed a model by four days would be unreasonable. But his ideas need an independent evaluation system to have any muscle. The next step needs to be measurable, or it's irrelevant.

Neuroscientists have made a major advance in modeling the human brain in mice, offering a new way to study conditions like cerebral palsy. Ethicists ask if it changes how these mice should be treated.

(Image credit: S. Pașca lab)

Do you use AI at work? And if you do, does your employer know about it?

A huge new study from Deloitte of 25,000 UK workers found that two-thirds have already used generative AI for work — and nearly a third of generative AI users say they're using it without their employer's knowledge.

Welcome to the world of ‘shadow AI’: workers bringing their own AI tools into the workplace, often without official approval, and using them to get their jobs done faster.

A look at Reddit reveals what that can mean in practice. One Reddit user complained: “My coworker is secretly using ChatGPT to do 80% of his work. He's getting praised for efficiency.” Their dilemma was simple: “Do I tell the bosses?”

Another Reddit user had the opposite problem after discovering just how much time AI could save them. “I’m a relative noob, so please don’t roast me, but I’ve just done about 2 weeks' work in an hour. Do I tell my boss or keep it secret?”

One of the most popular responses to their predicament was equally revealing: “Remember, AI work is more detectable than you think. Spend time humanizing the output and adding your own texture, then shut up.”

It's easy to see the attraction. If you've discovered a tool that lets you complete two weeks' worth of work in an hour, why wouldn't you use it? The more difficult question is whether you should tell anyone.

(Image credit: Getty Images / ViDI Studio)Shadow lands

Shadow AI doesn't necessarily mean employees are doing anything malicious. In many cases, workers simply prefer using AI tools they're already familiar with rather than whatever their company has provided — assuming it has provided anything at all.

But there's an important difference between using your own favorite productivity app and using an unapproved AI chatbot.

As my colleague Craig Hale reported in June, a survey from PagerDuty found that 88% of workers had shared work-related information with public AI systems. Some 43% had uploaded emails or correspondence, 40% had shared meeting notes, 34% had entered customer information, and 31% had shared sensitive business information such as financial data or confidential company documents.

And that's where shadow AI becomes more than an awkward conversation about whether somebody deserves credit for working faster. Employees can potentially be feeding sensitive company information into AI services their employers haven't approved or secured.

But workers don't necessarily trust their employers to make the right decisions about AI either. PagerDuty found that 72% of workers believed they understood AI better than their own tech teams, while 77% thought their company's AI restrictions were limiting their professional development.

You can start to see why shadow AI is such a difficult problem for workplaces to navigate. An employee might simply see AI as a tool that helps them do their job faster, while colleagues could understandably wonder whether someone deserves the same credit for work largely produced by AI. For employers, there's the added concern that sensitive company information could be finding its way into AI tools they haven't approved or secured.

Who's really in the wrong?

And let’s not forget how divisive AI can be. Many workers have a real aversion to using AI in any form whatsoever. One Reddit user asked: “How do I tell my boss who keeps telling me to use ChatGPT for simple tasks that I'm anti-AI?”

Workplace rules haven't necessarily caught up with the speed at which employees have adopted AI, and there's another remarkable number in Deloitte's research that suggests just how far this has already gone.

According to the Deloitte survey, British workers are now spending an estimated £958 million of their own money every year on generative AI tools they use for work. That's an extraordinary amount of money for employees to be spending on tools designed to make them better at jobs somebody else is paying them to do — particularly when almost a third aren't telling their employers they're using them.

But you can understand why. If you've just discovered a tool that lets you do two weeks' work in an hour, telling your boss might result in them wondering what you're going to do with the rest of the week.

• Opswat found two flaws in TP‑Link Tapo C200 cameras: auth bypass (CVE‑2026‑15315) and DoS (CVE‑2026‑15316)
• Bugs let attackers hijack admin sessions or crash devices; millions of users potentially exposed
• TP‑Link patched with firmware V5_1.4.6 on Aug 18, 2026; users urged to update immediately

Security researchers found a pair of vulnerabilities in popular smart cameras, which could allow threat actors to peep into people’s homes and businesses.

Earlier this week, Opswat disclosed finding two bugs in the TP-Link Tapo C200 smart security camera - an authentication bypass flaw, and a denial-of-service vulnerability. The former is tracked as CVE-2026-15315 and was given a severity score of 8.7/10 (high). Opswat says the bug allows unauthenticated attackers to obtain valid admin sessions without having a password, which would allow them to manage the device and even watch the stream.

The latter is tracked as CVE-2026-15316. With a severity score of 7.1/10 (high), this bug allows threat actors to send oversized crypted ciphertext values that may trigger exception handling failures and cause the affected device to crash or restart. “Successful exploitation may temporarily disrupt HTTPS management and monitoring functionality, resulting in a denial-of-service (DoS) condition until the service recovers,” according to the NVD.

Patching the bugs

The C200 is a mass-market product, advertised as a security camera, a baby monitor, or a pet camera, with motion detection, 1080p video, 2-way audio, night vision, cloud & SD card storage, and integrations with both Alexa and Google Home.

Opswat disclosed their findings to TP-Link in mid-April this year, which started working on a fix in early July this year. On August 18, 2026, TP-Link released firmware version V5_1.4.6, which addressed both flaws. Users are advised to install the fix as soon as possible.

The researchers did not discuss if the flaws were being abused in the wild, or to what extent. We do know that TP-Link Tapo cameras are rather popular, with the C200 model being relatively widely sold. According to TP-Link, the Tapo app has more than 13 million users, while the Google Play Store shows 10+ million downloads.

On Amazon, the C200 specifically is listed as the #1 top rated product in its category, with more than 3,000 purchases this month alone.

"Camera bugs always get attention because of the "spy factor," but they usually sound cooler and scarier than they actually are," said Dahvid Schloss, OSCP, Chief Operating Officer at Suzu Labs. "The main reason not to "worry" about this one is that running this exploit requires local network access, so a threat actor has to be on your Wi-Fi or already own a device that is.

"If someone's made it that far into your network, they're not after the baby monitor. Now, if the camera was port-forwarded to the internet, that's a bigger design issue and probably should be a concern, but not a common setup for the everyday home user. Either way, I'd still patch the camera, but it's pretty low on the totem pole of what a cybercriminal wants."

"I'm quite curious about the undisclosed vulnerability that reportedly allows full compromise and a foothold to pivot from," Schloss added. "Based on what was reported, I would guess the exploit would be a command injection or a memory-safety bug in the same management service, chained behind that auth bypass to get code execution as root, where they then dropped a static binary to return a shell on the device whose firmware ships with almost no tooling. That attack chain isn't uncommon on cheap, older consumer IoT devices where security wasn't top of mind, but if that's the case here, seeing it hold up on a modern TP-Link device would be a bit of a blast from the past.

Half the fun of being really invested in a TV show is writing your own stories for your favourite characters. If you're a fan of Reacher on Prime Video, there's a chance that you've imagined the titular hero (played by Alan Ritchson) ending up with his loyal sidekick, Neagley (Maria Sten).

A quick Reddit and social media search reveals that I'm definitely not on my own in thinking about this. Though we've not seen Neagley in the main Reacher series since season 3, she remains the fan-favourite right-hand woman, and fans have been publicly pining for her since her departure.

Luckily, the spinoff Neagley lands on the Amazon streamer on September 16, putting her past and present firmly in the hot seat. Reacher will pop his head in along the way... and if anything, this adds fuel to the fire that there's possible romantic tension between.

However, the same could easily be said to be between Neagley and newbie detective Hudson (Greyston Holt), though as of yet, Neagley has chosen nobody but herself.

It's here that I have to be the bearer of bad news: creator Nicholas Wootton has indeed confirmed that there are "no plans" for a Reacher-Neagley romance to be incorporated into the story. Having said that, it's a 'never say never' situation.

'I don't want to put a fork in that'

"I don't want to put a fork in that," Wootton tells me when I ask about the romantic potential. "I don't know what the future may bring. Are there plans for that in our present writing? I will admit no. But I will also say that the world is a big place.

"I don't want to disappoint fans, but right now, the plan for this show is not to explore that. But you never know."

I love a diplomatic answer when I hear one. Though it seems incredibly likely, we're currently waiting to hear whether Neagley season 2 will be picked up or not. So while I've put the request in, for now, we have to make do with how Reacher is utilized in the episodes that we have.

"I love the way that Reacher's been used in this season," Wootton continues. "I felt like it was a handoff to Neagley that allows her to have her own series, yet also gives it a really nice arc.

"His use in this is much more of an emotional tie than an action-based one, and I don't think people will be expecting that. Every time we watched it, I felt it in my chest."

Sounds like the power of love to me, but what do I know?

Inflation, gasoline prices and the cost of living are top of mind in the election season. How are higher costs shaping the way you live? NPR wants to hear.

(Image credit: Joe Raedle)

Russia is believed to be holding thousands of Ukrainian POWs. Russia is also tormenting the families of these prisoners by contacting their relatives on social media and demanding they help Russia.

(Image credit: Francisco Seco)

• We've put the batteries in Apple's newest iPhones to the test
• There are upgrades here, but not huge ones
• Apple has been touting major boosts in battery life on these handsets

Sift through the press releases that Apple pushed out while announcing the new iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max, and you'll see some big battery life increases touted — including "the largest increase in battery life ever" on an iPhone with the Pro Max model (compared to the iPhone 17 Pro Max).

We know that the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max come with 4,056 mAh and 5,391 mAh capacity batteries respectively (at least in Europe), but does that translate into much better battery life? We put both of these new handsets through their paces in the TechRadar labs (as part of our full iPhone 18 Pro review) to see if Apple's claims held up under some real-world testing.

Our standard test involves having the iPhone automatically cycle through a series of websites over a cellular connection, until the battery dies. Features like location services, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth are all turned off while the test is being run, and the battery management features in iOS are disabled too.

The iPhone 18 Pro managed 16 hours and 17 minutes in the test, compared to 15 hours and 21 minutes on the iPhone 17 Pro, a boost of around 6% overall. The iPhone 18 Pro Max managed 18 hours and 27 minutes compared to 17 hours and 54 minutes on the iPhone 17 Pro Max, an increase of roughly 3% in total.

Those increases are of course welcome, but perhaps aren't quite as impressive as Apple is making out, though there are a lot of different variables (like screen brightness) involved. Apple's own figures usually make use of video playback time — as in how long a single battery charge lasts when you've watching a video.

For the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max, Apple quotes 33 hours and 39 hours respectively, while for the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max those numbers go up to 36 hours (a 9% increase) and 45 hours (a 15% increase). That last jump is indeed significant, but may only apply in quite a narrow set of scenarios.

"All battery claims depend on network configuration and many other factors," explains Apple in the small print on its comparison page. "Actual results will vary. Batteries have limited recharge cycles and may eventually need to be replaced. Battery life and charge cycles vary by use and settings."

We can safely say that you should see better battery life on the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max compared to the models that preceded them, but based on our own testing, don't expect the kind of improvements Apple is promising unless you're doing nothing but watching videos in long stretches between recharges.

• Canon announced its 3D image generation 'Dual Pixel 3D' tech
• It uses depth data from a single shot via Dual Pixel CMOS AF, through a free Windows-only app coming in October
• The EOS R10 and most models up to the EOS R5 series are compatible

Canon introduced a new Dual Pixel CMOS-type sensor and autofocus system in the EOS R5 back in 2020, and a string of cameras have since inherited this tech, most recently the EOS R8 Mark II announced today. And it's these cameras that just got a free upgrade that can add another dimension to photos: Dual Pixel 3D.

The new software leverages "depth and phase-detection data captured in a single shot via Dual Pixel CMOS AF", says Canon, using "an exclusive algorithm to convert your photos into highly realistic 3D imagery", plus 3D models in OBJ or GLB formats, or as an MP4 video, "complete with rich photographic textures."

This depth-adding tech will come in the (free) Dual Pixel 3D Converter software, which will be available for Windows only (Windows 11 64-bit 24H2 or later), from October 3.

So what exactly can users expect from the software, and which cameras are compatible? Let's take a look.

An extra dimension

Billed as 'simple 3D image generation technology', Dual Pixel 3D enables users to create immersive three-dimensional images and models from a single RAW photo, without needing specialized equipment or viewing devices. Canon also says the technology works with JPEGs captured by the new EOS R8 Mark II.

These files contain depth information from slightly different views, captured by each pixel's two photodiodes, which are then converted into 3D shape data.

Users will be able to fine-tune the degree of depth in the new software, for a more pronounced 3D effect or a subtler appearance. The depth information in Dual Pixel CMOS-captured photos also simplifies background removal, should users want to output a subject onto a plain background as a 3D model, or as a stereographic photo.

Can has shared tips for how to take photos designed to be converted for 3D on its YouTube channel (see below).

Photographers working in product and still life photography stand to benefit from the creative possibilities in particular. We'll be sure to try out the new software when it's released on October 3, and share our experience of making 3D imagery with it.

Compatible Canon cameras and lenses

Here's every Canon mirrorless camera that features Dual Pixel CMOS AF and can, therefore, enjoy the new Dual Pixel 3D feature, provided images are captured with a compatible lens:

• EOS R5 Mark II
• EOS R5
• EOS R6 Mark III
• EOS R6 Mark II
• EOS R7
• EOS R8 Mark II
• EOS R8
• EOS R10

And you'll need to be using one of these lenses;

RF24-70mm F2.8 L IS USM

RF24-50mm F4.5-6.3 IS STM

RF24-105mm F4 L IS USM

RF24-105mm F4-7.1 IS STM

RF35mm F1.8 MACRO IS STM

RF50mm F1.8 STM

RF70-200mm F2.8 L IS USM

RF70-200mm F4 L IS USM

RF85mm F2 MACRO IS STM

RF100mm F2.8 L MACRO IS USM

RF-S18-45mm F4.5-6.3 IS STM

RF-S18-150mm F3.5-6.3 IS STM

• DDR5 RAM has hit a new pricing high in the German market
• It's now 544% up on the price it was before the RAM crisis began
• This inflation backs up predictions of the memory shortage worsening, and Dell has just hiked the price of one of its popular laptops, too

If you wanted a telling example of how bad the cost of RAM is getting, the latest report on DDR5 pricing makes it crystal clear – and it reaches us as Dell moves to hike the price of its affordable XPS 13 laptop (in a roundabout way).

I'll come back to the ins-and-outs of what's happening with Dell, but first the DDR5 price jump, which has happened over in Germany.

3D Center keeps tabs on the monthly pricing of DDR5 memory in the German retail market – some 20 products are covered in this largest market in Europe – and as Wccftech flagged, the report for September shows this RAM is now 544% up on the price it was in July 2025 (the baseline level before the crisis began).

This is a big leap from 486% where the DDR5 price index sat in August, and since June, when it was at 419% having remained flat for much of the year. This obviously represents a depressingly hefty additional toll on the wallets of PC buyers or those upgrading their memory.

Meanwhile, as Mashable noticed, Dell has effectively upped the price of its XPS 13 laptop in the US, without actually increasing the baseline cost – instead of doing that, the laptop maker has introduced a new entry-level model with less storage.

So, previously the XPS 13 started from $699 in the US for the model with 8GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. What Dell has done is brought in a new model with 256GB of storage at that $699 level, so while technically the cheapest XPS 13 is still at that price, you're getting a lower spec for the money.

The old baseline model with 8GB RAM and a 512GB SSD is now $799, so it's been hiked by $100 – a pretty nasty bump in cost that moves this notebook into a distinctly less affordable price bracket.

If you want the XPS 13 with 16GB of system memory (and 512GB of storage), that's also gone up $100 so it's now at $999. Do note that these are student-targeted laptops, and students get a $100 discount on the XPS 13, so you will pay less in that case. However, while $599 (with $100 off) remains a tempting price in this climate, 256GB storage is cutting it thin.

Analysis: as predicted, 2026 is turning much nastier with RAM

(Image credit: Shutterstock)

The DDR5 price spike is truly worrying in my opinion, simply because it's an acceleration of an already worsening picture. Yes, it's only one retail market and a snapshot of the overall landscape as such, but the same pattern is seen elsewhere. Just look at Tom's Hardware's price tracker, which shows 32GB of DDR5-5600 RAM in the US is now $409 (at the time of writing) compared to $72, which was the lowest price seen before the memory crisis.

That's over a 5.5x price increase in the US market (mirroring the German level of RAM inflation in this particular case). The end result is that what used to be a no-brainer of future-proofing any desktop PC – particularly a gaming rig – with 32GB of RAM is now a difficult choice to make, as sticking with 16GB is saving you $200 (or the regional equivalent). Bearing in mind that you're battling all sorts of other component inflation if you're building a new PC, too (most notably with the likes of SSDs and increasingly GPUs).

We were told that the second half of 2026 would see more RAM price misery, and these German market figures illustrate exactly that. Since June, buyers in the country have witnessed an effective 30% increase in the cost of DDR5 (when it was already hugely overinflated). It's worse than I imagined it could get, frankly, and I fear that the most pessimistic predictions – which also forecast a very rough 2027 – are very much on the money.

All these RAM price hikes are eventually reflected in the cost of laptops, of course, and the Dell XPS 13 provides an apt illustration here. Interestingly enough, I recently wrote about Dell's revelation of its new 14S laptop – which was shown off at IFA, but without any price tag being attached – saying that this made me nervous about how much the notebook might cost.

Given this XPS 13 hike, it's easy to see why Dell was hesitant, and to be fair to the company, it isn't the only manufacturer that's reticent to pin launch prices on incoming devices. This is becoming a trend because the memory shortage, and its knock-on effects, are making life difficult for all device makers.