• OpenAI expands Daybreak with Blue and Red tiers for defensive cyber work
• New GPT‑5.6‑Cyber model offers high compliance for authorized vulnerability research
• Access remains restricted due to dual‑use risks and reduced safeguard operation

OpenAI has announced two new tiers for its Daybreak dedicated cybersecurity project, each offering a different model with different levels of compliance. It also used the opportunity to introduce a new security-focused AI model, as well.

Hackers and criminals are increasingly abusing AI to improve and speed up the creation of phishing emails and malicious code, and with the introduction of AI agents, they’ve also used it to automate entire attack processes. The AI community responded by placing strong guardrails, making sure their models do not comply with requests to build malware, or hack other companies.

These guardrails ended up being a two-edged sword, because as they slowed down attackers, they also slowed down the defenders.

What is Daybreak?

To give the cybersecurity community the upper edge, companies like OpenAI started creating dedicated cybersecurity initiatives that provide a vetted list of companies state-of-the-art models, free of guardrails. The company also provided them with pre-trained AI agents, as well as access to a pool of shared knowledge.

Initially launched in June 2026, Daybreak originally included GPT.5-5-Cyber (a model optimized for security work), Codex Security (an agent that can analyze codebases, identify vulnerabilities, validate findings, and help develop patches), Patch the Planet (an initiative with Trail of Bits to find and fix vulnerabilities in open-source software), Daybreak Cyber Partner Program (lets approved cybersecurity companies such as Cloudflare or Cisco integrate OpenAI's cyber capabilities into their own products and services), and Trusted Access for Cyber (the governance/access system for organizations doing authorized cybersecurity work with these capabilities).

Now, OpenAI has expanded Daybreak with two access tiers, Daybreak Blue, and Daybreak Red.

The company says Daybreak Blue is “the recommended starting point for most defenders, supporting vulnerability discovery, secure code review, malware analysis, incident response, and patch validation. Companies opting for this tier can expect access to frontier general-purpose models, including GPT‑5.6 Sol, whose safeguards have been tailored to authorized defensive security work.

Daybreak Red, on the other hand, provides access to OpenAI’s “purpose-trained cybersecurity models for authorized vulnerability research, exploit validation, and security testing.” This tier offers the brand new GPT‑5.6‑Cyber, built on GPT‑5.6 Sol and trained to improve capabilities on several specialized cybersecurity tasks such as finding zero-day vulnerabilities and developing exploit chains.

This model is also more compliant and less likely to refuse certain higher-risk, dual-use cyber tasks.

Complying with "dangerous" requests

Request compliance is the name of the game here. OpenAI says the new model addresses feedback from security researchers who “encountered persistent refusals with the earlier model.” General-purpose GPT-5.6 Sol, for example, will comply with just 1.5% of the requests usually given by cyber-defenders working on codebase analysis or vulnerability identification. This percentage increases to 2.0% with Daybreak Blue access.

GPT-5.6-Cyber, on the other hand, completes 95.0% of requests, OpenAI says, up from 57.3% of the previous model, GPT-5.5-Cyber. We weren’t able to independently verify these claims, though.

While it doesn’t outright say it, OpenAI considers these models relatively dangerous to use, which is why they’re locked behind the Daybreak Cyber Partner Program. However, the program is now expanding, allowing these companies to embed the models behind their own products, managed services, or cybersecurity engagements, and offer them to clients of their own.

Those who wish to be a part of the program directly can do so by applying to join online now.

“Models running with reduced safeguards carry risks beyond standard model usage, whether from misuse or misalignment. Despite these risks, we believe that democratizing access to frontier intelligence for defenders is crucial to accelerating and automating cyber defense,” OpenAI said.

“Daybreak Blue and Daybreak Red access are available for approved individuals⁠ and organizations conducting authorized work. We control access through identity verification, account security, monitoring, approved-use restrictions, and legal attestations.”

• A modder has taken the innards of a Steam Deck and put them into a Game Boy-style case
• The end result is the 'SteamBoy', although it's not quite finished (the screen doesn't yet work)
• There's a lot of excitement about this DIY project, and some gamers have even said they'd be keen to buy a retro handheld like this

Ever wished the Steam Deck looked a bit more retro — or indeed a lot more retro? Meet the 'SteamBoy', which takes the innards of Valve's handheld and transplants them into a case styled on the Game Boy.

Steam Deck HQ noticed this clever piece of modding in the form a project by 'PhyFawkes' as posted on Reddit (via VideoCardz).

The SteamBoy uses the motherboard, controller, buttons, speakers, and battery from the Steam Deck, fitting the components into a case which the maker says is the same dimensions as an original Game Boy, with a thickness of 32mm (yes, it's thick).

PhyFawkes explains: "The battery is the original battery, and it basically takes up the whole width of the device on the inside. It's sandwiched between the motherboard and the display. The motherboard and controller boards are completely intact as well."

The only element that isn't functional yet is the screen, so this device is still a work in progress. The Redditor has demonstrated it working on an external monitor, though.

Analysis: next stop Kickstarter?

The snag with getting the screen going is that the motherboard firmware reports the display properties directly to SteamOS, and so the firmware details must be updated with the info for the new screen. The Redditor says it hopefully it won't take too long to sort this out.

Another part of the recipe that's missing is the triggers, but PhyFawkes says that they might be able to add them eventually, but that space constraints with the case could make this too tricky a proposition.

Apparently the handheld runs cool enough with some slight under-volting. All in all, this a very smart-looking project, and I'm seriously impressed. The case itself is 3D-printed, with the Redditor noting that they're going to provide the details on how to make one for those who might want to try their hand at this enterprising piece of handheld DIY.

Of course, constructing something like this is well beyond the scope of your average gamer, and there are fans of this concept out there who'd be willing to pay money for a SteamBoy of their own. Plenty of them, in fact, as the reception for this project has been nothing short of glowing.

As someone on Reddit put it: "This is legitimately so cool. I would totally back something like this on Kickstarter."

Another Redditor said: "Looks amazing! I'd probably buy 2 of these bad boys."

• CEVA Logistics hack disrupted European warehouses and exposed some customer data
• Retailers and Valve reported compromised delivery information and service delays
• Clients warned of targeted scams while awaiting fuller incident details from CEVA

CEVA Logistics, one of the biggest shipping and logistics companies in the world, has suffered a major cyberattack, the effects of which are trickling down to many of its clients.

The details of the hack itself, however, are not yet publicly available and what little information is out there came from the affected clients themselves.

CEVA has not yet issued an official statement, or filed a report with the regulators, but confirmed to TechCrunch that the attack most likely started on July 29, 2026, and affected at least eight warehouses across Europe.

Technical details missing, affected customers step forward

CEVA Logistics is a global logistics and supply-chain company and a wholly owned subsidiary of CMA CGM, a French shipping giant. It provides freight forwarding, contract logistics, warehousing and transportation services to thousands of customers, including major companies in the consumer and retail, automotive, industrial and aerospace sectors.

The company operates in more than 170 countries around the world and last year it generated $18.3 billion in gross revenue, so it is a major player and a key target for attackers.

The details about the incident itself are scarce right now. We don’t know how the crooks broke in (via a successful social engineering attack, or by abusing a software vulnerability, for example), how much data they stole, or if they demanded a ransom payment in exchange for deleting the stolen goods. From one of the victims, though, we have learned that some data was most likely compromised.

When the effects of a cyberattack spill into the physical realm (as is the case here with eight affected warehouses) we can speculate the attack was either ransomware, or disruptive malware. Companies shut down parts of their IT infrastructure only when there is no other way to clear an infection or remove malicious outsiders.

In the meantime, a small number of CEVA’s customers confirmed suffering an attack and losing sensitive data.

Among them is Bol, a Dutch online retail company, which said the incident affected two systems used for processing orders from one of its fulfillment

“No bol systems were affected,” it said. “However, data of customers whose orders were processed via this location may have been viewed or copied.”

Bol also said restoring operations at one of CEVA’s locations was taking longer than anticipated. As a result, the assortment stored at the affected location was taken offline, and the products were unavailable for sale. Also, Bol is currently unable to receive goods from suppliers and sales partners at that location.

A similar announcement was given by De Bijenkorf, another Dutch luxury retailer, who said that order processing, returns, and refunds, might take longer, but stressed that its stores remained open. It also said that some customer data may have been compromised, including names, contact details, online orders data and, in some cases, VAT numbers. Payment information, bank account numbers (IBANs), credit card information, usernames, or passwords, were not compromised, it was confirmed.

Valve steps forward

Retail giants aside, PC gaming powerhouse Valve also notified its customers about the incident. It said CEVA ships Steam hardware to its European customers and as such, receives specific delivery-related information from Steam.

This information, which CEVA retains for up to 90 days after the order, was most likely compromised. It includes names, street addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, and the type and price of ordered products.

Valve warned its customers to expect fake messages, either via email, SMS, or phone, that might mention recent hardware orders.

“They may quote your address back to you to prove they're genuine. They may ask you to confirm a delivery, pay a small customs or redelivery fee, or sign in somewhere to “verify” your order. Treat all of them as fake,” Valve warned. The company also stressed that customer accounts are safe and that users need not do anything to secure them.

Other details are missing, not just for the general public, but for the affected CEVA clients, as well. Valve said it was “pressing” the company for the full scope of what was taken and how, and added that it is notifying the relevant authorities, as well.

A spokesperson of the Dutch data protection authority, Mark Schenkel, told TechCrunch the agency so far received 10 incident reports. Given the size of CEVA, it’s safe to assume there will be others.

Seeing the red 'limited-time deal' banner on some DDR5 RAM at Amazon should elicit some excitement given the rarity of price cuts lately. But when you click through and see the price for this 32GB Corsair Vengeance kit, you'll wonder if there's genuinely a deal here at all — and other wannabe buyers aren't wholly convinced, either.

"It's 'only' 4x the price it should be," wrote one user named Technikal on HotUKDeals, a community that shares deals from across the web and asks the community to vote whether they think they are hot or cold. "The current average is 5x," he continues, "so, in that sense it's a good deal...I guess."

A muted response, that's for sure. And while it may be true that the deal price of the RAM kit is technically one of the lowest prices available right now, it's so far from the much lower prices we saw before the RAM crisis turned buying memory for your PC into a depressing exercise.

"Blimey, just checked my receipt for mine from 2 years ago - cost £85..." says another HotUKDeals user named Jacko_1975.

In fact, even just a year ago, this very same RAM kit was available for £99.99 when it wasn't even on sale, according to price history information from Keepa.

Given that, it's no surprise that shoppers have reacted negatively to Amazon's flash deal. Unfortunately, though, it doesn't look like things are getting any better when it comes to RAM prices. A report from Samsung suggests the RAM crisis is just getting started, and it could extend to other components in the near future.

If you're looking at these deals and are trying to convince yourself to purchase any RAM in the near future, we've got a PC gaming expert delivering advice on what to do if you're considering buying memory, a GPU, or other components.

Sadly, the news is grim, and these prices could be with us for a while yet. So, yes, it may be difficult to feel happy about seeing supposed RAM deals like this, but from what I'm seeing and hearing, I don't think they're going to get any better, either.

Every five years, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) takes a snapshot of Australia through the Census. The last one was held in 2021, which means households across the country are being contacted again in 2026.

The information collected helps show how Australia's population and households are changing and is used to plan services and infrastructure, from schools and hospitals to transport and housing.

This guide answers the key questions about the 2026 Census, including when to complete it, who needs to be counted, what happens if you're late, fines, privacy and what to do if you're away from home.

The ABS also has a handy guide to doing the Census. It's a useful overview, but we've gone a little further below by answering some of the practical questions it doesn't cover.

If you're unsure how the Census rules apply to your situation, call the Census Contact Centre on 1800 181 227 for advice.

When is the 2026 Census in Australia?

Census night for the 2026 Census is Tuesday August 11 2026. Think of it as the snapshot date: questions about where you're staying and who's in your household should reflect Tuesday night.

You can complete the form earlier if you've received your instructions and already know where you'll be on August 11. If your plans are still up in the air, it's better to wait until you know where you'll be staying.

Can you complete the Census after Census night?

Census night isn't a hard submission deadline. If you haven't completed the form on Tuesday August 11, you can still submit it on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday or later.

The ABS continues collecting forms and following up with households after Census night, so if you're late, complete it as soon as you can.

Is the 2026 Census compulsory in Australia?

Yes. Completing and submitting the 2026 Census is compulsory under the Census and Statistics Act 1905. But being late doesn't automatically mean you'll be fined.

The ABS first follows up with people who haven't completed their form. If someone still doesn't respond, they may be sent a written direction formally requiring them to provide the information. Ignoring that direction can lead to prosecution and a fine.

How much is the fine for not completing the Census?

If you've received a written direction and still don't comply, you can face a fine of up to AU$364 for each day you don't comply.

You can find more detail on the ABS's penalty provisions page.

Who needs to complete the 2026 Census?

The Census is designed to count everyone who's in Australia on Census night. That includes babies and children, international students, visitors and visa holders.

That doesn't mean everyone fills out their own form. In most homes, one person completes the household form for everyone staying there that night.

What if you don't have a fixed address?

You should still be included in the Census. If you're experiencing homelessness, the ABS provides Census field staff and other support to help you take part. If you're staying with someone on Census night, you can be included on their household form.

If you're travelling around Australia without a fixed or return address, such as camping, or in a caravan or boat, you still need to be included in the Census.

You'll generally be counted where you're staying on Census night. A caravan, tent or boat can be counted as your dwelling for the night, including at a caravan park, camping ground or marina.

If you don't have a usual address, the 2026 Census form lets you record that. For the usual-address question, the ABS says to select Elsewhere in Australia, choose Enter address manually and enter None in the suburb/locality box.

How do you complete the 2026 Census?

For most households, the process starts with instructions to complete the Census online. These include a Census number and temporary password you can use to access the form.

The ABS says the average household takes about 30 minutes to complete it.

What if you haven't received or have lost your Census letter?

You can still complete the Census. If you haven't received your instructions or no longer have them, you can get a Census number online or request a paper form.

Can you use a paper Census form?

Yes. Paper forms are available to anyone who wants one. Some households will receive a paper form automatically, while others can request one if they'd rather not complete the Census online.

If you need help completing the Census, the Census website has support options, including language and accessibility support. You can also contact the Census Contact Centre on 1800 181 227.

What if there are more than six people in your household?

A paper Census form can include up to six people. If more than six people are staying at your address on Census night, you can complete the Census online or request an extra paper form.

Can you complete your Census answers privately?

Yes. If you don't want other people in your household to see your answers, you can request a separate Census form and complete your information privately. The ABS explains how this works in its 2026 Census collection notice.

Can you change your Census answers after submitting the form?

Once a Census form has been submitted, the ABS says it can't be reopened or edited.

We couldn't find specific online guidance for what happens if you complete the Census early and your plans later change, so we called the ABS media line to clarify. The advice was to contact the Census Contact Centre on 1800 181 227. They'll talk you through the options if your plans have changed or you've realised you made a significant mistake.

Separately, the ABS has processes for dealing with multiple responses. If more than one Census form is submitted for the same person, it keeps the one containing the most complete information about that person.

What if you're away from home on Census night?

If you're away from your usual home on Census night, you'll generally be counted where you actually spend the night. Your usual address can record you as temporarily away.

That can include staying with friends or family or spending the night in a hotel, hospital or aged care home. The ABS also has arrangements for people travelling overnight by plane, train or bus.

If you're temporarily overseas on Census night, you won't be counted in the Census for that night.

What if you're working on Census night?

If you're working overnight but will return to your usual home on Wednesday August 12 and won't be included on a Census form elsewhere, the ABS says you can be included on the form for your usual home.

How are FIFO workers counted in the Census?

Fly-in, fly-out (FIFO) workers who are staying at a worksite or camp on Census night should generally be counted there. For example, if you normally live in Perth but you're at a mining camp in the Pilbara, you'd be counted at the camp and listed as temporarily away from your usual address in Perth.

Why might a Census field officer visit your home?

Census field officers may visit homes to deliver letters or forms, help people complete the Census or follow up after Census night where a completed form hasn't been received.

So a knock at the door doesn't automatically mean there's a problem. In some areas, field visits are simply part of how the Census is carried out.

How can you check if a Census worker is genuine?

If someone claiming to work for the Census contacts you and you're unsure whether they're genuine, verify them through official ABS channels rather than relying on the contact details they give you. Use the official Census website or call the Census Contact Centre on 1800 181 227.

How can you tell if a Census text, email or website is genuine?

The same caution applies to texts, emails and websites. The ABS says genuine Census text messages use the sender ID CENSUS, while texts about other ABS surveys use ABSGov. The official Census website uses a .gov.au address.

If a message doesn't look right, don't use the link it contains. Go directly to the official Census website. The ABS also has online safety guidance.

What questions are on the 2026 Census?

The 2026 Census contains 66 questions covering areas such as your household, age, cultural background, education, work and income, housing, religion and people who are away on Census night.

You can see the full breakdown in the ABS's 2026 Census topics and data release plan.

What's changed in the 2026 Census?

One of the biggest changes in 2026 is the addition of questions about gender and sexual orientation. Everyone is asked about their sex as recorded at birth, while people aged 16 and over are also asked about their gender and how they describe their sexual orientation.

The ABS says the change is intended to build a clearer picture of Australia's LGBTQ+ population and help inform health and community services. If you'd prefer not to answer, both the gender and sexual orientation questions include a prefer not to answer option.

People can also report up to four ancestries in the 2026 Census.

Do you have to answer every Census question?

No. The question about religion is explicitly marked as optional on the 2026 Census form.

The gender and sexual orientation questions for people aged 16 and over also include a "prefer not to answer" option. So, while taking part in the Census itself is compulsory, that doesn't mean every question requires you to provide a particular answer.

Is your 2026 Census information private?

Yes. Census information is protected by law, and the ABS says it doesn't share identifiable information from your Census form with other government departments or direct marketing companies.

That means your individual Census answers aren't handed to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) to check your tax return or to Centrelink to check your eligibility for a payment.

You can read more in the ABS's 2026 Census Privacy Statement.

Is the Census anonymous?

No. The Census isn't anonymous because it asks for names and addresses. However, the ABS separates names and addresses from other Census information after processing.

When will the 2026 Census results be released?

The first 2026 Census results are due to be released in June 2027, with further data releases continuing into 2028.

Census data will be free to access through ABS tools including QuickStats, TableBuilder and ABS Data Maps.

Adding more fuel to the fire over which city is actually Australia’s best place to live, those residing in the all-seasons-in-a-day city of Melbourne have a new statistic on their side — and it all relates to fixed-line broadband speed.

Ookla, the company behind the hugely popular Speedtest tool that helps anyone diagnose their home internet speeds, has published its latest Global Index rankings, revealing median fixed-broadband download speeds by country and city.

As a country, Australia is slowly but surely moving up the table. There was a time we ranked as low as 86th, but we now sit at 50th, with a median fixed-broadband download speed of 162.34Mbps.

That improvement follows NBN Co’s September 2025 speed-tier shake-up, which introduced a 2Gbps wholesale option for eligible FTTP and HFC premises, alongside faster speeds on several existing higher-end tiers. Of course, not every Australian can access 2Gbps just yet — and, as we’ll see, the plan you choose is only one part of the equation.

For context, Singapore takes the crown with a median download speed of 447.75Mbps. One can only dream of a day when that becomes a reality Down Under.

Why the huge gap?

There are several reasons why Australia trails the pack so dramatically — although with 141 other countries clocking slower speeds, things could certainly be worse — and, in my mind, one of the most obvious is that many Australians are still connected to comparatively slow NBN plans.

The Australian Competition & Consumer Commission publishes a quarterly Wholesale Market Indicators Report that provides an overview of active NBN connections and their download data rates.

The most recent report, covering the March quarter of 2026 and published in July, revealed there were just over 2.665 million active 50Mbps NBN connections, out of a total of 8.839 million residential broadband services. That works out to around 30.2%.

A 50Mbps plan naturally puts a ceiling on the speed a customer can record in a Speedtest. If enough users on lower-speed tiers are represented in Ookla’s sample, that will bring the national median down.

One relatively straightforward way for Australia’s international standing to improve, then, is for more eligible households to take advantage of NBN Co’s free fibre upgrade. The program is open to millions of eligible FTTN and FTTC premises, allowing them to upgrade to FTTP if they take out an eligible high-speed service — such as one of the best NBN 500 plans.

A fixed-line civil war

Move the slider over to ‘City’ and the results become much more varied, with cities from North and South America, Asia and Europe all jostling for position. Valparaíso in Chile takes the crown with a huge 425.84Mbps, followed by Abu Dhabi with 399.92Mbps, for example.

Australian cities evidently have some work to do. Scroll down to position 64 and you hit Melbourne with a median download speed of 177.69Mbps — faster than Australia’s national median, it must be said — while Sydney trails behind in position 76 with a meagre 149.91Mbps.

A difference of 27.78Mbps might not sound like much, but Melbourne’s median result is around 18.5% faster than Sydney’s. When intercity tensions are already high, that’s a huge bragging right for the southerners.

Wait, we can (try to) explain

Nobody ever wants to be seen as the weaker of two, and while the reported figures are great news for people in Victoria, there is potentially a plethora of factors at play that pave the way for a Melbourne victory.

We’re not here to make excuses, of course, but there are plenty of unknowns.

Firstly, there could simply be a larger proportion of Melburnians connected via superior fibre-to-the-premises infrastructure. FTTP allows households to access the fastest NBN plans, including the newer multi-gigabit options where available.

While it’s not totally conclusive, there is some evidence to support this idea. That evidence is publicly available technology-mix figures, although they’re reported at a state level, rather than for Greater Melbourne and Greater Sydney specifically. Data compiled from NBN rollout information indicates Victoria has a higher share of premises using FTTP than NSW — roughly 66% versus 60% — while it also indicates there are more active connections on the inferior fibre to the node (FTTN) connection type in NSW too.

This doesn’t completely settle the argument. The figures not only include regional areas, but they also show the technology available to a property, as opposed to an active plan supplying an address.

All fixed-line connections are welcome

Furthermore, on the subject of NBN, Ookla’s Speedtest results don’t only capture NBN connections, but fixed-broadband tests from other fixed networks too, including private fibre operators. Both Melbourne and Sydney are home to several such networks, including Vocus, GigaComm and OptiComm, while Melbourne also has DGtek — a private FTTP network concentrated in the city’s CBD and inner south-east.

Exact figures for active connections on those networks are tricky to come by. But if Melbourne has a higher concentration of people connected to these kinds of high-speed private fibre services, they could be recording considerably quicker test results and helping push its city median upwards.

Not telling the complete story?

Another excuse potential explainer is the way Ookla collects its data. Whereas the ACCC’s Measuring Broadband Report — which published its final instalment in June 2026 — monitors a selected group of Australian homes across nine popular ISPs, Ookla receives data when people choose to run a Speedtest.

This doesn’t mean someone repeatedly checking their connection can single-handedly skew the data, as Ookla averages each unique user’s results into a single sample for the relevant time period and location. Still, the results are dependent on who chooses to test. Melbourne’s sample could contain a different mix of internet plans, connection technologies, devices and Wi-Fi setups than Sydney’s.

When did you last check your Wi-Fi router?

Home equipment can make a considerable difference too. A household with a Wi-Fi 5 router tucked away in a cupboard, a busy 2.4GHz network and a phone testing from the other end of the house could record a much slower result than the same connection tested over Ethernet.

On the flip side, a newer Wi-Fi 6E or Wi-Fi 7 router, a properly positioned mesh system and a compatible device can give a household a far better chance of getting close to the speeds it actually pays for. That doesn’t make the underlying internet plan any faster, of course — it simply means the home network is less likely to be the bottleneck.

If your own Speedtest result seems suspiciously low, it may be worth checking out our guide to the best mesh Wi-Fi systems to find out if your home could benefit from an upgrade.

And, trying to claw a point back for Sydney, it can be argued that people often run a speed test when their internet connection starts lagging. While Melbourne’s median tested speed is higher, that doesn’t necessarily mean every connection in the city is consistently faster or more reliable.

Strands is the NYT's latest word game after the likes of Wordle, Spelling Bee and Connections – and it's great fun. It can be difficult, though, so read on for my Strands hints.

Want more word-based fun? Then check out my NYT Connections today and Quordle today pages for hints and answers for those games, and Marc's Wordle today page for the original viral word game.

SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Strands today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.

NYT Strands today (game #891) - hint #1 - today's theme

NYT Strands today (game #891) - hint #2 - clue words

Play any of these words to unlock the in-game hints system.

• CHEEP
• HINTS
• CHIVE
• COME
• TRACE
• MANOR

NYT Strands today (game #891) - hint #3 - spangram letters

NYT Strands today (game #891) - hint #4 - spangram position

Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.

NYT Strands today (game #891) - the answers

The answers to today's Strands, game #891, are…

• TOMATO
• ZUCCHINI
• PEPPER
• MELON
• CORN
• CARROT
• SPANGRAM: SUMMERHARVEST

• My rating: Easy
• My score: Perfect

One for the veggie lovers among us.

ZUCCHINI took me a while to put together, in part because I come from a land where we call zucchini courgettes, but mainly because I can’t spell and missed the double C.

This misstep aside I sped through today’s game, finding it harder to find a decent crop of non-game words.

Yesterday's NYT Strands answers (Monday, August 10, game #890)

• DATA
• FACTS
• FIGURES
• STATISTICS
• SPECIFICS
• SPANGRAM: PROOFPOSITIVE

Quordle was one of the original Wordle alternatives and is still going strong now more than 1,500 games later. It offers a genuine challenge, though, so read on if you need some Quordle hints today — or scroll down further for the answers.

Enjoy playing word games? You can also check out my NYT Connections today and NYT Strands today pages for hints and answers for those puzzles, while Marc's Wordle today column covers the original viral word game.

SPOILER WARNING: Information about Quordle today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.

Quordle today (game #1660) — hint #1 — Vowels

* Note that by vowel we mean the five standard vowels (A, E, I, O, U), not Y (which is sometimes counted as a vowel too).

Quordle today (game #1660) — hint #2 — repeated letters

Quordle today (game #1660) — hint #3 — uncommon letters

Quordle today (game #1660) — hint #4 — starting letters (1)

If you just want to know the answers at this stage, simply scroll down. If you're not ready yet then here's one more clue to make things a lot easier:

Quordle today (game #1660) — hint #5 — starting letters (2)

Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.

Quordle today (game #1660) — the answers

The answers to today's Quordle, game #1660, are…

• ONSET
• BRAWL
• TEPID
• SLANG

Sometimes I like to look at the four Quordle words as a creative writing task and imagine a story, or the opening of a story based on them.

Most days, it’s impossible but today is a good one — an urban tale of young men who are quick with their fists but whose lack of streetwise vernacular is embarrassingly poor.

Daily Sequence today (game #1660) — the answers

The answers to today's Quordle Daily Sequence, game #1660, are…

• DONUT
• FLESH
• PLANK
• BIDDY

Quordle answers: The past 20

• Quordle #1659, Monday, 10 August: GAVEL, CRUSH, SPEED, ETHOS
• Quordle #1658, Sunday, 9 August: KAPPA, WIDEN, FOLIO, STEEP
• Quordle #1657, Saturday, 8 August: FUROR, BUGLE, REUSE, SCOOP
• Quordle #1656, Friday, 7 August: AMISS, SHIRK, SALSA, RABBI
• Quordle #1655, Thursday, 6 August: AMUSE, BRAND, CEDAR, BLURB
• Quordle #1654, Wednesday, 5 August: MOUND, WRONG, STOOD, WEIRD
• Quordle #1653, Tuesday, 4 August: GOOEY, TARDY, HUMAN, CHALK
• Quordle #1652, Monday, 3 August: FUNGI, MUDDY, DEBUT, MANIA
• Quordle #1651, Sunday, 2 August: BOOTH, EASEL, REACH, MAKER
• Quordle #1650, Saturday, 1 August: OMEGA, BIRCH, SMOCK, EERIE
• Quordle #1649, Friday, 31 July: MANIA, SINGE, STOOL, LOFTY
• Quordle #1648, Thursday, 30 July: MODAL, IDLER, CHUMP, LUMPY
• Quordle #1647, Wednesday, 29 July: GAWKY, ALLOY, AUDIT, LATCH
• Quordle #1646, Tuesday, 28 July: SMITE, ROACH, RUDDY, GLOBE
• Quordle #1645, Monday, 27 July: TAFFY, FIGHT, GUILD, WAGER
• Quordle #1644, Sunday, 26 July: STOMP, LIMIT, FUNKY, STEAD
• Quordle #1643, Saturday, 25 July: SALON, SHEEN, BURST, GOURD
• Quordle #1642, Friday, 24 July: DOLLY, EDIFY, LAGER, PRANK
• Quordle #1641, Thursday, 23 July: LADEN, EVICT, WOVEN, SHIRE
• Quordle #1640, Wednesday, 22 July: COYLY, SINGE, AWASH, AWOKE

I was fourteen or so when I went to the Gadget Show Live (once a big tech event in the UK which showed off the latest technology) in 2016 as a punter and overheard someone on a stand I'd visited mention they'd spent £1,000 on a custom gaming PC.

A thousand pounds. On a computer. I remember turning that figure over in my head (it's roughly $1,400) and not quite being able to make sense of it, not necessarily because I couldn't fathom how much money that was, but because at the time, it seemed like a lot of money to spend on a PC without any frame of reference as to what that price got you.

As it turned out, £1,000 would have bought you an upper mid-range system back then, and speccing a top-end system of the time would have added an awful lot more to my 'dream budget'. A properly specced 3XS system built around Intel's then-flagship Kaby Lake processor, the Core i7-7700K, and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080, would set you back around £1,700 including VAT.

Nvidia went one further with the venerable GTX 1080 Ti, which arrived in March 2017. It immediately became the card every serious PC gamer wanted, and pushed that high price even higher. Nonetheless, you still got an entire top-of-the-range PC for that price.

Here's what's strange about that number in 2026: it's roughly what you'd pay for a flagship graphics card alone. Nvidia's RTX 5090 should retail for roughly in line with what this entire PC cost, although the Asus ROG RTX 5090 Astral I've got for testing is over double the RRP of this PC, even taking inflation into account.

Intriguingly, the GPU that was the ceiling of consumer ambition in 2017 is now, in isolation, cheaper than a mid-range graphics card in 2026. Nvidia's GTX 1080 Ti launched at £699 / $699 (about AU$930); the RTX 5090 launched at £1,799, at least for the Founder's Edition card.

That's not a like-for-like comparison — flagship GPU pricing has always been a law unto itself — but it does tell you something about the economic difference between these two moments in PC gaming history.

Now, Scan has sent me that exact system, and I've plonked the GTX 1080 Ti Founder's Edition inside, and I've been running it alongside my own high-spec rig, with an RTX 5090 added for good measure, to see how the decade-old dream holds up.

What £1,700 bought you nearly a decade ago

Here's the entire spec sheet of the 3XS PC that Scan sent my way with the GPU swapped out:

• CPU: Intel Core i7-7700K
• Cooler: Corsair 240mm AIO
• GPU: Nvidia GTX 1080 Ti Founder's Edition
• RAM: Corsair Vengeance LED 16GB DDR4-3000
• SSD: Samsung 960 Evo 250GB SSD (supplemented with a further 1TB SSD for game storage in my case)
• Motherboard: Asus ROG Strix Z270F Gaming
• PSU: Corsair RM750x 750W White
• Case: Corsair Carbide 400C in white

On first impressions, I'm a fan of the Corsair Carbide 400C case, feeling it to be a quieter and more considered choice than a lot of the RGB-laden alternatives that were becoming increasingly common at the time. Coming in white adds a bit of style to proceedings, and it seems roomy enough for the build on offer here. The hinged door with glass window is a nice touch, too.

Inside, the Asus ROG Strix Z270F Gaming motherboard is decently feature-rich and adds a smattering of RGB in the top corner to sit alongside the white LEDs of the RAM and the stock case fan inside. The Samsung 960 Evo SSD would have been top spec at the time, but is the one component that feels particularly outdated. It's a fast, capable boot drive, but is easily filled up with a modern Windows 11 installation and a game or two. Back in 2017, you'd have definitely wanted a hard drive installed as well.

Then there's the GTX 1080 Ti Founder's Edition. Nvidia's reference cooler on the Ti was a meaningful step up from the blower-style designs of previous generations, with an open dual-fan layout that kept temperatures in check. It's a handsome card even by today's standards and feels more restrained than the AIB partner designs that surrounded it. Holding it in 2026 feels like handling something from a very specific and rather significant chapter in GPU history, given its legendary status.

The 1080 Ti has a reputation that outlasted the hardware cycle it was supposed to belong to. When Nvidia's RTX 2080 Ti arrived in 2018, it brought ray tracing and a steeper price — and offered only a slight bump in rasterisation performance that most 1080 Ti owners looked at the cost of upgrading and decided against it. Even now, folks are asking how good this card is today, which is testament to its performance - and indeed its reputation.

A modern point of reference

Of course, benchmark numbers are no good in isolation, so for comparison's sake, I'm putting the Scan system against my own personal gaming rig, with the added boost of the RTX 5090. Usually it'd be an RTX 4080 Super, but for a 'dream PC' angle, I needed to go with the modern dream. Here it is in terms of specs:

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D
• Cooler: Noctua NH-D15
• GPU: Asus ROG Astral RTX 5090
• RAM: Corsair Vengeance 32GB (2x16GB) DDR5-6000 CL36
• SSD: Lexar NM790 4TB
• Motherboard: NZXT N7 B650E
• PSU: NZXT C1200 1200W 80+ Gold ATX 3.0
• Case: NZXT H9 Flow (2023)

That isn't too bad of a PC if I do say so myself, and yes, I could use faster RAM or a beefier AMD processor if I wanted to eke out as much performance as possible, but I haven't seen fit to upgrade just yet.

Benchmarking methodology

To see how this 2017-era PC performs in the big 2026, I thought it might be fun to run it through a range of games – both ones that are contemporaries of the system and some slightly more modern titles that might push it quite hard. I've also put it through a range of modern benchmark tests to gauge performance against the newer hardware.

To Scan's credit, the machine came running the latest version of Windows 11 25H2 and Nvidia's latest driver release for GTX 10-series desktop cards, driver 582.66, which was a security update released in June 2026.

I've also elected to run games hooked up to my 4K QD-OLED monitor to see how far we can really push this Scan system, running at 1080p, 1440p and 4K to give you a full picture. The RTX 5090 system has also been put through the same tests, as close as possible, to give some comparable results and a frame of reference.

Testing 2017-era games

Firstly, I thought it was correct to run the Scan system through some games that would be period-correct for the time this PC was released to give an idea of a baseline. All four titles were run at their maximum settings, for reference.

Far Cry 5 seemed an ideal first candidate, being from 2018, and at the Ultra preset with HD textures enabled, it managed a 113fps average at 1080p. Going up to 1440p pushed things to 95fps, proving some surprisingly playable results. It was only when I got up to 4K that things dipped immensely, with a 50fps average. For reference, the RTX 5090 system hit 186fps at 4K, which tells you something about how much the goalposts have moved.

I followed this up with the original Dirt Rally, a game that relies on a strong CPU to help alongside the 1080 Ti, so the Core i7-7700K has to do a fair bit of heavy lifting. At the Ultra preset, the 1080 Ti managed 127fps at 1080p and 126fps at 1440p — results so close together that the GPU clearly isn't the bottleneck at either resolution; the 7700K is setting the ceiling, and it's holding it pretty well. At 4K, the GPU gets more of a say, and results come in at a still-reasonable 79fps.

However, this revealed one of the bigger gulfs between the older system and my more modern option. The RTX 5090 system managed 304fps at 1080p, 267fps at 1440p, and 225fps at 4K — numbers so high they serve as a reminder of how differently the two machines interpret the same game.

The original Hitman, which uses DirectX 12 at maximum settings, returned 128fps at 1080p, 106fps at 1440p, and 59.5fps at 4K. The RTX 5090 system managed 203fps at 1080p, 191fps at 1440p, and 186fps at 4K — again, the gap narrowing considerably at lower resolutions before opening up at 4K.

I'd argue Rise of the Tomb Raider is the 1080 Ti's finest hour in this period-correct lineup. Running at the Very High preset in DirectX 12, it returned 144fps at 1080p and 110fps at 1440p. These are numbers that would have felt sky-high at the time and still feel impressive today. Even at 4K, the 59.7fps result is the most modern-feeling 4K figure of the four period titles, suggesting this is a game the 1080 Ti was particularly well-matched for, and a near-60fps average provides some very playable results even today.

That is, until you get the RTX 5090 involved – it posted 316fps, 302fps, and 281fps across the three resolutions in Rise of the Tomb Raider.

Trying newer games

The older game results paint a flattering picture of the 1080 Ti. However, modern titles are much less kind, as you might expect.

My first port of call was Cyberpunk 2077, perhaps this generation's Crysis equivalent, as it can be quite a demanding title for a range of systems. For the 1080 Ti, at the Ultra preset without any upscaling, it managed 52fps at 1080p — passable, if not quite the experience the game deserves — while 1440p dropped to 32fps, and 4K delivered a deeply unimpressive 13.9fps. Enabling FSR 2.1 Quality improved things to 62fps, 41fps, and 20.5fps across the three resolutions respectively, which at least makes 1080p feel workable.

Beyond that, it's a significant compromise. Ray tracing isn't an option here at all — the 1080 Ti simply has not got the hardware for it, and that means for 2026's most demanding titles, including Indiana Jones & The Great Circle that require hardware-based ray-tracing to even run, you won't be able to play them at all.

The RTX 5090, by contrast, ran the Ultra preset at 173fps, 148fps, and 116fps natively. Plus, a more modern card supplements its raw power with Nvidia's DLSS upscaler and fully-fledged RT performance. With DLSS Transformer enabled, those numbers climbed to 183fps, 170fps, and 167fps. With a combination of Cyberpunk 2077 at its RT: Ultra preset with DLSS Transformer enabled, it managed 130fps, 129fps, and 125fps at 1080p, 1440p, and 4K respectively. The gap between these two machines in Cyberpunk 2077 is the widest in my entire test suite, and the most instructive.

This is especially true when you take the multi-frame-gen tech Nvidia has put into these new Blackwell cards, acting as a multiplier for 'fake frames' for a smoother feeling experience, as long as you're starting with a solid enough base frame rate so too much latency isn't introduced. With the RT: Ultra preset, and the MFG multiplier set to 4x, the RTX 5090 system managed 511fps at 1080p, 452fps at 1440p and 355fps at 4K, widening the gulf even further.

Returnal tells a similar story for this matchup. The Epic preset returned 57fps at 1080p, 45fps at 1440p, and 27fps at 4K — the 1080p result is playable, but Returnal's fast-paced action makes anything below 60fps feel like a handicap, and 27fps at 4K is below any reasonable threshold. The RTX 5090 managed 231fps, 207fps, and 147fps at the same resolutions. In a game built around sharp reactions and split-second timing, that headroom matters more than in most.

Moving over to Rainbow Six Extraction, I had higher hopes for a more modern eSports-type title. The default Ultra preset includes a Dynamic resolution of 25-100% of the selected one, which is how I left it, revealing 126fps at 1080p, 85fps at 1440p, and a genuinely solid 66fps at 4K. It's the most comfortable the 1080 Ti looks across this entire modern test suite, and a reminder that there are modern titles that aren't particularly demanding, which are still playable on older hardware.

Meanwhile the RTX 5090-equipped modern PC scored 461fps at 1080p, 405fps at 1440p, and 272fps at 4K, and prove the benefit of the bevvy of high refresh rate OLED screens we've begun to see in recent years when paired with such powerful hardware.

For one final test, I thought it'd be interesting to try a super up-to-date Unreal Engine 5-based title in Black Myth Wukong, as one of the few titles that doesn't need any hardware-based ray-tracing, unlike a lot of its contemporaries.

I elected to step down to the Very High preset, with FSR enabled (with a resolution scale of 33 for 4K, 49 for 1440p and 66 for 1080p) and frame-gen on. The result was 46fps at 1080p, 44fps at 1440p, and 40fps at 4K, which make for some remarkably consistent numbers across different resolutions that make it clear that frame-gen is doing some form of heavy lifting to keep the output FPS so stable. The RTX 5090 managed 120fps, 122fps, and 119fps with the same settings.

Synthetic benchmark time!

The synthetic benchmarks tell a predictable story. The 7700K holds up reasonably well in single-core workloads — the gap to the 7800X3D is meaningful but not embarrassing, and is somewhere in the region of 50% depending on which test you trust.

Multi-threaded performance is a different matter, though, where nearly a decade of core count increases and architectural progress make the comparison increasingly one-sided.

On the GPU side, the picture is more interesting. In 3DMark Fire Strike — a DirectX 11 test that's broadly representative of the conditions the 1080 Ti was designed around — the RTX 5090 leads by roughly three time. Push to Fire Strike Ultra at 4K, and that becomes nearly five times, and the Time Spy results, which move into DirectX 12 territory, tell the same story: a 4x gap at 1440p becoming 4.6x at the Extreme variant.

The 1080 Ti doesn't just lose ground to newer hardware — it loses it disproportionately as resolution and API demands increase, which is worth keeping in mind as we come to a judgement on this entire system.

Summing up

The comparisons made here make for a fascinating reminder of just how much the PC gaming landscape has changed over the past decade.

In 2017, £1,700 bought you an entire dream machine built around the best consumer graphics hardware money could buy. In 2026, that same sort of money barely gets you through the door for a flagship GPU alone. The economics are strange, but the performance gulf is telling: the RTX 5090 system is several times faster in many of the tests here, especially as resolutions rise and modern rendering technologies come into play.

However, the old Scan system isn't the write-off those numbers might suggest when you drill down. The GTX 1080 Ti and Core i7-7700K remain a remarkably capable pairing in the games they were designed around, with high-refresh-rate 1080p and 1440p gaming still very much within reach for those older titles. Even some newer titles remain playable with sensible settings, although the lack of dedicated ray-tracing hardware and modern AI-assisted upscaling means there are increasingly firm limits to what the system can do.

That perhaps says more about how well balanced the original machine was than anything else. The 1080 Ti earned its legendary reputation because it wasn't merely fast for its time, but rather remained relevant for years afterwards, and even now it can still provide a decent experience in the right games. There are still folks talking about how well it does today, which is a testament to its legacy.

Admittedly, the rest of the system has aged more unevenly, with the 16GB of DDR4 memory and tiny 250GB boot drive feeling particularly constrained in 2026, but there is still something satisfying about using a PC that once represented the absolute pinnacle of enthusiast gaming so far removed from the original situation.

The modern machine is undeniably better in almost every measurable sense. It's dramatically faster, more capable at 4K, and supported by technologies that simply didn't exist when the GTX 1080 Ti launched. Features such as DLSS, frame generation and hardware-accelerated ray tracing have changed what we expect from a high-end graphics card, while high-refresh-rate OLED displays, such as the one both systems have been hooked up to from Philips, give all that extra performance somewhere meaningful to go.

Still, there is a certain charm to the 2017 system in my book. It represents a point when a top-end gaming PC felt aspirational but not entirely unattainable — when spending £1,700 could buy the whole dream, rather than just the graphics card. The hardware may no longer be cutting-edge, but it hasn't become entirely obsolete either. If anything, testing it against a 2026 flagship proves just how exceptional the GTX 1080 Ti was, and how long a genuinely well-specced gaming PC can remain enjoyable.

The goalposts have moved enormously, but the old dream still has plenty of game left in it.

Quordle was one of the original Wordle alternatives and is still going strong now more than 1,500 games later. It offers a genuine challenge, though, so read on if you need some Quordle hints today — or scroll down further for the answers.

Enjoy playing word games? You can also check out my NYT Connections today and NYT Strands today pages for hints and answers for those puzzles, while Marc's Wordle today column covers the original viral word game.

SPOILER WARNING: Information about Quordle today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.

Quordle today (game #1658) — hint #1 — Vowels

* Note that by vowel we mean the five standard vowels (A, E, I, O, U), not Y (which is sometimes counted as a vowel too).

Quordle today (game #1658) — hint #2 — repeated letters

Quordle today (game #1658) — hint #3 — uncommon letters

Quordle today (game #1658) — hint #4 — starting letters (1)

If you just want to know the answers at this stage, simply scroll down. If you're not ready yet then here's one more clue to make things a lot easier:

Quordle today (game #1658) — hint #5 — starting letters (2)

Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.

Quordle today (game #1658) — the answers

The answers to today's Quordle, game #1658, are…

• KAPPA
• WIDEN
• FOLIO
• STEEP

I love it when the correct guess pops into your head after a period of blankness.

I got this today with my final word of FOLIO, where the key was thinking of a word that ended in I-O.

Daily Sequence today (game #1658) — the answers

The answers to today's Quordle Daily Sequence, game #1658, are…

• CHEAP
• MONTH
• BROOM
• SOLVE

Quordle answers: The past 20

• Quordle #1657, Saturday, 8 August: FUROR, BUGLE, REUSE, SCOOP
• Quordle #1656, Friday, 7 August: AMISS, SHIRK, SALSA, RABBI
• Quordle #1655, Thursday, 6 August: AMUSE, BRAND, CEDAR, BLURB
• Quordle #1654, Wednesday, 5 August: MOUND, WRONG, STOOD, WEIRD
• Quordle #1653, Tuesday, 4 August: GOOEY, TARDY, HUMAN, CHALK
• Quordle #1652, Monday, 3 August: FUNGI, MUDDY, DEBUT, MANIA
• Quordle #1651, Sunday, 2 August: BOOTH, EASEL, REACH, MAKER
• Quordle #1650, Saturday, 1 August: OMEGA, BIRCH, SMOCK, EERIE
• Quordle #1649, Friday, 31 July: MANIA, SINGE, STOOL, LOFTY
• Quordle #1648, Thursday, 30 July: MODAL, IDLER, CHUMP, LUMPY
• Quordle #1647, Wednesday, 29 July: GAWKY, ALLOY, AUDIT, LATCH
• Quordle #1646, Tuesday, 28 July: SMITE, ROACH, RUDDY, GLOBE
• Quordle #1645, Monday, 27 July: TAFFY, FIGHT, GUILD, WAGER
• Quordle #1644, Sunday, 26 July: STOMP, LIMIT, FUNKY, STEAD
• Quordle #1643, Saturday, 25 July: SALON, SHEEN, BURST, GOURD
• Quordle #1642, Friday, 24 July: DOLLY, EDIFY, LAGER, PRANK
• Quordle #1641, Thursday, 23 July: LADEN, EVICT, WOVEN, SHIRE
• Quordle #1640, Wednesday, 22 July: COYLY, SINGE, AWASH, AWOKE
• Quordle #1639, Tuesday, 21 July: TRUSS, AXIAL, SWINE, THING
• Quordle #1638, Monday, 20 July: ICING, SLICK, GAILY, RISEN

Strands is the NYT's latest word game after the likes of Wordle, Spelling Bee and Connections – and it's great fun. It can be difficult, though, so read on for my Strands hints.

Want more word-based fun? Then check out my NYT Connections today and Quordle today pages for hints and answers for those games, and Marc's Wordle today page for the original viral word game.

SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Strands today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.

NYT Strands today (game #889) - hint #1 - today's theme

NYT Strands today (game #889) - hint #2 - clue words

Play any of these words to unlock the in-game hints system.

• RANG
• WRATH
• FRIED
• RULER
• FLIRTED
• THERE

NYT Strands today (game #889) - hint #3 - spangram letters

NYT Strands today (game #889) - hint #4 - spangram position

Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.

NYT Strands today (game #889) - the answers

The answers to today's Strands, game #889, are…

• LUXURY
• EXTRAVAGANCE
• TREAT
• INDULGENCE
• FRILLS
• SPANGRAM: IMWORTHIT

• My rating: Hard
• My score: 1 hint

It was hard to ignore the two Xs on the board, so that’s where I began first — spying LUXURY and then EXTRAVAGANCE, although I did manage to start the latter with the wrong letter E, quite a drag for a 12-letter word.

After this burst I ground to a halt and busied myself with finding some interesting non-game words. A hint gave me TREAT, but I had to spend a good couple of minutes staring at these five letters before I connected them in the right order.

After all this, I think I’m going to pamper myself with a scoop of vegan ice cream.

Yesterday's NYT Strands answers (Saturday, August 8, game #888)

• TRACK
• DROP
• LOOP
• CUTBACK
• TUNNEL
• CORKSCREW
• SPANGRAM: ROLLERCOASTER

If you're of a certain age, you'll remember the frisson of excitement around the launch of Gmail back in 2004. The idea of getting 1GB of storage space completely free of charge seemed wild — and all of your messages could be got at in a simple web browser tab.

As someone who had become accustomed to deleting emails to save space, and painstakingly moving over message archives manually every time I got a computer upgrade, this sounded fantastic. So did being able to get at my emails from any device I wanted, instantly (that seems less appealing these days, somehow).

Something else Gmail has done really well down the years is act as a hub for other email accounts, letting you import and send messages from other accounts inside the Gmail interface — with all the benefits of powerful search, filtering, and spam flagging tools. Now though, most of that functionality is going away.

These are features that I've relied on for decades inside Gmail, and it's going to make my email experience much more frustrating and fragmented.

What's changing

Charting the gradual dismantling of these features inside Gmail is tricky, because the updates have largely come through emails to users and updates to support documentation — there aren't really any official blog post announcements to point to (it's not surprising Google wants to keep all of this quiet).

The most recent news is that the ability to send emails from other accounts through Gmail is going away, and will be switched off completely from January 2027. If you currently send your Outlook or Yahoo messages through Gmail, as I do, you're going to have to find another solution from the start of next year.

A couple of other features are also being killed off in January 2027 as well, though these changes are ones we've known about for a while. You'll no longer be able to import messages from other accounts via the old POP protocol — something I've relied on for years to get emails from all of my various accounts into the same place — and you won't be able to use the Gmailify feature that essentially adds a few Gmail features (like spam protection) to your third-party accounts.

As someone who primarily uses Gmail on the web, and has several email accounts feeding into it, these are significant changes — and I'm not the only one upset about them. My current setup means I can have separate emails for work, app sign-ups, newsletters, and so on, and keep them all in Gmail for searching, filtering, and labeling, and it's been a simple and reliable setup.

Now I'm going to have to go back to jumping between three or four different email apps to check everything. Different rules, different storage limits, different interfaces. It's an annoying set of changes, which Google hasn't really explained — presumably the idea is to keep users focused on Gmail, and to cut costs.

What to do next

You do have a few options for trying to cling on to Gmail as a message hub, though none of them are ideal. You can get your third-party email account to auto-forward messages to Gmail — it means you'll have them in your Gmail archive for filtering and searching, though there's no 'send as' functionality.

This might cost you too: It's a paid-for extra for Yahoo Mail for example. That's particularly galling for me, because Yahoo is one of the accounts I feed into Gmail. I rely on it for newsletters, tickets, store accounts, general admin, and the like, and now I'm not going to be able to get at any of that inside Gmail.

Another option is to set up a desktop email client on Windows or macOS, which feels very old school. Gmail still supports the IMAP standard, and so do most other modern email services: all of your email will be together in one place, but you're only going to be able to access everything in one place from whatever desktop computer you set this up on.

Lastly, you can still add third-party accounts inside the Gmail app for Android or iOS. However, while this will let you view all your emails in one unified inbox, it won't actually move anything over to Gmail — if you open up the web app, your other accounts and all the messages inside them won't be there.

It's all a bit of a sorry mess, and I'm not sure exactly what I'm going to do going forward. What's certain is that I'm not going to be able to carry on as I have been, and that Gmail is going to be a significantly less useful email hub for me in the future.

Logitech Mobi Fold review

The Logitech Mobi Fold is, without question, the weirdest mouse I have ever used in my life.

This tiny, foldable travel mouse is focused on one thing above all: portability. Just like a clamshell phone from the noughties, it can fold in half, allowing you to easily slip it into your pocket if you’re working on the go. But even though the Logitech Mobi Fold’s exceptional portability is its clear USP, I have to ask… is it actually that necessary?

After all, a lot of mice are already highly compact, and if you’re working on the go, you’ve probably got a bag to hold your laptop or tablet, right? I’d bet that your bag can fit a laptop and a mouse, so arguably, the thing that makes this mouse so special isn’t actually that game-changing.

Still, the Mobi Fold has a few interesting features to run through, and you’re surely curious as to how such a strange model feels in use. So, after using the Logitech Mobi Fold as my main mouse for a few days, here’s how I’d rate it — and whether I think it can compete with the best mice around.

First things first, the Mobi Fold is incredibly easy to get set up. There’s a sync button on it that makes linking up to a windows laptop, Mac, or Android device incredibly seamless. There’s also an easy switch feature, making it incredibly speedy to flick between a range of devices.

But after I got set up with the Mobi Fold, and started using it to get some work done I have to say… it wasn’t amazing.

The Mobi Fold exhibits a few key issues that make it feel inferior to a standard compact or productivity mouse. First of all, it has a slightly bizarre build. Its V-shape form makes it feel awkward to grip, and when using it for extended periods, this caused me to feel some discomfort in my hand. It lacks the ergonomics of my everyday mouse, the Razer Viper V3 Pro, and even lacked its fluidity, meaning moving it across my desk felt clunky.

In addition, the touch-controlled scrolling is a bit inconsistent. It doesn’t provide the same tight control of a traditional mechanical scroll wheel, and again feels a bit lacking in terms of fluidity. Don’t get me wrong: it’s totally functional, but if you want the smooth, precise scrolling of a traditional mouse, the Mobi Fold may leave you wanting more.

My final critique is on the feel of the left and right buttons. While these are serviceable, they felt more stiff than I expected them to, especially towards the back and middle of the model. I did appreciate the muted sound of clicking the left and right buttons, but I wish they felt a bit more sensitive.

Despite all of this, there are some clear positives worth pointing out. First of all, the mouse offers great battery life. It supplies about 22 hours of continuous use, which easily got me through the work week, meaning I didn’t need to charge it at all during the testing period. Having said that, Logitech says that you can get an extra three hours of use from just one minute of charging, making it exceptionally practical for someone like me who often forgets to juice up their devices.

In addition, the Mobi Fold features customizable button controls through the Logi Options+ app. This enables you to adapt pointer speed, set the central touch panel to different functions (like paste, volume controls, or a keyboard shortcut), and more.

In terms of design, I’m also a fan of the rubbery texture of the mouse, which is very pleasant to the touch. It’s also worth noting that 36% of the plastics used in the Graphite colorway of the mouse I used are made from recycled materials. It’s 29% for the Lilac and Off-White variants, which look pretty stylish in my opinion.

Look, the Logitech Mobi Fold does well to stand out from the crowd. Its lightweight and foldable design undoubtedly makes it easy to travel with — even though I’d argue that standard mice are probably portable enough as they are. In addition, the customizable buttons, long battery life, and satisfying feel of the mouse are clear positives.

But for $79.99 / £69.99 / AU$129.95, the Mobi Fold ends up feeling like a relatively poor value for money option. Really, that comes down to one thing: its lackluster performance. With underwhelming ergonomics, as well as slightly stiff scrolling and buttons, the Mobi Fold feels like an idea that’s far more impressive in concept than it is in practice.

Logitech Mobi Fold review: price & release date

• $79.99 / £69.99 / AU$129.95
• Released in June 2026
• Available in four colors

The Logitech Mobi Fold released in June 2026, carrying a list price of $79.99 / £69.99 / AU$129.95. That price means it’s competing in the same price bracket as great models we’ve tested, such as the Keychron M6 8K, but a lot more than our favorite ultra-compact mouse, the Logitech Pop Mouse. It's available in four colors, including Graphite, Off-White, Lilac, and Sand.

Logitech Mobi Fold review: specs

Should I buy the Logitech Mobi Fold?

Buy it if…

Don’t buy it if…

Logitech Mobi Fold review: also consider

How I tested the Logitech Mobi Fold

• Spent days using it as my main mouse
• Tried out its various features
• Took on the go to test its travel credentials

I spent multiple days testing the Logitech Mobi Fold, using it as my main mouse in the office and when working from home.

During my time with the Mobi Fold, I used it for general productivity, exhausted its various features, and even took it on the go to assess its on-the-go credentials. I typically had the mouse connected to my Windows PC, but I also tried it out with an Android phone.

More generally, I’ve spent years testing gadgets here at TechRadar, where I serve as an in-house Senior Reviews Writer. I’ve tried out a wide array of computing accessories, such as the Turtle Beach Command Series KB7 keyboard, as well as gaming gear, premium wireless headphones, power banks, and more.

• Read TechRadar’s reviews guarantee
• First reviewed: August 2026

It appears that the RAM crisis is getting worse than ever as we head further into 2026. I've been closely watching and reporting on memory price hikes — which were soon followed by other PC component cost increases — since this crisis first began, and the worrying thing is, I can't recall a gloomier stream of negative news than I've witnessed over the past few weeks.

That includes Samsung recently declaring that the RAM crisis is going to become more severe in 2027, and rumors that even mighty Apple is floundering in its attempt to secure new RAM supplies from China (as other notebook makers consider this alternative route to the three main memory chip giants: Micron, Samsung and SK Hynix).

Previous to that, we saw laptop maker Framework break news of a truly eye-opening cost increase for mobile RAM, just as one gauge of DDR5 pricing saw it jump in price to a new all-time high (after plateauing earlier this year). On top of that, the boss of SK Hynix voiced the opinion that 2027 will be the worst year in the RAM industry's history, and that the crisis is likely to be drawn out to the next decade.

This isn't just about RAM, of course, but other components, including CPU price rises, and devices themselves — PCs and laptops (and phones). But most notably over the past month it's been graphics cards in the crisis limelight. We've witnessed the resurrection of old GPUs to try to bolster stock levels of more affordable cards, and more recently we've been subjected to what seems like an endless parade of negativity about imminent price hikes.

Apparently, Gigabyte is set to increase the price tags of its graphics card to the tune of 20% to 40% in Japan, and MSI is going to jack up prices of Nvidia GPUs in China by 20% or more. Asus is supposedly preparing a similar 20% hike (as Wccftech reported).

Another recent gloom nugget is the assertion that Nvidia RTX 5000 models will get hikes of 30% in South Korea this month, and all of this pain is mainly rooted in the increased price of video RAM, of course. (Those cost increases are the reason the RTX 5000 Super refreshes have been delayed, according to the grapevine, as those rumored cards are packed with VRAM).

While a good deal of this is individual pieces of regional activity with GPU pricing, it's obvious that these hikes are happening as part of a concerted shift, one that will surely be reflected globally — it's not like Asian markets are in a bubble of their own.

The overarching theme is a worsening of price hike misery, and that the pricing storm is likely to intensify this year, and probably in 2027, too. While previously the RAM crisis has been more of a light-and-shade affair, now it feels like the depression has been turned up a notch. Whereas before, there was certainly more darkness than light, we've had notable spots of relief where an exec in the memory industry stepped forward and theorized that maybe things aren't as bad as we think. But lately those embers of optimism appear to have burned out.

To me, it feels like there's a shift underway towards a full acknowledgement that we really are going to experience a lot more pricing pain in the foreseeable future. If it's so bad that even Apple is purportedly scrambling to secure RAM supplies, and is having trouble doing so, I think it's time to turn up the worry meter by a notch or two.

What should you do?

Here's my advice on the current landscape with PC components and hardware (season it appropriately). Obviously, worrying isn't going to help you, but awareness of what might be sensible upgrades or purchases to make now will, based on the likelihood of hikes (we could call it the 'hike-lihood' – or maybe not). Nothing is certain about the future of components, of course, but it does feel like there's a clear area in which the potential price hikes are a bigger threat: GPUs.

As I discussed above, there's a lot of recent evidence that graphics card pricing is going up. Yes, it's a collection of rumors in the main, but there's a lot of it all pointing in a very similar direction — and a video RAM toll was always going to be exacted in the end. We've seen it already with higher-end graphics cards, and now I believe we're going to see it in the mid-range, and even budget models. Indeed, top-end GPUs are likely to get even more expensive as well.

If you're thinking about a GPU upgrade for this year or next, given all this, I think now really is the time to buy — especially with a lower-tier model, as you can still get more affordable graphics cards at their MSRP. Ditto for mid-rangers, although it's tougher to recommend higher-end Nvidia boards when they are already so expensive.

As noted, though, that could get worse. And granted, you may still want to wait for Black Friday — it's not that far off, and there might be some GPU deals then. However, I wouldn't bank on anything hugely compelling (or discounts that aren't offset by the price rises which are predicted to take hold in the next few months).

So, if there's one PC component that I think you should buy now, it's a graphics card. I think the signs are pretty clear on that (and see here for my recommendations on different models to consider). By extension, higher-end gaming laptops could also be a wise move for purchasing sooner rather than later. That's for the same reason, really — they have beefy (mobile) GPUs (with plenty of VRAM in some cases).

I don't think it's a bad move to buy any laptop, by the way, gaming or not (away from the higher-end), come your earliest window of opportunity. I think we'll see further price rises here, too, and RAM is going to cause more upward pricing pressures for notebooks — just look at Framework's recent revelation as mentioned.

What about RAM and SSDs themselves? While system memory kits and storage have already seen huge price rises, it now looks like there's worse to come (somehow).

On the other hand, there's a ceiling as to how expensive this stuff can get before buyers withdraw from what they see as an increasingly unrealistic and out-of-touch market. This is a much more difficult call to make, but if you can find something that looks relatively reasonably priced, I don't think you'll regret the purchase in the next couple of years. But that said, I can't recommend a RAM upgrade in particular at current pricing levels, unless it's unavoidable, frankly.

Above all, though, consider a GPU upgrade if you're in the market for a new card, or you think you'll need one in the next couple of years (yes, I think it's wise to be looking quite far down the road here).

The other thing to bear in mind is that there's a danger there will be a rush for GPUs, a flurry of buying that puts further strain on supply and therefore prices. As VideoCardz reports, one Japanese retailer has warned of Nvidia RTX 5000 graphics card sales increasing "sharply", even just with the news of rumored price increases — let alone the confirmation. Prices are already rising and restocks of the RTX 5070 Ti and RTX 5080 are already being labelled as "unstable", hinting that inventory could start to dry up quickly.

That's just one report, of course, and it pertains to the high-end of the market, so it's not something to start panicking about yet. But it does make some sense that if pricing begins to creep up, more PC owners may start to act on GPU upgrades. I wouldn't blame them, frankly.