• Scientists have developed solar panels that can work up to 10 meters underwater
• The panels can capture up to 324 mWh of energy at that depth
• Each device is expected to last up to five and a half years at a time

A lot of devices are deployed underwater for research and exploration purposes, but powering them all can prove to be difficult, especially if they’re under the waves for a considerable period of time. A new scientific paper, however, has shown that solar panels can be successfully used at depths of up to 10 meters, potentially presenting a new way to keep underwater tech powered up and ready for action.

The paper was published in the Joule periodical and accompanied by a press release explaining its advances. The research was conducted by a team of scientists from Yunnan University in China, who said that a series of solar cells placed 32 feet (10 meters) below the water’s surface in the South China Sea were able to collect enough energy to power up a set of lithium-ion batteries in two hours.

The cells were made from lead halide perovskite with a polymer called polyhexamethylene guanidine hydrochloride added into the mix. This additive helped to enhance the effectiveness of the panels.

According to Wen-Hua Zhang of Yunnan University, “Very few studies have been reported on underwater solar cells, and all of them are focused on very shallow water depths of only two meters or less, a scenario far from catering for requirements of practical application.”

“This work presents the first functional validation of submerged solar cells practically operating at a water depth of up to about 10 meters, greatly broadening their application scope,” Zhang added. The researchers stated that each cell could be deployed for around five and a half years at a time.

The panels captured 1,416 milliwatt-hours (mWh) of electricity at a depth of two meters. This decreased to 752 mWh at six meters and 324 mWh at ten meters. During separate lab testing, the solar panels had a power conversion efficiency of just under 35%.

Paving the way

The idea behind this research is that underwater solar panels could be used to power devices such as sensors, cameras, communications systems, and more.

Many of these objects are stationary for much of the time, so nearby solar cells could help keep them topped up and working without necessarily requiring extensive human intervention.

One question that remains unanswered is how exactly solar panels like this would interact with their environment. For example, it’s likely that they would accumulate biomatter that could hinder their operation, potentially requiring regular cleaning in order to remain fully functional. After all, the sunlight that will power these cells could also promote the growth of plants and animals — a process known as biofouling.

Still, the research seems to have potential. As the authors noted, “This work paves the way for the practical deployment of perovskite photovoltaics in underwater environments, offering a promising route toward self-sustained marine energy systems and autonomous underwater devices.”

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 Fitness & Home Tech categories.

These include smartwatches, fitness trackers, smart gym equipment, air fryers, smart lighting and home security. 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
• TV & Audio

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!

As TechRadar’s coffee expert and custodian of our guide to the best coffee machines in Australia, you can rest assured I make it my mission to trial as many espresso machines as possible. One brand that has, so far, eluded me, however, is Jura.

Judging by our Jura J10 and Jura Z10 reviews, that’s clearly a shame, as the Swiss brand is an expert in all things automatic coffee machines. And that’s exactly why a massive 57% discount on the Jura S8 at The Good Guys piqued my curiosity and made me do a double take.

Plummeting from AU$3,690 to AU$1,589, this is a prime opportunity to snap up an uber-premium bean-to-cup machine to take pride of place in your kitchen for years to come.

While I do enjoy getting hands on with a coffee machine — I’m a huge fan of the KitchenAid Semi-Automatic, for example — in my mind an automatic model is ideal. I can press a couple of buttons, pull up a saved recipe and have my coffee brewing whilst attending to other tasks.

The Jura S8 therefore looks like it could be my new best friend for a number of reasons. Firstly, Jura has been making automatic coffee machines for around 40 years, so it arguably has the expertise to understand what makes a decent cuppa.

That experience extends to proprietary technologies, including its P.A.G.2 grinder with its seven selectable grind levels, an eighth-generation 3D brewing unit that passes water through coffee on multiple levels for a more even extraction and the use of the Pulse Extraction Process (P.E.P.) that pushes water through the puck in pulses rather than one uninterrupted flow, to optimise extraction time.

The 27 drinks can be customised to a great extent too, with 10 strength settings, programmable water and milk quantities and three brewing-temperature settings. And, as mentioned earlier, the S8 can produce Sweet Foam — milk foamed with flavoured syrup during preparation. My colleague Cat Ellis has said the results are “delicious” in her Jura J10 review. Plus, the large 4.3-inch touchscreen looks glorious in pictures.

On paper then, the Jura S8 looks to be the perfect coffee machine for me. Not only does it promise top-tier performance, but I also think it’s a bit of a looker compared to many other machines that are more akin to black boxes.

This huge AU$2,101 saving at The Good Guys lists an end date of September 30, so while you do have a little bit of time to take advantage, it could transpire that stock could run out before then!

Want more suggestions?

If spending over AU$1,500 on an automatic coffee machine is too much for your budget, fret not, as there plenty of excellent models available for less. And, in some cases, you can actually find a machine that offers even more features than the Jura, for less money. Here are some other top-rated alternatives.

It’s that time of year again when we’re not always sure whether to leave the house dressed for summer or winter. And while this transitional phase can be a nightmare for wardrobe choices, it means that summer is right around the corner, so it’s time to start thinking about how you’ll stay cool at home and beat the heat.

And let’s not forget that this is an El Niño year, so spring and summer will be drier than usual and potentially hotter, with a higher probability of bushfires. So, along with the heat, we’ll also need to contend with the smoke and ash in the air, which could cause respiratory disorders.

Long story short, it’s time to invest in a good purifying fan to see us through the coming months here in Australia.

Fortunately, Amazon understands this and has slashed up to AU$300 on some of Dyson’s powerful, bladeless fans to help keep you and the family cool when the temperature rises. I’ve highlighted three of my favourites below, all of which will not just purify the air you breathe at home and keep you cool, but will keep you toasty in the colder months. That’s good value for a gadget you can use year-round. If Dyson doesn’t tickle your fancy, I’ve also listed some highly recommended alternatives from the likes of Vornado and Shark.

Want more suggestions?

It’s not just Dyson that makes powerful and effective fans for cooling your home. I’ve picked out some other models below that many of the TechRadar team and I use ourselves.

• Vornado 560 Medium Air Circulator: AU$199 AU$169
• Vornado 660 Large Air Circulator: AU$279 AU$195
• Shark FlexBreeze Pro Mist Cordless Indoor and Outdoor Fan: AU$499 AU$349
• Dreo TurboPoly Fan 512: AU$139.99
• Gaiatop Portable Handheld Mini Fan: AU$26.99 AU$23.99

Krapof Auto Clean Self Empty Slim Vac review

The first I heard of Kleva Range was earlier this year, when a colleague mentioned it has a heck of a lot of home appliances and kitchenware in its catalogue. As a floorcare expert, the Krapof Auto Clean Self Empty Slim Power Vac caught my attention, especially since it listed an industry-leading spec — a whopping 450AW of suction, which beats out Samsung Bespoke Jet AI Ultra with its 400AW. Other powerful cordless stick vacuums I've tested are the Dreame Z50 Station with 330AW of suction, while the Dyson V16 Piston Animal has 315AW.

With the Krapof (surely that's a tongue-and-cheek take on a name?), it's not the suction that stands out, but how compact and lightweight it actually is. The vacuum weighs 2.3kg with the floorhead attached, while the self-cleaning docking station adds just another 5kg. That's a very lightweight package. It's also very compact, with the appliance taking up an area of just 25.5cm x 21.7cm — about the same footprint as Samsung's Clean Station but smaller than Dreame's Z-series auto-emptying docks or some free-standing docks like Dyson's.

While the Krapof Slim Vac (as I shall call it from here on in) is quite short, even for short people like me (I stand just five-feet tall), thankfully the wand is telescopic and should suit most people.

Otherwise it's not all that different from so many other self-emptying stick vacuums on the market. However, unlike many of them, the dock has options for you to set auto self-emptying when the stick vac is placed back for charging or trigger it manually, although the former didn't always work during my testing, requiring me to press the Start/Stop button on top of the dock.

You can, however, empty it manually as well as directly into a bin if you wish, which could save you cash in the long run on buying replacement dust bags — just keep the self-emptying function in the dock turned off and press a button on the lower part of the dust canister in the handheld unit to lower the trapdoor.

You can also clean out the inside by twisting the top to remove and access the filter. Dismantling fully isn't the easiest task, though, but it at least means you can maintain the vacuum well to increase its lifespan and keep it in tiptop condition.

One thing to note about the stick vacuum while it's docked and charging is that the top display will be upside down when you stand before the appliance, but it's fine when you take off the dock to use. So if you see the percentage sign of the battery indicator before a number like 85, assume it means it's a 58%.

What I do appreciate about the self-emptying charging station is that it has dedicated space to store the two extra attachments that ship with the vacuum (a crevice tool and a brush) — they just clamp onto two stumps on the side of the dock's base.

The Krapof Slim Power Vac has three suction settings, which can be accessed by pressing the +/- icon on the touchscreen when needed, but in its default Auto settings, dynamic suction sets in and the power increases or decreases depending on how much dirt the vacuum senses. The change in suction in denoted by the colour of the Krapof logo on the front of the handheld unit, going from green to blue to red as you shift from lowest to highest power settings.

Interestingly, despite claiming to have a whopping 450AW of suction, the Krapof Slim Power Vac is not very loud and, to be honest, it doesn't even perform as well as the 400AW Samsung Bespoke Jet AI Ultra or the 280AW Dyson Gen5detect. I suspect a lot of that has to do with the overall design of the stick vacuum, which also means its disappointing performance is down to a floorhead that tends to scatter visible particles, even those as small as chia seeds.

So while it's perfectly good for invisible dust, other household spills like cereal (even small bits of oats), tea leaves, grains of rice or other dry spills get pushed around by the edges of the floorhead (as you can see from the video below). That means you're cleaning parts of the floor you've probably already vacuumed, doubling your work and making cleaning more of a chore than it really ought to be.

The scattering happens on both hard floors and carpets, so it's really not dependent on floor type and definitely got to do with the design. Furthermore, the floorhead's best suction is the forward motion, which is disappointing given its price tag and the fact that other models that cost about the same can suck equally well when moving front or back.

The floorhead has headlights built in, but they're not very bright and, in a well-lit room, aren't useful at all. Even under furniture, I didn't think the lights helped illuminate dust but highlighted long-forgotten lost items under furniture.

Another disappointing aspect of the main floorhead is the amount of hair and fur that gets entangled in the bristles. So if you have pets, I definitely wouldn't recommend it. That said, if you exclusively have just hard floors, a separate roller is included in the box that can be used in the floorhead to avoid bristle damage if your wood floors are sensitive, and this minimises the entanglements, but you will need to clean out the brush if you use the main floorhead as your primary cleaning tool.

This also means that your regular maintenance of the appliances increases as performance will be affected if you don't keep the floorhead free of human hair and pet fur.

As disappointing as I may have found the scattering of dirt and the hair tangles, battery life at least is quite standard here. Depending on how often dynamic suction gets triggered, you can eke out about 35 minutes of vacuuming on the default Auto mode, but if it's just daily dust, you can get a more with the LED floorhead attached.

This matches Kleva's claims of getting up to 30 minutes on the 'standard' setting, but switch to the non-motorised attachments and you'll get up to 80 minutes on the lowest Eco power setting.

Decent battery life, however, does not make up for the fact that this vacuum cleaner, while fine for some basic tasks, will struggle and make you work harder rather than easing the task of cleaning your floors. At the end of the day, I found it to be a frustrating experience overall and, for its price, find it hard to recommend over options like the Samsung Jet 95S or the Shark PowerDetect Clean & Empty if you really want a self-emptying option. In fact, I would even recommend a discounted Dyson V8 Cyclone and the additional purchase of the Auto-empty Dok. Despite lower suction, any of these three will offer a much smoother experience.

What surprises me even more is the number of glowing user reviews online, but the vast majority on Product Review seem to be incentivised ones, so please don't fall for the hype.

Krapof Auto Clean Self Empty Slim Vac review: price & availability

• Only available directly from Kleva Range
• List price of AU$899 but usually discounted to around AU$649

For a stick vacuum that claims to offer industry-leading suction and a self-empty function, the Krapof Slim Power Vac is well priced even at its RRP of AU$899. However, it's only directly sold via the Kleva Range website and is typically available with a discount that saves you AU$250.

However, given its design flaws that affect the overall user experience, even the discounted price of AU$649 is a bitter pill to swallow as you can opt for a lower-specced and more reliable vacuum for about the same price or lower.

Take, for example, the Dyson V8 Cyclone which, with its 150AW of suction feels overpriced at AU$649 and no self-emptying. However, it regularly drops to around the AU$450 mark, then add on the cost of purchasing Dyson's Auto-empty Dok for about AU$250 and you'll get just as good a clean with a much easier vacuuming experience for AU$700.

Shark has a lot of options too, all of which have lower suction than what the Krapof lists in its spec sheet, yet do a better job. In fact, the Shark PowerDetect Clean & Empty can be had for around the AU$650 often on Amazon, giving you a self-emptying charging dock that doesn't even need replacement dust bags.

If I had to score the Krapof on value alone, it'd be a rather low number.

Krapof Auto Clean Self Empty Slim Vac review: specs

Should I buy the Krapof Auto Clean Self Empty Slim Vac?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

Krapof Auto Clean Self Empty Slim Vac review: alternatives

How I tested the Krapof Auto Clean Self Empty Slim Vac

The Krapof Auto Clean Self Empty Slim Power Vac was tested in TechRadar's Sydney office which has large open spaces of hard floors and low-pile carpet. While regular dust suction was tested every two days on hard floors where particles are more visible then on darker carpet, I also used mixtures of various pantry staples to emulate different particle sizes. Tea from a bag is fine dust, while chia seeds are small. Along with them, I added in quick-cook oats which are smaller than regular rolled oats, plus pieces of freeze-dried raspberries.

One of my colleagues also kindly brought in fur from her two dogs for me to test this vacuum for pet households, which I scattered on both the hard floor and on the low-pile carpet in the office.

Battery tests were conducted with the main motorised floorhead with dynamic suction and without by leaving the machine running in one spot. The latter was also done using the crevice tool attached to the handheld unit.

[First reviewed September 2026]

Cosori may be better know for making some of the best air fryers we've tested over the years here at TechRadar, but now its engineers have taken on a new challenge: pour-over coffee. Getting a perfectly-extracted pour-over coffee calls for just as much skill and care as espresso, and the new Cosori Juni aims to replicate that technique mechanically with a system that mimics the movements of a trained barista within the brewer.

Unlike most drip coffee makers, which shower water over the basket of ground coffee in an attempt to achieve an even extraction, the Juni uses a rotating basket and an extendable nozzle to recreate the movement and speed of a barista wielding a goose-neck kettle.

According to Cosori, this mechanical process creates a 360-degree spiral flow that evenly saturates the coffee grounds while avoiding creating channels that would cause uneven extraction. Better yet, the process is consistent and repeatable, so once you've found the ideal brew settings for your preferred beans, you can be sure you'll get exactly the same flavor profile every time.

"The physics weren't the difficult part," says Pierce Barnard, Head of Product Innovation at Cosori. "The real work was understanding the human element: spending 18 months studying and mapping how skilled baristas move across the coffee bed and translating that motion into a system that can deliver the same result, every single morning."

The Cosori Juni can handle as much or as little of the brewing process as you like, whether you want to keep things simple of refine the brewing technique and temperature to suit your chosen coffee. The Juni can even use AI to help you pick the optimal settings, and warn you if you've not picked the ideal brewing profile. Just scan your bag of coffee beans, and the machine will generate a brewing profile based on the bean type and your chosen cup-size, then invite you to tinker with factors like agitation, temperature flow rate, and pause time.

It's not yet clear whether the Juni will only be able to scan a particular brand of coffee, as is the case with the Lavazza Assoluta espresso machine I tested earlier this year, which can only adapt its brew settings to Lavazza's own beans.

Alternatively, manual mode lets you take control yourself, though if you want a little guidance then the machine's AI can still warn you if any of the settings you've picked are likely to result in an under- or over-extracted drink. For simplicity, there are also one-touch presets for different coffees and roasts.

If you don't like the idea of such tinkering first thing in the morning, don't worry. Like most of the best drip coffee makers I've tested, the Juni has a timer, but Cosori has gone one step further by letting you set different times for each day of the week, and even allows you to set a reminder to prepare the machine the night before.

Despite its complexity, the Cosori Juni costs a reasonable $299.99 (about £220 / AU$430), which is significantly less than the similarly technical Fellow Aiden Precision Coffee Maker, which has a list price of $365 / £365 (about AU$580). I'm hoping to put it to the test soon, to see how the two advanced brewers compare.

• The iRobot Roomba Duo is a robot vacuum concept
• One chunky, powerful mopping and vacuuming robot...
• ... with a regular, small robovac docked in its hat, for detail work

When it comes to robot vacuums, size matters. Robovac makers need their bots to be powerful, but also small enough to get into tight spots. The two things are often incompatible.

iRobot has come up with an imaginative solution. The iRobot Roomba Duo is a two-in-one bot in the truest sense. In its full form, it's a big, chunky floor cleaner, with a bulky body is large enough to contain everything you need for serious cleaning oomph. Then, in the upper part hides a regular robot vacuum that's compact enough to take care of detail work.

I spoke to Adam Pope, Chief Engineer & Vice President of Product Planning & Development at iRobot, to get some more insight into the unusual creation.

"The large base robot is really for heavy-duty cleaning," he tells me. "It's big enough to be able to have lots of water inside, and it can also have stronger vacuum. It's designed for heavy-duty cleaning and more open spaces and high-traffic areas in your home. You get that heavy-duty clean that you might use a stick vac or a wet-dry vac on today."

He explains that on top of all that, the base also deploys the companion bot — which is similar to the Roomba Plus 575 robot. That smaller robovac will clean under furniture, around chair legs, in corners and essentially "all those other spaces that the larger robot can't get to".

"They work together," he adds. "They each have their own job, and they kind of split the job up and go do those activities."

I saw a demo of the iRobot Roomba Duo in action at IFA 2026. The dock was lifted off the top of its cleaner base — like someone taking their hat off — and lowered gently to the ground, where the smaller robot vacuum exited. This then went on to successfully complete an obstacle course that looked far too tight for it to navigate, before returning to its hutch, to be lifted back to its charging home on top of the base bot.

Unfortunately, for those who like the sound of this, the iRobot Duo isn't going on sale quite yet. "It's a cool little innovation concept we're just showing here at IFA to see how the market reacts to it and if there's interest in that type of product," Pope tells me.

I suggest it's quite difficult to stand out in the robot vacuum market these days, given the speed at which brands are releasing new models. "There's a lot of spec war in that category," he responds. "Not as much innovation as we'd like to see. So this was our way of trying to get something different, something new. But it still does the job — the job that customers actually need."

• John Ternus: 'I started the day with the idea of a personal hub'
• This, during Apple's famous 'one more thing' moment, to close its event
• And yet, no HomePod mini 2 — which feels like an oversight

Whether you followed our Apple event coverage or simply streamed the event itself (and referred back to us later for a rundown of what you saw) you'll know that alongside a cracking duo of AirPods 5 new releases and of course our first folding iPhone, Apple's John Ternus seemed to continually tease the idea of a "personal hub" to act as the remote for your life.

At one point during the event, before announcing those ice-white buds, Mr. Ternus also stood in front of a spherical array of speakers (imagine standing right in the center and streaming a bit of Rage Against the Machine…), so I felt sure Apple's "one more thing" moment would be the much-rumored, hotly anticipated HomePod mini 2, which we've been waiting on (and writing about) for quite some time now.

Most of us agreed that Apple's delay in releasing its second-generation HomePod mini would be intrinsically tied to everyone at Apple Park waiting, with bated breath, for the company's overhauled, AI-powered Siri assistant to be fully finished and worthy of some new products.

And it seems that those planets have started to align, with the iPhone Duo, Apple Watch and more all boasting Apple's new Audio Intelligence tech and even Siri Recap (a combination that can now translate things said around you). So surely it was full steam ahead, and this was it?

No HomePod mini 2, no party

And so I sat there, waiting for the "Behold, Apple's new and improved softball-sized wireless speaker (now in colors fit to grace any softball pitch), the HomePod mini 2! What's new? The chipset, the improved chattiness and the snappier responses".

And then, Ternus' people would wax lyrical about the fact that even six years after the original launched, the 2020 pricing of the new HomePod mini 2 had been put on lockdown (see what I did there?), so the price rise from $99 / £99 / AU$129 to $129 / £129 / AU$199 that was enacted in late June of this year would be reversed — just like the better-value AirPods 5. These, after all, just arrived with wireless charging, ANC and volume-swipe stems for $149 / £149, less than the $179 / £179 of the previous version!

But no.

What else might Apple have unveiled in its compact, Siri-powered "hub" speaker no-show? Oh, maybe an upgraded S9 chip, to replace the original HomePod mini's S5 chipset. Then perhaps deeper integration with Apple Intelligence for a chattier, more context-aware Siri that actually could become a voice to talk to, about music (music commands are all I use Siri for, when I use it at all).

How about stronger Wi-Fi or 2nd-gen Ultra-Wideband (UWB 2) for improved Handoff — something Apple did note at the event?

It seems that what Ternus said after his opening "I started the day with the idea of an intelligent personal hub" bit was most important. What was the end of the sentence? It was " …and why there's no product in the world better-designed to be that hub than iPhone". Ah. There's the rub. Folding phones.

I understand Apple's desire to get a foldable out there, but I have to disagree. A speaking speaker hub that plays music as well as the HomePod mini can, and is able to simply accept your iPhone-and-AirPods audio in one smooth audio handoff as you step in the door? That would be a hub that made your home a better place to be.

And if we look at the definition of the word — a hub is the central component of something — isn't home where the heart is for many of us? So wouldn't a HomePod mini 2 be a great intelligent personal hub, Mr. Ternus?