• Microsoft has hiked the cost of a Windows 11 license for PC makers
• A new report claims that the annual price increase is 'significantly' more this year
• That's really not going to help the PC market, coming on top of all the pain with hardware price rises that we're already experiencing

PC prices are already facing various unfortunate pressures — thanks to the RAM crisis, and other increased component costs aside from memory –— but it appears that Microsoft is throwing fuel on the fire with hikes on the software side.

Wccftech spotted a report from Economic Daily News (EDN), a Taiwanese site, claiming that Microsoft has increased the price it charges PC makers for a Windows 11 license. Apparently the cost of installing Windows 11 on a pre-built desktop PC or a laptop has gone up by 7% to 10% as of last month.

Of course, bear in mind this is just a rumor (and the article is translated, so we need to be careful about any potentially lost meaning), but it's an alarming sounding prospect.

Microsoft puts up the price of a Windows 11 license every year, so this isn't new or unexpected, but normally Microsoft applies a single-digit increase, and this year the price hike has reportedly been a good deal more, possibly tipping into double-digits (10%). The (translated) article calls this a "significant increase" compared to past years, and the information comes from an executive at an (unnamed) PC maker.

Seemingly current product prices already reflect Microsoft's extra charge, with the bigger rises in fees having been given to PCs with faster processors, we're told.

EDN observes that the prices of PCs are expected to rise by 5% in the third quarter of 2026, at least for Acer and Asus systems in the Taiwanese market. Other regions and vendors may, of course, vary, but all OEMs (PC makers) must pay Microsoft for a Windows 11 license (if using the OS, of course).

Analysis: software salt

As noted, these cost increases are supposedly already priced into hardware on the shelves, and EDN observes that neither consumers nor businesses have really batted an eyelid.

That's mainly because the hardware-based pricing misery — for more expensive RAM, SSDs, GPUs (increasingly of late) and other components — is driving the nastier price rises, and the Windows 11 increase is relatively small fry in comparison. So, this software hike has purportedly flown under the radar, effectively eclipsed by the hardware pain.

If this report is true, and Microsoft has indeed put prices up a good deal more than normal, that's a distinctly unhelpful move. On the hardware side of the equation, we know prices to manufacture goods are going up — and that cost increases will inevitably be passed on to the end buyer. That's just business, but there's no obvious reason why software costs should be hiked more than normal, other than what the cynical might suggest appears to be opportunism from Microsoft (and maybe the growing cost of the AI side of the company).

This is effectively rubbing software salt into hardware wounds, and the PC market could really do without it. Although speaking of salt, all of this depends on whether this rumor is on the money, and I think it's worth remaining somewhat skeptical in that regard, albeit that EDN has proved a reliable source in the past.

• Windows 11's Weather app uses a surprising amount of RAM
• It consumes over 1GB at times — and worse still, pushes adverts
• This is a lot of what's wrong with Windows 11 in a nutshell

If you want a neatly crystallized summary of some of the key remaining failings of Windows 11 — pain points Microsoft has yet to fix in its campaign to right the wrongs of the OS — you only need to look at the Weather app.

This is one of Microsoft's default apps with Windows 11, and as Windows Latest pointed out, the RAM that this software eats up is mind-boggling, frankly.

The tech site observed that the Weather app somehow used over 1.2GB of system memory, and that this isn't far off five times as much as the native Weather app on macOS (which uses something like 250MB of RAM).

On my Windows 11 machine I didn't see quite that level of resource usage, but the Weather app did consume around a peak of 1GB at times (although that did drop as low as 800MB, and that was the level I saw it running at in the main). That's still a lot of memory, though, and it's clear the app has a heavy system footprint.

On top of that, there's an additional downside here, which is that you get adverts displayed alongside your forecasts and weather details (in panels at the side). These are full-on adverts, too, for the likes of shoes or medical insurance, not just Microsoft's nudges to use its products like OneDrive or similar.

As Windows Latest observes, this is because this app is actually the MSN Weather app, with the adverts being pulled over from the MSN network.

Analysis: a shower of adverts

Granted, the app provides a lot of weather information, and it's pretty comprehensive — but at what cost? What should be a lightweight and streamlined app consumes an improbable amount of RAM. Why is that? Well, it's due to Weather being a web app, one that, when you peek behind the hood, is running eight separate Chromium processes.

That's a clunky way of working, and the high level of resource usage this causes is particularly unwelcome in the current climate of the RAM crisis, where 8GB laptops are being brought back to try and keep costs down as manufacturers struggle to keep a lid on prices.

Okay, so Microsoft is looking at performance improvements across the board for Windows 11, and it's specifically aiming to address the issue of the memory footprint for 8GB PCs. And hopefully the Weather app will get some attention as part of that streamlining, and sooner rather than later.

For now, though, even if you don't use Weather, it remains a clear reminder of what's wrong with some parts of Windows 11 in terms of unnecessary bloat, both in the way the app is programmed, and the addition of those adverts (which doubtless don't help performance, either). These ads are present in Windows 10's Weather app, too, in case you were wondering, and it's surely a simple enough job — and an easy win — for Microsoft to at least ditch these.

As you might imagine, there have been a fair few potshots fired at Microsoft over this on social media, and one Redditor echoes something I've said myself in the past: "It's honestly ridiculous that we pay for a premium operating system and still get served ads inside basic native apps like Weather."

This is a key point for me. You can either have a free operating system that pays for itself via promotional bits and pieces — you can't really argue with that if you've forked out nothing for the privilege of running an OS — or you have a paid one that has no promotions.

Microsoft has promised to chill on the upselling in Windows 11, and it looks like the Weather app would be a good place to revisit with that in mind.

• Microsoft is eating humble pie over its unrealistic RAM recommendations
• It has deleted articles that pushed 32GB as an ideal or 'no-worries' loadout
• Apple is also feeling the heat in the RAM crisis, with rumors that it's struggling to secure an alternative source of memory supply from China

There are some fresh twists with the RAM crisis hitting some big tech companies, as Microsoft has backtracked on its previous memory recommendations, and even Apple is apparently finding it difficult to cope with the scarcity of memory.

Let's discuss Microsoft first, and as Windows Latest pointed out, the company has been busy backpedalling on previous memory recommendations now that the RAM crisis – which just keeps getting worse – has made those suggestions look foolish.

Microsoft previously had support documents in its Windows Learning Center which have now been removed, and Windows Latest highlights two of them. One was about optimizing your gaming PC, and it advised that "32GB is ideal for serious players who run the most demanding titles" (albeit the article also said 16GB was "plenty" for most games).

Another piece said that 32GB of RAM was the "no-worries zone", and that article was also quietly deleted as there was some backlash against this, given that it was published when the price of system memory had become ridiculous. (And buying a 32GB kit was very much a worry for your wallet).

The links to those articles now redirect to the home page of the Learning Center, and Microsoft is evidently trying to forget about pushing 32GB of RAM as an 'ideal' or 'worry-free' target for memory on your PC.

More broadly, since Copilot+ PCs were launched and the AI features for these devices made them require 16GB, Microsoft has obviously been keen to have that as a baseline memory configuration. Except now, a change of stance is necessary, as with the RAM crisis reaching alarming new heights, Microsoft has been forced to enact huge price hikes with its Surface devices.

And of course, the latest twist with that Surface hardware is that Microsoft has brought back 8GB models with last year's Surface Pro and Surface Laptop. Which makes it kind of difficult to push 16GB as a minimum, let alone make suggestions that 32GB is where it's really at for properly smooth performance.

The abandonment of these Learning Center articles is hardly surprising, then, and Microsoft is also addressing how speedily Windows 11 runs with 8GB of memory (not quickly enough currently). One of its promises with fixing the OS was better performance with a leaner RAM loadout, and Microsoft just made it clear that the company is now actively working to make Windows 11 run better with 8GB before the end of the year.

This has become a vital goal, really, when you consider that Apple has pulled off a commendable showing of performance with its MacBook Neo that packs 8GB of RAM. That was effectively a gauntlet thrown down for Microsoft – something of a declaration that macOS is coming to try to take Windows 11's market share – and one that the Windows maker had to respond to (which became clear enough when Microsoft went on the attack against the Neo).

Apple turnover: China play rumored to end in a fumble

Speaking of Apple, Microsoft isn't the only tech giant being buffeted by the rising costs caused by the RAM storm. While it has had a big success with the Neo, the challenge for Tim Cook's firm – soon to be John Ternus's, of course – is to maintain that momentum, and by all accounts, that's proving a tricky task.

Recent Mac price hikes have caused a good deal of pain – taking some of the wind out of the good ship Neo's sails – and Apple is trying to secure its RAM supply lines for the future, with rumors abounding that it's turning to Chinese chip makers to find extra production capacity.

The latest speculation, however, is that according to a report from Digital Daily (a Korean tech site, via Wccftech), Apple has floundered in negotiations with Chinese memory giant CXMT.

Apparently CXMT has strong enough domestic demand that it doesn't have to offer more attractive pricing to Apple. Essentially, CXMT is holding the line and has "insisted on prices that were higher or similar to those offered by Samsung or SK Hynix" (bear in mind there may be nuances lost with the translation of the article).

You get the message, though: Apple is failing to obtain better deals on mobile DRAM, which includes LPDDR5X, for its iPhones (and that RAM is also used in its MacBooks, of course). And CXMT was supposed to be an escape route from the difficulties of getting enough RAM inventory from Samsung and SK Hynix (and also Micron, a key supplier for Apple), but it seems like a dead-end for now.

At least if this report is correct, but analyst Tim Culpan has also written a short post which backs up the notion that Apple is in trouble here. Culpan writes: "Apple and its suppliers are scrambling to get enough memory chips for its upcoming release of new iPhone models."

'Scrambling' is a word that evokes quite a sense of panic, and indeed with the iPhone 18 models – and the foldable offering – not much more than a month away from launch now (in theory), I'd bet there are some heated words flying here and there. Culpan notes: "Assemblers are working with Apple to rush shipments of DRAM used in mobile devices."

That report is specifically about smartphones, mind, but this same situation applies to mobile RAM that's also used in MacBooks.

The overall theme is more RAM misery all round, which is hardly a surprise given all the negative news we've been hearing on the grapevine of late. GPU pricing has been the latest round of doom and gloom over the past week or two, and I don't think the pessimistic news is going to stop flowing for the foreseeable.

It's not bad news for everyone, though. A source in the semiconductor industry told Digital Daily that: "With the general-purpose DRAM floor remaining unbroken and Samsung and SK Hynix monopolizing the lead in high-value AI memory such as HBM4, the operating profit margins and global market control of the domestic semiconductor sector are expected to rise even more steeply in the second half of the year."

So, it's a familiar story: profits will be on the up and up for memory makers, while consumers will be suffering the pain of the hikes. Apple's purported rush for RAM supplies as the clock runs down on the iPhone launch window is a particularly worrying sounding story, one that doesn't bode well in terms of avoiding more Mac (and iPhone) price rises in the future. Neither can we rule out more Surface price rises, or other laptops for that matter.

• Smart glasses bans are being introduced and considered
• There are growing concerns over smart glasses privacy
• Could hardware changes solve people's concerns?

I’ve written a lot about the high likelihood of major smart glasses regulation being introduced in various regions as the technology garners more and more bad press, and as expected, we’re starting to see bans and other restrictions take shape.

No nation has yet to all-out ban smart glasses, but a few have outlawed their use in certain scenarios while others are investigating harsher measures. Some private companies, such as event organizers, have also banned smart glasses on their premises and at their conferences.

Of course, this is bad news for smart specs owners who now could be facing restrictions on where they can/can’t wear their intelligent eyewear. For anyone considering adding smart glasses to their technology arsenal, these possible restrictions should be taken into account when making your final purchase decision.

So where are we starting to see smart glasses bans? Here’s a selection of the countries investigating and introducing anti-intelligent eyewear rules.

United States

Generally, smart glasses can be worn freely in the US; however, New York State has banned them from being used in any of its courts. Smart glasses with recording capabilities could be seen as an attempt to intimidate those involved in the case, and some cases contain sensitive private information where unauthorized recordings could impose serious risks.

Other states have introduced less widespread bans in courts — including Philadelphia, Hawaii, and North Carolina.

Meanwhile, the US Air Force includes in its rules for service members that they are “Unauthorized to wear mirrored lenses or smart glasses with photo, video or artificial intelligence capabilities while in uniform.” This seems like more of a presentation thing than an anti-smart specs rule (especially given the inclusion of mirrored specs), but it does mean you can’t wear intelligent eyewear in uniform regardless.

Further, attendees of conventions such as major hacker conference DEF CON 34 have been barred from wearing Meta glasses or similar. These bans focus on the possibility of glasses recording folks without their knowledge — with organizers arguing the recording light some glasses offer isn’t the most obvious.

UK

In the UK, things are much the same. Courts don’t ban their use, though after one person was being coached by their glasses’ AI mid-trial, their usage is generally advised against. There are also recording restrictions in UK courts, so while glasses aren’t explicitly banned, using them to snap photos or videos would be against the rules — the same as it would be for using your phone or a regular camera.

We have seen companies like Monopoly Events ban camera glasses from its Comic-Cons after secret filming complaints, and there’s a petition to the Government to ban the sale and promotion of smart specs in the country. These petitions don’t always go anywhere, but it shows there’s at least some public unrest over smart specs, and that could lead to rule changes.

EU

The European Data Protection Board is currently drafting a report on smart glasses, with it expected to land sometime in the next few months. However, while more general EU rules are being discussed, some individual members are making their own individual decisions on the tech.

Germany’s data protection authority commissioner has warned camera glasses could be banned under existing laws prohibiting recording devices hidden in everyday objects.

Netherlands digital rights activists have expressed frustration at smart glasses' ability to record people without their knowledge, while France’s privacy regulator, the National Commission on Informatics and Liberty, has highlighted the privacy risks camera glasses pose.

South Korea

Rounding things off, we have a different kind of ban in South Korea, with the country specifically restricting smart glasses access in exam halls after cases of students being caught trying to cheat using intelligent eyewear.

Smart devices are generally banned from exam rooms in most schools across the globe to prevent cheating, though given the importance of South Korea’s College Scholastic Ability Test, their very explicit ban makes sense so as to remove any possible confusion over whether students can even bring smart specs into the room with them.

Could things change?

Of course, very few bans have been brought in yet, but they could be unless things change on the hardware side.

A big concern is over privacy for non-glasses wearers caught in the gaze of someone's camera — especially if they don't know they’re being recorded. An obvious fix here would be to make smart glasses much more obvious when they're recording — perhaps brighter camera lights, a loud audible camera sound when snapping a photo, some kind of audio indicator when video is being recorded.

For users, they’ll want better control over what is and isn’t accessed by smart glasses makers when using their tech, and more certainty about which images are and aren’t shared, or which videos can or can’t be seen by contractors.

We’ll have to wait and see how the situation develops, though I’m not sure how much longer smart specs can go before we see serious regulations.

• Cheap smart glasses are selling out as people look for Meta Ray-Ban alternatives
• More camera glasses are leading to more privacy concerns for many
• I wouldn't buy them for plenty of other reasons

If you want a pair of smart glasses, you’re spoiled for choice in terms of what they can do technologically, and over time we’ve seen more and more budget options appear. These cheaper models are the first step in making emerging gadgets more accessible, but for smart specs there’s a fear they might simply exacerbate the growing concerns over the tech.

Australian discount store Kmart recently went viral after the AU$89 Anko glasses it was selling sold out entirely (via The Guardian). In the US and UK, you don’t have to look far to find equally affordable camera glasses available through reputable digital marketplaces such as Amazon.

Given the proven popularity of Meta’s Ray-Ban and Oakley specs, it’s no surprise the market would see an influx of smart glasses, especially cheap pairs that aim to mimic much more expensive rivals while keeping costs low — typically by downgrading their technological capabilities and not partnering with premium design brands.

However, cheap smart glasses aren’t as universally celebrated as cheap TVs or affordable smartphones — scrolling through online forums discussing this news, the replies aren’t kind about smart glasses, discussing the pitfalls of smart glasses in general and more affordable options specifically.

The most prominent concern is that cheap camera glasses expand the range of people with the technology. More people with these glasses means more people possibly recording people in public without their knowledge.

There are also fears that cheap camera glasses might not come with the same sophisticated tamper protection glasses from more recognizable brands boast. Either through tape coverings or minor electrical modifications, folks could disable the camera light and use the specs even more covertly than they otherwise would — they’ve tried the same with Meta specs, but Meta has patched out these workarounds so far.

Privacy and other problems

Beyond the impact on the general public, cheap smart glasses users might want to consider the privacy implications of wearing cameras from unknown brands.

We’ve seen that even super well-known brands like Meta aren’t perfect — for example, there are reports that contractors could see videos (including intimate or otherwise private content) taken using the glasses if it involved the AI in some way — so why should we expect completely unknown brands with nothing to lose to be any better with privacy?

In fact, considering their lack of notoriety makes them less likely to get investigated in the way Meta was by journalists who uncovered the sharing of videos with contractors. The ease with which tiny brands can dissolve and pop back up under different names, I for one would be a lot less trusting of what they do with my data and of their phone apps.

Of course, many lesser-known brands behave responsibly, but when there’s so much room for things to go wrong, for private information or video to get leaked, I just have this extra layer of paranoia I can’t shake.

Even ignoring my personal privacy concerns, as someone who has tested countless smart glasses at this point, I’ve found that better-known brands are simply better at making hardware and software.

I’ve worn so many uncomfortable specs with tinny audio, awful camera quality, terrible AI, and apps that are worse than useless. They’re sluggish. They’re ugly. They’re not worth even a budget price.

Just don’t buy them.

If you do want smart specs, save up for something proper — it doesn’t have to be from Meta, but I’d recommend choosing a brand with plenty of solid independent reviews. While I’m using them less for reasons better explained by other writing, I have gone weeks on end wearing a good pair of smart glasses thanks to comfy yet fashionable design and solid tech. Whereas the cheap (and terrible) glasses I’ve tried I’ve wanted to rip off my face within hours.

You get what you pay for.

• A controversy has erupted over a background process in Windows 11
• It turns out that process isn't new, and neither is it a surprise introduction from Microsoft that 'does nothing for you' except pipe telemetry back
• A Microsoft exec clarified the purpose of the process, and that it doesn't send any data back unless you want to do that

There's been some more controversy over privacy and telemetry in Windows 11, and while this particular alarm bell turned out to be falsely rung in the end, it does point to wider issues around the mistrust of Microsoft in general.

As Windows Latest reports, this story starts with a post on X from a user called Xilly who drew attention to an apparent new process in Windows 11 called 'Windows Health and Optimized Experiences'.

However, as Windows Latest – and others on X – observe, this isn't a new background service in Microsoft's OS at all. In fact, it has been kicking around in Windows 11 for over a year now (since May 2025).

The additional nuance, though, is that this process was only introduced in testing in the Canary channel back in May of last year, and it seems to have only just come through to Windows 11 release builds now. That's as far as I can tell, and this is what Xilly points out on X.

So, it is in fact relatively new to release builds – and presumably rolling out now – but nonetheless the service itself has been known about for a long time. The real problem here is the way Xilly frames it as monitoring your PC for certain metrics related to laptop battery management, and that: "If you are on a desktop gaming PC it does nothing for you except run in the background" (while eating resources and engaging in telemetry, "sending data to Microsoft every 15 minutes").

Xilly's post prompted a response from Scott Hanselman, who is a VP and member of technical staff at Microsoft as well as a prominent voice in the Fix Windows 11 campaign.

Hanselman made it clear that the process is not new, as already discussed, and that it's for system diagnostics: "When Windows detects slow or sluggish behavior, it can record targeted performance traces locally under %SystemRoot%\Temp\DiagOutputDir\Whesvc that can be filed with Feedback Hub. It's not laptop specific."

So, this is a process that detects poor performance and files diagnostics locally, which can then be fed back to Microsoft if the user wishes.

Hanselman also highlights the dramatic approach Xilly took ("saying things in all capitals"), and Windows Latest further points out that the X user runs a business for optimizing gaming PCs, and pushes that service in a reply to their own original post.

Analysis: trust, telemetry, and what Microsoft needs to do

To summarize, then, Xilly's description of the service is incorrect, and while this background process does collect diagnostic data on how Windows 11 is running, it's written locally (with a negligible performance impact) and only sent to Microsoft if you actively submit feedback from your PC (via the Feedback Hub). The key phrasing in Hanselman's response is that the relevant data "can" be filed with Microsoft (not "will" be filed, as in it'll automatically happen).

Xilly also suggested that this was something Microsoft just sneaked in (hence the 'all caps' warning), when in fact it has been documented in preview builds before, and as Windows Latest notes, it's part of the Adaptive Energy Saver feature for helping to extend battery life.

The long and short is that there's nothing to worry about here, but what this episode serves as is a reminder of how Microsoft is short on trust when it comes to issues around privacy.

It's clear how quickly some Windows 11 users were to believe Xilly's accusation on X and other social media such as Reddit. For example, in this Reddit thread, despite one poster pointing out the reality of the situation in a nutshell (pretty much), there's a notable amount of complaining about why this process is sending data to Microsoft (which it isn't), or broader complaints along the lines of: "If you choose to install a spyware OS, expect to be spied on."

In fact, the most upvoted comment is: "Honestly, if any big tech giant wants to spy on you, they don't need a separate service. The MSA/online account [Microsoft account] is more than enough."

There are many people out there online who believe that, one way or another, Microsoft is spying on them to quite an extent with Windows. That stems from a broader level of distrust that's been stoked by the historical level of telemetry in Microsoft's desktop operating system since Windows 10 emerged, with reports periodically popping up to highlight these issues in that OS and Windows 11. Add to that all of Microsoft's promotional activity (and some outright adverts), as well as the likes of the Recall feature helping to pile on the skepticism (Microsoft handled that one really badly), and you can see why there's a problem with doubters here.

I keep saying that one thing Microsoft isn't properly addressing with the fix Windows 11 campaign is the level of telemetry performed by the OS, and I think it's high time that the company did this, and introduced a new choice for a zero level of telemetry (save for baseline security-related aspects). That option is lacking on Windows 11 Home, and it should be present and easily accessible, as this would go a long way to help cure some of the ill feeling out there around Windows 11 'spying' on people.

Valve's SteamOS has often presented the perfect excuse to be whisked away from Microsoft's troublesome Windows 11. The Linux operating system's better gaming performance has often been proven, utilizing RAM well without the bloatware often found with Windows 11.

SteamOS provides a console-like user interface (UI), making navigation and game launches far easier than Windows 11, despite the recent Xbox mode. With those benefits in mind, I've been contemplating a full switch to SteamOS, ditching Windows for good, and the best way to do that would be via Bazzite.

Bazzite (not affiliated with Valve) is effectively a SteamOS clone, specifically designed for "Linux newcomers and enthusiasts alike", but most importantly, comes with out-of-the-box compatibility with Nvidia and Intel GPUs, and a smooth experience for handhelds.

Using my second streaming PC, I put Bazzite to the test over a few months. Without a doubt, it's easily the best option for any gamer looking for a console-like couch gaming setup.

With tools like Decky Loader, customization is easy, with plugins to change SteamOS game mode themes, navigation sound effects, or even the startup and shutdown videos. However, despite all of the benefits of using the operating system, I still can't step away from Windows 11 on my main system, and there are multiple reasons why.

Multitasking drawbacks

As a frequent multitasker using applications like Discord to stream games to friends, Bazzite (more specifically SteamOS) isn't an ideal option. Using Discord to stream games on the same rig works just fine in desktop mode; however, it's not the same story for its game mode, which is arguably the entire purpose of using Bazzite.

Streaming on Discord in game mode severely drops frame rates in games, with constant stutters in many I tested, and there are a few instances where attempting to stream an application will result in a black screen. I tried to use the NZXT Signal 4K30 capture card and stream my second PC's Bazzite activity on Discord via my main PC, but it's not that simple.

Sure, HDMI passthrough on the capture card is possible, but I didn't want to be limited to 4K 60 frames per second on either my TV (which is capable of 144Hz) or my gaming monitor (capable of 240Hz). Frankly, capture cards with higher passthrough capabilities don't come cheap.

Duplicating or projecting the display, as you would on Windows 11, would be the easy solution. However, Gamescope, the compositor responsible for displaying games on screen with Bazzite, cannot duplicate outputs.

Still trying to avoid the NZXT capture card's 4K 60Hz passthrough limitation, I opted for an HDMI splitter with one input and two output ports. Unfortunately, the moment the capture card is connected, the output on either my TV or monitor has the refresh rate slashed to 60Hz and VRR disabled.

That occurs to ensure that the Extended Display Identification Data (EDID) of both is matched, according to what the capture card is capable of in passthrough.

None of these issues are present on Windows, as you can use OBS to project the main display onto the capture card without ever having to rely on an HDMI splitter or a better capture card.

This isn't an attack on SteamOS or Bazzite in particular; after all, game mode is quite literally designed for gaming, so multitasking isn't a priority for Valve or specifically Bazzite developers in this case.

However, it's worth noting that streaming on the gaming OS is more trouble than it's worth, and that's without even mentioning the potential audio bugs or OS glitches. That's only one part of why it's worth sticking with Windows, though.

Compatibility issues

I wish these issues stopped there, but not quite. Firstly, a large majority of popular multiplayer games such as Battlefield 6, Call of Duty (most of the modern entries), Destiny 2, and EA Sports FC 26 will not work on Linux due to their anti-cheat systems.

This is an issue that lies directly with publishers and developers for those games that refuse to adapt their anti-cheat systems to work on SteamOS. It also doesn't seem as though this will change any time soon; the Steam Machine was arguably one way to effectively force the hand of publishers to consider anti-cheat compatibility on Linux, but it's not exactly a popular PC due to its high price.

It's also worth noting that Game Pass is inaccessible natively on Bazzite, and requires either cloud gaming or third-party launchers, and you'll be lucky if you can get the latter to function.

The solution to accessing those anti-cheat games is a dual-boot with Windows 11 and Bazzite. However, that isn't completely ditching Windows 11 as I've planned to, and a dual-boot can end up messy thanks to Windows' forced updates.

Perhaps the most frustrating aspect is that Nvidia GPUs don't play nice with game mode on Bazzite, often resulting in glitchy functionality, or just completely black screens. I tested this by swapping out the AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB GPU in my second PC with my spare Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Ti and found that game mode was just frustrating to use.

So if I wanted to use Bazzite on my main rig equipped with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 Super, its DX12 (a graphics API) gaming performance would be worse than Windows. Overall, the entire purpose of switching over to Linux was for better gaming performance and easy console-like UI navigation would be non-existent.

I'm sure all of these pain points will be addressed at some point, whether via Bazzite or Valve's official SteamOS builds. For now, though, I'll stick with Windows 11 on my main rig — even though I desperately want to be done with it.

Meta may dominate the smart glasses zeitgeist, but it's far from the only player — my favorite brand in the space is actually Xreal, with its range of impressive but pricey wearable-display specs. And with the launch of its new xbx brand, Xreal's lineup now includes more budget-friendly options too.

If money were no object, Xreal’s One Pro glasses are easily the crème de la crème of smart specs. Their Bose-tuned audio is impressive for such a small package, their electrochromic dimming tech is perfect for swapping between clear vision and shaded for optimal viewing conditions, and their unique optic engine displays their image more vividly than the competition, with fewer visible distortions.

The only issue is their price — $649 / £579 (they aren't available directly in Australia), absent any discounts, although they can be found on sale occasionally.

If you’re on a budget, my preferred pick has instead been RayNeo. Its Air 4 Pro specs debuted earlier this year, and not only are they affordable at just $299 / £289, they still come with solid specs, including HDR10 support.

With its new xbx a01+, however, Xreal might have just claimed the budget crown for itself.

Budget brilliance

Now the elephant in the room is that Xreal's specs cost a bit more. At their current $299 / £269 discounted price at Xreal.com they're on par with or cheaper than RayNeo's glasses; however their official price is $359 / £349, and while they aren’t discounted at the moment, we’ve regularly seen the RayNeo Air 4 Pros selling for $249 / £249 (RayNeo also doesn't seem to sell directly to Australia) or cheaper.

At the same time, the Xreal xbx a01+ glasses boast a handful of improvements which warrant a slightly higher price.

For a start, their brightness tops out at 1,600 nits, while the RayNeo Air 4 Pro can only hit 1,200 nits. This extra brightness should allow you to get more out of the HDR10 support, offering more room for the light vs dark contrast and vivid colors to breathe across the video format’s visual range. Highs can look more high, helping lows look lower by comparison.

Aiding the image quality are the swappable lens covers.

While advertised as giving you the ability to choose which color of sunglasses cover you most want to complement your style, the xbx's box also includes a completely opaque black cover you can use with your specs. Because the specs are essentially virtual projectors, a darker environment ensures the highest-quality viewing conditions, though I found the regular sunglasses were fine even in bright sunlight.

The xbx glasses are lighter too, weighing just 62g compared to the RayNeo Air 4 Pro's 76g. Admittedly I haven't found them majorly more comfortable, but as I kicked back with them in a sun lounger while on vacation for hours on end I was relaxed enough to doze off on several occasions.

The only tradeoff is, I'd say, the audio, which doesn't seem to involve Bose tuning this time, and isn't quite as impactful as the Air 4 Pro's. That said, I'll almost always use earbuds or headphones with my display glasses, because they’re better in terms of quality and minimize sound leakage, so this downgrade didn't bother me.

Who wins? You decide

You'll also have to contend with Xreal's standard optic engine too. This is the prism that reflects the micro-OLED display into your eyes, and the standard design is susceptible to external reflections — most commonly light bouncing off the top of the specs and into your view. Pictures will also be a little smaller thanks to a reduced field of view, and can be a little blurrier at the frame edges.

Only Xreal's One Pros boast the improved design, but having experienced it, it's tough to go back to the standard optic engine.

To be fair, though, that’s mostly a me problem, and if you’re new to the display glasses world the Xreal xbx a01+ and RayNeo Air 4 Pros should be perfectly adequate performance-wise.

As for which of the budget specs you should go for — whichever is cheaper would be my suggestion.

The technical improvements of the xbx specs are solid, but if you can save $40/£40 or more on the RayNeos, their few deficiencies can be overlooked.

That said, if stylish, colorful designs are a must, alongside a marginally better image quality, then you'll be very pleased with the new Xreal xbx a01+ glasses.

I’ve tested dozens of smart glasses for TechRadar, but every time I get a new pair of Meta Ray-Bans to try, I’m reminded why they’re so popular — because yet again my past three weeks with the Ray-Ban Meta Optics have been a joy.

Mostly.

Much like Meta’s previous smart specs, you’ll find a host of technological features crammed into the eyewear.

There are speakers for open-ear audio, which is perfect for listening to casual tunes, taking a call, or hearing the AI’s responses to your queries — with the glasses’ microphones also doing a great job at picking up what you’re saying with minimal noise disruption.

Dedicated earbuds will sound better for sure — the bass isn’t as emphatic as I like with Meta’s Optics glasses (or its other models) — though I did enjoy listening to music through my glasses for hours on end with no major complaints.

As mentioned, there’s also Meta’s AI, which is accessed through the connected phone app and voice commands on your specs. It can answer questions you ask it and, with your permission, see what you see by accessing the Meta Optics’ camera to provide additional context to your questions, and interact with connected apps to play music requests or tell your health and fitness stats.

I’m not a big AI user except when I’m on holiday or just generally acting like a tourist. On our honeymoon, my wife used Look and Ask to check the ingredients on hair care products to make sure she wasn’t allergic, and I got the AI to supply me with phrases to use when I realized my limited Spanish wasn’t going to cut it.

The AI’s also perfect for identifying landmarks and telling you more about historic sites. I relied on it so much on a trip I took to Italy with my other Meta glasses a while ago — it helped me understand the ruins of Pompeii and better learn the history of the Colosseum.

Beyond identifying foreign signs and buildings, the cameras are ideal for first-person video. I used them to snap photos and videos of my wife and me, and they came out really well — they're the ideal way to record memories digitally, as you can still live in the moment rather than being cut off behind a phone screen.

I’ll talk more about cameras in a moment, but before that I want to focus on the key way the Optics is different to Meta’s other Ray-Ban smart specs: it's comfort and fit.

Built to last all-day

Meta’s smart glasses are chunkier than non-intelligent eyewear, which can make them feel more rigid and less comfortable than regular specs. To make the Optics better suited to all-day wear (something I can confirm they handle effectively after wearing these glasses for hours on end over the past few weeks), you’ll find interchangeable nose pads and adjustable temple tips to help you sculpt them to your face shape.

The correct nose pads have helped the specs sit better on my head without slipping down, while the temple tips can be carefully manipulated (either at home or at an optician) to help the Optics grip your face without applying too much pressure to the sides of your head.

If you’re considering getting some yourself, my final design note is this: pay extra for transition lenses.

The Ray-Bans I’ve been testing are outfitted with the Transitions XTRActive option, meaning they change between clear and shaded when exposed to sunlight — even when I’m in the car — and the lenses changed so quickly as I moved between different environments (something I noticed a lot when going between indoor and outdoor spaces on my honeymoon to Tenerife).

My non-smart eyeglasses boast Transitions Gen S lenses, and I’m also happy with them, or you can opt for polarized Transitions if you want even more light protection, if you’re also willing to pay a bit extra.

Regardless of which type you opt for, Transitions lenses are essential because they maximize the usefulness of your smart specs. Without them, you’re limited to either clear glasses you can only use indoors or on darker days, or shaded glasses that can only be worn outdoors when the sun is brightly shining.

Why did there have to be a but?

Now, the elephant in the room is that Meta’s smart specs are facing increasing amounts of scrutiny from the public because of their cameras.

News stories showcasing bad actors harassing women, recording secretly by modding their specs, or revealing that Meta contractors might be able to see more of your recorded content than you realize have been populating our timelines throughout 2026.

The upshot seems to be a wave of negativity: I conducted a poll through one of my recent stories, and over half of all respondents said they think smart glasses should be banned.

For its part, Meta is doing plenty to combat these issues: it cracked down on Facebook Marketplace listings for glasses modding services and issued an update to prevent the camera from working if the recording light on your smart eyewear is disabled, and it’s also tackling Instagram profiles belonging to creeps like pickup artists who promote using the glasses to harass people.

I still think more needs to be done on the privacy side of things — at the very least being much more explicit about what features share captured content with Meta, though ideally all of your content would remain private through an Apple-like Private Cloud Compute server setup.

As of now, I’m admittedly very nervous to wear my Meta Optics. I haven’t been worried about going around wearing my Meta Ray-Ban and Oakley specs in the past, but with growing public anger over the way smart specs are being misused, I have a genuine concern someone will see me wearing them and act violently towards me.

Or I could simply be banned from entering a space while wearing them. Some Comic-Cons, offices, and courts don’t let you in wearing Meta-style smart glasses. Especially for something as essential as prescription glasses, and pricey ones at that, being constantly nervous while wearing them or barred from entering certain spaces isn’t ideal.

There is genuinely so much to love about the smart glasses, and if you haven’t yet got a pair and wear prescription eyeglasses, the Meta Ray-Ban Scriber Optics styles are the ones I’d most highly recommend.

• SyLC 3D Player supports everything from 3D Blu-ray to Apple spatial videos, and it can convert 3D video to display it on Apple Vision Pro headsets
• It's backwards and forwards compatible — and the creator says it can get dual-HDMI output for dual projection, for future-proofing
• The app runs on Windows, and is free via Github 'because this format deserves better than a slow death'

One of the great tech disappointments of the last few decades was 3D TV. Like many movie fans I was excited by the possibilities, invested in a 3D TV, and watched the entertainment industry ensure that yet again, 3D movies were a short-lived trend. By 2013, it was already generally agreed that 3D TV was dead and that smart TVs and 4K were the way ahead.

Not everyone got the memo [I had mine until 2020… -Ed]. Over on the r/audiovisual subreddit, Jarod-The_Centre is determined to ensure 3D never dies — so they have been making a free player that now "plays EVERYTHING in 3D" from Blu-ray to Apple spatial videos.

And that's just the beginning of its talents. If you're a fan of things pointing out of the screen for no good reason, Jarod's player is fascinating.

I refused to let 3D die ! So I spent months building a free player that plays EVERYTHING in 3D: Blu-ray MVC, 4K HDR side-by-side, even Apple spatial videos. And it converts your 3D Blu-rays to Vision Pro format... from r/audiovisual

What does the 3D player do?

What doesn't it do? The player, called SyLC 3D Player, is a Windows app that's now in its fifth release. It's designed to play three different generations of 3D content: Blu-ray 3D/ISO/MVC MKV; HEVC/H.265 3D up to 4K 10-bit HDR; and Apple's MV-HEVC spatial videos. "The MVC of the 2020s, playing on your 2010s 3D TV," Jarod writes. "There's something poetic about that."

The app outputs in frame-packed 3D for compatible 3D TVs and projectors, and it can do something else that's really impressive: it can export 3D content as MV-HEVC, so you can take a 3D Blu-ray and turn it into a spatial video for Vision Pro.

I love Jarod's explanation for making the app. "It exists because this format deserves better than a slow death, and because apparently I don't know when to stop."

Jarod's in good company. Reddit's response to the latest announcement has been really positive and packed with good ideas, so for example Acceptable-Rise8783 suggests that for future-proofing, the app should be able to "send the two fields separately but in sync through two HDMI outputs."

With 3D TVs and projectors becoming increasingly hard to find — as they point out, "projectors are dropping support left and right because the chips that do 3D are becoming hard to come by" — the choice of viewing platforms will be reduced to dual-projector 3D or VR headsets.

The creator says this is something likely to appear in the player in a future version as the player already drives two windows simultaneously — and it means that dual projectors is the most 'future-proof' option for 3D, and the app supports it as best it can.

The whole discussion is fascinating, and I think Jarod sums it up beautifully. "Keep the faith. The format's not dead while we're still building for it 🔥".

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It’s probably fair to say Meta is facing serious public backlash to its AI glasses.

Musician Lorde took time at a recent concert to tell her audience, “Don’t get the glasses,” many online are branding them “pervert glasses,” and activist group Everyone Hates Elon has put up spoof adverts for the glasses featuring Jeffrey Epstein wearing a pair (note: the story behind a paywall).

I myself have been unsure if I’ll keep using my Meta glasses, despite their utility making them one of my favorite gadgets I’ve tested while working at TechRadar.

Meta has rebutted with new measures to combat misuse of its glasses. It recently patched its specs to prevent modders from using the camera despite disabling the recording light, and Instagram head Adam Mosseri recently announced harassment videos shot using Meta glasses will be banned from the platform — with some high-profile accounts already getting the boot.

Among the folks still in love with the Meta glasses, however, is my wife Izzy.

When I suggested taking a pair each with us on our recent honeymoon to Tenerife, she wasn’t convinced — despite them being our only sunglasses without my prescription lenses in them — but she wore the white-and-gold Oakley HSTN specs nearly all the time we were abroad.

I was also testing out a pair of the Ray-Ban Meta Optics styles for an upcoming review, and time and again the glasses proved themselves useful. Our trip confirmed how awesome these glasses can be when used right, and why a middle ground needs to be found to maximize privacy and utility before things get out of hand.

An all-in-one AI supertool

Of course, the primary reason to rely on Meta glasses is their built-in tech.

Whether we were lounging on a sunbed, strolling through the streets and past the beaches of Los Cristianos, or kicking back with a drink in the evening, we both loved the open-ear speakers that let us enjoy our podcast or playlist of choice without tuning out the world.

For hours on end, I enjoyed Radio 1 through BBC Sounds, while Izzy drifted between Spotify hits, and both pairs lasted a good length of time battery-wise — with touch controls making it super simple to control the tunes when needed.

The AI translations came in clutch several times as well. It offered quick advice on what phrases to use when we realized our limited selection of “Hola,” “Gracias,” and “Por favor” wouldn’t cut the mustard.

Meanwhile, Look and Ask helped Izzy decipher which of the unrecognizable shampoos and conditioners would be best for her hair after a travel mishap saw the supply we packed leak into her travel bag. The AI could read the Spanish labels to her to help identify and filter out ingredients she knows to avoid, and we ended up buying a few extra bottles of the conditioner she found to bring home after she fell in love with it.

It can't be understated how useful the smart specs are simply as sunglasses too.

My Optics pair features Transitions XTRActive lenses, transitioning fast from clear to shaded as I moved between indoor and outdoor spaces, which was super handy for someone like me who wears glasses all the time. Meanwhile, the polarized gold HSTN lenses were perfect for Izzy as she spent hours of her day baking in high-UV weather.

Thanks to the charging case, my specs rarely ran out of battery, but even when they did, I could still rely on them just fine as stylish shades.

Of course, the controversial aspect is the camera. Beyond the AI assistance, it was helpful for snapping quick photos and first-person clips for the travel vlog I’m looking to cut together.

Though whenever I went to snap a photo, I had flashes of the story about Meta contractors who claimed to have seen intimate moments captured through the specs. Shots of either of us in swimwear went nowhere near the glasses’ snapper, and I kept a careful eye on who was in the background of any shots I did take.

We were also a little worried that someone might not like us using the glasses at all in their presence, though thankfully no one took any issue with us.

These fears and considerations do create points of friction when it comes to using Meta’s glasses—or any smart glasses, for that matter. While the Facebook company is the best-known for smart eyewear right now it is far from alone, and while it's making efforts to clean up its public perception smart glasses will be tarred with the same brush if any brand steps out of line.

I also don’t think Meta’s efforts are perfect so far, at least not yet. I’d like to see more work across social and hardware platforms to root out smart glasses misuse; I believe better, more thorough privacy rules are necessary to make it crystal clear what data is and isn’t shared with Meta and its staff, and I’m not convinced I could trust it with the immense amount of data its rumored super sense feature would capture from my daily life — blunders like its Instagram AI image use plan and backtrack don’t fill me with confidence in its AI decision making.

At the same time, my week falling back in love with the Meta glasses, and my wife loving her Oakley smart specs, proves there’s something really fun and useful about the tech that I equally don’t want to see taken away or banned outright.

With other brands joining in on intelligent eyewear — recently Samsung demonstrated its own pairs at Galaxy Unpacked — it’s clear the tech industry is storming ahead, just as it has with exciting emerging technologies in the past.

I just hope a middle ground can be found, because smart specs represent a serious privacy nightmare beyond other gadgets we’ve relied on. If the tech doesn’t hold itself to account, we could see even more regulation and public backlash than we’ve seen already, and that could kill off my favorite tech sector of recent years before it has a chance to thrive.

For quite a long time now, I've been concerned about how Microsoft is going to monetize Windows going forward. While the world's dominant desktop operating system remains available for a one-off fee (assuming you aren't an upgrader who can get it for free), there's a good chance this could change in the future.

Why do I think that? To me, it feels somewhat inevitable that eventually, Microsoft is going to look for a way to shift Windows from an upfront payment to a subscription model for consumers. That regular monthly income stream piling up in the coffers is the end game for most big tech companies and their products these days for good reasons in terms of the profits to be made.

Of course, rumors about Microsoft looking to charge a subscription fee for using Windows to consumers (as opposed to businesses, where there's already a subscription option) have been floating around for years. True, they've all been dubious and sketchy in nature, or indeed proven outright incorrect, but this idea keeps bubbling up, and I believe we're witnessing a development with AI right now that indicates how Microsoft might have an ideal opportunity to make this pivot at some point down the road.

Last week, Windows Central spotted that the Copilot feature Deep Research is getting the axe, to be replaced with a new feature: Researcher. The idea behind both pieces of functionality is roughly the same (researching and creating detailed reports complete with citations), but the difference is Deep Research was free, whereas Researcher requires a subscription to Microsoft 365 Premium.

This follows Microsoft Whiteboard (where AI assists you in brainstorming ideas) getting changed so personal accounts can no longer use it — the app now requires being signed up for a Microsoft Business account. On top of that, Outlook's Meeting Insight functionality was just shifted behind a paywall, being transformed into an admittedly beefier AI feature, but one that needs a Microsoft 365 Copilot license.

So, there's a trend towards turning previously free AI features into paid ones, presumably as Microsoft rejigs its Copilot offerings and figures out what works well — and what's being used — and whether any of that can be charged for.

AI pivot

Now, we all know AI agents are going to be the 'next big thing' (TM) in Windows 11, certainly if Microsoft has its way, and the idea is for these AI entities to be doing more and more within the OS.

We won't just have an agent for changing Windows settings — and I mean a proper incarnation of this already existing idea, which really can adjust a host of options based on a simple request to "make my laptop battery last longer" or similar — but we will have a small crowd of them. Maybe a troubleshooting agent, for example, which can take a problem that you're battling in Windows and use some genuine AI smarts to help solve it. Or perhaps a creativity agent which can tackle a host of image or video-related tasks, or more broadly help with organizing your projects and photos.

I think the catch will be that eventually, as we've seen with some aspects of AI and Copilot, Microsoft will start shuffling some of these agents behind a paywall — especially considering that more powerful capabilities like these in-depth AI tricks will cost Microsoft a fair bit to drive in terms of cloud resources. It's certainly conceivable that Microsoft could end up charging a small monthly fee to use these premium agents, maybe as separate add-ons in the hope that you'll bolt more of them onto Windows for a cumulatively greater benefit to its coffers.

We could ultimately be looking at a kind of modular, AI-focused OS, and to me, this seems like the easiest way for Microsoft to transform Windows into a subscription model, because it'll happen slowly. You don't need a troubleshooting AI agent to run Windows at all, but it'll be a nice thing to have — certainly for less tech-savvy types — in case problems do arise in the OS.

As more bits and pieces that might start off free drift behind a paywall — as these AI features are built up and become more compelling — people may eventually be tempted to buy a bundle of them. And before you know it, you've signed up for a Windows subscription of sorts (although the free version of the OS will, of course, still be available).

In the end, there may be a couple of bundles — tiered subscriptions, in other words — and let's not forget Microsoft's potential ambitions for a cloud PC model for consumers, either.

This has been a possibility raised in past rumors and leaks (and again, this is something which has already happened in the enterprise world), and if you put all this together, you're looking at a kind of Netflix model, if you will: a streamed OS with several paid subscription tiers. Albeit with a free basic tier for Windows – although who's to say that may not become ad-supported, or indeed more ad-supported, as Windows 11 already does a fair old line in adverts and promos. (Although admittedly Microsoft is cutting back on that front in its crowd-pleasing efforts to fix Windows 11).

Not a foregone conclusion — but a likely enough prospect

This is just my opinion, naturally, and yes, maybe I got rather carried away with the extrapolation at the end there. It's also true that some big question marks remain hanging over the wider notion I've put forward.

As I just mentioned, Microsoft is very much bending over backwards to please Windows 11 users right now, so any possible timeline for this shift may be pushed way back in view of that. Bringing in some form of subscription is hardly going to be a well-received move, even if implemented in small, delicate increments as I'm guessing it would be.

The other obvious sticking point is that Microsoft needs to make its AI agents in Windows worth having. They need to be objects of desire and come packing genuinely useful AI abilities, otherwise clearly, people won't pay for the privilege of having them on their Windows desktop. They also need to be secure and trustworthy so they don't end up throwing spanners in the works of your Windows installation.

That could be the biggest hurdle for Microsoft to overcome, because as it stands, when the idea of AI features being paywalled in Windows 11 has been raised (in rumors and the like), it's been actively welcomed by the more skeptical out there. The cynics are more than happy to have everything AI-related locked away from them, and as non-paying users, this would give them an AI-free Windows 11 desktop.

Again, this plays into any potential move along these lines having to happen further into the future, but I think Microsoft does have this as an eventual goal. If you ask yourself the question: if Microsoft could charge a subscription for Windows 11, would it? The answer is clearly yes, a thousand times over. But the actual, real question here is whether Microsoft thinks it could successfully get away with such a plan without sparking a large-scale defection from its desktop OS.

We can keep our fingers crossed that a monthly charge for Windows isn't coming, but frankly, I think it's likely. Or even just a matter of time — perhaps a lot of time, granted — whether that subscription pertains to AI add-ons, or a cloud PC offering, or Microsoft finds another way to spin this.

Apple’s macOS 27 release — dubbed ‘Golden Gate’ by the company — is packed with new features, despite Apple saying that this year was more of an evolution than revolution. There are plenty of additions that have got tongues wagging and pens scribbling across the internet.

Yet for every Siri app and Liquid Glass tweak, there are many more upgrades that people are barely talking about. That means that if you don’t dig below the surface, you might miss some of the interesting new ways you can use your Mac once you’ve downloaded and installed macOS 27.

Here, we’ll run through five of our favorite little-known inclusions in the macOS Golden Gate beta. Get to grips with all of them and you’ll have fresh ways to use your Mac on a daily basis.

Visual Intelligence

Previously, Visual Intelligence was only available on iOS. You’d point your iPhone at an object, press the Camera Control, and Visual Intelligence would identify the object or pull out details from an event flyer and add them to your calendar. Now, similar powers can be harnessed on your Mac.

But you might be asking how this will work on a Mac, seeing as you can’t just go up to something and take a picture of it with your laptop. Fortunately, Apple has adapted Visual Intelligence to macOS 27 in a handy new way.

Much like when you take a screenshot, you can drag a box over part of your screen using your mouse. When you let go, you can ask Visual Intelligence to help you with what you have selected. You can ask Siri AI a question about the image and it will respond. You can then go back and forth with the chatbot if you need more information.

If you highlight an event, you can add it to your calendar. Even better, if you use Visual Intelligence on a festival schedule with multiple acts playing at different times, for instance, you can add as many or as few to your calendar as you want, all saved as separate entries with relevant info like the band that’s playing and the stage that you’ll find them on.

This is one of my favorite features in macOS 27 as it’s not only useful, but highly flexible and intelligent. Visual Intelligence is able to understand many different inputs and the contexts surrounding them, turning Siri into much more of the powerful assistant that it was always meant to be.

Automatic password strengthening in Passwords

The best password managers often alert you if your logins stored in the app are weak or compromised, but that usually means updating them to stronger alternatives yourself.

If that requires manually visiting affected websites and changing your login details by hand dozens or even hundreds of times, the task can feel incredibly daunting. Faced with that kind of situation, many people likely just give up, preferring to stick with their untrustworthy passwords rather than go through the hassle of changing them all one by one.

That’s an obvious security risk, and it’s one that macOS 27 has attempted to put right. Although the following change hasn’t had much airtime since the feature was announced at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in June, I feel like it could be one of the most important features in the new operating system.

In macOS 27, all you need to do is ask Apple’s Passwords app to fix your dodgy passwords for you. Just one click and it’ll get to work visiting affected websites and updating your logins without you needing to lift a finger.

It’s a great example of how useful AI agents can be, all backed up by Apple’s well-known security and privacy credentials.

Natural language in Calendar

How many times have you opened the Calendar app on your Mac and tried to create a new event with a phrase like “Movie night with James tomorrow at 8pm at home,” only to find none of the details — such as the time or the place — are properly added to the event?

It’s been a recurring problem for years, and a frustrating one, too, as Apple fans have watched other apps race ahead with similar features while Calendar lags behind.

Now, that’s been improved. Changes in macOS 27 mean that you just need to enter an event using the type of natural language that you’d use in an everyday conversation. Any details that Calendar can pick up on — like a person, place, time or date — will turn gray. Click them and select the suggested detail and they’ll be properly added. This feature understands your context, too, such as where your home is located.

Sure, similar features have been present in rival calendar apps for years, and that could explain why Apple’s Calendar update hasn’t exactly lit the world on fire in the weeks and months since it was announced.

But having this feature is nonetheless an excellent addition for users of the Calendar app. The more naturally you can use your apps, the more effortless they become, allowing you to quickly be done with them so you can get on with what matters in your day. This natural language upgrade for the Calendar app lets you do exactly that.

App resizing in iPhone Mirroring

Of all the clever new features announced last year as part of macOS Sequoia in 2024, iPhone Mirroring was one of the more intriguing. As the name suggests, it mirrors your iPhone onto your Mac’s screen, bringing up a software view of your device where you can open apps, type messages, and basically use everything on your iPhone through the Mac sitting in front of you.

But there was one annoying quirk with this system: you couldn’t resize the iPhone window to use different aspect ratios. That meant any apps you opened on the virtual iPhone were limited in size and failed to make use of your Mac display’s larger proportions.

Thankfully, Apple has fixed that up in macOS 27. Instead of being stuck with the unchanging iPhone window of the past, macOS 27 now lets you drag the on-screen iPhone and change its dimensions as required.

You can now make the iPhone window wider or taller and the content inside the app will automatically adapt. It’s far better than what we had before.

So, if you’d given iPhone Mirroring a try before but were put off by the tiny window you had to work with, macOS 27 could make using your iPhone on your Mac a little more comfortable.

Improved support for ultra-wide displays

Before macOS 27, using an ultra-wide display with your Mac could be a downright pain. Many ultra-wide resolutions were not supported natively in macOS, meaning you had to settle for something that wasn’t quite right for your display, which could in turn negatively affect your macOS experience.

And when competing operating systems like Windows could support ultra-wide monitors in a more comprehensive way, the frustration for Mac users was understandable.

Worse, if you ever unplugged your monitor and then plugged it in again, macOS would forget your previous display settings, forcing you to set up your ultra-wide monitor as needed every single time. If you relied on one of the best MacBooks as your daily driver and you frequently disconnected it from your desk display, this was a regular irritation.

In macOS 27, though, that’s finally a thing of the past. You’ll now be able to run an ultra-wide monitor up to 5K resolution and up to 120Hz refresh rate, meaning far more high-end displays will now work with macOS 27 without a hitch.

And Apple has fixed the disconnection issue so that hooking up your monitor no longer requires you to dial in your settings every time. Instead, macOS remembers your preferences so that no manual adjustments are needed.

That makes this a seemingly small change on the surface, but one that will be appreciated by anyone who owns an ultra-wide monitor and has long struggled with the limitations of macOS.

• A new option for the Copilot key has been spotted in testing
• Windows 11 users are getting the ability to remap it to 'Do nothing'
• This comes on top of work already underway to redefine the key to Right Ctrl or the context menu

Microsoft's latest revolutionary idea for Windows 11 is to have a key on your keyboard which can be remapped to do absolutely nothing.

Windows Latest noticed the latest twist in the tale of the Copilot key, as highlighted by regular leaker PhantomOfEarth on X, who spotted the development hidden in a recent Windows 11 preview build.

In the choices to customize the Copilot key – which, by default, summons Windows 11's Copilot AI (of course) – there's a new option to simply 'Do nothing'.

Yes, that's correct – you can change the key to simply be a pointless piece of plastic that does precisely zip. (Or at least you'll be able to in testing, when this ability comes into play, that is, although some Windows 11 testers have reportedly seen it live in preview already).

As you may have seen earlier this year, Microsoft is working on bringing fresh options to the Copilot key that include customizing it to invoke the context (right-click) menu, and to turn it back into Right Ctrl (which was the key that the Copilot button replaced on Copilot+ laptops and some keyboards).

Analysis: do nothing, be happy

What's the point of a key that does nothing? Good question. Maybe it's the keyboard equivalent of a stress ball – you can hammer on that key as much as you want when you're really annoyed, and it won't splurge a load of characters into the document you're working on as you exorcise your frustrated demons.

Okay, so maybe not, but perhaps the idea is that this is aimed at people who really hate the Copilot key, but haven't decided what they might want to remap it to. So, they can go ahead and elect for the key to do nothing if it's accidentally hit, while they figure out what they might want to redefine in its place. That's stretching things, admittedly, but it's the best guess I have.

At any rate, it's a harmless enough option, although it feels inescapably odd to have a 'blank' key on your keyboard. How far we've fallen since the Copilot key was first revealed and trumpeted by Microsoft as the biggest thing to happen to keyboards in 30 years since the Windows key was introduced. And indeed more recently, Microsoft promoted the Copilot key as the "button you can press to fix everything", so there's some irony that it could soon (optionally) become the button you can press to fix 'nothing' in a very literal sense.

Don't forget that you don't have to wait for Microsoft's Copilot key remapping functions to arrive in the release version of Windows 11. You can use the Keyboard Manager in PowerToys to do this instead, although it'll be far neater to have these options in Windows 11's settings, of course.

• Microsoft has contacted LG regarding a McAfee pop-up served via the monitor maker's app (which in turn is installed by Windows Update)
• As an 'immediate next step' LG has disabled this pop-up
• However, there are still issues to address around the automatic installation of the LG monitor app, and the way Windows Update itself operates with third-party software

Microsoft has fixed a controversial situation whereby Windows 11 users with LG monitors were being hit by a pop-up for McAfee antivirus, and that advert has now been banished from the OS — but there's still more that Microsoft needs to do here.

Windows Latest noticed that Pavan Davuluri, who is head of Windows at Microsoft, flagged up what's happened on X.

In response to a nudge from Epic's Tim Sweeney on the matter, Davuluri said: "We've connected with the team at LG and as an immediate next step, they have agreed to disable the McAfee pop-up from their app. We appreciate LG working with us toward a shared goal of a better experience for our mutual customers. We will keep improving here with our ecosystem partners."

In case you missed this story from earlier in the week, Windows 11 users with an LG display are reportedly getting an LG monitor app (from the Microsoft Store) automatically installed on their PCs via Windows Update simply after hooking up the monitor.

The real kicker was that following this, the mentioned McAfee pop-up (pushing a trial for the antivirus) was repeatedly bothering those users, with the ad delivered via the LG monitor app. So, what Microsoft is telling us here is that as an immediate first step, that McAfee pop-up is no longer part of LG's Windows app, and won't be darkening the desktops of any LG monitor owners any longer.

The (pop-up-less) monitor app is presumably still being piped through by Windows Update, though, and hopefully the next step for Microsoft will be to address this.

Analysis: software giants in glass houses?

Windows Update really shouldn't be installing any third-party software without the user's permission, that much is clear (or first-party for that matter). It's fine to flag available updates, wherever they come from or whatever hardware they may be for, but highlighting them is one thing, and going ahead with an auto-installation is another.

Okay, so LG has agreed to disable this pop-up, and it's good that this has happened swiftly, as it was, of course, a huge annoyance. Indeed, it's very worrying that this could happen at all, really (and in case you missed it, LG's TVs have also come under fire this week).

LG had already addressed this controversy with a rather lengthy statement that read: "LG Electronics reiterates that McAfee is not installed automatically and is never installed without the user's explicit consent. The LG Monitor App Installer is distributed through Microsoft's official Windows distribution process, which included McAfee as an option.

"McAfee will be installed only if a user actively chooses to proceed with the installation and provides consent. Under no circumstances is McAfee installed automatically or without user authorization. The LG Monitor App Installer does not access, collect, or transmit any customer personal data."

What this appears to be saying is that McAfee's actual antivirus app isn't installed without consent. It's not denying that the McAfee pop-up appeared without consent, or that the LG Monitor app is installed in the background in Windows without the user's knowledge. It only notes that the LG Monitor app is "distributed through Microsoft's official Windows distribution process", as if that makes everything okay, or somehow not LG's fault.

It is, of course, Microsoft's fault as well – both parties need to take responsibility, and fix not just the McAfee pop-up appearing, but the LG Monitor app being automatically installed simply when a monitor is connected to a Windows 11 PC. (Which is reportedly the case, I should add – I haven't experienced this myself, as I don't have an LG display, but a whole heap of feedback is present suggesting it's exactly what happens).

In short, the immediate disabling of the McAfee trial pop-up is a start, but we need a swift follow-up addressing the LG app itself and how that's dealt with in Windows 11. And more broadly, how third-party apps in general interact with Windows Update, because as already noted, this situation should never have been allowed to happen in the first place (no matter what LG, or any other hardware partner, is doing with their apps).

Furthermore, there's no shortage of people on Reddit noting that Microsoft has been keen enough to act here, but not so keen on curbing its own advertising-related excesses in Windows 11.

As one Redditor says of Microsoft: "Now all they need to do is crack down on their own bloatware…"

Although to be fair to Microsoft, it is acting to rein in some of the upselling and promotional noise that Windows 11 has come to be associated with. More work needs to be done on this front, though, for sure.

Fliki is a popular AI video generator, trusted by more than 12 million users worldwide and 50,000 companies, including brands like Meta, ByteDance, Oracle, and PayPal. You can create and edit AI videos with natural-language prompts using its AI Copilot.

In this article, we’ve put Fliki to the test, evaluating its features, pricing, and real-world in-app experience to help you find out whether this AI video editor lives up to its claims and whether it’s the right tool for you.

Fliki: Plans and pricing

Fliki is a fairly limited free video editing software, which gives you three credits per month, or 36 credits for the entire year. You can export videos with a maximum length of one minute in 720p resolution, along with access to 300 standard voices. All other video and audio generation features are limited on the free plan and restricted by the number of credits you receive.

We found the provision of just three credits per month quite stingy. For instance, generating a one-minute AI video costs around 0.8 credits. If it includes an AI avatar, it can cost around 5.3 credits alone. This means you can't do much with the free plan besides testing out the platform.

To get the most out of Fliki, you'll have to subscribe to one of its paid plans. Its Standard plan starts at $28 per month. Right now, you can get 50% off the subscription, bringing the effective price down to $14 per month. With this plan, you get 2,160 credits for the entire year, along with an expanded export length of 15 minutes in 1080p resolution, which disappointed us a bit. Kapwing, for instance, allows you to export videos in 4K quality at around the same price.

You can check out Fliki by clicking here.

That said, you get unlimited access to various video and audio tools, along with features like voice cloning, custom voices, and Brand Kits. You also get access to various templates, which help you create content using pre-built video layouts. This plan also includes several collaboration features, such as the ability to bulk-create videos from a single CSV file, an AI assistant, and Zapier integrations. However, it still does not include team collaboration, which is again a letdown.

Then there's the Premium plan, costing $88 per month, or $44 per month with the current discount. Here, the maximum export length increases to 40 minutes, but the resolution remains capped at 1080p. Some additional features include unlimited AI avatars, custom fonts, faster exports, and team collaboration.

If you've exhausted your credits, you can purchase top-up credits if you have an active subscription plan. These additional credits are valid for up to 180 days and remain active even if your subscription is canceled during this period. You can get 60 credits for $10, 130 credits for $25, and so on, all the way up to $2,500 worth of credits.

Fliki: Features

Fliki houses as many as 54 tools to create and edit videos and images, supporting various use cases. For instance, you can create social media reels, TikTok videos, or a faceless YouTube channel with Fliki.

There’s also the popular AI Avatar feature, which helps you build avatars of your own and reuse them in your videos. Besides this, you also get an AI Script Writer, voice cloning, a subtitle generator, and a pretty fun Talking Photo feature.

That said, we found Fliki’s AI avatars to be based largely on real people, rather than offering the wide range of outlandish and fictional characters we get with a site like Kapwing.

These are better viewed as use cases rather than standalone features. The core feature remains the same: generating videos and images through prompts. These prompts can be in the form of scripts, reference images, videos, or even audio. Editing tools include background removers, translators, and screen recorders.

Fliki has made a lot of recent additions to its available tools, making it a more complete video generation and editing platform. For instance, it has introduced new models such as Flux Klein 2, Nano Banana 2 for images, Kling 3.0, Seedance 2.0 for video, native audio, multi-shot, and P-Video for video and lip-syncing needs.

You can also use your own media in video workflows, along with 130 new character-driven voices in 20+ languages. As recently as February 2026, Fliki rebuilt its voices to include a wider range of emotions, such as laughing, sarcasm, and deadpan, all of which can be fine-tuned using natural language descriptions.

Fliki now also supports YouTube-licensed music protected by copyright. It has also expanded its character library, allowing you to create and reuse AI characters across multiple projects.

One of its most exciting additions has been the ability to create stop-motion story videos with needle-felted wool puppet looks. Another addition is TikTok auto-publishing, which allows you to post videos created through Fliki directly to TikTok by linking your account in Workspace Settings. You can either publish them immediately or set up a drip schedule to release episodes on TikTok.

Fliki: Interface and in use

Getting started with Fliki is very easy. We used a Google account to sign up for the platform, which took less than a minute. Once you’re in, you’re greeted with a dashboard featuring a black background, along with various features highlighted in small red rectangular tabs below a prompt box.

On the left-hand panel, you’ll find all the settings you need for your video creation, including Media, Subtitles, Audio, AI Copilot, and various templates. However, note that not all of these will be accessible if you’re on the free plan, as several features are locked behind Fliki’s paid tiers.

The best part about editing with Fliki is its AI-powered editing assistant, where you can type in plain English what you want. For instance, you can ask it to make the intro slower or add a text overlay at any point in the video.

Besides this, you get two ways to build a video. The first is an at-a-glance scene reel laid out horizontally with a full timeline, while the second is a traditional timeline with functions like zooming and snapping, giving you more control.

Fliki has also overhauled its dashboard, giving it a more intuitive layout with a fresher look and easy-to-access tools.

Fliki: How we tested

We used the free version of Fliki to check out its AI video generation capabilities. We entered the following prompt: A woman in a red coat walks across a rain-soaked city street at night, neon signs reflecting in the puddles, camera slowly tracking alongside her (the same prompt we use for all our AI video testing).

We were impressed by the sheer number of customization options that Fliki offers. Once you enter the prompt, you have to select the video duration you want, with the minimum being 30 seconds. This was a bit disappointing, as we’d have liked to see shorter video generation options as well.

However, Fliki gets to work once you make the selection and generates a detailed script for you. You can edit this script before moving ahead with video generation. Besides this, you get a lot of options to customize your video right before the generation process starts.

For instance, you can choose the format and template, selecting between portrait, square, and landscape modes, along with the type of character you want. You can also select the AI model you want to use for generation, although most of them are Pro features. Besides this, you also have the option to select a voiceover, add captions, or choose an AI avatar.

We found this to be pretty convenient since you can make all the required selections in one place and don’t have to go back and forth through the platform making edits afterward. Once we were done with all the selections, we clicked on Generate Video. The actual video rendering process took less than a minute.

However, since the free tier does not allow you to create AI videos on its own, we were a bit disappointed by the output. The final video consisted of still images with voiceovers instead of a full-fledged video, like we got with Kapwing.

Fliki: Alternatives

While Fliki is a pretty good AI video generator and editor, it does have a few strong competitors. The first one would be Adobe Firefly, which costs around $8.49 per month, around 40% cheaper than Fliki during the discount period.

The biggest advantage of Firefly is its robust workflow features, which allow teams to build virtual storyboards and collaborate in real time, something that Fliki restricts to its highest-tier plan. You also get access to Adobe Express Premium and Photoshop with all its paid plans. That said, its video editing capabilities are still in development and are not as good as Fliki’s.

Another competitor is Kapwing, which comes with better AI avatar generation capabilities. While Fliki depends heavily on real-life characters, Kapwing gives you a lot of fictional character generation options, such as Dracula, vampires, and everything else you can imagine.

Kapwing also supports 4K video exports of up to 120 minutes, whereas Fliki restricts exports to just 1080p, which is certainly not enough in the modern content creation landscape. That said, Kapwing is a bit more expensive than Fliki, costing $16 per month. However, its free plan is more robust, allowing you to create AI videos instead of videos with still images and voiceovers.

Fliki: Final verdict

We used the free version of Fliki to check out its AI video generation capabilities. We entered the following prompt: A woman in a red coat walks across a rain-soaked city street at night, neon signs reflecting in the puddles, camera slowly tracking alongside her (the same prompt we use for all our AI video testing).

We were impressed by the sheer number of customization options that Fliki offers. Once you enter the prompt, you have to select the video duration you want, with the minimum being 30 seconds. This was a bit disappointing, as we’d have liked to see shorter video generation options as well.

However, Fliki gets to work once you make the selection and generates a detailed script for you. You can edit this script before moving ahead with video generation. Besides this, you get a lot of options to customize your video right before the generation process starts.

We've tested a range of video makers and editors, including the best video editing software, the best video editing apps and the best free video editing software.

Update: We reached out to LG for a statement, and it has denied claims of auto McAfee installations, stating: "LG Electronics reiterates that McAfee is not installed automatically and is never installed without the user’s explicit consent. The LG Monitor App Installer is distributed through Microsoft’s official Windows distribution process, which included McAfee as an option.

"McAfee will be installed only if a user actively chooses to proceed with the installation and provides consent. Under no circumstances is McAfee installed automatically or without user authorization. The LG Monitor App Installer does not access, collect, or transmit any customer personal data."

Original story follows below...

• LG monitors are reportedly installing bloatware on Windows 11 PCs
• The LG Monitor App Installer carries a McAfee pop-up and is automatically installed when connecting an LG monitor to a PC
• There's a fix for this, but it's a rather fiddly affair

It's no secret that Windows 11 users have voiced frustrations regarding bloat on the operating system for years, and unfortunately, LG's monitors are reportedly making the situation worse.

As reported by Windows Latest, LG monitors are installing McAfee bloatware on Windows 11 PCs without consent, and there's evidence of this in the changelog of LG's monitor app on the Microsoft Store.

Even if you don't install the app yourself, Windows Update will do so, and then treat you to a McAfee pop-up. All you have to do is plug in the LG monitor to your PC, and the automatic installation of McAfee is also shown by checking the Windows Reliability Monitor, which documents a 'successful Windows update' for the LG Monitor App Installer package.

We've reached out to LG for a comment, but haven't received a response yet. In the meantime, though, there appears to be a fix that requires users to do the following: press the Windows key and R, and type 'gpedit.msc', then hit Enter.

From that point, navigate your way to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > System > Device Installation > "Prevent automatic download of applications associated with device metadata", then select the 'Enabled' box and apply.

In theory, this should stop any unwanted applications from being installed, specifically with devices like LG monitors that do so via device metadata.

And if you already installed the LG monitor app manually, you should remove it, because as noted, the description on the Microsoft Store suggests McAfee is a fundamental part of the monitor application.

Bloatware can be problematic for Windows 11 users because it hogs system resources, and LG is adding to that system drain, not to mention the annoyance of continually seeing that pop-up.

Alongside LG, Microsoft hasn't provided a statement on the matter yet. I'd expect Windows 11 users will want an answer of some kind, especially because of the rather fiddly steps involved to prevent these automatic installations — and frankly, this shouldn't require extra effort from anyone.

Filmora is one of the most well-known video editing software in the industry. The company has also done well to embrace AI, adding a whole new range of advanced AI functions that have only made the platform better and more capable over time.

In this review, we've put Filmora to the test, trying out its top features hands-on to see if they live up to expectations. We also dive deeper into its other offerings, value for money, and in-use experience, as well as compare it to the best AI video editors to help you find out if it's the right choice for you.

Filmora: Plans and pricing

Much like other AI editing and content generation tools, Filmora also offers a free-forever plan, allowing you to edit videos along with access to a limited amount of creative assets such as effects, filters, transitions, music, and sound effects.

However, unlike Kapwing, Adobe Firefly, or Fliki, Filmora's free plan does not include any AI credits. This means you won't be able to generate AI videos or images for free with Filmora, which is a bit of a letdown considering the competitive landscape.

Filmora's paid plans start at $4.17 per month. The Basic plan is not much different from the free plan, except that you get 500 uses of its proprietary AI Mate, along with 1GB of cloud storage. Besides this, everything else remains pretty similar to the free plan.

You also have the option to add the Filmora Creative Assets add-on to the Basic plan for $19.99 per month. However, you do get a 14-day trial of the Creative Assets package.

There's also an option to purchase the Basic plan with a one-time perpetual license for $79.99. However, you will not receive future updates and will need to pay an additional upgrade fee to access newer versions.

You can check out Filmora by clicking here.

Next up is the Advanced plan at $5 per month, which comes with 1,000 AI credits. This is the first plan where you can create AI videos and short clips, and use AI tools like Text to Object, Text to Speech, AI Music, AI Images, AI Copywriting, and more. You also get 10GB of cloud storage, along with limited access to Creative Assets.

Compared to the likes of Veed, which costs $12 per user per month, or Kapwing, which costs $16 per user per month, Filmora's Advanced plan is one of the most affordable options available for AI content generation. Just like the Basic plan, you can also add the Filmora Creative Assets pack for $19.99 per month.

However, the Premium plan, which costs $8.33 per month, already includes the Creative Assets package and is, in our opinion, one of the best value-for-money plans you can get. You receive 2,000 AI credits per month, along with 100GB of cloud storage. The Creative Assets package also includes over 12,000 effects and filters, more than 7,000 transitions, and access to 1.5 million stock media assets.

Also, all the prices mentioned above are for the Windows version, with Mac pricing being slightly higher. For instance, the Basic plan on Mac costs $5.83 per month, with a perpetual license priced at $99.99, whereas the Advanced plan costs $6.67 per month and the Premium plan costs $10 per month.

Even though they are a tad pricier than the Windows version, they're still pretty affordable compared to other similar video editing and AI generation tools.

Filmora: Features

The best thing about Filmora is that it keeps adding new features. With the release of version 15, the platform has added a new repertoire of both AI and video editing features. For instance, there's the new AI Video Extender, which helps you expand your footage forward or backward with the help of a prompt.

This may come in handy when your footage is too short and you need a bit more footage for smooth intros and outros. Using it is also pretty simple. You just need to drag its Smart Pen onto the editing dashboard and add a prompt describing how the video should continue.

In the same vein, Filmora has also introduced Prompt Video Editing, which allows you to add, replace, or remove objects in your videos using simple text prompts instead of having to do it manually on the editing dashboard.

Another impressive new feature is Animated Charts, which lets you import CSV or Excel files and generate chart and graph animations to build dynamic line, area, and pie charts. This comes in handy for commercial teams that want to prepare engaging presentations with animated visualizations.

The platform has also recently introduced advanced pixel tracking and motion compensation algorithms for its built-in video stabilization. This helps repair shaky video footage, making it more stable.

Similarly, there's also a Lens Correction option, which helps you remove optical distortions caused by camera lenses. This includes barrel or fisheye distortion, pincushion distortion, vignetting, and perspective or keystone distortion.

This comes in handy while editing wide-angle or action camera footage, where the fisheye bulge is distracting, or architecture and interior shots, where you want walls and buildings to look straight instead of curved.

Furthermore, Filmora now has advanced planar tracking, which can follow an entire flat surface across a moving video and lets you add images, videos, text, logos, mosaics, or anything else you want to that flat surface, much like inserting an image into a video. For instance, you can attach a logo to a moving truck, billboard, or storefront sign.

Filmora also has one of the largest libraries of creative assets we have seen across similar applications. Although it's a paid add-on, the Creative Assets package unlocks a large pool of premium effects and media.

This includes stock media and original video effects, over 100,000 royalty-free audio tracks, professionally designed title templates, a wide range of basic and professional transitions, aesthetic and cinematic effects and filters, stickers, more than 10,000 ready-made templates, and over 500 AI-powered effects.

Here are some other features you get with Filmora:

• AI text-to-video, audio-to-video, and image-to-video.
• AI Storyboard Generator, allowing you to generate ready-to-use storyboards with editable characters, scenes, and styles.
• An all-new Pen Tool, which lets you draw custom vector paths and shapes directly onto the video frame.
• AI Color Palette for cinematic color editing.
• Text animation with immersive and dynamic effects.
• An automated AI-powered subtitle generator, along with more than 100 animated subtitle templates.
• AI voice cloning in 16 languages.

Filmora: Interface and in use

The Filmora dashboard can seem a bit overwhelming at first, especially if you are a beginner. The editing panel is divided into three panes: one for adding edits and elements such as audio, titles, transitions, and effects; one for viewing your image or video as you edit it; and a horizontal editing bar at the bottom, which lets you drag and drop various editing elements into your project.

At the top of your dashboard, you'll see various options such as Media, Filters, Transitions, Effects, and Templates. Simply click on any of them to open all the available options and drag and drop the ones you want onto the horizontal bar at the bottom.

Once you click on the panel where your video is being previewed, a host of other options opens on the right-hand toolbar, where you can adjust various video settings such as width, height, rotation, and flip.

As you scroll down, you'll find various AI functions such as motion tracking, planar tracking, motion blur, and stabilization. What we liked most is that you simply have to toggle the buttons to activate the features and drag elements onto your video to apply the edits. There are no complex steps involved.

In addition to video, you'll also find other advanced editing options such as speed, animation, color grading, and AI palettes on the same right-hand panel.

To be fair, it can take a bit of time for new users to get the hang of the platform. That said, Filmora is one of the most rewarding platforms once you get past that learning curve thanks to the sheer number of editing options available.

Filmora: How we tested

Since Filmora doesn't allow you to create AI content on its free plan, we couldn't test the platform's AI capabilities. However, we did put Filmora's editing functions through a thorough test.

We first downloaded the application on our Windows 11 PC, which took around a minute or two. Once set up, we imported stock media to edit. We clicked on Effects and added an RGB Stroke effect to our video of a man skateboarding. Filmora was able to identify and track the person in the video and apply the RGB Stroke effect pretty accurately.

Adding the effect was also pretty easy. We only had to select and drag the effect onto the horizontal bar. We then added a dissolving transition to the beginning of our video. Again, a simple drag-and-drop did the trick.

We then played around with various video and audio editing settings, and all of them were applied to our video almost instantaneously. There was no lag or buffering while editing even the most complex or longest videos.

Filmora: Alternatives

Filmora focuses heavily on video editing features, offering several advanced options for professional editors. But there are a few alternatives you can consider.

If you're looking for free AI video and image generation, you can consider tools like Kapwing or Fliki. Both allow you to create AI videos and images for free.

Kapwing does a good job when it comes to generating AI characters, from simple everyday characters like a baby or a cheerleader to fantasy characters like a dragon or a cyborg. There are plenty of options.

Fliki, meanwhile, gives you many pre-video generation options to choose from. For instance, you can customize your video format, template, AI avatar, voiceover, and captions before generating a video, which saves a lot of editing work afterward.

However, Kapwing's highest-tier plan can be pretty expensive, costing $50 per user per month, whereas Fliki can go up to $44 per month. Even Filmora's most advanced plan costs only $8.33 per month, making it far more affordable. Plus, both platforms lack advanced editing options such as planar tracking and video stabilization.

Filmora: Final verdict

Filmora is one of the most feature-packed AI content generation and editing tools on the market. Apart from basic features like image-to-video, script-to-video, and audio generation, you get advanced editing options such as planar tracking, storyboard generators, video stabilization, AI video and audio extenders, dual-monitor editing, animated charts, and lens correction.

Additionally, Filmora houses one of the most extensive libraries of stock assets, including licensed music, effects, transitions, stickers, and more than 10,000 templates.

That said, its interface is not among the simplest we have seen and requires a bit of a learning curve. Also, its free plan does not allow you to create any AI content, which was a bit of a disappointment. If this is a deal-breaker for you, you can consider other options like Adobe Firefly or Kapwing.

We've tested a range of video makers and editors, including the best video editing software, the best video editing apps and the best free video editing software.

Adobe is a popular brand when it comes to all things creative, including AI content generation and editing. With its newly improved Firefly tool, Adobe has taken AI content generation a step further with realistic, real-time outputs.

In addition to being highly accurate, Firefly is also one of the most affordable tools on the market today. But is it the best AI video editor for your needs? Read on to find out. In this article, we've put Firefly to the test, examining its features, pricing, ease of use, and overall value for money.

Adobe Firefly: Plans and pricing

Adobe Firefly is available online by clicking here, as well as part of the Creative Cloud suite of apps.

It offers one of the most generous free video editing software we've seen. Instead of capping your monthly or one-time usage, Adobe allows you to generate a limited number of images and videos each day. This means you can continue using Firefly for a longer period, provided you stay within the daily limits.

What we like about the free plan is that Firefly does not lock its image or video editing features behind paywalls. Even on the free plan, you get access to features such as Generative Fill, Background Removal, AI Markup, video upscaling, text-based editing, as well as audio features such as generating soundtracks, speech, text-to-avatar, and more. Unlike other platforms, Firefly's free plan can actually come in handy for limited individual use.

Its paid plans are also among the most inexpensive we've seen in the category, with the Standard plan starting at $8.49 per month when billed annually, which comes with 2,000 credits.

With this plan, you get access to all the AI models Firefly has to offer, with hard upper limits on the number of images and videos you can generate with each model. Videos, however, are capped at a maximum duration of five seconds, which might not be enough for users looking to generate long-form content. Besides this, you get access to unlimited Firefly Boards, while the remaining features stay the same as those in the free plan.

Next is the Pro plan at $16.99 per month (4,000 credits), billed annually, where you get unlimited access to several AI models such as Gemini 2.5 Flash, FLUX.1 Kontext, and others. The maximum number of images and videos you can generate is also higher than in the Standard plan.

Then there's the Pro Plus plan, priced at $29.38 per month, where you get up to 10,000 credits and higher limits on image and video generation. In this plan, a wider range of models comes with unlimited access, including Gemini 3.0, ChatGPT Image, Runway Gen-4.5, and Gemini 3 Nano Banana Pro 2K.

Finally, there's the Premium plan at $118.93 per month, offering 50,000 credits and unlimited access to almost all AI models except a few. This plan is ideal for large content creation and creative teams.

Adobe Firefly: Features

Right off the bat, what impressed us most about Firefly is its brainstorming and early-stage concepting feature called Firefly Boards. It is essentially an infinite-canvas mood board and ideation workspace that lets you upload your own images, sketches, or stock images, or generate new ones.

You can select multiple assets and combine elements while brainstorming ideas with your creative team. This is similar to Midjourney- or Discord-style iteration, giving remote creative teams a space to flesh out new ideas.

Moreover, Firefly offers access to more than 10 popular video, audio, and image models, each with its own limits on the amount of content you can generate. Some notable features are Generative Expand and Generative Fill, which let you expand the canvas of an image or video after it has been generated using Adobe's AI engine. Similarly, there's also Generative Remove, which helps you remove elements from a piece of content.

Firefly also throws in a range of audio features, such as the ability to generate speech, translate videos from one language to another, or add text-to-sound effects to your content. However, we were a bit disappointed with its video editing features, such as trimming, arranging, and refining content, all of which are still in beta. Its AI assistant is also at a very early stage and currently supports only one conversation at a time.

You also have the option to upload an image to provide Firefly with a style or structure reference and create a consistent look across a batch of images. Unlike many other AI tools, Firefly allows you to use your own images to train its AI models and create custom models. This is still an early-stage feature, and we expect it to improve over the next year or so.

Firefly has also expanded its multilingual reach and now supports prompts in more than 100 languages, along with translations in more than 20 languages. There's also an option for bulk actions such as background removal, color grading, and cropping.

Its mobile apps have also improved a lot over the past year and now offer native iOS and Android apps with an experience that's very close to the web interface. And of course, Firefly is part of Adobe's broader AI-powered content generation and editing ecosystem, integrating directly with apps like Photoshop and Illustrator.

Adobe Firefly: Interface and in use

Adobe Firefly is by far one of the most improved image and video editing software we have seen in a long time. One of the biggest criticisms of Firefly was that it did not offer any option to edit the images it generated. However, all that has changed with its revamped user interface.

Not only did it generate a pretty high-quality image for us, but it also provided several editing options. We especially liked its Tune feature, which is currently in beta and allows you to change the look of an image by selecting from a list of preconfigured options.

There is also a prompt option, which lets you keep fine-tuning your generated image with follow-up prompts.

However, if that is too much work, there are several fine-grained controls available. For instance, there is a Fill feature that lets you fill any blank spaces in the image with an element of your choice. Similarly, there's the Remove feature, which lets you remove any element you do not want in the final result.

What we liked the most is its Select feature, where you can select a particular element in an image or video and then type a prompt to edit only that selected portion. This helps avoid unwanted changes in other parts of the image or video and ensures that the edit is applied only to the section you selected.

The generation interface itself is pretty simple. You'll see a prompt box at the bottom of your screen, along with a panel on the left-hand side where you can control the generation settings.

For instance, you can select the model you want to use, the resolution, the aspect ratio (16:9 or 9:16), and the duration of the video. There is also an advanced setting where you can enter a random seed value to experiment with the AI engine settings.

What we found particularly eye-catching is the prompt enhancement feature, which lets you improve your prompts before generating an image or video. This helps you create more detailed prompts, which in turn result in more accurate outputs.

Adobe Firefly: How we tested

We tried the free version of Adobe Firefly over several days and were quite impressed with the results. We first tried to create an AI image with the following prompt:

"A tired line cook in a stained white apron, frowning with exhaustion, wiping sweat off his forehead while chopping six carrots on a wooden cutting board. Behind him, a dim, cluttered restaurant kitchen with steam rising from a pot. Photorealistic, dramatic low lighting, shot on 35mm film."

As soon as we hit Generate, Firefly got to work and produced a pretty impressive image that closely matched our prompt.

However, it's worth noting that Firefly is a tad slower compared to the likes of Fliki or Kapwing. That said, the accuracy of the results is worth the wait.

Once the image was generated, we clicked on it to open the editing panel and played around with the settings. For instance, we selected the burning steel pot behind the cook and prompted Firefly to change it to a wooden pot instead.

Rather than simply making the change, Adobe gave us an Edit Strength slider, allowing us to control how strongly the wooden effect was applied to the pot.

We then tried the Remove feature by selecting a bunch of carrots and asking Firefly to remove them. Adobe once again impressed us, as it accurately removed the carrots without distorting the chopping board around them.

Lastly, we used the Upscale feature to improve the quality of the image. This took the longest, more time than it took to generate the image in the first place. However, we were once again very satisfied with the final result.

We also generated an AI video using the following prompt:

"A woman in a red coat walks across a rain-soaked city street at night, neon signs reflecting in the puddles, camera slowly tracking alongside her."

The results were again highly accurate, the colors were vibrant, and we were impressed by how closely Firefly followed the prompt without significantly diverging from the intended output.

Adobe Firefly: Alternatives

Although Adobe Firefly is a much-improved product, it does have a few shortcomings, which is why you may want to consider some alternatives. For instance, Adobe isn't the best choice if you want to generate AI avatars. Although it offers the feature in a limited capacity, the results are not what you'd expect from a dedicated AI avatar generation tool.

In that case, you can try Kapwing, which offers one of the most extensive collections of AI avatars. You can choose from a wide range of characters, including traditional human-inspired faces and more outlandish options such as aliens, Cupid, demons, cyborgs, Dracula, and more.

Kapwing produces some of the best photorealistic AI avatars we have seen in the industry. It is also one of the few tools that can render videos in 4K quality. That said, it is a bit on the expensive side, with plans starting at $16 per month.

If you need a dedicated AI assistant to help with content generation and editing, you can try Fliki, which offers an AI Copilot that understands natural language inputs and helps you achieve your desired results more effortlessly. It also includes licensed YouTube music and advanced video generation options such as stop-motion videos.

Fliki also offers a wider range of customization options compared to Adobe Firefly, such as choosing the format and template, customizing the type of character, selecting the AI model you want to use, and adding voiceovers, captions, and AI avatars.

Adobe Firefly: Final verdict

Adobe Firefly is one of the best-known names in the content creation industry, and its recent improvements put it right at the top of our list of the best AI video editors. Firefly offers more than 10 AI models for image, video, and audio generation, helping you create photorealistic images, videos, and audio with simple prompts.

We were particularly impressed by Firefly Boards, which helps you brainstorm ideas on an endless online canvas in real time while collaborating with your content team. Firefly has also improved its editing interface and tools and now supports follow-up prompt editing, along with features like Generative Fill and Generative Remove.

That said, it has a few drawbacks, such as the lack of mature video editing tools, which are still in beta, and rather limited AI avatar generation capabilities. That said, if you already use Adobe tools like Illustrator or Photoshop, adding Firefly to your repertoire is a no-brainer.

We've tested a range of video makers and editors, including the best video editing software, the best video editing apps and the best free video editing software.

While the tech world is gearing up for the debut of Samsung’s new foldables at Unpacked next week — with the company teasing some major changes to its lineup — here in the UK we’re finally able to get our hands on the Samsung Galaxy XR headset.

It's now available outside the US and Korea for the first time since its launch in October of last year, and I’ve been taking the headset for a spin after Samsung sent me a review a few weeks ago, and seeing how it compares to my trusty Meta Quest 3.

Now, I could just rehash a lot of what our Editor at Large, Lance Ulanoff, said in his Samsung Galaxy XR hands-on — praising the OLED screen, describing the comfort of the headset over several sessions, and listing the apps I love in XR that elevate the Android experience beyond what's possible on a phone or laptop. But I won't do that here.

Instead I'm putting my body (well, head and neck comfort) on the line to bring you the return of my favorite VR headset testing format: can I spend a whole week wearing the Samsung Galaxy XR?

The short answer? Yes, but it could be comfier. Read on for more about my experience.

Into the Android XR-verse

Just to be clear, I didn't wear the Galaxy XR headset 24/7 — I haven't been walking around my local supermarket immersed in XR, or sleeping in my Samsung headset .

I spent my whole working day in the headset (taking it off only for my lunch breaks, and to use the bathroom), and also wore it for a couple of hours each evening, to unwind with a movie or a game.

I also made sure to spend at least a day relying on only the hardware in the Samsung Galaxy XR’s box — i.e., the headset.

Software-wise, I used everything I’d normally rely on my PC or phone to work and stay entertained, and also had access to the Explorer Pack — a suite of software and subscriptions worth £665 that you'll get for free with a purchase of the Galaxy XR until December 16.

A quick aside on this pack: with a year's access to premium Gemini models (and 5TB of digital Google Cloud storage), plus a year of YouTube Premium, a Calm subscription, and plenty more, it's a really solid addition to the XR experience — I'll be writing more about my experience with its services soon.

Anyway, back to the headset itself…

Things got off to a good start on day one. Thanks to the XR multitasking I was able to have a giant floating Slack window keeping me in touch with my TechRadar colleagues, and a second giant floating YouTube window featuring the latest episode of one of my many podcasts or music playlists to keep me engaged, flanking a Google doc page for whatever I was working on, which I wrote in using a floating keyboard that reacts to my finger movements.

I could open Google Chrome tabs too, and conveniently flick through and between windows using eye controls — the headset relies on eye-tracking to determine what buttons I want to press, which I indicate by simply pinching my fingers while my hand rests lazily in front of me.

I was even able to join meetings virtually, with digital avatars that were good, but not yet great at representing me or mimicking my real-world facial expressions. My Galaxy avatar looked a bit too cartoonish for work meetings, and my Google avatar looked permanently distressed (which I don’t think is my general state of being), and was also missing my glasses, which felt weird — I always wear them, so it felt like the avatar was missing some of my identity.

That aside, I quickly found that any job which relies on lots of basic operations (essentially anything that isn’t something like intense video editing, though there are Play Store apps for less sophisticated video editing needs) is a breeze on the Galaxy XR headset. However, as the novelty faded, I hit my first hurdle: speed.

Gotta type fast!

Eye-tracking controls are neat, and generally XR controls are incredibly intuitive, but the keyboard is not as responsive as even the most basic physical keyboard. This slowed my typing pace to a crawl, and with deadlines looming over me I couldn’t spend my days steadily working through sentences at a snail pace.

The ideal alternative would be a Bluetooth keyboard that pairs with your headset, and most standard models will get the job done after you’ve connected one. I gave one a quick try, and it was much more effective than the virtual keyboard for actually working productively in XR — the brief pause I had to contend with between virtual key presses was eliminated.

My predicament gave me an excuse, however, to see how the headset works when paired with a PC — giving me the massive virtual displays of XR combined with the convenience of a fully powered desktop.

The perfect setup would involve a Samsung Galaxy Book, which pairs more seamlessly with the headset, like the Vision Pro and a MacBook pair for Apple users. However I don’t have a Galaxy Book, so I instead had to turn to Virtual Desktop.

It’s an app I’ve used previously to pair Meta headsets with my PC, and it’s very effective. The connection, even in a room a few meters from where my router lives, is seamless, with next to no delay between what I do on my PC and see on my headset’s view. Plus, with the ability to drag displays around and resize them, I could create the ultimate multi-monitor setup.

The downside is that you can’t access the full multitasking capabilities of the Galaxy XR headset within the Virtual Desktop app. Other apps seem not to suffer from these issues; however the trouble is that several, such as Google’s PC Connect, weren’t available in the UK when I was conducting my tests, and it seems that every app has a downside (for example, PC Connect only lets you stream a single monitor, not multiple).

This compatibility friction with non-Samsung PCs would be the biggest change I’d like to see addressed from a productivity standpoint, as otherwise the Galaxy XR excels on the software side.

My other two big changes would be to the design: the addition of a silicone facial interface and a top strap.

I can’t feel my head when I’m with you

The UK, where I’m based, has been buffeted by heat waves in recent weeks, including while I was testing the Galaxy headset. In homes designed to retain heat, and which lack A/C, this means things can get pretty hot and sweaty, which isn’t ideal when a headset is strapped to your face — and it’s even less ideal when you can feel that sweat being soaked up by the fabric facial interface.

If I was in charge of making headsets I’d mandate that all facial interfaces are made of silicone, or at least that headsets come with a swappable silicone interface, or a silicone cover for the fabric interface, in the box. Unfortunately I can't force such a change on Samsung, but hopefully it’s a change it’ll make for the Galaxy XR 2; it’s more hygienic, and makes the headset easier to share, and I’ve found it doesn’t impact the comfort at all (if anything it makes me feel more at ease in the headset, as I know I’m not immersed in months-old sweat).

As for a top strap (one which runs over the top of my head rather than simply around it), I firmly believe it would help to make the headset comfier to wear for long stretches, as it would further spread the weight of the device across my head.

Day one wasn’t too bad, but by the midpoint of day two I was feeling a little discomfort. By day four I was ready to give up my challenge; and the end of day five couldn’t come fast enough.

Samsung gets so much else right in terms of the Galaxy XR's comfort — chiefly moving the weight of its bulky battery to an external puck, so that you’re only carrying 545g on your head — so it’s a shame that the headset is let down by something as simple as its headband.

For a few hours I found it was fine, but for my extreme testing sessions it didn’t hold up.

Yet again, then, I’ve found that I don’t really want to spend my whole day inside a VR headset, even though the Samsung Galaxy XR headset represents a serious improvement in terms of visual performance (courtesy of its superb OLED screen), the usefulness of its features, including eye-tracking (which I’ve previously found is quite gimmicky), and delivering solid multitasking performance (aided by the expansive app library of the Play Store) compared to the last time I tried a similar exercise with the Meta Quest Pro a few years ago.

Even if I won’t be spending all my time in the Galaxy XR, I plan to wear it plenty more, albeit just for more casual sessions, and I’ll definitely be taking it on a flight, as soon as I have the opportunity, to see how it fares — perhaps that’s where it’ll really shine.