The basic assumptions behind online commerce are starting to fracture, says Paul Conroy, CTO at Square1, as he looks back at last week’s Stripe Sessions in San Francisco.
Stripe bills Sessions as its “internet economy conference”. Across a few days in San Francisco, thousands of people from around the world gathered last week to talk about the future of online commerce.
But for all the product launches and big-name keynotes, one fundamental shift kept surfacing – the basic assumptions behind online commerce are starting to fracture.
For more than 20 years, payment systems have been built on the assumption that bots are the problem. A good customer browses, hesitates, clicks around and eventually buys something. A suspicious customer lands directly on a payment page, provides almost zero behavioural signal and comes from a server farm rather than a smartphone.
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Stripe Sessions 2026 made it very clear: that assumption is dead. In the next phase of commerce, it’s likely that the bot is actually the customer.
Agents need merchants they can understand
One of the clearest examples of this shift is the soon-to-be-everyday idea of asking an AI agent to buy you something. Not just “find me this jacket”, but something more concierge-like: “Get me a full outfit for hiking in France in July, within this budget.”
That request asks vastly more of a merchant than a traditional product search. A human can squint at a product page, read around missing information, infer whether two items might work together and gauge if a return policy feels fair. An agent needs that same information in a structured, reliable format. It needs to understand sizes, materials, compatibility and, crucially, whether a merchant can be trusted.
For merchants, agentic commerce raises a practical question – can your products, prices and policies actually be understood by machines?
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This is why new commerce protocols are suddenly so vital. The Universal Commerce Protocol (supported by companies like Stripe, Shopify and Google) is an attempt to standardise how this should work. If agents are going to shop, merchants need a common way to tell those agents what they sell and how it can be bought. Businesses with messy product data will soon find themselves effectively invisible to machine customers.
The new unit economics of AI
This evolution also shows up when we look at agents paying for digital work in tiny increments.
One demo at Sessions involved a code review tool which charges based on tokens consumed. That sounds niche until you consider the economics of AI more broadly. As more companies rely on AI, the cost of inference becomes a massive operational risk. We have all seen the funny screenshots where someone persuades a fast-food chatbot to ignore the menu and write a React app instead. That unintended use is amusing until it is applied to a service with real inference costs behind it. If usage spikes, costs spike.
In the demo, the tool’s price was thousandths of a cent per token used. That is far too small to make sense through traditional credit card processing, so delayed billing in aggregate is common, though risky, for this type of merchant today. However, if an agent can call an API, use an authorised wallet, and make thousands of tiny payments as and when it consumes a service – while keeping processing fees low – viable microtransactions suddenly look very real.
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How do you charge for AI-native services when the unit economics are too small, too fast-moving or too risky for traditional payment models? This is where stablecoins graduate from crypto buzzword to practical infrastructure.
The view from Europe
Spending a few days in San Francisco makes the difference in pace hard to ignore. Coming from Dublin, where the bus shelters are more likely to be selling phone plans or supermarket offers, it is striking to arrive somewhere where every billboard seems to be advertising some novel AI startup, or a company with a new way to move money.
Some of that is inevitably hype. But what is entirely real is that the US is actively wiring up the infrastructure to support these shifts. Stablecoin adoption and agent wallets are rapidly moving from theoretical concepts to live commercial deployments.
From a European perspective, that should make us slightly uncomfortable. We have a tendency to approach new financial infrastructure by regulating first. The rollout of the MiCA (Markets in Crypto-Assets) framework is a perfect example. While it gives Europe necessary regulatory clarity, our heavy focus on compliance often means commercial deployment lags behind.
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Consumer protection and stability are critical, of course. But there is a difference between moving carefully and moving so slowly that the next generation of infrastructure is built somewhere else, with someone else’s interests at heart. If AI-native commerce, agent wallets and real-time stablecoin microtransactions become the foundation of how online commerce is conducted, Europe cannot afford to watch from the sidelines. The challenge is to regulate well without regulating late.
The fraud arms race gets harder
The fraud angle is where this agentic ecosystem gets significantly more complicated.
Historically, fraud tooling has treated bot-like behaviour as suspicious by default. No normal browsing pattern, a single fast request to transact and a data-centre IP were strong signals that something bad was happening. In an agentic commerce world, a perfectly legitimate transaction will look exactly like that.
This creates a catch-22 for merchants. Block good agents, you lose revenue. Allow bad agents, you lose money. The old signals are failing in both directions.
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This came up repeatedly during Sessions. There is a new arms race developing: fraudsters using AI to scale attacks and probe weaknesses, and Stripe using its own AI models in Radar to detect and respond. What I found most interesting was the frankness in many of the talks. There was no triumphalism, just a lot of, “we do not have this fully figured out just yet”. How do we authenticate intent? Who owns the transaction when a user has delegated the decision to an agent?
These are existential questions for businesses operating on low margins. The same automation that makes new buying experiences possible makes abuse much cheaper to attempt.
Clean APIs and the human element
Between talks in the main hall, instead of piped-in background music, a live string quartet played pop covers. It sounds like a tiny thing, and it won’t appear in anyone’s ROI model, but it was a conscious decision somebody somewhere in Stripe made, to make the room a nicer place to be.
That theme of the hidden utility of beauty came up during Patrick Collison’s interview with Sam Altman. Altman noted that Stripe has cared to an almost irrational degree about design and beauty in its APIs for years. That aesthetic consistency was designed to appeal to human developers, but ironically, it may become their biggest advantage in a world of agents. Agents, it turns out, benefit from the exact same things human developers do – clear APIs, coherent abstractions and predictable behaviour. Stripe spent years making itself easier for developers to choose, putting it in a remarkably strong position now that software starts choosing tools too.
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During that same interview, there was an interruption as a protester with a guitar walked down the aisle, singing that music and art should be made by humans, not machines. It was a strange and funny moment. The Moscone Center acoustics are so good, many thought he was part of the show initially, before he was hurriedly escorted away. There were numerous callbacks to this during subsequent talks – John Collison noted that an AI demo that was taking too long to run could have used a guy with a guitar to keep people entertained – but it served as another reminder that AI is changing more than commerce. It is colliding directly with culture more broadly, for better and worse.
The future is unevenly distributed
For visitors to San Francisco, Waymo’s autonomous cars navigating the hills still feel like a futuristic tourist attraction. For locals, they are just more traffic.
Agentic commerce feels a lot like those driverless cars. It brings to mind William Gibson’s famous line about the future being already here, just not evenly distributed.
While agentic commerce is unevenly distributed, it is very much here. The businesses that prepare now by cleaning up their data, rethinking their pricing for microtransactions and strengthening their fraud controls will be ready for a fundamentally new kind of customer.
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The ones that wait may find the agents have already learned to shop somewhere else.
Paul Conroy is CTO at Square1, an award-winning digital transformation agency specialising in payments and online publishing. He was also among the first cohort of Stripe Partner Advocates – a group of technical leaders with deep payments experience, chosen to collaborate directly with Stripe product teams. Disclosure: Square1 is a longtime collaborator of Silicon Republic.
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This week was the best of times for Akamai and the worst of times for Cloudflare.
On the same evening, content delivery network mainstay Cloudflare announced it was cutting about a fifth of its staff in a realignment around AI, its competitor Akamai announced a seven-year, $1.8 billion deal with a leading LLM provider that Bloomberg identified as Anthropic.
Akamai CEO Tom Leighton said this was the largest deal in the company’s history and that it came after another large, unidentified frontier-model developer signed a $200 million deal last quarter.
“These leaders in AI have chosen Akamai because their AI workloads need the scale, performance and reliability that our cloud platform provides,” he said during the company’s first quarter earnings call on Thursday.
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Akamai, which has 4,300 locations in 700 cities across 130 countries, won the deal against stiff competition from hyperscalers and neoclouds. He said Akamai’s ability to manage and scale complex distributed systems, as well as its low latency, tipped the scales in its favor.
Given the supply chain constraints in datacenter space, especially as it relates to memory costs and the infrastructure needed inside of large datacenter buildouts, one analyst asked if Akamai planned any increase to its capital expenditures this year to pay for it. Akamai executive vice president and CFO Ed McGowan said that was not likely.
“We’ve been able to get the supply chain ready. We anticipate receiving all the goods that we need to deliver this services over the next seven years within the next 12 months,” he said. “Now there’s always potential for slippage and delays, but we have mechanisms in our contracts to deal with, if, in say six months from now, prices were to go up. So we’ve taken that into consideration.”
McGowan said it is a consumption-based contract over seven years, so as soon as Akamai ramps the necessary capacity, it will start taking revenue, which he expects to begin happening later this year.
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Winning this deal and ones like it has been Akamai’s goal in the AI era, Leighton said.
“This has been the strategy all along. So we’re very pleased to be executing against it,” he said. “The goal has been to be deploying a distributed inference platform, distributed compute platform that would be desired by enterprises across the spectrum … The platform is to a point where we can do that, and I think you’ll see more of this going forward.”
On the same day, across the country, Cloudflare was spelling out the bad news to its employees that it planned to cut the workforce by 1,100, roughly 20 percent. Cloudflare co-founders Matthew Prince and Michelle Zatlyn said it was not about cutting costs, but about building a company that meets the AI moment.
“We have to be intentional in how we architect our company for the agentic AI era in order to supercharge the value we deliver to our customers and to honor our mission to help build a better Internet for everyone, everywhere,” they wrote in a blog post.
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Cloudflare’s revenues grew 34 percent year over year to reach $639.8 million in the first quarter. It posted a net loss of $22.9 million. It expects to pay up to $150 million in severance and benefit payments related to the layoffs.
While Akamai’s stock price surged 26 percent on Friday, Cloudflare dropped 23 percent. With a market cap of over $69 billion, Cloudflare still has more than three times Akamai’s market cap. ®
We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you’re buying the best. Find out more about how we test.
TCL QM8L: Two-minute review
The TCL QM8L SQD-Mini LED TV may be technically the company’s third-tier TV this year, but it’s good enough to give you a flagship-type experience for a very reasonable price.
In my time with the TCL QM8L, I was very impressed across the board — almost as much as my dad, who’s probably stole even more time using it than me during testing. Its bright screen makes daytime watching easy even in bright rooms, and TCL’s backlight tech does a great job of offering a clean image with no blooming, highlighting detail no matter how bright or dark the picture is.
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In fact, I think that everything this TV has to offer not only makes it really strong contender among the best TVs of 2026, as well as one of the best gaming TVs thanks to its four HDMI 2.1 ports and broad current-gen gaming features.
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There’s plenty more to like about the 75QM8L (I received the 75-inch size for this review). The hands-free control is always a nice feature and having Google Gemini’s conversational interaction is mostly lovely, though I did find issue with some of the information it would offer up during use.
And I also found it to not quite measure up to the best of the best when it comes to color accuracy, or for color coverage compared to what TCL claimed it would be capable of.
That said, if you were to watch this TV and not look at any benchmarks, you would — like me — not think about any of that and just be enthralled with the sharp, smooth, and bright image (and brightness is a key area where the benchmarks look pretty good).
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If you’re looking for an excellent mini-LED TV that comes in big sizes, and can hold up to even the brightest rooms while still delivering nuanced picture quality, I can recommend the TCL QM8L strongly.
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TCL QM8L review: Price and release date
(Image credit: Future / James Holland)
Release date: April 2026
65-inch: $1,799
75-inch: $1,999
85-inch: $2,999
98-inch: $4,999
TCL has taken a go-big-or-go-home approach this year, releasing impressive updates for its top couple of lines of TVs, including the QM8L series reviewed here. While the TV was on show at CES, it wasn’t available for purchase until April 2026.
It sits below the TCL X11L (which is this year’s flagship) and the TCL RM9L TVs in this year’s line-up, but it uses the same SQD-Mini LED panel technology as the X11L. (The RM9L uses a new RGB LED panel, just to confuse things.)
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As far as actual pricing goes, the pricing is not for the faint of heart, despite being third in the list. I’ll discuss how it stacks up to the competition later (and TCL does offer good value), but that doesn’t change the fact that a price of $1,999.99 for the 65 inch, the smallest size available for the QM8L, is a lot of money to throw at a TV.
It’s less than the likes of LG G6 OLED TV, but is still undeniably premium — though it’s already dropped massively in the few weeks since its launch, and will drop further — as is always the case with TCL TVs.
I think adding a couple hundred bucks to upgrade to the next size up, the 75-inch reviewed here, is reasonable if you’re already considering dropping that kind of cash on a TV.
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TCL QM8L review: Specs
Swipe to scroll horizontally
Screen type:
SQD-Mini LED
Refresh rate:
144Hz
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HDR support:
HDR10, HDR10+, HLG, Dolby Vision IQ
Smart TV:
Google TV
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HDMI ports:
4x HDMI 2.1
Built-in tuner:
ATSC 3.0
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TCL QM8L review: Benchmark results
TCL QM8L review: Features
(Image credit: Future / James Holland)
Supports the full range of HDR and spatial audio formats
Uses a few different TCL technologies to improve picture quality
Hands-free control via Google Gemini
The TCL 75QM8L has a good amount of features, as it should for TCL’s almost flagship TV. It has all the various HDR, Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos, and DTS support one could need, which no rivals from LG, Sony or Samsung offer in their entirety.
The TV also utilizes some proprietary features to improve picture quality. For instance, the TCL Deep Color System is meant for a wider color range, to get up to a claimed 100% BT.2020 color coverage.
I’ll go into our test results in the next section, but I’ll briefly mention that the TV does decently but doesn’t actually get to that 100% color coverage for either BT.2020 or DCI-P3 in our measurements. Still, this technology does boost the colors beyond what’s been normal for mini-LED in the past (and TCL says there are multiple ways to test for BT.2020 coverage).
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Available in 65-, 75-, 85-, and 98-inches (my test unit is the 75-inch model), these TVs come with up to 4,000 local dimming zones featuring precise array full local dimming thanks to the SQD-Mini LED panel, and up to 6,000 nits of peak brightness to really make the most of HDR content.
For reference, the flagship X11L claims up to 20,000 local dimming zones and 10,000 nits of brightness. Considering the 75QM8L is much more affordable (in comparison), its specs are pretty impressive.
The ‘Enhanced Halo Control System’ in the LED backlight promises to minimize blooming, partly by using 26-bit backlight controllers. Having spent a good amount of time looking at this screen with HDR content on (as well as some test videos with colorful objects against black backgrounds), I haven’t noticed much if any in the way of blooming for real-world use.
Colorful or bright objects kept their shape against darker backgrounds without spilling over, so to speak, to those darker sections.
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The WHVA panel 2.0 that TCL hopes will make you forget about OLED TVs also sport a 144Hz refresh rate, and a 178º viewing angle.
A TSR AI Pro processor powers the TV, with its processing focused partly on Google’s AI-powered voice assistant Gemini. And Wi-Fi 6 is on hand for a more responsive TV – realistically, your Wi-Fi is going to be the biggest bottleneck on a newer TV so this is a welcome upgrade.
If you’re like me, the hands-free voice control, using the Google Gemini AI voice assistant, will be the most impressive and most noticeable. Every time I say “Hey Google,” I find the TV to be responsive, even when it’s off and I’m asking it to turn back on.
I can open apps and a good deal of content just by speaking to it. I can also ask out more general knowledge-type queries that one would with a voice assistant (weather, sports scores, news, etc.).
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Of course, there are some limitations in that it doesn’t always lead me to the right streaming location for certain content (more on that in the smart TV section).
Beyond the voice assistant, the AI capabilities, powered by the TSR AI Pro Processor, include an AI art gallery as a screen saver, AI news briefs, and AI picture-related settings.
For gaming, you’ve got 144Hz at 4K and variable refresh rate support across all four HDMI ports, plus the option for a 288Hz refresh rate at 1080p (still with VRR).
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TCL QM8L review: Picture quality
Difficult and nuanced near-dark detail is handled remarkably well (Image credit: Future / James Holland)
Impressively limited blooming and bold colors
Filmmaker mode and Dolby Vision help to deliver rich pictures
Color accuracy is not totally ideal out of the box
I spent a few weeks with the TCL 75QM8L, sharing time in control of the screen with my dad, which means a combination of Phillies games, British murder mysteries, blockbusters, 90 Day Fiancé and Leave It To Beaver — as well as some next-gen gaming. I’ll go into detail on that last bit in the gaming section, but it’s instructive for how the screen looks too.
During use, the TCL QM8L is a stunner. What I think puts this TV above other so many other options are the color and halo control systems I mentioned above, combined with the total HDR support, meaning images look gloriously rich.
We measured 3,719 nits of peak HDR brightness in a 10% window in Filmmaker Mode, which is absolutely stunning – but the over 2,000 local dimming zones in the model I tested helped to keep clear separation between light and dark areas despite the brightness.
There’s no bleed from one color to the next, and I’m able to see details in shadows clearly thanks to high dimming capability of each section.
Fullscreen HDR brightness in a 100% window is also colossal, reaching 760 nits in Filmmaker Mode and 790 nits in Standard (which is what you’re more likely to use for sports).
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Even in SDR in Standard mode, it hit 518 nits. That blows away any TV I’ve tested so far, and means the screen will only have reflection issues in dark scenes — watching sports in the day won’t be any kind of problem.
Also useful for sports, or family room viewing, is that it has a pretty wide viewing angle, so I can watch something at a very sharp angle and still see the picture impressively clearly.
Speaking of sports, the motion handling is smooth. Whether it’s watching NBA basketball, or even a sweeping drone shot, the screen doesn’t show much in the way of judder. And of course, movies come across as buttery smooth.
Regardless of what’s happening on the screen, the TCL QM8L still manages to reproduce all the detail of the image. Whether it’s the fine lines of a petal in one of those hi-res screen tests or the crowd in the background of a game, it all looks clear and natural.
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Even lower resolution content looks plenty sharp with a decent amount of detail. I never knew Leave It To Beaver could look so good, thanks to the “super resolution” AI upscaling (which is optional, but is enabled out-of-the-box).
When it comes to color, TCL’s purported 100% BT.2020 rating is a little overblown, because the best we measured was 90%. (TCL told us there are multiple ways to measure BT.2020, and that it makes a difference.)
DCI-P3 color coverage is incredibly strong for a mini-LED TV at 98% — this is what we get from the most elite OLED TVs normally, with mini-LED falling further behind.
A little more concerning is the color accuracy. We measure how close the color reproduction is to ‘perfect’, measured in a ‘Delta E’ score, which means how far the picture is from the signal it’s trying to recreate. We look for a score below 3, because at that point the human eye can’t distinguish any difference from the reference pattern.
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In Filmmaker Mode, the TCL QM8L score 3.7, which is a little disappointing for a premium TV, but not a dealbreaker. But in Standard, we measured a score of 9.9, which is shockingly high for something in this price range.
This is out of the box, of course, but most people don’t calibrate their TV. As I said above, I found the colors to be really impactful and involving, but Filmmaker Mode is definitely the way to enjoy things if you want an accurate, more natural look — Standard isn’t where we’d expect it to be.
Picture quality score: 4.5 / 5
TCL QM8L review: Sound quality
(Image credit: Future / James Holland)
Sounds good enough to skip the soundbar in general
Bass is the major area lacking
Spatial audio sounds pretty good
The sound quality on the TCL 75QM8L is pretty impressive, as it should be, considering the price and the fact that the sound system is branded as being by Bang & Olufsen.
I’ve tested everything from blockbuster movies to reality TV to various games and music, and I believe the audio here is good enough for you to skip adding a soundbar as long as you’re not looking for a home theater-type listening experience.
The high-end has plenty of presence while not being ice-pick brittle, letting sounds like flutes, strings, cymbals, and anything one might consider ‘sparkly’ (think chimes) come through with full clarity.
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The mid-range is full in a way that many TVs aren’t able to produce, and is, in my opinion, the main reason to typically add a soundbar to a setup. When listening to music, vocals and guitar have the appropriate amount of aggressiveness, while dialog has a weight to it in movies the helps it to stand out clearly.
There’s a decent amount of mid-bass, so you’ll still get a little thump when listening to music or watching an action movie, but the two built-in woofers aren’t able to reproduce the frequencies typically the responsibility of a subwoofer. If you really want to feel the audio, you’ll need to add one.
Happily, TCL does have a wireless subwoofer that can be added for that purpose, but it does require an additional purchase. Likewise, though the TV supports Dolby Atmos and DTS, you’ll have to get TCL’s Dolby Atmos FlexConnect speakers to actually hear any surround sound if you don’t want to purchase or build a whole home theater system.
The TV does, however, manage to reproduce some spatial audio without any add-ons. Turning it on does add a sense of height to whatever I’m watching, so you should definitely give it a try.
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I also appreciate the fact that there are some other audio options to fine tune, such as a bass boost, a dialog enhancer (admittedly subtle), an auto volume control that works somewhat like night mode in that it compresses audio volume, and an AI sonic adaptation feature that works to offset the reflections of your room for a more pure sound.
That last feature works, though not quite as well as something like Dirac, so don’t expect audiophile-level audio.
Sound quality score: 4.5 / 5
TCL QM8L review: Design
(Image credit: Future / James Holland)
Zero edge bezels feel very premium
Excellent dual-height stand with cable management
Remote is larger than average
The ‘zero edge’ bezels on the 75QM8L make me almost feel like I’m watching on a floating screen — there’s almost no frame.
The centered stand, which can be height-adjusted during installation to accommodate a soundbar, makes the TV feel more balanced and stable than many TVs that I test (and we typically get 65-inch models for testing).
The stand also has cable management built into it — it has a back panel that pops out to hide the cables — which we always appreciate.
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I also like the fact that all four HDMI ports are HDMI 2.1, meaning you don’t need to think about which one you’re going to use and fiddle around. Well, mostly: there’s still only one HDMI eARC port, so if you connect that one of the best soundbars or an AV receiver, you need to know which it is.
Lastly, the remote is actually a bit bigger than I’m usually used to, which some might like. It’s heftier and so easier to keep track of and the bottom is angled to fit snugly in the hand. It’s also backlit and has a talk button, though you can also communicate with the TV via Google Gemini.
TCL QM8L review: Smart TV and menus
(Image credit: Future / James Holland)
Google Gemini is conversational and responsive though not always correct
Good amount of free content available on Google TV, and all major apps
There’s a quick menu for common settings changes
The Google TV interface is one I’ve gotten accustomed to after reviewing a number of TVs and streaming devices that use it. The way it’s implemented on the TCL 75QM8L is essentially the same, with the only noticeable difference to most TVs being the inclusion of Google Gemini.
Google Gemini is a very robust voice assistant. Since it’s AI-powered, it’s conversational and quick, but also prone to mistakes the way generative AI generally is.
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For example, I had Gemini look up the movie Swept Away, and while it offered correct information on the fact that there are two versions, it was wrong on where it was available to stream. Strangely, when I just used the interface’s search function, I was sent to a landing page that suggested it was available to stream on Tubi, which still only hosted the newer, more maligned, 2002 version.
Gemini is nice to use, though, with a selection of different timbres of voices that sound natural when speaking. I’m able to ask about much more than movies of TV, because it is a full-blown voice assistant. It even brings up a neat little graph when talking about the weather.
For some reason, it did default to pulling up relevant YouTube videos when I asked more general questions. For instance, I asked ‘Recommend a movie to me based on my viewing habits’ and it just pulled up a bunch of YouTube videos (I was not in the YouTube app, mind you) related to must-see movies.
The rest of the Google TV interface is more standard fare. A rotating banner covers the top of the home page, followed by rows of recommendations including ‘Must Watch’, ‘Continue Watching’ and more, not to mention a row of apps if you want to open one and browse.
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Still, many will appreciate being able to browse much of the available content from the home page. Just be aware, it’s not comprehensive, as the interface may not pull information from certain apps.
As every manufacturer does these days, there’s a good amount of free content available. Google FreePlay, in particular, has a good deal of content and works much like a cable guide interface. Who knew that Google would be able to quench my dad’s thirst for Leave It To Beaver — there was a whole channel streaming episodes.
When you first go to the settings option via the remote or navigating the screen, a breakout box of quick settings appear at the top right corner of the screen. You have to still click once more to get the full list of settings — sometimes this is useful, sometimes it feels like it’s just adding a step.
There’s a lot of fine tuning available, especially for the display, so I can imagine the menus to be a little overwhelming for anyone digging in for the first time. But it’s good to have more options than not, especially with as good of a TV as this.
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Smart TV & menus score: 4.5 / 5
TCL QM8L review: Gaming
(Image credit: Future / James Holland)
All HDMI inputs support 4K at up to 144Hz, with variable refresh rate
Game Bar menu for game-specific finetuning of settings
Can automatically switch inputs and to game mode when console is on
Great news for gamers this year is that all four of QM8L’s HDMI inputs are of the full-fat HDMI 2.1 variety, meaning that they all support 4K at 120Hz or 144Hz. Just make sure to enable faster refresh rates in the TV’s menu.
Speaking of menus, if you press on the hamburger symbol (the three stacked lines) on the remote while gaming, the TCL 75QM8L will pull up a specialized menu that the brand calls the Game Bar, enabling you to turn on things like an FPS counter, Aim Assist, Game Accelerator 288 (which doubles the perceived refresh rate to 288Hz, but drop the resolution to 1080p), and Overdrive, which is a kind of motion blur that can’t be used as the same time as high refresh rates.
To test the TV for gaming, I used a Playstation 5 and had no problem running compatible games at 120 fps. All of them looked crisp thanks to the 4K resolution with good HDR contrast despite the more limited processing you get in the gaming mode.
The 9.5ms latency is excellent for a TV, and is basically as good as you get from any of the best gaming TVs — and helps everything feel fast and snappy when playing.
Lastly, not only can the TV switch inputs automatically when a console is turned on, but the TCL QM8L will automatically switch the picture mode to game mode.
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TCL QM8L review: Value
(Image credit: Future / James Holland)
It’s pricey, but not quite flagship price, thankfully
The bigger the size, the better-value TCL sets tend to be
Certain unique features like hands-free control are available on cheaper TVs
The 75-inch TCL QM8L is about two grand (which is a drop from the $3k is cost right at launch) — that’s not cheap and it’s out of reach for many consumer.
However, compare it to LG’s mid-range OLED offering, the LG C6, and the TCL is not looking so bad. That comes with a price tag of $3,699 for the 77-inch. The TCL has a big price advantage, but the two TVs are comparable overall for features.
The big threat to it is really last year’s TCL QM8K. That’s now available for around $1,500 for a 75-inch size, and is a really excellent TV without question at that price — the QM8L’s better color range, improved backlight and four HDMI 2.1 ports mean that it’s worth the upgrade in my opinion.
It may not be the bargain of the year at this price, it represents a great value overall, and is above average when it comes to bang for your buck.
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(Image credit: Future / James Holland)
Swipe to scroll horizontally
TCL QM8L Series
Attributes
Notes
Rating
Features
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Excellent picture and audio format support, plus hands-free AI-based controls that can be really useful.
4.5 / 5
Picture quality
Stunning brightness and extremely impressive contrast control for a mini-LED. We wish the colors in Standard Mode were more accurate.
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4.5 / 5
Sound quality
The audio sounds good enough to skip a soundbar, though there’s not much in the way of low-end.
4.5 / 5
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Design
The adjustable center stand with cable management is great, as are the zero edge bezels.
4.5 / 5
Smart TV and menus
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Google Gemini is conversational and easy to use though not quite reliable, while the Google TV interface is fairly intuitive to use.
4.5 / 5
Gaming
Four HDMI 2.1 ports and super-rich HDR images make this a pleasure to game on.
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5 / 5
Value
The TCL QM8L is a strong value compared to similar-tier TVs from other brands, but is still pricey.
4 / 5
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Should I buy the TCL QM8L Series?
Buy it if…
Don’t buy it if…
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Also consider…
Swipe to scroll horizontally
Header Cell – Column 0
TCL QM8L
Amazon Fire TV Omni QLED (2025)
Hisense U65QF
LG C6
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Price (65-inch)
$1,799
$849
$999
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$2,699
Screen type
SQD-Mini LED
QLED
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QLED w/ mini-LED
OLED
Refresh rate
144Hz
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60Hz
upt to 144Hz
165Hz
HDR support
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HDR10, HDR10+, HLG, Dolby Vision IQ
Dolby Vision/HDR10+ Adaptive/HDR10
Dolby Vision IQ, HDR10+, HDR10, HLG
Dolby Vision, HDR10, HLG
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Smart TV
Google TV
Fire TV
Fire TV
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WebOS 26
HDMI ports
4 HDMI 2.1
4 HDMI 2.0
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4 (2x HDMI 2.1)
4x HDMI 2.1
How I tested the TCL QM8L Series
I used the TCL 75QM8L for a couple weeks
Tested with both TV, movies, music, and games
Benchmark measurements conducted by Future US testing lab
I used the TCL 75QM8L regularly for a couple weeks. I tested it using streaming shows, movies, music, and games (via PS5). I went through the various features, particularly the hands-free AI voice assistant, to see if they work as advertised. I also spent time listening to the audio as well as paying attention to the picture quality.
The objective data measurements were taken by Future Publishing’s TV testing lab, which uses the Klein K-10A colorimeter and Jeti 15VA spectroradiometer, Murideo Six G 8K Metal test pattern generator, and Portrait Displays’ Calman color calibration software to record the results.
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I’ve tested a lot of tech gear over the years, from laptops to keyboards and speakers, and so have been able to use my expertise towards giving an honest and fair opinion, not to mention a critical eye, to any product I test.
Some Netflix subscribers are encountering a server error that prevents them from cancelling their memberships, at a time when the streaming platform has just raised prices across all of its US plans.
The error, identified by the code NSES-500, appears on Netflix’s standard “Something went wrong” page and has persisted for affected users across multiple devices and browser changes over at least a week, suggesting the problem lies within Netflix’s backend infrastructure rather than individual account settings.
One suggested workaround circulating in the same threads involves switching the account’s payment method to an expired card before attempting to cancel, a step that some users report bypasses the error screen where the conventional cancellation route continues to fail.
Reports of the issue have gathered significant traction on Reddit, where a thread on r/Anticonsumption documenting the cancellation block has drawn over 1,500 upvotes, with further threads on r/netflix showing a consistent pattern of subscribers hitting the same wall regardless of the workarounds attempted.
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The price rise that preceded this error affected every tier of Netflix’s US subscription offering, a broad adjustment that pushed the Premium plan to $26.99 per month for 4K streaming and represented one of the more aggressive rounds of pricing changes the platform had pushed through in a relatively short window, giving subscribers fresh motivation to assess whether to stay.
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That context makes the cancellation fault considerably more aggravating for those it affects, since any subscriber unable to complete the process before their billing date rolls over faces the prospect of being charged for another full cycle before they can exit the service.
Some users in the Reddit threads have reported that calling Netflix’s customer service line directly produced a successful cancellation where the online process had failed entirely, though this route requires navigating a support queue rather than using the standard account management tools.
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Netflix has not acknowledged the error publicly, and no timeline has emerged for when the self-service cancellation flow is expected to return to normal working order.
Nothing less than a win looks likely to do for title-chasing Man City on Saturday as it hosts a Brentford side looking to build on its London derby win last weekend.
Second-placed City has a game in hand over title rival Arsenal. However, the team comes into this weekend’s action five points behind the Gunners, having played out a tremendously entertaining 3-3 draw at Everton on Monday.
Brentford enters this game in seventh place and with renewed hope of qualifying for Europe for the first time in its history following last weekend’s 3-0 win over London rival West Ham.
Manchester City takes on Brentford on Saturday, May 9, at the Etihad Stadium, with kickoff set for 5:30 p.m. BST. That makes it a 12:30 p.m. ET or 9:30 a.m. PT start in the US and Canada, and a 2:30 a.m. AEST kickoff in Australia in the early hours of Sunday morning.
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Jeremy Doku scored a last-second equalizer against Everton to rescue a point on Monday night.
Shaun Brooks/CameraSport/Getty Images
How to watch Man City vs. Brentford in the US without cable
Saturday’s clash at the Etihad Stadium will be broadcast on NBC and streaming service Peacock. To catch the game live on Peacock, you’ll need a Peacock Premium or Premium Plus subscription. NBC Sports Network is available on platforms like YouTube TV.
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Peacock offers two Premium plans, and after recent price increases, the ad-supported Premium plan costs $11 a month and the ad-free Premium Plus plan costs $17 a month.
How to watch the Premier League 2025-26 with a VPN
If you’re traveling abroad and want to keep up with Premier League action while away from home, a VPN can help enhance your privacy and security when streaming.
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It encrypts your traffic and prevents your internet service provider from throttling your speeds, and can also be helpful when connecting to public Wi-Fi networks while traveling, adding an extra layer of protection for your devices and logins. VPNs are legal in many countries, including the US and Canada, and can be used for legitimate purposes such as improving online privacy and security.
However, some streaming services may have policies that restrict VPN use to access region-specific content. If you’re considering a VPN for streaming, check the platform’s terms of service to ensure compliance.
If you choose to use a VPN, follow the provider’s installation instructions to ensure you’re connected securely and in compliance with applicable laws and service agreements. Some streaming platforms may block access when a VPN is detected, so verify whether your streaming subscription allows VPN use.
Price $78 for two yearsLatest Tests No DNS leaks detected, 18% speed loss in 2025 testsJurisdiction British Virgin IslandsNetwork 3,000 plus servers in 105 countries
ExpressVPN is our current best VPN pick for people who want a reliable and safe VPN, and it works on a variety of devices. It’s normally $120 a year for its most popular plan (Advanced), but if you sign up for an annual subscription for $90, you’ll get three months free. That’s the equivalent of $6 a month.
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Note that ExpressVPN offers a 30-day money-back guarantee.
73% off with 2yr plan (+4 free months). Now only $3.49/month
Livestream Man City vs. Brentford in the UK
This Saturday afternoon clash is exclusive to Sky Sports and will be shown on its Sky Sports Main Event channel. If you already have Sky Sports as part of your TV package, you can stream the game via its Sky Go app. Cord-cutters will want to set up a Now account and a Now Sports membership to stream the game.
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Now TV
Sky’s standalone streaming service Now offers access to Sky Sports channels with a Now Sports membership. You can get a day of access for £15 or sign up to a monthly plan from £35 a month right now.
Livestream Man City vs. Brentford in Canada
If you want to livestream EPL games in Canada this season, you’ll need to subscribe to Fubo. The service has secured exclusive rights to the Premier League and is broadcasting all 380 matches live.
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Fubo
Fubo is the go-to destination for Canadians looking to watch the EPL, with exclusive streaming rights to every match. It currently costs CA$27 for the first month, then CA$31.50 per month thereafter.
Livestream Man City vs. Brentford in Australia
Livestreaming rights for the EPL are now with Stan Sport, which is showing all 380 matches live, including this game.
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Stan
Stan Sport will set you back AU$20 a month (on top of a Stan subscription, which starts at AU$12). It’s also worth noting that the streaming service is currently offering a seven-day free trial.
A subscription will also give you access to Premier League, Champions League and Europa League action, as well as international rugby and Formula E.
As the Nintendo Switch 2 still doesn’t have access to the YouTube app, owners have managed to find a workaround on the console.
This workaround is via the free-to-play title Super Animal Royale and takes advantage of the news section embedded within the app. As shared by Reddit user JampyL, the news section surfaces YouTube videos that open inside the console’s browser and enables gamers to search for and watch any YouTube content freely.
Nintendo Switch 2 owners have found a workaround to access YouTube on the console through the free-to-play title Super Animal Royale, filling a gap that Google has yet to address with an official application.
Undoubtedly it’s a clever workaround, however it’s not without its compromises. Firstly, the browser-based playback caps resolution at just 360p which makes longer or detail-heavy content much harder to watch on a TV. In addition, users won’t be able to sign into their YouTube accounts which means there’s no access to personal playlists or recommendations.
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The absence of a native YouTube application on the Switch 2 is a notable gap given that the original Nintendo Switch shipped with a dedicated YouTube app that remained available to users throughout the console’s life cycle, with that same legacy app remaining downloadable on Switch 2 hardware for owners who want a stopgap while waiting for a purpose-built successor.
The Switch 2 launched earlier this year to strong demand, with Nintendo reporting significant early sales figures, making the continued absence of a fully functional YouTube experience on the platform increasingly conspicuous among the broader library of missing media applications at this stage of the hardware cycle.
Google has not confirmed when a dedicated YouTube application will arrive on the Nintendo eShop, leaving Switch 2 owners reliant on workarounds for a feature the platform’s predecessor supported from relatively early in its own life cycle.
The scene at the 2026 GeekWire Awards at Showbox SoDo in Seattle on Thursday night. (GeekWire Photo / Kevin Lisota)
Hundreds of Pacific Northwest tech community members turned out to honor each other, network and party at the 2026 GeekWire Awards in Seattle on Thursday.
The shimmering scene inside Showbox SoDo — highlighted by crystal accents to mark the event’s 15th anniversary — included an especially geeky and futuristic acrobatic dance performance by members of Maison de V’s circus and dance community.
Seattle Sounders FC captain Cristian Roldan made a special appearance. There was also a silver-clad juggler tossing lighted batons; a fortune teller’s booth; the usual antics in the photo booth; dinner, drinks and much more as Seattle turned out for the annual event — sponsored by Astound Business Solutions — to celebrate the leading entrepreneurs and innovators across the region’s tech landscape.
Read about all the winners in our main awards story, and keep scrolling for a photographic recap of the event. And thanks again to everyone for attending!
A juggler performs at the GeekWire Awards VIP Reception. The Yoodli team in the photo booth at the GeekWire Awards.Peter Tomozawa, CEO of Seattle World Cup 2026 and president of business operations for the Seattle Sounders.From left: Sonu Aggarwal of TiE Seattle, GeekWire co-founder John Cook, and First Tech’s Keion Mauldin.GeekWire co-founder Todd Bishop, right, interview’s Augmodo founder and CEO Ross Finman.The calm before the storm at the GeekWire Awards.Inside the Baird Fortune Suite at the GeekWire Awards.From left: Magdalena Balazinska of the UW’s Allen School, Brett Goodwin of Carbon Robotics, Kevan Krysler of Carbon Robotics and Dan Renouard of Baird.Members of Maison de V’s circus and dance community perform at the GeekWire Awards. (GeekWire Photo / Kevin Lisota)The Fuel Talent table at the GeekWire Awards.Karen Dhillon of GeekWire Awards presenting sponsor Astound Business Solutions delivers a toast to open the 2026 GeekWire Awards.GeekWire co-founders Todd Bishop, left, and John Cook on stage at the GeekWire Awards.Sounders FC majority owner Adrian Hanauer, center, and Peter Tomozawa, CEO of Seattle World Cup 2026, left, are recognized during the GeekWire Awards.From left: Wilson Sonsini’s Craig Sherman, Deal of the Year winner Greg Demopulos of Omeros, and Remitly Chairman Matt Oppenheimer. Seattle Sounders FC captain Cristian Roldan on stage at the GeekWire Awards.Ambika Singh, left, founder and CEO of Armoire, alongside GeekWire co-founder John Cook while presenting Workplace of the Year.2025 CEO of the Year David Shim of Read AI, right, congratulates 2026 winner Luis Poggi of HouseWhisper AI.
Expedia Group CEO Ariane Gorin. (Expedia Group Photo)
More than 30% of Expedia Group’s self-serve customer support interactions are now handled by AI. Its fastest-growing marketing channel is getting its brands to show up in AI responses. And the company now has travel booking integrations across both ChatGPT and Claude.
Expedia Group CEO Ariane Gorin offered new details about the Seattle-based online travel giant’s AI push on the company’s first-quarter earnings call Thursday, describing a strategy that includes both internal cost-cutting and a bet on chatbots as a new source of customers.
The company reported revenue of $3.43 billion, up 15% year over year, and adjusted earnings of $542 million, up 83%. Its first-quarter profit margin was 15.8%, the highest in 15 years.
Expedia’s stock was down about 6.5% Friday, however, as investors reacted to the company holding its full-year guidance unchanged despite the strong first-quarter results.
In addition to its flagship Expedia portal, Expedia Group includes Hotels.com, Vrbo, and a B2B business that powers hotel bookings for partners including airlines and corporate travel companies. Last week, it became the exclusive hotel partner for Uber, which will integrate Expedia’s lodging inventory into its app.
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AI impact: The AI push is both an opportunity and a defensive necessity for Expedia. The company lists “emerging AI-powered platforms” among its competitive threats, reflecting concerns that chatbots could cut online travel agencies out of the booking process altogether.
OpenAI recently scaled back plans to enable direct checkout inside ChatGPT, a decision that sent OTA stocks higher in March. Gorin said she wasn’t surprised by the pullback, arguing that travel booking and servicing are too complex for AI platforms to handle on their own.
If the market evolves further toward a paid model, she said, “that’s a space we know well.” Expedia was among the first travel brands to launch as an app inside OpenAI’s ChatGPT last October. The company went live with ads on ChatGPT in February.
In addition to travel booking integrations in ChatGPT and Claude, Gorin said Expedia is working to show up on Google’s Gemini as well.
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She noted that traffic and bookings from AI-driven channels are small but the company is encouraged by the mix of new users, conversion rates, and average purchase size.
New efficiencies: Gorin said Expedia handles roughly 250 million customer service interactions per year, with more than half resolved through self-service and a growing share powered by AI.
The company has cut new customer service agent onboarding time by about 60%. When customers do need a human agent, AI generates summaries of previous conversations so agents don’t have to start from scratch. The system now works in more than 30 languages.
At the same time, Expedia has cut hundreds of engineering, product, and technology jobs over the past two years, including 162 roles at its Seattle headquarters earlier this year.
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AI costs: Outgoing CFO Scott Schenkel said the company expects AI compute costs to rise in the second half of the year but is funding the investment through cuts elsewhere. The company didn’t disclose specific AI costs as a line item in its earnings report or conference call.
Gorin said the company is not holding back on AI adoption but is also being strategic about its usage, scrutinizing where the technology is deployed to make sure it delivers returns.
The red-light therapy market shows no signs of slowing down. According to Fortune Business Insights, the industry is projected to grow from $1.21 billion in 2026 to $1.76 billion by 2034. Riding that wave is Hong Kong-based Megelin, which is currently running its largest Mother’s Day sale yet, offering major discounts on most of its LED devices and select electrical muscle stimulation (EMS) tools.
I’ve been testing the Duo Lux Laser & LED Light Therapy Mask for the past two weeks as part of a six-week trial. While I’m still forming my final verdict, I already have some early thoughts (more on that below). In the meantime, check out the standout deals because some of these discounts might be too good to pass up while they’re live.
This Laser & LED Light Therapy Mask Is $270 Off
Megelin
Duo Lux Laser & LED Light Therapy Mask
The Megelin Duo Lux Laser & LED Light Therapy Mask combines 660-nanometer (nm) and 1,064-nm lasers with a 660-nm LED light for a more intensive treatment. The brand claims it can help smooth wrinkles, soothe inflammation, reduce pigmentation, and minimize redness. After two weeks of testing, I haven’t noticed any visible changes in my skin just yet, though to its credit, I also haven’t experienced any irritation or adverse reactions.
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My biggest issue was the initial unboxing experience: The mask had a strong chemical odor that reminded me of formaldehyde. For a device that sits against your face and doesn’t have a mouth opening, that’s not exactly reassuring. Wiping it down and letting it air out significantly reduced the smell, but it definitely made for a less-than-ideal first impression.
That said, the mask itself is extremely comfortable. The soft, flexible silicone contours well to the face, and the dual-strap design keeps it secure without feeling restrictive. Treatments are quick and easy to customize thanks to four different modes, all controlled through an attached remote. And because it’s cordless, you’re free to move around while using it.
At full price, it’s a steep investment compared to its competitors. But with the current $270 discount, it becomes a much more compelling option, especially given the added laser therapy component, which isn’t as common at this price point. I’ll continue testing through the full six-week period before sharing my final verdict, but if you’re tempted to take advantage of the sale now, Megelin does offer a 60-day money-back guarantee and a one-year warranty.
A new NYT Connections puzzle appears at midnight each day for your time zone – which means that some people are always playing ‘today’s game’ while others are playing ‘yesterday’s’. If you’re looking for Friday’s puzzle instead then click here: NYT Connections hints and answers for Friday, May 8 (game #1062).
Good morning! Let’s play Connections, the NYT’s clever word game that challenges you to group answers in various categories. It can be tough, so read on if you need Connections hints.
What should you do once you’ve finished? Why, play some more word games of course. I’ve also got daily Strands hints and answers and Quordle hints and answers articles if you need help for those too, while Marc’s Wordle today page covers the original viral word game.
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SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Connections today is below, so don’t read on if you don’t want to know the answers.
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NYT Connections today (game #1063) – today’s words
(Image credit: New York Times)
Today’s NYT Connections words are…
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PUFF
EPISODE
TIE
SHOELACES
PERIOD
CHAIN
SEASON
THINK
LANYARD
FRIENDSHIP BRACELET
CONVERSATION
SERIES
QUIPU
BOA
FRANCHISE
MACRAMÉ
NYT Connections today (game #1063) – hint #1 – group hints
What are some clues for today’s NYT Connections groups?
YELLOW: Television components
GREEN: Neckwear
BLUE: Material fastened and looped
PURPLE: Add a word that rhymes with “neice”
Need more clues?
We’re firmly in spoiler territory now, but read on if you want to know what the four theme answers are for today’s NYT Connections puzzles…
Sign up for breaking news, reviews, opinion, top tech deals, and more.
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NYT Connections today (game #1063) – hint #2 – group answers
What are the answers for today’s NYT Connections groups?
YELLOW: UNITS OF TV PROGRAMS
GREEN: THINGS WORN AROUND THE NECK
BLUE: STRINGS TIED IN KNOTS
PURPLE: ____PIECE
Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM.
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NYT Connections today (game #1063) – the answers
(Image credit: New York Times)
The answers to today’s Connections, game #1063, are…
YELLOW: UNITS OF TV PROGRAMS EPISODE, FRANCHISE, SEASON, SERIES
GREEN: THINGS WORN AROUND THE NECK BOA, CHAIN, LANYARD, TIE
BLUE: STRINGS TIED IN KNOTS FRIENDSHIP BRACELET, MACRAMÉ, QUIPU, SHOELACES
I got quite muddled with THINGS WORN AROUND THE NECK and STRINGS TIED IN KNOTS, starting off with a group that contained SHOELACES, FRIENDSHIP BRACELET, TIE and QUIPU. I incorrectly thought the latter was the name for a bootlace tie, but I now know it’s the name of an ancient abacus.
Eventually I got there and after eliminating the blue group, UNITS OF TV PROGRAMS suddenly seemed blindingly obvious.
As someone who has written a fair amount of PUFF pieces (I had a short-lived job writing press releases about ovens) I really should have solved the purple group — alas, it passed me by.
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Yesterday’s NYT Connections answers (Friday, May 8, game #1062)
YELLOW: CANOODLING FIRST BASE, MAKING OUT, NECKING, TONSIL HOCKEY
GREEN: FIVE-SIDED THINGS HOME PLATE, JEANS BACK POCKET, SCHOOL CROSSING SIGN, THE PENTAGON
BLUE: UNEXPECTED PLACES TO BE “OUT OF” LEFT FIELD, NOWHERE, THE BLUE, THIN AIR
PURPLE: ENDING IN CANDY BRANDS MINUS “S” BURGER KING WHOPPER, FILM NERD, MEMENTO, PITCHER’S MOUND
What is NYT Connections?
NYT Connections is one of several increasingly popular word games made by the New York Times. It challenges you to find groups of four items that share something in common, and each group has a different difficulty level: green is easy, yellow a little harder, blue often quite tough and purple usually very difficult.
On the plus side, you don’t technically need to solve the final one, as you’ll be able to answer that one by a process of elimination. What’s more, you can make up to four mistakes, which gives you a little bit of breathing room.
It’s a little more involved than something like Wordle, however, and there are plenty of opportunities for the game to trip you up with tricks. For instance, watch out for homophones and other word games that could disguise the answers.
It’s playable for free via the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.
Discord is recovering following a brief outage that saw some users unable to use the popular chat app. At 3:08PM ET, the company said it had begun investigating an issue with its API systems. Shortly thereafter, at 3:24PM ET, Discord said it had identified the problem, but noted at the time it was still affecting users, making it difficult for them to access the service.
“We are continuing to work to remediate the issues impacting availability for some Discord users,” the company said at3:56PM ET. “This is causing impact across our service, including logging in and sending messages.” Whatever was causing the disruption, Discord appeared to solve it quickly. At 4:16PM ET, the company said it was starting to see “seeing significant recovery” across its systems. As of 4:59PM ET, the service isn’t at “fully healthy state” yet, so if you’re having trouble launching the app, it may take a bit more time before everything is up and running again. By 6:38PM ET, Discord reported that “all critical functionalities have recovered for all users.”
Update 6:4PM ET: The headline and copy of this article have been updated to reflect that Discord is back online for all users.
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