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The ideal centrepiece for any party

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Whether you’re planning a party of one or a larger gathering with friends and family, Bluetooth speakers are a great device to have on hand. They’re far more accessible than larger speaker systems, not to mention more affordable, and while there are some great options to choose from, there are plenty of duds that you’ll want to avoid. Thankfully, with the advice of our expert team, you can discover the best Bluetooth speakers to buy.

While there’s no denying that if you want the true audiophile experience then the best surround sound systems are the way to go, but for most people who just want a simple way of playing their favourite tracks and playlists, Bluetooth speakers are the go-to pick, especially as there are now so many options to choose from, each with unique features.

For instance, speakers from Bang & Olufsen are perfect for high quality sound while Ultimate Ears has durability on lock. You can pick and choose based on the features that you prioritise above all, but to make sure that a speaker is truly as good as the box says it is, you can lean on the expertise of our team.

At this point, we’ve lost track of the number of Bluetooth speakers we’ve reviewed, but it means we know right away if a company is on to something special. With each speaker that gets sent to our offices, it is used for both indoor and outdoor playback to analyse the acoustics, all whilst playing a variety of genres to see how versatile the speaker is in providing a detailed soundscape.

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All of this information is then funnelled into our reviews so that you know exactly what each speaker is like to use, before you ever get your hands on them. While Bluetooth speakers are easily the better option for gatherings, when it comes to personal playback you’ll be well suited with checking out the best headphones or the best wireless earbuds.

Best Bluetooth speakers at a glance

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How we test

How we test wireless speakers

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We play a lot of music, and we play it loud. We play it everywhere – in the house, in the garden, and even in the bath if a speaker is waterproof.

We don’t just listen to the speakers; if there are special features then we make sure we fiddle with them until we’re satisfied. Recently, some Bluetooth speakers have begun to get smart functionality with the integration of Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant, and as a result we’ve started speaking to our speakers as well.

Of course, it always comes back to the music. Speakers are tested by reviewers who have a love of music, a knowledge of sound quality, as well as a context of the market. We’ll listen to Bluetooth speakers alongside similarly priced rivals, so when we recommend a particular model, it’s among the best you can buy for the money.

Obviously, we know not everyone has the same taste in music, so we won’t only test with the same perfectly mastered album, but with a variety of genres and file qualities, from MP3 to Hi-Res FLAC.

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  • Impressive sound for its size

  • Waterproof and very portable design

  • Long battery life

  • Great sense of style

  • The most expensive entry in the Beosound A1 series

  • Bass caught out with more demanding tracks

Long time readers of Trusted Reviews will know that the Beosound A1 2nd Gen was our go-to pick as the best Bluetooth speaker for quite a while due to its outstanding sound quality and undeniable sense of style. It only makes sense then that the one speaker that has truly surpassed it is its direct successor. For something truly amazing, the Bang & Olufsen Beosound A1 3rd Gen should be your first pick above all.

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There are quite a few juicy upgrades in this successor but the one that arguably means the most is the upgraded bass ability. For context, the previous A1 was no slouch in this department but you can hear the weight involved the moment you turn on the newer model, with the type of room filling richness that can really elevate a party to the next level.

Depending on how long you want the part to go on for, it’s far more likely that you’ll run out of energy before the A1 3rd Gen ever does. You can now get a whopping 24 hours of use between charges which is so much more than what you’ll find from most Bluetooth speakers that it almost doesn’t seem fair, but it is why the A1 carries a more premium price.

Another nice touch that we would love to see adopted by more companies in this sector is that the A1 is Cradle to Cradle certified, ensuring that it’s been developed to the highest possible level of sustainability and as such, it can be repaired and recycled with ease at the end of its lifecycle. Given just how much e-waste is discarded each year, these are the design choices we love to see from big brands.

Although Alexa compatibility has been removed this time around, you do get a far superior Bluetooth 5.1 connection to help maintain a stronger connection with your phone when in use. There’s also multipoint pairing so if it’s more convenient to change your music source to a laptop or tablet then you can do so quickly without any hassle.

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  • Excellent sound

  • Portable

  • Alexa support

  • Great style

  • Waterproof design

Although it’s since been supplanted by a newer model, the Beosound A1 2nd Gen is still a great Bluetooth speaker that can now be found at a discount.

At the time of launch, it was the world’s first Bluetooth-only speaker to support Alexa, relying on the Bluetooth connection between it and a smartphone to access the Amazon digital assistant. We found it worked pretty well in a local park, Alexa responding quickly to queries unless the smartphone was busy doing another task. We’d suggest not doing too much multitasking with a phone if she proves to be less responsive than usual.

As you’d expect from a Bang & Olufsen product, it ladles on the style with its aluminium top surface and waterproof leather base. Its IP67 rating protects it from water and dust and the 18-hour battery life exceeds the likes of Sonos Roam and Wonderboom 3, so you can listen to music on this speaker for longer.

What impressed us the most during testing was its audio. For a speaker of its size and shape, it produced a detailed, clear sound, and ample amounts of bass. Compared to the portable speakers that feature on this list, it’s the best-sounding effort, and four years after its release, it still rates as one of our favourite Bluetooth speakers.

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  • Balanced, clear sound over Wi-Fi and Bluetooth

  • Tough, rugged design

  • Can be used to charge other devices

  • Solid battery life

  • More expensive than before

  • No PartyBoost feature

  • No fast charging

The Charge 5 sits between the Flip series and Xtreme models as a big portable speaker for those who want a loud, dynamic outdoors performance.

It comes in an array of colours and also looks like an American football, though this isn’t a speaker we’d want to throw at someone. Its big and heavy at nearly 1kg and doesn’t come with a handle or strap for carry. The fabric covering is one we found to be quite grippy in the hand though you’ll want to stow it in away in a bag when not in use. Its tough IP67 rating ensures protection against water and dust like the Wonderboom 3 and Beosound A1 2nd Gen that feature on this list.

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Battery is quoted around 20 hours, which should suffice for a few days use and the speaker can be used as a powerbank to charge mobile devices. There is app support in the form of the JBL Portable app, which we found simple to use. There aren’t many features inside, with just the ability to change the speaker’s EQ, update the firmware (which we did found takes a while) and enable the PartyBoost feature. This allows the Charge 5 to be stereo paired to another speaker or connected to as many JBL compatible speakers as you like.

The sound from the Charge 5 is one our reviewer found to be big, loud and powerful. It can generate satisfying amounts of punchy bass but it doesn’t do so at the expense of overall balance or clarity. The midrange is clear and there’s good separation and definition of voices and instruments to make the listener can hear what’s going on in the track. Raise the volume up and while there’s not as much bass as there is at lower volumes, there’s notable distortion with the Charge 5 sounding louder than the bigger Sony SRS-XG300 when playing The Beatles’ Hey Jude.

The JBL is a fun, energetic-sounding speaker with a sound that’s more balanced than you may expect. It’s available at a reasonably tidy price too, around the same price bracket as the Marshall Emberton II and Sonos Roam. There is an upgrade in the Charge 5 Wi-Fi that adds Spotify Connect, AirPlay 2, and Alexa Multi-Room audio support.

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  • Improved sound over original

  • Boosted battery life

  • Can charge other devices

  • Affordable price

  • Dust and waterproof design

  • May lack a sense of fun for some

The original Stormbox Micro was a very good portable speaker at an affordable price, and the Stormbox Micro 2 sees Tribit repeating the trick again with an even better performance.

The audio is a step up in virtually all regards. We found that the Micro 2 is louder than the original, the size of the sound was also bigger and projected further away from the speaker’s body and it presented music with much more clarity than the original, too.

Out reviewer felt it achieved a better balance in its sound quality, with bass bigger and better described; treble frequencies sharper and clearer, while more detail is retrieved in the midrange, helping to define instruments with more sharpness and detail.

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The design has been altered, the buttons coloured white to contrast better against the fabric covering; the speaker is also bigger and can now serve as a powerbank to change any mobile devices you have on your person via USB-C charging. It keeps the useful tear-resistant strap that allows it to be attached to bicycle handlebars or rucksacks to accompany users on their journeys. It also retains its IP67 rating, so it’s insulated against dust and water for those who want to take their speaker on more adventurous outdoor activities.

Battery life has been improved from 8-hours to 12, which puts it among the likes of the Sonos Roam (11) and Ultimate Ears Wonderboom 3 (14). There’s also support for an app that allows for the speaker’s EQ to be adjusted along with enabling updates, which should allow the speaker to last for longer.

The Stormbox Micro 2 is everything a sequel should be, improving on the weaker aspects and making the good parts even better. It does come at a slight increase to £59.99, which puts in the ballpark of speakers such as the Tronsmart T7. The T7 sounds better when dealing with treble and bass, but the convenience and versality of the Tribit gets our vote over the Tronsmart.

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  • Rich, likable sound

  • Solid portability

  • Long battery life

  • Fun audio effects/customisations

  • Not the most detailed presentation

  • A little heavy to carry

Fancy having a party outside? There are plenty of Bluetooth speakers to choose, but our current favourite is Sony’s SRS-XG300.

It comes with retractable handle for carrying the speaker about, which found useful considering this speaker weighs around 3kg. With its IP67 rating it’s good against resisting liquids and particles such as sand and dust when used outside.

It’s not the sharpest or necessarily the clearest-sounding speaker with its warm and rich tone placing an emphasis on bass. However, that does make it a good option for outdoor parties if you like your bass assertively described, and music given plenty of drive and energy then the XG300.

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B&O’s Beolit 20 can summon even stronger levels of bass but it does also cost twice as much as the Sony does, and there’s also the Soundcore Boom 2 Plus to consider, though it is currently more expensive than the Sony.

Around the edges of the speaker is a Light feature – Sony calls it Ambient Illumination – that emits a halo of light at either end of the speaker that pulses in sync with the beat, although at its default setting we found it wasn’t particularly noticeable, especially during daylight hours.

Other party features include support for Fiestable app, which offers control over DJ effects, light effects and Motion Control, where playback and volume can be controlled by moving a smartphone, although this is a feature that can be hit and miss in terms of accuracy.

In terms of physical connections, the Sony comes with a USB-C for charging another device, and a stereo mini-jack (cable also included) for plugging in an external source (such as a portable music player). Battery life is 25 hours; Google Fast Pair is provided for instant connection to an Android device and there’s LDAC Bluetooth for those that want to play music from a music streaming service that supports higher quality bitrates.

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  • Powerful, engaging sound

  • Versatile feature-set

  • Affordable asking price

  • Could benefit from more definition, dynamic agility

  • Stands add a fair bit to overall cost

In the Q Acoustics M20 HD, you have a Bluetooth speaker that is more fitting for desktop stereo use or even connected to a TV via its other connections.

The M20 HD is an active speaker system, which means there is no need for external amplification/boxes, so you can plug it into the power port and get going with your music. AptX-HD Bluetooth ensures that the system can play files up to 24-bit/48kHz resolution, so you can get some high-fidelity performance from Bluetooth playback.

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The Bluetooth support matches Edifier’s S2000MKIII, but at 10.6kg the Q Acoustics are a much lighter and smaller proposition, which makes carrying them around and positioning them on speaker stands less of a hassle. The range of connections is also better than the Edifier, so if you’re not listening to them over Bluetooth, there’s scope to connect the M20 HD to a TV or connect a USB stick to play audio files at resolutions of up to 24-bit/192kHz.

And in terms of their sound, we found the system boasted a fun and engaging performance, with a warm and rich mid-range performance, powerful bass and defined top end of the frequency range. They’re great with music, films and games and their price makes them better value than the similarly specified but more expensive Klipsch The Fives.

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  • Immersive surround sound

  • Easy to use

  • Long battery life

  • Smart design

  • Battery life depletes in standby mode

  • Sounds strained at high volumes

  • Less convincing with music

  • No Wi-Fi

The HT-AX7 should be considered as a personal Bluetooth sound system that elevates the audio performance from mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets.

It connects via Bluetooth with no Wi-Fi support, so you can only connect to devices over Bluetooth. It’s made up of three elements: two detachable speakers to place around you and the main speaker unit that sits in front.

It features Sony’s 360 Spatial Sound Mapping technology creates a soundstage around your listening position with both physical speakers and virtual ones. We found the performance with movies and TV shows to be quite impressive. There’s a wider, bigger soundstage to enjoy than if you were listening through a pair of headphones or the mobile device.

Synching between what’s on the screen and the speakers is excellent, the rears fill in the space behind you in a way that keeps up the levels of immersion. Sony claims the speaker can produce overhead sounds, but through testing we found those claims to be wide of the mark.

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We wouldn’t necessarily recommend using the speaker with music. At higher volume levels it can sound thin, and you won’t get much bass either.

Battery is caimed to be around 30+ hours, although like the Bose SoundLink Max, the AX7 consumes energy in its standby mode so that’s something to keep a close eye out for if you don’t use the speaker for a week (or two).

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  • Clear audio with lots of impact

  • Well-built and reasonably sized

  • Oodles of connectivity options

  • Uninspiring looks

  • Rear dials can be hard to access

The Majority D80 is a pair of desktop speakers for very reasonable price. The speakers don’t have the most exciting design but they’re well-built, offer clear audio and have a wide range of connectivity options.

The speakers have an understated design, their size and 3.48kg weight puts means they’re more accommodating than bigger music systems that require more space such as the Q Acoustics M20 HD.

There’s a vast range of connectivity options to choose from, including HDMI ARC, optical, line-in, Bluetooth and a USB drive. You can switch modes on the remote control, with the remote also handy for skipping through local files on a USB drive.

The remote itself is big and chunky with reasonably tactile buttons, though you can also use the right speaker to adjust the volume, bass and treble.

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When it comes to sound quality, we found that the audio remained consistent across wired and wireless connections and via a mix of streamed music and local high-quality MP3/FLAC files.

The speakers present a prominent low end and a great soundstage, as well as generally clear audio. There’s also little to no distortion at higher volumes and the speakers have no trouble filling a small office or bedroom.

If you’re looking for a pair of desktop speakers with an understated design, a clear and impactful audio performance and a varied array of connectivity options, the Majority D80 are a great value pick.

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  • Solid build quality

  • Good battery life

  • Generally decent audio

  • Not as detailed as slightly more expensive rivals

  • Design may be a little bland to some

For when you’ve got a weekend camping trip in the diary and you need a tough, portable speaker that can keep up with you for the entire journey, the Tribit Stormbox Lava is by far one of your best options. With a battery life of up to 24-hours, it’s very unlikely that you’ll be left with a dead cell in the middle of one of your favourite camping playlists.

In fact, not only does that battery life mean that you can keep the party going for a lot longer than most of the competition provides, but it also allows the Stormbox Lava to act as a powerbank, with a USB-A port available so you can quickly connect to your smartphone. If you are going to be away from civilisation for a bit but you don’t want to be carrying too much, then this is exactly the type of device that you’ll be glad to have on hand.

The battery life isn’t the only feature that makes the Stormbox Lava suited for a weekend away – there’s also some outstanding durability at play. Just to look at this Bluetooth speaker is to get an understanding of its rough and ready chassis, and that’s backed up by IP67 water resistance so if it does get accidentally dropped into a pool of water, you can fish it out without anticipating the worst.

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In spite of its portability however, the Stormbox Lava still manages to get incredibly loud when you want it to, so you won’t have any issues with trying to hear your go-to tracks against any background noise. Vocals in particular sound wonderfully crisp on this speaker – perfect for singing along by the campfire.

As a final point, the controls are excellent. It might seem a bit basic but trust us, having large, easy to recognise physical controls is a huge boon, and it just makes the process of using the Stormbox Lava feel so much more intuitive. It means you’re less likely to fiddle with your phone when you can easily tweak the volume and playback right on the device.

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  • Thoughtful ergonomic design

  • Waterproof IP67 rating

  • Speakerphone smarts

  • Sound feels flat

  • Battery life is mid

  • No EQ presets

Take a quick glance at the Sony ULT Field 1 and you can tell pretty much right away that this is a Bluetooth speaker made for the great outdoors. It’s rugged, with IP67 dust and water resistance and there’s a rubberised control panel that can take a knock or two without any issue. If you’ve got a camping trip coming up, then this is exactly the speaker that you’ll want to have with you.

Despite there being smaller Bluetooth speakers on this list, the ULT Field 1 is wonderfully portable, as the multi-way strap not only allows you to carry it on your person, but also hang it up wherever it’s needed. If you want to hang it off a coat hook to give the audio a bit more height and range, then you can do just that.

Still, the ULT Field 1 doesn’t need much in the way of assistance because it’s able to crank up the volume to quite a high level and still retain audio fidelity. Vocals come through clearly, just as the mids are given enough space to make themselves known, and while the bassline has a great weight to it, you can switch on the bass boost for when you really want to get the party going.

The bass boost mode is great for when you’re outdoors and the lows of a song can sometimes be missed against the ambient noise of your surroundings. If you do need to take a quick call, then the Echo Cancelling feature is able to minimise any background noise so that the person on the other end of the line can hear your voice clearly. For when you’re trying to entertain a larger group, you can bring a second ULT Field 1 into the mix for a surround sound experience.

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If you are taking the speaker away with you for a weekend then you won’t have to worry about longevity as you can get up to 12 hours of use on a single charge, which is more than enough to get through an afternoon/night of partying.


  • Clearer, more balanced sound

  • Extended battery life

  • Strong water resistance

  • Not the same bass impact

  • Carry strap not included as standard

Marshall has put out no shortage of Bluetooth speakers since the prolific brand hopped into this arena, but the Marshall Emberton III is arguably the company’s best one yet. Even though the Emberton III looks quite similar to its predecessor at first glance, there are actually quite a few meaningful changes that make the speaker much more fun to use on a regular basis.

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There’s a new silicone texture to the chassis that makes it far more comfortable to hold, and there’s also a loop for a wrist strap to be added, giving you the freedom to attach the Emberton III to a bag or item of clothing. There’s even a separate power button this time around so you can get straight into your favourite tunes more quickly. All of this sits on top of previous durability stats including an official IP67 rating.

The design isn’t the only thing that’s been changed here as Marshall has also seen fit to give the sound profile a tweak. Admittedly, the bass is slightly less prolific than it was on the Emberton II but what you get instead is a fuller soundscape that not only gives greater room to the mid-range, it also boosts the clarity of the vocals. For classic rock tracks (the ones you’d typically hear blasting out of a Marshall amp) you’re getting a great experience. 

What’s sure to be the most impressive upgrade to those who value longevity above all, the Emberton III now carries a battery life of over 32 hours, depending on your usage. That’s an absurd amount of playback and far more than what you’ll find with most of the speakers on this list, but it is such a joy to not have yet another device that regularly needs topping up on a somewhat daily basis.

Because of the inclusion of Auracast, you can wirelessly connect the Emberton III to other Bluetooth speakers that also support the software, giving you the chance to build a stereo set up in no time at all. Marshall has gone above and beyond with the Emberton III, and aside from being outdone by the B&O Beosound A1 3rd Gen where the bass is concerned, it’s an absolute winner across the board.

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  • Solid build quality

  • Good battery life

  • Clean and fun audio, especially with app EQ settings

  • Soundstage isn’t the widest

  • Design may be a little bland to some

Although there’s no shortage of high-end Bluetooth speakers on this list, the kind that are likely to come with a triple-digit price tag, the Tribit PocketGo is exactly the type of device that proves you don’t have to invest a small fortune to get a great-sounding experience in return. Forget just being a great budget option, this is a solid Bluetooth speaker that actually beats the competition in some areas.

Right off the bat, with a cost of only £29.99/$34.99, the Tribit PocketGo is the ideal pick for students on a budget or parents who want to buy a low-cost speaker for their kids. In fact, because the speaker is very compact with larger buttons that are easy to use and very tactile, the PocketGo is great for smaller hands. The built-in loop even makes it simple to attach the speaker to a bag or hook.

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The lower price tag doesn’t mean that you’re settling for a lesser experience in durability – far from it. Because of its official IP68 rating, the Tribit PocketGo is more than capable of withstanding dust and water, to the point where if it accidentally gets knocked into a swimming pool, you won’t have to worry about it being lost forever – just fish it out and get back to enjoying some tunes.

In terms of sound quality, there’s a surprising amount of bass for such a small speaker, but if you are someone who prefers to sing along with pitch perfect vocals then you can shake things up via the EQ settings in the Tribit app. We actually encourage you to dive into the equaliser as the PocketGo’s sound profile really comes alive once you start changing things away from the default setting.

You’re getting Bluetooth 6.0 on the Tribit PocketGo which is even more advanced than what you’ll find with some pricier options like the Beosound A1 3rd Gen, and it paves the way for a stronger connection to your streaming device. As a final flourish, even though the speaker is compact enough to fit in the palm of your hand, it still boasts a solid 20-hours of battery life so you’ll have more than enough juice to keep a party going through the night.

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  • Mega powerful

  • Relatively compact

  • Bassy sound with great vocals

  • Can sync with other Sony speakers

  • Bluetooth Fast Pair and Multipoint

  • Lighting is underwhelming

  • App layout is confusing

  • It’s quite heavy

Although Sony produces some proper hefty speakers that are designed to sit by the side of a stage and not move until they’re taken away at the end of the night, those room-filling devices aren’t exactly ideal when you just have a rucksack to hand in terms of transport. Thankfully, the Sony ULT Field 5 is the perfect middle ground, providing that big sound promise but in a form factor that can actually be carried around with ease.

While the Field 5 could be flung into a reasonably sized bag, there is a helpful shoulder strap included so you can carry it around from one party to another without issue. You’ll be glad to have it with you as well because the moment you pop it down, boot it up and get the tunes going, you’ll sense the party change from something fun to into something epic.

The first thing you’ll notice is just how loud this speaker can be. We were impressed by the Field 5’s scale when the volume was only at 50%, so be prepared to cover your ears if you dare to send it all the way to the max. There are also three presets that are easily accessible in a pinch. ULT 1 really amps up the bass for rap and hip hop, but ULT 2 injects a tangible sense of energy that feels well suited for tracks filled with various instruments.

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If you prefer having things set to a very specific sound then you can customise the EQ settings to your liking, but in every mode that we tried there was one consistent element: the Field 5 is a lot of fun to listen to. The built-in LED lighting is also a nice touch, particularly in low light settings, although don’t expect it to illuminate an entire party on its lonesome.

As you might expect from a speaker of this size, it is designed to withstand the elements thanks to an official IP67 rating for dust and water resistance. The massive battery onboard is also able to run for up to 25-hours at a time, although you can use the Field 5 to act as a power bank and charge up your other devices like your phone or headphones, so it has additional use when there isn’t a party to attend.

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  • USB-C, finally

  • Rough and ready design

  • Long-lasting battery life

  • No price increase

  • The upgrades are minimal at best

  • Fewer colourways than the Boom 3

There’s a case to be made that even though it makes some of the best speakers on the market that Ultimate Ears has a just few too many options available to consumers. Well, if you’re a little unsure over which one to go for then the Ultimate Ears Boom 4 represents the best middle ground of what the brand has to offer with a striking design, big sound and a competitive price tag to boot.

Just like every other UE speaker, the Boom 4 is immediately recognisable from its large plus and minus buttons which aren’t just for show, they’re a great way of quickly changing the volume without having to fish around, which can be the case with some smaller buttons on other speakers. Speaking of volume, the Boom 4 is capable of filling an entire room so you can easily enjoy a reasonably sized gathering with just this in tow.

If you are looking to have a ton of people over then you can easily sync up the Boom 4 with other UE speakers via the brand’s PartyUp system. This can be done via the UE app in just a minute, and it means you can have songs follow you from one room to the next without ever missing a beat.

What’s impressive though is that because the Boom 4 isn’t as large as the Megaboom 4, it arguably works better for personal playback at lower volumes than its more expensive sibling, so you can sit at a desk and enjoy a podcast or playlist with good detail at a respectable volume. Crank the volume up though and you’ll hear plenty of bass and energy in pretty much any genre.

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As you may have already guessed just from looking at it, the Boom 4 has a rough and ready design with an official IP67 rating. If the speaker accidentally takes a dip in the pool then you can just scoop it up and keep the party going without worry. On the battery front you’re looking at up to 15-hours of playback which doesn’t lead the pack compared to some options on this list but it’s still more than enough juice for most situations.

Test Data

  Bang & Olufsen Beosound A1 3rd Gen Bose SoundLink Plus Bose SoundLink Max Bang and Olufsen Beosound A1 2nd Gen JBL Charge 5 Wi-Fi Tribit StormBox Micro 2 Sony SRS-XG300 Q Acoustics M20 HD Sony HT-AX7 Majority D80 Tribit Stormbox Lava Sony ULT Field 1 Marshall Emberton III Tribit PocketGo Sony ULT Field 5 Ultimate Ears Boom 4
Power consumption 5 W 51 W

Full Specs

  Bang & Olufsen Beosound A1 3rd Gen Review Bose SoundLink Plus Review Bose SoundLink Max Review Bang and Olufsen Beosound A1 2nd Gen Review JBL Charge 5 Wi-Fi Review Tribit StormBox Micro 2 Review Sony SRS-XG300 Review Q Acoustics M20 HD Review Sony HT-AX7 Review Majority D80 Review Tribit Stormbox Lava Review Sony ULT Field 1 Review Marshall Emberton III Review Tribit PocketGo Review Sony ULT Field 5 Review Ultimate Ears Boom 4 Review
UK RRP £299 £249 £399 £200 £229.99 £46.99 £219 £399 £449 £99.95 £127.99 £99.99 £159 £29.99 £199 £129.99
USA RRP $399 $269 $250 $59.99 $349.99 $599 $499 $126.99 $129.00 $179 $34.99 $147.99
EU RRP €349 €279 €250 €59.99 €299 €499 €549 €99 €169
CA RRP CA$349 CA$350 CA$75.99 CA$449 Unavailable CA$149
AUD RRP AU$429 AU$76.49 AU$398 Unavailable AU$169
Manufacturer Bang & Olufsen Bose Bose Bang & Olufsen JBL Tribit Sony Q Acoustics Sony Majority Tribit Sony Marshall Tribit Sony Ultimate Ears
IP rating IP67 IP67 IP67 IP67 IP67 IP67 IP67 No IP67 IP67 IP67 IP68 IP67 IP67
Battery Hours 24 20 20 18 20 12 25 24 00 12 32 20 00 25 15
Fast Charging Yes Yes Yes
Size (Dimensions) 133 x 133 x 46 MM 231 x 86 x 99 MM 265 x 105 x 120 MM 133 x 133 x 46 MM 223 x 94 x 97 MM 99.8 x 99.8 x 42.9 MM 318 x 136 x 138 MM 170 x 296 x 279 MM 306 x 123 x 97 MM 155 x 155 x 230 MM 147 x 310 x 152 MM 206 x 76 x 77 MM 160 x 76.9 x 68 MM 108 x 81 x 42 MM 320 x 125 x 144 MM 73 x 73 x 184 MM
Weight 576 G 1.45 KG 2.13 KG 558 G 1 KG 315 G 3 KG 10.6 KG 2 KG 3.48 KG 2.3 KG 650 G 670 G 220 G 3.3 KG 620 G
ASIN B0F3P3BN88 B0F7HZ81YD B0D1CQGFDR B085R7TSN6 B0C3VYT6Q6 B09Q59321N B0B1JCXRLX B0983MW7YN B0CC6J8J64 B0CD85VQVN B0DN5F9BC2 B0CX1WXP8M B0DDCJMDJC B0DY9X655Q B0D3WLCJSJ
Release Date 2025 2025 2024 2020 2023 2022 2022 2021 2023 2023 2024 2024 2024 2025 2025 2021
First Reviewed Date 26/08/2020 03/01/2024 16/04/2025 14/01/2026 09/09/2025
Model Number 1734002 JBLCHARGE5PROBLK QA7610 HTAX7.CEL
Audio Resolution AAC, aptX Adaptive SBC, AAC, aptX Adaptive SBC, AAC, aptX Adaptive Up to 24-bit/96kHz SBC, AAC, LDAC 24bit/192kHz SBC, AAC SBC, AAC SBC, AAC, LE Audio SBC, AAC, LDAC
Driver (s) 3 1/4-inch woofer, 0.6-inch tweeter 53mm x 93mm woofer, 20mm tweeter two 20mm tweeters, two 61 x 68mm woofers 22mm tweeter, 125mm mid/bass driver Two X-balanced, two passive radiators Silk dome tweeter dual 30W Neodymium Magnet Woofers and dual 10W Silk Dome Tweeters 16 mm tweeter, 83×42 mm woofer 2-inch full range, 2 passive radiators Single 45mm full-range driver, passive bass radiator 46mm tweeter, 79 x 107mm woofer 2x 40mm active drivers
Surround Sound Systems 122 x 39 x 122mm
Ports USB-C USB-C USB-C, aux USB-C USB-C, USB-A USB-C, USB-A, stereo mini line USB, digital optical, 3.5mm, stereo RCA USB-A, Optical, Line-In, HDMI ARC USB-C, USB-A, 3.5mm USB-C USB-C USB-C, TF card slot USB-C, stereo mini-jack USB-C
Audio (Power output) 60 W 40 W 10 W 130 W 80 W 80 W 7 W
Connectivity Bluetooth 5.1, Made for iPhone (MFI), Google Fast Pair, Microsoft Swift Pair Bluetooth 5.4 Bluetooth 5.3 Bluetooth 5.1 Wi-Fi (Spotify Connect, Chromecast, Alexa Multi-Room Audio, AirPlay), Bluetooth 5.3 Bluetooth 5.2 Bluetooth 5.0 Bluetooth 5.2 Bluetooth Bluetooth 5.4 Bluetooth 5.3 Bluetooth 5.3 Bluetooth 6.0 Bluetooth 5.3
Colours Natural Aluminium, Honey Tone, Eucalyptus Green, Warm Granite Blue, Citrus Yellow, Black Blue, Black Black Anthracite, Grey Mist, Pink, Green Black Black Black, Gray matte black, matte white, walnut veneer Grey Black Black, Off White, Orange, Forest Gray Black & Brass, Cream, Sage, Midnight Blue Grey Black, Off White Active Black, Cobalt Blue, Raspberry Red, Enchanting Lilac
Frequency Range 54 20000 – Hz – Hz – Hz 55 20000 – Hz – Hz 70 20000 – Hz 20 20000 – Hz 55 22000 – Hz – Hz – Hz 43 19998 – Hz 20 20000 – Hz 65 20000 – Hz 80 20000 – Hz 20 20000 – Hz – Hz
Audio Formats AAC, aptX Adaptive SBC, AAC, aptX, aptX-HD MP3, WMA, FLAC, MAV, APE AAC, SBC
Power Consumption 5 W 51 W
Speaker Type Portable Speaker Portable Speaker Portable Speaker Portable Speaker Portable Speaker Portable Speaker Portable Speaker Active Speaker Portable Speaker Active Speaker Portable Speaker Portable Speaker Portable Speaker Portable Speaker Portable Speaker Portable Speaker
Impedance -2 ohms
Inputs USB-C

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What’s the best Bluetooth speaker on a budget?

We’d point to the Tribit Stormbox Micro 2. Its design allows for it to be used in many different ways, the sound is much improved over the original and it comes with app support as well as the ability to charge other devices.

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14-inch MacBook Pro M5 vs Asus Zenbook A16: $2,000 shootout

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The Asus Zenbook A16 is a thin and light Windows notebook aiming to take the portability crown from Apple. Here’s how it compares against a similarly-priced MacBook Pro.

Two open laptops side by side: a dark Apple MacBook Pro on the left with abstract screen, and a beige ASUS Zenbook on the right showing a canyon landscape, gradient background.
M5 14-inch MacBook Pro vs Asus Zenbook A16

For our spec-sheet brawl, we’re going to put the $1,999 Asus Zenbook A16 against the 14-inch MacBook Pro with M5. As much as we would compare the similarly-sized 16-inch MacBook Pro, the other upgrades to the base-spec version pushes it to $2,699, which is a bit too high.
To make it a little bit closer in price, we will set the 14-inch MacBook Pro as having an enhanced memory allowance of 24GB or 32GB.
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3 underrated Amazon Prime Video movies you should watch this weekend (April 10-12)

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This weekend’s watchlist covers three different genres of movies, so you can pick whatever you are in the mood for. We have a trio of hidden gems on Amazon Prime Video that deserve way more attention.

There is a gritty Michael Caine revenge thriller you should not miss, a micro-budget 1950s sci-fi mystery that thrives on atmosphere and dialogue. For horror fans, we have a psychological horror bout a hospice nurse whose faith tips into something far more dangerous that gets inside your skin.

We also have guides to the best new movies to stream, the best movies on Netflix, the best movies on Hulu, the best free movies, and the best movies on Amazon Prime Video.

Saint Maud (2019)

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Saint Maud is not a horror film in the traditional sense, and going in expecting one will work against you. What it actually is is a deeply unsettling psychological portrait of a young hospice nurse named Maud, a recent Catholic convert who becomes dangerously fixated on saving her terminally ill patient’s soul in ways that grow increasingly disturbing.

Morfydd Clark’s performance is the engine of the whole thing, holding a fragile, frightening line between piety and paranoia throughout. I really like how the film gets under your skin without ever fully explaining itself. You finish it feeling like you witnessed something you were not supposed to see, and that feeling does not leave quickly.

You can watch Saint Maud on Amazon Prime Video

Harry Brown (2009)

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If you have a soft spot for slow-burn British crime dramas, Harry Brown is the movie you need to watch this weekend. Michael Caine plays the title character, a widowed, retired Royal Marines veteran living on a decaying South London housing estate overrun by gang violence. When his only friend is murdered, Harry stops looking the other way.

What makes this film work so well is how it refuses to glamorize what follows. Harry is not an action hero. He is an old man with emphysema who stumbles during a chase and collapses on a canal path.

I really like how the film earns every moment of tension because it keeps Harry vulnerable and the world around him genuinely threatening. Caine is absolutely extraordinary here, and there are sequences in this film that will make you forget you are watching a 77-year-old man.

You can watch Harry Brown on Amazon Prime Video

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The Vast of Night (2019)

Have you accidentally tuned into a late-night radio broadcast and could not bring yourself to switch off. Well, The Vast of Night is exactly that kind of sci-fi movie.

Set over a single night in 1950s small-town New Mexico, the film follows Fay, a teenage switchboard operator, and Everett, a fast-talking local radio DJ, as they stumble onto a mysterious audio frequency that sends them down a strange and increasingly eerie rabbit hole.

There are no big set pieces or alien invasions. The tension is built almost entirely through dialogue, long unbroken camera takes, and an incredibly precise sound design that makes the night feel alive and watchable.

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What I really love about this movie is how it makes stillness feel tense. A long phone call, a quiet street, a voice crackling through static, and somehow all of it keeps you completely locked in. For a movie made on a low budget, The Vast of Night makes an entertaining watch.

You can watch The Vast of Night on Amazon Prime Video

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Alibaba leads $293m round in Chinese AI start-up after HappyHorse reveal

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HappyHorse 1.0 shot up to the top ranks in the Artificial Analysis leaderboard.

Chinese technology giant Alibaba’s cloud division led a $293m funding round into ShengShu Technology, a 2023-founded Beijing-based start-up behind the Vidu AI video-generation tool.

Baidu Ventures and Luminous Ventures also participated in the round. The company’s post-money valuation has not been disclosed.

The latest investment comes after ShengShu raised nearly $88m in a Series A round in February.

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Vidu is marketed towards independent creators and animators, promising “effortless” production of content with “diverse artistic styles”.

The start-up is focusing on building ‘world models’ built on multimodal data such as audio, video and “touch”. The latest funding, the company said, will help support the development of a “general world model”.

The company’s latest Vidu Q3 Pro, which launched in January, places at the seventh rank on the Artificial Analysis leaderboard on text-to-video models, while making it to the 10th spot on the image-to-video rankings.

Vidu competes with other Chinese AI heavyweights, including ByteDance’s Seedance 2.0 and lead investor Alibaba’s own video model HappyHorse 1.0 that shot up to the top rank on the Artificial Analysis leaderboard.

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Meanwhile, models from companies such as Singapore’s Skywork AI and Beijing-based Kuaishou, behind KlingAI, also rank high on the boards. These models are hungry to fill the gap in the video generation space left by OpenAI after it shuttered Sora late last month. Top leaderboard rankings are increasingly being filled by Chinese models.

HappyHorse was anonymously launched earlier this week before Alibaba claimed ownership today (10 April). The model is a product of Alibaba’s new Token Hub (ATH) innovation unit, placing number one on text-to-video and image-to-video ranks with no audio, while placing at the second spot with audio.

Bloomberg News reported that HappyHorse 1.0, which is under beta testing currently, will be followed up with more new ATH products. Alibaba’s share prices shot up following speculation that the company was behind the model.

Alibaba made the decision last month to bring its AI services and development works under a single roof called ATH, led by CEO Eddie Wu.

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Analysis of one billion CISA KEV remediation records exposes limits of human-scale security

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Author: Saeed Abbasi, Senior Manager, Threat Research Unit, Qualys

With Time-to-Exploit now at negative seven days and autonomous AI agents accelerating threats, the data no longer supports incremental improvement. The architecture of defense must change.

What Leaders Need to Know

Analysis of CISA’s Known Exploited Vulnerabilities over the past four years shows critical vulnerabilities still open at Day 7 worsened from 56% to 63% despite teams closing 6.5x more tickets. Staffing cannot solve this.

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Of the 52 tracked weaponized vulnerabilities in our study, 88% were patched more slowly than they were exploited — half were weaponized before any patch existed.

The problem is not speed. It is the operational model itself.

Cumulative exposure, not CVE counts, is the true risk metric that security teams now need to measure. While dashboards reward the sprint to get patches implemented, breaches exploit the tail. AI is not another attack surface — instead, the transition period where AI-powered attackers face human defenders is the industry’s most dangerous window.

In response, defenders have to implement their own autonomous, closed-loop risk operations.

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The Broken Physics

New research from the Qualys Threat Research Unit, analyzing more than one billion CISA KEV remediation records from across 10,000 organizations over four years, quantifies what the industry has long suspected but never proved at scale. The operational model underpinning enterprise security is broken.

Vulnerability volumes have grown 6.5 times since 2022. According to Google M-Trends 2026, the average Time-to-Exploit has collapsed to negative seven days; in other words, adversaries are weaponizing the most serious vulnerabilities before patches exist. The percentage of critical vulnerabilities still open at seven days has climbed from 56 percent to 63 percent.

Yet this is not for lack of effort. Organizations closed 400 million more vulnerability events annually now than they did at baseline. Teams work harder, but it fails to make the difference where it counts. Our researchers call this the “human ceiling” — a structural limit no amount of staffing or process maturity can overcome. The constraint is not effort. It is the model itself.

Of 52 high-profile weaponized vulnerabilities tracked with complete exploitation timelines, 88 percent were remediated slower than they were exploited. As an example, Spring4Shell was exploited two days before disclosure, yet the average enterprise needed 266 days to remediate.

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Similarly, the flaw in Cisco IOS XE was weaponized a month early; average close was 263 days.

The attacker’s advantage was measured in days. The defender’s response was measured in seasons. This is not an intelligence failure. It is an operationalization failure.

To understand the future around risk operations, AI and managing remediation at scale, come to ROCON EMEA, the Risk Operations Center Conference.

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The Manual Tax and Risk Mass

The report identifies a “Manual Tax” — the multiplier effect where long-tail assets that human processes cannot reach drag exposure from weeks into months. For Spring4Shell, average remediation was 5.4 times the median.

The median tells a manageable story. The average tells the truth. Infrastructure systems face a harsher reality: for Cisco IOS XE, even the median was 232 days — compared to endpoint medians consistently under 14. When the best-case outcome is eight months, the Manual Tax is no longer a multiplier. It is the baseline.

Looking at average figures is no longer helpful for decision-making. Instead, looking at Risk Mass — vulnerable assets multiplied by days exposed — captures what CVE counts obscure around cumulative exposure. A companion metric, Average Window of Exposure (AWE), measures the full duration from weaponization to remediation across the environment.

As an example, Follina was weaponized 30 days before disclosure with an average close at Day 55.

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However, the AWE stretched to 85 days. While the blind spot before disclosure accounted for 36 percent of that 85 days, the long tail of patching accounted for a further 44 percent. In total, pre-disclosure and long tail together represent 80 percent. The sprint that gets measured makes up less than 20.

At the same time, of 48,172 vulnerabilities disclosed in 2025, only 357 were remotely exploitable and actively weaponized. Organizations are burning remediation cycles on theoretical exposure while genuinely exploitable gaps persist.

Why the Gap Will Widen

Cybersecurity has long operated as a derivative of technology shifts — Windows security followed Windows, cloud security followed cloud. Leading practitioners and investors now argue AI breaks that pattern. It is not merely a new surface to defend; it is a fundamental transformation of the adversary itself.

Offensive agents can already discover, weaponize, and execute faster than any human-staffed operation can respond. The remediation data proves humans cannot keep pace today. Autonomous AI ensures the gap will accelerate tomorrow.

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The transition period — where AI-powered attackers face human-speed defenders — represents the industry’s most dangerous window, compounded by the structural vulnerabilities that dominate the near term: attack surfaces expanded beyond what teams can govern, identity sprawl that outpaces policy, and remediation workflows still built on manual execution.

The traditional scan-and-report model was built for lower volumes of CVEs and longer exploit timelines. What replaces it is an end-to-end Risk Operations Center: embedded intelligence arriving as machine-readable decision logic, active confirmation validating whether a vulnerability is actually exploitable in a specific environment, and autonomous action compressing response to the timescale the threat demands.

The objective is not to eliminate human judgment but to elevate it, shifting practitioners from tactical execution to governing the policies that direct their own autonomous systems.

The organizations already winning the physics gap are not winning with larger teams. They are winning because they have removed human latency from the critical path.

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How Security Teams can close the Risk Gap

The scan-and-report model — discover, score, ticket, manually route — was built for lower volumes and longer exploit timelines.

What replaces it is an end-to-end Risk Operations Center: embedded intelligence arriving as machine-readable decision logic, active confirmation validating whether a vulnerability is actually exploitable in a specific environment, and autonomous action compressing response to the timescale the threat demands.

The objective is not to eliminate human judgment but to elevate it — shifting practitioners from tactical execution to governing the policies that direct autonomous systems. The organizations already winning the physics gap are not winning with larger teams. They are winning because they have removed human latency from the critical path.

Time-to-Exploit will not return to positive numbers. Vulnerability volume will not plateau. The reactive model has hit a hard mathematical ceiling.

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The only remaining question is whether organizations will use the architecture to match the mathematics — before the window between human-scale defense and autonomous-scale offense closes for good.

Contact Qualys for insights into how companies manage remediation at scale with automation and AI, and how you can make that difference right now.

Sponsored and written by Qualys.

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5 Tech Items You Shouldn’t Try To Donate To Thrift Stores

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We may receive a commission on purchases made from links.

You might feel like offloading electronics at a thrift store is an easy way to get rid of them while also letting others enjoy their use. To be fair, there are always some cool gadgets and electronics to look out for as a buyer, but there are some tech items that you shouldn’t even try donating to thrift stores. Because of different policies and simple safety concerns, certain pieces of tech will be rejected by thrift stores before they even leave your hands.

A great number of thrift stores have a list of items that they’ll accept or deny. These lists aren’t always uniform across different outlets, but a few pieces of tech are more likely to be refused than not. The ones that get turned down tend to be old or volatile for one reason or another, and stores obviously wouldn’t want to sell things that are broken or even dangerous. In some cases, there might also be items that you just shouldn’t want to give them anyway. Here are five different types of items that just aren’t worth trying to donate to thrift stores.

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Printers and fax machines

Fax machines are generally seen as old tech devices that the latest generation will never learn to use, and they aren’t exactly small when compared to other types of electronics like phones or even laptops. Printers are a bit more universal, but again their size still makes them difficult for many thrift stores to accept. Generally, small electronics have a much better chance at being taken off your hands. It’s less a matter of function and more a matter of size and space.

Some thrift stores won’t have this issue for printers, but you might still run into issues depending on the type of printer you give them. In the past, many donators have found difficulty offloading printers that use proprietary cartridges for ink and toner. These are expensive, manufacturer-specific, and sometimes aren’t even made anymore. Even if these older printers are cheap, with so many restrictions on what allows them to work in the first place, many thrift stores simply don’t find it worthwhile to stock them at all.

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Batteries, or items with batteries

It shouldn’t be too surprising to hear that thrift stores aren’t very willing to accept loose batteries. You should already be aware of their safety risks, especially if you’ve already experienced batteries leaking from improper storage and use. Besides, considering the specific tasks and devices they’re meant for, you probably don’t have much reason to donate AA or AAA batteries instead of throwing them away. And once they’re used up, you should be recycling them properly, not giving them away.

As you might expect, this rule can apply to more than just the batteries themselves. Car batteries and devices with batteries built-in can pose very similar risks. You might get away with being able to donate the latter, but rechargeable batteries integrated into small electronics such as smartphones can end up getting swollen over time. This is a sign that it’s just about ready to catch fire, and it should go without saying that no thrift store will be happy about that.

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Older tech, including CRTs

You might think that a thrift store would happily accept an older television set. They’ve been making a comeback in recent years, and they don’t seem very harmful on the surface. But older CRT televisions are pretty much universally denied by these locations. Some shoppers have found thrift stores carrying CRTs in certain areas, but you might have a tough time getting your local location to accept one.

Once again, the problem here is safety above all else. Goodwill in Southern Alleghenies mentions how it had to stop accepting CRTs because they “contain five to eight pounds of lead.” In this case, there’s also a high cost for the store to offload them in the first place; it’s forced to pay fees and find landfills that will actually take the items. Few places have the freedom or motivation to deal with these issues, and fewer still will want to take the safety risks involved in keeping these stocked.

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Computer monitors and other screens

The aforementioned Goodwill location refuses to take flat-screen TVs for similar reasons as CRTs: hazardous materials and risks to safety. But the rules aren’t universal for every location, even when it comes to different Goodwill stores. And this goes for other screens and displays, too, such as computer monitors. It’s really up in the air whether you’ll be able to find a thrift store near you that’ll accept them.

LCD monitors might be an example of tech that’s still worth buying used, but they can still face notable quality issues such as dead pixels. OLED monitors also have the risk of burn-in, which further creates problems with how attractive they are to buyers. Thrift stores aren’t likely to accept broken or damaged electronics, and depending on their definition, monitors with those problems could be quickly denied by them. At that point, it’s a much better decision to take those screens to a recycling center, not a thrift store.

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Unwiped storage devices

Donators have faced difficulties in giving their digital storage devices to certain thrift stores, though some locations will still accept them without a major issue. The problem here is on your end, as you can’t be sure that these stores will reliably wipe these drives on their own. If you simply give away your older storage devices carelessly, whoever ends up buying it might end up picking through your personal information. Even a full deletion might not guarantee your safety unless you use special programs or physically destroy the old drive entirely — to the point where there’s no chance a thrift store will accept it.

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On top of hard drives, USB flash sticks, and solid state drives themselves, you should be aware of any device that might have storage built-in. This applies most to computers and laptops, obviously, but smart TVs and game consoles can be problematic to donate if you still have them signed into your accounts. Many of the electronics thrift stores refuse are a risk to their safety, but make sure the items they accept aren’t a risk to your own.



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NVIDIA’s DLSS 5 Demo Video Briefly Taken Down Because YouTube’s Take Down Process Sucks

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from the the-italian-job dept

Last month, we discussed NVIDIA’s demo video for its forthcoming DLSS 5 technology and the controversy surrounding it. While I’m going to continue to be of the posture that an injection of nuance is desperately needed in the reaction to AI tools and the like, our comments section largely disagreed with me on that post. That’s cool, that’s what this place is for, and I still love you all.

But this post is not about DLSS 5. Rather, it’s about the video itself and how it was briefly taken down over automated copyright claims thanks to an Italian news channel. Please note that the source material here was written while the video was still down, but it has since been restored.

And now, here we are in April, and NVIDIA’s DLSS 5 announcement trailer is no longer available to watch on YouTube on the company’s official GeForce channel. And no, it’s not because NVIDIA is responding to the feedback and retooling the technology for a re-reveal or re-announcement; it’s now blocked on “copyright grounds.”

A clear mistake, but also one that highlights the limitations of Google’s automated system for YouTube. Apparently, the Italian television channel La7 included footage from the DLSS 5 reveal in a recent broadcast and has since copyrighted it. From there, essentially every video on YouTube with DLSS 5 trailer footage was issued a copyright strike and said to be in violation, with the videos taken down with the following message: “Video unavailable: This video contains content from La7, who has blocked it in your country on copyright grounds.”

Yes, this was clearly a mistake. But it’s a mistake that I’m frankly tired of hearing about, all while Google does absolutely nothing to iterate on its copyright process and systems to mitigate such mistakes. The examples of this very thing are so legion as to be laughable. Whether due to error or due to malicious intent, videos that include content from other videos for the purposes of reporting and commentary, which are then copyrighted and result in takedowns of the source material, happens all the damned time.

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This is almost certainly all automated, which means there are no human eyes looking for an error in the flagging of a copyright violation. It just gets tagged as such and taken down. And, no, the irony is not lost on me that we need human eyes to keep an automated copyright takedown on a video about AI from occurring.

What makes this alarming is that the video was taken down with seemingly no human interaction or input, as it’s clear that NVIDIA not only created DLSS 5, for better or worse, but also the trailer that has been a hot topic of discussion this year. We’re assuming this will be resolved fairly quickly. Still, it will be interesting to see whether YouTube responds to this case and claims that false copyright infringement notices like this are prevalent on the platform.

Google hasn’t been terribly interested in commenting on the plethora of cases like this in the past, so I strongly doubt it will now. Which is a damned shame, honestly, because the company really should be advocating for all of the users on its platform, if not especially those that are negatively impacted by this haphazard process.

But, for now, the video is back, so you can go hate-watch it again if you like.

Filed Under: copyright, dlss 5, geforce, takedowns, video games

Companies: la7, nvidia, youtube

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Florida launches probe into OpenAI as company eyes massive IPO

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In a video posted to X, he said his office is examining whether OpenAI’s data and artificial intelligence systems “could fall into the hands of America’s enemies, such as the Chinese Communist Party.”
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ChatGPT rolls out new $100 Pro subscription to challenge Claude

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Claude

OpenAI has rolled out a new Pro subscription that costs $100 and is in line with Claude’s pricing, which also has a $100 subscription, in addition to the $200 Max monthly plan.

Until now, OpenAI has offered three subscription tiers.

First is Go, which costs approx $8, second is Plus for $20, and then the final tier is at $200, a jump of $180.

Wiz

On the other hand, Anthropic does not offer an $8 subscription, but it has a $100 subscription that comes between the cheapest $20 and the expensive $200 subscription, and it works for the company because it caters to the coding audience.

OpenAI has realized that it needs to go after coders and enterprises, similar to Anthropic’s strategy.

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The company’s answer is ChatGPT Pro, which is designed for people who rely on AI to get high-stakes, complex work done for $100.

After this change, OpenAI’s offering looks like the following:

  • Plus $20 – For lighter use. Try advanced capabilities like Codex and Deep Research for select projects throughout the week.
  • Pro $100 – Built for real projects. For those who use advanced tools and models throughout the week, with 5x higher limits than Plus (and 10x Codex usage vs. Plus for a limited time).
  • Pro $200 – For heavy lifting. Run your most demanding workflows continuously, even across parallel projects, with 20× higher limits than Plus.

All Pro plans include access to advanced features, including:

  • Pro models
  • Codex
  • Deep research
  • Image creation
  • Memory
  • File uploads

OpenAI says the Pro plan also includes unlimited access to GPT-5 and legacy models, but it’s not truly unlimited because the typical “Terms of Use” policies apply, including sharing of accounts.

Automated pentesting proves the path exists. BAS proves whether your controls stop it. Most teams run one without the other.

This whitepaper maps six validation surfaces, shows where coverage ends, and provides practitioners with three diagnostic questions for any tool evaluation.

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Mythos autonomously exploited vulnerabilities that survived 27 years of human review. Security teams need a new detection playbook

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A 27-year-old bug sat inside OpenBSD’s TCP stack while auditors reviewed the code, fuzzers ran against it, and the operating system earned its reputation as one of the most security-hardened platforms on earth. Two packets could crash any server running it. Finding that bug cost a single Anthropic discovery campaign approximately $20,000. The specific model run that surfaced the flaw cost under $50.

Anthropic’s Claude Mythos Preview found it. Autonomously. No human guided the discovery after the initial prompt.

The capability jump is not incremental

On Firefox 147 exploit writing, Mythos succeeded 181 times versus 2 for Claude Opus 4.6. A 90x improvement in a single generation. SWE-bench Pro: 77.8% versus 53.4%. CyberGym vulnerability reproduction: 83.1% versus 66.6%. Mythos saturated Anthropic’s Cybench CTF at 100%, forcing the red team to shift to real-world zero-day discovery as the only meaningful evaluation left. Then it surfaced thousands of zero-day vulnerabilities across every major operating system and every major browser, many one to two decades old. Anthropic engineers with no formal security training asked Mythos to find remote code execution vulnerabilities overnight and woke up to a complete, working exploit by morning, according to Anthropic’s red team assessment.

Anthropic assembled Project Glasswing, a 12-partner defensive coalition including CrowdStrike, Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, Microsoft, AWS, Apple, and the Linux Foundation, backed by $100 million in usage credits and $4 million in open-source grants. Over 40 additional organizations that build or maintain critical software infrastructure also received access. The partners have been running Mythos against their own infrastructure for weeks. Anthropic committed to a public findings report “within 90 days,” landing in early July 2026.

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Security directors got the announcement. They didn’t get the playbook.

“I’ve been in this industry for 27 years,” Cisco SVP and Chief Security and Trust Officer Anthony Grieco told VentureBeat in an exclusive interview at RSAC 2026. “I have never been more optimistic for what we can do to change security because of the velocity. It’s also a little bit terrifying because we’re moving so quickly. It’s also terrifying because our adversaries have this capability as well, and so frankly, we must move this quickly.”

Security directors saw this story told fifteen different ways this week, including VentureBeat’s exclusive interview with Anthropic’s Newton Cheng. As one widely shared X post summarizing the Mythos findings noted, the model cracked cryptography libraries, broke into a production virtual machine monitor, and gave engineers with zero security training working exploits by morning. What that coverage left unanswered: Where does the detection ceiling sit in the methods they already run, and what should they change before July?

Seven vulnerability classes that show where every detection method hits its ceiling

  1. OpenBSD TCP SACK, 27 years old. Two crafted packets crash any server. SAST, fuzzers, and auditors missed a logic flaw requiring semantic reasoning about how TCP options interact under adversarial conditions. Campaign cost ~$20,000. Anthropic notes the $50 per-run figure reflects hindsight.

  2. FFmpeg H.264 codec, 16 years old. Fuzzers exercised the vulnerable code path 5 million times without triggering the flaw, according to Anthropic. Mythos caught it by reasoning about code semantics. Campaign cost ~$10,000.

  3. FreeBSD NFS remote code execution, CVE-2026-4747, 17 years old. Unauthenticated root from the internet, per Anthropic’s assessment and independent reproduction. Mythos built a 20-gadget ROP chain split across multiple packets. Fully autonomous.

  4. Linux kernel local privilege escalation. Mythos chained two to four low-severity vulnerabilities into full local privilege escalation via race conditions and KASLR bypasses. CSA’s Rich Mogull noted Mythos failed at remote kernel exploitation but succeeded locally. No automated tool chains vulnerabilities today.

  5. Browser zero-days across every major browser. Thousands identified. Some required human-model collaboration. In one case, Mythos chained four vulnerabilities into a JIT heap spray, escaping both the renderer and the OS sandboxes. Firefox 147: 181 working exploits versus two for Opus 4.6.

  6. Cryptography library vulnerabilities (TLS, AES-GCM, SSH). Implementation flaws enabling certificate forgery or decryption of encrypted communications, per Anthropic’s red team blog and Help Net Security. A critical Botan library certificate bypass was disclosed the same day as the Glasswing announcement. Bugs in the code that implements the math. Not attacks on the math itself.

  7. Virtual machine monitor guest-to-host escape. Guest-to-host memory corruption in a production VMM, the technology keeping cloud workloads from seeing each other’s data. Cloud security architectures assume workload isolation holds. This finding breaks that assumption.

Nicholas Carlini, in Anthropic’s launch briefing: “I’ve found more bugs in the last couple of weeks than I found in the rest of my life combined.”

VentureBeat’s prescriptive matrix

Vulnerability Class

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Why Current Methods Miss It

What Mythos Does

Security Director Action

OS kernel logic (OpenBSD 27yr, Linux 2-4 chain)

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SAST lacks semantic reasoning. Fuzzers miss logic flaws. Pen testers time-boxed. Bounties scope-exclude kernel.

Chains 2-4 low-severity findings into local priv-esc. ~$20K campaign.

Add AI-assisted kernel review to pen test RFPs. Expand bounty scope. Request Glasswing findings from OS vendors before July. Re-score clustered findings by chainability.

Media codec (FFmpeg 16yr H.264)

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SAST unflagged. Fuzzers hit path 5M times, never triggered.

Reasons about semantics beyond brute-force. ~$10K campaign.

Inventory FFmpeg, libwebp, ImageMagick, libpng. Stop treating fuzz coverage as security proxy. Track Glasswing codec CVEs from July.

Network stack RCE (FreeBSD 17yr, CVE-2026-4747)

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DAST limited at protocol depth. Pen tests skip NFS.

Full autonomous chain to unauthenticated root. 20-gadget ROP chain.

Patch CVE-2026-4747 now. Inventory NFS/SMB/RPC services. Add protocol fuzzing to 2026 cycle.

Multi-vuln chaining (2-4 sequenced, local)

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No tool chains. Pen testers hours-limited. CVSS scores in isolation.

Autonomous local chaining via race conditions + KASLR bypass.

Require AI-assisted chaining in pen test methodology. Build chainability scoring. Budget AI red teams for 2026.

Browser zero-days (thousands, 181 Firefox exploits)

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Bounties + continuous fuzzing missed thousands. Some required human-model collaboration.

90x over Opus 4.6. Chained 4 vulns into JIT heap spray escaping renderer + OS sandbox.

Shorten patch SLA to 72hr critical. Pre-stage pipeline for July cycle. Pressure vendors for Glasswing timelines.

Crypto libraries (TLS, AES-GCM, SSH, Botan bypass)

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SAST limited on crypto logic. Pen testers rarely audit crypto depth. Formal verification not standard.

Found cert forgery + decryption flaws in battle-tested libraries.

Audit all crypto library versions now. Track Glasswing crypto CVEs from July. Accelerate PQC migration.

VMM / hypervisor (guest-to-host memory corruption)

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Cloud security assumes isolation. Few pen tests target hypervisor. Bounties rarely scope VMM.

Guest-to-host escape in production VMM.

Inventory hypervisor/VMM versions. Request Glasswing findings from cloud providers. Reassess multi-tenant isolation assumptions.

Attackers are faster. Defenders are patching once a year.

The CrowdStrike 2026 Global Threat Report documents a 29-minute average eCrime breakout time, 65% faster than 2024, with an 89% year-over-year surge in AI-augmented attacks. CrowdStrike CTO Elia Zaitsev put the operational reality plainly in an exclusive interview with VentureBeat. “Adversaries leveraging agentic AI can perform those attacks at such a great speed that a traditional human process of look at alert, triage, investigate for 15 to 20 minutes, take an action an hour, a day, a week later, it’s insufficient,” Zaitsev said. A $20,000 Mythos discovery campaign that runs in hours replaces months of nation-state research effort.

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CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz reinforced that timeline pressure on LinkedIn the same day as the Glasswing announcement. “AI is creating the largest security demand driver since enterprises moved to the cloud,” Kurtz wrote. The regulatory clock compounds the operational one. The EU AI Act’s next enforcement phase takes effect August 2, 2026, imposing automated audit trails, cybersecurity requirements for every high-risk AI system, incident reporting obligations, and penalties up to 3% of global revenue. Security directors face a two-wave sequence: July’s Glasswing disclosure cycle, then August’s compliance deadline.

Mike Riemer, Field CISO at Ivanti and a 25-year US Air Force veteran who works closely with federal cybersecurity agencies, told VentureBeat what he is hearing from the government. “Threat actors are reverse engineering patches, and the speed at which they’re doing it has been enhanced greatly by AI,” Riemer said. “They’re able to reverse engineer a patch within 72 hours. So if I release a patch and a customer doesn’t patch within 72 hours of that release, they’re open to exploit.” Riemer was blunt about where that leaves the industry. “They are so far in front of us as defenders,” he said.

Grieco confirmed the other side of that collision at RSAC 2026. “If you talk to an operational team and many of our customers, they’re only patching once a year,” Grieco told VentureBeat. “And frankly, even in the best of circumstances, that is not fast enough.”

CSA’s Mogull makes the structural case that defenders hold the long-term advantage: fix a vulnerability once and every deployment benefits. But the transition period, when attackers reverse-engineer patches in 72 hours and defenders patch once a year, favors offense.

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Mythos is not the only model finding these bugs. Researchers at AISLE, an AI cybersecurity startup, tested Anthropic’s showcase vulnerabilities on small, open-weights models and found that eight out of eight detected the FreeBSD exploit. AISLE says one model had only 3.6 billion parameters and costs 11 cents per million tokens, and that a 5.1-billion-parameter open model recovered the core analysis chain of the 27-year-old OpenBSD bug. AISLE’s conclusion: “The moat in AI cybersecurity is the system, not the model.” That makes the detection ceiling a structural problem, not a Mythos-specific one. Cheap models find the same bugs. The July timeline gets shorter, not longer.

Over 99% of the vulnerabilities Mythos has identified have not yet been patched, per Anthropic’s red team blog. The public Glasswing report lands in early July 2026. It will trigger a high-volume patch cycle across operating systems, browsers, cryptography libraries, and major infrastructure software. Security directors who have not expanded their patch pipeline, re-scoped their bug bounty programs, and built chainability scoring by then will absorb that wave cold. July is not a disclosure event. It is a patch tsunami.

What to tell the board

Every security director tells the board “we have scanned everything.” Merritt Baer, CSO at Enkrypt AI and former Deputy CISO at AWS, told VentureBeat that the statement does not survive Mythos without a qualifier.

“What security leaders actually mean is: we have exhaustively scanned for what our tools know how to see,” Baer said in an exclusive interview with VentureBeat. “That’s a very different claim.”

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Baer proposed reframing residual risk for boards around three tiers: known-knowns (vulnerability classes your stack reliably detects), known-unknowns (classes you know exist but your tools only partially cover, like stateful logic flaws and auth boundary confusion), and unknown-unknowns (vulnerabilities that emerge from composition, how safe components interact in unsafe ways). “This is where Mythos is landing,” Baer said.

The board-level statement Baer recommends: “We have high confidence in detecting discrete, known vulnerability classes. Our residual risk is concentrated in cross-function, multi-step, and compositional flaws that evade single-point scanners. We are actively investing in capabilities that raise that detection ceiling.”

On chainability, Baer was equally direct. “Chainability has to become a first-class scoring dimension,” she said. “CVSS was built to score atomic vulnerabilities. Mythos is exposing that risk is increasingly graph-shaped, not point-in-time.” Baer outlined three shifts security programs need to make: from severity scoring to exploitability pathways, from vulnerability lists to vulnerability graphs that model relationships across identity, data flow, and permissions, and from remediation SLAs to path disruption, where fixing any node that breaks the chain gets priority over fixing the highest individual CVSS.

“Mythos isn’t just finding missed bugs,” Baer said. “It’s invalidating the assumption that vulnerabilities are independent. Security programs that don’t adapt, from coverage thinking to interaction thinking, will keep reporting green dashboards while sitting on red attack paths.”

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VentureBeat will update this story with additional operational details from Glasswing’s founding partners as interviews are completed.

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A Mercury Rover Could Explore The Planet By Sticking To The Terminator

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The planet Mercury in true color. (Credit: NASA)
The planet Mercury in true color. (Credit: NASA)

With multiple rovers currently scurrying around on the surface of Mars to continue a decades-long legacy, it can be easy to forget sometimes that repeating this feat on other planets that aren’t Earth or Mars isn’t quite as straightforward. In the case of Earth’s twin – Venus – the surface conditions are too extreme to consider such a mission. Yet Mercury might be a plausible target for a rover, according to a study by [M. Murillo] and [P. G. Lucey], via Universe Today’s coverage.

The advantages of putting a rover’s wheels on a planet’s surface are obvious, as it allows for direct sampling of geological and other features unlike an orbiting or passing space probe. To make this work on Mercury as in some ways a slightly larger version of Earth’s moon that’s been placed right next door to the Sun is challenging to say the least.

With no atmosphere it’s exposed to some of the worst that the Sun can throw at it, but it does have a magnetic field at 1.1% of Earth’s strength to take some of the edge off ionizing radiation. This just leaves a rover to deal with still very high ionizing radiation levels and extreme temperature swings that at the equator range between −173 °C and 427 °C, with an 88 Earth day day/night cycle. This compares to the constant mean temperature on Venus of 464 °C.

To deal with these extreme conditions, the researchers propose that a rover might be able to thrive if it sticks to the terminator, being the transition between day and night. To survive, the rover would need to be able to gather enough solar power – if solar-powered – due to the Sun being very low in the sky. It would also need to keep up with the terminator velocity being at least 4.25 km/h, as being caught on either the day or night side of Mercury would mean a certain demise. This would leave little time for casual exploration as on Mars, and require a high level of autonomy akin to what is being pioneered today with the Martian rovers.

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Top image: the planet Mercury with its magnetic field. (Credit: A loose necktie, Wikimedia)

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