The best way to answer this question is to look at the precedent Sony has already set. The PS4 originally launched in 2013, and to this day the console still semi-regularly receives firmware updates, with the most recent patch rolling out just last month. 

Granted, it amounted to little more than a few security fixes, but the fact that Sony still considers a 13-year-old console worth bothering about at all bodes well for the PS5. The PS4 also still functions just as well as it did when the PS5 replaced it in 2020, and despite unconfirmed reports last year that some of the console’s features would be sunsetted in 2026, you can turn on a PS4 today and expect it to work perfectly.

A new console generation replacing an old one almost always involves considerable software overlap for at least the first few years of the newer console’s life. In Sony’s case, this has been true since the very first PlayStation, with a number of PS1 titles still launching well into the PS2’s life, and it’s been the same story with every subsequent console the company has released.

Even today, the PS4 is still getting plenty of new games, even if the AAA side of things moved on a while ago. Incredibly popular games like Fortnite and Roblox still thrive on the last-gen Sony console, and it’s not unusual to see newly released indie games popping up on PS4 either at launch or a little while after.

Nothing lasts forever, though, and at some point those last remaining clingers-on will get a big old nudge towards newer hardware. Call of Duty: Warzone is being shut down on PS4 and Xbox One later this year, and it does feel like 2026 is something of a final twilight year for last-gen machines. And while it has published a few games on the PS4, the last notable first-party release on the console from Sony was probably 2022’s God of War: Ragnarok, which was the final big cross-generation game.

So what does this all mean for the PS5 and eventual PS6? It’s hard to predict Sony right now, as its first-party releases have dramatically decreased this generation. The longer development times and significantly higher cost of developing AAA games mean we haven’t had a single brand new game from Naughty Dog since the PS5 launched, and at this rate it wouldn’t be a huge shock if Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet skipped the current generation altogether.

In all likelihood, the popularity of the PS5 means Sony will continue to support it in the same way it has done with all of its previous consoles, especially if the PS6 is as obscenely priced as some fear it could be. Just don’t expect any cross-generation releases to come on a disk, as Sony is ending support for physical games in 2027.

A few days ago, Apple introduced a new “Upgrade” program that is essentially a lease program for buying Apple hardware. Instead of paying the full cost up front, you space the monthly installments (12, 24, and 36 month spells), and at the end of the lease period, you can choose to return the device, upgrade to a new one, or pay the remainder cost and keep it forever.

The broad idea is simple. Instead of taking a thousand-dollar hit on the wallet, you space the hit across small monthly payments. For a flagship iPhone, that broadly comes down to a dollar per day, and for budget phones such as the iPhone 17e, it’s just half a dollar each day, if you do the breakdown. At least Apple is looking at it that way.

“It’s a way to get into a product on a fairly affordable basis, particularly for those customers who want to upgrade on some kind of schedule,” outgoing Apple chief Tim Cook said during the company’s recent earnings call. The timing of the launch is no coincidence.

Bloomberg says Apple has been working on the program for years, but only decided to launch it in 2026. You know what else is happening in 2026? A price hike for iPhones. As per analyst estimates, the iPhone 18 Pro duo could see a price hike that’s as generous as $300 for the flagship.

Soften the blow. And make upgrades less taxing.

Imagine paying close to $1400-1500 for an iPhone. And yes, the hikes are imminent, if Apple’s own comments are to be believed. Look no further than the price surge that was announced for the Mac and iPad hardware merely a few weeks ago. And oh, let’s not forget the elephant in the room — the foldable iPhone.

This one is going to cost north of $2,000, as per multiple reports, including reliable sources such as Bloomberg. Samsung already sells its latest Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra starting at $2,100, so it won’t be surprising to see Apple crossing that sticker price barrier.

I know half a dozen people in my close circle who own a foldable phone. None of them paid for it in one go. Forking close to two thousand dollars — on a phone — simply doesn’t make sense. Plus, a person who is willing to spend that amount on a phone is clearly a tech-savvy person, and they will most likely switch to a shiny new model in a year, or two.

That’s exactly what Apple is targeting. “If you look at the Apple Upgrade, what it’s all about is making it easier for customers to get their hands on our latest products with a leasing plan that’s right for them,” Cook said during the earnings call.

Apple is not only giving customers a more affordable (in the short-term, at least) option to own an iPhone, but also readying the field for its obviously premium foldable iPhone that arrives this fall.

Even in developing countries like India, a huge majority of iPhone users rely on local financing schemes to buy those devices. And considering the fact that Apple’s Upgrade program offers unlocked devices, the target audience will likely lap it up.

The saving grace.

I won’t mince words here. Leasing and owning are entirely different things. With the Upgrade program, Apple essentially wants to trap you in its walled garden. You don’t technically own the device. You either let Apple take it back at the end of the lease period, or you exchange it with a new iPhone. Or Mac. Or Apple Watch. Or iPad.

If you do maths on the back of a napkin, you aren’t really in for a rewarding deal unless you love tech upgrades but don’t want to pay hundreds of dollars each time you want to experience a new iPhone. But there is a third route that can actually be a winning proposition for many.

At the end of the lease period, you can just pay off the remainder amount, convert the lease into full ownership, and subsequently sell the device in the second-hand market. The benefit? The depreciation on iPhones is dramatically lower than that of any rival brand’s competing product out there.

Apple knows that too well, and even its CEO is mildly nudging the target audience to take this route. “Of course, as you know, the residual values on Apple products are generally much higher than the residual value on several of our competition,” Cook was quoted as saying during Apple’s Q2 earnings call.

It’s a reality I’ve witnessed year after year. And it applies not just to iPhones, but also Macs, iPads, and Apple Watches. Apple’s just making the best of a status quo it has built over decades, and it’s finally in a position to reap rewards that are simply not feasible for its rivals.

The downside of KeePassXC is that it doesn’t have official mobile clients. However, third-party apps are available for iOS and Android. KeePassXC is a fork of KeePass that offers better cross-platform support, but there are a handful of other forks available, as well.

Download the desktop app for Windows, macOS, or Linux and create your vault. There are also extensions for Firefox, Edge, and Chrome. The project does not offer apps for phones. Instead, it recommends KeePass2Android or Strongbox for iPhone.

Other Password Managers We’ve Tested

Password managers are not a one-size-fits-all solution. Our top picks cover most use cases and are the best choices for most people, but your needs may be different. Fortunately, there are plenty of good password managers out there. Here are some more we’ve tested.

Google Password Manager (Free): Google has offered a password manager within Chrome for years, but it recently broadened with a dedicated Android app. Although storing passwords in your browser has a few security concerns, Google offers top-notch encryption, the option to turn on on-device encryption, and integration with biometric authentication on Android and Windows. It can even store passkeys. For most people, I recommend a third-party password manager, but if you aren’t using a password manager at all, Google Password Manager is a good option.

RoboForm ($30 Per Year, $48 Per Year for a Five-User Family Plan): RoboForm has most of the same features as the rest on this list, but it lacks some of the things that differentiate our top picks, like Bitwarden’s open source aspect and 1Password’s travel features. I’ve been testing the free plan for a while and haven’t run into any problems. There are apps for every common platform, and it’s easy to use. RoboForm recently completed an independent security audit and came out looking good.

Pass (Free): Pass is a command-line wrapper around GPG (GNU Privacy Guard), which means it is only for the nerdiest users. It supports managing encrypted .gpg files in Git, and third-party mobile apps are available. It’s not for everyone. For years, this was my password manager of choice, but eventually, Bitwarden’s ease of use won me over.

Password Managers to Avoid

Most password managers are decent. Some are more secure than others, but the top password managers largely compete on features and pricing. Security is a prerequisite. However, there are a couple of password managers you should avoid for various reasons.

ExpressKeys by ExpressVPN: ExpressKeys is from ExpressVPN (formerly Keys by ExpressVPN that I tested, but it’s the same product), which ranks among the best VPN services on the market. But ExpressKeys doesn’t live up to the same standard. It’s secure, but I struggled to get it to work with any consistency. The browser extension requires the desktop ExpressVPN app to work, and closing either will force you to sign back in all over again. Worse, ExpressKeys wouldn’t recognize that I was signed into my ExpressVPN account about half the time. It needs some serious fixes before I can recommend it. —Jacob Roach

Google is preparing a new Chrome security feature that would block policy-installed extensions from hijacking the New Tab page or changing the default search engine.

BleepingComputer spotted the protection in a chain of work-in-progress Chromium Gerrit changes. It has not shipped yet, but Google plans to enable it by default once the changes are approved.

“In low-trust environments (unmanaged consumer devices), enterprise policy force-installs and recommendations are abused to lock in search engine or new tab page hijackers,” Anunoy Ghosh, who works at Google, wrote in a post.

“This CL enables the kBlockDseNtpOverrideExtensionsOnUnmanagedDevices feature flag by default, activating the end-to-end blocking defense on unmanaged Windows and macOS devices.”

Right now, Chrome allows organizations to use enterprise policies to force-install extensions and control browser settings.

It’s not exactly bad on properly managed work devices connected to a domain or mobile device management system, but malware has been abusing the same feature on regular consumer PCs.

A malicious program can add local Chrome policy keys without your permission and force-install an extension that replaces the New Tab page, changes your search engine, or redirects searches to suspicious websites.

Chrome may then believe that the extension was installed by an administrator, which prevents you from removing or disabling it.

In some cases, Chrome also displays the confusing “Managed by your organization” message, even though the PC is not actually owned or managed by an organization.

Google describes these consumer PCs as “low-trust” environments because Chrome is reading policies stored locally without confirmation from a trusted authority, such as a domain or MDM service.

Under the proposed protection, Chrome would block attempts to install policy-controlled extensions that override the New Tab page or default search engine.

The installation would be canceled, and Chrome would save the extension ID in a blocked-extension preference.

Chrome would also stop trying to download the same blocked extension during future policy checks, which should prevent repeated installation attempts and unnecessary network activity.

Google is also addressing another trick used by malware

An extension that you installed manually would no longer be converted into a locked, policy-controlled extension. It would remain under your control, so you could still disable or remove it.

If a previously managed device loses its trusted management status but still has local policy keys, Chrome would automatically uninstall affected New Tab and search-engine override extensions.

Google is adding metrics to measure how often these policy-based hijackers appear and how frequently Chrome blocks them.

Legitimate administrators would also have access to an escape-hatch policy that disables the protection when a required enterprise extension overrides the New Tab page or search engine.

The Gerrit changes are still under review, so the feature is not available in stable Chrome yet.

Security teams log 54% of successful attacks and alert on just 14%. The rest move through your environment unseen.

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The Malaysian government has ordered the shutdown of a startup-centric community called the Network School, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Billing itself as “a frontier community for techno-optimists,” the Network School reportedly grew out of entrepreneur and investor Balaji Srinivasan’s conviction that the United States is in irreversible decline; Srinivasan has said his goal is “to start a new country.”

So the Network School is supposed to represent the first step in a seven-stage plan (outlined in Srinivasan’s book “The Network State”) for building a new society. Based in an abandoned Malaysian hotel, the WSJ described the program as “part tech incubator, part self-improvement retreat.” Attendees, however, complained about moldy rooms, as well as a dearth of women and nightlife. 

After receiving questions from the WSJ, Srinivasan – who apparently renounced his American citizenship in 2023 — published a lengthy post on X declaring himself “a proud Singaporean” and complaining that the WSJ was working on a “hit piece” that would make him look like “an odd duck […] as opposed to an early adopter.”

And although the current Malaysian campus will reportedly need to shut down due to licensing issues, Srinivasan recently announced a new agreement for a campus in Kazakhstan.

Apple’s Mac sales rose by more than 25% in the last quarter, compared to the same time period in 2025, solely on the back of the MacBook Neo that incoming CEO John Ternus championed.

Shortly before John Ternus was announced as Apple’s next CEO, it was noticeable that he was the one championing the MacBook Neo instead of Tim Cook. As well as part of handing over the reigns, though, this was because the MacBook Neo project was driven by Ternus.

Now according to figures from Apple’s latest earnings call, the company’s Mac revenues climbed by 28.66% over the last quarter. This is mostly due to the only new product available just prior to the quarter, the MacBook Neo.

Mac quarterly revenue, as of Q3 2026

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Apple reports that during the quarter ended June 27, 2026, it sold $10.35B worth of Macs. That compares to $8.05B for the same quarter in 2025.

Significantly, though, there were no new Macs released during this quarter at all — but the MacBook Neo ramped up to full availability. The quarter also saw steep price hikes across the whole Mac lineup, including adding $100 to the price of the MacBook Neo.

Mac quarterly revenue change year-on-year, as of Q3 2026

The timing of that price rise won’t have been chance, though, as it was announced on June 25, 2026. That means that the MacBook Neo only saw the higher price for two days of the quarter.

Consequently there’s no indication of whether the MacBook Neo can continue this huge success in the next quarter. But it’s a measure of how the lower-cost MacBook Neo was an immediate boost to Apple’s bottom line.

• AI growth keeps enterprise hard drive demand climbing across global cloud infrastructure
• Cloud providers continue expanding storage despite massive investment in AI accelerators
• Enterprise storage remains essential as artificial intelligence generates unprecedented data volumes

Enterprise demand for high-capacity hard drives continues accelerating as artificial intelligence generates expanding datasets requiring reliable, affordable storage throughout increasingly complex cloud environments.

That growing appetite for storage has intensified competition among cloud providers building artificial intelligence infrastructure, keeping enterprise hard drives firmly within long-term investment plans.

You’re not limited to only apps you can get on the Play Store.

Using Android Debug Bridge to sideload apps on Chromebook

Using Android Studio to run sideloaded apps on Chromebook

Nathan Ingraham for Engadget