A well-specc’d if not quite as strong a performer, the OneOdio Focus A6 deliver good comfort and long battery life but aren’t better than their rivals when it comes to noise-cancellation and there are better-sounding efforts available
Affordable
Lightweight, comfortable design
Long battery life
App support
No carry case/pouch
Average ANC for the money
Average call quality
Better-sounding alternatives available
Key Features
Bluetooth 6.0
New wireless standard for better battery, Find My feature, and connectivity
Battery Life
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75 hours max without ANC
LDAC
LDAC Bluetooth for higher quality streaming
Introduction
You’re not spoilt for choice as for as wireless headphones go, and in the last few years, you can bag yourself a pair of budget headphones with comparable specs to over-ears that costs twice as much.
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That’s what the OneOdio Focus A6 is aiming for, with wireless Hi-Res Audio support, long battery life, “powerful” noise-cancelling and more for well under £100 / $100, on paper at least, it looks like a bargain.
But, as always, buyer beware, as specs can tell one story but performance will tell another. What story does the OneOdio Focus A6 tell? It’s somewhere in the middle.
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Design
Stylish looks
No carry pouch
Foldable design
Flashy is the first word that comes to mind with the Focus A6 headphones. They look stylish with the metal CD textured radial design with gold trim that stands out on both black and white options (the version here is the latter).
They are comfortable to wear over long periods, the lightweight design and lack of any forcible clamping force mean they don’t feel intrusive to wear. The adjustable headband makes it easier to make the headphones fit your head (big or small).
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The design can be folded both outwards and inwards if you want the headphones to take up less space in a bag. Disappointingly, there’s no case or even a pouch to keep them safe from marks or nicks. It’s a common absence on many budget headphones, and I’m always disappointed when I see it.
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The buttons are clicky, if a bit cheap-feeling, but there’s a sense of just getting the job done. Wearing the headphones, they also feel a little rattly from time-to-time – walking down a flight of stairs in Canary Wharf I heard something shaking about in the right earcup. Despite the premium aesthetic, the build quality is what you’d expect for the money.
Image Credit (Trusted Reviews)
Features
OneOdio companion app
Bluetooth 6.0
LDAC support
The OneOdio, similar to Soundcore and a few others, have a list of features as long as my arm (the span of which is very long), and while they’re impressive on paper, it’s always worth taking them with a pinch of salt.
These are one of the first headphones I’ve used that have Bluetooth 6.0 support, which helps in terms of better battery life, better sound (apparently), less interference, more accurate Find My location help, and more seamless switching between multiple devices (which the Focus A6 supports). You do need a Bluetooth 6 compatible device to make the most out of these features, however.
With the OneOdio Focus A6, I haven’t come a cropper in terms of any wireless interference so it seems as if the headphones hit the mark.
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Elsewhere, there’s SBC, AAC, and LDAC support; the latter boosting the headphones credentials in terms of high quality sound. Though it’s worth adding that it’s not always about the Bluetooth codec in terms of the sound you hear, the quality and tuning of the driver itself will have even greater impact on audio. But at least with LDAC, the OneOdio gives itself a better chance of producing a better sound, though with LDAC enabled it doesn’t appear as if you can utilise Bluetooth multipoint.
It is Hi-Res certified in terms of wired audio, which it supports through its USB input so you can listen to lossless audio (a wired connection also supports ANC as well).
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There’s the OneOdio app, which offers decent customisation for a headphone at this price, offers some modes including a Game mode (a claimed 0.065 seconds of latency) and the Movie Sound Effect. To be honest, with this mode I can’t hear much of a difference other than it sounding slightly warmer.
There’s also a Find My headphones feature, which with Bluetooth 6.0, is said to be more accurate in figuring out where your headphones are.
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Noise-cancelling
Cancels up to 48dB
Wind Noise Reduction mode
Transparency mode
You’d be right not to expect a level of noise-cancellation that, say, the Sony WH-1000XM6 can muster. Despite OneOdio’s claims of cancelling up to 48dB of noise; the performance is in line with similarly priced efforts from Sony, Panasonic, EarFun and Soundcore, which is to say that it’s just ok.
Having used them on a long-haul flight, they reduce the cabin noise a little but not by a huge amount. The sound of the cabin and the engines was still noticeable and I had to raise the volume a lot to hear what I was listening to.
Back on solid ground and again the Focus A6 let quite a bit of noise. They’re decent at suppressing low frequencies but mid and high frequencies still tend to evade the headphones’ microphones. You hear what’s around you with ANC on, and when the Transparency mode is activated, there is a slight artificial sound added on top of what you can hear.
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The noise-cancelling performance is similar to what you’d get from many budget over-ears at the moment, but I will say that the Lindy BNXe offers a slightly stronger performance if ANC is the prime reason you’re looking to purchase a new pair of headphones.
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You do also get Wind Noise Reduction in the app, but again it’s worth bearing in mind the performance isn’t the strongest.
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Call quality is not the best either, letting in plenty of noise and making it a fight between your voice and what’s around you when it comes to being heard. In a quiet place you’re likely be fine – take these headphones outside to make calls and it is a struggle despite the Dual-Mic Environment Noise Cancellation these headphones boast.
Battery Life
Up to 40 ANC with ANC
Fast-charging support
The headline feature is 75 hours, but there’s a catch, as always, as that high number is with ANC off. Turn it on and you get close to 40 hours.
Image Credit (Trusted Reviews)
And in the battery drain test I carried out, I’d say that’s an accurate claim. It took five hours for the headphones to drop 10% battery, which would peg these headphones closer to 50 hours (and this was in LDAC mode). That’s the same performance as the less expensive Mixx StreamQ C4 and better than the likes of the Soundcore Space One.
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Fast-charging is provided, and 10 minutes nets you a quite stunning ten extra hours of playback.
Sound Quality
Sharp treble response
Lacks detail
Underwhelming bass performance
I mentioned earlier that having wireless and wired lossless support isn’t as important as the quality and tuning of the drivers, and the sound quality here is not what I’d call excellent. But it’s not bad either.
The OneOdio Focus A6 have a bright and sharp tuning that’s brighter than I’d expected. This tuning initially gives the impression that detail, at least with the highs, is better than you’d expect. But the Focus A6’s overall sense of detail is what I’d term as hazy, and bass comes across as a little limp.
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With GoGo Penguin’s Atomised it’s a sharp, lean and crisp sound that defers to the highs in terms of brightness, but the midrange isn’t home to the clearest sense of detail or clarity – it’s a treble forward response that I wonder might grate with some who are sensitive to treble. I do like how the highs sound but it’s the rest of the frequency range where the headphones come across as lacklustre.
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The headphones in general offer lower levels of detail and definition that remind me of the Mixx StreamQ C4 headphones. The soundstage is spacious but what exists within it is not the most defined. The tone of instruments is a bit hard to tell, the headphones don’t dig out detail as well as I’d hoped, and while voices sound clear they don’t sound particularly natural.
Image Credit (Trusted Reviews)
Bass is lacking depth and extension with every track I put through these headphones 40mm drivers, and switching on the Super Bass Mode produces a performance that’s less than super. This mode seems to make vocals sound recessed (further away). Pop mode is the default mode and it’s the best of a weak bunch.
The sound has also been tuned with ANC in mind, so when it’s turned off the OneOdio Focus A6 sound softer and the soundstage is smaller. That’s not at all what I expected.
Should you buy it?
The ANC is, for the price, just decent. While they cost less than efforts from the likes of Sony and Soundcore, they’re not better for ANC. You’re saving on money, but not getting a better performance than average here
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There are better alternatives out there
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There’s nothing here that you could say the OneOdio does better than other pairs, and on that basis, while they’re a decent value proposition in terms of price, there are better options available
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Final Thoughts
On paper, these headphones have the elements of what would make a good sound, but OneOdio doesn’t bring all the elements together successfully.
The noise-cancellation is average, as is the call quality. The battery life is long, and the levels of comfort are also good. So what story does the OneOdio Focus A6 tell? I think it’s one where if you approach these headphones with the right expectations, they’ll offer a decent performance for their relatively inexpensive price but if you’re expecting these headphones to outperform their price, that’s not the case.
You could do better, certainly for sound, with the Sony WH-CH720N, Panasonic RB-M600B, Lindy BNXe as alternative options. These headphones won’t make it on the list of best cheap headphones but as a pair of inexpensive wireless over-ears, they just about past muster.
How We Test
The OneOdio Focus A6 were tested over the course of a month, the ANC tested in real-world circumstances and compared against similarly priced rivals through a pink noise test.
A battery drain was carried out over five hours, while the wireless connected was tested out in busy outdoor environments. ANC was used indoors, on planes and walking around cities.
Tested for a month
Tested with real world use
Battery drain carried out
FAQs
Which Bluetooth codecs does the OneOdio Focus A6 support?
You get SBC, AAC, and LDAC with the Focus A6, and they’re also one of the first headphones Trusted Reviews has tested that supports Bluetooth 6.0, which brings with it various new improvements in battery and connectivity.
Programmers have managed to cram the original Mac OS X onto a Nintendo Wii from 2006, a piece of hardware that is nearly 20 years old. Bryan Keller, the brains behind this, spent a year and a half developing tools to make it happen through a project called wiiMac. The result lets the Wii boot into Mac OS X 10.0 Cheetah and handle basic tasks even if the experience moves slowly on such limited hardware.
To begin, owners must ensure that their Wii is functioning properly. The SD card slot is required, and the Wii must be running a soft mod with BootMii installed as the second thing to boot, or via an IOS. Unfortunately, the Wii Mini is out of the running because it lacks the essential slot. To get everything up and running, two SD cards are required: one for the BootMii files and the wiiMac bootloader, and the second for the Mac OS X system, which has to be at least 4GB in size.
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To configure the cards, you will need a spare computer running macOS or Linux. The first card receives a copy of the most recent wiiMac files directly to the root folder, along with the BootMii files, which are almost certainly already present, and there must be a text file inside the wiiMac folder that allows you to select the appropriate video mode for your region, such as NTSC or PAL.
The second card must be partitioned into three smaller and smaller sections: a 64MB FAT32 section labeled Support, a 1GB HFS+ section labeled Install, and a larger HFS+ section labeled Macintosh HD that takes up the remainder of the space, as the commands for doing so will differ slightly depending on the computer you’re using, but the goal is the same. The Install partition is then loaded with a full copy of the Mac OS X 10.0 Cheetah installer, as you’ll need an original disk image to transfer it from, which you can achieve via a block level transfer. Meanwhile, the Support partition receives a folder named wiiMac, which contains a specially patched kernel file as well as a slew of unique drivers designed specifically for Wii hardware.
Once the cards are ready, you can transfer them to the Wii. Insert the BootMii card and restart the Wii, which should bring you to the BootMii interface. From there, simply load the wiiMac bootloader and quickly switch the first card for the second, which contains all of the Mac OS X partitions. The bootloader takes over and launches the installer; at this point, you’ll need a simple USB keyboard and mouse plugged directly into the Wii ports, as connecting them via a hub is likely to cause issues. The installer next walks you through selecting the Macintosh HD partition as the location for the system files, and that’s all.
Once the installation is complete, the new operating system will boot. To get the newly loaded Mac OS X up and running, you must perform the same old card switch and bootloader dance. At this point, you’ll probably notice that the screen resolution is looking a little stretched out, so you’ll need to head directly to System Preferences and adjust it to a more reasonable 640×480 for readability. The next thing you do is run a few terminal commands to adjust the swap file size and compress the Dock down to size in order to squeeze out some more speed from the Wii’s not-so-modern 78 MB of useable RAM and 729 MHz processor. If you plug in a USB storage drive before starting the machine, it should connect OK, but don’t expect it to be reliable.
Performance is about what you’d expect: not exactly blistering speeds. The system handles the Finder and the fundamentals well, but Wi Fi, Bluetooth, the DVD drive, and any type of graphics or audio acceleration are all unsupported. The Classic environment is useful for running older Mac OS 9 software, but expect a slight lag. There is one small bright side, however: when you start the DOOM port, it runs nicely and even outperforms certain older Mac installations in certain scenarios.
The ASX-listed data centre operator is raising A$1.5 billion in a fully underwritten equity offering and expanding its hybrid securities programme by A$700 million, with La Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec now committed to a total of A$1.7 billion.
The raise will fund accelerated development of the S4 Western Sydney campus, where contracted utilisation jumped 250 megawatts in a single quarter.
NEXTDC (ASX: NXT), Australia’s largest independent data centre operator, has halted trading to launch a A$2.2 billion capital plan anchored by a fully underwritten A$1.5 billion equity entitlement offer, the company announced on Monday.
The raise is a direct response to a step-change in demand: between December 2025 and 31 March 2026, NEXTDC’s pro forma contracted utilisation jumped 250 megawatts, a 60% increase in a single quarter, to reach 667MW.
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Its forward order book grew 83% over the same period to 544MW, driven by hyperscale cloud providers and AI infrastructure customers.
The equity component is structured as a 1-for-5.4 pro-rata accelerated non-renounceable entitlement offer, priced at A$12.70 per share, an 8.6% discount to the theoretical ex-rights price of A$13.90.
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New shares are expected to be issued to retail shareholders by 18 May, with the institutional bookbuild already underway at the time of the halt. Prior to the suspension, NEXTDC shares had risen approximately 25% through April, reflecting mounting investor enthusiasm for data centre infrastructure plays across Asia-Pacific.
The A$2.2 billion total capital plan combines the A$1.5 billion equity offer with a A$700 million expansion of the company’s hybrid securities programme.
NEXTDC’s hybrid securities, which are deeply subordinated instruments ranking junior to all existing debt, had previously been backed by a A$1 billion binding commitment from La Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ), Canada’s second-largest pension fund with approximately C$517 billion in assets.
The expanded commitment brings La Caisse’s total backing to A$1.7 billion, cementing what the Canadian investor described as a “promising first step toward a long-term partnership” with NEXTDC.
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The primary use of proceeds is the accelerated development of S4, NEXTDC’s data centre campus in Western Sydney, where the company intends to invest approximately A$1.5 billion through the end of financial year 2027.
A record 250MW customer commitment at S4 during the quarter is what triggered the announcement: CEO Craig Scroggie described the capital raise as a way to “materially expand NEXTDC’s contracted capacity and de-risk the company’s Western Sydney developments ahead of potential strategic partnership transactions with private capital partners from 2027.”
That last phrase signals intent to bring in joint venture partners or asset-level investors once the facility is contracted and de-risked, a common monetisation mechanism for large-scale data centre infrastructure.
The financial guidance accompanying the announcement is striking. NEXTDC raised its FY26 capital expenditure guidance by A$300 million to a range of A$2.7 billion to A$3.0 billion.
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For FY27, capex is forecast at approximately A$5.0 billion. The company is simultaneously maintaining its existing FY26 revenue and EBITDA guidance while projecting that contracted EBITDA from existing customer agreements alone will exceed A$1 billion over time, roughly four times the midpoint of current FY26 guidance of A$235 million.
Following the raise and recent funding activity, NEXTDC expects pro forma liquidity of approximately A$5.9 billion.
NEXTDC operates or is developing 20 data centres across Australia, in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Port Hedland, Canberra, Adelaide, the Sunshine Coast, and Darwin, and is evaluating sites in Tokyo, Bangkok, Johor and Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, and Singapore.
Australia’s deployable data centre capacity stands at approximately 1,350 megawatts today, with consensus forecasts projecting 3,100 MW by 2030–31 and potentially up to 7.4 gigawatts by 2035 under AI-driven scenarios.
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NSW has endorsed A$51.9 billion worth of data centre projects through its Investment Delivery Authority, effectively concentrating approvals, and the grid connections and planning support that come with them, in a small number of qualified operators.
Nuclear batteries are pretty simple devices that are conceptually rather similar to photovoltaic (PV) solar, just using the radiation from a radioisotope rather than solar radiation. It’s also possible to make your own nuclear battery, with [Double M Innovations] putting together a version that uses standard PV cells combined with small tritium vials as radiation source.
The PV cells are the amorphous type, rated for 2.4 V, which means that they’re not too fussy about the exact wavelength at the cost of some general efficiency. You generally find these on solar-powered calculators for this reason. Meanwhile the tritium vials have an inner coating of phosphor so they glow. With a couple of these vials sandwiched in between two amorphous cells you thus have technically something that you could call a ‘nuclear battery’.
With an approximately 12 year half-life, tritium isn’t amazingly radioactive and thus the glow from the phosphor is also not really visible in daylight. With this DIY battery wrapped up in aluminium foil to cover it up fully, it does appear to generate some current in the nanoamp range, with a single-cell and series voltage of about 0.5 V.
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A 170 VAC-rated capacitor is connected to collect some current over time, with just under 3 V measured after a night of charging. In how far the power comes from the phosphor and how much from sources like thermal radiation is hard to say in this setup. However, if you can match up the PV cell’s bandgap a bit more with the radiation source, you should be able to pull at least a few mW from a DIY nuclear battery, as seen with commercial examples.
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen this particular trick. A few years ago, a similar setup was used to power a handheld game, as long as you don’t mind waiting a few months for it to charge.
Surveillance and analytics company Palantir recently posted what it called a “brief” 22-point summary of CEO Alex Karp’s book “The Technological Republic.”
Written by Karp and Palantir’s head of corporate affairs, Nicholas Zamiska, “The Technological Republic” was published last year and described by its authors as “the beginnings of the articulation of the theory” behind Palantir’s work. (One critic said it was “not a book at all, but a piece of corporate sales material.”)
In fact, congressional Democrats recently sent a letter to ICE and the Department of Homeland Security demanding more information about how tools built by Palantir and “a range of surveillance companies” are being used in the Trump administration’s aggressive deportation strategy.
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Palantir’s post doesn’t reference much of that context directly, simply saying that it’s providing the summary “because we get asked a lot.” It then suggests that “Silicon Valley owes a moral debt to the country that made its rise possible” and declares that “free email is not enough.”
“The decadence of a culture or civilization, and indeed its ruling class, will be forgiven only if that culture is capable of delivering economic growth and security for the public,” the company says.
The post is wide-ranging, at one point criticizing a culture that “almost snickers at [Elon] Musk’s interest in grand narrative” and at another point touching on recent debates about the use of artificial intelligence by the military.
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“The question is not whether A.I. weapons will be built; it is who will build them and for what purpose,” Palantir says. “Our adversaries will not pause to indulge in theatrical debates about the merits of developing technologies with critical military and national security applications. They will proceed.”
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Similarly, the company suggests that “the atomic age is ending,” while “a new era of deterrence built on A.I. is set to begin.”
The post also takes a moment to denounce the “postwar neutering of Germany and Japan,” adding that the “defanging of Germany was an overcorrection for which Europe is now paying a heavy price” and that “a similar and highly theatrical commitment to Japanese pacifism” could “threaten to shift the balance of power in Asia.”
The post ends by criticizing “the shallow temptation of a vacant and hollow pluralism.” In Palantir’s argument, a blind devotion to pluralism and inclusivity “glosses over the fact that certain cultures and indeed subcultures . . . have produced wonders. Others have proven middling, and worse, regressive and harmful.”
After Palantir posted this on Saturday, Eliot Higgins, the CEO of the investigative website Bellingcat, dryly remarked that it was “extremely normal and fine for a company to put this in a public statement.”
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Higgins also argued that there’s more to the post than a simple “defense of the West” — in his view, it’s an attack on what he said are key pillars of democracy that need rebuilding: verification, deliberation, and accountability.
“It’s also worth being clear about who’s doing the arguing,” Higgins wrote. “Palantir sells operational software to defense, intelligence, immigration & police agencies. These 22 points aren’t philosophy floating in space, they’re the public ideology of a company whose revenue depends on the politics it’s advocating.”
Home Depot has a launched a massive spring sale, appropriately named ‘Spring Black Friday‘, with up to 40% in savings on patio furniture, appliances, grills, lawn mowers, tools and more.
As TechRadar’s deals editor and a huge fan of Home Depot, I’ve gone through Home Depot’s sale and hand-picked the best deals. While Home Depot’s Black Friday sale is always a popular event, with impressive savings, Home Depot’s spring sale is even better, because you get to save on seasonal items.
The retailer has record-low prices on outdoor essentials like patio furniture, gardening tools and grills, as well Black Friday-like discounts on major appliances, including refrigerators, washing machines and dishwashers from brands like LG, Samsung and Whirlpool.
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You’ll find links to Home Depot’s most popular sale categories below, followed by my pick of the top deals. Keep in mind that Home Depot’s sale ends on April 29, so time is running out to score spring savings.
Zoom “has partnered with World, Sam Altman’s iris-scanning identity company (previously known as Worldcoin), ” reports Digital Trends, “to add real-time human verification inside meetings.”
Zoom is now inviting organizations to join the beta version of the rollout, which Digital Trends says “lets hosts confirm that every face on the call belongs to a real person, not an AI-generated imposter. ”
For those wondering how World’s Deep Face technology works, it includes a three-step process. It cross-references a signed image from a user’s original Orb registration, a live face scan from the device, and the frame of the video that’s visible to the other participants in the meeting. Only when the three samples match does a “Verified Human” badge appear next to the user’s name…
Hosts can also make Deep Face verification mandatory for joining meetings, preventing unverified participants from joining entirely. Mid-call, on-the-spot checks are also possible…
Summary: Threads head Connor Hayes previewed a redesigned web interface that adds direct messages, a navigation sidebar with shortcuts to saved posts and insights, and a cleaner single-feed layout replacing the current multi-column design. DMs, which launched on mobile in June 2025, will roll out on web “over the coming weeks,” bringing one-on-one chats, group conversations of up to 50, and media sharing to the platform’s most engaged desktop users as Threads surpasses 450 million monthly active users and begins scaling its global advertising business.
Threads is getting a redesigned web interface that adds direct messages, a navigation sidebar, and quicker access to features that were previously buried in the mobile-first layout. Connor Hayes, who took over as head of Threads in September 2025, previewed the changes in a post on the platform this week, writing that “web is an important part of how our most engaged users interact with Threads, and we’ll be investing more here going forward.” Messages on the web version are not yet publicly testing, Hayes said, but users should “start to see them appear over the coming weeks.”
The redesign replaces the current multi-column layout with a cleaner single-feed view anchored by a left-side navigation rail. The sidebar includes shortcuts to saved posts, performance insights, activity, notifications, and the ability to switch between feeds, all features that exist on the mobile app but required multiple taps or profile navigation to find on the web. The result looks significantly more like X’s desktop layout, which is either a pragmatic design choice or an admission that the format Threads was trying to replace turned out to be the right one.
DMs finally reach the desktop
Direct messages launched on the Threads mobile app in June 2025, nearly two years after the platform itself launched. The web version has operated without them since, meaning that the users Hayes describes as “most engaged,” those who use Threads on a computer, have been unable to access one of the platform’s core communication features. The web rollout will bring one-on-one chats, group conversations of up to 50 people, emoji reactions, and the ability to send photos, GIFs, and stickers.
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Threads has been building out its messaging infrastructure steadily. In January, it launched a basketball mini-game within DMs. In February, it began testing a shortcut that converts the phrase “DM me” in a post into a clickable link that opens a direct message. The messaging system is built on Instagram’s infrastructure, which gives it reliability but also ties it to a platform with different privacy expectations and content norms.
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The redesign preview came one day after Hayes showed changes to how replies look on mobile. Replies under a post will now be indented to make conversation threads easier to follow, a feature rolling out on iOS and currently testing on Android.
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The competitive context
Threads has grown faster than any social platform in history and now has more than 450 million monthly active users, with daily active users estimated at roughly 137 to 141 million. In January, Similarweb data showed Threads had surpassed X in daily mobile users, 141.5 million to 125 million, a milestone that would have seemed improbable when the app launched as a text-based companion to Instagram in July 2023.
The growth has come alongside a broaderdecline of Xunder Elon Musk’s ownership, which has pushed users, advertisers, and publishers toward alternatives.Bluesky, which raised $100 million in its Series B and has grown to 43 million users under new CEO Toni Schneider, has captured a vocal segment of the market. But Threads’ integration with Instagram’s 2 billion-plus user base gives it a distribution advantage that no standalone competitor can match.
The web redesign is part of a shift from growth to retention. Threads has the users. What it has lacked is the feature depth that makes a platform indispensable for the power users who drive conversation and content creation. DMs, a proper desktop experience, and improved reply threading address the specific complaints that have kept some users treating Threads as a secondary platform rather than a primary one.
Monetisation and Meta’s broader bet
Meta began rolling out ads on Threads globally in late January 2026, after testing in the US and Japan throughout 2025. The rollout uses Meta’s existing Ads Manager and supports image, video, and carousel formats through both Advantage+ and manual campaigns. Early pricing has been lower than Facebook and Instagram, with CPMs estimated at $3 to $8 and cost per click at $0.30 to $1.50, reflecting the early stage of advertiser competition on the platform. Evercore ISI analysts have projected Threads advertising revenue of $8 billion by the end of 2025 and $11.3 billion by 2026.
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The advertising rollout gives the web redesign commercial significance beyond user experience. Desktop users tend to have higher engagement times and are more valuable to advertisers. A web interface that keeps users on the platform longer and adds messaging, which increases session frequency, directly supports the revenue trajectory that analysts are projecting.
Hayes was appointed to lead Threads in July 2025, taking over from Adam Mosseri, who had been running the platform directly alongside Instagram. Hayes previously served as Meta’s VP of product for generative AI and spent 14 years at the company in various product roles, including a stint growing Instagram Reels. Mosseri said at the time that “given Threads’ maturity, we think we need a dedicated app lead who can focus all of their time on helping Threads move forward.” The web redesign and DM rollout are the most visible results of that dedicated focus.
Threads is also the largest platform running on the ActivityPub protocol, allowing users to share posts to Mastodon, WordPress, and other fediverse-compatible services. Meta says it has interacted with over 75% of all fediverse servers, though full account portability is not yet available.
The redesign is incremental rather than transformative. It brings the web version closer to feature parity with the mobile app, which is itself still catching up to the feature set that X has built over 17 years. But for a platform that hasMeta’s resourcesbehind it, 450 million monthly users in front of it, and agrowing creator economyto support, the gap between what Threads offers and what its most engaged users expect is closing faster than most new platforms manage. Hayes is signalling that the web is where the next phase of that closure will happen.
Filling a gap that fans of its retro-inspired speaker range have long identified, Wharfedale has introduced the Heritage Centre.
This new speaker is a dedicated centre channel speaker that’s been built to integrate with Wharfedale’s Linton, Super Linton, Denton, and Dovedale models that have made the Heritage Series one of its most successful lines in recent memory.
The absence of a centre speaker has been a barrier for Heritage owners wanting to build a multichannel home cinema system as the range has until now been limited to stereo pairs.
That’s left buyers to either mix in a mismatched centre channel or go without one entirely when configuring a 3.1 or 5.1 channel setup. Now that’s no longer an issue.
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Image Credit (Wharfedale)
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Wharfedale’s solution draws directly from the Super Denton’s driver architecture, adopting the same three-way configuration used across the broader Heritage range to keep the technical foundation consistent across the full speaker family.
That configuration pairs twin 165mm woven Kevlar bass drivers with a 50mm fabric dome midrange and a 25mm fabric dome treble unit, with all three driver types adapted directly from those developed for the Super Denton.
The midrange driver covers the 900Hz to 2.7kHz frequency band, the range most responsible for vocal clarity and dialogue intelligibility in film and television. The treble unit uses a damped rear chamber to push its resonant frequency well below the crossover point to keep high-frequency reproduction clean across a wide listening area.
Cabinet construction uses layered particle board and MDF bonded with a resonance-damping adhesive. It’s a build approach designed to distribute panel resonances across multiple frequencies rather than concentrating them at a single audible point. The internal bracing adds further control over cabinet colouration.
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Peter Comeau, Wharfedale’s Director of Acoustic Design said: ““The Heritage Series was originally conceived purely for the enjoyment of stereo music, but the speakers’ richly expressive sonic qualities lend themselves perfectly to other forms of AV entertainment. When the demand for a dedicated centre speaker for people building multichannel systems with Linton and Denton speakers became clear, we embarked on the project with the rigorous attention to engineering detail applied to every Heritage model.”
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Real-wood veneers in walnut, mahogany, or black oak finish the cabinet to a hand-polished satin lacquer, maintaining visual consistency with the full Heritage range across all three finish options.
The Wharfedale Heritage Centre arrives in late May, priced at £649, available in walnut, mahogany, or black oak to match whichever Heritage speaker system it sits in.
Simple and iconic, IKEA’s Billy bookcase has been around since the 1970s, and over 140 million have bene sold worldwide. The classic wood and white finishes are timeless, but now it’s got a new look for 2026 with a limited-edition blue version.
A bold piece of furniture like this needs the right styling, and as TechRadar’s Homes Editor, I like making it pop by teaming it with black and white for a striking effect. This compelling cobalt bookcase would look particularly good in a home office, with an IKEA Kallax desk in black/brown, and white accessories.
If one pop of blue isn’t enough (if you have a particularly large room, for example) you could add a splash more with a matching Krylbo swivel chair, or a few small accessories to tie it all together, like the royal blue Vappeby Bluetooth speaker (which TR’s audio editor loves) and the minimalist Ps 1995 clock.
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The limited-edition blue Billy bookcase won’t be around forever, and it’s bound to be popular, so grab one while you can!
Built around Billy
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Disclaimer: Unless otherwise stated, any opinions expressed below belong solely to the author.
In Mar, Singapore’s Ministry of Manpower (MOM) released its annual summary of job creation efforts that took place in the year before, highlighting the skills and expertise needed in both PMET and non-PMET professions.
For this piece, we focus on PMET roles—Professionals, Managers, Executives and Technicians—where many of Singapore’s best and most sought-after jobs are often concentrated (although some statistics may overlap).
Why are new jobs created in Singapore?
MOM’s analysis begins with the fundamental question: are Singaporean employers looking for replacements or are they genuinely adding new openings to their offer?
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Fortunately, last year brought the highest reading yet: 49.3% of vacancies were for completely new positions. This means that local companies are looking for more people and are not simply rotating staff.
What’s more, a record-high share of this expansion is being driven by businesses creating entirely new functions. In 34.7% of cases, job growth came from new roles rather than the expansion of existing operations, which, unsurprisingly, still accounts for the majority at 55.8%.
It suggests that 2025, despite the fears caused by the US tariffs, was a very dynamic year, and companies still ventured into new areas.
Where are the jobs created?
Where are those new areas found, then?
Well, as has been typical over the past few years, the industry with the highest share of fresh openings remains Information & Communications, where close to three-quarters of vacancies are for roles that did not exist before.
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It is followed by Construction (though it’s most likely driven by non-PMET employment), as well as Professional Services and Finance & Insurance, where more than half of the jobs on offer are new.
That is great news, of course, given that some of the best-paid roles are found in Singapore’s corporate sector.
Who are these jobs for?
Qualified people, naturally, but as we explained on Vulcan Post recently, paper degrees matter less and less, even for PMETs, where 70% of employers stated that academic qualifications are not their main consideration.
This doesn’t mean they don’t matter at all, but if all you have is a paper rather than practical experience, your job search may be considerably longer, just as it is a problem for employers to recruit workers for some vacancies for more than six months (listed in the table below).
Lack of skills and experience are the two primary reasons they remain in the market, with not enough talent available to fill them. And it’s not like employer expectations are huge, but over half of those looking for PMET specialists expect at least two to five years spent on the job somewhere before.
Only one in five is willing to employ complete newbies.
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Here’s a more specific breakdown by industry:
If you’re a fresh graduate or someone without experience at a particular job, your best chance may be to look for something in the public sector, as it is the most open to candidates without a long CV. It also pays well and looks for applicants with greater educational attainment.
So, if you have a degree but are struggling for work, perhaps take a look at what state administration or education are offering.
How much do they pay?
Finally, let’s talk about the money.
Here’s the list of the Top 10 most in-demand PMET jobs, compiled from the data collected in 2025, together with the salaries you can expect.
Top 10 PMET Vacancies in 2025
Rank
Occupation
Range of wages offered
1
Teaching & Training Professional
S$2,611 to S$8,580
2
Commercial & Marketing Sales Executive
S$3,000 to S$4,350
3
Software, Web & Multimedia Developer
S$7,000 to S$10,000
4
Policy & Planning Manager
S$4,800 to S$9,700
5
Electronics Engineer
S$5,000 to S$8,000
6
Civil Engineer
S$3,500 to S$5,500
7
Industrial & Production Engineer
S$4,200 to S$6,775
8
Accountant
S$4,550 to S$6,700
9
Systems Analyst
S$6,000 to S$9,700
10
Financial & Investment Adviser
S$7,500 to S$12,000
Source: Job Vacancies 2025/ Singapore Ministry of Manpower
The podium is occupied by the same jobs as last year, with a switch between second and third places. But it’s the teachers who are still in the highest demand, while the upper pay band places their earnings at over S$100,000 per year. Not bad.
Software developers and related IT experts are still highly needed—and highly paid, as are Electronics Engineers, System Analysts and Financial Advisers.
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Other jobs may not be quite as lucrative, but their availability should make up for it, as many Singaporeans (including young grads) are looking for their way into the labour market.
Read other articles we’ve written on Singaporean businesses here.
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