News

Somewhere right now, a person is asking ChatGPT for the best cafe near them. The AI answers in four seconds and names three cafes. What if one of them isn't yours?

That's the problem I’ll address here. Without any hacks or suggesting a $500-a-month dashboard that you'll open twice. Instead, something that works with a system you can run from a spreadsheet.

've spent a lot of time watching small businesses handle AI search the way most of us handle gym memberships. Sign up in January, feel great for a week, never log in again. See, the tool was never the problem. The plan was.

So here's the plan.

Start your free 28-day trial and find out if your brand is the answer AI gives buyers

HubSpot AEO gives you visibility tracking, competitor analysis, citation analysis, and prioritized recommendations across ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini — all in one place.

It's one of the fastest ways to understand where your brand stands in AI-generated answers and what to do about it.View Deal

AEO stands for Answer Engine Optimization. It's the practice of making your business show up when people ask questions to AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini, and Google's AI Overviews.

Before AI was a thing, you would simply search for a query on Google and find multiple results, including Ads, Featured Snippet, Blogs, etc.

But, right now, most people ask AI the same question and get an instant answer. Three names, maybe four. A short paragraph and that’s it.

Well, if you and your business is in the above paragraph, you win. If you're not, you don't exist.

And the shift is already here. Google now puts AI-generated answers on top of regular results. Millions of people ask ChatGPT for recommendations the way they used to ask a friend, and your customers are among them.

Business owners hear about AEO and ask the same question:

"Which AEO tool should I buy?"

Wrong question. That's like asking which weighing scale to buy before you've changed anything about your diet. The scale will just tell you the same bad news with more decimal places.

An AEO tool doesn't get you cited. It shows you where you're invisible. Those are very different jobs.

Here's what any AEO tool, cheap or expensive, does at its core:

• Tells you if AI answers mention your business
• Tells you which competitors get mentioned instead
• Shows you which sources those AI answers pull from
• Points out what's missing about your business online

That's it. That's the whole product. It's a diagnostic machine. The treatment is the work you do outside the tool, and most of that work is free.

So, before you buy anything, build the system the tool is supposed to sit inside.

Every small business, whether you run a cafe, a mechanic shop, a car wash, or a SaaS product, should think about AI visibility in four layers.

Start with questions that your target audience actually asks. The stuff people type randomly at 9 PM when they need something.

If you run a cafe:

If you run a mechanic shop:

If you run a car wash:

If you run a SaaS product:

best cafe near Bleecker Street

best mechanic near me

best car wash near me

best invoicing tool for small business

affordable cafe near NYU

reliable car repair in Queens

foam wash in New York

affordable CRM for freelancers

birthday cafe in the West Village

car AC repair near me

doorstep car detailing near me

simple project management tool for agencies

work-friendly cafe with Wi-Fi in Manhattan

affordable brake service in Brooklyn

ceramic coating in Queens

alternative to spreadsheets for client tracking

This is where tracking begins, and you don't need software for it yet. Open ChatGPT. Open Perplexity. Ask your 20 questions. Write down what comes back.

Track five things for each prompt:

Prompt

Are we mentioned?

Who is mentioned?

Why them?

Which sources are cited?

Best cafe near Bleecker Street

No

Competitor A, B

More reviews, more listings

Maps, review platforms, blogs

Birthday cafe West Village

No

Competitor C

Birthday decor photos everywhere

Instagram, local blogs

Affordable cafe near NYU

Maybe

You + two others

Menu prices visible online

Reviews, menu pages

Do this weekly. Same prompts, same day, every week. It takes 30 minutes, and it will teach you more about your market than any webinar.

AI doesn't recommend businesses out of thin air. It looks for proof. And proof, for a local business, lives in boring places.

It lives in your Google Business Profile. In your reviews, and not just the count and the score, but what people actually say in them. In your photos, your menu or service pages, and the local directories that list you. It lives in articles and listicles that mention you, your social media presence, and the community discussions happening around your area.

Google itself says local visibility comes down to relevance, distance, and prominence. And prominence is built from links, articles, directories, review count, and review scores. AI systems lean on the same signals.

So when your competitor gets mentioned, and you don't, the reason is rarely mysterious. Your business information is incomplete or inconsistent somewhere. You don't have enough reviews. Your website doesn't answer specific questions, or your photos don't show the experience.

Maybe nobody else on the internet is talking about you yet. Or you're chasing a query that's too broad for where you are right now.

This is where most businesses quit. They track AI mentions, feel excited for two days, screenshot a result, send it to the family group chat, and then do nothing.

Tracking without action is a hobby. A good AEO workflow ends every week with a short action list. Things like:

• "Create a birthday party page on the website"
• "Add prices to the online menu"
• "Get 30 more reviews this month"
• "Get listed on three local directories"
• "Invite five local food creators to visit"
• "Fix the phone number, it's different on two platforms"

Small, boring, and super specific. That's what moves the needle. And yes, I checked, the needle exists. It's your review count.

Quick detour, because this mistake costs people months.

If you run a cafe in Greenwich Village, do not start by targeting "best cafe in New York." That query belongs to famous names with thousands of reviews and a decade of press. You will lose that fight, and you'll lose it slowly.

Target the narrow stuff instead:

• "best cafe near Bleecker Street"
• "coffee shop near NYU with Wi-Fi"
• "birthday cafe in the West Village"
• "affordable cafe in Greenwich Village"

Narrow queries have less competition and higher intent. The person asking "cafe near Bleecker Street with Wi-Fi" is closer to walking through your door than the person asking "best cafe in New York" for a listicle they're skimming on the subway.

Own the street first. Then the neighborhood. Then, maybe, the city!

Okay. Say you've run the manual system for a couple of months. Your listings are fixed, reviews are climbing, and checking 20 prompts by hand every week is getting old. Now a tool makes sense.

Here are the seven things a small business AEO tool should do. If a tool doesn't do most of these, keep your money.

It should track the questions your customers actually ask. Real buyer prompts like "where can I get car AC repair near me," not vanity prompts like "is my business the best." (The answer to that one is always disappointing anyway.)

It should show which competitors keep appearing. If the same three names show up for every prompt, those three names just became your homework. Study their reviews, their photos, their pages, and their listings.

The tool should show where AI answers pull information from. Review platforms, directories, articles, maps, social profiles. Then your job is simple:

Get your brand on those sources.

Being simply mentioned is also not enough right now. You should focus on how your brand is perceived online. Here’s what I mean:

• A good mention: "A budget-friendly cafe near Bleecker Street known for coffee, snacks, and casual hangouts."
• A weak mention: "A cafe located in Greenwich Village."
• A bad mention: "Mixed reviews about service and food quality."

Same business. Three very different outcomes for the person reading. The tool should tell you which one you're getting.

It should show what competitors have that you don't. Something like:

Competitor has

You have

500 reviews

80 reviews

Menu indexed online

Menu only on Instagram

Birthday event photos

No event photos

Blog mentions

Zero third-party mentions

A page for every service

One generic homepage

That table isn't depressing. It's a to-do list wearing a disguise.

Prompts tracked. Mentions gained or lost. Competitors appearing. Sources cited. Gaps found. Next five actions.

If the report doesn't tell you what to do next, it's really just a screensaver with a subscription fee.

Let me put the whole system in one place. This is what I'd hand any small business owner tomorrow.

• Pick your 20 money prompts: The questions customers ask right before they spend money.
• Run them weekly: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google's AI Overviews. Log who gets mentioned, what sources appear, how you're described.
• Fix what you own first: Website, business listing, menu, photos, FAQs, hours, address, phone number. Google's guidance for showing up in AI features is almost insultingly basic: crawlable pages, important content in text form, structured data matching what's visible, business info kept current. Basic. And still, most small businesses fail at it.
• Build third-party validation: AI trusts repetition across independent sources. Local blogs, directories, review platforms, creator videos, community mentions. For SaaS, that's comparison pages, review sites, customer stories, and integration directories. The more places that say the same thing about you, the easier you are to recommend.
• Review progress every 30 days: Mentions up? Descriptions improving? Gaps closing? Adjust and repeat.
• Buy a tool only when the manual version hurts: More on that now.

Buy one when the spreadsheet starts groaning. If you're tracking more than 20 or 30 prompts, running multiple locations, or a team needs weekly reports, manual checking stops being cheap. It just becomes slow.

It also makes sense once you want history. Citation trends over time, sentiment shifts, mentions gained and lost month over month. A spreadsheet shows you today. A tool shows you the movie.

And if you're already producing content and collecting reviews every week, a tool helps keep the data pace with the work. At that stage, you're not buying insight. You're buying speed.

Now the other side. Don't buy one if your website is incomplete, your business listing is half-empty, or your review count is embarrassing. The same goes if your photos look like they were taken during an earthquake, or if nobody online is talking about you yet.

And definitely don't buy one hoping it will "get you cited" on its own. It won't. A tool pointed at a business with no proof will produce a beautiful report that says "you're invisible" in fourteen different chart formats. You already knew that. Save the money, do the work, then buy the tool to scale the work.

Small businesses keep asking "which AEO tool should I buy?" when the question that actually matters is this:

What are the 20 questions my customers ask before buying, and does the internet prove I'm a good answer?

Answer that honestly, and everything else falls into place. The listings, the reviews, the pages, the photos, the mentions. AEO isn't a separate marketing channel. It's a visibility audit for the AI era, and the audit is only useful if you act on it.

Remember that person asking ChatGPT for the best cafe near Bleecker Street? They're going to ask again next month. And the month after that.

Whether your name comes up is a decision you make this week. Open a spreadsheet. Write your 20 prompts. Start asking.

Expect 60 to 90 days for narrow, local queries, and longer for competitive ones. AI answers lean on reviews, listings, and third-party mentions, and those take time to build. The businesses that see results fastest are the ones fixing their listings and collecting reviews every single week, not the ones checking prompts every day, hoping something has changed.

They overlap, but they're not the same. SEO gets you ranked in a list of links. AEO gets you named inside an answer. The foundations are shared: good pages, accurate business info, strong reviews. The difference is the finish line. In SEO, position four still gets clicks. In an AI answer, there is no position four.

Start with ChatGPT and Google's AI Overviews, because that's where your customers already are. Add Perplexity to your weekly tracking since it shows its sources openly, which makes it the easiest one to learn from. You don't need to chase every platform. They pull from similar signals, so fixing your proof once improves your odds everywhere.

No, asking people to stuff phrases into reviews reads as fake to platforms and to humans. Ask for honest reviews instead. If your birthday setups are genuinely good, people will mention birthdays on their own. Your job is to make the experience worth describing, then make asking for the review a habit.

Fix the sources, not the AI. Wrong hours, old menu, dead phone number in an AI answer almost always trace back to an outdated listing or an old article somewhere. Find the source the answer cites, correct it there, and update your own website and business profile. AI answers refresh from the web, so clean sources eventually mean clean answers.

At the start, nothing. The manual spreadsheet system in this article costs 30 minutes a week. When you outgrow it, entry-level tools run roughly the price of a decent phone plan per month, and that's plenty for a single-location business. If a sales page quotes you enterprise pricing for tracking 20 prompts, close the tab.

The next major smartphone launch is just weeks away: Samsung has set the date for its next Unpacked event as July 22.

The invite doesn’t say exactly what to expect at the London-based showcase, but it does tease that we’ll see a foldable phone with a new form factor, thanks to the tagline “a new shape unfolds”, and that lines up neatly with leaks and rumors.

In this article, we've detailed exactly what that “new shape” might be below, along with details of the other phones, watches, and even glasses that we might see at Galaxy Unpacked 2026.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8 is likely to be the most affordable of Samsung’s upcoming phones — and the only one with a clamshell design.

Leaks suggest that this device could use a new Exynos 2600 chipset — though the US might instead get a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5. Either way, that would be an upgrade on the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7, which uses the Exynos 2500 chipset in every region.

The Galaxy Z Flip 8 could also have a smaller crease and a slimmer build, but might otherwise be similar to the Galaxy Z Flip 7, coming equipped with a familiar 6.9-inch foldable display, a 4.1-inch cover screen, a 4,300mAh battery, a 50MP main camera, a 12MP ultra-wide, and a 10MP selfie snapper.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 could be that foldable with a “new shape” that Samsung hinted at, with reports suggesting that the company is planning a new book-style foldable that’s shorter and wider than the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7.

This device is rumored to have a 7.6-inch 120Hz foldable screen, a 5.5-inch cover display, a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset, 12GB of RAM, two 50MP cameras on the back, and a 4,800mAh battery.

This could be one of the more interesting devices at the next Samsung Galaxy Unpacked, since it’s a form factor that Samsung hasn’t tried before. But aside from the size and shape of the screen, it will probably be quite a conventional foldable.

Along with the wider model detailed above, Samsung will almost certainly launch a standard successor to the Galaxy Z Fold 7 at Unpacked, and this device is rumored to be called the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra — though it’s unclear whether it will do anything to earn that name.

Leaks suggest the phone might have an 8-inch foldable screen, a 6.5-inch cover screen, a 50MP wide camera, a 50MP ultra-wide, and a 10MP telephoto with 3x optical zoom.

As with the phone above, it’s likely to have a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset and 12GB of RAM, but its battery could be of a higher capacity, with leaks pointing to a 5,000mAh cell.

So in all, the Ultra could have bigger screens, a higher capacity battery, and an extra camera over the wider model — along with an almost certainly higher price.

We’re also expecting new smartwatches from Samsung, specifically the Samsung Galaxy Watch 9 and probably also the Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra 2. There’s an outside chance we’ll get a new Samsung Galaxy Watch Classic, but this is looking less likely.

The Galaxy Watch 9 will probably have a circular display again, with leaks pointing to an Exynos W1000 chipset, 2GB of RAM, 32GB of storage, and two screen sizes: a 1.34-inch (438 x 438) one and a 1.47-inch (480 x 480) one.

The Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 might instead have a Snapdragon Wear Elite chipset, and could be the first Samsung watch to support 5G.

It could also have a massive — by smartwatch standards — 800mAh battery, 64GB of storage, and a high 5,000-nit peak brightness for its screen. The display, however, might otherwise be similar to the original Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra’s, and it will reportedly come in the same 47mm size.

Finally, we might also see the Samsung Galaxy Glasses at Unpacked. These would be Samsung’s first smart glasses, and they reportedly run Android XR with access to Gemini.

They might also have a 12MP camera, a 155mAh battery, directional speakers, and weigh just 50g. But they’re not expected to have a screen, so they could be direct rivals to products like the Ray-Ban Meta.

If you're absolutely infuriated with slow internet speeds while working from home, I've spotted a top deal on TP-Link's Deco BE25 3-pack mesh router system, now $180 (was $250) at Amazon.

Wi-Fi 7 mesh systems don’t have to cost a fortune, and this set-up definitely proves it. Here, three Wi-Fi 7 nodes covering up to 6,000 square feet, AI-powered roaming, TP-Link’s HomeShield security, and compatibility with every other Deco device you might already own — all for $60 less than usual.

For households conducting online video calls and business tasks alongside 4K streaming and gaming, it's a genuine upgrade on any existing system. Especially given the Deco BE25's AI Roaming feature that's designed to prevent mid-call drop-outs.

Three Wi-Fi 7 nodes covering up to 6,000 sq ft with combined speeds up to 3,600 Mbps across 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands. AI Roaming automatically connects your devices to the fastest available node as you move around. Each unit has two Gigabit Ethernet ports for wired devices, and works with smart home devices, too. View Deal

The case for upgrading to Wi-Fi 7 — even at the dual-band level — is clearer than it was a year ago. Wi-Fi 7’s key improvements over Wi-Fi 6E aren’t just about raw speed; Multi-Link Operation (MLO), which lets a device use both bands simultaneously, reduces latency and improves reliability in ways that show up in real-world use rather than just benchmarks.

The AI Roaming feature is the BE25’s distinguishing addition over the BE23. Standard mesh roaming hands off your connection between nodes based on signal strength thresholds; AI Roaming uses TP-Link’s algorithm to predict when and to which node your device should move before signal quality actually degrades. In practice, this means fewer mid-call dropouts as you walk from room to room and fewer situations where your phone stubbornly clings to a distant node when a closer one would serve it better.

At 6,000 square feet of combined coverage across three nodes, the BE25 handles most house sizes comfortably. Each node covers roughly 2,000 square feet, which means even houses with challenging layouts — multiple floors, thick walls, a garage or back garden you want covered — can be addressed with strategic placement. The Deco app’s network map shows signal strength for each node, making positioning straightforward even without networking experience.

The TP-Link HomeShield integration is a practical bonus. The free tier includes real-time network threat detection, intrusion prevention, malicious site blocking, and basic parental controls. Upgrading to HomeShield Pro (subscription required) adds more granular content filtering and reporting, but the free features are genuinely useful for most households at no ongoing cost.

One note: the BE25 is dual-band only — no 6GHz band. If you have a multi-gig internet connection (above 1Gbps) and want to fully utilize it wirelessly, or you have a dense device environment that would benefit from the less-congested 6GHz airspace, the Deco BE63 or BE63 Pro is the right choice despite the higher price. For households on 500 Mbps or 1 Gbps internet plans — the majority of US broadband subscribers — the BE25 delivers all the speed the plan can provide, and the 6 GHz band won’t be missed.

For anyone still running a single router or an older mesh system, the TP-Link Deco BE25 3-pack at $179.99 is one of the clearest Wi-Fi upgrades available right now.

This two-pack eero 6 system features a router and extender, and is ideal for medium-sized homes, with coverage of up to 3,000 square feet. Many homes won't need more than two units, so you can save some money by getting this smaller pack. If you find you need more coverage, you can buy an extender. View Deal

• See all mesh router deals at Amazon.

• ChatGPT’s new voice mode is rolling out today to everybody, even Free users
• It allows for much more natural conversations and won’t interrupt if you stop talking
• You’ll be able to do simultaneous translation for the first time ever in ChatGPT

OpenAI has upgraded ChatGPT’s voice mode for everybody with two new models that are rolling out globally, starting today.

I listened to the new GPT-Live-1 model in a demo run by OpenAI, and it does sound much more natural than ChatGPT’s previous voice model.

The new model aims to address two particular problems with the existing ChatGPT voice mode. Firstly, the previous version just wasn’t as smart as the text version of ChatGPT. Secondly, it tended to interrupt too much. You notice this especially if you go quiet while you’re thinking of a reply — ChatGPT will often fill the gap by talking.

To get around the intelligence problem, the new model actually delegates harder questions to ChatGPT-5.5, then comes back with an answer. It will say things like “let me just check that for you” to let you know it’s doing this, which keeps the flow of conversation feeling natural and doesn’t make it seem like you have to wait too long for an answer.

It does the same thing with any answer it needs to look up on the web. So, for example, if you asked it when your team’s next match was in the World Cup, it would say something like “OK, let me check that” while looking it up using GPT-5.5, then give you the answer.

OpenAI also demonstrated how the new ChatGPT voice mode is quite happy to stop talking and listen if you tell it to, without interrupting. You can simply ask it not to reply until you speak to it directly again, and it will wait.

Of course, this requires you to call it a name, which it doesn’t officially have. In the demonstration I saw, the OpenAI employee called it “Chat”, so he said “Hey Chat”, just like you would say “Hey Siri”. In practice that seems to work quite well.

The final new feature of note is simultaneous translation. If you watch world leaders being briefed at places like the United Nations, you’ll see that they have an earpiece through which they receive a simultaneous translation in their own language of whatever the speaker is saying.

Now you can do this with ChatGPT. Say “I’d like you to simultaneously translate whatever I’m saying into [language]”, then start talking, and ChatGPT will provide a live translation as you speak. Seeing this in action was actually quite impressive and I could imagine it being very handy in several real world situations.

All major languages appear to be supported as well.

The new GPT-Live-1 models — there are two, the normal one and a mini version — will start rolling out for all users immediately, but it could take a few days to reach everybody. The smaller GPT-Live-1 mini model will be the default for Free users, while paid users get the full GPT-Live-1 model.

So far, ChatGPT’s voice mode has been a handy tool for when you need to use your hands for something and can’t type, but it’s never been good enough to become the standard way you interact with ChatGPT. Now it looks like OpenAI is trying to unlock the ability to use voice as the primary interface to AI, and it’s quite possible that this is the future OpenAI is aiming for. Today I think we've all just taken a step closer to it.

Formula 1 has always been a sport where fine margins can make all the difference, with success and failure sometimes coming down to hundredths of a second.

It’s no surprise then that many of the teams have looked to AI for assistance in getting that extra edge, whether it’s through designing new parts, determining race strategy, or simply getting staff to better communicate with each other.

AI giant Atlassian has been working with the Williams F1 team since 2025, signing a title partnership to show its commitment, and at the recent British Grand Prix 2026, I got to speak to the company to find out just how its tools and services are being used.

“We came across the Williams F1 team, and we quickly identified that there was quite a good opportunity for both organizations,” Andrew Boyagi, Atlassian Customer CTO, tells me at Silverstone.

“It’s not a sponsorship, it’s more of a partnership because we can help each other…we had a similar view that in Formula 1, the success goes to the teams that have the best teamwork and the best technology.”

Atlassian’s first season with Williams F1 saw the team achieve a huge jump up the rankings, rising from ninth place overall in 2024 to fifth in 2025, netting it millions of dollars more in prize money.

And although the 2026 season hasn’t been quite as successful so far, Boyagi is keen to highlight how working closely with the team has led to huge improvements in productivity and collaboration.

This has primarily been through Atlassian’s AI tools, which have become common sights in businesses and organizations across the globe. AI usage in the team was also fairly low before the Atlassian partnership, but Boyagi points that after using Rovo, 63% of the team now say, “they have more time to work on strategic, innovative stuff, which means they’re delegating a lot of their work, the repeatable low-value stuff, to AI.”

This includes a new Fault Management tool, which monitors for conflict and repetition when mechanics at the track or the factory report issues. Boyagi notes that it can be so busy at the track, the same fault might be logged multiple times, which can lead to wasted time and effort at the factory, which is particularly painful in a cost-cap limited sport like Formula 1 where every second counts.

Another example is in garage setup - Formula 1 is a global sport, with teams travelling to 24 locations across the world, arriving at an empty garage which needs to be quickly transformed into a cutting-edge hub.

Previously, the team used manual checklists, often with pen and notepads, to track what was being done, leaving the door open to error, but Atlassian redesigned the workflow with Jira and Rovo natively built in, so tasks auto-populate in Jira boards by category and assigned employee, meaning everyone can see who is working on what, and work moves across as it is completed, so hopefully nothing is ever missed.

I ask Boyagi what success will look like in terms of the partnership, especially as Williams F1 has struggled in the initial races so far in 2026.

“Success in Formula 1 is about good technology and good teamwork, but it is always a sport where luck comes into it as well,” he notes, “but what we like to see is an improvement in how things are collaborating, and how effective they are in terms of doing their work.”

Boyagi points out that Atlassian took baseline data between October 2025 and March 2026, finding that 92% of the team now say they’re working for the right organization priorities, “so they’re working on the right things.”

Knowledge transfer has also improved, with trust in documentation going up by 200% in those five months, as Boyagi notes, so “in terms of knowledge, in every company, but especially Formula 1, it is a foundation of productivity - being able to find what you need, when you need it, and trusting what you find without asking someone.”

“Teams are now working on the right things, they’re getting that work done faster, they’re having less meetings and they’re delegating the low value, repetitive tasks to AI,” he adds, “and it doesn’t always translate to what happens on track, but I’m 100% confident we are already making a difference.”

The difference isn’t just for the mechanics or workers back at base - Boyagi says that the team’s drivers are also embracing it. He mentions one example where Alex Albon was having a debate with his engineers around different car set ups - to which Boyagi said, why don’t you ask Rovo?

“As it turned out, Rovo agreed with him, not the engineers - that was a nice moment for us,” Boyagi says, adding that what is important is why Rovo can give a solid answer because the platform is underpinned by Atlassian’s Teamwork Graph, which connects various parts of the business and its processes.

“All of these things are connected, so when you ask a question, it connects dots that humans can’t connect, where it would take us too long,” he says.

As for Williams 1, the team clearly values the partnership, with Matt Harman, Technical Director for Engineering, championing the time and efficiency savings seen by using Atlassian's systems.

"We need to build systems, tools and techniques across the whole team that allow us to be collaborative," he said on a briefing call attended by TechRadar Pro, "we need to give people more insight, more ideas, so that people can not spend as much time on what I call 'business as usual'".

Harman also highlighted the benefits of the Atlassian service causing "less meetings, more insights", as the partnership looks to provide engineers with the insights and the support to do more.

"When we do that, the Atlassian tools just give people that instant access...without having to sit in a meeting."

Boyagi also points out that the partnership between Atlassian and Williams F1 has multiple sides, noting the team is a customer, “so the fact that they’re using all of our products, and they’re choosing to do that, using precious cost cap dollars, really talks about the value they’re getting from the partnership.”

“I’ve led many transformations, and the hardest thing is getting people over the line - implementing technology is easy, but getting humans to change how they work and want to use the technology is a bit of an art," he says.

"But in Williams, there’s such a strong demand, and a pool, that we have to prioritize what we’re going to do, because they want the team to benefit."

Network switches have long been one of the easiest ways to expand and organize a wired network. That's true whether you're adding more PCs, security cameras, wireless access points, or network storage.

Now, I've found a terrific deal on the Zyxel GS1915-24EP smart switch that's just $200 (was $282) at Newegg. That's definitely an appealing price if you're upgrading your setup without paying enterprise prices.

This 24-Gigabit-port unit packs plenty of networking power into a compact chassis, making it a great option for small businesses, growing home offices, and anyone managing multiple wired devices.

Offering 24 Gigabit ports, including 12 PoE+ connections with a 130W budget, this smart managed switch supports free Nebula cloud management, NebulaFlex standalone operation, remote device power cycling, and compact, near-silent operation for growing networks.View Deal

With 24 Gigabit ports, including 12 PoE+ connections, it offers plenty of flexibility without pushing you toward expensive enterprise hardware.

Nebula cloud management doesn’t require an additional software or hardware controller. You can manage the switch through a web browser or the Nebula mobile app, giving you remote access to monitor your network, reboot powered devices, and make configuration changes wherever you are.

Although cloud management is available, you aren’t locked into it. NebulaFlex technology lets you switch between standalone local management and Zyxel's free cloud platform whenever it suits your setup.

Twelve PoE+ ports share a 130W power budget, giving you enough capacity for wireless access points, IP cameras, VoIP phones, and other powered devices without filling your workspace with separate power adapters.

That simplifies installations and reduces cable clutter, especially in smaller offices.

Beyond power delivery, the GS1915-24EP delivers Gigabit speeds across all 24 Ethernet ports and supports a wide range of networking standards, including link aggregation, VLANs, spanning tree protocols, energy-efficient Ethernet, and Layer 2 management features.

Those capabilities help keep business networks organized while providing room to expand as additional devices are added.

Remote management also includes the ability to power cycle connected PoE devices through the Nebula app.

If an access point or security camera stops responding, you can restart it remotely instead of making an on-site visit, which could save you plenty of time.

Despite offering 24 ports, the switch measures just 13 x 9.1 x 1.7 inches, making it easy to place on a desk, mount on a wall, or install in a rack.

Smart fan management keeps noise under control, making it suitable for offices where loud networking equipment could quickly become distracting.

For more top-performing picks, check out our round up of the best network switches.

The GS308 compact unmanaged switch adds eight Gigabit Ethernet ports with simple plug-and-play setup, requiring no software or maintenance. A fanless design keeps operation silent, while energy-saving features automatically adjust power consumption based on connected devices and cable length.View Deal

This unmanaged switch delivers eight Gigabit Ethernet ports with PoE+ support, supplying up to 62W of shared power for compatible devices. Silent fanless operation, non-blocking performance, advanced PoE controls, and flexible mounting make deployment straightforward in almost any workspace.View Deal

Featuring eight Gigabit Ethernet ports with an 83W PoE+ power budget, this unmanaged switch powers access points, IP cameras, and phones through a single cable. Automatic PoE balancing, silent fanless operation, and plug-and-play installation keep networking simple.View Deal

This unmanaged switch expands your network with eight Gigabit Ethernet ports and simple plug-and-play installation. A sturdy fanless metal enclosure, traffic prioritization for voice and video, reliable data transfer, and automatic power saving make it ideal for everyday networking.View Deal

• See all switch deals at Newegg

• A new update is coming to Meta's smart glasses
• It should stop modders from disabling the light that lets people know you're using the camera
• Meta is also targeting modders on and off its platform

Last month we shared details of reports that Meta glasses were being modded to bypass privacy protections and turn them into secret spy glasses. Now Meta has revealed it will update the glasses’ software to detect whether its light has been tampered with (or destroyed) to prevent recording.

Whenever you take a photo or video with Meta glasses, a white light appears on the front of the glasses to signal to people around you that you’re filming.

For creeps looking to be more secretive with their recordings, this light is a hindrance, but Meta has imposed more basic tamper-proof features since launch. That is, any attempt to use the camera while the light is blocked — such as by a piece of tape — wouldn’t be allowed. The trouble is, modders have found ways to open up the glasses and disable or damage the light and its mechanisms that prevent it from showing, without getting flagged by the system — meaning you can use the camera as you normally would, but without anyone else knowing.

This is (to put it bluntly) not good, and when the reports came out, a Meta spokesperson told me that the company was looking into ways to disable this workaround.

They also explained that Meta is working hard to stamp out advertisements for these kinds of services — some of which appeared on its own Facebook Marketplace platform — with its latest announcement explaining this means banning accounts, taking down listings, and taking legal action against people or businesses that tamper with its tech.

Beyond the detail of updating software to prevent tampering, the whole article from Meta is focused on privacy, and crucially how Meta keeps you and others safe.

Thanks to people misusing its tech, the wider notoriety these gadgets are getting again, and reports of contractors seeing recorded images and videos that Meta glasses users might not have fully realized they could see, Meta and smart glasses makers have been facing major privacy questions.

With this article, Meta seems to answer many of them, though we’ll have to wait and see if it can convince users — or if they might be tempted by the rise of cameraless smart glasses.

Even Realities, another smart glasses firm, recently announced it has raised $150 million in investment at a $1 billion valuation — not too shabby for a company that only launched its first XR gadget in 2024.

Instead of Meta’s camera-first approach, Even Realities went for a display-first approach. Information is shown visually as green text and basic diagrams to provide features such as AI advice, navigational directions, or a speech appearing on a virtual prompter. Its specs also lack speakers, though that’s not true for all glasses of their kind.

Losing out on the camera is, of course, a major privacy win for some, as there’s no possible way for the glasses to see something they shouldn’t or be used to spy.

The thing is, I think these kinds of glasses are pretty terrible. Having tested a few at home, the ones without a camera just aren’t worth wearing.

Smart glasses, despite being increasingly popular, are in their infancy, which in the tech world means you can expect to pay a fair sum for relatively limited features — that’s the price of being an early adopter. That’s especially true, I’ve found, for these XR glasses specifically, because while they can offer several tools like navigation, on-screen translations, a prompter, and notification pop-ups, their usefulness is pretty limited.

How often do you need a prompter? Or one-way translation tools? In the case of the latter, because these kinds of glasses often have you rely on your phone to set up the translation feature or access other features, you might as well just turn to something like Google Translate — which has conversation modes so that two people can talk and see translations through a single device.

The software I’ve found for these types of specs can also be pretty terrible with sluggishness, inaccuracies, and crashes — and if I, as someone who tests smart glasses professionally, have trouble, I can’t imagine what less techy people must think.

Additionally, the green text can be hard to make out on a bright day if you’re outside, making on-screen directions difficult to see.

While admittedly more limited feature-wise, the Meta glasses and smart specs like them feel like way better value for money. From Meta specifically, the software is generally very reliable, and more broadly, the ability to snap a photo whenever — either to capture a moment or to provide context for an AI’s response — comes in handy so often.

Even if it isn’t as good as my phone camera, the ability to record a memory, hands-free and without being taken out of the moment, is so utterly delightful.

Yes, there are privacy challenges which need to be hashed out more formally, as even without the ability to record privately there is still plenty of room for creeps to harass people with this kind of gadget, but if you want a pair of smart glasses right now there simply isn’t a better option.

• The Topolino will start from $13,995
• Customers will have to pay extra to make it road legal
• A/C comes courtesy of removing the doors

The US is about to get one of the cheapest electric vehicles ever offered for sale, as the Stellantis Group has confirmed that the tiny Fiat Topolino will be available Stateside.

Starting from just $13,995 (plus a $990 destination fee), the compact electric runaround features an equally minuscule 5.4kWh battery pack that delivers just 46 miles of range on a full charge. There's also a distinct lack of creature comforts.

Based on the Citroën Ami, the glorified golf cart is designed to offer a mobility solution for busy European cities, with the model classed as a light quadricycle (category L6e) that sees the law regard it more like a four-wheeled scooter or moped than a traditional passenger car.

This allows drivers as young as 14 to get behind the wheel in some European countries, and with the lack of a stereo, air conditioning, or an infotainment display (there is a smartphone cradle), the vehicles are about as basic and easy to maintain as they come.

That said, micromobility options like this are on the rise in the USA, where a craze for golf carts seems to be sweeping the nation.

According to a report by Today, residents of affluent neighborhoods are using electric carts for everything from grocery shopping trips to school drop-offs.

Golf cart manufacturer Club Car says the market value has soared from $1 billion pre-pandemic to more than $5 billion today.

Fiat hopes to cash in on this boom, with a range of stylish Topolinos that arguably have slightly more character than your average golf course transportation.

Thanks to its restricted top speed, diminutive proportions, and limited crash safety features, the Fiat Topolino isn't really classed as a traditional "car" in North America.

In fact, should customers want to use it on public roads, they will have to pay for a special conversion kit to raise the top speed to 25 mph and make it street legal on roads with speed limits of 35mph or less.

According to CNBC, Stellantis won't charge extra for this, but a mandatory destination fee of $990 will see the final price increase to $14,985.

The impossibly cute car, which roughly translates to "little mouse" from its native Italian, will also go on sale in the UK, with prices starting from £8,995.

Numerous models and special editions have already been touted, including a Sport edition that adds bespoke wheels, colors, and badges.

Fiat also unveiled a Multiplina concept (see above) that takes the Topolino platform and stretches it to act as "the missing link between a Topolino and a car," according to its maker.

There's no word on when we will see that go into production, but order books for the standard micro machine are already open in most markets.

• Two US army websites were defaced on their 404 error pages
• The messages included an expletive insult targeting Donald Trump and Tom Barrack
• The messages appear to be written by people sympathetic to the Kurdish cause

Two pages belonging to the US Army had their error pages defaced with pro-Kurdish messages criticizing US President Donald Trump.

Cybersecurity researcher Ronald Lovelace discovered the defaced pages, before notifying both the US Army and Cyberscoop.

One of the messages on a 404 error page read, “FREE KURDISTAN,” while another said “Kurdish sr was here.”

One of the pages defaced belongs to the Artificial Intelligence Integration Center (AIIC), and the second belongs to the Army’s Open Innovation Lab (OIL). These sectors of the Army were founded in 2019 and 2020 respectively, with the AIIC working to improve the integration of AI technologies within the Army and train personnel, while OIL established to help test new software and cyber capabilities.

The defaced error messages also labelled Donald Trump a “pedophile & thief,” likely referring to the President’s connections to financier and child sex offender Jeffery Epstein. An expletive message also referenced United States Ambassador to Turkey, Tom Barrack.

Lovelace noted that the affected websites are hosted using WordPress and Microsoft cloud infrastructure. Numerous WordPress plugins are frequently exploited by hackers to gain control over websites, although how the hackers defaced the Army website still has not been confirmed. The websites have since been taken down.

The Kurdish peoples are an ethnic group who occupy a stateless nation that covers southeastern Turkey, northern Iraq, northwestern Iran, and northern Syria.

The US and the Kurdish people have worked together on numerous occasions, even being considered allies when it suited the US, particularly in the fight against Suddam Hussein and later against ISIS.

But the US has since turned away from supporting the people of Kurdistan, with the President recently endorsing a Turkish bombing campaign targeting the area of Kurdistan that falls within their territory, hence the messages targeting Tom Barrack.

It appears that whoever is responsible for the defacement of the US Army websites feel betrayed by this shift in policy.