Diving into Apple’s Liquid Glass

Apple has had two months to refine Liquid Glass since introducing the design language at WWDC. It’s dialed the effect back, then amped it back up. It’s addressed some of the biggest complaints – the Control Center, for one – and left us to live with some of the others. So after all the tweaks, … Read more

I ‘fooled’ Samsung’s new antioxidant feature with a Cheez-It

Turns out, Cheez-Its have antioxidants. If I were to believe the Samsung Galaxy Watch 8, I don’t eat enough fruits and vegetables. Normally, smartwatches don’t make judgments about your nutritional intake. But this year, Samsung introduced a new experimental feature called Antioxidant Index. Using blue, yellow, and infrared LEDs, the watch’s sensor can pick up … Read more

Microsoft’s controversial Recall feature is now blocked by Brave and AdGuard

Microsoft’s controversial Recall feature, that automatically screenshots nearly everything on a Copilot Plus PC, is meeting resistance from app developers. Signal kicked off a trend of blocking Recall earlier this year, with AdGuard and the Brave browser now also blocking the Windows AI feature. AdGuard calls Recall a “privacy concern” in a blog post outlining … Read more

Paramount-Skydance merger approved after companies agree to government speech demands

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has approved Skydance’s $8 billion purchase of CBS-owner Paramount after the companies agreed to end diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs but feature a “diversity of viewpoints from across the political and ideological spectrum.” In light of the Trump administration’s critiques of CBS’s alleged anti-conservative bias — including collecting a … Read more

No, Instagram didn’t suspend Zohran Mamdani’s account for being ‘too socialist’

In a story published earlier this week, a site called “NYC Journals” claimed to have a bombshell: that Instagram had suspended the account of New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani for being “too socialist.” The story claimed that Mamdani’s account was down for three hours; it also cited a “leaked memo” from inside Instagram that … Read more

Starlink satellite internet service is down everywhere

Since around 3:30PM ET on Thursday, Starlink users have reported they can’t connect to SpaceX’s satellite internet service. The Starlink website first confirmed the issue with a banner message saying “Starlink is currently experiencing a service outage. Our team is investigating.” On X, Starlink posted a more detailed message at 4:05PM ET, saying “Starlink is … Read more

Intel reveals it will lose 33,000 employees this year and retreat in Germany, Poland, and Costa Rica

In April, Intel attempted to announce layoffs without announcing layoffs. “We have not set any headcount reduction target,” Intel spokesperson Sophie Metzger told The Verge. But the company has laid off thousands of employees since — and today, in the company’s Q2 2025 earnings, it has revealed that Intel will dramatically shrink as a result of … Read more

VTuber agency VShojo shuts down after talent exodus

VShojo, the VTuber agency that billed itself as “talent first,” is shutting down. VShojo CEO Justin “Gunrun” Ignacio made the announcement today on X writing, “I take full responsibility for the decisions that led us to this point.” Earlier this week, VShojo came under fire as Ironmouse, the agency’s top performing VTuber, announced she was … Read more

How to install the iOS 26 public beta

People with Apple developer accounts have had all the fun with the iOS 26 beta so far (and yes, if you missed it, there’s a new naming system now), but now that the public betas are out, anyone can try the new features. Setting up the public beta is slightly less involved than setting up … Read more

How can Tesla make a cheaper Model Y?

In an earnings call Wednesday, Tesla CEO Elon Musk “let the cat out of the bag”: The new, more affordable electric vehicle the company has been touting for over a year, and that has been singled out as the one thing that could pull Tesla out of its sales rut, wasn’t new at all. It … Read more

Apple’s Liquid Glass redesign is shaping up to be a snoozer on Macs

The Glass-ification will continue until morale improves. | Screenshot: macOS Tahoe 26 Apple’s macOS Tahoe 26 public beta is finally available, and with it the same Liquid Glass design language that’s coming to the rest of Apple’s operating systems. It’s a simultaneously weird yet milquetoast update. I’ve been testing the developer beta on an M4 … Read more

Liquid Glass is fine, I guess

Embrace the glass. If you want to give Liquid Glass – Apple’s new design language in iOS 26 – an uncharitable nickname, well, it’s right there for the taking. The new look has its fair share of haters, and I fully expected to be one of them when I downloaded the beta. But while there … Read more

A gritty Pac-Man reboot makes for surprisingly solid Metroid-style action

Shadow Labyrinth didn’t make the best first impression, though I’m not talking about the game itself. The concept of a gritty reboot of Pac-Man first reared its strange head in Secret Level, an anthology that turned notable video games into animated shorts that mostly felt like extended commercials. And that’s exactly what the episode “Circle,” … Read more

Uber to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in Lucid and Nuro in massive robotaxi deal

Uber plans to make “multi-hundred-million dollar investments” in both Nuro and Lucid as part of a massive new robotaxi deal that was just announced. The three companies are linking up to deploy “20,000 or more” robotaxis in the US over the next six years. The vehicles will be Lucid’s new Gravity SUV, equipped with autonomous … Read more

Slack says its AI can make sense of your company’s jargon

Slack is using AI to help business users quickly understand confusing company language and concentrate on their most important tasks. The communication platform announced that it will “soon” be adding a feature that explains workplace jargon, and an AI writing assistant for Slack canvases that automates repetitive writing tasks like summarizing conversations and note-taking. The … Read more

TikTok is putting the spotlight on songwriters

TikTok will now let songwriters highlight tracks they’ve written or co-written directly on their profiles. The list of songs will live within the “Music” tab on their profile, similar to the one TikTok already offers for artists on the platform. Users who register as songwriters will also get a “Songwriter” label beneath their account name. … Read more

Subnautica 2’s creators sue their publisher for ‘severely’ damaging the game’s release

The battle between Subnautica 2 publisher Krafton and the three former executives at its developer Unknown Worlds continues. Ted Gill, Charlie Cleveland, and Max McGuire — the three executives who Krafton terminated earlier this year — have filed a lawsuit detailing the alleged attempts by Krafton to torpedo the early access release of Subnautica 2 … Read more