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Cath Virginia / The Verge

Apple and Meta could soon face charges from the European Commission for violating Digital Markets Act (DMA) rules. The Financial Times reported Friday that the Commission is planning to charge Apple, and Reuters reported later that Meta could be charged as well.
The Commission is reported to be targeting Apple over its “steering” rules that charge developers for pointing to third-party purchase options. Meta’s charges will reportedly revolve around its ad-free subscription for Facebook and Instagram in the EU.
The Commission will be issuing preliminary findings, according to Reuters, meaning that the companies can make changes to try and correct things before the Commission makes a final decision. Apple is set to be charged first, Reuters reports, and the FT says we could see the charges in the coming weeks.
The European Commission and Apple didn’t reply to a request for comment. Meta declined to comment.

The charges follow the Commission opening DMA non-compliance investigations into Apple, Meta, and Alphabet in March. The DMA, which designates Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, TikTok owner ByteDance, Meta, and Microsoft as “gatekeepers” that must comply with rules over certain “core platform services” they offer, went into effect earlier that month.

Cath Virginia / The Verge

Apple and Meta could soon face charges from the European Commission for violating Digital Markets Act (DMA) rules. The Financial Times reported Friday that the Commission is planning to charge Apple, and Reuters reported later that Meta could be charged as well.

The Commission is reported to be targeting Apple over its “steering” rules that charge developers for pointing to third-party purchase options. Meta’s charges will reportedly revolve around its ad-free subscription for Facebook and Instagram in the EU.

The Commission will be issuing preliminary findings, according to Reuters, meaning that the companies can make changes to try and correct things before the Commission makes a final decision. Apple is set to be charged first, Reuters reports, and the FT says we could see the charges in the coming weeks.

The European Commission and Apple didn’t reply to a request for comment. Meta declined to comment.

The charges follow the Commission opening DMA non-compliance investigations into Apple, Meta, and Alphabet in March. The DMA, which designates Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, TikTok owner ByteDance, Meta, and Microsoft as “gatekeepers” that must comply with rules over certain “core platform services” they offer, went into effect earlier that month.

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You can do a lot with this little combo. | Image: DJI

Drones aren’t just fun to fly — they’ve also become nearly mandatory in creative arsenals to satisfy clients and social media followers hungering for aerial photography and video. Thankfully, the entry-level price barrier has come crashing down over the years.

The previous-generation DJI Mini 3, for example, is now just $329 ($90 off) at Amazon, down from its recently reduced starting price of $419. You can find discounts on various bundles, too, including one that throws in the video RC remote for $429 ($120 off) or the Fly More combo for $459 ($130 off) that packs three extra batteries and a carrying case. All are down to the lowest prices we’ve seen.

As you’d expect, the Mini 3’s feature set is a tier below the newest Mini 4 series and slightly cribbed compared to the Mini 3 Pro. It doesn’t have the omnidirectional vision or object avoidance, for example. The DJI Mini 3 is still surprisingly stable in the air — it weighs only 8.8 ounces and is small enough to comfortably rest in the palm of your hand whether or not its collapsible propeller-holding arms are folded in. However, new pilots should probably stick to more open areas as it only has downward-facing vision to help with landing.
The DJI Mini 3 camera’s fidelity also doesn’t match its newer counterparts, although you can still achieve good results when snapping 48MP photos and shooting 4K HDR video at up to 30 frames per second (or up to 60 frames per second when shooting in 2.7K or 1080p). You can shoot vertically in addition to horizontally.
One small benefit to its basic trappings is that its 38-minute maximum flight time beats the more substantial models by a few minutes. And because of its light weight, you won’t even need to secure a license before takeoff as long as you’re flying it in the US.

You can do a lot with this little combo. | Image: DJI

Drones aren’t just fun to fly — they’ve also become nearly mandatory in creative arsenals to satisfy clients and social media followers hungering for aerial photography and video. Thankfully, the entry-level price barrier has come crashing down over the years.

The previous-generation DJI Mini 3, for example, is now just $329 ($90 off) at Amazon, down from its recently reduced starting price of $419. You can find discounts on various bundles, too, including one that throws in the video RC remote for $429 ($120 off) or the Fly More combo for $459 ($130 off) that packs three extra batteries and a carrying case. All are down to the lowest prices we’ve seen.

As you’d expect, the Mini 3’s feature set is a tier below the newest Mini 4 series and slightly cribbed compared to the Mini 3 Pro. It doesn’t have the omnidirectional vision or object avoidance, for example. The DJI Mini 3 is still surprisingly stable in the air — it weighs only 8.8 ounces and is small enough to comfortably rest in the palm of your hand whether or not its collapsible propeller-holding arms are folded in. However, new pilots should probably stick to more open areas as it only has downward-facing vision to help with landing.

The DJI Mini 3 camera’s fidelity also doesn’t match its newer counterparts, although you can still achieve good results when snapping 48MP photos and shooting 4K HDR video at up to 30 frames per second (or up to 60 frames per second when shooting in 2.7K or 1080p). You can shoot vertically in addition to horizontally.

One small benefit to its basic trappings is that its 38-minute maximum flight time beats the more substantial models by a few minutes. And because of its light weight, you won’t even need to secure a license before takeoff as long as you’re flying it in the US.

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Simple devices can simulate the movements of a computer mouse, but employers are starting to catch on. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

According to a report from Bloomberg based on “disclosures filed with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority,” last month, Wells Fargo fired “more than a dozen employees” after an investigation revealed they were using devices or apps to simulate productivity on their computers. What’s not known is how over a dozen staffers had jobs where their productivity could be measured by mouse movements.
The FINRA disclosures did not reveal whether the terminated employees were caught using the tools while working remotely, according to Bloomberg, but they were all part of Wells Fargo’s “wealth- and investment-management unit.”

The devices and software in question have existed for years but skyrocketed in popularity during the pandemic when many employees suddenly found themselves working from home without any in-person supervision. Readily available online, the devices and apps are frequently referred to as “mouse movers” or “mouse jigglers” because they can autonomously move a computer’s cursor or trigger phantom keyboard entries without any human intervention.

Many companies rely on software to monitor these inputs as a way to ensure that remote employees are actually at their computers and being productive, and as remote working has continued after the pandemic, these monitoring tools have grown more sophisticated with the ability to now spot the patterns, however random they may seem, that a “mouse jiggler” is in use.

@gabrielle_judge Will i get caught for using a mouse jiggler is the question we all want answers to. The answer is maybe so therefore there’s a risk. The more interesting question is why do you feel like you need to use a mousejiggler to lie about working? Does your boss suck? Is your job horrible? Or are you putting too much pressure on yourself? #careeradvice #toxicworkplace #jobtips #remotesetup ♬ original sound – Anti Work Girlboss

It’s a cat-and-mouse game (no pun intended) that’s going to continue to evolve as both “mouse jigglers” and the detection tools improve. There may never be a clear winner, but as the popularity of working remotely continues to grow, a better approach will be for companies to simply redefine how they measure productivity for employees outside of the office.

Simple devices can simulate the movements of a computer mouse, but employers are starting to catch on. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

According to a report from Bloomberg based on “disclosures filed with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority,” last month, Wells Fargo fired “more than a dozen employees” after an investigation revealed they were using devices or apps to simulate productivity on their computers. What’s not known is how over a dozen staffers had jobs where their productivity could be measured by mouse movements.

The FINRA disclosures did not reveal whether the terminated employees were caught using the tools while working remotely, according to Bloomberg, but they were all part of Wells Fargo’s “wealth- and investment-management unit.”

The devices and software in question have existed for years but skyrocketed in popularity during the pandemic when many employees suddenly found themselves working from home without any in-person supervision. Readily available online, the devices and apps are frequently referred to as “mouse movers” or “mouse jigglers” because they can autonomously move a computer’s cursor or trigger phantom keyboard entries without any human intervention.

Many companies rely on software to monitor these inputs as a way to ensure that remote employees are actually at their computers and being productive, and as remote working has continued after the pandemic, these monitoring tools have grown more sophisticated with the ability to now spot the patterns, however random they may seem, that a “mouse jiggler” is in use.

It’s a cat-and-mouse game (no pun intended) that’s going to continue to evolve as both “mouse jigglers” and the detection tools improve. There may never be a clear winner, but as the popularity of working remotely continues to grow, a better approach will be for companies to simply redefine how they measure productivity for employees outside of the office.

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Illustration: Nick Barclay / The Verge

Meta is putting plans for its AI assistant on hold in Europe after receiving objections from Ireland’s privacy regulator, the company announced on Friday.
In a blog post, Meta said the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) asked the company to delay training its large language models on content that had been publicly posted to Facebook and Instagram profiles.
Meta said it is “disappointed” by the request, “particularly since we incorporated regulatory feedback and the European [Data Protection Authorities] have been informed since March.” Per the Irish Independent, Meta had recently begun notifying European users that it would collect their data and offered an opt-out option in an attempt to comply with European privacy laws.
Meta said it will “continue to work collaboratively with the DPC.” But its blog post says that Google and OpenAI have “already used data from Europeans to train AI” and claims that if regulators don’t let it use users’ information to train its models, Meta can only deliver an inferior product. “Put simply, without including local information we’d only be able to offer people a second-rate experience. This means we aren’t able to launch Meta AI in Europe at the moment.”
European regulators, on the other hand, have welcomed the pause.
“We are pleased that Meta has reflected on the concerns we shared from users of their service in the UK, and responded to our request to pause and review plans to use Facebook and Instagram user data to train generative AI,” Stephen Almond, the executive director of regulatory risk at the UK Information Commissioner’s Office, said in a statement.
The DPC’s request followed a campaign by the advocacy group NOYB — None of Your Business — which filed 11 complaints against Meta in several European countries, Reuters reports. NOYB founder Max Schrems told the Irish Independent that the complaint hinged on Meta’s legal basis for collecting personal data. “Meta is basically saying that it can use any data from any source for any purpose and make it available to anyone in the world, as long as it’s done via AI technology,” Schrems said. “This is clearly the opposite of GDPR compliance.”

Illustration: Nick Barclay / The Verge

Meta is putting plans for its AI assistant on hold in Europe after receiving objections from Ireland’s privacy regulator, the company announced on Friday.

In a blog post, Meta said the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) asked the company to delay training its large language models on content that had been publicly posted to Facebook and Instagram profiles.

Meta said it is “disappointed” by the request, “particularly since we incorporated regulatory feedback and the European [Data Protection Authorities] have been informed since March.” Per the Irish Independent, Meta had recently begun notifying European users that it would collect their data and offered an opt-out option in an attempt to comply with European privacy laws.

Meta said it will “continue to work collaboratively with the DPC.” But its blog post says that Google and OpenAI have “already used data from Europeans to train AI” and claims that if regulators don’t let it use users’ information to train its models, Meta can only deliver an inferior product. “Put simply, without including local information we’d only be able to offer people a second-rate experience. This means we aren’t able to launch Meta AI in Europe at the moment.”

European regulators, on the other hand, have welcomed the pause.

“We are pleased that Meta has reflected on the concerns we shared from users of their service in the UK, and responded to our request to pause and review plans to use Facebook and Instagram user data to train generative AI,” Stephen Almond, the executive director of regulatory risk at the UK Information Commissioner’s Office, said in a statement.

The DPC’s request followed a campaign by the advocacy group NOYB — None of Your Business — which filed 11 complaints against Meta in several European countries, Reuters reports. NOYB founder Max Schrems told the Irish Independent that the complaint hinged on Meta’s legal basis for collecting personal data. “Meta is basically saying that it can use any data from any source for any purpose and make it available to anyone in the world, as long as it’s done via AI technology,” Schrems said. “This is clearly the opposite of GDPR compliance.”

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The new 14-inch XPS has the redesigned chassis, touchbar, and invisible trackpad of the XPS 13 Plus, but better thermals and twice the battery life. And yet. The 2022 Dell XPS 13 Plus showed up with a bold new design: a trackpad that blends seamlessly into the chassis, a perfectly flush “zero-lattice” chiclet keyboard, and a “capacitive touch function row.” Unfortunately, the new look was overshadowed by the fact that it ran too warm and had too short a battery life. Now, Dell has given the whole XPS lineup that same futuristic design, from the Intel or Qualcomm-powered XPS 13 models to new 14- and 16-inch sizes that seem aimed directly at the MacBook Pro. The XPS 14 ($2,500 as reviewed) doesn’t suffer from the same issues as the 13 Plus or even the XPS 15 — yet it’s still underwhelming.
The XPS 14 can be configured with a discrete graphics card, like the XPS 15, but even with a smaller chassis and a more powerful GPU, it stays much cooler than the last XPS 15 we reviewed — or even the 13 Plus. The Meteor Lake Intel Core Ultra 7 155H is 21 percent faster than the Core i7-1280P in the XPS 13 Plus, and if it had been around two years ago, it would have fixed other issues we had with the 13 and 15 besides heat and battery life, like performance. Even with an OLED display, the XPS 14’s battery lasts twice as long — 12 hours compared to the 13 Plus’ six — with a battery that’s only 23 percent larger. That’s fantastic.

The list of improvements continues: the 14-inch model has three Thunderbolt 4 USB-C ports instead of just two, plus a combo audio jack and microSD slot, and it’s configurable up to 64GB of memory and 4TB of storage space. The XPS 14 is also 1.1 pounds heavier than the 13, though only a 10th of an inch thicker, and the display is lower resolution but physically larger. It’s a more reasonable price — $1,500 for the base model and $2,500 for the specific configuration reviewed here — but still expensive compared to similar laptops.
Yet, I’m underwhelmed by all these objectively good improvements because I do not like how it feels to type on the XPS 14. The key travel is fine even though it’s shallow, but the switches feel too springy, like the warped part of a metal Slinky that pops up every time you try to push it back down. The plastic key caps also feel too thin for an elegant and sturdy laptop, and I’m not a fan of how close together they are placed for their size.

1, 2, 3 USB-C!

There’s a microSDXC and headphone / mic combo jack, too.

The lack of a traditional function row throws off my muscle memory. I keep mistaking the tilde key for the escape key and caps lock for the tab key, and I can’t get used to hitting the esc button — or any button on the touch bar — because there is no tactile feedback. It’s blended into the chassis just like the trackpad, but the trackpad has haptics, so why doesn’t the function row? Yes, I can look at the screen to see if I hit the right button, but it’s more satisfying to see and feel the result of a button press.
I don’t mind the undefined trackpad space since it spans such a wide area below the keyboard. If I tap or press far enough to the left or right, it’s like using a regular trackpad. I don’t always get it right, so there are times I use the OLED touchscreen to navigate just for the sake of efficiency, but not often.

The tilde key, my archnemesis.

But I spent longer than I should have looking for the power button. I eventually found it to the right of the backspace key. There’s no icon to signal it’s a power button. It’s just a dark gray key that blends quietly into the keyboard, yet I still felt obtuse for missing it at first.
While the optional RTX 4050 GPU is great for injecting more speed into graphics or video work, the Dell XPS 14 is not a gaming-first laptop. It is possible to run a game like Baldur’s Gate 3 on the XPS 14 with the right settings, but there are gaming laptops like the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 that come with more powerful hardware for less money and include gaming-specific features like adaptive sync and software for fine-tuning things like fan speed and GPU clock speed.

The invisible trackpad is my favorite feature.

From price to performance, the XPS 14 is not as good of an alternative to the MacBook Pro as the XPS 15 once was. The base M3 chip kicks its butt in almost all of our benchmarks, and while Apple removed its divisive touch bar, Dell put a less useful one in. The invisible haptic trackpad looks better than the MacBook Pro’s traditional one, but it’s slightly harder to use — and the MacBook’s keyboard is much nicer (and so was the one on the XPS 15).
The XPS 14 is more competitive with some Windows laptops, like the Asus Zenbook 14X OLED, but it’s still too expensive, and if you don’t need a new laptop for 3D modeling or video work, it makes more sense to stick with integrated graphics and save $400. Yet, with the looming release of the $1,300 Qualcomm Snapdragon-powered XPS 13, it’s a good idea to hold off on buying any Dell XPS until the reviews are in.
In her review of the XPS 13 Plus, Monica Chin, The Verge’s former laptop reviewer, said the new design felt like it made the same mistakes Apple did with the 2016 MacBook Pro redesign, with too many sacrifices in the name of thinness. With the XPS 14, Dell addressed the 13 Plus’ performance and battery life, but the shallow, springy keyboard, ambiguously labeled power button, and touch function row inherited from the 13 Plus keep the XPS 14 feeling underwhelming. It looks nice, but it isn’t as nice to use.
Photography by Joanna Nelius / The Verge

The new 14-inch XPS has the redesigned chassis, touchbar, and invisible trackpad of the XPS 13 Plus, but better thermals and twice the battery life. And yet.

The 2022 Dell XPS 13 Plus showed up with a bold new design: a trackpad that blends seamlessly into the chassis, a perfectly flush “zero-lattice” chiclet keyboard, and a “capacitive touch function row.” Unfortunately, the new look was overshadowed by the fact that it ran too warm and had too short a battery life. Now, Dell has given the whole XPS lineup that same futuristic design, from the Intel or Qualcomm-powered XPS 13 models to new 14- and 16-inch sizes that seem aimed directly at the MacBook Pro. The XPS 14 ($2,500 as reviewed) doesn’t suffer from the same issues as the 13 Plus or even the XPS 15 — yet it’s still underwhelming.

The XPS 14 can be configured with a discrete graphics card, like the XPS 15, but even with a smaller chassis and a more powerful GPU, it stays much cooler than the last XPS 15 we reviewed — or even the 13 Plus. The Meteor Lake Intel Core Ultra 7 155H is 21 percent faster than the Core i7-1280P in the XPS 13 Plus, and if it had been around two years ago, it would have fixed other issues we had with the 13 and 15 besides heat and battery life, like performance. Even with an OLED display, the XPS 14’s battery lasts twice as long — 12 hours compared to the 13 Plus’ six — with a battery that’s only 23 percent larger. That’s fantastic.

The list of improvements continues: the 14-inch model has three Thunderbolt 4 USB-C ports instead of just two, plus a combo audio jack and microSD slot, and it’s configurable up to 64GB of memory and 4TB of storage space. The XPS 14 is also 1.1 pounds heavier than the 13, though only a 10th of an inch thicker, and the display is lower resolution but physically larger. It’s a more reasonable price — $1,500 for the base model and $2,500 for the specific configuration reviewed here — but still expensive compared to similar laptops.

Yet, I’m underwhelmed by all these objectively good improvements because I do not like how it feels to type on the XPS 14. The key travel is fine even though it’s shallow, but the switches feel too springy, like the warped part of a metal Slinky that pops up every time you try to push it back down. The plastic key caps also feel too thin for an elegant and sturdy laptop, and I’m not a fan of how close together they are placed for their size.

The lack of a traditional function row throws off my muscle memory. I keep mistaking the tilde key for the escape key and caps lock for the tab key, and I can’t get used to hitting the esc button — or any button on the touch bar — because there is no tactile feedback. It’s blended into the chassis just like the trackpad, but the trackpad has haptics, so why doesn’t the function row? Yes, I can look at the screen to see if I hit the right button, but it’s more satisfying to see and feel the result of a button press.

I don’t mind the undefined trackpad space since it spans such a wide area below the keyboard. If I tap or press far enough to the left or right, it’s like using a regular trackpad. I don’t always get it right, so there are times I use the OLED touchscreen to navigate just for the sake of efficiency, but not often.

The tilde key, my archnemesis.

But I spent longer than I should have looking for the power button. I eventually found it to the right of the backspace key. There’s no icon to signal it’s a power button. It’s just a dark gray key that blends quietly into the keyboard, yet I still felt obtuse for missing it at first.

While the optional RTX 4050 GPU is great for injecting more speed into graphics or video work, the Dell XPS 14 is not a gaming-first laptop. It is possible to run a game like Baldur’s Gate 3 on the XPS 14 with the right settings, but there are gaming laptops like the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 that come with more powerful hardware for less money and include gaming-specific features like adaptive sync and software for fine-tuning things like fan speed and GPU clock speed.

From price to performance, the XPS 14 is not as good of an alternative to the MacBook Pro as the XPS 15 once was. The base M3 chip kicks its butt in almost all of our benchmarks, and while Apple removed its divisive touch bar, Dell put a less useful one in. The invisible haptic trackpad looks better than the MacBook Pro’s traditional one, but it’s slightly harder to use — and the MacBook’s keyboard is much nicer (and so was the one on the XPS 15).

The XPS 14 is more competitive with some Windows laptops, like the Asus Zenbook 14X OLED, but it’s still too expensive, and if you don’t need a new laptop for 3D modeling or video work, it makes more sense to stick with integrated graphics and save $400. Yet, with the looming release of the $1,300 Qualcomm Snapdragon-powered XPS 13, it’s a good idea to hold off on buying any Dell XPS until the reviews are in.

In her review of the XPS 13 Plus, Monica Chin, The Verge’s former laptop reviewer, said the new design felt like it made the same mistakes Apple did with the 2016 MacBook Pro redesign, with too many sacrifices in the name of thinness. With the XPS 14, Dell addressed the 13 Plus’ performance and battery life, but the shallow, springy keyboard, ambiguously labeled power button, and touch function row inherited from the 13 Plus keep the XPS 14 feeling underwhelming. It looks nice, but it isn’t as nice to use.

Photography by Joanna Nelius / The Verge

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With iOS 18, Apple Home users will finally be able to insist the smart home platform use their hardwired Apple TVs as the primary Home hub. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

While Apple barely mentioned its smart home platform during its WWDC 2024 keynote this week, Apple Home users can still rejoice over an update discovered in the first iOS 18 beta: they’re getting the option to choose a “Preferred Home Hub.” This fixes the problem of your smart home “deciding” to run over Wi-Fi through a HomePod when there’s a perfectly good Apple TV using ethernet sitting right there.
Eagle-eyed Redditors on the HomeKit subreddit spotted that, in the iOS 18 beta, there’s a new option to select your preferred Home hub instead of relying on Apple’s automatic selection, the current choice.
HomeKit users took to the thread to express their joy at this move, saying, among other things, that “This is the most important feature update in the history of Homekit,” “This is the greatest news I’ve ever received,” and “I can’t believe it! Apple actually listened!!!”

What this does is allow users to choose to have their Apple Home automations run over a hardwired Apple TV as their main Home hub, rather than a Wi-Fi-based HomePod, something widely acknowledged by users to make the smart home platform run faster and more reliably.
An Apple Home Hub, such as a HomePod or Apple TV, adds the ability to create automations, control devices remotely, and enable local processing for HomeKit Secure Video Cameras on Apple’s smart home platform.
If you only have one Home hub, this change won’t affect you, but for people with large Apple Home setups and multiple hubs, the inability to select which one the system is relying on has caused frustration over the years.
While Apple will tell you it chooses the best hub for the job, Reddit users will tell you this is not the case.
While Apple will tell you it chooses the best hub for the job, Reddit users will tell you this is not the case. When Apple Home defaults to an older model or one that uses Wi-Fi, some users report seeing slowdowns in automations and less reliability overall with their smart homes.
I personally regularly find my Apple Home running on a HomePod Mini in the far corner of my house rather than my hardwired Apple TV in my living room. And when it does, my automations run noticeably slower, and I often can’t access my HomeKit cameras.

Prior to this change, the only way to force Apple Home to use one particular hub would be to unplug all your other hubs. Even then, once you plug them back in the system often reverts to its original configuration. And while you can turn off Home Hub functionality on an Apple TV, you can’t on a HomePod.
But with iOS 18, Apple Home users will finally get the control many have been asking for. If you don’t want to wait until Apple releases iOS 18 in the fall, you can download the developer betas now. Fair warning: you’ll need it on all your Home hubs for this to work, and that’s probably not a great idea if you want a smooth-running smart home.

With iOS 18, Apple Home users will finally be able to insist the smart home platform use their hardwired Apple TVs as the primary Home hub. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

While Apple barely mentioned its smart home platform during its WWDC 2024 keynote this week, Apple Home users can still rejoice over an update discovered in the first iOS 18 beta: they’re getting the option to choose a “Preferred Home Hub.” This fixes the problem of your smart home “deciding” to run over Wi-Fi through a HomePod when there’s a perfectly good Apple TV using ethernet sitting right there.

Eagle-eyed Redditors on the HomeKit subreddit spotted that, in the iOS 18 beta, there’s a new option to select your preferred Home hub instead of relying on Apple’s automatic selection, the current choice.

HomeKit users took to the thread to express their joy at this move, saying, among other things, that “This is the most important feature update in the history of Homekit,” “This is the greatest news I’ve ever received,” and “I can’t believe it! Apple actually listened!!!”

What this does is allow users to choose to have their Apple Home automations run over a hardwired Apple TV as their main Home hub, rather than a Wi-Fi-based HomePod, something widely acknowledged by users to make the smart home platform run faster and more reliably.

An Apple Home Hub, such as a HomePod or Apple TV, adds the ability to create automations, control devices remotely, and enable local processing for HomeKit Secure Video Cameras on Apple’s smart home platform.

If you only have one Home hub, this change won’t affect you, but for people with large Apple Home setups and multiple hubs, the inability to select which one the system is relying on has caused frustration over the years.

While Apple will tell you it chooses the best hub for the job, Reddit users will tell you this is not the case. When Apple Home defaults to an older model or one that uses Wi-Fi, some users report seeing slowdowns in automations and less reliability overall with their smart homes.

I personally regularly find my Apple Home running on a HomePod Mini in the far corner of my house rather than my hardwired Apple TV in my living room. And when it does, my automations run noticeably slower, and I often can’t access my HomeKit cameras.

Prior to this change, the only way to force Apple Home to use one particular hub would be to unplug all your other hubs. Even then, once you plug them back in the system often reverts to its original configuration. And while you can turn off Home Hub functionality on an Apple TV, you can’t on a HomePod.

But with iOS 18, Apple Home users will finally get the control many have been asking for. If you don’t want to wait until Apple releases iOS 18 in the fall, you can download the developer betas now. Fair warning: you’ll need it on all your Home hubs for this to work, and that’s probably not a great idea if you want a smooth-running smart home.

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Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images

I generally find Elon Musk useful, in that he makes it clear which things in America are actually hard boundaries (contract law, maybe copyright law) and which are merely conventions (most everything else). You can take ketamine, smoke weed, ask your subordinates to have your babies, and run your companies like your own personal fiefdom; if you are wealthy and powerful enough, no one can stop you.
Musk is entwined with his companies in a particularly unusual way. In the case of Tesla, he is probably responsible for its survival in a dicey period following the 2008 financial crisis. His involvement and fame have allowed Tesla to save significant money on advertising. For this service, Tesla shareholders voted him a massive pay package in 2018 — which was struck down by a judge in the state of Delaware, where Tesla is incorporated, because shareholders were not adequately informed that many of Tesla’s theoretically independent directors weren’t that independent at all.
It’s clear that Musk modeled himself on Steve Jobs
Perhaps I should say: where Tesla was incorporated. Because in the shareholder vote that reapproved the pay package, Tesla’s relocation to Texas won. Just like Elon Musk wanted.
I doubt I am the only person that watches Musk closely; certainly there are those who have viewed him as a top signal for trading. His job cuts at Twitter were used as an excuse for other job cuts elsewhere, for instance. (Musk is, in his way, Silicon Valley’s Tiberius, ruling from afar and consumed with paranoia; who might be his Sejanus I’ll leave to the reader.)
His weird and at times scandalous behavior has largely been allowed because investing in Musk has been so lucrative for so many people over the last 20-odd years. Though Musk’s adventures in social media ownership have somewhat threatened this reputation — at least for those left holding Twitter’s debt — he nonetheless managed to raise $6 billion for xAI, his somewhat aimless AI company that may or may not rely on (and compete with) Tesla itself.
Musk’s celebrity was built, first, in Hollywood — as the model for Robert Downey Jr.’s portrayal of Marvel superhero Iron Man. But he then cultivated a following on Twitter and at in-person events for the faithful, making himself extraordinarily available to his fans in a way most CEOs, even celebrity CEOs, are not. As time has gone on, he has become more demanding of the high priests of his fandom — threatening to cut them off for linking to reporting he doesn’t like, for instance.
It’s clear that Musk modeled himself on Steve Jobs, who was also controlling, temperamental, and publicity-obsessed. But Musk’s refinements to the model led to a kind of power that even Jobs didn’t have at Apple: an empire of companies, the biggest pay package of all time, and political influence. The fandom aspect here is what makes this all work — the shareholder vote in Musk’s favor was swung by retail shareholders, who overwhelmingly approved his pay package.
Tesla is less a meme stock than, say, GameStop or AMC but it has some similarities
Sure, some of these people are true believers — we heard from many of them at the shareholder meeting, thanking Musk for his contributions to society. But I don’t think every single Tesla holder is a purist. This is the stock market; plenty of people just want to make money.
Retail investing has been on the rise since the original internet bubble in the 1990s. Following the events of 2008, many people were convinced that Wall Street was nothing more than a casino, that stock prices (and company valuations) were mostly manipulated, and that there was no other way besides gambling on stock to become wealthy enough to retire. This kind of financial nihilism resulted in meme stock trading, which Musk himself has dabbled in.
Tesla is less a meme stock than, say, GameStop or AMC but it has some similarities: Musk can move the price through posting to the company formerly known as Twitter, for instance. A lot of Tesla’s premium over other carmakers has to do with its story: the energy company of the future, not just a carmaker. That story is intimately tied to Musk; while I can imagine another CEO giving Tesla their undivided attention, someone who can serve as the excellent operator of a car company likely won’t have the same “energy of the future” story attached. And stocks, being about the future, are about stories. Musk leaving could nuke Tesla’s premium.
I have heard people say that they thought voting for Musk’s pay and relocation meant shareholders were voting against their own interests. Well, maybe. But let’s say you’ve been paying attention to the last several years’ worth of corporate governance: your WeWorks, your SEC battles with Musk, Uber’s board’s blind eye to Travis Kalanick’s reckless leadership, Boeing in general, (This is to say nothing of the phenomenon of founder control.) You might come away with the impression that corporate governance exists in name only.
A cynic might conclude there is no reason to remove Musk, or even object to his wildest behavior, as long as he continues making money for shareholders. Even maintaining the Musk story premium might be reason enough. If Musk is upset, he might not make money for shareholders anymore — and, indeed, may compete with Tesla using his new company, xAI. Lawsuits take a long time to work their way through the court system, and have uncertain outcomes; in the meantime, Tesla can be badly hurt by Musk’s petulance. The shareholder vote makes sense if you believe corporate governance isn’t real and everything is possible.

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images

I generally find Elon Musk useful, in that he makes it clear which things in America are actually hard boundaries (contract law, maybe copyright law) and which are merely conventions (most everything else). You can take ketamine, smoke weed, ask your subordinates to have your babies, and run your companies like your own personal fiefdom; if you are wealthy and powerful enough, no one can stop you.

Musk is entwined with his companies in a particularly unusual way. In the case of Tesla, he is probably responsible for its survival in a dicey period following the 2008 financial crisis. His involvement and fame have allowed Tesla to save significant money on advertising. For this service, Tesla shareholders voted him a massive pay package in 2018 — which was struck down by a judge in the state of Delaware, where Tesla is incorporated, because shareholders were not adequately informed that many of Tesla’s theoretically independent directors weren’t that independent at all.

Perhaps I should say: where Tesla was incorporated. Because in the shareholder vote that reapproved the pay package, Tesla’s relocation to Texas won. Just like Elon Musk wanted.

I doubt I am the only person that watches Musk closely; certainly there are those who have viewed him as a top signal for trading. His job cuts at Twitter were used as an excuse for other job cuts elsewhere, for instance. (Musk is, in his way, Silicon Valley’s Tiberius, ruling from afar and consumed with paranoia; who might be his Sejanus I’ll leave to the reader.)

His weird and at times scandalous behavior has largely been allowed because investing in Musk has been so lucrative for so many people over the last 20-odd years. Though Musk’s adventures in social media ownership have somewhat threatened this reputation — at least for those left holding Twitter’s debt — he nonetheless managed to raise $6 billion for xAI, his somewhat aimless AI company that may or may not rely on (and compete with) Tesla itself.

Musk’s celebrity was built, first, in Hollywood — as the model for Robert Downey Jr.’s portrayal of Marvel superhero Iron Man. But he then cultivated a following on Twitter and at in-person events for the faithful, making himself extraordinarily available to his fans in a way most CEOs, even celebrity CEOs, are not. As time has gone on, he has become more demanding of the high priests of his fandom — threatening to cut them off for linking to reporting he doesn’t like, for instance.

It’s clear that Musk modeled himself on Steve Jobs, who was also controlling, temperamental, and publicity-obsessed. But Musk’s refinements to the model led to a kind of power that even Jobs didn’t have at Apple: an empire of companies, the biggest pay package of all time, and political influence. The fandom aspect here is what makes this all work — the shareholder vote in Musk’s favor was swung by retail shareholders, who overwhelmingly approved his pay package.

Sure, some of these people are true believers — we heard from many of them at the shareholder meeting, thanking Musk for his contributions to society. But I don’t think every single Tesla holder is a purist. This is the stock market; plenty of people just want to make money.

Retail investing has been on the rise since the original internet bubble in the 1990s. Following the events of 2008, many people were convinced that Wall Street was nothing more than a casino, that stock prices (and company valuations) were mostly manipulated, and that there was no other way besides gambling on stock to become wealthy enough to retire. This kind of financial nihilism resulted in meme stock trading, which Musk himself has dabbled in.

Tesla is less a meme stock than, say, GameStop or AMC but it has some similarities: Musk can move the price through posting to the company formerly known as Twitter, for instance. A lot of Tesla’s premium over other carmakers has to do with its story: the energy company of the future, not just a carmaker. That story is intimately tied to Musk; while I can imagine another CEO giving Tesla their undivided attention, someone who can serve as the excellent operator of a car company likely won’t have the same “energy of the future” story attached. And stocks, being about the future, are about stories. Musk leaving could nuke Tesla’s premium.

I have heard people say that they thought voting for Musk’s pay and relocation meant shareholders were voting against their own interests. Well, maybe. But let’s say you’ve been paying attention to the last several years’ worth of corporate governance: your WeWorks, your SEC battles with Musk, Uber’s board’s blind eye to Travis Kalanick’s reckless leadership, Boeing in general, (This is to say nothing of the phenomenon of founder control.) You might come away with the impression that corporate governance exists in name only.

A cynic might conclude there is no reason to remove Musk, or even object to his wildest behavior, as long as he continues making money for shareholders. Even maintaining the Musk story premium might be reason enough. If Musk is upset, he might not make money for shareholders anymore — and, indeed, may compete with Tesla using his new company, xAI. Lawsuits take a long time to work their way through the court system, and have uncertain outcomes; in the meantime, Tesla can be badly hurt by Musk’s petulance. The shareholder vote makes sense if you believe corporate governance isn’t real and everything is possible.

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Image: Vertigo / Langdon Foss, José Villarrubia, Dave Stewart

In addition to another season of the DC Comics-inspired My Adventures with Superman series, Adult Swim is producing a new animated show based on Vertigo Comics’ Get Jiro! graphic novels by co-writers Anthony Bourdain and Joel Rose and artist Langdon Foss.
Per The Hollywood Reporter, Adult Swim has put in a series order for a Get Jiro! series from Sharper co-writers Brian Gatewood and Alessandro Tanaka. Like the comics, the new series will tell the story of a deadly sushi chef living in a dystopian near future where restaurant-goers murder for reservations. Adult Swim has also ordered an adaptation of Jillian Tamaki’s 2010 web comic SuperMutant Magic Academy that’s set to be produced by Tamaki and Regular Show creator J.G. Quintel.
Currently, no other details about either show’s crew, cast, or tentative release date have been announced.

Image: Vertigo / Langdon Foss, José Villarrubia, Dave Stewart

In addition to another season of the DC Comics-inspired My Adventures with Superman series, Adult Swim is producing a new animated show based on Vertigo Comics’ Get Jiro! graphic novels by co-writers Anthony Bourdain and Joel Rose and artist Langdon Foss.

Per The Hollywood Reporter, Adult Swim has put in a series order for a Get Jiro! series from Sharper co-writers Brian Gatewood and Alessandro Tanaka. Like the comics, the new series will tell the story of a deadly sushi chef living in a dystopian near future where restaurant-goers murder for reservations. Adult Swim has also ordered an adaptation of Jillian Tamaki’s 2010 web comic SuperMutant Magic Academy that’s set to be produced by Tamaki and Regular Show creator J.G. Quintel.

Currently, no other details about either show’s crew, cast, or tentative release date have been announced.

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Image: Ice Universe

We already have a sense of potential specs for the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6, but now we might have a closer look at the foldable’s design, too. Images shared by reliable leaker Ice Universe show a prototype of the Z Fold 6 with sharper edges and a slight change to its camera design, as reported earlier by 9to5Google.
The look of the dummy model tracks with the leaked marketing materials and renders we’ve seen so far, which show off a similarly boxy design and black rings around each rear camera sensor instead of silver. You can see how the Galaxy Z Fold 6 may compare to the Galaxy Z Fold 5 in the below image from Ice Universe.

Image: Ice Universe
The Galaxy Z Fold 5 (left) next to a potential prototype of the Galaxy Z Fold 6 (right).

In addition to the slight design changes, the Galaxy Z Fold 6 might not differ much from its predecessor specs-wise. The device is expected to come with the same 120Hz OLED 7.6-inch display when unfolded, while the cover display gets a small bump from 6.2 inches to 6.3, according to leaked specs shared by Smartprix.

It’s also rumored to come with an upgraded Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip, 12GB of LPDDR5X RAM, and up to 1TB of storage. The camera setup may remain unchanged as well, featuring a 50MP primary camera, a 12MP ultrawide lens, and a 10MP telephoto lens.
Despite the minor changes, the Galaxy Z Fold 6 could come with a price increase. A leak from Smartprix suggests that it will start at $1,899.99, making it $100 more expensive than the Galaxy Z Fold 5. But we’re not going to have to wait much longer to find out more about Samsung’s upcoming devices, as signs are pointing to a July 10th Galaxy Unpacked.

Image: Ice Universe

We already have a sense of potential specs for the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6, but now we might have a closer look at the foldable’s design, too. Images shared by reliable leaker Ice Universe show a prototype of the Z Fold 6 with sharper edges and a slight change to its camera design, as reported earlier by 9to5Google.

The look of the dummy model tracks with the leaked marketing materials and renders we’ve seen so far, which show off a similarly boxy design and black rings around each rear camera sensor instead of silver. You can see how the Galaxy Z Fold 6 may compare to the Galaxy Z Fold 5 in the below image from Ice Universe.

Image: Ice Universe
The Galaxy Z Fold 5 (left) next to a potential prototype of the Galaxy Z Fold 6 (right).

In addition to the slight design changes, the Galaxy Z Fold 6 might not differ much from its predecessor specs-wise. The device is expected to come with the same 120Hz OLED 7.6-inch display when unfolded, while the cover display gets a small bump from 6.2 inches to 6.3, according to leaked specs shared by Smartprix.

It’s also rumored to come with an upgraded Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip, 12GB of LPDDR5X RAM, and up to 1TB of storage. The camera setup may remain unchanged as well, featuring a 50MP primary camera, a 12MP ultrawide lens, and a 10MP telephoto lens.

Despite the minor changes, the Galaxy Z Fold 6 could come with a price increase. A leak from Smartprix suggests that it will start at $1,899.99, making it $100 more expensive than the Galaxy Z Fold 5. But we’re not going to have to wait much longer to find out more about Samsung’s upcoming devices, as signs are pointing to a July 10th Galaxy Unpacked.

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Image: Apple

Password managers are essential. They keep track of your passwords, encourage better security practices, and generally help to manage your life across your devices. They’re the kind of feature that really should be built into every device — and Apple is massively expanding their reach with the launch of its new Passwords app, announced this week at WWDC.
We have companies like 1Password and LastPass to thank for the popularity of today’s password managers. But an announcement like Apple’s puts them in a tough position: now that Apple has a free, built-in Passwords app, is there a future for the third-party apps that defined the space?
So far, the leaders behind those apps think there is. “You’ve got to have the ability to not only go across browsers and apps, but also across multiple devices running multiple operating systems,” says LastPass CEO Karim Toubba.
Password managers have long competed against platform owners
Password managers have been competing against platform owners for a long time. Google has a password manager tied to your account that can sync your passwords across Chrome and Android, and Microsoft’s Edge has a built-in password manager, too.
But the big advantage of third-party password managers has been compatibility with a wide range of platforms. They are also generally more robust than first-party offerings. Although those additional features often come at a cost, paying for a widely accessible password manager is usually worth the price.
Apple’s Passwords app is mostly focused on Apple products — it will be available on iPhone, iPad, Mac, and the Vision Pro — though you’ll also be able to access it on Windows via the iCloud for Windows app. Notice that Google is missing from that list; Apple didn’t say anything about Passwords support for Android, the most-used mobile operating system in the world, or Chrome, the most popular web browser in the world, despite the fact that there is currently an iCloud Passwords app available on the Chrome Web Store. Apple didn’t reply to a request for comment.

That lack of broad platform support could mean Apple’s Passwords app isn’t as obvious of a choice as it might seem. All four of the companies I talked to — LastPass, Dashlane, Bitwarden, and Proton — zeroed in on the importance of cross-compatibility. (1Password declined to comment.)
“What users appreciate most about Dashlane is that it seamlessly works across any platform, any device, any time,” says Dashlane chief product officer Donald Hasson. “The vast majority of our users have Dashlane on multiple platforms. Having options, especially when it comes to where and how you save your credentials, is key.”
“Apple’s track record with cross-platform support, such as the limited functionality of iCloud for Windows and conflicts with Google over SMS standards, raises concerns about the usability of their Passwords app across different platforms,” says Proton Pass product lead Son Nguyen.
The makers of password managers have also found that their users tend to stick around. “Once people start to get real value out of the application, it’s actually extremely sticky,” says LastPass CEO Toubba.
Apple’s Passwords app could be great for anyone who is deep in the company’s ecosystem and primarily uses Apple devices. Even better, the Passwords app is free. But I think third-party password managers will be fine. If you need to access your passwords across a range of devices and platforms, Apple’s Passwords app may not cut it.

Image: Apple

Password managers are essential. They keep track of your passwords, encourage better security practices, and generally help to manage your life across your devices. They’re the kind of feature that really should be built into every device — and Apple is massively expanding their reach with the launch of its new Passwords app, announced this week at WWDC.

We have companies like 1Password and LastPass to thank for the popularity of today’s password managers. But an announcement like Apple’s puts them in a tough position: now that Apple has a free, built-in Passwords app, is there a future for the third-party apps that defined the space?

So far, the leaders behind those apps think there is. “You’ve got to have the ability to not only go across browsers and apps, but also across multiple devices running multiple operating systems,” says LastPass CEO Karim Toubba.

Password managers have been competing against platform owners for a long time. Google has a password manager tied to your account that can sync your passwords across Chrome and Android, and Microsoft’s Edge has a built-in password manager, too.

But the big advantage of third-party password managers has been compatibility with a wide range of platforms. They are also generally more robust than first-party offerings. Although those additional features often come at a cost, paying for a widely accessible password manager is usually worth the price.

Apple’s Passwords app is mostly focused on Apple products — it will be available on iPhone, iPad, Mac, and the Vision Pro — though you’ll also be able to access it on Windows via the iCloud for Windows app. Notice that Google is missing from that list; Apple didn’t say anything about Passwords support for Android, the most-used mobile operating system in the world, or Chrome, the most popular web browser in the world, despite the fact that there is currently an iCloud Passwords app available on the Chrome Web Store. Apple didn’t reply to a request for comment.

That lack of broad platform support could mean Apple’s Passwords app isn’t as obvious of a choice as it might seem. All four of the companies I talked to — LastPass, Dashlane, Bitwarden, and Proton — zeroed in on the importance of cross-compatibility. (1Password declined to comment.)

“What users appreciate most about Dashlane is that it seamlessly works across any platform, any device, any time,” says Dashlane chief product officer Donald Hasson. “The vast majority of our users have Dashlane on multiple platforms. Having options, especially when it comes to where and how you save your credentials, is key.”

“Apple’s track record with cross-platform support, such as the limited functionality of iCloud for Windows and conflicts with Google over SMS standards, raises concerns about the usability of their Passwords app across different platforms,” says Proton Pass product lead Son Nguyen.

The makers of password managers have also found that their users tend to stick around. “Once people start to get real value out of the application, it’s actually extremely sticky,” says LastPass CEO Toubba.

Apple’s Passwords app could be great for anyone who is deep in the company’s ecosystem and primarily uses Apple devices. Even better, the Passwords app is free. But I think third-party password managers will be fine. If you need to access your passwords across a range of devices and platforms, Apple’s Passwords app may not cut it.

Read More