It’s been 16 months since a DMA ruling allowed iOS developers like Google and Mozilla to use their own browser engines in the EU, so…  where are they? According to the Open Web Advocacy (OWA) — a nonprofit group of software engineers that advocates for the open web — Apple continues to place technical and financial restrictions on WebKit-alternative iOS browser engines that effectively stifle competition.OWA says these barriers include insufficient testing tools outside of the US, hostile legal terms, and forcing browser developers to create entirely new apps to ship their own engines, causing developers to lose their existing European user base. Instead of allowing Google, for example, to simply update its existing Chrome browser with a Blink engine, Apple’s rules require a brand new app for the EU audience, resetting the user count to zero. Developers would then have to maintain two separate browser implementations.Mozilla told The Verge last year that it was disappointed by Apple’s restrictions, describing them as “a burden” on independent browser providers. “Apple’s proposals fail to give consumers viable choices by making it as painful as possible for others to provide competitive alternatives to Safari,” said Mozilla spokesperson Damiano DeMonte. “This is another example of Apple creating barriers to prevent true browser competition on iOS.”Apple added support for non-WebKit browsers in iOS 17.4 to appease DMA rules that aim to prevent tech giants from disadvantaging third-party browser engines, but the OWA alleges that Apple’s restrictions mean it is “not in effective compliance with the DMA.”“Ensuring other browsers are not able to compete fairly is critical to Apple’s best and easiest revenue stream,” the OWA says. The group notes that Safari brings in $20 billion per year in search engine revenue from Google, accounting for 14-16 percent of Apple’s annual operating profit, and that it’s set to lose $200 million per year for every 1 percent of browser market share that Safari loses.Outside of the EU, Apple is also facing pressure from UK regulators to allow developers to use alternative browser engines in iOS, following an investigation that found both Apple and Google were “holding back” mobile browser innovation.

It's always cool to check out the games that arrived at the start and the end of a console's lifespan. As developers become more savvy with the hardware and find ways to skirt around its limitations, the games begin to look and play a lot better. By the end of the console's cycle, developers have managed to make the hardware truly sing, making some of the best games the console has ever seen.

This excerpt from Adam Aleksic's Algospeak: How Social Media Is Transforming the Future of Language has been abridged for online publication. The book is out on July 15th.The modern-­day incel is entirely an invention of the twenty-­first century. Before the internet, lonely men simply didn't have a way to gather and share ideas. That all began to change in 1997, when a Canadian student started a website called Alana's Involuntary Celibacy Project to connect with others over her shared lack of sex. As the name implies, the site wasn't a place for just straight men; rather, it was used by people of any gender or sexual orientation.In subs …Read the full story at The Verge.

Google is launching eight featured notebooks to start, with more to come. Google is partnering with authors, researchers, and publications to launch “featured” notebooks within its AI note-taking app, NotebookLM. These notebooks come prefilled with research and let you interact with the app’s tools, including its AI podcast maker, to learn more about each topic.Google has released eight featured notebooks to start, including one focused on longevity from Super Agers author Eric Topol, another centered around parenting advice from Jacqueline Nesi’s Substack newsletter, “Techno Sapiens,” and a notebook on the complete works of Shakespeare. It also partnered with The Atlantic and The Economist to launch featured notebooks.Google started letting users share their notebooks publicly last month, and this most recent update appears to be a step toward allowing people to explore a range of premade notebooks rather than creating their own. More than 140,000 people shared public notebooks in the past four weeks, according to Google.“For newcomers to NotebookLM, the notebooks are a preview of how useful the product can be when you’ve assembled a collection of sources for whatever project you’re working on,” Steven Johnson, the editorial director for NotebookLM, writes in a post on X. “But it’s also a preview of a potential future where there are thousands of expert-curated notebooks on all sorts of topics that you can add to your own collection, to have the knowledge you need on tap.”The featured notebooks include original text from the source material, whether it’s a book, play, newsletter, or online article. NotebookLM automatically summarizes this information and comes preloaded with notes about the topics discussed in the source material. You can also interact with NotebookLM’s AI chatbot to ask questions about the information, as well as listen to pregenerated Audio Overviews, the podcast-like discussions featuring AI “hosts.”Google says it plans on launching new featured notebooks in the future, which will include more from The Economist and The Atlantic.

Sun Day will estimate how long you can safely stay in the sun based on the UV index and your skin type. Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey has released a new app that tracks your sun exposure and vitamin D levels. It’s his second app in a week, after last weekend’s encrypted peer-to-peer messaging app Bitchat.Sun Day is available now for iOS via TestFlight, and the code for the project is available on GitHub. The app uses location-based data to display your local UV index and sunlight hours. You can detail your skin type and clothing level, then manually toggle when you’re in and out of the sun and the app will track your rough vitamin D levels for the day, along with how long you can be in direct sunlight without burning.Dorsey says he’s “learning” through his recent weekend coding projects, which he’s developing using the open-source AI coding tool Goose. It and similar vibe coding tools are one of the next key battlegrounds for tech’s AI giants — just last week a $3 billion deal for OpenAI to buy AI coding tool Windsurf fell through, as Google swooped in to hire Windsurf’s CEO and top talent onto its DeepMind team.

NFL coaches will start using Sony’s new headset during the 2025 season. | Image: Sony Sony is finally debuting the headset that it developed specifically for NFL coaches, after teasing it almost a year ago as part of a new partnership with the NFL. The headset features technology and engineering borrowed from Sony’s popular consumer-focused wireless headphones, such as the WH-1000XM6.That includes the same noise-canceling technology that Sony uses in its 1000X headphone series, although it’s been optimized for use on the sidelines. Sony tested the headset using real crowd noises at 100 decibels to fine-tune its active noise cancellation for use in NFL stadiums. The headset will be available in two configurations featuring either one or two ear cups.It features a new oversized microphone that helps keep the coach’s voice clear while concealing their lip movements so that other teams can’t easily see what play they’re calling. (They usually hide their mouths anyway.) Sony designed the new headsets to handle most of the weather teams face during the season, including extreme heat and cold conditions, as well as snow, sleet, and rain. They were drop tested to ensure they can endure the “physical demands of the sidelines”— cut to a scene of a coach tossing a headset to the ground after a bad play.All 32 teams in the NFL will use Sony’s new hardware. The headsets will be wirelessly connected through a belt pack using a Verizon private 5G network in each stadium to ensure secure communications. Sony was announced as an official technology partner of the NFL in July 2024. In addition to replacing Bose as the official headset provider for the league, the use of Sony’s Hawk-Eye tracking technology was also expanded this past season. The technology will be used to assist with important calls on plays.

A week after Elon Musk’s Grok dubbed itself “MechaHitler” and spewed antisemitic stereotypes, the US government has announced a new contract granting the chatbot’s creator, xAI, up to $200 million to modernize the Defense Department.xAI is one of several leading AI companies to receive the award, alongside Anthropic, Google, and OpenAI. But the timing of the announcement is striking given Grok’s recent high-profile spiral, which drew congressional ire and public pushback. The use of technology, and especially AI, in the defense space has long been a controversial topic even within the tech industry, and Musk’s prior involvement in slashing federal government contracts through his work at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) still raises questions about potential conflicts — though his relationship with President Donald Trump has more recently soured, and Trump’s administration has claimed Musk would step back from any potential conflicts while at DOGE.The contract announcement from the Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office (CDAO) is light on details, but says the deals will help the DoD “develop agentic AI workflows across a variety of mission areas.” Alongside the contract award, xAI announced “Grok for Government,” which it says will supply “frontier AI products” to the US. In addition to the DoD contract, xAI says other federal agencies will now be able to purchase its tools via the General Services Administration (GSA) schedule. The company plans to work on new products for government customers, like custom models focused on national security, applications for healthcare and science use cases, and models accessible in classified environments.Days after changes to Grok sent it off the rails (saying that if “calling out radicals cheering dead kids makes me ‘literally Hitler,’ then pass the mustache,” and referencing a “pattern-noticing meme” where “folks with surnames like ‘Steinberg’ (often Jewish) keep popping up in extreme leftist activism, especially the anti-white variety”), the company apologized for “the horrific behavior that many experienced.” It said the update responsible for Grok’s tirades was active for 16 hours but had been deprecated. Instructions given to the chatbot, like to not be “afraid to offend people who are politically correct,” had the “undesired” effect of leading it to “ignore its core values in certain circumstances in order to make the response engaging to the user” — even if that meant “producing responses containing unethical or controversial opinions.”

Dominic McLaughlin as Harry Potter. Warner Bros. Discovery’s new Harry Potter series for HBO and HBO Max will premiere in 2027, the company announced. Production has started on the show in the UK.The show is set to be a “faithful adaptation of the beloved Harry Potter books,” according to WBD, and the original Harry Potter movies will still be available on HBO Max. When the show was first announced in 2023, WBD said it would be a “decade-long series.”WBD also released an on-set picture of Dominic McLaughlin, who is playing Harry Potter, in his Hogwarts robes. Newcomers Alastair Stout and Arabella Stanton will play Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger.The company announced some new cast members, too: Rory Wilmot will play Neville Longbottom, Amos Kitson will play Dudley Dursley, Louise Brealey will play Madam Rolanda Hooch, and Anton Lesser (who you might recognize as Lio Partagaz from Andor) will play Garrick Ollivander. WBD has trickled out other cast announcements over the past few months, including that John Lithgow will play Dumbledore.Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling, who has been heavily criticized for hurtful comments toward the transgender community, is serving as an executive producer on the series.

Canva users can now create, edit, and manage their designs by describing their requirements to Anthropic’s Claude AI. The connection is the latest of several integrations that allow Claude users to access third-party tools and services, including Figma, Notion, Stripe, and Prisma, without having to leave their conversation with the AI chatbot.Starting today, Claude users will be able to use natural language prompts to complete design tasks in their linked Canva account, such as creating presentations, resizing images, and automatically filling premade templates. The integration also enables users to search for keywords within Canva Docs, Presentations, and brand templates, and summarize them through the Claude AI interface. The feature requires both a paid Canva account (which starts at $15 per month) and a paid Claude account ($17 per month).Anthropic is utilizing the Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that Canva launched last month, which provides Claude with secure access to user Canva content. MCP, often referred to as the “USB-C port of AI” apps, is an open-source standard that enables developers to quickly connect their AI models with other apps and services. Companies like Anthropic, Microsoft, Figma, and Canva have embraced MCP to prepare their platforms for a future tech landscape that’s expected to be filled with AI agents.“Instead of uploading or manually transferring ideas, users can now generate, summarize, review, and publish Canva designs, all within a Claude chat,” Canva Ecosystem head Anwar Haneef said in a statement to The Verge. “MCP makes this possible with a simple toggle in settings, marking a powerful shift toward user-friendly, AI-first workflows that combine creativity and productivity in one.”Claude is the first AI assistant to support Canva design workflows through MCP, but the chatbot has other design platform offerings thanks to a similar partnership with Figma that was announced last month. A new Claude integrations directory is also launching on web and desktop today, which should give users an easy overview of all the tools and connected apps at their disposal.

The plaintiff’s Chevy Tahoe damage after the crash. | Photo: Benavides v. Tesla Tesla is on trial in Miami today in a case that accuses Elon Musk’s company of liability in a fatal crash involving Autopilot. The driver-assist system has come under scrutiny in the past for a number of fatal incidents, but Tesla has only rarely faced a jury trial over the question of whether Autopilot was at fault for someone’s death.The trial comes at a particularly risky moment for Tesla, which is currently forging ahead with its plan to introduce robotaxis to more cities. The company is also experiencing a monthslong backlash for Musk’s hard-right turn and his work with Donald Trump’s administration.Autopilot, which can control steering and braking functions, as well as perform automatic lane changes while on certain highways, has come under increased scrutiny from federal regulators. And it has been at the center of several lawsuits, some of which Tesla has settled and others of which have been dismissed. The case in question involves an inattentive driver of a Tesla Model S and a couple who were out stargazing late at night. Naibel Benavides, 20, was killed in 2019 when George McGee’s Model S rammed into a stationary SUV parked next to a T-intersection. McGee was using Autopilot, but had dropped his phone and was inattentive at the time of the crash. Benavides and her boyfriend, Dillon Angulo, who was seriously injured, were standing outside of the SUV when McGee’s Tesla plowed into it.The trial comes at a particularly risky moment for TeslaThe case, which is being heard in the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida, was filed by Angulo and the family of Benavides.Tesla plans to argue that the company isn’t at fault because Autopilot was not fully in control of the vehicle at the time of the crash, citing data that shows that McGee overrode the driver assist by pressing the accelerator at the time of the crash. Also, Tesla has long argued that drivers bear responsibility when crashes occur involving Autopilot. On its website, the company says that its driver-assistance systems ”require active driver supervision and do not make the vehicle autonomous.”The plaintiffs will argue that the system bears some responsibility for failing to warn the driver that a crash was imminent. The vehicle ignored a stop sign before the crash, and the automatic emergency braking should have worked even if Autopilot was not engaged. Still, it will be tough for the plaintiffs to convince a jury that Tesla was at fault. In Florida automobile liability cases, the standard is “whether the car manufacturer exhibited a reckless disregard for human life equivalent to manslaughter by designing and marketing the vehicle,” the court notes.Indeed, in another case involving a crash from 2019, Tesla was found not to be liable for the death of a Model 3 owner whose vehicle crashed while driving in Autopilot. And in another case, a jury ruled against plaintiff Justine Hsu, who sued Tesla after her vehicle hit a median while using Autopilot.Tesla has managed to dodge responsibility for fatal crashes involving its products for a long time. The company was forced to issue several recalls after a federal investigation into dozens of crashes involving Tesla vehicles with Autopilot, but it has never been criminally indicted.In 2023, Musk laughed off a question from investors as to whether his company would accept legal liability for its self-driving vehicles in the future. “There’s a lot of people who assume we have legal liability,” Musk said, “judging by the lawsuits.”Still, the stakes are incredibly high for Tesla — but then again, when are they not? The presiding judge in the Florida case has ruled that the plaintiffs may seek punitive damages from Tesla. And because Tesla has refused to impose geographic limits on Autopilot, despite evidence that the system was ill-equipped to handle some situations, the judge said that a jury could reasonably rule against Tesla.“A reasonable jury could find that Tesla acted in reckless disregard of human life for the sake of developing their product and maximizing profit,” she wrote.

When you’re new to the self-hosting ecosystem, you’ll come across several FOSS utilities capable of replacing their premium, cloud-based mainstream equivalents. So many, in fact, that you’ll often have a hard time choosing the right application for your specific tasks. But once you’ve built an empire of locally-hosted utilities, you’ll come across services specifically designed to help you maintain your application stack.

Pebblebee is turning its Clip tracker into a personal safety alarm for free. | Image: Pebblebee Pebblebee has announced a new personal safety feature for its Clip location tracker that’s compatible with both Apple’s Find My and Google’s Find Hub network. Alert is being introduced as a free update to the Pebblebee app today, and the company says it will work with current and future versions of the Clip without requiring a subscription fee. Pressing a button on the tracker will activate a loud siren and flashing light to alert anyone nearby that you’re in trouble, while also triggering the app to send a notification to an emergency contact.Activating the Alert feature requires you to rapidly press the Clip’s button several times, and it can be canceled by rapidly pressing the button again or using a single long press. When canceled manually, your Safety Circle contact will receive another message letting them know it was deliberately stopped. Unlike the sounds that the tracker emits when you’re trying to locate it, the 97-decibel siren has a more urgent tone so that it’s immediately obvious to those around you that there’s a problem, and the tracker’s siren and flashing light will continue for up to a minute.The new feature is comparable to the SOS Alert that was introduced by Pebblebee’s competitor, Tile, last September. Tile’s alert feature comes without the audio and visual alerts but will contact multiple people when activated, even if you’re not a paying subscriber, while having Life360’s team ready to dispatch emergency services to your location requires a Silver, Gold, or Platinum subscription that starts at $7.99 a monthThrough the Pebblebee app, you can set up a “Safety Circle” consisting of one trusted contact, who will receive an SMS message when the Alert feature has been activated. The emergency message includes a secure link to the location where the alert was triggered, which can be viewed in a browser so that your contacts don’t need to have the Pebblebee app installed. The company says it plans to expand the Safety Circle to multiple contacts “in the near future,” with continuous live location tracking being a feature on its “product roadmap.”To ensure you know how to use Alert ahead of time so you can reliably activate the feature during a real emergency, the Pebblebee app includes a test mode that allows you to practice rapidly pressing the button without alerting your Safety Circle contact.Update, July 14th: Clarified the details of Life360’s SOS Alert feature.