Over the years, smartphone brands have steadily refined their craft. From design to performance, devices in 2026 feel sharper, smarter, and far more polished than before. But a recent look at the Sony Xperia 1 VIII suggests Sony might be holding on a little too tightly to the past, and not entirely in a good way. Here’s why I feel that way.

This doesn’t look like the Sony we remember

I remember when Sony really stood out. There was a certain confidence to its design language, something that felt distinct. Looking at the Xperia 1 VIII now, though, it feels like that clarity has faded a bit. The back panel, at least in this render, is where things really fall apart for me. The design looks absolutely confusing. Sony’s signature vertically aligned camera setup has always been part of its identity, and moving away from that strips away a sense of familiarity that long-time users associated with the brand. Without that, the design feels oddly generic, almost like it could belong to any other phone.

As for the camera island, it comes across as bulky and somewhat dated, reminding me of the OnePlus 10 Pro from 2022, a design language even OnePlus has since moved on from. That’s what makes this feel particularly off. It feels like revisiting an idea the rest of the industry has already left behind.

What stands out even more is how out of sync this feels with where smartphone design is headed today. Most brands are leaning into cleaner, more minimal aesthetics that feel refined and modern. Loud, heavy camera islands are usually reserved for niche or limited-edition designs now, not mainstream flagships.

All of this makes it seem like Sony isn’t quite setting its own direction, but is instead borrowing from trends that have already run their course. And for a brand that once led with such a strong design identity, that shift feels a little disappointing.

A shift without a sense of direction

To be honest, I’ve always held Sony to a slightly higher standard. It was one of those brands you expected to take a clear, confident stance on design and experience. That’s why this feels a bit disappointing now. It’s not just about one device, but the sense that the brand has lost some of its direction along the way.

At a glance, the Xperia 1 VIII certainly tries to set itself apart, but that distinction feels a bit hollow. It comes across more like a shift without a clear purpose. That’s where it starts to lose ground. In the current flagship landscape, looking different isn’t enough on its own. A design needs to carry intent, show progression, and align with the direction the industry is moving in. This one doesn’t quite deliver on that front. Standing out is simple; moving the needle is what really counts.

Ben McKenzie had a question: “When did WIRED die?” Specifically, the actor-director wanted to know when did WIRED “‘DIE,’ all caps.”

McKenzie wasn’t asking for himself; he was engaging in the time-honored celebrity tradition of reading mean tweets. Although, in this case, the object wasn’t himself so much as the publication hosting the event. McKenzie, who famously played Ryan on The O.C. before becoming a leading voice of crypto skepticism, was sharing the stage with WIRED senior correspondent Andy Greenberg for the first of what will hopefully be a series of smaller events that we are calling WIRED@Night.

On April 16, about 100 people gathered at event partner Ace Hotel Brooklyn to sip drinks from Aplos, Faccia Brutto, The Sorting Table, and Manojo and ponder the future of cryptocurrency.

McKenzie, coauthor of Easy Money: Cryptocurrency, Casino Capitalism, and the Golden Age of Fraud, has a new independent documentary in theaters called Everyone Is Lying to You for Money. Greenberg, who often writes about crypto scams, talked to him about scenes from the book and movie, in which McKenzie traveled to places like crypto hub El Salvador to understand why the technology still has so much appeal despite its less-than-stellar reputation.

One of McKenzie’s explanations? Male loneliness. “It’s the longing for community, actual community,” McKenzie said, noting that crypto exists online as a kind of extreme gambling, something that really exploded into the mainstream during the Covid-19 pandemic. Here’s to more IRL antidotes to that kind of digital isolation.

The Philips Baristina milk frother is designed to be partnered with the company’s Baristina bean-to-cup espresso machine, and it works an absolute treat. As it’s available as an optional extra for the Baristina machine, I’ve been using it for a couple of weeks alongside my Philips LatteGo 4400 Series espresso machine, and have found it to deliver much more pleasing results compared to my machine where milk foam is concerned.

It has three modes: hot milk foam, hot milk and cold milk foam. It’s incredibly easy to control, with just a single button that you press for no more than one second for hot milk foam, or you can hold it for three seconds to activate the cold milk foam mode. If you want hot milk, you need to remove the coil from the whisk before starting up the machine. Once the button is pressed, the Philips Baristina Milk Frother will spring into action to deliver you a foamy result. There’s no audible beep to let you know it’s finished, but the light on the button will go out.

Apple announced a huge leadership shake-up earlier today. Tim Cook will step down as CEO of the company he has headed for nearly 15 years on September 1st. That post will be filled by John Ternus, who has been with Apple for 25 years, essentially crafting out the modern product line itself. Cook is leaving down but will remain executive chairman, where he will oversee global policy and board activities.

Cook first joined the Apple team in 1998 and became CEO in 2011. During his tenure, the company’s market worth increased from approximately $350 billion to $4 trillion. Each year, the company’s income nearly quadrupled, 2.5 billion gadgets were distributed worldwide, and it even began offering services on a scale that exceeded several Fortune 500 corporations. New product lines, including as watches and earbuds, emerged, as did totally new modes of computing. Supply chains have stretched all over the world, and stores have arisen on every continent imaginable, but it’s the ordinary objects you carry in your pocket that truly tells the story.

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John Ternus, on the other hand, began working at Apple in 2001, a year after finishing his mechanical engineering degree. He joined the product design team and worked his way up the hardware engineering hierarchy. By 2013, he was a vice president in charge of all hardware engineering, and he was promoted to senior vice president eight years later. Almost every major device line released by Apple has gone through his teams, including every generation of iPad, multiple iPhone models, AirPods, Apple Watch, and the transition to the Mac’s custom chips, and in recent years his focus has been on using tougher materials, making them easier to repair and less harmful to the environment. He just delivered a large presentation last September to launch the new iPhone line-up, and those who know him claim he can tell right away whether a prototype is good enough.

During the announcement, Tim Cook praised his replacement, describing Ternus as a visionary with impeccable precision and a leader with a strong sense of purpose. Ternus hailed Cook as a mentor and discussed his time working for Steve Jobs. Both guys emphasized that there will be no significant shift in direction at Apple. The values that have guided the organization for 50 years remain in place. However, the fact that Ternus, a hardware expert, is going into the senior position suggests that there may be a modest shift in direction. You see, Cook’s path to success differs significantly from Ternus’. Cook came from an operational background, but Ternus has spent his whole career working directly with the products.

Anyone who has been following the company closely knows that the timing was not unexpected. Rumors about Cook’s plans had been circulating for months, and he had hinted in interviews that he would wait until the proper moment to act. September now gives those two leaders four months to work together harmoniously, and it appears Ternus will also join the board of directors. Arthur Levinson, who has led the board for nearly 15 years, is stepping down to become the lead independent director. Meanwhile, Johny Srouji, a long-time chip designer, has been promoted to chief hardware officer.
[Source]

Photo credit: 2 Warps to Neptune
In 1974, Nintendo kicked off their coin-operated arcade era with Wild Gunman. This game required players to step up, pull a handgun from a holster, and face off against some unfriendly live-action gunslingers on a projection screen. Footage came from authentic film reels filmed on site in Japan, capturing the wild west-style shootouts in all their gritty grandeur. Timing was everything here. You could only draw and shoot after your eyes flashed and the word “FIRE” appeared on the screen. Get it right, and you’ll come out on top. If you mess up, draw too soon, or miss your shot, you will lose the duel.

Roughly a hundred units left the factory, the majority of which either stranded in warehouses or fell apart over time due to neglect. Today, just one original cabinet remains intact, and it is kept locked away in a private collection. That meant that for about 50 years, no one outside of that collection had the opportunity to play the game as it was intended. Everything changed when Callan Brown got wind of something unusual. The Canadian arcade collector and repair specialist spotted an eBay listing for the original 16mm film reels used in the Wild Gunman arcade cabinet, reportedly sourced from the warehouse of a retired operator in Saskatchewan. Recognizing their rarity, he moved quickly, placed the winning bid, and brought the reels home for his collection.

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Brown first had to preserve the reels before sending them to a competent facility in Toronto for scanning. Some of the reels showed scratches and dust from years of intensive use, while others appeared to be in perfect condition. He stored the worst pieces safely while keeping the better frames. Unfortunately, two of the four duel sequences remain absent, but there was enough solid content to bring the basic game experience back.

Brown then began the rebuild by creating a basic scale model on his workshop, but things quickly became out of control. The next thing he knew, he was drafting full-size designs, cutting plywood sheets for the cabinet frame, and assembling it piece by piece. His wife, Natasha, worked hard to hand stitch the cloth side panels so they matched the original design flawlessly. On his 3D printer, the front control panel was crisp and clear, and the LED lights worked. Brown even printed the gun’s body and attached it with infrared sensors that tracked movement in the same manner that classic console controllers did.

A single digital projector now manages film playback inside the cabinet, and everything runs on custom Unity code written by Brown. It reads the player’s time, selects the appropriate film clip, verifies the shot position, and awards a badge if the player hits a clean shot. Insert two quarters into the coin slot, and the machine will scream to life. The attract loop plays on the screen, allowing the user to grab the gun. A gunslinger appears on the screen, his eyes flare, and you receive the command to fire. Draw quickly but not too quickly, and then land that shot as the victory music begins to play. Everything feels just like the original game from the 1970s.

from the not-today,-second-rate-satan dept

Despite a bunch of Republican lawmakers being extremely (and mostly performatively) upset that their communications were accessed during investigations of the January 2021 insurrection attempt, the current version of the Trump administration seems to prefer a clean re-authorization of the surveillance powers it so recently deemed a dangerous part of the “deep state.”

The FISA court recently blessed an extension of this NSA collection, provided the government fixed the most problematic parts of it — that being other IC agencies’ warrantless access to US persons’ communications via “backdoor” searches of the foreign-facing surveillance dragnet.

Trump was having none of this, pressing the GOP to simply give the administration an un-reformed, un-repaired Section 702 that would presumably allow it to engage in the same abuses it was crying about less than a half-decade ago.

Fortunately for every American only allowed to vote by proxy every two-to-four years for surveillance reform, there is still no clean re-authorization on the books. The senator whose name is synonymous with surveillance reform — Ron Wyden — recently had this to say in his Bluesky post:

Update on where things stand on FISA: this deal is a win. We got the House to back down from an 18 month extension, buying us time to negotiate on real reforms. I’ll be fighting like hell for reforms that put your privacy first, and will have more to share soon.

Not that congressional majority leader Mike Johnson wasn’t trying his damnedest to round up GOP support for a clean renewal that would give Trump what he wanted, and very little of what the GOP actually wanted, given its years of complaining about the FBI’s warrantless access to their communications.

Johnson apparently decided he could slip this one past the goal line by holding a couple of quick votes as time ran out on the current congressional session. Here’s James Baratta with the details for The American Prospect:

Johnson’s dazzling play to reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) by five years ended in an excruciating defeat, as the bill failed after 20 Republicans joined Democrats in striking it down. One major reason it lost was that the warrant language baked into that measure not only would have codified existing law, but also would have made it easier for Section 702–acquired data to be used against Americans in criminal proceedings.

The 200-220 vote was called at 1:22 early Friday morning.

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Baratta’s report refers to this as an “eleventh hour” burst of activity, but it’s actually well past that hour. We’re looking at 13th to 14th hour desperation here, especially since Johnson went back to the well again shortly after this first defeat.

The other shoe dropped during the vote on a rule to consider a clean 18-month extension of Section 702. That rule also failed at 2:07 a.m. in a 197-228 vote.

Given that the average congressional rep is pushing 58, both votes occurred well after bedtime. It’s a testimony to the resistance to clean re-authorization of Section 702 powers that these many reps were still on the floor to shut down Mike Johnson twice.

It also shows that Mike Johnson isn’t actually leading the Republican party. He’s restricted to doing whatever Trump wants, even if that clashes with what many party members want. To get skunked twice in two hours is embarrassing, which means Johnson may not remain majority leader for long, even if Democrats can’t flip the House following the mid-terms.

The good news is this: Congress only has until the end of this month to get a re-authorization passed. If it hopes to prevent this surveillance power from lapsing, Johnson and his fellow surveillance hawks are going to have to make some concessions, which may (finally!) include warrant requirements for searches of US persons’ communications by IC agencies with access to NSA collections.

On the other hand, when push comes to shove, far too many Republicans are willing to be Trump’s doormat and argue against their own interests, along with the interests of the constituents. But this is the most concerted challenge to Section 702 mounted yet. Even the Snowden leaks didn’t manage to get this done. But even if reforms are finally put in place, the public should remember GOP lawmakers did this because they want to shield themselves from domestic surveillance. That it might better protect their constituents is just an unavoidable side effect of their self-interest.

Filed Under: backdoor searches, gop, mike johnson, nsa, section 702, surveillance abuse, trump administration, warrantless searches