Vivek Sharma, Rob Masson, Tore Hanssen and Calvin Grunewald of ArchAstro (ArchAstro photo)
ArchAstro just emerged from stealth with an artificial intelligence network designed to automate complex, cross-company software deployments and integrations.
Founded earlier this year by a team of veteran engineers from Microsoft, Stripe, Statsig and Meta, the Seattle-area startup is tackling a complex problem — the prolonged period it often takes for corporate clients to integrate newly purchased software into custom enterprise environments.
ArchAstro is led by co-founder and CEO Vivek Sharma, a former Microsoft distinguished engineer who most recently worked in technical leadership roles at Meta and Stripe.
GeekWire first got wind of the new startup back in January, when we noted Sharma’s departure from Stripe. At the time, he simply offered a cryptic message that they were using “AI’s potential to fundamentally change how people work.”
Now, more details are coming to light, including pre-seed funding of $6.2 million from a marquee list of investors.
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In a blog post announcing the new company, Sharma said “even the simplest B2B software requires hand-to-hand combat to properly integrate.”
Hand-to-hand combat may be an apt description of the challenging business problem that ArchAstro is looking to tackle, an endeavor that Sharma admits is “a very difficult problem.”
Traditional artificial intelligence agents tend to operate entirely within a single organization’s firewall, while ArchAstro’s agents are designed to work across distinct corporate boundaries.
Securely connecting these disparate systems is no easy task. That’s why the company says its “privacy-aware” AI agents — what it calls Forward Deployed Agents— are designed to handle cross-company integrations, migrations and bug fixes quickly and securely.
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“The key thing we’re enabling is a continuous connection enforced with code, built off the most current context across both companies,” Sharma tells GeekWire.
Of course, there is always the concern of possible data leakage between two entities — a potential showstopper for any corporate chief information security officer. But Sharma said they are addressing that concern.
Since customers control their own agents and how they operate, they choose how they interact.
“Instead of moving data between companies and managing leak risk, you’re just adhering to shared ‘acceptance tests’ that ArchAstro hosted agents create and maintain across both,” Sharma said. “Code is also easy to evaluate and check for correctness. This is how engineering systems have always worked, and we’re extending that discipline between companies rather than within one.”
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Sharma said the ArchAstro system also could be used to help answer cross-company questions, like a custom agent assisting account managers with their customers.
“Either way, we work with the customer to share only what’s appropriate, and our runtime enforces that with additional safeguards layered on as needed,” he said.
In that regard, ArchAstro acts as a secure, automated translation layer, allowing two entirely different corporate systems to speak the same language and verify each other’s work instantly based on a shared set of rules. That seamless, secure flow of collaboration between companies translates directly to dollars saved.
“Product teams ship fast, but customers take months, sometimes years, to deploy what they buy,” Sharma noted. He added that delayed deployments result in revenue loss, customer churn and engineering burnout spent debugging individual setups rather than building what is next.
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The system is designed to plug directly into existing developer workflows, including Cursor, Claude and Codex.
Given the complexities involved, Sharma’s founding engineering team includes veterans who previously worked on some thorny technical challenges: Microsoft Exchange Server and Office 365, Stripe Billing and Connect, and engineering platforms at Meta, Atlassian and Statsig.
The team includes:
Tore Hanssen, who was a founding engineer at Statsig, the Bellevue, Wash.-based startup acquired last September by OpenAI. He previously worked at Meta.
Robert Masson, a senior staff data scientist in Meta’s Seattle office, who spent nearly 11 years with the company before going to Atlassian early last year.
Calvin Grunewald, who spent nine years as a Facebook director of engineering, based in Seattle. He was most recently at Stripe.
Rafael Brandao Lobo, a founding engineer who previously spent more than a decade building brand advertising and gaming products at Facebook/Meta.
Bruno Garcia, an open source startup founder who previously worked at PlayCo and Sega.
Rakesh Parida, Head of Forward Deployed Engineering at Stripe, said utilizing AI agents to create strong technical connections between companies is a major strategic advantage.
“ArchAstro is making that model repeatable at scale, enabling continuous integrations, deployments, and migrations across companies, with the security, (forward deployed engineering) oversight, and judgment that serious software partnerships require,” Parida said. “The future of software partnerships isn’t just about going live together. It’s about staying live together.”
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Two Fortune 500 companies have already begun utilizing the platform as design partners, though Sharma declined to say who they are. There’s also the potential threat of Microsoft, Google, Amazon or others entering the market, given their interests in making sure B2B customers are satisfied in deploying agentic AI systems. Sharma said they are fully expecting competition in the nascent sector, and in some cases they are already speaking to the big players. “But their demand is so high that they don’t have the time or the focused energy to build a solution like ours,” he said. “We think we can accelerate their revenue and help these larger companies scale even further.”
ArchAstro is backed by venture capital firms 20VC — the London-based firm led by Harry Stebbings — and Kyber Knight — whose investments include Cruise, SpaceX and Anduril. Its angel investors include a who’s who of technology leaders:
Will Gaybrick (President of Technology & Business at Stripe)
Based in Seattle, the company employs seven people. Sharma said they are deliberately “staying lean,” adding that a smaller team forces them to be “extremely nimble and invent a path to value.”
He’s also excited to build the startup in Seattle, which he says has “some of the best engineers anywhere.”
“If you want to be a serious B2B company, at some point you have to venture up to Seattle,” he said.
Whether you’re a novice getting your PPL, an experienced pilot with thousands of hours of flight time, or an avid simmer, you’re probably familiar with the basics of aircraft weight and balance. Arguably, it’s one of the most important and fundamental concepts of flight; you cannot fly an aircraft that is overweight, nor can you fly one with all its weight in the nose or tail. Okay, that much is common sense, but let’s be more specific. Why, exactly, does this matter so much? Why do rules like MTOW and center of gravity need to be accurately calculated?
The short answer is that manufacturers determine what is and isn’t acceptable for their specific aircraft from the factory, and list these parameters as reference points. If any of these aren’t adhered to, then you won’t be able to sustain flight, if indeed you can take off at all. That’s because an overweight aircraft cannot produce enough lift to overcome the force pushing all that weight toward the ground, and an unbalanced aircraft will either want to go nose up or nose down to the point where it’s uncontrollable.
Full lectures are available online for free that describe this phenomenon in detail, such as this one from the Free Pilot Training YouTube Channel. You could also peruse the official FAA handbook on the topic. But what about a more general overview and basic guidelines to get you started? That’s what we’ll address in this article. Let’s take a look and explain the physics behind these concepts.
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Why an aircraft’s weight matters
Industrial Donut Picks/Getty Images
If you’re a frequent flyer, you’ve undoubtedly noticed that many international and budget flights have baggage weight restrictions, generally around 30 to 40 pounds. Why this limit is so important relates to an aircraft’s overall weight and where that weight is placed — more on the second point later.
Firstly, what exactly is weight? In aeronautics, weight is defined as the force generated by gravity pulling the aircraft back to Earth. Every component of the aircraft bears a specific weight, which is all calculated on the Newtonian equation of W=mg, or Weight = Mass multiplied by Gravity. The mass is determined by a component’s material composition; an object’s mass is its total density multiplied by its volume. Therefore, a denser part in the same space is heavier than an identical part made from a less dense material.
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All of these factors go into an aircraft’s structural Maximum Takeoff Weight (MTOW), the absolute weight limit the aircraft can safely take off with. This is a hard limit that doesn’t change with external factors like altitude and air pressure; the equations account only for the gravitational force and density. Therefore, a Boeing 737 has this same weight limit regardless of whether it’s in Denver or Amsterdam, though its actual safe takeoff weight will be lower in Denver’s thin air.
Manufacturers want to shed as much weight as possible without compromising structural rigidity to allow for more fuel, passengers, cargo, and on-board systems to be carried. They can also increase the weight the aircraft can carry during takeoff by adding more power, more durable structural members, or even small rocket engines that provide extra speed, known as JATO (jet-assisted takeoff).
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Why weight placement matters
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If the weight is the total force pushing down on the aircraft, then its center of gravity is the point where that weight is evenly distributed. In other words, if you were on a seesaw and a different weight was opposite you, it’s where you (or the weight) would need to be for that seesaw to be perfectly balanced.
Take a basic front-engine airplane, for example. You have a big lump of engine in the front and nothing in the back — common sense means the aircraft is nose-heavy. To balance that out, you have the aircraft’s tail, which provides a certain amount of downward force to counteract the force exerted by the weight differential. This can then be extrapolated to all aircraft as well; a typical passenger airliner, for instance, will account for the weight of all passengers, cargo, and fuel on board, which is why some flights have weight limits.
Now you know how to find the balance; next is the Center of Lift (COL). You want the COL slightly behind the center of gravity (CG), so the aircraft naturally tends to go nose-down. This tendency has a term: the Angle of Attack, or AOA, which is defined as the angle at which the wing’s chord line (an imaginary line from the leading to the trailing edge) intersects the wind. A higher AOA means the aircraft is pitched up. Too much AOA and the aircraft stalls; too little and it’s plummeting. You want to balance the aircraft so that the COL naturally tends to keep the aircraft at the ideal AOA, allowing it to fly without stressing its control surfaces. An awkward CG is why some rear-engine aircraft, like the Boeing 727, proved especially tricky to fly.
Layoffs commonly stemmed from AI, offshoring and restructuring
More white-collar workers are turning to unions and trade associations for help after losing their jobs.
The National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) has also seen more cases of retrenchments due to business restructuring recently, said its assistant secretary-general Patrick Tay.
NTUC handled over 3,900 retrenchment and termination-related cases for professionals, managers and executives (PMEs), up 5% from 2024.
Some cases stemmed from offshoring and relocation as companies cut costs, Tay told The Straits Times in an interview. In some instances, roles are being shifted out of Singapore “even when local PMEs are experienced and capable,” he said.
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Artificial intelligence (AI) is also emerging as a factor, though economy-wide data remains limited. “We are also seeing businesses cite investments in AI as a factor for workforce restructuring,” said Tay. “Some workers find themselves displaced because job roles are changing faster than they can adapt.”
The figures cover cases handled across NTUC’s 58 affiliated trade unions and six trade associations, including the Tripartite Alliance for Dispute Management@NTUC. They exclude cases from its Employment and Employability Institute (e2i).
Many workers still not aware of unions that can represent them
Tay said that NTUC is concerned that many PMEs are still not aware that they can join unions and be represented by labour movements during retrenchments.
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It is particularly worried about those in the professional services, finance and infocomm and technology sectors as they are most exposed to the effects of generative AI at work, said the Pioneer MP, who is also director of strategy and legal at NTUC.
NTUC is working to do more for PMEs, said Tay, noting that unions’ scope to represent them has widened over time. Previously, PMEs could only be represented individually on limited matters. But 2015 amendments to the Industrial Relations Act expanded this, allowing rank-and-file unions to represent them collectively as a class.
Now, only employees with clear conflicts of interest—such as those involved in hiring and firing, or with access to confidential personnel and budget information—are excluded from union representation during retrenchment.
As industries transform and PMEs face growing retrenchment exposure, NTUC is pushing for stronger protections, Tay said. This includes advocating in Parliament for earlier retrenchment notices and broader access to the SkillsFuture Jobseekers’ Support Scheme for the involuntarily unemployed.
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NTUC is also working with the Government and employers on the Employment Act review, hoping provisions can extend further to PMEs, he added.
“We’re trying to get more of the PMEs to be aware that they can be part of a union and that actually we can represent them,” he added.
Companies can do more to alleviate the repercussions of retrenchment
Labour economist Walter Theseira warned that mandating additional worker protections could make Singapore’s labour market more rigid and hurt competitiveness. But he also acknowledged that workers are currently “too exposed to the risks of retrenchment.”
The Singapore University of Social Sciences associate professor also noted that benefits are not legally mandated, but subject to the solvency of a company and its willingness to pay.
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“The presumption that PMEs can ‘self-insure’ places a burden on families to set aside substantial savings in case of retrenchment,” he said.
Unemployment benefits in the form of the Jobseekers’ Support Scheme are also currently too limited to lower-income workers, Theseira added.
As such, Theseira suggested that including higher-income workers with larger payout levels through a scheme jointly funded by workers and employers could be useful.
Another solution the professor posited was retrenchment benefit insurance that companies are required to contribute to, which could also be useful in providing guaranteed benefits.
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A risk-pooled retrenchment benefits system could be more efficient than leaving workers to fend for themselves, he added, with safeguards to encourage reskilling and job search while receiving support.
Read other articles we’ve written on Singapore’s current affairs here.
Featured Image Credit: TK Kurikawa/ Shutterstock.com
We’ve been testing (aka eating) Blue Apron for our guide to the best meal kit subscriptions for nearly half a decade.The Gear team likes this service so much, it has its own story. If you’ve been struggling with figuring out what to make for dinner, you can save some money on our top service right now using a Blue Apron coupon or deal featured right here on WIRED.
Unlock $25 Off With Our Exclusive Blue Apron Promo Code
Blue Apron makes it easy—new customers can enjoy $100 off for the first five weeks of a new subscription—plus the first week ships free). Blue Apron is offering discounts of up to $4 per serving, depending on whether you opt for 4, 6, 8, or 10 meals per week. WIRED readers get rewarded—in discounts on delicious food—with $25 off your first 2 orders with promo code CONDE25, until August 11 2026. There’s also other sitewide deals for 20% off your first 2 orders with code WELCOME20 and25% off with code WELCOME25 at checkout Check out Blue Apron and see if it’s the right meal kit service for you, and from there you’ll be able to claim the deal with either promo code, and both codes are valid site wide.
Get a 5% Off Blue Apron Coupon With Autoship and Save
Apron now offers an Autoship & Save program, which includes a 5% discount on every autoship order. Be sure to download the Blue Apron app, which allows you to easily manage subscriptions, get notifications, and live delivery updates through your phone. With Autoship & Save, you’ll set up recurring deliveries on a schedule that works for you, and you can save 5% on every order. This includes setting your own schedule, including how often you want deliveries and what day of the week you want them. Plus, you can always skip a delivery if you don’t need it that week. To get started, you just need to choose your menu items from a wide range of options, and every order is pre-filled with meals Blue Apron recommends, but you can always add, swap, or remove anything before it ships out.
Explore Blue Apron’s New Meal Kit Options From $7
If you’re a commitment-phobe like me and don’t want to sign up for pricey recurring orders in the subscription model before trying, we have good news. Unlike almost all other meal kits and delivery services, Blue Apron just updated their model to include a la carte meal kits and ready-to-eat meals that don’t require a recurring plan. You can get delivery in as little as three days, and it requires no commitment or mandatory subscription.
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Meal Kits include step-by-step recipes and pre-portioned food, from $7 to $13 per serving. Easy ‘Assemble & Bake’ meals require minimal prep and are $11 to $13 per serving, and ‘Dish by Blue Apron’ are ready to eat, heat-and-serve meals from $9 to $12 per serving. They’ve also expanded their menu with new recipes, now with over 100 meals to choose from.
Score 20% Off Blue Apron+ or Start a 30-Day Free Trial
Blue Apron now also has a membership program, where for $10 per month, you’ll get free shipping on all orders, unlimited Tastemade+ streaming (this includes food, home and travel shows, a $50 value), and exclusive deals promotions throughout the year. If the bonus promos seem like something you’d use, the membership program is a good deal, because delivery is already $10 per month, so you’re getting free shipping plus all of these extra goodies. If you’re unsure, you can try it out with a 30 day free trial, just follow the link here. The good news is that you can get 20% off an annual Blue Apron+ membership, now at $80 per year instead of $100.
Save up to 50% With Blue Apron Heroes Discounts
Blue Apron wants to reward our everyday heroes, and has discounts for Military members, Students, Graduates, Teachers, Seniors, Medical Staff, and First responders. Members of these groups can get $150 off the first five weeks of a new subscription, plus free shipping for the first week of subscriptions. To get this discount, you’ll need to verify through ID.me or GovXID.
OpenAI announced on Monday that it confidentially filed for an IPO, marking what could become one of the defining public offerings of the decade. And then there’s OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s other company, Tools for Humanity, which is reportedly conducting layoffs, according to Business Insider. TechCrunch has reached out to the company for confirmation.
You might know Tools for Humanity better through its verification project known as World — and its related device, a creepy silver orb that wants to scan your eyeballs. The idea is that the company will be able to verify people’s identities using unique iris scans, helping to distinguish human activity from bot activity in the increasingly automated world that Tools for Humanity co-founder and chairman Altman is constructing. The company would also use these scans to validate people’s identities to support the trade of its own cryptocurrency, Worldcoin.
Image Credits:JUAN MABROMATA/AFP / Getty Images under a license.
These vague, suspicious ambitions were enough to raise money at a $2.5 billion valuation from investors like Andreessen Horowitz, Bain Capital, and other funds backing blockchain companies. But now the company is reportedly downsizing as it struggles to create revenue.
In the U.S., companies like Tinder, Zoom, and Docusign have partnered on Altman’s side project. Internationally, Tools for Humanity has faced regulatory and ethical concerns. In Kenya, India, and Hong Kong, for example, people were offered the equivalent of $50 in Worldcoin in exchange for their biometric data. Kenya later banned World from operating in the country, citing privacy and financial concerns; meanwhile, South Korea fined the company $830,000 for allegedly violating local privacy law.
Who would’ve thought? People don’t feel great about giving their biometric data to a startup in exchange for $50 worth of crypto.
Sneaky: Initially released in 1998, Thief is considered a landmark video game, particularly for the PC gaming industry. The Windows-exclusive title was groundbreaking in many ways and is now set to introduce a whole new generation of players to its pioneering first-person stealth gameplay.
Remake specialists at Nightdive Studios are working on yet another classic PC title. Thief: The Dark Project Remastered is a modern take on the groundbreaking 1998 stealth classic developed by Looking Glass Studios. The remaster is designed to preserve the original experience while updating the visuals for modern players.
Nightdive unveiled the project during the recent PC Gaming Show digital showcase. The studio highlighted the innovative gameplay that made Thief stand out in the late 90s, when most first-person games focused on shooting and direct combat. Instead, Thief challenged players to navigate carefully crafted environments, relying on stealth, timing, and observation rather than brute force to complete missions.
Thief played a pivotal role in popularizing the stealth genre and cast a long shadow over immersive sims and later stealth franchises such as Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell and Hitman. It was also the first game to successfully make environmental lighting and sound central gameplay mechanics, using sophisticated AI systems to create dynamic, emergent gameplay.
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Like previous Nightdive remasters, Thief: The Dark Project Remastered will use the company’s KEX Engine to faithfully recreate the game’s stealth gameplay. The remaster will include the original missions, along with the additional content released in the 1999 Thief Gold edition.
According to the game’s Steam page, Thief Remastered should not require particularly modern hardware to run. As with System Shock 2 and other restored classics, Nightdive appears to be taking a conservative approach to updating the Looking Glass Studios original.
At the same time, the remaster is expected to include features modern players now take for granted. These include support for 4K resolution and high frame rates (up to 120 FPS), controller support, and improved textures, 3D models, and animations.
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While the original Thief was released exclusively on PC, added controller support should also make it more accessible on modern consoles. The series continued with two sequels – Thief II: The Metal Age in 2000 and Thief: Deadly Shadows in 2004 – while Eidos-Montréal attempted a reboot in 2014 with Thief, which received mixed reviews.
‘There are things we want to do that are likely easier as a private company’, says OpenAI.
OpenAI has confidentially filed to go public, but said it could be a “while” before it ceases to be a private company.
“We have not decided on timing yet; it may be a while because there are things we want to do that are likely easier as a private company,” OpenAI said in a short statement yesterday (8 June). “But it’s a complicated set of trade-offs and this gives us the option to go public sooner if that ends up being best.”
Estimates from last year suggest an initial public offering (IPO) could value the ChatGPT-maker at up to $1trn, in one of the largest listings in history. The company, at the time, was expected to raise at least $60bn in the IPO.
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While newer reports suggest that the company is also in talks with the US government in the hope that it purchases some of its shares once it goes public.
Meanwhile, the tug of war for the biggest IPO raise is currently led by Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which is expected to raise a targeted $75bn in its listing. The X and xAI parent company filed for an IPO late last month.
Anthropic – currently more valuable than OpenAI at $965bn – has been encroaching on its enterprise customer base, with reports from earlier this year finding that the Claude-parent was capturing a significant portion of first-time enterprise AI customers over OpenAI.
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As a countermeasure, OpenAI is reportedly working on the biggest ChatGPT overhaul since its launch in 2022 to better compete with Anthropic, which has held a narrower focus on its enterprise business.
According to reports, the new desktop ‘superapp’ will focus strongly on OpenAI’s coding tool Codex, a move that reflects shifting interests from AI chatbots to agents that perform tasks for users. The app will also feature the AI chatbot, as well as the AI-powered browser Atlas.
OpenAI executives view ChatGPT as an introductory tool to encourage pick-up of higher-value products. The changes are expected to be rolled out in the coming weeks.
A majority of OpenAI’s 1bn monthly active ChatGPT customers use the free version of the tool. The company has between 5m and 9m business users, according to different blogs on its website, while the Financial Times reports that it has 2m businesses under its wing and 5m weekly active Codex users.
The company expects revenue from its business customers, which represents 40pc of its total revenue, to grow to 50pc by the end of the year.
Still, OpenAI is far from being profitable, making around $13bn in revenue last year with a planned spending of about $600bn by 2030.
Sources told CNBC earlier this year that the company projects its total revenue for 2030 to be more than $280bn – nearly 20-times its 2025 earnings – with near equal contributions from its consumer and enterprise businesses.
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Most people don’t think about their online security until something goes wrong, and by then the damage to their identity, finances, or personal data has already been done.
Fifteen months of coverage across five devices for under a tenner is the kind of deal that reframes how you think about what security software actually costs per day to run.
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The antivirus layer is the foundation, using AI-powered threat detection to catch both familiar and emerging malware across phones, tablets, and computers before anything takes hold.
What makes McAfee Total Protection more than just antivirus is the way it handles the threats that traditional virus scanners were never designed to catch, particularly the kind aimed at your identity rather than your machine.
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The Scam Detector analyses incoming texts, emails, and video content in real time, flagging deepfakes and phishing attempts that would pass a casual glance from even a careful reader.
Identity Monitoring runs in the background around the clock, scanning the dark web for your personal information and alerting you immediately if anything surfaces that shouldn’t be out there.
The Secure VPN completes the picture by activating automatically on public Wi-Fi networks, encrypting your browsing, banking, and shopping activity without requiring you to remember to switch it on yourself.
Do note that a payment method is required to complete activation and the subscription renews automatically after the 15-month period, so it’s worth setting a reminder to review before the annual billing date arrives.
For anyone running multiple devices across a household and currently relying on nothing but instinct to stay safe online, the savings here are substantial enough that the question isn’t really whether McAfee Total Protection is worth it, but whether £8.99 has ever bought more peace of mind.
Today’s WWDC 2026 conference has given Apple fans something they’ve craved for years: a powerful, agentic version of Siri, with its own dedicated app. The new Siri AI is designed to work across the entire suite of Apple tools, from powerful Macs to the smallest watch. But the AI health features we did see were lacking compared to Google’s.
One of last year’s headline Apple Watch features, Workout Buddy, has been improved: users can now get guidance and encouragement in their ears during exercise while just wearing a watch, and they don’t need to bring their phone, as they did in watchOS 26. Plus, new insights, such as heart rate zones, will be built in.
Other expanded health and fitness features include the inclusion of menopausal and perimenopausal conditions in cycle tracking (a significant and helpful addition for many women) and improved accuracy of treadmill metrics. Siri AI’s health capabilities were also shown off on the watch, using its ability to look for healthy recipes and describe stretching routines based on its broad intelligence.
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However, despite rumors saying an AI model specifically dedicated to health and fitness was in the works, nothing materialized this year. Which is a shame, as I’ve already been using the Google Fitbit Air and its accompanying AI health coach, and I’ve seen how powerful such a feature can be.
Watch: Marques Brownlee gives his verdict on Siri AI
Despite existing Fitbit fans bemoaning their loss of community features, I ended up liking Google’s Health Coach. Unlike the Apple Watch, the Google Fitbit Air is screenless, with all chatbot interaction taking place on the phone in the Google Health app.
To be honest, this works well: if you’re going to read reams of text about stretching or your metrics, you want to do it on a proper 6-inch screen oriented specifically for readability, not a 1.9-inch squircle as was demonstrated in Apple’s keynote speech.
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What’s more, the Google Health Coach works with its own library of Fitbit workout and meditation content, allowing you to custom-build workouts just by asking the chatbot, and getting demonstrable, video instruction rather than just a block of text. It also takes your illness or injuries into account, as I found out when I got sick, and the Coach changed my workout plan to recommend rest days and shorter runs.
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Apple already has a vast library of fitness content through its premium Apple Fitness+ service, and I expected a health coaching feature to be rolled into that subscription as part of the Siri AI revamp. Maybe that’s a feature we’re more likely to see at WWDC 2027. But its absence wasn’t quite as much of an own goal as Apple’s decision to only roll out watchOS 27 to a handful of modern watches.
Only 2% of new cars come with a manual transmission in 2026, so if someone says “riding the clutch” that may not mean much to modern car owners. While driving a manual, you want to press the clutch pedal fully down and then use the shift lever to select a gear before lifting the pedal fully up. However, “riding the clutch” is when you have the pedal partially pressed, creating unneeded pressure. This usually happens when your foot is resting on the clutch pedal, often while driving in traffic.
This is bound to happen sometimes; you don’t want to do this excessively since it’s a bad habit that harms your transmission. It can cause a lot of extra wear on your clutch disc, pressure plate, and release bearing. This leads to early replacements of these parts, which can cost thousands of dollars. Be on the lookout for shuddering or rattling, as well as slipping. You may even smell burnt metal as an indicator that the clutch is worn out.
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How to avoid riding the clutch in a manual car
Desintegrator/Shutterstock
Driving uses a lot of muscle memory, so you may have some bad driving habits that are tough to shake. However, if you find yourself riding the clutch a lot more than you should be, there are some things you can do to prevent it.
First, take your foot off the pedal. It may seem simple, and you may not even realize you’re doing it. Always try to put your foot on the footrest on the left rather than keeping it on the pedal itself. You may need to shift your driving position since sitting too close makes it harder to take your foot off the pedal.
When shifting gears, try to be a bit quicker. Keeping your foot on the clutch pedal longer than necessary counts as riding the clutch, especially if you do it often. Putting the car in neutral while at a light can also help, since first gear requires you to keep your foot on the brake and clutch pedal.
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Finally, when your car is parked and shut off, you may still be riding the clutch. Some people will tell you to leave your car in gear when parked, but it’s better for your transmission to keep your vehicle in neutral and lift up the handbrake instead.
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You may not think of early summer as the best time to upgrade your tech. Many big-box electronics stores and popular websites offer great sales in late summer for Back-to-School sales, during major holidays like Christmas and just after Thanksgiving, and around big sporting events like the Super Bowl. If you’ve been contemplating a new TV, headphones, or laptop, Best Buy is offering deep discounts this June.
Shoppers have endless options when it comes to electronics retailers, but Best Buy offers a few perks that other stores may not. Depending on the product, you may be able to view a demo in-store, rather than simply reading specs and user reviews online. Best Buy also offers a price match guarantee, matching prices from both local and online competitors. The Geek Squad can help you select, set up, or troubleshoot your new electronics, and even provide repair services down the line if necessary. You can also look for open box deals, though these may not be included in other sales, and trade in your old devices for a Best Buy gift card that you can use on a new purchase. Here are four of the best deals at Best Buy this June.
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1. Beats Studio Pro Wireless Over-the-Ear Headphones
Earbuds are having a moment right now, but many people still prefer traditional over-the-ear headphones for comfort, superior sound quality, and better noise cancellation. Beats is a popular brand compatible with both Apple and Android devices. Currently, these Beats Studio Pro Wireless Noise Cancelling Over-the-Ear Headphones – Black are more than 50% off at Best Buy, on sale for $169.99. Buyers will save $180, making this a hard-to-beat deal!
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The Beats Studio Pro headphones offer active noise cancellation, a built-in microphone, and Bluetooth wireless connectivity with a maximum range of 100 feet. You can also connect via USB-C or a 3.5mm audio input. They have a battery life of up to 40 hours and a charging time of two hours. The headband is adjustable for maximum comfort, and these headphones also come with a carrying case. Beats promises an “immersive listening experience” with personalized spatial audio and dynamic head tracking for 360-degree audio. These headphones come with a one-year limited warranty covering both parts and labor, and currently have a user rating of 4.7 out of 5 stars on Best Buy’s website.
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2. LG 77-inch OLED TV
If you missed Project Hail Mary or another blockbuster on the big screen and want to upgrade for a similar experience at home, you should consider this 77-inch LG Class B5 Series smart TV. It may be a hit to your wallet at $1,499.99, but buyers who take advantage of this deal will save $1,500 off its normal price of $2,999.99.
If you buy this television, be prepared to welcome AI into your living room. This OLED LG TV has a special processor that uses AI to automatically improve the picture and sound quality of whatever you’re watching, from sports games to your favorite binge-worthy show. It also has Perfect Black and Perfect Color technology for deeper black tones, richer colors, and enhanced contrast. The TV runs on webOS and works with Amazon Alexa, Google Home, and Apple Home. Gamers will appreciate the 0.1ms response time and 120Hz refresh rate, with four HDMI ports and Bluetooth-enabled connectivity. It also supports Dolby Atmos surround sound. The TV is well-rated by customers for picture quality, setup, and size, though some experienced connectivity issues. This LG comes with a stand and has a one-year limited warranty.
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3. Ring outdoor camera
Outdoor cameras at home may feel invasive, but they offer more perks than simple security. They may deter a package thief or a home intruder, but they may also give you a break on your insurance premium, help you keep an eye on your children or pets, monitor traffic on a busy street, or simply give you peace of mind when you’re away from home. If cheaper security cameras simply don’t do the job, this sale at Best Buy on the Ring outdoor stick-up camera may be the deal you’ve been waiting for.
Currently $40 off and on sale for $39.99, this Ring camera from Amazon is weather-resistant and wireless. It has 1080p HD video, and buyers can activate a live view anytime from the app on their phone or tablet. This camera also has a two-way talk function. Additionally, users can receive real-time notifications when the camera detects motion. Privacy features include customizable privacy zones and audio privacy. An optional Ring Home Plan subscription offers 180 days of video event history, a search feature, and more detailed alerts. The camera comes with everything required for installation. It uses a removable, rechargeable battery pack, and you must have high-speed internet.
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4. Dell 15.6-inch Touchscreen Laptop
If you’re in the market for a new laptop, this 15.6-inch Dell is on sale for $649.99, a savings of $450. With a near-perfect user rating on Best Buy’s website, this laptop has a 13th Generation Intel Core processor, express charge capabilities, a built-in camera, and an LED-backlit display with a touchscreen. Buyers should note that Dell describes the laptop as built for “everyday computing,” and it is not a gaming machine. It comes with 16 gigabytes of memory, an Intel UHD graphics card, and 512 gigabytes of storage capacity. It also has three USB ports, a headphone jack, and Bluetooth capability.
The keyboard has an ergonomic design for maximum comfort and includes a separate numeric keypad and a calculator hotkey. Additionally, the Dell ComfortView software is designed to reduce blue light emissions and ease eye strain during extended use. This laptop comes with Windows 11 Home installed and has a one-year warranty.
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