When Apple unveiled the iPhone Air, I knew immediately it would be my next phone. I have always loved small phones, and I stretched my iPhone 13 mini for as long as possible. But it struggled to keep up with my usage, so I had to upgrade. 

Since Apple no longer makes a small iPhone, the slim iPhone seemed like the right choice at the time. And honestly, it worked out well. While the iPhone Air is not as easy to handle as an iPhone mini, it is one-handable thanks to its slim profile and lower weight. 

I also got to enjoy the benefits of a larger screen, which makes it better for browsing the web and reading books. Everything was going great until the summer hit, and now I am not so sure. 

Life was good, until it got too hot

Before summer showed up, my time with the iPhone Air was genuinely great. As I mentioned in a previous article, the only real complaint I have was the absence of a telephoto lens. Everything else about the phone, including the size, the weight, and the one-handed usability, felt like a win.

Then the temperature climbed past 45 degrees Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit), and things took a turn. Since Apple crammed all the internals into the top of the iPhone Air to make room for a larger battery, that part of the phone turns into a furnace once it’s hot outside. I mean, genuinely uncomfortable to hold. I have gotten the “iPhone needs to cool down” warning screen more times this summer than I have in years of using iPhones.

The bigger issue, though, is the phone’s battery life, and it has fallen off a cliff. Before the heat wave, getting through a full day on a single charge was easy. Now, I have to charge it at least twice a day just to keep up. For a phone I picked specifically because of how effortlessly it fit into my day, that’s a rough trade to be making.

Why heat is your phone battery’s worst enemy

Heat is the enemy of the battery. It comes down to basic chemistry. Lithium-ion batteries rely on chemical reactions to store and release power, and heat speeds those reactions up. The faster they go, the quicker your battery drains, and the more permanent damage builds over time. 

According to a WSJ article, both Apple and Samsung actually agree that once your phone’s surroundings hit around 95 degrees Fahrenheit for extended periods, your battery will incur irreversible damage. Since the current ambient temperatures are rising well above 100 degrees Fahrenheit, my iPhone Air doesn’t stand a chance. 

What you can do to prevent heat damage to your phone’s battery

You can take several steps to prevent heat damage to your phone’s battery. First, keep your phone out of direct sunlight and away from hot cars, since even the glove compartment can turn into an oven. 

Second, if your phone is already hot, resist the urge to stash your phone in the fridge or freezer to cool it down. Instead, use something like a frozen ice pack wrapped in a towel and let it cool down gradually. 

Also, charging is another factor. Fast charging generates heat, so if you’re already in a hot environment, that combination speeds up battery wear even more. If you want to play it safe, slower charging is easier on your battery long term, even if it’s less convenient. 

In short, if you want your phone’s battery to last longer during a summer heatwave, avoid using it in direct sunlight, do not use fast or wireless charging, and let your phone cool down if you feel it getting hot, even before your phone gives you a warning.

This article is brought to you by Melbourne Convention Bureau (MCB) supported by Business Events Australia.

As artificial intelligence accelerates global demand for compute, a parallel constraint is emerging with equal urgency: energy.

From hyperscale data centers to electrified industries, AI is driving a step change in electricity demand. This is not a future challenge, it is a present, system-level issue requiring coordinated action across energy, infrastructure, and engineering disciplines.

Around the world, the question is no longer whether AI will scale, but whether energy systems can scale with it.

Melbourne, Australia is moving beyond participation to become a globally connected leader helping define how these challenges are addressed.

A national challenge with global implications

Australia’s ambition to lead in artificial intelligence is sharpening focus on the infrastructure required to support it. Data centers are projected to account for up to 11 percent of the nation’s electricity consumption by 2035, placing increasing pressure on generation, transmission, and system reliability.

At the same time, insight from the IEEE Power and Energy Society (PES) highlights that meeting energy demand from AI and digital infrastructure is one of the most significant challenges facing engineers over the next decade.

The implications are clear. In addition to computing challenges, AI poses major energy systems challenges.

“As artificial intelligence continues to scale globally, the challenge is no longer just computational power, it is the energy systems required to support it” —Professor Thas (Ampalavanapillai) Nirmalathas, University of Melbourne

Why Melbourne is leading on the global stage

Victoria has developed one of the most advanced and integrated energy ecosystems in Australia and globally, spanning renewable generation, battery storage, grid modernization, and advanced materials.

What distinguishes Melbourne globally is how these capabilities are connected and applied at system scale.

The city brings together world class engineering research, a rapidly evolving clean energy sector, advanced digital infrastructure, and strong alignment between government, industry, and academia. This convergence is critical in the AI era, where energy, networks and computing systems must be designed together.

Victoria’s coordinated investment across these areas is positioning Melbourne not only as a national leader, but also as a reference point in the global energy system transformation.

Engineering the systems behind the AI economy

The challenge ahead is that generating more power won’t be enough, as engineers need to design systems that respond dynamically to new patterns of demand.

Three priorities are emerging globally:

• Aligning data center development with grid capacity and renewable supply
• Embedding flexibility through storage, demand response, and system optimization
• Balancing digital growth with decarbonization and long-term reliability

Addressing these priorities requires engineering expertise to be embedded earlier in planning ensuring energy systems, digital infrastructure, and policy are designed in parallel.

Melbourne’s strength lies in its ability to integrate this expertise across research, infrastructure, and real-world application.

Melbourne Connect is a University of Melbourne–led innovation precinct, supported by government and industry, designed to bring together research, business and policy to deliver real-world solutions.Atlantic Group

Research leadership shaping global solutions

At the centre of this capability is the University of Melbourne, where interdisciplinary research is advancing the systems required to support AI driven energy demand.

Through the Melbourne Energy Institute, for example, researchers are examining how energy technologies interact across entire systems from generation and networks through to end use.

“As artificial intelligence continues to scale globally, the challenge is no longer just computational power, it is the energy systems required to support it,” says Professor Thas (Ampalavanapillai) Nirmalathas, Dean of the Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology at the University of Melbourne.

“This is driving a new level of convergence between digital infrastructure and power systems engineering, where integrated, system level thinking is essential.”

Converging energy, networks and AI

Melbourne’s leadership is further strengthened by world-class interdisciplinary facilities such as the Smart Grid Lab in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, which enables real-time simulation of power systems, allowing engineers to test how solar, batteries, electric vehicles and other distributed resources interact within future grids. This supports the design of more resilient, efficient energy systems before they are deployed at scale.

Melbourne’s Smart Grid Lab in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering enables real-time simulation of power systems. University of Melbourne

These capabilities will become increasingly important as data centers are integrated into the grid.

“AI driven demand is not only increasing computing requirements, but also placing new pressures on underlying energy systems,” says Glen Farivar, Senior Lecturer in Power Electronics at the University of Melbourne. “Designing these systems together is essential to achieving both performance and sustainability outcomes.”

This reflects a critical shift. Future infrastructure must be co designed across energy and digital systems, not developed in isolation.

A living ecosystem delivering real-world outcomes

Victoria’s broader energy ecosystem is translating these insights into practice.

Investment in renewable energy, grid infrastructure and storage is enabling higher levels of clean energy while maintaining reliability. Battery deployment is supporting the flexibility needed to manage both renewable variability and growing AI-driven demand.

At its core, Melbourne offers an integrated environment where research, industry and government collaborate to solve complex system challenges.

Why engineering collaboration matters

Solving the energy demands of the AI era cannot be achieved in isolation.

It requires engineers, researchers, utilities, and policymakers to work together earlier and more often. More than ever, engineering collaboration is a critical enabler of future energy systems.

Environments that bring together global expertise are becoming essential to how solutions are designed and delivered.

“Developing future energy systems that are affordable, sustainable, and resilient is a truly grand challenge” —Professor Pierluigi Mancarella, University of Melbourne

In this context, the University of Melbourne is co-leading, alongside Johns Hopkins University and Imperial College London, one of only seven Global Centres in Climate Change and Clean Energy. Through the Electric Power Innovation for a Carbon Free Society (EPICS) Centre, the University is also the Australian technical lead in advancing future energy systems, with EPICS the only Global Centre focused on future energy infrastructure.

The new Electric Power Innovation for a Carbon-Free Society (EPICS) Centre will address challenges in clean energy production and storage.University of Melbourne

“Developing future energy systems that are affordable, sustainable, and resilient is a truly grand challenge,” says Professor Pierluigi Mancarella, Chair Professor of Electrical Power Systems at the University of Melbourne and Australian director and international co-director of EPICS.

“As electricity grids are increasingly becoming the backbone of future energy systems, optimizing their interactions with other sectors, including AI and digitalization, and fostering interdisciplinary and international collaborations are essential,” he adds.

Global conferences as part of the solution

International conferences are increasingly recognized as critical platforms for advancing engineering solutions at scale. Melbourne’s ability to convene global expertise is central to its leadership.

In 2027, the city will host the IEEE PES Generation Transmission and Distribution (GTD) Asia 2027 Conference and Exposition, bringing together engineers, utilities, researchers and policymakers from across the world to address the challenges shaping the future of power systems.

IEEE PES GTD Asia 2027 Melbourne Committee (left to right): Dr. Mehdi Ghazavi Dozein (Monash University), Dr. Glen Farivar & Professor Pierluigi Mancarella (University of Melbourne) , Dr. Mohammad Mohammadi (Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO)).MCB

“Melbourne offers a unique environment where world-class research, industry capability and policy leadership come together,” notes the IEEE PES GTD Asia 2027 Local Organising Committee, which includes Professor Pierluigi Mancarella and Dr. Glen Farivar from the University of Melbourne, as well as Dr. Mehdi Ghazavi Dozein of Monash University and Dr. Mohammad Mohammadi of the Australian Energy Market Operator.

“Hosting this event creates an opportunity to advance global collaboration on the systems and technologies required to deliver the energy transition at scale.”

These forums enable knowledge exchange, standards development and interdisciplinary collaboration, accelerating progress on complex engineering challenges.

Attendees view a digital installation at AIME 2025 at Melbourne Connect.MCB

Why Melbourne, and why now

As AI, electrification and digital infrastructure converge, the future of global energy systems will depend on the ability of engineers to collaborate and innovate at scale.

Melbourne provides a proven platform for that collaboration, combining world-class research, a rapidly evolving energy ecosystem, and the infrastructure to connect global expertise.

Melbourne Convention Bureau, IEEE Communications Society, and University of Melbourne Representatives.University of Melbourne

For IEEE members, hosting a conference in Melbourne is more than an event decision.

It is an opportunity to engage with a globally connected engineering community and contribute directly to solving one of the most significant challenges facing the profession today.

Through the support of the Melbourne Convention Bureau, professionals can access tailored, free support to bid for and deliver international conferences, bringing global expertise together in a city actively shaping the future of energy systems.

To explore hosting your next conference in Melbourne, contact the Melbourne Convention Bureau at info@melbournecb.com.

A new hardware accessory is looking to simplify one of the more frustrating aspects of using a MacBook: juggling different keyboard shortcuts across video calls, productivity apps, and development tools.

A startup Project Mirage has launched Dune, a compact USB-C accessory that adds three programmable buttons to compatible MacBooks. The device automatically changes its functions depending on the application currently in use, allowing users to perform common actions with a single press instead of memorising different keyboard shortcuts.

Dune combines context-aware controls with AI-powered customization

Unlike traditional macro keypads, Dune is designed specifically for MacBooks and is custom-built to match different laptop models, allowing it to sit flush against the side of the device. The accessory plugs directly into a USB-C port and draws power from the laptop, eliminating the need for batteries or charging.

Its three programmable buttons adapt based on the app being used. During video calls, they can be configured to mute the microphone, toggle the webcam, or bring the meeting window into focus. In spreadsheet applications, they can become copy, paste, and undo buttons, while developers can assign actions for tools such as Visual Studio Code or GitHub.

The device is currently compatible with MacBook Air models powered by the M2 chip or newer and MacBook Pro models featuring M1 Pro processors or later, running macOS Sequoia 15 or newer.

Project Mirage also ships Dune with a companion app that lets users create application-specific shortcuts or system-wide actions. Beyond simple keyboard commands, users can configure buttons to launch apps, open websites, or execute custom scripts.

One of the more distinctive features is its integration with Claude Desktop. Instead of manually writing automation scripts, users can describe the shortcut they want in natural language, allowing Claude to generate the required Python code and assign it to a button. According to TechCrunch, this makes creating custom workflows considerably more approachable, even for users without programming experience.

The companion app also integrates with calendars, surfacing upcoming meetings and allowing users to quickly join a call, dismiss reminders, or send a “running late” message with a single press.

Pricing and availability

Dune is currently available at an introductory price of US$119, after which it will retail for US$149.

As AI-assisted productivity tools continue to expand beyond software, devices like Dune suggest hardware makers are exploring new ways to make everyday computer interactions faster and more intuitive. Whether the concept catches on will likely depend on how valuable users find its growing library of customizable shortcuts and automations.

I started my professional journey as an engineer before moving into product strategy and innovation leadership roles for several global technology organizations. Over the years, I have served as a mentor for a variety of programs including Products That Count’s strategic product management, Women in Product mentorship initiatives, and Alchemist accelerator programs.

In 2024 and 2025 I led Walmart’s Women in Product mentorship program. I was responsible for designing and implementing the programs, including managing participant registration, matching mentors with mentees, and establishing clear standards for how they would interact.

Yet for much of my own early career, I never really had a mentor.

As an individual contributor engineer, I was focused on solving problems, delivering results, and figuring things out independently. I was hesitant to ask for help for fear of being judged for what I didn’t know.

Part of that was also temperament. I am naturally introverted.

That mindset rewarded me well. It made me self-reliant, resilient, and deeply driven. But it also had limits. Looking back, I now realize that believing I had to navigate everything alone was not always a strength. I sometimes wonder how many opportunities I missed simply because I never asked for help.

As I moved into product management and later strategy roles, I began collaborating with larger teams, departments, and organizations. The work itself became more cross-functional and people-centered. Over time, I started recognizing the value of mentorship, sponsorship, and collaborative growth in ways I had not appreciated earlier in my career.

I received valuable advice from different people at important moments throughout my career. Some helped me navigate conflict with more clarity. Others helped me communicate my contributions more effectively. And others gave me perspective on how to approach uncertainty, deal with organizational complexity, and avoid burnout.

But those moments were not the same as mentorship. They were valuable but infrequent interactions, not sustained relationships. No one consistently guided me through difficult decisions, advocated for me with decision-makers and senior leadership, or actively invested in my long-term growth.

My understanding of mentorship changed not as a mentee but as a mentor.

A leadership multiplier

Mentorship is often seen as an act of goodwill: admirable but optional. In reality, effective mentorship can be a competitive advantage for everyone involved.

For mentees, it can accelerate career growth, strengthen decision-making, and create access to opportunities that hard work alone does not always unlock.

Mentorship strengthens an individual’s leadership skills, empathy, and the ability to develop future talent.

For organizations, mentorship builds stronger leadership pipelines, more resilient teams, and healthier cultures of growth and trust.

By getting involved, I began to understand that meaningful mentorship is not simply occasional advice or career guidance. At its best, it is an active investment in another person’s growth. It includes advocacy, sponsorship, honest feedback, visibility, and sometimes helping people access opportunities they may not have reached on their own.

That is why mentorship should not be treated as kindness or incidental support. It is one of the most practical, hands-on, and personal forms of leadership.

Advocacy changes careers

Advice can help someone improve, but advocacy and sponsorship can change the direction of a career.

In many organizations, career growth depends not only on talent but also on access to honest feedback, influential networks, and sponsors willing to speak about someone’s potential when opportunities are discussed. Access also includes introductions to people who can recognize the value and impact of a person’s work.

Sometimes the difference between advice and true sponsorship is illustrated more clearly through stories rather than through leadership frameworks. In The Devil Wears Prada and its sequel Nigel’s relationship with Andy evolves far beyond workplace advice. In the 2006 movie, he helps her grow professionally, pushes her to envision a more expansive future, and guides her through an unfamiliar industry.

In the sequel—set two decades later—his investment in her success continues even though their careers diverge. When Andy (played by Anne Hathaway) is laid off during a difficult job market and struggles to find meaningful opportunities, Nigel (Stanley Tucci) quietly recommends her for a role at his firm. She is arguably overqualified for the position, but Nigel recognizes that it is the right opportunity at the right time. His recommendation helps her transition from a career in the news back into working in fashion. She can regain stability and ultimately rebuild career momentum. Over time, the opportunity becomes a turning point, reshaping her professional trajectory.

What makes it meaningful is not just the recommendation itself. It is that Nigel continued paying attention to her career growth over the years, believed in her potential, and supported her when she needed it.

That is what meaningful mentorship and sponsorship often look like in practice: not surface-level guidance but genuine investment in someone’s long-term growth and success.

When mentors provide that kind of support intentionally, mentorship becomes more than guidance. It becomes a competitive advantage—not only for the mentee but also for the mentor and the organization.

Why inclusive mentorship matters

Mentorship matters because talent alone does not shape a career. Access is important. In many workplaces, advancement depends not only on capability but on guidance, sponsorship, visibility, and informal knowledge about upcoming job opportunities.

Not everyone has equal access to such advantages. Research from McKinsey and Lean In suggests that women often receive less mentorship, sponsorship, and career support than men do, even in organizations that publicly emphasize inclusion and leadership development.

When mentorship is left entirely to informal networks, opportunity often becomes uneven. And when it’s left to chance, opportunity also is uneven.

That’s why inclusive mentorship matters. It creates a more intentional way to support people who might otherwise be overlooked.

What great mentors require

“A mentor is someone who allows you to see the hope inside yourself,” Oprah Winfrey once said.

Great mentorship is not about having all the answers. It’s about showing up with intention. It means listening closely, being candid, and helping someone grow with more confidence and clarity.

The best mentors respect their mentees’ time. They come prepared and listen for what is needed rather than rushing to give advice. They are open about their successes and failures because honesty builds trust faster than polished stories do. Great mentors tailor their guidance to the individual and encourage growth while also creating accountability.

Above all, good mentors create a psychologically safe space. They make it easier for mentees to ask difficult questions, test or pitch ideas, and talk openly about issues without fear of being judged. Growth usually starts at that point.

Organizations have a role to play as well. If mentorship matters, the program should be visible and supported.

That can mean including it in stated expectations of leaders, creating ways to connect mentors and mentees, providing mentorship training, and recognizing outcomes that go beyond performance metrics.

It also can mean broadening the understanding of mentorship. Peer mentorship, cross-functional mentorship, and even cross-industry mentorship can play important roles.

The leadership gap many organizations ignore

Promoting mentorship should not involve forcing artificial relationships or turning an employee’s growth into a line on someone’s to-do list. Organizations ought to promote the idea that leaders should invest in others, helping to build stronger teams, more capable leaders, and more organizational resiliency.

At a minimum, organizations should ask mentors whether they helped their mentee grow in their career and whether the mentee became more confident, capable, or prepared as a result of the relationship. Did they help junior employees navigate the organization more effectively? What opportunities did they create or find to give the mentees more visibility? Did they help mentees develop communication, leadership, or decision-making skills?

Those questions might be hard to quantify, but they get close to the substance of leadership.

Legacy is built through people

People might remember the strategies a leader shaped, the products the leader created, or the financial targets that were hit. Such accomplishments matter, of course. But another part of leadership lasts longer. It lives in the coworkers whose careers were advanced because someone took the time to invest in them.

Alan of the MandicReally channel needed consistent, high-resolution close-ups of 3D printer nozzles and hot ends. Every tiny surface mark and wear pattern mattered for his Mandic Labs work, yet standard microscope shots left large portions blurred. Focus stacking solves that by shooting the same subject many times at different focus depths and merging the sharp areas later. Doing the job by hand quickly becomes impractical. The microscope’s own focus ring lacks the precision and repeatability required, and even small shifts in framing or angle ruin the stack.

He overcame the challenge by creating a unique motion platform based on a secondhand desktop microscope. The machine moves the entire microscope up and down in tiny increments while the subject stays anchored to a robust platform, and for horizontal adjustment, all he has to do is touch a small knob to center any tiny bit without disturbing the microscope itself. The end result is a succession of photographs that software can combine into a single outstanding sharp snapshot, even if each individual shot would be unsteady on its own.

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The majority of the components for the robot were items he already had on hand. An outdated, discontinued Creality Ender 3 donated its main brain and screen. He got lucky and picked up a few sets of linear rails from a previous machine he’d built, allowing the contraption to move smoothly. Some stepper motors and lead screws were just taking up space in his storage bins, and he’d printed the moving parts with stiff carbon-fiber filled filament to avoid flexing and blurring the photos. The foundation is made of a leftover laser-cut acrylic sheet recovered from neighbor’s trash, and some aluminum extrusion creates a strong frame that sits on rubber feet to prevent vibrations.

It’s a two-axis system, with the vertical bit using a TR8x4 leadscrew and a NEMA 17 motor to lift and lower the microscope in tiny chunks, as small as 0.02mm if you can believe it. That’s ideal for the extremely small depth of field achieved at high magnification. The X axis just pushes the object sideways for a moment, allowing him to properly center it. Both axes run Marlin firmware, which he placed into the old Ender 3 brain, and there’s a vintage RepRap screen with an encoder wheel, so all he needs to do is set the total trip distance and step size, then click start.

To ensure even illumination, the lighting is coordinated utilizing a pair of white LED strips. An extra ESP32 board running WLED firmware powers several addressable RGB LEDs, which not only offer a clean visual accent to the system but also provide useful backlighting via the acrylic base. A simple 24-volt supply powers the device, which is housed in a small, neat container. Once the firmware is in order, getting the thing to work is simple. So all he has to do is set the step distance and total range on the screen, place the microscope over the subject, and push go. Each time it stops, it takes another picture, and after a while, the stacking software can combine them all into a nice photo with sharp and clear details.
[Source]

Wi-Fi standards remain as confusing as ever.

What does Wi-Fi 7 actually mean?

Pexels: Image Hunter

The WiFi 7 hyphen loophole and how that affects you

Pixabay: geralt

Does the Wi-Fi Certified 7 label guarantee MLO performance?

Pexels: Jakub Zerdzicki

How the FCC disrupted the Wi-Fi 7 market

Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

What to actually care about when getting a new router

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images