This is important because, while we MagSafe lovers have made do with MagSafe Android phone cases these past few years, there’s always been a caveat that these cases may not work with all MagSafe products. With Qi2 Ready cases, you can rest easy knowing they’ll work with Qi2 chargers.

It’s worth noting that OnePlus’ latest flagship phone, the OnePlus 13, is not a Qi2 Ready phone, however, OnePlus sells a magnetic case to enable Qi2-like charging. This is the old approach of adding magnetic charging to phones with basic Qi support, and it will not turn your phone into a Qi2 device. While it may feel similar, you may not enjoy faster charging speeds, it will not be as energy efficient, and it’s not guaranteed to work with all Qi2 accessories. Golden says Qi2 Ready phones have “special features built into them” to enable proper Qi2 functionality when paired with a Qi2 Ready case.

Alas, as soon as you take these Qi2 Ready cases off the phone, the magnetic functionality disappears. This may not be a problem for most people. It’s hard to find recent statistics, but a 2023 YouGov survey found that roughly 68 percent of Americans use a phone case, and a 2017 study put that number at 79 percent. But it does stink for those of us who don’t like using a case. Pour one out for the case-less fiends.

I can recall dozens of times when I’ve had to take my iPhone case off to attach a wireless microphone to the USB-C port or to fit the phone on a gimbal. Removing the case didn’t change anything because iPhones have magnets built in, but this is something that will impact Qi2 Ready phones, and it’s a frustrating limitation.

I think Qi2 Ready phones are an acceptable in-between measure. Considering it’s cheaper than embedding magnets into a phone, I hope it means more budget and midrange smartphones can enjoy Qi2 capabilities.

Still, I worry that this will make things confusing for the average person. New phones will support Qi but not Qi2, but they’ll have Qi2 Ready cases to enable Qi2—my brain hurt just writing that. If they just had native Qi2 support, magnetic charging would work all the time with any Qi2 accessory. Easy peasy.

The good news is that Samsung and Google have committed to releasing official Qi2 Android phones in 2025, so it is on the way, though it does feel bizarre that Samsung may not end up debuting it on its flagship smartphone series.

I’ll make do with a magnetic case (again), but for the love of God, can someone just give me my magnetic Android already?

Sentiment towards Ethereum’s ether (ETH) has sunk to depressed levels in recent times, but the latest maneuver of President Donald Trump-related crypto platform could spur hope for a reversal.

World Liberty Financial (WLFI), the decentralized finance (DeFi) platform linked to the Trump family, this week deposited a total of 10,000 ether (ETH) worth $33 million to liquid staking platform Lido Finance (LDO) to stake and earn rewards, blockchain data by Arkham Intelligence showed. Lido is the largest ether staking platform with $31 billion of assets posted on the platform.

The transactions came after World Liberty Finance acquired more than $110 million worth of crypto assets including ETH, wrapped bitcoin (wBTC), Tron’s TRX, AAVE, LINK and Ethena’s ENA, as CoinDesk reported.

The maneuver raises hopes that regulators will soon allow staking for spot ETH exchange-traded funds. SEC Commissioner Hester Pierce, who now leads the agency’s crypto task force, said last month in an interview with Coinage that she was open to considering staking for ETFs. Former SEC Chair Gary Gensler, known for his anti-crypto stance in the industry, stepped down on January 20 with Trump entering office.

Staking would boost appeal for the investment products, letting investors earn a steady stream of yield on their holdings and reducing product fees. U.S. spot ETH ETFs combined hold $12 billion of assets, according to SoSoValue data.

The potential regulatory approval also could jolt ETH’s price and adjacent ecosystem tokens like Lido’s LDO. Ethereum’s future has been under the microscope recently, amid sagging prices relative to competitors, leadership disputes and worries over the project’s development roadmap. ETH recently dropped to a 4-year low price against bitcoin (BTC) and ceded market share in trading activity to rapidly growing blockchains like Solana.

“I will never trade ETH again after, but watch how quickly the sentiment changes when the staked ETH ETFs come through in the next few weeks,” well-followed crypto trader Pentoshi said.

“ETH will have a multi-week giga pump at some point in 2025, around staking ETF news… If [you’re] too long ETH, that’s when you dump and switch to better performing assets,” said Alex Krüger, partner at Asgard Markets, in an X post.

Google worked with the Israeli military in the immediate aftermath of its ground invasion of the Gaza Strip, racing to beat out Amazon to provide AI services, according to company documents obtained by the Washington Post. 

In the weeks after Hamas’s October 7th attack on Israel, employees at Google’s cloud division worked directly with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) — even as the company told both the public and its own employees that Google only worked with civilian government ministries, the documents reportedly show.

Weeks after the war began, an employee with Google’s cloud division escalated the IDF’s military’s requests for access to Google’s AI technology, according to the Post. In another document, an employee warned that Google needed to quickly respond to the military’s requests, or else Israel would turn to Amazon for its cloud computing needs. In a November 2023 document, an employee thanks a coworker for handling the IDF’s request. Months later, employees requested additional access to AI tools for the IDF. 

Amid this, Google was punishing employees for protesting Project Nimbus, Israel’s $1.2 billion contract for Google and Amazon’s cloud computing services. Google fired 28 employees who staged sit-in protests at the company’s offices in New York and California, some of whom were also arrested during the demonstrations.

At the same time, Google denied that it was working with the Israeli military. “We have been very clear that the Nimbus contract is for workloads running on our commercial cloud by Israeli government ministries, who agree to comply with our Terms of Service and Acceptable Use Policy,” Anna Kowalczyk, the external communications manager for Google Cloud, told The Verge in April 2024. “This work is not directed at highly sensitive, classified, or military workloads relevant to weapons or intelligence services,” Kowalczyk said.

Google did not immediately respond to The Verge’s request for comment.

Streaming service Plex has long since grown beyond its original focus of being a home for personal media to offer a more comprehensive solution for discovering, streaming, and sharing content across services, including Plex’s own ad-supported free TV and movies. More recently, the company added social networking features, which it’s today expanding with its rollout of new functionality. Notably, this includes a way to share your Plex profile publicly and tools to let others read your TV and movie reviews and then comment in return.

Plex first introduced social networking in November 2023 when it launched a feature called “Discover Together,” which allowed users to create profiles on the service and then find and follow friends to see what they were watching. (The feature initially received some backlash as some Plex users were unhappy about its opt-out nature. Plex now notes that content flagged as adult won’t appear in users’ Activity fees, which was one of the users’ concerns.)

While it was a shift for the company, offering a more social experience on Plex allows it to better compete not only with other free, ad-supported streamers but also with dedicated social networks for movie and TV reviews like Letterboxd and TV Time, among others.

With today’s release, Plex says users will now be able to share a public URL that points to their profile on the service on watch.plex.tv. By default, users will be findable by others on Plex via the app’s search, unless they’ve already turned this off in their settings.

People who view your user profile will be able to see what you’ve been watching, what’s on your Watchlist, and more. This does not change any of your existing privacy settings, Plex notes.

In addition, Plex users will have the option to make their Ratings & Reviews visible to other users on Plex through a new setting. Here, you can choose between allowing anyone to see these reviews or only those signed in to Plex. You can also choose that your reviews are only visible to Friends or Friends of Friends, or you can make all your Ratings & Reviews private if desired.

Alongside the social networking features, Plex is also launching a preview of its new user interface, initially on Apple TV. The redesign includes updated navigation, more personal media customization, easier feature access, a richer experience with more artwork, and Plex’s various social networking features, the company says in its announcement.

For power users, Plex Pass subscribers (paid users) will gain access to HEVC hardware encoding for better video quality while saving bandwidth. This option was previously in preview mode with select users but is now available to all subscribers.

SAS veteran Phil Campion has launched a blistering attack on Labour’s plans to impose inheritance tax on military death-in-service payments, calling the move “despicable” and bordering on “cowardice”.

Speaking on GB News, Campion said armed forces personnel were “sitting ducks for their stupidity” because they lack union representation and cannot strike.

Campion tore into the Labour Government in a brutal rant

GB NEWS / PA

Labour MPs have voted to impose inheritance tax on death-in-service payments for military families from April 2027.

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The changes mean children or partners of unmarried servicemen and women will face death duties on the lump sum payments.

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Rachel Reeves backed the controversial taxPA

Death-in-service payments, which typically amount to four times the late individual’s salary, are currently tax-free.

Under the new rules, military personnel who die while off duty – such as from sudden illness or accident – will see their payments subject to inheritance tax of up to 40 percent.

The payments will go into probate if not left to a spouse or civil partner, and cannot be protected through trusts as they are part of the Armed Forces pension scheme.

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In a passionate statement, Campion highlighted the constant demands placed on military personnel.

Phil Campion joined Martin Daubney on GB News

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“When you sign that dotted line, you don’t just sign it to go to war, you’re on duty 24/7. You’re on call 24/7. You can be plucked out of the sky any time they choose,” he said.

The veteran referenced his recent work with Scotty’s Little Soldiers, a charity supporting bereaved military children.

“Members from the charity are absolutely appalled that they would start taking from people like that. It’s ridiculous,” Campion added.

“It’s just an absolute shock across everybody’s bowels. It’s despicable and borders on cowardice.”

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Major General Neil Marshall, chief executive of the Forces Pension Society, has written to HMRC urging them to reverse the decision.

In his letter, he warned the policy “poses a serious threat to morale, team cohesion and ultimately operational effectiveness” given the high-risk nature of military service.

A Treasury spokesman responded: “We value the immense sacrifice made by our brave Armed Forces.”

The spokesman confirmed existing inheritance tax exemptions will continue to apply “if a member of the Armed Forces dies from a wound inflicted, accident occurring or disease contracted on active service.”

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Any pension funds left to a spouse or civil partner in such cases will also remain exempt.