Some iOS users with the Washington Post app installed may have looked down at their device tonight only to find an undismissable black toggle hovering on their screen, with electoral vote counts in the 2024 presidential race slowly ticking upwards. (On my own iPhone it appears as the dynamic island.) If you tap on it it merely expands to give you more information about the race, along with little drawn portraits of the candidates, which is decidedly not the content you want if you were just trying to find the button to make the whole thing go away.

It took me a little bit of jumping around to figure out how to get rid of it, but this is how to dismiss the Electoral College hell-toggle on iOS:

Go to your Settings. Select Apps towards the bottom. Scroll down to the Wash Post app. Click on Live Activities. Turn off the toggle Allow Live Activities. The hell-toggle should vanish.

If you want to bring it back, turn on Allow Live Activities again, and then go into the Washington Post app. Click on the gear wheel icon in the upper right to access your settings. Select Live Activity Settings and turn on the toggle to allow live updates from the presidential election. You may need to also click on “Start Presidential Activity” beneath that.

Apparently Apple News also has a hell-toggle, and it presumably can be dismissed in your iOS settings in a similar fashion. I am not plagued with the Apple News hell-toggle, so I wouldn’t know.

Quordle was one of the original Wordle alternatives and is still going strong now more than 1,000 games later. It offers a genuine challenge, though, so read on if you need some Quordle hints today – or scroll down further for the answers.

Enjoy playing word games? You can also check out my Wordle today, NYT Connections today and NYT Strands today pages for hints and answers for those puzzles.

Japan has just launched the first-ever wooden satellite to space.

The LignoSat cubesat was sent skyward by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Monday and arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) aboard a Dragon supply ship the following day. The satellite will stay in orbit for about six months once it’s deployed from the ISS later this year.

Created by scientists at Kyoto University in partnership with homebuilder Sumitomo Forestry, each side of the cubesat measures a mere 4 inches (about 10 centimeters). It’s made of honoki, a type of magnolia tree native to Japan, and has been constructed using traditional Japanese techniques that forgo the use of screws or glue.

The idea behind the mission is to test the effectiveness of using wooden materials for satellites as a way to reduce space junk and protect the environment. When a satellite is decommissioned in low-Earth orbit, operators will try to dispose of it by burning it up in Earth’s atmosphere. But the large metal objects don’t always entirely disintegrate, with chunks of metal sometimes making it to the surface of our planet. Tiny metal particles can also end up in the environment.

Sensors aboard LignoSat will send back data that will allow scientists to learn about how well the wooden satellite is able to deal with the harsh conditions of space, which include huge fluctuations in temperature.

Digital Trends first reported on plans for the wooden satellite four years ago. Speaking to the BBC at the time, Takao Doi, a professor at Kyoto University and a former Japanese astronaut who has been to the ISS, said: “We’re very concerned with the fact that all the satellites which reenter the Earth’s atmosphere burn and create tiny alumina particles which will float in the upper atmosphere for many years.”

Speaking more recently, Doi said that if a wooden satellite design is found to be a viable alternative to metal ones, the team behind LignoSat plans to pitch it to SpaceX.

Apple may soon be facing a hefty fine from the EU over its App Store policies. It would be the first time the iPhone maker will be penalized under the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA).

Apple to be the first company penalized under the EU’s DMA for its App Store policies

Apple was declared guilty of enforcing “steering” policies on its App Store by the EU earlier this year. The European Commission also started a new investigation into Apple’s lackluster support for alternative iOS marketplaces in Europe.

The EU alleged Apple is undermining alternative iOS app stores. However, Apple is to face a hefty fine under the EU’s DMA, Blomberg has reported. This would make Apple the first company to face financial penalties under the DMA.

The Commission is gearing up to levy the penalty after it found that Apple’s “anti-steering” practices harmed competition on the App Store. Simply put, the EU concluded Apple does not wholly support the concept of allowing developers to guide or point users to cheaper purchases outside the App Store. EU deemed this behavior illegal under the DMA back in March.

How much fine Apple may have to pay the EU?

Incidentally, it is not just Apple that is facing heat or steep fines from the EU. Other tech giants such as Google and Meta are also under scrutiny, and they are facing some very hefty fines.

Back when Spotify had complained to the EU, the latter had slapped a €1.84 billion (about $2 billion) fine on Apple over its App Store policies. Incidentally, Spotify’s complaint about Apple’s anti-steering practices predates the DMA.

Currently, Apple is facing fresh proceedings into the company’s support for alternative iOS and iPadOS app stores. The EU has objected to Apple’s Core Technology Fee, its eligibility requirements for developers, and also its outlook towards third-party accessories. Additionally, the EU continues to allege Apple hasn’t made it easy for iPhone users to switch to third-party marketplaces.

The DMA rules state companies can be charged up to 10 percent of annual global revenue and up to 20 percent for repeat offenses. This reportedly translates to a $38 billion fine. Apple is yet to comment on the development. However, Apple would most likely contest whatever amount the EU decides.

Sony announced that it will stop selling the Airpeak S1 camera drone. Sales of the product will end on March 31, 2025. Sony will also stop selling most of the drone’s accessories next year, but replacement batteries and propellers will be available until March 31, 2026. Inspections, repairs and software maintenance will continue through March 31, 2030.

The Airpeak S1 was initially introduced during a virtual presentation at CES in 2021. The drone was intended to capture high-definition footage with Sony’s full-frame mirrorless interchangeable-lens Alpha cameras. It could fly for 12 minutes with a camera attached and achieved a max flight speed of 55.9mph. While the high-end drone would set buyers back about $9,000 even before buying accessories, it had middling to flat-out negative reviews.