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Tech & AI
Elon Musk’s Exes Are the Most Damning Part of a Massive New Documentary
On Friday morning, Shivon Zilis, a top executive and lieutenant of Elon Musk at his brain chip implant company Neuralink—as well as mother of four of the 14 children he is known to have fathered—took to his social media platform, X, to announce an abrupt shift in their relationship.
“It’s hard to go from in love to let go in a week with no warning, but that’s just how it is sometimes,” Zilis wrote, sharing a screenshot of the X account @BigTechAlert that showed Musk had unfollowed her there. Zilis’ post continued: “I feel happy that I got to show Elon how it feels to be deeply understood, nurtured, and peacefully loved with stability and gentleness,” followed by warm praise and best wishes for Musk. “I do hope and pray he and I can be great friends and coparents,” Zilis concluded, leaving some ambiguity as to what exactly changed between them and whether she remains a director of operations and special projects at Neuralink, though it does not appear as if she has left the position.
While this was a strange revelation of a private matter, it seemed hardly out of the ordinary for Musk’s dizzyingly complicated family life. At this point, all four of the women confirmed to have had children with him—Zilis, ex-wife Justine Wilson, Claire Boucher (better known as Grimes), and Ashley St. Clair—have used X to share details of their time with him or push back against his own claims.
Both Wilson and St. Clair participated in filmmaker Alex Gibney’s sprawling new documentary Musk, in theaters nationwide on October 16 and screening at the WIRED World Fair in Miami next month. St. Clair, a former conservative influencer, alleges that she rejected a nondisclosure agreement worth $40 million that would have prevented her from talking about her tumultuous association with Musk. Among an ensemble of tech entrepreneurs, journalists, and former Musk employees, the pair stand out as arguably the most important critical voices in the film, shedding light on Musk’s rise in Silicon Valley as well as his turn toward MAGA extremism during the 2024 election.
At a run time of nearly four hours, Musk sounds like daunting viewing, though once it’s over, you’ll find yourself wondering if it could’ve been a 10-part miniseries. That’s how much ground there is to cover, from the unrealistic ambitions of landing on Mars and the corporate colonization of Texas to the fatal collisions involving “self-driving” Teslas and the annihilation of the US Agency for International Development by the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) at the beginning of Trump’s second term. (WIRED’s reporting is cited in the documentary, which features interviews with global editorial director Katie Drummond and contributing editor Zoë Schiffer.)
Alongside a fast-moving, comprehensive account of Musk’s career as an all-powerful and untouchable oligarch, his former romantic partners provide crucial context about exactly who he is, piecing together a devastating portrait of the type of man to “let go” of a significant other by unfollowing her on social media.
Continue Reading
If your Messages inbox is catching a lot of stray, unwanted messages, we’ll show you how to filter, report, and block spam messages on iOS 27.
Learn how to filter, report, and block messages on iPhone
At WWDC 2025, Apple announced that it would be bringing enhanced message filtering capabilities to Messages. As promised, they rolled out as part of iOS 26, released in September 2025. They continue to be available in iOS 27.
The new features are designed to help manage the onslaught of texts everyone seems to get these days. Here’s how to do it.
Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums
Your phone can fold in half, but your keys shouldn’t join it.
The most common mistake you should avoid when using foldable phones is dropping them. But that’s common knowledge and doesn’t make for a very exciting discussion. You’re probably thinking about the inside foldable screen, where the most common way to damage it is closing it on something that shouldn’t be there. Samsung’s foldable care page warns that cards, coins or keys can scratch or even puncture a Galaxy foldable’s inner display.
That seems straightforward enough; just make sure your car keys aren’t sitting on top of your phone when you try to close it. But if you work a particularly dirty job or live near the beach, that complicates matters. You can’t always spot dirt easily, and beach sand will find its way into absolutely anything.
Keep in mind that not all foldables are on equal footing. Some foldable screens are a bit softer and weaker than others. The Galaxy Z Fold8 and Fold8 Ultra, for instance, have an IP48 rating, whereas the new iPhone Duo boasts an IP68. The first digit describes the degree of protection against solid objects; a 4 means objects 1mm thick or larger can’t enter, while 6 indicates a dust-tight device.
Treat the inner screen with care
A foldable’s inner screen is far from a conventional slab-phone display. It has to fold, after all, so don’t assume you can press on it as firmly as you would on a standard phone’s outer glass. That includes actions you’ve probably done without thinking, like scratching a speck from the screen with your nail.
Another mistake is peeling off a factory-applied inner screen film because it looks like disposable shipping protection. This was surprisingly easy to do early on, but now the edges are tucked in and better hidden. Samsung highly recommends leaving these protective layers alone. On the flipside, don’t stick an unapproved screen protector over a foldable display. These phones aren’t like their slab cousins, so any old screen protector won’t do. Only use a protector or stylus the manufacturer specifically lists as compatible with that model.
You don’t have to baby a foldable phone, though it may seem that way coming from a traditional smartphone. These precautions just require you to be a little more particular when handling the folding screen. Avoid any concentrated force or closing it on anything other than open air.
What is the lifespan of a foldable phone?
There is no specific lifespan for foldables, though there are suggestions and indicators. For instance, we know that manufacturers test the hinges and screens by folding the phones between 200,000 and 500,000 times. If you open your phone 100 times a day, that would be 5 to 10 years.
However, that’s not a guarantee. Samsung claimed the Galaxy Z Fold7’s display remained functional after 500,000 folds in lab testing. Sounds pretty reassuring, but a controlled test doesn’t mean the Fold7 would survive that many opens and closes throughout your daily life. In the past, Samsung’s claim of 200,000 folds on the original Galaxy Fold fell short. When you hear figures tossed around, treat them as general benchmarks and marketing numbers.
Besides, it’s far more useful to check for dirt before you close the phone than to count your folds each day. Don’t push heavily on the display or use the wrong stylus. Use a soft cloth to clean marks on the screen instead of digging at them with your fingernail. And while the IP68 rating sounds great, Apple notes that the iPhone Duo’s water and dust resistance may diminish with normal wear. Nothing lasts forever, but wear increases faster when moving parts are involved.
In the world of home theater, there are traditional A/V systems and powered speakers, and there are soundbars. Then there’s the Nakamichi Dragon, a premium-priced soundbar system designed to bridge the gap between those worlds like no other setup I’ve encountered.
I reviewed the latest version, which includes a single 12-inch subwoofer in an 11.1.6-channel configuration and lists for a whopping $3,800, although it often sells for considerably less. The Dragon delivers exhilarating performance, especially with 3D audio formats like Dolby Atmos, but before you consider buying one, you’ll want the whole story.
Skip the reading? Click play above or watch the Nakamichi Dragon review on YouTube.
The Dragon’s sheer size and weight make it a real chore to unbox and set up. The soundbar alone weighs more than 32 pounds, and at 58 x 4.4 x 7.7 inches (W x H x D), it barely fit on my mid-size console. The subwoofer weighs about 80 pounds and extends nearly 18 inches deep.
The surround speakers are much easier to manage, although they feel a little cheap considering the price. They do offer some interesting technology, including a top-mounted dial that lets you physically adjust the direction of the upfiring drivers. The overall angular design is big and bold and practically demands an equally large TV to match.
The 11.1.6-channel model I tested comprises 28 speakers, including the 12-inch subwoofer, and you can add up to foursubs if you dare. The main soundbar houses 17 drivers, including four upfiring drivers for height effects and three 1.5-inch AMT tweeters. Each surround speaker adds two more 1.5-inch AMT drivers, two 3.5-inch drivers for side and rear surround effects, and a 3-inch upfiring driver.
Nakamichi rates the system at a claimed 3,000 watts of total power. Connections include three HDMI 2.1 inputs, one HDMI eARC port, optical input and output, 3.5mm analog input and output, and Bluetooth 5.0 with aptX HD. Oddly, there’s no Wi-Fi for features like Spotify Connect or AirPlay.
Audio support is extensive, including Dolby Atmos via Dolby TrueHD and the major DTS formats, including DTS Pro.
Controls and setup are handled through a loaded, old-school remote and an on-screen display that looks like it was pulled straight from a legacy A/V receiver. There’s no companion app for deeper adjustments, another odd omission at this price, and no automatic room calibration.
Instead, you can select from preset room sizes or manually enter your room measurements, which I recommend for the best results. You’ll still need to tweak several settings, especially the subwoofer, which is far too loud by default in a medium-sized room.
Those adjustments live inside the Auto Setup and Calibration menus. The available settings are extensive, but also fairly complicated, so expect to spend some time getting everything dialed in.
Performance is full throttle, from clear, forward dialogue to high-flying — and impressively precise — overhead effects and bass that can literally shake your windows. The low-end punch was far too much for my room before adjustment, although the system is admittedly better suited to larger spaces.
The overhead effects can be similarly aggressive. You can always dial them back, but it is undeniably fun to hear emphasized details like the almost visceral hull creak during the crash scene in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.
My biggest criticism is the overall sound signature, which can feel too thin and tightly wound, especially with lower-quality content. It lacks the full-bodied warmth of traditional speakers and even some less expensive soundbars, including Samsung’s HW-Q990.
Music is also less convincing than I expected at this price. The Dragon can be spectacular with movies, but it is not the system I would choose if two-channel music listening were a major priority.
The Bottom Line
If you’re after unearthly bass, cinematic surround sound, and powerful, almost surreal height effects, the Dragon is worth considering. I still take issue with its overall finesse and warmth, especially through the midrange, but there’s no denying how detailed, dynamic, and immersive it can sound with 3D audio soundtracks.
I think many A/V enthusiasts will find a better return by going with moderately priced speakers from brands like Klipsch, Polk, or SVS and a traditional A/V receiver. On the other hand, folks who want simplicity will find it in more versatile setups like Sonos’ Arc Ultra ($1,099) with a Sonos sub ($899) and Era 300 speakers ($499 each), or more affordable packages like Samsung’s HW-Q990.
That said, you’ll have a hard time finding this level of intensity, immersion, and sheer bass impact from another all-in-one home theater system. If that kind of larger-than-life presentation is what you’re after, the Nakamichi Dragon delivers in a very big way.
Pros:
- Massive, earth-shaking bass
- Powerful and adjustable overhead effects
- Clear dialogue even in chaotic scenes
- Loads of physical inputs
- Deep-dive settings and loaded remote
Cons:
- Difficult physical setup and complicated settings
- Sound signature is thin and forward
- No Wi-Fi or auto-calibration
- Cost is similar to traditional A/V setups
Our Ratings:
★★★★★★★★★★ Performance
★★★★★★★★★★ Build Quality
★★★★★★★★★★ Features
★★★★★★★★★★ Usability
★★★★★★★★★★ Value
Where to Buy:
Related Reading:
OpenAI is preparing to add invisible watermarks to text generated by ChatGPT and Codex in the European Union.
The watermark will not be visible when you read or copy the text. Instead, OpenAI says its new textGrain technology slightly changes the model’s word choices to create a statistical pattern that can later be detected.
“Over the coming weeks, we will add an invisible watermark to eligible ChatGPT and Codex text output in the European Union,” OpenAI explained.
OpenAI is not making this a global default yet.
Starting today, API developers worldwide can opt in to watermarking for supported models, but it remains disabled by default.
The company is also opening applications for its watermark detector, although access will initially be limited to approved researchers and expert organizations.
OpenAI admits its AI watermark can disappear when you edit the text
Text watermarking is far from perfect, and OpenAI’s own tests show that fairly normal editing can significantly reduce its ability to detect AI-generated text.
“In an evaluation of 400-token passages, replacing 10% of words with synonyms reduced detection from about 92% to 66%. Replacing 25% of words reduced it to 17%,” OpenAI noted.
At a 1% false-positive target, OpenAI detected the watermark in about 80% of 200-token psychology responses, compared with roughly 95% when the text reached 400 tokens.
Detection was even worse for subjects such as mathematics, where the model has less freedom to choose different words.
“The absence of a detected watermark does not prove human authorship,” OpenAI warned. “Text generated with OpenAI tools may be too short, edited, or translated for detection to work reliably.”
OpenAI also says a detected watermark does not reveal who generated the text, their account, prompt, or conversation, and it cannot tell how much of the final work was written or edited by a human.
Interestingly, OpenAI says watermarking does not meaningfully affect the quality of GPT-6 Astra, with benchmark results remaining broadly similar when textGrain is enabled.
Fun fact: The “pencil trick” involved drawing over tiny laser-cut L1 bridges with graphite to re-enable locked multipliers on certain CPUs.
Verdict
The Apple Watch Ultra 4 is a great smartwatch that has a bit more battery life to play with and features that make it a more insightful training and health companion. It just might not be enough to warrant an instant upgrade for Ultra 3 owners.
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Battery lasts over 2 days
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Same slick mix of smartwatch features
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Readiness scores and vitals modes are nice additions
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No change in design
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Some software features not available yet
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Heart rate tracking not spotless
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Key Features
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Review Price:
£749
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Longer battery life
The Apple Watch Ultra 4 can last for up to 50 hours with regular use.
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S11-powered Audio Intelligence
Adds automatic sound recognition and Shazam, with Live Rewind and Siri Recap arriving later.
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New Health Sensing System
Higher-frequency heart-rate sampling powers new Readiness scores, HRV recovery insights and daytime/nighttime Vitals views.
Introduction
Apple’s Ultra has been the smartwatch for endurance sports and outdoor lovers for years now. However, it has also become the Watch that gets the best that Apple has to offer, whether that’s in fitness tracking, communication features or just lasting the longest.
For the Apple Watch Ultra 4, Apple has focused on taking existing features and making them more reliable and useful, now wanting to track health and fitness stats at a more detailed level. It’s also making Siri more useful, and it’s going to keep you away from the charger for longer too.
There’s also more to come, as Apple’s Audio Intelligence will be able to hone in on voices and sounds around you once it properly arrives in a few months’ time.
That all still comes at a cost that makes it roughly the price of picking up two of the latest Apple Watch Series 12 smartwatches, so the question is, should you spend more? Is the Ultra 4 a strong upgrade on the Ultra 3? Here’s what I’ve found.
Design and screen
- Same design as Apple Watch Ultra 3
- Slightly heavier than Ultra 3
- Introduces new sensor system
The Apple Watch Ultra 4 is basically identical to the Apple Watch Ultra 3. It has the same 49mm-sized grade 5 titanium case, the same overall case thickness, the same physical buttons, and the same strap style options. There’s technically a touch more weight to handle, but it’s a negligible amount you just don’t notice day-to-day.
Many will be happy that Apple hasn’t made drastic changes. I was sort of hoping it might follow the trend of adding in a proper flashlight, but that hasn’t happened.
It remains a smartwatch that, while blockier than most other smartwatches, does have the typical Apple build quality and comes with a strap that’s easy to remove and replace. I always find it startling how quickly I adjust to having that large case sitting on my skinny wrists.
Something you can’t fault is Apple’s ability to pick and match up case colours with strap options. I had the black Ultra 4 and opted to combine it with the burgundy trail loop, and it’s a stylish combination. You can still use Ultra 3 straps with it if you’re not willing to give up on some favourite bands you’ve already picked up.
Flip the watch over, and you’ll find the biggest design difference with the Ultra 3. Apple has introduced its new health sensing system, which takes care of tracking various biometric data, including heart rate and temperature.
Apple says it’s increased the surface area for the electrodes that conduct readings, added larger LEDs and can now monitor metrics like heart rate more frequently than previous watches. The new sensor didn’t seem to alter how the watch sat on my wrist and works with the same-style charging puck as previous Ultras.
Performance and software
- Runs on watchOS 27
- New S11 chip unlocks new audio features
- Siri Recap and Live Rewind features not yet live
The Ultra 4 comes packed with Apple’s new S11 chip, which it’s dubbed its most powerful wearable chip. That’s powering watchOS 27, where key software highlights include a version of Siri that goes beyond answering simple queries and functions a bit more like ChatGPT. There’s now a new grid layout to get to the apps you use most in a quicker fashion, with more features on the health and fitness front.
The Siri improvements are intriguing ones. If you open up the Siri app on your iPhone, you can now see previous conversations you’ve had with the assistant. I was also able to have a conversation about my calendar and delve deeper into a hotel I booked and whether it offered late check-outs. The responses, while not instant, were dealt with pretty swiftly and, crucially, offered useful responses.
The new dynamic grid wasn’t a feature I found hugely life-changing, though I did appreciate using the new tap gesture to navigate Apple’s smart stack screen when I didn’t have a hand free to do it from the watch crown.
Apple is making a big play on voice, with a range of new features it’s tagged as Audio Intelligence. Some features are live, some aren’t. They use the now more powerful S11 chip and the Ultra’s microphone to deliver more sophisticated audio-based features. I was able to use the new sound recognition mode, which was swiftly able to recognise my daughter’s crying. The now quicker reacting Shazam integration identified a song playing on the radio in the gym without me prompting the Watch to do anything.
What isn’t available is the new Live Rewind and Siri Recap modes, which are coming later in the year. Live Rewind lets you record the last 15 seconds of a conversation while Siri Recap can summarise conversations like meetings you’ve had in the day.
Apple does emphasise the private nature of using these audio-based features, including that it doesn’t store recordings or give access to recordings. That said, these are features that have understandably raised eyebrows, and no doubt will continue to do so when users can start putting them to use.
Beyond those new features, the Ultra 4 still performs great at being a smartwatch that handles smartphone notifications, music features, making payments and giving you access to great apps and watch faces in a very polished way. And, yes, it continues to be an iOS-only wearable.
Tracking and features
- New health sensing system brings more accurate heart rate tracking
- New daytime and nighttime vitals views
- Redesigned Health app not yet live
The headline feature on the Watch Ultra 4 is Apple’s new Health Sensing System, which also appears on the Watch Series 12. When combined with Apple’s new chip, it can mainly sample heart rate data at a higher frequency than previous Watches. This should lead to more accurate heart rate tracking and also unlock new health and fitness-related features.
That includes new Readiness scores to assess whether you’re in good shape to take on your day. There’s now more insight into your recovery from a tough day or workout, and a closer look at how vitals data can change from day to night. Some of these features, like readiness scores and HRV recovery, have been available on rival smartwatches for some time.
Let’s deal with accuracy first. I’ve had a mixed experience with the heart rate tracking on previous versions of the Ultra. More so during exercise.
For resting heart rate readings and tracking heart rate during sleep, it’s generally been fine. I’ve used the Ultra 4 for a range of exercises and also raced with it up against a chest strap monitor. While I found the average readings similar, I found it slightly underreported maximum heart rate against a chest strap. The heart rate graphs in general looked similar, and I was pretty satisfied with the performance. It’s not spotless, but it’s been solid on the whole.
Dealing with the Readiness scores next and these require seven nights’ worth of sleep alongside capturing other metrics like sleep scores, heart rate variability and vitals data including respiratory rate and wrist temperature. I’ve been comparing scores to Garmin’s similar training readiness scores and scores generated by third-party app Bevel. Looking at data after a race, I could see those scores were telling me similar things. Basically, it takes some time to recover.
Apple says scores dynamically adjust during the day based on your data. So I could see that on one day my score was a 7 and adjusted to a 6 based on the exertions or running around completing errands and squeezing in a workout during my day.
They’re nicely presented on the watch, but when it comes to reviewing it off the small screen, things get a little more archaic. This is why it’s good news Apple is deciding to overhaul its Health app, even if that overhauled app isn’t quite ready just yet.
Apple is going big on HRV (heart rate variability), which again, isn’t a new metric to smartwatches. It’s a heart rate-based metric closely tied to recovery. I’ve been comparing similar readings to a Garmin watch, and the average measurements have been similar on most days. Like Garmin, the information in isolation doesn’t feel hugely insightful. That’s likely why it has been pulled into the new Readiness and Vitals data to put it to better use.
Moving onto Vitals next, Apple is essentially letting you see a daytime and nighttime view of how data like heart rate, HRV and temperature might change. It’s easy to toggle between the two views, though I wouldn’t say it’s as glanceable as the new Readiness scores.
Another aspect of tracking that Apple promises improvements is with tracking your step counts. I’ve been wearing the Ultra 4 with a range of different smartwatches and smart rings. I found daily step totals typically to be a few hundred steps within daily totals of other trackers. The GPS performance in that half marathon test was strong too, even on a twisty and turning course, where I expected to have issues.
- Over 2 days battery life
- Up to 84 hours in low power tracking mode
- Fully charges in just over an hour
The wait for an Apple Watch that can last a week does unfortunately go on. Instead, Apple has managed to increase the Ultra’s stamina so that it can last over 2 days. That’s up from 42 hours to 50 hours on the Ultra 2.
That improvement is my experience of living with the Ultra 4. I averaged getting two days before I was prompted to turn on the low power mode, and never quite made it to three days. That time included using the GPS, receiving notifications, using music features and interactions with Siri throughout the day and tracking sleep.
Apple has also boosted the battery life when tracking exercise. So now the Ultra 4 can last up to 18 hours in its most accurate GPS tracking mode, which is up from 14 hours. Stick it into Apple’s extended workout mode, and you can expect anywhere from 25 to 45 hours. When I wore the Ultra 4 for a half marathon race, which lasted just over an hour and a half, the battery dropped by 7%.
To compensate for the fact that the battery is shorter than most of the competition, Apple includes a pretty speedy fast charging mode. You can get up to 80% battery from a 45-minute charge or enough battery to cover a night’s worth of sleep tracking from a 5-minute charge.
So, yes the Apple Watch Ultra 4 has better battery life than the Ultra 3. Is it still enough? No. Will an Apple Watch Ultra 4 that can last over 2 days keep some fans happy? I imagine it will, especially with how quickly it can charge up.
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Should you buy it?
You own an Apple Watch Ultra or Ultra 2 and looking for an upgrade
If you’ve got an older Apple Watch Ultra, it’s worth skipping the other Ultras and going for this as it gives you more for the same price.
You want the best smartwatch for battery life
The Ultra 4 offers the biggest battery yet on an Apple Watch, but it still falls quite short of smartwatches that cost a lot less.
Final Thoughts
The Apple Watch Ultra 4 is Apple’s most capable smartwatch yet, combining longer battery life with more detailed health and training insights and a selection of promising Audio Intelligence features. The new Health Sensing System and Readiness scores make its data more useful, while accurate GPS tracking and slick everyday performance ensure it remains an excellent all-round smartwatch.
However, the familiar design and limited availability of some headline features make it a modest upgrade over the Ultra 3, especially given its premium price. It’s a compelling choice for newcomers and owners of older models, but Ultra 3 users have little reason to upgrade just yet.
To see how it compares to the competition, take a look at our selection of the best smartwatches.
How We Test
We thoroughly test every smartwatch we review. We use industry-standard testing to compare features properly, and we use the watch as our main device over the review period. We’ll always tell you what we find and we never, ever, accept money to review a product.
- Worn as our main smartwatch during the testing period
- Health data compared against other wearables
FAQs
Does the Apple Watch Ultra 4 have a blood pressure sensor?
No, the Apple Watch Ultra 4 does not have a blood pressure sensor. You can still pair with compatible external blood pressure monitors to share data to Apple Health.
Full Specs
| Apple Watch Ultra 4 Review | |
|---|---|
| Manufacturer | Apple |
| Screen Size | 1.9 inches |
| IP rating | IPX6 |
| Waterproof | 5ATM |
| Size (Dimensions) | 44 x 12 x 49 MM |
| Weight | 63 G |
| Operating System | watchOS 27 |
| Release Date | 2026 |
| First Reviewed Date | 05/10/2026 |
| Colours | Natural titanium, black titanium |
| GPS | Yes |
| UK RRP | £749 |
| USA RRP | $799 |
A longtime Microsoft engineering leader who was previously a Copilot chief technology officer is joining Amazon Web Services to work on its competing AI tools for coding and workplace productivity.
Pedram Rezaei, a nearly 20-year Microsoft veteran who was most recently a corporate vice president on the Microsoft Superintelligence team, starts Monday as a distinguished engineer in the AWS Agentic AI and Emerging Technologies organization, led by Swami Sivasubramanian.
Rezaei will work initially on Kiro, the AWS coding tool, and Quick, Amazon’s AI assistant for workplace tasks, Sivasubramanian wrote in a memo to his team Monday. “He is a hands-on engineer who is still in the code every day, and he plans to keep it that way here,” he added.
Kiro’s user count doubled from the first quarter to the second, and monthly AI users for Quick grew fourfold, according to the memo. Rezaei’s plan for his first few months is to “meet people, learn how things work here, and ship something real,” Sivasubramanian wrote.
Sivasubramanian’s organization was expanded in July to include emerging technologies, part of a broader reshuffling of Amazon’s AI teams.
The hire comes as Amazon and Microsoft compete more directly in AI tools for work. Microsoft last month unveiled an all-in-one Copilot app that combines chat, coding and agents, its answer to OpenAI and Anthropic. Amazon made its Quick desktop app generally available in September and brought its main features to mobile.
Rezaei joined Microsoft in 2006 and held senior technical roles on Power BI, Dynamics 365, Cortana, Bing and Azure Maps before moving to Copilot, according to his LinkedIn profile. He became Copilot’s CTO in February and moved to the Microsoft Superintelligence team in June, according to the profile. Sivasubramanian’s memo said Rezaei was most recently working on training foundation models.
We’ve contacted Microsoft for comment on his departure.
Rezaei is the latest Microsoft executive to move to AWS this year. Shawn Bice returned to AWS in May from a security role at Microsoft to lead its Automated Reasoning Group.
In his memo Monday, Sivasubramanian also told his team that two longtime AWS engineers, Marvin Theimer and Reto Kramer, have returned to work on neurosymbolic AI and automated reasoning, which he called “one of our biggest bets for the future.” Both came back from Microsoft, according to their LinkedIn profiles.
Neurosymbolic AI pairs large language models with rule-based systems that can check whether an AI agent is following a company’s policies and procedures.
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Speaking at Madrona’s IA40 Summit in Seattle last week, Sivasubramanian said nearly every CIO and CEO raises the same question about AI agents. “How do I know it is always going to obey all my rules and regulations?” he said. “This is a real concern.”
Solving that problem “actually unlocks so many use cases for all these enterprises,” he added.
Theimer, an AWS distinguished engineer for nine years before leaving in 2022, joined Microsoft in July 2024 as a corporate vice president and technical architect and stayed until March. It was his second stint at the company, where he worked from 1998 to 2006. He rejoined AWS in July as a vice president and distinguished engineer.
Kramer, who led an automated reasoning team at AWS before leaving in 2023, joined Microsoft in September 2025 as vice president of Security Platform & AI and stayed until May. He rejoined AWS in September as vice president of applied science.
Sivasubramanian hinted at more hires to come, writing that Rezaei joins “as we continue to build out our technical leadership team to help take on the ambitious work we have planned.”
from the copyright-is-censorship dept
Techdirt has been around for almost 30 years now, and the one internet law issue that never seems to change is the bullshit use of copyright to take down speech. It’s run through basically our entire history. Back in 2020 we wrote about a copyright dispute involving an author of, well, “wolf-kink erotica” using the DMCA to remove works by a competitor writing books in the same genre. The YouTuber Lindsay Ellis did a (very good) explainer video about it all and then… faced a ridiculous copyright legal threat herself.
About a week or so ago, Ellis published a video on a very different topic: cruise lines. It was something like two and a half hours long. Ellis — who I would say is a skeptic of the entire concept of cruises — decided to go all in, taking a bunch of different cruises in a row to see what all the fuss was about and how the various lines compare. After seeing the video mentioned on Bluesky, I clicked on it and… ended up watching the whole thing (albeit at 2.5x speed). I’m not that interested in cruises, but Ellis is a great sardonic storyteller and the video is really well done, mixing details about the individual cruise lines and how they treat their workers (mostly not well) and the environment (potentially even worse) with her own experiences on those trips.
But, apparently that video is currently gone from YouTube (she has kept it up on the subscription service Nebula)… because of copyright, as Ellis explained in a YouTube short.
Yeah. In the middle of a two-plus hour video about cruise lines, there’s a clip — just a few seconds long — of a friend who joined Ellis on one of the trips singing karaoke. And that caused the entire video to come down while the “dispute” was adjudicated.
And, as Ellis notes, YouTube by default sides with the copyright holder, because the nature of copyright law is that it very, very, very strongly encourages intermediaries to side with the copyright claimant, even if that claim is obvious bullshit and clearly fair use (as is the case here). YouTube’s ContentID system is basically built with that in mind. Even as YouTube spent years fighting back against copyright maximalism and winning the massive DMCA case Viacom filed against it, in the end, to keep the big copyright holders happy, ContentID is really designed to strongly favor copyright claimants, even when their claims are bullshit.
The culprit in this case? Apparently our old friends at Warner/Chappell, which, let’s just say, have a history of this sort of absolute bullshit. Warner/Chappell is a music publisher, and publishers tend to be even more copyright maximalist than the labels themselves. It’s likely that Warner/Chappell holds the copyright on the underlying composition that is playing in the background, and which can barely be heard for the few seconds while Ellis’ friend is singing karaoke. That’s clearly fair use and similar to the dancing baby case from over a decade ago, where some music playing incidentally in the background shouldn’t lead to a video being taken down (the difference here being that it looks like this is a ContentID claim, rather than a full DMCA takedown which would require Warner/Chappell to take fair use into consideration).
On Bluesky, Ellis points out that this wasn’t an automated takedown. Her lawyers asked people at Warner/Chappell to pull the claim and they refused, claiming (incredibly) that because the song “was not the topic of the video” they wouldn’t pull the claim.
That is… not how any of this is supposed to work.
Ellis also notes that she uploaded the video weeks before publishing it (as YouTube encourages creators to do) precisely so ContentID could flag any potential issues — and nothing came up until the video passed a million views. Then suddenly Warner/Chappell put in a claim, as Ellis says, just “to be an asshole.”
This sort of nonsense happens all the time, but it’s pretty incredible that we’re now nearly three decades into the DMCA itself and we’re still dealing with this kind of blatant abuse of copyright, which is mostly just a shakedown from companies like Warner/Chappell which will then run to Congress and claim they need more copyright expansion to protect them from “piracy.”
Maybe what we actually need are laws that protect the people doing the creative work from parasites like Warner/Chappell.
Filed Under: contentid, copyfraud, copyright, dmca, fair use, karaoke, lindsay ellis
Companies: warner/chappell, youtube
The discerning modern gamer’s quest is to find a quieter computer without sacrificing performance. That proves challenging when modern components are highly efficient at producing monumental quantities of thermal energy. So the typical solution ends up moving enough air through the computer to create a rather tumultuous racket. So why have fans at all? Well, as [Billet Labs] demonstrates, that’s not necessarily a good idea.
The build begins with a block of aluminum which, with a bit of hand-metal work, may become the base of the PC “case.” A dry-fit of the aesthetically modified parts taken from a previous attempt at a fanless PC reveals the steampunk aesthetic that defines the build. On final assembly, a large amount of thermal paste under the flex ATX power supply and 6mm of thermal pads under the motherboard provide passive cooling to the block of aluminum they are attached to
The cooling loop begins with three radiators: a big one, a small one, and a slightly smaller one. But raw metal PC radiators are difficult and expensive to come by these days. Some paint stripping and polishing will fix that problem. A few hand-made mounting brackets complete the aesthetic. All three radiators are stacked above the motherboard, and on top of each other, positioned horizontally to encourage passive airflow through them.
At this point, a normal PC would be plumbed up using standard flexible or, if you’re particularly ambitious, hard piping. But this is no normal PC. Instead, the plumbing uses household copper piping, soldered together. Two gauges sit near the front to show the water pressure and temperature. The reservoir is a larger diameter pipe with one end soldered onto a smaller pipe leading to the pump. The other end is a screw cap, with the corners machined off to match the pipe, to allow for filling of the loop. Soldering this took quite some effort because of the thermal mass in such a large pipe.
Once testing commenced, two issues became quickly apparent. The pressure gauge creates quite the racket as water flows past, and the stacked radiators are inadequate at cooling the PC. Rather show-stopping issues when the goal is gaming in silence. Was all this work for naught? No, the design proved the block of aluminum quite adept at cooling the motherboard and GPU. Moreover, adding a simple 120mm fan between the two smaller radiators and removing the pressure gauge effectively quelled the overheating and ticking issue. The result is a quiet (and quite pretty) living room PC with performance to match.
You can free up storage on a Mac without installing a cleaner app. Start with System Settings > General > Storage, identify the categories actually using space, and remove or move files you recognize before touching system-managed data.
On macOS Ventura 13 or later, choose Apple menu > System Settings > General > Storage. Earlier macOS versions show storage through Apple menu > About This Mac > Storage. The Storage view shows usage by category and updates as space is reclaimed.
The safest order is to inspect first, remove recognized data second, and verify the result before deleting anything else. You do not need to perform every step if one category already explains most of your storage use.
Free Up Storage on Your Mac Step by Step
Verify the result
Why You Usually Don’t Need a Cleaner App
macOS already covers the main jobs required for ordinary storage cleanup: it shows where space is going, exposes management options for several categories, lets you uninstall apps, supports moving files to external storage, and provides iCloud-based optimization. When storage is tight, macOS can also clear caches and logs that are safe to recreate.
A cleaner app can still make file discovery or maintenance more convenient by putting several functions into one interface. For example, a cleaner app can add convenience for reviewing large and old files. That convenience is different from necessity: you can perform the core storage-recovery workflow with macOS itself.
Manual cleanup also keeps the final decision with you. Software may identify a deletion candidate, but only you can determine whether a large video export is expendable, an older device backup is still valuable, or a photo library contains the only copy of important images. A category-first process keeps those judgments separate from file discovery.
What to Leave Alone: System Data, Caches, and Snapshots
macOS groups storage that does not belong to a more specific category under System Data. That label can therefore include material associated with both Apple and third-party software; it is not the name of one folder waiting to be emptied.
A cache is stored data that software can reuse instead of fetching or rebuilding it each time. When the Mac needs room, macOS already removes some caches, logs, interrupted downloads, staged updates, and other data that it considers safe to recreate. Clearing such files manually can produce only temporary savings because applications or macOS may build them again.
Time Machine local snapshots are recovery copies stored on the Mac’s startup disk. On disks using Apple File System (APFS), Time Machine can keep these snapshots locally so previous versions of files remain recoverable when the backup disk is unavailable. Their space is counted as available and snapshots are deleted automatically as space is needed, so manual removal is not a sensible first step in routine cleanup.
Warning
Do not indiscriminately delete files from /System, /Library, ~/Library, cache folders, or snapshot structures just because the Storage graph is large. Remove recognizable personal files and application data first, then investigate System Data only if the ordinary categories still do not explain the shortage.
If Storage Still Looks Full
If you have removed obvious files but available storage is still lower than expected, narrow the problem before deleting anything more.
Deleted files have not increased available storage
Check the Trash first. Files moved there still occupy storage until the Trash is emptied. After emptying it, reopen System Settings > General > Storage and allow the categories to recalculate.
Backups still appear to be using a lot of space
Review local iPhone or iPad backups through Finder rather than deleting backup folders blindly. Connect the device, select it in Finder, trust it if prompted, open General, then choose Manage Backups. Delete only backups you have positively identified as obsolete.
System Data is still the largest category
Do not treat that number as proof that system folders should be purged. First check whether large applications, device backups, other user accounts, Photos libraries, local media, or application-specific data still account for the shortage. System Data can combine multiple kinds of files, including data macOS manages automatically.
You only need enough room to complete an update or installation
If the same user-controlled category remains large after these checks, return to that category rather than switching randomly between cleanup tricks. The goal is to identify the data responsible for the shortage, not to make every storage category as small as possible.
When Moving Files Is Better Than Deleting Them
Deletion is the wrong answer when a file is valuable but does not need to remain on the Mac’s internal storage. Photos, raw video, completed project archives, virtual machines, sample libraries, and other large data can often be moved to an appropriate external drive instead.
A Photos library needs extra care because its new location has specific requirements. The external device should be formatted as APFS or Mac OS Extended (Journaled). It should not be the disk used for Time Machine backups, an SD card, a USB flash drive, a network share, or internet-based storage. These storage requirements apply when moving a Photos library.
Quit Photos, move the library to the supported external device, then double-click the library in its new location to open it. If you use iCloud Photos or need the library through the Photo Picker in other apps, designate the moved library as the System Photo Library, meaning the library macOS treats as the primary Photos library for those integrations. Only after the moved library opens correctly should you remove the original from the Mac. Keep the external device connected and available when you open Photos; if Photos cannot find the library there, it can create a new empty library in the default Pictures folder.
iCloud Photos offers a different trade-off. With Optimise Mac Storage enabled, Photos can use smaller local versions when storage is limited while iCloud retains the full-size originals. This requires iCloud Photos and enough iCloud capacity for the library. It is synchronization and storage optimization, not an independent offline backup.
The same principle applies beyond Photos: delete data that is genuinely expendable, but move or optimize data that still has value. Once the Mac has enough free storage for normal work, an update, or the task that prompted the cleanup, stop there rather than chasing a smaller storage graph.
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