from the ctrl-alt-speech dept

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is a weekly podcast about the latest news in online speech, from Mike Masnick and Everything in Moderation‘s Ben Whitelaw.

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In this week’s roundup of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike is joined by Jess Miers, law professor at University of Akron School of Law. Together, they discuss:

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There are no signs of Apple slowing down in Q3 2026, as it is likely to see even more year-over-year growth in spite of a tough comparison for iPad.

Apple just had a record-breaking March quarter that brought in $111.2 billion in revenue. It seems that momentum won’t be slowing going into Q3.

Apple Chief Financial Officer Kevan Parekh shared forward-looking statements for Q3 2026 that estimate up to 14% to 17% growth year-over-year. That would mean growth from 2025’s $94 billion up to $110 billion for 2026.

In addition to that growth, Apple expects a gross margin of 47.5% to 48.5%. Operational expenditure is between $18.8 billion and $19.1 billion.

Clearly, Apple is going to ride the successes of its current iPhone and Mac lineup all the way into the fall. The iPhone 17e, MacBook Neo, and other recent products have been selling very well with supply being the only constraint to demand.

Growth in China has also been a big lift for Apple due to continued demand for the iPhone 17 lineup. Apple CEO Tim Cook attributed this to having devices that resonate with people, not necessarily better government relations.

Apple’s YoY growth continues

There’s a chance that Q3 won’t have any new hardware, and that includes the long-expected iPad with A19. Parekh specifically called out that the iPad would have a tough compare in Q3 due to the year-ago release of the iPad with A16.

That’s the closest we’ll get to Apple saying that there won’t be any new iPads without an explicit confirmation.

Services are expected to see similar year-over-year growth. That could be aided in some fashion by the new App Store contract system for annual subscriptions.

The results for Q3 will be revealed at the end of July, which will likely be Cook’s last earnings call. He’s ending on a nice round number of 90 total earnings calls in his career at Apple.

After two decades in tech, he now makes tiny collectible figures of pop culture characters

After spending two decades climbing the corporate ladder, including a stint at a FAANG company, 40-year-old Singaporean GT has found himself on a very different path.

The former tech worker has turned a hobby into a small business, making tiny, handmade action figures inspired by pop culture characters, from the Glico man to even local TV icon Phua Chu Kang.

Today, GT runs Bird Hand Toys from his home in Australia, where he sculpts and assembles 3.75-inch “bootleg” figurines based on movies, TV shows, and nostalgic cultural references.

A hobby that found him

GT’s path into toy-making was anything but deliberate.

Born and raised in Singapore and educated in Australia, he spent 15 to 17 years moving through corporate roles before eventually landing at a major global tech firm. By then, he and his wife had already built an ideal Singaporean life: stable jobs, a home, a dog, and a strong network of family and friends.

But GT also held Australian permanent residency, a document he had kept for years. Eventually, the chance to relocate and build a life in Australia became too compelling to ignore.

So in 2021, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, GT and his wife left their jobs, sold the car, and packed up for the move. The airports were ghostly quiet, with fewer than 10 people on their flight. Not exactly a glamorous beginning, but still, it was the start of a new chapter in their lives.

Once settled in Australia, GT returned to corporate work and began looking for a creative outlet to unwind from the pressures of office life.

One day, while scrolling through Instagram, he came across a community of toy makers creating miniature action figures. Intrigued, he decided to try making some himself sometime in 2022.

GT was able to teach himself through trial and error and picked up the hobby very quickly.

“There’s very little information out there, so a lot of the early process involved a lot of problem solving to figure out every step of the process, from the size of the card backing, types of glue and paper to use, plastic blister packaging supplier and how to make a bootleg toy.”

In those early days, GT’s work drew heavily from the films, TV shows, and pop culture he grew up with in the 20th century. The first few figures he made were enough to suggest he might actually be onto something.

The project took a more concrete turn when he won an eBay bid for more than 100 vintage Star Wars figures for US$180 (S$230), which he used as base models for his creations.

The making of a bootleg action figurine

Bird Hand Toys sits within a niche creative space in what GT calls the “bootleg toy space”—unofficial action figures of movie and TV characters that never got to the commercial production stage.

One of the earliest pieces he made was a miniature version of American artist Jackson Pollock, complete with a tiny paintbrush, paint splatters, a checked scarf and a cigarette. It took about a month to complete the action figure.

In the early days, GT’s process was relatively simple: he would source an existing action figure and then sculpt over it to transform it into an entirely new character.

However, he quickly realised this approach came with limitations.

Firstly, there’s a limited number of existing action figures he can get a hold of. Secondly, this approach was not economical as each base figure would cost anywhere from S$30 to S$50. As such, it became difficult to scale or fulfil bulk orders.

In one instance, a chef in the US commissioned 15 of a specific figure. GT recalled having to search across multiple stores in New South Wales just to secure enough base figures to complete the order.

While he still occasionally uses his original method, GT has moved into designing and 3D printing his base figures.

He said this change removed many of the earlier constraints and significantly lowered costs, allowing him to produce multiple figures more efficiently. It also gave him greater creative freedom, enabling more detailed sculpting and refinement around each base model, which in turn improved the overall quality of his work.

For each action figure, completion could take any time from a day to two weeks, depending on its complexity.

While the materials to create them may appear simple—basic tools such as a base figure, a Dremel, sculpting putty and paint—the process is far from mechanical.

GT treats each piece as a design exercise, requiring not just handcraft but an eye for composition. Each design has to reflect the character’s cultural context while still working as a cohesive visual piece that can sit on a wall or shelf.

All of his figurines are 3.75 inches tall. While it might seem like a random choice, the size was popularised by vintage Star Wars action figures, and for GT, it also came down to practical reasons.

“I guess they are this size because of the eBay lot, which started me in this scale, and everything else, like the blister packaging and card backing, has been configured for this scale, so I’ve kept to it,” said GT.

“Also, I find this size to be the most appealing as it has that nostalgic G.I. Joe and Star Wars feel to it.”

Gaining traction & recognition

Each one of GT’s figurines starts from S$70, though the most expensive piece he has ever sold has gone for US$200 (S$255). A Singaporean buyer also recently dropped nearly S$700 on his figurines.

At the start, GT focused on international characters. It was only this year that he launched a Singapore/Asia-focused page because he thought it would be “interesting to reimagine classic 90s Singapore TV characters and moments into action figures.”

Through this process, he found that a lot of the old logos and pictures of Singaporean pop culture figures were low resolution since they were from “way back.”

“I felt it would be meaningful to give them the love they deserve to have a fresh, sharpened logo and images so they don’t fade with time,” he said.

“Also, people do find these very nostalgic, and the format of it as a semi-art piece that they can own is something that really works.”

According to the 40-year-old, the first month of the Asia page has taken off very quickly.

He shared that he has been receiving a lot of positive feedback and encouragement for what he is doing, including from singer-songwriter Inch Chua, whom he made a figurine of.

Apart from Chua, his celebrity-inspired figures have also found their way to British DJ Fatboy Slim and Singapore actor Gurmit Singh. GT has also taken on commissioned work, including a custom piece for DJ Tim Oh, complete with miniature accessories based on his interests.

Part of this traction has also come from retail exposure. Since Mar, his designs have been stocked at Singapore fashion store The Corner Shop (杂货店), a collaboration that went viral online.

Beyond retail, most of GT’s sales still come online. Through direct commissions and orders, his handmade figurines have made their way to homes across the US, Japan, and Thailand.

Focusing on Bird Hand Toys full time

All this while, Bird Hand Toys had remained a side hustle for GT. But after being “recently laid off” from the FAANG company he worked at in Australia, he decided to make it his full-time focus.

“This is the first time I’ve had the opportunity to fully pursue a more creative path, and it is an opportunity to use my time towards a craft I’m passionate about,” he explained.

The challenge, of course, as it has been from the start, is running the business as a one-man show, from responding to customer messages on Instagram to creating new content and fulfilling commission orders.

Looking ahead, GT wants to continue honing his craft and get even better at it. He does have one goal that’s equal parts humble and quietly ambitious.

It would be nice to be on holiday and find my stuff on a shelf in a store now and then.

• Learn more about Bird Hand Toys here.
• Read other articles we’ve written on Singaporean businesses here.

Featured Image Credit: Bird Hand Toys

More four-year-olds are enrolled in state-funded preschools than ever before, but the quality and availability of preschool programs have experts concerned about creating a system of haves and have-nots.

“If providing high-quality preschool education to all 3- and 4-year-olds were a race, some states are nearing the finish line, others have stumbled and fallen behind, and a few have yet to leave the starting line,” an annual report from the National Institute of Early Education Research states.

With the amount of funding and quality varying by state, it means that access for families in states that aren’t investing still widely varies.

The report, titled “State of Preschool: 2025 Yearbook,” breaks down the annual spending, quality and enrollment numbers across early childhood education programs in the U.S. The latest found states hit an all-time high for both spending and enrollment, but the quality of the programs remains a concern.

“We’re trying to make sure states are also thinking about quality,” Allison Friedman-Krauss, an associate research professor at NIEER, says. “Right now, it’s more about access. And we don’t want them to forget about quality.”

More Funding – But Not Always More Quality

The report found funding peaked at nearly $14.4 billion, though that was largely driven by a handful of states: $4.1 billion in California alone, along with $1.2 billion in New Jersey and $1 billion in New York. Those three states accounted for nearly half (45 percent) of all state pre-K spending.

More than two dozen states also increased their preschool spending, which can go toward things like improving teacher-to-student rations and improving teacher compensation, the latter which has long been a concern.

While states still increased their spending on pre-K this year, the rate at which states are investing is slowing down. Adjusted for inflation, each state spent an average of $45 more per child than the 2023-2024 year. However, last year’s increase in spending was 16 times as large.

New Jersey, Oregon and the District of Columbia gave more than $15,000 in state funding per child enrolled in preschool. Six other states (California, Connecticut, Delaware, Michigan, New Mexico, and Washington) spent more than $10,000 per child enrolled in pre-K. Twenty eight states overall spent more funding per child, adjusted for inflation, than past years.

Seventeen states spent less on preschool in 2024-2025 than they did in 2023-2024, when adjusted for inflation. The researchers attributed the spending decline in part to overall state deficits and falling enrollment across many states.

However, that’s not always the case. New Jersey had a budget deficit but invested an additional $100 million into expanding preschool programs for all.

Pointing toward this, Steve Barnett, director of NIEER, argues that it’s all about state priorities: “That’s a conscious decision to say we’re going to spend less,” he says. “And you have to ask if the declining enrollment – even if not intentional – is a way to reduce spending [in the sector]. As opposed to, ‘Maybe we should work on getting parents to enroll their kid.’”

The boost in funding did not always correlate to better early childhood education programs. Only six states met all of NIEER’s 10 quality standards benchmarks, which includes a maximum class size of 20 students, a requirement that teachers have bachelor’s degrees and a classroom ratio of at least one staff member for every 10 students.

States looking to enhance preschool quality should focus on class size and teacher pay, Barnett argues.

Teacher pay and class sizes account for most of the money, and once states have improved those, other metrics, like curriculum supports and health screenings, are easier to pay for later, he adds.

But changes won’t happen overnight.

“It does take time. You can’t just wave a magic wand and have classroom size and teachers’ pay magically fixed,” Barnett says.

NIEER’s Friedman-Krauss, pointed to Alabama and Georgia as examples of slowly, but surely, increasing preschool quality. Georgia hit all 10 quality benchmarks this year. Friedman-Krauss credits the improvement to a $97.6 million investment by the state, which helped lower classroom size from 22 to 20 and increased teacher pay.

“We make a big deal of it because it’s serving most of the 4-year-old [children] and hitting all the benchmarks,” Barnett says. “It’s a state that lost them and came back even stronger; that’s a good sign.”

Lion’s Share of Enrollment Only in a Few States

Enrollment, similarly to funding, reached an all-time high nationally last year, with 1.8 million children during the 2024-2025 school year. But roughly half of that comes from four states: California, Texas, New York and Florida.

Notably, a dozen states had more than half of their four-year-olds in state-funded preschool programs, with the District of Columbia topping the list: 94 percent of four-year-olds were enrolled in their state programs. California’s enrollment gains were buoyed in part due to the state’s universal pre-K promise.

However, twenty states enrolled fewer preschoolers in 2024-2025 than the prior year. Some could blame the dip on declining birth rates. But when adjusted by population percentage, 21 states still saw a dip.

For some states, the enrollment decline was steep. Indeed, six states (Arizona, Florida, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, and Wisconsin) decreased enrollment by more than 1,000 children.

Three-year-old students made up only 9 percent enrollment across the nation, up from 5 percent a decade earlier. Some states are acting to counter this. For example, Illinois and New Jersey are both focusing on expanding preschool programs for three-year-olds, Friedman-Krauss says. However, she and Barnett expect a slow mass adoption of three-year-olds in state-funded programs.

“I think there will be more attention paid to that group – how much more, that’s the hard part,” Barnett says. “Nine percent is better than when we started, but it’s very lumpy. It’s still 0 percent in lots of places.”

Carrying a Kindle Paperwhite, priced at $134.99 (was $159.99), in one’s hands everyday acts as a constant reminder of what makes this device a must-have for bookworms. This e-reader weighs only 7 oz, hence why it seems like something that the device could float as it easily fits into one’s pockets or bag without them knowing.

To kick things off, it attempts to create the real page-turning experience, and compared to a regular book, it would be like day and night difference. The new model has 300 pixels per inch, outperforming its predecessor and rendering texts as clear as a crystal in direct sunshine, making it a lifesaver for readers like myself who love to read outside. Finally, the device’s backlight works well, since it automatically adjusts based on the illumination in the room you’re reading in, and there’s even a feature that turns the brightness into a warmer color when you read late at night.

The pages flip 25% faster than in the previous version, and all menus appear instantly. It is 20% faster, which is fairly astonishing, especially for those who read books, since they will not be bored or frustrated by the time it takes to turn the pages. Also, the touch response is exceptionally fast, so it does not interfere with the reader’s perspective when reading. The battery performance provides 12 weeks of reading time for 30 minutes of reading per day without WiFi or lighting. The recharge will just take 2.5 hours.

Among other advantages, IPX8 waterproof technology ensures that you can use it even in the rain or while taking a bath without damage. Furthermore, it can withstand immersion in 2 meters of fresh water for an hour, allowing you to take it to a pool, beach, or simply bathe. In addition, the Paperwhite has a large amount of storage space; 16 GB of built-in memory allows for the storage of thousands of books. A Wi-Fi connection enables you to connect to your library in minute, or if you want to listen to an audiobook, simply turn on Bluetooth.

If you read George Orwell’s classic political satire Animal Farm in seventh grade, you probably remember the basic contours of the plot: fed up with human rule, a group of well-intentioned barnyard animals set up their own egalitarian society, with disastrous results. Published in 1945, Animal Farm has a timeless (and, certainly, contemporarily relevant) message: It’s about how the impulse to retain power will always come at the expense of our basic morality.

That message, however, seems to have been lost on most MAGA influencers assigned the book in middle school (if they even read it at all). After their failure to cancel Barbie or the Wicked movies, conservatives have moved on to a new film adaptation of Animal Farm. (The animated film, which is directed by Lord of the Rings star Andy Serkis, opens May 1).

The problem, however, is that they’ve failed to reach a consensus on what the actual message of Animal Farm is.

The right-wing outrage cycle over a movie featuring Seth Rogen making fart jokes appears to have been sparked by influencers like Emily Saves America and Riley Gaines, who recently posted the trailer for the film. In an April 28 X post, Gaines tweeted that the film was “incredibly well done. They do a perfect job of reminding viewers that Marxism always has and always will fail.” She hashtagged her tweet #AnimalFarmPartner, leading people to assume the post had been the result of a paid partnership between herself and Angel Studios, the Utah-based entertainment company distributing the film, which was also behind the faith-based blockbusters Sound of Freedom and The King of Kings.

Many on both the left and the right found Gaines’ tweet bizarre, in part because while Animal Farm is certainly a critique of Stalinism, it’s also very clearly not a full-throated endorsement of capitalist ideals. The human owner of the farm is a capitalist, and after he is overthrown, the power-hungry pigs mimic his behaviors, adopting human clothes and profiting off the labor of the other farm animals. The book is ultimately less a condemnation of specific systems of governance than a critique of mankind’s lust for power and blind adherence to ideology.

In the latest adaptation, Serkis also tweaked the plot by adding a greedy human character (voiced by Glenn Close) who wants to buy the farm, characterizing the film in USA Today as “about authoritarianism and power corrupting and our response to that”—a message that, in theory at least, would certainly resonate with 2026 audiences.

It clearly did not, however, resonate with many of Gaines’ ideological bedfellows, who pounced on her for being a Marxist shill. “Promoting communism is the new gay for pay,” right wing podcaster Tim Pool tweeted. Earlier this month, he posted that he had turned down an offer from Angel Studios to promote the film due to it being “pro communism and anti-capitalism.” The influencer Peachy Keenan also excoriated the film, calling it “retarded socialist propaganda.”

The inability to reach a consensus on the actual message of the new Animal Farm movie may very well be a reflection of its artistic merits, or lack thereof. (Indeed, the film currently has a 23 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes.) But it’s also just generally a reflection of how little media literacy exists in our current information landscape—an issue that, in fairness, is far from specific to the right. Unless the moral messaging of a work of fiction is clearly and consistently telegraphed throughout, there seems to be a complete inability to accept ambiguity or contradiction, or to acknowledge that multiple ideas can be good or bad at the same time.

Though middle schoolers might be able to immediately grasp the takeaways from Animal Farm, it says something that high-profile political commentators can’t. In fairness, Orwell himself, who has been claimed by both the right and the left during his lifetime and beyond, probably would have appreciated the confusion his novel has wrought—even if he may not have appreciated Seth Rogen’s fart jokes.

Apple CEO Tim Cook said on the company’s earnings call on Thursday that it could take “several months” to meet skyrocketing demand for the Mac Mini, the company’s compact but mighty, screen-free desktop computer. Cook’s remarks come after coders determined in recent months that the Mac Mini was the perfect machine for agentic AI tasks.

“On the Mac Mini and Mac Studio, both of these are amazing platforms for AI and agentic tools,” Cook said on the earnings call, in response to analyst questions. “And customer adoption of that is happening faster than we expected.”

The news comes amid another record-setting quarter for the company. iPhone sales came up shorter than expected, though demand for the iPhone 17 has been super high, and Apple’s subscription services business has continued to grow.

Apple faced supply constraints on both the iPhone and the Mac product line this quarter. iPhone shortages are being driven mostly by a limited supply of the advanced chips that power the phones. But as Cook made clear, at least two different factors are driving shortages in Apple’s Mac business: The rapid adoption of generative AI and unexpected demand for the company’s new, colorful, and more affordable MacBook Neo laptop.

Mac sales are typically a fraction of what iPhone sales are—$8.4 billion this quarter, compared to nearly $57 billion in sales of the iPhone—and the Mac Mini, specifically, is a fraction of that. But with the launch of OpenClaw earlier this year, an open-source AI tool, Mac Minis began flying off the shelves because they offer both enough power and a dedicated computing environment for agentic AI tasks.

Some eager customers have already been waiting months for their Mac Minis. MacRumors reported in early March that Apple had stopped selling a configuration of the computer that included 512 GB of memory. As of last week, the base model of Mac Mini was entirely sold out.

Cook, and his soon-to-be-successor John Ternus, also addressed Cook’s transition out of the CEO role later this year. Cook said on the earnings call that it’s the “right moment” to step into the executive chairman role for a “number of reasons,” including that Apple is well-positioned financially and that its upcoming product road map is “incredible.” He called Ternus a “person of remarkable character and a born leader.”

Ternus then joined the call for a minute to vouch for Cook as a business leader and to assure investors he’d take a similarly deliberate and thoughtful approach in leading the company. He, too, mentioned the company’s road map.

Both men were scant on details around this supposedly very exciting product road map, but hopefully, it includes more … road Macs.