When I first heard about the new Apple Upgrade program, which lets you lease devices like iPhones and MacBooks for a monthly fee, I was offended. It amounts to paying a tithe to one of the world’s richest companies just to borrow devices for a couple years, rather than buying them outright. You could then choose to purchase the device, which is outdated at that point, or upgrade and keep paying that monthly fee. You may never own an iPhone again.
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Apple and Klarna partnered to lease iPhones and Macs. What could go wrong?
Then, as my mind wandered to the stack of old phones in my closet, it occurred to me: What’s so great about owning these things to begin with?
Apple, of course, would love to sell you a new iPhone for keeps. Its most advanced model, the iPhone 17 Pro Max, will set you back $1,200, a price that’s expected to rise soon due to the global shortage of storage and memory chips. You can sign up for an installment plan — most carriers offer these, as does Apple through its credit card — and pay it off in two to three years. Or you could lease the thing for $35 a month under the new Apple Upgrade program. You can pick a 12-, 24-, or 36-month lease, depending on the device, and you don’t get to keep the phone at the end of the term unless you decide to buy it by paying off the remainder of the retail price in one lump sum. (This is similar to the controversial rent-to-own model you find at places like Rent-a-Center.)
For the financial side of the new program, Apple has partnered with none other than Klarna, the “buy now, pay later” giant. When you go to lease a new device, Klarna runs a soft credit check and decides if you’ll be able to cover the monthly payments. When I asked Klarna, the company did not tell me where it draws the line here, but it’s worth noting that critics have accused Klarna of a lack of underwriting and of lending to people with subprime credit scores. If you miss three consecutive payments, Klarna will terminate the lease agreement and possibly send a collection agency after you.
“How do I know people aren’t getting a good deal here? If they were, Apple wouldn’t be offering it.”
— Aaron Perzanowski, University of Michigan law professor
While there was some speculation last week that Apple might lock people out of leased devices if they failed to pay their bill, Apple confirmed to me that it will not put limitations on device functionality due to missed payments or default. If you want to cancel the lease, you face an early termination fee. If you choose to keep paying the monthly fee, you can keep upgrading with new lease agreements for new devices every few years, existing in this cycle indefinitely.
“I don’t think people are getting a good deal here,” said Aaron Perzanowski, a law professor at the University of Michigan and author of The End of Ownership: Personal Property in the Digital Economy. “How do I know people aren’t getting a good deal here? If they were, Apple wouldn’t be offering it.”
Buy an iPhone? In this economy?
If you’re someone who likes to get a new iPhone or MacBook on a regular basis, Apple’s new leasing option might make a lot of sense. The monthly fee to lease these devices is cheaper than the payment plan to buy them, and electronics are depreciating assets. If you own one, you can sell it or trade it in for credit toward a new device, but they’re all worth less and less as time goes on. Furthermore, Apple eventually stops supporting old devices through software updates, so they might just stop working at a certain point. Put another way: You may own the phone, but you’re still just licensing the software that makes it work.
Renting an iPhone does sound bleak, though. The United States is suffering through an affordability crisis as prices across the board rise in the face of new tariffs and new wars. Meanwhile, AI is promising to transform the way we work if it doesn’t simply steal our jobs first, adding further insecurity, and the data center boom is making electronics more expensive. This era of economic anxiety is pushing people to use “buy now, pay later” services like Klarna and Affirm to pay for groceries or a tank of gas. (These companies faced scrutiny by state attorneys general a few years ago for operating like predatory lenders.) And now Apple, surely suspecting that many people can’t afford to pay full price for new phones, is inviting us to rent our devices at a monthly fee that undercuts the path to ownership.
Apple could have just called this the Apple Rental program, by the way. Lease sounds nicer, though, like something you do with a car.
“It is funny that they frame it as not a loan but as a lease,” Louis Hyman, a history professor at Johns Hopkins University and author of Debtor Nation: The History of America in Red Ink. He added that “leasing” has class implications, suggesting that you’re either someone who needs to have the newest things but can’t afford them, or that you’re so wealthy, you’re indifferent to money.
Suffice it to say, the bulk of people who will soon be leasing their iPhones are probably not the ones who are indifferent to money.
Apple adopts its final form
The new Apple Upgrade program is the company’s latest customer acquisition strategy. As the rising price of hardware has made cheaper Android devices or the refurbished market more attractive, Apple is offering upgrade enthusiasts and budget-minded users, including people who simply couldn’t afford to buy Apple products in the past, a deal to join the company’s ecosystem. After all, keeping people supplied with new iPhones and MacBooks also helps keep them subscribed to Apple services, like iCloud, which now makes the company more money than Mac, iPad, Apple Watch, and other accessories combined.
If Apple’s financial future hinges on getting more and more people to subscribe to these services, it’s only natural that the company would want to lower the barrier to entry. So Apple is betting that by letting people use but not own its products, it will extract more profit in the long run through lease payments and subscription fees. After all, it wasn’t that long ago that it seemed like nobody was interested in upgrading their iPhone, since the new phones looked so much like the old ones. Now, Apple is just trying to get everyone on autopay, effectively subscribing so that they get the latest devices when they come out.
There’s not necessarily any harm in giving people a cheaper way to access expensive but useful products. For more than a century, installment plans have enabled people to buy modern conveniences like sewing machines, radios, and eventually, televisions. Leasing is a popular way to keep yourself in a new car, sometimes with free maintenance. Meanwhile, cellular carriers have a long history of helping their customers buy phones. Nearly two decades ago, you could get an iPhone 3G for $199, thanks to subsidies from AT&T, which the company recouped in service fees over the course of your contract. Sprint and T-Mobile have even offered unlimited upgrades through leasing programs of their own in years past.
Apple previously worked with Citizen One Bank to offer loans to customers who wanted the option to upgrade their iPhones every year. The payments were higher and they included a fee for AppleCare, but every year, you could trade in your current phone for a new one. If you didn’t want to upgrade, you could simply keep paying the installments, and you’d eventually own the phone. Most carriers now give you the option to set up a payment plan to purchase a new device that simply amounts to the retail price of the gadget divided by the number of months you’ll need to pay it off, usually 24 or 36, with zero interest. That makes it easier to get your hands on an iPhone Pro Max, and if you pay it off in full, it’s yours for life — or until Apple convinces you to buy another new iPhone.
The difference between paying those monthly installments and paying a monthly lease agreement, of course, is that the former puts you on the path to ownership. The latter simply puts you on a path to make a decision: Do you want to buy the thing and recoup some of the money you’ve already spent, or do you want to keep making payments?
“What ownership ideally gets us is independence,” Perzanowski said. “It gives us autonomy. It gives us the ability to function in the world without relying on third parties.” He went on to explain how moving from owning a product to leasing it means you’re stuck with that third party. “I’m tied to that manufacturer in a way where they get to exert a fair amount of control over my behavior,” Perzanowski said. “Historically, we’ve been primed, especially in the United States, to resist and reject that kind of control.”
One great thing about owning an iPhone or a MacBook outright is that if you lose your job to AI, you don’t have to come up with a monthly payment in order to keep using those devices to apply for new jobs. Another great thing about ownership is that should you need a couple hundred bucks, you can sell that old phone or laptop and pocket the cash. Maybe the best thing about owning these devices is that you can repair them and keep using them for many years — or at least until Apple stops supporting them.
That doesn’t mean leasing never makes sense. If your digital life revolves around always having the newest devices and you upgrade every year or two no matter what, you might actually save money by doing so through Apple’s leasing program. If you need an iPhone or MacBook right away but can’t afford to pay full price or even cover the monthly payments on an installment plan, a one-year lease could be a good solution.
Invariably, when you lease anything, you’re entering into a contract, one that comes with consequences if you break it. Leasing an iPhone means you’re tied not only to Apple but also to Klarna for the next 12 to 36 months. If something goes wrong — you lose your job, you lose or break your phone, or you simply don’t want the device any more — you’re subject to the terms and conditions of these big tech companies. If you keep renewing your lease, you may very well end up spending more on a phone than you would have if you’d bought it outright. That would be fine with Apple, of course. It has shareholders to please.
Correction, July 30, 1 pm: This story originally misstated how the previous Apple upgrade loan program worked; it allowed phone trade-ins every year, not every two years.
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Verdict
If you can find a pair of compact floorstanders that have the breadth of sonic talent of the Q Acoustics 3040c, are built and finished to a similarly high standard, but are no more expensive, well… then you’ll have two pairs of speakers on your shortlist
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Clean, balanced and expansive sound
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Expertly constructed and finished
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A great option for smaller spaces
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Could be more dynamic
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Lack a little rhythmic positivity
Key Features
Introduction
It has had its fair share of misses, of course – haven’t we all? – but when it decides to try to redefine what’s possible at very accessible price-points, Q Acoustics has had many notable hits.
This new 3040c floorstander completes the 3000c range, and is the company’s latest attempt to demonstrate its entry-level credentials – and on paper, at least, it looks more like a hit than a miss or a maybe…
Design
- Choice of four finishes
- Magnetically attached grilles
It’s to Q Acoustics’ great credit that there’s nothing about the way the 3040c looks, or about the way it’s constructed and finished, that suggests it’s been built down to a price.
The 942 x 285 x 281mm (HWD) dimensions are pleasing – and it’s worth bearing in mind the width includes the bolt-on rear stabiliser that holds the floor-spikes and prevents the slender cabinet from toppling over too easily. The rear spikes can be adjusted from the top, too, which means it’s a lot easier to get the speaker level than it otherwise would be.
As well as being nicely proportioned, the 3040c cabinet looks good in a slightly curvy, understatedly elegant sort of way. There are no visible bolt-heads or anything nasty like that, even when you remove the magnetically attached grilles – and when the grilles are off, the satin nickel brightwork surrounding the three-driver array looks quite upmarket. The overall aesthetic is certainly a cut above what the asking price might lead you to anticipate…
The standard of finish is well up to snuff, too. Naturally, the cabinets are of MDF with a vinyl wrap – but it’s flawlessly applied, and any of the four available finishes – the Claro walnut of my sample, pin oak, satin black or satin white – look the part.
Specifications
- 22mm soft dome tweeter; 2 x 120mm Continuous Curved Cone mid/bass driver
- 43Hz – 30kHz frequency response
- 88dB sensitivity
Passive loudspeakers don’t usually have a lot of features, and that’s especially true of relatively affordable passive loudspeakers. But in the established Q Acoustics manner, the features the 3040c have are entirely appropriate.
On the outside, there’s a decoupled 22mm soft-dome tweeter sitting between a couple of 120mm mid/bass drivers – these are of the same Continuous Curved Cone design that debuted in a far more expensive range of Q Acoustics loudspeakers. The idea of C³ is to combine the strengths of flared cone design (clarity and control, mostly) with the low-frequency response of a straight conic cone – it’s proven technology at this point, and can only be to the benefit of the 3040c.
At the rear of the cabinet, just above a pair of extremely low-profile speaker cable building posts, there’s a bass reflex port. Q Acoustics provides port bungs, and it pays to experiment both with the position of the speaker relative to a rear surface and with the efficacy of the bungs themselves.
This is an arrangement, says Q Acoustics, that results in a 43Hz – 30khz frequency response and an 88dB sensitivity rating that means the 3040c should be no real trouble to drive.
On the inside, the 3040c uses Q Acoustics’ Point-to-Point bracing to minimise low-frequency vibration and enhance soundstaging and imaging, and also features Helmholtz Pressure Equalisers. These tubes nullify internal pressure, and markedly reduce the standing waves and sonic colourisation it can provoke.
Sound Quality
- Great clarity and detail retrieval
- Punchy, well-controlled low frequencies
- Slightly short of dynamic reach
Don’t doubt the Q Acoustics can play loud, hit hard and generally fill your listening space with sound – but this is not their defining character. By the prevailing standards of affordable floorstanding loudspeakers, the 3040c are notably sophisticated and even-handed in their approach.
A listen to A Tune for Us by Djrum and this balanced nature is made completely apparent. Frequency response, from the bottom end right to the top, is smooth and even – integration between the drivers is good and there’s no aural indication of the crossover point apparent.
The tonal balance is impressive, too – there’s not much evidence of the warmth and friendliness of tone that used to be the Q Acoustics thing, instead the 3040c are a neutral and non-interventionist listen in this respect.
There’s good bass extension here, but more importantly there’s good control of the attack and decay of bass sounds – there’s never any danger of the sound dragging or droning. Great midrange resolution allows voices of all types to project with plenty of energy and character, and the top of the frequency range is attacked with a polite amount of aggression – so treble sounds have plenty of bite but next-to-no edge to them.
And at every point, detail levels are high. Not only the broad strokes, either, but the more subtle, more minor, more transient stuff is identified and handed over too – and without the 3040c sounding especially analytical. Even the low-key harmonic variations (sometimes) apparent in voices or instruments get a fair amount of attention and put into convincing context.
There’s energy and positivity to the presentation when a recording demands it, but when it comes to dynamic fluctuations the Q Acoustics don’t have quite what’s required to reveal them in full. Oh, you’ll be left in no doubt when Caroline’s Total Euphoria shifts up the intensity and attack – but the 3040c don’t quite give full expression to the up- and downticks in volume and drive.
And ‘don’t quite give full expression’ applies to rhythms, too. Yes, the Q Acoustics control their low-frequency activity well, and keep momentum levels up where they need to be – but there’s not quite the flow to rhythms that the best (fairly) price-comparable speakers can manage. Lumpy is to overstate it, but the 3040c are not as fluent as is absolutely ideal. Is ‘lumpy-ish’ a word?
Should you buy it?
You want big but not too big
You have a reasonably modest space and a reasonably modest budget, but want more than a hint of what a bigger budget might be able to buy you.
You’re lacking in space
Your space is so modest that the 3040c will have to be in a corner – these are compact speakers, sure, but they still need just a little space in which to operate…
Final Thoughts
The Q Acoustics 3040c are a classic gateway product.
Here’s where you first realise what the world of proper hi-fi is all about, here’s where you get an authentic taste for it – and so years from now, despite constantly denying you have any kind of problem, you’ve spent all your disposable income on upgrade and yet somehow still find yourself with you face pressed against the window of your nearest high-end showroom…
How We Test
The speakers had sufficient breathing space both behind them and to the sides, and I attached them to a couple of different amplifiers for this test – the price-appropriate (and still bargainous) WiiM Amp Pro, and a new Musical Fidelity M5xi that I will admit was, in the context of the speakers, overkill.
Then I listened to music via a turntable, a CD player and streamed via Bluetooth – so lots of different formats, lots of different genres, lots of different resolutions.
FAQs
Do I need the stabilisers?
Yes – for stability, of course, but also because there’s no way of attaching rear spikes to the cabinet without them
Can the speakers be positioned in corners?
That’s never ideal, to be honest – but at least the 3040c are quite forgiving of being close to a rear surface thanks to the bungs for their rear-firing bass reflex ports…
Will the 3040c work in small spaces?
Everything relative, of course, but Q Acoustics has designed the 3040c to perform properly in smaller rooms – so as long as your space isn’t tiny you should be fine
Full Specs
| Q Acoustics 3040c Review | |
|---|---|
| Manufacturer | Q Acoustics |
| Size (Dimensions) | x x INCHES |
| Weight | 14.4 KG |
| Release Date | 2026 |
| Driver (s) | 22mm soft dome tweeter; 2 x 120mm Continuous Curved Cone mid/bass |
| Frequency Range | 43 30000 – Hz |
| Sensitivity | 88 dB |
| Speaker Type | Hi-Fi Speaker |
| Impedance | 4 ohms |
| UK RRP | £599 |
| USA RRP | $1099 |
| EU RRP | €899 |
While price increases didn’t worry the investors at JP Morgan, ongoing supply chain constraints will have a short-term impact, and thus their new price target is $340.
It’s been a bumpy few months for Apple thanks to RAM shortages, price increases, and supply constraints. Investors expect that these problems will continue through December even if Apple finds ways to counteract their effects.
In a note seen by AppleInsider, JP Morgan shares that it believes high demand for products like the iPhone 17 and MacBook Neo has helped maintain momentum in the product cycle. Siri AI’s impending launch will also help drive demand going into Q4 2026.
As good as things might look for Apple on the demand side, everything else is a little more troubling. Supply constraints will impact overall revenue and increasing component prices will drive down gross margin.
Apple has levers it can continue to pull to combat these effects, but they only go so far. JP Morgan expects that even if the short term isn’t ideal, the long term will still look great for Apple.
First, the supply chain constraints will only delay sales, not prevent them entirely. Limited product availability will drive revenue into later quarters rather than lose it entirely.
Second, Apple can help maintain margins by seeking out lower prices on non-memory components. Also, services will see a bump thanks to revenue brought in from iCloud+ subscriptions tied to AI token allotments.
It’s not exactly a bleak outlook, just a realistic one as JP Morgan observes how news from the Q3 earnings will affect stock prices. The December 2027 target price is now set to $340 versus the previous $345 set earlier in July.
If you’ve ever served in the United States military, odds are that you worked at one of the nation’s many foreign bases located throughout Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia, and South America. The U.S. maintains between 750 and 800 facilities of various sizes and types in around 80 foreign countries, colonies, and territories. All told, that is between 70 and 85% of the world’s foreign military bases. They range in size from relatively small to extremely large in both land mass and population.
That makes the U.S. military the most expansive throughout the globe. Looking at so many foreign U.S. bases, many might wonder about the opposite: foreign-owned bases on U.S. soil. To put it simply, there aren’t any, and there hasn’t been a foreign base in the United States for a very long time. Technically, no foreign military base has been established or occupied since the War of 1812, when the United Kingdom established several during the conflict. On the surface, that doesn’t exactly seem fair to American allies who host U.S. personnel in their respective countries.
The main reason why there aren’t any foreign bases on U.S. soil is that they’re not needed to bolster U.S. defenses. Still, the U.S. isn’t entirely closed off to the militaries of its closest allies. Many maintain permanent and semi-permanent detachments within U.S. facilities, working alongside American personnel.
Foreign military personnel detached to the United States
The United States is home to eight permanent detachments of foreign personnel from Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Singapore, and the United Kingdom. They’re located in Virginia, Texas, Arizona, Idaho, Nevada, California, Georgia, and South Carolina. An additional facility will open to train Qatari troops at Mountain Home Air Base, Idaho. While these presences are permanent and see turnover of personnel throughout the year, they are not foreign-owned bases. Instead, they’re co-located on American bases. This is different from how the U.S. military operates in other nations’ territory.
American bases are not considered to be American soil, unlike embassies, which are small islands of their respective nations’ soil in other countries. For bases, the U.S. enters into a Status of Forces Agreement, or SOFA, with host nations, allowing for a back-and-forth between the U.S. and whichever nation it’s working with. At one of the largest bases, Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany, one of the terms of the SOFA agreement is that personnel are given ration cards for purchasing fuel, coffee. It’s similar in other countries.
For those personnel working within the United States on a permanent basis, the vast majority of them are pilots. This makes sense since the U.S. often sells its military aircraft to its allies. Selling something like an F-35 Lightning II to Belgium or Poland is good for American exports, but training pilots becomes a necessity. Instead of conducting training elsewhere, many foreign pilots come to the U.S. to learn how to operate U.S.-made aircraft alongside U.S. pilots. Intelligence personnel also train in the U.S. alongside American servicemembers, though this is a far more exclusive club.
If you’re wondering what dark matter is, you’re not alone. Astronomers don’t know. But they’ve determined that this invisible material must be far more abundant than the stars and nebulas that they can see. They’ve surmised as much from observing the gravitational effects of all this perplexing dark stuff, launching a decades-long campaign to understand its nature.
I recently learned that it is possible to sense the presence of dark matter using a small radio telescope such as the Discovery Dish covered in these pages last year. The trick is to know what observations to collect and how to analyze them. I’ll sketch that out below, but first let me describe the homemade radio telescope I put together for this project.
It’s a pyramidal-horn antenna, not unlike the horn antenna first used in 1951 to detect the 1,420.4-megahertz radio emissions from interstellar clouds of neutral hydrogen in space. These emissions hold the key to confirming the presence of dark matter because such clouds can be found all over the galaxy, and their motions reflect what’s happening in different parts of the Milky Way.
I used an online calculator to help me design my antenna, adopting dimensions I knew I could achieve using a US $25 10-by-2-foot roll of roof flashing and an emptied one-gallon paint-thinner can. (Next time, I’ll just buy an empty F-style can.)
The horn antenna is made from tape, an empty paint can, and a roll of metal roof flashing [bottom row]. Signals are picked up with a low-noise amplifier [top middle], and passed to a software-defined radio receiver [top left].James Provost
Construction of the antenna itself was similar to that of the slightly smaller horn antenna I described in these pages in 2019. I made my new antenna bigger, though, because I needed better angular resolution, allowing me to scan smaller regions of the sky.
To pick up the emissions from interstellar hydrogen, I used Nooelec’s $45 SAWBird+ H1, a device that combines two low-noise amplifiers with a standing-acoustic-wave filter centered on 1,420 MHz, in combination with a RTL-SDR V4 dongle. So it’s not too hard to put together the hardware needed to measure signals from hydrogen clouds. But how do you pull the signature of dark matter out of those signals?
The answer is that you use such measurements to gauge the speed at which clouds located at different distances from the center of the Milky Way are moving in their orbits.
You just have to show that the speed at which material orbits the center of the galaxy doesn’t fall off with distance.
You might think that these clouds circle around the galactic center in the same way that planets orbit the sun or satellites orbit the Earth, with objects close in orbiting faster than those farther out. Mercury, for example, zips around the sun at 47.4 kilometers per second, whereas Neptune lumbers along at a leisurely 5.4 km/s.
The Milky Way contains a central bulge of stars surrounding a supermassive black hole. So at first blush, the mass of the galaxy appears to be concentrated near its center. If that were the case, stars and clouds of other material would orbit more slowly as their distance from the center increases. If, however, there were enormous amounts of invisible matter present throughout the galaxy, you wouldn’t expect orbital velocities to diminish in this way.
How Do You Measure the Speed of Interstellar Clouds?
So to detect dark matter, you just have to show that the speed at which material orbits the center of the galaxy doesn’t fall off with distance. And radio observations are the easiest way to do that, because you can gauge speeds by measuring how much the signal from hydrogen clouds is shifted by the Doppler effect.
By pointing your radio telescope at different parts of the sky, you pick up emissions from clouds located at various distances from the galactic center. The frequency offset of these emissions from 1,420 MHz reflects the speed of approach or recession of those clouds relative to Earth.
You need measurements from the plane of the galaxy, at galactic longitudes between 0 and 90 degrees (a galactic longitude of 0 degrees points directly toward the center of the galaxy and 180 degrees directly away from it). Applying some high school trigonometry lets you convert these figures into orbital speeds around the galactic center, a technique known as the tangent-point method.
In any group of clouds, the one with the highest velocity as seen from Earth will be the one lying closest to a tangent point along its orbit around the galaxy. This allows its distance from the galactic center to be determined through trigonometry [top]. The bottom graph shows the astronomical community’s measurements for velocities around the galactic center [in black], with the author’s results plotted in filled and open red circles.James Provost
Experiments aiming my horn antenna at an Inmarsat geostationary satellite revealed that the angular resolution of my little radio telescope is about 20 degrees. So with the help of the planetarium program Stellarium, I pointed my antenna in the plane of the galaxy at galactic longitudes of about 15, 30, 45, 60, 75, and 90 degrees, spacing things out in an effort to make each set of measurements largely independent.
I used the SDR# software with a plug-in called IF Average to read the raw measurements coming in from the antenna. This plug-in stacks up data received over a few minutes, allowing a weak signal to emerge and produce a clean radio spectrum that shows the 1,420-MHz line. In reality of course, it looks more like a bump, or even a set of bumps due to Doppler shifted emissions from multiple clouds, located at different distances from the galactic center. Fortunately, you only have to care about the cloud that’s receding the fastest—the one with the largest redshift, in astronomer-speak.
I used Microsoft Excel to analyze the shapes of radio spectra I gathered, modeling them as the sums of individual bell-shaped contributions from different clouds. That allowed me to estimate the largest redshift for each galactic longitude I probed. Then, again using Excel, I applied formulas that transformed those six redshift values into six pairs of orbital velocities and distances from the galactic center.
The plot of my results matched reasonably well with a recent paper, “The Inner Rotation Curve of the Milky WayInner Rotation Curve of the Milky Way,” in Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan. Two innermost points, which showed anomalously low orbital velocities. Another shot at curve fitting in Excel brought these results closer to expectations, but they were still somewhat off.
In any case, the orbital velocities I estimated did not diminish with distance from the galactic center—quite the opposite. Something out there is putting its stamp on how the Milky Way turns. And that basic observation is what allows me to say that, with the help of some roof flashing and a paint-thinner can, I’ve been able to detect dark matter from my backyard.
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Bottom line: Apple’s last quarterly earnings report under CEO Tim Cook showed gains across nearly every category, led by iPhone and Mac sales. The budget MacBook Neo appears to have been a major contributor to that growth. But as the Cupertino company prepares to hand the reins to a new CEO, rising prices could complicate the road ahead. Apple has already begun responding with a new leasing program.
iPhone sales drove the largest gains, bringing in $54.3 billion in revenue during the third quarter of fiscal 2026, up 22% YoY. Services, wearables, iPads, and especially Macs also contributed, pushing overall revenue to $109 billion, up 16% YoY.
The MacBook Neo, Apple’s first budget-priced MacBook, was likely the biggest driver behind that Mac growth. The entry-level notebook couldn’t hold onto its $600 launch price for long, but it quickly outsold the MacBook Air and pushed Apple to double its production target.
AI fever likely played a role too, helping drive the Mac division’s 29% YoY growth. The popularity of AI agents like OpenClaw triggered Mac mini shortages that stretched on for months.
Despite that impact, Apple has largely watched the AI boom from the sidelines. The company introduced a new AI-powered version of its digital assistant, Siri, earlier this year, but rivals Microsoft and Google have bet far more heavily on Copilot and Gemini, respectively.
That caution has drawn criticism from some quarters, but investors have also come to see Apple as something of a safe haven amid the AI market’s volatility, helping the company reclaim its status as the world’s most valuable.
Still, Apple couldn’t escape the historic DRAM and NAND shortages stemming from the AI data center buildout. The full impact of recent price hikes, which pushed MacBook and iPad prices up by as much as $200 just days before the quarter ended, remains unclear.
Apple Upgrade, a leasing program the company announced earlier this week, could mark the start of a new era of hardware rentals.
Looking ahead, Tim Cook is set to step down as CEO in September, right as Apple unveils the iPhone 18 lineup and, potentially, the iPhone Ultra, the company’s first foldable device.
Estimates on iPhone Ultra pricing vary, but some analysts expect it to retail for as much as $2,500, marking the start of a new flagship tier that could eventually extend to a touchscreen-enabled MacBook Ultra. Other upcoming products include a major overhaul of the iPad lineup, starting with an OLED-equipped iPad mini, and a refreshed Mac lineup built around Apple’s new M6 chips.
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Microsoft turns to the UK Supreme Court after losing twice over second-hand software licenses, and billions could ride on the outcome
- Microsoft has won an extended stay at the Competition Appeal Tribunal while it seeks permission to appeal to the UK Supreme Court, having lost at both the Tribunal and the Court of Appeal
- Its argument that Office’s icons and clip art placed it outside software exhaustion rules was rejected as producing “odd results”, including CD software being resellable while identical downloads were not
- The jurisdiction ruling matters more than the £270 million claim, as it clears the way for a parallel collective action that could expose Microsoft to billions
Microsoft has bought itself time in its long-running fight with a British software reseller, securing an extended stay of proceedings at the Competition Appeal Tribunal while it prepares to seek permission from the UK Supreme Court to appeal.
While Microsoft has yet to appeal formally, its indication that it intends to do so buys it some breathing room against a judgment that could mean that parallel proceedings, including a £3.5 billion class action lawsuit that could compromise as many as 2.7 million members, could become a centerpiece of the software giant’s future legal troubles in the UK.
The UK CAT (Competition Appeal Tribunal) has paused parts of the case as a result, and Chair Justin Turner KC noted that it was not yet known whether permission would be granted, and framed his decision as balancing the potential waste of costs if permission were granted and an appeal succeeded against the undesirability of delay in the proceedings.
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A legal quagmire exacerbated by shifting legal defense from Microsoft?
Microsoft has been fighting this claim for years, dating back to 2021, when JJH Enterprises, a Derby-based reseller trading as ValueLicensing, sued Microsoft for £270 million.
The allegation is that Microsoft wrote terms into its agreements that offered customers better subscription pricing in exchange for surrendering the right to resell their perpetual licenses, thereby choking off the secondary market and pushing buyers toward Microsoft 365 even as the software giant denies wrongdoing.
ValueLicensing’s case rests on the Court of Justice’s 2012 decision in UsedSoft v Oracle, which held that a software vendor’s distribution right is exhausted once it sells a perpetual license, including one delivered by download, so it cannot use copyright to block the onward sale of that copy.
Having contested the case as a competition matter for years, Microsoft changed its argument in 2025, recasting it as a copyright dispute. Office, it said, is not merely a computer program. It ships with icons, user interface elements, help files, and clip art, and those creative components should be governed by a different copyright regime in which exhaustion does not bite.
That argument has now failed twice. The Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) unanimously decided the preliminary copyright issues in ValueLicensing’s favor in November 2025, and on July 7, 2026, the Court of Appeal dismissed both of Microsoft’s appeals, one challenging the CAT’s jurisdiction to rule on copyright questions at all, the other contesting the copyright findings themselves.
Microsoft’s reading, the court observed, would produce “odd results”: software supplied on a CD-ROM could be freely resold while the identical software delivered as a download could not, and a vendor could defeat established exhaustion principles simply by bundling some icons with its code.
At the same time, the CAT did not grant resellers unlimited freedom. Under UsedSoft, a buyer holding a single copy installed on a server and licensed for several users cannot carve off part of that user capacity for resale, because exhaustion attaches to the copy rather than the seat.
The Tribunal distinguished that from a genuine volume arrangement comprising multiple independent copies or licenses, in which reselling a corresponding number may be permissible once the seller has stopped using the copies it has passed on. That distinction sets real limits on how the secondary market can operate.
Microsoft has spent most of the period covered by the claim moving its customer base from perpetual licenses to Microsoft 365. If ValueLicensing wins outright, it wins the right to trade in a category that its opponent has been deliberately retiring for a decade. Should the Supreme Court decline to take the case, proceedings return to the Tribunal, with a trial mooted for 2027.
The jurisdiction ruling matters well beyond this claim. By confirming that the CAT can decide copyright questions where they are necessary to resolve a competition case, the Court of Appeal cleared a path for others, and The Register reported in April 2026 that Microsoft had viewed that appeal as a complete answer to Alexander Wolfson’s collective action, on the basis that copyright issues could not be transferred to the High Court in a class action.
Wolfson was granted permission to intervene in support of ValueLicensing, and his claim, which could expose Microsoft to liability in the billions, now stands to benefit from the ruling.
What could this mean?
Britain’s regulators have taken an interest in the same broad shift, too. On July 29 2026, the Competition and Markets Authority opened a consumer protection investigation into how Microsoft marketed its Microsoft 365 Personal and Family plans.
From January 2025, existing subscribers were given Copilot and other new features at no extra cost for the remainder of their term, then automatically moved onto a higher-priced plan at renewal unless they chose an alternative or canceled.
A time-limited “Classic” plan preserved the old feature set at the old price, and for annual subscribers the Copilot version cost £25 more per year.
“When a business changes its subscription plans, customers need clear and timely information about their options,” said Hayley Fletcher, senior director for consumer protection at the CMA. “Our investigation will consider whether Microsoft customers were misled and ended up paying more as a result.”
Microsoft said consumer trust is a priority and that it is reviewing the claims while cooperating with the inquiry. The CMA has reached no conclusions and has not accused the company of breaking the law.
That probe concerns consumer subscriptions rather than the commercial agreements at issue in the ValueLicensing case, so the two are separate matters under different regimes. What links them is the same underlying transition from one-off purchases to recurring ones.
Microsoft already faces a CMA strategic market status investigation into its business software, and Australia’s competition regulator is suing the company in the Federal Court over the same Copilot and Classic plan issue, affecting an estimated 2.7 million customers. Whichever way the Supreme Court application goes, the legal scrutiny of how Microsoft moved the world onto subscriptions is not ending soon.
The scrutiny also lands in a fraught transatlantic moment. On July 24, days after the European Commission fined Google $1 billion under the Digital Markets Act, Trump announced a Section 301 investigation into EU trade practices, declaring that the United States is not a “PIGGYBANK” for Europe and promising a substantial tariff.
Brussels has consistently maintained that regulating economic activity within the bloc is its sovereign right, and that its digital rules apply to all firms operating there. Britain sits awkwardly beside that fight. Its courts are no longer bound by EU case law, and its regulators answer to nobody in Brussels, but the president’s stated targets have been digital taxes and digital markets rules in general rather than the EU alone, and the UK has both.
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Verdict
An excellent mid-range OLED from LG that delivers fantastically balanced and colour-rich picture quality. The sound system isn’t too bad either and it’s well stocked for features. This might end up being LG’s best OLED model of 2026
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Excellent picture
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Approachable interface
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Quick to assemble
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165Hz for PC gamers
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Impressive upscaling
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Need an LG account to access apps
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Bigger sizes offer brighter performance
Key Features
-
Review Price:
£2999
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Hyper Radiant Colour Tech
Brighter, more colouful pictures
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VRR
Up to 165Hz with PC games
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AI
Google Gemini and Microsoft Copilot
Introduction
LG’s C-series OLED has undergone some changes for 2026, which may or may not please some.
They’re still the mid-range model, sitting between the G-series and B-series, with six sizes ranging from 42- to 83-inches, but the 77- and 83-inches feature similar brightness-boosting technology that’s in the G-series model; the 55- and 65-inches – reviewed here – miss out on that boost.
They are brighter than their C5 predecessors, but not quite as bright as their bigger siblings, which may prove to be a little controversial, but the OLED65C6 makes a compelling argument that bigger might not be better when the performance is this good.
Design
- Quick to assemble
- Strong viewing angles
- Decent with reflections
The design for the 55- and 65-inch C-series models hasn’t changed dramatically, though I do like the marble-like material that’s on the back of the TV. You won’t see it for the vast majority of the TV’s lifespan, but it does look pretty.
There’s a wide stand to perch the TV on, though not too wide that you need a freakishly large piece of furniture to sit it on (I’m looking at you Sony).
Assembling the TV is fairly quick – around two minutes – and less time-consuming than adding the stand to the G6. The C6 is made to LG’s high standards: minimalist, well-packaged and good-looking, you can wall-mount but it will jut out from wall thanks to the little bump on the rear.
The OLED65C6 seems to use a similar anti-reflection solution as the G6 but does it reduce reflections? I’m not too convinced it does. In dark rooms I can clearly see what’s in the room, though it does refract ambient light sources without affecting black levels. There’s also a purple-ish hue to the screen when light shines on it, just like with the G6.
Viewing angles are massively wide if you’ve got family and friends over. The C6 keeps its colour and brightness at more acute angles and far away, though it’s not as bright as the G6.
Connectivity
- Four HDMI 2.1 inputs
- Plenty of wireless options
It does feel as if this section repeats previous years, but as is standard, there are four HDMI 2.1 inputs with HDMI 2 for plugging your soundbar into. All HDMI inputs support ALLM and the various forms of VRR too.
An Ethernet port offers the means to hardwire straight to your router if you find the Wi-Fi 6E connection flaky. There’s an optical audio output, two RF inputs, three USB 2.0 inputs and a CI slot.
Bluetooth 5.3 is supported, and Wi-Fi brings support for Google Cast and Apple’s AirPlay 2.
User Experience
- Slick and fast interface
- Some customisation possible
- Old LG remote
The webOS platform hasn’t changed much from previous years. You’ve got your Quick Cards made up of gaming, radio, art (you have to pay a subscription for complete access), and lifestyle apps. Portal is new, offering a mix of video content, trending news and podcasts.
There’s also LG’s Channels, its hub for free-to-view TV and on-demand content (through Rakuten TV) as a sort-of alternative to Freely. It’s got a decent selection of programming to watch, and logging into your account (more on that shortly) also means that if you quit a show or film, you can resume where you dropped off.
But that doesn’t mean the C6 ignores the UK catch-up apps, which are all present, and there’s the big global apps accounted for in the likes of Netflix, Disney+, Apple TV and HBO Max.
The problem here is that LG now requires you sign up to access any app, an annoying change from where you could access some apps without restrictions.
The interface itself is swift and responsive, and refrains from offering too much content for users to get lost and confuse in. The number of rows isn’t that much to scroll down, and content is easily highlighted. Yes there are ads but I don’t find them intrusive, and most of them are advertisements for LG products or popular TV series.
Swipe to the left and you’ll come across ‘My Page’, which offers personalised content. All of this is protected by LG Shield to keep your data safe, and the OLED65C6 will receive security updates until 2030.
The Magic Remote returns and it’s getting to the point where it’d be nice if we could get access to the USB-C remote available in other countries. It can’t cost too much to add, and while the Magic Remote is fine (I don’t get cranky about it), a rechargeable USB-C remote is better than one that runs on battery power.
Gaming
- Nvidia and AMD VRR
- Quick input lag
- Cloud gaming options
All HDMI 2.1 inputs support ALLM and VRR (Nvidia G-Sync, HDMI VRR and AMD FreeSync). Refresh rates have been boosted up to 165Hz for PC gaming.
Input lag stays the same at 12.9ms and Boost mode can bring it down to 9.4ms (same as before).
If you don’t have a console, the C6 supports plenty of cloud gaming options in the Xbox app, Blacknut, Amazon Luna, Boosteroid et al.
With the Game Optimiser menu you can change settings to alter the performance as you want. Want a black level performance that allows you see where others might be hiding? Some may call that cheating…
There’s HGiG, which are guidelines for optimal HDR performance, and there’s Dolby Vision Gaming support (4K/120Hz) for those of you with an Xbox Series console.
Features
- AI features
- Dolby Vision x Filmmaker mode
- FlexConnect support
LG’s Home Hub supports smart platforms such as its own ThinQ, Matter, Google and Apple Home. Voice control and search is possible through Google Gemini and Microsoft Copilot.
There’s more AI with LG’s AI Concierge that provides personalised recommendations, with In This Scene offering insight into cast and crew of a film and programme (like Prime Video’s X-Ray feature). There’s also the option to create Generative AI images… if you’re interested.
The UK finally has the Voice ID feature that remembers your voice and can automatically log you into a profile when you press the AI button and speak.
On the picture and sound front, it’s all overseen by LG’s Alpha 11 AI Processor 4K Gen3 with Dual AI Engine that can improve brightness, upscale to 4K and produce a more 3D image in real-time. With audio it’s a 60W, 4.2 channel system with AI Object Remastering Ultra that brings clarity to vocals and can boost audio to 11.1.2 virtual channels of sound with Dolby Atmos.
There’s no DTS support, which is a shame, but there is Dolby Atmos FlexConnect if you buy LG’s Sound Suite audio system. On the HDR front there’s HDR10, HLG, Dolby Vision and the Dolby Vision x Filmmaker Mode.
Picture Quality
- Bright, natural images
- Very good motion
- Good Vivid mode
It’s been a while since I last reviewed a 65-inch C-series model, but this year’s effort feels like a substantial step-up.
There’s still an issue with the Filmmaker x Dolby Vision mode in that it’s not adaptive by default, and even when I turn the feature on, it’s still not as balanced as it should be. I’d avoid using that HDR mode for now, but aside from that, the LG OLED65C6 is a stunner.
Dark detail is well handled so you’re seeing most of the detail in the darkest parts of the image (though I wouldn’t say all the detail is visible with a watch of Zero Dark Thirty).
Levels of detail and sharpness are excellent with Alien: Romulus, and colours strike me as looking close to what they should be.
Highlights are bright, contrast is very good (though the extra brightness of the G6 is even better) and there’s a three-dimensionality and sense of depth thanks to the TV’s processing that you don’t get from rivals. It may not be strictly natural but it’s a nice effect all the same.
A 4K Blu-ray of Speed Racer looks terrific with colours that are punchy, bright and wide-ranging – the TV explodes with colour with black levels that are substantial in terms of depth but not impenetrable.
An HLG stream of The Capture on iPlayer offers excellent levels of fine detail and sharpness – the show looks phenomenally good in 4K HDR with saturated colours and terrific detail to the point of being able to see the fuzz on someone’s jacket or the pores on someone’s skin. Complexions are both natural looking and balanced, highlights are bright but not overwhelming. It looks fantastic.
And the Vivid mode that worked so well on the G6 has been translated to the C6. With Cinderella, there’s a boost to colours and brightness, and the film still looks relatively balanced and natural. There were moments where that wasn’t the case – some noise here and there, and complexions that seem too hot – and it’s not as bright or as sharp as the G6, but colours take on a vivid and punchy look that’s among the best I’ve seen from any TV this year.
Motion is mostly excellent. Smooth and Natural (ironically) still produce judder, stutter and motion blurring; but Cinematic is best for a smooth look without issues, and if you go down the User route, in the region of 4/5 De Blur/De Judder seems the best fit.
Upscaling
- Sharp and detailed
- Colours look a little dark
The good times keep rolling when the OLED65C6 has to upscale films and TV series to 4K.
Whether it’s a DVD of Jaws or a Blu-ray of Succession, colours look natural. Detail levels are resolutely solid with HD content, while There Will Be Blood, Inglorious Basterds and Jaws on DVD exhibit some noise and lack of detail, that doesn’t derail the presentation as the C6 manages noise well, and ensures jagged edges don’t stick out.
You’ll only notice the lack of detail in wider shots or jagged subtitles, but in close ups of actors it comes up trumps despite the lower resolution.
The Kissed by Fire episode from Game of Thrones season three features colours that are well judged, though not the most spectacular with the action taking place north of the wall. But clarity and detail looks super, especially a shot of Jamie Lannister and his muddied face.
The same can be said with a Bu-ray of Tomorrowland. Bright, colourful but natural looking – picture-wise there doesn’t feel like there’s a weakness the TV has.
Sound Quality
- Punchy sense of bass
- AI Sound Pro mode
- Good with dialogue
I won’t hide that I was a little disappointed with the OLED65G6’s performance. However, I’d rate the C6’s built-in sound system as being better.
There’s a choice of two modes: Standard and AI Sound Pro. Standard is not as loud, as detailed or as sharp. It’s better for native stereo or mono content.
AI Sound Pro is for immersive audio. It’s sharper, louder, more detailed and outputs more energy through the TV’s 60W speaker.
I play my usual test discs starting with Civil War. Gunshots feature good detail and explosions have weight to them, though it’s not as powerful, detailed or carries as much heft as TVs from other brands I’ve tested in the past (notably Panasonic and Philips). It spreads its sound across the width of the screen and further, with sounds placed accurately on the screen where they originate from. There are times where I can hear dialogue beyond the width of the TV’s frame.
To my ears it sounds better at lower and higher volumes than the G6 did, and while it’s not the most exciting listen through the action scenes, it maintains a good hold on dialogue clarity throughout them.
With Dune the bass frequencies don’t feature much depth from the speakers. That’s not to say there isn’t bass present, but it’s not powerful and in some scenes there’s a little distortion with the bass.
With The Housemaid the C6 has a better handle on bass levels (when it needs to go deep, it struggles), but lows are clear and detailed; plus dialogue sounds natural.
Returning to Alien: Romulus and again, like the G6, it’s not the most dynamic and energetic performance, but the C6 sounds a bassier with the low frequencies. Dialogue is clear and sharp, highs are also clear, and soundstage is spacious. Aside from some slight distortion, this was better than I was expecting from the C-series.
I’d still recommend a soundbar, and LG’s own M7 is an expensive but good choice. Expect to see that review soon. Otherwise, there’s a few to choose from in our best soundbar and best Dolby Atmos soundbar guide.
Should you buy it?
Well-rounded midrange OLED TV
Great picture, better than expected sound and the usual competence when it comes to smarts and features. It’s hard to knock the OLED65C6.
The bigger models are brighter
We know LG wants to sell more big-screen TVs, but it feels a little controversial to deny the smaller sizes the brighter OLED panels.
Final Thoughts
The C6 is the best C-series model I’ve tested from LG. The picture is fabulous for the price, and yes, while you’re missing out on the increased brightness from the bigger sizes, it doesn’t feel like a massive miss given the quality present with the OLED65C6.
If you’re a gamer, it’s got what you need; it’s well stocked for entertainment options, there are plenty of smarts and sound system is better than expected. As an all-round package, the C6 has to rank as one of 2026’s best TVs.
How We Test
The 65-inch LG C6 OLED TV was tested for a month with real-world use and benchmark tests that included measuring brightness, input lag and using the Spears and Munsil Benchmark UHD disc to test viewing angles and colour accuracy.
- Tested with real world use
- Tested for a month
- Benchmarked with Spears and Munsil disc
Test Data
| LG OLED65C6 | |
|---|---|
| Contrast ratio | Infinite |
| Input lag (ms) | 12.9 ms |
| Peak brightness (nits) 5% | 1360 nits |
| Peak brightness (nits) 2% | 1517 nits |
| Peak brightness (nits) 10% | 1510 nits |
| Peak brightness (nits) 100% | 238 nits |
| Set up TV (timed) | 120 Seconds |
Full Specs
| LG OLED65C6 Review | |
|---|---|
| Manufacturer | LG |
| Screen Size | 64.5 inches |
| Size (Dimensions) | x x INCHES |
| Size (Dimensions without stand) | 826 x 1441 x 24.3 MM |
| Weight | 17.4 G |
| Operating System | webOS |
| Release Date | 2026 |
| Resolution | 3840 x 2160 |
| HDR | Yes |
| Types of HDR | HDR10, HLG, Dolby Vision, Filmmaker Mode |
| Refresh Rate TVs | 50 – 165 Hz |
| Ports | Four HDMI 2.1, Digital Optical Audio Out, Three USB 2.0, CI slot, Two RF, Ethernet |
| HDMI (2.1) | eARC, ALLM, VRR, 4K/120Hz, QMS, QFT |
| Audio (Power output) | 60 W |
| Connectivity | Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3, Google Cast, AirPlay 2 |
| Display Technology | OLED |
| UK RRP | £2999 |
| USA RRP | $2699 |
Need some help with today’s Mini Crossword? It’s one of those tricky ones, where three clues all depend on each other. Read on for all the answers.
Mini across clues and answers
1A clue: With 8-Across and 1-Down, grow from your own mistakes
Answer: LIVE
5A clue: Video game section
Answer: LEVEL
6A clue: Figure skating duos
Answer: PAIRS
7A clue: ___ Poupon (mustard brand)
Answer: GREY
8A clue: See 1-Across
Answer: AND
Mini down clues and answers
1D clue: See 1-Across
Answer: LEARN
2D clue: Like the outfield walls of Wrigley Field
Answer: IVIED
3D clue: Extremely
Answer: VERY
4D clue: Letters capitaLized in this cLue
Answer: ELS
5D clue: Sports org. for Nelly Korda
Answer: LPGA
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from the policing-the-speech-police dept
A bipartisan roster of former top-level FCC officials have submitted a filing to the Trump FCC blasting the agency’s ongoing violations of the First Amendment and urging it to terminate its phony “investigations” into ABC — including the unprecedented early ownership review of the company’s broadcast licenses.
In the filing, former FCC officials allied under the banner of the Protect Democracy Project outline how the early “ownership review” of ABC’s eight broadcast licenses is really just a pretense to punish ABC and Disney for broadcasting speech the Trump administration doesn’t like, the coalition calling it “a grave violation of both the Communications Act and the Constitution.”
A companion announcement features numerous FCC officials lining up to express their disgust at Brendan Carr and his often-illegal assault on the First Amendment.
“Chairman Carr seems to be laboring under the ill-conceived notion that broadcasters have only partial
rights to free speech under the First Amendment,” said Mark Fowler, a Republican who served as
Chairman of the FCC from 1981 to 1987. “Just because the FCC issues licenses doesn’t make it the
speech police. With this senseless early renewal proceeding, Carr is demonstrating that he has
completely lost touch not just with the role of the FCC, but also with his own job description.”
Earlier this year, Trump Republicans were upset that The View hosted Texas Democratic hopeful James Talarico. That triggered an entire fake “investigation” and a threatened revocation of ABC’s broadcast licenses by Carr, who falsely claimed the show had violated the FCC’s dated and irrelevant “equal time” rule requiring that TV stations give equal time to political candidates from both parties.
It apparently didn’t matter that Carr’s threats were empty, that any legal case would be laughed out of court on First Amendment grounds, that Carr actively avoids enforcing such laws for right wing radio, that Carr had worked with Trump-friendly broadcasters to concoct a conspiracy to make ABC look guilty, or that The View had clearly been exempt from the FCC’s “equal time” rules since 2002.
The FCC has been engaged in several other simultaneous phony investigations of ABC, hoping to punish the company for journalism and comedy critical of the president. The efforts are legally unsupportable assaults on free speech and the First Amendment designed not really to go to court, but to signal to media companies that there are costly legal headaches in store if they joke about, criticize, or simply just platform journalism that’s honest about Trump.
Several of the same former FCC officials participating in this coalition filed a petition with the FCC late last year, urging it to rescind the agency’s news distortion policy, a tool Chairman Carr has abused to try and trample free speech and journalistic freedom.
“This proceeding is an effort to punish ABC and Disney for poorly disguised political reasons,” said
Rachelle Chong, a Republican who served as Commissioner of the FCC from 1994 to 1997. “The early
review and the allegations are unusual in a typical FCC license review which suggests it is more about a
desire to silence speech.”
While the effectiveness of these threats have waned in parallel with Trump’s sagging health and political power; they’ve still been embarrassingly effective at times. The View, for example, has shied away from hosting any politicians at all to avoid further agitating the kakistocracy. And ABC in late 2024 paid Trump $15 million to settle a baseless lawsuit the company would have likely won.
This latest filing was signed by other former FCC officials including Kathryn C. Brown, Rachelle B. Chong, Jerald N. Fritz, Rosemary Harold, William T. Lake, Ruth Milkman, Dennis R. Patrick, Peter Pitsch, Alfred C. Sikes, Gloria Tristani, Tom Wheeler, and Christopher J. Wright.
The filing and complaint are curiously lacking in statements from Democrats, who have been a feckless no show when it comes to competent media reform for the better part of a quarter century. At the same time, many Republicans who have proven solid on free speech issues during authoritarianism, have quietly supported the administration’s assault on the regulatory state and what’s left of competent corporate oversight, the impact of which will have very different, but very fatal, reverberations for decades.
A broad array of other Republican-leaning groups, including the Center for Individual Freedom, Citizens Against Government Waste, and Americans for Tax Reform, also filed complaints this week at the FCC over its ongoing harassment of ABC, showing just how ideologically alone Brendan Carr has become as he wages a sad and desperate war on the First Amendment at the behest of a bumbling tyrant.
Filed Under: bipartisan, brendan carr, censorship, comedy, fcc, first amendment, free speech, journalism
Companies: abc, disney
Samsung has largely stuck with traditional designs for its Galaxy Buds lineup over the years, with the bean-shaped Galaxy Buds Live standing out as the one truly radical departure. But that appears to be changing, as Samsung experiments with designs its rivals have embraced for years. Just a day after leaked renders offered an early look at the clip-on Galaxy Buds On, a new leak has shed light on another upcoming pair of Galaxy Buds targeted at gym-goers and athletes.
A design built for movement
According to SamMobile, Samsung is working on another pair of buds internally codenamed “Buds Canal 5.” Leaked renders suggest that they may be aimed squarely at users who want earbuds for workouts and running rather than everyday listening.
The renders show flat ear hooks paired with an ear tip that sits in the ear canal, a layout previously seen in countless other fitness-focused earbuds already on the market. It’s not immediately clear if the tips form a full in-ear seal for stronger noise isolation or a half in-ear fit that trades isolation for a more open, breathable feel.
Either way, the hook itself is the highlighting feature. It’ll help keep the earbuds in place during physical activity, something no other earbuds in Samsung’s current lineup are really designed to do. The leak doesn’t reveal any details beyond the design, so it’s unclear whether Samsung plans to include features like active noise cancellation or a dust and water resistance rating.
Why a workout-specific design makes sense
Samsung’s current earbuds catalog sticks to one traditional stem-based design, be it with silicone tips, like the Galaxy Buds 4 Pro, or without them, like the regular Buds 4. With the upcoming Galaxy Buds On, Samsung will cater to buyers who prefer awareness over isolation, leaving a gap for those wanting a pair of earbuds that won’t fall out when they go for a jog or to the gym.
The ear hook design will fill that gap and help Samsung better compete with other brands in that segment. If you’ve been holding out for Samsung earbuds that won’t fall out mid-run, this is worth keeping an eye on. Just don’t expect an announcement anytime soon. Samsung hasn’t made anything official, and there’s still no word on specifications, pricing, or even what they’ll ultimately be called.
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