Jon Scholes, president and CEO of the Downtown Seattle Association, cuts the ceremonial ribbon on an IKE Smart City digital kiosk at First Avenue and Pike Street in Seattle on Tuesday, alongside current and former officials from the city, DSA and Orange Barrel Media. (GeekWire Photo / Kurt Schlosser)
The iconic neon sign at the Pike Place Market in Seattle manages to attract a lot of attention, but a glowing new structure across the street will likely turn a few curious heads, too.
The first of dozens of IKE Smart City digital wayfinding kiosks planned for downtown and around Seattle was unveiled on Tuesday at the busy intersection of First Avenue and Pike Street. It’s the realization of a years-long effort to bring the information many people access on smartphones straight to giant interactive screens at street level.
“Seattle is a tech town, and we finally have a 21st-first century modern wayfinding system,” said Jon Scholes, president and CEO of the Downtown Seattle Association, the organization that spearheaded the effort to get the kiosks approved and installed.
The IKE Smart City kiosk sits across First Avenue from Pike Place Market — a major tourist destination in Seattle. (GeekWire Photo / Kurt Schlosser)
The devices are a product of Columbus, Ohio-based advertising company Orange Barrel Media, which is partnering with DSA on the experience. IKE devices are already deployed in more than 25 cities nationwide.
A total of 50 kiosks are planned for Seattle in two phases. The first 30 will be installed in the downtown Metropolitan Improvement District footprint, with 20 more to follow in business improvement areas including Ballard, SoDo, the University District and West Seattle.
The first four downtown units include Tuesday’s unveiling as well as another that’s operational at Fourth Avenue and Pine Street. Units at Second Avenue and Stewart Street and Third Avenue and Virginia Street are next.
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Each unit stands just over 8 feet tall and 3 feet wide, with a 12½-square-foot touchscreen that functions like a giant smartphone — letting users scroll through maps, nearby restaurant listings, transit routes and city apps. The kiosks are ADA-compliant and connect to the Seamless Seattle program for real-time multimodal navigation directly from each location.
Beyond wayfinding, each kiosk serves as a free public Wi-Fi hotspot, lists nearby businesses at no charge, and includes a 911 emergency call button. At least 25% of annual screen time is reserved for non-commercial content promoting events, nonprofits and civic initiatives. An ongoing digital public art program, curated with local and national artists, is also part of the offering.
The kiosks are loaded with a suite of apps designed to help people navigate the city and assorted services. (GeekWire Photo / Kurt Schlosser)
The kiosks will not include video cameras for surveillance. They do include a selfie camera that is part of a “Photo Booth” application, where users can interact and snap pictures to send to themselves. But IKE says photos are not stored on the kiosks or retained by the company.
The devices and effort to install them ultimately prevailed over those who expressed concern during Seattle Design Commission meetings about visual clutter in the city’s landscape, oversaturation of advertising, and light pollution.
The devices are maintained by Orange Barrel and come at no cost to the city or to DSA, and are sustained entirely through advertising revenue. DSA anticipates the kiosks will generate approximately $1.1 million per year, money the organization says it will reinvest into downtown programming.
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Scholes said it’s a “long-term investment,” with a permit between Orange Barrel and the city that’s good “for about 20 years.”
“We believe that great downtowns make it easy for you to discover what’s happening, to take part in events, to take part in arts and cultural gatherings and attractions,” Scholes said before cutting a ceremonial ribbon cutting alongside Orange Barrel officials, and current and former City of Seattle officials.
Jessica Burton, development director at Orange Barrel Media, gives a demo of the IKE Smart City kiosk. (GeekWire Photo / Kurt Schlosser)
Former Seattle City Council President Sara Nelson was in attendance to celebrate — and interact with — the devices she had long championed.
“This is the city at your fingertips,” Nelson told GeekWire. “Not only is there important information for emergencies, but it also supports our small business community — it is a focal point, it’s a gathering spot, and that is what we need more of downtown.”
The rollout of the kiosks has been in the works for more than a year. The Seattle City Council gave final approval in June 2025 by a 6-2 vote, and former Mayor Bruce Harrell — a supporter of the project — signed the legislation.
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DSA had hoped to have more up and running before the start of the FIFA World Cup next week and the onslaught of expected visitors to the city. The remaining 28 planned for downtown will be installed over the next several months, Scholes said.
The IKE Smart City kiosk is located next to a public plaza on Pike Street at First Avenue in downtown Seattle. (GeekWire Photo / Kurt Schlosser)
This month saw the release of Vim Classic 8.3, the first stable version of a new long-term support fork of Vim maintained without generative AI tools. Linuxiac reports:
The release is based on Vim 8.2.0148 and includes selected bug fixes and patches backported from later upstream Vim releases. Vim Classic was first announced by [SourceHut’s CEO/founder] Drew DeVault in March 2026 after he objected to LLM-assisted development in Vim and Neovim. In his announcement, DeVault said he no longer wanted to use software developed with LLM assistance and introduced Vim Classic as a fork for users who want to continue using Vim without that involvement… Vim Classic follows Vim’s charityware model and continues to direct users toward Bram Moolenaar’s long-running support for children in Uganda. The release is distributed as a signed source tarball from SourceHut, while future important announcements are expected through the project’s mailing list.
“Vim is important to me…” DeVault wrote in March. (DeVault even tattooed “hjkl” on his right arm.) “[A]lmost every word I have ever committed to posterity, through this blog, in my code, all of the docs I’ve written, emails I’ve sent, and more, almost all of it has passed through Vim.”
But DeVault wrote that he also cares about AI’s impact on air pollution, fresh water supplies, global supply chains, and the working conditions of miners in African companies: And at a moment when the climate demands immediate action to reduce our footprint on this planet, the AI boom is driving data centers to consume a full 1.5% of the world’s total energy production in order to eliminate jobs and replace them with a robot that lies… All this to enrich the few, centralize power, reduce competition, and underwrite an enormous bubble that, once it bursts, will ruin the lives of millions of the world’s poor and marginalized classes.
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I don’t think it’s cute that someone vibe coded “battleship” in VimScript. I think it’s more important that we stop collectively pretending that we don’t understand how awful all of this is. I don’t want to use software which has slop in it. I do what I can to avoid it, and sadly even Vim now comes under scrutiny in that effort as both Vim and NeoVim are relying on LLMs to develop the software… To keep my conscience clear, and continue to enjoy the relationship I have with this amazing piece of software, I have forked Vim…
Since forking from this base, I have backported a handful of patches, most of which address CVEs discovered after this release, but others which address minor bug fixes. I also penned a handful of original patches which bring the codebase from this time up to snuff for building it on newer toolchains…
I invite you to use Vim Classic, if you feel the same way as me, and to maintain it with me, contributing the patches you need to support your own use cases.
A roundup of recent reviews published by Engadget.
Sam Rutherford for Engadget
It’s as hot as the surface of the sun here in the southeast US, and we’ve got another batch of freshly baked reviews for you to catch up on. If you’ve missed any of our team’s in-depth testing over the last two weeks, read on for a full rundown of all of our latest impressions on foldable phones, an affordable GPU, headphones and more.
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Motorola Razr Ultra
In case you’ve been living under a rock, Motorola turned its iconic Razr phone into a set of foldables. Now on the second iteration of the Razr Ultra, the company hasn’t done enough to justify a pricier follow-up. “With Samsung expected to announce a new Z Flip before the end of the summer, buying a Razr Ultra right now at full price feels like a bit of a trap,” writer Sam Rutherford said. “It’s a good phone, I just wish it cost less.”
AMD Radeon RX 9070 GRE
Devindra Hardawar for Engadget
It’s not a great time to buy a GPU, but AMD has a unique solution for the budget crunch. With the RX 9070 GRE, the company offers older tech for less money, but you’ll have to make some sacrifices along the way. “Given the times we’re in, I can’t easily recommend that you run out and buy the Radeon RX 9070 GRE,” writer Devindra Hardawar said. “But if you’re in desperate need of an upgrade, and you can’t wait until next year, it’s a solid choice for midrange 1440p gaming.”
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Honor Magic V6
Daniel Cooper for Engadget
Honor just launched the Magic V5 last August, but it announced the Magic V6 in March. Editor Daniel Cooper argues the company rushed out a successor to maintain its claim of the world’s thinnest foldable. “The tragedy of this device is that you can throw a rock and hit an issue with the UI design or software that you would expect to have been caught during the QA period,” he said. “Some of these would be forgivable in a cheaper handset, but not in an ultra-premium flagship of this caliber.”
Marshall Milton ANC
James Trew for Engadget
Although over-ear ANC headphones are aplenty, noise-canceling on-ear headphones are much more rare. Marshall has a new take on the on-ear formula, balancing its product lines with a dash of distraction blocking on the Milton ANC. “The heritage of the popular Major line clearly has been put to good use here to make an on-ear headphone for the more discerning listener,” writer James Trew said. “The ANC capabilities are strong for the form-factor, even if they might be considered more mid-pack if they were over ears.”
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Logitech Mobi Fold
Sam Rutherford for Engadget
Is a folding mouse the ultimate travel accessory? For a certain set of people, Logitech’s Mobi Fold may prove that answer to be a resounding “yes.”
“I’m faster and more productive when using a physical mouse and I’m more than willing to carry one with me, just as long as it doesn’t weigh things down too much,” Sam said. “And with the Mobi Fold, Logitech has created one of the most travel-friendly pointers on the market.”
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2027 Rivian R2 first drive
Tim Stevens for Engadget
While we await an opportunity for extended testing, you can read some initial impressions from behind the wheel of Rivian’s R2 SUV. “[The] R2 is very much a standard SUV, but one that proved both capable and comfortable in all conditions,” writer Tim Stevens said. “After a day of driving, I found myself liking it a lot more than the R1S. In other words, there’s no sophomore slump here, and now I’m even more excited about the R3X.”
After WIRED reported last week that Meta’s smart glasses app contained code that would enable the company to activate face-recognition features on the devices, the company removed the code this week without commenting on why or whether it plans to add such functionality back into the app later. Another WIRED investigation this week found that xAI’s Grok is still hosting sexualized deepfakes, including “nudified” images and videos, of celebrities and at least one prominent US politician.
After limiting the release of its new Mythos-class AI model over concerns about its potential impacts on cybersecurity, Anthropic announced a model upgrade for partners in its limited-access group this week and launched a “safe” version of the model to the public with guardrails meant to keep the system from being used to fuel cyberattacks. Meanwhile, the United States Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency issued a new directive to federal agencies this week in reaction to new AI threats that includes a requirement to fix the most urgent software vulnerabilities in as little as three days.
As Europe looks to separate and insulate itself from US Big Tech, WIRED created a timeline that tracks all the ways EU governments, companies, and other organizations are moving away from US tech. A new open-source project dubbed Encrypted Spaces could be used to make countless mainstream collaboration apps more private and surveillance-resistant with end-to-end encryption. And illegal pharmacy and scam websites hijacked Spotify’s search rankings using fake podcasts, according to a new joint US Congressional report.
The American Civil Liberties Union is suing two Florida police departments over its use of FACES, one of the longest-running face recognition tools in the US, after its alleged misuse led to the wrongful arrest of a Fort Myers man. Donald Trump, meanwhile, jeopardized the future of a key surveillance authority after selecting Bill Pulte, who’s been described as “deeply unqualified,” as the acting director of national intelligence. (Trump has since selected an alternative nominee for the permanent role.)
And there’s more. Each week, we round up the security and privacy news we didn’t cover in depth ourselves. Click the headlines to read the full stories. And stay safe out there.
As difficult as digital anonymity has become in the modern world, obtaining a phone number without revealing almost any identifying information—whether by buying a temporary burner phone or registering an account with a privacy-preserving phone carrier—has remained entirely legal in the US. Now the Federal Communications Commission wants to change that.
Late last month, the FCC released a proposal for a new rule that would implement know-your-customer requirements for cellular networks, requiring that cellular providers “at a minimum, obtain and retain the name, physical address, government issued identification number, and an alternate telephone number of any new and renewing customer before granting access to its services.” The proposal is described as a measure akin to money-laundering laws designed to make it more difficult for scammers to exploit the phone networks. But privacy advocates argue it also threatens a last conduit of anonymity for those seeking to evade phone surveillance—whether that’s journalists, whistleblowers, activists, or simply people seeking to avoid mass data collection in yet another facet of their communications.
With delivery by Father’s Day and a 90-day low price, you’ll want to grab Amazon’s weekend Mac mini deal before inventory runs out.
With increased demand for a headless machine to run AI agents and a budget-friendly price tag, Apple’s M4 Mac mini has been sold out for much of Q2 2026. But Amazon has the 16GB/512GB configuration back in stock, and it’s on sale for $769.99 (a $30 discount off retail).
Now priced at a 90-day low, Amazon has repeatedly shown stock levels of 20 or fewer units left today, indicating stock is limited.
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You can also find early Prime Day deals on dozens of Apple devices, including $299 iPads, $499 AirPods Max 2, and 2026 MacBook Airs from $949 in our early Prime Day Apple deals roundup.
Nintendo is introducing a new account-history requirement for Switch 2 purchases in Japan to keep consoles away from resellers. The move targets the multi-language Nintendo Switch 2 sold through the official Japanese Nintendo Store, which scalpers have been buying in bulk because it can be bought for less in Japan and resold abroad.
The price difference explains why scalpers are interested. In Japan, the multi-language Switch 2 is considerably cheaper compared to some other markets. That gap gives resellers room to import units and mark them up overseas, especially while official stock remains limited. The Japan-exclusive model, which only supports Japanese text and characters, is not affected by the new rule.
Nintendo is using account history as a filter
Nintendo said on X that it had found multiple orders linked to suspected resale activity and temporarily paused sales of the multi-language model. When sales resume, buyers will need to meet stricter conditions. Their Nintendo Account must show at least 50 hours of playtime on the original Nintendo Switch by 11:59 PM on May 31, 2026. Playtime from demo titles and free software will not qualify.
Nintendo StoreにおけるNintendo Switch 2（多言語対応）の販売につきまして、買い占め等の疑いがある注文を複数確認しましたので、一時的に販売を停止しておりました。…
The company is also limiting purchases to one console per Nintendo Account. That gives Nintendo a way to reduce repeat buying while making fresh accounts less useful for resellers.
Nintendo takes a page out of Valve’s playbook
The Switch 2 has become one of the most practical handheld gaming console options, especially after Valve’s Steam Deck price hike made PC handhelds a bigger expense for many buyers. Still, Nintendo’s console will not stay immune to higher pricing for long, with its own price increase expected soon.
Nintendo Switch 2Unsplash
Scalpers have been a thorn in the side of gamers for years. Valve faced a similar issue with the recent Steam Controller launch, where units quickly sold out and appeared on resale sites at inflated prices. Valve responded with a reservation queue, purchase-history checks, and a one-controller-per-account limit.
Nintendo is now applying a similar idea to the Switch 2. Fresh accounts will have a much harder time passing the check, which could reduce bulk buying through the Japanese store.
A few weeks ago on a bike ride “inspiration struck” for Dave Eggers, reports SFGate…
Without a pen and paper handy, he was stuck texting the idea to himself. The problem? Eggers doesn’t own a smartphone. “It takes 20 minutes to write a sentence,” Eggers said… It’s a funny predicament for Eggers, given that he’s arguably the city’s biggest proponent of the written word… Now age 56, Eggers’ latest book is called “Contrapposto“…
On writing days, Eggers bikes to his sailboat docked near the Golden Gate Bridge. He writes using a hefty 1998 Mac that has never been connected to the internet. On the boat, he keeps “banker’s hours,” working 9 to 5 without any meetings or interruptions except for the occasional wildlife visit. “You’re there with the cormorants and the occasional porpoise and sea lions and seals, and when you want to take a break, you walk around and you’re in the thick of it, one of the most beautiful spots on Earth,” he said. “Especially coming from the Midwest, it never gets old.”
Given Eggers’ decidedly low-tech existence, it’s not surprising that the current state of San Francisco gives him pause, but there’s a streak of hope that underlies his concerns. He abhors the growing surveillance technology that’s gripping the city, refusing to get into Ubers that use recording devices, but he feels a well-written ballot measure about Flock cameras could potentially save our dwindling privacy. ChatGPT’s effects on the art of writing are demoralizing, but he welcomes that teachers are re-embracing pencil and paper, with cursive making a big comeback. The wave of artificial intelligence ads blanketing bus stops imploring companies to stop hiring humans are so over the top, they’d sound cliché if he were to include them in one of his dystopian tech industry novels like “The Circle” or “The Every,” but tech philanthropy has helped many of his projects flourish.
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Case in point, Art + Water, a new art space scheduled to open next year on Pier 29 funded largely by art world donations… Co-founded with the artist JD Beltran, the space is slated to operate as an old-school apprenticeship system, hosting 10 artists in residence mentoring 20 students, all free of charge… The ultimate goal is to break down the financial barriers that keep students from pursuing art.
Thanks to Slashdot reader destinyland for sharing the article.
Slashdot reader BrianFagioli writes: Shutterstock has unveiled what it calls a “human-led, AI-powered” creative platform that combines its massive library of [human] contributor-created content with AI image and video generation, AI editing, conversational search, prompt enhancement, and automated model selection tools. The company says the goal is to help creators move from idea to finished work faster [in a single application] while maintaining commercial licensing protections and contributor royalty payments… While Shutterstock repeatedly emphasizes human creativity, much of the platform’s future appears centered on AI-generated and AI-modified content. An article at Nerds.xyz suggests Shutterstock’s AI tools let users “transform existing content into something new,” while noting Shutterstock’s repeated references to human creativity “almost feel defensive.”
But it points out other companies including Adobe and Canva “and countless startups are all racing to integrate AI into creative workflows.”
If you have a Bambu Labs printer and aren’t keen to send your files to Bambu’s servers with each print job, then check out Bambuddy, an open-source, self-hosted, cloud-free central command that offers a local alternative for managing Bambu Labs printers. It acts as a replacement for the official cloud services, allowing you to slice, print, and monitor with full local control and zero reliance on Bambu Labs’ servers.
Bambuddy offers full control over one to forty printers.
To use it, one installs Bambuddy, then puts their printer(s) into LAN-only mode. Doing this disables cloud functionality, including remote access. Then one enables Developer Mode, which allows external software to control printer functions via a machine API. Once that’s done, the printers can be added to Bambuddy.
Bambuddy then acts as a full-featured control panel and management center for anywhere from one to forty printers. It runs on Linux, macOS, or Windows, and a Raspberry Pi is a common install target.
Bambu Labs makes indisputably high-quality printers, and using their software and official app is certainly convenient. But the fact that every print job goes through Bambu’s servers, and a software architecture that frustrates home-grown solutions? Not so much. Add AGPLv3 violations and some heavy-handed legal behavior to the mix, and it’s easy to understand the motivation for an alternative to the factory software.
Bambuddy has a huge number of features — including an integrated slicer and proxy mode for remote access — and it may look a little intimidating at first. Fortunately, the project’s website offers a live sandbox demo with simulated printers, which should be right up the alley of those who prefer to learn by clicking around in a consequence-free environment.
Meta has begun dismantling its $2 billion acquisition of Manus, completing an operational separation from the Chinese-founded AI startup and halting data sharing between the two companies. This is the most concrete step yet toward complying with a divestiture order Beijing issued roughly two months ago on national security grounds.
Meta has cut Manus off from its internal systems, Bloomberg reported, preventing employees from using Manus tools for internal projects as the two companies move toward a full separation.
Meanwhile, according to May reports, the co-founders of Manus have held preliminary discussions about raising approximately $1 billion from outside investors to reclaim the startup from Meta, a move that could pave the way for a Chinese joint venture structure and an eventual listing in Hong Kong, a venue that has seen a surge in AI listings this year for Chinese AI startups like MiniMax and Zhipu.
What was supposed to be a landmark exit for Chinese AI is quickly unraveling. The move underscores Beijing’s determination to retain control over strategically sensitive technology, regardless of a company’s offshore incorporation.
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In addition to the forced divestiture, Chinese authorities have since expanded travel restrictions to researchers and executives at private firms, requiring government approval before heading abroad. China is also tightening its grip on foreign capital, with reports indicating that top AI firms, including Moonshot AI, StepFun, and ByteDance, will need government sign-off before accepting U.S. investment, adding another layer to Beijing’s sweeping effort to control its AI sector.
Even as Meta moves to sever ties with Manus, the agentic AI startup has continued to ship new features, rolling out integrations with Similarweb and Shopify.
Manus drew widespread attention with a viral agent demo relocated its staff to Singapore in mid-2025 before announcing a $2 billion acquisition by Meta in December. Chinese regulators moved to scrutinize the transaction earlier this year, citing potential violations of technology export controls and foreign investment rules.
Manus investors, including California-based venture firm Benchmark, have already received their proceeds from the acquisition, while Asian backers, including Tencent, HSG, and ZhenFund, have indicated they will cooperate with the unwinding process, according to the WSJ.
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Manus’ Chinese origins with parent company Butterfly Effect drew scrutiny on both sides of the Pacific, with Senator John Cornynquestioning whether American capital should flow to a Chinese-linked firm.
Meta and Manus did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside regular business hours.
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Washington state Gov. Bob Ferguson on Tuesday announced that banning cellphone use in kindergarten through 12th grade throughout the school day will be one of his top priorities when lawmakers convene in January.
“More than half of states across the country are moving in one direction, and one direction only. They’re passing laws to keep cell phones out of classrooms,” Ferguson said. “Washington state is not one of them, and that must change in the next legislative session.”
Despite mounting concern, Washington has moved cautiously on the issue. Legislators passed a law in March requiring the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction to study district phone policies, review research and gather student input for an analysis due at the end of 2027.
Ferguson is urging faster action, seeking all-day bans on the devices in public schools by the start of the 2027-28 academic year. Superintendent of Public Instruction Chris Reykdal also supports a ban and is proposing a similar policy.
A study published in January from the University of Washington School of Medicine and others found that U.S. adolescents ages 13-18 spend more than one hour per day on phones during school hours, with “addictive” social media apps accounting for the largest share of use. Newly released documents reveal strategies employed by social media companies that aim to increase student use of the apps.
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At the same time, the impact of phone restrictions are less clear. Recent research found that test scores did not improve at schools where cellphones were put away all day, but teachers observed fewer distractions and students reported a greater sense of personal well-being, per the New York Times.
Support among teachers is strong. At the Washington Education Association’s annual meeting in April, nearly 1,000 educators passed a resolution almost unanimously to ban cellphones during school.
“We support a statewide ‘away for the day’ cellphone policy, so that students can focus on learning, growing, and reaching their full potential,” said Larry Delaney, president of the WEA. “We owe it to our students to make this happen.”
The push comes as local districts are already acting. Last month, Seattle Public Schools instituted a district-wide policy requiring K-8 students to put phones away for the entire school day. High schoolers must store them during instruction time but have access during lunch and passing periods. Exemptions exist for health and educational needs.
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Tuesday’s announcement was made at Robert Eagle Staff Middle School, one of the first in the district to institute an all-day phone ban. The speakers included Zoe Taggart, a seventh grader at the school.
Taggart said that while she sometimes misses her phone, the benefits to students are clear. “We spend more time talking to each other, building friendships and relationships in the present day,” she said. “Instead of texting someone who’s right down the hall, we actually go down and find them and have a real conversation.”
The Phone-Free Schools State Report Card, which rates school cellphone policies nationwide, gives Washington and three other states a failing grade for lacking statewide regulations.
Four states have earned “A” grades for requiring phones to be fully inaccessible during the entire school day, or “bell-to-bell.” Twenty states plus Washington, D.C., have “B” grades for all-day restrictions, though in those cases devices are stored in lockers or backpacks, keeping them potentially within reach.
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