Should parents have a right to monitor and control which sites and apps their kids use? Today, parents do have that legal right under the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). The 1998 law requires verifiable parental consent before websites or apps can collect, use or share personal information from teens 13 or under. In practice, that means parents must consent for all social media apps.
The original version of COPPA would have required parental notification whenever teens (ages 14-17) sign up for websites; parents would have had the right to access personal information shared with such sites. Those provisions were dropped after free speech advocates warned that these provisions could “chill protected First Amendment activities and undermine rather than enhance teenagers privacy,” especially when “teenagers may be divulging or seeking information they don’t want their parents to know about.” Thus, the Center for Democracy & Technology warned, while “parents have an important role in protecting their teenager’s privacy, however the bill’s emphasis on parental access may overlook older minors’ interests.”
Now, legislation is moving in Congress that would give parents the right to monitor and control the apps and platforms their teens use. Yesterday, in party-line votes, the House Energy & Commerce Committee sent two bills to the House floor. The “App Store Accountability Act” (ASAA) would require app stores to categorize users by age, associate the minors’ accounts with a parental account, and then obtain consent from the parental account when the minor user creates an account on the app store, or installs any app. This gives parents the right to monitor and control exactly which apps their kids are using. The Committee also approved the KIDS Act, which would require parental consent before any social media “platform” (website or app) could allow teens to use “any direct messaging feature.”
These bills would “make vulnerable kids less safe,” warned the committee’s Ranking Member, Frank Pallone (D-NJ), because they “threaten kids in unsupportive or even abusive households where they can be real-world harms from allowing parents complete access and control over their teens’ online existence.” This is essentially the same concern raised in 1998.
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Rep. Diana Harshbarger (R-TN) was more direct than most of her Republican colleagues, insisting that parents need the bills to protect kids “who have access to these online evils.” Which evils? “Kids should not be looking at pornography—this is just common sense, people,” she said. Perhaps so: last year, the Supreme Court upheld age verification mandates for pornography in Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton(2025). But Harshbarger went much further: “We’ve been hearing from a lot of folks who profit off doing harm to kids or have questionable ideological priorities.”
Her fellow Tennessee Republican, Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), has been clear about just which “ideologies” need to be stopped. Last year, she was recorded, in remarks to a private meeting of social conservatives, saying the quiet part out loud: Republicans’ top priority should be “protecting minor children from the transgender [sic] in this culture and that influence.” Roughly half of American adults tell pollsters that trans people should be legally required to use public bathrooms that match their sex at birth, rather than the gender they identify with. Many of those parents doubtless think their teens need to be “protected” from sites and apps dedicated to helping LGBTQ teens who feel isolated and alone—apps like TrevorSpace and GiveUsTheFloor.
These sites aren’t exploiting anyone for profit. They’re both non-profits dedicated to education and building communities of the kids most at risk for mental illness and suicide. Yet ASAA and the KIDS Act would require parents to approve teens’ access to both sites. This isn’t an accident: where COPPA applies only to sites that operate “in commerce” (i.e., for profit), neither bill contains any such limit, and thus both would apply even to pure non-profits. This problem could be fixed with a surgical amendment, but Republicans would surely object and Democrats failed to raise this issue at yesterday’s markup.
Even if this problem were fixed, the larger problem would remain: for-profit apps are overwhelmingly the ones that vulnerable teens use to access perspectives on the world their parents want to block and to find other teens they can relate to. Popular apps like Snapchat and TikTok are especially vital in regions where they face hostility or violence for expressing their sexuality or gender identity. Under ASAA and the KIDS Act, parents could block such apps to “protect” their teens from “online evils” like subversive ideas about gender, sexuality, contraception or religion.
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Parents could, under ASAA, also block AI apps. At a Senate hearing last year on “Examining the Harm of AI Chatbots,” one parent complained that a Character.AI chatbot had “turned [her son] against our church by convincing him that Christians are sexist and hypocritical and that God does not exist.” Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) told her: “You didn’t know it at the time, but the chatbot was actively indoctrinating your son into questioning your beliefs as a family, your Biblical beliefs.” Questionable “ideological priorities,” indeed.
Both bills pay lip service to the First Amendment. The KIDS Act shall not be interpreted to “[a]llow a governmental entity to enforce this Act based on a viewpoint expressed by or through any speech, expression, or information protected by the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.” Likewise, ASAA “shall not be construed … to affect or restrict the expression of political, religious, or other viewpoints.” These rules of construction might well help ensure that courts scrutinize selective enforcement of these bills aimed at suppressing disfavored speech. But these provisions won’t address the core problem with the bills: that parents will block viewpoints they don’t want their teens to access by controlling which apps and platforms they use.
“Constitutional rights do not mature and come into being magically only when one attains the state-defined age of majority,” as the Supreme Court has noted. “[M]inors are entitled to a significant measure of First Amendment protection,” the Court has said, “and only in relatively narrow and well-defined circumstances may government bar public dissemination of protected materials to them.”
The Court reiterated this point in Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association (2010), which struck down age verification requirements for video games. Because virtual violence was not obscene to minors, the First Amendment applied—unlike Paxton, which upheld a Texas law requiring age verification for sites whose content was at least one third composed of pornography, which is obscene to minors. In Brown, California argued that its law was “justified in aid of parental authority: By requiring that the purchase of violent video games can be made only by adults, the Act ensures that parents can decide what games are appropriate.” The Supreme Court has long recognized “the liberty of parents and guardians to direct the upbringing and education of children under their control.” But the Brown Court doubted “that punishing third parties for conveying protected speech to children just in case their parents disapprove of that speech is a proper governmental means of aiding parental authority.” Those “doubts” should apply even more strongly to ASAA and the KIDS Act.
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Rep. Harshbarger claimed that the KIDS Act hews closely to Paxton. Another member referenced the Eleventh Circuit’s recent decision in CCIA & NetChoice v. Uthmeier, which allowed a Florida law that included an age verification mandate for social media to take effect pending a First Amendment challenge. The appeals court claimed that Paxton “recently clarified that age verification does not automatically trigger strict scrutiny because it does not constitute a ‘ban on speech to adults.’”
Both misread Paxton. Here’s what the Court actually said: “the First Amendment leaves undisturbed States’ power to impose age limits on speech that is obscene to minors.” That’s irrelevant here. Like the age verification requirement for violent video games in Brown, the KIDS Act and ASAA both clearly require age verification for content that is not obscene to minors—and both bills clearly do burden the First Amendment speech of adults to access entirely lawful speech anonymously. True, ASAA tries to reduce this burden by applying the age verification mandate only to the category of users that are found likely to be minors (presumably excluding much older adults), but such a category will necessarily include many adults, who will have to identify themselves to exercise their First Amendment rights—exactly what made age verification unlawful in Brown.
TechFreedom prebutted the Eleventh Circuit’s confusion in Uthmeier. As our amicus brief explained, Paxton essentially said two things. First, for content obscene to minors, age-verification laws are (now—due to Paxton’s contortions) akin to regulations on expressive conduct. When content obscene to minors is at issue, the state’s regulatory power “necessarily includes the power to require proof of age.” In the context of adult content (pornography), in other words, an age-verification “statute can readily be understood as an effort to restrict minors’ access” to speech unprotected as to them. In the context of social media, by contrast, no such assumption applies. Restrictions in that realm remain, as they have always been, presumptively unconstitutional direct regulations on speech—as Brown held. The Eleventh Circuit simply misunderstood this, and buried its misreading of Paxton in a flimsily reasoned footnote.
So, what can lawmakers do, consistent with the First Amendment? Congress might start by creating a more privacy-protective national standard for age verification for pornography. Notably, Texas’s law does nothing to address the data security concerns raised by collecting user information for age verification.
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For social media services, lawmakers should focus on what has always been the clearest harm: sexual exploitation by adults. Legislation could start by empowering parents to control who their teens can communicate with. In this sense, the KIDS Act is better than ASAA: it focuses on parents’ access to direct messaging controls rather than approving the installation of each app. Democrats’ alternative bill, the “Safe Messaging for Kids Act,” is still more focused: it would require only that platforms “shall provide a parental tool to allow a parent of a covered user to view the covered user’s direct messaging control settings.” But both bills would require some form of age verification for some adults for lawful content. Paxton doesn’t make that constitutional.
But maybe that’s OK. Do parents really need the government to require platforms and app stores to age-verify users to determine who’s a minor? ASAA requires that a minor’s account “be affiliated with a parental account” but it doesn’t require any effort to prove that the parental account actually belongs to the minor’s parent, because there is no easy or reliable way of doing so. Instead, it’s enough that this account “be established by an individual who the app store provider has determined is an adult.” If we can reasonably assume that person is the parent, why can’t we trust parents to manage the settings on devices they purchase for their teens? After all, mobile carriers allow only adults to set up accounts.
If the existing parental controls in operating systems and app stores are inadequate or too hard to use, that’s where regulation should focus. That would be “less restrictive” of speech, in First Amendment terms, than forcing adults to identify themselves. Perhaps parents do need better controls over direct messaging. Apple iOS currently allows parents to control direct messaging but only for built-in apps. But if any controls required by law should be content and viewpoint-neutral, which means that they should work across all apps, lest they become an indirect way for parents to veto teens’ use of particular apps, like TrevorSpace or GiveUsTheFloor.
Whatever the government might require, it has no business protecting teens from “questionable ideological priorities,” even through the indirect means of requiring parental controls. “Whatever the power of the state to control public dissemination of ideas inimical to the public morality, said the Supreme Court long ago, “it cannot constitutionally premise legislation on the desirability of controlling a person’s private thoughts.” That’s true even if that person is a teenager.
A former core infrastructure engineer has pleaded guilty to locking Windows admins out of 254 servers as part of a failed extortion plot targeting his employer, an industrial company headquartered in Somerset County, New Jersey.
According to court documents, 57-year-old Daniel Rhyne from Kansas City, Missouri, remotely accessed the company’s network without authorization using an administrator account between November 9 and November 25.
Throughout this time, he allegedly scheduled tasks on the company’s Windows domain controller to delete network admin accounts and to change the passwords for 13 domain admin accounts and 301 domain user accounts to “TheFr0zenCrew!”.
The prosecutors also accused Rhyne of scheduling tasks to change the passwords for two local admin accounts, which would affect 3,284 workstations, and for two more local admin accounts, which would impact 254 servers on his employer’s network. He also scheduled some tasks to shut down random servers and workstations on the network over multiple days in December 2023.
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Subsequently, on November 25, Rhyne emailed a number of his coworkers a ransom email titled “Your Network Has Been Penetrated,” saying that all IT administrators had been locked out of their accounts and that server backups had been deleted to make data recovery impossible.
Additionally, the emails threatened to shut down 40 random servers daily over the next ten days unless the company paid a ransom of 20 bitcoin (worth roughly $750,000 at the time).
“On or about November 25, 2023, at approximately 4:00 p.m. EST, network administrators employed at Victim-1 began receiving password reset notifications for a Victim-1 domain administrator account, as well as hundreds of Victim-1 user accounts,” the criminal complaint reads.
“Shortly thereafter, the Victim-1 network administrators discovered that all other Victim-1 domain administrator accounts were deleted, thereby denying domain administrator access to Victim-1’s computer networks.”
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Forensic investigators found that on November 22, Rhyne used a hidden virtual machine and his account to search the web for information on clearing Windows logs, changing domain user passwords, and deleting domain accounts as he planned his extortion plot.
One week earlier, Rhyne made similar web searches on his laptop, including “command line to remotely change local administrator password” and “command line to change local administrator password.”
Rhyne was arrested in Missouri on Tuesday, August 27, and released after his initial appearance in federal court. The hacking and extortion charges to which he pleaded guilty carry a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison.
Earlier this month, a North Carolina data analyst contractor was found guilty of extorting his employer, Brightly Software (a Software-as-a-Service company previously known as SchoolDude), for $2.5 million.
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Automated pentesting proves the path exists. BAS proves whether your controls stop it. Most teams run one without the other.
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Ronan Rogers and Ruth Callanan discuss innovation in the west of Ireland and the evolution of Ireland’s STEM careers.
Ireland’s medtech sector is moving beyond traditional biomedical engineering, according to Ronan Rogers, the senior R&D director for cardiac ablation solutions at Medtronic. He explained the region has built “real depth”, not just in medtech, but across key areas such as pharmaceutical science, advanced analytics and digital technology. Areas that are now “increasingly converging”.
“That diversity of opportunity is a huge strength for Ireland,” he told SiliconRepublic.com. “It allows people from different professional backgrounds to find meaningful, high‑impact careers in healthcare, while helping Ireland move further up the value chain as a centre for complex, globally relevant innovation.”
Having recently expanded its Galway-based pharmaceutical laboratory, the Medtronic facility now serves as a west of Ireland hub for high-tech innovation and the evolving needs of the global healthcare space. Rogers is of the opinion that this is reflective of the convergence of the country’s medtech divisions.
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Noting that the primary purpose of the lab “is to integrate pharmaceutical, engineering and analytical expertise under one roof to address the complex challenges of combination products, [that is] where a medical device and a medicine work together”.
“We see that convergence very clearly in this laboratory and there is a wide range of career paths in our industry, whether that’s a pharmacist drawn to the faster innovation cycles and applied science of medtech, or a software developer who wants to use their skills to solve real healthcare challenges and code with a deeper sense of purpose.”
What opportunities exist?
With the expansion comes the opportunity for students and professionals to consider a new role, either as part of Medtronic or within Galway’s thriving life science and medtech spaces.
“Galway offers a unique innovation ecosystem where infrastructure, academic partnerships and a significant medtech footprint all provide a strong foundation for sustaining Ireland’s leadership in the life sciences sector,” said Ruth Callanan, Medtronic’s director of site quality.
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With the investment focused on significantly expanding R&D capability and technical depth within a critical space in the Irish medtech sector, Medtronic has increased lab space by almost a half and introduced analytical technologies that didn’t exist there before.
Callanan said: “This creates the conditions for future high‑value work as programmes grow. It strengthens Galway’s ability to attract and retain highly specialised talent, pharmaceutical scientists, chemical and materials engineers and it allows work that was previously outsourced internationally to be done here in Ireland.
“Over time, as demand and activity scale, we do expect this capability to support additional specialist roles, phased in over the coming years. Importantly, it reinforces Ireland’s position at the forefront of advanced medtech R&D and reflects a broader industry trend toward self-sufficiency in high-tech analytical testing.”
Step into the future
She explained the new lab will enable experts to integrate processes as the facility will be responsible for the entire life cycle of product development, from early phase R&D through to post-market oversight.
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She added: “The laboratory utilises advanced LCMS [liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry] and GCMS [gas chromatography-mass spectrometry] technologies, which act as ‘molecular microscopes’. This allows our scientists to identify unknown compounds or impurities at extremely precise levels.”
According to Rogers, the new lab has a role to play in what he believes to be the reshaping of how STEM careers in Ireland are perceived and pursued, with Callanan noting this creates for students and professionals opportunities to engage with careers that bridge the gap between various scientific disciplines.
“A laboratory of this size and complexity requires students and professionals with a wide range of skills and experience across multiple disciplines,” she said.
“Just as importantly,” added Rogers, “we’re sending a clear signal to pharmacists, chemists and analytical scientists that medtech offers deep, intellectually challenging career paths that go well beyond traditional manufacturing or even classical biomedical engineering.”
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Colorado is rolling out an average-speed camera system that tracks vehicles across multiple points instead of catching them at a single camera, making it much harder for drivers to dodge tickets with apps like Waze and Radarbot. Motor1 reports: The state’s new automated vehicle identification systems (AVIS) use several cameras to calculate your average speed between them, and if it is 10 miles per hour or more over the limit, you get a ticket. No longer will you be able to slow down as you approach a camera and speed back up after passing it, not that you should be speeding on public roads in the first place.
Colorado began deploying this new camera system after legislators changed the law in 2023, allowing AVIS for law enforcement use. The systems, installed on various roads and highways throughout the state, first began issuing warnings, but police began issuing tickets late last year.
The most recent section of road to fall under surveillance is a stretch of I-25 north of Denver, which brought the state’s growing panopticon to our attention. It began issuing tickets on April 2. The Colorado Department of Transportation installed the cameras along a construction zone. The fine is $75 and zero points for exceeding the speed limit, and the police issue it to the vehicle’s owner, regardless of who is driving.
Oracle’s Cloud Experience Center in downtown Seattle. (GeekWire File Photo / Todd Bishop)
Oracle is laying off 491 employees in Washington state, according to a filing Tuesday from the state Employment Security Department.
The cuts impact workers at two Seattle offices as well as remote employees and take effect June 1. The cloud and database giant stated in its WARN letter that the offices will not be closing.
Earlier this month, Bloomberg and others reported that Oracle was planning to cut thousands of jobs across the company as it tries to fund the high-cost deployment of new data centers. The reductions are also the result of AI-driven efficiencies within the organization, according to comments by Mike Sicilia, Oracle’s co-chief executive, in an earnings call March 10.
“The use of AI coding tools inside Oracle is enabling smaller engineering teams to deliver more complete solutions to our customers more quickly,” Sicilia said, according to the publication CIO.
Oracle declined to comment on the newest job cuts.
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The Washington layoffs affect more than 230 software developers across multiple seniority levels and an additional 48 employees with the title of software development. The cuts include workers in senior director and vice president roles, as well as managers, product developers, product managers, program managers, site reliability developers, technical analysts, user experience developers and others.
The layoffs are the latest in a series of Oracle reductions. In August the company laid off 161 workers, followed by 101 employees in October. By last fall, Oracle had approximately 3,800 employees in the Seattle area, according to LinkedIn.
Oracle has grown its presence in the region over the past decade, tapping into the area’s engineering talent pool as it battled Amazon and Microsoft in the cloud. In recent years, the company has establishedpartnerships with both Seattle-area giants.
Now all three, plus other tech companies, have been undergoing multiple rounds of job reductions, with recent Meta cuts impacting 168 Washington workers and T-Mobile confirming new layoffs last Friday.
Finalists for GeekWire’s 2026 Sustainable Innovation Award, from left going clockwise: Helion Energy fusion device (Helion Photo), OCOchem team (OCOchem Photo), TerraPower’s mock fuel rods (TerraPower Photo), Ravel team (Ravel Photo), and IUNU’s image capturing system. (IUNU Photo)
Climate change is battering the earth with record-setting high temperatures, more powerful storms and devastating wildfires. A slate of cutting-edge sustainability companies are fighting back with technologies that aim to curb carbon emissions and help humanity navigate a change world.
This award, presented by Amazon, recognizes the Pacific Northwest’s leaders in this space. The Sustainable Innovation Award finalists this year are Helion, IUNU, OCOChem, Ravel and TerraPower.
Now in its 18th year, the GeekWire Awards is the premier event recognizing the top leaders, companies and breakthroughs in Pacific Northwest tech, bringing together hundreds of people to celebrate innovation and the entrepreneurial spirit. It takes place May 7 at the Showbox SoDo in Seattle.
Carbon Robotics, an ag-tech company building weed-killing machines that use artificial intelligence and computer vision to recognize and zap unwanted plants, won the category last year.
Continue reading for information on this year’s finalists, which were chosen by a panel of independent judges from community nominations. You can help pick the winner: Cast your ballot here or in the embedded form at the bottom of this story. Voting runs through April 16.
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Helion Energy has spent 13 years working to replicate the physics that power the sun and stars — pursuing nearly limitless clean energy for the grid. The Everett, Wash.-based company is currently developing its seventh-generation prototype while simultaneously building what it hopes will be the world’s first commercial fusion plant, in Eastern Washington.
Backers include OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, and Microsoft has signed a deal to purchase power from that first facility. Helion has raised more than $1 billion toward its goal — though whether it can deliver remains an unanswered question.
The Seattle ag tech startup IUNU wants to bring computer vision and AI to the commercial greenhouse — deploying autonomous rail-mounted cameras and canopy-level sensors that can spot early signs of disease, track plant growth, and tell growers exactly what to do about it.
Pronounced “you-knew,” IUNU was founded in 2013 by CEO Adam Greenberg, the son of a botanist and co-founder of a clean water startup called Pure Blue Technologies. The company has deployed its technology across six countries, has additional offices in Canada and Netherlands, and has raised $60 million.
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Unwanted carbon dioxide has a higher purpose thanks to OCOchem. The Richland, Wash., startup is taking water and captured industrial CO2 and turning them into chemicals that can be converted into clean-burning hydrogen fuel, used in aviation deicers, or fed to microorganisms that biosynthesize proteins.
The company has raised $11.2 million from investors plus additional grant dollars, and has multiple pilot projects underway as it scales up production. Todd Brix launched OCOchem in 2017 after a nearly two-decade career at Microsoft.
Seattle’s Ravelhas developed a proprietary, planet friendly technology that unwinds the components of fabric blends through a process it calls “purification recycling.” Ravel’s target is elastane, which is known as spandex or Lycra and added to essentially every category of apparel.
The startup recovers the elastane, turning it into cost-competitive, recycled plastic pellets that serve as the raw material for making polyester fabrics. Ravel launched in 2019 and last year announced a pre-seed funding round.
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In March, TerraPower became the first next-generation nuclear company in the U.S. to receive federal construction approval — a milestone for the Bill Gates-backed startup, which is engineering smaller, modular reactors designed to be assembled from factory-built components. Each reactor generates 345 megawatts and pairs with a molten salt energy storage system that can supply additional power.
The Bellevue, Wash., company broke ground on a demonstration plant in Kemmerer, Wyo., in 2024 and aims to start splitting atoms there by the end of 2030. TerraPower has raised $1.66 billion from investors and secured a $2 billion federal grant.
The event will feature a VIP reception, sit-down dinner and fun entertainment mixed in. Tickets go fast. A limited number of half-table and full-table sponsorships available. Contact events@geekwire.com to reserve a spot for your team today.
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Although many of us associate hotels with cushy business trips or relaxing holiday getaways, frequent travelers will know that it does come with its own set of issues. While some minor annoyances, like not being able to stream your content, can be solved by bringing a fire TV stick, other problems, such as bed bugs, are harder to solve.
Despite being around for millions of years, bed bug infestations are still a recurring problem, even for expensive hotel chains. And, as anyone who has to deal with them can tell you, you may need to hire professional help if they ever reach your home. Because of this, it’s best to follow the standard bed bug prevention protocol, such as using suitcase stands and inspecting the room with tools like UV flashlights. If you’re looking for one such tool that is affordable, Harbor Freight sells a UV flashlight for under $8 that might be perfect for your next business trip.
Harbor Freight has been known to sell well-rated flashlights, with most of them under the Braun label. Priced at $7.99, the Braun UV Leak Detector LED Flashlight can generate 395 nM UV light and is the cheapest UV flashlight on offer at Harbor Freight as of March 2026. Apart from helping you spot pests, UV flashlights can also be used to detect all kinds of stains, leaks, and even counterfeit currency, which could all be valuable uses when you’re on the road or at home. Here’s what else you should know.
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The Braun UV flashlight is rated highly by those who have bought it
Running on three AAA batteries, Harbor Freight says this flashlight has a 5.5-hour total run time, so it can be convenient when traveling to locations with no sockets or portable chargers. For an improved grip, this flashlight has both a knurled body as well as a ridged collar. It has a 10-foot range, but this model can’t be used as as normal flashlight and it doesn’t have the standard white light.
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As of this writing, the Braun UV Leak Detector does not have a significant number of reviews, so it’s hard to say what customers think of it. For what it’s worth, however, the four buyers who have left reviews all rated it 5 stars, with one reviewer saying it was “not super bright but gets the job done.” If you want a tool that has both UV and white lights, Braun sells a more compact UV flashlight that can also double as a normal flashlight. For $24.99, the Braun 400 Lumen Rechargeable Penlight with UV Light is highly rated and can run an extra half hour more than the $8 UV model. Of course, these extra features are going to cost you.
Man City vs. Liverpool will air in the US on ESPN and ESPN Plus, and is also available via ESPN Select or ESPN Unlimited.
The pick of this weekend’s FA Cup quarterfinals sees Man City host Liverpool in a blockbuster cup clash at the Etihad Stadium.
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Man City’s goal with this last-eight faceoff is to move a step closer to claiming the prize following last month’s Carabao Cup triumph over Arsenal. City’s route to the quarterfinals has seen it beat Exeter and Salford before easing past Premier League Newcastle 3-1 at St. James’ Park in the previous round.
Liverpool, meanwhile, comes into this cup tie looking to get back to winning following their Premier League defeat to Brighton before the international break. With the Reds out of the EPL title race and also eliminated from the Champions League, this tournament provides their final opportunity to claim the silver cup this season, as well as ease the mounting pressure on manager Arne Slot amid what has so far been a disappointing campaign.
Manchester City takes on Liverpool at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday. Kickoff is set for 12:45 p.m. BST local time in the UK, which is 7:45 a.m. ET or 4:45 a.m. PT in the US and Canada, and 10:45 p.m. AEDT in Australia.
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Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City have won each of their last 17 home fixtures in the FA Cup.
Adam Davy/ PA Images / Getty Images
Livestream Man City vs. Liverpool in the US
Every match from this point in the tournament will be available to stream live on ESPN Plus, which is accessible via the network’s ESPN Select or ESPN Unlimited streaming packages. ESPN Select carries ESPN Plus and is the cheaper option at $13 per month.
ESPN’s streaming platforms have been shaken up in recent months. The sports network now offers two tiers with its new direct-to-consumer setup: ESPN Select and ESPN Unlimited. ESPN Select is essentially what ESPN Plus used to be, with the same content available to subscribers, including FA Cup soccer, for $13 per month. If you want full access to ESPN’s networks and services, such as ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN3, ESPNews and ESPN Deportes, as well as all of ESPN Select’s content, then ESPN Unlimited is the way to go. It costs $30 per month.
Livestream Man City vs. Liverpool in the UK
TNT Sports and the BBC are sharing duties for the FA Cup this season, with this Sunday afternoon game set to be shown on TNT Sports 1.
You can access TNT Sports via Sky Q, Virgin Media and EE TV as part of a TV package.
Alternatively,TNT Sports has a new streaming home with the launch of HBO Max in the UK. It costs £31 either way and comes in a package that includes Discovery Plus’ library of documentary content.
A bundle including HBO Max’s entertainment plan alongside TNT Sports currently costs £31 per month.
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Livestream Man City vs. Liverpool in Canada
Canadian soccer fans looking to watch this FA Cup fixture can watch all the action live via Sportsnet.
Sportsnet
Sportsnet is available via most cable operators, but cord-cutters can subscribe to the standalone streaming service Sportsnet Plus instead, with prices starting at CA$30 per month or CA$250 per year for the standard plan.
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Livestream Man City vs. Liverpool in Australia
Football fans in Australia can watch FA Cup matches live on the streaming service Stan Sport.
Stan
Stan Sport will set you back AU$20 a month, on top of a Stan subscription, which starts at AU$12. It is worth noting the streaming service is offering a seven-day free trial. On top of select FA Cup matches, a subscription gives you access to Premier League, Champions League and Europa League action, along with international rugby and Formula E.
Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.
Need some help with today’s Mini Crossword? When you solve it, the puzzle makes a colorful shape and spells out a very California phrase. Read on for all the answers. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.
If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.
Mercedes-Benz is about to change something fundamental about how cars feel to drive, and it’s not just another software update. The company is bringing steer-by-wire tech to a production vehicle for the first time, starting with the refreshed EQS, and it’s a pretty big departure from how steering has worked for over a century.
Mercedes-Benz
And yes, this is the same kind of tech that’s been used in aircraft for years, and was even showcased on the Mercedes-Benz Vision Iconic. Now, it’s finally making its way into a luxury sedan.
What does “steer-by-wire” actually mean here?
In simple terms, Mercedes is removing the physical connection between the steering wheel and the front wheels. Instead of a mechanical linkage, your inputs are sent electronically to actuators that turn the wheels.
Mercedes-Benz
That might sound a bit unnerving at first, but Mercedes says it has built in multiple redundancies, sensors, and control systems to ensure safety. In fact, the company has already tested the setup for over a million kilometers before bringing it to production. There are also some real advantages here. Because everything is software-controlled, the steering ratio can change dynamically depending on speed, making parking easier while keeping things stable at highway speeds.
Mercedes-Benz
And then there’s the design twist. Since there’s no need for a traditional steering column, Mercedes is pairing this system with a yoke-style steering wheel. It’s flatter, more futuristic, and designed to improve visibility of the instrument cluster.
Why this could be a turning point for cars
With steer-by-wire, carmakers get far more flexibility in how steering behaves, how interiors are designed, and even how future autonomous features are integrated. It also opens the door to a more “software-defined” driving experience. Things like steering feel, responsiveness, and feedback can be tuned digitally, rather than being locked in by hardware.
Mercedes-Benz
Of course, there’s still a trust factor to overcome. Removing a direct mechanical link between driver and wheels is a bold move, and not everyone will be comfortable with it right away. But if Mercedes gets the balance right, this could end up being one of those changes that feels strange at first… and completely normal a few years down the line.
With a denser battery the Arlo Pro 6 adds more battery life over the previous iteration, while maintaining the excellent 2K image quality and flexible installation. With an Arlo Secure subscription you get very powerful object detection, with the highest tier offering person and vehicle recognition into the mix, plus a custom AI detection where you can spot an open gate, missing wheelie bin or pretty much anything else you can think of. All of this together makes the Arlo Pro 6 one of the best and most comprehensive security cameras, but subscriptions are also very expensive and have relatively short video history periods compared to the competition.
You need Arlo Secure for cloud storage and object detection
Introduction
The Arlo Pro 6 2k+ is a somewhat familiar-looking device.
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In fact, it looks pretty much like every Arlo camera back to the Arlo Pro 3. Don’t judge this camera on its external looks, as there are enough internal changes that make it a worthy successor to the previous generation (the Arlo Pro 5), including easier setup and a denser battery.
With a more powerful cloud subscription service behind the camera, the Pro 6 can form part of a very capable security system, just don’t expect it to be cheap.
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Design and Installation
USB-C Charging
Wall mountable
Can connect to Wi-Fi or a Smart Hub
You can buy the Arlo Pro 6 2K in packs of one, two, three or four, with more expensive kits working out cheaper per camera.
Take a look at the Arlo Pro 5, and the Pro 6 doesn’t seem that different: both look the same, have the same resolution, have a spotlight and are controlled via the same app and cloud service.
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But, look a little more closely, and there are some clear changes. First, the camera has a USB-C port, rather than the old magnetic connector of the previous model. That’s a good change, as any USB-C cable can be used, and you don’t have to worry about losing the proprietary connector. In my experience, the USB-C cable seems to charge the battery slightly faster, too.
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Talking of the battery, the new version has a higher-density pack, with 15% more battery life. That should help reduce how often you have to take the camera down for charging, although where it’s pointed and how often recording is triggered.
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Bluetooth is a new addition to the camera, too, which speeds up discovery time when installing the camera. Guaranteed, you only need that the once, but I’ll take anything that makes life easier.
This camera can be connected to Wi-Fi directly or to a Smart Hub, if you have one. A Smart Hub also provides offline recording, although you do lose many of the camera’s best features if doing so.
If you want to go offline and avoid paying for a cloud subscription, something like the EufyCam S4 might make more sense.
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The Arlo Pro 6 comes with a fully adjustable wall mount, which is the same as the one the company has used for years. That’s handy, as you can unscrew and older camera and fit the new one if you need to.
If starting from scratch, the mount is easy to attach to a wall and gives plenty of flexibility to point the camera where you want it.
Features
Needs a subscription to get the most out of the camera
Custom AI detection with the highest subscription tier
Flexible object detection
The Arlo Pro 6 slots into the Arlo app alongside any other cameras you might have. It remains one of my favourite security apps, as it’s so configurable. There’s a home screen that lets me select the location’s modes: Arm Away, Arm Home and Standby.
Just like with a security system, such as the Ring Alarm, these modes let me choose which cameras are active at any time. For example, I have my outdoor cameras record when set to Arm Home, and everything turned on when set to Arm Away.
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This page also has customisable widgets, so you can have shortcuts to any camera you want, but you don’t have to have previous of all cameras.
As mentioned above, if you have a Smart Hub you can record offline, but you lose out on all of the smart features. Realistically, then, you need to have an Arlo Secure plan, just be prepared to pay a lot for it.
Arlo Secure gives you cloud recording for one camera at a resolution of up to 2K, with just seven days of history (very stingy), plus Person, Animal, Vehicle and Package Detection.
Upgrade to Secure Multi-Cam and you get cloud storage for four cameras, but otherwise the same features as the single camera package. This costs £11.99 a month, which is still expensive but better overall value than the single camera option if you have more than one camera.
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The most advanced features come with the Arlo Secure Plus subscription, which upgrades recording to a maximum of 4K (not relevant here, but it is if you have an Ultra camera), 14 days of cloud history and the new AI detection features, which I’ll get into shortly. This costs £19.99 a month, making it very expensive.
With the more basic package, I can easily cut down on alerts by using motion zones to focus the camera on important areas, and then the excellent people, animal and vehicle detection. Get the right mix, and the number of alerts plummets.
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Pay for the more expensive package and you get person recognition (facial recognition, as most people would call it). You can let the camera pick up people and name them, or feed in photos from your photo library to give the Pro 6 a head start.
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Oddly, people detection is only available on a single camera in your home, so pick the one that makes most sense; most other systems that I’ve tested run facial recognition across all devices.
Vehicle recognition is another new feature. It’s like facial recognition for cars, in that you can tell the camera to spot certain vehicles. This can run on all cameras.
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There’s also Custom Detection, which involves taking two snapshots with something different between them: a gate open or a wheelie bin missing, for example. You can then get alerts when the action is detected, either through motion being triggered, by firing the rule at a set time, or when the mode changes.
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I set up one to watch for the back door opening, but this proved to be not very reliable, often triggering when there was any motion. I think that the glass doors, and the distance from the camera, confused the system, so Custom Detection might work better with bigger, more obvious changes.
It’s all very clever, and the system is virtually limitless, provided you can train the system, but it’s a very expensive option to have.
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All video is recorded to the cloud (assuming you have a subscription), and is available in the Feed section. This can be filtered by date, by device, and then by event type, of which there are far too many to name here. There’s enough granularity to quickly find a clip, although Arlo doesn’t have the fancy AI search that Ring now has.
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Performance
Sharp 2K video
Excellent night vision
Arlo has long been towards the top of the quality tables, and the Pro 6 keeps that record up. Footage is very similar to that from the Pro 5, which isn’t a criticism.
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During the day, the footage is exceptionally sharp, and detailed through the frame, with the 160° lens capturing a lot of what’s going on. Colours are excellent and there’s detail through the frame. This is about as good as you can expect from a 2K video camera.
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At night, the Pro 6 can use its spotlight to shoot in full colour, and the results are impressive, with almost as much detail as during the day. The only real change is that motion gets a bit blurry, so it takes a bit of hunting to find a clip where someone’s face is clear; those frames do exist. Again, I’ve not seen better from a 2K camera.
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Arlo says that the battery can last up to eight months on a single charge, although how that pans out will depend on where the camera’s pointing. I recommend angling any battery powered security camera away from high activity areas, such as a main road, to increase battery life.
Based on initial testing, I think that I’d get a good five months between charging, if not longer.
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Should you buy it?
You want excellent quality and flexibility
Brilliant 2K footage day and night, flexible placement and long battery life all make this camera a winner whether it’s inside or out.
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You want something cheaper to run
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This camera works best with an Arlo Secure subscription, which is very expensive compared to the competition, even though it is very good.
Final Thoughts
The overall Arlo system and app remain one of the best available, and the new AI features let you do more than with any other camera, thanks to the training mode. But you have to be prepared to pay for the luxury, and Arlo Secure is expensive and has limited video history compared to the competition.
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If you’ve got Arlo Pro 5 cameras, there’s very little here to make it worth the upgrade, but if you’ve got older cameras or are starting from scratch, the Arlo Pro 6 is a brilliant, high-quality camera. If you’d rather have something with cheaper running costs, then read my guide to the best outdoor security cameras.
How we test
Unlike other sites, we test every security camera we review thoroughly over an extended period of time. We use industry standard tests to compare features properly. We’ll always tell you what we find. We never, ever, accept money to review a product.
Find out more about how we test in our ethics policy.
Used as our main security camera for the review period
We test compatibility with the main smart systems (HomeKit, Alexa, Google Assistant, SmartThings, IFTTT and more) to see how easy each camera is to automate.
We take samples during the day and night to see how clear each camera’s video is.
FAQs
Do you need a cloud subscription to use the Arlo Pro 6 2K?
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Without a subscription you can view the live feed and get basic notifications, and record to a hub; you need a subscription for cloud storage and for the more advanced detection options.
What’s the difference between the Arlo Pro 6 2K and the Arlo Pro 5?
The Pro 6 has a higher density battery, USB-C charging and it has Bluetooth for faster setup.
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