They may not be the highest-selling smartphones out there, but don’t sleep on the advantages that a thin and light phone can give you. Lighter than most, more comfortable to hold — and just plain appealing in terms of design — the Apple iPhone Air and Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge are the future of slim phones (and the foundation for foldables like the Galaxy Z Fold 7 and rumored iPhone Fold).

But are you giving up too much else for a slim phone? If you press them together, are they much thicker combined than a regular iPhone 17 or Galaxy S25 (or the new Galaxy S26)? And do they overcome trade-offs in battery life, camera and sound quality that come with a thinner design? I’m here to do the math and compare features for you.

Looking to order the iPhone Air? Check out our order guide to learn if you can get it free and other great deals.

Want to buy the Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge? Find out which carriers and retailers are offering the best deals on Samsung’s slim phone.

iPhone Air vs. S25 Edge price comparison

• iPhone Air: $999. The iPhone Air takes the place formerly held by the iPhone 16 Plus, making it the only model with a screen larger than the iPhone 17 that isn’t an iPhone 17 Pro.

• Galaxy S25 Edge: $1,100. The S25 Edge joins the S26 and S26 Ultra in this year’s Galaxy lineup.

The iPhone Air includes fewer features than the iPhone 17, such as the number of cameras. However, it features a larger display, an A19 Pro processor, and is equipped with 256GB of storage to begin with. Additionally, Apple has consistently applied premium pricing for minor design changes. The original MacBook Air fit into an inter-office envelope and cost $1,799, despite being underpowered compared to the rest of the MacBook line. (Over a few generations, it would eventually become Apple’s entry-level affordable laptop at $999, where it still resides.)

The Galaxy S25 Edge’s higher price ($101) could be an attempt to capture more dollars from customers looking for a phone that sets them apart, but we’re already seeing occasional steep discounts on it.

In both cases, it’s worth noting that the pricing has held up against the Trump administration tariffs so far.

iPhone Air vs. S25 Edge dimensions and weight

Now it’s time to go deep — as in, just how thin is the depth of each phone?

No phone manufacturer describes its phones as bulky or chunky, even for extra-large models like the iPhone Pro Max. Yet, the difference between the depths of the iPhone Air and the S25 Edge, as well as the standard phones of each respective family, is stark.

Not counting the camera assembly, which Apple refers to as the “plateau,” most of the iPhone Air’s body is 5.64mm thick. The S25 Edge, at its narrowest point, is a hair thicker at 5.8mm. (Both companies list only the thinnest measurement, not including the cameras.) Compare that to 7.9mm for the iPhone 17 and 7.2mm for the Galaxy S25.

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The Galaxy Z Fold 7 is actually thinner when open, at 4.2mm, but it also has a larger surface area to accommodate its battery and other components. Other foldables from Chinese companies, such as Huawei, Oppo and Honor, also boast thinner bodies than the iPhone Air or S25 Edge, but only when opened.

And when you press the two thin phones together, do they really match up to the typical phone slab you’re carrying now? Combined (and again, excluding the camera bumps), the iPhone Air and S25 Ultra are 11.44mm thick, which is thicker than either the iPhone 17 or Galaxy S25, and even the iPhone 17 Pro Max at 8.75mm. However, if you want to achieve a more vintage feel, the original first-generation iPhone, released in 2007, measured 11.6mm.

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Surprisingly, the less depth translates to only a slight decrease in weight compared to the other models in each lineup. The iPhone Air weighs 165 grams versus 177 grams for the iPhone 17, while the S25 Edge pips in at just 163 grams but gets barely undercut by the Galaxy S25 at 162 grams.

How big is each phone in the hand? While both are similar, the iPhone Air is slightly shorter and narrower, measuring 156.2mm tall and 74.7mm wide, compared to the S25 Edge’s dimensions of 158.2mm tall and 75.6mm wide.

iPhone Air vs. S25 Edge displays

Apple calls the iPhone Air’s 6.5-inch OLED screen a Super Retina XDR display. It features a high resolution of 2,736×1,260 pixels at a density of 460 ppi (pixels per inch) and can output a maximum of 3,000 nits of brightness outdoors, as well as a minimum of 1 nit in the dark.

Samsung packed a larger 6.7-inch QHD+ Dynamic AMOLED 2X screen into the S25 Edge, which translates to a high-resolution display measuring 3,120×1,440 pixels at 513 ppi. Its brightness goes up to 2,600 nits.

Both phones’ screens feature adaptive 120Hz refresh rates for smoother performance.

Comparing the iPhone Air and S25 Edge cameras

So far, many of the specs have been close enough to weigh each phone fairly evenly. Then, we get to the cameras.

The iPhone Air includes a single rear-facing 48-megapixel wide camera with a 26mm-equivalent field of view and a constant f/1.6 aperture. In its default mode, the camera outputs 24-megapixel “fusion” photos that result from an imaging process where the camera captures a 12-megapixel image (using groups of four pixels acting as one larger pixel for improved light gathering, known as “binning”) and a 48-megapixel reference for additional detail.

Apple also claims the iPhone Air can capture 2x-zoomed (52mm-equivalent) telephoto images that are 12 megapixels in dimension and represent a crop of the center of the image sensor.

The S25 Edge features two built-in rear cameras: a 200-megapixel wide-angle lens and a 12-megapixel ultrawide lens. There’s no dedicated telephoto camera, so the S25 Edge also offers a 2x-zoomed crop that shoots photos at 12 megapixels in size.

The front-facing selfie cameras on each phone differ significantly. The iPhone Air introduces a new 18-megapixel camera with an f/1.9 aperture. But the increased resolution over the S25 Edge’s 12-megapixel selfie camera isn’t what’s notable. 

Apple calls it a Center Stage camera because it features a square sensor that can capture tall or wide shots without requiring the user to physically turn the phone, unlike the 4:3 ratio sensors found in typical selfie cameras. It can adapt the aspect ratio based on the number of people it detects in front of the camera: a traditional portrait orientation when you’re snapping a photo of yourself, for example, or switch to a landscape orientation when two friends stand next to you in the frame.

iPhone Air vs. S25 Edge batteries

When it comes to concerns, the battery life of thin phones is at the top of the list. The insides of most phones are packed with as much battery as will fit, so making a phone slimmer naturally means removing space for the battery. With either model, you end up sacrificing battery power for design. But how much?

Apple doesn’t list the iPhone Air’s battery capacity, but claims “all-day battery life” and up to 27 hours of video playback. It also sells a special iPhone Air MagSafe Battery add-on that magnetically snaps to the back of the phone and works only with the iPhone Air. In her review, CNET’s Senior Tech Reporter Abrar Al-Heeti drained the battery in 12 hours over a phone-intensive day, but did end a more typical day with 20% remaining.

The S25 Edge features a 3,900-mAh battery, which Samsung claims will support up to 24 hours of video playback. (Come on, phone manufacturers, our phones aren’t televisions left running in the background.) 

In her S25 Edge review, Al-Heeti noted that the phone also generally lived up to Samsung’s own “all-day battery life” boast, saying, “Ultimately, you’ll get less juice out of that slimmer build, but S25 Edge offers just enough battery life to make me happy…But the S25 Edge has shifted my priorities. I’m enjoying the sleek form factor so much that I’m willing to make some compromises, even if that means I have to be sure to charge my phone each night, which is something I tend to do anyway.”

It’s worth noting that both phones support fast charging when used with a 20-watt or higher wired power adapter, allowing them to reach around 50% charge in 30 minutes from a completely discharged state.

iPhone Air vs. S25 Edge processor, storage and operating system

The iPhone Air is powered by Apple’s latest A19 Pro processor, the same one found in the iPhone 17 Pro models (compared to the A19 in the stock iPhone 17). Apple doesn’t list the built-in memory, but we suspect it includes 8GB of RAM (which is recognized as the minimum amount to run AI features such as Apple Intelligence). The base storage configuration is 256GB, with options to order the iPhone Air with 512GB or 1TB capacity. It ships with iOS 26, the latest version of the operating system that Apple released widely this week.

The S25 Edge is powered by a Snapdragon 8 Elite processor, the same one that powers the other S25 models. It includes 12GB of RAM and is available in storage capacities of 256GB and 512GB. The phone comes preinstalled with Android 15.

iPhone Air vs. S25 Edge all specs

Watch this: iPhone Air Review: A Joy to Hold, at a Cost

10:06

Weatherproofing. Every model needs an IP (weatherproofing) rating to survive outside, so if you don’t see one, don’t buy those lights. There’s usually a lower rating for the control box compared to the rest of the lights, so be sure you can put that somewhere that’s a little less exposed to the elements. (As mentioned above, make sure you have an outdoor outlet, and check if there’s only one on a certain side of your home in case it limits your installation options.)

A range of installation options. You’ll want a set that comes with plenty of options for your own installation, including adhesive and drilled mounting options. What you need will vary based on your home design and materials; e.g., you’ll want adhesive for homes you can’t drill into. WIRED reviewer Kat Merck, who tested a couple of different permanent lights, liked sets with screw-on holders that the puck-style permanent lights can slide onto.

Controls for individual lights. This should be a no-brainer, but some cheaper lights won’t offer this ability or have more roadblocks to customized control. Make sure you’ll have easy individual controls, or you might find yourself frustrated with the design results of these lights. It’s similar to design controls that you’d see on smart bulbs and smart string lights.

A great app. This goes hand in hand with the need for individual light control—a good app determines whether that and other features are accessible. Govee and Eufy, two of our favorite permanent outdoor lights we’ve tried, both have good apps that are easy to use and come with preloaded light themes. These tech companies make more than just outdoor lights, including other favorite gear of ours, so they’re a good brand to trust to make a usable product and app. We also like Lepro’s more affordable lights, though the app had some extra hoops to jump through to get to controls, while Lumary’s app was a brutal experience for our tester.

What Time of Year Should You Use Permanent Outdoor Lights?

Most people are interested in this style of lights for the fall and winter. That’s a great time to set them up and use them, since you’ve got Halloween and Christmas decor that the permanent outdoor lights could complement with colorful holiday scenes. The days are also shorter, so you’ve got more nighttime hours to take advantage of these lights.

They’re a fun way to deck out your home for a sports game, especially for major games like the Super Bowl (WIRED reviewer Kat Merck, a resident of Washington state, was surprised to discover just how many people in her neighborhood had permanent lights this past February) and the World Cup, or for smaller holidays like St. Patrick’s Day or the Fourth of July. They’re a fun way to jazz up your home’s curb appeal in the evening year-round (though if you have an HOA, you might have to check your rules about displaying lights regularly) or add a little pizzazz for your next outdoor party. No matter what you use it for, there’s no wrong way or wrong time of year to use these lights.

Weighing in at less than 249 grams, the DJI Mini 3, priced at $379 with RC controller (was $549), is in a class of its own for easy transport and hassle-free carry-on in most areas around the world. Grab it and chuck it in a tiny bag; there are no weight restrictions or extra checks at the airport. That super-light construction does not compromise performance; once those propellers start spinning, you’re ready to go.

The battery lasts for 38 minutes on a regular charge, after which you can switch in another pack and continue. Pilots are amazed at how much time they can spend exploring vast fields and city outskirts before having to land and recharge, often for entire afternoons. A 1 inch over 1.3 inch sensor sits behind the lens, producing excellent 4k footage at 30 frames per second with HDR integrated in. The colors jump over the sky and into the shadows, making the movie appear clear and balanced right out of the camera. Still images have a resolution of 12 megapixels, which provides enough detail to trim later or print large without compromising quality.

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The 3-axis gimbal tilts completely vertical on demand, making it extremely simple to line up flawless phone-style photos that do not require any post-editing. You can also swivel the camera ninety degrees in midair to photograph those towering scenes that look great on your smartphone. That one function alone saves you hours of post-production time and allows you to frame your landscapes or city skylines in a variety of unique ways.

The controls are already set up and ready to use in the supplied DJI RC controller, which has a large screen integrated in. There is no need for phone pairing or other cords; simply turn on the controller and you are ready to go. The display shows live imagery even in direct sunshine, and the buttons are easy to use with your thumbs, allowing you to make quick adjustments without having to glance away from the sky. The signal reaches all the way to 10 kilometers in clear conditions thanks to the reliable transmission method, while GPS guidance locks you in accurate position and triggers the auto return if the signal weakens or the battery starts to run low.

It handles a bit of wind well, and the quiet motors allow you to concentrate on taking the image rather than bothering the locals. Beginners quickly learn the fundamentals, but as they gain confidence, they discover a wealth of options for imaginative pans and orbits. Experienced pilots like the steady responsiveness, which never feels slow or oversensitive.

As Google launched the Pixel 10a, I did what everyone else does: opened the sheet, compared the chip with what other smartphones offer at the same price, and felt the familiar unease. I asked myself one question: “Why is Google even doing this?” 

The Pixel 10a featured a Tensor G4 chip (from 2024) that didn’t impress in benchmarks, thicker front bezels, a 120Hz display without a truly variable refresh rate, no telephoto camera, and a battery that supported slower charging than the competition. On paper, it looked like a phone that lost a fight before even entering the ring (and for a rumble match no less).

Four weeks later, I’ve arrived at a position that I didn’t think I would, but I want to defend: the Pixel 10a’s spec sheet is the wrong document on which to judge this phone. After weeks of regular usage, I realized that the Pixel 10a isn’t for people who buy phones (especially after reading the spec sheet) ̦— it’s for those who actually live with them.

A screen that you stop noticing (in a good way)

Let’s start with the display. Yes, the bezels are thicker than what you’d see on rivals, and the phone doesn’t use an LTPO panel that drops to 1Hz when the screen is idle. However, it was only after days of consistent use that I realized app transitions were fluid, navigation gestures were well synced with your fingers (and the speed at which you swipe), and general scrolling felt seamless on the Pixel 10a. 

The Pixel 10a was bright enough on a hot, sunny day, so I didn’t have to shield the screen with my hand, and that’s what matters, not just the peak brightness numbers. 

The chip doesn’t do well in benchmarks but nails daily usage

The chipset argument is even easier for me to dissolve at this point. The Tensor G4 trails the Tensor G5 by a significant margin. However, it’s when I used it as a primary device (along with my iPhone 17) that I realized it never feels like it doesn’t benchmark well. 

Google, being the name behind the Android operating system, has optimized the chipset (and the supporting hardware) so well that I didn’t notice the difference in day-to-day usage. First-party apps open almost immediately, and Google’s Gemini AI assistant runs seamlessly (since it has a capable TPU).

You could argue that the Pixel 10a’s competitors offer a dedicated telephoto lens for added versatility, but after capturing approximately 800 pictures and some 100 videos with the device, I’ve come to the conclusion that two well-tuned lenses and years of computational photography improvements outperform three mediocre ones.

Great cameras and battery life round out the experience 

Whether you know the Pixel 10a’s primary camera’s resolution or not, it surely captures images that are balanced and natural, with consistently accurate (or near-accurate) skin tones. Features like Night Sight and Photo Unblur, which add to the photography experience, aren’t even bolted to the hardware. 

The same is true for the Pixel 10a’s battery, which easily provides me with around seven to eight hours of screen-on time. On 12 to 14-hour workdays, the battery often carries into the next morning. The charging speed is still behind the competition, but I guess the phone isn’t built for last-minute top-ups after all; the focus here is endurance, not speed. 

All of this, in my opinion, is rounded up by Google’s flawless Android experience, which does its duty on the device in its purest and most efficient form. The Pixel 10a is clearly an example of how a phone with not-so-impressive hardware can still provide excellent usability through well-optimized software, which is also what the company is basing its seven years of software support on. 

Pixel 10a: The phone that simply works

The Pixel 10a isn’t the phone that wins in spec comparisons. It’s one that wins on Tuesday afternoons, when you need a quick Gemini answer, capture a picture against the light, or a battery that goes a long way even when you’re around the anxious mark of 10%. You can’t run the overall experience through a benchmark, and that’s where the specs debate has stopped bothering me. 

This feeder also comes with extra plastic flowers and a little brush for scrubbing them, and the app sends reminders when it’s time to clean. You’ll also find fun, seasonal touches in the app, like the ability to send digital bird holiday cards with the photos your feeder captures, and a tool that superimposes hats, clothes, and various accessories on the birds, which is actually funnier than it sounds. However, as with the Birdbuddy Pro seed feeder, below, the big downside is that the feeder’s sensor doesn’t always pick up every bird that visits, which can definitely be a bummer when you see something interesting out the window but it doesn’t show up in the app.

Best Smart Birdhouse

Smart Bird Feeder With the Best App

The photos aren’t nearly as impressive as those by competitors like the Birdfy Pro Duo, Camojojo Hibird, or Kiwibit, and the camera, frustratingly, only captures a small portion of the birds that actually visit. However, Birdbuddy’s app is a consistent standout, with a user-friendly design and plenty of helpful alerts, like if a cat is detected nearby, or if it’s time to clean the feeder.

It also serves you insights gathered over time, like what time certain species seem to prefer to visit. (Finches apparently like to visit my yard at 10 am daily.) The Birdbuddy also “sleeps” at night and does not seem to emphasize capturing photos of people, so it wouldn’t make a good choice to double as a security camera, and there are also unique seasonal features like the ability to send holiday cards or “dress up” visiting birds with hats, glasses, and sweaters. (It is funnier than it sounds, really!) Both Birdbuddys work with 2.4-GHz Wi-Fi only.

Another Birdbuddy downside is the infuriatingly small, hinged opening for filling the 4 cups’ worth of seed. The feeder comes with its own spouted cup, but I have yet to fill the feeder without making an enormous mess. I also tested the 3-in-1 Nutrition Set ($39), which includes a screw-on tray that can variably become a water fountain, jelly dish, or fruit stake for fruit-loving species like orioles. I’ve used it as a jelly dish and water fountain and found that it blocks enough of the perch area that birds tend to shift out of camera view to avoid it. However, this feeder is still worth it for those who like a more streamlined app experience or want to take advantage of some of its unique sharing features, especially Premium’s ability to share your feeder livestream with others.

If You Want to Use an Existing Bird Feeder

If you have a non-smart bird feeder you already like, or are interested in building your own and are just looking for a camera, Hibird’s stand-alone DIY feeder camera is what you want. It’s compatible with both 2.4-GHz and 5-GHz Wi-Fi bands—a rarity for bird-feeder cameras—and the cute green owl face streams the same better-than-average-quality 4K HD video and 32 MP pics as the bigger Hibird feeder, above. There is a subscription tier with features like increased storage, but the camera is still usable without it. There’s an auxiliary solar panel included for charging, and you can mount it via its quarter-inch nut on the included bendable arm and bracket, or jury-rig a custom solution. It pairs seamlessly with the Hibird app, with access to AI (which is just OK), livestreaming, and the Dr. Bird ChatGPT-like feature, where you can ask bird-related questions. (The answers are corny and not as granular as they could be, but the function still could be useful for some.)

Foundation Future Industries, a San Francisco startup founded in April 2024, has secured $24 million in research contracts with the US Army, Navy, and Air Force to test humanoid robots designed to breach enemy positions. The company’s Phantom MK-1 is a 5-foot-9, 176-pound humanoid with 19 upper-body degrees of freedom, five-fingered hands, a camera-first vision system, and an LLM-driven autonomy stack that blends independent operation with supervised teleoperation. Two units were sent to Ukraine in February for frontline testing in logistics and reconnaissance, described as the first deployment of humanoid robots to any theatre of combat. The company is seeking $500 million in new funding at a valuation exceeding $3 billion. Its chief strategy adviser is Eric Trump, the son of the sitting president, a detail that prompted Senator Elizabeth Warren to call the Pentagon contracts “corruption in plain sight.” The company’s CEO previously ran a fintech startup that went bankrupt with tens of millions in consumer deposits unaccounted for.

The machine

The Phantom MK-1 walks at 1.7 metres per second, carries a 44-pound payload, runs on eight cameras with no bulky LiDAR, and uses proprietary cycloidal actuators delivering up to 160 newton-metres of torque. Its AI stack translates high-level task instructions into motion through an LLM pipeline, with operators retaining final authority over lethal decisions. The unit cost is approximately $150,000, with a lease model available at $100,000 per year. The MK-2, expected this month, consolidates electronics to reduce short-circuit risk, adds waterproofing and larger battery packs, increases payload capacity to 175 pounds, and uses cast-moulded bodywork to speed manufacturing and reduce costs. Foundation’s production targets are 40 units in 2025, 10,000 in 2026, and 50,000 by the end of 2027, with a steady-state target of 30,000 per year. Those numbers would require a manufacturing scale-up of 250 times in two years on a total funding base of roughly $21 million.

The company was founded by Sankaet Pathak, previously the CEO of Synapse, a banking-as-a-service platform that filed for bankruptcy in 2024; Arjun Sethi, CEO of Tribe Capital, which led Foundation’s $11 million pre-seed round; and Mike LeBlanc, a 14-year Marine Corps veteran and co-founder of Cobalt Robotics. LeBlanc provides the military credibility and has said the company believes there is “a moral imperative to put these robots into war instead of soldiers.” In June 2024, CNBC reported that Foundation had been fundraising with exaggerated claims about ties to General Motors, including assertions that GM had committed to invest and placed a $300 million purchase order. GM flatly denied all of it. LeBlanc confirmed the denial and said he was “embarrassed” the marketing materials existed. For a company asking the Pentagon to trust its robots in combat, the credibility gap matters.

The contracts

The $24 million in Pentagon contracts includes an SBIR Phase 3 designation, which qualifies Foundation as an approved military vendor, and specific research agreements for testing humanoid robots in breaching scenarios. Some contracts were inherited through the acquisition of a company called Boardwalk, including a US Air Force SBIR award valued at approximately $1.8 million. Eric Trump appeared on Fox Business to tout the contracts. Warren’s response was immediate: “Is the Pentagon a cash machine for Trump’s kids?” The political dimension is unavoidable. A sitting president’s son serving as chief strategy adviser to a company receiving Defence Department contracts raises governance questions regardless of the company’s technical merits. The contracts are real, but they are small. Shield AI recently raised $2 billion to scale its autonomous combat pilot, an AI system called Hivemind that flies aircraft autonomously and has been tested in combat conditions. Anduril secured a landmark $20 billion, ten-year US Army contract in March for its AI-enabled Lattice platform. Foundation’s $24 million is a research agreement, not a production order. The gap between a research contract and a deployed weapons system is measured in billions of dollars and years of testing.

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The Ukraine deployment adds a different kind of credibility. Two Phantom MK-1 units sent for logistics runs and reconnaissance sweeps in February represent real-world testing in a live conflict zone, and Foundation is using battlefield feedback to refine the MK-2 design. But “tested in Ukraine” is not “deployed in combat.” No humanoid robot has fired a weapon in a conflict. The units performed support tasks. The distinction matters because the company’s marketing, its fundraising narrative, and its Pentagon contracts all converge on the idea of a humanoid soldier, and the technology is not there yet. NATO-backed ARX Robotics secured 31 million euros for its autonomous battlefield robots, ground vehicles that perform logistics and reconnaissance without the complexity of bipedal locomotion. ARX Robotics is already scaling production of autonomous land drones to 1,800 units a year at a new UK plant, a manufacturing reality that Foundation’s targets have not yet approached.

The debate

The Campaign to Stop Killer Robots, a coalition of more than 250 NGOs, has been advocating for a new international legal instrument ensuring human control in the use of force since 2013. Approximately 90 states have called for such an instrument. A minority of militarised states, including the United States and Russia, have blocked its adoption. In November 2025, the UN General Assembly First Committee adopted a resolution with 156 states in favour and 5 against calling for negotiations on autonomous weapons. The Group of Governmental Experts on lethal autonomous weapons systems has sessions scheduled for 2026 and is expected to submit a final report to the Convention on Conventional Weapons in November. This is the last year of the GGE’s mandate, making 2026 a make-or-break year for international regulation of autonomous weapons.

Foundation’s stated policy is that human operators retain final authority over lethal decisions, a “human-in-the-loop” commitment that the Pentagon’s own Directive 3000.09 on autonomy in weapon systems requires for autonomous and semi-autonomous platforms. But the company’s LLM-driven autonomy stack and its stated ambition to “reduce teleoperation needs over time” are in tension with that commitment. An LLM-driven task-to-motion pipeline that learns to operate more independently with each iteration is, by design, moving toward the autonomous capability that the international community is trying to regulate. The AI warfare push that made Helsing one of Europe’s most valuable tech firms, valued at 12 billion euros for military AI software that coordinates drone swarms, shows the scale of capital flowing into autonomous military systems. The ethical guardrails are voluntary. The funding incentives point in one direction.

The race

China demonstrated a motion-controlled humanoid robot for military tasks at an international military cadets event in Nanjing. WuBa Intelligent Tech secured approximately $69 million for its RoboWolf quadrupeds, backed by NORINCO, the state-owned defence conglomerate. The Pentagon added Unitree, a consumer robot-dog maker, to its Chinese Military Companies list in February 2026. War on the Rocks reported on a hidden system turning Chinese technology companies into military suppliers. Viral videos purporting to show a Chinese humanoid robot army were debunked by France 24 as AI-generated fakes, but the fakes themselves reflect the narrative arms race: the perception that a country is building robot soldiers may matter as much as the reality in shaping defence budgets and procurement decisions.

Russia has established an Unmanned Systems Forces as a new military branch, is deploying the Kurier autonomous mortar system that loads and fires without human input, and is rapidly expanding its ground drone fleet in Ukraine. Neither country has deployed humanoid robots in combat. The military robotics that are actually in use, on both sides of the Ukraine war and in US border patrol and base security operations, are wheeled, tracked, or quadruped. They succeed because they are simple, cheap, and expendable. A bipedal humanoid that costs $150,000 and falls over on rough terrain is none of those things. Defence tech venture capital hit a record $49.1 billion in 2025, nearly double the prior year, and Goldman Sachs projects 50,000 to 100,000 humanoid robots shipped globally in 2026 across all sectors. Surging defence stocks that signal huge potential for military tech startups have created a funding environment where the pitch “humanoid robot soldiers” opens cheque books. Whether the technology justifies the pitch is a question the battlefield will answer, and the battlefield, so far, favours wheels over legs.

After 15 years as Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook will be stepping down from the role in September. 

On the latest episode of TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, Kirsten Korosec, Sean O’Kane, and I discussed Apple’s big announcement. We reflected on how Apple has changed since Cook took over from Steve Jobs in 2011, and what challenges incoming CEO John Ternus will be facing.

“If you look at a certain camp, it is very much like, ‘John Ternus is a product guy and this is going to be amazing’ and it’s very nostalgic and going back to Steve Jobs,” Kirsten said. “But I think what people forget is that Tim Cook actually made another product, which was completely around operations.”

Similarly,  Sean noted that Cook has given Ternus a strong “running start” as “the company’s numbers just sort of keep going up.” But a running start doesn’t guarantee victory: “How much volatility is around the corner? Are we really looking at a situation [with] the breaking apart of a global economy, along with the rise of artificial intelligence changing how business gets done?”

Keep reading for a preview — edited for length and clarity — of our full conversation.

Anthony: The decisions that Apple makes also trickle down to a bunch of other companies, because there are all kinds of startups that maybe don’t build their entire business on the iOS platform, but certainly a significant part of their business comes on the iPhone.

Kirsten: I think it’s been really interesting to see the different pockets of the tech world responding to whether this is a good or bad move and [asking] what were the successes of Tim Cook and what does Apple need now?

If you look at a certain camp, it is very much like, “John Ternus is a product guy and this is going to be amazing” and it’s very nostalgic and going back to Steve Jobs. But I think what people forget is that Tim Cook actually made another product, which was completely around operations. And there has been some really interesting coverage, in even books that have done deep dives into this. His operations strategy is an Apple product. And it changed whole economies. 

The question to me is: What happens when a strategist and operations guy leaves? Who is filling that void? Because you can make great products, and that’s very important in the Apple universe for sure. But you need to have an operations strategy. And the world is changing, it isn’t the same as it was when Tim Cook was first building this out.

Sean: It isn’t, but  it’s hard to imagine a better running start to get as a new CEO than the company that Tim Cook has built. 

As much as people complain about some of Apple’s products stagnating, the iPhone hasn’t really changed the design in many generations, whatever new products you do get are very kind of niche and overthought, like the Vision Pro —  for all of that, the company’s numbers just sort of keep going up. They’re bringing in a ton of revenue. They make an incredible amount of money from the services business that Tim Cook spun up. 

They’re doing, in some ways, better brand-building than in a while, by even going out and making content, like winning an Oscar for a movie, there’s just so much going on. And it seems like such a sturdy business, even in turbulent times, that Ternus can not have to worry about what the first year looks like. 

We should say: Tim Cook is resigning as CEO in September this year. He’s also going to be executive chairman. So I think the idea here is, Tim Cook’s not going away and he’s still going to be your sort of shield against, and also sort of partner with, the Trump administration. Because he certainly has proved his ability to do that — sacrificing, I think, what many people would argue are some of Apple’s values in the process, in order to make sure those relationships are durable enough. Donald Trump even put a Truth Social post out about how Tim Cook kisses his ass all the time, in response to this news. 

So the question, with all that said, is: As comfortable a start as this probably is for Ternus, how much volatility is around the corner? Are we really looking at a situation [with] the breaking apart of a global economy, along with the rise of artificial intelligence changing how business gets done? Is that something that’s really going to be easy for him to handle? And who is he going to put alongside him to make sure he’s able to handle it?

Anthony: And I think related to that is the question [is,] Apple seems to have a very durable business right now, both on the hardware side and increasingly on the service side, but to what extent can it continue to have that business just playing the old hits? At what point does it actually need to create a new product category?

I don’t know the exact answer to that. And maybe the iPhone [and] the creation of the smartphone category, in particular, is a once-in-a-generation kind of thing, you can’t really expect that to happen every 10 years or more.

I think there’s also this interesting question around AI. It seems like that is not a category that Apple has had a lot of success in, and maybe that’s okay. Maybe whatever products end up breaking through there, that’s just software on your iPhone, on your MacBook, and Apple is fine not having to build all of that [and] instead doing these partnerships like it’s doing. 

But I don’t think that’s guaranteed. I think there’s probably a lot of stress and concern about what that future looks like.

Kirsten: Just really quickly, I was going to say that also Apple can and does have the cash on hand to make some big bets and acquisitions. And I’ll be really curious to see how John [Ternus] executes on that.

I mean, one of the places where I reported on Apple was the special projects team, Project Titan, the supposed Apple car, and that seems to have petered out and a lot of money was spent on that. Is he going to make any big bets? 

You guys were talking about cash on hand, and I think it’s more than $45 billion at the end of 2025. So they have a lot of money to play around with. Is he going to do anything with it in the near term?

Sean: The other thing I think we should point out is, as we talk about Apple having a durable business, the App Store is also really crushing it lately. Sarah Perez wrote a really good story this week for us about all the different ways that numbers are up in the App Store — installs, new releases to the App Store, it’s just a really fascinating look for anybody who wants to dig into some data of one of the biggest sort of software marketplaces in the world.

In a world where everybody’s talking about how your ability to vibe code anything is going to remove the need for distributed software, [the App Store] is clearly proving that wrong.

from the so-you-say dept

This week, our first place winner on the insightful side is Thad with a comment about Palantir’s general creepiness:

I mean, yeah, the name of their company is basically “I read Lord of the Rings and wanted to be Sauron.”

In second place, it’s MrWilson with a comment about Arkansas’s latest failed attempt to pass an unconstitutional social media law:

This is another one of those scenarios where it functionally doesn’t matter if the sponsors/authors of such bills are constitutionally illiterate or maliciously anti-constitutional. The result is the same. It’s at least performative for voters and campaign donors that you’re “doing something,” but if it passes, and it doesn’t get struck down immediately, and it has confusing and contradictory language, that’s a feature, not a bug. If the social media companies can’t figure out how to legally offer their services to children, they’ll opt out of doing so entirely—the same way the demise of Section 230 would require shutting down user input to avoid massive lawsuit damages. That’s a win for authoritarian conservatives who want to control narratives and legitimize only their preferred propaganda outlets. Notice that no censorial conservative legislator writes has their lobbyists write a law targeting Truth Social’s practices.

For editor’s choice on the insightful side, we start out with an anonymous comment about a certain type of person that’s well-represented in the Palantir crowd:

They all think they’re John Galt personified

I expect everyone to read “Atlas Shrugged” when they’re a teenager.

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And by the time they’re in their early or mid 20’s, I expect them to have acquired the intellectual maturity to figure out that it’s absolute bullshit from cover to cover.

Those who are incapable of this tend to try to use it as an instruction manual and cast themselves as saviors of the people, fearless leaders whose lofty goals must triumph, blah blah blah. As the best line in a series of bad movies observes: “There are always men like you.”

Next, it’s another comment from Thad, this time about Netgear’s mysterious exemption to the Trump FCC’s router ban:

Is it bribes?

I bet it’s bribes.

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Over on the funny side, our first place winner is an anonymous reply to a tiresome rant that accused Techdirt of falling for propaganda:

Are you a vampire?

Because damn, that’s a complete lack of self-reflection you have there.

In second place, it’s another anonymous comment, this time about the gross camaraderie on display at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner:

I imagine their laughter sounds like a ‘collaboration’ of turkey noises.

‘Gobbels Gobbels Gobbels!’

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For editor’s choice on the funny side, we start out with a comment from dfbomb about Minnesota manners:

Ah, I see, a non-native. Let me explain local culture and language:

Much like a Hawaiian “Aloha”, in Minnesotan “Fuck ICE” is both “hello” and “goodbye.”

Finally, it’s one last comment from Thad, this time about the Fifth Circuit ruling that Texas’s ten commandments law is constitutional:

Sounds like the Satanic Temple’s time to shine.

That’s all for this week, folks!