If someone has posted intimate pictures or videos of you online, you now have stronger legal tools to compel platforms to remove them, regardless of whether the media is authentic or an AI-generated deepfake.
Tuesday marks the start of full enforcement of the Take It Down Act, which legally requires online platforms — social media, messaging, and image-sharing or video-sharing apps — to implement processes for removing such material in response to valid takedown requests.
Signed into law in 2025, the Take It Down Act was written in response to the increased proliferation of AI-generated and digitally manipulated sexual images. The law, enforced by the Federal Trade Commission, also applies to authentic nonconsensual intimate imagery shared online.
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Zooey Liao/CNET
The FTC isn’t directly responsible for the content removal. Affected individuals must first report the images to the platform administrator via the platform’s on-site tools. The agency will collect reports about platforms that do not comply with the law’s removal requirements, and may use those reports to support enforcement.
The FTC allows individuals to report nonconsensual intimate imagery involving themselves or their children. Reports may also be submitted on a victim’s behalf with their consent.
The agency also recommends reporting such incidents to local law enforcement and the FBI’s online tipline when appropriate.
FTC representatives pointed CNET to its press release and didn’t comment further.
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How to file a Take It Down request
If someone has shared nonconsensual intimate images of you online, the first step is to report the content directly to the platform using its built-in moderation tools.
On platforms like Instagram and X, you can usually tap the three-dot menu on a post to access reporting options and select a category related to nonconsensual or sexually explicit imagery.
The FTC’s Take It Down Act has a website where you can submit a report if platforms haven’t removed nonconsensual sexual imagery.
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Federal Trade Commission
Every platform should have similar reporting tools. The new legislation mandates that the platform must remove the images within 48 hours of a valid report.
If a platform fails to act on a report of nonconsensual intimate imagery, or if reporting tools are unavailable or malfunctioning, victims can file a complaint with the FTC online. The agency may use complaints to identify patterns of noncompliance and pursue enforcement actions against platforms that fail to meet their legal obligations. If an image reappears on a platform, you can submit a new takedown request to the platform.
FTC outlines the steps to submit a report.
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Federal Trade Commission
Sexually explicit material involving minors is treated as child sexual abuse material and is subject to stricter legal requirements. It should also be reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s Cyber Tipline. The FTC also encourages people who know about existing pornographic images of minors — whether they be pictures of themselves, their children or another vulnerable minor — to submit a request with the NCMEC’s own Take It Down service.
If a platform doesn’t remove nonconsensual intimate imagery, additional tools are available. One option is StopNCII.org, a system run in partnership with the Revenge Porn Helpline that creates a digital fingerprint of an image on the user’s device so participating platforms can detect and block it from being uploaded again.
S. “Soma” Somasegar at Microsoft in 2014, giving a tour of the revamped Developer Division offices. (GeekWire File Photo / Todd Bishop)
S. “Soma” Somasegar, a fixture in the Seattle tech community who led Microsoft’s Developer Division as part of his 27-year tenure at the company before supporting a generation of cloud and AI startups as an investor, board member and advisor, has passed away.
The news was confirmed Tuesday afternoon by Microsoft and Madrona, the Seattle-based venture capital firm where Somasegar had been a key figure for the past 11 years.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, who first met Somasegar at Microsoft in the early 1990s, remembered him in a statement as “a remarkable leader who helped grow and shape Microsoft’s developer ecosystem, and a dear friend and colleague that I valued greatly.”
“He brought depth, humility, and a real commitment to empowering developers everywhere and his impact on Microsoft and the broader technology community will live on!” Nadella said.
Somasegar was 59. No cause of death was given. He is survived by his wife, Akila, and two daughters.
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“Soma was beloved by so many people in all aspects of his life, and he had such a generous spirit for helping others,” said Matt McIlwain, Madrona managing director. “We are deeply saddened by this loss, most importantly for his wife and his two beloved daughters.”
McIlwain added, “We are focusing on supporting his family, the Madrona team and all those who knew and loved Soma, including the broader Microsoft community.”
Tuesday evening on its website, Madrona posted an initial tribute to Somasegar, saying, in part: “We all loved Soma, as everyone who knew him did.”
On a personal level, Nadella and his wife, Anu, formed a close friendship with Soma and Akila over the decades. Nadella and Somasegar were among a group of tech leaders who co-own the Seattle Orcas, a professional cricket team based in the region.
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“For Anu and me, this loss is very personal,” Nadella said. “Soma was there for us during some of the toughest moments in our lives, always with quiet strength, kindness, and a sense of steadiness we depended on. We will miss him very much.”
From Puducherry to Seattle
Born Aug. 13, 1966, in the southern Indian coastal town of Puducherry, Sivaramakrishnan Somasegar — known throughout his life by the nickname “Soma” — grew up in a household where education came before everything else, according to a 2008 profile in Mint, the Indian business newspaper. His father worked as a technician at a hospital, his mother stayed home, and neither had attended college.
“Food was a secondary priority in our house because education was a first priority,” Somasegar recalled in a 2024 oral history conducted for the Microsoft Alumni Network. “Whatever little I’ve done so far, it’s a direct result of that.”
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He arrived in the U.S. in 1987 to pursue a master’s in computer engineering at Louisiana State University, having mistaken the “LA” in his admission letter for Los Angeles. He realized his mistake only as the plane was landing in New Orleans, he recounted in the oral history.
After 18 months at LSU, Somasegar enrolled in a PhD program at the State University of New York at Buffalo. He left after a single harsh winter semester to join Microsoft, arriving in Redmond on Jan. 23, 1989 — a date he remembered precisely decades later.
He joined the OS/2 team as a software design engineer in test, working on memory management and file systems. Within six months, Microsoft’s relationship with IBM on the joint OS/2 project was fraying, and Somasegar was drafted in March 1990 onto what would become one of the most consequential projects in the company’s history: Windows NT.
Somasegar spent his first decade at Microsoft on the NT team, ultimately contributing to eight releases of the Windows operating system, as recounted in a 2015 GeekWire “Geek of the Week” profile. He rose from software design engineer to test lead to test manager.
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During the NT years, Somasegar designed the team’s overnight stress test program and ran the daily reliability check himself, arriving around 5:30 a.m. to walk the halls, leave yellow sticky notes on crashed machines, and report findings at the 9 a.m. bug meeting.
He also founded Microsoft’s India Development Center in Hyderabad in 1998, which has grown into one of the company’s largest engineering operations outside the United States. Especially given his roots, he often called the India effort one of his proudest contributions to Microsoft.
By the time Windows Server 2003 shipped, Somasegar had risen to vice president. In December 2003, Microsoft’s then-server and tools chief Eric Rudder asked him to take over the Developer Division — the group responsible for Visual Studio, .NET, and the tools used by millions of software developers.
Somasegar held the role for the next 12 years, eventually as senior vice president. Under his leadership, the division extended its reach from Windows into mobile and the cloud.
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In 2014, Somasegar was an internal advocate and leader for Microsoft’s decision to open-source the .NET core server runtime and framework, a surprise move that marked a significant shift in the company’s approach toward the broader developer world.
At Madrona, Somasegar focused on early-stage investments in cloud infrastructure, developer tools, AI, and what the firm calls intelligent applications.
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He led or played a key role in Madrona’s investments in Snowflake, UiPath, Pulumi, Statsig, Common Room, Rhythms, and RelationalAI, among others. Several became multibillion-dollar companies. Statsig was acquired by OpenAI for $1.1 billion in 2025.
Somasegar also served on the boards of UiPath and other portfolio companies.
He remained an active writer and commentator on the industry, including a February 2024 GeekWire guest post reflecting on Satya Nadella’s decade as Microsoft CEO and their friendship that began at Microsoft in 1992. He conducted interviews and served as the primary on-stage host of Madrona’s IA Summit in downtown Seattle last fall.
Just this week, Somasegar was named to Business Insider’s Seed 100 list of the best early-stage investors of 2026.
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Beyond venture capital, startups and technology, Somasegar was deeply involved in Seattle’s sports and cultural community. In addition to co-owning the Seattle Orcas, he was part of the ownership group of the Seattle Sounders FC.
Ed Lazowska, the longtime University of Washington computer science professor and a fixture in Seattle’s tech community, said Somasegar’s spirit fit a tradition going back to Madrona’s earliest days.
“Soma was a wonderful human being, in the tradition of the four Madrona co-founders,” Lazowska said, referencing Tom Alberg, Jerry Grinstein, Bill Ruckelshaus, and Paul Goodrich.
In one of his last extended conversations with GeekWire, recorded earlier this year at Madrona’s 30th anniversary celebration, Somasegar reflected on the venture firm’s role in the region and its philosophy of being a “trusted partner” to founders from day one.
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He spoke about being part of an early Madrona-led effort during the pandemic that helped raise more than $25 million for the All In Seattle campaign to support those impacted by homelessness and other community needs.
“We have a day job. We want to be the best venture capital guys,” he said. “But we are also all about the community. We are about embracing the community.”
Nadella said he will remember Somasegar’s “warmth, his thoughtful advice, and the integrity he brought to everything he did.”
“Our thoughts are with Akila and his daughters, and with everyone who had the privilege of knowing him,” he said. “He will be deeply missed and remembered for all he did and contributed to our industry and our community.”
BrianFagioli shares a report from NERDS.xyz: Plex is raising the price of a new Lifetime Plex Pass from $249.99 to $749.99 on July 1. That’s a $500 increase for media server software. Plex says it needs the money for “long-term development” and future features, but a lot of self-hosting folks are already wondering if this is basically a soft way of killing the Lifetime option without officially removing it. At nearly $750, are people just going to move to Jellyfin instead? As for those future improvements, Plex said the roadmap includes better downloads support, restored music and photo library support in mobile apps, NFO metadata support, IPv6 support, playlist editing on mobile, audio enhancements, and transcoding improvements.
SiliconRepublic.com has asked Meta about the extent of layoffs in Ireland.
Meta is reportedly reassigning 7,000 workers to new, more AI-aligned roles, just ahead of the sweeping layoffs expected at the company tomorrow (20 May).
According to a memo, first reported by Reuters, Meta’s human resources head Janelle Gale said that the new corporate structure will be “flatter”, with “smaller teams”.
“As org leaders worked on the changes, many of them incorporated AI-native design principles into their new org structures,” she wrote.
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“We’re now at the stage where many orgs can operate with a flatter structure with smaller teams of pods/cohorts that can move faster and with more ownership.”
New departments where employees are being transferred include Applied AI Engineering, Agent Transformation Accelerator XFN, Central Analytics and Enterprise Solutions.
This comes as workers at the company are reportedly dissatisfied with leaders over recent moves, leading to angry internal communications and a petition against Meta’s mouse-tracking software used to train the company’s AI models.
Meta’s work structure overhaul comes after the company decided to cut 8,000 jobs – or 10pc of its workforce – last month, in an effort to mitigate its AI-related expenses. 6,000 planned recruitments at the company have also been halted as a result.
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Current headcount at Meta stands at 77,986 as of 31 March, with around 1,800 in Ireland. SiliconRepublic.com has asked Meta about the extent of layoffs in Ireland.
The social media giant’s move reflects the growing importance AI is taking at the workplace – no longer merely an optional tool used to improve productivity.
Earlier this year, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that 2026 might be the year “AI starts to dramatically change the way that we work”.
Block head and chair Jack Dorsey said that a “majority of companies” would reach similar conclusions to his around smaller teams and make similar structural changes “within the next year”.
As one of the biggest AI spenders, Meta recently upgraded its capital expenditure budget to $145bn. The company said the expanded budget would help fund its Superintelligence Labs efforts, higher component pricing and additional data centre costs.
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Don’t miss out on the knowledge you need to succeed. Sign up for the Daily Brief, Silicon Republic’s digest of need-to-know sci-tech news.
Focal’s second wireless ANC headphones continue the luxury feel, with a more comfortable design, long battery life, more refined sound and very good call quality. ANC isn’t quite to the same level however, and those in need of a more emphatic bass performance should probably look elsewhere.
Refined, insightful sound over Bathys
Strong wireless performance
Long battery life
Very good call quality
Comfortable to wear
Bathys offer better ANC
Not quite as big an upgrade as price would suggest
Vegans won’t dig the use of real leather
A little lacklustre at default volumes
Key Features
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Review Price:
£999
M-Shaped dome driver
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Magnesium drivers for a “natural, highly accurate sound reproduction”
Battery life
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30 hours over a wireless connection
Bluetooth
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aptX Adaptive support with Android devices
Introduction
Focal’s Bathys are a stellar pair of wireless headphones. Unique looks, effective noise-cancellation, great sound. Where do you go next? For Focal, the direction of travel is up, not down.
The Bathys MG carry a bigger price tag, luxury materials, as well as improvements to the sound with the introduction of Focal’s M-shaped domes – its Magnesium speaker drivers – to push forward in its pursuit of higher fidelity sound.
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The £999 / $1299 price clearly indicates that this is in the realm of the luxury headphone market, even more so than the AirPods Max 2. Does the Focal Bathys not only warrant a high price tag, but deliver on expectations? Let’s delve in.
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Design
One finish available
Real leather
Physical controls
The Focal Bathys MG looks similar enough to the Bathys that you might assume it to be a redo of the less expensive model. The shape and size are basically the same, the weight (350g) carries over, and the button design features are the same. The obvious change is the colour, the Bathys MG trading the black, silver and ‘dune’ finishes for a warm chestnut look.
The bathysphere circular indentations make for a unique look (inspired by Focal’s Clear MG headphones), and the flame logo can light up which has, on occasion, brought some glances (and curious smiles) as I wore the headphones in public. The Bathys MG is a pair of headphones intent on being seen.
Image Credit (Trusted Reviews)
Like with the original Bathys, the headphones can’t be collapsed or folded; so if you want to keep them safe and free from blemishes, there’s a hard carry case for added security, and accessories include a USB-C and 3.5mm cables for wired listening, the former supports audio up to 24-bit/192kHz.
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Comfort-wise, the Bathys MG are more comfortable to wear, though vegans can probably check out of this review now as the headphones use genuine leather for the headband. The earpads offer a nice plush feel when they meet the head while the Bathys’ earcups feel more stiffer. The clamping force initially feels tighter but keeps the headphones feeling secure on the head. That they weigh 350g and don’t feel onerous on the head is a good sign.
Image Credit (Trusted Reviews)
The earpads are replaceable – simply snap them out and press them back in again. The buttons are the same, which is a little disappointing. For a premium pair of headphones, the controls don’t feel too premium, and often I’m having to search for the playback button in between the volume buttons to pause and play.
Another slight annoyance is the USB-C cable, which, when plugging into my Lenovo laptop, requires a hard shove to snap into place, something I’ve not had to do with other USB-C cables.
Image Credit (Trusted Reviews)
Features
aptX Bluetooth
MFi certification
Focal & Naim app support
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There’s Bluetooth 5.2 connectivity, and honestly, I can’t recall any issues with connection drops in big cities. It’s performed as expected.
Bluetooth can stream SBC, AAC, aptX, and aptX Adaptive, or, with the built-in DAC, you can play audio via a USB-C connection. There’s Google Fast Pair for quickly connecting to an Android device, and there’s Bluetooth multipoint for connecting to two devices at once.
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There’s no room this time for Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant (or Gemini), but the headphones can count on ‘Made for iPhone’ certification, so there’s the likelihood of Siri support.
Image Credit (Trusted Reviews)
The Focal / Naim app is a simple affair without many features. You can customise the sound with the choice of three presets (Home, Dynamic, Loudness) or the five-band EQ. With Mimi’s Hearing ID you can tailor a sound that’s fit for your hearing range once you’ve gone through its test.
There are three noise-cancelling modes to choose from in Silent, Soft and Transparent. You can change the intensity of the backlight from Off, Dim or Bright, and you can monitor battery life and which audio stream the headphones are playing in. Hidden away in the settings is Sidetone so you can hear more of your voice for calls.
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Image Credit (Trusted Reviews)
Battery Life
30 hours of battery life
Fast charging support
Focal quotes 30 hours for the Bathys MG, and like the Bathys, they are headphones that have more battery life than the Energiser bunny.
Image Credit (Trusted Reviews)
Five hours into a battery drain and they were still at 100%, at which point I decided I didn’t need to continue on and on. They’ll last for a while before they need a top-up, at least with that aptX Adaptive connection present.
And if the battery life does fall precipitously – well, there’s fast charging to the rescue, with 15 minutes offering another five hours (no different than before).
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Noise Cancelling
Adaptive ANC
Three modes to choose from
You might think that more expensive headphones should offer a better noise-cancelling experience. After all, shouldn’t there be better tech than you would get even than, say, the Sony WH-1000XM6? Not quite.
If anything, the more expensive a headphone is, the more focus is paid to the tuning of the sound, and the presence of noise cancellation can affect the fidelity. More expensive headphones don’t always have better ANC.
Image Credit (Trusted Reviews)
And the same is true of the Focal Bathys MG, which puts in a respective effort, but not one that’s going to leave you in a bubble of silence. It puts a shift in and gets rid of sounds on planes, public transport and walking around cities. I can play music without having to resort to raising the volume level to hear it.
It’s not as good as the original Bathys, perhaps because the noise-isolating earpads do a better job, but the level of suppression is slightly weaker. The Soft mode is less suppressive and acts as a go-between Silent and Transparent, but it’s still a mode where I’m not sure what function it’s meant to fulfil.
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Image Credit (Trusted Reviews)
The Transparency mode has a tendency to amplify sounds. What’s around me is often raised to volumes louder than they are than what I’m hearing with the headphones off. If you want to catch an announcement or hear what someone is saying, then it’ll work, no problem.
Call quality is very good, better than the Bowers & Wilkins Px8 S2. The microphones are doing something to my voice but it still comes through clearly to the other end of the line. No noise was heard throughout the call, so it seems to be latching onto my voice and rejecting noise well.
Sound Quality
Clear, detailed, and insightful
Focal’s M-dome driver
Built-in DAC
I went into the Bathys MG thinking that it’d be clear leaps and bounds over the Bathys. That isn’t quite the case, with the Bathys MG offering a more refined sound and a greater sense of control, but there are some differences in the makeup of the sound.
I’ll get to those differences a little later, but what the Focal Bathys MG does offer is a big, wide soundstage that’s both spacious and gentle sounding – it has an airiness to its presentation that’s engaging – but the volume needs to be pushed up a few levels because at default volume the soundstage can sound reined in and a little distant compared to the Bathys.
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It’s not the biggest bass performance with GoGo Penguin’s Ascent, but balance and control seem to be the watchwords for the Bathys MG in the same way as they were with the Bathys.
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Image Credit (Trusted Reviews)
If thump and obvious low-end prowess are what you’re after from a pair of headphones, the Bathys MG aren’t necessarily complicit in offering that type of sound. There’s weight to the lows, but not quite as much punch, power and extension to the bass that some may crave, in a similar way as the Sennheiser HDB 630 (at half the price).
It’s not the most energetic of sounds, but like many premium wireless headphones, there’s refined elegance and comfort to the sound that means you can keep listening for some time. The highs are bright and detailed, varied in tone, and the Bathys MG relays them with precision and clarity. There’s a slight warmth that makes the audio performance of these headphones go down like some hot cocoa (not my preference).
The headphones don’t raise background noise to obvious levels like the Px8 S2 can; the midrange is smooth, clear, and natural in tone. The Bathys MG is very good with vocals – whether it’s Natalia Imbruglia’s in Torn, Sufjan Stevens’ Chicago, Phoebe Bridgers’ Garden Song or Chris Cornell’s voice in Black Hole Sun. It strikes a pleasing and insightful tone with their inflexions that sounds ‘true’.
Image Credit (Trusted Reviews)
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These headphones aren’t an energy monster compared to the Bowers & Wilkins Px8 S2. Dynamic swings sound smaller rather than larger; the headphones aren’t as aggressive at revealing every bit of detail in a track – they are more laid-back and lush in performance. Music is filtered through Focal’s tastes, rather than the headphones adapting to the music you’re playing.
Compared to the Bathys, the original pair are more energetic, especially at default volumes, which makes the Bathys MG sound quieter and more subdued. With Illit’s Magnetic, there’s more energy and thrust to the presentation on the older pair, but there are areas where the Bathys MG tightens and refines its performance.
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Bass performance feels the same in terms of weight and extension but there’s an argument that a little clarity and separation from the mids is extracted from the Bathys MG. There’s a clarity across the frequency range, a couple of levels more insight and detail retrieved from tracks that makes the older model sound a little coarse in the midrange.
Image Credit (Trusted Reviews)
The biggest change is in the highs, which are brighter, clearer, more detailed, and more natural-sounding, thanks to the introduction of Focal’s M-shaped dome drivers. There’s more sparkle to the highs that makes the Bathys a little more dulled.
But where the Bathys MG put in their best performance is over a wired USB-C connection. Switch to its DAC mode, and what I felt was slightly lacking in the wireless performance is more than made up for over USB-C.
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The warmth I heard over wireless connection is replaced by a more neutral tone that’s clearer, more detailed and packs a much stronger bass performance than listening over Bluetooth seems to muster.
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Image Credit (Trusted Reviews)
The sub-bass that was lacking in Warren G’s Regulate is found here, with a better sense of bass depth and extension while maintaining the clarity and naturalism of the vocals. There’s more dynamism and inflexion with Phoebe Bridgers’ vocals in Garden Song; the sound is more upfront, bringing the detail in tracks closer to my ears.
There’s a brighter sense of brightness and clarity at the top end of the frequency range with GoGo Penguin’s Ascent, but no sense of any loss of control. Bass is weighty, and there’s more dynamism – this is the sound I was hoping for from the wireless performance from the off.
Compared to the 3.5mm option, the USB-C mode offers more energy and spice – the 3.5mm input is analogue and doesn’t use the built-in DAC. The USB mode presents music with more energy, a better sense of scale and is ‘louder’. This mode is the best way to hear what the Bathys MG has to offer.
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Should you buy it?
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Luxury looks and high fidelity sound
The promise of the original Bathys is extended with the Bathys MG, with a design that’s more comfortable and a little more opulent, married with a more revealing, insightful sound (once the volume is given a nudge).
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There are better options for ANC for much less
The Focal Bathys offer better noise-cancellation, but if ANC is the main reason for your purchase, then the likes of the Sony WH-1000XM6 and Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones Gen 2 are better options.
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Final Thoughts
At £999 / $1299, you’re perhaps assuming a performance that meets the price expectations. The Bathys MG doesn’t quite deliver on those expectations, but that’s not to say they’re not a very fine pair of wireless headphones.
Compared to original, the Bathys MG sound better and are more comfortable to wear. The battery life is similar, and the call quality is very good. The spec sheet matches the Bathys, and perhaps I assumed the Bathys MG would further push the boundaries of wireless headphones. The noise cancellation is no better than the Bathys’, if not slightly worse.
An upgrade in some ways, the Focal Bathys MG are an improvement, though I can’t help wanting more. Nevertheless, these are high-fidelity, high-quality wireless headphones. If you want to listen in luxury, be sure to make an appointment with the Focal Bathys MG.
How We Test
The Focal Bathys MG were tested over the course of two months with real world testing, and compared to other noise-cancelling headphones.
A battery drain was carried to test battery life, calls made in outdoor spaces, and the headphones were tested in wireless and wired configurations.
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Tested for two months
Tested with real world use
Battery drain carried out
FAQs
How many colours does the Bathys MG come in?
There’s only one colour currently available for the Bathys MG, which Focal calls a Chestnut finish.
Full Specs
Focal Bathys MG Review
UK RRP
£999
USA RRP
$1299
Manufacturer
Focal
IP rating
No
Battery Hours
30
Fast Charging
Yes
Weight
350 G
Release Date
2025
Audio Resolution
SBC, AAC, aptX, aptX HD, aptX Adaptive
Driver (s)
40mm Magnesium speaker drivers with ‘M’-shaped domes,
Users claim personal family domains are being falsely flagged for commercial use, leaving long-time G Suite Legacy customers facing a pay-up-or-lose-access ultimatum
Google is warning some long-time G Suite Legacy users that they must start paying for Workspace subscriptions or lose access to Gmail, Drive, Calendar, and other core services, after the company flagged their accounts as “commercial use.”
A reader alerted The Register to what appears to be a new crackdown on long-standing G Suite Legacy accounts, with similar complaints now piling up on Reddit from users accused of violating Google’s non-commercial use policy, despite insisting they use the accounts only for family email and personal domains.
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Reports have been stacking up on Reddit’s r/gsuitelegacymigration subreddit from users who say their long-running personal G Suite Legacy accounts are suddenly being classified as “commercial use” accounts and pushed toward paid Google Workspace plans by May 2026.
A lot of users have been through this before. Google spent part of 2022 trying to wind down free G Suite Legacy accounts, then changed course after users running family domains made enough noise.
Now some of those same users are being told they have fallen outside Google’s rules after all.
Emails seen by The Register warn users their accounts have been “identified as being used for commercial purposes” and say Google may start suspending Gmail, Calendar, Drive, Meet, and other Workspace services if they do not either win an appeal or begin paying for Workspace subscriptions.
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“Please upgrade to a paid Google Workspace subscription to continue using your services. Look out for a notification regarding the appeal process in Google Admin console or email,” the email reads. “If you don’t take action during your 45-day appeal period, Google will begin suspending your Google Workspace core services, including Gmail, Calendar, Drive, and Meet. As a result, you will lose access to these core services and data.”
In a statement to The Register, a Google Workspace spokesperson said: “G Suite legacy free edition is intended for personal non-commercial use. If users are identified as commercial users, we are enforcing our existing policy and helping them transition to a Google Workspace subscription. Anyone who believes their account has been identified as being used for commercial purposes in error can file an appeal.”
The trouble, according to users, is that the appeals system appears about as transparent as a brick.
One Reddit user said their appeal was initially denied despite “none” of the account activity being commercial. After filing a GDPR subject access request asking Google to provide evidence of business use, the user said the company abruptly reversed course the following day and restored the account.
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Others say they were not so lucky. One UK-based user whose appeal failed accused Google of relying on vague “signals” data and effectively trapping users into accidentally linking personal accounts to business activity. Another said their family-only custom domain, used solely for relatives’ email accounts and with no commercial activity, was permanently classified as business use despite an appeal.
Some users suspect the enforcement may be tied to custom domains that have at some point been associated with public business listings, websites, or Google Business profiles. Google has not explained what specifically triggers the bans.
The move also lands days after Google quietly began testing a 5 GB storage cap for some users who decline to add phone numbers to their accounts, suggesting the company’s definition of “free” continues to come with increasingly creative terms and conditions. ®
Google is expanding how users discover apps and games on Google Play, with a series of new features announced at I/O 2026 that lean heavily on AI and short-form video.
Discovery beyond the store
The biggest shift is Google Play’s integration with the Gemini app. In the coming weeks, Google will enable app discovery in the Gemini app on Android and the web, connecting apps and games to Gemini users.
Google
Later this year, Gemini will also start surfacing over 450,000 movies and TV shows, as well as where to stream live sports, and deep-link users directly into app content. The move reflects how Google is positioning Gemini as a discovery layer for apps, games, and other content on Google Play.
New ways to browse on Play
Google is also introducing Play Shorts, a short-form video feed built into its app store. The full-screen, portrait video feed will give users a quick preview of the app’s look, feel, and functionality. Play Shorts is rolling out to US users and select developers, with broader market availability planned for later.
Google
On the search side, Google is introducing Ask Play, a conversational AI overlay for finding apps. The company says Ask Play understands the full context of a user’s question and adapts to follow-ups to recommend the right app. A companion feature called Ask Play highlights will give users a high-level summary of complex searches directly on the search results page.
Google
Google is also updating its Play Games Sidekick overlay with new social features, including the ability for players to see which friends are playing the same game and track their achievements, with a global rollout planned for this summer.
The Play updates are part of a broader push by Google to extend the store’s reach beyond its own surface, as AI assistants increasingly become where users start their searches for new apps, games, and content.
Claude maker nabs SDK and MCP tooling biz, plans to sunset platform
Anthropic is acquiring Stainless, a maker of software development tools that counts rivals OpenAI and Google as clients.
The deal, reportedly for more than $300 million, demonstrates Anthropic’s continued interest in exercising greater control over the AI technical stack and suggests that speculation about the commodification of models is on the mark. Frontier models will not be so strong that they serve as a moat or barrier to competition, but the tooling and workflow around those models should provide some cover.
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Anthropic has made several recent acquisitions that give it more say in the software that orchestrates model input, output, and tool calls. In December, it snarfed Bun, a JavaScript runtime, package manager, and test runner. Two months later, it bought Vercept, a company focused on AI-mediated computer usage. In April, it admitted healthcare AI startup Coefficient Bio into the fold. Enter Stainless.
“Hundreds of companies rely on Stainless to generate SDKs, CLIs, and MCP servers – the libraries, command-line tools, and connectors that let developers and agents use an API,” Anthropic said in its announcement. “Stainless turns an API spec into SDKs across TypeScript, Python, Go, Java, Kotlin, and more.”
SDKs are sticky. Whoever ships the cleanest one wins the long tail of developer mindshare
One of those hundreds of companies is OpenAI – its Python, Node, Java, Go, and Ruby clients are based on SDKs generated by Stainless. With Stainless now planning to shutter its platform on September 1, 2026, OpenAI and other industry customers will have to shoulder the burden of maintaining existing SDKs and find equivalent tools elsewhere.
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It should be noted that OpenAI in March agreed to acquire Python tool maker Astral, one of six such deals this year. So far, the Astral acquisition hasn’t affected the ability of Anthropic or developers to use Astral’s tooling.
Jan Schmitz, who runs AI analytics biz BrightBean, described the Stainless acquisition as both offensive and defensive.
“By acquiring the SDK infrastructure used across the industry, Anthropic gets visibility into how competitors evolve their APIs, even if only through generator usage patterns, and it gains the ability to set the pace on integration tooling,” he said in a blog post.
“The defensive read: If OpenAI or Google had bought Stainless first, the damage to Anthropic’s developer ecosystem would have been worse. SDKs are sticky. Whoever ships the cleanest one wins the long tail of developer mindshare.”
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Schmitz also argues that Anthropic sees value in controlling the MCP standard that it proposed and promoted.
“The pattern looks like this: Control the standard by giving it away, then control the implementation by owning the toolchain,” he said, noting that Google followed that playbook with Kubernetes and then making GKE the leading managed version. ®
According to supply chain sources cited by Nikkei Asia, the primary reason behind Intel’s move is supply constraints affecting its older 7nm-class processors, driven largely by surging AI demand. Read Entire Article Source link
Bottoms said Colorado is under siege from a “foreign criminal army” of 45,000 to 50,000 members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua (TdA) operating in Colorado.
When 9NEWS asked Bottoms for evidence of his claim, Bottoms said the information came “from direct conversations with ICE officials about this exact problem in our state.”
Bottoms is fully cooked, it would appear. He’s echoing, amplifying, and exaggerating claims about gang infestations in Colorado that were pushed by Donald Trump during his last election campaign. Those claims were also debunked by local law enforcement officials.
The story hit the national news last year when local media coverage of two robberies and an assault at the complex were amplified by President Trump, who twisted the facts to fuel his campaign for reelection. Trump joined local conservative politicians in spreading the lie of a “complete gang takeover” by Venezuelan immigrants at The Edge apartments – a lie that has been repeatedly debunked by residents and local law enforcement.
Having debunked this once, law enforcement officials in the state are now in the irritating position of needing to debunk this anti-migrant hysteria yet again, thanks to Bottoms and his pathetic attempt to rile up the racism of the voting base he needs to secure if he hopes to become governor.
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First up in the debunking is none other than law enforcement officials working directly for Donald Trump:
A spokesperson for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Denver said its leadership has not had contact with Bottoms.
“HSI Denver and ERO Denver leadership has not met with nor had conversations with Representative Bottoms,” said ICE spokesman Steve Kotecki.
Whoops! That’s got to be pretty awkward for Bottoms, who seemed to assume his willingness to follow Trump down any bigoted rabbit hole would immediately result in his administration supporting his racist assertions about foreign gang infestations.
Bottoms put another hole in his own foot by presuming local law enforcement would back him up if he just made a bunch of shit up and let it dribble out his mouth while standing in front of a live mic. Bottoms claimed — hilariously — that local sheriffs offices were seeking to deputize “special forces veterans” to combat the Tren de Aragua invasion.
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In response to Rep. Bottoms’ attempt to turn his Reddit draft folder rant into reality, a majority of the state’s law enforcement refused to endorse the hallucinations of man who thinks making claims that can immediately be debunked will secure him a majority of votes in the upcoming gubernatorial election.
40 sheriffs from across the political spectrum pushed back on Bottoms’ claims, saying they had not seen evidence of widespread Venezuelan gang activity in their county and directly rejecting the idea of deputizing special forces veterans for an anti-cartel action.
The report says “across the political spectrum,” but two-thirds of the sheriffs quoted are registered as Republicans. It’s probably three-thirds, but the last sheriff quoted has decided to represent himself as “unaffiliated.”
That would be the number of gang members worldwide, according to none other than the Director of National Intelligence. Yep, that’s the same DNI that serves the president who went viral with his claims of TdA takeovers in Aurora, Colorado while on his way to serving a second term. And if an agency pretty much obliged to convert Trump’s bullshit about TdA into facts to justify everything from mass deportations to extrajudicial killings in international waters can’t be bothered to cook the books to this extent, it’s downright embarrassing for a MAGA acolyte like Scott Bottoms to spew easily disproved claims in hopes of scoring a few more far-right votes for himself.
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It’s refreshing to see law enforcement provide immediate pushback against bullshit like this. But you can’t blame Bottoms for bottoming out. After all, the man he worships most delivers outrageous lies on a daily basis, yet somehow retains his position and the support of his party.
A new NYT Strands puzzle appears at midnight each day for your time zone – which means that some people are always playing ‘today’s game’ while others are playing ‘yesterday’s’. If you’re looking for Tuesday’s puzzle instead then click here: NYT Strands hints and answers for Tuesday, May 19 (game #807).
Strands is the NYT’s latest word game after the likes of Wordle, Spelling Bee and Connections – and it’s great fun. It can be difficult, though, so read on for my Strands hints.
Want more word-based fun? Then check out my NYT Connections today and Quordle today pages for hints and answers for those games, and Marc’s Wordle today page for the original viral word game.
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SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Strands today is below, so don’t read on if you don’t want to know the answers.
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NYT Strands today (game #808) – hint #1 – today’s theme
What is the theme of today’s NYT Strands?
• Today’s NYT Strands theme is… No rush
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NYT Strands today (game #808) – hint #2 – clue words
Play any of these words to unlock the in-game hints system.
MEAL
KEYS
SLICE
GATE
RULE
PLACES
NYT Strands today (game #808) – hint #3 – spangram letters
How many letters are in today’s spangram?
• Spangram has 12 letters
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NYT Strands today (game #808) – hint #4 – spangram position
What are two sides of the board that today’s spangram touches?
First side: top, 4th column
Last side: bottom, 3rd column
Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM.
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NYT Strands today (game #808) – the answers
(Image credit: New York Times)
The answers to today’s Strands, game #808, are…
RELAXED
SLOW
LEISURELY
PLACID
CALM
GENTLE
SPANGRAM: TAKEYOURTIME
My rating: Easy
My score: Perfect
One of the many downsides of aging is that you get slower, while the world around you speeds up. I feel this doubly so as a knee injury means that I can currently only perambulate the world at snail’s pace.
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Regardless, I still feel that people are in too much of a hurry to get to places they don’t need to rush to and I am fully on board with the promotion of today’s words into the consciousness of a chaotic planet.
Ironically I didn’t really employ the mantra TAKEYOURTIME as I zoomed through the search beginning with the letter X, which pointed me towards RELAXED.
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Yesterday’s NYT Strands answers (Tuesday, May 19, game #807)
MOUND
HILL
KNOLL
SLOPE
RIDGE
BUTTE
HUMMOCK
SPANGRAM: HIGHERGROUND
What is NYT Strands?
Strands is the NYT’s not-so-new-any-more word game, following Wordle and Connections. It’s now a fully fledged member of the NYT’s games stable that has been running for a year and which can be played on the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.
I’ve got a full guide to how to play NYT Strands, complete with tips for solving it, so check that out if you’re struggling to beat it each day.
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