If you bought an iPhone 16 or iPhone 15 when they launched, you may be able to claim some of the money from a class action lawsuit against Apple. It’s all tied to the new Apple Intelligence features the company previewed during launch — features that ultimately didn’t arrive on time, but were finally unveiled more extensively this month at WWDC 2026.

Apple settled a shareholder lawsuit in May, agreeing to pay $250 million to customers who bought the iPhone 16 and some iPhone 15 models during a specified period. The lawsuit alleged that Apple misled customers by promising AI features that didn’t ship when the new devices did. Payouts between $25 and $95 per eligible device are expected.

In a statement to CNET Managing Editor David Lumb, an Apple spokesperson said, “Apple has reached a settlement to resolve claims related to the availability of two additional features. We resolved this matter to stay focused on doing what we do best, delivering the most innovative products and services to our users.”

Why is there a lawsuit over Apple Intelligence?

When Apple advertised its new iPhone 16 lineup, it emphasized how they were optimized for AI features such as an enhanced Siri that could act as an intelligent agent. When the phones did arrive, Apple Intelligence wasn’t yet ready; its first features didn’t arrive until iOS 18.1, five weeks later.

According to the proposed settlement, “Apple allegedly saturated the market with deceptive ads, inducing consumers to purchase iPhones based on the promise of certain enhanced Siri features.”

Some features of Apple Intelligence did ship soon after the introduction of the iPhone 16 and iOS 18, including Visual Intelligence, Live Translation, Writing Tools, Genmoji and Clean Up. But those weren’t the advanced features Apple highlighted.

Who is eligible for the $250 million settlement?

Customers who purchased one of the following devices between June 10, 2024, and March 29, 2025, are eligible to receive a settlement payment:

• iPhone 16
• iPhone 16E
• iPhone 16 Plus
• iPhone 16 Pro
• iPhone 16 Pro Max
• iPhone 15 Pro
• iPhone 15 Pro Max

The iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max are included because they had the processor and memory to run Apple Intelligence features.

It’s estimated that there are approximately 36 million customers eligible for this settlement.

Watch this: What iPhone Users Actually Want From the New Google-Powered Siri

09:49

How to claim your portion of the settlement

For now, you need to wait.

As set forth in the settlement, Apple will provide a list of eligible customers and their contact information to a settlement administrator. 

After the data has been verified, the company Verita will send email and postal notices to those customers directing them to a settlement website. That site has not yet been created. The deadline for filing your claim will be 90 days after your notice arrives.

When can you expect to receive a settlement payment?

According to the settlement, Apple must provide the information about affected customers within five days of the settlement approval, which was scheduled for June 17, 2026.

When the data is provided and verified, a 45-day notice period begins to inform potential consumers that they’re eligible for a payment.

The actual payment of claims will occur within a 60-calendar-day window after the final details, such as exclusions and objections,  have been worked out. That puts the first checks or deposits arriving sometime after September 2026, depending on court dates and possible extensions.

Forward-looking: The next version of HDMI is mainly about pushing bandwidth higher to carry better video and audio, not small, incremental tweaks. HDMI 2.2, teased at CES 2025 and formally released by the HDMI Forum in June of that year, raises maximum bandwidth to 96Gbps, twice that of HDMI 2.1, allowing more uncompressed video data to move between devices.

HDMI 2.2 can carry uncompressed 4K video at up to 240Hz, something that currently requires Display Stream Compression (which as we’ve shown however, is not a big limitation). It can also reach 4K at 480Hz using 4:2:0 chroma subsampling, and handle uncompressed RGB 8K at 60Hz.

The added bandwidth cuts down on the compression and other tricks current hardware has had to rely on to push high frame rates. For gamers, that extra headroom makes it easier to drive high refresh rates at 4K and beyond without leaning as heavily on compression or workarounds.

With compression still in the toolkit when needed, the spec allows for more extreme modes, too, including 1440p at refresh rates above 1,000Hz – numbers that, for now, sit well beyond everyday use.

That leap is tied to FRL2, the updated signaling technology underpinning HDMI 2.2. The transition is already underway at the hardware level. “We’re hearing chip manufacturers will start to sample their FRL2 chips this year,” Rob Tobias, CEO and president of the HDMI Licensing Administrator, told ARMdevices at Computex 2026. “And so we should start to see some 96 or up to 96 gigabit HDMI 2.2 products next year.” Certification efforts are ongoing, and the first wave of compatible devices is expected in 2027.

Still, the headline number – 96Gbps – doesn’t tell the whole story. HDMI 2.2 rolls out in multiple tiers, including 64Gbps and 80Gbps versions, and certification doesn’t require manufacturers to hit the top speed. That means two devices both labeled “HDMI 2.2” could perform very differently depending on how they’re built. For buyers, that puts more weight on spec sheets than branding.

In the PC space, the timing is complicated by the fact that DisplayPort 2.1 already delivers up to 80Gbps and is widely used in high-end monitors. For enthusiasts running multi-display setups, HDMI hasn’t been the primary interface for some time, and that’s unlikely to change overnight. Licensing costs may also factor into how quickly HDMI 2.2 gains traction compared with DisplayPort.

Where HDMI continues to hold ground is in the living room. Features like ARC, CEC, and ALLM are already deeply integrated into TVs and home theater systems, and HDMI 2.2 adds another layer with Latency Indication Protocol, or LIP, aimed at tightening audio-video synchronization – a persistent issue with soundbars and AV receivers. It’s a small but practical upgrade, and one that targets a problem many users encounter even in otherwise high-end setups.

Even so, there’s a gap between what the specification allows and what current content actually demands. Most games and video still operate well below the limits of HDMI 2.1, and 4K at 120Hz – already supported – remains underutilized. It’s easy enough to imagine future consoles taking advantage of higher refresh rates, but widespread use will depend on both hardware and software catching up.

That lag is likely to show up in the rollout. GPU support isn’t expected until late 2027 or later, and early adoption will likely be confined to premium hardware. On the TV side, HDMI capabilities often depend on the underlying processing chips, which have historically led to uneven feature support even among top-tier models. There’s little reason to expect a cleaner transition this time around.

For now, HDMI 2.2 is more about preparing for future hardware than something people need to upgrade to right away. The spec sets a high ceiling, but it may take several product generations before most users see a tangible benefit. In the meantime, its presence will likely be felt more in product positioning than in everyday performance.

It did so in just five years.

Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. To get this in your inbox, sign up here for free — just click TechCrunch Mobility!

Today is Juneteenth, a U.S. federal holiday marking the end of slavery in the United States. 

About 10 years ago, there was a lot of chatter about who was winning the self-driving car race. One of the problems with that debate — besides assuming there would be just one winner — was that no one had a reliable way to measure it. This was an early era filled with a lot of demos and capital, but little substance — at least what the public, and folks like myself, had access to. 

Advisory and research startup Autnmy AI has developed a generative AI platform to create a benchmarking system that evaluates and ranks autonomous vehicle companies in an effort to answer that question in real time. And this week, the startup released its Road to Autonomy Index, which searches relevant global public databases, including federal and state reports, SEC documents, public exchanges, and other data. The system weighs the company’s operations, scale, revenue, commercial partnerships, manufacturing, and safety record based on that data and provides an update every 12 hours. There are four indices that rank robotaxis, autonomous driving licensing companies, autonomous trucks, and delivery bots.

One important note, per Autnmy AI co-founder Rob Grant, the AI platform doesn’t just scrape information off the internet. “We agreed early on, we don’t scrape information,” he said. “If it’s publicly available or if it’s available under a Creative Commons license, we will use that information. We do have some license data that we pay folks for, and under that agreement too.”

The indices take a global approach, which produces some interesting results. One of the initial takeaways that made an impression on Grant was China’s stronger ranking across multiple categories.

As of Friday, the robotaxi leader was not Waymo. It was China’s Baidu Apollo Go program — just barely. Waymo was in the secondary position, followed by Chinese companies Pony.ai and WeRide. Tesla was in the fifth position. 

A little bird

I was reminded recently by a little bird to keep an eye on the Texas automated vehicle tracker tool that launched in May. And I am glad they did; looks like Tesla, Waymo, and Zoox are building up their respective fleets in the state. Reminder: This doesn’t mean every one of these are being used commercially. Zoox, for instance, cannot operate commercially until it receives an exemption from the federal government. It currently has the ability to give rides in its custom-built robotaxi but cannot charge customers.

As of May 28, Waymo had 577 autonomous vehicles registered in the state. It now has 620 of them, about a 7.5% increase in less than a month. Tesla now has 69 registered autonomous vehicles, a 64% increase from the 42 it had on May 28. Zoox, which had 35 registered autonomous vehicles last month, now has 43.

Avride, Nuro, and Volkswagen subsidiary MOIA are holding steady at 317, 47, and 12, respectively. 

Got a tip for us? Email Kirsten Korosec at kirsten.korosec@techcrunch.com or my Signal at kkorosec.07, or email Sean O’Kane at sean.okane@techcrunch.com.

Deals!

Cargofy, a logistics company that uses AI to automate freight operations, raised $11 million in a Series A funding round led by u.ventures, Toloka, and Movens Capital. Des Traynor, co-founder of Intercom, and several angel investors, also participated. 

Carro, the Singapore-based online car marketplace, acquired Australian used-car platform CarPlace, Reuters reported. Terms were not disclosed.

Gatik, a startup that has developed self-driving trucks for short hauls, announced a multi-year partnership with PepsiCo. The companies wouldn’t share the value of this deal, but it does signal PepsiCo’s commitment to Gatik, which is already operating driverless trucks for the food and beverage giant across Arkansas, Arizona, and Texas. 

QuantumScape announced a joint research agreement with Honda R&D Co. to accelerate solid-state battery development and associated manufacturing processes.

Automaker Stellantis, self-driving startup Wayve, and ride-hailing giant Uber struck a deal to jointly develop and deploy driverless robotaxis.

XDOF, a startup focused on robot training data, raised $70 million from Thrive Capital, Spark Capital, a16z, Lux, and WndrCo.

Notable reads and other tidbits

A video posted on Reddit showed a driver running a stop sign and hitting an autonomous vehicle in Dallas. TechCrunch confirmed it was an Avride robotaxi, which was hailed via the Uber app. An Avride spokesperson said no injuries were reported and that data from the incident is being reviewed “to continuously refine our technology and processes, as part of our standard procedures.” When asked about the reaction of the self-driving system and the human safety operator who was behind the wheel, Avride said, “Our safety review is currently ongoing, so we cannot provide more precise details at this time.”

Tesla owners in China have discovered a workaround to the vehicle’s distracted driving monitor: tiny plastic heads.  

Over on X, folks spotted a Tesla with an authorized limousine permit sticker for San Francisco County and the San Francisco International Airport. A spokesperson for SFO told TechCrunch that “Tesla has been issued a limousine permit to operate at SFO. This is for traditional limousine operations, meaning the vehicles have a human driver. Tesla has not been issued a permit for any autonomous operations at SFO.”

Mobileye, which has pitched itself as an autonomous vehicle technology supplier, is now making moves to become a robotaxi operator. The company plans to launch a robotaxi service in an unnamed U.S. city in 2027. History lesson: Mobileye founder and CEO Amnon Shashua told me back in 2020 that to crack the holy grail of passenger car autonomy, you needed to pursue robotaxis first.  

Uber plans to launch a premium robotaxi service in Houston by mid-2027, making it the second U.S. market under its partnership with EV maker Lucid and autonomous vehicle startup Nuro.

Waymo recalled its fleet of nearly 4,000 robotaxis to stop them from driving into highway construction zones. Waymo took its robotaxis off the freeways weeks ago and has identified at least 13 instances of its robotaxis driving into highway sections that were closed for construction. Here is a detail worth noting: The software fix is “under development,” which means this issue is not resolved.

Mosquitoes turn pleasant summer nights into itchy ordeals for anyone spending time outdoors. One inventor refused to accept the usual sprays, candles, and frantic swatting as the only options. Instead he created a full-body electric grid that delivers a direct shock to any insect that gets too close. Russian maker Dani Cruster, who runs the DiWHY YouTube channel, drew inspiration from ordinary bug zappers. Those devices use two layers of mesh or grid with high voltage running between them. When a mosquito flies into the space, it completes the circuit and ends its life with a sharp crack. Cruster simply asked what would happen if someone wore that same grid.

He began with heavy-duty construction mesh, which is commonly used on construction sites. The metal netting turned out to be two electrode layers. Use a centimeter-thick PVC foam board to build the frames that hold the mesh in place. A heat gun, similar to the one used to warm up paint or drywall during a renovation, is used to soften the plastic, allowing it to be twisted into curved panels that fit around the torso, arms, and legs. The finished design resembles a jumble of old Roman armor cobbled together from materials available at any hardware store.

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To deliver the electricity, he used six miniature high-voltage converters made from inexpensive shock guns found in markets. Each is powered by two regular 1.5 volt alkaline batteries and can produce an output of around 10,000 volts. Each module’s wires link to the panel’s inner and outer meshes. The builder meticulously checked all of the connections before placing the modules directly into the PVC frame. The distance between mesh layers is far more significant than anything else. High voltage can jump through the air, and the builder had worked out that a whole centimeter of space would keep sparks from reaching the person inside the suit. If it’s too small, you risk burning a hair or giving the wearer a painful shock. As long as the spacing is just right, the electricity will remain between the layers and zap any insects that pass through.

Things became a little more tricky when he decided he wanted to create an entire suit. He had to measure and cut eighteen individual pieces of PVC, heat and shape each one separately, and then stretch mesh across both sides of the frames. The inner mesh layers are all electrically linked, therefore electricity cannot easily reach the skin. Six units are connected in parallel to power the whole costume. The battery packs will last for approximately an hour before needing to be replaced with new cells.

When testing the suit, he began with only one arm panel. Testers felt a small tickle and saw hairs stand up on their arms, but the gap prevented any serious shocks. Throughout the live tests, the builder donned dielectric gloves and goggles. He made it a point to underline how dangerous high voltage is and how you should never try to reproduce it unless you have been properly warned about the dangers.

The real trial was a facility in the deep forests outside Tarkov in Russia’s Tver Oblast, an area infamous for swarms of mosquitoes and ticks. When the user of the expensive outfit stepped out into the thick of it all, flipped on the modules, and started making their way through the woods, as the results were rather swift. Any insects that came into contact with the mesh screen simply did not survive.
[Source]

NETWORKS

Members aren’t RIPE for a new charging scheme, though

Europe’s internet registry is abandoning its cloud migration plans over geopolitical risk, but reversing course now means rebuilding the resilient, secure infrastructure it needs. 

The RIPE Network Coordination Centre – which oversees the regional internet registry (RIR) for Europe, the Middle East, and parts of Asia – had, like many organizations, adopted a “cloud-first” strategy that involved moving move core services and databases to cloud providers.

But, as with many European organizations, the arrival of the Trump administration delivered a wake-up call, prompting it to reassess the risks of relying on US-based hyperscalers for parts of its infrastructure.

In a blog post, RIPE Managing Director Hans Petter Holen says returning to the previous status quo is no longer an option – stakeholder expectations about the security, stability, and resilience of services have risen, among other things. 

In a presentation at last month’s RIPE NCC General Meeting, Holen said much of the organization’s infrastructure needs an overhaul, requiring a jump in capital expenditure (capex) to levels not seen in years, before the cloud-first strategy was adopted.

“To start with, we will need to replace hardware that has reached, or in some cases passed, the end of its lifecycle. This is the result of trade-offs between capex and opex over the period in which we were focused on cloud deployments, as well as various assumptions and decisions about how this balance would evolve over the long term,” he said.

RIPE needs to consider its datacenter footprint – the number and location of facilities – while minimizing interdependencies between them to allow for expansion into additional sites as needed.

Geographically redundant storage and backups are also needed, Holen said, along with a decision on future virtualization platforms that limit vendor lock-in risks.

Despite these challenges, the organization expects to complete a migration to a greenfield deployment by 2028 at an additional cost of €5 million, effectively returning capital spending to levels last seen before 2020.

To fund this, RIPE will need to balance internal cost savings against membership fees. Holen said he is aware that some members are concerned about the fees they’ve paid in recent years and don’t want to see further rises.

Yet despite this, a vote on the membership charging scheme at the General Meeting went the opposite way from what was expected: rather than switching to a sliding scale – under which 74 percent of members would have paid less – members opted to keep the existing flat fee.

Clearly discombobulated by this turn of affairs, RIPE dedicated a blog to picking over the reasons why the membership voted the way it did.

It’s worth noting that of 19,415 eligible members, only 3,421 registered to vote and 3,049 actually cast ballots, resulting in a 15.7 percent turnout. Yet this was described as one of the highest turnouts on record, falling only slightly short of the May 2020 peak.

The result was close, with 51.1 percent voting for the status quo and 48.9 percent voting for the alternate sliding-scale charging scheme. RIPE claims a swing of just 35 votes would have delivered a different outcome.

Both schemes generate the same total income, but the new one would have shifted the burden so that members with more internet number resources pay more.

In the end, RIPE wonders if mixed messages may have contributed to the result. The organization says it communicated repeatedly with members through various channels to encourage participation.

But during the lengthy process of preparing the charging scheme options, RIPE published consultations on different ideas for the base fee and various additional fees – some of which were later abandoned following member input, though not everyone may have realized it.

Misconceptions also persisted, including the belief that paying more would mean greater voting rights – an idea that was strongly opposed.

“Perhaps our initial assumption that many of you would prefer a tiered model was inflated. It is true there was a long-standing demand for it,” the blog concludes. “But we also hear from people who believe in equality over equity when it comes to financial contribution. To them, the varying amounts of resources members hold shouldn’t be a reason for them to pay accordingly.” ®