It’s been called RAMageddon: AI’s insatiable demand for hardware has caused a worldwide shortage of memory chips. Now outgoing Apple CEO Tim Cook is warning its customers that your next Mac, iPhone, or iPad could be more expensive thanks to surging memory and storage chips costs.

In a recent interview, Cook told the WSJ that price increases are “unavoidable,” in spite of efforts to absorb chip costs that have increased fourfold since last year. He described the situation as “unsustainable.”

Cook didn’t name which products will be affected or when prices will rise, but he’s raised the alarm about the impacts of RAMageddon before. In April, after delivering record quarterly sales, he said that these higher costs could impact Apple’s next business results. Incoming CEO John Ternus also warned about the issue that same month.

If Apple raises prices, the iPhone seems almost certain to be impacted, memory supply experts told the Financial Times. The company is expected to launch its next iPhone in September, which gives it the opportunity to announce increased prices. Of course, Apple sells many other devices that contain memory (DRAM) and storage (NAND) chips, including the Apple Watch, Mac, iPad, and Apple Vision Pro.

It’s not clear how much more expensive any of these products will be, although research firm TechInsights gave the WSJ its estimate. It said Apple would need to add another $270 to the next iPhone Pro to keep its profit margin intact. The iPhone 17 Pro starts at $1,099.

So far AI has not been a particular boon to Apple. The company is already under pressure to figure out its AI strategy for its devices. It even paid a $250 million settlement earlier this year to end a false advertising lawsuit filed after it failed to deliver the AI features it promised two years ago.

The company’s Worldwide Developers conference held earlier this month showed progress on fulfilling those previous AI promises, including an overhaul of Siri. Of course, more on-device processing could mean more need for memory — a trajectory that seems destined to end with consumers paying more for Apple products.

from the too-much-free-time dept

We were just talking about how angry RFK Jr. was at a report that he’s been out to lunch on most of what HHS’ work entails, choosing instead to focus his time and attention on his own pet interests, like curtailing vaccine programs in America, chasing chemtrails, and a newfound love for snake-handling. Kennedy denied all of this of course, commenting that everyone was freaking out just because he missed “a couple” of meetings. He then suggested that real journalists would check his public calendar to see how busy he’s been, despite his calendar apparently not being in any way public.

The question that leaps to mind in all of this is where the rest of Kennedy’s time is going, if not spent on HHS’ core functions. The answer appears in part to be demanding that scientific journals explain their decisions to retract articles, so long as they were articles that fit Kennedy’s agenda.

In a letter dated June 11, Kennedy wrote to Toxicology Reports Editor-in-Chief Lawrence H. Lash concerning a 2021 study titled “Vaccines and sudden infant death: An analysis of the VAERS database 1990–2019 and review of the medical literature.”

The study in question was authored solely by Neil Z. Miller and was among those cited by Kennedy’s former personal lawyer Aaron Siri in a presentation he gave before a federal vaccine panel in support of altering the childhood immunization schedule. Those alterations to the vaccine schedule, and the panel that approved them, have since been blocked by a federal judge.

Miller, who identifies as a “medical research journalist” in his author biography, is a prominent vaccine skeptic, having published numerous books questioning the safety and efficacy of immunizations.

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Now, a couple of things to note here. First, Toxicology Reports has a bit of a reputation problem that arose during the COVID era. It is considered a generally reputable outlet, to be clear, but it had several controversies that arose in 2020 and 2021. Lash is actually the founding editor of the journal, but he had stepped away during this controversial period, during which the journal published articles of a conspiratorial nature around COVID and 5G technology. Lash returned as Editor in Chief of the journal in late 2021.

Importantly, that happened after the article in question was published. Lash has apparently been attempting to reestablish the reputation of Toxicology Reports and has, on occasion, gone back and retracted articles that don’t meet his renewed standards. That’s, you know, the work an Editor-in-Chief does. Kennedy’s demands for an explanation why an article he liked was retracted is particularly odd, since the retraction came along with the journal’s justification.

The article was about research the author had done in correlating data in the VAERS database with vaccine injury and infant death. A large problem with such research is, as was detailed often during the height of the pandemic, that VAERS is largely a self-reporting system. Claims of vaccine injury that are reported are not verified. If you try to get at the data yourself, you will first see a disclaimer you have to acknowledge that includes the following text:

Key considerations and limitations of VAERS data:

• The number of reports alone cannot be interpreted as evidence of a causal association between a vaccine and an adverse event, or as evidence about the existence, severity, frequency, or rates of problems associated with vaccines.
• Reports may include incomplete, inaccurate, coincidental, and unverified information.
• VAERS does not obtain follow up records on every report. If a report is classified as serious, VAERS requests additional information, such as health records, to further evaluate the report.
• VAERS data are limited to vaccine adverse event reports received between 1990 and the most recent date for which data are available.
• VAERS data do not represent all known safety information for a vaccine and should be interpreted in the context of other scientific information.

And the justification for the retraction follows along those lines.

In its removal notice, Elsevier, the publisher of Toxicology Reports, stated, “Given the inherent limitations of passive reporting systems, including the expected temporal clustering of events independent of causality, the conclusions presented in the article are not supported by the methodology employed.”

“In light of these concerns, and given the potential implications for medical practice, the Editor-in-Chief has decided that the article should be removed. The author disagrees with this decision and disputes the grounds for removal,” the publisher added.

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That’s really all you need to know. The dataset the study was built on is unreliable when it comes to the conclusions the research attempted to draw. And that’s before we get into the inappropriate nature of the sitting Secretary of HHS reaching out to scientific journals to demand explanations on matters of medicine and science when he is neither a doctor nor a scientist. I’ll note that the editorial board for Toxicology Reports is chockablock full of PHDs and MDs.

If Kennedy finds the real work at HHS boring, then he should quit and go back to advocating for people to be less healthy from infectious diseases for which we have vaccines. Otherwise, there are about a half a dozen health crises going on right now that he could work on instead of harassing the editors of science journals about their independent editorial decisions.

Filed Under: aaron siri, anti-vaxxers, lawrence lash, rfk jr., science, toxicology reports, vaccines, vaers

Photo credit: NotebookCheck
Recent patent documents from Huawei describe a vertical tri-fold smartphone built around three connected segments and two opposing hinges. The design draws clear inspiration from clamshell flip phones like the Galaxy Z Flip while adding an extra fold for more screen area.

Photo credit: Post Fast
Two hinges hold the panels together and allow them to fold in opposite directions. This results in a true Z-shape when you finally close the device completely. The flexible display extends across all three areas. When it’s closed, the phone’s thickness triples, yet it still manages to remain relatively small, with a footprint around the same size as a conventional smartphone or cigarette pack.

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The patent drawings are noteworthy because they immediately reveal a practical detail. Even when the phone is fully closed, a portion of the screen remains visible on the outside surface. Users can check messages, change the music, and complete simple activities without having to open anything. This design essentially eliminates the requirement for a small external display on most flip-style phones.

Each portion serves a specific purpose; the top panel holds the main back camera system, while the middle section houses the main processor, battery components, and all connectivity points. The bottom panel keeps everything balanced and simply extends the screen real estate a little. Despite the thin stacking appearance, specific structural layers and shielding are used around the antennas to prevent signal interference.

When you first open the phone partially, you get this intermediate tall screen, and when you fully extend it, the display simply spreads out into a long, tall rectangle. Which, to be honest, is ideal for portrait material; no need to maintain zooming or sideways scrolling through social media feeds, articles, and videos in their natural orientation. You also have numerous folding positions, so you can select the screen height you require based on the situation.

In comparison to Huawei’s own Mate XT, this proposal keeps the closed shape much thinner and more pocket-friendly. The Mate XT opens up into a large, tablet-like surface that some owners found difficult to carry around on a daily basis. Meanwhile, this vertical variant maintains the classic one-handed grip when closed while providing extra screen space when needed.

These phones take a different strategy than single-fold flip phones, which typically stop at one hinge and have only one extra screen size. Here’s a third panel that provides some height without demanding the broad stance of a book-style folding. What you get is a compromise between being able to take this device with you every day and occasionally having a large screen to use.

The HarmonyOS system would handle all transitions between these stages, scaling programs as available height changes. However, developers will most likely need some modifications to ensure that their interfaces reflow properly across multiple aspect ratios. Early Mate XT software demonstrated how multi-state foldables require special care and attention on both the platform and app sides.

For the time being, the patent is all that exists; there is no launch date or product name (yet). However, it does indicate that Huawei is still experimenting with novel form factors that differ from those of its competitors. Meanwhile, everyone is waiting for Apple’s predicted foldable release later this year, which will include a horizontal configuration. So this patent refers to Huawei’s continuing vertical experiments that attempt to address certain common pain points that other phones tend to overlook.
[Source]

Did you know you could schedule tasks in ChatGPT? I’ll be honest, I never thought to ask OpenAI’s chatbot to do something in the future, and it seems like a lot of you didn’t either, because the company has begun rolling out an update that better highlights ChatGPT’s ability to do just that. 

The next time you open ChatGPT’s sidebar, you’ll see a shortcut to a new Scheduled page that gives you a place to see any active tasks you might have assigned to ChatGPT, including when they’re set to run. From this page, you can also pause, edit and delete any upcoming requests. At the same time, OpenAI has made ChatGPT’s ability to handle scheduled prompts more robust, stating “all tasks are faster and more reliable.” What’s more, when you ask the chatbot to do something in the future, you can either tell it to complete that task at a specific time or sometime during a broader timeframe, such as the morning, afternoon or evening. 

New in ChatGPT: a better way to schedule tasks.

Scheduled tasks are faster, more reliable, and easier to manage from the new Scheduled page.

The new scheduled tasks experience is rolling out to Go, Plus, Pro, Business, and Enterprise users on web and mobile. pic.twitter.com/YC7JON6Hxn

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— ChatGPT (@ChatGPTapp) June 17, 2026

As you can see from the video OpenAI shared, it’s also possible to set up monitoring tasks, which will see ChatGPT proactively search the web or your connected apps on your behalf. OpenAI is rolling out Scheduled tasks to Plus, Pro, Business and Enterprise customers. No word yet on when the Free tier might get access. With today’s update, OpenAI is also sunsetting Pulse, the personalized daily summaries the company began offering last year. Pro users can continue using the feature for the next 14 days. After that point, you can use the new scheduling hub to generate future summaries.

Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Need some help with today’s Mini Crossword? It’s a pretty easy one today, but read on for all the answers. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword

Let’s get to those Mini Crossword clues and answers.

Mini across clues and answers

1A clue: Pop music’s ___ Bunny
Answer: BAD

4A clue: Unaccompanied
Answer: ALONE

7A clue: Date circled in blue on a Google Calendar
Answer: TODAY

8A clue: Kitchen appliance with burners
Answer: STOVE

9A clue: The “S” of GPS: Abbr.
Answer: SYS

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: Takes a turn at the plate
Answer: BATS

2D clue: Tons and tons
Answer: ALOT

3D clue: Extinct flightless pigeons (don’t worry, you’ve heard of this answer!)
Answer: DODOS

5D clue: Dark shade of blue
Answer: NAVY

6D clue: Googly ___
Answer: EYES

TL;DR: The Stop Killing Games initiative has spent two years pushing legislators across multiple countries to consider laws that would prevent publishers from rendering full-priced games unplayable. After the European Commission declined the group’s core demand following a closed-door industry meeting, SKG says other avenues remain open.

The European Commission has rejected a petition bearing 1,294,188 verified signatures to propose legislation against making end-of-life premium games permanently unplayable.

The decision is a significant setback for Stop Killing Games, which formally submitted its European Citizens’ Initiative – titled “Stop Destroying Videogames” – to the Commission in January, but the group says it will pursue other routes to strengthen consumer protections in the games industry.

SKG emerged after Ubisoft deactivated the servers for The Crew, leaving the game unplayable for the 12 million players who had accessed it, including some who bought physical copies shortly before they became useless. Ubisoft is currently facing legal action over the shutdown in both California and France.

– Stop Killing Games Official (@StopKilingGames) June 16, 2026

In response to the shutdown, the consumer initiative gathered over 1.3 million verified signatures from European citizens, obligating the Commission to formally consider complaints about planned obsolescence in video games. Lobbying group Video Games Europe, alongside Ubisoft, has strongly opposed SKG, fueling a broader debate over whether a game purchase conveys a product or merely a license to access a service.

Ubisoft, VGE, and the Entertainment Software Association argue that developers should not be required to maintain servers indefinitely and that customers purchase only licenses. SKG accuses the industry of misrepresenting its goal, saying it is only demanding full-priced games remain playable in some form, be it offline modes or privately hosted servers. Furthermore, while Ubisoft believes gamers should “get used to not owning games,” the initiative argues that the debate actually hinges on how long someone who buys a license can expect to retain access.

Despite outspoken support from multiple European politicians, the Commission announced that it would not propose new laws at this time. SKG and other observers noted that Ubisoft and VGE met with the Commission behind closed doors two weeks before the ruling, raising questions about whether industry lobbying shaped the outcome.

– Stop Killing Games Official (@StopKilingGames) June 17, 2026

In its official response, the Commission said it could not propose laws to keep games playable after they are pulled from sale – something SKG says it never demanded – citing existing intellectual property rights, publisher costs, and potential cybersecurity concerns.

Instead, the Commission plans to convene industry and consumer representatives to work toward a voluntary, non-binding code of conduct for end-of-life products by the end of 2026. Possible measures include warnings on store pages for games requiring internet connections and engagement with preservation groups.

SKG remains undeterred. In a press conference, the group explained that it has other paths to appeal to the European Parliament. Some have suggested amending the Digital Fairness Act, a package of consumer protection laws that the EU is currently discussing. It already includes rules against dark patterns, addictive design, misleading pricing, and hard-to-cancel subscriptions.

Meanwhile, in the US, SKG is backing California’s Protect Our Games Act, which has already passed the state Assembly and now heads to the Senate. The bill would require publishers to give 60 days’ notice before shutting down an online game and to either keep it playable through an offline mode or community server support, or issue a full refund.

When the superhero adventure game Dispatch made its way to the Nintendo Switch and Switch 2 in January, gamers noticed that the game was censored as black bars covered up partially nude bodies and obscene gestures. Developed AdHoc Studio said it was working with Nintendo to resolve these issues, and it looks like a new update will bring back all the censored content if players want it. 

The HR Violations Pack for Dispatch went live Wednesday and with it a visual filters setting to change the censorship in the game. Players can now decide if they want to remove the black bars from the Switch 2 version or add them to versions on other platforms, but depending on the region, their choices can be limited. 

For Switch players in North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand, they will have access to full or partial coverage of characters’ bodies, while players in Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Korea and Southeast Asia will have full coverage only. There are different options for coverage from the standard blackout bars, a mosaic effect or what the developer calls a Chaotic style that will offer more creativity with the censorship, such as one character’s naked private parts being covered up by a pair of jean shorts. Only the Japan region limits censorship in the game to blackout bars. 

“We’ve confirmed that Switch players can now see all the breasts, butts and birds (AKA, obscene gestures) they want in North America, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand,” Nick Herman, co-founder of AdHoc Studio, said in a Discord message on Wednesday. 

The studio didn’t provide much of an explanation in January as to why the game was so heavily censored, but Herman cleared things up in his message on Discord, saying that when nearing the launch day of the game on Switch 2, the team learned that the game would need some censoring for certain regions. Without time to make all the changes needed for the different regions, AdHoc Studios decided to have all versions use the most restrictive settings, which appear to be for Japan, according to the previously mentioned region options. 

Dispatch is AdHoc Studios’ debut game, and it received praise for its story and characters, voiced by Aaron Paul and Jeffrey Wright. Last year, it was named one of CNET’s Favorite Games of 2025.