When is a quiet week in tech not a quiet week in tech? How about right now. Because while this week lacked the huge launches of the previous one, it was still packed with big stories and impressive new tech.

For starters, we delivered our expert verdicts on the Apple devices that were revealed last week, and the MacBook Neo in particular blew us away. We also sat down for a long chat with Sonos‘ CEO as the audio giant launched two new speakers, and delivered our Google Pixel 10a review.

Meta is killing end-to-end encryption in Instagram DMs. The feature will “no longer be supported after May 8, 2026,” the company wrote in an update on its support page. Unlike WhatsApp, Meta never made encryption available to all Instagram users and it was never a default setting. Instead, users in “some areas” had the ability to opt-in to encryption on a per-chat basis.

In a statement, a Meta spokesperson said the feature was being retired due to low adoption. “Very few people were opting in to end-to-end encrypted messaging in DMs, so we’re removing this option from Instagram in the coming months,” the spokesperson said. “Anyone who wants to keep messaging with end-to-end encryption can easily do that on WhatsApp.”

Interestingly, Meta’s statement doesn’t mention the status of encryption on Messenger. The company began turning on end-to-end encryption as a default setting in 2023 after years of work on the feature. A support page for Messenger currently states that the company “is in the process of securing personal messages with end-to-end encryption by default.”

Meta’s approach to encrypted messaging has changed several times over the years. It started encrypting WhatsApp chats in 2016. In 2019, Mark Zuckerberg outlined a “privacy-focused” revamp of the company’s apps, saying at the time that “implementing end-to-end encryption for all private communications is the right thing to do.” In 2021, the company’s head of safety said that Meta was delaying its encryption work until 2023 in order to create stronger safety features.

Meta’s use of encryption has been repeatedly criticized by law enforcement and some child safety organizations that say the feature makes it harder to catch predators who target children on social media. Recently, the topic has been raised numerous times during a trial in New Mexico over child safety. Internal documents that have surfaced as part of the trial show Meta executives and researchers debating the trade-offs between safety and privacy as it relates to encryption.

In testimony that was broadcast during the trial, Zuckerberg said that safety issues were “a large part of the reason why it took so long” to bring encryption to Messenger. “There’s been debate about this, but I think the majority of folks, from people who use our products to people who are involved in security overall, believe that strong encryption is positive,” he said.

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 the extra-long Saturday version, and a few of the clues are tricky. 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: Book parts: Abbr.
Answer: PGS

4A clue: Silicon Valley company that operates a fleet of robotaxis
Answer: WAYMO

6A clue: To a much greater degree
Answer: WAYMORE

8A clue: Contents of a scuba diver’s tank
Answer: AIR

9A clue: South Korean automaker
Answer: KIA

10A clue: Stop on a train route
Answer: STATION

12A clue: Actress Merman of “Anything Goes”
Answer: ETHEL

13A clue: Find another purpose for
Answer: REUSE

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: Employee’s hourly calculation
Answer: PAYRATE

2D clue: Workout spot
Answer: GYM

3D clue: “Great” mountains of Tennessee, familiarly
Answer: SMOKIES

4D clue: One giving you the dish?
Answer: WAITER

5D clue: Baltimore M.L.B. player
Answer: ORIOLE

6D clue: Used to be
Answer: WAS

7D clue: Suffix with Caesar or Euclid
Answer: EAN

11D clue: Night that NBC once aired “30 Rock” and “The Office”: Abbr.
Answer: THU

I used to be of the opinion that MacBooks are relatively safer than other laptops, but I have been proven wrong. Embarrassingly and demonstrably wrong. A new report from Sophos X-Ops has spared no effort in rubbing my nose in it. 

Researchers at the firm tracked three separate attack campaigns between November 2025 and February 2026, all of which targeted macOS users with something called the MacSync infostealer. For those catching up — it’s a type of malware that quietly rifles through your passwords and saved credentials, acting like a digital pickpocket. 

So, how does it actually work?

The malware used a delivery method called ClickFix, which requires minimal technical effort. It just needs the victims to copy and paste a command into their Mac’s Terminal (designed to run and execute text-based commands) and press enter on the keyboard.

First, bad actors used fake OpenAI download pages, which were circulated via sponsored ads on Google (sitting right above the legitimate link). Then, they got even more creative: attackers started sharing rear ChatGPT shared conversations disguised as “helpful Mac guides.”

These guides routed users into fake GitHub pages, which contained carefully created software installation instructions, but in reality, they asked users to copy a terminal command, allowing the ManSync infostealer to work in the background. That’s it; that’s the whole attack. 

How bad did it get?

Sophos has found out that by December 2025 alone, bad actors had routed more than 50,000 clicks on such malicious domains. A “click” means that someone copied the malicious terminal command, but not necessarily that the malware successfully installed; the actual infection count could be lower. 

The developers put another spin on their attacking method in February 2026, allowing it to run silently in the background, bypassing the competent macOS security tools such as Gatekeeper and XProtect. It can, in a very real way, patch your ledger crypto wallet’s 24-word master key. 

The firm reports that infection clusters were active in key markets, including parts of North and South America and India, as recently as weeks before they published the article (by the end of the beginning of March, possibly). 

Moreover, the notion that “Macs are safe,” is at least, for the time being, not true. As AI platforms grow in popularity, and, more importantly, gain the trust of millions of users, bad actors are coming up with new ways to use the LLMs-driven tools to their advantage. For now, I’d advise you to not paste any text-based command into your Mac’s Terminal.

We’ve all heard the saying: “screens before bed are bad,.” Yet somehow, I’ve been watching screens to go to sleep after a day of working with the screens for around eight to 10 hours. Well, I might consider switching to Samsung’s micro RGB TVs for both my work and leisure requirements, as they’ve recently got an eye- and sleep-friendly certification. 

In a press release, the Korean tech giant has announced that its Micro RGB TV (the R95H model) has received two certifications from VDE (which is a German testing body). 

What certifications has the Samsung TV received?

The Samsung TV has received the Safety for Eyes certification and the Circadian Rhythm Display (CRD) certification. Without making things too technical for you, the R95H model has been officially tested to not wreck your eyes or sleep, especially during the hours after sunset, when too much blue light consumption can disturb your sleep cycle. 

Here’s how it works. The first certification, Safety for Eyes, takes care of the blue light emissions — the wavelength which is associated the most with eye strain and disturbed sleep — confirming that the television meets the safe thresholds for prolonged viewing sessions. 

The second one, Circadian Rhythm Display (CRD) verification goes a step further by confirming that the TV actually mimics the pattern of natural light. The television leans toward producing cooler tones during the day, warmer tones in the evening, and, most importantly, dials down blue light at night. 

How do the compatible TVs pull this off?

Basically, it doesn’t force your brain into thinking that it’s noon by producing cool light, when it’s midnight, so that viewing the television doesn’t disrupt your sleep cycle. But how does the TV manage all this?

Well, it’s Samsung’s micro RGB LED architecture that allows the display to make the fine-grained adjustments in the overall brightness and color profile of the screen, with an enhanced level of precision that isn’t present on other models. 

While the Safety for Eyes certification is available across the company’s 2026 TV lineup, Circadian Rhythm Display (CRD) is currently available on the premium models.

The Norwich-based agbiotech company launched the first new commercial banana varieties in more than 75 years in 2025. Now it has to build enough supply to meet demand.

The world’s favourite fruit is in serious trouble. Panama Disease Tropical Race 4, a fungal pathogen that travels in soil and water and leaves no cure in its wake, has now been confirmed in more than 20 countries.

It threatens, in the starkest terms, the near-total collapse of the global Cavendish banana, the single variety that accounts for over 90% of the export market and underpins a $25 billion industry that supports 400 million people.

The Cavendish survived its last existential crisis, in the 1950s, only by replacing its predecessor. There is currently nowhere left to go.

Against that backdrop, Tropic, a Norwich-based gene-editing company, has raised $105 million (approximately €91 million) in an oversubscribed Series C, co-led by Forbion through its Bioeconomy Fund and Corteva, via its Corteva Catalyst investment platform.

Significant participation came from Just Climate and IQ Capital, alongside new investors ABN Amro and Invest International. Existing backers Temasek, Five Seasons Ventures, Aliment Capital, Sucden Ventures, Genoa Ventures, and Polaris Partners also joined the round.

The company was founded in late 2016 at the Norwich Research Park by Gilad Gershon, an agritech investor and former Israeli Navy ship commander, and Dr Eyal Maori, a virologist and RNA biologist whose earlier work formed the scientific basis for Beeologics, an agricultural genetics startup later acquired by Monsanto.

Together they built out a platform using CRISPR gene editing and Tropic’s own proprietary technology, Gene Editing Induced Gene Silencing, or GEiGS, to make targeted modifications to tropical crops without introducing foreign DNA.

The milestone that drove this round happened in 2025: Tropic commercially launched two new banana varieties, the first to reach market in more than 75 years. The first is a non-browning banana, developed by disabling the gene that produces polyphenol oxidase, the enzyme responsible for the brown discolouration that begins within minutes of cutting.

The second is an extended shelf-life variety, which lengthens the banana’s green life by an additional 12 days by targeting the genes responsible for ethylene production, the plant hormone that triggers ripening. Tropic says this reduces transportation waste by up to 50 per cent. The non-browning variety was named one of TIME Magazine’s Best Inventions of 2025.

Gershon said demand is already outpacing what the company can produce.

“2025 proved that our technology delivers, not in the distant future, but right now. With two banana varieties already on the market and demand outstripping supply, this investment enables us to scale global production and expand into new crops faster than ever before.”

Regulatory approvals for the bananas are in place in the Philippines, Colombia, Honduras, the US, and Canada. Consumer launches in the US and Canada are planned for 2026. The technology is described by Tropic as non-GMO, as it makes targeted changes to the banana’s existing DNA without introducing genetic material from another organism.

The more urgent project, however, is TR4. Tropic is deploying its GEiGS technology to redirect the banana plant’s own RNA interference machinery to attack the fungal genes responsible for the disease. In 2025, the company shipped plants to establish a mother plantation, the first stage of production at commercial scale, with deployment of TR4-resistant varieties targeted for 2027.

The $25 billion banana industry figure for TR4’s potential impact comes from Tropic’s own framing; the existential scale of the threat is corroborated by extensive independent reporting.

The Series C capital will fund expanded plant production infrastructure, support commercial partnerships across export markets, and accelerate Tropic’s broader pipeline, including resistance to Black Sigatoka, a fungal disease that currently costs farmers between $2,000 and $3,000 per hectare annually in pesticide treatment, and the company’s rice programme.

Tropic has also licensed its GEiGS technology to a set of third parties, including Corteva for disease resistance traits in corn and soybean, British Sugar for disease-resistant sugar beet, and animal genetics company Genus. The licensing track suggests the underlying technology has commercial reach well beyond tropical fruits.

Joy Faucher, General Partner at Forbion, who will join Tropic’s board alongside Tom Greene of Corteva and Siddarth Shrikanth of Just Climate, framed the investment in terms of broader planetary health.

“Tropic is an exemplary case of how advanced biotechnology can be applied with precision to challenges in planetary health, starting with banana and rice.”

For Corteva, whose Senior Director Tom Greene also joins the board, the appeal sits partly in the consumer-facing dimension.

“Tropic’s non-browning banana varieties are a promising example of how the agriculture industry is leveraging innovation to deliver new and improved choices for farmers and consumers worldwide.”

Tropic’s total pre-Series C funding stood at approximately $73.5 million, comprising a $10 million Series A in 2018 led by Pontifax AgTech and Five Seasons Ventures, a $28.5 million Series B in 2020 led by Temasek, and a $35 million Series C in 2022 led by Blue Horizon. The new $105 million round, its second to carry the Series C designation, reflects a significant step-change in scale.

The commercial challenge now is less scientific than logistical. Gene editing the world’s most widely grown export banana is one thing. Producing it at a scale capable of supplying meaningful volumes across global export markets, while simultaneously developing disease-resistant varieties against a pathogen with no known cure, is another order of magnitude entirely. What this round is funding, in large part, is the answer to that second question.