Amazon’s “Subscribe & Save” program — for recurring purchasees — has triggered a new lawsuit, reports Oregon Live.
“The lawsuit contends that after luring in customers with ‘artificially low prices,’ the world’s biggest online retailer jacked up the prices in the months after their first shipments arrived.”
In some cases, the lawsuit claims that customers were paying more for the exact same items through the Subscribe & Save program than they would be if they bought the items from other sellers on the site. That was true even when the up to 15% discount that the subscription program offers was calculated into the final purchase price, according to the suit. The Seattle law firm that filed the May 15 lawsuit says that Amazon’s business practices amount to “deceptive,” “misleading” and “bait and switch tactics.” The firm is seeking class-action status in U.S. District Court for western Washington, a move that could potentially draw tens of millions of Amazon customers from across the U.S. into the litigation…
[The suit says the plaintiffs’ first order of espresso coffee grounds was $16.60.] When their order auto-renewed a few months later, the price had gone up to $17.04. A few months later, it rose to $21.25. Then in October 2024, the price increased to $28.69 — about $12 more than the Hermans had paid at the beginning of their subscription, according to the lawsuit. [The discount can be as little as 5% or up to 15%, Amazon told Oregon Live in a statement, noting customers do receive an email showing “applicable savings” before the orders ship. But…] The suit says Amazon gave the Hermans little notice to cancel the order or to shop around because it notified them of the latest price increase in an email at 8:54 p.m. — the same night it processed their order and charged them.
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The suit says if the Hermans had been given the time to shop around for a better price, they would have found that another Amazon seller was charging $25.90 — or $2.79 less — for the identical item. Amazon’s “Subscribe & Save Terms & Conditions” page tells customers that it “may change the price for a Subscribe & Save subscription at any time for any reason….”
The analytical group Consumer Intelligence Research Partners says about 25% of U.S. Amazon customers are enrolled in the Subscribe & Save program. Oregon Live got Amazon’s response, which suggested their program saves customers time and money “through convenient, flexible, and recurring deliveries”. (So when customers saw “Subscribe and Save”, they were perhaps supposed to intuit the word save referred in part to… time-saving?)
The plaintiffs’ lawyer argues instead that “When you sign up for something that is called ‘Subscribe & Save,’ you’d expect that you’re saving by subscribing. But that’s not actually what’s happening in many cases.”
Every year, Apple unveils the latest version of iOS with the kind of polish and fanfare you’d expect from one of the biggest tech companies on the planet.
And this year is no different, with WWDC 2026 playing host not only to the reveal of iOS 27 but also to the much-anticipated Siri AI, finally bringing GenAI smarts to iPhone that can compete with the Android competition.
It’s undoubtedly a big update for Apple, but for all the attention it’s paying to flashy new AI-powered features, some of the most frustrating parts of the iPhone experience still feel stubbornly untouched – elements that, in places, I’ve been complaining about for nearly a decade.
I’m going to say it; I absolutely detest app badges on iPhone.
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Those big, bright buttons with numbers on them cause nothing but added stress, insinuating there’s something I need to do or see, especially when badges on multiple apps slowly take over my home screen and folders. The FOMO instantly kicks in, as annoying as it is.
Image Credit (Trusted Reviews)
It’s also very distracting when I unlock my phone to do something specifically. If I see a little ‘1’ on the WhatsApp app, I’m going to open it, see who has sent me a message, and likely get sidetracked. It’s a basic psychological trick – one that I want to opt out of.
The problem? You can only disable badges on an app-by-app basis, and with hundreds of apps on my iPhone, that’d take hours. Why isn’t there an option to globally disable badges? It has been available on most Android skins for years now, after all.
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In fact, I want Apple to go even further and basically just copy how Android handles notifications and badges because, well, it just makes a lot of sense. On Android, notifications in the notification shade are directly tied to app badges, so if you decide a notification is unworthy of your time and attention and clear it from the shade, the associated app badge also disappears.
Image Credit (Trusted Reviews)
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On iPhone, clearing a notification won’t remove the badge – the only way to clear it is to open the app and read the message or notification that was delivered.
In an age when we’re all becoming more conscious of mindlessly scrolling through apps, visual distractions like this need to get in the sea.
But hey, at least Siri can write texts for you now, right?
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Why doesn’t Apple support Wi-Fi Direct?
Just under a decade ago, I managed to get my hands on Snapchat’s then-brand-new Spectacles – a pair of sunglasses with a built-in camera and mic to capture POV-style snaps and videos exclusively for Snapchat. Yes, Snap really was ahead of its time in that regard; it walked so Meta could run.
Anyway, after excitedly snapping photos and videos on an outing in Central London, I opened my iPhone 7 Plus to import and share them on my story. The problem? Apple didn’t support Wi-Fi Direct, which would let the phone and the glasses pair directly via Wi-Fi and provide much faster data transfer speeds.
Instead, I had to connect via Bluetooth and deal with slow speeds, or manually connect to the glasses’ Wi-Fi network in my iPhone’s Settings app.
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As a result, it was much better as an Android accessory than an iPhone one, with Wi-Fi Direct support allowing for rapid transfer – and it’d also happen in the background without me triggering it myself.
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What’s crazy about this is that, 10 years later, Apple still doesn’t support Wi-Fi Direct – and considering how many camera-equipped devices we use these days, from drones to action cameras and gimbal cameras to the aforementioned camera-enabled smart specs, that’s pretty unbelievable.
Instead, iOS users continue to rely on the much slower Bluetooth transfer speeds for moving videos between devices wirelessly – and I can’t help but wonder, why?
But hey, at least Siri can tell you what you’re looking at in iOS 27, right?
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Actually, it’s more than Wi-Fi Direct – it’s Wi-Fi in general
You know what, it’s not just the lack of Wi-Fi Direct support that irks me on the iPhone – it’s the Wi-Fi experience in general.
Apple spent a good few minutes patting itself on the back at WWDC, claiming that it’d fixed one of the biggest headaches of cellular and Wi-Fi connectivity – the time it takes to jump between the two. I mean, that’s great and all, but I wouldn’t have put that very high on my list of complaints.
What I would’ve loved Apple to fix instead was the iPhone’s handling of mesh Wi-Fi networks, because right now it’s pretty bad. I’ve had a couple of mesh Wi-Fi systems in my home over the past few years, and none of them have played well with any model of iPhone I’ve used – including the most recent iPhone 17 Pro.
Image Credit (Trusted Reviews)
When I move from one area of the home to another that requires a hop from one Wi-Fi node to another, there’s a period of time – sometimes close to a minute – when my iPhone swears it’s connected to full-signal Wi-Fi but doesn’t actually work.
It’s an absolute headache compared to using an Android where mesh Wi-Fi networks work as expected, hopping between nodes without a loss in connectivity. It’s easily one of the main reasons why I keep flitting between iPhone and Android for daily use – a small problem, yes, but one that gets very annoying, very quickly.
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But hey, at least you can get Siri to make Shortcuts for you in iOS 27, right?
Sorry Apple, but some apps do need to run in the background
Apple handles background app usage in a completely different way than Android – while background apps can run on Android, those on iPhone are essentially frozen when not in active use to conserve battery.
It’s likely the reason why some people think that closing background iPhone apps will save battery life – when in reality, it’s the opposite, using more CPU power to totally re-open an app than would be used in its frozen state. But I digress.
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While I do like Apple’s approach to background app use, as it doesn’t require the same manual management as on Android, it does make using accessories (particularly those not made by Apple) a bit of a headache.
Image Credit (Trusted Reviews)
Take my Fitbit Air for example; on Android, it’ll automatically sync with the Google Health app in the background and send me alerts and insights throughout the day, regardless of whether I’ve opened it or not. On iPhone? I have to open the app and manually sync the wearable before I can see what’s going on with my health and fitness.
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It also applies to smart glasses, as I hinted at earlier; as well as using Wi-Fi Direct, camera-connected apps can also automatically import images and videos on Android – something you simply can’t do on iOS.
If Apple added a little button or a toggle to the multitasking menu to enable always-on background use, that’d be great – but that’s not on the roster for the big software update.
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But hey, at least you can get Siri to let you know when websites change in iOS 27, right?
These aren’t exactly new complaints either
As you can probably tell, these aren’t complaints that have suddenly emerged with iOS 26; they’re long-standing flaws in iOS that chip away at the overall experience on offer, no matter how polished the rest of the software might look.
It’s great that Apple is finally doing a better job of matching the Android competition in the ever-competitive GenAI market, but really, it needs to put just as much effort into fixing these lingering usability issues and refining the core experience.
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But hey, at least Siri looks better in iOS 27, right?
The company, founded in 2018, builds software infrastructure that aims to empower developers to use quantum computing to solve computational problems.
Irish-founded computing company Horizon Quantum has chosen Dublin as the site for establishing a testbed for its planned second quantum computer.
The company said locating the ‘IonQ’ 256-qubit system at its European headquarters would benefit the company and the country, noting “Ireland’s growing quantum ecosystem, strong university network and robust talent pool for deep-tech development, both within the country and across the EU”, and predicting that the installation of the “frontier system” would be a “significant technology milestone for the nation, positioning Ireland to play an increasingly prominent role in frontier quantum computing”.
Horizon Quantum, founded in 2018, builds software infrastructure that aims to empower developers to use quantum computing to solve computational problems. It said that IonQ’s sixth-generation, chip-based 256-qubit trapped-ion system could be among the most sophisticated quantum computers in the world.
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“Expanding our hardware testbed to Ireland with the addition of a frontier system is a significant step forward for both our company in our mission to unlock broad quantum advantage and for the country in strengthening its quantum ecosystem,” said Horizon Quantum CEO and founder Dr Joe Fitzsimons.
“We are excited to extend our testbed capabilities to include a trapped-ion system by deploying this state-of-the-art quantum computer in Dublin.”
To oversee the establishment and management of its second quantum system, Horizon Quantum, which is based in Singapore, said it plans to expand its Irish-based science and engineering teams, and deepen engagement with Ireland’s quantum ecosystem through increased involvement with industry, academia and the local supply chain.
Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment Peter Burke, TD said: “The establishment of one of the most advanced commercial quantum systems here is an important milestone that will support innovation, collaboration and economic growth, while further enhancing Ireland’s ambition to be a global hub for cutting-edge technologies.
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“This also aligns with our strategic focus in Silicon Island – Ireland’s national semiconductor strategy – on harnessing opportunities in rapidly evolving fields, including quantum technologies.”
The company assembled and integrated the first quantum system in its hardware testbed, a multi-vendor superconducting system, at its Singapore headquarters in 2025.
It said that the expansion of its testbed facilities to its European headquarters with a “second, technologically distinct system” will help further its goal of delivering the “most capable hardware-agnostic tools for quantum software development”.
Michael Lohan, CEO of IDA Ireland, said: “Quantum development is an important strategic priority for IDA Ireland, and this announcement is a strong endorsement of Ireland’s growing technology ecosystem, our research capabilities and the talent available here.
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“Horizon Quantum’s decision to invest in Ireland further strengthens our position in frontier technologies and will help support continued innovation and collaboration across the quantum sector.”
As we near the halfway point in the second Trump presidential term, there’s something that is worth remembering: Donald Trump, like most nasty viruses, is a temporary condition. Trumpism may not be, though I have my doubts as to how long a cult of personality can survive without that specific personality leading the cult. But Donald Trump as president will come to an end in the not too distant future.
The millions and millions of people who have been negatively impacted by him and by those who have decided to bow at his cultish altar, are not temporary. They are not going to go away. And they will remember the actions of many during this time.
And I imagine the American Diabetes Association, and specifically those currently leading it, will be in the memories of its members and many others for a long, long time. It’s been nearly a week since the ADA had five diabetes scientists, including its own former president, involuntarily removed from outside the ADA’s annual conference by police. Their crime? Distributing a copy of an editorial from the April edition of the ADA’s own journal.
The scientists were distributing the editorial outside the conference’s opening speech, which was originally scheduled to be given by Jay Bhattacharya, head of the National Institutes of Health under Trump. Bhattacharya canceled at the last minute, and senior NIH official Rick Woychik took his place.
Within minutes of beginning to hand out the editorial, police reportedly escorted the scientists out of the conference, which was held in New Orleans. The police reportedly shoved at least one scientist, took all of their conference badges, and threatened to arrest them if they tried to return. Louisiana State Police later told media that they acted at the request of the ADA. The ADA subsequently barred the five scientists from the rest of the conference.
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The editorial just so happened to be very critical of the Trump administration and RFK Jr.’s funding at NIH and other health agencies and groups. It’s quite obvious that the ADA feared repercussions from the Trump administration if it wouldn’t allow these scientists to hand the article out while members of the administration were speaking and tried to use the police to silence them. And then, when this whole thing went viral, the ADA offered up justifications for its actions. Justifications that kept changing, as it turns out.
In an email to ADA members Saturday, the association said the scientists were removed because they didn’t have prior approval to distribute material at the conference and that it was “not because of the viewpoints expressed in those materials,” according to reporting from Science.
In a statement Sunday, the organization, which is a nonprofit, said it removed the scientists because it was complying with federal regulations for 501(c)(3) nonprofits, which requires “maintaining a strictly nonpartisan environment at all organizational events and functions while engaging across party affiliations to advance our mission.” However, the federal regulations do not restrict leaders of organizations from sharing political views in a personal capacity or from speaking on important public policy issues.
And from there, the Streisand Effect took over. The editorial, which you can find right here, went somewhat viral itself, getting a ton more attention than it had to date. But the real backlash came from the public and from within the medical community itself. There have been resignations in protest of the ADA’s actions. An open letter to the ADA signed by 40 members was written to torch leadership’s actions and treatment of the scientists at the conference. Another open letter was also written, likewise demanding an apology.
And, finally, the ADA did in fact apologize days later.
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In the video Wednesday, ADA CEO Charles Henderson personally apologized to the five scientists, including Aaron Kelly, pediatrics professor at the University of Minnesota; Justin Ryder of Northwestern University; and Irl Hirsch, also of the University of Washington, in addition to Kahn and Schatz.
“What transpired is not reflective of who I am, the values I hold, or the way I was raised,” Henderson said. “I will work hard to bring our community back together to build on the progress we have collectively made for those affected by diabetes.”
In addition to apologizing to the five ejected scientists, Henderson apologized to the community as a whole, saying that the ADA would commission a “thorough independent review of the events that occurred as well as the policies, procedures, and decision-making process that guided our actions.”
Yeah, no, not good enough. The fish stinks from the head down, as the saying goes, and there have been days worth of attempts to make this stupidity anyone’s fault but leadership at the ADA. This was a clear attempt to lick the Trump administration’s boots, at the very moment when clear leadership from medical groups is so sorely needed, and that’s a bell that cannot be un-rung.
Henderson needs to go. And I have little doubt that he will before too long. Trump and RFK Jr. will eventually be gone, as well.
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But we won’t forget how groups like the ADA, and the people leading them, acted during this time.
There’s still the possibility of that Trump pardon.
A federal appeals court has upheld the fraud conviction of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, according to Reuters. Bankman-Fried was convicted of running one of the largest financial frauds in history, involving his crypto-exchange FTX. He was also convicted of money laundering and is currently in prison.
Judge Barrington Parker wrote in the appeals ruling that “the government’s evidence against him was, conservatively stated, robust.” Bankman-Fried and his team still have the option to bring the appeal to higher courts, including the Supreme Court.
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All told, he faced seven charges and was found guilty of each and every one. The disgraced crypto mogul was sentenced to 25 years in prison back in 2024. Since that time, he’s been fighting to overturn the ruling in a variety of ways.
There’s the aforementioned appeal, which was just denied. Bankman-Fried is also seeking a re-trial on the grounds that new witness testimony could alter the case made against him by prosecutors. He seeks to represent himself in this re-trial, though it’s highly unlikely to happen.
The White House has been pretty free with pardons in the crypto space. Apropos of nothing, the Trump family has a crypto business of its own, which has netted the family over $2 billion since he took office in 2025. There’s no real way to see who has invested in Trump’s crypto memecoin.
President Trump has also been found liable for fraud in a New York court. Additionally, he has been indicted in federal court for conspiracy to defraud the United States and the Trump organization was convicted for a years-long scheme involving criminal tax fraud, defrauding investors and falsifying business records. Maybe Bankman-Fried will get that pardon under the little-known “game recognize game” provision.
From connected factory floors to automation and digital twins, ‘Industry 4.0’ refers to the future of manufacturing.
Ireland’s diverse manufacturing industry makes it the choice European location for a growing number of industrial and technology companies, according to IDA Ireland.
It does especially well in some sectors – medtech, automotives, aerospace and chemicals being a few examples – with its capacity only enhanced by a steady supply of skilled talent emerging from third-level institutions.
Meanwhile, a strong talent pipeline supported by grants and commercialisation support for research and innovation also allows Ireland to maintain its appeal as a global manufacturer.
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From connected factory floors and industrial IoT to AI-powered automation and digital twins, ‘Industry 4.0’ is a phrase used to refer to the future of manufacturing. Here are seven Irish start-ups innovating on the factory floor.
Founded by CEO Eoin Cobbe and CTO Robert Cormican, Forge Robotics wants to tackle the rising threat of skilled welder shortages in manufacturing using intelligent automation.
The company makes an AI-powered intelligence layer that improves the welding capabilities of industrial robots. Its system allows robots to scan a part, interpret its geometry and execute welds even when the set-up is imperfect.
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Gemell Technology
Headquartered in Dublin’s Dogpatch Labs, this Enterprise Ireland (EI) ‘High Potential Start-Up’ builds 3D visualisation and sustainability software for textile manufacturers and designers.
Gemell Technology aims for its technology to significantly reduce unnecessary fabric samples from ending up in landfills.
The company can generate photo-like digital models of yarns and fabrics, which manufacturers can tweak instead of ordering physical fabric samples. These 3D renders are generated with fabric textures originating from individual fibres.
Gemell claims that manufacturers that use its technology reduce unnecessary fabric samples and waste by 70pc, while getting products to market 11 weeks faster.
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The company has offices in Dublin and London, and came in as the first runner-up at last year’s All-Island Circular Venture Awards – a competition that recognises late-stage start-ups across the island showcasing circular value propositions.
The Rapid Apophis Mission for Space Safety – or Ramses – will rendezvous with asteroid 99942 Apophis, accompanying it during its extremely close but safe flyby of Earth in 2029.
InnaLabs’ gyroscope navigation system will be helping the ESA, the Italian aerospace engineering company OHB and the Spanish tech company GMV in the space mission scheduled for launch in April 2028.
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The company’s technology solves complex navigation, stabilisation and guidance challenges within space, aerospace, land and marine markets.
Oscil
Oscil provides data analytics support for the pharmaceutical and dairy sector. The company’s founder Dr Patrick Cronin won the EI Big Ideas award last year after contesting in a pitching battle against other pre-spin-out ventures emerging from EI’s Commercialisation Fund.
Speaking to SiliconRepublic.com, Cronin said that the “current rise in weight loss drugs [and] GLP-1s are driving huge investment in the protein market”, and that “Oscil can unlock a lot of capacity and quality in spray driers through edge sensing and machine learning to provide real-time process control”.
The company said it is seeking early adopters in the spray drying industry to improve production capacity and product quality.
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Smartfactory
This 2016-founded start-up captures, analyses and visualises performance indicators from the manufacturing, logistics and utility sectors using Industry 4.0 technology.
The company’s SaaS solutions, built on technology from hardware partners Siemens and Banner, help cut down on manufacturing downtime by identifying hidden losses in the production process.
It is based out of Nexus Innovation Centre at the University of Limerick.
Ubotica
This Dublin-based space-tech is a frequent collaborator with NASA and the ESA. Last month, it announced a partnership with Texas’s Novi Space to deliver real-time intelligence from the Earth’s orbit.
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The collaboration enables Earth observation data to be processed directly on satellites instead of it needing to be transferred to Earth for analysis.
Ubotica is deploying its AI platform, which processes input data within 90 seconds, for the space mission. According to the company, in a single test observation of a Singapore port, the platform processed hundreds of vessels and detected those operating ‘dark’ in under two minutes.
The company has deployed its AI capabilities on numerous missions, including its own CogniSAT-6 satellite.
WrxFlo
Founded in 2019 by former Dell manufacturing leaders Tim Crowe, Ken Sheehan and Jennifer Kelly, WrxFlo is a SaaS platform tailored specifically for manufacturing and logistics operations.
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The company claims its platform acts as a “digital co-worker” across operations and the vertical line of command by connecting data from across the factory, warehouse and supply chain, eliminating non-value-added tasks and surfacing ‘red’ indicators before they become costly problems.
“We built WrxFlo from first-hand experience of running complex manufacturing and supply chain operations,” said Crowe, the company’s CEO.
“WrxFlo enables industrial manufacturers and logistics operators turn complex, paper or Excel-based processes into streamlined, data-driven systems that reduce cost and improve efficiency.”
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A former Fitbit executive is betting that the next big wearable might not be a smartwatch at all.
Stacy Salvi, who spent eight years at Fitbit before and after Google’s acquisition of the company, has launched The Gem. It is a smart necklace designed to help women track their UV exposure throughout the day.
Rather than counting steps or monitoring workouts, The Gem focuses on something many wearables overlook: how much sunlight your skin is actually getting. The pendant-style device continuously measures both UVA and UVB exposure and sends the data to a companion app. As a result, the app builds a personalised skin profile based on your habits and environment.
The idea is to provide more useful guidance than a simple weather forecast. Depending on your exposure levels, the app can recommend sunscreen reminders, highlight safer times to spend outdoors and help users understand their personal UV limits.
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What’s interesting is the form factor. While UV-tracking gadgets aren’t entirely new, they’ve typically been standalone sensors or patches. The Gem packages the technology inside a piece of jewellery designed to be worn every day, making it feel more like an accessory than a traditional health tracker.
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That approach could help it stand out in a wearable market increasingly dominated by smartwatches and fitness bands. By focusing on a specific problem and wrapping it in a design that’s less overtly tech-focused, The Gem appears to be targeting users who don’t necessarily want another screen on their wrist.
The launch also arrives as interest in preventative health tracking continues to grow. Wearables have already expanded beyond fitness into sleep, recovery and stress monitoring. UV exposure feels like a natural next step, particularly for people concerned about long-term skin health.
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The Gem is available now directly from The90. It will eventually retail for $300, although early buyers can currently pick one up for $200 for a limited time.
Alpha School has leased space in this building in Kirkland for its first Seattle-area school. (GeekWire Photo / Todd Bishop)
Alpha School, an AI-driven private school chain that promises to teach kids core academics in two hours a day, plans to open a Seattle-area location in Kirkland this fall and will run its first local weekly summer programs on Microsoft’s Redmond campus starting in late June.
The approach frees up the rest of the day for a program of life skills, projects, and other character-building activities, which is another core part of Alpha School’s pitch. There’s no homework, by design, to give kids time for sports and other pursuits outside of school.
For the fall, Alpha School has secured space in a building just east of Google’s Kirkland campus, at 620 Fifth Ave. S., and has started taking applications. The initial campus has capacity for up to 150 students.
Alpha School co-founder MacKenzie Price. (LinkedIn Photo)
Alpha School co-founder MacKenzie Price and team have been expanding the Austin-based chain across the country. A driving force behind the school is tech entrepreneur Joe Liemandt, founder of the software company Trilogy and the private-equity firm ESW Capital.
In an interview, Price said she has family in the Seattle area and considers the region “very forward-thinking” when it comes to innovation and valuing education. Alpha School has seen interest from people in the region for a while, but real estate can create a challenge, she said, so they were excited when they were able to secure the Kirkland property.
The school’s use of screens and AI naturally attracts questions and some criticism, but Price said skepticism about the role of technology misses an important distinction.
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“There’s a huge difference between students scrolling TikTok or watching cartoons or playing video games all day, and receiving a one-to-one, mastery-based tutoring experience,” she said. “It’s the idea of proactive, engaged interaction, as opposed to passive consumption.”
Price drew a sharp line against chatbots — “cheat bots,” she called them — which Alpha keeps out of its core instruction. Instead, she said, the software diagnoses what each student has and hasn’t mastered, then delivers lessons adjusted to their level and pace.
Alpha calls the adults in its classrooms “guides” rather than teachers, and pays them above typical teacher salaries. The schools run on a 5-to-1 student-to-guide ratio. Guides aren’t providing academic instruction, Price said, but instead focus on mentorship and motivation while the technology handles the lessons.
The model has its critics. Some educators have questioned Alpha School’s claims, arguing that learning can’t be accelerated as dramatically as Alpha says, and that its strong outcomes may reflect the students it enrolls as much as its methods.
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Alpha stands by its results, providing data showing its students in the top percentiles on the NWEA MAP, a widely used standardized test taken by students nationwide.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has shown interest in the concept, bringing it up during a recent podcast taping in conjunction with the company’s Build developer conference. Asked about AI and education, Nadella mentioned meeting some of the people behind Alpha School to learn about their approach, calling it fascinating to rethink what education will look like in the future.
“Maybe the next big startup and success story could be someone who builds a new university or a new pedagogy,” Nadella said on the crossover of the No Priors and Latent Space podcasts.
The Microsoft connection came through Caitlin McCabe, vice president and chief of staff to Nadella. She initially got involved as a parent of young children drawn to Alpha’s model, not in her Microsoft role, advocating for the school to come to the region and helping connect it with interested families.
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Tuition for the fall in Kirkland hasn’t been decided, according to Alpha School officials, but “founding families” who sign up for the first year will get a $10,000 discount.
The weekly summer programs on Microsoft’s Redmond campus will run for eight weeks, from late June to late August. They’re open to the public at $1,500 a week, with Microsoft employees getting a 50% discount per child. The idea is to give students and families a sense of what Alpha School is like, with an experience that mirrors the typical day during the school year.
OpenText’s €105m investment marks the single largest backing by a company with a Canadian HQ.
Canadian enterprise data management company OpenText is creating 400 highly-skilled jobs in Cork and Galway over the next three years through a planned investment of €105m.
The company helps organisations protect, govern and utilise their data for agentic AI, cybersecurity and sovereign cloud. Irish-based developers and researchers will design, deploy, secure and operate these AI and cloud capabilities for the European, Middle East and African (EMEA) markets.
This is the single largest investment into Ireland by a technology company headquartered in Canada and is supported by IDA Ireland.
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The major investment is expected to advance the company’s service capabilities across the EMEA industries and public sectors. It is also expected to increase regional capacity for organisations operating in highly regulated and mission-critical environments which require greater control over data governance.
“This investment expands our EMEA R&D and operations capacity to deliver the trusted AI, cybersecurity, and cloud capabilities our clients already rely on globally, while giving European organisations greater regional support and flexibility across the cloud environments of their choice,” said Shannon Bell, the executive vice-president, chief digital officer and chief information officer of OpenText.
Speaking of the announcement, Michael Lohan, the CEO of IDA Ireland said: “This investment will strengthen Ireland’s leadership in AI and transformational technology and IDA Ireland looks forward to continuing to work closely in partnership with OpenText as it grows its business in Ireland and deepens its European presence.”
OpenText said that it intends to explore opportunities for university and research collaboration in Ireland as part of its long-term innovation and talent strategy. This includes partnerships with third-level institutions focused on AI, cybersecurity and secure digital operations.
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Laying down its R&D plans, OpenText said that its research efforts will advance how AI agents are orchestrated and governed including multi-agent collaboration, system boundary enforcement and knowledge sharing across sovereign zones.
In data sovereignty, it is developing continuous compliance mechanisms that give organisations verifiable control over where data lives and how it is governed, while its cybersecurity research will focus on threat detection and response.
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OpenAI is under investigation by a coalition of state attorneys general, according to the Wall Street Journal. On Friday, June 12, the company received a subpoena seeking information and documents related to its activities and impact on users. The Journal said it viewed the subpoena sent by New York’s attorney general.
Based on what the publication saw, the AGs are asking for documentation about the company’s advertising, user engagement and retention, as well as its handling of its users’ data and health information. They also want to know about the company’s activities related to minor and senior users, its deep learning models, its policies and its models’ sycophancy.
“AI is a new and powerful technology, and we work every day to safely bring its benefits to people in a responsible way,” an OpenAI spokesperson said in a statement to the Journal. “We take the concerns raised by state attorneys general seriously and intend to engage constructively with their offices.”
It’s unclear what prompted the investigation, but tech companies developing AI products have been under scrutiny by state AGs for quite a while now. Last year, a group of 44 state AGs sent a letter to Meta, Google, Apple, Microsoft, OpenAI, Anthropic, Perplexity AI and XAI, asking them to protect children from being exposed to inappropriate and potentially harmful chatbot interactions. In April, Florida Attorney General James Ulthmeier opened a criminal investigation into OpenAI, because the suspect in the 2025 Florida State University mass shooting reportedly used ChatGPT.
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More recently, another parent filed a wrongful death lawsuit against OpenAI, accusing the company of not implementing enough safeguards to protect users from taking their own life. The lawsuit claimed that the plaintiff’s daughter who died by suicide discussed her suicidal thoughts and plans with the chatbot in the months leading up to her death. However, the company didn’t alert the family or authorities. OpenAI was named as a defendant in the first ever wrongful death lawsuit linked to a chatbot, as well.
Just a few days ago, OpenAI filed paperwork with the Securities and Exchange Commission to go public. It hasn’t decided on timing and pricing yet.
OpenAI is forcing Mac users to update ChatGPT and other desktop apps, after a supply chain attack exposed signing certificates that Apple’s security systems use to verify trusted software.
The company disclosed the incident on May 13 and confirmed malware linked to the “Mini Shai-Hulud” attack infected two employee devices through the TanStack npm ecosystem. Investigators identified unauthorized access activity in a limited set of internal source code repositories connected to those employees.
OpenAI rotated its signing certificates and re-signed affected apps to prevent potential misuse of the exposed credentials. The company found no evidence that customer data, production systems, or intellectual property were compromised during the incident.
Apple’s macOS security protections will block apps signed with the older certificates after June 12, which makes the update mandatory for affected Mac users.
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OpenAI confirmed the affected repositories included signing certificates used for applications across macOS, iOS, Windows, and Android. The company blocked future notarization attempts tied to the older credentials instead of revoking the certificates immediately and risking broken software installations for existing users.
Mac users must install updated versions before June 12. After that date, Apple’s security protections will stop trusting apps signed with the previous certificates.
Why macOS users need to update
Code-signing certificates help macOS verify that software comes from a legitimate developer. Apple’s Gatekeeper and notarization systems use those certificates to determine whether apps should be trusted, launched, or blocked.
Investigators found no evidence that exposed certificates were used to sign malicious software or distribute malware to users. OpenAI reviewed prior notarizations for signs of unauthorized activity and said it found no evidence of misuse.
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Older versions of ChatGPT Desktop, Codex App, Codex CLI, and Atlas signed with the previous certificates may stop functioning or receiving updates after June 12. ChatGPT Desktop 1.2026.125, Codex App 26.506.31421, Codex CLI 0.130.0, and Atlas 1.2026.119.1 are the affected releases.
Supply chain attacks are becoming harder to contain
Modern apps rely on vast networks of open-source libraries, package managers, and automated development systems that can spread compromised code widely. A malicious dependency can traverse multiple organizations before developers detect the malware in the software chain.
Apple’s macOS security protections will block apps signed with the older certificates after June 12
The attack hit during an active rollout of new supply chain security protections across OpenAI’s development systems. Those protections included stricter package provenance checks, stronger CI/CD credential controls, and package-manager safeguards like minimumReleaseAge policies.
The two affected employee devices hadn’t yet received the updated protections when the malware reached the systems. OpenAI said the incident accelerated deployment of additional safeguards designed to reduce the impact of future supply chain attacks.
How Mac users can stay safe
OpenAI told users to install updated apps only through official websites or built-in update systems. The company also warned users to avoid installers distributed through ads, third-party download sites, email links, or unsolicited messages.
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Mac users should verify they are running the latest versions of ChatGPT, Codex, and related OpenAI apps before June 12. Users who downloaded OpenAI software from unofficial sources should delete those apps and reinstall clean versions directly from OpenAI.
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