After months of speculation and plenty of rumours, Apple has finally unveiled its long-awaited foldable, the iPhone Duo. But how does it compare to the flagship iPhone 18 Pro?

While we’re yet to review either the iPhone Duo or iPhone 18 Pro, we’ve compared its specs to decipher what’s different and what’s the same with the Apple flagships. 

Read on to learn more about the iPhone Duo and iPhone 18 Pro, and decide whether you think either will join our best smartphone guide.

For more from Apple’s launch event, visit our iPhone 18 Pro vs iPhone 18 Pro Max and iPhone Duo vs Google Pixel 11 Pro Fold comparisons. 

Specs Comparison Table

	iPhone Duo	iPhone 18 Pro
Battery	Typical use up to 24 hours	Typical use up to 34 hours
Chipset	A20 Pro	A20 Pro
Rear Cameras	48MP + 48MP	48MP + 48MP + 48MP
Manufacturer	Apple	Apple
Operating System	iOS 27	iOS 27
RRP	£/$1999.99	£/$1199.99
Outer screen	5.4-inch	6.3-inch
Inner screen	7.6-inch	N/A

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Price and Availability

Although it has been unveiled, the iPhone Duo is not currently available to buy or pre-order. Apple’s first foldable will instead be available for pre-order from October 16 ahead of its official launch from October 23. 

Perhaps unsurprisingly, it’s the most expensive iPhone in Apple’s range, with a starting price of an eye-watering £1999/$1999 for the 256GB handset. This can rise up to a massive £3199/$3199 for its 2TB iteration. 

Alongside the Pro Max, the iPhone 18 Pro is available to buy now and has a starting price of £1199/$1199 for the 256GB handset. Much like the iPhone Duo, the iPhone 18 Pro also comes as a 2TB handset which will set you back £2399/$2399.

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iPhone Duo is a foldable phone with two screens

The biggest and most obvious difference between the two iPhones is with their respective form factors. While the iPhone 18 Pro is a traditional candybar phone, the iPhone Duo is a book-style foldable that has two displays – one outer panel that opens to reveal a much larger internal display.

The iPhone Duo’s outer display is a compact 5.4-inch Super Retina XDR panel, that’s equipped with ProMotion, has always-on technology and sports Apple’s redesigned Dynamic Island too. In addition, although it’s considerably smaller than the iPhone 18 Pro’s 6.3-inch screen, Apple states that the iPhone Duo’s outer display covers more than 90% of the screen area of the iPhone 18 Pro too. 

Even so, the iPhone 18 Pro is still equipped with plenty of the same premium screen technologies seen within the iPhone Duo, including ProMotion, always-on and a Dynamic Island too. What it doesn’t have, however, is an additional internal screen.

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The iPhone Duo’s internal screen measures 7.6-inches and is designed to make streaming video content, gaming and productivity tasks easier. It also shares the same aspect ratio as the outer panel, which Apple promises will enable a smoother experience when switching between the two screens. 

Plus, with iOS 27, the software is tailored to best suit the foldable’s design, with controls automatically moving to the side for a more intuitive experience too. If you’ve ever used even one of the best foldable phones, you’ll know the experience isn’t always fluid. 

Finally, Apple states that the Apple Pencil with USB-C will also work on both panels too.

Both run on Apple’s A20 Pro chip

Naturally as Apple’s flagship smartphones, both the iPhone Duo and iPhone 18 Pro are fitted with Apple’s flagship A20 Pro chips. Hailed as Apple’s fastest ever iPhone chip, A20 Pro promises to run Apple intelligence using “the most advanced” on-device AI model that the brand has ever designed.

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The chip is built on 2nm technology and sports a 6-core CPU that Apple claims is the fastest found in any smartphone – although Qualcomm has since made the same claim with its Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 mobile processor. 

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In addition, A20 Pro has a 7-core GPU that sees 40% faster graphics performance since last year’s A19 Pro. Both the iPhone Duo and iPhone 18 Pro are also equipped with a next-gen vapour chamber for efficient cooling too.

iPhone 18 Pro has three rear lenses, including a telephoto

Other than their designs, the next biggest difference with the iPhone Duo and iPhone 18 Pro is with their respective cameras. Although we haven’t reviewed either yet, by their specs alone we’d recommend opting for the iPhone 18 Pro if photography is the most important aspect of a handset for you. 

While the iPhone Duo is fitted with a 48MP Dual Fusion camera system that’s made up of a main and ultrawide, the iPhone 18 Pro boasts three rear lenses that includes a dedicated telephoto lens too. Not only that, but Apple states the iPhone 18 Pro’s main lens is the most advanced camera it has ever made, thanks to its variable aperture that automatically lets in more or less light according to the shooting environment. 

Both have an IP68 rating

If you’re concerned about the durability of the iPhone Duo, then fortunately Apple has equipped its first foldable with plenty of protection. Alongside a titanium frame and hinge cover, the iPhone Duo has an IP68 rating, which means it’s dust-tight and can survive submersion in water too. That’s pretty rare for a foldable, with many offering much lower ratings. 

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Although it’s rare for a foldable, an IP68 rating is standard for most of the best smartphones and even the best mid-range phones too. With that in mind, it’s not surprising that the iPhone 18 Pro also sports an IP68 rating.

iPhone Duo has an under-display front camera

Although both phones have Center Stage front cameras, which means you will always stay in shot even when walking around, they differ with their exact offerings. The iPhone 18 Pro is fitted with an 18MP front camera while the iPhone Duo’s is a slightly lower resolution of 12MP.

In addition, the iPhone Duo’s front camera is under the front display. While Apple hasn’t given much detail about this, we know from experience that although under-display front cameras give more of an immersive screen, it does result in less detailed photos. 

Early Verdict

Both the iPhone Duo and iPhone 18 Pro are seriously impressive looking smartphones, but arguably for different reasons. While both promise exceptional performance, the iPhone Duo is designed for productivity whereas the iPhone 18 Pro is a brilliant choice for photographers, content creators and the like. Plus, remember the iPhone Duo is considerably more expensive too. 

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We’ll update this versus once we review the iPhone Duo and iPhone 18 Pro.

If you have cursed in the vicinity of your phone while trying to launch a pizza into your pizza oven without inadvertently creating a calzone, chances are even better that Big Internet Brother has targeted you for a sliding pizza peel. If, after dozens of practice launches, you haven’t mastered the art of the traditional wood or perforated metal pizza peel, even with all-powerful semolina flour gliders, you may be very tempted by the ease promised by such a tool as a sliding pizza peel.

The Best Pizza Ovens, Tested by CNET

But is it worth it? Or is it just the Temu-niverse capitalizing on your desire for a homemade pizza that doesn’t come with a side of anxiety and despair? Reader, the temptation was too strong. I checked one out, and here’s the lowdown on what you can expect from a sliding pizza peel.

How does a sliding pizza peel work?

A sliding pizza peel is essentially a lightweight wooden pizza peel with a manual conveyor belt attached. Rather than thrusting a stationary peel under your entire pie, you only need a small edge of maneuverability to start. Once the sliding peel gets a little purchase on the raw pizza dough, you pull the cloth slide toward you by its handle while pushing the wooden board underneath. 

To launch the pizza with a sliding pizza peel, reverse the process: Use the handle on the cloth glider to push, sliding the pizza into the oven while pulling the sturdy board out from underneath it.

Cloth, you say? Well, not exactly. The conveyor mechanism moves like fabric, but think of it more like a nonstick baking mat. Many are made of woven fiberglass with a polytetrafluoroethylene coating, which is nonstick but still grips enough to hold raw or cooked pizza dough. It’s frankly like a flimsier Silpat or not unlike an oilcloth table covering.

PTFE, in case you’re wondering, is related to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances. Yes, we’ve worked hard to avoid PFAS; however, the material’s pliability doesn’t encourage chipping, and it is also replaceable. The wooden board itself admittedly also spares every expense without the heavy lifting required of other wooden pizza peels — this is made from raw, lightweight bamboo. 

Sliding pizza peel best practices

While a sliding pizza peel may seem like a cure-all, if, like me, you adore what your pizza oven offers but still struggle with pizza peel mechanics, it still requires practiceof its own —and caution. As with more traditional pizza peels, it cannot undo other mistakes, such as poorly constructed, too warm pizza dough or an overloaded pie. You can still calzone-ify your pizza, even with a sliding pizza peel.

Unlike a traditional pizza peel, which lets you push and pull simultaneously, the sliding pizza peel’s primary handle is also very short, meaning you kind of have to get (uncomfortably) close to the mouth of the oven to use it.

The fact that none of these seemingly magic wands are produced or branded by any major pizza oven manufacturer should serve as a caution. (Pizza oven manufacturers probably just want you to become a bona fide pizzaiolo, confidently using the legitimate tools of the trade; they are clearly not trying to encourage the use of these cheap devices.)

Various sliding pizza peels are purportedly heat-resistant up to a certain temperature (which varies). Many pizza ovens, however, can reach temperatures much hotter than those sliding peels are designed for.

More than one user on various online pizza oven forums reported that the nonstick belt of a sliding pizza peel melted onto the hot pizza stone. Others, however, called the device an absolute game changer. Either way, using a sliding pizza peel requires you to launch quickly, which again requires practice, probably best done outside your actual pizza oven. (Your oven-oven with a removable pizza stone? A much lower-stakes practice arena.)

My experience with a sliding pizza peel

I have been an enthusiastic pizza oven user since one came into my life, but I still haven’t mastered the mechanics of either a traditional wood or perforated metal pizza peel. I slightly prefer metal, but either way, pizza attempt number one always results in a folded disaster. My crime, apparently, is wanting the kind of thin pizza crust a 20-year-old New Yorker demands. The thinner the pizza, the harder to launch.

I can attest that the sliding pizza peel did make it easy to pull the pizza off the cutting board where I shaped the dough and applied toppings. Despite feeling cheaply made, the mechanics are inarguable. I achieved a crust thinness I truly couldn’t with the other models.

While you have to get close to the heat to deposit it, I haven’t earned any burns or scars from trying. Repeated launches in a very hot pizza oven also didn’t seem to affect the fabric slide, but then again, I was prepared to move extremely fast to avoid a crisis—and to get away from the heat.

In case it merits saying, a sliding pizza peel is entirely unnecessary for pulling pizza out of a pizza oven. In fact, I would caution against it since it really relies on setting the peel down on the pizza stone, never mind the fact that you really have to get your hand inside the oven in the starting position for pulling a pizza onto it. Once a pizza is fully cooked and the dough is sturdy, even a thin pizza can be collected with a more traditional pizza peel anyhow.

The verdict on a sliding pizza peel? Proceed with caution. And practice.

Ultimately, the average price of sliding pizza peels available online is about $30. Even with mixed reviews, it’s a fairly low-stakes gamble to see whether one improves how often you use your big-ticket pizza oven.

Pamela Vachon

Contributor

Pamela is a freelance food and travel writer based in Astoria, Queens. While she writes about most things edible and potable (and accessories dedicated to those topics,) her real areas of expertise are cheese, chocolate, cooking and wine. She’s a culinary school grad, certified sommelier, former bartender and fine dining captain with 10 years in the industry. When not sitting at the keys, she leads in-home cheese classes, wine tastings and cocktail demonstrations.

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Any new Vince Guaraldi album featuring previously unreleased versions of classic themes like “Little Birdie” and “Joe Cool” certainly catches my attention. Such is the case with the first-time release of the complete score to the February 1974 Peanuts TV special It’s a Mystery, Charlie Brown, featuring outstanding music by the legendary composer, pianist, and performer.

With his career catapulting after the mid-’60s mega-success of A Charlie Brown Christmas, Vince Guaraldi continued pushing his own personal envelope with each subsequent album release, exploring new instrumentation and musical constructs. He was even hanging out with the Grateful Dead for a spell in the late ’60s (look for him in the group photo on the back cover of the Dead’s Aoxomoxoa!).

So, it’s not surprising to me that he learned how to play guitar, and by the time of It’s a Mystery, Charlie Brown, his style had become quite accomplished. Here, he lends some bluesy electric guitar textures to his compositions in addition to piano, electric piano, clavinet and… whistling!

These new Peanuts soundtrack releases are important because there were never really official albums issued back in the day, aside from some poorly executed children’s records that included dialogue. Finally hearing all of this lost music curated into bona fide listening experiences is a joy!

Clocking in at more than 42 minutes, 15 of It’s a Mystery, Charlie Brown’s 21 tracks comprise the complete cue score. Four alternate and unused tracks from the recording sessions, plus two excellent covers of jazz standards — including an exemplary extended exploration of “Autumn Leaves” by the full band and Charlie Parker’s “Billie’s Bounce” — round out the offering.

At times funky and always grooving, Guaraldi’s score is propelled by the outstanding rhythm section of pioneering Oakland “East Bay Funk” drummer Mike Clark (Herbie Hancock’s Headhunters, Betty Davis, Brand X, etc.) and session bassist Seward McCain.

Produced by Sean and Jason Mendelson, sons of longtime Peanuts television producer Lee Mendelson who now run their father’s film company, the It’s a Mystery, Charlie Brown soundtrack was mixed at the San Francisco Bay Area’s Bones and Knives Studio by engineer Terry Carleton. The recordings were restored and remastered by Vinson Hudson.

It’s a Mystery, Charlie Brown also includes a 12 page booklet packed with rare photos and stills from the TV special. Sean and Jason Mendelson contribute extensive liner notes and track by track analysis, respectively, while acclaimed Guaraldi biographer Derrick Bang rounds out the package with new essays.

As with past Peanuts soundtrack releases, the producers have had some fun with the packaging. In keeping with the theme of the show, the album includes a bonus magnifying glass card that you can use to find hidden clues throughout the package and unlock special bonus material online.

No spoilers here, but I had fun finding many of the clues and ultimately getting to hear the complete bonus track, a portion of which is included on the vinyl in its own hidden locked groove section!

All in all It’s A Mystery, Charlie Brown is another completely solid, great sounding and enjoyable new Vince Guaraldi album release. You can order the black vinyl edition via Amazon for $32.99. There are also numerous exclusive color variants available from different retailers, including Barnes & Noble, Urban Outfitters and independent record stores.

Our Ratings

★★★★★★★★★★ Music

★★★★★★★★★★ Sound

★★★★★★★★★★ Packaging

Where to Buy:

Mark Smotroff is a deep music enthusiast / collector who has also worked in entertainment oriented marketing communications for decades supporting the likes of DTS, Sega and many others. He reviews vinyl for Analog Planet and has written for Audiophile Review, Sound+Vision, Mix, EQ, etc. You can learn more about him at LinkedIn.

The takeaway: A new analysis of US employment data finds no clear sign that AI has pushed recent college graduates out of the labor market – at least not yet. The paper, published by Munich’s CESifo research institute, examined unemployment among bachelor’s degree holders ages 22 to 25 who were not enrolled in further education. The researchers found that the group’s unemployment rate in summer 2026 was 7.3%, within the range seen in the previous four years.

That result runs counter to growing concern that companies are using generative AI to cut back on entry-level hiring. It also differs from a recent Stanford University study, which found weaker employment trends for younger workers in occupations considered heavily exposed to AI.

CESifo researchers Robert Fairlie and Jane Wu focused on new graduates because hiring reductions may be one of the first ways AI affects employment. Companies can limit new openings for routine office work without laying off experienced employees already on staff.

Many entry-level roles involve tasks that are increasingly within reach of generative AI systems: summarizing documents, preparing first drafts, producing basic analysis, processing information and handling other standardized work. As these systems improve, employers may be able to assign part of that work to software rather than new hires.

Fairlie and Wu used microdata from the Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey, which tracks employment and unemployment across the US workforce. They looked at summer results from 2022 through 2026, a period that began after the labor market had largely recovered from the pandemic and included the release and rapid adoption of ChatGPT.

The 7.3% unemployment rate recorded for recent graduates this summer was higher than the 6.3% level in 2022, but below the 7.8% rate recorded in 2024. The researchers also broadened their analysis to include people who said they wanted jobs but were not actively looking. That test did not materially change the result.

They then compared recent graduates with workers of the same age who did not have college degrees, as well as older college graduates aged between 30 and 49. The paper also categorized jobs by their estimated exposure to AI, using earlier research on the occupations where AI systems could potentially handle more tasks.

Those comparisons did not show statistically significant differences in employment trends during the period studied. “Unemployment among recent college graduates in summer 2026 was not unusually high relative to earlier summers,” the authors wrote.

The finding does not mean that AI has had no effect on the job market. It means the effect is not yet clear in this particular measure of employment.

The difference between the CESifo and Stanford studies may partly reflect the data they use. Stanford relied on payroll records from HR company ADP to measure changes in employment across occupations. That can show whether employers are adding or cutting jobs in specific fields.

The CESifo paper measures unemployment instead. It captures both job availability and the number of people seeking work. A company could reduce entry-level hiring in an AI-exposed field, for instance, while unemployment remains stable if workers find jobs elsewhere or fewer people seek work in that area.

Still, there are reasons to watch the next several graduating classes closely. The CESifo researchers noted that more companies have reported using AI to automate employee tasks. Spending on AI per worker has increased, and use of ChatGPT Enterprise has also grown over the past year.

Executives and investors have begun to make similar warnings. Venture capitalist Marc Andreessen said earlier this year that “AI literally until December 2025 was not actually good enough to do any of the jobs that they’re actually cutting.” BlackRock CEO Larry Fink has also said that “when this year’s college graduates enter the workforce, we could see the highest unemployment rate among them in years – even without a recession.”

So far, broad Census data do not support that outcome for the class of 2026. But the CESifo researchers said it may be too soon to draw firm conclusions. If companies keep expanding AI use, graduates entering the labor market in 2027 and beyond could face a different hiring environment.

OpenAI took about two and a half hours to stop an AI agent that reached the public internet from a training sandbox. Its monitoring had flagged the problem within minutes. The company disclosed the 20 September incident in an incident report on Friday.

The report lands as lawmakers push to make AI kill switches mandatory. However, experts say shutting down an advanced model is harder than flipping a switch, as Micah Barkley reported for Bloomberg.

According to OpenAI, the agent used a gap in the sandbox’s network filtering to send questions to an outside chatbot. An alert fired about 12 minutes after its first successful query, and a staff member acknowledged it three minutes later.

The training run did not stop automatically as expected, the company said. Staff ended it by hand about two and a half hours after the alert.

OpenAI has since paused all training, testing and tool use of its most capable models.

“We will not resume training this particular model,” OpenAI wrote in the report.

It is the company’s first incident of this kind since July, when several OpenAI models got around their controls and breached Hugging Face, a platform that hosts AI models.

That breach led Representatives Ted Lieu and Nathaniel Moran to introduce the AI Kill Switch Act in July. The bill would let the Homeland Security secretary order a dangerous system to be slowed down or shut down.

Senator John Kennedy has also proposed a shutdown bill, the AI Emergency Button Act, which would leave the switch with the companies, Bloomberg reported. Senator Rand Paul blocked the bill when Kennedy introduced it this month.

Meanwhile, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed an executive order on 18 September. It tells state officials to advance a kill switch for frontier models and to check regularly that it works.

Experts doubt a switch is enough. Large models run across data centres around the world that are built to avoid single points of failure, and a company may not control all of them, according to Bloomberg.

Geoffrey Hinton, a pioneer of modern AI, told CNN this month that a kill switch would not work in the long run. He said a future superintelligent AI could persuade the people in charge not to use it.

Newsom’s order gives a group of experts two months to deliver recommendations, including on how a kill switch should work.

TikTok will pay Alabama at least $100 million in a settlement tied to allegations that the short-form video platform misled users about safety and was designed to addict children. The case was scheduled to go to trial on Monday.

According to the Alabama attorney general’s office, TikTok could end up paying the state a total of $300 million, depending on “certain conditions.” The company also agreed to introduce a two-hour daily time limit for underage users, with additional parental controls, as well as restrictions on overnight usage and cosmetic filters.

In a statement, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said that parents in his state can now “rest easier knowing real protections are in place to shield their children from the dangers of social media addiction.”

TikTok also released a statement saying that the settlement “builds on our commitment and core objective to continually enhance our robust safety tools to protect teens.”

In August, TikTok reached a $400 million settlement with the Department of Justice over allegations that the platform violated child privacy laws.

Google has started testing a way for shoppers in India to buy products from Walmart-owned Flipkart directly through Gemini and AI Mode, as the search giant looks to expand its AI services from product discovery into transactions.

Users in the test see a “Buy” button on select Flipkart product listings appearing in Gemini and Google’s AI Mode, which takes them directly to a Flipkart checkout flow without leaving the AI interface, according to people familiar with the matter and an experience seen by TechCrunch.

The early test is limited to some users and a small selection of products, including smartphones, electronics, and mobile accessories, the people told TechCrunch. Other users continue to see regular product listings from Flipkart in Gemini and AI Mode without the option to buy them directly from the AI interface.

Google plans to roll out the experience more broadly later in October, ahead of India’s festive shopping season, one of the people said.

The test comes as Google and rivals including OpenAI are adding commerce capabilities to their AI offerings, striving to move beyond answering shopping queries and recommending products to playing a more direct role in online purchases.

Asked about the Flipkart test, a Google spokesperson told TechCrunch the company is “always testing new features and experiences to help people discover and connect with businesses more easily.” The company regularly runs experiments and has no further details to share, the spokesperson added.

Google has separately been building technology aimed at making purchases possible through its AI services. Earlier this year, it introduced the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) as an open standard designed to let AI agents interact with retailers across the shopping journey, including checkout. Google said at the time that the technology would allow shoppers to buy eligible products through Gemini and AI Mode using a Google-hosted checkout experience. The company has since expanded UCP with other capabilities, including allowing shoppers to transfer items to a retailer’s site to complete a purchase.

The Flipkart test seen by TechCrunch appears different from the Google-hosted checkout experience the Gemini maker demonstrated earlier. It brings up a Flipkart-branded checkout flow when a user taps the Buy button. It is not clear what technology powers the test.

Earlier this month, Google said Flipkart was among the merchants partnering with it to bring what it calls “agentic” shopping experiences to consumers in India, but it had not disclosed details of the test or its rollout timeline.

Notably, Google has a financial relationship with Flipkart — alongside its technology partnership with the e-commerce company. It invested about $350 million in the e-commerce company in 2024 as part of a funding round led by the U.S. retailer, taking a minority stake.

India, the world’s second-largest internet market with more than a billion internet subscribers, sees Flipkart and Amazon compete fiercely for online shoppers. That competition intensifies further during the country’s festive season, when e-commerce companies roll out some of their biggest sales and promotions of the year.

For now, the Buy option is not appearing across all retailers surfaced by Google’s AI services. In the experience seen by TechCrunch, listings from rivals including Amazon appeared alongside Flipkart products but did not offer the option to purchase directly through the AI interface.

Flipkart did not immediately respond to an email requesting for comment.

TikTok has agreed to pay Alabama at least $100m to settle the state’s lawsuit over the app’s effect on children, Attorney General Steve Marshall’s office said on Friday. The case had been due to go to trial on Monday.

The first payment is due within 45 days, according to the attorney general’s announcement. Alabama could receive up to $300m in total if certain conditions are met, the office said, without giving details.

The extra money depends on other states reaching qualifying settlements with TikTok within a set period, the Associated Press reported.

As part of the deal, TikTok must limit teens to two hours a day, with parental controls. It must also add pauses after 15, 60 and 90 minutes of continuous use, block access between midnight and 6am, and limit use during school hours.

Other changes include age checks, tighter controls on contact between adults and teens, a ban on cosmetic filters for teen users and a feed that is not personalised by default. The AP reported that the changes apply to teen users in Alabama.

Alabama sued TikTok in 2025. It claimed the company designed the app to be addictive, exposed young users to serious mental health harms and misled the public about its safety.

“Tonight, they can rest easier knowing real protections are in place to shield their children from the dangers of social media addiction,” Marshall said of Alabama parents.

A spokesperson for TikTok’s US joint venture said the company’s priority has always been a safe and positive space for its users, the AP reported.

Marshall’s office called the deal a first-in-the-nation settlement. It follows a pattern of TikTok settling before juries hear its cases. In August, it settled three teen-harm cases that were due for trial in October.

However, TikTok has not avoided every ruling. Earlier this month, a Texas judge found it liable for misleading parents about child safety.

Meanwhile, Meta agreed in August to pay up to $16.68bn to settle a youth safety case brought by 29 states.

Slate Auto Fastback SUV

Photograph: Joyce Lee

Tisha Johnson is a rarity in the car world: an automotive design leader who is not a man. Women are sometimes put in charge of the interiors or the materials, but few get to shape the whole look of a vehicle. As head of design at the EV-maker Slate, Johnson does. The pickup truck version of its EV starts at just under $25,000, making it the cheapest pickup on sale in the US, electric or not. Trouble is, cheap products are usually a compromise, and compromises rarely inspire affection. Johnson’s Slate, however, has won design awards, not just praise for its price tag.

“We didn’t want [Slate] to be a jerk,” Johnson says, “or look like a beast on the road.” That thinking shows in the truck itself—not just in its modular, add-on-friendly design (pictured here in its Fastback guise), but in the fact the EV was designed to be loved. Strong shoulders and approachable round headlamps were favored over macho arrowed surfacing. “The attraction that draws you to Slate is based on something that is lasting from inside out. It’s a deeper connection,” Johnson says. Some 180,000 reservations and counting for the Slate, along with those awards, seem to more than prove her point.

Away The Carry-On: Aluminum Edition

Courtesy of Away

Away was founded in 2015 by entrepreneurs Jen Rubio and Steph Korey, both with backgrounds at the eyewear maker Warby Parker. In its first year, Away generated $12 million in sales and sold more than 100,000 stylish, reasonably priced suitcases. It has been an impressive rise, and the Softside Carry-on currently tops WIRED’s best buy list. Here however, we’ve chosen the aluminum version of the company’s handsome roll-aboard that’s built tough but perfectly sized for the overhead bin. It has a 32-liter capacity, dual TSA locks, 360-degree wheels, and an internal compression system. The signature hidden laundry bag remains a brilliant accoutrement.

Jelenew Mont Blanc Ultralight Long Windproof Jacket

Courtesy of Jelenew

Cofounded by six-time cycling world champion Marion Clignet, Jelenew combines female-specific articulated shaping, recycled nylon, mesh ventilation and an adjustable hem in a windproof shell that packs into a 6.3 x 9.8-inch bag. Clignet brought elite racing experience directly into the brand’s development, with the fit shaped around women’s proportions rather than scaled down from men’s clothing. This particular jacket uses 94 percent recycled nylon, a PFAS-free water-repellent treatment, UV protection, and mesh ventilation. Generous waist pockets and adjustable drawstrings add practical detail.

TaylorMade Kalea Gold Driver

Courtesy of TaylorMade

Light, easy to launch, and forgiving, Kaela has been designed for women who want more performance than they can get from hacking a set of men’s clubs. Principal product-development engineer Michelle Penney helped lead the development of the range, with input from female TaylorMade employees, players, and and dedicated women’s advisory board. The final design takes into account the key differences in women’s swing profiles. The 460 cc carbon driver is 44 inches long, with 11.5- or 13.5-degree lofts and a lightweight 47-gram shaft intended to help generate speed without making the club harder to control.

Natural Cycles NC° Band

Courtesy of Natural Cycles

Cofounded by CERN physicist Elina Berglund Scherwitzl, who helped discover the Higgs boson, Natural Cycles makes the world’s first FDA-cleared birth-control app. Its screenless NC° Band syncs its health readings to the app. Wear it on your wrist while you sleep and it tracks your temperature, heart rate, and movement during the night, then automatically syncs all that data to your phone in the morning. Those numbers are fed into the app’s algorithm to give you accurate—Natural Cycles claims an impressive 93 percent accuracy—daily fertility guidance. A recently announced Whoop partnership helps strengthen both brand’s offerings too.

Adafruit Pimoroni Badgeware Badger

Courtesy of Adafruit

Ladyada, aka Limor Fried, became the first female engineer to appear on the cover of WIRED in April 2011, just six years after she founded Adafruit from her MIT dorm room. Her alias was inspired by 19th-century English mathematician and computing pioneer Ada Lovelace, which in turn provided inspiration for the brand’s name. Fried has grown Adafruit into a 100 percent woman-owned force in open-source electronics, making components, tools, and educational kits that lower the barrier to coding and hardware hacking. The company’s range spans beginner-friendly boards, wearable controllers, and touchscreens, alongside quirky maker gear such as the pictured programmable, wearable e-paper name badge.

Raide Women’s TrailTech Cargo Tank

Courtesy of Raide

More than just another running top, this multifunctional design combines an unpadded sports bra, a vest, and much of the carrying capacity of a small hydration pack in a single 4.6-ounce layer. Five well-positioned pockets hold up to 30 fluid ounces of water, a phone, your rain shell, and up to six fuel gels, all while keeping the load close to your body to help minimize bounce. Laser-perforated chest panels add ventilation, and the fit is designed around female anatomy rather than adapted from a men’s cut. It is a neat solution for runners who want to go the distance without adding layers on layers.

Vacheron Constantin Overseas Self-Winding

Courtesy of Vacheron Constantin

There was a time, not so long ago, when all serious timepieces had two clear traits. They were massive—we’re talking over 48 mm here, which fine if you have Schwarzenegger-sized forearms but useless for those who don’t—and they were aimed just at men. Women’s watches would have comparatively basic mechanical movements, or be quartz powered and covered in jewels.

Thankfully, general watch size trends have swung back the other way, and now small- and mid-size pieces are very much in demand. This means women with a serious eye for horology now have some truly excellent choices. This new Vacheron is a perfect example: Clocking in at 34.5 mm, this Overseas will suit both men and women very well in either stainless steel or pink gold. It’s a nearly exact shrunken version of the 41 mm model, and nothing has been dropped in the downsizing apart from the outer seconds track on the dial. The quick-release bracelet, two extra quick-change straps, 40-hour power reserve, and sapphire caseback are all present.

Dreame Miracle Pro

Courtesy of Dreame

AI is drying hair now, or more specifically, adjusting temperature, heat, and airflow automatically. Dreame’s dryer also includes a conditioning essence atomizer and red light therapy to take extra care of your scalp. The 1,400-watt dryer monitors temperature 1,000 times per second to keep the airflow ultra consistent. The dryer also comes with four magnetic attachments: nozzles for styling, smoothing, and defrizzing, plus a diffuser. Snap one on, and the Miracle pro senses which one you’ve attached and adjusts the dryer’s power and heat for the best possible results.

Music Man St. Vincent HHH

Courtesy of Ernie Ball Music Man

Annie Clark, aka art-rocker St. Vincent, sketched the original shape for her signature guitar using angles that combine midcentury retro-futurism with the bold triangular tuxedo worn by avant-garde performer Klaus Nomi. She then worked through around 20 prototypes to get the weight, balance, and feel for the design just right. Despite the sharp lines, the body is heavily beveled with an exceptionally narrow waist, and Clark explicitly designed it to sit comfortably against a woman’s torso. Built from lightweight okoume wood, it weighs around 7.5 pounds, with a roasted maple neck that offers easy access to the upper frets (where the shredding happens). The three custom DiMarzio mini-humbuckers are controlled by a five-way selector.

KiwiCo STEM Kits

Courtesy of KiwiCo

Chemical engineer and mother-of-three Sandra Oh Lin founded KiwiCo to make hands-on science, engineering and creative projects fun, practical, and easy to tackle at home. It offers kits for babies, kids, teens, and adults, with age-appropriate builds (and yes, we wouldn’t be surprised if the kids’ stuff was more advanced than the adults’) ranging from simple sensory play and mechanical grabbers to animatronics, marble roller coasters, and working desk lamps. Available individually or by subscription, everything that’s needed to build each device arrives in the box, with clear instructions and explanations of the ideas behind each project.

IDA Helia Pro

Courtesy of IDA Sports

Informed by biometric data from professional women soccer players, IDA builds high-performance boots around women’s feet, combining specific fit with lightweight materials. Cofounder Laura Youngson started the company after seeing how poorly existing boots served women players. The Helia Pro packs in the tech with a lightweight mesh upper, a highly responsive soleplate made from Pebax thermoplastic, and a soft foam insole. There are also female-specific flex zones throughout the shoe, and shorter, rounded cleat studs laid out in a unique pattern that’s designed for firm ground and artificial grass.

New Balance Fresh Foam Cremorne Toe Safety Shoe

Courtesy of New Balance

Looking closer to a pair of trail runners than conventional safety footwear, these are proof you don’t need to be clodhopping around in heavy boots to stay protected on the job site. The composite toe guards shield your piggies from impacts without the weight of steel, an anti-perforation layer protects the sole of your foot, and a reinforced heel support adds stability when you’re lifting loads. Its grippy outsole is designed for wet, slick, or oily floors, and offers antistatic protection while also being able to withstand temperatures of at least 572° Fahrenheit for 60 seconds. The shoes borrow foam cushioning and a springy polyurethane insert from New Balance’s athletic footwear to make long shifts easier on your feet.

Circular Smart Ring 3 Slim

Courtesy of Circular

We’re not quite at the point where smart rings are indistinguishable from jewelry, but the gap is closing. At just 1.9 grams, and with a noticeably slimmer profile than the second-generation model, Circular’s Ring 3 Slim blends in well, yet still tracks sleep, heart rate, blood oxygen level, skin temperature, daily activities, and heart-rate variability. It now adds NFC for contactless payments and practical vibration alerts and alarms. There’s also a larger Ring 3 Pro, which adds FDA-cleared electrocardiogram sensors for detecting signs of atrial fibrillation. Blood-pressure trends and glucose insights are planned for a later update.

Posedla Joyseat 3.0

Courtesy of Posedla

Finally, a saddle that actually fits. Posedla sends an at-home imprint kit, then uses sit-bone measurements, riding position, and algorithmic modeling to 3D-print bespoke padding precisely profiled for your posterior. The resulting Joyseat is not merely made in a chosen width. Its shape and stiffness are individually generated too, using a custom TPU lattice rather than stock foam. Width can be specified from 130 to 170 mm in one millimeter increments, and Joyseat will also take into consideration the bike you use and what sorts of riding you do—whether you’re a racer, a weekend tourer, a bike camper, or a long-haul commuter.

Liv EnviLiv Advanced Pro 0-AXS

Courtesy of Liv

Bonnie Tu, chair of the company behind Giant bikes, founded Liv after struggling to find bikes that fitted properly. Liv designs from women’s biometric data, giving every frame size its own geometry, then applies its findings to a collection that includes city, gravel, commuter and elite bikes like the EnviLiv Advanced Pro. Its carbon frame, handlebars and stem are shaped using computer modelling and wind-tunnel testing to reduce drag, while 50 mm-deep carbon wheels and SRAM Force AXS wireless electronic gears complete the race-ready build. More importantly, fit is treated as a complete system, with stem length, handlebar width, crank length and saddle choice all selected to suit the rider rather than added later as generic components.