Apple’s child safety toolset is already robust and expanding with iOS 27, but the UK government isn’t happy and continues to threaten legislation.

Apple introduced Sensitive Content Warnings with iOS 17 in 2023 for child accounts and later introduced it as an option for adults. Several new features have been added since, including age verification systems in the UK, plus a comprehensive rethink of child safety with iOS 27 coming soon.

However, according to a report from Bloomberg, these measures aren’t enough and legislation may still be necessary. UK Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy has told the House of Commons that the government would introduce legislation on the matter, but didn’t say when or to what extent.

She’s targeting tech giants like Apple and Google with these legal threats, but both companies have already implemented some level of system-wide parental controls. Apple specifically has increasingly added features targeting parents wanting to further police their children’s activity on their devices and online.

For example, parents can already control what apps they access, who they can communicate with, and when their device can be used. Sensitive Content Warnings already pop up in Messages, FaceTime, and in third-party apps that utilize the API, but they only warn the user of sensitive content instead of blocking it entirely.

“For the children” isn’t always straightforward

Apple announced expanded and rethought parental controls and child safety features during WWDC 2026 that will roll out to the public later in September. Even then, Nandy said these features are a “step in the right direction” but not enough.

Apple already has a child safety website for its new features

The UK legislators haven’t specified how these protections are not sufficient nor how Apple might improve upon them. With iOS 27, parents have control of nearly every minute interaction a child could have on their device, even which websites they visit.

The level of access and control parents have over their children’s accounts is so in-depth that it has led some to be concerned about children’s privacy. Apple argues that it has followed recommendations for how these systems should be in place, and it is up to the parents how far they will take the systems in managing their child.

Those in the LGBTQ community, for example, worry that such controls will isolate a child seeking answers, leaving them unable to do so without alerting their parents to a website they’ve visited. Others worry that such invasive tools will prevent a child from testing boundaries and learning important lessons they otherwise couldn’t in sheltered conditions.

Some speculate that the UK and other governments’ use of “for the children” seeks to erode individual rights by having such OS-level technologies introduced. People fear further encroachment of individual rights and privacy through increased surveillance technologies.

Apple may already comply

Apple can only offer tools for the world to use. It cannot police how those tools are used, and abusive households don’t need technology to enable abuse.

The UK legislators haven’t specified what Apple hasn’t done to satisfy them, yet

However, given the in-depth levels of parent controls and privacy-invading tools already available to parents, it isn’t clear what the UK will demand. Perhaps Apple has already met whatever requirements the UK government will dream up and won’t have to fight with legislators.

There is one potential hole in Apple’s child safety features the UK could attempt to address — the opt-in nature. Apple has advanced tools and APIs for child safety, but developers don’t have to bother implementing them, which renders them useless for that specific app.

To make things more confusing, Nandy said that if tech companies introduce better restrictions, legislation won’t be necessary and a bill won’t be passed.

The UK government is focused on child safety recently and passed one of the world’s strictest social media bans for anyone under 16. While some suggest this is what is best for children’s mental health, others say it pushes children into darker, less regulated portions of the internet to find community.

Thankfully, even though Apple had to implement system-level age verification, it did so without those security-holed ID checker systems. Instead, it uses things like the age of your account, a Face ID scan, and other obvious indicators that don’t invade a user’s privacy.

Like with any tool, there will be people that abuse it. Apple’s child safety tools and parental controls are comprehensive as they are, but the UK could argue for more and force the matter via law if necessary.

The GL.iNet Beryl 7 is a travel router that is designed for those on the go who still need control over their networking.

Especially today, it feels like people are more aware of their networking than ever. There’s fear over what people are able to see. There’s fear of what other people can see of your own data, and there are people trying to take control of their own connections. That’s one very real use case for the Beryl 7.

Remove those photobombers with even more accuracy than before.

Removing objects from your photos with Clean Up

Filipe Espósito for Engadget

If you’ve used Clean Up before, you’ll know where to find it in iOS 27. The difference is that it now has some extra controls. To start, choose a photo you want to adjust in the Photos app and tap the Edit button at the bottom. Select Tools and choose Clean Up. You’ll see an Auto button at the top, which lets you change the processing type. Leave this set to Auto to have your phone choose between the other two modes depending on how complex the image is. 

Fast retouches your photos with a smaller AI model. It gets the job done much faster, but it’s not ideal for more complex retouching. Say you have a photo of a landscape and you want to remove a trash can in the background. Or maybe you need to hide the wiring on the street lights. These are the kinds of edits that the Quick model is most likely to handle well.

But where Apple’s Clean Up feature has always struggled is with more complex edits. When there are a bunch of people behind you ruining your selfie, that’s where the High Quality option comes in. More advanced AI models can better understand the context of an image. But this improved processing comes at the cost of taking longer and using more battery.

Filipe Espósito for Engadget

Clean Up often tries to recognize unknown objects that you’ll want to remove from your photo. This doesn’t always work as it should, so it’s more accurate to circle what you want to remove.

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Extending and reframing photos

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Artificial intelligence has solved a major mathematics problem, but credit for the accomplishment is murky.

The Navier-Stokes problem

The allegations

Girl Scout cookie season doesn’t start until January, but when it arrives, two new cookies will appeal to groups who likely haven’t been able to indulge in Girl Scout cookies before: people with dietary restrictions, and dogs.

Sparkables, a crunchy, allergy-friendly oatmeal cookie with chocolate chips and rainbow sprinkles, is formulated for those who are nut-free, gluten-free and vegan. They were developed with Partake Foods, and include whole-grain oats, organic brown sugar, semisweet chocolate chips, cassava flour, oat flour, white rice flour and more. See the full ingredient list online.

Patch Pals, a soft-baked, blueberry muffin-flavored treat specifically for pups, was developed with the pet-product company Bark. The treats, which feature four designs representing iconic Girl Scout patches, are for dogs who weigh more than 5 pounds and are older than 6 months. Nutritional info and other details available online.

Sparkables and Patch Pals will only be sold online, so you can’t order them from Girl Scouts outside your local store. The new varieties will be available for shipping when Girl Scout cookie season launches on Jan. 12. You can sign up now to receive a reminder when that date comes.

CNET editor Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, a journalist and pop-culture junkie, is co-author of “Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops? The Lost Toys, Tastes and Trends of the ’70s and ’80s,” as well as “The Totally Sweet ’90s.” She’s been a journalist since 1989, working at Mpls.St.Paul Magazine, Twin Cities Sidewalk, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and NBC News Digital. She’s Gen X in birthdate, word and deed. If Marathon candy bars ever come back, she’ll be first in line.

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Apple’s first foldable iPhone is almost here, and just hours ahead of the launch, we may finally have a better idea of how much it will cost. According to a new Bloomberg report, Apple has recently discussed pricing the device as high as $2,199, while higher-storage versions could get close to the $3,000 mark

There is no getting around it. $2,199 is a lot of money for a smartphone. However, the figure is also a little lower than some of the estimates we have been hearing over the past few months, which placed Apple’s first foldable somewhere around $2,300 to $2,500.

First-generation foldables have never been cheap

Apple entering the foldable market at $2,199 sounds extreme, but first-generation foldables have never been cheap. Samsung’s original Galaxy Fold launched in the U.S. for $1,980 back in 2019.

Samsung has had several generations to refine the formula since then. Its new Galaxy Z Fold 8 starts at $1,899, despite moving to the shorter and wider form factor that has helped make this generation particularly well received.

Apple, meanwhile, is launching an entirely new iPhone category, and the timing is not exactly helping. Bloomberg says the company initially wanted to keep the starting price at $1,999, but the ongoing memory shortage reportedly pushed costs beyond its original targets.

So while $2,199 is still a huge amount of money for a phone, there is some context behind it. Apple is entering a category that has always commanded high prices, while also dealing with unusually expensive RAM and NAND storage at launch.

Getting one could be the bigger problem

The price may not be the only obstacle at launch. Ming-Chi Kuo previously estimated that Apple would have just 500,000 to 1 million foldable iPhones ready during the third quarter, despite plans to build around 7 million to 8 million units during the second half of 2026.

Kuo also previously pointed to a price of around $2,300 to $2,500, so Bloomberg’s latest figure would actually put the starting price below those expectations.

Apple also appears pretty confident in its foldable plans. Bloomberg previously reported that a second-generation model, codenamed V78, is already being lined up for 2027. The first one has not even launched yet, so Apple clearly seems to be treating foldables as something it wants to stick with rather than a one-year experiment.

We should find out soon whether $2,199 is the number Apple finally settles on. The foldable iPhone is expected to debut on September 9, but Apple has not confirmed the price yet.

Microsoft is working on performance improvements for Windows 11 that could make the operating system boot faster and feel more responsive. The company says it has already made “significant gains” in startup speeds, although the changes aren’t available to Windows Insiders just yet.

Speaking at IFA 2026, Mark Linton, VP of Windows & Devices at Microsoft, said the company has been improving both boot times and Windows Hello responsiveness. “We’ve made significant gains on things like boot time, Windows Hello responsiveness,” Linton told Windows Latest.

The Lenovo ThinkPad T1g Gen 8 is a powerhouse and a semi-portable shell. It takes on the power of the beloved X1 Extreme, pairing an ultra 9 processor with quick memory, Thunderbolt 5, and decent storage. It’s designed for engineers, creatives, and other power users who need a machine that can do it all while still having that hint of portability.

I think of this quite like the 16-inch MacBook Pro. It’s the bigger choice in the line-up, but you would get it because you want the power and the ability, not necessarily the portability. The people who would get this laptop are the people who need the ports as well.