Security teams log 54% of successful attacks and alert on just 14%. The rest move through your environment unseen.
The Picus whitepaper shows how breach and attack simulation tests your SIEM and EDR rules so threats stop slipping by detection.
Tech
Siri AI Hands On: A Smart, Helpful Assistant
I quickly found that Siri AI’s bite-sized replies don’t drone on endlessly like many contemporary AI assistants, often sticking to a single paragraph. When I verbally asked for a nice beach hike route to see the sunrise near the Golden Gate Bridge, it succinctly recommended a popular trail in the Presidio neighborhood as well as an option in the Marin Headlands. Siri bolded key words in the text answer that appeared alongside the audible response for easy scanning. Since I wanted more info before heading out, I swiped down on the text answer to read additional details about each option.
Apple’s partnership with Google is a core driver behind this Siri overhaul. Google’s Gemini now helps power the voice assistant’s underlying model, Apple Intelligence. Siri’s output with this new model felt more attuned to what I was looking for, rather than just suggesting a couple of website links for me to dig through. When I asked generic questions, like “What should I do today,” Siri combed through my recent messages and highlighted recent plans I started discussing with friends but never finalized.
Another key aspect of Siri AI is hyper-personalization based on what you have on your device, whether that data is in your photos or messages. It also doesn’t keep you locked into Apple-only services; when I asked Siri to draft a text, the voice assistant confirmed if I wanted to send it through Apple’s Messages or Meta’s Messenger service.
This style of AI search requires Siri to index your phone, which means scanning and cataloging its data for easy reference. When I updated my iPhone to the developer beta for iOS 27, it took a little over a week for the device to fully index.
At WWDC 2026, Apple repeatedly referenced its privacy-preserving approach to Siri AI. As part of the company’s Private Cloud Compute, Apple claims it doesn’t store data from users and only pulls from it when you ask Siri a question. Similar to the previous version of Apple’s assistant, users who aren’t interested can turn off Siri AI in their settings.
I tested Siri AI on an iPhone 16 Pro Max, which will have many but not all of Siri AI’s features. Based on what’s been publicly released, only the iPhone Air, iPhone 17 Pro, and the iPhone 17 Max will have all the fixings, like more varied voice options. As for the rest of the lineup: Every iPhone 16 and iPhone 17 model will be able to run the new Siri, while only the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max will be compatible. Older models will not support this voice assistant.
Siri, Let’s Take a Hike
Like any good tourist, I started my morning off with a visit to the Golden Gate Bridge, where there are plenty of nearby hiking trails to wander around and soak up the views. Since Siri AI is also integrated with the iPhone’s camera app, I decided to open it up and snap a quick photo of the foggy path ahead of me to see how Siri would respond.
I didn’t ask Siri any questions; I just showed it a snapshot of what I saw at the moment, and the AI tool responded with a short history of the Cypress Tree Tunnel located at Point Reyes National Seashore. Siri was right to clock the Monterey cypress trees. But the tunnel it referenced is an hour drive from where I was, potentially confusing for someone not familiar with the area.
Despite this apparent flub, the more I chatted with Siri while walking around, the more impressed I was at other functions, like helping uncover images from past adventures hidden among the thousands of photos in my camera roll.
Continue Reading
A new ransomware operation named ‘Prinz Eugen’ prioritizes recently modified files for encryption and leaves no ransom note on the system.
An investigation from Threatdown, Malwarebytes’ enterprise cybersecurity arm, found that the Prinz Eugen hackers have a hands-on-keyboard style and prefer to use legitimate remote monitoring and management (RMM) software and living-off-the-land tools.
According to the researchers, initial access is likely achieved through stolen RDP credentials, followed by the manual download and execution of the main payload, ‘servertool.exe.’
In an investigated incident, the researchers observed the use of the RemotePC RMM tool and a backdoor administrator account that provided persistence.
Unlike many modern extortion operations, Prinz Eugen does not operate under the ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) model, and its developers are not currently recruiting affiliates.
Unlike most extortion operations, Prinz Eugen is not a ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS), or at least the developers are not currently looking for affiliates.
Currently, the threat actor’s data leak site only lists three victims, each one showing that the hackers engage in data encryption, exfiltration, or both. However, the cybersecurity community is aware of more organizations impacted by Prinz Eugen ransomware.
Source: BleepingComputer
Encryption strategy
An analysis of a Prinz Eugen attack revealed that the Go-based malware prioritizes the encryption of the most recently modified files. When multiple files share the same timestamp, they are processed in alphabetical order.
Threatdown researchers believe this approach is intended to maximize the impact on victims by targeting files that are more likely to be business-critical and in active use, increasing the pressure to pay the ransom.
The analyzed sample checks directories recursively with no depth limit and no exclusions, and encrypts virtually every file except those with the .prinzeugen extension, which Prinz Eugen uses for encrypted files.
Source: Malwarebytes
The ransomware employs ChaCha20-Poly1305 encryption with a 32-byte master key, a random initialization vector for each file, and a key derivation function based on Argon2id, SHA-256, and HKDF-SHA256.
The encryption process is carried out in 1 MB chunks, and file integrity is checked using the SHA-256 hash function.
Source: Malwarebytes
The researchers noticed that when the malware uses the –delete flag to delete the original file after encrypting it, a check occurs to make sure that the file can be decrypted before removing it from the system.
To prevent the encryption key from being retrieved, Prinz Eugen ransomware overwrites it with zeroes, forces garbage collection to eliminate it from memory, and then self-deletes from disk.
Analysis of the encryptor showed no functionality to drop a text ransom note or change the desktop wallpaper. Threatdown researchers say that the absence of a ransom note “is a tactic we see more often among organized ransomware groups.”
This is typically done to reduce the forensic footprint and make it more difficult for the extortion step to be detected automatically.
“By moving ransom communications entirely out-of-band (through direct email, phone contact, or dark-web victim portals), the actor reduces forensic artifacts and complicates automated detection of the extortion phase,” the researchers say.
The researchers identified at least five Prinz Eugen victims, saying that in the case of the Standard Bank breach, the attacker demanded a ransom of 1 BTC and was refused.
ThreatDown’s report provides a list of indicators of compromise to help both organizations and researchers analyze, detect, and defend against Prinz Eugen ransomware attacks.
Salome Mikadze-Struk is no stranger to adversity. The daughter of refugees, she built a software-development business as an undergraduate at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and kept it running despite the outbreak of war in her native Ukraine. Now, she’s drawing on her experiences to mentor tech-startup founders and speak publicly about the importance of resilience in entrepreneurship.
Mikadze-Struk was studying at Georgetown University, in Washington, D.C., when COVID-19 struck. Classes went online, and she moved back to Ukraine. In the midst of that disruption she saw an opportunity to develop her business idea, called Movadex, by tapping Ukraine’s pool of talented young engineers. Then Russia invaded in early 2022, during her final semester. Taking online classes from bomb shelters and helping employees evacuate to safer parts of the country was surreal, she says, but the team kept the company afloat and she graduated later that year.
In 2023, Mikadze-Struk took a hiatus from her business to pursue an MBA at Stanford University, which she completed this year. In her precious spare time she’s been advising startups and giving talks, using her unique perspective to promote the need for resilience in entrepreneurship—something she thinks is increasingly important in the software industry as AI coding tools upend old business models.
“You need to be okay with risk, you need to be resilient. You need to be okay with disruption and okay with uncertainty,” she says, “because this is inevitably going to be part of this industry for the foreseeable future.”
An Early Focus on Education
Mikadze-Struk’s parents had settled in Ukraine after fleeing conflict in the Abkhazia region of Georgia in the early 1990s. “They left everything behind,” she says. “You can look on Google Maps and zoom in on where their houses were and it’s all rubble.”
Despite this backstory, Mikadze-Struk says she and her sister had a conventional middle-class upbringing in Kyiv. Her father ran a small shop and her mother was a stay-at-home mom. Her parents placed an emphasis on education and encouraged her to study hard and take part in extracurricular programs such as Ukraine’s Junior Academy of Sciences, which introduces students to research.
“They weren’t rich, so they knew that our way to make it in life was not through investments, but through merit-based accomplishments,” she says.
When Mikadze-Struk was 14, her family discovered the newly launched Ukraine Global Scholars program, a nonprofit that helps talented students secure scholarships abroad. The program helped her win a full scholarship to the Emma Willard School, a private girl’s school in Troy, N.Y.
Discovering Tech
After graduating high school in 2018, Mikadze-Struk was accepted to Georgetown to study business administration. But it was outside the classroom that her career direction began to take shape. She won a startup competition with a medical device she had developed for a school project and, while the business idea didn’t go anywhere, it sparked an interest in entrepreneurship.
Ukraine’s software industry was booming, and she began attending startup events and competitions in her home country the summer before starting college. There she met her eventual cofounder Nor Newman.
Despite both being just 18, they saw a gap in the market. The pair noticed many founders had strong ideas but lacked the technical expertise to realize them, while talented engineering students often struggled to gain real-world experience. Newman had begun informally connecting startups with his college friends, but the pair soon saw commercial potential. “We realized we could actually create our own startup studio and help startups as a team, versus just connecting people,” says Mikadze-Struk.
Then, when the COVID-19 pandemic struck in early 2020, halfway through her sophomore year, it brought both disruption and opportunity for Newman and Mikadze-Struk. While travel restrictions and lockdowns made life complicated, there was also a surge of companies looking to move their business online. “COVID really skyrocketed everything we were doing,” she says.
Sensing an opportunity, Mikadze-Struk and Newman incorporated Movadex in Ukraine in early 2020. From the start, they decided to focus on not only providing engineering talent, but also helping startups with product development. Many times, says Mikadze-Struk, a founder’s vision for the software doesn’t line up with what users actually want. “What really helped us grow is not just the engineering or quality of code, but rather a holistic approach to creating a product and actually getting into the brain of the user,” she says.
Navigating Adversity
Back in Ukraine, Mikadze-Struk had to juggle this booming business with studying remotely—taking classes at night and working during the day. It was exhausting, she says, but it also allowed her to immediately apply what she learned in business classes to building her startup.
Having successfully navigated the pandemic, Mikadze-Struk was dealt another wild card. In early 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine and her life was again turned upside down. It was particularly traumatic for her family, having already been forced from their home in Georgia once by war.
In 2023, Mikadze-Struk took an extended leave from her company to pursue an MBA at Stanford.Christie Hemm Klok
“For my parents to experience their daughters going through all the same things they had gone through was really heartbreaking,” she says. “But at the same time, because I’d heard so much about their story of resilience I had power in me to not fully break down.”
On the day of the invasion the founders told employees to take the day off and emailed clients to warn of potential disruptions. The next couple of days were spent checking on staff and evacuating as many as possible to their headquarters in Lviv, in Western Ukraine.
By the following Monday the business was back up and running. Soon afterward, they partnered with the Lviv IT Cluster business association’s nonprofit arm to help resettle refugees from the eastern part of Ukraine, where strikes were focused, and offer job placements. Throughout this period, Mikadze-Struk was also completing her final year at Georgetown remotely. “Half of my senior year was actually spent in bomb shelters,” she says.
Promoting Resilience in Entrepreneurship
That summer, Mikadze-Struk graduated with a bachelor’s degree in business administration and learned she had been accepted onto Stanford University’s MBA program. In 2023, she took an extended leave from Movadex and moved to California. She also gave birth to her daughter in 2024.
Balancing studies and parenthood was already a full-time job, but she continued to engage with the startup ecosystem by volunteering as a startup mentor and public speaker. Now, after graduating from Stanford, she is stepping back into a more active leadership role at Movadex, where she hopes to drive the company’s expansion into the United States. She also wants to develop a stronger focus on helping customers understand and implement AI in their businesses.
While AI is undeniably disrupting the tech industry, Mikadze-Struk, now an IEEE Senior Member, is fundamentally optimistic about its impact. “The way AI democratized access to building software and to prototyping…is just mind blowing,” she says.
But it will require a significant shift in mind-set for engineers, especially junior developers hunting for jobs. They need to “fall in love with AI” and embrace it as a powerful copilot, she says. As these tools increasingly take over the nuts-and-bolts work of coding, engineers also need to nurture higher-level skills like systems thinking and architectural design.
Perhaps most importantly, given the rapid pace at which the technology is evolving, engineers need to nurture their adaptability and resilience. “It’s both exciting and scary, because you don’t know what tomorrow will bring.”
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After a conflict between guards and farmers nearly ended in violence, Tata’s Indian iPhone factory is now facing health authority accusations of contamination.
Early on June 15, 2026, India’s Tamil Nadu Pollution Board (TNPCB) was reportedly threatening to force a shutdown of Tata’s iPhone plant. It followed a series of inspections that reportedly found contaminated wastewater had reached local wells.
Tata was also accused of failing to respond to the TNPCB’s complaints, but then on June 16, the case was dropped. Tata said first that its independent study showed it was following regulations, and then that the India regulator had now “dropped any further course of action on this issue.”
Now according to Reuters, however, the local Indian health authority in the district is still pursuing a case based on complaints from local farmers. As reported to Tata, an inspection found discharge with a “severe foul smell,” and left water “unsuitable for animals to drink.”
That report to Tata also said that local people had been getting skin-related health issues due to the contamination.
Separately, a group of farmers crossed onto Tata’s land on June 15 to photograph a reportedly contaminated pond. A Tata guard is said to have fetched a firearm, after which the group claims to have said “shoot us,” before the security officer backed down.
It appears that this health investigation has been running since at least late May 2026. That’s when the TNPCB reportedly concluded its own inspections.
The factory makes back panels and other iPhone components. Tata has been growing its iPhone manufacturing since 2023 when it bought Wistron’s plant, and then went into partnership with Pegatron.
Neither Tata nor Pegatron has commented on the latest report. Apple has not commented publicly either.
Verdict
The iPad Pro M5 feels like one of Apple’s most luxurious products. It’s beautifully crafted, with a seriously thin and light design that just wants to be held and interacted with. All the tablet boxes are ticked: stunning screen, plenty of power, portable build. iPadOS remains somewhat limited, and of course, all these high-end features make for a very expensive slate – but I can’t help but want to use it constantly.
-
Upgraded base RAM
-
Wi-Fi 7 support
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The best screen on any tablet
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iPadOS is getting better and better
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Give us some fun colours
-
A fairly minor update
Key Features
-
Review Price:
£999
-
High-end chip
The first iPad running the M5 chip, with either 12 or 16GB RAM
-
Two sizes
Pick between 11 and 13-inch display sizes
-
Fantastic Screen
The best screen on an iPad, thanks to the OLED panel
Introduction
Apple’s iPad range has never been better balanced. The base model is great for students, the iPad Air M4 is an easy recommendation for just about anyone, and the iPad Pro is for those who require the very best.
The iPad Pro M5 – available in both 11-inch and 13-inch sizes – sits very much at the top of Apple’s tablet range. Starting at £999/$999 and topping out at £2399/$2399, this is a pricey piece of kit.
I have been testing the iPad Pro M5 out to find out whether this is the best iPad (or even the best tablet) and whether it really does justify that high price.
SQUIRREL_PLAYLIST_10208594
Design
- Thin and light
- Two colours
- Fantastic build
Apple doesn’t drastically change designs between generations anymore, and since we got a slimmed-down iPad with a fresh look for the M4 refresh, it was always going to be the case that we’d get the same look again here.
Sticking with the same look is no bad thing. This isn’t just the best-looking iPad, but the best-looking tablet you can buy. I don’t think anything even comes close. It’s ridiculously thin (5.3mm for the 11-inch, 5.1mm for the 13-inch) and slips easily into a bag. It’s perfectly weighted and feels great to hold even for longer periods. Even though the mid-range iPad is called ‘Air’, the Pro is much thinner and lighter.
There’s not much by way of design flourishes here, and this iPad is all about showcasing the gorgeous screen on the front.
There are a couple of buttons dotted around the sides, including power and volume up/down, and on the back, you’ve got an Apple logo in the middle and the Smart Connector towards the bottom for connecting keyboard accessories. One side is magnetic to attach the Apple Pencil Pro, and there’s a USB-C/Thunderbolt port on the bottom for charging and data transfer.
The front-facing FaceTime camera continues to sit on the long side of the tablet, making it much better to use when the tablet is docked in a keyboard case.
Even though Apple has started to add some fun colours to the iPhone Pro line, including the standout Cosmic Orange, the two hues the iPad Pro comes in are distinctly unimaginative. It would be nice to freshen up the options a little, as the grey and darker greys do little to stand out.
While it’s the 11-inch model I have in for review, I used the 13-inch M4 edition extensively, and all the dimensions are the same here. Considering how big the screen is, it remains a very portable tablet.
Screen
- The OLED remains exceptional
- Choice between 11 and 13-inch sizes
- Still my favourite tablet display
I loved the screen on the previous-generation iPad Pro, and as this one is the same, I love this screen too. Even a year on, the tandem OLED Ultra Retina XDR display remains unmatched, even up against displays on the best tablets.
The specs for this display include brightness levels up to 1600 nits for certain content, excellent HDR support, a 200,000:1 contrast ratio and a 264ppi for the 11-inch version. Both sizes have the same basic specs too, something that wasn’t always the case with the Pro iPads.
Specs are one thing, and the panel here certainly ticks all the boxes on paper. But in actual use, it’s even better than it sounds. Colours are wonderfully rich and immersive, without being overbearing or unrealistic. Contrast is wonderful too, a big benefit of this dual OLED panel. It’s also available with the nano-textured glass option that Apple has used on numerous laptops and Macs recently. This adds some extra texture to the panel to better handle reflections.
I’ve spent countless hours during the review period watching everything from HDR-toting Dolby Vision content from iTunes and Netflix, to scrolling through my iCloud photo library and I’m continually impressed. It’s calibrated to perfection, and even does a good job at ensuring it’s visible in sunnier environments.
This is the best screen on iPad, and really the single reason I would recommend certain people plumping for the Pro rather than the Air.
With the two 11-inch iPads next to each other, playing Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, the differences in quality are obvious. The OLED displays perfect blacks, so the bars at the top and bottom of the video blend seamlessly into the bezel, rather than looking like a dark shade of grey. The colours on the Pro are far punchier too, and the higher levels of brightness allow for much HDR playback. The whole experience is made even better by the fantastic stereo speakers, which are some of the best on any tablet I have reviewed.
It’s the smoothest iPad screen too, as it remains the only option with the same adaptive 120Hz ProMotion tech as the recent iPhones.
Performance and Software
- The addition of the M5 is the only upgrade here
- Wi-Fi 7 is added with the N1
- 12 or 16GB RAM, up from a base of 8GB
It’s inside the tablet where the upgrades are felt this time around. The switch to the M5 chip, and the N1 networking chip, are really all that’s new here. That N1 chip supports Wi-Fi 7, a welcome upgrade that’ll deliver noticeable speed boosts for anyone with a capable router.
The actual M5 chip that comes inside depends on the storage model. The 256GB and 512GB models have an M5 with a 9-core CPU (that includes three performance cores and six efficiency cores) and a 10-core GPU. This is then painted with 12GB RAM. Apple has upgraded the base RAM from 8- to 12GB with the M5 version, and that’s always a welcome bump.
The higher-spec 1 or 2TB models have an extra performance core in the CPU, taking it to 10 and 16GB RAM. All models have 153 GB/s of memory bandwidth, 16-core neural engines, and hardware-accelerated ray tracing.
Test Data
Apple iPad Pro M5
Apple iPad Air M4
Apple iPad Pro M4 2024
Geekbench 6 single core
4081
3726
3660
Geekbench 6 multi core
16441
13286
14555
Geekbench 6 GPU
74536
52607
–
A lot of the improvements this time around are for those with AI-focused workloads. Apple’s Creator Studio, a new subscription service bundling in a selection of Pro apps, is a showcase of the tablet’s power. In Pixelmator Pro, for example, the AI editing skills and image resolution bumps are performed more quickly than on the M4-equipped tablets.
The same goes for exporting 4K footage from Final Cut Pro. It’s not a day-and-night difference, but it does shave a few seconds off, which adds up over time.
I’ve been using the iPad Pro M5 for a few months now, and I can’t think of a single instance where it has slowed down. It can handle everything, and there’s so much more headroom for it to do more things in the future.
Apple has drastically improved iPadOS recently, with better multitasking support, a better file system and the aforementioned Pro-centric apps available in Creator Studio. For those who still want an iPad to run macOS, it doesn’t – but I can get serious work done on this machine now, and that’s great.
Alongside the iPad Pro M5, Apple sells two headline accessories. Both of which I would recommend for getting the most out of the tablet. The Magic Keyboard (from £299/$299) offers a fantastic typing experience, with keys that mirror the best MacBooks, a large, responsive trackpad, and protection for the iPad when it’s in a bag.
Then there’s the Apple Pencil Pro ($129/£129), a stylus that needs little introduction. It’s a great, responsive tool for notes and drawing.
There’s a single camera on the back as the ultra-wide was ditched with the M4 redesign, leaving just a 12MP main camera. It is excellent for taking pictures of documents and for utilising AR content. It shoots 4K video too, even in the ProRes format.
Battery Life
- Quicker to charge with a 60W plug
- No upgrade in endurance
- USB-C charging
When Apple redesigned the iPad Pro, there were two routes it could have taken. Use the extra space for a bigger battery, or ensure the device is as thin as possible. While I probably would have plumped for option one, there’s no doubting that launching such a slim and light tablet made waves.
So, while there’s no huge advances in battery life here compared to previous models, there’s also been no dramatic sacrifices.
I can easily get the iPad Pro M5 11-inch to last me a full workday when I am using it as a laptop replacement, and all my testing points to the battery life being virtually the same as the M4 model.
On a 12-hour flight from London to Las Vegas, I watched films the entire way and had 15% left over at the end. That’s impressive going.
As has been the case with all M-series iPads I have tested, the battery life can drain quickly during intensive tasks. Zoom calls are a real drain – an hour call can eat through as much as 15%. It’s a similar situation with lots of importing and exporting of photos and videos into Lightroom and Final Cut. If you’re using the iPad for heavier tasks, keep a plug handy.
Buy the tablet in the UK, and there will be no charger in the box, just a USB-C to USB-C cable. This is now normal for all Apple tablets. In the US, you do get a charger in the box, but it remains a slow 20W plug that offers pretty slow speeds. Instead, you should go for a 60W plug, which can charge up to 50% in roughly 30 minutes and should come as standard on such an expensive device.
Should you buy it?
The screen is the deciding factor
The iPad Pro sets itself apart from the Air by having a superior display. The OLED panel, the 120Hz refresh rate, the far higher peak brightness are all winners in my book.
You just want an iPad to sit alongside your laptop
Apple has made the iPad Air M4 so good, that it should be most people’s first port of call when it comes to picking an iPad.
Final Thoughts
The iPad Pro M5 is a great tablet. It’s luxurious, beautifully made, fantastically capable and has the best screen you’ll find. It’s not going to appeal to anyone who upgraded to the redesigned M4 version, but if you’re someone who lives on an iPad and wants the very best, and are holding on to an older model, this is an excellent upgrade.
You do really need to know you’re going to get the best out of it, though. Not only is this an expensive tablet, but Apple’s cheaper slates are so good that for many, there will be no need to pay upwards of £1000/$1000. The iPad Air, in its M4 variant, is just as capable for even heavy tasks and matches many of the specs of the Pro at a much lower price.
How We Test
Unlike other sites, we thoroughly test every product we review. We use industry-standard tests in order to compare features properly. We’ll always tell you what we find. We never, ever accept money to review a product.
Test Data
| Apple iPad Pro M5 | |
|---|---|
| Geekbench 6 single core | 4081 |
| Geekbench 6 multi core | 16441 |
| Geekbench 6 GPU | 74536 |
| 1 hour video playback (Netflix, HDR) | 3 % |
| GFXBench – Aztec Ruins | 60 fps |
| GFXBench – Car Chase | 60 fps |
Full Specs
| Apple iPad Pro M5 Review | |
|---|---|
| UK RRP | £999 |
| USA RRP | $995 |
| Manufacturer | Apple |
| Screen Size | 11 inches |
| Storage Capacity | 256GB, 512GB, 1TB, 2TB |
| Rear Camera | 12MP |
| Front Camera | 12MP |
| Video Recording | Yes |
| IP rating | No |
| Battery | 31.29 Whr |
| Fast Charging | Yes |
| Size (Dimensions) | x x INCHES |
| Weight | 446 G |
| Operating System | iPadOS |
| Release Date | 2025 |
| First Reviewed Date | 16/06/2026 |
| Resolution | 2420 x 1668 |
| HDR | Yes |
| Refresh Rate | 120 Hz |
| Ports | Thunderbolt / USB 4 port |
| Chipset | Apple M5 |
| RAM | 12GB, 16GB |
| Colours | Grey, Silver |
While Apple’s new Siri AI and Apple Intelligence announcements dominated the WWDC spotlight earlier this month, the tech giant also packed iOS 27 with a number of upgrades across its everyday apps and services, including smarter bill splitting in Apple Wallet, new ways to share locations in Find My, and improved Apple Maps features.
Apple Maps
Apple introduced an improvement to “Flyover,” the feature that provides immersive 3D views of cities and landmarks. The feature has been refreshed with more detailed visuals and smoother navigation.
The company also launched “Local Lists,” a new way for users to discover and save recommendations for restaurants, attractions, and other spots within Maps by seeing what’s trending. This could be Apple’s way to entice users away from using third-party apps for local exploration, like Google Maps or even Instagram and TikTok.
Find My
Find My is becoming more flexible with new location-sharing controls. Beginning this fall, users will be able to share their location for a custom amount of time, whether that’s a few minutes, several hours, multiple days, or until a specific date and time.
Apple is also adding the ability to temporarily pause location sharing with individual contacts until the end of the day. The changes are designed for various situations, like keeping a surprise birthday party under wraps.
Apple Wallet
Apple Wallet is getting a significant boost. One of the standout additions allows users to scan receipts using their iPhone camera and automatically split bills with friends using Apple Cash. Powered by Apple Intelligence, the feature can identify individual items on a receipt, calculate each person’s share of taxes and tips, and facilitate repayment directly through Messages or Wallet.
Wallet is also gaining support for digitizing physical membership and loyalty cards. Users can simply point their iPhone camera at a barcode or scan a digital card to save it directly into Wallet. Support is extending to Apple Watch, so passes can even be pinned to the Apple Watch Smart Stack for faster retrieval.
Travelers will benefit from a revamped hotel key experience. In addition to unlocking rooms and amenities with an iPhone or Apple Watch, guests staying at participating hotels and resorts will be able to access trip details, activity schedules, service information, and real-time updates directly within Wallet.
Apple Pay
Apple Pay is receiving a redesigned checkout experience online and in apps. Users will be able to swipe between payment cards more easily while viewing information such as rewards balances, debit account balances, and available pay-later options. Later this year, Apple says users will also be able to add funds directly to eligible debit cards through Wallet or during Apple Pay checkout.
For merchants, Apple is expanding “Tap to Pay” on iPhone with a new feature called “Tap to Share.” Customers can connect directly with participating merchants using a simple tap to securely share information such as loyalty accounts, shipping addresses, and contact details.
Apple Music
Apple Music is expanding the “Lyrics Translation” feature to support seven additional language pairings, including English translations for songs in French, German, Italian, Korean, Spanish, and Japanese. “Lyrics Pronunciation” will now help users sing along to songs in languages they may not speak by displaying phonetically translated lyrics across five new language pairings.
The “AutoMix” feature, which automatically creates smoother transitions between songs, is being enhanced with more immersive mixes and is expanding beyond iPhone to Apple TV and HomePod. Apple Music subscribers are also getting access to Hi-Res Lossless Audio on Apple TV 4K, allowing users with compatible sound systems to experience studio-quality audio through tvOS.
Apple Podcasts
Podcast listeners are getting a few welcome upgrades. A new “search within show” feature allows users to search directly through episodes of a specific podcast across iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Vision Pro, and the web. Apple is also bringing video podcasts to both Mac and Apple TV, reflecting the growing popularity of video-first podcasting.
iCloud Shared Albums
Fitness+
Fitness+ is launching “Strong Through Menopause,” a three-week program featuring guided Yoga and Strength workouts designed to help people navigating perimenopause and menopause build strength, improve mobility and balance, and manage stress. Apple is also adding a new “Time to Walk” episode featuring actor Busy Philipps, who shares personal stories about her experiences with perimenopause.
All these features are available for developers to test right now through the Apple Developer Program, with a public beta arriving next month.
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Tech
Google and university researchers think your old Pixel could become part of a low-cost data center instead
- Old Pixel phones are being rebuilt into low-cost computing clusters
- Researchers stripped smartphones down to motherboards and deployed Linux
- Twenty retired phones can support applications used by 75 students
Millions of discarded smartphones are added to the global electronic waste stream every year despite retaining substantial computing capability.
Researchers from the University of California, San Diego, have now partnered with Google to investigate whether retired Pixel devices can be repurposed for practical computing workloads.
The project aims to reduce waste while easing some demand for new hardware used in smaller-scale data centers.
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Researchers turn retired smartphones into computing clusters
Google Research says retired mobile devices contribute to the embodied carbon associated with manufacturing and the broader environmental cost of consumer electronics.
Rather than allowing those devices to remain unused, the research team converted older Pixel smartphones into what it describes as a general-purpose computing platform.
The approach involves removing components unnecessary for computing workloads, including displays, batteries, cameras, speakers, and outer casings.
Only the motherboard remains because it contains the system-on-chip required for processing tasks and application execution.
The researchers then replace Android with a Linux-based operating system commonly used in data centers, allowing deployment of orchestration platforms such as Kubernetes.
This process removes software overhead associated with consumer devices while enabling management tools normally found in enterprise environments.
The researchers claim that phones released only three years ago still delivered stronger single-core benchmark performance than some server configurations.
They compared those devices against systems such as the Asus RS720A-E11, which can be configured with Nvidia H200 or Nvidia RTX Pro 6000 GPUs alongside two AMD EPYC processors.
Although those server platforms remain significantly more powerful overall, the results suggested that older mobile hardware still retains useful computing value.
Testing further indicated that between 25 and 50 retired smartphones could provide computing capability comparable to a single dual-socket server-class processor.
However, the key question is not whether old smartphones can outperform modern servers, but whether they can deliver useful computing capacity at a significantly lower cost.
Local data centers could reduce costs for universities
The research revealed that a cluster containing 20 smartphones could support an application used by a class of more than 75 students.
Instead of relying on cloud infrastructure, institutions could operate applications locally using repurposed devices already available in storage or recycling programs.
The team plans to assemble a facility using approximately 2,000 smartphones capable of supporting around 100 classes simultaneously.
They argue that the approach could provide educational institutions with computing resources at a fraction of the cost of building traditional infrastructure.
Rising prices for memory and storage components have increased the expense of deploying new systems.
This makes alternative approaches more attractive for budget-constrained organizations.
This is not the first attempt to give older mobile devices a second life, as previous studies explored using phones for monitoring systems and other computing tasks.
Even NASA repurposed the Qualcomm 801 processor, originally introduced in 2014, for navigation functions associated with the Ingenuity Mars helicopter and the Perseverance mission.
The research team expects to launch the full platform later this year while evaluating how consumer-grade hardware withstands continuous operation in a data center environment.
Via Tom’s Hardware
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Ripple effect: The RAMpocalypse has claimed another victim. Nothing has confirmed that its next budget phone, a follow-up to the CMF Phone 2 Pro, will not launch this year. The company confirmed the cancellation is because of skyrocketing memory prices that are disrupting the tech industry in a way not seen since Covid.
Nothing co-founder Akis Evangelidis, the executive behind the CMF line, said the firm had been working on a successor to the CMF Phone 2 Pro, but current memory costs made the device impossible to release without undermining the point of the brand.
“We were working on a successor but with memory prices where they are right now, we can’t build a phone that feels like a genuine step forward at a price that makes sense for CMF. As a result, we’ve decided not to launch a new CMF phone this year,” Evangelidis wrote in an X post.
– Akis Evangelidis (@AkisEvangelidis) June 19, 2026
The decision doesn’t mean CMF phones are dead forever. Evangelidis added that CMF still has other products coming this year, including devices in entirely new categories, while Nothing’s smartphone launch plans are continuing.
CMF is Nothing’s budget-focused sub-brand. Android Authority notes that the CMF Phone 2 Pro launched in India at Rs. 18,999 (~$200) for the 8GB/128GB model and Rs. 20,999 (~$222) for the 8GB/256GB version, with the latter also reaching the US at $279. Evangelidis said that launching the same hardware today would push the price to around Rs. 30,000 to Rs. 35,000, or roughly $318 to $370.
Nothing CEO Carl Pei warned last week that the memory crisis is spreading quickly across the phone market. He said memory costs for the Phone (4a) doubled between development and launch, then doubled again afterward. He added that RAM is now more expensive than the processor or display and can account for more than half of a smartphone’s hardware bill.
“Phone prices are going up, and they’ll keep going up into next year. Since February, new phones have been launching up to $100 more expensive than their predecessors,” Pei wrote in an X post.
– Carl Pei (@getpeid) June 12, 2026
The CMF cancellation is another sign that RAMageddon continues affecting consumer products beyond PC components. Tim Cook recently confirmed that Apple price hikes are coming as iPhones could jump by $200 or more, MSI blamed memory and storage costs for its $1,800 Claw 8 EX AI+ handheld, and the wider memory crisis resurrecting DDR4 production and older GPUs. When will things get better? Not anytime soon, sadly, according to most estimations.
Tech
Anthropic’s Claude Code Artifacts update brings live, shared dashboards and interactive workspaces to enterprises
Anthropic announced a potentially game-changing new feature for users of Claude Code on the Claude Team and Enterprise subscription plans: Artifacts.
This update turns a Claude Code session’s work into a live, interactive, and shareable, custom HTML webpage, allowing a Claude Code user to plug in live code, multiple data sources, and have it surface on an interactive URL that they can send to other teammates — be it a dashboard, an app design, or some other product meant for internal usage.
These teammates and the original user can watch the webpage it update in real-time as Claude Code goes about its work autonomously or under the user’s guidance, and as the connected data sources and codebases change.
While Anthropic first introduced Artifacts to its consumer web chatbot in the summer of 2024—where it evolved from a manual toggle feature to a generally available tool for publishing code snippets and games to the web—integrating this capability directly into the Claude Code command-line interface (CLI) and desktop app bridges the gap between deep, back-end engineering and the non-technical stakeholders who need to understand it.
Product and Technology: The End of the Status Update
At its core, Claude Code Artifacts acts as a dynamic translation layer. Built directly from the unbroken context of a user’s session, the agent uses the local repository codebase, connected monitoring tools, and conversational reasoning to spin up specialized web pages.
Engineers no longer need to wire up external data sources or stand up temporary infrastructure; the AI builds the UI from what already exists.
Crucially, these web pages are not static exports. As the AI works through a terminal session, the open webpage refreshes in-place, updating charts and text instantly at the exact same URL. Every update publishes a new version history, allowing teammates to roll back or track the agent’s progress securely on desktop or mobile.
The Battle of Live, Interactive, Shared AI Work Surfaces: Anthropic’s Claude Code Artifacts vs. OpenAI’s Codex Sites
Anthropic’s update comes more than two weeks after OpenAI released a massive update to its own Codex platform, introducing a strikingly similar enterprise hosting feature called “Sites”.
This tit-for-tat product cadence highlights a rapidly escalating battle over the enterprise workspace across functions and beyond developers themselves, though there are some important technical and philosophical distinctions worth pointing out for enterprises considering either.
As revealed in their respective developer documentation webpages, OpenAI is building a platform-as-a-service; Anthropic is building a stateless canvas.
OpenAI’s Sites is designed to generate durable, full-stack web applications. According to the platform’s documentation, Codex Sites hosts projects that output as Cloudflare Worker-compatible ES modules.
Crucially, Sites supports persistent backend infrastructure: agents can automatically wire up “D1” relational databases for structured data (like user progress or saved records) and “R2” object storage for file uploads. An OpenAI Site can support public sign-ins, integrate with external identity providers, and allows for highly specific access controls tailored to specific workspace groups.
It utilizes a two-stage publishing process—saving a reviewable candidate linked to a Git commit before officially deploying to production. In short, it is a production environment designed to replace functional internal SaaS tools.
Anthropic’s Claude Code Artifacts, by contrast, deliberately avoids the backend. The newly released documentation is blunt about its limitations: “An artifact is a capture of work, not an application”.
Each Artifact is a single, self-contained HTML page capped at a rendered size of 16 MiB. To guarantee organizational security, Claude wraps the published file in a strict Content Security Policy (CSP) that blocks all external network requests. T
his means the page cannot load external scripts, fonts, or stylesheets, and fetch, XHR, and WebSocket calls are completely blocked. All CSS and JavaScript must be inlined, and images must be embedded as data URIs. Artifacts cannot store form input, call an API at view time, or serve multiple routes.
This technical limitation is actually Anthropic’s deliberate philosophical position: While OpenAI wants to spin up persistent software portals for the whole company, Anthropic is keeping Claude Code firmly anchored in ephemeral, highly secure technical workflows. Claude Artifacts are not meant to be software; they are meant to replace whiteboard diagrams, manual bug walkthroughs, and status reports with secure, self-updating visual tools that never leak live data outside the corporate boundary.
Licensing and Enterprise Security: Keeping the Codebase Private
Because these agents sit at the nexus of proprietary company data and live codebases, licensing and access controls are a primary concern.
Both Anthropic and OpenAI have opted for closed, proprietary licensing models for these new visual workspaces. For end users and developers, the distinction is critical. Unlike permissive open-source software (such as MIT or Apache 2.0) or strict copyleft licenses (like GPL)—which grant developers the legal freedom to inspect, modify, and self-host the underlying code—neither Claude Code Artifacts nor Codex Sites can be independently forked or hosted.
Enterprise clients do not maintain code-level ownership over Anthropic’s rendering engine or Codex’s integration nodes; both operate strictly within their respective creators’ managed infrastructures.
To make this vendor-managed approach palatable to enterprise compliance teams, both companies have heavily prioritized organizational security. Anthropic ensures every artifact is private to its author by default and strictly cannot be made public to the broader internet. When an engineer chooses to share a link, it is viewable exclusively by authenticated members of their specific organization. System administrators retain ultimate authority, managing access through org-level toggles, role-based scoping, and explicit retention policies, while maintaining oversight through a centralized compliance API.
OpenAI takes a similarly gated approach with Codex Sites, rolling the feature out primarily for ChatGPT Business and Enterprise workspaces. Like Anthropic, OpenAI relies on system administrators to manage deployment through centralized workspace settings, requiring an admin to explicitly enable Sites via role-based access control (RBAC) for Enterprise tiers.
However, because Codex Sites functions more like a hosted web application, its access controls are slightly more granular. When an engineer prepares to share a deployed URL, they can apply specific access modes: restricting the site to just themselves and workspace admins, opening it to all active users in the workspace, or limiting access to custom user groups.
Furthermore, to prevent sensitive data leaks, OpenAI provides a dedicated Sites panel to manage runtime environment variables and secrets securely, ensuring those keys do not have to be committed to local source files.
Reactions and Reflections
The introduction of visual, self-updating UI layers to command-line agents is fundamentally altering how developers view their own workflows. As AI handles the raw syntax and automates the reporting, the friction of communicating technical work to stakeholders is vanishing.
Boris Cherny, the Lead and creator of Claude Code, highlighted the sheer utility of the update in a post on X earlier today:
“I’ve been using Artifacts in Claude Code for everything: visual explanations of tricky code, system diagrams, quick previews of a few animation options, data analyses and dashboards I share with the team,” Cherny wrote. “They are a game changer for how I work with Claude. Can’t wait to hear what you think!”
This sentiment is practically demonstrated in Anthropic’s launch materials. In one scenario, an engineer prompts Claude Code to investigate user drop-offs since a previous software release.
In a matter of seconds, the agent executes an SQL read, builds an interactive drop-off funnel dashboard, and diagnoses that “Pro accounts stall at the export sheet”. The AI then proposes UI fixes, updates the live charts as the code is refactored, and generates a secure link that a manager can instantly open via mobile.
By turning the terminal into a live, collaborative canvas, Anthropic is proving that the most valuable output of an AI coding assistant isn’t just the code itself—it is the context, the reasoning, and the ability to share that work instantly.
Netherlands vs Sweden is a vital match in Group F at World Cup 2026. A battle between two European sides meeting for the first time in nearly nine years, if either side can pick up the win they’ll be in the box seat for automatic qualification for the knockout phase.
The Dutch arrive after an underwhelming 2-2 draw against Japan, a contest Ronald Koeman will feel his side should have won, having twice led. The Oranje boast plenty of firepower, with Crysencio Summerville in jet-heeled form and Donyell Malen superb since joining Roma in January, but will hope that captain Virgil van Dijk can corral a defense that includes Tottenham’s Micky van de Ven into a more compact display. The three-time runners-up conceded only four times in qualifying, after all.
Sweden, meanwhile, come into the match on the back of a dominant 5-1 win over Tunisia, with Yasin Ayari scoring twice and Alexander Isak bagging a confidence-boosting effort after an injury-plagued first season at Liverpool. Though subpar for much of qualifying, the Scandinavians have improved significantly since Graham Potter took over last October and the Englishman is to be credited with finding a way to dovetail Isak with lethal Arsenal forward Viktor Gyokeres.
They would probably take a point, with the Dutch needing to win, which makes this an even more intriguing contest.
So, read on as we show you exactly how to watch Netherlands vs Sweden for free from anywhere in the FIFA World Cup 2026.
How to watch Netherlands vs Sweden for free
Netherlands vs Sweden is available to watch for free in multiple countries, including the UK, Australia, Brazil, Belgium, Ireland, Netherlands, Switzerland and Turkey.
Abroad? Can’t access your free stream? Unblock your free World Cup stream with Norton VPN — more on that below.
Use a VPN to watch Netherlands vs Sweden live streams
It’s the World Cup, and if you’re traveling, you might discover your usual Netherlands vs Sweden stream is suddenly unavailable due to geo-restrictions.
Don’t worry, that’s exactly where a VPN can help. A virtual private network lets you connect to servers around the world so you can securely access your usual World Cup coverage as if you were back home.
We recommend Norton VPN. Here’s why:
How to watch Netherlands vs Sweden in the US
US viewers can watch Netherlands vs Sweden on Fox.
Cord-cutters can access Fox through live TV services like YouTube TV (free trial), Hulu+Live TV, Sling (select markets), Fubo or DirecTV.
Those looking for a streaming service instead can watch Netherlands vs Sweden on Fox One (3-day free trial).
If you are looking for a stream in Spanish you can watch on Telemundo, which is available via Peacock.
Visiting the US from the UK? You can still watch your World Cup stream for free thanks to Norton VPN (try for 60 days).
How to watch Netherlands vs Sweden in the UK
UK customers are in luck as they can stream Netherlands vs Sweden for free on BBC iPlayer. Live coverage is also available on the BBC One TV channel.
You require a TV license and a valid UK postcode for an account (e.g. SE1 7PB).
Norton VPN can unlock your stream if you’re abroad today.
How to watch Netherlands vs Sweden in Australia
Netherlands vs Sweden will be shown for free in Australia on SBS On Demand.
The streaming platform has every game of the tournament for free, making it the perfect place for your World Cup viewing.
Traveling for work or on holiday? A VPN like Norton VPN can help unlock your free stream.
How to watch Netherlands vs Sweden in Canada
In Canada, TSN free-to-air channel CTV will be broadcasting Netherlands vs Sweden.
You can live stream via the TSN+ streaming platform, which costs CA$8 per month or CA$80 per year.
CTV will require TV provider login details for you to watch for free online. You can also pay to stream CTV on Crave. Prices start from CA$11.99.
Outside of Canada? Use Norton VPN whilst you’re traveling away from home to unlock your stream.
Netherlands vs Sweden: Match Information
What time does Netherlands vs Sweden start?
Netherlands vs Sweden kicks-off at 6pm BST / 1pm ET on Saturday, June 20. That’s 3am AEST on Sunday, June 21 in Australia.
What are the squads for Netherlands vs Sweden?
Netherlands
Goalkeepers: Bart Verbruggen (Brighton), Mark Flekken (Bayer Leverkusen), Robin Roefs (Sunderland).
Defenders: Nathan Ake (Manchester City), Virgil van Dijk (Liverpool), Denzel Dumfries (Inter Milan), Lutsharel Geertruida (RB Leipzig), Jorrel Hato (Chelsea), Jan Paul van Hecke (Brighton & Hove Albion), Micky van de Ven (Tottenham Hotspur).
Midfielders: Ryan Gravenberch (Liverpool), Frenkie de Jong (Barcelona), Teun Koopmeiners (Juventus), Noah Lang (Galatasaray), Tijjani Reijnders (Manchester City), Marten de Roon (Atalanta), Guus Til (PSV), Quinten Timber (Marseille), Mats Wieffer (Brighton & Hove Albion).
Forwards: Brian Brobbey (Sunderland), Memphis Depay (Corinthians), Cody Gakpo (Liverpool), Justin Kluivert (Bournemouth), Donyell Malen (AS Roma), Crysencio Summerville (West Ham United), Wout Weghorst (Ajax)
Sweden
Goalkeepers: Kristoffer Nordfeldt (AIK), Viktor Johansson (Stoke City), Jacob Widell Zetterstrom (Derby County)
Defenders: Victor Lindelof (Aston Villa), Isak Hien (Atalanta), Gabriel Gudmundsson (Leeds United), Carl Starfelt (Celta Vigo), Herman Johansson (FC Dallas), Hjalmar Ekdal (Burnley), Daniel Svensson (Borussia Dortmund), Gustaf Lagerbielke (Braga), Eric Smith (FC St. Pauli), Elliot Stroud (Mjallby AIF)
Midfielders: Mattias Svanberg (VfL Wolfsburg), Jesper Karlstrom (Udinese), Yasin Ayari (Brighton & Hove Albion), Lucas Bergvall (Tottenham Hotspur), Besfort Zeneli (Union Saint-Gilloise)
Forwards: Alexander Isak (Liverpool), Viktor Gyokeres (Arsenal), Ken Sema (Pafos), Anthony Elanga (Newcastle United), Benjamin Nygren (Celtic), Alexander Bernhardsson (Holstein Kiel), Gustaf Nilsson (Club Brugge), Taha Ali (Malmo FF)
Swipe to scroll horizontally
|
Position |
Team |
GD |
Points |
|---|---|---|---|
|
1 |
Sweden |
4 |
3 |
|
2 |
Japan |
0 |
1 |
|
3 |
Netherlands |
0 |
1 |
|
4 |
Tunisia |
-4 |
0 |
Can I watch Netherlands vs Sweden on my mobile?
Of course, most broadcasters have streaming services that you can access through mobile apps or via your phone’s browser.
You can also stay up-to-date with all of the key World Cup moments on the official social media channels on X/Twitter (@FIFAWorldCup), Instagram (@FIFAWorldCup), TikTok (@FIFAWorldCup) and YouTube (@FIFA).
We test and review VPN services in the context of legal recreational uses. For example: 1. Accessing a service from another country (subject to the terms and conditions of that service). 2. Protecting your online security and strengthening your online privacy when abroad. We do not support or condone the illegal or malicious use of VPN services. Consuming pirated content that is paid-for is neither endorsed nor approved by Future Publishing.
It’s down to subscriptions, data and new AI-driven infotainment systems.
Since 2015, consumers and automakers have had a handshake agreement: we’ll buy their cars if they let us connect our smartphones to Android Auto or Apple CarPlay. For ten years or so, it has worked like a charm. We get seamless access to our music, maps and communication, while carmakers offload key infotainment system technology to Google or Apple.
Recently, though, that equation has changed. One of the world’s biggest automakers, General Motors, announced it was dropping Android Auto from its EVs, and plans to pull it from all of its vehicles in the near future. In its place, GM will offer its own conversational-based system that will employ Google’s Gemini AI.
Other manufacturers have never offered Android Auto to begin with, particularly Rivian and Tesla. And while the vast majority of 2026 car models still offer the tech, that could change soon for several reasons — and you may not like any of them.
How Android Auto came to dominate your dash
To understand how Android Auto came to dominate the dashboards of cars, a short history lesson is in order. Android Auto started out, much like CarPlay, as a simple projection system, letting you connect your phone and car via USB to get a driving-friendly version on the infotainment screen. Manufacturer adoption was not immediate. Toyota and Ford tried to create their own system and BMW even tried to charge users $80 a year for CarPlay (while not supporting Android Auto at all until 2020).
Car buyers wanted none of that. Rather, they loved the idea of plugging in their phones and having all their tunes, contacts and addresses available with no hassle or cost. Gradually, automakers began offering it as an option alongside their own in-house infotainment systems. Google made that as easy as possible by not charging for integration.
Google made a new play in 2017 with Android Automotive OS (AAOS), which debuted with the Polestar 2 in 2020. That supports Android Auto, but also provides an Android-based vehicle operating system that doesn’t require your phone’s processing power. This came at a good time, as traditional car manufacturers like Volkswagen discovered that developing an in-car OS wasn’t like building a transaxle. Many gave up and adopted AAOS for some or all of their models, starting with Volvo and a couple of Stellantis and GM brands.
Carmakers want your data
In exchange for the extra convenience, Google helps itself to a lot of the data you generate while driving. On top of the usual info collected, it also grabs GPS and mapping data it can use to help advertisers target you. Since we use our cars to go places and buy stuff, this info is obviously valuable.
None of this data goes to car manufacturers, though. Most aren’t looking to sell that data to advertisers — in fact, GM is actually forbidden for doing so after breaking California’s privacy laws and paying a $12.75 million fine. Rather, some like Rivian and GM say it deprives them of valuable data they could use to improve their vehicles and retain customers.
For instance, GM has claimed that it needs sat nav data to improve the EV charging experience. “With Android Auto or Apple CarPlay environments, the vehicle energy model or road segment data is sending energy usage and everything else associated with it to the phone, and it’s pretty difficult to off-board it from the phone,” GM’s infotainment manager told GM Authority in 2023. The company said its own system will allow for intelligent EV routing that takes into account charge state, range and charging station availability, plus integration with its Super Cruise driver assistant.
Since it will still use Google’s AAOS, GM claims that it will work like your phone for things like calls and streaming from contacts and apps. You’ll also be able to use built-in assistants like Siri and Google assistant using Bluetooth pass-through. All that will happen more smoothly as well, the company says, thanks to the responsive built-in hardware.
GM adds that its own infotainment system will deliver features “that go beyond what’s possible with just phone projection,” it told MotorTrend. It cited Dolby Atmos on Amazon Music as an example of that, calling that experience “impossible” with simple phone projection.
Rivian and Tesla are two companies that never adopted Android Auto in the first place, with both saying they want more control over the driver experience. Rivian, whose operating system is built on top of AAOS, also believes that phone mirroring systems aren’t necessary, given what’s possible with AI these days. “The possibilities now for such deep AI integration in the car make the entire CarPlay debate completely obsolete,” the company told The Verge last month.
Potential consumer blowback
There are caveats, though. GM has also acknowledged that there are “subscription revenue opportunities” available with by using its own infotainment systems. That’s what got BMW into trouble in the past, when it wanted to charge $18 per month for heated seats in select regions.
Built-in apps require the vehicle to have an active cellular connection, too, since your phone is no longer being used. Though GM’s latest vehicles ship with eight years of OnStar connected services, it’s not clear what will happen after that. Rivian offers its own premium data service, Rivian Connect+ that costs $150 per year. Tesla, which also eschews Android Auto in favor of its own system, also charges $150 per year for its Connect+ premium cellular data service. Then again, even manufacturers like Kia that fully support Android Auto end up putting features like remote locking behind trial subscriptions that eventually need to be paid for.
Car shoppers may prove to be the biggest hurdle. GM’s announcement that it’s eliminating Android Auto from its vehicles created blowback, with many of Engadget’s readers for instance saying they wouldn’t buy cars that don’t have it. There’s also a groundswell movement against subscription services of all kinds these days, and having to pay one in your car has chafed a lot of people.
Fortunately, Android Auto and CarPlay are still available in most vehicles. Traditional automakers have also shown that they’re uniquely bad at creating their own infotainment systems. So despite Android Auto disappearing from a few brands, plenty of others will continue to support the system, and it should keep on getting better and smarter.
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