Toyota will invest $3.6bn to expand its San Antonio plant and shift some Tacoma pickup production from Mexico to Texas over about four years, adding 2,000 jobs. Trump claimed credit for tariffs, but Toyota did not attribute the move to tariffs and is not leaving Mexico. The announcement lands amid USMCA uncertainty after the US declined to renew the pact in its current form on 1 July.
TL;DR
Toyota will invest $3.6bn to expand its San Antonio plant and move some Tacoma pickup production from Mexico to Texas. The carmaker announced the plan on Monday, adding a second assembly line, according to CNBC.
President Donald Trump quickly claimed the move as proof his trade policy is working. “That’s what tariffs do, properly used,” he said during a visit to Ankara, Turkey.
Toyota told a different story, or rather, no such story at all. Its announcement did not attribute the expansion to tariffs, with North America chief Ted Ogawa citing “confidence in the region’s workforce, innovation, and long-term growth potential”.
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Crucially, the company is not exiting Mexico. Production will shift gradually from its Baja California plant over roughly four years, while Toyota keeps building Tacomas in Guanajuato and the Corolla in Mexico too.
The expansion adds about 2,000 jobs and 2.5 million square feet, doubling the Texas site by 2030 and lifting annual capacity by 150,000 vehicles. It brings Toyota’s total San Antonio investment to $8.3bn since 2003.
Trump’s framing skips an inconvenient number. Toyota’s North American arm swung to an operating loss in the year to March 2026, with US tariffs stripping roughly $9bn from operating income.
Reshoring a line is one response to that pain, but so is raising prices or absorbing the hit. Automakers across the board are recalculating, with a dozen EV models pulled from the US market as tariffs and the lost tax credit reshape the maths.
The policy backdrop is genuinely turbulent. The US declined on 1 July to renew USMCA in its current form, opting for annual reviews, and is pushing to require that 50% of automotive value be made in America.
Toyota nodded to that uncertainty, urging a “quick resolution” to USMCA while reaffirming its commitment to all three North American countries. That is a carmaker hedging, not celebrating.
For Trump, the optics are strong regardless of Toyota’s framing, since a marquee brand is adding US factory jobs on his watch. His administration has argued tariffs and the shifting US market push carmakers to build domestically.
Toyota, meanwhile, is riding real US momentum, closing in on GM as hybrids surge and rivals’ EV sales soften. Expanding where your trucks sell well is a straightforward business call.
Both readings can be true at once, with tariffs raising the cost of Mexican production and Texas offering a growing market and workforce. The gap is only in who gets to take the bow, and the cross-border squeeze extends well beyond Toyota, reaching Tesla’s own tariff-driven sourcing shuffles.
The AI boom made GPUs famous. The dull chips that wire thousands of those GPUs together are quietly becoming just as valuable.
Xsight Labs, an Israeli chipmaker, has raised more than $300 million at a $2.8 billion valuation, it said on Thursday. Fidelity led the round. That is more than five times what the company was worth in 2021, a jump it made in a single year.
Xsight builds the plumbing of the AI data centre. Its two chips, the E1 processor and the X2 switch, shuttle data between servers, memory and networks. As models grow, moving that data has become one of the industry’s tightest bottlenecks, and the wiring between GPUs is now a prize of its own.
Nvidia does not just sell the GPUs. It also dominates the networking layer, which it bought its way into with Mellanox. Xsight’s pitch is the opposite of that closed kit.
Its chips are open and programmable. They run standard Linux and SONiC, and operators can rewrite the X2 switch in software after it ships, instead of waiting for new silicon. The market wanted “a high-performance alternative to closed, legacy architectures,” said chief executive Yossi Meyouhas. Xsight joins a wave of startups chipping at Nvidia’s grip on the AI stack.
This is not a lab project. Several global network operators have picked Xsight’s silicon, including SpaceX’s Starlink. Last week its processors passed a test aboard SpaceX’s new Starlink V3 satellites, Globes reported. Programmable chips suit space, where engineers fix a fault in software rather than swap out the hardware.
The selling point is efficiency. The E1 is the first 800-gigabit data processor to ship, and runs under 75 watts. The X2 moves 12.8 terabits a second while drawing 40% less power than older switches. As AI’s electricity bill balloons, every watt saved is a pitch.
The pedigree helps. Veterans of EZchip, the Israeli networking firm Mellanox bought in 2016, founded Xsight in 2017, CTech reported. Its chairman is Avigdor Willenz, a serial chip entrepreneur who has sold past companies to Marvell, Amazon and Intel.
His backers followed him in. The round drew Fidelity, Intel Capital, T. Rowe Price, Battery Ventures and Valor Equity Partners, among others. The cash will fund the next chip generations and a bigger sales push at Tier-1 hyperscalers.
The money pouring into AI infrastructure is no longer chasing only GPUs. It is chasing everything around them, from power stations to the wires in the rack. Xsight is betting the winners in networking will be the open ones.
This week on the GeekWire podcast: Microsoft and Amazon both reported quarterly numbers, and both stocks rose on cloud results that beat expectations. Is all that AI spending paying off? And in related news, Microsoft sees a rare annual headcount decline, hitting product R&D hardest.
Plus: Satya Nadella builds a Power BI dashboard out of an analyst’s research report, and touts it on the earnings call to make a bigger point. Jeff Bezos names Amazon’s chips business as the long-awaited fourth pillar. And AI House managing director Jacob Colker delivers a much-needed pep talk for Seattle tech, calling on the region to recognize and build on its strengths.
Microsoft and Amazon earnings
Amazon’s fourth pillar
A rallying cry for Seattle tech
The Washington tech ecosystem
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Got an idea and want to make a simple 3D model, but don’t want to install a full-fledged CAD modeling suite and queue up a few hours of tutorial videos? Check out SketchForge, a 3D modeling program that runs locally in one’s browser without any need for an account, or external services.
SketchForge takes a more WYSIWYG approach to 3D modeling by making it easy to put an object together with primitive shapes, and making it extra easy to specify dimensions and align parts with one another. There’s also a sketch feature that makes it easier to create more complex shapes by making a 2D drawing, then extruding or revolving it into a solid. We like that it has STEP format export as an option, making it easy to import your creation into another CAD program of your choice later. Most 3D printer slicers natively support the STEP format nowadays, too.
It’s a bit reminiscent of Tinkercad in concept, but entirely local. It’s still new, but there’s a demo online that gives a good idea of its capabilities if you’d like to give it a spin.
We’re reminded of CaDoodle, another project that takes the “Tinkercad, but local” approach but as a standalone executable, instead of browser-based.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman seemed excited to share what he called a “cool use case” on Friday, posting that parents could “connect your family calendars and explain your kids’ interests” to the company’s new product ChatGPT Work, then “every morning for the drive to school, have it make a podcast that talks about one kid’s soccer game that afternoon, one kid’s upcoming birthday, some news, etc.”
Altman’s post prompted lots of virtual eye-rolling, including a simple response from Alex Hirsch, creator of the animated series “Gravity Falls”: “What if you just talked to your children”?
Hirsch’s question seems to have gone even more viral than Altman’s initial post — while Altman’s comment has been reposted around 300 times and liked around 9,600 times (as of Saturday morning), Hirsch’s response has been reposted 9,000 times and received 122,000 likes.
This isn’t the first time a tech CEO has promised that AI can shield users — and specifically users’ morning commutes — from the messy realities of human experience. Last year, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said he’d stopped listening his favorite podcasts during his morning drive; instead, he asked an AI chatbot about those podcasts.
Altman’s post also echoed comments he’s made about parenting in the past, most notably when he appeared on “The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon” and declared, “I cannot imagine having gone through figuring out how to raise a newborn without ChatGPT.” (Though he was also quick to acknowledge, “Clearly, people did it for a long time, no problem.”)
Getting parents on-board seems to be a priority for OpenAI, which recently posted a job listing for a product manager with experience building trust-sensitive consumer experiences for parents and families.
But while the company has added safety features for parents, it also faces multiple lawsuits from parents and families alleging that ChatGPT played a role in loved ones’ delusions and suicides. (The company has said it’s “continuously improving how our models respond in sensitive interactions.”)
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Remember when mobile gaming was fun?
Back in the day, you could just scroll the App Store, pick out an icon or two that you liked the look of, and have a new game downloaded and ready to play in just a few moments.
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Booting them up, you’re not confronted with a 29.68GB additional download that you have to stay on one screen to complete, a wall of sketchy in-app permissions to accept, or a page demanding that you sign in with some iffy third-party account — just a neat little self-contained experience designed to help you kill a few hours on the train.
Though they seemed simple, many of the best App Store games were quietly revolutionary. Angry Birds and Fruit Ninja pioneered intuitive touch-screen controls, while Doodle Jump smartly utilized the iPhone’s accelerometer to show how hardware features could become core gameplay mechanics.
Statista estimates that there are now more than 180,000 mobile games available on the App Store. But when was the last time you installed one that felt genuinely exciting, rather than like a thinly veiled scheme to force ad views, harvest personal data, or pressure you into pricey Gacha Pulls? That’s exactly where Apple Arcade comes in.
Having spent the last week diving into all 200+ of the titles available on the service, I can’t help but think that Apple’s highly curated library of mobile titles feels like a journey back in time to the App Store’s glory days.
The whole experience is completely seamless. You sign up for $6.99 / £6.99 / AU$9.99 a month and can immediately jump into browsing the games. They’re all contained in a dedicated Arcade tab in your iPhone’s App Store, so there’s no ambiguity about whether the app you’re looking at is part of the service or not.
Although the selection here is nowhere near as expansive as the regular games tab, it feels genuinely curated and cuts out huge amounts of clutter and spam.
No matter what you like to play, there’ll be at least a few games for you. An impressive variety of genres are represented in the catalog: there are plenty of massive role-playing games (RPGs) that you can sink hours into, be that Trials of Mana+ or Final Fantasy+, fast-paced racers such as Asphalt 8: Airborne+ and Sonic Racing, head-scratching puzzlers in Monument Valley+ and Lego Builder’s Journey, and so much more.
Those iconic early mobile titles I mentioned earlier? They’re back too in new and improved forms that make them a nostalgic joy to revisit. There’s a full-on Angry Birds remake with enhanced graphics and extra levels, an expanded Doodle Jump sequel that updates the hand-drawn graphics and adds new environments, and a Temple Run successor that trades the endless format for challenging levels that are better-suited for short bursts of play.
The innovation of the early App Store is there too. RPG Fantasian wows with incredible art direction that sees you exploring hundreds of beautiful real-world dioramas that were digitally scanned into the game, while bonkers sports simulator What the Golf? takes full advantage of punchy iPhone haptics to add real weight to its wacky physics challenges.
The games are all entirely devoid of ads and microtransactions, so you never have to deal with a frustrating splash screen or pop-up that takes you out of the action.
This means that most of the games will work entirely offline as well, just like they did back in the day. I had practically given up playing mobile games on my commute before getting into Apple Arcade simply because it was so hard to find titles that wouldn’t kick me out the second my train went into a tunnel.
There are no sign-in screens anywhere, and most games don’t even request permission to send push notifications. Your progress will even automatically sync to the cloud so you can continue playing on your iPad, Mac, or Apple TV when you get home.
Oh, and you don’t need to worry about your privacy in all this either. Apple says that all of the games in the service have no third-party tracking software and don’t collect any advertising data. All that, to me, is certainly worth paying for.
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The PD20 combines all of Astell & Kern’s longstanding understanding of electronics and metalwork with a freshly comprehensive suite of software that makes it a formidable option for headphone use on the move. It’s not cheap and it’s not small but the performance is good enough that many people won’t care
Superb headphone performance
Well-made and superbly finished
Flexible use options
Pricey
Large and heavy for portable use
Battery life in some modes is quite limited
Review Price:
£1799
Storage
256gb internal storage expandable up to 2.25tb
DAC
Quad ESS DAC with twin headphone amplifier
Apps
Supports most major streaming services and Roon
The market for personal audio players is a rather affair than it once was when the iPod dominated the business of listening to music on the move.
Astell & Kern has carved out a strong presence at the top of this more niche market and over the years, they have cleverly evolved their devices to be more than a portable device for use on the move.
The PD10 that I looked at in 2025 can deliver great performance over headphones or earphones but can then be parked in its supplied cradle and used as a superb source for your main system as well. It’s clever thinking and the PD10 is a superb product.
You might reasonably assume that a device called the PD20 would be more of the same; tweaked and improved but intended to offer the same dual use concept. The reality though is a bit different.
While Astell & Kern hasn’t abandoned the idea of being able to do more than use the PD20 out and about, it has revisited the functionality needed to make the PD20 a more effective partner for this primary role. As I shall cover, this includes functionality that hasn’t appeared on any Astell & Kern device up to this point as well.
As such, we need to see if this change in direction has yielded positive results and if the not inconsequentially expensive PD20 is the device you’ll want to turn to when it’s time to leave the house.
The PD20 is available in the UK for £1,799. The dealer network isn’t huge but it covers most areas of the country and it is possible to purchased online if you are particularly remote. In the USA, it is available for $1,970 USD while in Australia, it will be $2,649.
Something that is important to stress is that the PD20 is not a replacement for the PD10. The two units will be sold together and this reflects the differences in specification and intended use between the two different models.
It’s also worth stressing that despite the higher number, the PD20 isn’t a higher specification device than the PD10 and indeed costs less.
Those of you familiar with Astell & Kern’s handiwork up to this point won’t find anything alarming about the PD20. The all metal chassis is solid, weighty (weighty enough that any of you who go in for a loose fitting garment might want to check what happens if you put it in a pocket before you head out) and finished to an immaculate standard.
There are some intriguing differences between the PD10 and PD20 though. The PD10 streamlines the controls to a row of buttons down the side. The PD20 by contrast has rather more going on in the form of both a pair of rotary controls on the top to control both tone and volume and a row of switches on the side; the functions of which we’ll cover in the specifications section.
There is no getting away from the fact that the Astell & Kern is pretty big for a ‘portable’ device. This might be better viewed as something that travels with you in a bag and, even then, it had better be a reasonable sized bag.
The upside to this is that it means that Astell & Kern is able to fit a decent sized screen which is bright and easy to read. It wasn’t too long ago that even the premium models didn’t feel as responsive and easy to use as a middling phone. This is very much no longer the case.
The interface itself is also as good as I’ve ever experienced from an Astell & Kern device. At its core is a version of Android but a great deal has been changed and tweaked by Astell & Kern to better suit its more specialised use case. Key things like swiping down to access key settings and menus has been retained though and it makes the PD20 feel wholly unintimidating to use.
Final mention has to go to the packaging too. It’s attractive, brilliantly laid out and does a fine job of making you feel like you haven’t wasted your money. You get some screen protectors included but no case which is a slight shame as I’m sure that your first scratch will be a mortifying experience.
Like the PD10, the PD20 offers 256GB of internal memory which, in 2026, feels a bit on the parsimonious side.
Yes, you can add a micro SD card of up to 2 terabytes in size and these have become more affordable in recent years but if you use Qobuz or Tidal as your main source of material (both of which the PD10 supports natively), these files can only be stored offline in the internal memory which will quickly fill up.
At the best part of two grand, 512gb doesn’t feel like too much of an ask. As well as Tidal and Qobuz other streaming services can be installed and the unit can also used via Roon and Roon ARC as well.
The decoding is significantly different to the PD10 which used AKM hardware. Here, there are no less than four ES9027PRO chips fitted that sum their results against each other, looking for and then correcting any decoding errors.
This is a lot of processing power (each DAC on its own can support eight channels of information) and the quoted performance is impressive. The DACs are externally clocked and fronted by an Octo Core processor.
The PD20 supports PCM to 768kHz and DSD512. There is also DAR (Digital Audio Remaster) software; an upsampling algorithm that can be used in PCM or DSD versions (and, no less importantly, can be switched off).
If you do run it, the sample rate increases considerably, with Astell&Kern stating that this allows for additional information to be interpolated and worked into the output. This is combined with six adjustable digital filters that adjust the roll off rate and amount of pre ringing.
The digital stage outputs to an internal amp that works a little differently to both the PD10 and indeed other Astell & Kern models. On the side of the casework you’ll find two three-position switches. The first allows you to switch the topology of the output between Class A, Class AB and Hybrid – intended to combine the benefits of both.
A second switch changes the amp current settings between high, medium and low, depending on the headphones you are using. This gives the Astell & Kern the notional ability to power some very demanding headphones indeed although if you run it in Class A mode and the high current setting, the battery life will be limited.
At the top of the chassis you’ll find both a 3.5mm and 4.4mm output for balanced and unbalanced headphones and these are coupled to a 150 step volume control which can be bypassed if you put the PD20 into line out mode. It also has an entirely effective two way Bluetooth implementation too. It’s still perfectly possible to use the Astell & Kern as a compact digital source for your system if the fancy takes you, even if the neatness of the PD10’s dock is absent.
So far, these are only minor changes from the PD10 but at this point, the PD20 starts to differ significantly. The PD20 is fitted with software that Astell & Kern has developed with Audiodo to perform an interactive listening test on your hearing and adjust the output of the PD20 based on your feedback.
Running the test takes less than five minutes and you can store multiple profiles on the device as well. In order for this result to be consistent, you’ll find a small pair of earphones in the box to run the test with that ensures the results will be consistent.
This is partnered both with tone control adjustment and an on board EQ to further tweak the performance to your needs. This is by far the most flexible and customisable Astell & Kern device I’ve tested and it should allow the PD20 to match up with pretty much any headphone and then adjust what it’s doing to suit your needs. Neither is it done there.
There is also software called Audiosphere which Astell&Kern claims ‘goes beyond conventional stereo, delivering a powerful sense of spatial immersion. It expands two-channel audio into a virtual three-dimensional sound field and offers four presets.’ I have to say it’s an acquired taste in use but it’s there if you want it.
Something that is very important to get across about the PD20 is that the new suite of software isn’t something that it ‘needs’ to have engaged to deliver a decent performance.
Leave it switched off, the EQ set to flat and none of the upsampling engaged and this is still a superb piece of audio equipment. Using it as a Roon Endpoint and sending it random corners of my music library did nothing to unsettle it and it’s as happy with the scuzzy shoegaze of New Meaning by Tempers as it is with the sublime high res of Sarah Jarosz’s Blue Heron Suite.
It’s tonally accurate and impressively good at keeping a feeling of space and three dimensionality in what you are hearing, even when you are using earphones.
If you do take the time out to run the hearing tests though, it does have a meaningful effect on the performance. For my sins, I am 45 and while I have looked after my hearing as best as I can, I am undoubtedly experiencing some rolling off at higher frequencies. After the tests had been run, there is a little more treble energy to the lovely Hallucinating Love by Maribou State that makes it a little more vibrant and exciting without it tipping over into being bright or harsh.
Something I found interesting is that I’ve lost a fraction more of the high end registers in one ear than the other and the test resulted in a gentle rebalancing of this which ensured the performance had a greater sense of stereo to it.
I was a little concerned that this would in turn affect adding crossfeed to the signal (as what was being transferred to the other channel would be boosted over what that ear ‘needs’ but I needn’t have worried and I still preferred the performance with some crossfeed engaged.
Against this, I have found the amp modes to be less profound in what they do. This is partly down to the reality that none of the headphones and earphones that live here are very hard to drive so the extra current on offer doesn’t have a night and day effect but, even allowing for this, I suspect that the digital tweaks will make more difference for most owners than the amp mode switches which I suspect will see less use once some initial tinkering has taken place.
There is also the good news that, while the PD20 doesn’t feel quite a slick to use in a fixed installation as the PD10, it’s still capable of delivering a truly satisfying performance.
Listening to Boards of Canada’s mighty Prophecy at 1420MHz via the PD20 captures the shifting and positively unsettling power of the work, the immediacy and scale it has and the intricate details of the samples are well worked into the main system.
The PD20 feels less a portable audio source than the PD10 but it doesn’t prevent it from being entirely effective used as one.
After a few years showing that their products could be more than a portable player, the PD20 feels like a revisiting of the concept. The extra software fitted means it is more flexible and capable of delivering a sparkling performance with pretty much any headphone or earphone at home or on the move.
This is still a big, heavy and expensive way of listening to music on the move and, as we head into summer with fewer pockets to hand, many people will find the PD20 simply too big and pricey to relax into using it out and about.
This isn’t a replacement for the PD10 and neither is it a clear cut higher spec model either.
What it is might be best seen as a considered take on what a high spec portable player needs to be in 2026.
The overlapping nature of the Astell & Kern range means that this here to be a viable option for headphone only customers who might have been feeling left out by the system integration efforts of the PD10.
We test every portable music player we review thoroughly over an extended period of time. We use industry standard tests to compare features properly. We’ll always tell you what we find. We never, ever, accept money to review a product.
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| Astell & Kern PD20 Review | |
|---|---|
| CPU | Octa-core |
| Manufacturer | Astell & Kern |
| Screen Size | 6 inches |
| Storage Capacity | 256GB |
| Expandable storage | Up to 2TB |
| Battery | 5770 mAh |
| Size (Dimensions) | x x INCHES |
| Weight | 313 G |
| DAC | ESS ES9027PRO x4 |
| USB DAC Mode | Yes |
| Release Date | 2026 |
| Resolution | x |
| Connectivity | Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.3 |
| Colours | Silver |
| Audio Formats | WAV, FLAC, WMA, MP3, OGG, APE, AAC, ALAC, AIFF, DFF, DSF |
| Touch Screen | Yes |
| USB charging | Yes |
| Inputs | USB-C |
| Outputs | Unbalanced Out (3.5mm), Optical Out (3.5mm) Balanced Out (4.4m, only 5-pole supported) |
| UK RRP | £1799 |
| USA RRP | $1970 |
The glamorous part of AI is the models. The expensive, unglamorous part is getting them the right data. A startup just raised $40 million betting that job is the next big enterprise layer.
DataBahn, a Texas company founded in 2023, has closed a $40 million Series B led by Insight Partners, it said on Thursday. Forgepoint, GTM Capital and S3 Ventures joined. The round takes its total funding to $59 million.
DataBahn sells what it calls an “agentic data control plane.” In plain terms, it is a neutral layer between the systems that produce enterprise data and the ones that consume it, from security tools to data warehouses and, now, AI agents. Rather than shovel every log into every system, it reduces, enriches and routes only what is needed, and pulls extra context on demand.
The timing is not an accident. Companies now generate more telemetry than their tools can afford to process. Cloud transfer fees, storage, rising data volumes and AI inference costs are all climbing at once. Moving everything, everywhere, has become a bill few can justify.
AI sharpens the problem. Agents do not just answer questions; they act. That needs data that is current, well-structured and governed. A control plane can also decide what an agent is allowed to see, and log how each piece of data was changed and routed, a governance job that matters in regulated industries.
The product tries to move the smarts into the pipe. Cruz AI, its “data engineer,” watches for when a source changes format and breaks a pipeline, then drafts the updated parser for a human to approve. That replaces the slow work of hand-building each connector.
The pitch is landing. DataBahn reports revenue up more than 400% year on year, 180% net revenue retention and no customer churn. Fortune 100 firms in healthcare, finance, manufacturing and transport use it, including MVB Bank and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board. It sells mostly through partners, plugs into Microsoft’s security stack, and grew out of the observability and security-telemetry world.
There is a catch. Cribl, Splunk and the big cloud and security vendors all route and store data, and “agentic data control plane” is a label DataBahn has to prove is a real, separate layer. Its answer is neutrality: no lock-in to one store, one vendor or one model. It will show new features at Black Hat next month.
The wider bet is simple. The money flooding into AI infrastructure is starting to chase the plumbing, not just the models. DataBahn’s wager is that enterprises do not need to collect more data. They need to govern what they already have well enough for AI to use it.
Banning phones in schools. Yay or nay? It’s certainly a topic that’s raised debate on both sides in recent years as more states look to enforce stricter rules. Interestingly, however, it does appear that public opinion is starting to sway heavily towards the ‘pro ban’ camp.
A new report from the Pew Research Center has just concluded that an overwhelming 77 percent of adults surveyed now support a ban on phones in the classroom. That’s a massive increase from the 36 percent reported just two years ago.
The ban on phones in the classroom is generally considered distinct from a full ban on devices in schools – commonly referred to as a ‘bell-to-bell’ ban. Support for a full ban remains firmly split in the Pew report, with 48 percent of adults supporting a full ban in comparison.
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Teachers have long been overwhelming advocates of stricter rules. A 2024 survey by the National Education Association found that a whopping 90 percent of teachers supported a ban on phones in class, whereas this 2025 survey by RAND found that 70 percent of school principals believe bans have a positive effect in school. Now, however, it appears that the general public is increasingly on board.
But what do you think? At TechRadar, we’re interested in hearing what our readers have to say. I’ve attached a poll just down below, and we’d also love to hear your concerns in the comments, if you have any.
On a gut level, it certainly feels like phones should be out of the classroom. As adults, we’re increasingly recognizing the perceived downsides of doomscrolling, social media, or other common phone-based habits. I know I’ve certainly felt frustrated at my own tendency to be distracted by my phone during work hours.
Luckily, we don’t have to just rely on gut feeling; however, as there is in fact some evidence to suggest that phone bans in schools result in better outcomes for students.
Perhaps the most convincing report I’ve seen is from the Education Next Journal, which collated evidence from Florida’s state-wide ban in 2023. While other states have followed suit, Florida is a particularly good case as it was the first state to actually institute a ban. In short, the data is strong here.
Interestingly, the report suggests a higher suspension rate in the first year of the ban, followed by a return to a base level, followed by an overall decrease. Test scores remained steady in the year after the ban but then massively improved in the second year. That suggests it takes a while for any positive changes to be evident.
Another excellent report is from the National Bureau of Economic Research, which studied students from 40,000 schools nationwide between 2019 and 2025. In this study, students reported a greater sense of well-being post-ban as well as decreased suspension rates long-term (after a temporary increase).
This report’s findings are a little less cut-and-dry than Education Next’s, however, as it didn’t find any meaningful effects on test scores. Overall, the report still skews toward viewing a ban favorably, and crucially reports on students’ own sense of well-being.
So are there any arguments against a ban? Well, the answer is actually yes; there are a few, and they’re mostly fielded by concerned parents.
The most common point I’ve seen raised is the issue of safety in schools. Some have commented that they’d prefer for their child to have a phone in the case of an emergency on school grounds.
Even though I don’t have kids, I can certainly empathize with parents in this case. Sadly, we know that violence continues to be an issue in schools, so it’s a very good point that absolutely shouldn’t be ignored when exploring this topic.
One other point that I’ve seen raised, and one that certainly also holds weight, is that even with a phone ban, children may still be distracted by other forms of technology in the classroom. If a child still has a laptop, for example, then they may still have access to social media, messaging, and so on.
This was actually suggested by the authors of the National Bureau of Economic Research report as one of the reasons why test results didn’t improve in their study. Certainly, it could suggest that you really need a holistic approach to technology as a whole in the classroom. Banning smartphones could just be the start.
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If you’re a die-hard iPhone user, then there’s a strong chance that you already have access to Apple Arcade and don’t take full advantage of it. The gaming service is currently included with all tiers of the Apple One subscription — an all-in-one bundle that also includes the likes of iCloud Plus, Apple TV Plus, and Apple Music in one monthly fee.
Ultimate Guide to Apple Arcade
This article is part of our Ultimate Guide to Apple Arcade: the definitive guide to everything that you need to know about the gaming service. Be sure to browse the full series here.
Even if you don’t pay for Apple One, a free three-month trial of Apple Arcade comes bundled with every new iPhone, iPad, Mac, or Apple TV, plus, the service is available as a standalone subscription if you don’t want it bundled with anything else. Sounds great, right? But what actually is Apple Arcade, how much does it cost, and is it really worth the price?
I’ve spent this week getting to grips with all things Apple Arcade, from diving into some of its biggest exclusive games to comparing it to other competing services, in order to bring you this comprehensive breakdown of everything you need to know about it. Read on and become an Apple Arcade expert.
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Apple Arcade is a gaming subscription service by Apple designed for its iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV and even Apple Vision Pro devices. It launched in September 2019 and gives you access to a huge library of more than 200 premium games that you can download and play offline.
Unlike many titles that you might download from the App Store, Apple Arcade games are wholly devoid of both ads and in-app purchases. They are complete experiences that you can dive into without the risk of annoying interruptions or being asked to shell-out real world cash for in-game items or downloadable content (DLC).
There are more than 200 games available on Apple Arcade, with options across a wide variety of genres. This includes a selection of high-quality original games such as fast-pace platformer Sonic Dream Team, cozy life simulator Hello Kitty Island Adventure, and beautiful role-playing game Fantasian.
There are also some ports of console and PC games, such as hit strategy game Sid Meier’s Civilization 7 Arcade Edition, Disney life sim Disney Dreamlight Valley Arcade Edition, and indie roguelike Cult of the Lamb.
You will also find loads of premium versions of existing mobile titles with no ads or microtransactions in the likes of Doodle Jump 2+, Fruit Ninja Classic+, Bloons TD 6+, and much more.
You can use our quiz below for some hand-picked recommendations.
The Apple Arcade standard plan costs $6.99 / £6.99 / AU$9.99 a month.
You can save some cash by opting for an annual plan instead, which is $49.99 / £49.99 / AU$79.99 — a saving of $33.89 / £33.89 / AU$39.89 compared to 12 months of monthly payments.
No matter which of these two options you choose, you can share your Apple Arcade subscription with up to six family members at no extra cost.
Apple Arcade is also available as part of all Apple One tiers (Individual, Family, and Premier). Unlike Apple Arcade, Apple One is not available in an annual subscription format, so you can only pay for it on a monthly basis. You can view and compare all of the options below.
|
Plan |
Price |
Included services |
Sharing limit |
|
Apple Arcade |
$6.99 / £6.99 / AU$9.99 per month $49.99 / £49.99 / AU$79.99 yearly |
Apple Arcade |
Up to six users |
|
Apple One Individual |
$19.95 / £18.95 / AU$24.95 per month |
Apple Arcade, Apple Music, Apple TV Plus, 50GB iCloud Plus |
One user |
|
Apple One Family |
$27.95 / £24.95 / AU$34.95 per month |
Apple Arcade, Apple Music, Apple TV Plus, 200GB iCloud Plus |
Up to six users |
|
Apple One Premier |
$39.95 / £36.95 / AU$52.95 per month |
Apple Arcade, Apple Music, Apple TV Plus, Apple News Plus, Apple Fitness Plus, 2TB iCloud Plus |
Up to six users |
In most regions a new iPhone, iPad, Mac, or Apple TV now comes with a three-month free subscription to Apple Arcade. The offer is only valid for 93 days (that’s roughly three months), so if you have an eligible device you should consider claiming it quickly if you’re interested.
To do so, simply follow these four simple steps
If you’re not eligible for a complimentary three-month subscription, there’s no need to worry — because new subscribers can still claim a one-month trial via the App Store.
Whether you claim three months or one month, bear in mind that a valid payment method will be required in order to get set up. This will be billed at the standard subscription price when your promotional period is over, so remember to cancel your subscription if you want to avoid any charges.
You can find out how to do this on the official Apple Support page.
You don’t actually need a controller to play the majority of Apple Arcade games. On iPhone and iPad, almost every title supports full touch screen controls and can be enjoyed without any extra hardware.
If you’re playing on Mac, many titles support keyboard and mouse controls.
On Apple TV, you’re most likely to need a dedicated gamepad as there are only a few titles that work well with the included remote.
Of course, lots of games still allow you to use a controller on any device even if it’s not strictly required and I’d recommend it if you’re after an even more console-like gaming experience.
You can see some models that I’ve personally tested and would recommend for Apple Arcade below.
If you’re strictly looking for a gaming subscription service for your iPhone, then Apple Arcade doesn’t really have much direct competition.
The biggest alternatives on that platform are cloud gaming services such as Amazon Luna, which you can access through your iPhone’s web browser. These stream games to your phone directly from a cloud server, which means that they require a constant internet connection and cannot be accessed offline.
They also don’t work too well with on-screen controls, which means a controller like the dedicated Luna Wireless Controller is required for anything but the most casual titles.
That said, cloud gaming does have some big advantages. You can access full console or PC games, including massive titles such as Fortnite, Fallout 4, or Shadow of the Tomb Raider. As they do not rely on your local hardware, they can also offer high-end graphics features such as maximum in-game settings and ray tracing — though slow or choppy internet can negate this by introducing visual artifacts.
If you have access to an Android Phone, Google Play Pass is a potential alternative. It’s cheaper than Apple Arcade but similarly grants access to loads of mobile games with zero ads or microtransactions. It also includes some productivity apps, meaning that it’s a little more versatile than the strictly gaming-focused Apple Arcade.
That said, its software library feels much more chaotic and less curated. It also lacks the compelling exclusive releases that I think really bring a lot of value to Apple Arcade.
Yes, all Apple Arcade games work offline. This means that you can play them on your iPhone or iPad when you’re out of the house and don’t have a steady internet connection.
Apple Arcade can be worth getting if you frequently play mobile and want a more curated, premium experience. The lack of in-game ads and microtransactions means that you don’t have to worry about annoying distractions or impulse spending, while many of the exclusive games are high-quality experiences that are worth playing.
You will lose access to Apple Arcade games if you cancel your subscription. You don’t need to worry about losing any progress, however, as your save data is stored by Apple via iCloud. This means you can pick up exactly where you left off if you resubscribe at a later date.
Although it is uncommon, games can leave Apple Arcade. When this happens you can keep playing the game for a short grace period, before it becomes unavailable on your device.
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The Greenpan Frost is a frozen drink and ice cream maker. Within one hour you can be enjoying your favourite frozen treat, which is smooth and perfectly formed. I found it really easy to set up and use, but cleaning up was a bit of an operation. And whilst it is a compact design, it does still take up space on the kitchen worktop – which will become more noticeable if this appliance gets seldom use.
Makes a variety of drinks, snacks & desserts
Neat, compact design
Easy to set up & use
No single-serve
Narrow pouring shute (makes a mess)
Tricky to clean
Compact yet versatile, the Greenpan Frost Ice Cream Maker, Soft Serve & Frozen Drinks is a dedicated appliance that can make all sorts of frozen treats from five different modes within the hour.
By pressing just one button you can opt for a Slushie, Soft Ice Cream, Spiked Slushie, Sorbet or Milkshake. Turn a dial, and you can choose from seven different textures.
Whilst it’s £399 price makes it more expensive than rivals, you don’t need to freeze the mixture before using it, like you need to do with the Ninja Creami Deluxe, and it offers more customization.
The Greenpan Frost is a neat, compact machine that takes up little space on the kitchen worktop. Measuring 17.3(h) x 8.7(w) x 17.2(l) inches, it won’t quite fit underneath most wall cabinets, but it’s far enough away from the wall on the worktop to still be comfortably used.
It’s all controlled by a control dial and mode button; turn the dial to control the texture and press the dial to start or stop, and use the mode button to cycle between six modes.
These six modes will make you a chilled, iced drink or frozen desert in no longer than 45 minutes. Starting at number 1, you can make a slushie to make icy treats then; 2 for soft ice cream; 3 for spiked slushies; 4 for sorbets; 5 for milkshakes and 6 for extrude/clean.
It does not have an on / off switch.
You’ll do all the mixing in the 2QT (64oz or around 1.9L) mixing bowl, which is clear so that you can see the ingredients be transformed into a chilled or frozen treat.
Most of the parts are removable for cleaning. This includes the mixing bowl which unclips by turning it anti-clockwise and the stirring blade which can be slipped off. The handle can also be fixed into position with the pin latch.
It’s looks like a fun appliance with a pop-up cone holder and lever handle. It’s also available in a choice of five colours including Cream, Licorice, Berry, Pistachio and Cotton Candy. It arrives pretty much fully assembled; you’ll just need to attach the handle and drip tray.
In the box, the Greenpan Frost comes with the following accessories: bristle cleaning brush, 2x extrusion head gaskets, sealing ring, silicone cleaning brush/installation rod, handle and handle fixing pin.
Greenpan Frost is an all-in-one appliance that’ll stir and frost ingrients to make a selection of treats. It doesn’t do all the prep work though. For example, it won’t blend berries into a smooth pulp and it won’t dissolve sugar either.
The first treat that I made was soft ice cream. I needed to buy more whole milk, heavy (double) cream and vanilla extract. All these ingredients, along with the sugar, needed to be whisked together before pouring into the mixing bowl.
You’ll need a jug to pour in the whisked ingredients and a steady hand because the chute is narrow and, as I found, this can make a mess.
I then selected Soft Ice Cream Mode and chose a texture level of 4. It churned until the Frost switched to “Cool” and beeped one hour later.
At first I had a bit of bother to extract the ice cream – it didn’t start to drop when I pulled the lever down. Instead I *think* I panicked and pressed “Extract” mode and removed the handle (there’s my error) so it all started to drop onto the drip tray and I couldn’t stop it. I ended up filling up a glass vessel and spooning out the mixture into cone (the cone holder came in handy).
Lesson learned.
Next I tried making a Strawberry milkshake using “Milkshake” mode. I blended together the strawberries, vanilla and sugar before whisking in the whole milk and heavy cream before pouring in to the mixing bowl.
Again, I made a mess when pouring in the mixture to the mixing bowl.
I selected “Milkshake” mode and texture level 4. Then, 30 minutes later I heard a beep and the machine switched into “Cool” mode.
Initially I wasn’t ready to drink a cold milkshake so I left it whirling around in the mixing bowl. The Greenpan Frost will keep in “Cool” mode for two hours after the selected texture setting has been reached.
The recipe I had followed made enough milkshake for 3-4 people so while I enjoyed one glass of it, I extrududed the rest and put it on the fridge for the kid’s to enjoy later after school. When it was first extruded, it was too frosty for me (too frosty for a milkshake really), so it was enjoyed 30 minutes after leaving the mixing bowl; it was thick, creamy and fluffy.
It would have been a good idea to strain through a fine mesh to remove the seeds but, alas, I did not so some of these found there way around the seal in the extrustion head.
I also made raspberry sorbet using “Sorbet” mode. I dissolved some sugar with water and lemon zest, before adding to a bowl of blended raspberries with water. I then strained the seeds from the mix because I can’t imagine the sorbet will go down well with all the hundreds of raspberry seeds on the palette.
I poured the strained mixture into the mixing bowl and selected “Sorbet” mode, texture 1. Then, 40 minutes later it was ready to extrude.
The results were delicious, with the mixture evenly frosted – and it extruded perfectly. I only kept it in “Cool” mode for a few minutes before extruding because I heard a squeaking noise which I guess is from some resistance from the stirring blade inside the mixing bowl.
I recorded a noise level of 58dB of the GreenPan Frost when it was in use which is equivialant to a quiet street. The noise level increase to 64dB when it was in “Cool” mode.
To clean the Greenpan Frost I switched over to the Extrude/Clean mode after each recipe I tried. I poured a solution of warm water and liquid soap into the mixing bowl, to clean the bowl and stirring blade. I kept the handle levered down to empty it into a large bowl underneath (I removed the drip tray to get the bowl snug underneath the extrusion head).
After this, the mixing bowl, stirring blade and drip tray all needed washing by hand with warm soapy water. I found that, especially after mixing whole milk and double cream, there was a layer of fatty residue on these parts mentioned that the Extrude/Clean mode alone doesn’t budge. The extrusion head also trapped some residue around the seal that only handwashing (and patience) can remove.
I’ve had a lot of fun using the Greenpan Frost. I’ve made icy treats that have been previously shop-bought, and the results have been delicious. Through from set-up to using the Frost it has been really easy, with only one dial and one button to navigate in order to achieve a treat some 30 minutes later. Whilst there is some prep work to the ingredients such as mixing and straining, the Frost stirs to even texture and temperature throughout the mix.
However, I found bulk-making to be a nuisance, owed to a lack of space in the fridge or freezer and storage units large enough to contain the treats. And whilst the overall design of the Frost is neat and compact, if it’s only going to be used once or twice a year then you might want to think again about buying it because it’ll only take up space in the cupboard.
Final Thoughts
It’s quick to make a slushie, ice cream, slushie, sorbet or milkshake.
This machine is best for fresh treats enjoyed there and then, and is a bit more fiddly if you want to extrude and store the results.
We test every small appliance thoroughly over an extended period of time. We use industry standard tests to compare features properly. We’ll always tell you what we find. We never, ever, accept money to review a product.
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Yes, it will keep treats cold for up to two hours.
| Greenpan Frost Ice Cream Maker, Soft Serve & Frozen Drinks Review | |
|---|---|
| Manufacturer | – |
| Size (Dimensions) | 222 x 438 x 441 MM |
| Weight | 14 KG |
| Release Date | 2026 |
| First Reviewed Date | 29/07/2026 |
| Model Number | Greenpan Frost Ice Cream Maker, Soft Serve & Frozen Drinks |
| Blender type | Frozen treat maker |
| Controls | Mode dial |
| UK RRP | £399 |
| USA RRP | $399 |
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