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What’s The Lifespan Of The MacBook Neo’s Battery? Here’s What Apple Says

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Compared to other brands, Apple prefers to keep its product catalog quite modest. For several generations now, we’ve had two tiers of laptops to pick from — the budget-friendly MacBook Air or the powerful MacBook Pro. Although previous models of the MacBook Air can often be bought for very attractive prices, the newly-launched MacBook Neo retails at $599 — making it the cheapest laptop Apple has ever released. It cuts some intelligent corners by utilizing the iPhone’s A18 Pro SoC to power the experience. Still, you do get a premium all-aluminum chassis and a bright IPS display. 

It’s backed by 8GB of RAM and comes with 256GB of internal SSD storage. This doesn’t sound like much, but benchmarks and reviews by experts in the industry tell a different story. Though you won’t be doing 8K video editing or gaming on it, the Neo is snappy and more than good enough for students or anyone looking for a reliable everyday machine.

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The MacBook Neo packs in a 36.5-watt-hour battery, which Apple claims can provide up to 16 hours of video streaming. This roughly translates to around a day of light mixed usage. It can be charged via USB-C using its included 20W charger. As for its battery’s lifespan, Apple rates the Neo to last 1,000 charge cycles. If you manage to consume a full battery cycle per day, that works out to over two and a half years before your MacBook Neo’s battery will likely need to be replaced.

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How long will the MacBook Neo last?

To properly grasp the 1,000 charge cycle figure, it helps to first understand how battery cycles work. Your device consumes one full battery cycle when it uses up a total of 100% of its battery capacity. So, if your MacBook Neo is fully charged to 100%, and you use it until it dies, you’d have consumed one cycle. Battery cycles are calculated cumulatively — so if you use 50% of your battery one day, charge it completely, and consume 50% again the day after, it still counts as a full battery cycle.

When you hit 1,000 battery cycles on your MacBook Neo will entirely depend on how much you use it. Heavy everyday use will rack up battery cycles much faster, while lighter usage might stretch your Neo’s battery life to several years. What happens after you hit 1,000 battery cycles? Fortunately, your MacBook won’t magically stop functioning — but it likely won’t last very long away from a charger.

It’s also worth noting that the day-long battery experience you’re probably enjoying right now with your MacBook Neo will start to taper off over time — long before you even hit 1,000 battery cycles. If your MacBook isn’t charging, or you spot a “Service Recommended” notification, it’s the right time to contact Apple for a battery replacement. This usually happens when your battery health dips below 80%. 

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How to check your MacBook Neo’s battery health

Cycle count and battery health are two separate but closely related metrics. Apple says the MacBook Neo’s battery is considered “consumed” once it reaches 1,000 cycles. However, you are much more likely to dip below the 80% battery health threshold before you hit that number. The same way you can check your iPhone’s battery health, you can also view how well your MacBook Neo’s battery is faring. Launch the System Settings app and navigate to the “Battery” tab. In the “Battery Health” section, click the tiny “i” icon. This will display your MacBook’s maximum battery capacity.

You will also find an “Optimized Battery Charging” toggle here, which learns your charging pattern over time and delays charging past 80% until it predicts you may need a full charge. Your MacBook Neo’s battery health condition will change from “Normal” to “Service Recommended” when the battery’s capacity drops significantly.

You can also view the exact number of cycles your MacBook Neo’s battery has gone through, though this information is buried a bit deeper. Launch the System Settings app and navigate to General > About. Scroll all the way down and click “System Report.” Select the “Power” tab from the sidebar, and you can view the cycle count on the right. You can also note other technical details, including your Mac’s battery health, through this menu.

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BGIS Grand Finals 2026 Standings After Day 2

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We said day two of the BGIS Grand Finals would be the day of comebacks. While we did see some amazing games from the likes of K9 and NINZ, nobody could challenge SOUL, who were undefeated from their top position. Several teams occupied the top three throughout the day, but ultimately, it was Soul, Genesis, and GodLike. The losers of today included the likes of Team Tamilas and WELT, who couldn’t get the hang of their game and strategy. Here’s what the standings look like after day two of BGIS Grand Finals.

BGIS 2026 Grand Finals Standings After Day 2

Team Name Wins Pos. Pts Fin. Pts Tot. Pts
SOUL 2 37 80 117
GENS 0 26 88 114
GODL 2 28 68 96
VE 1 30 59 89
VS 1 31 54 85
OG 1 27 58 85
RNTX 0 15 63 78
WF 2 34 43 77
LEFP 0 24 40 64
MYTH 0 21 43 64
RGE 0 22 39 61
K9 1 23 37 60
NINZ 1 19 37 56
NBE 1 21 30 51
TT 0 12 36 48
WELT 0 14 27 41

The final day of the BGIS Grand Finals awaits us tomorrow. The top three look pretty settled, but a few bad games, and we could have a new face at the top. If you missed today’s games, check out our highlights for both the first and second day.

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These iPad apps will make you wish you had more free time

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If you’re looking to explore your creativity, there are a number of iPad apps that can help you get started. Although the iPad started off as a simple device that could be used to stream content or browse the web on the go, Apple has essentially turned its iPads into powerful machines that can be used to do things like create digital art and edit videos.

We’ve compiled a list of some of the best iPad apps for creativity that are available on the App Store. 

Before we delve in, it’s worth noting that although Adobe’s creative apps are often top choices for creativity on the iPad, this list won’t include them because they are already well-known. We’re focusing instead on somewhat lesser-known apps that you’ll want to know about and try.

Lake

Image Credits:Lake

Not every creative app has to involve a blank page staring back at you. Lake takes a more relaxed approach, letting you digitally color hand-drawn illustrations by independent artists using more than 700 colors and a selection of brushes.

If you want to let your imagination run wild, you can also color and draw on a blank canvas. You can also jot down your thoughts in a coloring journal.

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The app is great for people who are just getting started with exploring their creativity or for those who just want a moment to de-stress. You don’t have to be artistic to use it, either; there’s no penalty here for drawing outside the lines.

Lake offers free access to a limited number of illustrations. To unlock the full catalogue of illustrations and features, you’ll need to pay a $9.99 monthly subscription fee.

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Procreate

Image Credits:Procreate

Procreate is one of the most popular drawing apps for the iPad, and for good reason. The app lets you create digital paintings, sketches, and illustrations using dozens of different types of brushes. Procreate is easy to use and features built-in gesture controls, along with a simple interface. 

The app allows for high-resolution canvases up to 16K by 8K on compatible iPad Pros. It also lets you create storyboards, GIFs, animatics, and simple animations. Plus, you can import image files such as JPG, PNG, and TIFF. Procreate includes several features that are designed to help you during the creative process on your iPad, such as QuickShape, StreamLine, Drawing Assist, and ColorDrop — tools that handle the technical heavy lifting so you can focus on the fun part.

Once you’re finished creating your piece, you can relive your creative journey with the app’s time-lapse “Replay” feature — a surprisingly satisfying way to watch your work come together — and share a 30-second clip on social media.

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You can access Procreate with a one-time payment of $12.99.

LumaFusion

Image Credits:LumaFusion

LumaFusion is a great app for editing videos if you’re ready to graduate from iMovie. The app features numerous user-friendly features that make it perfect for aspiring videographers or indie filmmakers on a budget. 

With LumaFusion, you can create multiple layer edits with 4K ProRes and HDR media. You can add different effects, choose from dozens of transitions, and record voice-overs. The app lets you create multilayer titles and import fonts and graphics. Plus, you can fine-tune audio with Graphic EQ, Parametric EQ, Voice isolation, and more. 

The app lets you create projects with a variety of aspect ratios, including 16:9 landscape, 9:16 portrait, square, widescreen film, anamorphic, and more. 

LumaFusion is available for a one-time payment of $29.99. You can also purchase additional features, such as multicam editing and the ability to send your project to Final Cut Pro for Mac. 

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Canva

Image Credits:Canva

Canva offers a user-friendly platform that allows anyone to create visual content, even without graphic design experience. You can use it to create presentations, infographics, videos, websites, social media posts, and more with over 250,000 templates.

Canva features tools for editing photos, personalizing content with logos and images, adding audio, and cropping and speeding up video. 

The platform also has a series of AI features that are designed to make the creation process easier. For instance, you can extend an image using “Magic Switch” or turn ideas into images with “Magic Media.”

Canva is free but offers a $12.99 monthly subscription if you want unlimited access to its AI features, premium templates, and more. 

Affinity Designer 2

Image Credits:Affinity

Affinity Designer 2 is a graphic design app that combines vector design, pixel-based textures, and retouching into a single platform. It’s great for professional illustrators, web designers, game developers, and other creatives. 

The app lets you create illustrations, branding, logos, icons, UI/UX designs, typography, posters, labels, fliers, stickers, concept art, digital art, and more. It supports Apple Pencil’s precision, pressure sensitivity, and tilt functionality.

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Affinity Designer 2 features gesture controls to speed up your workflow, and it lets you customize keyboard shortcuts. You can also do things like create your own custom font and zoom to over 1,000,000% for absolute precision. 

You can access the app through a one-time payment of $18.49. 

Concepts

Image Credits:Concepts

Concepts is a great app for exploring your ideas and experimenting with designs. You can use the app to sketch plans, make notes and mindmaps, and draw storyboards and designs. 

The app features Nudge, Slice, and Select tools that allow you to easily change any element of your sketch without redrawing it. The app features realistic pens, pencils, and brushes that flow with pressure and tilt. 

Concepts gives you access to scale and measurement tools that calculate real-world dimensions, and also features a tool wheel or bar that you can personalize to your liking. 

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The app’s basic features are free. Concepts offers a $4.99 monthly subscription if you want access to additional features, such as the ability to create your own brushes and premium editing tools.

Tayasui Sketches

Image Credits:Tayasui Sketches

Tayasui Sketches is a good, user-friendly sketching and drawing app. It has several different features such as a realistic watercolor brush, digital acrylic brushes, the ability to blend two colors to get the perfect shade, gradient and depth tools, and more.

The app lets you multitask by opening up another app and dragging lawyers and documents between the two. There’s also a “Zen Mode” that lets you create without distractions.

You can also upload your images to incorporate them into your creations. Tayasui Sketches lets you store your creations into personalized folders.

Tayasui Sketches’s basic features are free. The app offers a $2.99 monthly subscription that unlocks unlimited layers, new brushes and markers, an extended brush editor, the ability to backup your drawings, and more.

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Dudel Draw

Image Credits:Dudel Draw

Dudel Draw is a bit different from the other apps on this list: It’s designed to unleash your creativity by giving you a new shape every day that serves as a starting point to sketch on top of.

These daily shapes vary from basic geometrical forms to more complex and abstract designs. Plus, you can explore your creativity further by choosing to view the shape from all angles with the app’s “flip” and “rotate” features.

You can also get your friends in on the creativity with some fun competition by comparing your different creations each day. Dudel Draw offers a great way to sharpen your artistic skills, challenge yourself to create something new every day, and just simply express yourself.

Dudel Draw is available for free.

Sketchbook

Image Credits:Sketchbook

Sketchbook is an easy-to-use app for sketching, painting, and drawing. The idea behind the app is to make it feel like you’re drawing on paper, as the digital brushes and pens behave like the real thing.

The app’s interface is simple and lets you tuck away palettes and tools to make it easier to focus on drawing.

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You can customize brushes by tweaking the size, opacity, flow, and more to align them with your personal style. There’s also a “predictive stroke” feature that helps smooth out the lines of your drawing.

Sketchbook is available for free, but you can unlock premium features for a one-time payment of $2.99. Premium features include the ability to import additional brushes and color palettes, adjust the size of your canvas after you’ve started working, export multiple canvases or an entire album as a PDF, and more.

This story was originally published in December 2024 and is updated regularly with new information.

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Elon Musk’s last co-founder reportedly leaves xAI

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Earlier this month, it looked like all but two of Elon Musk’s 11 co-founders at his AI startup xAI had departed the company. Now, according to Business Insider, the remaining two co-founders, Manuel Kroiss and Ross Nordeen, have left as well.

BI said on Wednesday that Kroiss had told people that he’s leaving xAI, then reported that Nordeen left the company on Friday.

Musk recently claimed xAI “was not built right [the] first time around,” so it’s now “being rebuilt from the foundations up.” The company was recently acquired by Musk’s SpaceX, bringing SpaceX, xAI, and X (formerly Twitter) together under one corporate umbrella, all as SpaceX is reportedly planning to go public.

Kroiss and Nordeen both reported directly to Musk, according to BI, with Kroiss leading the company’s pretraining team, while Nordeen was Musk’s “right-hand operator.” Nordeen reportedly came to xAI from Tesla, and was involved in planning major layoffs at Twitter after Musk acquired the company in 2022.

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TechCrunch has reached out to xAI for comment.

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iOS 26.4 Brings New Emoji, a Playlist Generator and More to Your iPhone

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Apple released iOS 26.4 on Tuesday, about a week after the tech giant released iOS 26.3.1 (a), the company’s first Background Security Improvement update. The most recent update brings a slew of features to your iPhone, including new emoji and video podcasts, plus more than two-dozen bug fixes and security patches.

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You can download iOS 26.4 now by going to Settings and tapping General. Next, select Software Update, tap Update Now and follow the prompts on your screen.

Here are some of the new features iOS 26.4 brings to your iPhone.

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New emoji

An orca, distorted face and other emoji coming out of a smartphone.

All the new emoji iOS 26.4 brings to your iPhone.

Apple/CNET

With iOS 26.4, your iPhone gets eight new emoji:

The Unicode Consortium is responsible for creating emoji, and it approved these eight in September as part of Unicode 17.0. But this is the first time the emoji are showing up on iPhones.

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Watch this: Don’t Wait: iOS 26.4 Brings New Emoji, Keyboard Fixes, AI Playlists

Video podcasts come to Apple Podcasts

The iOS 26.4 update also brings video to your Podcasts app. To view these video podcasts, open the Podcasts app and start listening to an episode with the video player icon in the top right corner of the title card. Once you’re listening, open the media player and tap the Turn Video On button near the podcast’s progress bar. The podcast’s artwork will be replaced with the video. To turn the video off again, tap Turn Video Off and the podcast’s artwork will return.

Side-by-side screenshots of the Podcasts app. On the left we see a podcast's artwork and on the right we see that artwork replaced by a video.

Video podcasts are a fun addition to the Podcasts app.

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Apple/Screenshots by CNET

Reduce some Liquid Glass effects across your device

Apple’s iOS 26.4 update adds another setting to minimize Liquid Glass effects across your device: Reduce Bright Effects. Here’s where to find this setting.

1. Tap Settings.
2. Tap Accessibility.
3. Tap Display & Text Size.
4. Scroll down the menu to find Reduce Bright Effects.

The Reduce Bright Effects option in the Display and Text Size settings menu.

Reduce Bright Effects can eliminate some Liquid Glass effects.

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Apple/Screenshot by CNET

Apple says the setting will minimize highlighting and flashing when interacting with on-screen elements, such as buttons or the keyboard. So if you find certain flash elements annoying, you can now disable them. 

Playlist Playground in Apple Music

The iOS 26.4 update also introduces a playlist generator for Apple Music subscribers called Playlist Playground. Apple says the feature can create a playlist based on your description. Once you enter your description, it will create a playlist with a title, tracklist and general description.

To access Playlist Playground, first you have to be an Apple Music subscriber. Then, open Apple Music and go to your Library. In your Library, you’ll see a new icon at the top of your screen with a plus and a few lines next to it. Tap this, and you’ll be prompted to describe your playlist.

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Apple Music's Playlist Playground that can create a playlist for you based on your own description.

Playlist Playground can generate a playlist for you in no time.

Apple/Screenshots by CNET

Apple notes this feature is still in beta, so it might create unexpected results. So you might ask for a good gym mix and end up with some Whitney Houston — but who’s to say Whitney isn’t good gym music?

Find nearby concerts with the aptly named Concerts feature

iOS 26.4 brings a Concerts feature to your Apple Music app. 

“Concerts helps you discover nearby shows from artists in your library and recommends new artists based on what you listen to,” Apple writes in the update’s description. That way, you can easily find nearby shows.

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To find Concerts, tap the magnifying glass icon at the bottom of your Apple Music screen, then tap Concerts. The feature may ask for your location the first time you use it. Then you’ll see popular shows nearby, along with their dates, times and locations. Tapping into any of these shows gives you more information on the show, as well as a link to buy tickets.

The Concerts menu in Apple Music.

The Concerts tab in Apple Music makes it easy to see upcoming shows in your area.

Apple/Screenshot by CNET

Shazam works offline, kind of

With iOS 26.4, your Control Center’s Shazam app can work in more ways. Now, if you aren’t connected to the internet and use the Control Center app to identify a song, the app will eventually tell you the song’s identity once you’re back online. 

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Ambient Music home screen widgets

Apple introduced two new Ambient Music widgets for your home screen with iOS 26.4. These widgets let you easily access the four Ambient Music playlists: Sleep, Chill, Productivity and Wellbeing. You can quickly turn on a relaxing playlist to unwind after a long day, or one to help you focus on the task at hand.

An iPhone widget for the Ambient Music feature.

The Ambient Music widget makes it easy to play music for just the right setting.

Apple/Screenshot by CNET

Apple introduced these playlists to your iPhone alongside iOS 18.4 in 2024. However, you could only access those playlists from your Control Center at the time. 

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Let other adults in your Family pay for themselves

In iOS 26.4, other adults in your Family sharing group can now use their own payment instead of depending on the group organizer’s payment method. That means if you’re an adult and have a family sharing group with your own parents, siblings or other family members, you can now purchase a game, movie or something else with your own information instead of using someone else’s information and then paying them back. 

This can be a helpful feature that allows you to avoid the hassle of paying someone else back for using their payment information. And if you’re the person whose card is always used, it can be a nice way to ensure others pay for their own stuff and don’t freeload off you. 

More caption options when viewing videos

With iOS 26.4, you can easily change the caption style while watching content in certain apps, such as Apple TV. 

To see these options, start playing a video, then tap the speech bubble icon in the bottom-right corner of your screen to open the subtitle menu. Tap Style, and you’ll see the subtitle options Classic (the default setting), Large Text, Outline Text and Transparent Background. So if you and a few others are watching something on your iPhone and want to make sure everyone can see the captions, you might choose Large Text.

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The subtitle style menu.

You can adjust the subtitles in some apps thanks to iOS 26.4.

Apple/Screenshot by CNET

More control over wallpaper Collections

The iOS 26.4 update also gives you more control over which wallpaper Collections are on your iPhone. Now, if you go to Settings > Wallpaper > Add New Wallpaper, you can tap Get under Collections like Weather and Astronomy. 

If you want to delete a Collection from your device, tap the check mark to the right of the downloaded Collection, and the option to Remove from Gallery appears. Tap this to delete the Collection from your iPhone, saving you some precious space.

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The option to Remove from Gallery is highlighted in the Add New Wallpaper menu.

You can remove wallpaper Collections from your iPhone if you want to save a little space. 

Apple/Screenshot by CNET

Here are the release notes for iOS 26.4.

Apple Music

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  • Playlist Playground (beta) generates a playlist from your description, complete with a title, description and tracklist.
  • Concerts helps you discover nearby shows from artists in your library and recommends new artists based on what you listen to.
  • Offline Music Recognition in Control Center identifies songs without an internet connection and delivers results automatically when you’re back online.
  • Ambient Music widget for Sleep, Chill, Productivity and Wellbeing brings curated playlists to the Home Screen.
  • Full-screen backgrounds give album and playlist pages a more immersive look.

Accessibility

  • Reduce bright effects setting minimizes bright flashes when tapping on elements like buttons.
  • Subtitle and caption settings are available from the captions icon while viewing media, making them easier to find, customize and preview.
  • Reduce Motion setting more reliably reduces the animations of Liquid Glass for users sensitive to on-screen motion.

This update also includes the following enhancements:

  • Support for AirPods Max 2.
  • 8 new emoji, including an orca, trombone, landslide, ballet dancer and distorted face, are available in the emoji keyboard.
  • Freeform gains advanced image creation and editing tools, and a premium content library, joining Apple Creator Studio.
  • Mark reminders as urgent from the Quick Toolbar or by touching and holding, and filter for urgent reminders in your Smart Lists.
  • Purchase Sharing lets adult members in Family Sharing groups use their own payment method when making purchases, without relying on the family organizer.
  • Improved keyboard accuracy when typing quickly.

For more iOS news, check out what features were included in iOS 26.3 and iOS 26.2. You can also take a look at our iOS 26 cheat sheet for other tips and tricks.

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Samsung is cooking up a money-saving trick for its browser

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Samsung might soon make online shopping a little less painful, and a bit cheaper too. A teardown of the latest Samsung Internet build, thanks to Android Authority, reveals a new feature called “Smart shopping”, and it’s exactly what it sounds like.

The browser could soon automatically find and apply coupon codes at checkout, saving users the hassle of hunting for discounts manually. The feature appears to surface available deals, show their validity, and even offer a one-tap option to apply them, making the whole process feel seamless.

How does it actually work?

This is where things get a bit more… interesting. Samsung’s browser would use data like the website you’re visiting, your cart contents, location (via IP), and browsing context to find relevant coupons. The idea is to deliver context-aware discounts in real time, rather than generic coupon suggestions. The folks at Android Authority enabled the settings page for a quick look, though the feature itself wasn’t functional yet. Here’s how it looks:

More importantly, this appears to be an opt-in feature, meaning users can enable or disable it from the browser settings. This feature essentially turns Samsung Internet into a built-in deal assistant, similar to browser extensions like Honey, but without needing extra installs. It’s a small quality-of-life upgrade, but one that could genuinely save users money, especially for frequent online shoppers.

Saving money… but at what cost?

Of course, there’s a catch, because there’s always one. While the idea of automatic coupon hunting sounds great, it relies on the browser accessing your shopping activity, browsing behavior, and contextual data to work effectively. That naturally raises some eyebrows around privacy, even if Samsung says the feature is opt-in and data usage is limited to specific scenarios.

At the end of the day, this isn’t some flashy headline-grabbing feature, but a practical one. And honestly, those are the ones that tend to stick. If Samsung gets the balance right, your browser might soon do more than just load pages. It could quietly save you money in the background.

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Meta’s next smart glasses sound like a treat for humans stuck with prescription lenses

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For the billions of people who rely on corrective glasses every day (including me), smart glasses have always been a slightly awkward conversation. Sure, you can already pick up Ray-Ban Meta frames with your prescription built in, but it looks like Meta has something better in store for us. 

According to a Bloomberg report, Meta is working on two new AI glasses designed specifically for prescription wearers rather than treating them as an add-on afterthought. The models could arrive in rectangular and rounded frame styles. Unlike current offerings, they will be sold through conventional prescription eyewear retailers. 

Will the new prescription-friendly glasses look any different?

This could be the first time the Meta and Ray-Ban collaboration has directly aimed its vision-corrected crown at the primary audience. However, that is the extent of the information the outlet provides. There’s no word on how the frames might differ physically from the current models. 

However, if I were to speculate, it could have something to do with the lens housing, thickness, and the weight of the glasses. 

Beyond the hardware, I feel, what would truly make the purported AI glasses prescription-friendly is the ability to talk to any neighbourhood optician and have them work on it. That kind of accessibility could really make the glasses prescription-friendly. 

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What else do we know about Meta’s upcoming smart glasses?

The Verge separately flagged FCC listings for the purported glasses internally codenamed “Scriber” and “Blazer.” Both are listed as production units, which typically signals a launch isn’t quite far off. A detail that stands out is that Blazer might come in a larger size than Scriber. 

Both models should also support Wi-Fi 6 UNII-4 band, something that the current Ray-Ban smart glasses lack. It would open the door to faster data transfer, and perhaps to livestreaming. Anyways, no display is expected on either model. 

What’s clear, however, is that Meta is eyeing prescription wearers as the biggest untapped market for its smart glasses.

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The White House app is just as weird and unnecessary as you’d expect

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President Donald Trump may have a tendency to put his name on everything, but his administration decided to go with the more authoritative The White House App for his latest pursuit. Now available on the App Store and Google Play store, the official White House App claims to gives Americans “a direct line to the White House.”

From the press release, the app provides “unfiltered, real-time upgrades straight from the source.” In more practical terms, the White House App is a one-stop shop for official communications from the administration and more. On the app, you can find press releases, livestream announcements and even a photo gallery, along with turning on notifications so you get official communications as soon as they happen.

However, it only takes a few minutes of digging through the app to question its value. The White House App’s News tab features a carousel of about 35 articles that seem suspiciously cherry-picked with articles that favor the Trump administration. In the Affordability window, the app points out year-over-year prices that have dropped for things like eggs, milk and bread, but conveniently omits the recent swell in gas prices.

In the Social tab, there’s a button to “Text President Trump,” which auto-populates a new text with “Greatest President Ever!” before ultimately trying to get you to sign up for a marketing blast. The press release mentioned a way to “send your voice and feedback directly to the Administration” but the app’s functionality doesn’t seem to promote that. Most notably, there’s even a way to submit a tip to Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the app’s Get in Touch section.

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While it’s convenient to have all your Trump administration announcements in one place, the White House App is mostly just a portal that ends up opening external websites. Traditionally, official White House accounts on social media platforms are passed on during the transition of presidents. However, it’s hard to say what will happen to the app after Trump leaves office, but one only has to look towards the lasting triumph of TrumpRx, Trump Mobile or even Trump University.

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YouTube CEO opens up about AI slop, and it sounds like cozy promises

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YouTube is in a slightly tricky position right now. On one hand, it’s encouraging creators to use AI tools to make content faster and more easily than ever. On the other hand, it’s also saying it will take action against what it calls “AI slop”, which basically means low-effort, mass-produced videos that don’t offer much value.

That contrast is hard to miss. The platform clearly wants more AI-driven content, but only the kind that feels useful, original, and worth watching, not content that simply fills up space.

So, what are we supposed to take from this?

YouTube CEO, in a NYT video interview, recently said:

A.I. can be a tool to produce amazing content or further democratize content creation, but it can also allow for the creation of lots of low-quality content. There are aspects of it that are not new. The part that’s new is the scale, but the notion of low-quality content, clickbaity content — we’ve been able to deal with that on YouTube. I also think that we have to have a bit of a delicate hand on this. And I would tell you that every day we’re trying to really strike that balance, but we’re very, very focused on making sure that when you open up the YouTube app, it’s not a feed of A.I. slop.

The real challenge, though, isn’t just accepting that low-quality AI content exists. It’s dealing with how much of it there can be. Platforms have always had to handle mediocre content, but AI changes things completely. What once took time and effort can now be created in huge numbers within minutes. An average video is easy to ignore. Thousands of them, uploaded all at once, become much harder to manage.

Those feel-good words don’t hit the same anymore

“Delicate balance” sounds great, doesn’t it? It’s quite reassuring. But when you actually stop and think about it, the question becomes pretty obvious: what does that even look like in practice? On YouTube, it’s easy to call out the obvious stuff. Fully automated videos, robotic voiceovers — sure, that’s AI slop. But what about the grey area? A video where AI writes the script, edits the clips, designs the thumbnail, and a human just sprinkles a bit of polish on top. Is that smart use of tools, or just low effort dressed up nicely? The line isn’t just blurry, it’s practically moving while you’re trying to draw it.

The platform already leans heavily on algorithms to decide what gets seen and what gets buried. But when uploads start pouring in at scale, even the smartest systems can struggle to keep up. AI content doesn’t arrive with a neat little label saying “I’m generated.” In fact, the more convincing it looks, the harder it is to catch. A lot of it isn’t obviously bad, it’s just…good enough. And that “good enough” quickly turns into a flood.

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For years, the platform has rewarded volume. Post more, stay consistent, keep the machine fed. That’s how you grow. And guess what fits perfectly into that system? AI. It lets creators, and let’s be honest, content farms, churn out videos at a scale that just wasn’t possible before. So while the platform says it wants to cut down on low-quality content, the way it’s built doesn’t exactly discourage it either.

To be fair, this isn’t YouTube’s first rodeo. It has dealt with spam, clickbait, and every kind of “hack the system” trick in the book. And it has adapted over time. But AI changes the game. What used to be a manageable problem now shows up multiplied. And that’s really where those feel-good promises start to lose their shine. The intention is there, no doubt. But right now, it feels more like a careful statement than a clear plan. Because spotting the problem is the easy part. The real test is whether the platform can actually keep it under control before your feed turns into a fine line of “just good enough” content.

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Studio Display XDR review: An almost pixel perfect monitor for creative pros

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Apple’s new Studio Display XDR is nearly everything I’m looking for in a display, but there are still compromises, particularly in a cross-platform environment.

Computer monitor on a desk displaying a colorful hexagon gradient wallpaper, with orange, purple, and blue hues, set against a brick wall and shelves with small decorations in the background
Studio Display XDR review: The Apple monitor for creative pros

The Studio Display XDR is now Apple’s high-end monitor, sitting above the standard Studio Display in Apple’s refreshed 2026 lineup. It’s a 27-inch, 5K, aluminum and glass beauty that’s well-suited for almost any Mac.
For the last four years, I’ve been using Apple’s original Studio Display. This upgrade was just what I’d been looking for.
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The Deceptively Tricky Art of Designing a Steering Wheel

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Cars didn’t always have steering wheels. The very first car—the 1885 Benz Patent-Motorwagen, invented by Karl Benz—used a tiller system: a horizontal bar with a handle mounted to a vertical bar. The lever-like handle was similar in many respects to a boat’s rudder. Amazingly, it would be another nine years before French engineer Alfred Vacheron saw sense and fitted the first known steering wheel to his 4-horsepower Panhard for the Paris-Rouen race. Just four years later, in 1898, Panhard made the infinitely preferable and safer steering wheel standard on all its cars. And we’ve been using them ever since.

Hans-Peter Wunderlich is Mercedes’ creative director of interior design. He has been designing steering wheels for 35 years. “I started in 1991 on my first,” he tells me. “A steering wheel is really the most challenging and difficult element to sculpture, to design, to develop in the car.” It is so difficult that Wunderlich has used the wheel as a test on potential recruits.

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“When we hire a designer, I have given them the task, after I see a nice portfolio, to draw me a steering wheel,” he says. “The steering wheel is, for me, the proof. Should I hire them or not? If a designer is able to create a perfect steering wheel, even just as a scribble, then they will be a good designer for the total interior of a car.”

Mercedes steering wheels

CAD design renders of Mercedes and Maybach designs before prototyping.

Courtesy of Mercedes

It was this challenge, in part, that attracted Ive and his team. “Our starting point was trying to understand the essential nature of the problem to be solved, and that normally means dismissing received wisdom,” Ive tells me. “A car is the aggregation of multiple products, and, in many ways, we’re designing furniture. We’re designing complex and sophisticated input methods. One of the challenges was to try to create cohesion. You don’t get something to be cohesive by a set of rules. That was a wonderful new challenge, and one wrestled with over a number of years.”

For both Ive and Wunderlich, science accompanies the art of design. They talk of the intricacies of the ergonomics, the logic of the switches, factoring in an “exploding element in the center” (the airbag), which is getting more and more complicated, says Wunderlich. “Even the rim is an ergonomic science in itself,” he adds, saying that his team works hand in glove with Mercedes’ in-house ergonomics department on these stages. “It’s almost 50-50. We get requirements data from engineering and ergonomics.”

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Spinning Out

Look closely at your steering wheel rim; in cross-section, it won’t be round. Cut it into segments, and each will likely have a different profile, aiming to optimize grip wherever your hands grasp the wheel. Even the padding has to be just right. “It mustn’t be like bone but also not too fat. You need a nice balance,” Wunderlich says. “[It must say] this car is solid, it’s quality, it’s strong, it’s powerful, but it’s not crude.”

“If you hold the wheel on the three and nine o’clock positions, you can carve in with your fingers on the rear of the rim—so you have the hump, the scallop of the rim,” Wunderlich says. “And then we carve into a valley where your fingers could rest. That means your hands can close. You have the feeling you’re holding the car. This is so challenging, because in that area you have such a technical structure to maintain—complex electronics and heating elements. We torture the engineers to keep that area so small so we can sculpt it out.”

Ive tortured Raffaele De Simone, Ferrari’s chief engineer and head development driver. De Simone is sometimes described at the company as “Customer No. 1” because, apparently, no Ferrari road car leaves the factory until he is satisfied with its performance.

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