• Brave1 lets Ukrainian units order drones built to exact specifications
• Military units have spent nearly one billion dollars through Brave1 Market
• Buyers can adjust seventeen different drone specifications before placing an order

A new procurement system launched by Ukraine’s Brave1 defense cluster now allows Ukrainian military units to commission drones built to their own specifications.

The system operates through the existing Brave1 Market platform, where military units can request drones tailored to particular operational requirements.

• China is moving its AI data centers into poor rural provinces
• Guizhou offers cooler weather, cheap land, and abundant renewable power
• New data centers must draw 80% of power from renewables

China is significantly expanding its data center capacity as artificial intelligence processing drives an unprecedented demand for computing power nationwide.

Much of this new infrastructure is being built away from the crowded eastern seaboard and placed in rural western provinces.

In this week’s Sunday Reboot, the AirPods Pro with cameras are probably the best alternative to smart glasses that Apple could’ve come up with.

Sunday Reboot is a weekly column covering some of the lighter stories within the Apple reality distortion field from the past seven days. All to get the next week underway with a good first step.

Confirmed and capable: AirPods Pro with cameras

There have been rumors about a new breed of AirPods Pro in development at Apple for quite some time. Personal audio devices that somehow dealt with visual elements, not just sound.

The rumors said that Apple was coming up with AirPods Pro with built-in cameras to capture images of the local environment. All to feed data into your iPhone‘s Visual Intelligence so you can ask queries about your local environment.

This isn’t entirely out of pocket for Apple, really. We have got heart rate tracking in AirPods Pro 3, as well as some models of Beats earbuds too.

Adding extra sensors in earbuds wasn’t hard to believe. That they would be sophisticated enough to read the outside world and to transfer that data to your iPhone, was a tiny bit of a stretch.

While we knew through the rumor mill that they were being worked on in some capacity, we didn’t know just how far along the idea had progressed.

Cue a leak from Apple itself seemingly confirming they exist. A video in the macOS Tahoe 26.7 release candidate gave a demonstration of what the earwear could feasibly do.

Admittedly, the ones shown looked like normal AirPods Pro, and could easily be used as placeholders in the video without revealing the real hardware. However, based on the angle, it could mean the sensor is positioned in the tip where the microphone is usually placed.

The video itself showed a person looking at a book, getting Siri to recognize the cover, and then to save it for later. We can probably expect a lot more potential capability from it, but it’s not a bad explanation that they have some form of imaging sensor onboard.

In the days that followed, more capabilities were raised, again from macOS. It was able to capture left and right-paired images, namely images from each AirPods Pro camera, and combine them into images seen by Visual Intelligence.

The stereoscopic view could give Visual Intelligence data about distance, which may give Apple’s AI more of an idea of where things are in the world, relatively speaking.

They would also be able to compensate for head movements and have passive and active modes. Impressively, the AirPods may even be able to process some of the data onboard instead of letting the iPhone handle it.

Capable, but not too privacy-breaking

There’s the obvious issue of privacy, as we have seen with practically all other smart glasses that have ever been created. Cameras on an item that seemingly hides them could lead to weird perverted behavior.

I’m not going to sugarcoat it, but the AirPods Pro with cameras will get the same sort of outrage over everyone’s sacred right to privacy. To be fair, it’s a justifiable outcry, but one that probably won’t be as much of a problem for Apple.

For a start, the paired images will just be up to 1 megapixel in size, versus 12MP photos and 3D video on the Meta Ray-Ban glasses.

Someone actually wearing Meta Ray-Bans – Image Credit: Meta

That’s an absolutely tiny resolution in this day and age. With a lack of a proper zoom function, that makes it extremely limited for spying purposes.

There’s also Apple itself, which does what it can to protect privacy as much as possible. It would be a really bad look for Apple to ruin the years of work on one badly thought-out product.

Realistically, you have little to fear of them being seriously used for privacy-breaking reasons.

These are incredibly capable earbuds. In my book, they’re probably going to be the most capable AI-centric product on Apple’s future wearables roster.

You just shouldn’t expect much of a privacy scandal from them.

Glasses-free smart glasses

Apple’s current wearables landscape is pretty much not futuristic at all. We have the Dick Tracy-style Apple Watch, we have the ability to talk to Siri with AirPods, and then we have the bulky headset that is the Apple Vision Pro.

When it comes to the future, we have a few options. There’s the weird pendant or brooch, Apple Glass, and now AirPods Pro with cameras.

Apple Glass was meant to be the product that would combat Meta’s smart glasses and usher in the personal AI revolution. To me, a committed wearer of spectacles, the AirPods Pro are the safer bet.

For a start, AirPods Pro with cameras are the same conceptually as smart glasses, except without the glasses bit. If you think about the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses, they are basically a camera on each side, a microphone, and speakers for the wearer’s ears.

That seems a lot like AirPods Pro with cameras, conceptually. Of course, smart glasses with display elements are a different breed, but for the cheaper consumer-focused smart glasses, there is more of a direct comparison.

As a glasses wearer, that means I could have all of the benefits of wearing smart glasses with the future AirPods, but without needing to replace my frames.

It sounds like I’m being picky, but there are a few good reasons for it.

The thick frames of the Ray-Ban Meta range hide the electronics. It’s just not thin enough for me. Image Credit: Meta

For a start, I really don’t like the thick frames of the current Ray-Ban Meta collection. I like my thin frames, and most smart glasses on the market simply cannot match that styling.

The second and more practical reason is that if I don’t want the “smart” element anymore, I don’t have to change glasses. I just have to take out the AirPods from my ears, put them in the charging case, and put them away.

If I had prescription lenses in smart glasses, and someone was really insisting that the spying cameras on them had to go away, I’d have a problem. Either I’d have to change to a second pair of “dumb” glasses, or go glasses-free and see the world in soft focus for a bit.

I like having my vision, and I don’t like having to carry a second pair of glasses around with me. Especially if the smart ones have thick frames that barely hide the tech.

If I suddenly had a pile of free cash and an itch to buy some smart glasses, the AirPods Pro’s camera evolution would be the route I would take.

Sure, they’re not smart glasses. But for my glasses-wearing face, they are the much better answer.

Last week’s Sunday Reboot talked about Apple’s lawsuit with Epic Games, requests for delays, and Epic Games complaining about EU fee changes.

The Dutch Data Protection Authority is fining Uber €825 million (around $966 million) — the second largest penalty issued so far under Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation, according to Reuters.

The Dutch regulator was investigating complaints that Uber had deactivated driver accounts through an automated process without sufficient warning or human oversight. In a statement, deputy chair Monique Verdier said that the company had “committed serious infringements.”

“A computer should not make decisions on its own that have [such] major consequences,” Verdier said.

Uber, however, argued that most driver suspensions are brief, that no permanent deactivations take place without human review, and that drivers have the ability to appeal. (Dutch regulators said some drivers were permanently deactivated without human review, which Uber disputes.) The company said it will appeal the decision.

“We strongly disagree with this decision ​and disproportionate fine,” an Uber spokesperson told Reuters. TechCrunch has reached out to the company for additional comment.

Brahim Ben Ali, a former Uber driver in France, told the Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant that after his account was deactivated in 2019, he collected testimonies from 170 other Uber drivers and eventually brought his complaint to the Netherlands, where Uber’s European headquarters are located.

Ben Ali was assisted in this effort by a Swiss nonprofit focused on digital rights called PersonalData.io, which helped the drivers collect data about how the deactivation decisions were made. Founder Paul-Olivier Dehaye said a driver “can complete a thousand journeys with satisfied passengers, but if just one person reports a very serious problem, the consequences can be enormous.”

Dehaye told me that this is the third fine that the Dutch regulator has levied on Uber, following a €290 million fine over its handling of drivers’ personal data and a €10 million fine stemming from related issues. He also said he plans to start a class action suit through which drivers can seek compensation.

In fact, Dehaye said these fines all originate with complaints made by the same group of drivers. And he’s starting a new company called StartClaims to support the litigation and other regulatory action — first against Uber and then eventually expanding to other gig economy cases, as well as related areas like adtech.

While discussing the case with Dehaye (who I’ve known casually since college), I brought up a blog post by Daring Fireball’s John Gruber, in which Gruber worried that this fine makes it “unlawful in the EU for Uber to monitor its drivers for pulling scams against customers, or just never picking riders up, leaving them stranded.”

Gruber also took issue with Verdier’s statement, arguing, “Saying that ‘a computer’ made these decisions is like saying that when a company suspends or fires a habitually late employee, that ‘the time clock’ made the decision. Managers at the company set the policies, and the devices measure employee compliance.”

Dehaye countered that Gruber “misses the point.”

“Uber is free to use humans to punish drivers who scam, but then [it] has to take responsibility for this decision making (like ‘being an employer’, not ‘being a marketplace’),” he said.

Sonos is launching a new pair of headphones soon, if online reports are accurate. When I heard these reports, I imagined they might be a true wireless considering rumours for that form factor have back years, but it looks like Sonos will announce a new pair of over-ears.

So what should we expect from them?

I think ‘expectations’ is an aspect that might dominate the conversation surrounding the Ace Ultra. I think hype and expectations ultimately led to the original Ace not having the impact Sonos imagined.

Even though I see the headphones on people’s heads every so often (in fact, I saw someone wearing a black version on the way to work); I suspect Sonos imagined that everyone who had a Sonos system in their home would sign up for a pair of Ace headphones as an extension of their system in the same the outdoor speakers such as the Move, Roam and Play have tried to do. But it didn’t quite work, and expectations played a part in that.

So how should we view these upcoming headphones? Has Sonos learnt from its previous mistakes and what areas should they have looked at in terms of improvements?

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A new model or a replacement?

What we don’t know is what they’re called. The Ace Ultra designation appears to be just a rumour for now, and it appears we’ll find out in some official capacity in September.

A question I’d ask is whether the headphones are an expansion of Sonos’ headphones range, or a replacement for the Sonos Ace? You may ask whether there’s any difference, and I would say there is.

An expansion would position Sonos as looking to build its headphone line-up, introducing tiers in a similar way that Sony, Bose and JBL have headphones that appeal to different people at different prices. A replacement implies a do-over, that essentially we’re back to square and these headphones would be the answer to criticisms people had of the first one.

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I’m inclined to think it’s the latter.

I think Sonos wants one pair of headphones in a bid for simplicity, a one-suits-all proposition at a premium price in a similar manner as Apple has done with its AirPods Max headphones. Has it ordered a massive redesign of the headphones? I suspect not, because there’s plenty that worked about the Ace (comfort especially) but there were areas where Sonos fell short of the competition. I’m thinking these headphones will be an ‘enhanced’ version, a 2.0 that shores up the issues people had.

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But we’ll find out for sure in September.

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Improvements needed for audio and noise-cancelling

The audio and noise-cancelling aspects of the Ace were fine – but in both regards the Ace were solid rather than exceptional. You can’t be in the same conversation as the likes of Sony and Bose by just being solid.

And in the two years since the launch of the Ace, rivals have only gotten stronger. Sony’s WH-1000XM6 are arguably the leader in the market. Bose has improved, and so has Sennheiser with the Momentum 5 Wireless, which sound fantastic. No one is resting on their laurels.

Considering Sonos’ inexperience in the headphones market, it will have had to accrue knowledge at a much faster rate than others, but it released its first pair of headphones, it got feedback from it, and like any feedback loop, that funnels resources into making the next pair better.

Here’s hoping that the noise-cancelling, which was already strong, has improved further; but more than that the sound this time around needs to have more character to it. Sonos aimed for a neutral presentation, which I found enjoyable but it had its limits. It was as detailed as other pairs, nor was it as dynamic as other pairs. When you don’t sound as good, or cancel noise as well as other pairs who are less expensive, that’s never a good sign. People will only pay a premium for quality. Sonos can’t be ‘as good’, in some ways it needs to be better.

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They need to lean into Sonos’ strengths better

For years, Wi-Fi has been seen as some sort of holy grail for headphones; though despite the potential that offers, Bluetooth still dominates.

We’ve seen AKG deliver a pair of very good headphones that have a Wi-Fi dongle. This site has published reviews of Wi-Fi headphones in the HED Unity (average) and the Wi-Fi models from Hifiman (better). When the original Ace launched, we all thought it would have some Wi-Fi connectivity, which it did through the excellent TV Audio Swap, but it also didn’t feel like it realised the potential of Wi-Fi because it was only available in this form.

By the sounds of it, the new pair could connect directly to a Wi-Fi network, like any other Sonos product, and open up the possibility of lossless audio. Of course, there’s a limitation in that you wouldn’t be able to benefit from this in outside environments – partly why Wi-Fi headphones don’t seem to have taken off – and connecting directly to the Wi-Fi would lock the headphones into the home network anyway.

But if Sonos can sort out the presentation of audio (and throw in USB-C audio while they’re at it too), and open up the bit-rate, then that’s at least something that’s different from most of the competition. That differentiation is arguably what Sonos needs the most.

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I’ve reviewed a lot of gaming chairs, sat my butt on plenty of seats promising the best of the best comfort, or ergonomic longevity (I’m convinced noblechairs wants my posture to last me until I’m 126 years old), and I’ve got to say, aside from possibly the AndaSeat Novis, this might be the most comfortable chair I’ve ever sat in.

At least, part of it is. The seat base. The fabric, the material, lovely; the base width, great. The backrest? Right up my street. But the Soma is a bit of an odd one when it comes to everything else it’s trying to do. And an even bigger issue is its launch day price tag.

Most people experience constipation at some point in their lives. For astronauts, it’s a common occurrence. The problem is that no one knew exactly why. Now, science seems to have figured out the No. 1 reason why astronauts have problems going No. 2 in space.

Research dating back nearly three decades has explored the effects of low- or zero-gravity environments on human digestion. A new study published in Nature by researchers at the University of Copenhagen working in tandem with NASA suggests that because astronauts spend so much time in microgravity, this state of near weightlessness causes food to move more slowly through the gut.

To carry out the study, researchers took samples from 52 astronauts who had spent months aboard the International Space Station. They found that time in space significantly affected their gut microbiomes, likely leading to constipation and other gastrointestinal problems. 

Here’s how it works. The gut microbiome generally breaks down carbohydrates and fiber first as its main energy source. Without gravity, however, food moves much more slowly through an astronaut’s digestive tract. This delay causes gut microbes to finish all available carbohydrates early and switch to fermenting protein for energy instead. This protein fermentation releases specific compounds into the bloodstream — that’s what allowed researchers to prove that a lack of gut-accessible carbs leads to slower bowel movements.

“We see changes in astronauts’ blood samples that indicate that the gut bacteria begin to ferment protein to a greater extent than usual within weeks after the astronauts arrive in space, and this change continues until they are back on Earth,” Giorgia La Barbera, one of the authors of the study and an associate professor in the Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports at the University of Copenhagen, said in a statement.

A solution to the digestion traffic jam

While astronauts may be reaching for the stars, their digestive systems are firmly grounded in the laws of gravity.

Researchers say that a potential solution for off-planet travel is a diet richer in “slow-fermented carbohydrates.” These carbs take longer for the body to process, giving astronauts’ gut biomes something to chew on, figuratively and literally, as the material moves through the intestines. 

”Eating whole foods, rich in dietary fiber, such as vegetables, lentils and nuts, would be important to keep the gut motility up to speed and to provide additional substrates for the bacteria during space missions,” Henrik Roager, study co-author and associate professor at the University of Copenhagen, said in an email. “This way, the gut microbes would be kept busy fermenting dietary fiber instead of protein.”

Roager also says that “supplementation with prebiotics” and other treatments may also help decrease gut transit time, thereby helping astronauts avoid constipation. 

If the prescription sounds familiar, that’s because it’s also the recommended course of action for avoiding constipation here on Earth. Doctors regularly tell patients to drink more water and eat more fiber. Diets low in fiber cause stool to move more slowly in one’s digestive tract, even with gravity assistance. 

Since these results are linked to both terrestrial and space life, the study’s findings may be helpful in other areas as well, such as with bedridden patients suffering from chronic disease who also experience constipation, Lars Ove Dragsted, another author of the study, said in a statement.

Houston, we have a bowel movement

Issues like constipation may seem mild in the grand scheme of things, but they’re among the many that NASA and other space agencies need to solve before sending astronauts on much longer voyages — like when humans eventually go to Mars. 

The problem is twofold. It’s no secret that constipation is a major pain in the butt. Irregularity leads to bloating, pain, cramping, and in some cases, hemorrhoids and other short-term symptoms, which astronauts already deal with on the ISS during their months-long stays.

But there are long-term consequences to worry about as well. Potential long-term issues include heart disease, chronic kidney disease and other health effects like an increased risk of colorectal cancer and possibly also inflammatory bowel disease. A mission to Mars without a solution to constipation would put astronauts at risk of developing these additional complications.

“Whether constipation is also linked to mental health is not clear, but some of the molecules that we found to be increased among astronauts during space missions have been linked to increased anxiety and stress in animal models, so that is another potential concern,” Roager said.

NASA seems amenable to making dietary changes. “We are always looking at diet and health, working to use nutrition as a means to mitigate negative effects of spaceflight on crew health and performance,” said Scott M. Smith, manager for nutritional biochemistry at NASA. “The findings in this recent paper are intriguing, and we will continue to look at this and make recommendations where appropriate.”

It’s all a reminder that gravity keeps our bodies moving in the right direction.

One connects to your phone, and the other one doesn’t.

Android Auto needs your phone

dennizn/Shutterstock

Android Automotive lives in the car

Torkgaur/Shutterstock

Anyone waiting for a new iMac may only have a few more months to go. According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple is preparing an updated model that should be available to buy before the end of 2026.

The refresh is expected to bring Apple’s upcoming M6 chip alongside some new color options. Beyond that, though, buyers shouldn’t expect Apple to reinvent its all-in-one desktop this year. Gurman says the upcoming model won’t change much else, suggesting Apple will stick with the familiar 24-inch design rather than introducing a larger screen, OLED panel, or substantial chassis redesign.

The iMac could be a natural fit for Apple’s unusual M6

The processor upgrade is easily the most interesting part of the upcoming refresh. Apple is reportedly taking a very unusual approach with the M6 generation. Previous reports suggest the company will only release a baseline version of the chip, skipping M6 Pro, Max, and Ultra variants entirely before moving to a broader M7 lineup in 2027.

Apple’s 24-inch all-in-one has never needed Pro or Max-class silicon, making it a natural fit for the baseline M6. The new chip is expected to bring higher memory bandwidth, a more powerful Neural Engine, and a GPU with up to 12 cores. In other words, the new iMac could still receive a meaningful performance upgrade even if almost everything around the chip stays familiar.

The upgrades people really want are still years away

Anyone waiting for a bigger display or OLED panel probably shouldn’t expect either feature this year. Apple is still reportedly experimenting with larger and more powerful iMac models, while separate reports suggest Samsung Display and LG Display are developing 24-inch OLED panels for a future version. Current timelines point toward an OLED iMac arriving around 2029.

The new iMac may not arrive alongside Apple’s upcoming iPhone 18 Pro lineup either. The M4 iMac followed a separate launch schedule in 2024, with Apple announcing it on October 28 and releasing it on November 8, more than a month after the iPhone 16 event. If Apple follows a similar pattern this year, the M6 iMac could instead make its debut sometime in October or November.

Waiting may make even more sense given what happened to the current model in June. Apple raised the starting price of the M4 iMac from $1,299 to $1,499, making it considerably more expensive than it was at the start of the year. Unless Apple starts offering substantial discounts on that machine, anyone who doesn’t need a new desktop immediately may be better off waiting to see what the M6 model brings.

One of my neighbours has a Ring doorbell. I know this, not because they’ve told me, or because I’ve walked past and seen it installed, but because they have Quick Replies turned on. 

Quick Replies are an automated feature that lets the doorbell play a short message if the doorbell is not answered within a set amount of time. 

The default message is spoken in a whiny American voice: “We can’t answer the door right now, but if you’d like to leave a message, you can do it now.”

It’s a phrase that’s permanently etched into my brain, as my neighbour’s doorbell spurts that out multiple times a day, at maximum volume.