Tim Cook hosted his final quarterly earnings call as Apple's CEO Thursday evening, and it ended on a positive note: Apple beat Wall Street analysts' revenue estimates. But it appears to have done so via a one-time windfall: an estimated $2.19 billion in tariff refunds."Company gross margin was 50.1 percent, including a favorable impact of approximately 2 percentage points from tariff refunds," the company announced in a press release. "Diluted earnings per share was $2.02, up 29 percent year over year, and included a favorable impact of $0.11 from tariff refunds."The $2.19 billion figure is an estimate based on the company's reported total revenue of $109.4 billion. SEE ALSO: Apple could still release new Apple Home Pods, a folding iPhone, and OLED MacBooks this year Apple's stock dropped following its revenue report. The one-time tariff rebate artificially inflated the company's gross margin. Without it, the company failed to beat analysts' expectations, per CNBC.President Trump aggressively pursued global tariffs after he returned to the White House, resulting in a shock to the global economic system and a wave of price increases on consumer tech products. However, in February, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Trump administration lacked the authority to unilaterally impose tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977 (IEEPA), striking down Trump's signature economic policy.As a result, many companies — like Apple — became eligible for refunds for the tariff fees levied against them.Apple was one target of the Trump administration's tariffs, and that's not speculation. The president expressed a desire for the iPhone to be manufactured domestically (which most experts agreed was not technically possible); at one point, Trump threatened Apple specifically with 25 percent tariffs in a Truth Social post. Apple wasn't the only company that faced tariff costs in the billions. But in the end, the company recouped billions.Previously, Apple disclosed that it paid more than $3.3 billion in tariff fees. During the Q2 2026 earnings call, Cook said any tariff refunds would be reinvested in the U.S.

Major telehealth giant Hims & Hers is the latest target of a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) crackdown on consumer data privacy, following a years-long investigation into whether or not the company was selling sensitive customer health data. In a new filing issued July 29 by the agency, joined by the states of Utah and California, the federal watchdog has formally accused the direct-to-consumer health company of sharing patient information with advertisers and tech giants like Meta and Snap. The FTC claims Hims & Hers provided the companies with lists of customer names, as well as information on their site behavior, despite pledging to protect customer data privacy. Such disclosures violate FTC Act and the Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act, the FTC argues. SEE ALSO: Using ChatGPT Health? Read this first. The lawsuit also alleges the platform "deceives users about its billing and cancellation practices," including making it difficult to cancel subscriptions and mischaracterizing the process for prescription charges for new patients. Specifically, the FTC claims the company misleads users into believing they will not be charged for prescriptions before consulting with a physician. In practice, the lawsuit claims, many customers are asked to provide billing information and charged for prescription plans shortly after filling out intake forms, and without first reviewing the medications. In 2024, the FTC instituted new "Click to Cancel" rules mandating sellers utilize simple cancellation processes that allow customers to terminate charges in just one click. Many companies, primarily telecom giants, pushed back on Click to Cancel mandates, citing concerns that the agency was overextending its powers. The FTC was forced to vacate the ruling by a U.S. Appeals Court last year. Hims & Hers has faced scrutiny from lawmakers and major pharmaceutical companies. The platform faced threats of a lawsuit following what some alleged were misleading claims made in a 2025 Super Bowl ad criticizing the profit motivations of GLP-1 manufacturers. It has also been accused of running a gray market for weight loss medications using non-FDA approved manufacturing processes. The company itself has staked billions in the sale of weight loss products marketed as affordable, direct-to-consumer alternatives to mainstream GLP-1 medications.In a press release responding to the lawsuit, Hims & Hers argued the FTC was disregarding evidence unearthed during its investigation and ignoring existing state laws and industry standards to specifically target the San Francisco-based company. "This is not enforcement grounded in consumer protection; it is an effort to generate headlines at our expense," the company wrote.

TL;DR: flowkey teaches piano through interactive lessons, instant feedback, and more than 1,000 songs. Get five years of access for $79.99 (reg. $899). Opens in a new window Credit: Flowkey flowkey Piano Learning App: Classic Plan (5-Year Subscription) $79.99 $899 Save $819.01   Get Deal Learning piano used to mean weekly lessons, a stack of intimidating sheet music, and finding time in your schedule to make both happen. Now all you need is a keyboard, a phone or laptop, and a little consistency. Oh, and an app. flowkey teaches piano through interactive lessons and real songs, and it’s $79.99 (reg. $899) for five years.Rather than throwing you into music theory from day one, which can feel overwhelming for beginners, flowkey focuses on playing. The app listens as you perform and provides instant feedback, so you know when you’ve hit the right notes — and when you haven’t. Features like Wait Mode, which won’t move on until you play the correct note, along with slow-motion playback and looping, make it easier to work through tricky passages without feeling rushed. Mashable Deals Be the first to know! Get editor selected deals texted right to your phone! Get editor selected deals texted right to your phone! Loading... Sign Me Up By signing up, you agree to receive recurring automated SMS marketing messages from Mashable Deals at the number provided. Msg and data rates may apply. Up to 2 messages/day. Reply STOP to opt out, HELP for help. Consent is not a condition of purchase. See our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use. Thanks for signing up! Once you’ve got the basics down, there’s plenty to keep you busy. The Classic plan includes more than 1,000 classical and public-domain pieces, with arrangements for beginner, intermediate, advanced, and pro players. You’ll find works by Beethoven, Mozart, Chopin, Bach, Debussy, Brahms, Liszt, and other classical composers, while lessons cover fundamentals like reading sheet music, playing with both hands, chords, rhythm, and technique.Because your subscription works across computers, tablets, and phones, it’s easy to fit in practice whenever you find a few minutes to spare. Whether you’re learning your first scales, dusting off piano skills from childhood, or finally tackling a piece you’ve always wanted to play, flowkey offers a structured way to keep making progress without having to schedule weekly lessons.Formerly $899, you can grab a 5-year subscription to flowkey for just $79.99.StackSocial prices subject to change.

Google's next big event, Made By Google, is just a few weeks away. But, if you can't wait to see what the tech giant has in store, Google has just dropped a little teaser regarding the new Pixel 11 Pro. As part of its Ask More of Your Phone campaign, Google's Pixel 11 Pro sneak peek lists a slew of Google's suite of online products like Gmail, Google Maps, Google Search, and Gemini. The narrator than hints that the viewer should perhaps go with a Google Pixel phone as well.The teaser then displays Google's upcoming Pixel 11 Pro device with a strong focus on the rear of the device, specifically a glowing multi-colored circle next to the camera lenses.This appears to be Google's introduction of the rumored Pixel Glow indicator.It's not yet entirely clear what the glow indicator does. It appears to be a small reactive LED display located within the Pixel camera bar.Reports have suggested that the glow indicator could react with different colors in order to provide visual notifications to the user. It's possible that the colored lights react differently to certain contacts or specific apps.We'll find out more about the Pixel 11 lineup of Google smartphones, including the Pixel 11 Pro and the glow indicator, on August 12 during the Made By Google event.

If you have spent the past two weeks refreshing theater listings for an IMAX 70mm ticket to The Odyssey, your persistence may finally pay off.IMAX has extended Christopher Nolan's blockbuster in the coveted format through Sept. 16, nearly a month beyond its previous Aug. 19 end date. New screenings appeared on IMAX's website Thursday July 30, although the additional dates did not exactly eliminate the competition. The AMC app placed moviegoers in a digital queue as tickets were released. This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. The problem is partly one of supply. Only 25 theaters in the United States and 41 worldwide can project the physical IMAX 70mm reels used for the movie. Other theaters offer digital IMAX screenings, but those versions may be cropped depending on the auditorium rather than displaying the full, towering image captured by the cameras.That distinction matters more for The Odyssey than it does for most blockbusters. Nolan's retelling of Homer's epic — starring Matt Damon, Tom Holland, and Anne Hathaway — is the first feature film shot entirely using IMAX film cameras. Previous movies typically used the bulky, extremely loud cameras for action sequences before returning to another format for dialogue-heavy scenes. As a result, their aspect ratios could change throughout the movie. The Odyssey fills the screen from top to bottom for its entire 173-minute runtime. This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. Moviegoers have treated the screenings accordingly. The first tickets went on sale a full year before the movie's July 17 release, and some theaters sold out weeks of showings in advance. Locations eventually added screenings at hours generally reserved for airport departures, including 2 a.m. and 6 a.m., to squeeze more viewers into the limited number of auditoriums. This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. All of that demand is turning the format into a large piece of the movie's success. By July 26, IMAX screenings had generated more than $140 million worldwide in ticket sales, accounting for over 20 percent of the movie’s then-$652 million global total. That's especially notable given that IMAX locations represent less than 1 percent of its screens. By July 30, The Odyssey had passed $700 million globally after just 12 days in theaters, already becoming the fourth highest-grossing movie of the year. Its second-week ticket sales declined only 27 percent from its domestic opening weekend. Major studio releases more commonly fall between 50 and 70 percent, making the unusually small drop another indication that people are continuing to book tickets and possibly returning for repeat viewings.Nolan has been here before. IMAX extended the 70mm run of Oppenheimer twice in 2023, and the movie later returned to the format as its awards campaign gathered momentum. Given the reviews and box-office performance of The Odyssey, it could eventually follow a similar path.For now, fans have one more month to catch the movie in Nolan's preferred format, though finding an available seat may remain an odyssey of its own.

Did you know that the next time you drive across town, a camera you barely notice could record where your car goes?Known as Flock cameras, the small black devices sit beside roads, near intersections, and at the entrances to neighborhoods and parking lots, collecting information about every vehicle that passes.Flock Safety says its network now includes more than 120,000 cameras across 49 states and operates in more than 6,000 communities. Police departments, businesses, schools, and homeowners associations use the cameras, which can turn a passing car into a searchable record containing its license plate, location, color, model, and even details such as bumper stickers or dents. This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. The company's rise has been fast. Founded in Atlanta in 2017 by Garrett Langley, Matt Feury, and Paige Todd, the company raised $275 million last year at a $7.5 billion valuation. Although it is best known for license plate readers, Flock also sells broader surveillance systems and is developing first-responder drones following its acquisition of Aerodome.As that network has grown, so has the backlash. Cities are canceling contracts, police officers have been accused of using the system for personal reasons, and protesters have painted, burned, and cut down cameras across the country — and encouraged others to do the same. This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. So, what exactly are Flock cameras, and why do some people want them gone?How do Flock cameras work?Flock cameras are automated license plate readers, commonly known as ALPRs. Unlike red-light or speed cameras, they are generally not waiting for a driver to commit a specific traffic violation, but rather photograph passing vehicles and convert what they see into data that can be searched later.Each record can include a car’s license plate, location, make, model, color, body type, and the time it passed the camera. Flock’s software can also recognize individual features of the car, creating what amounts to a “vehicle fingerprint.”Police officers can search for a particular plate or enter a broader description, such as a blue Toyota with a bumper sticker. They can also add vehicles connected to stolen-car reports, missing people, or criminal investigations to a “hotlist.” If a camera detects a possible match, the system sends an alert with the vehicle's location. A police department can also allow other participating departments to search its camera data. In some states, that can mean searching across much of the country.Flock says its cameras take individual images rather than continuously tracking a vehicle, and its default policy is to delete license plate data after 30 days — although the actual retention period can vary based on local laws and an agency’s agreement. SEE ALSO: How 3 very different people use AI chatbots Why do police use Flock cameras?Some police departments say the technology can produce investigative leads and solve crimes. If a child is reported missing, for example, officers can enter the plate of the vehicle involved and receive an alert when it passes a camera. The same process can help police locate stolen cars, follow fleeing suspects, or determine where a vehicle traveled before or after a crime.On July 30, North Carolina authorities said Flock cameras helped track a vehicle connected to a child abduction case. Police arrested a woman in Charlotte on July 29, and the child was taken into protective custody.That same week, police in Alabama credited a Flock camera with helping establish the direction traveled by two missing senior citizens. Officers combined that information with a community tip and assistance from OnStar to locate the couple safely.Flock says its network has supported more than 1 million investigations and helped locate more than 10,000 missing people in 2025.So why are Flock cameras controversial? This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. The concern starts with the amount of information being collected about people who are not suspected of committing a crime. When a single camera records one moment on a public road, a network of thousands can capture the same vehicle at different times and locations. Some industry critics argue that ALPR data can reveal when drivers visit sensitive places, including health centers, protests, and places of worship. The organization has also argued that police should obtain a warrant before searching large ALPR databases, although the Supreme Court has not decided whether historical ALPR searches require one. Flock adamantly disputes the description of its system as mass surveillance. Data sharing has also pulled Flock into the immigration enforcement debate. In May 2025, 404 Media reviewed search logs showing more than 4,000 Flock lookups that local and state police conducted at the request of federal officials, as an informal favor, or for potentially immigration-related purposes. A Feb. 2026 investigation by The 74 also found that outside police departments searched cameras owned by a Texas school district, including queries that officials said were performed to assist the Department of Homeland Security. Flock also responded to that claim, stating that it has no contract with ICE and that the agency cannot directly access its cameras or data. Then there is the possibility of personal misuse. The Institute for Justice has collected 28 reported cases in which officers allegedly used license plate readers to follow partners, former partners, colleagues, or other romantic interests.On July 29, the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation arrested Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officer Seth Elliot and charged him with illegally accessing a government computer. Investigators allege that Elliot used Flock and a state criminal-justice database to run an unauthorized search of a North Carolina license plate for a non-law-enforcement purpose. The cameras can also make mistakes. This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. In June 2026, The Drive editor Joel Feder was test-driving a Range Rover with a New Jersey manufacturer plate when four Minnesota police cars surrounded him and his wife in a parking lot. Police had been receiving Flock alerts because a different plate with a similar code had been reported lost in California.Flock acknowledges in its official policy that license plate translations can occasionally be incomplete or inaccurate. CEO Garrett Langley later said departments need a clearer process for challenging and correcting inaccurate hotlist entries. This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. Disagreement has also spilled into neighborhoods. More than 80 municipalities have ended or declined to renew Flock agreements, while states including Washington have adopted new restrictions on how license plate data can be collected, searched, and shared. Residents of Marinette, Wisconsin, are pressing their city to do the same — a coalition is now circulating a petition calling for its Flock contract to be canceled outright.Some communities are also dealing with people damaging the cameras themselves. There have been 33 incidents across 23 states in which people damaged or destroyed Flock cameras in apparent protest against surveillance. Cameras have been covered in paint, cut down, burned, obstructed, and struck with vehicles. This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. Online, some X users are tracking where Flock cameras appear, which models are being installed, and what direction they face. One user finds the company to be "laying the infrastructure for a mass surveillance network in America." This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. For communities considering Flock cameras, the decision now involves weighing their use in investigations against concerns about privacy, access, and oversight.

AI companies have spent years pulling training material from the internet. Now, as more of the web fills with AI-generated writing, some are looking for text in a place largely untouched by chatbots: used-book shelves. This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. Until July 28, ISBNdb, a company that operates an online book database, advertised its ability to source as many as 1 million physical books per order for AI developers. The since-deleted page offered books “tailored to your LLM training needs,” according to 404 Media, including older, specialized, rare, and out-of-print titles gathered from used bookstores and other catalogs.The company also promised confidentiality. Its marketing materials advertised a “strict NDA on every engagement” and said clients’ identities, strategies, and acquisition targets would not be disclosed. That secrecy attracted attention because converting physical books into AI training data can involve destructive scanning: cutting off their bindings, feeding the loose pages through industrial scanners, and discarding or recycling the originals.By July 28, ISBNdb had removed the sourcing page and its promise of an NDA. The company said the service had been part of “exploring demand” and that it had “chosen to pivot away from that direction," in a news update. Still, ISBNdb’s brief sales pitch offered a glimpse into a book-buying operation that one major AI developer has already carried out on a much larger scale. Federal court records show that Anthropic purchased and scanned millions of physical books, while used-book sellers in the United States and Europe have recently reported unusual bulk orders for obscure and out-of-print titles.The reports have opened several practical questions: Why have older books become so valuable to AI developers, how widespread is destructive scanning, and what happens to the originals once their pages become training data?Why AI companies are hunting for old booksOlder books offer something that has become surprisingly difficult to guarantee online: writing produced entirely by humans. This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. Large language models are trained on enormous quantities of text collected from websites, articles, books, code repositories, and other digital sources. Since generative AI tools became widely available, however, the internet has filled with machine-written summaries, product listings, social posts, and articles.That creates a problem for developers assembling new training datasets. If a model is trained too heavily on material produced by earlier models, it can begin reinforcing their mistakes while losing some of the variety and less common information contained in the original human data. Researchers call the process “model collapse.”A physical book printed before the current AI boom offers a relatively clean alternative. Unlike a webpage that may have been quietly generated or rewritten by a chatbot, an older book provides a more dependable record of human writing. Books are also edited, structured, and often contain specialized information that cannot easily be found elsewhere online.ISBNdb leaned heavily on those qualities in its sales pitch.“Books represent curated, peer-reviewed, domain-specific human knowledge, structured in a way no web crawl can replicate,” the company wrote. “Dense, edited, authoritative.”ISBNdb also emphasized that many potentially useful titles had never been fully digitized. Its marketing effectively presented the pre-chatbot bookshelf as a reserve of human-created training material that had yet to be mixed with AI output.That demand did not appear out of nowhere. It follows a much longer effort to turn printed books into searchable digital information.AI didn’t invent mass book scanning This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. People have been converting books into digital files for decades. Project Gutenberg began creating electronic versions of public-domain works in 1971 and now offers more than 75,000 free ebooks.The industrial-scale version arrived with Google Books in 2004. Working with libraries and publishers, Google scanned books and made their contents searchable online. By 2019, the company said it had assembled a collection of more than 40 million books in over 400 languages.Those scans also helped form HathiTrust, a digital repository created by research libraries in 2008 to preserve their collections and make as much of the material publicly accessible as copyright law allowed.The project prompted an earlier version of today’s copyright fight. Authors sued Google for scanning copyrighted books without permission, but a federal appeals court ruled in 2015 that the project qualified as fair use. The court found that creating a searchable index and displaying limited snippets gave the books a new purpose without providing readers with a replacement for the originals.Other digitization programs have emphasized preservation and access. The Internet Archive, for example, says it has digitized more than 25 million books since 2006 using nondestructive scanning designed to keep the bound volumes intact. This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. But converting a book into data does not necessarily make it publicly accessible. That distinction concerned Charlie D. Becker, a second-generation bookseller whose family runs Becker’s Books in Houston. His store recently received a single order for 70 obscure titles, including a 1995 guide to metropolitan Denver and manuals explaining how to use WordPerfect in 1991.After investigating, Becker suspected the buyer was using an algorithm to find underpriced books and relist them on Amazon, rather than acquiring them for AI training. Most of the titles were either unavailable on Amazon or listed there for as much as 20 times his store’s price, and the shipments appeared to be going to Fulfillment by Amazon preparation companies. This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. Still, Becker said an obscure book can be especially easy to lose because few people consider it worth preserving. Books that fail to sell through Amazon’s fulfillment system may eventually be liquidated, while some titles have little more than scattered listings across private databases to prove they existed.“Everyone assumes the internet preserved everything,” Becker wrote in a longer account of the orders. “It didn’t.”Anthropic has already scanned millions of booksThe buyers behind the recent bookstore orders remain unclear. The destructive scanning process, however, is no longer hypothetical. This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. In 2024, Anthropic hired Tom Turvey, a former Google executive who had worked on partnerships for the Google Books project. According to a June 2025 federal court ruling, Turvey was tasked with helping the company obtain “all the books in the world” for an internal research library.Turvey initially contacted publishers about licensing their books, but those conversations did not continue. His team then approached major book distributors and retailers about purchasing print copies in bulk.Anthropic ultimately spent millions of dollars acquiring millions of physical books, many of them used. Service providers removed the books from their bindings, cut their pages to the appropriate size, and fed them through scanners. The searchable PDF files went into Anthropic’s internal library. The paper originals were discarded.Engineers could then select groups of those books for inclusion in datasets used to train the large language models behind Claude. This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. That process became central to a legal battle over how Anthropic obtained its training material. In June 2025, U.S. District Judge William Alsup ruled that the company’s use of books to train Claude was transformative and qualified as fair use under the specific circumstances of the case.Alsup also found that converting legally purchased print books into digital files could qualify as fair use because Anthropic destroyed each physical copy and replaced it with one internal digital copy. In other words, the company did not keep both versions.The ruling did not give AI companies blanket permission to copy any book they could find. Alsup drew a sharp distinction between the print books Anthropic had legally purchased and the more than 7 million pirated books the company had downloaded and stored in a permanent digital library. Purchasing physical copies of some titles later did not erase the original piracy, he found.That distinction eventually became expensive. On July 20, a federal judge approved Anthropic’s $1.5 billion settlement with authors and publishers, resolving claims involving approximately 482,000 pirated books. Eligible rights holders are expected to receive about $3,000 per title, according to Reuters.For some authors, the payment does not resolve the larger disagreement. Charles Graeber, one of the case’s original plaintiffs, told NPR that he was proud authors had secured a substantial settlement, but said the case had cost him more than two years of time, travel, and professional opportunities.Fellow plaintiff Andrea Bartz questioned a system that allows companies to train commercial models on legally purchased books without negotiating separate licenses with the people who wrote them.“The algorithm is being used to essentially try to put us out of a job,” she told NPR.Anthropic has maintained that training AI models on books is protected by fair use. The court’s ruling nevertheless helps explain why physical books may be especially attractive to developers: A lawfully purchased copy gives the company a much stronger legal position than a file downloaded from a pirate library.Destroying the original may be a legally useful distinction. For many readers, it is also the most unsettling part of the story.Who is buying all these books?Anthropic’s operation is documented in court records. The source of the more recent bookstore orders is harder to pin down. This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. One bookseller specializing in uncommon and low-circulation titles told 404 Media that his weekly sales jumped from roughly 20 books during a good week to several hundred after the orders began arriving in April.The requested titles did not appear to share a subject, author, genre, or language. They did, however, all have International Standard Book Numbers, or ISBNs, leading the seller to suspect that they had been selected through a book database.The surge was financially helpful and allowed him to clear inventory that might otherwise have remained unsold. He was less enthusiastic about where the books might be going.“I don’t like the end-use, and I don’t like that uncommon books are being pulped,” he said.Booksellers in Europe have reported similarly broad requests. An antiquarian bookseller in the Netherlands received a list of approximately 3,000 English-language books organized by ISBN, ranging from an academic study of Irish folklore to a technical book about laser shock peening. There is no public confirmation that every unusual bulk order came from an AI company or that every book purchased through these orders was destroyed. There is also no evidence that developers are intentionally hunting for the final surviving copies of rare titles.The uncertainty itself is part of the concern. A company purchasing from a massive ISBN list could sweep up uncommon or out-of-print editions without first checking how many physical copies remain.Why the story struck a nerveOnce the reports reached social media, they were accompanied by an unsettling visual: a cutting blade moving inch by inch through a book’s spine. Comparisons to Fahrenheit 451 and the Library of Alexandria followed quickly. This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. Book destruction carries a particular weight because it has historically represented more than the loss of paper. The 1933 Nazi book burnings targeted works deemed “un-German,” including books by Jewish, pacifist, and left-wing writers. The act became an enduring symbol of censorship and the suppression of ideas, according to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.That symbolism is central to Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury’s 1953 novel about a society where books are outlawed and burned. Bradbury said his warning extended beyond government censorship to television reducing knowledge to digestible fragments and eroding interest in reading. Users have also invoked the Library of Alexandria, another enduring symbol of lost knowledge, although historians believe it declined gradually through political upheaval, reduced support, neglect, and repeated damage rather than disappearing in one catastrophic fire.Elon Musk joined the conversation on July 27. He wrote on X that he had asked the SpaceXAI team to preserve rare books in a library and scan them “the hard way,” without removing their spines. This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. As the discussion spread, users resurfaced a 2011 Cracked article about libraries, universities, and retailers destroying unwanted books years before the current AI boom.That history has informed a less alarmed response. Some users argued that the books shown in warehouses appeared to be ordinary, unwanted inventory rather than irreplaceable artifacts. If a book would otherwise be recycled without being read again, they asked, could scanning it first preserve something that would have been lost? This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. AI adds a complication. The text may survive, but inside a private company’s research library rather than a public archive. A forgotten manual or travel guide may have little resale value, yet still contain exactly what an AI developer wants: edited human writing created before the flood of chatbot output.That has led authors and publishers to argue that they should have more control over how their work is used, especially when it is helping companies build commercial products. AI developers, meanwhile, continue to argue that training a model is a transformative use of the material rather than a replacement for the original books.ISBNdb has removed its sourcing page, but the demand behind it remains. The web’s AI problem has sent developers back to the bookshelf. The next chapter will depend on whether they can extract what they need without leaving those shelves any emptier.

AI assistants have been pitched as a solution to overflowing inboxes, messy calendars, and trips that still need booking. But what happens when the task being outsourced is remembering your anniversary?The startup Orchid introduced its personal assistant with a now-viral cinematic video, posted to X July 28, following a woman whose partner has forgotten their anniversary. After she tells Orchid what happened, the assistant contacts him, books a dinner reservation, arranges a flower delivery, and keeps her updated on his progress."Introducing Orchid, the first assistant that actually gets you," the company wrote alongside the video. "It remembers what you forget. Down to the flower." This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. By the end, Orchid has transformed the mistake into what looks like a thoughtful anniversary celebration. Viewers were less charmed.The video received more than 20 million views within its first several days, but it also attracted hundreds of replies from people disturbed by the future it seemed to present. This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. The reservation and flower delivery were hardly the most controversial parts. AI tools already help users search for restaurants, make plans, and select gifts; apparently, romance is now just another workflow waiting to be automated.So, what does Orchid actually do?Orchid describes itself as a personal assistant that users communicate with through text messages. The company says it can manage email, schedule meetings, prepare users for calls, plan trips, source gifts, handle invoices, and remember personal details.Users can also ask Orchid to create recurring "habits," including delivering a morning news briefing, checking the weather, tracking meals, sending medication reminders, and automatically checking them into flights. This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. The product's primary audience appears to be professional. According to Orchid's FAQ, it was designed for "founders, investors, lawyers, agents, and agency owners" whose time would be better spent on "real work" than administrative tasks. The company's only published case study focuses on helping an executive prepare for client calls.But the video shows the assistant doing more than organizing someone's calendar. Orchid appears to connect to the users' iMessage accounts in order to communicate separately with both members of the couple, passing information between them and reporting one person's actions to the other.Orchid co-founder Nizar Abi Zaher told Gizmodo that "Orchid allows multiple people to communicate with the same agent and share context." For now, he said, that feature is "just group chats and also coordinating meetings." In the advertisement, however, the couple appears to be communicating with Orchid through two private conversations.Although Orchid's homepage promises "a hundred tools, one assistant," its FAQ says the product presently works with Gmail and Google Calendar. Integrations with Outlook, Slack, Notion, and Linear are still on the way.The company also says the AI acts "only within the limits that you set." Email responses remain in drafts until the user sends them, while calendar holds require approval. It also says it does not sell users' data or use it to train AI models.A shared assistant raises additional questions. The ad doesn't explain which information each partner has agreed to share, whether either person can access the other's messages, or how Orchid determines what it can report back. At least, not yet. Mashable has reached out to Orchid for a comment. Social media isn't sold on Orchid's visionThe possibility of using AI to shape a relationship is not especially new. In a 2025 survey of over 5,000 U.S. singles, 26 percent said they were using AI to enhance their dating lives, a 333 percent increase from the previous year. Nearly half of Gen Z singles had used it for tasks such as filtering matches, writing messages, and evaluating their dating habits.AI has also made its way into established relationships. A 2026 survey of 1,000 married U.S. adults found that 44 percent had used an AI tool for relationship advice, rising to nearly 65 percent among millennials. That growing use has not necessarily made people comfortable with AI's expanding role — about half of U.S. adults believe AI will worsen people's ability to form meaningful relationships.That discomfort may help explain why Orchid's ad went over so poorly online: "an AI for perpetuating your dead-end relationship that both parties secretly hate," one X user wrote. Another described Orchid as an "assistant for people who want to subcontract all the basic acts of care that make up a relationship." Some users described the concept as "lame," and an advertisement for "adult babies uninterested in the world they live in." One viewer offered a more concise thought: "Tech people need to stop." This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. Some people suspect the company understood exactly how the scenario would be received. "I think they knew what they were doing and hoped the ragebait worked," one user wrote. "Unfortunately it did."The company has said it intentionally built the advertisement around a story instead of creating a traditional product demonstration. "We wanted to build a story around a real situation," the Orchid team explained in a behind-the-scenes video. This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. At least one member of Orchid's team appeared to be taking notes. "If you have feedback on Orchid or ideas on what would make you actually use it, my DMs are open!" Lucas Valbuena, an intern at the startup, posted on X as the backlash spread. Meanwhile, other Orchid employees, AI companies, and engineers publicly rallied behind the company. This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. The ad also made its way to r/ExecutiveAssistants, where the person who started the discussion said their "heart kind of broke" after learning about Orchid. Along with worrying about the loss of human connection, they asked whether AI could eventually replace people in their field.The assistants who responded were mostly skeptical that Orchid could replace them. One predicted that products like it would become tools executive assistants use, leaving humans to catch hallucinations and supply the context AI misses. "Execs are way too lazy to work these out themselves," the commenter added. Another dismissed Orchid as "marketing fluff aimed at the people who could never really afford us," arguing that a reminder app cannot reproduce the emotional intelligence experienced assistants bring to the job.That skepticism helps explain why Orchid's ad bothered so many. An assistant can book a table and order flowers, but those gestures usually matter because a partner remembered the occasion and chose to make them in the first place. In the video, Orchid does that work while the human receives the credit.Orchid promises to remember an anniversary "down to the flower." The backlash suggests people still care who remembers it in the first place.

Investors are thinking twice about the stocks that have most benefited from the AI boom.The 20 most valuable chip stocks have lost $1.3 trillion over the past week after a big sell-off, according to analysis by CNBC.According to the outlet's data, Nvidia led in losses after investors liquidated $238 billion since the market closed on Friday. There's perhaps no bigger sign that investors are getting cold feet when it comes to artificial intelligence, as Nvidia has benefited more than any other company from the AI boom. Other companies in the memory space have also taken a big hit. SK Hynix lost $176 billion. Samsung is down $173 billion. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. lost $119 billion. Micron shed $113 billion. And AMD is down $110 billion.Tech companies have seen demand in memory and storage skyrocket as AI companies buy out supply to power their insatiable compute needs. Due to this, RAM and SSD storage supply has dwindled for everyday consumers. Consumer tech companies like Apple have been forced to institute price hikes on their products as a result.Despite this, however, investors are seemingly starting to question their AI-related investments.“This decline appears to be driven largely by sentiment rather than fundamentals,” Morningstar's Chief Equity Strategist Michael Field told CNBC. “Simply put, it’s loss of confidence,” he added. “We continue to see upside in many AI names, but these are growth stocks, and, as such, much of their value comes from cash flows expected far out into the future, which requires a lot of faith from investors.”Investor concern surrounding AI technology seems rooted in the fact that while these companies make billions of dollars, they're spending way more than they make. According to recent reporting from the Financial Times and Ed Zitron, AI giant OpenAI had a net loss of $38.5 billion last year. Just this week, OpenAI announced that it will spend $750 billion on infrastructure through 2030. Finally, Google recently experienced its first-ever negative cash flow quarter, thanks to spending on AI infrastructure.Of course, investor sentiment on AI can turn around quickly.

Critical coverage usually draws an angry email or two. For Ina and David Steiner, it led to live cockroaches, a fetal pig, and a bloody Halloween mask.On Monday, July 27, eBay and several former executives agreed to pay $55.7 million to resolve the couple's lawsuit over the 2019 corporate harassment campaign.The Steiners are the married founders of EcommerceBytes, a news site covering eBay and the broader ecommerce industry. They filed the civil case in 2021 after members of eBay's security team sent them threats, disturbing packages, and unwanted visitors in an effort to influence the site's reporting.Of the $55.7 million settlement, $48.7 million will go directly to the Steiners. EBay will pay $46.15 million, former CEO Devin Wenig will pay $2 million, former senior vice president Wendy Jones will pay $500,000, and former chief communications officer Steve Wymer will pay $50,000. The remaining $7 million will go to nonprofit organizations. EBay will contribute $6 million, while Wenig will donate another $1 million to a group protecting First Amendment rights in Ina Steiner's name.The agreement also allows the Steiners to keep talking publicly about the case. It contains no confidentiality provision, a priority for the couple because they wanted the settlement to discourage other corporations from trying to intimidate journalists over critical coverage.To understand why the Steiners considered that transparency so important, it helps to go back to how the campaign began.From critical coverage to criminal chargesWhen eBay's security team began targeting the Steiners in 2019, the couple had already spent two decades covering the company and other online marketplaces, such as Amazon and Etsy. Through EcommerceBytes, they reported on the issues affecting online sellers, including fees, policy changes, and the executives making those decisions.The internal lead-up to the campaign only became clear years later — the Steiners initially filed their civil lawsuit in July 2021 and amended it in March 2023. Ina Steiner later told Wired in July 2026 that the litigation gave the couple access to roughly 68,000 documents showing how eBay executives discussed the site behind the scenes.Those records traced a steady escalation. According to the amended complaint, Wenig sent Wymer a link to an April 10, 2019, EcommerceBytes article about his compensation. Wymer responded, "We are going to crush this lady."The following month, Jones allegedly asked eBay security chief Jim Baugh to address criticism of the company "off the radar" and told him she did not want to know the details. Then, on Aug. 1, 2019, EcommerceBytes published an article questioning Wenig's handling of eBay's litigation against Amazon. Within half an hour, Wenig allegedly told Wymer that if they were ever going to "take her down," referring to Ina Steiner, "now is the time." This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. Four days later, the harassment campaign allegedly began. According to eBay's admissions to federal prosecutors, members of its security team targeted the Steiners between Aug. 5 and Aug. 23, 2019. Anonymous accounts on what was then Twitter criticized EcommerceBytes and threatened to show up at the couple's home in Natick, Massachusetts.The campaign quickly reached their front door. In addition to the cockroaches, fetal pig, and bloody mask, the group allegedly sent live spiders, fly larvae, a funeral wreath, and a book about surviving the death of a spouse. Pornographic magazines addressed to David were allegedly delivered to a neighbor, while Craigslist ads allegedly invited strangers to the Steiners' home for sex, a block party, and an estate sale. One night, an emergency plumber even arrived unannounced.As the messages and deliveries continued, the language inside eBay remained aggressive. On Aug. 11, Wymer allegedly told Baugh, "I want to see ashes. As long as it takes. Whatever it takes." The group also took the harassment offline — several members of eBay's security team allegedly traveled from California to Massachusetts, followed the Steiners in a rented van, and attempted to install a GPS tracker on their car. This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. They also had an unusual plan for how the campaign would end. EBay security manager Brian Gilbert, a former police captain, was allegedly supposed to approach the Steiners and offer to stop the attacks his colleagues were secretly carrying out. EBay would then appear to have solved a problem its own employees had created.That plan unraveled when the Steiners realized they were being followed and contacted local police. Once members of the group learned they were under investigation, they allegedly made false statements, deleted digital evidence, and falsified records in an attempt to hide eBay's involvement. This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. Wenig, Wymer, and Jones were not criminally charged, and Wenig has maintained that he was requesting a communications response and knew nothing about the harassment. EBay's internal investigation found his messages inappropriate but said it uncovered no evidence that he authorized the security team's actions.Federal prosecutors eventually charged seven former eBay employees and contractors in 2020, all of whom eventually pleaded guilty. Four received prison sentences between July 2021 and October 2022, including Baugh, who was sentenced to 57 months in September 2022. Two others received one year of home confinement later that year. The final defendant, Gilbert, was sentenced in July 2024 to time served and one year of supervised release. This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. The consequences also reached eBay itself. In January 2024, federal prosecutors charged the company with six felony offenses, including stalking, witness tampering, and obstruction of justice. EBay admitted to a detailed account of the campaign, paid the maximum penalty of $3 million, and agreed to retain an independent compliance monitor for three years.The new settlement, though, resolves the Steiners' civil claims against eBay, Wenig, Jones, and Wymer. The couple also reached separate settlements with the other former employees named in the lawsuit, although those terms were not disclosed.EBay says it has changedIn a public statement published July 28, 2026, the company called what happened “wrong, reprehensible and should never have happened.” It condemned the employees who pleaded guilty and acknowledged the “unprofessional tone” of communications involving Wenig, Wymer, and Jones.eBay also pointed to the changes it has made since 2019, including bringing in new leaders and strengthening its policies, internal controls, and employee training.Wenig, meanwhile, continues to maintain that he knew nothing about the campaign. In a statement provided to Mashable, the former CEO said he was “saddened” by what the Steiners endured, “especially because it occurred during my time as CEO of eBay.” He said the harassment “was deliberately done in secret and without my knowledge.”After the packages, threats, surveillance, criminal cases, and six years of litigation, the campaign still failed at its original goal. EcommerceBytes remains online, and Ina Steiner got to publish the news of eBay's settlement herself. Talk about closure!

Agentic AI. Claws. Vibe coding. AGI.AI buzzwords come and go pretty quickly these days, and now there's a new AI trend to know: super apps.What is a super app?A super app puts a variety of AI tools into one agentic app. This means that AI chatbots (like ChatGPT) exist within the same space as AI agents, i.e. tools that execute multi-step requests with a degree of autonomy.The idea is simple: Soon, you'll no longer be bouncing between your AI chatbot, coding assistant, and agentic tools. "Super apps" will centralize all of these tools within a single app. A super app, if you will.Why are people talking about super apps?In an earning call this week, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said that a new super app will be central to Microsoft's upcoming AI strategy. "This quarter, we also introduced Autopilots, autonomous, long-running agents with full enterprise compliance, including an always-on personal agent powered by OpenClaw," Nadella said. "And this quarter we will bring these Copilot experiences together, including Code, in one 'super app' spanning both consumer and commercial experiences."Nadella said that the super app would be released by the end of summer 2026.Microsoft isn't leading the charge on super apps; they're just the latest company to hop on the trend. AI companies, including OpenAI and Anthropic, are also focusing efforts on super apps.As reported by Reuters, OpenAI has already launched its super app to employees. Meanwhile, competitor Anthropic is also combining its agentic Cowork tool with its Claude chatbot, the company recently announced.Super apps could also accomplish something else for AI companies. Because users can access apps like InstaCart, Uber, Zillow, and OpenTable directly within ChatGPT, these agentic super apps could absorb as much of your online activity as possible into a single company's app.Elon Musk reportedly wants to turn X into an everything app as well, and with super apps, his biggest AI rivals appear to be moving in the same direction.Disclosure: Ziff Davis, Mashable’s parent company, in April 2025 filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.

The Venn diagram of Spotify Premium users and runners is in for a treat. Running Mode is now available in the Spotify mobile app, matching song tempos to the different phases of a run.Spotify's Fitness Hub rolled out in April of this year, partnering with Peloton and digital fitness instructors to put workouts directly in the app. Running Mode is now apart of the Fitness Mode, but a more self-guided experience.The feature is available to Premium users on iOS in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, and Sweden. It lets you choose from 25 curated running presets or build a custom workout from scratch. You can tailor the playlist to match your run length, beats per minute, and preferred genre, and it generates a personalized playlist based on your selections. If you need a boost, Running Mode also has optional audio cues to provide a little motivation.This is not Spotify’s first attempt to keep pace with runners. In 2015, the company introduced Spotify Running, which used a phone’s sensors to detect a runner’s tempo and select music that matched it. Spotify retired that feature in 2018. Unlike its predecessor, the new Running Mode does not detect when someone speeds up or slows down — runners choose their desired tempo and workout structure before taking off.Running Mode builds on Spotify's existing AI feature, Prompted Playlist, which allows users to provide a playlist description that Spotify uses to curate music. As Spotify positions itself to be an a one-stop-shop where you can listen to music, watch podcasts, and even buy books, Running Mode is a natural next step.

Tinder has paused an AI-powered Photo Enhance tool that some users said altered their appearance, NewsNation reported. Former user Jenny Rubin told NewsNation that the tool edited her photo without her opting in. "It was extremely violating," she told NewsNation's Jesse Weber. "It felt pretty uncanny, to be honest. Those are not my teeth. That’s not what my mouth looks like." Tinder had apparently changed the photo of her from a toothless smile to one with teeth. SEE ALSO: You can now find local events on Tinder — and match with other attendees Rubin deleted the app and made a TikTok about it, and others told her the app did the same thing. Tinder users also told NBC News that the app changed facial features and even skin tone, and also added features that weren't previously there."Photo Enhance is a tool that helps improve the technical quality of your photos. It's designed to enhance overall photo quality — for example, making your profile photo clearer and better lit — not to make you look different," Tinder's page on Photo Enhance states. The feature is supposed to "sharpen blurry images, adjust brightness and exposure, and improve clarity," the page reads. "It’s not designed to add or remove people, objects, or backgrounds, apply cosmetic effects, or change facial features or skin tone appearance."A Tinder spokesperson reiterated that the feature isn't designed to change someone's appearance. "We know that profiles with clear, well-lit first photos have a much better experience, so our goal was to help make that easier for people on Tinder. The feature is in a test phase in limited markets and is available to a subset of profiles that had a detectable technical issue on the first photo, and more than 90 percent of people who receive an enhanced photo keep it," the spokesperson told Mashable over email.According to the page, the suggested enhancement can be disabled, and the photo can be reverted to its original. Tinder introduced the feature in March, along with a ton of other AI-powered features, including a matchmaker called Chemistry. At the same time, Tinder launched Photo Insights, which uses AI to scan users' camera rolls to determine interests based on patterns. The app previously introduced Photo Selector, an AI tool to help pick the best photos for a user's profile, in 2024.Photo Enhanced is now paused in the 13 U.S. states where it was available. Tinder told NBC News and Mashable that the unintended changes impacted a small number of users. "Feedback data shows less than 0.5 percent of enhanced photos were flagged as not looking like the user, though not all of that feedback reflects a change as visible as what's been reported," the spokesperson told Mashable. It's paused to investigate the causes and strengthen safeguards.

SAVE $160: The Samsung internal SSD 990 with 2TB is on sale at Amazon for $369.99, down from the list price of $529.99. That's a 30% discount and the lowest we've ever seen at Amazon. Opens in a new window Credit: Samsung Samsung internal SSD 990 $369.99 at Amazon $529.99 Save $160   Get Deal According to the experts, the memory shortage is not letting up anytime soon. It's become a challenge to find affordable SSDs, and setting up a NAS at home or the office comes with a steep price tag these days. If you're in need of storage, consider this Amazon deal.As of July 30, the Samsung internal SSD 990 with 2TB is on sale at Amazon for $369.99, down from the list price of $529.99. That's a 30% discount and the lowest we've ever seen at Amazon.If your PC or laptop has been asking for more storage, this Samsung deal is one to hop on. The Samsung 990 SSD offers 2TB of storage and read speeds up to 7,250 MB/s. Write speeds reach up to 6,450MB per second. Those speeds will help with downloading games quickly, installing updates, and transferring high-resolution files without waiting around. SEE ALSO: This week's best SSD deals include a World Cup edition Sandisk and a 2TB Lexar For gamers who are used to long loading times or even need to delete old games, upgrading to an additional 2TB could be well worth the money. Since the Samsung internal SSD 990 with 2TB is on sale for the lowest we've ever seen and RAMageddon isn't gonna end soon, jump on this deal.

SAVE $151.99: Amazon has the Sony WH-1000XM5 headphones on sale for $248, down from the list price at Sony of $399.99. That's a 38% discount. Opens in a new window Credit: Sony Sony WH-1000XM5 headphones $248 at Amazon $399.99 Save $151.99   Get Deal When it comes to tech, it's not always necessary to have the newest model. Sometimes, the older generator has plenty of features that still hold up well, and buying the previous model can come with major savings. If you've been shopping for Sony headphones, check out this Amazon deal.As of July 30, the Sony WH-1000XM5 headphones are on sale for $248 at Amazon, marked down from the list price at Sony of $399.99. That's a 38% discount that shaves $151.99 off the price. When Sony launched the XM5 headphones, they earned a Mashable Choice Award for their sound quality, noise cancellation, and overall design. Mashable Deputy Shopping Editor Miller Kern wrote in her review, "As for comfort, the headphones’ ear cups and band are nice and cushiony. I didn’t feel any uncomfortable head squeezing or ear pressure." SEE ALSO: Stay hydrated this summer with the Owala FreeSip Tumbler — get $10 off at Amazon Last year, Sony launched the new XM6 headphones, which have slightly improved sound compared to the XM5 headphones and folding ear cups. Aside from that, there's "nothing too major over the past generation," according to Mashable Lead Shopping Reporter Bethany Allard, who compared the Sony XM6 to the older Sony XM5.Today's sale price of $248 at Amazon applies to the black, midnight blue, smoky pink, and silver colorways. They get up to 30 hours of battery life with a single charge, and a quick three-minute charge will earn you three hours of listening time. They also come with a protective carrying case.The Sony XM5s have convenient features like speak-to-chat, which automatically pauses music when you speak. They also pause audio when you take them off and automatically restart when they're put back on. If you're shopping for a pair of headphones for back-to-school season, consider today's sale price on the Sony WH-1000XM5 headphones. You'll be saving over $150 while getting some of the best sound quality available and a major savings over the $459.99 price of the Sony XM6 headphones.

It's already been a very busy year for Apple. Tim Cook announced he'll be stepping aside for John Ternus, Senior Vice President of Hardware Engineering. Siri AI finally made its big debut at the WWDC 2026 keynote. The company released a new budget MacBook, and then raised prices just months later. But, don't forget: We're still expecting the launch of the iPhone 18, the first folding iPhone, and a ton more Apple devices in the back half of the year.So, Mashable and the rest of the CNET Group (ZDNET, PCMag, CNET, and Lifehacker) are hosting the Big Guessing Game: Apple Edition to give our readers a chance to predict the biggest Apple news. Every correct answer earns you one chance to win the new Apple Watch announced in September. (Read the full content rules.) Ahead of the September iPhone launch event, we have our readers' answers from round two of the game.Question 1: Will Apple announce that a foldable iPhone will be released in 2026?The foldable iPhone — rumored to be called the iPhone Ultra, or some variation thereof — is the biggest open secret in Silicon Valley right now, but Apple still hasn't confirmed its existence. However, 68 percent of respondents said they expect the phone to arrive this year, while just 32 percent answered in the negative.Question 2: Will the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max include a black color option this year?The lack of a black color option was a major disappointment for some Apple fans after the launch of the iPhone 17 Pro. (Scratchgate may have been the reason why.) Rumor has it we won't get a black phone this year either. The breakdown here was almost identical to question one, with 68 percent of you expecting that we will get a black iPhone.Question 3: Will Apple announce a touchscreen MacBook in 2026?Rumors of MacBook Pros with OLED screens and touchscreens have been spreading for awhile, and it's very possible these high-end laptops will launch in 2026.But what do Mashable readers think? Our readers are split on this question, with 55 percent saying yes, and 45 percent saying no. Question 4: Will Apple release new AirPods in 2026?On this question, only 26 percent our respondents said no, with the majority (74 percent) answering in the affirmative. Question 5: Will an M6 series chip be announced in 2026?An M6 chip is expected to arrive this fall based on Apple's previous schedule of releases. When we posed this question to Mashable readers, 35% predicted we wouldn't see an M6 chip, while 65% believe that we will. Don't forget to participate in the third and final round of the Big Guessing Game for another chance at winning a new Apple Watch. The last round will take place in the weeks before the iPhone launch event, which we believe will take place in mid-September.NO PURCHASE NECESSARY to enter or win the "CNET Group Big Guessing Game" Giveaway. Open to legal U.S. residents in the 50 U.S. & D.C., 18+ yrs of age. Other restrictions apply. Begins May 19, 2026 at 12:01 pm ET and ends Sept. 1, 2026 at 11:59 pm ET. Void where prohibited. Subject to Official Rules: https://www.mashable.com/article/mashable-big-guessing-game-apple-edition-official-contest-rules/. Sponsor: Ziff Davis, LLC.Apple is not a sponsor of, affiliated with, or endorser of this sweepstakes. Apple Watch is a trademark of Apple Inc.

Have you ever explored around Google Earth and thought to yourself, "I wish there were some generative AI features in here?" No? Well, you're getting it anyway.Google announced that it's integrating Nano Banana, the company's generative AI image creator, directly into Google Earth. To be more specific, Google has added its latest AI image generation model, Nano Banana 2, to its mapping platform and has rolled out a number of ways that users can utilize AI in Google Earth as well. Nano Banana has proven to be very popular, and Google previously integrated the tool with Chrome, Photos, Search, Gemini Notebook (previously Notebook LM), and Google Messages.According to Google, Nano Banana in Google Earth can be used for a variety of purposes. Users can ask Nano Banana to:Generate infographics based on specific locations or landmarksView what a location looked like during a certain historical periodGenerate real estate plans for a lot of landVisualize a project before any construction startsGive a location or even a specific building a makeoverHowever, our friends at ZDNet received early access to the feature before it launched today and found that the Nano Banana implementation in Google Earth isn't really all that useful. At least not yet.For example, according to ZDNet, the Create Image button, which deploys Nano Banana in the Google Earth toolbar, isn't provided when in Street View. ZDNet found it was easier to just take a Street View screenshot and paste the image into Gemini for AI image generation.Furthermore, one of Google's own recommended use cases, "Bring history to life," doesn't appear to be historically accurate. ZDNet had Nano Banana generate the area around Philadelphia's Independence Hall in different time periods. While Nano Banana generated an image with the general look and feel of the time, it didn't seem to pull from any data that would show which buildings were actually around Independence Hall at the time.The Infographic suggested use case also didn't pan out in ZDNet's tests, either. Generated infographics changed the actual layout of a location in the image and included nonsensical, garbled AI text as well.The real estate industry has been a fairly big adopter of generative AI imagery, as they can show prospective buyers visualizations of what can be done with a home or plot of land. Google clearly had this in mind for at least some of its suggested use cases. However, Nano Banana in Google Earth seems very much like an early experimental feature at this point.(Disclosure: Mashable and ZDNet are both owned by the same parent company, Ziff Davis.)

Maika Monroe stars as Winifred Notty, "the sanest person she's ever met," in Victorian Psycho, a bloody horror-comedy that'll have you frankly terrified of the Longlegs and 100 Nights of Hero star. Described by Mashable entertainment editor Kristy Puchko in her review as "what if gothic horror were an eat-the-rich comedy?" the film follows the plot of a murderess governess (Monroe), appointed to teach the spoiled children of the aristocratic Pounds in late 19th century England.Directed by Zachary Wigon (Sanctuary) with a screenplay by Virginia Feito (on whose 2025 novel the film is based), Victorian Psycho has a brilliant and brutal trailer out today, all scored to Die Spitz's impeccable "Throw Yourself to the Sword."The Pounds family — played by Jason Isaacs, Ruth Wilson, Wednesday's Evie Templeton, and Hamnet's Jacobi Jupe — have no idea what they're in for with the arrival of Miss Notty. But the trailer gives us a terrible idea.Victorian Psycho hits cinemas Sept. 25.Want more of the latest entertainment news, reviews, trailers, and interviews? Sign up for Mashable's Top Stories newsletter.

SAVE UP TO $200: The ABOK Ark3600 portable power station is on sale for $1,099 at Amazon, down from the normal price of $1,299. The Ark3600 extra battery is on sale for $934.15, down from the normal price of $1,099. Opens in a new window Credit: ABOK ABOK Ark3600 $1,099 at Amazon $1,299 Save $200   Get Deal Opens in a new window Credit: ABOK ABOK Ark3600 + Extra Battery $934.15 at Amazon $1,099 Save $164.85   Get Deal We have portable power stations for almost every situation. Small models are great for short camping trips, while fridge-specific models like the Jackery FridgeGuard are great for keeping food from spoiling. But if you're looking for a beefy model with plenty of power, check out this Amazon deal.As of July 30, the ABOK Ark3600 portable power station is on sale for $1,099 on Amazon, down from the regular price of $1,299. For even more power, the Ark3600 extra battery is on sale for $934.15, down from the normal price of $1,099.The ABOK Ark3600 portable power station comes packed with 15 outlets and a 3,840Wh LiFePO4 battery. That power capacity mixed with its design that includes a telescoping handle and durable wheels makes it a great model for longer camping trips, RV adventures, or for using at home when grid power fails.With an uninterrupted power supply of under 10 milliseconds, you won't notice a lapse in power. That's great news for using with a refrigerator, desktop computer station, CPAP machine, or an aquarium. The Ark3600 can recharge with standard AC or up to 2,000W of solar input. In full sun with 2,000W solar, the Ark3600 can recharge in about two hours. SEE ALSO: Wolfbox's new off-road air compressor just launched with a discount — save $70 at Amazon In addition to the ABOK Ark3600 portable power station, the expansion battery is also on sale. The ABOK Ark3600 expansion battery connects to the main power station to provide an additional 3,840Wh, doubling the power. It has a similar physical design, with a handle and wheels for easy transport. The ABOK Ark3600 can pair with two expansion batteries for a total capacity of 11,520Wh.Upgrade your camping trips and home power supply with the ABOK Ark3600 portable power station and expansion batteries, both on sale today at Amazon.

SAVE $54.95: As of July 30, the Nespresso Vertuo Next cofee and espresso maker is on sale for just $125 at Amazon. That's a 31% price drop from its usual cost of $179.95. Opens in a new window Credit: Nespresso Nespresso Vertuo Next $125 at Amazon $179.95 Save $54.95   Get Deal You know what's even better than getting your beloved caffeine fix? Getting it on demand and at a discount. As of July 30, the Nespresso Vertuo Next coffee and espresso maker is on sale for just $125 at Amazon. That's 31% off, or $54.95 off compared to its usual list price of $179.95. While it's been cheaper before, that's still a pretty great deal. Mashable Deals Be the first to know! Get editor selected deals texted right to your phone! Get editor selected deals texted right to your phone! Loading... Sign Me Up By signing up, you agree to receive recurring automated SMS marketing messages from Mashable Deals at the number provided. Msg and data rates may apply. Up to 2 messages/day. Reply STOP to opt out, HELP for help. Consent is not a condition of purchase. See our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use. Thanks for signing up! While many countertop espresso makers are large, clunky eyesores, the Vertuo Next is sleek and slim (just 5.5 inches wide) and won't take up much space on the countertop. The water tank is even removable to truly optimize your space, making it a particularly perfect pick for compact spaces like apartments, dorms, or even cubicles. It heats up in just 30 seconds and gives you on-demand coffee in various formats at the touch of a single button. Choose from six different brewing styles: 5, 8, 12, and 18-ounce coffees, as well as single and double espressos brewed hot or over ice. Fill up the 37-ounce water tank, pop in a Nespresso Vertuo capsule, select your brew size, and let it do its thing. Vertuo machines are smart enough to read the barcode on each capsule and automatically adjust the settings to brew it perfectly each and every time. If you want to take your single-serve coffee to new heights at home, Nespresso is where it's at. A piping hot shot of espresso any time you desire at the press of a button? Say no more. There's no telling how long the discounted $125 price tag will stick around, so snag the 31% savings while you can.