Tech

MacBooks have hard, pointy edges. But would you take a hand file or sanding block to your laptop? Software engineer Max Bretschneider did just that, and the results look pretty good. The more heavily filed MacBook Pro he cites for inspiration from designer Kent Walters? Less so. (Yikes!)

Google’s AI Overviews and AI Mode pose an “unacceptable risk,” with both features failing to properly and consistently respond to kids showing signs of crisis, “reinforcing signs of psychosis and mania,” as well as “validating disordered eating.”

When teen Instagram users on accounts with parental controls have conversations about self harm or suicide with Meta AI, the platform will now proactively alert supervising guardians that the child’s safety could be at risk. This builds on a similar feature that Meta introduced for Instagram search in February.

UK communications regulator Ofcom has opened an investigation to assess whether TikTok is complying with Online Safety Act duties to prevent children from seeing harmful content. The probe will also examine the effectiveness of TikTok’s age assurance systems. An update is expected in October 2026.

The EU is excluding wearable devices, including smartwatches, fitness trackers, and smart glasses, from an incoming rule that will require a wide range of electronics to have user-replaceable batteries. The Nintendo Switch 2 isn’t exempt, though, and will come with a replaceable battery in the EU by the time the law goes into effect in February 2027.

Valve’s Steam Machine might be exactly the living room console you’ve been waiting for. Or it might be too expensive, totally pointless, a waste of everyone’s money and shelf space. The Verge’s Sean Hollister joins the show to talk through all the feedback we’ve been getting about our coverage and our review. Is Valve’s history a pro or a con? Is the price reasonable or ridiculous? Who is this device actually for? We have much to discuss.

Earlier this week, WinFuture reported it, and today, Bloomberg is reporting it too, saying that the move “will happen as early as this week.” The change is apparently happening as part of a broader shifts at Oppo, OnePlus’ parent company.

Along with his usual morning tweets in support of right-wing politics, against certain immigrants to the US, and boosting data centers, the sometimes-trillionaire writes, “Once we have completed our review for security vulnerabilities, we will make the entire codebase of 𝕏 open source, with no exceptions.” (He didn’t mention how Grok Build had apparently made exposing your code a little too easy.)

The original 1080P Elfin Flip Plus mustered just 500 ISO lumens of brightness, but the two new models bump that to a more useable 1,600 ISO lumens thanks to an upgrade to a triple laser light source. The $799 Elfin Flip Laser is still limited to 1080P, but the $999 Elfin Flip 4K also gets a welcome boost in resolution.

Alongside an upgraded version of its towering Skelly, Home Depot is introducing several new animatronics this year, including a $179 six-foot-tall hipster bartender — err, mixologist — with tattoos and a well coiffed beard and mustache. John the Last Call Mixologist also stirs a drink in a hand while speaking one of five different prerecorded phrases.

Apple’s on-device generative AI service has officially been registered with China’s cyberspace regulator, clearing a major hurdle for device rollout. To navigate local regulations, Apple is tapping domestic tech giants, integrating Alibaba’s Qwen and Baidu’s AI models to power the experience for Chinese users, as reported last year.

The “Whoop, but for the Apple Watch” app now integrates with Google Health. If you didn’t think the Fitbit Air was a Whoop competitor before, it sure might be now. Especially considering Whoop is suing them.

Apple’s lawsuit said that OpenAI “never responded” to outreach in February. But NBC News reports OpenAI did respond, though communication stopped after one of Apple’s lawyers apparently mixed up OpenAI staffers with the last names Wang and Chang.

Judge James Boasberg temporarily blocked a State Department policy restricting visas to foreign officials who “demand that American tech platforms adopt global content moderation policies.” Boasberg wrote that a group representing tech researchers could likely prove it violates the First Amendment by categorizing research as “foreign censorship” based on viewpoint.

The AI translations are expanding to Japanese, Korean, French, German, and Italian on Instagram and Bahasa, Indonesian, Arabic, French, Vietnamese, and Thai on Facebook, according to Instagram boss Adam Mosseri.

Here it is, given to Bloomberg: