• Safari is getting some useful updates for iOS, iPadOS, and macOS
• Vertical tabs will arrive, but only in the dev betas for now
• Other features like Adaptive Dark Mode and Siri AI browser tools are coming, too, along with our first glimpse of the new Audio Intelligence capabilities

On the global web browser stage Safari lags behind Chrome, but when it comes to Apple's 2.5 billion customers, it reigns supreme. Yet, even those devoted users might've noticed that their favorite browser was lacking at least one long-sought feature. Now, with the introduction of Dev Betas for iOS 27.3, iPadOS 27.3, and macOS 27.3, they're getting their wish.

In beta today, the platform upgrade brings a series of relatively small but important updates to Safari across the iPhone Duo, iPad, and Mac. And chief among them is vertical tabs.

As is often the case, Apple didn't invent this idea. I started using vertical tabs in — of all things — Microsoft Edge years ago, and even Chrome recently added them. Now, with the Safari update, you can open the Safari View Menu or hop into Settings and select vertical tabs.

By default, the tabs, which will live on the left side of your browser window in iPadOS and macOS (and iOS for the iPhone Duo), appear as icons — a space-saving measure. You can hover over any of them for a quick look at the hidden browser window.

There are other vertical tab features like the ability to pin tabs at the top of your list by dragging and dropping them, and tab groups. The tabs will work on the iPad and, yes, the new iPhone Duo in portrait and landscape mode.

The platform updates also bring a new kind of Dark Mode. Instead of only showing the mode on web pages that support it, Safari will offer to tune unsupported pages to Dark Mode too — but in a way, Apple promises, that won't ruin the sites.

The Adaptive Dark Mode will automatically darken light backgrounds, invert logos and graphics, recolor vector artwork, lift raised surfaces, and even detect shadows and adjust them. It will not touch already darkened sites. For developers, there are new tags they can use that will prevent Adaptive Dark Mode from adjusting them.

The update is also bringing some Siri AI browser tools to Safari for hardware that supports Apple Intelligence. Siri AI already has, with your permission, an awareness of what's on your screen, but with this update it'll see entire web pages (beyond what you see in the screen frame) and even hidden tabs.

This can be useful when you want to do wholesale organization and group tabs. Say you want all tabs relating to a trip to Malta sorted by activity, or you need all your car shopping tabs grouped and organized by car price.

Siri AI can, with new Custom Actions, do your bidding on the browser and clean up your history by topic, site, and time period. It might be useful when you don't want someone seeing that you've been shopping for the last few days on a particular site for that coveted gift. There might be other reasons for targeted history scrubbing, but no need to get into that here.

Other notable updates arriving in iOS 27.3, iPadOS 27.3, macOS 27.3, watchOS 27.3 Dev Beta 1 include:

• Siri App Actions will let Siri AI dig even more deeply into your system by organizing files, making trip plans, creating playlists, scheduling group messages, and finding the best photos to share.
• The promised Apple Health app overhaul, which uses Apple Intelligence, will give you more insights from your health data.
• The pair of Audio Intelligence features that will work with your Apple Watch Series 12:
  • Live rewind, for recalling what was said in conversation (you have to double-press the watch crown to read the last snippet of conversation). It might be a great tool for settling he said/he said arguments.
  • Siri Recap, which, when enabled, can use Apple Intelligence to recap and summarize an entire talk, speech, lesson, or maybe a TED Talk.

The changes are coming to 27.3 betas first and will eventually roll out to the other platforms in a full release. For now, though, all of these updates are found only in the Dev Betas, which are typically the earliest and potentially buggiest releases before Apple moves on to Public Betas (which anyone can install) and the final releases. There's no word on when the full releases will arrive, and we would caution you against installing Developer betas on any of your everyday Apple devices.

• Reddit wants to overturn Australia’s social media ban for under-16s
• It is challenging the law in the Australian High Court
• Government says it’s defending the law from "sustained ideological attack"

In late 2025, Australia became the first nation in the world to ban social media for under-16s — and as you would expect, that hasn’t gone down particularly well with the app makers affected. Reddit, for example, has issued a stinging rebuke to the Australian government and is in the process of challenging the ban in court.

A lawyer representing Reddit called the ban “ill thought out” (via Reuters) and said it was a “profound ‌restriction on political debate.” The attorney was speaking at the Australian High Court, where Reddit is seeking to contest the country’s new law.

Together with a libertarian advocacy group, Reddit claimed in court that the social media ban was “a very substantial restriction on what young people can now do” and that it could stifle political debate. It added that the restrictions may stop users creating content and responding to posts.

Although Reddit said it supported the aims of the law, it branded the legislation “inept,” saying that it did not have any specific means to keep minors off social media and failed to regulate other platforms where cyberbullying might take place, such as on gaming websites. And the fact that users who were not logged in could still view huge amounts of material undermined the law, Reddit argued.

Could Reddit overturn the ban?

Since the Australian law came into effect, several studies have shown that large numbers of teenage users targeted by it are still able to access restricted material. Sometimes, that might be as simple as using a VPN service to disguise your location, while at other times, social media firms are simply not taking action to restrict usage by under-16s.

Despite Reddit’s criticism, the Australian government has said it will defend its legislation. In court, the state’s lawyer, Joanna Davidson, said that children were more vulnerable to harmful online content because their brains were not fully developed compared to those of adults.

And speaking outside the High Court, communications ⁠minister Anika Wells ​said: “We ​are here to defend a fundamental tenet of Australian democracy, which is an Australian’s right, and particularly an Australian child’s right, to be free from harm. We seek ​to defend that from sustained ideological attack.”

The government has doubled the maximum fine for non-compliance with the law to AU$99 million (about $69.5 million / £51.5 million), increased the discovery powers of the eSafety Commissioner, and said it is preparing enforcement action against some of the largest social media platforms operating in Australia.

Whatever side you take on this matter, it’s clear that neither the Australian government nor Reddit are preparing to back down anytime soon. And with other nations considering similar laws, many people around the world will be watching closely.

• Reddit has announced plans to switch to a primarily logged in experience
• This would mean most of the site won't be accessible without creating and logging in to an account
• Reddit users seem almost universally unhappy about this planned change

Reddit — a site that once had the tagline “the front page of the internet” — looks set to become a lot less accessible, and therefore far less of a front page, as the company plans to require users to be logged in.

Currently, you can access pretty much the entire site without having to log in or create an account, and this has a lot of upsides. It means people who get there through search results can find the information they’re looking for more easily and seamlessly, and it means you can browse Reddit without giving the site any information about yourself, or being subject to any personalization algorithms.

But in a post on the site, CEO Steve Huffman (known as Spez on Reddit) has explained that the site will now evolve to become a primarily logged-in experience.

Tests of this change will begin in select markets outside the US in the coming months, but once the details have been ironed out and tested, it sounds like this shift will become global and permanent.

According to Huffman, this is being done because it’s “better for user experience, better for our ads business, is more in line with safety regulations, and more protective of Reddit data,” but despite Huffman's claims, it’s a change that isn’t going down well with users.

Heading down a worrying path

Responses to Huffman’s post include “hard disagree,” “knew it was going to get worse,” and “truly fascinating to witness a CEO consistently act against their company's interests,” among many others. In fact, just about every reply to the post is negative.

Beyond not wanting to be forced to log in for all the reasons above, users also worry that this change will lead Reddit down the same road as Pinterest. As one commenter said: “this sounds like exactly what Pinterest did... and then Pinterest kinda died.”

So, this sounds like it’s going to be a bad change for just about everyone other than Reddit’s C-suite, though if it does die, then it’s bad for them too. Hopefully, though, if this does lead to a meaningfully worse experience, we’ll see an alternative rise up to take its place, much as the likes of Bluesky and Threads did when Twitter became X. Still, it would be sad to see Reddit go.

• Pixelmator Pro gets a new AI-powered Generate Fill tool
• Keynote, Pages, and Numbers add AI assistants and OpenAI model support
• Final Cut Pro gains thousands of MotionVFX creative assets in November

Apple's Pro and Tell week is marching on, and alongside the reveal of the M6-powered iMac and 14-inch MacBook Pro, the Cupertino-based giant is also shining a spotlight on software. Specifically, Apple Creator Studio is getting a wide-ranging update that brings a fresh batch of features and, ultimately, packs in more value.

As it stands, Apple Creator Studio is a software subscription priced at $12.99 / £12.99 / AU$19.99 a month or $129 / £129 / AU$199 per year, giving you access to Pages, Numbers, Keynote, Pixelmator Pro, Final Cut Pro, and Logic Pro across Mac, iPad, and iPhone. All that stays the same, including the especially excellent education discount — $2.99 / £2.99 / AU$4.99 per month or $29.99 / £29.99 / AU$49.99 per year — but there are some pretty big updates here, with AI playing a starring role.

Leading the charge is Pixelmator Pro, which is getting a new Generate Fill tool. This lets you select an area of an image, describe what you want to add or change, and let AI do the heavy lifting. It's the kind of feature that could come in handy when you're editing a photo and don't want to jump between apps to get the result you're after. It'll also help level the playing field between Pixelmator Pro and Adobe Photoshop by filling a feature gap.

Keynote, Pages, and Numbers are also getting AI assistants designed to help you create presentations, write documents, and work with spreadsheets. Most interestingly, you'll be able to use OpenAI models alongside Apple's own, opening up more possibilities for working with AI in these apps. The apps also support compatible external AI tools, potentially making them a more useful part of your broader workflow.

With Final Cut Pro, Apple is bringing MotionVFX content directly into its pro video editing suite, making thousands of creative elements, including transitions, templates, effects, and titles, available for use in your projects. It's another welcome addition that should let you get more done directly inside Final Cut Pro, rather than having to rely on other tools.

All of this is coming in November as a free update for existing subscribers, though Apple isn't sharing specific timing just yet. These updates should also be right at home on the new Macs announced this week, but I'm curious to see if Apple introduces any more surprises, like the much-rumored touchscreen MacBook Pro, during its Pro and Tell event tomorrow.

• Surfshark data shows blocks of a single suspected fake TikTok Shop domain rose 638% between May and September.
• The domain was behind roughly one in five phishing blocks worldwide and is still active in October.
• Phishing exposure also climbed across Europe and the US, with France seeing the sharpest rise.

New data from Surfshark shows that a single domain linked to a suspected counterfeit TikTok Shop operation generated 320,007 phishing blocks between May and September 2026.

That's 19% of the roughly 1.6 million phishing-category blocks recorded worldwide by the company's web content blocker over those five months. The operation isn't slowing down either: in the first 20 days of October, the domain triggered another 96,711 blocks.

The findings come weeks before the busiest shopping period of the year. They're also a reminder that even the best VPN can only do so much if you type your card details into a convincing fake.

One fake storefront, a fifth of all phishing blocks

Monthly blocks tied to the domain jumped from 16,995 in May to 125,413 in September, peaking at 22.2% of all phishing blocks in August.

It's part of a much broader spike. Total phishing-category blocks rose 524% between April and September, and blocks per protected device climbed 83%, so the growth isn't just down to more people using the tool.

"Data clearly shows users are being unknowingly rerouted to fraudulent stores designed to steal money and personal information rather than sell genuine products," said Justas Pukys, Senior Product Manager at Surfshark.

Phishing exposure rises across Europe and the US

Between April and September, blocks per protected device rose 159% in France, 99% in Italy, 86% in Spain, 54% in the UK, and 38% in Germany.

In the US, exposure nearly doubled. Blocks per protected device rose 87%, while total phishing blocks grew almost sixfold, from 20,519 to 122,580.

How to stay safe this Black Friday

Surfshark expects phishing to rise again as Black Friday approaches. Pukys recommends checking that every site is official, typing a trusted address manually if a redirect looks suspicious, and ignoring promotional links sent by SMS or messaging apps. He also suggests paying with single-use virtual cards.

Security tools can help catch what you miss. Surfshark's own web content blocker, the tool behind this data, lets you block site categories, including phishing, even with the VPN switched off. NordVPN's next-gen antivirus blocked 94% of phishing sites in AV-Comparatives' latest test, and VPN providers are hardening connections too, with Surfshark recently bringing full post-quantum security to WireGuard.

• Zoom is packaging up conversations and calls into a Unified Context Layer
• APIs mean third-party AI agents can get direct access to this source of data
• Humans can now spend less time explaining context to AI agents

In recognition that increasingly siloed and complex systems are making it harder for companies to keep track of all their data, making it difficult to deploy effective AI on top of existing tech stacks, Zoom has launched its Unified Context Layer (UCL).

UCL works by bringing together meeting conversations, chats, documents and other business data into one connected system, which it hopes will make it easier for AI agents to work across.

This marks an important step in the company's much broader transition from the video conferencing platform we grew to love during the now-distant pandemic to a full productivity suite that spans both human and agentic users.

Zoom's Unified Context Layer

"This new layer brings together conversations with near real-time activity across Zoom and connected third-party applications, giving people and AI agents access to business context that might otherwise be lost or siloed," the company said in an announcement.

But in a world of increasing interoperability, the company is also adding new APIs to allow external AI tools to query its Unified Context Layer directly, which means ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Muse and other AI agents can see straight into the core data that Zoom holds.

The biggest impact is on productivity, where human workers will need to spend far less time fetching different parts of context to give an AI agent the best chances of success.

Of course, Zoom isn't the first platform to be introducing a Unified Context Layer, but being that the software is still primarily used for communications both within organizations and with external clients, Zoom's UCL should be able to unlock some pretty serious unstructured data for future AI agents.

With Zoom now betting on conversations as a vastly underused source of intelligence, its early adoption of a UCL should play an integral role both in its own roadmap, but also how enterprises benefit from agentic AI on the whole.

• Social platforms have incurred over $26 billion in privacy fines and settlements globally since 2020.
• Meta platforms (Facebook and Instagram) accounted for $23.7 billion (91%) of all penalties.
• The US led enforcement with $20.9 billion in fines, followed by European regulators at $5.16 billion.

Social media platforms thrive on personal data, but failing to protect it is proving exceptionally costly. Since 2020, the world’s top 10 social networks have accumulated more than $26 billion in privacy-related fines and regulatory settlements worldwide.

According to a study published by cybersecurity firm Surfshark, the lion's share of this astronomical financial penalty belongs to one parent company: Meta.

Between Facebook and Instagram, Mark Zuckerberg’s tech empire is responsible for an overwhelming 91% of the worldwide total, racking up $23.7 billion in penalties.

Meta dominates the penalty board

Facebook alone accumulated $14.3 billion in penalties, while Instagram accounted for $9.4 billion. TikTok placed a distant third, tallying $1.6 billion in fines across global jurisdictions.

Other familiar platforms also faced notable regulatory actions. LinkedIn accrued $360 million, YouTube followed with $222 million, and X (formerly Twitter) totaled $151 million. Further down the list, Snapchat recorded $35 million in fines, Reddit registered $19 million, and Discord logged $928,000. Pinterest stood out as the sole platform in the study with zero qualifying privacy penalties.

The United States spearheaded the financial enforcement, imposing $20.9 billion, roughly 80% of all global fines examined. The single largest penalty came from a massive $17.1 billion US settlement involving Facebook and Instagram over allegations that inadequate safeguards exposed minors to deliberately addictive product features.

American authorities also levied $3.69 billion strictly for data-processing offenses, led by Facebook ($2.9 billion), TikTok ($593 million), and X ($150 million). TikTok additionally received an independent $100 million penalty in 2026 over inadequate security safeguards.

European regulators target cross-border transfers and GDPR

Across the Atlantic, European authorities have imposed $5.16 billion in fines under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and national frameworks.

Ireland served as the focal point of enforcement, issuing $4.87 billion, or 94% of Europe’s total, largely because many tech giants maintain their regional headquarters in Dublin. France trailed at $245 million, followed by the UK at $36 million.

Europe’s two heaviest individual fines stemmed from unauthorized international data transfers:

Facebook received a $1.39 billion fine for transferring EU user data to US servers.

TikTok was hit with a $615 million fine for transferring European user data to China, echoing wider scrutiny surrounding apps with ties to foreign jurisdictions.

European regulators also penalized platforms $1.22 billion for unlawful data processing, $1.09 billion for data breach incidents, and $594 million for insufficient technical security safeguards. Regulatory bodies in South Korea and Australia added further pressure, issuing $62.4 million and roughly $50.5 million in fines, respectively.

As lawmakers worldwide tighten regulations, whether battling data misuse or debating proposals that weaken encryption, these multi-billion-dollar sums send an unmistakable message: user privacy can no longer be treated as an afterthought.

• Airbnb is adding AI-powered search
• New AI comparisons make it easier to weigh up vacation rentals and narrow down your options
• Services are expanding to include baby-gear rentals, laundry, and meal delivery.

After a major redesign of its entire service, headed by an easier-to-use app for iOS and Android, Airbnb is further refining the experience to make finding your next vacation rental a little easier. Not surprisingly, it’s turning to AI, but the focus here is on natural-language search, property comparisons, and updated ways to find what else you can do while staying at your Airbnb.

This follow-up should make it easier to find homes, experiences, or services that meet your needs — the three main parts of the redesigned app. Instead of introducing a new interface or updated visuals, Airbnb is using AI to help you find what you’re looking for more easily. Pushing aside sorting through filters, lists, and checkboxes, you’ll be able to search for a stay the way you’d actually talk about it.

The quest to make searching easier

Like Claude or ChatGPT, Airbnb’s new AI search lets you type or speak a query, making it easier to find a stay that fits what you have in mind. You can search across homes, experiences, and services, using your own words to describe what you need, rather than trying to find the right combination of filters.

AI is also built into the filtering process. Type in a keyword, and Airbnb will suggest relevant filters to help narrow down your options. For example, searching for 'baby' can surface amenities like cribs, playgrounds, children’s books, and toys.

The app will also use AI to highlight key home features directly in search results, so you can get a better sense of what a listing offers without opening every property page. Less tapping!

And if you’ve already saved a few contenders to your wishlist, Airbnb is adding AI-powered comparisons that put properties side by side and summarize their key features. This could be particularly useful if you’re the one in your group tasked with narrowing down the options. Instead of sending everyone a pile of listings and hoping they’ll compare them, you can get a clearer picture of how each property stacks up, and share your shortlist with the group.

Airbnb is also expanding its AI-powered customer support, with chat available in more than 50 languages, and voice support over the phone on the way.

Airbnb is also expanding its services to help you handle more of your trip without jumping between apps. Starting in November, guests in more than 60 US cities can rent baby gear through BabyQuip, with delivery and setup, and 10% off for Airbnb guests.

Laundry pickup and delivery is coming to select US cities through Rinse, while grocery delivery is expanding to Europe alongside meal delivery from local restaurants. You’ll also find location-specific options, including ski and snowboard rentals in the French Alps and boat rentals in South Florida.

Taken together, the update builds on Airbnb’s redesigned app rather than reinventing it. AI is the main draw for finding and comparing places to stay, while the expanding services offering could make the app more useful once you’ve booked — and enable you to spend less time sorting out the logistics of your next getaway.

• United’s new tracker shows Starlink availability by flight and  aircraft type
• 636 of United’s 1,492 aircraft now have Starlink
• The airline expects its whole fleet to offer free, fast Wi-Fi in 2027

The battle between US airlines to offer the best connection in the sky has heated up in the past few weeks, with Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian reportedly making some choice comments about Starlink and Elon Musk, which led United Airlines to offer a status match, and Delta flyers to take it up.

United Airlines kicked off its Starlink Wi-Fi installation process across its fleet back in 2025. Since then, its entire fleet of regional United Express jets has it, and more mainline aircraft are coming online in due course. As of today, 636 aircraft in United Airlines’ fleet offer Starlink, and for those passengers it mean free, fast Wi-Fi, without the “what if my flight doesn’t have a stable connection?” worry.

Delta Air Lines, on the other hand, chose Amazon Leo over Starlink back in March of 2026, and it won’t even begin the lengthy installation process until 2028. American Airlines has also opted for Starlink, but installations won’t begin until early 2027. United, meanwhile, plans to complete installations across its entire fleet by the end of 2027, giving it a substantial head start over its major US competitors.

I’ve been lucky enough to fly United with Starlink five times: twice on special media flights and three times on regular commercial flights. After the first experience, I wrote that “it feels like the internet finally reached the sky,” and that still holds up.

The trouble is that United operates 1,492 aircraft, including mainline and regional jets, and it’s been a guessing game whether you’ll luck out and have Starlink connectivity. Now, United’s digital team has clearly taken note of customers' frustration, and has launched a Starlink tracker on its website and in its app.

This lets you check whether your upcoming flight has Starlink, and it also shows how much of the fleet is connected. The current breakdown is 351 regional jets, 280 narrow-body mainline planes, and five wide-body aircraft with Starlink installed and active.

It's broken down by aircraft type, including Boeing 787, 777, 767, 757, 737, and 737 Max; Airbus A321 (Neo and XLR included), A320, and A319; E-175; and CRJ. You'll be able to see how many of each aircraft United has started the installation process on as a percentage, and 'coming soon' if work hasn't begun yet. Sadly for me, the aircraft to which Starlink is 'coming soon' include my favorite, the Boeing 757.

You can even see availability by hub, including Newark, Chicago, Washington, D.C., San Francisco, Los Angeles, Houston, and Denver.

While United’s Starlink rollout is impressive, most of the airline’s longest flights still don’t offer the service. Even worse, those planes feature Panasonic Wi-Fi service, which is among the slowest and least reliable in the sky, according to Zach Griff, author of travel newsletter From the Tray Table.

“On recent cross-country flights, I had multiple hours-long periods when I couldn’t establish a strong enough connection to send more than a text,” wrote Griff.

You can only check starting three days before departure, so it won’t help when you book, and aircraft and tail numbers can change. Assignments are typically confirmed within 24 hours of departure, and United will also email and text passengers, and flag Starlink flights on the flight status page in its app.

If you do luck out, it’s a night-and-day difference from any other in-flight Wi-Fi, with speeds much closer to what you’d get on cellular or home Wi-Fi. Streaming Disney+ or Apple TV, listening to Spotify or Apple Music, loading sites, browsing YouTube, texting, and email are all faster — and those emails are actually sent.

Starlink on United is free for MileagePlus members, though you’ll need an account, which is also free.

Along with the tracker and a fresh install count, United is extending its 'Switch to Better Wi-Fi' status-match through October 22. This lets eligible Delta and American members earn United Premier status through January 2028 by meeting a spending threshold ($1,500 for Silver up to $7,000 for 1K) and flying United within 90 days. Though the timing of the extension comes as United has hiked the requirement to maintain status in 2027.

Whether you’ve been lucky enough to fly Starlink on United Airlines or are tempted by the status-match offer, let me know what you think in the comments below, especially if you’re loyal to Delta, American, or another airline.The good news is that United Airlines is well on its way to its full fleet offering Starlink — and it'll almost certainly cross the line before Delta or American.

• Mozilla accused Microsoft of using Windows, Edge, Bing, and Copilot to steer users toward Edge
• Firefox maker claims stricter EU regulations force fairer browser choice than elsewhere
• Browser competition increasingly overlaps with the fight for AI distribution and user reach

Mozilla has accused Microsoft of abusing its dominant position wherever it can to push people towards Edge, and away from other browsers.

The company framed the story as if it wants “better for the people”, while Microsoft only does it when it’s forced to, but is that really the case?

In a newly released blog, Mozilla noted it has now been 100 days since it published Over The Edge 2.0, a report from “leading experts on deceptive design Dr. Harry Brignull and Cennydd Bowles on how Windows, Edge, Bing, and Copilot are designed to steer people away from the browser they choose.”

Better for the people

In the report, Mozilla said that in the European Economic Area (EEA), where the Digital Market Acts (DMA) is being enforced, Microsoft is forced to “play fair”.

Anywhere else around the world, including the US, UK, India, and other parts of the planet, it still uses its “shady tactics”. These include the Windows 10 message “You’re almost done setting up your PC” which allegedly uses “tricky wording” to pull people off the default they picked, Windows Search and Widgets opening links in Edge instead of the default browser, and Windows keeping Edge as the default for common browser file types like PDF and SVG, even after another browser were set up as the default.

Mozilla claims that even within the EU, Microsoft is doing all it can to steer people towards Edge. That includes pre-pinning the browser to the taskbar which, according to the company, “seems to directly violate the ‘principled approach to app pinning and app defaults’, Copilot opening web links in a side-panel instead of in the browser, and Windows Backup “silently” trying to set Edge as the default when it restores a PC and “fails to properly bring the user’s own browser along. “

“Most of the 2024 patterns are still there. The 2026 patterns are worse. Microsoft is using new surfaces like Copilot and the migration to Windows 11 to further undermine user choice,” Mozilla claims.

“We also shared the report with Microsoft and talked to them about the issues raised in the report. We knew that an immediate change was unlikely, but we hoped that, when faced with independent evidence of harmful design practices impacting Windows users, they would also want better for people,” Mozilla said.

“Instead, it became clear that Microsoft will respect user choice only when it is forced to. Microsoft’s standard for respecting people’s choices is legal compliance. Not what’s best for its users. Not its own published principles. Not what’s technically feasible. Not even what it already does for users in Europe.”

Plenty of other browsers agree with Mozilla, too. The Browser Choice Alliance, a coalition of web browsers established in 2024 and consisting of Chrome, Opera, Vivaldi, BrowserWorks, Midori, and Wavebox, issued a statement following Mozilla's report.

The coalition, which describes itself as "fighting for an internet browsing experience free of manipulation, deception and unnecessary complications" said:

“Mozilla’s research demonstrated that harmful patterns in the Microsoft ecosystem are designed to steer users toward Edge, yet Microsoft has refused to commit to respecting users’ browser choice. Today, we join Mozilla’s call for Microsoft to end its campaign to undermine fair competition and restrict web freedom for users across the globe.”

A story on AI

Mozilla said it shared the report with Microsoft but did not say if the company replied in any way. We’ve reached out to Microsoft with a request for comment and will update this article when we hear from them.

In the meantime, we believe it is also important to mention what Mozilla said in the blog’s introduction:

“As AI reshapes our online experiences, the stakes couldn’t be higher. Browsers are a key distribution layer for AI tools and services, while still determining many of the privacy and security functionality people rely on every day. Steering people toward one browser can therefore shape which AI services reach users and the protections that come with it.”

So the question becomes - is this really about wanting better for people, or wanting people to use one AI model instead of another AI model? If demanding equal browser opportunity is fair game, then demanding equal AI opportunity is also fair game, so why not just say so? Why hide behind alleged altruistic causes and principles?

In the blog, Mozilla says it has a “simple” ask - to expand the “fairer designs” currently being enforced in the EEA everywhere on the planet, and to “stop the remaining harmful design practices that persist in the EEA.”

The company concluded the blog by saying there will be no more mister Nice Guy. It says it “stepped up” public pressure on the company and has reached out to regulators and policy makers.

“We hope that regulators in the US, the UK, India, and Brazil are paying attention.”

• Mozilla wants security-conscious companies to use Firefox Enterprise
• "Choice is a lie," Mozilla CEO says, referring to browser engines
• Thunderbird Enterprise is also in the works

Mozilla has introduced Firefox Enterprise, a brand-new version of its browser designed specifically for organizations that need extra security, governance and compliance controls.

The company argues businesses have become increasingly dependent on a small number of tech companies, handing over certain levels of control to third parties, however it believes that tech consolidation comes with its own risks.

It also acknowledges that these deep dependencies have made it harder for companies to switch providers, and all of this has been factored into its Firefox Enterprise browser.

Firefox Enterprise

"We see [the browser] as a key, but under-governed, layer," Mozilla said in an announcement, slating other browsers' dependencies largely on Google (Chromium) and Apple (WebKit). For reference Firefox runs on Gecko, a free and open-source browser engine developed by Mozilla itself.

"If all your options are built with the same technology underneath, ‘choice’ is a lie," CEO Anthony Enzor-DeMeo explained.

Firefox Enterprise's biggest selling point is control – customers can choose where data is stored and how it's governed, and it's designed to work with existing systems.

"Keep your identity provider. Keep your SIEM. Keep your MDM. Just add a browser whose management infrastructure you operate," Mozilla said.

Firefox claims to have 200 million monthly users, but per Statcounter data, it only accounts for 6% of desktop browsing sessions globally compared with 65% for Chrome.

France, Germany, Austria and Switzerland will be the first countries to get access to Firefox Enterprise, with other countries added later on. And as for emails, Thunderbird Enterprise "is also in development," so we can expect to hear more about that soon.

Quordle was one of the original Wordle alternatives and is still going strong now more than 1,500 games later. It offers a genuine challenge, though, so read on if you need some Quordle hints today — or scroll down further for the answers.

Enjoy playing word games? You can also check out my NYT Connections today and NYT Strands today pages for hints and answers for those puzzles, while Marc's Wordle today column covers the original viral word game.

SPOILER WARNING: Information about Quordle today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.

Quordle today (game #1722) — hint #1 — Vowels

* Note that by vowel we mean the five standard vowels (A, E, I, O, U), not Y (which is sometimes counted as a vowel too).

Quordle today (game #1722) — hint #2 — repeated letters

Quordle today (game #1722) — hint #3 — uncommon letters

Quordle today (game #1722) — hint #4 — starting letters (1)

If you just want to know the answers at this stage, simply scroll down. If you're not ready yet then here's one more clue to make things a lot easier:

Quordle today (game #1722) — hint #5 — starting letters (2)

Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.

Quordle today (game #1722) — the answers

The answers to today's Quordle, game #1722, are…

• HELLO
• BELOW
• RIGHT
• SLANT

Everything fell into place for me today, with every word being the most expected.

In brief, exactly the sort of game I needed after losing my win stream on Saturday.

Thank you, Quordle gods.

Daily Sequence today (game #1722) — the answers

The answers to today's Quordle Daily Sequence, game #1722, are…

• OPERA
• TULLE
• FEVER
• DEMUR

Quordle answers: The past 20

• Quordle #1721, Sunday, 11 October: LILAC, INLET, TRIAD, SHAPE
• Quordle #1720, Saturday, 10 October: SWEAT, THIRD, RURAL, CLASP
• Quordle #1719, Friday, 9 October: OLDEN, DUNCE, SWATH, HILLY
• Quordle #1718, Thursday, 8 October: MINTY, ROWER, BROOD, RESET
• Quordle #1717, Wednesday, 7 October: PALER, FROTH, DOZEN, ERASE
• Quordle #1716, Tuesday, 6 October: FRESH, SKULK, BATCH, ENSUE
• Quordle #1715, Monday, 5 October: SIXTH, SPEAK, SEDAN, HEIST
• Quordle #1714, Sunday, 4 October: INFER, RAINY, THING, ARENA
• Quordle #1713, Saturday, 3 October: CHORE, FLYER, STICK, PURSE
• Quordle #1712, Friday, 2 October: IVORY, SADLY, ANGEL, LLAMA
• Quordle #1711, Thursday, 1 October: NAVEL, SHEER, BIRTH, TACKY
• Quordle #1710, Wednesday, 30 September: CHOKE, BATCH, MOSSY, EAGER
• Quordle #1709, Tuesday, 29 September: BILGE, MEDAL, LODGE, PORCH
• Quordle #1708, Monday, 28 September: BRUNT, TORSO, STONE, HEATH
• Quordle #1707, Sunday, 27 September: VALET, CHEST, VIGIL, PUREE
• Quordle #1706, Saturday, 26 September: SNORT, BIBLE, LAPSE, CRANE
• Quordle #1705, Friday, 25 September: SWEAR, FLOOD, GUPPY, GROAN
• Quordle #1704, Thursday, 24 September: TOPIC, METRO, SCALP, FREED
• Quordle #1703, Wednesday, 23 September: SHEET, BLAND, JOIST, GUAVA
• Quordle #1702, Tuesday, 22 September: COMFY, LOBBY, DRESS, PANEL

• Spotifast is a native Spotify desktop app that doesn't eat up all your RAM
• It stores all of your playlists, allowing you to browse, search, and play music
• You need Spotify Premium for it to work

I love using Spotify’s desktop app for a handful of reasons, but mainly because it’s a much easier way for me to create and manage my playlists — I’ve always preferred navigating larger screens for the best music streaming services.

Despite this, one of the biggest downsides to using Spotify in its desktop form as opposed to its mobile app is the substantial amount of RAM it eats up (it can use anything from 600MB to over 1GB). That’s where Spotifast comes to save the day.

Spotifast is a new lightweight native desktop app that connects to your Spotify account and imports all of your music. As its name suggests, it’s designed to decrease RAM consumption without compromising speedy performance, which its developer says loads "in well under a second and typically uses 100–250 MB of memory" on Spotifast’s information page.

To get started, you’ll need to be a Spotify Premium subscriber, and will need to grant two approvals; one for access to your Library, and the other to play music on your computer. Free accounts can only browse and search. The app is available for Linux, macOS, and Windows, but how similar or different is it to the official Spotify app?

Layout-wise, it’s not far off what you already get with Spotify’s standard desktop app. Your main Home and Search page rests in the center, while your Library and playlists make up the left sidebar and your Queue sits on the right — both of which are collapsible. But there’s more emphasis on design.

The playback bar, which sits horizontally at the bottom of the page, features animated EQ visualizers as a song plays, which you can easily turn on and off. With Spotifast, you also have the freedom to customize how your app looks, giving you the choice between light and dark modes, as well as a selection of custom themes allowing you to make the app your own.

There’s also a strong nostalgia element to Spotifast thanks to its support for the Milkdrop visualizer which, if you grew up being mesmerized by Windows XP music animations, might be the reason you abandon the standard Spotify app. Additionally, the app supports classic Winamp Miniplayer 2 skins, giving the listening experience another nostalgic flair.

What's missing?

The developers of Spotifast pride themselves on having created a faster alternative to the standard Spotify app, and it already has the stamp of approval from users on Reddit, but there’s a reason why it's so much speedier — it’s sacrificed a lot of native Spotify tools.

For starters you won’t be getting support for lossless audio. Instead, Spotifast supports up to 320 kbps which, for some users, isn’t a dealbreaker (the difference between lossless and hi-res is minimal). The app is also completely stripped of social features.

While you can still create playlists within Spotifast, it takes them back to basics. There are no AI-powered playlist-making tools, so that means no Prompted Playlists, Mixed Playlists, Blends, or Collaborative Playlists. On the bright side, this encourages you to make playlists using your own initiative, rather than relying on an AI to do the work for you.

So far, those who’ve migrated to Spotifast for a smoother experience have been overwhelmingly positive about its speedy performance, but everything comes with a slight caveat, as the developers note on Spotifast’s information page:

"Spotify limits how often apps can ask for information. Spotifast normally shares this allowance with other listeners and several other music players. When that shared connection is busy, your library and search results can take longer to load. The top bar shows a spinner while you wait."

You should also note that Spotifast is an unofficial app, and any changes made in the standard Spotify app can temporarily break features until Spotifast is updated.

• Microsoft is adding impersonation and deepfake detection to Teams in November 2026
• A third-party platform will be behind detecting AI-generated video and audio
• Attackers are still targeting voice phishing on Teams

Microsoft is adding two new security features to Teams designed to combat increasingly sophisticated impersonation attacks in an AI-first era.

First and foremost, Microsoft is opening up its platform to enable third-party deepfake detection in the hope of stamping out AI-generated video and audio.

The second of two important security features coming to the video conferencing platform warns users when meeting participants could be misrepresenting their identities to hopefully help participants validate their authenticity.

Teams will soon tell you if the person you're talking to is fake

"Third-party detection solutions analyze meeting media for signs of synthetic or manipulated audio and video and send detection signals to Teams, enabling integrated in-meeting experiences and controls," the company wrote in a roadmap entry.

"When Teams detects a potential impersonation attempt, it surfaces warnings and risk indicators to help users recognize suspicious identities," another entry added.

While both are slated for a November 2026 launch, the finer details including which third-party platforms can support deepfake detection aren't yet public.

What we do know, though, is that Teams has become a hotspot for impersonation attacks, and AI has made it easier for criminals to exploit vulnerabilities. Microsoft has already been on a roll introducing other features like file extension blocking.

And the problem is very real – in a July 2026 report, Microsoft revealed a near 10x increase in weekly malicious Teams voice call attempts in just one year, and an 80% increase in voice phishing attempts.

Still, meaningful progress has been achieved and the company managed to cut phishing activity related to Tycoon2FA, a major phishing-as-a-service platform, by 92% in a year. Looking ahead, the company's roadmap is full of plenty of other Teams announcements, split into some new features and plenty more security updates.

• Meta closed a woman’s Facebook and Instagram accounts with no warning
• The closed accounts contained 20 years’ worth of ‘digital memories’
• The woman couldn’t contact a human and was forced to use AI chatbots

What would you do if you lost your Facebook and Instagram accounts along with all of the photos, posts, and memories they contained? That’s the prospect faced by one unfortunate woman — a situation made even worse by the actions of Meta’s AI chatbots.

When Jasmine Ault checked her phone in the middle of the night, she was greeted by a notification saying her Facebook and Instagram accounts had been permanently disabled, taking 20 years of personal data and contacts with them.

Ault attempted to contact Meta to rectify the situation, but found herself passed from pillar to post and unable to secure a resolution. In fact, Ault found herself completely shut out by Meta’s customer service and could only talk to an AI chatbot that couldn't fix it. Even after paying for expedited service, Ault was unable to get through to a human.

“It feels like I’ve lost everything in a metaphorical fire with my digital albums and my digital memories,” Ault told CBC News. “And who’s going to protect those if I can only speak to AI?”

Ault appealed the ban but says she received a summary judgment just minutes later declaring that her case had been closed and that there was no possibility of any further appeals. And with that, she had seemingly run out of options.

An opaque, uncaring system

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen a case like this. Social media is awash with reports of people being erroneously banned from Meta’s platforms without any means of recourse — there’s even a dedicated subreddit for it.

With Meta rolling out AI across its platforms, it’s likely that situations like this will continue. Many people have accused AI moderation tools of incorrectly flagging users’ accounts, which might be one cause of the distress.

Part of the problem is the opaqueness of Meta’s actions. While Ault received a message saying her account was banned for breaking the platform’s rules, she was never informed which specific rules had been broken or how. She told CBC that she stayed awake for 26 hours straight in an attempt to restore her accounts — and all the memories contained therein — back to working order.

Yet Ault has been unable to resolve the situation. Speaking to CBC, she said “it feels almost sick to me that they just think, like, ‘We can just shut these people’s accounts down, they can’t get through to us and talk to us,’ and it’s people’s lifelines. It’s people’s memories. It’s people’s everything.”

If you’re concerned something similar might happen to you, it would be worth downloading your Facebook and Instagram data so that you have a backup. You never know when Meta might send everything to the digital incinerator and leave you stuck with an unsympathetic AI chatbot.

• You can now order the first Wi-Fi 8 router
• TP-Link's Archer 8 Ultra is available to buy in the UK and Australia, along with some other countries
• In the UK it's priced at £899.99 / AU$1,499, but you can get the router for £669.99 currently if you pre-order

TP-Link is now selling the first Wi-Fi 8 router to come onto the market, although the very latest wireless tech won't come cheap as you might expect.

The TP-Link Archer 8 Ultra is available to buy in the UK and Australia, as well as Germany and some other countries (not yet specified by the router manufacturer).

Pricing will naturally vary by region, but the cost in the UK is £669.99 if you place a pre-order now, although that price tag will be bumped up to £899.99 later on. In Australia, pre-orders are open now, with the Archer 8 Ultra priced at AU$1,499.99. There's no indication of a price bump once the router officially launches.

With the Archer 8 Ultra you get Wi-Fi 8 coverage of up to 3,600 square feet (or 3,000 square feet in Europe). In case you weren't aware, this new wireless standard is about improving performance in different ways other than raw speed.

The key advantages for Wi-Fi 8 over Wi-Fi 7 are that it deals more capably with interference in crowded signal-dense environments, and it's more reliable with a greater number of client devices connected. Wi-Fi 8 also ensures that there's a better signal at the extremities of the network.

TP-Link has told us a bit more about what its Wi-Fi 8 StabilityEngine tech achieves in the Archer 8 Ultra, noting the presence of features such as UEQM, MCS, and 2×LDPC. These are designed to "hold throughput steady in a noisy home, delivering up to 33% more consistent throughput at mid-to-long ranges and up to 24% more consistent throughput than Wi-Fi 7 under interference."

You don't really need to know the ins-and-outs of the various acronyms involved, save to say that they help the Wi-Fi signal drop off less sharply as you move further away from the router, and they cut down on dropped network packets (helping to keep a more stable connection).

TP-Link also boasts about its Multi-Floor Mode feature, which reshapes the Wi-Fi signal to take into account where devices are actually present. The firm says that this directs coverage to multiple floors when devices are spread over different levels, but it flattens to a "wide single-floor pattern" when they're not.

TP-Link further observes that as the Wi-Fi 8 standard matures – it's still in its draft form right now – firmware updates will be applied to the Archer 8 Ultra to keep it up to speed.

The Archer 8 Ultra also comes with the Aireal AI Assistant which allows less technically inclined users to employ natural language queries to understand and tweak their Wi-Fi coverage. This AI also keeps a constant eye on how the router is performing and continuously optimizes and prioritizes wireless traffic, with other benefits such as an Eco mode to bring power usage right down at night when everyone's asleep.

On the security front, this router has an integrated VPN at the hardware level encrypting the traffic of selected devices (it works with third-party VPNs too, if you already have one). Smart gadgets (Internet of Things devices), with their greater levels of potential security risks, are kept on their own network away from the main network (and the guest network is separate too, as you'd imagine).

There's also an optional TP-Link HomeShield service which offers real-time protection for your devices as well as parental controls.

Analysis: is it worth getting on board with the future of Wi-Fi today?

With the Archer 8 Ultra now on pre-order, it's likely that the mesh Wi-Fi system TP-Link also revealed at IFA 2026 – the Deco 8 Ultra – won't be that far behind.

The price tag is predictably high with the Archer 8 Ultra, though, albeit pre-ordering does get you a pretty chunky discount. (The same will doubtless be true of the Deco 8 Ultra when it pitches up – the price of that will also depend on how many units you need based on the size of your home).

At any rate, now the Archer 8 Ultra can be yours, should you rush to pre-order to benefit from all the mentioned Wi-Fi 8 goodies? Well, no, because there isn't any consumer hardware (phones, tablets, laptops) that supports Wi-Fi 8 yet, and you need those client devices as well as the actual router. They won't arrive until next year, and they'll be thin on the ground even then.

So buying this TP-Link router right now is more about being future-proofed than anything else (though you will get some slight benefits from the Archer 8 Ultra with current Wi-Fi 7 or earlier devices). The thing is that if you're prepared to wait, the hefty early adopter premium on the Archer 8 Ultra (or other Wi-Fi 8 routers) will lessen, and really, that's your best bet as I've previously discussed at length.

If you do fancy grabbing the Archer 8 Ultra, though, definitely make sure you get that cheaper pre-order price.

• Chrome will get new updates every two weeks to minimize real-world attacks
• Smaller, incremental changes should also make it easier to track any issues
• Other major browsers are also shifting to two-weekly release cycles

Google has confirmed that Chrome has officially moved from a four-week Stable release cycle to a two-week one, with effect from September 8 2026 with the launch of Chrome 153.

Besides adding new features, the main objective is for Google to give us performance and security fixes more promptly in an era of increased complexity and heightened vulnerabilities.

And it's exactly those security concerns that pushed Google to want to double Chrome's update frequency in the first lace, with the company now having to deal with a higher volume of patches than ever before.

Chrome will get updates every two weeks

Together with a higher volume of attacks in general, Google has also benefitted from AI-powered vulnerability discovery tools, giving developers more work to do than before. "With automated AI discovery tools and community bug reports generating higher patch volume, shorter release cycles make managing security fixes significantly simpler," the company wrote.

Crucially, the faster cycle reduces the time between a fix landing in Chrome's public codebase and it actually reaching end users, making it less likely for a bug to be exploited in the wild.

Chrome has been adhering to a four-week cycle since 2021, but the world is a very different place in the space of just half a decade.

With the higher pace of releases, Google also anticipates a smaller scope of changes, which could actually be a good thing because it could be easier for developers to identify what went wrong in the event of any issues.

Desktop, Android and iOS versions of Chrome will all be impacted by the change, with Chrome 154 already slated for a September 22 release.

More broadly, Google says Chrome isn't the only browser getting more frequent updates. Microsoft, Mozilla and Brave are also making similar changes, and they're all undergoing those changes right now.

• TP-Link has unveiled two new Wi-Fi 8 routers at IFA 2026
• The Archer 8 Ultra is a traditional router with a smart design and coverage of up to 3,600 square feet
• The Deco 8 Ultra is a mesh system, and a 3-pack is good for a home of up to 9,800 square feet

TP-Link has revealed the world's first Wi-Fi 8 routers at IFA 2026, with two models arriving in the form of a standard router and a mesh Wi-Fi offering.

These are the Archer 8 Ultra router and the Deco 8 Ultra, the latter being the mesh Wi-Fi system. Both are built around TP-Link's Wi-Fi 8 StabilityEngine.

With the Deco 8 Ultra, you're getting a tri-band (including 6GHz) Wi-Fi 8 mesh system offering a speed of 22Gbps (19Gbps in Europe). A 3-pack of these cylindrical routers can cover a home of up to 9,800 square feet, with support for 200+ devices.

The Archer 8 Ultra boasts a tri-band speed of 19Gbps and bristles with 18 antennas, delivering coverage of up to 3,600 square feet in your home (or 3,000 square feet in Europe).

TP-Link underlines three key benefits of these routers thanks to Wi-Fi 8. First, they are more reliable with a greater number of devices hooked up, and they also cope much better with interference. Finally, Wi-Fi 8 allows for a better wireless connection at the edge of the system's effective range.

Handling devices more reliably is facilitated by Dynamic Sub-band Operation (DSO) and Non-Primary Channel Access (NPCA) tech. The former ensures every connected device gets only the bandwidth it needs — so more is open for other usage — and NPCA opens a second channel if the main one gets too busy. Or as TP-Link puts it, "Every device gets its own fast lane."

New modulation technology in these routers helps to deal with interference from other devices or nearby networks (like your neighbor's Wi-Fi), and boosts performance at longer distances from the router.

There are also Enhanced Long Range (ELR) and Distributed Resource Units (DRU) features with these Wi-Fi routers, which further strengthen the wireless signal at the edge of its reach.

TP-Link notes, "ELR extends the router's usable range, while DRU concentrates a device's limited uplink power into a narrower band so it can be heard clearly from far away. Uploads, calls, and camera feeds hold where they used to stutter."

Both routers benefit from a smart and contemporary design, with a minimalist and streamlined look. TP-Link argues that it needs to make its hardware look good so it won't be hidden away in a cupboard or under a table.

Gary Chang, Lead Industrial Designer at TP-Link, commented, "We stopped building a piece of networking equipment and started designing for the home. When a router's design becomes something people want to display, it ends up exactly where it performs best."

Analysis: ready for the future of Wi-Fi

Wi-Fi 8 doesn't deliver any speed boost over Wi-Fi 7, at least not in terms of raw performance — but it does aim to improve performance by delivering a stronger signal when you're further away from the router, and a more reliable connection overall. Part of that strategy is to better deal with interference from other wireless networks (or appliances in general), and as TP-Link observes, this is a big part of the puzzle here.

We don't yet have a release date (or price) for the Archer 8 Ultra or Deco 8 Ultra, but the expectation is that these routers will ship later this year. Of course, to get the benefit of a Wi-Fi 8 router, you'll need devices that support the new wireless standard, too — and they won't be here for a while yet.

Indeed, the Wi-Fi 8 standard itself is still a draft and not finalized, and the likes of smartphones and laptops won't arrive with Wi-Fi 8 support until next year (and there probably won't be very many of them, either, to begin with).

That said, your Wi-Fi 7 (or earlier) devices will still run just fine on a Wi-Fi 8 router, because as ever, the new standard is fully backwards compatible — you just won't get the benefits that Wi-Fi 8 phones and laptops will (when they arrive).

That said, some of the improved traffic management and interference reduction tech in these routers will still help with devices that don't support Wi-Fi 8. However, buying a Wi-Fi 8 router later this year when these TP-Link models (and others) emerge is more about future-proofing than anything else for now.

• Lake Ontario is now Lake America in the US via an executive order
• Google Maps has updated its maps to reflect the change
• Viewing the map from outside the US still shows the original name

Some 18 months on from the controversial renaming of the Gulf of Mexico, another edit has been made to Google Maps at the behest of US President Donald Trump: Lake Ontario, spread across the US-Canadian border, is now Lake America.

Or rather, it is if you're viewing Google Maps from inside the US (via Gizmodo) — the rest of the world will still see the Great Lake labeled as it has been since at least the 17th century. The name Ontario most likely comes from the Iroquoian word Kaniatarí:io or Oniatarí:io meaning "lake of shining waters" or "beautiful lake", as per Wikipedia.

The name change is the result of an executive order from the White House, as President Trump bickers with Canada over trade tariffs. In response, Canadian authorities have installed a large new sign at the lake (via the BBC), reading 'Lake Ontario. Now and Always'.

Reactions on Reddit are calling the switch "beyond ridiculous" and "braindead", though some commenters are pointing out that Google is obliged to follow the lead of the US Board on Geographic Names (part of the United States Geological Survey).

Google responds

For its part, Google has also chimed in to say that it has to follow "official government sources" when it comes to place names, saying that "these updates follow our long-standing policy for bodies of water with names that vary from country to country, and are starting to roll out now".

"People using Maps in the US will see 'Lake America', those in Canada will continue to see 'Lake Ontario', and those outside of the US and Canada will see both names," according to the official blog post from Google Maps on the matter.

However, not everyone is towing the line on this: New York State Governor Kathy Hochul took to social media to declare that "New York won't be calling it [Lake America]", so there are going to be some pockets of resistance regarding the change.

As yet the change hasn't rolled out on Apple Maps, but presumably it'll eventually have to comply with the official government, and start renaming Lake Ontario depending on where in the world you're viewing the map from.