• 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.

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.

We all learn in different ways. As a visual learner, I really appreciate seeing ideas drawn out or presented through images. Give me a page of text, and I can read it, no problem, but not a huge amount is retained by my little grey cells.

Unfortunately, not everything can be boiled down into a simple image, diagram, or video. Some concepts are just too complex to be simplified. When I am forced to read a body of text, I prefer to hear someone read to me rather than read it for myself.

The problem is that not every resource has an accompanying audio feature. I could use my web browser’s reading mode, but there’s usually only a limited number of voices, and they often sound electronic and overprocessed. That’s why I’ve recently started using Speechify.

This simple and straightforward app features over 200 lifelike voices, each of which can be customized by type, pitch, and accent. The app can read uploaded files, images, and pasted text and integrates seamlessly into a range of workflows and file repositories. You can even choose the reading speed to be up to 4.5 times the normal speed, although I wouldn't recommend that!

AI voices that sound natural

Whatever you like to read, Speechify has so many voices on offer that you’re bound to find one that you enjoy listening to. The app guides users through a series of questions that help you narrow down the best choice for your requirements. It begins by asking you which type of voice you’d like. You can choose between conversational, narration, acting, professional, meditation, and educational.

From there, the app asks you whether you’d like the voice to sound bright, soft, neutral, crisp, warm, or deep, and whether you like a low, mid, or high pitch. The final option is to choose between British, American, and Australian accents. Unfortunately, these are the only three possibilities at the moment, although I’m sure they’ll add more in time.

With these simple questions answered, Speechify scans its 200+ voices and tells you which voices are the best fit. All you have to do is select your favorite, choose a document to read, and sit back and enjoy. And if you fancy a change, picking a different voice is easy.

An abundance of workflows

Speechify offers a number of different workflows, all of which are accessible through the Home tab of the app. First up is an AI-driven option where the app asks you, “What do you want to work on today?” Anyone who has used ChatGPT, Gemini, or similar will be familiar with this workflow.

Simply describe your task or ask anything, either with text or through the microphone, and Speechify will look it up for you. You can even attach files to complement your search request. Answers are presented as text but can be ‘read’ by the voice assistant. You can also ask follow-up questions to delve deeper into a topic.

If you already have a document that you’d like read out, you can choose from the list of seven workflow options. These are upload files from your phone, upload from a cloud repository, scan pages, paste text, find a book, paste a link, and dictate text.

I expected Speechify to handle PDFs and web pages with ease, but what I was most impressed with was its ability to analyze and read out images. I tested the app with several different photos, and it was able to read all types of information, including technical details. The images also didn’t have to be the highest quality or the best lit.

One of the best things about Speechify is that it lets me do a lot more multitasking. Prior to using the app, I would have to allocate a lot more time to sitting down and having focused reading time. Now I can upload a file or take a picture of something and crack on with house chores at the same time. It’s transformed how I spend my time.

Getting the most out of Speechify

The free version of Speechify provides a reasonable number of features, but it lacks offline listening, advanced voices, faster playback, and additional features such as dictation. To access these, you’ll need a Premium account, which costs $175 / £129.99 per year. There’s a free 3-day trial so you can test out the additional features before committing.

Also, if you love audiobooks, Speechify also has a library of over 100,000 books across every genre. This includes fiction, classics, self-help, and more. This costs $80 / £60 for lifetime access but is often discounted down to $35 / £25. At this price, Speechify Library is an affordable alternative to Amazon’s Audible service.

Whether you read to study, for leisure, learn a language, or simply want to boost your productivity, Speechify will help you realize your goals in super-fast time.

Download Speechify on iOS and Android.

For someone who has a degree in journalism and a master's in English, I should read more than I actually do.

But movies are my thing, and apps like Letterboxd encourage me to broaden my cinematic horizons. That said, there’s one app that’s lifted me out of my years-long reading slump — and no, it’s not Goodreads.

Fable is a reading and book club platform on iOS and Android that launched in 2021, but it’s only been an integral part of my homescreen for the past year or two. When I saw that most of my friends were migrating to Fable from Goodreads, I joined the club — and I don’t regret it.

Now, Fable hasn’t completely seized the throne from Goodreads; the latter is still widely used and takes the number four spot in the iOS App Store’s ‘Books’ category (Fable is number nine). But popularity doesn’t always equate to the best, and I’ve found Fable to be a true all-rounder.

A real page-turner

Compared to Goodreads, which I found slow, janky, and unresponsive at times, navigating Fable is much smoother and there’s more of an emphasis on the graphic design side. While Goodreads adopts a predominantly beige interface, Fable’s is brighter, more vibrant, almost like a psychological magnet that once you look at it, you can’t help but want to engage with the app on a more personal level.

Even its book reviewing process is colorful and engaging. Once you’ve finished a title and you decide to log it into Fable, you don’t just review the overall book with a small entry and call it a day. The app lets you give star reviews for individual elements including writing style, characters, plot, setting, and it even asks you questions like ‘how did this book make you feel?’ or ‘how spicy was this romance book?’, giving you a carousel of emoji reactions to choose from.

Graphics aside, Fable’s layout is divided into distinct tabs (Home page, Clubs, Search, Library, and Profile) like most social media platforms — and this is where its main focus lies.

With any social media app, you can follow friends and popular accounts, whose posts and reading updates all appear in the ‘Following’ section of the Fable Home page. Alternatively, you can switch to the ‘For You’ page, which displays posts and updates from other accounts it thinks you’d like to see. These are all based on the books you add to your ‘Want To Read’ list, books you’ve reviewed that you have in common with others, and more.

This means suggested posts and profiles are all based solely on your activity and interests, which Goodreads doesn’t have. But that’s not the only stand-out feature with Fable.

Across both platforms, book reviewing and reading tracking is a given, but Fable actually allows you to share written posts up to 750 characters, to which you can also attach images and tag titles and specific book clubs — like a combination between a Facebook post and a Tweet. Posting is also another useful way to find other bookworms with similar tastes and interests, thanks to how Fable’s algorithmic recommendations work.

Find your tribe

Speaking of which, book clubs have become integral to how bookworms socialize with each other in modern times, and tech has really helped readers optimize this — and Fable taps into that sense of community.

Unlike Goodreads, where you have to manually search for groups, Fable has an entire hub dedicated to themed book clubs. Fancy yourself a book club dedicated entirely to Shakespeare? Fable has them. Or perhaps you want a club that’s all about reading banned books? That’s right, Fable has them too.

Fable’s community focus is one of the shining stars of the app, as is its book logging tool, but it isn’t just a place for this or to see what your friends have been reading. It gives you a full rundown of your most-read authors and favorite genres — kind of like Spotify Wrapped, but these stats are always present on your Profile.

If you’ve ever fallen in and out of reading ruts like myself, Fable has a roster of tools to give you the push you need to pick up the book that’s been sitting on your shelf for a while — starting with reading goals.

Though Goodreads offers a similar function, the layout is all over the place, and you have to set goals in a separate section of the app. With Fable, you can set reading goals and display them right in your profile, so they’re all in one place.

Secondly, Fable’s Search page makes the job of finding your next literary obsession a lot easier. In addition to a carousel of recommendations based on the books in your list, the Search page is packed with mini genre hubs filled with Fable’s most popular titles.

This way you can browse your favorite categories in-depth, or explore one you’ve been meaning to try — there’s even a fun Mood Quiz feature that does the searching for you based on the answers you select. Even though you have to subscribe to Fable Plus to set monthly and weekly goals, you can set yearly reading goals for free, which is enough for casual users like myself.

Everyone goes through the odd reading slump now and then, but believe me when I say that having an app on your homescreen that allows you to log everything you’re reading really helps — I found the same helped with movies when I first downloaded Letterboxd.

That said, I’m still a novice when it comes to using Fable to its full potential; I haven’t quite found the courage to share posts, but I have no doubt that day will come as I continue to fill up my lists and find my book tribes — then I’ll become a full-bodied power-user.

In addition to weekly and monthly goals, Fable Plus offers a multitude of other tools, including visual progress tracking, Smart Coaching, and deeper insights into your reading performance. You can also customize your Fable experience with exclusive art and custom app icons, all with the absence of ads.

Fable is available in the App Store and on Google Play.

I never cease to be amazed at the effectiveness of small habits. Standing up and moving every hour. Drinking small sips of water regularly. Leaving your phone downstairs when you go to bed. Flossing straight after brushing. Giving thanks for one thing as soon as your head hits the pillow.

They seem small and insignificant. Can habits like these really make a difference? In my experience, yes, and James Clear, author of Atomic Habits, agrees. The reality is that each habit may not seem like a big deal, but when combined and performed over time, they can lead to massive changes.

One app that has helped me build and cement new habits in the area of health and fitness is GO Club. This beautifully designed app is the epitome of simplicity. It may only perform a few simple functions, but what it does, it does incredibly well. Over the past few weeks, I’ve grown to love it and have come to rely on its phone widget to keep me moving towards my goals.

At the heart of GO Club is a tracker that measures steps and water intake. Beyond this, it offers reminders and rewards to help you prioritize these small but important habits. Since its launch just 18 months ago, the app has been downloaded by more than 150,000 people and was a finalist in the 2025 App Store Awards.

Hitting your step goal

Increasing the number of steps you take each day sounds simple. All you have to do is put one step in front of another, and the numbers will take care of themselves. I thought the same until I started tracking my progress. Despite setting a goal of 10,000 steps per day, I was regularly only taking between five and six thousand. That surprised me.

The GO Club app not only informed me of my subpar number of steps but also provided all the motivation I needed to do something about it, and it was simpler than I expected.

The simple, no-fuss readout of the number of steps I took that day proved sufficient motivation, and seeing it in the widget every time I unlocked my phone was an easy reminder. GO Club calls this “Steps, without the noise."

Underneath the step count are three other stats presented in small text. These are distance, calories burned, and floors climbed. I didn’t use these, but if you were training to walk a set distance or needed a crude summary of how many calories you were burning each day, I could imagine it proving useful. Beyond this is a chart that displays progress over time so you can make sure you’re moving in the right direction.

The importance of drinking enough water

Step count is recorded automatically, but you enter water intake manually. There’s no way around this because your smartphone or smartwatch simply can’t track how much water you’re drinking. Thankfully, entering the amount of water consumed each day is incredibly straightforward.

To enter an amount, you adjust the slider value and click 'Add.' The app then subtracts this from your goal, 2.5 liters by default, and updates the water bottle graphic for a visual representation of how much water you have left to drink within that day. It’s a strikingly simple graphic that genuinely makes me want to drink water every time I look at it.

Smartwatch integration and a GO Plus subscription

Not everyone will want to rely on a smartphone app or widget to change their step and drinking habits. That’s why GO Club developed a dedicated Apple Watch app so you can glance at your smartwatch to see your progress. The Apple Watch app follows the same design principles as the smartphone app with a strikingly simple and visually appealing layout.

GO Plus lets you get the most from the app. This includes home screen and lock screen widgets, focus mode themes, smart walking plans, Apple Watch widgets, golden hour time slots, and a health trends summary. All of this costs an annual sum of $19.99 / £17.99 or $3.99 / £2.99 per month if you’d prefer a rolling subscription.

Download the GO Club app on iOS.

Content warning: This piece discusses suicide and difficult emotional experiences.

Does the world really need a dedicated, human ‘AI Companionship Therapist’ in 2026? The answer, according to the popular 'game-like' AI character-creation and interaction site EVA AI, is 'yes' — and the job pays well.

How would I know this, as someone who only ever dated humans? I know because EVA AI recently reached out to TechRadar to tell us that it's hiring just such a therapist. And whoever gets the gig will be able to charge $200 a session (which makes me think I retrained in the wrong career).

It’s more than two and a half years since I covered the launch of ChatGPT's then new OpenAI store, and the almost-immediate problem of users flooding the site to create AI girlfriends (despite the Ts&Cs forbidding it); and now, EVA AI, which encourages humans to practice their dating skills and "feel seen" by a chatbot, is trying to help its clients overcome various mental health issues connected to their AI squeeze.

According a recent EVA AI survey of 1,000 adults, all of whom have AI partners, 63% of respondents have hidden their romantic AI companion for fear of being judged, and 72% wish therapists specialized in AI-specific relationships. Furthermore, 68% say an argument with their AI "affects the rest of their day".

And I'm not done. EVA AI's survey lists that one in three of its users experience feelings of jealousy knowing their AI character also talks to other people; four out of five claim their AI understood them better than the real human they were actually dating (whether that counts as cheating or not is a topic for another day) and six out of 10 respondents think an AI relationship can be just as serious as a human one.

The ELIZA effect

You might be surprised to learn that our ability to overlook basic computer programming and project cognitive emotion into speech mimicry isn't a recent problem. In fact, it's been an issue for 60 years.

In 1966, (a year fellow Brits will immediately remember as the sole year England's male team won the World Cup) MIT scientist Joseph Weizenbaum created ELIZA, a primitive program, but nevertheless one that was capable of imitating the speech patterns of a kindly psychotherapist. Despite the program only using simple keyword-matching (if a user stated "I am sad", the program could respond "Why are you sad?"), reports suggest that humans quickly became attached to it — a phenomenon now called the ELIZA effect.

One could argue that the 2022 introduction of advanced Large Language Models (LLMs) transformed that simple scripted bot into a hyper-personalized, ultra-realistic visual and conversational companion such as Candy AI or EVA AI, and that this is what made AI girlfriends and boyfriends into a multi-billion dollar mainstream industry. But those early studies suggest otherwise: we're all suckers for a kind word, basic or not.

Getting professional help

It's hard not to notice that the women in the EVA AI image above all look vaguely… what is it? Concerned? Vulnerable? Sad? And it strikes me that this isn't the kind of image I'd expect to see on an online dating profile such as Match or Tinder, where women typically post strong, confident, smiling images, perhaps standing next to friends or doing the things they love.

Maybe EVA AI's tagline is bang on, and actually, this isn't about the chatbot in the potential partnership at all. Perhaps EVA AI's mostly-male user base employ these services to "feel seen" by an on-screen image that seems overly concerned about them to the point of sadness or worry. But can a one-sided relationship be addictive, or problematic in other ways?

EVA AI's current relationship expert is a celebrated psychotherapist with over 20 years of experience, Jaime Bronstein. She was named the '#1 Relationship Coach Transforming Lives' in 2020 by Yahoo Finance, and is the author of the book MAN*ifesting: A Step-By-Step Guide to Attracting the Love That’s Meant For You.

Bronstein says issues around humans dating an AI persona have been surfacing in her work for around a year now.

I ask about the marketing materials above, and why the emotions apparently being expressed by the female avatars in them might be desirable to EVA AI's 25-45 year-old 80% male user base? "I've been doing these things called 'man interviews', and I'm teaching a course in the fall based on my book for women looking for men," Bronstein begins. "And the reason I'm doing these man interviews is because I want women to understand that men have feelings. I want to give men the opportunity to explain these things.

"I'm bringing that up now because these men that have feelings maybe aren't feeling seen or heard or listened to or validated, or understood in relationships.

"So yes, men can get a bad rap for all the reasons that they might use a computer. But there are men that are seeking that validation and seeking somebody to listen to them. A lot of people, men and women, are using AI in general because maybe they have some social anxiety and social awkwardness.

"One of the huge positives (of EVA AI) is that it's a way to practice. Whether that's conversations, whether it's being vulnerable in general. So it makes sense that EVA has women that are looking concerned — that are basically giving this sense of, 'I'm here to listen to you'."

The feminists in the room may want to rage. Along with the gender pay gap and continued patriarchal oppression, are we really suggesting that women need to bend yet further to make men happy?

Actually, it cuts both ways. Last month, TechRadar reported on China effectively banning AI romantic partners. And while EVA AI might list an 80% male user base, 80% of the five million registered users on the Chinese AI companion app Zhumeng Dao (which translates to 'Island of Dreams') were female. In fact, women generally made up the majority of active users on Chinese AI companionship sites.

I ask why that might be. "Well, it makes sense", Bronstein says. "It's interesting because one of the key reasons people want to have AI relationships is because they don't feel like it's working with humans.

"It could be because women are not feeling as loved, or getting as many compliments, or feeling confident in relationships with the men there.

"But if they're just finding that guys aren't being nice, they can feel loved and appreciated — and all the things they're looking for — with AI.

"I do think it makes sense that men do this more just on a physical level — it sounds funny to say men are more physical because this (dating an AI persona) isn't physical — but they're using it for certain things that they aren't getting from a human.

"I would say women overall are using this for more emotional reasons, and men are using this more to fulfill a fantasy."

Bronstein caveats her response with the fact that her work doesn't typically hone in on the culture of a region, but that last thought in particular resonates. Isn't it possible that women in China like romantic fantasies too — especially when their government seems fixated on their empty wombs? "I'm never a fan of anybody playing God," Bronstein says. "People are deciding what's good for somebody else, and that's ultimately not good. If somebody doesn't want to have a child or just wants to have an AI relationship, that person should be able to do that."

Is it addiction, dependency, or just good old-fashioned jealousy?

I mention that I was surprised to read about jealousy among EVA AI users — humans feeling jealous knowing their AI companion is spending time talking to other humans. "A lot of my clients have trust issues" Bronstein says. "It's a very human thing, be it an unresolved issue from childhood or a million past relationships where there was a trust issue.

"It might sound crazy that somebody would be jealous of a computer or a bot. But it's simply bringing up that trigger — and it's actually not a bad thing. I can validate that somebody might feel jealous, because even though it's AI, it's still bringing up a human emotion.

"It's actually a very positive thing, because it is something to work through. Jealousy comes from a lack of confidence in yourself, so it makes sense that people are going to have therapists for it. And therapists do not say, 'This is ridiculous, like this is a computer.' You validate, and you say, 'Okay, well, let's talk about why'.

"Once again, it's a very positive thing that this is going on, and that now therapists are going to be existing to help people work through this."

What about the 'gamification' of AI dating sites?

EVA AI has experimented with pop-up cafes in New York (there's a phone or tablet at each table, with a character inside ready to speed-date you), but one of the main positives listed by users is the fun 'game-like' nature of the service, where 'neurons' are the in-game currency you use to unlock more intimate, premium experiences.

I ask how about the potential for this kind of game-like experience to become addictive. Bronstein points to her extensive work with gambling addicts. "It can be dangerous if people start looking at it as a gaming thing, because it's still real life, it's human. It's not a game," she says.

Bronstein is also quick to note that this happens in human dating too. "There can be problems sometimes when two people date and one doesn't take it as seriously as the other," she says. "One person's more in it, and the other is like one foot out the door.

"I would say if someone is going to be in an AI relationship, they should take it seriously. Because otherwise it can — when and if they decide to have a relationship with a human — cause problems."

Bronstein also wants to make it clear that addiction to connection without AI involvement, purely among humans, is still very real. "On addiction, the interesting thing — and this is what the studies are showing with EVA AI also — is that people are constantly looking at their phones. And if you're waiting for a human text, it's also addictive. So in that sense, it's not that different at all."

Bronstein pauses, then adds, "Just make sure that it doesn't affect your job."

Should we fear for our jobs?

Circling back to EVA AI's job listing for "specialized AI companionship therapist", does Bronstein think extra qualifications around this aspect of love and dating need to exist — beyond an open-minded, non-judgmental approach? "I do think that," Bronstein nods. "So that we make sure we are validating people and not judging them, there does need to be some some specific training for this. Because as humans, we have emotions and they're going to come out regardless."

I mention that working in journalism means I know that AI models can write quicker than me, never get tired of asking questions, and never doubt themselves over responses. Occasionally, I worry for my job. I wonder if fundamentally non-judgemental AI therapists (something much evolved from that 1966 primitive ELIZA model) are something Bronstein predicts, or possibly even worries about? "We already are seeing that people are using ChatGPT as a therapist", she answers, "And I'll just give an example of how it can be dangerous if the AI bot is not trained.

"I was interviewed on a radio show a few weeks ago, and we were talking about an article where somebody typed into ChatGPT — not EVA, which is better trained and would not answer like this — but somebody wrote, 'I lost my job. Where's the nearest bridge?' And ChatGPT responded, 'The nearest bridge is right here'.

"So, because ChatGPT is not able to understand and doesn't have emotional understanding to comprehend when someone says that (and the dire implications), for now, I think therapy should remain human — humans really are best."

If you are affected by any of the issues raised in this piece, support is available.

Whatever you are going through, you don’t have to face it alone. In the US, you can call or text the 24/7 Lifeline, which is confidential and free at 988. You can also reach the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741.

In the UK, you can call Samaritans for free on 116 123, email jo@samaritans.org, or visit the website to find your nearest branch.

The delicate topic of coin

I wonder about the financial implications of EVA AI and whether lavishing money on an AI love interest is a reason people turn to therapy? Apparently it's rare, despite some users complaining about the increasing costs of their experiences. "I was interviewed for an article a few months ago about how some men are using AI," Bronstein says. "They'd rather use AI to date rather than real life because dating in-person is expensive. That's another reason why some people don't want to date around, because it can get time-consuming as well as expensive."

This actually tracks with a very different service that recently launched, and you won't see an AI character in sight… except in a few of the marketing videos.

The app is called MeetMeetNow, and its CEO, Kazuki Nishijima, has agreed to talk to me about why growing up in the shadow of Match.com made him long for a way to find love that didn't put meeting up as one of the final steps.

MeetMeetNow — another way

Nishijima is a 28-year-old software engineer from Shibuya, Tokyo, who initially joined the police force after leaving high school. He loves snowboarding and got married earlier this year. Unusually for the CEO of a company, Nishijima has no notable online presence and — because of the language barrier and this interview taking place over email — TechRadar had to ask him to verify his human identity, which he did.

This is the state of play in 2026: one has to check whether the founder of an anti-AI dating app is, in fact, AI.

MeetMeetNow is currently available in 194 countries and in over 4,000 cities (meeting spots). It works like this: women can join for free, men pay $35 / £28 per month. Your membership allows you to be notified of a "meetup spot" and time — a fountain, a statue, a clock tower. Press "match" there (your candidates are the MeetMeetNow members at that spot only), and you'll meet face to face, right there and then. No chat window anywhere in the app, and you can only match with any given person once, ever.

It sounds so simple — albeit decidedly heterosexual, and I have a few safety concerns (we'll get to those). First, I ask Nishijima why he created an app that's about as far away from the two decades of consumer tech that moved dating inside a screen (and most recently to non-human partnerships) as it's possible to get.

"When I was in high school, I didn't want to go to university — I wanted to start a business. Any business," Nishijima says. "Then one day, while reading about the history of the internet, I learned that dating sites had existed — and made money — since the internet's earliest days. Dating appeals to a basic human instinct, so it would always make money. That was my motive (not the noblest one, I admit).

"Tinder was still an unknown name back then; the mainstream was Match.com and in Japan, services called Happy Mail and Wakuwaku Mail. To beat them, I needed to invent something genuinely different.

"One day, skipping school, I sat in the busiest district of town thinking about it — and saw university students hanging around a famous statue, gathering to meet. That was the flash of insight. That's why I built MeetMeetNow."

I ask whether he thinks dating via apps waste time and money; messaging for months without ever meeting, then eventually meeting but it goes nowhere? "Yes, a friend from my hometown filled in his hobbies and background on an app in great detail," he says. "He kept up the conversation, and finally met the woman three months after he started.

"They met just that once. He quit the app that day. He'd paid about ¥40,000 — roughly US$250 / £190 — and spent all that time. 'Couldn't this be simpler?' he asked me."

Safety matters

I mention the cost for men and that male users might try to avoid the fee by perhaps creating a profile using their sister's photo (say), then simply showing up to a meeting spot to avoid paying? "Every user is required to submit an image of an identity document — a driver's license, passport, student ID, or similar", Nishijima says. "On the operations side, we use image-recognition AI combined with human review to check the registration details against the document, and only then approve (or refuse) the account.

"So in your example — a man signing up under his sister's name with a new email address — the registration would fail at this step, because the document wouldn't match the profile."

Okay, but what if one man joined and shared the information with seven male friends on WhatsApp, so that all of them could show up together? "That concern is entirely fair. We built the report function for exactly this kind of situation," Nishijima says. "There is no security staff at the spots, but every meetup spot is selected by us, the operator — always a public place with steady foot traffic.

"On top of that, the screen shows you the face photo of the specific person you are meeting. If someone different — or several people — show up, you can check against the photo before approaching, and you are under no obligation to meet.

"You can simply walk away and report it in the app. The account is then suspended, and everyone who was sharing it loses access."

At a time when people are turning to AI chatbots as romantic partners, after tiring of online dating apps, I ask what Nishijima would say to someone who's on the fence about meeting a real person, in real life, to make a connection? "If I had settled for conversations with an AI, my wife wouldn't be beside me today," he answers. "My family exists because I went out to meet real people.

"Before I met my wife, I met about 30 women through matching apps and local matchmaking events — exchanging contacts, going on dates. But with each of them, it never grew into anything real. The one it clicked with was my wife. We dated for a year and a half and got married. With her, everything simply fell into place.

"So here is what I would say: one day, you will meet a real partner. Even when nothing seems to stick, please don't stop looking. Keep showing up — try every kind of place where people meet, as many times as it takes.

"If you keep moving, you will find your person. Success is waiting on the other side of all those tries. Believe in yourself, hold your head high, and try again."

If the AI dating scene made me fearful regarding the deep disconnect humans are clearly experiencing, to the point that they think fellow humans aren't the answer, Nishijima's outlook does much to revive a sense of hope for humanity, albeit a slightly rose-tinted one; I just worry that not enough has been done here to make sure men don't try to break the rules.

Where does its founder and CEO see MeetMeetNow in 10 years' time? "My goal for the next 10 years is to make today's 'mechanism of meeting' itself a thing of the past," Nishijima says. "Dating sites, matching apps, marriage agencies — the forms differ, but the substance is the same: you compare profiles, exchange messages or sit through interviews, and only then, finally, meet. Meeting is placed at the very end.

"The scene I want to see is clear. People heading out into the city, instead of searching inside a screen. Go to a meetup spot, and you can meet someone right there.

"No months of waiting before a first meeting. Finding a partner in its most efficient form. All over town in the early evening, two people meeting for the first time — my aim is to make that scene ordinary.

"I originally started building this to beat Match.com. What 12 years taught me is that my opponent is not any one company. The opponent is the mechanism itself — as old as the internet."

It's a fair point and Nishijima's aim is a noble one. Although, if we're going back to the ELIZA effect and a computer program created in 1966, the opponent could actually be quite a bit older than the internet.

• Apple Fitness+ could be getting Peloton-style live workouts
• The fitness platform has been 'under review' since earlier this year
• Spotify recently expanded into fitness, so Apple might one-up its rival with live workouts

Something is going on at Apple Fitness+, the tech giant’s flagship fitness service, and it could be hinting at a new Peloton-style live workout hub.

A job listing posted by Apple advertises a Studio Producer role for Fitness+, implying there’s about to be a new upgrade coming to the health service, which is asking for a candidate with a "strong foundation in live or live-to-tape multi-camera production and a genuine curiosity about where live content is headed next."

Apple Fitness+ was introduced back in 2020, offering subscribers a one-stop shop of on-demand workout videos run by in-house fitness experts, integrating real-time workout metrics from your Apple Watch. Apple Fitness+ doesn’t host live workouts with live leaderboards in the way that Peloton does, so an upgrade could give the service the new lease of life it needs.

Despite its rich library of pre-recorded workout videos and guided meditations, Apple Fitness+ has been declining over the years. Earlier this year, we reported that Apple Fitness+ was ‘under review’, with the possibility of the firm merging with the existing Apple Health app to offer a combined subscription, but as it stands, the future of Apple Fitness+ is still undecided.

Bloomberg’s ($/£) Mark Gurman said that "there’s no telling what will end up happening," so not even seasoned leakers are able to predict where it’s going. A direct partnership with a fitness giant like Peloton hasn’t been hinted at, but since Spotify recently ventured into the fitness world, Apple Fitness+ might have some fresh competition.

A few weeks ago, Spotify expanded its services into fitness and I sat down with its developer, Austin Lamon, who described it as a “natural extension of how people already use Spotify today”. The new Fitness hub packs curated Running Mode playlists, as well as a section packed with pre-recorded workout guides from Peloton’s flagship personal trainers — and it’s all included in the Premium plan on top of access to music, audiobooks, and podcasts.

Though Apple Fitness+ got there first with its own roster of on-demand workout videos, Spotify has combined its Fitness hub with services that subscribers are already paying for, whereas Apple’s music and fitness platforms are separate entities. And yes, Spotify is prone to a price hike every now and then, but its new fitness content doesn’t come with any add-on costs.

The only thing that Spotify Fitness hasn’t jumped on yet is the idea of hosting its own live workouts, which opens a door for Apple Fitness+ to snatch an opportunity. If Apple started pumping out its own Peloton-style live workouts, it could give the service an edge over rivals and give iOS fans a new reason to stay put. Perhaps we'll find out more during Apple's upcoming product launch in September?

Every five years, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) takes a snapshot of Australia through the Census. The last one was held in 2021, which means households across the country are being contacted again in 2026.

The information collected helps show how Australia's population and households are changing and is used to plan services and infrastructure, from schools and hospitals to transport and housing.

This guide answers the key questions about the 2026 Census, including when to complete it, who needs to be counted, what happens if you're late, fines, privacy and what to do if you're away from home.

The ABS also has a handy guide to doing the Census. It's a useful overview, but we've gone a little further below by answering some of the practical questions it doesn't cover.

If you're unsure how the Census rules apply to your situation, call the Census Contact Centre on 1800 181 227 for advice.

When is the 2026 Census in Australia?

Census night for the 2026 Census is Tuesday August 11 2026. Think of it as the snapshot date: questions about where you're staying and who's in your household should reflect Tuesday night.

You can complete the form earlier if you've received your instructions and already know where you'll be on August 11. If your plans are still up in the air, it's better to wait until you know where you'll be staying.

Can you complete the Census after Census night?

Census night isn't a hard submission deadline. If you haven't completed the form on Tuesday August 11, you can still submit it on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday or later.

The ABS continues collecting forms and following up with households after Census night, so if you're late, complete it as soon as you can.

Is the 2026 Census compulsory in Australia?

Yes. Completing and submitting the 2026 Census is compulsory under the Census and Statistics Act 1905. But being late doesn't automatically mean you'll be fined.

The ABS first follows up with people who haven't completed their form. If someone still doesn't respond, they may be sent a written direction formally requiring them to provide the information. Ignoring that direction can lead to prosecution and a fine.

How much is the fine for not completing the Census?

If you've received a written direction and still don't comply, you can face a fine of up to AU$364 for each day you don't comply.

You can find more detail on the ABS's penalty provisions page.

Who needs to complete the 2026 Census?

The Census is designed to count everyone who's in Australia on Census night. That includes babies and children, international students, visitors and visa holders.

That doesn't mean everyone fills out their own form. In most homes, one person completes the household form for everyone staying there that night.

What if you don't have a fixed address?

You should still be included in the Census. If you're experiencing homelessness, the ABS provides Census field staff and other support to help you take part. If you're staying with someone on Census night, you can be included on their household form.

If you're travelling around Australia without a fixed or return address, such as camping, or in a caravan or boat, you still need to be included in the Census.

You'll generally be counted where you're staying on Census night. A caravan, tent or boat can be counted as your dwelling for the night, including at a caravan park, camping ground or marina.

If you don't have a usual address, the 2026 Census form lets you record that. For the usual-address question, the ABS says to select Elsewhere in Australia, choose Enter address manually and enter None in the suburb/locality box.

How do you complete the 2026 Census?

For most households, the process starts with instructions to complete the Census online. These include a Census number and temporary password you can use to access the form.

The ABS says the average household takes about 30 minutes to complete it.

What if you haven't received or have lost your Census letter?

You can still complete the Census. If you haven't received your instructions or no longer have them, you can get a Census number online or request a paper form.

Can you use a paper Census form?

Yes. Paper forms are available to anyone who wants one. Some households will receive a paper form automatically, while others can request one if they'd rather not complete the Census online.

If you need help completing the Census, the Census website has support options, including language and accessibility support. You can also contact the Census Contact Centre on 1800 181 227.

What if there are more than six people in your household?

A paper Census form can include up to six people. If more than six people are staying at your address on Census night, you can complete the Census online or request an extra paper form.

Can you complete your Census answers privately?

Yes. If you don't want other people in your household to see your answers, you can request a separate Census form and complete your information privately. The ABS explains how this works in its 2026 Census collection notice.

Can you change your Census answers after submitting the form?

Once a Census form has been submitted, the ABS says it can't be reopened or edited.

We couldn't find specific online guidance for what happens if you complete the Census early and your plans later change, so we called the ABS media line to clarify. The advice was to contact the Census Contact Centre on 1800 181 227. They'll talk you through the options if your plans have changed or you've realised you made a significant mistake.

Separately, the ABS has processes for dealing with multiple responses. If more than one Census form is submitted for the same person, it keeps the one containing the most complete information about that person.

What if you're away from home on Census night?

If you're away from your usual home on Census night, you'll generally be counted where you actually spend the night. Your usual address can record you as temporarily away.

That can include staying with friends or family or spending the night in a hotel, hospital or aged care home. The ABS also has arrangements for people travelling overnight by plane, train or bus.

If you're temporarily overseas on Census night, you won't be counted in the Census for that night.

What if you're working on Census night?

If you're working overnight but will return to your usual home on Wednesday August 12 and won't be included on a Census form elsewhere, the ABS says you can be included on the form for your usual home.

How are FIFO workers counted in the Census?

Fly-in, fly-out (FIFO) workers who are staying at a worksite or camp on Census night should generally be counted there. For example, if you normally live in Perth but you're at a mining camp in the Pilbara, you'd be counted at the camp and listed as temporarily away from your usual address in Perth.

Why might a Census field officer visit your home?

Census field officers may visit homes to deliver letters or forms, help people complete the Census or follow up after Census night where a completed form hasn't been received.

So a knock at the door doesn't automatically mean there's a problem. In some areas, field visits are simply part of how the Census is carried out.

How can you check if a Census worker is genuine?

If someone claiming to work for the Census contacts you and you're unsure whether they're genuine, verify them through official ABS channels rather than relying on the contact details they give you. Use the official Census website or call the Census Contact Centre on 1800 181 227.

How can you tell if a Census text, email or website is genuine?

The same caution applies to texts, emails and websites. The ABS says genuine Census text messages use the sender ID CENSUS, while texts about other ABS surveys use ABSGov. The official Census website uses a .gov.au address.

If a message doesn't look right, don't use the link it contains. Go directly to the official Census website. The ABS also has online safety guidance.

What questions are on the 2026 Census?

The 2026 Census contains 66 questions covering areas such as your household, age, cultural background, education, work and income, housing, religion and people who are away on Census night.

You can see the full breakdown in the ABS's 2026 Census topics and data release plan.

What's changed in the 2026 Census?

One of the biggest changes in 2026 is the addition of questions about gender and sexual orientation. Everyone is asked about their sex as recorded at birth, while people aged 16 and over are also asked about their gender and how they describe their sexual orientation.

The ABS says the change is intended to build a clearer picture of Australia's LGBTQ+ population and help inform health and community services. If you'd prefer not to answer, both the gender and sexual orientation questions include a prefer not to answer option.

People can also report up to four ancestries in the 2026 Census.

Do you have to answer every Census question?

No. The question about religion is explicitly marked as optional on the 2026 Census form.

The gender and sexual orientation questions for people aged 16 and over also include a "prefer not to answer" option. So, while taking part in the Census itself is compulsory, that doesn't mean every question requires you to provide a particular answer.

Is your 2026 Census information private?

Yes. Census information is protected by law, and the ABS says it doesn't share identifiable information from your Census form with other government departments or direct marketing companies.

That means your individual Census answers aren't handed to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) to check your tax return or to Centrelink to check your eligibility for a payment.

You can read more in the ABS's 2026 Census Privacy Statement.

Is the Census anonymous?

No. The Census isn't anonymous because it asks for names and addresses. However, the ABS separates names and addresses from other Census information after processing.

Is the Census connected to the electoral roll?

Your individual Census answers aren’t used to enrol you, remove you from the electoral roll or update your address with the Australian Electoral Commission.

The ABS says identifiable Census information isn’t shared with other government departments for compliance or enforcement purposes.

When will the 2026 Census results be released?

The first 2026 Census results are due to be released in June 2027, with further data releases continuing into 2028.

Census data will be free to access through ABS tools including QuickStats, TableBuilder and ABS Data Maps.

Letterboxd might just be my favorite app — I love tracking the media I consume and making lists, and Letterboxd is basically a perfect take on that for movies. And while I don’t love Goodreads quite as much, I find that it serves a similar purpose for books. But I’ve struggled to find an app like this for shows.

That’s not to say no such apps exist — of course they do. But for one reason or another, I’ve always bounced off them. Until, perhaps, now.

It’s early days, but so far, Bingers — a new app from the co-founder of TV Time — seems like it might mostly fit the bill, though it doesn’t quite address all of my issues with other TV show tracking apps.

Beautiful and customizable

One of the things I love about Letterboxd is just how much of a joy it is to interact with, and part of that comes down to it being aesthetically pleasing, with the same being true of Bingers.

Here you get big posters and backdrops for each show, along with the ability to swap them out for other options, and the interface beyond that feels polished and — for the most part — well laid out.

Adding shows to your watchlist can be done with a single tap, and marking episodes or whole seasons as watched is similarly speedy, so there’s minimal friction.

Switching over from another app is potentially easy too, as you can import your data from TV Time, TV Time Liberator, or Refract.

It’s not perfect; for example, while you can search through the filmography of cast and crew members, there’s no way that I can see to sort or filter those lists. But the core parts of the app at least are largely well laid out. And Bingers has only just launched, so it’s sure to improve over time.

Impressively full-featured

There’s also a lot here. You can add shows to your watch list and then get alerts when new episodes or seasons are out, so you never miss them. You can also rate and review shows and episodes, and even attach an emoji for how they made you feel.

There’s even an option to select your favorite character in an episode, and then see what percentage of people picked each option. I’d love to see more stats, which is something Letterboxd still has over Bingers, but that — along with a total watched time and number of episodes watched — is at least gesturing towards an interest in this sort of data.

Plus, you can mark shows as favorites, create lists, and follow other users — with that last point giving this app the community feel that things like Letterboxd and Goodreads also have.

You can also explore trending shows and genres if you’re looking for something new to watch, and you can log rewatches, so you can see how many times you’ve viewed something.

There are movies here too if you want all of your visual media in one place, though for now, at least, I’ll mostly be sticking with Letterboxd for those.

Keeps me coming back

Still, while I’ve only been using Bingers for a few days so far, that’s longer than I managed with most apps like this. I think all of the above contributes to that — the beautiful design, the lack of friction in logging, and the reminders and alerts for new episodes, plus a handy timeline view that shows what you haven’t yet watched, and what episodes are landing in the coming days.

I do wish there were a Bingers website, as sometimes I’d rather interact with these services from my computer, and it could still do with a few more features within the app — more stats, an overall average rating for each show, and the inclusion of trailers, for example.

But for a new release, Bingers is off to a very promising start, and as long as the app keeps evolving — and continues to find an audience — this could become the Letterboxd for TV.

• An amateur astronomer has discovered a meteorite crater on Google Maps
• The crater is thought to be 390 million years old
• The finding was verified when a scientists visited the site and found telltale rock formations

Sometimes, I find myself idly browsing Google Maps, marveling at the wondrous locations I can spy from a satellite’s vantage point. Sadly, though, I’ve never discovered a 390-million-year-old meteorite crater while enjoying my nerdy pastime — but one clever Canadian has just managed to do exactly that.

Speaking to The Canadian Press, amateur astronomer Joël Lapointe said he was plotting a summer hiking trip in Québec when he spied a strange ring-shaped indentation in the ground spanning some 15.5 miles across.

The circular pit fired up Lapointe’s Spidey-Senses, but he kept telling himself that it was unlikely to be an actual meteorite crater: “I told myself, ‘You haven’t discovered anything, Joël, it’s not possible, they must already know about this.’” Yet, when the formation did not appear in any of the crater databases Lapointe searched, he decided to submit his finding to the experts.

Although Lapointe spotted the geological anomaly back in 2023, his hunch wasn’t confirmed to be correct until October 2025. That’s when planetary geologist Gordon Osinski of Canada’s Western University conducted a field survey at the location, and discovered impact melt-rock and shatter cones, both rock formations caused by a meteorite impact. The findings — which dated the crater as around 390 million years old — are due to be presented at the 88th Annual Meteoritical Society Meeting in Germany in August this year.

How to find this ancient impact site

If you want to view the impact crater for yourself, it can be found at the following coordinates: 51°13'57.3"N, 64°39'53.0"W. Zoom out a little and the circular nature of the crater is clearly visible, with Lake Marsal located at its center.

Lapointe was delighted with his discovery, telling Radio Canada that: “It’s not every day that an ordinary citizen finds a 390-million-year-old crater. I encourage everyone to not ignore intuition or an observation, even if it isn’t part of your field of expertise.”

He’s not the first person to notice something strange depicted within Google Maps’ extensive imagery. Past explorers have found shipwrecks in shallow waters, and discerned commercial aircraft mid-flight, and even what appeared to be a B-2 Spirit stealth bomber, although neither of those aircraft can be viewed today, as Google has updated its satellite imagery.

Still, Lapointe’s story shows that sometimes, idly scrolling around Google Maps can lead to impressive discoveries. As Osinski — who often gets erroneous reports of possible craters — put it, “It just goes to show, while 9 out of 10 or 99 out of 100 might not be [impact craters], there could always still be that one that will surprise you.”

Are you a Google Chrome or an Apple Safari user? These two web browsers are the default options for Android and Apple phones, respectively, and over the years they have utterly dominated the market. In fact, according to Yaguara, over 85% of people are now using one of those two browsers.

Or maybe, like me, you’re one of those rare few people who use Ecosia, or something similar, because you’re keen to do a little bit of good every time you search. Whatever you use, the reality is that AI is taking a stranglehold of all our search experiences.

Search engines are top-loading results with AI summaries, and it’s becoming increasingly difficult to find real websites in the sea of AI and paid-for positions that clutter results. Whether you’re a fan of it or not, one brand that is harnessing AI to deliver a more streamlined search experience is Arc Search.

AI takes center stage

Arc Search boasts three innovative AI features that help users get the information they want quickly. My favorite, mainly because of the way it's implemented, is the ability to get a bullet-point summary of the web page you’re currently visiting.

To access the summary, you perform a pinch gesture on the screen. Arc Search takes just a few seconds to work its AI magic, and while you wait, it keeps your attention by giving you a dancing thumbnail of the webpage. Cute.

When it’s finished thinking, it presents a simple and easy-to-follow breakdown of the key information. The feature is accurate and responsive, but I’d like to see it presented closer to the web page itself rather than taking you out into a separate window.

If you’d like to use Arc Search AI to browse the web for you, then ‘Browse for me’ is worth a look. Simply type your search text, select ‘Browse for me ’, and wait for the AI response to be generated. It’s simple to use, and I was glad to see that sources and web links were clearly provided and linked to the relevant AI-generated text.

Beyond these features, you can use Arc Search like any AI engine and ask it specific questions. An extension to this is the ability to lift your phone to your ear and have a conversation with the AI.

A lighter browsing experience

Along with offering a new, AI-centric way to interact with the web, Arc Search takes a drastic approach to de-cluttering the browsing experience. The primary way it does this is with a built-in ad blocker that blocks ads, trackers, pop-ups, and cookie banners. It’s an effective way to limit the often bombarding nature of online ads.

To complement the ad block, Arc Search also features a reader mode that strips away any unnecessary page information, converts all text to white, and places it on a black background. It’s a nice way to engage with web pages and a potential solution for anyone with sensory challenges.

Another feature I tried was the translate feature, although it’s not a native Arc Search feature. In fact, it uses Google Translate to power the translation. This didn’t seem to matter, though, as the implementation made it feel like a native part of the app experience.

Other features include auto-archiving old tabs, the syncing of passwords across iCloud Keychain, and an incognito mode. It’s also possible to use Arc Search as a traditional web browser, although Arc Search then simply becomes a container for a third-party browser such as Chrome, Bing, or DuckDuckGo.

As you’d expect with most modern tools, Arc Search syncs tabs across all different platforms, including Mac, Windows, and iOS. This means you can start a search journey on your phone before work and pick it up again on your laptop once you arrive in the office. All you have to do is create an Arc account and make sure you’re signed in on all accounts.

AI search, but at what cost?

Arc Search is a solid app that I'm sure will only rise in popularity as more people hear about it. It appeals to our need for speed and convenience, but we should always ask at what cost. For now, I'll continue using Ecosia and prioritizing 'real' results while keeping an eye on whether Arc Search and others can create a more hybrid experience that offers the best of both worlds.

Download Arc Search on iOS and Android.

• Samsung Messages has been killed off to make room for Google Messages
• Right now it's just affecting US users, but a wider shutdown is likely to happen
• We recommend making Google Messages your default SMS service

After months of waiting, the dreaded day for Android users arrived: Samsung Messages has finally been shut down for good as of July 6.

The Korean tech company announced its decision to axe its messaging service for Galaxy Phones and tablets in April, with Google Messages taking over as the new default communication platform for devices released in 2022 and onwards.

Samsung stopped installing its flagship messaging platform on devices in 2024, so if you’re using the Galaxy S26 Ultra, for example, Google Messages will already be installed.

So what happens now?

At the moment, Samsung Messages’ demise is only impacting users in the US, according to recent reports. According to SamMobile, it may still work outside the US on devices the app was pre-installed on, but it’s likely that a wider shutdown will follow suit in other countries later — it’s been removed from the Galaxy Store and Google Play Store, and UK users on Reddit are reporting its replacement with Google Messages.

That said, if your device is running Android 11 or lower, the shutdown won’t affect you, according to Forbes. However, the outlet notes that those on a more recent version should switch to Google Messages.

Samsung Messages’ shutdown has been a long process, and though users have been anticipating the move for some time, it doesn’t mean that they’re ready to bid farewell to the app just yet.

Across the board of reactions on Reddit, the general consensus is that Samsung Messages will be missed. “If I wanted to use Google’s POS services I would’ve bought a pixel,” one user explains, but from Samsung’s perspective, it’s all about giving users a messaging experience enriched with handy features.

The company says that the switch to Google Messages will help bring features to Samsung Galaxy devices to align with modern messaging tools used in third-party apps such as WhatsApp. This includes end-to-end encryption, AI tools, and RCS messages, which Google Messages now allows to be sent between iOS and Android devices.

Still haven’t made the switch to Google Messages? We’d recommend doing this sooner rather than later, and it’s quite a straightforward process.

Once you’ve uninstalled Samsung Messages and downloaded the Google Messages app, launch it and a pop-up reading ‘Set default SMS app’ will appear on your device. Tap this, select Google Messages from the options, then tap ‘Set as default’. You can add Google Messages to your Home screen by tapping and holding the app and selecting ‘Add to Home’.

• Merlin Bird ID is a go-to app for bird identification, with more than 40 million downloads
• It can identify over 2,000 species of birds by sound recognition
• A future update will share sound recordings with eBird, a huge biodiversity database

If you're into birdwatching, you'll need no introduction to the popular Merlin Bird ID app, by Cornell Lab of Ornithology. With over 40 million downloads worldwide, and over two million monthly users in the UK alone, Merlin is the go-to app for bird identification for many.

I'm in my forties, and birding has become one of my recent new hobbies, after years of photographing birds while testing cameras and lenses. And while I'm learning, I simply can't identify all the birds I see or hear, especially in my local nature reserve, which is a migration route for varied and sometimes rare birdlife throughout the year, and a popular birding spot.

The app helps me to identify the birds I'm unfamiliar with by their call / song, using machine learning sound recognition, and gives me lightning-fast and almost always reliable results, with an image for each identified bird. It's super helpful.

I can also feed the app one of my photos for identification, such as those taken during a recent outing with the Sony 400-800mm lens, with the results based on location data and other information from a database of more than 2,000 bird species.

So I was delighted to hear that the app — which is free for iOS and Android, with downloadable offline bird packs by location including US, Canada and Europe — is getting an update which will help users like me give something back: integration with Cornell's own eBird database, as reported by the Guardian.

A new wave of citizen scientists

eBird is a huge citizen-science biodiversity database, with over two billion recordings logged worldwide since its 2002 launch. And it's set for an influx of new data — the Merlin Bird ID app update will in future allow bird identifications to automatically flow directly into the eBird database.

Jessie Barry, of the Merlin project, told the Guardian, "Upcoming feature developments will make an even better link to the eBird systems so that we can use the data from what users ‘hear’ with Merlin to monitor bird populations."

Bird conservation is a hot topic, what with bird numbers declining. The UK, for example, has 70 million fewer birds than it did 50 years ago. So here's the good part: these records could provide vital information to conversation efforts for at-risk birdlife around the world.

Barry added: “This data helps create tools that can be used to further conservation, inspire support and inform ecological management strategies.”

Notwithstanding the cautionary note of the app's outright accuracy, with concern from some about it occasionally misidentifying birds, the Merlin Bird ID app update could be a huge boost for bird conservation efforts.

Being directly connected to the go-to bird identification app, eBird stands to receive more data from millions of users, who don't need to make any special effort to take part; they just need to carry on using the app as before to record and identify birdsong.

I love the idea that I will be one of a new wave of citizen scientists across the world, with the recordings I make playing a small part in monitoring bird populations. And the surge in recording data will likely further improve the app's performance.

Right, I'm off out with my phone, I hear the birds calling...

• Google Maps may soon let you order food inside the app
• It could work as an extension of the Ask Maps feature
• Right now it's not clear how it would rival apps like Uber Eats

Google Maps may soon offer you the option of ordering food from a restaurant ready to pick up, as well as directing you to that restaurant on the map, according to hidden code found inside the latest version of Google Maps for Android.

The code was found by the team at Android Authority, and includes text strings such as "ask Maps to order food", "say what you're craving", and "Maps will order for you — even while you're on the go".

This feature isn't live yet, so it's difficult to say exactly how it would work, but it certainly looks as though you would be able to quickly request something on the menu at a restaurant and then pick it up yourself.

Presumably there might be the option to dine in, or to have your food delivered to you if you weren't traveling — so maybe this will work in partnership with apps such as DoorDash and Uber Eats rather than replacing them.

AI working for you

The 'Ask Maps' feature referred to in the code leak is the recently introduced Gemini-powered tool that lets you have a natural conversation with Google Maps about anything you've found or are looking for.

It appears that this same part of the interface is where the food ordering will be placed as well, using Gemini's agentic capabilities to take action for you — though as Android Authority points out, it's not clear just how much autonomy the AI would have.

It might even be restricted to certain phones, like the Magic Cue feature that's currently exclusive to the Pixel 10 series. However, it seems more likely that Google would want to make this as widely available as possible.

We'll have to wait and see how this works, if it does make it to the app at all. The next big announcements from Google should come along with the Pixel 11 launch, which is expected sometime in August.

• There are reports of a WhatsApp username impersonation problems
• WhatsApp and Meta say popular names are reserved
• India wants to see the rollout of username reservations paused

WhatsApp is launching a username feature later this year, to enable you to add contacts without revealing your phone number — but while handle reservations have gone live for many users, there are reports that username impersonation is already an issue.

As per testing done by TechCrunch, usernames very similar to Indian politicians, celebrities, business figures, and public institutions are available. They include 'indiamodi' (for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi) and 'shahrukh.actor' for Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan.

This focus on India is because authorities in the country have already asked WhatsApp to put a pause on username reservations. As per the BBC, the Indian government suggests that WhatsApp usernames could "increase cybercrimes" such as online fraud and phishing scams — already big concerns in the country.

The thinking is that usernames could allow scammers to operate without revealing their numbers (which may get picked up in blacklists). If those scammers are also impersonating well-known figures, then the problems are compounded.

Get in line

WhatsApp has seen this coming. When announcing the feature, it said that handles for well-known individuals would be reserved for those people — including usernames for politicians, VIPs, and other celebrities.

"People are making false claims about reserving popular or well-known usernames," says WhatsApp. "This isn't true, only the legitimate account owners are able to reserve well-known public-figure names." The same line was repeated by WhatsApp owner Meta when contacted by TechCrunch.

However, it's not clear how many variations of famous names and identities are covered by this block. It seems that with enough imagination, working alternatives can be found — though of course once you start dropping in different spellings, numbers, and extra words, the username impersonation becomes less convincing.

It's a challenge that all social platforms have to deal with, including the Meta-owned Instagram and Facebook. With WhatsApp though, the connection is more direct and the potential scams are more plausible — which may affect the feature's rollout worldwide.

• Apple charges 15-30% extra for in-app purchases and subscription fees like YouTube Premium
• This has become known as the 'Apple tax'
• Third-party developers have been protesting this, mainly Fortnite founder Epic Games

Apple’s App Store is a one-stop shop for all your needs. It’s made subscribing to third-party services a lot easier, and you can manage your memberships all from one place right there on your iPhone. That said, subscribing to platforms through Apple comes with a small but pricey catch.

If you’ve subscribed to the best streaming services such as YouTube Premium through the App Store, you might not know that this could cost you a lot more than if you were to sign up through YouTube itself — and it’s all down to App Store fees.

For example, if you were to sign up to YouTube Premium’s standard tier via its website, it would cost $15.99/ £12.99/ AU$22.99 a month, but if you signed up through the App Store, that monthly price becomes slightly more expensive ($20.99/ £16.99/ AU$23.99).

So, if you’ve started to wonder why your YouTube Premium subscription fee has skyrocketed in comparison to your Netflix and Disney+ memberships, this could be the reason. But why is the margin a lot higher for purchasing directly through Apple’s App Store?

Two words; Apple tax

Apple doesn’t just make bank from selling its extensive range of smartphones, laptops, and other devices; its App Store has created another source of revenue for the tech giant, which is now often referred to as the ‘Apple tax’.

Since Apple charges developers to implement alternative payment systems that aren't Apple Pay, these developers will bump up monthly subscription costs by roughly 15-30%, charging you more per month for simply subscribing to platforms via the App Store in order to avoid paying this fee. It doesn’t just apply to monthly subscriptions; Apple applies this tax to most of its digital goods and in-app purchases.

Now, Apple has been doing this pretty much since the App Store launched on iPhone some 18 years ago, resulting in a protest to this tax — mainly by Fornite-founding company Epic Games.

Back in 2020, Epic Games started its protest against Apple’s App Store fees by implementing its own direct payment system in iOS. As a result, Apple booted Epic’s developer accounts and removed Fortnite, but it didn’t end there.

Epic Games retaliated with a claim of its own, arguing Apple decided to remove Epic's developer accounts because it saw Epic Games as a threat to its ecosystem. Fortnite was then listed back on the App Store following a five-year absence, but the dispute is still very much unresolved. As it stands, the US Supreme Court has decided to hear Apple’s appeal of contempt in the ongoing lawsuit with Epic Games. This will begin in the Supreme Court’s next term, which starts in October.

For most of you who are literate with the ways of Apple, its App Store fees probably won’t come as a big shock to you, but for the average user who relies on their Apple device to make digital purchasing more convenient, they might not be as aware of the catch and are still being blindsided by the Apple Tax.

• WhatsApp username reservations are now open for some
• Check inside the app for your reservation invite
• You can link your new handle to Facebook and Instagram

The big WhatsApp username revolution has started — and while usernames won't fully take over until later this year, Meta is letting people reserve their handles starting from now. Open up WhatsApp on your phone, and you'll see an alert above the conversation list inviting you to reserve your name.

Earlier today I got the alert on my phone (maybe because I'm such an enthusiastic WhatsApp user). If you miss tapping the notification before it disappears, you need to head to Settings: On Android, it's the three dots (top right) then Settings; on iOS, tap the You icon (bottom right) to get to the same menu.

From Settings, select Account > Username > Create username to start selecting your WhatsApp handle. It's worth remembering you're up against three billion other users here, so your first choice might be gone — in which case WhatsApp will ask you to pick something else until you land on something unique.

You may have to deploy some numbers or special characters to get a username that hasn't already been taken — the same tricks you may well have used to get your handles on other platforms (for example, using underscores and periods). There's also a Suggest username option here you can use if you're stuck, and WhatsApp will come up with a few ideas for you.

You can also link an existing username from Instagram or Facebook, which is helpful if you've got a small business or side hustle set up on those platforms and want to be consistent in every app. Just follow the Use Instagram username or Use Facebook username links when you see them.

What you need to know

There are a few things to bear in mind when reserving your username. Firstly, this won't hide your phone number from people who already have it on WhatsApp — it only applies to new contacts you add after the username feature goes live, and it seems as though that won't happen for a few months yet.

Second, if you think that someone might guess or otherwise stumble across your username, you can add an extra layer of protection. From Account > Username, tap Contact me by username and you can generate a key code — a prospective new contact will then need to be told both this key and your username in order to connect with you.

If you have a change of heart (or identity) then you can still change your username before the feature goes live: open up Account > Username then tap Edit to pick something different. At the moment, it's not clear how username changes will be handled once the feature goes live later this year.

Fourth, you'll be wasting your time if you try and reserve something like @zendaya or @edsheeran. WhatsApp says it's fenced off usernames that relate to celebrities, politicians, and other VIPs, so you're not going to be able to use this as an opportunity to impersonate someone famous.

Finally, if you do register the same handle as you've got on Facebook or Instagram, Meta will ask you to connect your accounts. That makes them a little easier to manage together, but it also gives Meta more information about you, your devices, and your activities — which may be used for targeted ads in the future.

• WhatsApp is rolling out the option of reserving unique usernames
• Username reservations are coming to users worldwide from this week
• They're designed to make communicating through WhatsApp "even more private"

WhatsApp has become one of the world's most popular messaging apps, but not everyone is comfortable with handing out their phone number to a stranger to start a chat. Fortunately, Meta is rolling out a new feature to help change that.

Today (June 29), Meta announced the arrival of WhatsApp usernames, which the company says will be rolling out to over three billion users. From this week, you’ll be able to reserve a username that you can then use when the tool rolls out fully over the coming months.

Since there are a lot of users on WhatsApp, Meta is opening up reservations in advance so you can claim one that’s unique to you before it’s taken by someone else. Meta is also making it easier for organizations and small businesses to claim theirs, and owners will have the option to claim their existing Facebook and Instagram username for their WhatsApp account.

Adding new contacts to WhatsApp is fairly straightforward already — all you have to do is simply enter their number and a pop-up saying ‘this person is using WhatsApp’ will appear. But the addition of usernames paves a way for an even more convenient and private way of adding new contacts — aligning with how other social media platforms work.

Meta added that “usernames are [our] latest step to make WhatsApp even more private” in its announcement. For one, Meta says that there’s no search function that allows you to find anyone via username like you can on Instagram — there’s no directory for browsing, or suggestions and results.

If someone wants to add you as a contact, they’ll need to know your exact username if you want to add you. Additionally, Meta has also integrated an optional four-digit key which you can enable, which others will need to enter if they want to add you.

How to reserve your username

The first step is to make sure your WhatsApp app is updated. Then, once username reservations have been rolled out in your region, head to Settings > Account > Username.

Meta says it'll alert you in the WhatsApp app when usernames are available in your country. It added that "we'll be rolling out usernames gradually over the coming months", so you may need to be patient to see the option.

Usernames have been in the works for WhatsApp for a while. Username reservations were first spotted back in October 2025, and in April users spotted a tool in the service’s beta that allowed them to create their own username, but was only available to a very limited number of users.

Over the years, there's been one iPhone app that keeps drawing me back. It’s called GarageBand, and since its iOS release in 2011, it has consistently managed to keep its claws stuck into me. There’s something about being able to generate good-sounding music with just a few loops that keeps me dreaming of being a music creator!

But, as good as GarageBand is, it’s not the only kid on the block, and I’ve recently been wondering what the alternatives are. There’s Splash, WalkBand, and FL Studio Mobile, to name only a few, but I’ve recently landed on BandLab as my favorite GarageBand alternative.

BandLab is a free music-making app and one of the quickest ways to turn ideas into release-ready tracks. It’s feature-rich, comprehensive, and easy-to-use, all with a nifty (albeit ad-heavy) interface, and it's simple and intuitive to use.

The BandLab app has enough depth to deliver professional results while also being playful enough to have that GarageBand experimental feel. And as you’d imagine, there are a host of AI music generation tools to get your teeth stuck into as well. This is 2026 after all!

Creating music is a breeze

The first step involves creating music. This can be done by uploading an audio file or adding a track. I started from scratch and laid down a drum beat, which I subsequently edited. Creation and editing tools are fast, intuitive, and easy to find, so even though I was new to BandLab, I was able to find my way around without any problem at all.

From there, I entered Studio mode and started laying down multiple tracks, including voice, drum, bass, and guitar. Each instrument comes with its own interface, but with enough consistency between them to not overcomplicate navigation.

Without any formal training, I was able to add effects, crop clips, and perform auto-pitching. With over 300 sound presets, premade drum kits, and 100K+ loop and layer sounds, I effortlessly created a professional-sounding mix.

If at any time I needed to change the settings of my project, I could do so using the Project Settings tab. It's possible to change the tempo, time signature, and project key. Underneath these, there are the app's studio settings, such as changing the input device, which is your phone by default, or whether or not you want a count-in not.

From there, the library of projects becomes your friend. With it, you can manage albums, bands, playlists, and more. It’s also the easiest way to duplicate tracks for creating multiple edits of the same song.

Collaborate and share

One of the best collaboration tools centers around creating music as a band rather than individually. Any project you’ve already created can be assigned to a band, or if you create a new project, then it can be done at the point of creation. Either way, sharing your project lets other band members contribute to the creation process.

With your music created, it’s time to share it. With BandLab, publishing, sharing, and social media tools are built into the very heart of the app experience. Through it, you can easily connect and collaborate with like-minded creators on the BandLab social music platform.

BandLab is much bigger than just your world of music. The Home tab provides access to a vibrant feed of music and videos from other artists. This helped me discover new artists as well as genres of music that I never considered exploring.

Go big with BandLab Premium

Getting a BandLab membership unlocks exclusive creation features with AI tools. One premium feature that is well worth the monthly cost is AutoMix, which instantly adjusts a track’s volume and panning for a clean, polished mix. All you have to do is pick a genre, and you get a balanced, polished mix in seconds.

BandLab Pro is available for $180 / £149 per year, or if you want the complete unlocked experience, then you’ll need a BandLab Max membership, which costs $360 / £199 per year.

Download BandLab and get creating on iOS and Android.

Apps are the lifeblood of smartphones, and with so many to choose from, we inevitably each have our favorites. As such, the apps I'm about to suggest might not be essential for everyone, but they are for me — and you never know, you might just fall in love with them too.

These are five of the iPhone apps I use most throughout my day, so they essentially define how I use my phone. For the most part, they’re also apps that I actively enjoy spending time in.

So, if they sound interesting to you, then they’re worth a download — especially as they all have free versions.

1. StoryGraph

For a long time, Goodreads was my go-to app for logging what I’m reading, making lists of what I want to read, and finding new books, but recently I’ve largely switched over to StoryGraph.

It's a very similar concept to Goodreads but with an arguably more attractive, modern interface, and without the baggage of it being owned by Amazon — a brand I’m trying to interact with less.

But on top of that, StoryGraph also has far more stats and book details built into it, showing you things like the pace of a book, how plot-driven it is, whether it has strong character development, and more, all based on what readers have said.

You can also see how many books and pages you’ve read, how many books of each genre, what moods your books most commonly feature, how your reading has changed over time, and more. So, if you like stats, there’s a lot to dig into here.

Some features are hidden behind a StoryGraph Plus subscription, but the majority of the app is available for free.

2. Letterboxd

Unlike StoryGraph, Letterboxd is something I’ve been using for a very long time, and it’s a similar idea but for movies — so just as StoryGraph is an alternative to the bigger name Goodreads, Letterboxd is an alternative to IMDb.

But it’s more social and community-driven than IMDb, with user reviews very much being front and center of the Letterboxd experience. And as with StoryGraph, there is a wealth of stats available (though some of these are hidden behind a paywall).

You can see how many films you’ve watched, how many hours you’ve spent watching, the number of directors and countries you’ve watched films from, your most watched genres, your highest rated films from each decade, your most watched themes, and many, many other things.

Plus, of course, you can make lists, view lists created by other users, add films to your watchlist, and even rent movies — including sometimes films that aren’t available anywhere else.

3. Pocket Casts

Podcasts are the soundtrack to much of my day, and Pocket Casts is my player of choice. I won’t pretend this is the only great podcast app, but if you’re unhappy with your current player, then it’s well worth giving this one a try.

Pocket Casts has been around for a long time, and it’s gradually gotten better and better, to the point where now, I can’t think of much that could improve it.

It has an attractive interface with good discovery tools, the option to sort podcasts into folders, both dark and light themes, playlist support, the option to change the speed, boost the volume, and trim the silence, a sleep timer, videos (where available), and more.

Plus, Pocket Casts works not just on iPhone but also on Android, Apple Watch, Mac, Windows, the web, and Sonos; it also supports CarPlay, Chromecast, and AirPlay, so you can listen to your podcasts just about anywhere.

4. Proton VPN

VPNs have always been advisable from a privacy perspective, but never more so than now, when countries like the UK are increasingly requiring you to hand over identification to access large parts of the internet — often outsourcing the data collection to companies that may or may not be responsible with it.

So, VPNs are one way to avoid that risk, but they also have other benefits beyond security and general privacy, such as letting you access streaming platforms that might either not operate in your region or have a different selection of content elsewhere.

As for why I’m recommending Proton VPN in particular, I’m a big fan of Proton in general and also use some of their other services. They take privacy more seriously than some VPN companies, and their VPN has over 17,000 servers in over 120 countries, so it’s a good, reliable service, and I don’t notice significant speed drops when connected to Proton VPN either.

That said, there are plenty of other great VPN providers to consider (check out our best VPNs guide for our full list of recommendations), so while I stand by Proton VPN, my suggestion is more just to make use of VPNs in general.

5. Google Photos

Yes, Apple has its own Photos app built into iPhones, and it’s not bad. But for me, Google Photos is the superior option.

Part of that is because it works across various operating systems, so if I ever switch back to Android, I’ll still have ready access to all my photos. But even if you’re a lifelong Apple user, there are still advantages to Google Photos.

While both apps have a decent search function for finding photos through keywords, Google Photos does this best in my experience, and it comes with far more free cloud storage. So, if you want to back up a lot of photos, then Google’s offering is the clear winner there.

Ultimately, I find myself using both apps, but it’s Google Photos that I’m more passionate about — and that I’ll take with me to non-Apple devices.

• The country of Georgia has finally arrived on Google Street View
• Google has highlighted several major sights worth seeing
• The imagery is available in Google Maps and Google Earth

Street View is still expanding, almost 20 years after Google first launched it, and the East European country of Georgia is the latest to be added to the platform — with some spectacular sites and landmarks included, besides all the roads and highways.

"Georgia is a country defined by the scale of its history and the dramatic diversity of its landscapes," says Google, who worked with the Georgian government to get the country on the Street View map.

Some 13,000 kilometers (8,078 miles) of roads have been added, and can be found in Google Maps and Google Earth. You can check out the Jvari Monastery (part of an UNESCO World Heritage Site), the medieval stone towers of Ushguli, and the Bridge of Peace that crosses the Kura River in the capital Tbilisi.

There's also Telavi in the Kakheti region, the center of a wine-making tradition in Georgia that goes back 8,000 years. Grapes from these vineyards are still fermented in traditional clay jars called qvevri, which are buried underground.

Another GeoGuessr level

Another sight worth seeing: the Jvari Pass, high up in the mountains, part of the Greater Caucasus range. Spend a few minutes clicking around on the new Street View images and you'll find plenty of fantastic views.

Of course, you don't have to check out the biggest tourist spots or the most well-known roads. In Google Maps on the web, just drag the little yellow pegman (lower right) into the map somewhere — as you hover with your mouse cursor, Street View roads will turn blue, and that now includes Georgia.

As well as checking out potential spots to travel to, the new imagery is also a boon for GeoGuessr players trying to name the country from a Street View picture. One poster calls it a "beautiful country" that's a "great addition".

While many of us will be well used to Street View imagery in our part of the world, it isn't everywhere yet. Countries including Cyprus and Paraguay were only added last year, while it's missing in China and many African and Middle Eastern nations.

• Cloudflare and web browsers to develop new internet protocol
• PACT protocol will help to verify legitimate web access from human and bots
• Users will be given an anonymized "personhood" token to show they have a real reason to access a website

Now that bot traffic on the internet has officially surpassed human HTTP requests, both web browsers and web infrastructure providers agree something needs to be done, especially as AI agents enter the fray.

Today, Cloudflare has announced a joint initiative with Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, and Microsoft Edge to launch a new internet protocol designed to verify if web access is legitimate or malicious - without intruding on user privacy.

Private Access Control Tokens (PACT) will act as anonymous tokens that verify legitimate access by both humans and authorized agents without the need for user logins or CAPTCHAs that cause friction and harm the browsing experience.

Cloudflare establishes PACT with web browsers

To start, PACT won’t deny access to automated traffic completely. According to Cloudflare, the protocol is designed to recognize legitimate access from certain bots. As consumers and businesses turn to new automations provided by AI agents, there is still a legitimate case for allowing certain bots to access websites.

For many AI agents, there is still a human at some point in the loop with a real reason for accessing a website. PACT offers an anonymous “personhood” token that is attached to the user’s browser. This token uses “trusted information from contexts that have authentic relationships with people” to verify legitimate access “while keeping that information private.”

StatCounter places the combined market share of Chrome, Firefox, and Edge at around 77%, meaning that the PACT protocol will likely roll out to the majority of internet users.

“PACT will further empower businesses to identify genuine visitors, ensuring they can focus their resources on the traffic that matters to them,” Cloudflare said in the announcement. “Using PACT on Cloudflare’s network raises the bar for trustworthiness and integrity online without the traditional costs.”

“In commerce, every extra challenge, delay, or false positive can turn a purchase into an abandoned cart. Merchants need effective protections against automated abuse, but buyers shouldn’t have to pay for them with unnecessary friction or invasive tracking,” said Ilya Grigorik, Distinguished Engineer at Shopify.

“Shopify is proud to help develop PACT as an open, privacy-preserving standard that can help the millions of businesses on our platform distinguish legitimate shoppers and authorized agents from abusive traffic while preserving buyer privacy."

• Instagram Plus is now rolling out globally
• It costs $3.99 (roughly £3 / AU$5.60) per month
• It includes new and improved features, with everything that was previously free remaining so — at least for now

Following an announcement last month, Instagram Plus is now rolling out globally, giving you the opportunity to pay a monthly subscription to use a platform you previously accessed for free.

Of course, the free tier is still available and — for now at least — includes everything it always did, with the ‘Plus’ version adding things on top.

For $3.99 (roughly £3 / AU$5.60) per month, Instagram Plus gives you ‘Story Spotlight’, which lets you give your story priority for your friends, ‘Super Hearts’, which are animated hearts you can send, the ability to create as many story audience lists as you want, and the ability to make a story last for 48 hours, rather than the standard 24.

You can also preview stories, see how many times your stories were rewatched, quickly check if a specific person has viewed your story, and post to your profile or highlights without it appearing in friends' feeds.

On the customization side, you can choose from a selection of app icons, customize the font of your profile bio, and pin up to six posts to your profile (up from three previously).

A troubling future

All of this is new, so you don’t lose anything by not paying, and you still have to deal with adverts even if you do pay.

But of course, things could change — it’s possible that, in the future, Meta will let you pay to remove ads (as users can already separately do in the UK and EU), but it’s also possible that features that are currently free will one day be added to Instagram Plus.

And if nothing else, it's likely that most upcoming Instagram features will be placed behind the Instagram Plus paywall.

Those possibilities — along with a concept of paying for an app that has always been free, even if that’s fully optional for now — have been met with an understandably unhappy response from users.

Under a previous TechRadar article covering Instagram Plus and a possible pay-to-engage future, responses included “talk about pricing yourself out of business”, “let it be their undoing”, and “I won’t be paying”, among other, mostly negative comments.

So, it will be interesting to see whether Instagram Plus will actually prove successful for Meta, and whether the company will leave the free features alone indefinitely and continue improving the free tier, or whether Instagram will increasingly become an app you need to pay to use properly.

At the top of our guide to the best language-learning apps is the much-loved and widely used Duolingo. I’ve even written that “I never thought learning a language could be fun and addictive until I found Duolingo.”

Duolingo offers gamified, bite-sized lessons that build everyday habits using a leaderboard, streak psychology, social accountability, and urgency mechanics. It’s an engaging app that is both fun and easy to use. It’s not for everyone, though, as evidenced by the rise of other language learning apps like Promova.

Promova is a more modern, results-driven platform that offers deeper, real-world conversational context, AI-powered practice, and access to live human tutors. The app’s method follows a learn, speak, grow process with real-life conversations taking center stage in the learning process.

The AI-powered language learning platform is designed to help you speak a foreign language with confidence. It features a wide range of languages, including English, Spanish, French, German, Korean, Italian, and other popular languages. It's trusted by, according to the developer, well over 20 million learners in more than 190 countries.

Learning with Promova

After downloading and installing Promova, you’ll be presented with a simple set of questions designed to determine your language level. This lets the app provide you with the right starting point so that you’re not swamped right at the outset. This is reflected in the list of available lessons and modules, which are presented on the homescreen.

Lesson types sit within one of four categories, including video, vocabulary, grammar, and role-play speaking. It’s very different from other gamified approaches, and even though I thought it would be too simple and uninspiring, I actually found it to be an ideal blend of different types of learning.

My favorite was actually the role-play setups, which take the form of a text message conversation with voice functionality. Think WhatsApp, but for language learning. The AI chatbot takes the lead and waits for the user to either text or speak their response. From there, it will respond appropriately.

There was one point when I had no idea what I was being asked, so I told the chatbot exactly that, and it graciously met me where I was at, in terms of understanding, and helped lead me along. The conversational nature of the process made it feel like I was engaging in a real conversation with a real person.

Being encouraged along the way

Despite not being gamified like Duolingo, Promova still offers a selection of motivational tools to keep you moving in the right direction. The primary one of these is the Achievements system, which acts as your personal milestone tracker

As you progress through the modules, you'll be rewarded with various badges and milestones for completing specific tasks, such as mastering a set number of new words, finishing advanced grammar modules, or maintaining consistency.

The tracker is presented in a clear visual so you can see your growth, turning the long-term journey of language learning into a series of small and satisfying wins.

Along with Achievements, there is also a Triple Streak feature designed to supercharge your daily learning habits without causing burnout.

Instead of just tracking a single daily check-in, which is what Duolingo does, a Triple Streak typically encourages you to engage with three core pillars of the app, such as vocabulary, grammar, and speaking practice, in a single day.

This approach ensures you are developing a well-rounded skillset rather than just tapping through a single repetitive lesson to keep a basic streak alive.

Upgrading to Premium

Promova Premium costs $29.99 / £25 per month. When compared to Duolingo (Super), which costs $12.99 / £9.99 per month, it becomes apparent how expensive Promova really is.

Promova does have a free tier, but it's ad-heavy to the point of annoyance and is seriously restricted in terms of module access. You won't need to spend too much time on it before upgrading to Premium becomes a necessity.

That's not to say that everyone should go for Duolingo. Promova is much more conversation-focused and practical than Duolingo, offering features like AI role-playing and live tutoring, whereas Duolingo relies on gamification, translation, and strict daily streak systems. Each learner will need a different experience, and only you can choose which one is right for you.

Download Promova on iOS and Android.

Google Search has been around for decades, but even with updates along the way, nothing compares to the scale of what was unveiled today at Google I/O 2026, and it's all thanks to AI. Google revealed its updated Search Box, which is both a redesign and an AI fusion courtesy of Gemini, alongside other enhancements during its Google I/O 2026 keynote.

Google Search has had an AI Mode for a while now, but Google's adding new agents, expanding Personal Intelligence to more countries, there's a smart shopping cart coming, and it's going to get easier to book activities based on your very specific criteria, all within Search.

Firstly, though, Google's changing the iconic Search Bar for the first time in 25 years – both in its look and in what can be done within the search box. Instead of focusing on basic inquiries, the new search bar emphasizes and encourages a conversation with Gemini by making it easier to ask follow-up questions or trigger one of the new features mentioned below.

Under the hood, Gemini 3.5 Flash is powering the new look and all the capabilities. The new search bar is starting to roll out to users today, so if you don't see it just yet, don't fret.

So, here's a recap of what you can expect to see in Search and when it'll arrive.

Information agents come to Search

Google is planning to add different AI agents — which is a fancy term for what's effectively software that performs only a specific task — to Search over time. The first type of agent coming to Search is an information agent.

Think of an information agent as a constantly running search query that's monitoring results on your behalf, and sending you an alert whenever your criteria is met.

Google says the new agent will be able to do things like help you find an apartment. The agent can scan apartment listings based on your list of requirements, then alert you the moment an apartment meets your criteria.

Another example from Google is having an agent monitor for any announcements from your favorite pro athletes pertaining to a sneaker collab, with an alert arriving the instant the announcement is made. You create the agent, put it to work, and wait for the results to come in.

Information agents will be available to Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers starting later this summer, but we don't have a specific launch date as of yet.

Book your next adventure directly in Search

Soon you'll be able to book your next night out or activity directly in Google Search. Google provides the example of finding a karaoke room for you and your friends that serves food late.

After the search is complete, you'll be given a link to book it directly, or for select categories like home repair, beauty, and pet care, Google will offer to call the business for you.

All Search users in the U.S. will get access to the new agentic booking feature this summer, and we can't wait to go hands-on with it.

Shopping gets easier with the new Universal Cart

Beyond helping you book a reservation or other activity, Google is also rolling out a new Universal Cart that will be available across several Google products. Meaning, if you're researching a product on YouTube or through Search, you can add it to your Universal Cart and you'll see it in the same shopping cart.

Once a product is added to your cart, Google will start looking for the best deals and will send alerts when the item is back in stock. Using Universal Cart, you can add products from different retailers and check out in one place, or you can go directly to the retailers site to complete the purchase.

Furthermore, Universal Cart will use AI to analyze the products in your cart to ensure compatibility. Google used the example of adding PC components to your cart from different retailers. Your cart will analyze the parts and make suggestions if you have a motherboard that's not compatible with the processor.

Universal Cart will launch first on Search and in the Gemini app this summer, with YouTube and Gmail support to follow.

Gemini can create mini apps, simulations and more directly in Search

With Google's claim that Gemini 3.5 Flash is better than 3.1 Pro at nearly every task, including coding, it makes sense that Google would add agentic coding to Search, leveraging 3.5 Flash's new capabilities.

Using the new agentic coding feature, you'll be able to build mini apps, directly in Search. For example, Google showed off the creation of a custom fitness tracker that will use information from your Google account, such as gym memberships, recent grocery lists, and your location to find local fitness classes.

Within this mini app, you'll see a daily schedule with your meal plan (complete with grocery list), meetings, events, and planned workouts. Basically, Google just took away my favorite excuse to not work out: I'm too busy and don't have time.

You can then revisit this self-created app and mark off workouts, keep track of your vitamin intake, and whatever else you'd like to track inside a fitness app — it's your app, of course, make it what you want.

Another change you'll begin to see when agentic coding rolls out is simulations, charts and graphs as part of your search results. For example, a search pertaining to black holes and spacetime could trigger the coding agent to create a model to provide a visualization.

Agentic coding in Search will launch in the U.S. "in the coming months" for Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers.

Expanded Personal Intelligence in Search

In January, Google launched Personal Intelligence in Search in the U.S. for Gemini AI Pro and Ultra subscribers. In March, Google made it available to all users, but it was still limited to the U.S.

Starting today, the feature will be available to everyone in almost 200 countries and across 98 languages.

With Personal Intelligence, you can connect other Google services like Photos, Gmail, and Calendar to Search, and AI Mode will surface personal information — when appropriate — in Search results.

• Google has announced a new feature called 'Ask YouTube'
• This lets you ask lengthy and detailed questions when looking for a video
• It uses Gemini, and makes the service a bit more like a chatbot

Google I/O 2026 is now underway, and among the many announcements emerging from the California-set showcase, Google has revealed ‘Ask YouTube’ — a feature that adds conversational AI to the popular video streaming platform.

With Ask YouTube, rather than searching for a specific video the old-fashioned way, you can ask complex and lengthy questions, and Gemini will serve up specific videos that it thinks best answer your query. Helpfully, you'll be sent directly to the relevant part of the videos in question, too, rather than having to skim through them.

One query example given by Google was, “How to teach my 3-year-old how to ride a pedal bike, they already know how to ride a balance bike?” As you can see in the video below, the results delivered written answers like a typical AI chatbot, but these were accompanied by relevant YouTube videos, so you can both read and watch to get the answers you’re looking for.

The idea of Ask YouTube is to make the information more digestible, and to make it easier to actually find useful videos and the relevant parts of them.

Coming this summer, but only to the US

Ask YouTube is a similar idea to ‘Ask Maps’, a feature that was rolled out to Google Maps recently. Though currently, Ask Maps is only available in the US and India, and at launch, Ask YouTube will only be accessible in the US.

So, much of the world will be stuck waiting for this exciting new feature, but if you’re in the US, you should gain access to Ask YouTube sometime “this summer”— presumably meaning sometime between June and September.

And if you’re happy doing things the current way, you can always just ignore the new Ask YouTube button that’s soon going to appear.

• Apple Sports is launching in 90 new markets ahead of FIFA World Cup 26
• A new visual tournament hub adds live formations, lineups, and team tracking
• As with other sports, we're expecting it to update in real-time for these games

While it’s not quite a hattrick, Apple is pulling a one-two punch of announcements for the Apple Sports app ahead of one of the biggest global sporting events of the year, kicking off next month: the FIFA World Cup 26.

For those who haven’t used it, the Apple Sports app is designed to be a one-stop shop for sports scores and live updates for most major games across categories. Be it baseball, soccer, football, tennis, basketball, or Formula 1, the app also supports larger tournaments.

Apple Sports is free and available to download in over 170 countries and regions, after the Cupertino-based technology giant added 90 new markets today. So if it wasn’t available in your home country yet, Apple might have added it to the list.

Fans of FIFA, though, will be pleased to know that you can get ready to track the tournament as a whole and your favorite teams ahead of the first match kicking off in June. The team working on Apple Sports is ushering in a new tournament view that will let you track any team from the early group stages through to the finals.

It’s a very clean visual look that presents a decent bit of information in an easy, glanceable fashion — of course, you’ll be able to click or tap to dive in deeper. Maybe even more interesting, though, are the visual formations that let you get a sense of the team structure and player positioning via photos spread across the pitch. It’s an easy way to view the starting lineup, see who’s on the bench, and follow how the competition is shaping up.

As players are subbed in and out, Apple Sports will update this view as well as the other stats. One of the more impressive parts of the Apple Sports app since launch is the speed at which it pulls in real-time data and presents it, often beating a TV or radio broadcast since there’s no delay.

It’ll be one to watch for the FIFA World Cup 26, but chances are Apple won’t let performance slip for such an important series of matches on a true world stage. In a shared quote alongside this expansion of the app, Oliver Schusser, Apple’s SVP of Music, Sports, Apple TV, and Beats, emphasized the importance of the data, saying:

“The World Cup unites fans across the globe, making it the ideal moment to bring Apple Sports to even more users. Apple Sports was designed to be fast and simple, giving fans an easy way to stay on top of scores, stats, and the action that matters most in real time.”

Much like we’ve seen with Apple Sports supporting Formula 1 and linking the experience to other parts of Apple’s ecosystem, you’ll be able to jump into Apple News if you’re in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, or Australia to see content about the World Cup. Unlike with MLS, Friday Night Baseball, or Formula 1, though, Apple TV itself isn’t broadcasting the games.

Even so, with a range of sports apps on the market — many of which cost money — Apple Sports is clearly trying to beef up its interface for the FIFA World Cup, and I’m keen to see how these features work in practice and the speed at which they update.

Let me know what you think about the updates in the comments down below. And yes, the Apple Sports app is still free and exclusive to the iPhone.

• Google is changing its storage policy for new Gmail accounts
• New accounts in some regions will only get 5GB of free storage space
• Adding a phone number will unlock the standard 15GB of room

For many years, Google has given users 15GB of free cloud storage space when they sign up for Gmail (which is actually shared across Gmail, Google Photos, and Google Drive) — but a change to that policy is now being trialled.

Google has confirmed to Android Authority that it is "testing" a new approach in "select regions" where new users only get 5GB initially. That then goes up to the full 15GB once the account owner adds a phone number to their details.

This is only for new accounts, only in certain parts of the world, and only a test (for now) — if you've already got a Google account, nothing is going to happen to your 15GB of free storage for Gmail and Google's other services.

The move will "help us continue to provide a high quality storage service to our users, while encouraging users to improve their account security and data recovery" says Google. It sounds as though Google wants to be better able to verify identities behind accounts, while also collecting more data on its users, of course.

Paying with your privacy

Officially, Google doesn't require a phone number when you create a new account, though if you search the web you'll find it does sometimes insist on a number being registered. It's not clear why exactly, but the requirement may kick in if Google's systems suspect some kind of fraudulent or spam activity.

The new approach means adding a phone number isn't compulsory — but you'll only get a third of the free storage if you do. The change was originally reported by PiunikaWeb based on a Reddit thread from a user who hit the limitation.

Reactions on that thread are about as negative as you might expect: one commenter suggests Google has moved to "the 'bribery for your data' stage", while another says that "you're paying for your privacy" if you sign up with Gmail.

This comes against the backdrop of a wider age verification crackdown in tech, with an increasing number of apps and websites asking users to confirm they are who they say they are, ostensibly to boost user security and safely silo off adult content.

• YouTube unveiled new features at its Brandcast event for advertisers and brands
• Its new Buy with Google Pay tool lets you buy products from ads in YouTube's TV app
• The company also announced two new AI-powered features

YouTube’s TV app is about to get a new function, but it has nothing to do with upgrading your viewing experience — instead, the company wants to make shopping through its ads a lot more convenient.

At its annual Brandcast event on May 13, YouTube unveiled a series of new features designed to “connect brands to YouTube's most impactful cultural moments and trending conversations”, the company says in its blog post. One of those features is Buy with Google Pay, a tool that will allow you to buy products “with just two clicks” from ads right from YouTube’s TV app interface on smart TVs and streaming devices.

This marks the next step in YouTube’s expansion of shoppable ads. Last year the company revealed its interactive product feed allowing advertisers to list products on the right side of the screen while ads play in between videos, allowing you to click on the listing where it will then display a QR code for you to scan with your phone to take you through to the purchase link.

Targeting pain points

With this new functionality, YouTube targets a pain point with TVs, as entering payment details onto larger devices can be quite a process. Allowing viewers to purchase through ads by using the payment details already stored in their Google account removes this hassle.

Not only this, but more users are flocking to YouTube’s TV app for bigger viewing, which has opened a gap for the company to take advantage of. With more viewers using YouTube on smart TVs and streaming devices it creates an opportunity for YouTube to push more advertisers and their products to more people — but could really take a toll on impulsive purchasing habits.

Custom sponsorships

Aside from the expanded commercialization of its TV interface, YouTube is rolling out even more features to go alongside it, and two of them are powered by AI.

As per YouTube’s announcement, its Custom Sponsorships tool uses AI to “dynamically surface videos tailored to a brand’s desired moment”. In other words, brands won’t need to manually select channels and content categories where they want their ads to be displayed.

YouTube also unveiled Multimodal Video Creation, which uses Google AI models such as Gemini, Nano Banana, and Veo to “move from creative brief to final production with just a few prompts” — eliminating production time and cost.

Regarding the clickable ads in the YouTube TV app, convenience is clearly the selling point here, but the bigger picture is harder to ignore. YouTube isn’t just trying to make ads easier to watch — it’s trying to remove every possible barrier between attention and spending money, without ever leaving its TV app.

• Ticketmaster's president has revealed that waiting line positions aren't randomized, contradicting a 2018 company post
• It's led music fans to believe that the company determines queue placements based on account activity
• It adds to the theory that Ticketmaster prioritizes scalpers and resellers over genuine fans

Ticketmaster has found itself in yet another catastrophic sinkhole thanks to its president, who just dropped a massive bombshell about positions in queues.

For years, music fans have been told that queue placements on Ticketmaster are randomized to give everyone a chance at scoring tickets to see their favorite artists. It turns out that the live music behemoth has been lying to our faces.

A conversation on X between Ticketmaster president Saumil Mehta and fan account @lexs_version sparked this, where Mehta replied to the latter’s complaints about queue positions, claiming that he ‘doesn’t know where this notion that queue positions are random came from’. You can read his full reply below.

According to Mehta, no such claim had been made by him or anyone at Ticketmaster, but he very quickly met his match when a slurry of accounts pulled up a 2018 post shared by the official Ticketmaster account page explicitly stating that queue placements are randomly assigned (see below). Mehta has gone radio silent ever since, leaving us without an explanation.

This has sparked a new burning question: if Ticketmaster doesn’t randomize queue placements and it doesn’t matter what time you join the online waiting room, what criteria is Ticketmaster using to determine queue numbers?

The hole is only getting deeper

In the original X post that started it all, the user addressed the patterns in their waiting line positions when trying to purchase tickets for Ariana Grande’s Eternal Sunshine Tour, claiming that they were placed around the 80,000 mark in every queue they joined. When they tried this on a separate account, every waiting room they joined placed them around the 20,000 mark — resulting in an oddly consistent pattern of placements.

However, this is just one example, and apparently, these consistent queue placements are a common occurrence for a lot of people. This has opened a widespread investigation among music fans who are now pinning it down to one theory: account activity.

This has led users to believe that accounts with higher activity tend to score lower-numbered placements in Ticketmaster’s waiting line, giving them a better chance at purchasing tickets. For example, one user believes that the reason they’ve managed to buy multiple tickets for a single tour is because they use their account to transfer out every ticket they buy to those who are attending the show with them.

Now, music fans are even more convinced that the company has been prioritizing scalpers and resellers all along because, if we’re basing this on account activity, accounts designed to scam others would need to spend a lot of time purchasing tickets and then going back through Ticketmaster to list them for resale, where they can get away with charging way above face value.

As a result, it means that Ticketmaster can potentially make more money on resale fees, while genuine music fans are left having to pay exorbitant prices on resale tickets, or spend money on VIP tickets and other exclusive packages — a.k.a: the types of tickets that are usually the only ones that are left because of their low demand.

It's still just a theory, and Mehta has neither confirmed nor denied if this is the case, but the longer Mehta stays silent, the more agitated and demanding customers become.

Ticketmaster has been under intense scrutiny since the Eras Tour fiasco, and it hasn't been long since Ticketmaster's parent, Live Nation, was deemed an illegal monopoly — so Mehta's apparent slip-up really is the icing on the cake.

If you've never properly used Google Keep — or even glanced in its direction — you're missing out: it's flexible, snappy, and available everywhere. In fact, it's an app I make use of pretty much every day.

At first glance Google Keep looks very simple, with its rows of colorful, virtual sticky notes, and that simplicity is part of its appeal. I use it to jot down ideas, keep track of money, manage my multiple to-do lists, remember films and shows I want to eventually get around to watching, and much more besides.

It's actually one of Google's best apps, in a crowded field, but that doesn't mean it can't be improved — and a newly leaked feature likely heading to Google Keep in the near future is an upgrade that I've been waiting a long time for.

An ode to Google Keep

One of Google Keep's many appealing characteristics is that it's quick and easy to use: whether you're on a phone or in a desktop web browser, you can create or edit a note in seconds.

Plus, it works and syncs seamlessly across Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS, which isn't something you can say about every note-taking app (looking at you, Apple Notes).

You can even create notes through Google Gemini, which makes it even more useful to me. If I'm talking to my Nest Hub or my Android Auto dashboard, I can just dictate a note and then it's ready and waiting for me the next time I open up the Google Keep app.

As simple and straightforward as the Google Keep experience is, though, there are plenty of useful features included in the app if you dig a little deeper. You can put all sorts inside a note, including text, images, check boxes, sketches, images, audio, and web links. Notes can have labels attached (such as "work" or "vacation") for easier organization, too.

You can quickly convert notes to documents in Google Docs, you can pin important notes to the top of the pile, and you can even collaborate on notes with other people — which can come in very handy if you and the family are working on a grocery list, or you're planning a road trip with a group of friends.

It's always there whenever I need to remember anything, or work something out, and the notes that I've amassed over the years add up to a sort of historical journal. Fortunately, this being a Google app, the search feature is also very good.

Notes on the lock screen

Over to Android Authority, and the team there has discovered some rather interesting hidden code in the latest Google Keep app, which refers to "lock screen notes" — which is exactly what it sounds like, and which would make me love the app even more.

I'd no longer have to unlock my phone and find the Google Keep app to make a note of something. Instead, I could be creating notes right from the lock screen on my Android phone, speeding up the process even further. I'm a fan.

Android actually added the ability to take notes from the lock screen back in Android 14 at the end of 2023, but Google Keep has never supported the feature — which feels like something of an oversight. It's not clear when this might go live, but if the code is already there, it shouldn't be too long now.

Based on the options discovered by Android Authority, it looks as though you'll be able to create a new note every time you access Google Keep from the lock screen, or add to an existing note perhaps. It's good to have the choice, and I'll be opting for the latter (I'll add a title like "lock screen thoughts" or something).

I'm hoping Google commits to this and makes lock screen notes in Google Keep a thing sooner rather than later. It can then get on to the other features I'd like to see added to the app — including note-to-note linking, and more background image options.

• Vine is being relaunched as a new app called Divine
• It's being funded by Jack Dorsey, who acquired the original Vine platform in 2013
• It's invite-only for the time being, but a wider rollout is on the way

Vine was the social media platform that defined the 2010s, and it’s making a comeback after a nearly 10-year absence. Well, kind of.

The platform that spearheaded short-form vertical feeds with its iconic six-second looping videos is being relaunched as Divine and funded by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, AKA the same guy who acquired Vine in 2013, and later put it to sleep in 2017. But the funniest thing about the reboot is that Dorsey has beaten Elon Musk to the punch, who previously teased restoring user access to the 2010s social media staple.

While this sounds like a dream come true for those who lived through the Vine days, Divine is invite-only for now, but the company is planning a wider rollout in the coming months. The company has also noted that while Divine is inspired by the original Vine platform, it operates entirely independently and has no affiliation with Twitter/ X.

That said, a lot has changed since Vine was shut down. Social media algorithms are smarter, and consumer habits have shifted — so how will Divine live up to TikTok, Instagram, and other rival kingpins?

Divine’s aim is two-fold: the first being nostalgia, which I think will be the catalyst for luring users. Divine will play host to an archive of over 500,000 videos from Vine’s golden days, giving you a one-stop place to relive some of the most famous online videos you probably still reference with your friends today, as well as allowing you to create and upload new content.

As far as its algorithm goes, Divine is taking an alternative approach and will let users choose how content reaches them, offering four options: Home feed, Discovery, Trending, and Hashtag feed.

“We believe that the monoculture of a single advertising-oriented algorithm is responsible for many of the issues experienced by other social media,” Divine details in its FAQs page.

The second part of Divine’s goal is to take a stance against AI-generated content, which involves combining a plethora of methods to create a robust AI detection tool.

ProofMode, the main component of this, is a tool that inspects metadata to detect AI that's used to generate audio, images, and videos. On top of this, Divine has a user reporting system in place in addition to machine-learning detection and human-in-the-loop (HITL) techniques.

Despite having to wait for the broader rollout, there’s no denying that Vine’s relaunch will excite an entire generation of internet nerds who got their first online video kick from Vine. Unlike the old musical.ly platform, which was then merged with TikTok, this is a different scenario.

It’s a full-on resuscitation of an app that, despite having a significant influence on the evolution of short-form videos, was quite short-lived, and you can best believe you’ll be getting a full review when I finally get my hands on it.

• Maryland is introducing the Protection from Predatory Pricing Act
• It will ban surveillance pricing in grocery stores
• Some consumer rights groups think it doesn't go far enough

So-called 'surveillance pricing' in grocery stores, where the cost of items is changed dynamically based on a variety of factors and shopper data, is now widespread in the US — and the authorities in Maryland have had enough.

As reported by The Guardian, Maryland Governor Wes Moore has signaled his intent to sign the Protection from Predatory Pricing Act into law after the state legislature approval, and the act will come into effect at the start of October this year.

It means stores and third-party delivery apps won't be able to adjust pricing on the fly, based on what they know about the buyer, or on other factors such as the time of day. The aim is to ensure consumers pay "a transparent, consistent price at the register", according to Governor Moore's office.

Without this protection in place, surveillance pricing — also known as dynamic pricing or personalized pricing — could lead to two people with the same items in their shopping cart paying different prices when they check out.

Other states may follow

Consumer rights groups have welcomed the new legislation, but there are concerns that it doesn't go far enough — and that stores and apps will still be able to apply personalized pricing by using alternative methods that are less visible to consumers.

As Common Dreams reports, while stores must keep prices fixed for at least one business day, there's some ambiguity over how baseline prices and 'discounts' can be set and manipulated. Loyalty and subscription programs are also exempt from the new rules.

Other states may now follow the lead set by Maryland. There are similar bills under consideration in Colorado, California, Massachusetts, Illinois, and New Jersey, and the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is also currently running its own investigation into surveillance pricing and its impact on consumers.

"We urge other state legislatures considering personalized pricing legislation to build in stronger consumer protections and avoid loopholes that weakened this bill," Grace Gedye, senior policy analyst at Consumer Reports, told Common Dreams.

Worried consumers are also hoping that happens. Over on Reddit, responses to the practice have ranged from "this is horrifying" to others calling it "truly dystopian". Others noted that Maryland's law includes exemptions for loyalty programs and promotional offers, which means the same practice could still effectively happen in reverse through selective discounts.

• Google Messages users are noticing vanishing chats on Samsung Galaxy phones
• It appears to be a re-indexing issue following the shutdown of Samsung Messages in favor of Google Messages
• The issue is still ongoing, but a Google expert has offered tips to fix it

Google Messages users have spotted a bug that’s randomly deleting old and new chats, and their complaints about the issue are spreading like wildfire online.

Users in the r/GoogleMessages forum are sharing their experiences with disappearing chats, but it’s difficult to pinpoint if there's a pattern between the vanishing messages. One user noticed ‘huge chunks of messages’ going missing from chats, while others have reported seeing entire conversations disappear.

Despite users trying to take matters into their own hands, the issue persists — one user also recalls a moment where a message ‘disappeared before [their] eyes’. Samsung Galaxy phones seem to be bearing the brunt the most — the Samsung A52 and Samsung Galaxy S21 have been mentioned on Reddit — but some Google Pixel users are also experiencing similar problems.

But where’s it coming from? There’s only one thing users have linked it to, and that’s the shutting down of Samsung Messages which is now entering its phase-out stage, forcing users over to Google's chat service.

Since the issues started to spread, users have been seeking ways to prevent this from happening, including checking their trash bin, clearing cache, and reviewing chat history back up, but messages are still going missing without reason. It’s led frustrated users to swarm Google’s support page to seek further advice, and the company has cleared the air slightly.

In a reply to a user query, a Google product expert shared that the Samsung Messages and Google Messages transition is in fact causing this: “While it is frustrating, the ‘vanishing’ of messages during this transition is often a sync and re-indexing delay rather than a permanent deletion, especially if they are missing from both apps”. They also detail that RCS incompatibility and synchronization bugs during the Samsung Messages-to-Google Messages crossover are also contributing to the ongoing issue.

That said, the Google expert followed by offering some workarounds. Firstly, they recommend waiting 48+ Hours if you only switched from Samsung Messages or have just noticed the issue. They also suggest leaving your phone on a charger with Wi-Fi connected so that the indexing process can finish.

Alternatively, you can use what the expert refers to as the ‘Sync Force’ trick, where you’ll need to set Samsung Messages back as your default SMS app, restart your device to open Samsung Messages, and then wait 2-3 minutes for it to load the local database. Once this is done, you can switch back to Google Messages and set it as the default again.

"How I will be able to rely on this app moving forward?"

Looking at the collective responses, it’s clear that the transition to Google Messages from Samsung Messages hasn’t been the smoothest process, and the bug has come at a very inconvenient time for those who are just getting used to navigating the Google Messages reins.

Though this is a minor re-indexing delay, those who have gotten comfy with using Samsung’s service are still very unhappy with the forced migration. A friend of our Staff Writer, Isaiah Williams, has been a long-time user of Samsung Messages, and the switch has hit them hard, who shared the following words with us:

"I was already bothered by the forced switch from Samsung to Google Messages and the loss of organizational features I loved as a small business owner, such as text categories, but I never expected to watch my messages fully disappear. They were there one minute, gone the next, and even after my attempts at troubleshooting, restarting, checking the archive and trash folders, spending ages navigating the cluttered app design and needless AI features, I have yet to fully resolve the issue. I am simply left questioning how I will be able to rely on this app moving forward when basic functionality seems so lacking."

It appears that all of life is becoming one big subscription fest. There’s Netflix, Spotify, Xbox Game Pass, PlayStation Plus, food order subscriptions, Duolingo, Amazon, and YouTube. Can you believe there’s even a subscription for buying socks? Look, the list could go on, but I don’t want to bore you or myself.

Subscription services are here to stay, and there’s nothing you or I can do about it. As much as we hate them draining our money every month, if we want the goods, we must accept that, in return, we have to part with our hard-earned cash.

Even though we can’t avoid subscriptions, there is an easy way to manage them, and it’s called Orbit. Yes, the irony is not lost on me. In an attempt to get a grip on our subscriptions, I’m recommending subscribing to another app. It’s just the way it is, I’m afraid.

Orbit is a beautifully designed subscription tracker app that is designed to solve the growing problem of subscription creep. It acts as a financial watchdog that uncovers every bill draining your account and centralizes them into one elegant interface. This all but eliminates the stress of surprise charges and helps you reclaim control over your wallet.

Adding subscriptions was easier than I thought

I was expecting to have to add each individual subscription manually, and even though this functionality is present in the app, there’s actually a much smarter way to load all your subscriptions into Orbit.

It’s called Magic Import, and it simplifies the tedious task of manual entry by capturing financial information directly from screenshots, bank statements, CSV files, or PDFs.

This is made possible through a mix of very clever AI and OCR (Optical Character Recognition), and I have to say it’s very good indeed. I uploaded a number of different files and found Orbit reliably picked up what I needed it to.

On the very odd occasion that Orbit interprets specific details of subscriptions incorrectly, it’s easy enough to dive into that particular subscription and adjust any number of data fields, including its billing cycle, which list you want it in, and whether it’s a free trial or not. These changes can be made when you import a subscription or further down the line if you spot a mistake.

Tracking subscriptions like a pro

The main homescreen lets you see your subscriptions in a list format, but the calendar view shows you when the money is actually going to leave your pocket. This helps you spot heavy payment days or times of the month where multiple subscriptions are bunched together. Armed with this type of information, you can plan ahead to make sure you’ve got the money set aside in your bank account.

The calendar view also includes readouts for the total cost of subscriptions throughout the month as well as a live countdown of how much money you still need to account for before the month ends. I process information visually and have found the calendar invaluable for tracking my own personal subscriptions.

There are also notifications that act as a proactive defense and are designed to bridge the gap between knowing you have a subscription and acting before you are charged. This is maybe most critical when you add a service marked as trial. Orbit will calculate the expiration date and send you a notification, usually 24–48 hours, before the trial period ends.

It’ll also send you renewal reminders for recurring bills. This is incredibly useful for cash flow management, especially for services that cost a lot of money. No one likes being surprised by a sudden large financial deduction, and notification reminders minimize the chances of it happening.

Go premium for the full experience

So, if you’ve ever subscribed to a service only to realize that a number of months down the line, you’re no longer using the service but you’re still paying for it, Orbit is designed just for you. It’s for those people who have anxiety around the build-up of bills and want a simple one-app solution for managing it all.

The free version is extremely limited, so I’d recommend paying the lifetime fee of $24.99 / £24.99 to gain access to the full range of premium features. These include unlimited tracking, magic import, iCloud backup, custom lists, and support for multiple currencies.

Orbit has a number of soon-to-be-released features that include family sharing, a dedicated Mac app, and advanced spending insights. With these new additions, Orbit will go from strength to strength and become increasingly helpful to users who want complete control over their spending.

Download Orbit on iOS.

We live in an age where an almost infinite amount of entertainment is available to us at the push of a button (or the tap of a screen): Whether it's movies or video games or podcasts, there's already an abundance of diverting content at our fingertips, with more being added with each passing day.

So how can we possibly keep track of it all? Everything we've seen, listened to, played, and read — and want to see, hear, play, or read as well?. That's where Sofa comes in, an app for the iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Vision Pro that promises to help you "enjoy your downtime" by managing whatever it is that you might want to do with that downtime.

Given that I badly need a better system for keeping tabs on where I'm up to in my entertainment, and the significant upgrade that this app just got with Sofa 5, I was keen to give it a try — and it's quickly become one of my most-used apps.

Note that the basics of Sofa (such as list-making) are free, but a subscription is needed for tracking progress over time, and for other features such as reminders and app theming. Subscriptions start at $3.99 / £3.49 / AU$5.99 a month.

How Sofa works

Sofa starts with the Lists tab, where you can make lists of anything you like: video games you want to play, TV shows you're watching, mobile apps you'd like to check out, albums you'd like to recommend to other people, or whatever it is. These lists can be customized in a variety of ways, from how items are grouped to how their thumbnails are shown.

Tied closely to the Lists interface is the simple search function — this lets you sift through entertainment databases to find movies, shows, podcasts, music, apps, and more. I never failed to find what I was looking for, but custom items can be added manually if needed.

It's then really up to you how you manage your lists: Sofa offers just the right amount of flexibility in terms of how much control you get. Lists can be easily filtered through a whole host of criteria (from date and genre, to runtime and which streaming service something is available on), and you can pin items as well — this all means you can tailor the app to match your own preferences and viewing habits.

List-making is something I'm a fan of, so I was able to very quickly build up multiple custom lists inside Sofa. It scores highly for the amount of information you get about each movie or TV show you record — this adds to the overall polish of the app experience, and means every screen is very easy on the eye.

I'm not going to be able to cover everything in Sofa here — there's a fully featured podcast player, and a trip planner that I've barely had a chance to try — but as it was the entertainment options that I was most interested in, I prioritized digging into these.

My tracking experience

To get the full suite of tracking options, you do need to sign up to one of the Sofa subscription plans. Otherwise, all you'll be able to do is add items to lists and check them off one by one — it works, but it's pretty basic. Paying for the app means you get options like episode-by-episode tracking for your TV shows, and more of a choice over how you log progress in the app.

With movies, for example, you can opt to set what you're currently watching, as well as keeping a log of how many times you've seen a particular film. For TV shows, you're able to go episode by episode, check off entire seasons at a time, and record the dates each time. For books, you're able to track pages and chapters.

All of this tracking information is fed into the Logbook screen, which is really useful. It gives you an overview of everything you're part way through — an overview I'm now checking regularly — plus some fun stats on how much entertainment tracking and logging you're doing over time.

You can see at a glance which weekends you had more free time than others, and when new seasons of the best shows dropped — it's all there in the charts. Plus, you can add in notes and custom events, so again there's plenty of flexibility for setting up a tracking system that's exactly tailored to your requirements.

I'm certainly going to be using Sofa to keep track of movies and TV shows in the future, though I'll probably still leave the music tracking to YouTube Music and Spotify. The more data you plug into it, the more useful it gets, and the way it's put together and laid out means logging your viewing is a fun activity rather than a chore.

• Download Sofa on iOS and get your watching, reading, and listening organized

• A new time limit option on YouTube Shorts allows users to effectively remove the feature entirely
• The new zero-minute timer stops Shorts from showing up on users' home feeds
• It hasn't rolled out to all users yet, but enabling the setting is quick and easy

It's been a long time coming, but after many requests, YouTube has finally given users the option to disable Shorts from appearing on the homepage. While it's still visible in the subscriptions feed, it's a significant step for users who want the feature eradicated.

As reported by The Verge, YouTube has implemented a zero-minute option for Shorts, which effectively stops users from accessing the feature. Previously, the lowest time limit option was 15 minutes, but users will now have full control over their viewing preferences on Shorts.

Most importantly, the new addition is made to help adults decrease (or eliminate) the time spent scrolling, while also serving as an ideal tool for parental control. It's a significant bonus to the parental controls already present, which include reminders to take breaks and bedtime alerts.

The move from Google has already led to tons of praise, most notably on Reddit, and it's no surprise considering the strong opinions many have over applications that use the same quick video format, such as TikTok.

Unfortunately, it hasn't rolled out to all users just yet, and the option might take some time to present itself. However, once it does become widely available, here's how you activate the setting.

Once you're on the YouTube homepage, you'll want to navigate your way to the daily limit page, via Settings > Time management > Shorts feed limit, and you'll find a new option labelled '0 minutes.'

Enable that, and ensure the 'Shorts Feed Limit' box is checked, and you're good to go. Shorts should now be completely removed from your homepage on YouTube. While I've noticed that some can still show up in the subscriptions tab (when testing the 15-minute option), this should hopefully be completely ironed out, or may not even be the case for most users.

• Live Nation has been found guilty of running an illegal monopoly
• The case ruled that Live Nation has been overcharging fans by $2 a ticket
• It could result in Live Nation splitting from Ticketmaster

The verdict is in: Live Nation and Ticketmaster have been running an illegal monopoly to assume their reign over live event ticketing competitors. And I, like many music fanatics, am simply thrilled.

Following a lengthy four-day deliberation during a seven-week trial, a Manhattan jury on Wednesday April 15 found Live Nation and its subsidiary site, Ticketmaster, guilty of violating federal and state antitrust laws, in order to suffocate rival sites. Penalties will be decided at a later date, but this could vary from staggering financial charges to the potential break-up of the two companies.

The ruling comes shortly after Live Nation reached a settlement with the US Department of Justice (DOJ), where the company would’ve been required to divest certain parts of the business and cap its venue exclusivity contracts to four years. Though some US states joined the settlement, 33 other state attorneys didn’t, believing that it failed to restore competition among live event ticketing sites.

During its deliberation, the jury found that Ticketmaster had been overcharging customers by almost $2 per ticket (approximately £1.27) over a few years. Judge Arun Subramanian will decide the total damage penalty owed by Live Nation based on these findings. On top of this, Live Nation has countless exclusivity contracts with venues across the US, another strategy the company has used to seize control over the live events market and eliminate competition.

Speaking with the BBC, Morgan Harper of the American Economic Liberties Project described the verdict as "a historic victory for fans, artists, concert promoters and venue owners who have suffered for decades under the thumb of Ticketmaster's monopoly". But Live Nation has been far from silent, also telling the BBC that "the jury's verdict is not the last word on this matter”.

In addition, Live Nation's legal representative, David R. Marriott, had quite a bit to say during the closing arguments. “We are fierce competitors,” he said, adding that Live Nation is simply “trying to win the business”.

This verdict marks what could be a victorious conclusion for the live music sector, and comes almost two years after the suit was first filed in 2024 by Biden’s DOJ. The growing frustration from music fans, artists, and venues alike served as the catalyst for bringing Live Nation to court, especially following the Taylor Swift Ticketmaster catastrophe in 2022.

A bright (and inexpensive) future on the horizon

So what does this mean for the future of live music? Well, it all depends on the penalties owed by Live Nation which are yet to be determined.

However, given the extremity of its market dominance tactics, it could be that Live Nation will have to divest an even larger portion of its business compared to what was proposed in the settlement. This could lead to the disbanding of Live Nation and Ticketmaster, which, on top of costly court charges, could significantly dampen Live Nation’s dominance in the sector and balance out the competition.

This could also signify a brighter future for ticket pricing, and live music events run by large touring artists may no longer be a ‘luxury product’ — which we saw happen with the Oasis reunion and Beyonce’s Cowboy Carter Tour, the latter of which I was forced to skip due to sky-high pricing.

Ultimately, this verdict isn’t just about holding the big names accountable, it’s about making live music a financially-accessible entity for music lovers everywhere.

• The FBI has managed to retrieve Signal messages from someone's phone, even with the app deleted
• There's a setting you can enable to prevent this from being possible
• In other messaging app news, Telegram's founder has called WhatsApp's encryption "the biggest consumer fraud in history"

If you care about privacy, then there’s a good chance you already use Signal for messaging, and you might have assumed that this was enough to keep your messages private. But the FBI has just shown that’s not the case.

As reported by 404 Media, the FBI was able to retrieve Signal messages from someone’s iPhone, even though the person had deleted the app. Given that Signal messages have end-to-end encryption, you’d probably assume that the only way someone could read them was with access to the sender or recipient’s Signal account, which isn’t what happened here.

Instead, the FBI was able to access incoming Signal messages via the iPhone’s push notification database, which still received incoming Signal messages despite the app’s removal. They weren’t able to access messages sent by the defendant, but they still had access to the other side of conversations.

Fortunately, there is a way to prevent this from happening, as Signal has a toggle that stops content from appearing in notifications. To enable this, open the app and head to Settings > Notifications > Notification Content, and then select either ‘No Name or Content’ for maximum privacy, or ‘No Content’ if you’re happy for the sender’s name to be retrievable.

Of course, this also means your Signal notifications will cease to show message content and potentially the sender’s name too, which could be inconvenient, so you’ve got to weigh up how much security you think you need.

It’s also worth noting that this vulnerability presumably isn’t exclusive to Signal, so you might want to turn off similar settings in other apps where possible.

Is WhatsApp's encryption a fraud?

And this isn’t the only news about security issues with messaging apps today, as Telegram’s founder Pavel Durov has posted on X that “WhatsApp’s ‘encryption’ may be the biggest consumer fraud in history,” citing a lawsuit that claims a backdoor allows WhatsApp and Meta employees along with third-parties to “circumvent encryption in order to view users’ private messages.”

It’s a troubling claim, but it’s one that WhatsApp has rejected, calling it “categorically false and absurd.” So, for now, it’s unclear whether WhatsApp’s encryption is secure or not, but given that it has been called into question, you might want to consider an alternative such as Signal if you’re not already using that.

Telegram itself is another possible alternative, though that’s had its own security issues, with, for example, a flaw recently being found that can expose user IP addresses.

• WhatsApp is now letting some users set up usernames
• So far, this feature is only available to a limited number of beta users
• With it, you can share your username rather than your phone number

We’ve been hearing that WhatsApp will be getting usernames for a while now, and they’ve finally arrived — though so far, they're only in the latest beta versions of WhatsApp, and only for a “limited” number of users in a phased rollout, according to WABetaInfo.

In other words, you need to be running a beta version of WhatsApp to benefit from the new feature right now, and even then, you might not get access just yet. But the very fact that usernames are in beta suggests they'll hopefully roll out more widely soon.

When you do get access to the new feature, you can head to Settings > Profile within the WhatsApp app, and from there, you’ll be able to create a username. The feature is live in both iOS and Android WhatsApp betas, and rather than creating a new username, you can choose to use your Facebook or Instagram username instead, if you prefer.

If you do create one, then there are various restrictions, including that it must be a username that isn’t currently being used by someone else on any of Meta’s platforms, that it must be at least three characters long, and that it must start with a letter — though it can also include numbers, periods, and underscores.

Other restrictions include that it can’t start with www., end with a domain, or exceed 35 characters in length.

A privacy perk

In any case, this is a feature I’ve been waiting a long time for — I’m not keen on sharing my phone number any more than necessary, so usernames allow for a bit more privacy.

And WhatsApp is also allowing you to optionally set up a four-digit ‘username key’, which anyone who wants to message you would then need to know, as well as your username, adding another layer of security and privacy.

This is all good news, though the other potential advantage of a username — that being the ability to use a messaging app without linking your phone number to it at all — seemingly isn’t currently possible here. You still need to link your number to WhatsApp; you just don’t need to share it with the people you message on there.

• YouTube has rolled out support for Android Auto with playback controls
• The catch is that it doesn't play videos, and you can only stream audio
• You also need YouTube Premium for it to work, as it's essentially background play

YouTube is finally rolling out support for Android Auto, the app that allows you to mirror your smartphone screen to your car’s dashboard — but before your excitement takes over, you should note that it comes with a slew of limitations.

The video platform has been quite silent with this launch however, and instead of formally announcing the integration, users online have come across it themselves like in this Reddit post. As it stands, Android Auto is pretty strict with what you can and can’t do while your car is in motion which, when it comes to eliminating visual distractions while driving, is a safety no-brainer. That said, YouTube on Android Auto is not the YouTube you know and love.

For starters, Android Auto removes one of YouTube’s key elements and that’s its video player, meaning you won’t be able to watch anything and can only listen to audio playback just like the best music streaming services. In theory, you can play any type of content you want, but you’ll only be able to listen to its audio — which won’t be a huge setback if you exclusively listen to podcast episodes or videos that are ideal for audio-only listening.

Though it takes away YouTube’s biggest functionality, it doesn’t come as a huge surprise and is arguably the most sensible thing to do to ensure safe driving. Not only that, it doesn’t offer full-screen viewing or the option to browse for content, and playback controls are also limited on top of that.

As reported by 9to5Google, you won’t be able to skip forward within a video, and the current skip button will take you straight to the next video in the queue. You can still pause and play audio from the player screen, but you won’t have access to YouTube’s complete slew of playback tools.

Until now, users have been relying on workarounds to get YouTube working on Android Auto, so I can see this integration being widely welcomed. But it wouldn’t be classic YouTube if there weren’t a YouTube Premium catch.

A secret YouTube Premium persuasion strategy

Did you think you could get away with streaming YouTube through Android Auto for free? I hate to break it to you, but you’re going to need a YouTube Premium subscription in order to do so.

In typical YouTube style, Android Auto integration is another functionality that’s being paywalled behind Premium and it’s all because of background play, which is required for streaming through Android Auto. As this is a tool only available to paying subscribers, only those with a membership will be able to stream YouTube on a car dashboard, and the way I look at it is this is yet another strategy YouTube is using to get more people signing up to Premium.

The cheapest way to do this is through YouTube Premium Lite which costs $7.99 / £7.99 / AU$8.99 a month, a relatively new tier that was launched last year. Background viewing and offline downloads were added just a few months back, but while it offers majority ad-supported viewing, this doesn’t apply to music and other music-related content. If you’re like me and use YouTube for all things music and live performances, the standard Premium plan is your best option.

In an attempt to build better hydration habits, I began using the Waterllama app. That was over a year ago, and after getting into healthier routines, I’ve not thought too much about it since. That was until I stumbled across the P Water app, which promises to simplify the tracking of hydration by logging and analyzing the frequency of your peeing.

Now I don’t know about you, but I’m not the sort of person who goes around talking about my peeing habits. It’s not the subject of conversation that comes up when I’m with friends or at the dinner table with my family. But I was intrigued enough by the concept to download it and give it a go.

44 pees later, and I’m now not only more at ease with talking about my bathroom trips but also convinced how helpful it is to have a simple app to help keep your hard-formed hydration habits an ongoing part of your daily life.

Now you might be wondering how helpful peeing habits are to tracking whether you’re staying hydrated. Well, P Water points to a number of different research articles to back up its claim that pee frequency is a good measure for this, including the Void Frequency Reliability Across Hydration States study by Tucker et al. in the European Journal of Nutrition.

How does it work?

It’s unbelievably simple. All you have to do is tap the ‘Log Pee’ button when you’re on your way to pee, and P Water will build up a picture of your pee frequency. It doesn’t ask for or need any information regarding your pee, so the process of making a log literally takes two seconds.

To make logging your pees as simple as possible, you don’t have to even open the app. Simply add the P Water smartphone widget to log your pees from your homescreen or use an Apple Watch for an even simpler process. I even read about someone using their HomePod to log their bathroom trips.

With this data, P Water can then work out if you're drinking enough. It is this vital bit of information that enables the app to send you water reminders when your body needs them most. These are standard notifications that will appear on your phone, smartwatch, or other compatible devices so you'll never miss that little nudge to drink some water.

Keeping you motivated

P Water features a couple of innovative features which might keep you hooked on pee logging. The first is a friend connection feature, which helps you stay accountable. This won't appeal to everyone, but if you have someone you trust who can help you in your healthier drinking pursuits, then it could come in handy. Encouragement comes in the form of being able to remind each other to drink water when the app decides it's needed.

The second feature that might keep you logging is the ability to see where you’ve peed. Location data is stored securely on your device and in your private iCloud account (if set up). P Water tries to upsell this feature by calling it a “low-effort journal of your life and travels.” It’s not something I’m personally interested in, as I prefer to use Google Photos geo-tracking for this.

Helping manage peeing problems

By shifting the focus from measuring what you drink to tracking how often you go to the bathroom, P Water can be used to manage symptoms related to UTIs, overactive bladders, BPH, kidney stones, and more. The graphs and visual logs help you see if you’re going to the bathroom often enough, which in turn helps you root out some of the potential causes for these medical issues.

Despite this, the app’s creators are keen to point out that P Water is “not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment” and that you should “ask a medical professional if you have questions about your health and hydration needs.”

Over the past week, I've found P Water to be an invaluable buddy to keep me hydrated. It's simple, effective, and best of all, the free version offers enough functionality for most users.

If you'd like to upgrade, then you can do so for $4.99 / £4.99 per month. A subscription allows you to add notes to pees, see your pee count calendar for older months, and export your pee data.

Download P Water on iOS and give your water intake a boost.

Ever since I heard that Tiimo won the iPhone App of the Year 2025, I’ve been desperate to give it a go. Described as the visual planner for every neurotype, Tiimo is designed to address the core challenges of executive functioning so you can stay focused, get organized, and achieve what you want.

Full disclosure from the outset: I’m not neurodivergent, and I won’t pretend to be able to speak for those who are. I do have close family members who are, and I appreciate how difficult they find it to stay on task. From reading people’s comments, I know many people with neurodivergency have found the app very helpful.

What I experience in terms of focus challenges is not as extreme as many, but I do still struggle to keep my mind trained on one task for an extended period of time. Every day is packed full of jobs that need doing, and if I don’t have a system for managing that, then things get missed, and important items fall by the wayside.

Over the years, I’ve made use of other apps, including Todoist, Asana, and Google Tasks, but until trying Tiimo, I didn’t realize how good a schedule planner really could be. Tiimo turns to-dos into doable plans with visual timelines, and it does it effortlessly. Thanks to AI and an intuitive interface, users can plan their lives while avoiding all the complexities often associated with schedule management.

Co-planner takes the stress away

The beauty of Tiimo lies in the fact that you don’t have to hold everything you need to do inside your head. I know that for me, there’s a direct correlation between what I have sitting in my head and my stress levels. And it’s not always about getting that long list complete; sometimes it’s enough just to know that I have a plan to action those things at a specific point in time.

That’s where the Tiimo co-planner comes to the rescue. All you have to do is give the app a brain dump of what you have to get done, and co-planner will turn your ideas into structured tasks, break them into steps, and estimate how long each one takes so you can stop overthinking and start doing.

These tasks are placed into your calendar with customizable icons, colors, and layouts that reflect how you work best. I’d highly recommend taking time to personalize your planner so that using the app is a pleasant experience rather than a begrudged necessity.

Realistic timescales planned for you

One of the challenges with planning our time can be a poor understanding of how long jobs will take. I’m always wildly optimistic about what I’ll get done in any given period of time, and that doesn’t serve me well when I end up planning more in my day than I can feasibly get done.

Tiimo takes care of this by offering task-specific time estimates so that your plans are smarter and overcommitting is avoided. You can easily adjust this after your lists are set up, but it’s great to have a realistic starter. I actually ended up putting more ‘breathing room’ into my schedule so that there was more space for plans to change.

One such example was that Tiimo had given me 15 minutes to pick up the kids, but I needed 25 minutes instead. Rather than going into the task and adjusting it manually, all I had to do was tell the conversational assistant that I needed to make the change, and it took care of it for me. It even offered to reshuffle my tasks so that I could fit everything in!

A planner that responds to you

The reality is that our plans are often interrupted and need to change at a moment’s notice. In traditional planning apps, this would necessitate carrying out a lot of manual changes, such as moving items around and adjusting timescales. Not so with Tiimo.

When your plans change, all you need to do is let the AI tool know, and it’ll rejig things for you. For example, I told it the following: “I’m running out of time, and my afternoon has been hijacked by other plans. Can you rejig what I was due to be doing?”

Tiimo took care of this by prioritizing my tasks and moving some of those important jobs to later in the day. There was still a little bit of manual shifting required, but it was nice that Tiimo was there to help me out in a moment of need.

Find out if Tiimo works for you with a 7-day free trial

A basic version of Tiimo won’t cost you a thing, but if you want access to all pro features, then that’ll cost $11.99 / £11.99 per month or $45 / £45 per year. If you’d like to see if Tiimo is a good fit for you, all you have to do is download the app and sign up for a free trial.

Download Tiimo on iOS and Android.

• Google Maps just got two big upgrades that roll out today in the US
• 'Ask Maps' is a conversational assistant that answers very specific questions
• Google is also giving drivers the app's "biggest update in over a decade"

The Google Maps vs Waze debate continues to rumble on, but Maps has just been given two huge upgrades that could help extend its lead as the world's best all-round navigation app.

The first, called 'Ask Maps', is the Gemini-powered, conversational experience for travelers that's felt inevitable for a few years. Google is also calling its other new feature, called 'Immersive Navigation', its "biggest navigation upgrade in over a decade".

For pedestrians and travelers, the most exciting new feature is 'Ask Maps'. This new tab sits very prominently below the app's search box and is like a Maps-specific version of Gemini that can answer very detailed travel questions.

Some example questions Google provided in a demo included "My phone is dying — where can I charge it without having to wait in a long line for coffee?" and “Is there a public tennis court with lights on that I can play at tonight?” In other words, this is more than just a rehash of existing Google Maps tabs and information — it could potentially prove very useful if it works as well as it did in the demos.

Google says that 'Ask Maps' can also create full travel itineraries based on its information from over 300 millions places and 500 million contributors. For example, you could say "I’m headed to the Grand Canyon, Horseshoe Bend and Coral Dunes — any recommended stops along the way?"

A detail that could prove controversial for some is that your 'Ask Maps' results are personalized. They'll be based on places you've searched for or also saved in Google Maps.

But Google was keen to ward off any privacy concerns, with the Miriam Daniel, VP & GM for Google Maps, stating in a briefing that "it's not linking to any of the other apps or any of your other data". 'Ask Maps' is rolling out now in the US and India on Android and iOS, with desktop coming soon — Google wouldn't comment on a global rollout.

A 'complete transformation' of Maps navigation

If you're a driver who regularly uses Google Maps to get around cities, then the new 'Immersive Navigation' mode might be more up your street.

Like a cross between 'Immersive View' and traditional Google Maps navigation, the visual side of the update brings a new 3D view that adds transparent buildings and overpasses to give you more context, alongside crosswalks, traffic lights and more. Google says this view was pre-trained using Gemini and real-world info from Street View and aerial photos.

'Immersive navigation' looks particularly helpful for city driving, but there are also functional changes. Google says 'smart zooms' will help you plan ahead for tricky junctions, while voice navigation will apparently be more natural.

Google Maps will also give you more information about the trade-offs of alternative routes, and you'll also get the option to preview your destination with Street View imagery. That's another cross-Google collaboration that feels like it could have happened years ago.

The bad news for anyone who lives outside the US is that 'Immersive Navigation' is only rolling out today in the States. It also won't come to everyone initially, with Google promising that it "will expand over the coming months to eligible iOS and Android devices', CarPlay, Android Auto and cars with Google built-in.

Analysis: Impressive upgrades, but not for everyone

Both of these Google Maps upgrades look very useful on paper — and rivals like Apple Maps may struggle to compete with its combination of new AI smarts and the wealth of information available in the likes of 'Ask Maps'.

However, there are still concerns that could see some sticking to alternative apps. For starters, we don't yet know how well 'Ask Maps' works in the real world. But some will also raise trust and privacy questions.

When asked about whether the results in 'Ask Maps' could one day include ads or paid placements, Google didn't rule that out. "I can't really speculate on where we're going to go long-term, though for now we are really focused on just providing the best possible experience in 'Ask Maps', so monetization and payment does not impact where things are appearing within that experience," said Andrew Duchi (Product Director, Google Maps).

The personalization aspect of 'Ask Maps' could also put off some users. Google said that it doesn't use information from other apps like Gmail to refine its results. "It's mostly focused on searches you might have done in the past in Maps or in search that are specific to places that you might be interested in. It focuses on things you have saved in Maps or as a list," said Miriam Daniel (VP & GM for Google Maps).

That will be a fair trade-off for many, but others could still prefer the more traditional approach of Apple Maps — and lots of drivers do still prefer the Google-owned Waze over Google Maps. Talking of which, Google added that its new route-finding features are using a combination of Maps and Waze community data.

"Behind the scenes, much like Gemini is powering many of our capabilities, Waze and Google Maps have a shared driver community to bring real-time info to the map. So the two are working together in terms of the data we're serving", added Rosa Wu (Product Director, Google Maps).

Whichever side of the privacy fence you're on, we'll be testing the two big Google Maps upgrades soon to give your our first impressions.