6 Months Later

We’ve been fascinated by this company ever since we reviewed the Phone (2). They released a new conversation on their YouTube channel with CEO Carl Pei, as he answers questions about the tech space, smartphone development, and teases details about the two new products Nothing plans to launch on July 1st: the Nothing Headphone (1) and Phone (3). It was pretty interesting.

With iPadOS 16, users will finally enjoy enhanced multitasking, improved background tasks, a more powerful Files app, a Preview iPadOS app, and more. You can read more about it on Apple’s site, as well as in the video below, which we’ve set to the iPadOS part of the keynote.

With iOS 26, iPhone users will now not only enjoy better handling of spam calls and text messages, but also get two new features similar to the ones Pixel phones have had: Call Screening and Hold Assist.

Liquid Glass is coming to iOS, MacOS, iPadOS, WatchOS, VisionOS, tvOS, and CarPlay later this year.

The Verge’s Editor-in-Chief, Nilay Patel, sat down with the CEO for a fascinating discussion that covered everything from the new app redesign to Apple’s organizational structure, the challenges the company currently faces, and who should lead Apple next.

In iFixit’s teardown of the new buds, which we plan to release a long-term review of later this year, the group found notable improvements in repairability over the previous design. This new design should make it easier to replace the batteries and other components.

If you want to see what’s possible with AI video generation tools today, such as Google’s new Flow product, which debuted at I/O last week, this WSJ video is fascinating.

This one starts at $199 and combines Ethernet, Zigbee, Thread, and Matter, all alongside the locally controlled Homey Pro OS. It’s a more affordable version of the Homey Pro we reviewed last year. Anthom is now part of LG, which acquired the Dutch smart home brand in 2024.

The Verge got an exclusive look at Google Beam, the new brand for Project Starline. Google’s ambitions here don’t just end at the office. We may see this show up in the home before too long.

The new “Cross Device Resume” feature will let you pick up where you left off in an app on your phone, like resuming music from Spotify. Check out the write-up from The Verge to learn more.

Now that OpenAI announced the 6.5 billion dollar acquisition of Ive’s AI hardware startup, io, we’re all but sure to see new hardware in the future.

Dieter Bohn, Google’s Director of Product Narrative and former Editor-In-Chief of The Verge, explains all the new things the glasses prototype can do.

Google just wrapped up their Android Show: I/O Edition, which went over key new features coming to Android across a wide variety of devices. They also released a blog post detailing some more of the updates.

As reported by The Verge, the judge in the Apple vs. Epic Games case just blew up Apple’s control over the US App Store, in a significant blow to the company’s services revenue (of which a considerable portion is Apple’s 30%, 15% and other developer fees related to the App Store). Developers may now include buttons to outside payment providers (circumventing Apple’s app store fees), inform customers that cheaper subscription options are available, and avoid Apple’s external payment fee. Apple has appealed the judge’s ruling. This represents a significant shift in what developers can do with their apps on the US App Store, but falls short of opening up the iPhone to downloading apps from the web.

We use Google Fi for all the phones we test in our videos because it’s easy to pause service, cancel, great for traveling internationally, and the coverage has been great. As spotted by The Verge, there are some great upgrades coming to Google Fi, including a new $35 a month Unlimited Essentials Plan. Data caps before slowdowns for existing plans have been upped, and you’ll now be able to connect a secondary tablet or laptop to your plan with a data-only eSIM at no additional cost. You’ll also be able to listen to voicemails in your Phone app vs. the Fi app, and international 5G is expanding to over 92 countries for users on the Unlimited and Flexible plans.

If you want to try Google Fi and get $60 off, use code: HRPA4P (this is an affiliate code but Google didn’t sponsor this post).

That’s a real bummer for any European who fancies the design of the new Nest Learning Thermostat, which we recently reviewed. In their announcement, Google stated they are working with third-party smart thermostat companies to bring them into the Google Home Ecosystem for European users. Additionally, going forward, the first and second generation Nest Thermostats will only be controllable directly from the thermostats themselves, rather than through their app or Google Assistant.