Comment on 2 new faces and old partisan standoffs as Congress returns

Enlarge / The Humane AI Pin. The Humane AI Pin has launched, crashed, and burned, with founders already looking to sell the company just one month after launch. The New York Times has an article detailing exactly how the company got to the point of launching a dead-on-arrival product and provided a few updates on the sales of the product and the company. Humane, if you haven't heard, is a company founded by two former Apple employees, Imran Chaudhri and Bethany Bongiorno, in 2018.

Enlarge / The logo for WWDC24. (credit: Apple) Apple's annual developer conference, WWDC, kicks off in Cupertino, California, next week. As always, it will start with a livestream keynote on Monday morning at 10 am Pacific, 1 pm Eastern. We'll be in attendance reporting on the event, so let's take a moment to take stock of what we expect to see next week. But first, let's note something we don't think we'll see: Due to some peculiarities about Apple's upgrade cycles, as well as a push toward the M4, we're not actually expecting any major hardware announcements at WWDC this year. That's OK, though, because it looks like it's going to be a big one for software news.

Enlarge / For 2026, F1 cars are going on a little bit of a diet. (credit: Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile) Earlier today, the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile laid out the direction for Formula 1's next set of technical regulations, which will go into effect in 2026. It will be the second big shakeup of F1's technical regs since 2022 and involves sweeping changes to the hybrid powertrain and a fundamental rethink of how some of the aerodynamics work. "With this set of regulations, the FIA has sought to develop a new generation of cars that are fully in touch with the DNA of Formula 1—cars that are light, supremely fast and agile but which also remains at the cutting edge of technology, and to achieve this we worked towards what we called a 'nimble car' concept.

The new PS5 packaging, as seen on the PlayStation Direct online store, is missing the "8K" label in the corner. [credit: PlayStation Direct ] When we first received our PlayStation 5 review unit from Sony in 2020, we reacted with some bemusement to the "8K" logo on the box and its implied promise of full 7630×4320 resolution output.

Several streaming platforms are hiking subscription rates, potentially impacting monthly entertainment budgets for people. Max, Spotify, and Twitch recently announced they would raise prices for their various subscription plans in an aim to fortify their positions in a competitive landscape. Here’s what to know about recent streaming price increases. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Max increases prices across ad-free plans At the start of 2023, Max raised its prices for the first time, and a little over a year later, the platform is increasing the price again.

Enlarge (credit: Apple) Apple has taken a rare step and publicly committed to a software support timeline for one of its products, as pointed out by MacRumors. A public regulatory filing for the iPhone 15 Pro (PDF) confirms that Apple will support the device with new software updates for at least five years from its "first supply date" of September 22, 2023, which would guarantee support until at least 2028. Apple published the filing to comply with new Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure (PSTI) regulations from the UK that went into effect in late April.