Google has begun automatically generating AI-powered email summaries for Gmail Workspace users, eliminating the need to manually trigger the feature that has been available since last year. The company’s Gemini AI will now independently determine when longer email threads or messages with multiple replies would benefit from summarization, displaying these summaries above the email content itself. The automatic summaries currently appear only on mobile devices for English-language emails and may take up to two weeks to roll out to individual accounts, with Google providing no timeline for desktop expansion or availability to non-Workspace Gmail users.
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How far would you go to keep yourself private online? There’s little doubt that advances in technology over the past three decades have eroded traditional concepts around privacy and security: It was once unthinkable to voluntarily invite big companies to track your every move and decision—now, we happily let them in exchange for the digital goods and services we rely on (or are hopelessly addicted to).
Most people these days either tolerate these privacy intrusions or outright don’t care about them. But there’s a growing movement that believes it’s time to claim our privacy back. Some are working piecemeal, blocking trackers and reducing permissions where they can, while not totally ditching modern digital society as a whole. Others, however, are as hardcore as can be—a modern equivalent of “going off the grid.”
We put out a call looking for the latter—people who are going to great lengths to protect their privacy in today’s mass surveillance world. We received a number of insightful, fascinating, and unique situations, but for this piece, I want to highlight four specific perspectives: “Ed,” “Jane,” “Mark,” and “Jay.”
The first respondent, I’ll call Ed, since their privacy journey began with the Edward Snowden leaks: “I’d known something was likely up…as early as 2006[.] I remember headlines about AT&T possibly spying, but high school me didn’t take it too seriously at the time. The Snowden leaks, when I was in college, really opened my eyes. Ever since, I’ve taken steps to protect my privacy.”
Ed says the biggest step they’ve taken towards a digitally private life has been their Proton account. If you’re not aware, Proton is a company that offers apps designed for privacy. Their email service, Proton Mail, is the most famous of the company’s products, but Proton makes other apps as well. Ed uses many of them, including Proton VPN, Proton Calendar, and Proton Drive. Ed pays for Proton Ultimate, which costs them nearly $200 every two years (a new account is now billed yearly at $119.88). You don’t have to pay for Proton, but your experience is much more limited. That’s not totally dissimilar to Google’s offers, which gives you more features if you pay, but most people can definitely get by with a free Google Account. I’m not so sure the reverse is true.
Speaking of Google, Ed does have a Google Account, but rarely logs into it. They don’t keep anything attached to it, however—Ed stores all files, for example, in Proton Drive or Tresoirt (another end-to-end encrypted service).
Ed uses SimpleLogin for throwaway email addresses. That’s not just for the times Ed wants to avoid giving their email address to someone. According to them, they use an alias anytime an organization asks for their email, and frequently delete it when it’s no longer useful. Each online purchase gets its own alias, and that alias is deleted once the purchase is complete. Whenever Ed travels, they use an alias for any flights, hotels, and rental cars they use. Once the trip is up, they delete the alias. If one of those aliases receives a spam message, they delete it as well.
Ed’s smartphone of choice is iPhone, and although Apple arguably has the best reputation for privacy in big tech, Ed is no fan: “Apple is no bastion of privacy of course, but they seem to be the least-worst of the big tech companies.” Ed doesn’t use iCloud for any backups: Any iPhone files are kept in Tresorit.
That iPhone, of course, contains apps. But each app is there for a reason, and no app gets access to permissions unless it requires it: “I’m ruthless about apps and app permissions. If I’m not going to use the app regularly, I uninstall it. I grant only those permissions I think the app reasonably needs.” Ed protects his mobile internet traffic with Proton VPN, and only accesses the web via Firefox Focus, a special version of Firefox designed for privacy.
Location services are always off on Ed’s iPhone, unless they’re using Apple Maps for navigation. Once they arrive at their destination, Ed disables location services again. They also have an interesting trick for getting back home without revealing their actual address: “Additionally, when I’m navigating home, I don’t enter my home address. I enter the address down the street just as an extra layer so I’m not entering my actual home address…I’ll end navigation and turn off location while still driving…if I know the rest of the way home myself.”
Most of us deal regularly (if not daily) with spam calls. Not Ed: They use the “Silence Unknown Callers” setting on iOS to send all numbers not in the Contacts app to voicemail. They then review all voicemails, and if they didn’t leave a message, they block the number. Our initial call out for this piece referenced how using a VPN can sometimes block incoming phone calls, but Ed isn’t bothered by that: “Since most calls these days are scams or telemarketing, and most people I do want to talk to aren’t going to call me anyway, I see this as more of a feature than a bug.”
For their desktop computing needs, Ed uses Windows. They admit they aren’t privacy experts when it comes to Microsoft’s OS, but they do what they can, including changing all privacy settings and uninstalling all programs they don’t use. (That includes OneDrive and Edge.) They also run a clean version of Windows 11 after following Lifehacker’s guide. Firefox is their go-to PC browser, and they use a variety of extensions, including:
ClearURLs: removes trackers from links.
Decentraleyes: blocks data requests from third-party networks.
Disconnect: blocks trackers from “thousands” of third-party sites.
Firefox Multi-Account Containers: separates your browsing into siloed “containers” to isolate each session from one another.
PopUpOFF: blocks pop-ups, overlays, and cookie alerts.
Privacy Badger: blocks invisible trackers.
Proton VPN: Proton’s Firefox add-on for its VPN.
uBlock Origin: popular content blocker.
Ed didn’t say how much of an impact this array of extensions and settings has on their browsing, save for YouTube, which they admit does sometimes give them trouble. However, Ed has workarounds: “When YouTube wants me to ‘sign in to confirm you’re not a bot,’ changing VPN servers usually does the trick.” Ed also uses the audible clues for ReCAPTCHA prompts, rather than the pictures, since they don’t want to help train Google’s “braindead AI.”
Ed deleted all their social media accounts, including Facebook, X, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Though they’ve never had TikTok installed on their phone, they will watch it in Firefox when a friend sends them a video.
While Edward Snowden may have kicked off Ed’s interest in personal privacy, “Jane” has many strong beliefs motivating their desire for privacy. They are concerned about data brokers and Meta’s practices of tracking internet activity, and how these companies build profiles based on that data to sell to third-parties; they’re concerned about the possibility of telecommunication companies tracking our locations via cellular towers; they worry about US law enforcement and agencies reviewing citizens’ social media accounts accounts and tracking people. Their focus on privacy is fueled by true concern for their own well-being, not only the value of privacy as a concept.
Jane uses a VPN on all of their devices. Instead of Proton, however, Jane opts for Mullvad. They enable ad and tracker blocking, as well as a kill switch, which blocks your internet if you lose connection with the VPN—thus protecting your connection from being leaked out of the secure network.
I’m a big advocate for strong and unique passwords and proper password management, but Jane definitely beats me when it comes to secure credentials. Jane uses six to eight-word passphrases generated by diceware, a tactic that chooses words based on dice rolls. Something like this diceware generator will roll a die five times, then find a word in a bank based on that five-digit number. You can repeat this as many times as you want to come up with a passphrase built up with random words. Jane saves all of their passphrases to a password manager, except for the ones for important accounts, like their bank. They commit those to memory, just in case someone breaches their password manager.
Like Ed, Jane uses Mullvad, but instead of just using their VPN, they opt for the web browser, which has those protections built in. Mullvad’s strict privacy settings break persistent logins on websites, so any sites Jane wants to stay logged in on are kept in Brave browser. For both Mullvad and Brave, Jane uses uBlock Origin.
“From time-to-time I do run into sites that will block access due to being on a VPN or blocking ads and trackers. Instead of disabling [my] VPN completely, switching my connection to one of Mullvad’s rented servers instead of ones they own usually helps. Barring that, I occasionally go into [uBlock Origin] and temporarily whitelist a needed [URL] ([ReCAPTCHA] etc). This works for me to get around site blocks most of the time.”
Jane uses a Mac, and configured macOS based on various privacy guides. But instead of an iPhone, Jane opts for a Google Pixel. That might surprise readers who assumed hardcore privacy enthusiasts would break away from Google entirely. But X doesn’t run Android: Instead, they installed GrapheneOS on their Pixel, an open-source OS designed for privacy. Following a restart, Jane configured the Pixel to only unlock with a seven-word dice passphrase—for general use, they use a fingerprint scan and a six-digit PIN. If the don’t unlock their Pixel for a while, their phone automatically reboots to put it back into this “First Unlock” state. They also keep airplane mode on at all times to disable the phone’s radio communications, but maintain a wifi connection with timed automatic Bluetooth and wireless disabling.
Jane also deleted all their social media accounts after downloading all data associated with those platforms.
“Mark” is perhaps the least hardcore of the respondents in this story, but that makes their experience both interesting and relatable. Unlike most of the people we spoke to, Mark is still on Facebook and Instagram. That’s due to their job, which requires them to be on the platform, but they’ve been “systematically” deleting everything they can over their 19-year Facebook history and saving the data to an external hard drive. Mark doesn’t follow anything that isn’t relevant to their job, and only uses Facebook and Instagram inside the DuckDuckGo browser. They don’t react to posts they see, and following their privacy tactics, Facebook doesn’t show them relevant ads anymore. “If there is an ad I’m actually interested in I’ll search it up in a different browser rather than click it.”
Mark has had four Google Accounts in their time online, and has deleted two so far. Like Facebook, they have to use Google for their job, but they delegate all their work to Chrome. All other browsing runs through Firefox, DuckDuckGo, or Tor. The latter is perhaps best known for being the browser of choice for browsing the dark web, but what makes it great for that is also what makes it a great choice for private browsing.
Unlike others in this story, Mark hasn’t de-Googled themselves completely. In addition to using Chrome for work, Mark has a phone mask through Google, and has their contacts, calendar, and maps tied to the company—though they are moving away from Google as much as they can. They’ve been running through their old emails to find and delete outdated accounts they no longer use. Any accounts they do need now use an email mask that forwards to a Mailfence account, an encrypted email service.
Mark was the only respondent to talk about entertainment in relation to privacy: “I’ve also been switching to physical media over streaming, so buying CDs and DVDs, locally as much as possible. I’m lucky to have a local music store and a local bookstore…one of the owners of our bookstore wrote a book on how to resist Amazon and why. Any book I want, I can either order through them or on Alibris. For music, I use our local record store and Discogs.”
When shopping online, Mark uses a credit card mask, but still uses the card itself when shopping in person. They want to start using a credit card mask in retail locations like Janet Vertesi, an associate professor of sociology at Princeton University, but they haven’t quite gotten there yet.
What really piqued my interest most about Mark, however, wasn’t their perspective on their own privacy concerns, but the concerns around the privacy of their kids: “They each have a Gmail, two of them have Snapchat. Their schools use Gaggle and Google to spy on them. I don’t even know how to start disconnecting them from all this…I was a kid during the wild west of the internet and this feels like getting back to my roots. My kids are end users who understand apps and touchscreens, not torrenting their music or coding a basic website. (Is this my version of “I drank out of the garden hose”?) I feel like Big Data has its grip on the kids already and I don’t have a guidebook on navigating that as a parent.”
Mark’s current focus on their kids’ privacy includes deleting their health data from their local health system. That’s in part due to a data breach impacting the health system, but also the language about autism from Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the current Secretary of Health and Human Services.
“Jay’s” origin story with personal privacy dates back to 2017. That year, Equifax suffered a major hack, where nearly 148 million Americans had sensitive data stolen and weren’t notified about the breach for months. Jay was frustrated: You don’t choose to give your data to Equifax, or any credit bureau, and yet so many people lost their data. They also felt that companies were not properly held responsible for these events, and lawmakers were simply too out of touch to do what was necessary to protect citizens’ privacy, so they took it upon themselves to protect their own data.
Ever since this incident, Jay freezes their credit: “It was frustratingly difficult back then, but nowadays, it is very easy (it just requires an account, which I use a burner email for)…The freeze will not allow anyone to pull credit for large purchases in your name, even if they have your social security number (and because of the data breach, someone probably does). I decided I wanted to pursue some privacy for the things I do have a choice over.”
From here, Jay de-googled their life, including both Google Search as well as YouTube. They’ve found no issue with using alternative search engines, and, in fact, sees Google getting worse, as it tries to show you results based on what it thinks it knows about you, not what is most relevant to your actual query: “The internet was supposed to be a place you went to find information, not where you became the information that companies take instead.”
Jay uses tools to prevent fingerprinting, where companies identify you and track you across the internet, but worries that going too far with things like ad blockers puts a target on your back as well. Jay chooses to pick “a couple of effective tools,” and runs with those.
For their smartphone needs, Jay goes with Apple. Like Ed, Jay doesn’t believe Apple is perfect, and even considers their privacy policies a bit of a gimmick, but sees them as the better alternative to Android. Jay likes the security of the App Store, and the array of privacy features in both Safari and Apple Accounts as a whole. They highlight Safari’s “Advanced Tracking and Fingerprinting Protection” feature, which helps block trackers as you browse the web; iCloud’s Private Relay, which hides your IP address; and “Hide My Email,” which generates email aliases you can share with others without giving your true email address away.
Most of us are plagued with spam calls, but following the Robinhood data breach in 2021, Jay started receiving a flood of them. They decided to change their phone number and made a point of never sharing it with businesses. For the times they need to give out their number to parties they don’t trust, they use a number generated by My Sudo, which, for $20 per year, gives them a VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) phone number. It works with most services that rely on SMS, but it won’t function for two-factor authentication. (Which is fine, seeing as SMS-based 2FA is the weakest form of secondary authentication.) My Sudo lets you change your number for an additional $1, so if Jay’s number ever was compromised or started receiving too much spam, they could swap it.
Jay, like many respondents, deleted all social media services: “It has its place in society for a lot of people, and is no doubt a great way to connect. However, I found that the fear of deleting it was a lot worse than actually deleting it. The people you care about won’t forget you exist.” That said, Jay doesn’t mind any of the obstacles this lifestyle does throw their way: “It is a challenging topic, as most people consider you a little bit ‘out there’ if you take steps to make your life a little less convenient, but more private. The modern world sells you convenience, while pretending it is free, and harvesting your data for so much more than you actually get out of your relationship to them.”
There’s no one way to tackle personal privacy. Every one of the respondents to our query had something unique about their approach, and many had different motivations behind why they were so concerned about their privacy.
There are plenty of common through lines, of course. Most privacy people love Proton, which makes sense. Proton seems to be the only company that offers a suite of apps most closely resembling Google’s while also prioritizing privacy. If you want your email, calendar, word processor, and even your VPN all tied up nicely under one privacy-focused umbrella, that’s Proton.
But not everyone wants an ecosystem, either. That’s why you see respondents using other VPNs, like Mullvad, or other private storage options, like Tresorit. These apps and services exist—they might just not be owned by one company, like Apple or Google (or Proton).
Google and Meta are more commonalities, in that most privacy enthusiasts ditch them entirely. Some, like Mark, haven’t been able to fully shake off these data-hungry companies. In Mark’s case, that’s because they need these platforms for work. But while most hardcore privacy people delete their Google and Meta accounts, most of us have trouble de-Googling and de-Metaing our digital lives.
In general, though, the keys to privacy success include the following: Use a VPN to protect your internet traffic; prioritize privacy in your web browser, both through the browser itself, as well as extensions that block ads and protect your traffic; shield your sensitive information whenever possible, by using email aliases, alternate phone numbers, or credit card masks; use strong and unique passwords for all accounts, and store those passwords in a secure password manager; use two-factor authentication whenever possible (perhaps passkeys, when available); and stick to end-to-end encrypted chat apps to communicate with others. While there’s always more you can do, that’s the perfect storm to keep your digital life as private as reasonably possible.
Some might read through the examples here and see steps that are too much effort to be worth it. It might seem out of reach to ditch Gmail and Instagram, break certain websites, and force your friends and family to learn new numbers and email addresses to protect your privacy, especially if you don’t feel your privacy has that much of an impact on your life. But even if you aren’t sold on the concept of privacy itself, there are real-world results from sticking with these methods. Jay no longer receives spam calls and texts; Mark no longer sees ads that are freakishly relevant to their likes. It’s a lifestyle change, to be sure, but it’s not just to serve some concept of privacy. You can see results by changing the way you interact with the internet, all without having to actually disconnect from the internet, and, by extension, the world at large.
An anonymous reader shares a report: Negotiations are under way between the UAE and OpenAI that may make the company’s ChatGPT Plus artificial intelligence chatbot available to all residents free of charge, though a final deal has not been reached.
An agreement involving ChatGPT Plus would be part of the recently announced Stargate UAE infrastructure plan to create an AI hub in Abu Dhabi, according to a source familiar with the country’s AI strategy. Abu Dhabi’s AI company G42 has partnered with OpenAI, Oracle and Nvidia to set up Stargate UAE, a 1-gigawatt computing cluster that will operate in the newly established 5GW UAE — US AI Campus.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
AUSTIN, Texas—By just my third lap in the top-spec 2025 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1, I glanced down at the speedometer toward the end of the Circuit of the Americas’ long back straight and spied 181 mph (291 km/h) displayed for a split second. Not bad for Chevy’s newest flagship sports car, especially given that the $174,995 ZR1’s twin-turbocharged V8 pumps all 1,064 horsepower to the rear wheels only.
The US’s only purpose-built F1 track made for an excellent setting to taste Corvette’s latest; the ZR1 also commanded your attention while conquering the steep uphill toward the first corner, then winding through a series of challenging corners with plenty of elevation change. Luckily, the car itself is an engineering marvel, and Chevy brought along a team of engineers to explain exactly how the total package comes together to enable such a breathtaking pace, as well as how Chevy can responsibly sell such a powerful car to the general public at all.
The entire point of switching the Corvette’s eighth generation to a mid-engine layout was to improve weight distribution and allow the Corvette to compete against much more exotic competition from European OEMs like Ferrari. The front-engined car’s engine bay also lacked the width to add a pair of turbos, due to the suspension and tire orientation, which dictated the use of a supercharger that kept peak power to “just” 755 hp (563 kW) in the last Corvette to wear the ZR1 badge.
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Even if you don’t have a Peloton Bike or Bike+, the at-home fitness giant’s app can help you get in an effective, safe cycling workout. The instructor-led classes that are available for Bike and Bike+ users on their devices’ touchscreens are also available on the Peloton app, which works on iPhones, Androids, and streaming devices like Roku. Taking one of the company’s famous spin classes is a little different without the accompanying proprietary equipment, but it’s still a solid workout.
When you take a Peloton cycling class using the mobile or streaming app, you still see most of the same elements on-screen that you would if you were taking it on a Peloton Bike: recommended cadence and resistance, a leaderboard that you can hide, and, if you have a heart rate monitor connected, your heart rate. It doesn’t exactly look the same as it does on a Peloton device—it’s much plainer, as you can see in the screenshot above—but that doesn’t really matter as long as you can see the cues for how fast you should be going and at what resistance your bike should be set.
There’s the first key: You need to be able to see the screen. Instructors do periodically call out recommended cadences and resistance settings, but you’ll be better off if you can see the ones displayed on-screen. I tried out two different kinds of non-Peloton bikes with Peloton classes at the gym this week and found that a recumbent bike with a little ledge for the phone worked better for enabling me to see. Streaming the class on your TV is smart, if you can, but there are also all kinds of phone holders available on Amazon for under $20 that you can attach to your bike.
If you already have a spin bike at home, you’ll have to deal with whatever it is you’ve got, but if you’re looking for an at-home cycle or have a few options in the gym, here’s what you should keep in mind if you want to take Peloton classes.
First, I highly recommend a stationary bike that displays RPM (revolutions per minute). I first tried a Peloton mobile class on a spin bike in a commercial gym cycling studio, then went out on the gym floor to find a recumbent bike I could try for the experiment, too. I’ve taught spin for years in a variety of settings and not all the bikes I’ve taught on have featured a digital component that shares information on RPM or visually displays the resistance level. Over the years, these have become more common, but you may still find yourself in a place where the spin bikes you have access to don’t show any information at all. It’s not the end of the world; you just won’t be able to track your cadence and match it up to what the instructor and screen are telling you it should be.
While testing the mobile app classes, I used two pretty rudimentary bikes. They lacked many of the usual bells and whistles but featured basic displays that at least gave me a sense of my cadence.
Don’t bother trying to guess your RPM if you don’t have access to a bike that shows it to you; I’ve been teaching for a long time and still couldn’t accurately estimate my RPM if I tried. Spending too much time trying to guess your RPM will take your focus off your form, the music, and your workout. If you can’t see yours displayed as you ride, just do your best to ride to the beat of the music. Watch the instructor closely and try to match their cadence. Most of the time—not all the time, but most of the time—riding on the beat will put you in the middle of the recommended cadence.
I also recommend choosing a bike that displays the resistance level you’re on. It’s much easier to ride knowing your resistance level rather than simply guessing based on how the tension feels. The resistance isn’t quite as important as you think, however. When I teach a class, I make sure participants know that if they’re struggling to ride on, say, a resistance level of 14 out of 25, they can knock off a few resistance points, even if I’m telling the class to aim for 14. Do your best to hit the resistance levels your instructor is telling you to, but understand that—especially if you’re new to spinning—what’s easy or manageable for someone else might not yet be easy or manageable for you.
This is the part that sucks the most about doing a Peloton class on a non-Peloton bike. The instructors will tell you the recommended resistance level on which you should be riding—but they’re going to be giving you numbers between one and 100 because that’s how a Peloton bike’s resistance is set up. If you’re riding a bike that doesn’t display resistance levels, it’s no big deal. If the instructor says your resistance should be around 50, you can feel out what a 50% effort is for you and be done with it. But if you’re riding a bike that does display resistance levels, you could end up having to do a lot of math on the fly.
The bikes I currently teach on most often show a resistance level between one and 25. That 25 is comparable in feeling and effort to Peloton’s 100, while a 12 or so on that bike would be similar to a 50 on the Peloton. To follow a Peloton class on one of those bikes, I’d have to calculate to make sure my resistance was lining up with what the instructors suggest.
But wait, it gets worse. While testing out the mobile app classes, I was at a new gym I’ve never been to, using a bike brand I’m not familiar with. That bike’s resistance, inexplicably, was represented on a scale of one to 35. That calculation was much more bothersome than the comparably simpler one required on a bike that uses a 25-point resistance scale. Some bikes represent tension on a scale of one to 50. Others go from one to 10. Before pressing play on a Peloton mobile class, crank the resistance on your bike all the way up just to see what number is displayed on the screen when it’s at its max. Prepare to calculate accordingly from there.
The math is annoying and it can be frustrating to take one of these classes if you have no way of measuring your cadence, but overall, I think the ability to take a Peloton class on any bike is great. The All Access Membership costs $44 and grants you access to all kinds of classes, from walking to stretching to meditation, which makes the app valuable even if you don’t have one of Peloton’s Bike, Bike+, Tread, or Row devices. The cycling classes, which are all the same as the ones available on the touchscreens of Peloton’s devices, make it even more valuable. You’re getting guidance and encouragement from a trained, reputable professional. The classes are rigorously reviewed and keep safety top of mind and the playlists are varied and exciting. Even just following them on your phone is better than trying to craft a workout on your own, especially if you’re new to cycling.
I also love that these broaden the population of people who can use Peloton classes. I tried a mobile Peloton class on a recumbent bike, for instance, and it worked great, which is fantastic news for people with joint problems, mobility issues, or a desire for a more low-impact workout.
I recommend linking your Apple Watch or other heart rate monitor to your Peloton app if you’re going to try to take the cycling classes on a non-Peloton bike. Sure, you can depend on the heart-rate monitors that might be in the handlebars of your gym’s bikes, but overall, gym equipment is a lot worse at giving you accurate information about your workout than a wearable is. The Peloton Bike itself tracks your distance, cadence, and all kinds of metrics as you work out, but if you’re taking a class through the app on a different brand of bike, you get absolutely no data unless you have a wearable.
Chaos ensued on German roads this week after Google Maps wrongly informed drivers that highways throughout the country were closed during a busy holiday. Many of the apparently closed roads were located near large German cities and metropolitan areas, including Berlin, Düsseldorf and Dortmund.
As reported by a locally based journalist for The Guardian, drivers opening Google’s navigation app would see a swarm of red dots used to indicate no-go areas, which resulted in people looking for alternative routes that caused traffic pile-ups nationwide. The Guardian also reported that police and local authorities were contacted by people confused (and presumably pretty annoyed) about the supposed standstill.
To compound the issue, the Google Maps error coincided with the beginning of Germany’s Ascension Day public holiday on May 29, which meant the roads were even busier than usual.
In ganz Deutschland
Chaos bei Google Maps: Dienst zeigt unzählige falsche Sperrungenhttps://t.co/qEfIRrIHx3— Peter Berger (@leosgeminix) May 29, 2025
The problem reportedly only lasted for a few hours and by Thursday afternoon only genuine road closures were being displayed. It’s not clear whether Google Maps had just malfunctioned, or if something more nefarious was to blame. “The information in Google Maps comes from a variety of sources. Information such as locations, street names, boundaries, traffic data, and road networks comes from a combination of third-party providers, public sources, and user input,” a spokesperson for Google told German newspaper Berliner Morgenpost, adding that it is internally reviewing the problem. “In general, these sources provide a strong foundation for comprehensive and up-to-date maps.”
Technical issues with Google Maps are not uncommon. Back in March, users were reporting that their Timeline — which keeps track of all the places you’ve visited before for future reference — had been wiped, with Google later confirming that some people had indeed had their data deleted, and in some cases, would not be able to recover it.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/google-maps-falsely-told-drivers-in-germany-that-roads-across-the-country-were-closed-134026943.html?src=rss
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If you’ve been thinking about upgrading to a robot vacuum that also mops and handles its own maintenance, this deal from Roborock might be worth a look. The Roborock Qrevo S Robot Vacuum and Mop is currently available for Amazon Prime users at 38% off and features multiple benefits for anyone tired of vacuuming and mopping their entire home. It includes several automated features, including emptying its own dustbin, refilling its own water tank, and washing and drying mop pads. Compared to models where these tasks would have to be done manually, the Qrevo is a time-saver that may be worth the extra cost.
Amazon reviewers say that this model offers a thorough yet quiet clean on hard floors, which is in part due to the vacuum robot’s spinning mops. It also uses tech to map out your living space and avoid obstacles. When paired with the app, you can adjust cleaning zones, schedules, and areas the robot isn’t allowed in.
While its suction power claims to be strong enough to work well on carpets, it isn’t specifically designed for deep-cleaning this kind of surface. In addition, unlike more feature-rich models like the Roborock S8 Pro Ultra, it won’t lift when it’s crossing a rug. It may be better suited for people with hard floor surfaces, especially pet owners, as this system’s brush prevents hair from getting trapped or tangled.
Despite being apartment-friendly, it still consumes space and might not be worth the splurge for smaller spaces where a lower-priced model might suffice. Compared to models that cost only $100 less, though, it offers significantly more features (and convenience). If you’re a Prime member looking for a budget-friendly vacuum-mop hybrid with bells and whistles that won’t break the bank, Roborock’s Qrevo S hits a sweet spot between price point, functionality, and automation.
Elon Musk’s four-month blitz through the US government briefly made him Washington’s most powerful businessman since the Gilded Age. But it has done little for his reputation or that of his companies.
Musk this week formally abandoned his role as the head of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (Doge), which has failed to find even a fraction of the $2 trillion in savings he originally pledged.
On Thursday, Donald Trump lamented his departure but said Musk “will always be with us, helping all the way.”
This is a video of musician Luna Lee (who I’ve had the pleasure of seeing perform live) covering The Grateful Dead’s ‘Sugar Magnolia’ on the gayageum. It’s a pleasant trip — the kind of trip you might hope for at a concert. Watching your face melt in the funhouse mirror of a porta-potty? That is a bad trip. The kind of trip you don’t hope for at a concert and makes you question your life choices. The answers to those questions? All wrong. Can I get a do-over?
With the world the way that it is, it can’t hurt to have a massage gun on hand. And now’s a good time to snag one. Wellbots has an exclusive deal for Engadget readers on three popular Therabody models. Save up to $110 today on that tempting Theragun you’ve been eyeing.
You’ll save the most on the top-of-the-line model. The Theragun Pro Plus G6 is a powerhouse with a 16 mm amplitude. (That’s how far it can travel with each pulse.) Its motor delivers up to 60 lbs. of force. That should be more than enough to pound out whatever ails you.
The Theragun Pro Plus G6 supports vibration, heat and LED light therapy. It comes with five attachments: standard ball, dampener, thumb, micro-point and wedge. The device has an ergonomic grip, so you can easily reach those shoulder and back muscles. It’s long-lasting: up to 300 minutes on a single charge. The gun even integrates with the Therabody app, where you’ll find guided routines.
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It has a 10 mm amplitude, which feels less like hard pounding and more like a pleasant vibration. This one doesn’t support heat therapy. But it still includes three attachments: standard ball, dampener and thumb.
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This model also supports heat therapy. It includes four attachment heads: standard ball, dampener, wedge and heated percussive plus. You can also use it for cold and vibration modes, but those heads are sold separately.
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This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/theragun-percussion-massagers-are-up-to-110-off-right-now-130059571.html?src=rss
Each music streaming service varies in terms of its features and its interface, but unlike the video streaming apps, the actual content selection is broadly the same across them all: You get access to tens of millions of tunes, on demand, across all of your multiple devices.
With that in mind, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to subscribe to multiple music streaming platforms. People are far more likely to make a choice between them, find their preferred service, and then stick to it—and once you’re invested in terms of playlists and listening history, it’s not easy to leave.
But I’m signed up to not one, not two, but three music streaming services—and I’ll try and explain why I stay active on all of them. If you’ve only ever stuck with one option, you might not know there are actually some key differences between them, and different ways that they’re all worth the money.
Admittedly this isn’t going to be right for everyone, and it’s definitely expensive. As a tech journalist I get to write about these different streaming apps for a living, which helps justify the cost, and your mileage may vary in terms of whether the differences between these platforms make any difference to you.
Before we get into the three streaming services themselves, a shout out to a fourth service, Last.fm: It tracks listening across multiple music platforms, which means I can look back on my musical tastes and how they change over time, even as I’m bouncing among three separate subscriptions.
I’ve been listening to digital music through iTunes since the start of this century, which is a big reason why I continue to rely on Apple Music for most of my day-to-day listening. I still have a carefully curated collection of local digital music files, and Apple Music can blend these seamlessly with new music that I stream on-demand. For bands I really like, I still buy the music—both to support them, and just in case one day I want to stop renting music (and movies, and TV shows).
The other major reason I use Apple Music above every other streaming service is the control you get over your library and over your playlists: There are algorithms here, of course, and music recommendations, but I’m much less reliant on them. Apple Music is a throwback in terms of how you can organize the music you like and determine what you listen to, rather than just opening up an app and clicking play on whatever auto-generated playlist looks most appealing.
Smart playlists are an important part of this experience, too. They let you build playlists based on your library, based around a whole host of criteria: total plays, date, genre, rating, the last played date, artist, and more. They update in real time, so a “songs I haven’t heard for six months” playlist will constantly refresh as you listen to it and the metadata updates.
I’ve spent more time than I care to admit curating numerous smart playlists. They let me balance new music with old music, prioritize my favorites while still adding in more obscure cuts, and mean that forgotten tracks that I haven’t heard for a year or more will still occasionally pop into my queue without me having to dig for them. If I ever go down to just one music streaming service, this is the one I think I’d keep.
YouTube is the opposite of Apple Music in some ways, because I’ll often just click on a music video I like and see where the recommendation algorithm takes me. YouTube probably knows my musical tastes better than any other app or platform, because of the hours I’ve spent clicking around on those brightly colored thumbnails, and it’s great for discovering new bands and new songs.
It’s an easy, sit-back-and-listen experience, one that works everywhere: web browsers, TVs, phones, and tablets of any description. Just about every device can run YouTube. And any listening I do on YouTube is synced to YouTube Music (while all of my YouTube Music playlists are also accessible through YouTube)—I can switch between an audio and video experience as needed.
That’s convenient and accessible, and on top of that there’s more music on YouTube Music (via YouTube) than anywhere else: live versions, b-sides, alternative takes you can’t find anywhere else, obscure gig recordings made by fans, and all the rest. There’s a depth and a breadth here that Apple Music and Spotify can’t match.
Another feature I like about YouTube Music is being able to queue up different playlists on different devices—even in different browser tabs. On my laptop I can have a new music mix (for entertainment) and a lo-fi chill mix (for concentration) available in neighboring browser tabs, and switch between them with a click. If I then go out in the car I can listen to a third YouTube Music playlist, without losing my place in either of the playlists I’m working through back at home.
Finally, I subscribe to Spotify is that, well, even with everything I’ve already said about its competitors, it’s the best music streaming service. It has the most polished apps, with the most features available—like the Blend playlists you can use to combine your musical tastes with those of a friend to create a single mix, and the AI DJ you can get to queue up tracks for you.
When it comes to third-party speakers, apps, and AI assistants, Spotify is the music streaming service most likely to be supported: It doesn’t favor particular devices or platforms, as Apple Music and YouTube Music do. It’s available everywhere, and it’s the easiest for sharing music with other people, because almost everyone uses it.
I use Spotify most for new music. It has a fantastic range of recommendation options, including the Release Radar playlist (new music by artists I like), and the Discover Weekly playlist (a weekly mix of new and old music, including some artists I know and some I don’t). I also enjoy all the weird and wonderful playlists other Spotify users curate and make public for everyone else.
What’s more (and despite what I said about YouTube Music), sometimes I do want a playlist that I can transfer from my laptop, to my smart speaker, to my car, and all the way back again, without skipping a beat—and Spotify handles this better than both Apple Music and YouTube Music.
This week we’re fielding your burning tech questions, as well as diving into a bunch of AI web browser news. Opera has started testing its fully agentic AI browser, the Browser Company is dumping the Arc browser in favor of something AI related and Mozilla is getting in a bit of hot water with experimental AI preview summaries. Try as we might, we just can’t escape AI.
Listener Mailbag: How to set up an Xbox account for your kids, will screens be obsolete, and more – 1:34
Web browsers go AI ‘agentic’: The Browser Company leaves Arc behind. Opera and Firefox debut new features – 25:37
xAI is paying Telegram $300m this year to use Grok – 54:04
Apple’s self repair program extends to iPads – 56:30
Apple might switch its OS numbering next year, iOS26 could be on the way – 58:57
Working on – 1:02:41
Pop culture picks – 1:09:26
Hosts: Devindra Hardawar and Ben Ellman
Producer: Ben Ellman
Music: Dale North and Terrence O’Brien
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/engadget-podcast-who-needs-an-ai-web-browser-124547429.html?src=rss
Disney Plus and Hulu have come up with a new idea to draw in subscribers: an updated “Perks” program. If you sign up for a subscription with either of those services, Perks will give you freebies like a six-month DoorDash membership, discounted stays at Walt Disney World and 20 percent off Adidas shoes. You’ll even get a shot at winning items from Hulu shows, like actual A Handmaid’s Tale robes and wings (which seems a bit on the nose in our current times).
The offer is now available to current and new Disney Plus subscribers and will launch for Hulu on June 2nd. Other companies participating including Microsoft, Pure Green, LG and Funko, with new perks arriving every week this summer. If you subscribe to one of Disney’s Disney Plus and Hulu bundle plans, you’ll get access perks from both programs. An international launch is set for later this year.
Disney Plus counts 126.0 million paid subscribers worldwide as of March 31 this year, thanks to 1.4 million new signups in the first three months of 2025, according to Variety. Paid Hulu subscribers rose by 1.1 million during the same period and now stand at 54.7 million. By comparison, Netflix counted 301.6 million paid subscribers globally at the end of 2024.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/disney-plus-and-hulus-new-perks-feature-offers-discounts-tickets-to-movie-premieres-and-more-123035097.html?src=rss
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If you’ve been waiting for a big-screen TV deal that doesn’t require big-spender energy, this might be it. The Hisense 85U6N is currently down to $799.99 from $1,297.96 on Amazon—its lowest price ever, according to price-trackers. That’s nearly a $500 discount on a TV that PCMag rated Outstanding and named an Editor’s Choice, calling it the best budget-friendly TV you can buy. That said, if 85 inches feels like overkill, the 65-inch version is also on sale for $499 right now.
This is a 4K QLED panel with a mini-LED backlight system, so the color and contrast are strong—better than you’d expect at this price. It supports all major HDR formats, including Dolby Vision and HDR10+, and though it only has a 60Hz refresh rate, it makes up for it with very low input lag. Gamers will appreciate the 3.6ms response time, and streamers get full access to Google TV, with all the usual apps: Netflix, YouTube, Disney+, Apple TV, and other streaming platforms. You can also cast from your phone using Google Cast or Apple AirPlay, and there’s hands-free Google Assistant baked in.
Design-wise, it’s simple but clean. The near bezel-less look works well, and the matte black build doesn’t scream “budget.” It comes with a voice remote and can sit on a stand or be wall-mounted. You get four HDMI ports (one with eARC), two USB ports, and the usual audio and antenna connections. The only real omission is the newer ATSC 3.0 tuner for next-gen over-the-air broadcasts, but unless you’re using an antenna for local 4K channels, that won’t matter much. Overall, the U6N delivers a big-screen experience with strong performance and modern features at a price that’s hard to beat right now. If you’ve got the wall space and the budget, it’s a solid pick.
