Apple sold seven of the ten best-selling smartphones globally in 2025, a lopsided dominance that underscores how thoroughly the company controls the premium end of the mobile market.
The iPhone 16 was the single best-selling phone worldwide, and Apple’s presence extended all the way down to the tenth spot where the iPhone 16e — its newest budget-friendly option — found consistent demand in Japan and the U.S., according to Counterpoint.
Samsung accounted for the remaining three positions, led by the Galaxy A16 5G as the best-selling Android device of the year. The Galaxy S25 Ultra also made the cut, marking the second straight year a Samsung flagship cracked the top ten. Together these ten phones from just two companies represented 19% of all smartphones sold during the year, continuing a four-year streak of Apple-Samsung exclusivity at the top.
Yesterday afternoon, following the end of trading on Wall Street for the day, Tesla published its financial results for 2025. They weren’t particularly good: Profits were almost halved, and revenues declined year on year for the first time in the company’s history. The reasons for the company’s troubles are myriad. CEO Elon Musk’s bankrolling of right-wing politics and promotion of AI-generated revenge porn deepfakes and CSAM has alienated plenty of potential customers. For those who either don’t know or don’t care about that stuff, there’s still the problem of a tiny and aging model line-up, with large question marks over safety and reliability. Soon, that tiny line-up will be even smaller.
The news emerged during Tesla’s call with investors last night. As Ars and others have observed, in recent years Musk appears to have grown bored with the prosaic business of running a profitable car company. Silicon Valley stopped finding that stuff sexy years ago, and no other electric vehicle startup has been able to generate a value within an order of magnitude of the amount that Tesla has been determined to be worth by investors.
Musk’s attention first turned away from building and selling cars to the goal of autonomous driving, spurred on at the time by splashy headlines garnered by Google spinoff Waymo. Combined with ride-hailing—a huge IPO by Uber took the spotlight off Tesla long enough for it to become a new business focus for the automaker too—Musk told adoring fans and investors that soon their cars would become appreciating assets that earned money for them at night. And as intermediary, Tesla would take a hefty cut for connecting rider and ridee.
Werner Koch released libgcrypt 1.12 as the newest feature release to this library providing the cryptographic building blocks used by GnuPG and other software like email clients, file encryption utilities, and other software…
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A 77-inch OLED dipping below $1,500 doesn’t happen often. Seeing it at $1,419.99 is even rarer. That price beats the lowest tracked deal for the Samsung S85F and lands well under Amazon’s current $1,597.99 listing. This Woot deal is for a factory-reconditioned unit. In exchange, you get a 90-day Samsung warranty and free standard shipping if you’re a Prime member, while non-members pay an extra $6. The deal is live for two days or until stock runs out.
The Samsung S85F is positioned as the company’s entry-level OLED, replacing the 2024 S85D and sitting just below the S90F and S95F in the lineup. It skips the newer AI-powered processor used in pricier models (which mostly affects how aggressively it handles upscaling and HDR tone mapping), but you’re still getting Samsung’s 2025 Tizen OS with all the essentials—built-in voice assistant, casting support, and a responsive UI. As for connectivity, all four HDMI ports support 4K at 120Hz with Variable Refresh Rate (VRR), making this a legitimate option for PS5 and Xbox Series X users. It doesn’t support Dolby Vision HDR, as is typical of a Samsung TV, but it does handle HDR10+, which offers similar dynamic range improvements.
The WOLED panel plays to OLED’s strengths in darker rooms. Blacks look genuinely black, colors pop without looking artificial, and the viewing angle stays consistent even when you’re sitting off to the side. Reflection handling is solid, so overhead lights aren’t a dealbreaker, though black levels lift noticeably in brighter spaces. For mixed use, like movies at night, gaming sessions, and casual daytime watching, it performs well. If you’re comfortable with the reconditioned aspect and don’t need extreme brightness, this is a practical way to get a massive OLED without the usual price shock.
Microsoft’s earnings for the second quarter of its 2026 fiscal year managed to top expectations on Wall Street, with the Redmond outfit reporting $81.3 billion in revenue, which is a 17% increase from the same period in the prior year. The bulk of the revenue came from its Cloud business, leading to an overall net profit of $30.9 billion (non-GAAP
Illinois lawmakers plan to introduce a climate change superfund bill in the state legislature this session, the latest in a growing number of states seeking to make fossil fuel companies pay up for the fast-growing financial fallout of climate change.
As the costs of global warming rise—in the form of home insurance premiums, utility bills, health expenses, and record-breaking damages from extreme weather—local advocates are increasingly pushing states to require that fossil fuel companies contribute to climate “superfunds” that would support mitigation and adaptation.
Illinois State Rep. Robyn Gabel, who will introduce the bill in the House, said she is motivated by the growing threat of flooding and heat waves in the state.
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The JBL Flip 7 is currently $84.95 at Woot, down from its usual $149.95. That undercuts the previous low of $99.95 and, according to price trackers, makes this the cheapest it has ever been. This deal runs for the next two days or until it’s sold out, whichever comes first. Prime members get free standard shipping, while non-members pay $6.
The Flip line has always been about portable, durable speakers that are easy to toss in a bag and good enough for everyday listening, and the Flip 7 sticks to that formula. It doesn’t look all that different from its predecessor, with the same compact, water-bottle shape, but the build quality has been beefed up. You now get a tougher rubber bumper system that can survive a one-meter drop onto concrete, and the IP68 rating makes it completely dust-proof and safe to dunk in water. The old loop has also been replaced with a built-in carabiner, which feels like a small but meaningful fix if you’re outdoorsy. JBL’s added flexibility under the hood, too. You get Bluetooth 5.4, Auracast support, and USB-C audio input (if you don’t want to rely solely on Bluetooth) for high-res streaming. That said, there’s no microphone for calls and no auxiliary input, and Bluetooth is limited to the basic SBC codec.
Sound-wise, the Flip 7 holds up well for a portable speaker this size, with a 25W woofer and 10W tweeter delivering surprisingly full audio. It won’t blow out a backyard party, and if you push the volume past 70%, it gets noticeably sharp, as highlighted by this PCMag review. You’ll want to stick to moderate volume or pair it with another speaker for a more balanced, less fatiguing listening experience. Battery life is rated at 14 hours, or up to 16 with Playtime Boost enabled (though you’ll lose some bass in exchange for the extra juice). For anyone after a rugged, great-sounding, truly portable speaker at a steep discount, this is a tough package to beat.
Android smartphone maker Nothing won’t release a Phone 4 this year, the company’s founder and chief executive said, and that the 2025 Phone 3 will remain the brand’s flagship device throughout 2026.
“We’re not just going to churn out a new flagship every year for the sake of it, we want every upgrade to feel significant,” Carl Pei said in a video. “Just because the rest of the industry does things a certain way it doesn’t mean we will do the same.”
Maingear is back with another retro-inspired drop and like the Retro95 that launched last summer, the new Retro98 meshes old school styling that will have you reminiscing about those all-night LAN parties from way back in the day, with decidedly modern hardware to conquer modern games. It’s also another limited edition run, so once the available
Following NVIDIA’s announcement back at CES of their GeForce NOW game streaming service coming to Linux as a native desktop application, today’s the day. The GeForce NOW Linux-native build is being published and the review embargo has lifted.
Snapchat maker Snap announced it’s formed a new business dedicated to its upcoming AR glasses.
The News
Called Specs Inc, the wholly-owned subsidiary within Snap is said to allow for “greater operational focus and alignment” ahead of the public launch of its latest AR glasses coming later this year.
In addition to operating its AR efforts directly under the new brand, Snap says Specs Inc will also allow for “new partnerships and capital flexibility,” including the potential for minority investment.
Snap Spectacles Gen 5 (2024) | Image courtesy Snap Inc
In September, Snap CEO Evan Spiegel noted in an open letter that the company is heading into a make-or-break “crucible moment” in 2026, characterizing Specs as an integral part of the company’s future.
“This moment isn’t just about survival. It’s about proving that a different way of building technology, one that deepens friendships and inspires creativity, can succeed in a world that often rewards the opposite,” Spiegel said.
While the company hasn’t shown of its next-gen Specs yet, the company touts the device’s built-in AI, something that “uses its understanding of you and your world to help get things done on your behalf while protecting and respecting your privacy.”
Snap further notes that it’s “building a computer that we hope you’ll use less, because it does more for you.”
My Take
Snap (or rather, Specs) is set to release its sixth-gen Spectacles this year, although this is the first pair of AR glasses the company is ostensibly hoping to pitch directly to the public, and not just developers and educational institutions.
Info is still thin surrounding Spec Inc’s launch plans for the devices, although forming a new legal entity for its AR business right beforehand could mean a few things.
For now, it doesn’t appear Snap is “spinning out” Spectacles proper; Snap hasn’t announced new leadership, leading me to believe that it’s more of a play to not only attract more targeted investment in the AR efforts, but also insulate the company from potential failure.
It’s all fairly opaque at this point, although the move does allow investors to more clearly choose between supporting the company’s traditional ad business, or investing it the future of AR.
However you slice it though, AR hardware development is capital intensive, and Snap’s pockets aren’t as deep as its direct competitors, including Meta, Apple, Google, and Microsoft.
While Snap confirmed it spent $3 billion over the course of 11 years creating its AR platform, that’s notably less than what Meta typically spends in a single quarter on its XR Reality Labs division.
It’s also risky. The very real flipside is that Specs Inc could go bankrupt. Maybe it’s too early. Maybe it underdelivers in comparison to competitors. Maybe it’s too expensive out of the gate for consumers, and really only appeals to enterprise. Maybe it isn’t too expensive, but the world heads into its sixth once-in-a-generation economic meltdown.
Simply put, there are a lot of ‘maybes’ right now. And given the new legal separation, Snap still has the option to survive relatively unscathed if it goes belly up, and lives to find another existential pivot.
Google has agreed to a preliminary $135 million settlement in a class action lawsuit brought by Android users who accused it of harvesting their data without consent. The suit alleged that since November 12, 2017, Google has been illegally collecting cellular data from phones purchased through carriers, even when apps were closed or location features were disabled.
As reported by Reuters, the affected users believed Google using their data for marketing and product development meant it was guilty of “conversion.” In US law, conversion occurs when one party takes the property of another with “the intent to deprive them of it” or “exert property rights over it.”
Subject to approval from a judge, a settlement of $135 million was filed in a San Jose federal court earlier this week. The payout would be one of, if not the largest ever in a case of this nature, according to Glen Summers, a lawyer for the plaintiffs.
Each user involved in the lawsuit would be entitled to up to $100 from Google, which denies any wrongdoing and has agreed to seek consent during the setup process of a new phone from now on. A toggle will be added to enable users to easily disable data transfer, while the Alphabet-owned company will also adjust its terms of service accordingly. A trial is scheduled for August 5.
This is the second settlement this week for Google. On January 26, the company also agreed to a $68 million settlement regarding claims that Google Assistant had been spying on users after being triggered by what it had misheard as wake words. Again, Google denied any wrongdoing in the class action suit.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/google-will-pay-135-million-to-settle-illegal-data-collection-lawsuit-133012112.html?src=rss
As scammers continue to find ways to impersonate known brands, users should remain wary of spam-like emails—even if they appear to come from a legitimate company address.
Ars Technica has identified a scheme that abuses a Microsoft subscription feature to send phishing emails from no-reply-powerbi@microsoft.com, a real address that the company advises users to add to their allow lists.
How the Microsoft Power BI scam works
Users targeted with this scam have received emails from an address connected to Microsoft Power BI, a business analytics platform. The messages include (fake) billing receipts with large purchase amounts from services like PayPal, Norton LifeLock, and Microsoft 365 and a phone number to call to dispute the transaction.
Scammers on the other end of the line may try to convince you to install a remote access application that allows device takeover or will otherwise extract personal information. As with any phishing scam, engaging in any way—calling the number, responding to the email, or clicking links—could put your data and your device at risk.
The emails themselves are full of typos and grammar errors and urgent calls to action that are, in most cases, completely unrelated to Microsoft itself. Many users would spot these red flags and know to simply delete the message. However, threat actors capitalize on the trust users have in the brands they’re exploiting along with scare tactics to trap some people in the scheme.
This is also far from the first phishing scheme of its kind: Threat actors have sent malicious emails from legitimate PayPal and Google addresses (to name just two) by exploiting similar loopholes. In the case of PayPal, fraudulent purchase notifications sent from service[at]paypal[dot]com abused the platform’s subscription billing feature. With Google, scammers registered google.com subdomains via Google Sites and linked them with Google Accounts.
