Posts

Your Questions in the Meta AI App Might Be Posted Publicly

Image
I never thought I'd download Meta AI on my iPhone. After all, people have been mad for over a year that you can't turn off Meta AI on Facebook and Instagram : Why would you want a dedicated app for this? Then, I saw the headlines from TechCrunch , Wired , and Business Insider , among many others, that sharply criticize the app's approach to privacy and security. That's because Meta AI isn't Meta's take on ChatGPT, Gemini, or Claude. Instead, it's half-chatbot, half-social media platform, where your requests and questions can be shared with the rest of the Meta AI community. To be clear, your Meta AI interactions aren't shared by default. You do need to choose to post your queries to the social aspect of the app. Should you choose to do so, your requests are posted to a public Discover feed for all with the app to see. That invites users who want to share their AI creations, of course, as well as trolls who want to spam the feed with silly or offensive ...

Watch Out for Malicious Unsubscribe Links

Image
In addition to the flood of spam texts you receive on a daily basis, your email inbox is likely filled with newsletters, promotions, and other messages that you don't care to read and perhaps don't know why you receive. But you shouldn't just start clicking unsubscribe links, which may open you up to certain cybersecurity risks. Email unsubscribe links may be malicious While email unsubscribe links may seem innocuous, especially if you generally trust the sender, security experts say there are a number of ways in which threat actors can leverage these links for malicious purposes. Like responding to a spam text or answering a spam call, clicking "unsubscribe" confirms that your email address is active, giving cyber criminals an incentive to keep targeting you. In some cases, unsubscribe links can be hijacked to send users to phishing websites, where you are asked to enter your login credentials to complete the process. According to the folks at DNSFilter, one i...

Why I Would Choose a Steam Deck Over a Nintendo Switch 2

Image
We may earn a commission from links on this page. After spending about a week with the Nintendo Switch 2 , I have to admit that it’s a good console. It’s priced fairly for its sleek form factor and the performance it offers, and it sets Nintendo up to stay relevant while gaming graphics only continue to get more complex. And yet, for my own personal tastes, it’s still not my handheld of choice. Instead, I’ll be sticking to Valve’s Steam Deck, the first and still overall best handheld gaming PC, at least going by value for money. And if you don’t necessarily care about Nintendo’s exclusive games, there’s a good chance it might be the better option for you, too. The Steam Deck is cheaper than the Switch 2 Out of the gate, the most obvious reason to get a Steam Deck over a Nintendo Switch 2 is price. Starting at $400 for a new model , it’s only modestly cheaper than the Switch 2’s $450, but that’s only part of the story. V...

Apple Is Giving the iPhone Its Own ‘Emoji Kitchen’

Image
Emojis are a fun evolution from the emoticons of old—but there are only so many to choose from. While a handful of new ones are added each year, for the most part, what you see is what you get, which is why Android's " Emoji Kitchen " is so great. The feature lets you combine two emojis to create a brand new one, right on your device. If you want to send a winky face, but with the robot emoji, you can. You can make the skull emoji cry with laughter, or turn a piece of pizza into a rocket ship. The feature multiplies a limited yet sizable pool of emoji choices into a staggering number of varieties. While Emoji Kitchen is now automaticly included on Pixel devices , it doesn't even exist on iPhone, at least as of the latest official software version, iOS 18.5. With iOS 26 , currently in beta testing, however, Apple has built an Emoji Kitchen-like feature that uses Apple Intelligence to mix multiple emoji or Genmoji together to make a new icon. The feature didn't ...

Your Switch 2 Might Have More Battery Life Than It Says It Does

Image
It's quite convenient being able to play Mario Kart or Zelda on the go, but once your Switch 2's battery life indicator says it's about to die, you're back to worrying about where the nearest outlet is. If you've been playing your Switch 2 in handheld mode this week, you might have noticed that the console warns that it's running out of battery quicker than you'd expect. Maybe you chalked that up to the device's more powerful hardware putting more strain on the battery than the original Switch , and resigned yourself to a life of charging more frequently. The thing is, you might also notice that even though the battery says it's low, you can keep playing for quite a bit longer than it suggests—perhaps even hours longer. That's because the battery indicator isn't actually telling you the truth: your Switch 2 likely has a lot more power left than it's telling you. This isn't a theory: As IGN reports, Nintendo itself confirmed that ...

You Can ‘Fix’ Apple's Liquid Glass Transparent Design

Image
Change isn’t always easy. Case in point: “ Liquid Glass .” Apple’s upcoming “26” updates for iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, Apple TV, and Vision Pro introduce this new design language that adds a transparent, glassy look to icons, menus, and windows. Some people are digging it, while others are hating on it . And the haters are hating . I generally like the new look, though perhaps what I like best is that it matches across all of Apple’s products. It’s also nice to have a fresh look on Apple devices—especially the iPhone—for the first time in years. That said, I understand some of the criticisms: In the right conditions, these icons and menus look great, but depending on the background, it can be very difficult to read text or view certain elements.   Unless you download the latest Apple betas ( which I don’t recommend you do ), you won’t be dealing with these changes until the fall, when the company r...

All the iOS 26 Features Apple Barely Mentioned at WWDC 2025

Image
iOS gains so many new features with each version update that it's impractical to condense everything into a single keynote. While the big iOS 26 features, including ones that Apple borrowed from others , got all the attention, I think some of the most exciting features were buried during the WWDC 2025 keynote . Apple briefly showed a slide containing all these hidden features, and I've compiled them here: 36 hidden iOS 26 features Credit: Apple The above slide is all we have to go on for these features. Some of them are obvious from the title alone, but others aren't so clear. I've tried to add context wherever I can, but there is some speculation necessary here until we know more about iOS 26: Custom snooze length for alarms : If you want to snooze for more or less than the standard nine minutes, this feature could be r...