Top headlines from Engadget, the internet's original tech blog.

A much-anticipated feature is coming very soon. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

-France's independent regulatory authority in charge of licensed gambling and betting games, -Chinese company LONGi has developed a solar cell that it claims has achieved a conversion efficiency of 35.5 percent, as verified by the European Solar Test Installation. -OpenAI will now notify parents and guardians with linked accounts if their child has been kicked off ChatGPT for violating its policies on violent threats or acts of violence online. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Expect to see it in devices at Samsung's Unpacked event next week Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

-Netflix said, “GenAI workflows were used in roughly 300 of our titles, this year, with the largest concentration of work in post-production.” -Gabriel Perez allegedly made more than $100,000 betting on the length of President Trump's speeches, including the State of the Union address, a speech at the World Economic Forum in January and remarks at a Medal of Honor ceremony in March. -MLB officials have taken the unusual step of making a mid-season policy change to crack down on the use of custom apps that would take over "recommendations regarding substitutions, pitch calling, and other in-game decisions traditionally made by players and coaches." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The massive project will output 1.6GW of solar power upon startup, enough to power 315,000 homes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

-Apple said to have been in talks with semiconductor makers and bankers about possible acquisitions in order to bolster its servers. -1Password just announced 1Password for Claude, a new feature on its browser extension that lets Claude use your credentials, but blocks your private info from reaching the model, its memory or Anthropic's systems. -The Oversight Board published a lengthy report about how leading AI models could be restricting their users' free expression. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Governor Kathy Hochul just signed an executive order barring the state from approving data centers using 50MW or more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

-OpenAI's first device will apparently be rechargeable and can easily be carried from one room to another. -Twenty-six former Meta employees are suing the company for allegedly using biased AI tools that "disproportionately selected" people who took medical leave as candidates to be laid off. -Hachette Book Group, Cengage Learning, Elsevier and writer Scott Turow are seeking a class action lawsuit against Google on claims that the tech company broke copyright law by using their works to train its Gemini AI. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Like Google Maps, Waze is going all-in on Gemini. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

-Governor Kathy Hochul signed an executive order pausing environmental permits for large data centers (consuming more than 50 megawatts) for up to a year. -Google has struck a deal to purchase a major solar project's entire electrical output to offset its fossil fuel emissions. -The Los Angeles Police Department has suspended its use of controversial surveillance tech from Flock Safety. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A new "Workspace Check-in" feature rolled out last month. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

-According to multiple reports, the AI-powered shopping plugin Phia used a tactic known as cookie stuffing to attach its affiliate code to sales it didn't actually drive. -Across Europe, kids now spend four to six hours per day on social media, and almost 60 percent of them had experienced "socio-emotional development and susceptibility to mental health issues. -While we can acknowledge the impact that AI has made on society and industries so far, shouldn't we embrace the human experience instead of celebrating this AI slop of an excuse for a special day? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

People will have to surrender their devices for safekeeping before they're allowed in court. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

-As GeekWire noted, Microsoft seems to be moving in the opposite direction of where it wants to go in order to achieve its goal. -OpenAI describes its latest offering as something of a general purpose productivity agent. - Big Ben's clock mechanic says he programmed his Playdate to help check the timing for the iconic clocktower's bells to ring. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We're expecting an updated family of foldables including not one but possibly two versions of the Galaxy Z Fold 8. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

-SpaceXAi says Grok 4.5 is its smartest model yet, built specifically "to excel at coding, agentic tasks and knowledge work." It was trained across tens of thousands of NVIDIA GB300 GPUs on datasets full of coding, science, engineering and math information. -The US Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is demanding action from autonomous car makers after identifying "a clear pattern of driverless AVs interfering with law enforcement and other first responders" over the past months. -There are now 100 sheep grazing at the solar farm that powers Volkswagen's manufacturing plant in Poznań, Poland. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Max subscribers get first access. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

-According to Financial Times, Apple has already progressed to testing the company's memory chips with its devices, while it's still lobbying the US government to give it permission to use CXMT's products. -CNBC quotes an unnamed State Department spokesperson who said the use of Chinese models "by US companies raises serious concerns." -DuckDuckGo announced that it can now block most video ads, particularly those on YouTube, when a video is playing in its browser. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The iPhone Fold's complexity means production will get off to a slow start. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

- Google introduced a change to how it hoovers up our data to train its AI platforms. It can now scoop up media you upload to its various search tools for training purposes, according to a report by TechCrunch. -DeepSeek, the Chinese AI company which sometimes keeps tech executives awake at night, is reportedly looking to build its own silicon. -Meta is facing penalties of up to a massive $1.4 trillion from four US states that sued the company over the addictive designs of Facebook and Instagram. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Plus - Why bulky laptop chargers are a relic of the past; Tesla Q2 vehicle deliveries are up 25 percent over last year. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

-A judge has ruled that the Pentagon must not treat Chinese online retailer Alibaba as a Chinese military company with respect to new lobbying restrictions. -As reported by Game File, Sony shared a private message to PlayStation developers and publishers that said they "will still be able to place re-orders for existing PlayStation disc games." -The NASA Swift Boost mission launched on Friday morning after a couple of delays, and the agency has started preparing it for its ultimate goal: To rescue the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, which is falling faster than anticipated. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Next spring could be a fiesta of new iPads, MacBooks and iPhones. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

-Without a doubt, it was the most personally profitable period of any president's term in office, personally netting him a figure north of $2 billion. -According to an analysis from Zach Edwards, a staff security researcher at Infoblox, the person or group behind these accounts is running more than 10,000 malicious "crypto casino" websites. -Cloudflare has announced plans to automatically block mixed-use web crawlers that index websites for search engines and act as AI agents and trainers at the same time. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

"We're done paying for executives' failures," one Xbox developer said. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

-OpenAI's Sam Altman has reportedly been in talks with the US government to ensure his company's path towards achieving its goals remains free of political hurdles. -A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket left for space in the early hours of July 2, bringing 29 Amazon Leo satellites with it. -X launched a live streaming command center called Live Studio, with tools creators need to go live more easily, along with new payouts to incentivize them. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You can use Gemini to quickly search your inbox with natural language. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

-In its report, the panel discussed how quickly AI capabilities have evolved over the past few years. The complexity of tasks AI models can accomplish has been doubling every few months. -Conversation Focus, in particular, is only accessible at no cost for three hours per month. If you want to use it for longer than that, you'll have to pay for a $20-a-month Meta One Premium plan. -Netflix has worked with ElevenLabs to develop a recreation of Gene Wilder's voice for use in an upcoming unscripted reality show inspired by Roald Dahl's novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You'll be able to reserve the username you want starting this week. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

-Reuters reported that the documents posted on "the dark web" allegedly show information about both components and their suppliers for the iPhone 18 Pro. -The US Supreme Court just issued a ruling that limits geofence searches by law enforcement agencies, which could have major ramifications for privacy rights across the country. -Tidal is still allowing tracks made with AI on its platform, but will slap a tag on anything that's 100 percent AI-generated so its users are aware. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The workers' union plans to fight the cuts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

-Rocket Lab announced it's buying Iridium Communications in a deal worth $8 billion to compete with SpaceX's ever-growing Starlink network -According to the Financial Times, Google was forced to cap Meta's use of its Gemini AI model after Mark Zuckerberg's company exceeded its computing capacity. -Sony has notified customers in a handful of European countries that they'll soon lose access to some movies that they've purchased through the PlayStation Store due to the upcoming expiration of a licensing deal with Studio Canal. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The company's new "nanostack" architecture could lead to far more efficient chips. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

-OpenAI plans to stagger the release of its new AI model, and the first users will only be parties that are approved by the federal government. -According to the office of California Governor Gavin Newsom, it's meant to serve as an "early warning system" for widespread job cuts due to artificial intelligence, allowing the government to proactively determine where interventions may be needed the most. -NSFW activities account for "well over half" of Grok's traffic. That includes using Grok to generate actual porn, as well as "adult role-play chats" and "huge volumes of requests for erotica." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You'll no longer need to manually add your ID details for each airline. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

-As part of its latest revamp, Faraday Future, the embattled electric car company, is now pitching a lineup of robots, including humanoids, quadrupeds and a robotic arm. -OpenAI has updated GPT-5.5 Instant, the model you interact with the most when you use ChatGPT, to be better at understanding context and adapting to queries as you alter them to add more conditions or clarifications. -And do you really need AI to check your spelling and grammar? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Unhinged, which is from Oxenfree developer Night School, stars Zoë Kravitz, Sadie Sink and Troy Baker. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

-Superhuman offers services such as hallucination and plagiarism detection as well as a nifty little tool that displays how much of the internet is artificial intelligence. -Mark Zuckerberg has directed Meta to create a prediction markets app, that reportedly goes by the name "Arena" and could eventually compete with platforms like Polymarket and Kalshi. -Anthropic has announced Claude Tag, which is currently in research preview, and could eventually take over Slackbot's job. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Getty already struck a similar deal with Perplexity AI. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

-OpenAI has launched Patch the Planet, a new initiative part of its Daybreak cybersecurity program, which was designed to serve the open-source community. -China's LineShine from the nation's National Supercomputer Center hit 2.198 Exaflops of performance, beating the previous champ El Capitan -Meta's Oversight Board has called on the social media company to strengthen its protection for ordinary people targeted by sexualized deepfakes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The company is also previewing an upgraded creative AI studio experience. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

-The Wall Street Journal has found that the company is paying social media creators to post misleading content promoting the prediction market. -Norway is imposing a strict ban on the use of generative AI tools by elementary school kids. -Octopus Energy, the UK's largest energy provider, has teamed up with CATL, the world's biggest EV battery maker, to bring Chinese-style battery swap stations to Europe. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The year's biggest gaming show had plenty of titles worth playing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

-Five members of Amazon Employees for Climate Justice previously testified at Seattle city council meetings about AI data centers. Now, three of them are apparently under investigation by the company. -Richard Hermer, the Attorney General for England and Wales and Advocate General for Northern Ireland, has reportedly told his department to stop posting official updates on X. -Rivian has been sued on allegations that it made misleading statements about the self-driving capabilities of its R1T truck and R1S SUV. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Upgrades include 360-degree audio and deeper integration with Gemini. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

-Waymo told Engadget that it identified an area of improvement regarding performance around freeway construction zones, adding that the company voluntarily restricted freeway operations last month. -Relativity Space will provide spacecraft, rocket and cruise operations to deliver the agency's science instruments to Mars. -Apple's outgoing CEO Tim Cook all but confirmed that higher prices are on the way for the company's products, saying "price increases are unavoidable. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The all-stock acquisition concludes an agreement the two announced in April. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

-The recently resurrected Commodore is getting back into phones, but rather than taking on the likes of Apple and Samsung at their own game, the Commodore Callback 8020 is a proudly non-conformant flip phone that wouldn't have looked out of place in the '90s. -WhatsApp is finally offering what most of its contemporaries already have: disappearing (view-once) texts. -The White House app is reportedly coming to all devices managed by the Department of Homeland Security, whether the user wants to download it or not. GovExec that it was a "cause for alarm," as any app installed on government-issued devices can "potentially create backdoor access to government networks behind the firewall." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Branded content and ad campaigns, it's in the game. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

-The government recently annulled the results of a key medical school entrance test because it said that the answers were leaked ahead of time on Telegram. -The Atlantic has published four searchable databases of music that has been used to train AI models. The scope is pretty staggering, with 12 million tracks in one database, 9 million in another, and the two final ones each containing about 100,000 songs. -Google Earth has a flight sim mode of its own, and it can now be accessed by anyone globally via their browser. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The company is also promoting legislation to fight the potential of AI to create 'massive' scams Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices