Back in 2021 a young engineering student named Ken Pillonel modified his own iPhone X to replace the Lightning port with USB-C, which became a small viral sensation. He’s back at it, with a far more ambitious project: iPhone cases with USB-C ports for the last five or so years of models with Lightning ports. He’s produced three batches of cases so far, but is currently sold out.

Even if you’re not interested in buying one of these cases, Pillonel’s video documenting how he brought the concept to fruition is quite clever and fun.

Max A. Cherney and Stephen Nellis, reporting for Reuters: Those customers for the company’s so-called 14A manufacturing process are crucial to the success of the technology — so much so that if it fails to secure a big one, it could shut down its cutting-edge manufacturi...

Emma Roth, The Verge: Google will officially deprecate links generated with its URL shortening tool next month. On August 25th, 2025, all links in the https://goo.gl/* format will no longer work and return a 404 error message. Google shut down its URL shortener in 2019,...

Emanuel Maiberg and Joseph Cox, reporting for 404 Media: Users from 4chan claim to have discovered an exposed database hosted on Google’s mobile app development platform, Firebase, belonging to the newly popular women’s dating safety app Tea. Users say they are rifling t...

Jason Snell returns to the show to talk about the early PC platform rivalries of the 1980s, iOS 26 leaks (and Apple suing YouTuber Jon Prosser), the various Apple OS 26 public betas and the state of Liquid Glass, and more. (Where by “more” I mean a little baseball and keyboard nerdery.)

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The public betas are out for iOS/iPadOS/WatchOS/MacOS 26, and Dan Moren and Jason Snell cover them all at Six Colors. Here’s Moren on iOS 26: Apple’s new design language, dubbed Liquid Glass, applies across all their platforms, but unsurprisingly, it feels most at home o...

To maintain anonymity and store zero user data, there is and can be no web app version of ICEBlock. There is and can be no Android version. Only iOS supports the security and privacy features for ICEBlock to offer what it does, the way it does.

David Barnard:

On the podcast I talk with John about the fascinating 40-year history of Apple’s developer relations, how almost going bankrupt in the 1990s shaped today’s control-focused approach, and why we might need an “App Store 3.0” reset.

Yet another fun appearance on a podcast. There’s a good transcript too, if you’re more of a reader than a listener.

Anna Gross, Tim Bradshaw, and Lauren Fedor, reporting for the Financial Times (syndicated without paywall at Ars Technica): Sir Keir Starmer’s government is seeking a way out of a clash with the Trump administration over the UK’s demand that Apple provide it with access ...

Juli Clover, MacRumors:

Apple today provided developers with the fourth betas of iOS 26 and iPadOS 26 for testing purposes, with the updates coming two weeks after Apple seeded the third betas.

MacOS, WatchOS, tvOS, and VisionOS too, all in lockstep. Also, a good first look at what’s changed in iOS 26 beta 4 from beta 3. Some of the things Apple is tweaking between betas need more than minor tweaking. Also: Apple Intelligence summaries for news notifications are back.

CHM:

Come and explore an extraordinary showcase of historical computers, from pristine originals to ingenious modern hacks. Computer enthusiasts around the world look forward to the annual Vintage Computer Festival.

Experience hands-on demos of historical systems from the 1960s through the 1990s, learn preservation tips, and try out brands like Apple, Atari, Commodore, Tandy/Radio Shack, and more.

It’s in Mountain View, so I can’t make it, but given all the recent nostalgia that’s been in the air regarding the early PC era, I wish I could.

Ellen Nakashima, Yvonne Wingett Sanchez and Joseph Menn, reporting for The Washington Post: The U.S. government and partners in Canada and Australia are investigating the compromise of SharePoint servers, which provide a platform for sharing and managing documents. Tens ...

Jay Peters, The Verge:

Google’s Pixel 10 launch event is just under a month away, but the company is already revealing the official design of the base phone. You can currently see a video of the phone on Google’s website (and below). It looks just like the official renders that leaked earlier today, which showed that the phone will have a third back camera (which is rumored to be a telephoto sensor).

That’s certainly one way to deal with leaks. It looks like a Pixel 9, which looks like an iPhone 12–16 with a different (but cool) camera mesa.

Reuters:

Italian tax authorities argue that free user registrations with X, LinkedIn and Meta platforms should be seen as taxable transactions as they imply the exchange of a membership account in return for a user’s personal data.

The issue is especially sensitive given wider trade tensions between the EU and the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump. Italy is claiming 887.6 million euros ($1.03 billion) from Meta, 12.5 million euros from X and around 140 million euros from LinkedIn. [...]

According to several experts consulted by Reuters, the Italian approach could affect almost all companies, from airlines to supermarkets to publishers, who link access to free services on their sites to users’ acceptance of profiling cookies.

Charging a VAT on free account signups does not strike me as a good idea.

Brody Ford and Hannah Miller, reporting for Bloomberg:

Oracle Corp. is in discussions with Skydance Media LLC for a major software deal once the media company’s acquisition of Paramount Global is complete. The new arrangement is expected to be worth about $100 million per year, according to people familiar with the matter who asked not to be named speaking about the private discussions. The agreement would see Paramount and its subsidiaries using Oracle’s cloud software, the people said.

Skydance was founded by David Ellison, the son of Oracle Chairman Larry Ellison.

Reminiscent of SpaceX’s $2 billion “investment” in xAI. (Via Peter Kafka.)

Mike Florio, NBC Sports: And while the Guardians stood up and responded to Trump, the Commanders are hiding under the bed. With the NFL right next to them. We’ve sent multiple emails to both the team and the league seeking comment on one of the biggest stories in all of...

Eliminate the friction of inbound security reviews. SafeBase helps you automate inbound requests, use AI to answer questionnaires, and share your security posture proactively — all through a centralized Trust Center.

Letterman: “You can’t spell CBS without BS.”

John Holmes for Human Rights Watch (via The Guardian): One woman described arriving at Krome — a facility that typically only holds men — late at night on January 28. Officers then confined her for days with dozens of other women without bedding or privacy, in a cell nor...

Reuters, with a headline that truly could have come from The Onion, “Trump Threatens Washington Stadium Deal Unless NFL Team Readopts Redskins Name”: U.S. President Donald Trump threatened on Sunday to interfere with a deal to build a new football stadium in Washington, ...

Cory Ondrejka joins in on the 40-year-old retro computing reminiscing: For being otherwise bright folks, it’s remarkable how completely wrong they all are. The Atari was the best computer to have. This whole friendly debate reminds me of the oft-cited adage that the be...

Joe Flint and John Jurgensen, reporting for The Wall Street Journal (gift link): But digital advertising revenue hasn’t made up for the fall in ad dollars going to traditional broadcast programming. Spending on linear advertising for the late-night segment on ABC, CBS an...

My thanks to WorkOS for sponsoring last week at DF to promote their summer launch week. You may recall their previous launch week back in spring, when I emphasized that their launch week announcements were worth checking out just to admire the retro-modern design of the web page. Well, they’ve done it again, with all-new retro pixel-art design. It’s so fun and well done, with a bunch of UI elements that you can play with.

Amidst the fun of the presentation, they once again have a slew of great new features, including:

• Custom CSS for AuthKit.
• Feature Flags — “Assign flags, expose them in JWTs, and roll out features with targeted control.”
• Supabase Native Auth Integration.
• CLI Auth — “Log in from the command line with OAuth 2.0 device grant flow”.

My thanks to WorkOS for sponsoring last week at DF to promote their summer launch week. You may recall their previous launch week back in spring, when I emphasized that their launch week announcements were worth checking out just to admire the retro-modern design of the web page. Well, they’ve done it again, with all-new retro pixel-art design. It’s so fun and well done, with a bunch of UI elements that you can play with.

Amidst the fun of the presentation, they once again have a slew of great new features, including:

• Custom CSS for AuthKit.
• Feature Flags — “Assign flags, expose them in JWTs, and roll out features with targeted control.”
• Supabase Native Auth Integration.
• CLI Auth — “Log in from the command line with OAuth 2.0 device grant flow”.

Matthew Belloni, writing at Puck (paywall-busting gift link) regarding the claim from anonymous CBS sources that The Late Show lost $40 million last year: Nobody can know for sure. All I can tell you is what I’m hearing. Several sources at both CBS and Skydance insist th...

Myke Hurley:

For this episode, I took a slightly different approach for the main section, following step-by-step how John writes and publishes an article. I think this is a template I want to follow with future guests, taking a detailed look at what they do from beginning to end.

I’m so pleased with how this interview turned out — I actually think it may be one of the best of my career. I’ve never had the chance to have a one-on-one podcast with John before, and I’m happy we waited until now to make it happen.

We spoke for a long time, and at some point like halfway through, it really hit me that Hurley was asking really good questions. If you’re interested in how I work and the tools I use, you should enjoy listening to this interview as much as I enjoyed participating in it.

OpenAI: You can now ask ChatGPT to handle requests like “look at my calendar and brief me on upcoming client meetings based on recent news,” “plan and buy ingredients to make Japanese breakfast for four,” and “analyze three competitors and create a slide deck.” ChatGPT w...

Real athletes get 30 For 30 documentaries; fake athletes get fake ones. Not sure which are more enjoyable.

Why CBS’s cancellation of “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” stinks to high hell.

Eric Slivka, reporting last night for MacRumors: While the Camera app redesign didn’t exactly match what Apple unveiled for iOS 26, the general idea was correct and much of what else Prosser showed was pretty close to spot on, and Apple clearly took notice as the company...