FeedCity

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.

"You're an important caller," the machine lied as if it were human.

New WordLand release, v0.5.24, fixes a problem in previous release that kept the Markdown icon from appearing in some user's icon bars.

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.

Change notes for WordLand v0.5.22.

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

The Great on Hulu gives an idea of what a king or queen would be like. The difference is the actors playing the monarchs are pretty lovable and not stupid, and somewhat self-aware (not their strong suit).

Short video demo of Markdown mode in the WordLand editor.

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...

Quick notes on WordLand v0.5.21. Complete notes to come.

I'm doing a complicated corner-turn with WordLand and managed to F it up. There's a buggy version of the software running at wordland.social this morning. I'm working as fast as I can to get a good release working in its place, in the meantime, it's not good for very much. Still diggin. As they say. :-)

There are certain sweet-smelling, sugarcoated lies current in the world which all politic men have apparently tacitly conspired together to support and perpetuate. One of these is that there is such a thing in the world as independence: independence of thought, independence of opinion, independence of action. — Mark Twain There are two books on …

A month ago, I reported that Apple was in the final stages of acquiring the rights for F1 streaming following the success of its movie about the sport. Almost a month later, the Financial Times reported the news. As a matter of principle, I am not linking to the report. As is the case with establishment media, they almost never credit independents, …