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All the rumors about the iPhone Air

Vector illustration of the Apple logo.
Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge

Rumors have been floating around for months that Apple might launch a brand-new iPhone model this year: the so-called iPhone Air, a new, super-thin iPhone that may mark the first big design shift for the line in many years.

More than a facelift, the iPhone Air is a different strategy altogether, being neither a more affordable base model nor a feature-packed Pro phone. Instead, rumors describe a phone that’s aimed to please people who are willing to sacrifice some function for a sleeker, slimmer design. Basically, it’s the iPhone version of the original MacBook Air.

Current rumors suggest the phone will debut as part of Apple’s iPhone 17 lineup this fall, giving it the name iPhone 17 Air. Of course, it’s not a done deal just yet. Apple could still change its plans or the rumors could turn out wrong. But enough reports have come out to suggest that something real is in the works. Here are all the rumors about the upcoming phone so far:

The thinnest iPhone yet

The 17 Air will be very thin, but the rumor mill hasn’t totally settled on the exact number.

Supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo predicted a 5.5mm phone in January, which would make it slightly thicker than the 5.1mm M4 iPad Pro that debuted last May. Two days later, Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman reiterated a claim he’d made in December: that the new phone would be “about 2 millimeters thinner” than the 8.25mm iPhone 16 Pro. Supply chain analyst Jeff Pu has suggested it would be around 6mm.

No matter who is closest, the 17 Air would be one of the thinnest Apple products ever, even more so than the iPhone 6, which currently holds the record for thinnest iPhone at 6.9mm — and was notably prone to bending. Encouragingly, Apple managed to make the M4 iPad Pro surprisingly sturdy.

Battery woes

Apple is said to be working on novel ways to fit enough battery to meet its ultra-slim phone goal. A November 2023 rumor from ETNews said Apple was attempting to create a new, denser kind of battery that uses carbon nanotubes and a mix of materials like nickel, cobalt, manganese, and aluminum for future devices.

But in November 2024, Korean leaker yeux1122 posted that Apple is using standard battery tech. They said the company had sought to get thinner internals to enable both more battery capacity and a slimmer phone but failed. The Information wrote later that month that Apple was having trouble finding space for the battery, SIM card, and thermal materials inside, limiting how thin it can be.

A more recent rumor from leaker Digital Chat Station suggested that both Apple’s phone and the also-rumored skinny Samsung Galaxy S25 will feature a 3,000 – 4,000mAh battery and measure somewhere between “5.xmm-6.xmm.”

The iPhone 17 Air’s display

All signs right now are pointing to every iPhone 17’s OLED display using the same LTPO panel tech found in current Pro models. That could mean both higher refresh rates and less power consumption, as it enables the screens to raise their refresh rates to 120Hz and then drop as low as 1Hz. That’s part of why Apple’s always-on display feature works without a significant battery cost.

As for screen size, rumors generally agree it will measure about 6.6 inches. That’s a tad smaller than the 6.7-inch screen of the iPhone 16 Plus, which the 17 Air may be replacing this year. It’s expected that the phone will get a Dynamic Island with Face ID, like the rest of the flagship line.

In-house chips and Apple Intelligence

Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman recently said that Apple will outfit the iPhone 17 Air with in-house Wi-Fi and Bluetooth chips, as well as its own bespoke cellular modem. That’ll be a first for the company, which has been trying for years to develop its own modem in an effort to ditch Qualcomm. Apple is apparently confident it’s done that now, and well enough to start putting it in phones, possibly starting with the iPhone SE 4 within the next few months.

Apple will probably put a regular A19 chip in the 17 Air, reserving the A19 Pro chip for its Pro phones. The phone could also have 8GB of RAM and support Apple Intelligence AI features as a result.

Camera diet

Rumors have been steadfast that the iPhone 17 Air will only have one camera on the back. Citing supply chain analyst Jeff Pu in October, MacRumors wrote that it will be a 48-megapixel shooter and that the phone will feature a 24-megapixel shooter for the front-facing selfie cam.

How much will it cost?

The iPhone 17 Air could be expensive despite lacking the fancy camera array of the Pro phones or the dual-camera setup of the base model. The Information even wrote that it could cost more than the $1,299 iPhone 16 Pro Max does now.

Not every rumor agrees. The Wall Street Journal wrote in December that Apple is aiming for something cheaper than the Pro phones. That’d put it below $999, where the iPhone 16 Pro starts.

Why is Apple making the iPhone 17 Air?

Gurman reported in August that boosting sales is the big motivator for the Air redesign after years of Mini and Plus phone flops. Later, in his January 12th newsletter, he wrote that the company sees the Air strategy as “a tried-and-true winner” for getting sales.

The Journal’s December story echoed that, saying Apple is trying growth with the iPhone 17 Air following its years of “largely incremental upgrades.” Although the iPhone still makes up about half of Apple’s revenue, the outlet wrote, its “last big wave of sales gains was in 2021,” thanks to carriers’ subsidies amid their 5G push.

Apple has tried since 2020 to goose sales using four flagships, and the 17 Air approach is no different, CNBC wrote in November. Apple started with the iPhone 12, 12 Mini, 12 Pro, and 12 Pro Max, then swapped out the Mini models for “Plus” phones starting with the iPhone 14. But the Mini and Plus models haven’t clicked with buyers. Most recently, the iPhone 16 Plus only made up 10 percent of Apple’s screen orders in 2023 and 16 percent of them last year, Ross Young of display research firm DSCC told the outlet. The Air could theoretically replace the Plus as a slightly higher-end option.

Drumming up sales isn’t necessarily the whole story though, as Gurman also offered another explanation in January: Apple is using the phone as a testing ground for new technologies, including its in-house wireless and cell modem chips. But more than that, it’s a stepping stone toward the smaller tech needed to eventually build a folding iPhone.

Instagram announces a blatant CapCut clone

Instagram’s logo for Edits
Instagram’s logo for Edits. | Image: Meta

Instagram head Adam Mosseri just announced a video editing app called Edits. Mosseri said the app is meant to rival CapCut, a video editing app that went offline along with TikTok. Edits is available for preorder on the iOS App Store.

“There’s a lot going on right now, but no matter what happens, it’s our job to provide the best possible tools for creators,” Mosseri said in a video posted to Instagram. He goes on to describe the app:

Edits is more than a video editing app; it’s a full suite of creative tools. There will be a dedicated tab for inspiration, another for keeping track of early ideas, a much higher-quality camera (which I used to record this video), all the editing tools you’d expect, the ability to share drafts with friends and other creators, and — if you decide to share your videos on Instagram — powerful insights into how those videos perform.

 Image: Meta
This is what Edits will look like.

The insights he mentions include “a live insights dashboard,” a breakdown of follower and non-follower engagement, and metrics for how often users skip specific ones. It will also include editing tools that let people use green screens and video overlays, both common features of TikTok videos, according to its App Store listing.

In a reply to The Verge’s Chris Welch on Threads, Mosseri said Meta has been working on the app “for months.” He also said it will “end up pretty different than CapCut,” adding that “Edits will have a much broader range of creative tools and probably a smaller addressable audience.”

While Mosseri doesn’t say as much in his video, the announcement feels like a clear push to get the app into people’s minds as the future of TikTok and other ByteDance-owned apps like CapCut remains in question. Edits will be available starting March 13th, 2025.

Update, January 19th: Added a reply from Mosseri.

TikTok is partially back online in the US, but it’s not back in the App Store yet

Photo illustration of Tik Tok app icon being deleted.
Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images

TikTok is bringing its service back online in the US, after shutting down for about half a day. The company said this afternoon that it is “in the process of restoring service” and thanked President-elect Trump for “providing the necessary clarity” to do so.

US users were shut out of TikTok last night ahead of the federal ban coming into effect, with the app displaying a message that its services were “temporarily unavailable.” Service started to be restored on Sunday around 12PM ET in TikTok’s mobile app and on the web.

The app now displays a message saying “Welcome back!” and crediting Trump with restoring service. “As a result of President Trump’s efforts, TikTok is back in the U.S.!” the message reads.

A message attributing TikTok’s return to President Trump. Screenshot: The Verge
A pop-up now appears when opening up the TikTok app saying that service has been restored thanks to Trump.

Trump said this morning that he would issue an executive order on Monday, once he takes office, extending TikTok’s timeline to be sold. He said there would be “no liability” for companies that support TikTok even before his order goes into effect.

TikTok’s hosting provider, Oracle, and its CDN partner, Akamai, have restored service and are relying on Trump’s promise, according to NPR’s Bobby Allyn and The Washington Post’s Drew Harwell.

However, the app’s return is happening without support from Apple and Google, as it remains unavailable in the App Store and Google Play. Those companies may still not be comfortable with the risk of breaking the law banning TikTok, which remains in effect and levies steep fines on those who break it.

Both app stores currently display messages explaining why the app isn’t available if you’re searching for TikTok:

Message from the Google Play store that says downloads for the app are paused. Screenshot: Google Play Store
Searching for the Android app yields this message.
Screenshot saying TikTok and other ByteDance apps aren’t available. Screenshot: iOS App Store
Apple’s App Store has a similar message to Google’s.

Still, TikTok appears confident in its return. The company sent a memo to advertisers Sunday afternoon letting them know that its service will soon “become available for the majority of U.S. users” and that ad campaigns will resume with “certain limitations” on live campaigns.

The state of the ban has been up in the air over the past few days. TikTok lost a Supreme Court case on Friday, allowing the ban to go into effect. But the Biden administration punted on enforcement, declaring that it “will be up to the next administration to implement” the ban.

That led to Trump’s declaration today that he would extend the sale deadline. The incoming president said he would still require that the app be sold, adding that it would possibly be through “a joint venture between the current owners and/or new owners whereby the U.S. gets a 50 percent ownership.”

After losing at the Supreme Court, TikTok has been openly pandering to Trump as a last-ditch effort to avoid the ban. TikTok CEO Shou Chew attempted to flatter Trump in a video ahead of the deadline, and TikTok has released multiple statements and pop-up notices crediting Trump with helping to restore service.

Trump and TikTok are receiving pushback on their attempt to skirt the ban, though. Republican Senators Tom Cotton and Pete Ricketts put out a joint statement Sunday morning saying there was “no legal basis” to extend the ban’s effective date beyond January 19th while praising Amazon, Apple, Google, and Microsoft for pulling the app from their stores. Both senators had called “some of the major tech companies in recent days to say they needed to comply with the law,” according to The New York Times.

Cotton later said that any company that helps distribute TikTok could face “hundreds of billions of dollars” in fines from entities beyond the federal government. “Think about it,” he warned.

Any company that hosts, distributes, services, or otherwise facilitates communist-controlled TikTok could face hundreds of billions of dollars of ruinous liability under the law, not just from DOJ, but also under securities law, shareholder lawsuits, and state AGs. Think about… https://t.co/XamZ1qAk2K

— Tom Cotton (@SenTomCotton) January 19, 2025

There are no updates yet on what TikTok’s partial return means for the other ByteDance-linked apps that users have been locked out of, such as CapCut and Marvel Snap.

TikTok, Google, Apple, Amazon, Oracle, and Akamai have not responded to our requests for further comment.

TikTok’s full statement is below:

In agreement with our service providers, TikTok is in the process of restoring service. We thank President Trump for providing the necessary clarity and assurance to our service providers that they will face no penalties providing TikTok to over 170 million Americans and allowing over 7 million small businesses to thrive.

It’s a strong stand for the First Amendment and against arbitrary censorship. We will work with President Trump on a long-term solution that keeps TikTok in the United States.

The TikTok shutdown is locking out non-US users, too

Photo illustration of Tik Tok logo in a ban symbol.
Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images

TikTok’s US shutdown last night appears to be affecting users outside the country as well. People have taken to social media in the hours since, complaining they can’t access the app despite living in non-US countries, and it’s not always clear why.

In some cases, the problem appears to be using a VPN that routes traffic through the US. One user on Reddit, who says they’re based in the UK, saw the message that’s supposed to be displayed only in the US overnight and found that a quick location change in their VPN app fixed it:

I got that message myself in the UK I immediately thought to check my Vpn, yep it was going through Miami once I changed that TikTok is fine.

This doesn’t work in all cases, though. The original creator of that thread also claims to live in the UK, but they say they weren’t using a VPN. Instead, they suspect the problem is they were living in the US when they created their main account. Other people who signed up in the US also report they can’t access the app, despite now living in countries like Canada, Germany, Australia, Greece, and Poland.

@tiktok_uk @TikTokSupport I cannot access the app due to the US ban. I was born and live in England, please may you allow me access. My username is @kittyyy.mx on TikTok. #tiktok #tiktokban #tiktoksupport #tiktokuk pic.twitter.com/p9prz6fZE8

— kitty (@kittyxib) January 19, 2025

But some users, who name their location as the UK, Canada, and Australia, say they didn’t create their account in the US — and in some cases, they’ve never been there at all. Still, others complain that the app is blocked for them in countries like Morocco or Ireland. One user, who says they are Mozambican, speculates it’s because they got around their country’s monetization laws by setting their account region to the US.

TikTok did not immediately reply to our request for comment on what could be causing people living outside the US to lose access.

Genshin Impact’s developer to pay $20 million fine to settle FTC charges

Genshin Impact on the iPhone 14 Plus’ screen
Genshin Impact developer Cognosphere has to change the way it does loot boxes. | Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge

The Federal Trade Commission announced on Friday that Genshin Impact developer Cognosphere has agreed to a $20 million settlement and several restrictions on how it sells its loot boxes and manages children’s personal data. According to the FTC, the company “actively marketed” its loot boxes to children and misled players about their odds of winning prizes.

Cognosphere allegedly also “deceived children and other users about the real costs of in-game transactions,” by requiring them to buy virtual money that involved multiple currency exchanges. Players often spent “hundreds of dollars on prizes they stood little chance of winning,” according to Bureau of Consumer Protection Director Samuel Levine. For years, loot boxes have been likened to a form of legal gambling.

The complaint, filed by the Department of Justice, also accuses the Genshin Impact developer of marketing to kids using approaches like posts on social media channels and in-game banners. The company then allegedly collected their personal information in violation of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule. Once the settlement is approved, the company is required to delete any data for children under 13 whose parents haven’t consented to their data being collected.

Other requirements of the settlement include that Cognosphere must offer an option to buy loot boxes directly and not just through virtual money. It’s also forbidden from misrepresenting pricing, features, and winning odds for loot boxes, and it must disclose exchange rates for multi-tiered virtual currency.

Microsoft opens testing for Windows AI search

Vector collage of the Microsoft Copilot logo.
Image: The Verge

Microsoft is testing AI-powered Windows search in a new dev channel build for Windows 11 Insider testers. Announced in October, it uses semantic indexing to let users search for local files using more casual language. Like other Microsoft AI features, you’ll need a Copilot Plus PC to use it.

The feature applies whether you’re using search boxes in Settings, File Explorer, or the taskbar. And you don’t need to be connected to the internet for it to work, thanks to the NPU chips on Copilot Plus computers. For now, AI search is limited to Windows settings and files with image and text formats that include JPEG, PNG, PDF, TXT, and XLS.

Screenshot showing Windows AI search in the taskbar. Image: Microsoft

Microsoft says that search only works for files in locations you’ve chosen to index. Users can tweak those locations using options found under Settings > Privacy & security > Searching Windows, or turn on “Enhanced” to index their whole machine. The company adds that the feature will eventually expand to include cloud data such as that stored in OneDrive.

AI-powered Windows search “will gradually roll out to Windows Insiders on Snapdragon-powered Copilot+ PCs,” Microsoft writes, with support for Intel or AMD Copilot Plus computers later. The feature will work for machines set to Chinese, English, French, German, Japanese, and Spanish languages.

Screenshot showing the new Refine option under Rewrite in the Click to Do contextual menu. Image: Microsoft

In addition to the new search, the build also includes AI writing tools offered by Click to Do, a feature that lets you choose from context-sensitive menus of options when you hold the Windows key down and left-click on your screen. Now, when you click a block of text and select Rewrite, there’s a “Refine” option that can correct grammar for you.

Biden White House says TikTok’s threat to go dark is a ‘stunt’

Photo illustration of Tik Tok app icon being deleted.
Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre called TikTok’s threat to “go dark” on Sunday, January 19th, a “stunt” and said there is no reason for TikTok to shut itself down before President-elect Donald Trump is sworn in on the 20th.

“It is a stunt, and we see no reason for TikTok or other companies to take actions in the next few days before the Trump Administration takes office on Monday,” MSNBC quotes Jean-Pierre as saying. “We have laid out our position clearly and straightforwardly: actions to implement this law will fall to the next administration. So TikTok and other companies should take up any concerns with them.”

Now that a Supreme Court ruling upheld the ban, the company says it needs stronger assurances than what the Biden administration has offered so far to ensure that companies like Apple and Google won’t be held liable for continuing to distribute and support the app in defiance of the law.

Meanwhile, TikTok CEO Shou Chew has appealed to Trump by saying the company is “grateful” for his support of the platform.

Trump said that a “90-day extension is something that will be most likely done” during an interview with Kristen Welker from NBC News. Other reporting suggests that the incoming President plans to issue an executive order to delay the ban. Trump could say he wouldn’t enforce the ban, just as Biden says he will, but that still leaves TikTok’s US service providers, like Apple, Google, and Oracle, at legal risk.

EV startup Canoo has filed for bankruptcy

With the Vehicle Assembly Building in the background, the three specially designed, fully electric, environmentally friendly crew transportation vehicles for Artemis missions arrived at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on July 11th, 2023.
Photo by NASA / Isaac Watson

Canoo announced yesterday it is ceasing operations “immediately” and that it has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in Delaware. The EV startup estimates in its filing that its assets are worth $126 million and that it owes over $164 million to its creditors, TechCrunch noted yesterday.

Now, the US will appoint “a Bankruptcy Trustee to oversee the liquidation of the Company’s assets and the distribution of proceeds to creditors,” Canoo writes. The company says it chose to file after failing to get support from either the US Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office or foreign investors.

Canoo had signaled its dire situation last month when it idled its Oklahoma operations and put its employees on a “mandatory unpaid break.” Before that, it had lost a steady stream of executives, including all of its founders.

“We are truly disappointed that things turned out as they did,” Canoo chairman and CEO Tony Aquila said in the announcement before thanking various government and business entities Canoo has dealt with. Those dealings have included producing shuttles for NASA’s Artemis crew and an agreement to build 4,500 electric delivery vans for Walmart.

Instagram Reels can be 3 minutes long now

The Instagram icon is featured in the middle of a background filled with pink, orange, and purple shapes.
Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge

Instagram will now let you upload Reels that are up to 3 minutes long, doubling the 90-second limit the platform had in place before, Instagram boss Adam Mosseri announced today.

He credits today’s change to users’ feedback saying that the 90 seconds “is just too short.” That’s a big turnaround for Mosseri, who said in July last year that the platform wouldn’t pursue longform videos because it could compromise the platform’s “core identity to connect people with friends.”

It also comes as TikTok, which started allowing 3-minute videos in 2021, is gearing up to go dark on Sunday in response to an imminent US ban.

Instagram has been slow to bump the length of Reels — it’s been more than two years since it started allowing minute-and-a-half videos. The company has tested extending the limit to as much as 10 minutes but has held off on rolling that out, leaving the ability to post long videos to non-Reels posts.

Donald Trump appears to have launched a meme coin

A picture of Donald Trump in black and white, wearing a ball cap and jacket with a colorful blue, yellow, and green background with large swirly lines.
Image: Laura Normand / The Verge

Donald Trump has launched a new meme coin, according to posts from his X and Truth Social accounts last night. The posts, which have come just days before Trump’s inauguration, were initially met with suspicion by many that his accounts had been hacked.

Skeptics highlighted by Decrypt last night pointed to several red flags, such as that the millions of dollars seeding the project came from Binance and Gate, which only serve overseas customers. The coin’s website credits the project to the same group behind Trump’s NFTs, as noted by Cointelegraph, which reports that sources close to Trump’s family confirmed the announcements’ legitimacy.

Both posts remain up as of this morning.

Screenshot of Trump’s announcement on X. Screenshot: X
Trump’s official X account announced a new meme coin on Friday.

The idea that Trump would debut a meme coin is no big surprise, given his multiple NFT collections and his introduction of a crypto platform last year. He has made cryptocurrency a big part of his new agenda and has assembled a crypto and AI-focused tech policy team led by “crypto czar” David Sacks. Trump also plans to issue an executive order naming crypto a “national imperative or priority” after he’s inaugurated next week, Bloomberg reported ahead of the weekend.

TikTok reportedly plans ‘immediate’ Sunday shutdown in the US if it’s banned

Photo illustration of Tik Tok app icon being deleted.
Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images

TikTok will shut down entirely in the US on Sunday without intervention from the US Supreme Court, unnamed sources have told Reuters. That would go beyond the ban’s requirement for app stores to stop offering downloads of the app, but not immediately halt use of it.

If TikTok shuts down, it will show users a pop-up message pointing them to a website with information about the ban, according to the outlet's sources. The company will also reportedly let users download all of their data.

On Friday last week, a lawyer for TikTok said during a Supreme Court hearing that the app will “go dark” if the court doesn’t pause the ban. The court’s decision on the matter could come as soon as today, and a shutdown is one of the possible outcomes for TikTok, whose executives recently told employees were “planning for various scenarios,” as we reported yesterday.

Honey: all the news about PayPal’s alleged scam coupon app

Vector illustration of the Honey and Paypal logos.
Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge

Some YouTubers say Honey’s practices are stealing money from them.

PayPal’s Honey browser extension has been lauded for years as an easy way to find coupons online. But some are calling it a “scam” after a deep dive from YouTuber MegaLag, who accused Honey of “stealing money from influencers.”

The video shines a light on Honey’s use of last-click attribution, an approach to online shopping referrals that gives credit for a sale to the owner of the last affiliate cookie in line before checkout. As MegaLag’s video tells it, Honey takes that credit by swapping its tracking cookie in for others’ when you interact with it.

The company has issued statements saying that it follows “industry rules and practices” like last-click attribution. But creators who may have missed out on money because of it aren’t happy. Some YouTube channels Legal Eagle and GamersNexus are now suing.

Below, you’ll find all our coverage of the controversy.

Parallels is testing x86 emulation on Apple silicon Macs

Picture of an M4 MacBook Pro.
Photo by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge

Parallels has added support for x86 emulation in Parallels Desktop 20.2, product manager Mikhail Ushakov wrote in a blog post last week. The “early technology preview” will let you emulate Intel-based hardware on an M1-or-greater Mac, a first for Parallels since Apple’s Arm transition in 2020 — but don’t expect stellar performance.

Parallels says users will be able to:

Run existing x86_64 Windows 10, Windows 11*, Windows Server 2019/2022, and some Linux distributives with UEFI BIOS via Parallels Emulator.

Create new Windows 10 21H2 and Windows Server 2022 virtual machines.

Screenshot of a Windows virtual machine running in macOS. Image: Parallels

However, performance will be “really slow,” with up to seven-minute boot times, Ushakov says. Other limitations include no external USB device support, Windows 11 24H2 isn’t supported, and you can only emulate 64-bit operating systems, though Ushakov says you can run 32-bit apps.

He writes that the option to start one of these VMs is hidden for now “to avoid false expectations” from those who don’t need x86 emulation.

Parallels has a longer list of caveats in a separate article.

Screenshot showing Microsoft Powerpoint running on a Windows virtual machine. A right-click menu is visible, with “Writing Tools (Mac)” highlighted at the bottom. Image: Parallels
Parallels now puts Apple Intelligence Writing Tools in the Windows context menu.

Version 20.2 brings some other changes, including support for automatic time and time zone syncing in macOS virtual machines on Apple silicon. It also adds Apple’s AI-powered Writing Tools to the Windows right-click menu in Word, Powerpoint, and the classic version of Outlook. Before, you had to use a keyboard shortcut or the macOS menu bar’s Edit menu.

YouTube star Ms. Rachel is coming to Netflix

Ms. Rachel promotional image.
Image: Netflix

Popular YouTube toddler learning show Ms. Rachel is coming to Netflix. It will start with a four-episode season of “curated compilation” videos on January 27th, the company announced today.

Netflix says this first batch of “research-backed” educational videos aimed at early child development will cover topics like learning to talk or read. Here’s the list from Netflix’s announcement:

Learn to Talk — “What’s in the Box?” Speech and Toddler Learning

Baby Learning — First words, Milestones, Nursery Rhymes, and Songs

Learn to Read — Phonics, ABCs, and Preschool Learning

Hop Little Bunnies — Plus More Songs and Nursery rhymes

As a work-from-home parent who had a toddler and no daycare options early in the covid pandemic, I’m well familiar with the shortfalls of YouTube Kids, where shows like Ms. Rachel exist but which is also filled with inane content. Past reporting has also found the algorithmic recommendations included inappropriate videos.

There aren’t always great alternatives, either. Other streaming platforms have programming for kids, but it’s comparatively sparse. As my child has gotten older, that stuff has gotten boring, even with the limited screen time we allow. Ms. Rachel’s debut on Netflix may not fix that for older kids but it could offer parents of very young children somewhere to go besides YouTube.

Samsung is adding two new Galaxy Ring sizes

Cat paw sneakily reaching out to swipe the Galaxy Ring
Photo by Victoria Song / The Verge

Samsung is making the Galaxy Ring available to more people by adding size 14 and 15 rings to its options starting on January 22nd. With the expansion, which was rumored last month, the company says its ring sizes now run from five to 15, though it caveats that both size and color availability will vary by market.

The new sizes bring the Galaxy Ring closer to competitor Oura, which already offers its smart ring in sizes four to 15. Samsung’s announcement didn’t include details about the ring’s weight or battery life, but the current lineup’s larger size 12 and 13 rings use bigger batteries and can last an extra day versus the others.

The bigger options will be nice for those at the upper end of its size range, particularly if they’re only a half-size up. As my colleague Victoria Song wrote in her smart ring sizing guide, even if you’re able to slide the ring on, it could be hard to take it off again as your fingers swell in response to things like the food you’ve eaten or the environment you’re in.

Samsung also announced it’s going to sell its smart ring in 16 more countries, including Japan, Taiwan, New Zealand, Greece, and South Africa, starting on February 7th, though the exact date for each release will vary, it writes.

A major data broker hack may have leaked precise location info for millions

Art rendering of transparent laptop in front of a wall of surveilling eyes.
Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Last week, major location data broker Gravy Analytics disclosed a data breach that may have resulted in the theft of precise location data for millions of people, reports TechCrunch. That appears to include data from popular mobile games like Candy Crush, as well as dating apps, pregnancy tracking apps, and more, as 404 Media wrote on Thursday, following up its report of the breach two days earlier.

Baptiste Robert, CEO of digital security company Predicta Lab, said in a series of posts Wednesday that the small sample data set published in a Russian forum contained data for “tens of millions of data points worldwide” and included “sensitive locations like the White House, Kremlin, Vatican, military bases, and more.” As TechCrunch notes, the sample alone contained more than 30 million locations.

Visualizing such a massive amount of location data is no easy task.

Google Earth Pro crashed at 500k location points, and our OSINT platform hit its limit at 1.5 million. Even if it is "just" a sample, rendering the entire dataset at once is a real challenge. pic.twitter.com/VTZGjsG79L

— Baptiste Robert (@fs0c131y) January 8, 2025

Gravy said in its disclosure to the Norwegian Data Protection Authority that it “identified unauthorized access to its AWS cloud storage environment” on January 4th. It says in the disclosure that it’s still investigating how long hackers had access to its cloud environment and whether the hack “constitutes a reportable personal data breach.” As for what or who was affected, the company writes:

Gravy Analytics is working diligently to determine the scope of the incident and the nature of the information involved. Preliminary findings indicate that an unauthorized person obtained certain files, which could contain personal data. These are currently being analyzed. If it is determined that personal data is involved, that personal data is likely associated with users of third-party services that supply this data to Gravy Analytics.

Gravy Analytics was one of two data brokers targeted last month in a proposed FTC order that forbids it from “selling, disclosing, or using sensitive location data in any product or service.” The FTC at the time wrote that its subsidiary, Venntel, collected data from apps and sold access to that data to businesses or government agencies, including the IRS, DEA, FBI, and ICE.

The iPhone Air could be coming later this year

Vector illustration of the Apple logo.
Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge

Apple may have settled on iPhone 17 Air as the name for the rumored skinny iPhone that’s expected this fall, reports Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman in today’s Power On newsletter. He writes that the phone will be “a testing ground for future technologies,” including the tech that leads to the company’s first foldables.

The name wouldn’t be surprising — both the MacBook Air and iPad Air were the thinnest versions of their lines when they were released. The iPhone 17 Air is expected to carry that forward by being “about 2 millimeters thinner” than current iPhones, Gurman has written. Other recent rumors have put it between 5.5mm and 6.25mm thick, which is close to the M4 iPad Pro’s depth and less than the thinnest iPhone so far, the iPhone 6.

The thinness isn’t just a flex — realizing it will help Apple along toward future foldable iPads and iPhones, Gurman writes. And he says the phone could be one of Apple’s first proving grounds for its in-house cell modem, codenamed Sinope, after it debuts in the iPhone SE this spring. This year’s iPhone lineup is also expected to debut Apple-designed Wi-Fi / Bluetooth chips, though Gurman doesn’t go as far as saying that includes the 17 Air.

Past rumors have said the new 17 Air will get a 6.6-inch ProMotion OLED display — Apple’s 120Hz variable refresh rate screen used only on iPhone Pro models so far — and that it will have just a single 48-megapixel camera lens on the back, with a 24-megapixel selfie camera. It may have Apple’s A19 chip and, like the iPhone SE 4, is expected to pack 8GB of RAM to run Apple Intelligence AI features.

Amazon Prime will shut down its clothing try-on program

Illustration of Amazon’s logo on a black, orange, and tan background.
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Amazon will be winding down its Prime Try Before You Buy program, which let Prime members try on clothes before paying for them, reports The Information. It will shutter on January 31st, according to a banner at the top of the service’s landing page.

Amazon spokesperson Maxine Tagay said in a statement emailed to The Verge that the company is discontinuing the service because it only worked for a “limited number of items” and customers have been “increasingly using our new AI-powered features” to decide what to buy.

Tagay gave examples like Virtual Try-On AR feature that puts 3D renders of shoes from certain brands on your feet using your smartphone’s camera. She also mentioned the company’s LLM-powered “personalized size recommendations” that tweak size recommendations based on customer reviews.

Prime Try Before You Buy launched in 2018 for all Prime subscribers as Amazon Wardrobe before the company later changed its name. Through it, Prime members can order up to six items, try them for seven days, then pay for what works and send back the rest — like a very basic version of Stitch Fix’s curated clothing service. But a big part of that is returns, which is something the company has been trying to cut back on.

The discontinuation of Prime Try Before You Buy comes after years of cost-cutting at the company, as CNBC points out. That’s included massive layoffs and shuttering physical stores, as well as scaling back some of its efforts in the grocery industry.

Here is the full statement Tagay provided to The Verge:

Given the combination of Try Before You Buy only scaling to a limited number of items and customers increasingly using our new AI-powered features like virtual try-on, personalized size recommendations, review highlights, and improved size charts to make sure they find the right fit, we’re phasing out the Try Before You Buy option, effective January 31, 2025. Of course, customers will continue to enjoy fast, free shipping, with easy, free returns on our full apparel selection.

New renders show the Samsung Galaxy S25 lineup ahead of Unpacked

Samsung’s logo set in the middle of red, black, white, and yellow ovals.
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

New renders of the Samsung Galaxy S25 series have appeared in a leak from Android Headlines ahead of Samsung’s Galaxy Unpacked event later this month. The most obvious change here is that Samsung has tweaked the design of the S25 Ultra, rounding off the phone’s corners a bit.

From the renders, it looks like you’ll be able to get the non-Ultra S25s in light blue, dark blue, light green, and silver. The Ultra will come in black, gray, and two silvery colors with either a white or blue tint.

Here are a couple of the images — you can see the rest at Android Headlines:

A front view of a black Galaxy S25 Ultra partially covers a view of the back that shows the camera array. A stylus leans against the two phones. Image: Android Headlines
Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra.
A front view of a light green Galaxy S25 Plus partially covers a view of the back that shows the camera array. Image: Android Headlines
A minty-colored Samsung Galaxy S25 Plus.

Apart from the new colors, the non-Ultra phones are almost indistinguishable from the S24 line. But one finer detail that’s changed is the way the camera bumps seem to nod at the look of a traditional camera lens barrel that flares out at the end. Internally, look for a CPU bump from Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chips to new Snapdragon 8 Elite mobile processors, but not much else. You can read more about the internals in a separate specs leak that Android Headlines also published yesterday.

Stay tuned for our coverage of the next Galaxy Unpacked event on January 22nd, at which we expect the company will reveal plenty of details about these phones. Naturally, you can bet it will talk about new AI features, too. Maybe by then, I’ll have stopped thinking about connecting “to compatible ships” through Matter with SmartThings.

Update January 11th: Removed the image gallery and replaced with two images.

Microsoft is reverting its Bing AI image generator because of quality complaints

A trippy graphic displaying a collection of items like paintbrushes, books, phone messages, and a notepad to represent generative AI. A large pair of eyes and hands can be seen at the center of the image.
Illustration by Haein Jeong / The Verge

Microsoft is rolling back a model upgrade to its AI-powered Bing Image Creator, reports TechCrunch. The rollback came after weeks of complaints by users that the tool just didn’t work as well after Microsoft “upgraded” to a new version of the DALL-E 3 model on December 18th.

Microsoft declined to comment on its decision to roll things back or offer specifics on what may be causing the gap between user’s expectations and its output.

Today, Microsoft’s head of search, Jordi Ribas, tweeted that they could reproduce “some of the issues reported” and are reverting to an older version of the DALL-E model for now, although it could take a few weeks until it’s complete.

Since the launch of Bing Image Creator last spring, users have generated billions of images with text prompts. I'm pleased to share our latest updates to enhance your creative experience. Starting today, we’re rolling out the latest DALL-E 3 model PR16, which will create images… pic.twitter.com/3p9HsYMlr6

— Jordi Ribas (@JordiRib1) December 18, 2024

Thanks again for the feedback and patience. We've been able to repro some of the issues reported and plan to revert to PR13 until we can fix them. All Pro users and about 25% of the requests using boosts are now on PR13. The deployment process is very slow unfortunately. It…

— Jordi Ribas (@JordiRib1) January 8, 2025

As soon as Ribas posted about the change in December, there were complaints that Bing Image Creator was producing less-detailed results or images that didn’t accurately reflect their prompts. In his initial replies, Ribas said the model’s output quality “should be a bit better on average” than before.

It was the same story in posts and comments on Reddit and OpenAI’s community forums. On OpenAI’s forums, a person complained about the model’s handling of fabric on an anime-style character’s dress. The person who posted the below images says the one on the left is “perfect quality” while the one on the right is “over-lit.”

Side-by-side images showing a female-presenting character wearing military-style gear. Screenshot: OpenAI community forum

Another didn’t like the way Bing placed starburst effects:

Image comparing two pictures of an anime-style character. Screenshot: OpenAI community forum

All of these things are subjective, and I can’t claim to think any of them look better than any others. If anything, it feels like an indication that Microsoft doesn’t just have to deal with complaints about bugs or people upset about feature changes — now it has to deal with AI art critics comparing the machine’s output to what they imagine it should create. Perhaps they should ask the artists whose work the generators were trained on for tips about managing a client’s expectations?

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