Russian authorities are banning government employees from using Apple devices for official state use, according to the Financial Times. As of Monday, the country’s trade ministry will prohibit the use of iPhones for all “work purposes.” Other agencies, including Russia’s telecommunications and mass media ministry, either have similar mandates already in place or plan to enforce some soon. The Financial Times reports the ban covers all Apple products – no, not Yuri’s AirPods, too? Well, officials will apparently be able to continue using those for personal use.

The ban comes after Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) claimed at the start of June it had uncovered a “spying operation by US intelligence agencies” involving Apple devices. The FSB said thousands of iPhones, including those in use by the country’s diplomatic missions in NATO countries, had been “infected” with monitoring software. The FSB claimed — without showing evidence — that Apple had worked closely with US signal intelligence to provide agents “with a wide range of control tools.” The company denies this. The move comes when Russia is also trying to reduce its dependence on foreign-made tech.

– Mat Smith

The biggest stories you might have missed

Microsoft and Sony agree to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation

Bluesky allowed people to include the n-word in their usernames

Larry Hryb, Xbox’s ‘Major Nelson,’ is leaving Microsoft

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The NES at 40

Seven ways it changed the gaming world forever.

To celebrate Nintendo’s first home console’s anniversary, we’ve taken a closer look at some of the major ways it’s shaped gaming since 1983. That includes innovations (at the time!) like the d-pad, the idea of gaming franchises and game characters and mascots that have stood the test of time.

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iOS 17 preview: FaceTime, everywhere

Plus, a better messaging experience.

Engadget

Ahead of its full launch later this year, there's plenty to test out in the latest iOS beta. Its new StandBy feature might not be a smart display killer, but it’s possibly a free alternative. Other highlights include a revitalized FaceTime experience, a streamlined Messages app and a long-overdue solution for sharing contact details.

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Elon Musk says Twitter’s ad revenue has dropped by 50 percent

"We're still negative cash flow."

To the shock of none, Elon Musk tweeted the company was suffering an approximate 50 percent drop in advertising revenue and heavy debt burden. According to an estimate research firm Sensor Tower shared with Bloomberg, advertising spending fell by 89 percent to $7.6 million during a two-month period earlier this year. The admission comes in the same week Twitter’s ad-revenue sharing program began paying out some creators, including a handful of controversial far-right influencers. On Friday, Musk also claimed the social network could see “all-time high device user seconds usage” sometime this week.

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Apple’s first M3 Macs could arrive in October

There may be new iMac and MacBook Air models.

Writing in his latest newsletter, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reports there “should be another launch” after the company’s annual iPhone event in September, with a new slate of Macs likely the focus of whatever Apple has planned. “October is too early for new high-end MacBook Pros or desktops, so the first beneficiaries of the new [M3] chip should be the next iMac, 13-inch MacBook Air and 13-inch MacBook Pro,” he notes.

In the past, Apple has typically announced new iPad models alongside its latest Macs, but it sounds like that won’t be the case this time. “I wouldn’t expect any major upgrades until the M3 iPad Pros with OLED screens arrive next year,” Gurman writes.

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Assassin's Creed haptic shirt will give you 'exclusive sensations never felt before'

Don’t want to feel like I’m being stabbed though, thanks.

Ubisoft

Ubisoft has teamed up with OWO to release an Assassin's Creed Mirage edition haptic feedback shirt. You'll apparently be able to feel parkour, impacts and "exclusive sensations never felt before" — yes, really. You might want to close the door while you're playing, from the sound of it. OWO's shirt includes haptic points on your chest, stomach, lower back and arms. The trick is an algorithm that adjusts nine wave parameters to simulate interactions ranging from the wind to a dagger. Details of pricing and release date are TBC, but it will work with PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and PC. The game comes out October 12th, and the OWO shirt will include a game code. OWO's Founder Edition shirt sold for a heady €499 ($560).

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Meta's practice of tracking Instagram and Facebook users violates their privacy, Norway's data protection regulator said in a press release today. If the company doesn't take remedial action, it will be fined one million crowns ($100,000) per day from August 4th until November 3rd. "It is so clear that this is illegal that we need to intervene now and immediately," said Tobias Judin, head of Norway's privacy commission, Datatilsynet. 

The move follows a European court ruling banning Meta from harvesting user data like location, behavior and more for advertising. Datatilsynet has referred its actions to Europe's Data Protection Board, which could widen the fine across Europe. The aim is to put "additional pressure" on Meta, Judin said. (Norway is a member of the European single market, but not technically an EU member.)

Meta told Reuters that it's reviewing Datatilsynet's decision and that the decision wouldn't immediately impact its services. "We continue to constructively engage with the Irish DPC, our lead regulator in the EU, regarding our compliance with its decision," a spokesperson said. "The debate around legal bases has been ongoing for some time and businesses continue to face a lack of regulatory certainty in this area."

Meta is facing pressure across Europe over its data privacy actions. Earlier this month, Ireland's data regulator (DPC) ruled that Meta can't gather user data for behavioral advertising. And back in May, it was hit with a record-breaking €1.2 billion ($1.3 billion) fine for transferring EU user data to its servers in the US. 

In addition, Meta's new Twitter rival Threads is not yet available in the European Union due to privacy concerns. When Threads debuted, Meta said that it was "not yet prepared the service for a European launch outside the UK, which is not fully governed by GDPR or EU privacy rules." Meta is even going so far as to block EU users from accessing the new social media site with a VPN.

Samsung's ViewFinity S9 5K monitor is coming to the United States — finally giving Mac and PC users alike a chance to pick it up for $1,599. The tech giant announced its first 5K monitor at CES in January and launched it this June in South Korea. 

Samsung designed the 27-inch ViewFinity S9 5K monitor for creatives, with HDR 600 support, a matte display to reduce glares and Eye Saver Mode for long days tolling away. The company's first 5K monitor also has a 5,120 x 2,880 resolution, 99 percent DCI-P3 and 221 pixels per inch. Plus, you can calibrate the ViewFinity S9 5K monitor through the SmartThings app in either Basic mode, which adjusts gamma settings and white balance, or Professional mode, which controls luminance and color temperature or space. It includes a 4K camera and is compatible with either a PC or Mac. 

Interestingly, the ViewFinity S9 5K monitor costs exactly the same as its competitor, the 27-inch Apple Studio Display — which first came out in early 2022. At the time, we gave the Studio Display an 80 rating due to features such as a so-so webcam, 60Hz refresh rate and single-zone backlighting. The ViewFinity S9 5K has the same refresh rate but offers a few better features than Apple's Studio Display (or at least includes them without any extra cost). Apple is charging another $400 to adjust your monitor's height and angle and a whopping $2,299 if you also want a nano-texture glass display. Plus, the S9 5K has a 4K webcam versus Apple's 12MP option. All in all, unless you're an Apple or nothing shopper, Samsung's ViewFinity S9 5K might be a better choice for the price. Check it out for yourself in stores this August. 

When Instagram launched Threads on July 5th, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg took to Twitter for the first time in 11 years. The tweet, which did not include any text, saw Zuckerberg reference the Spider-Man pointing meme to take a jab at Elon Musk. It turns out the use of that meme was more apt than the Facebook founder could have imagined.

As highlighted by TechCrunch, the release of Instagram’s Threads translated into a boon for another app of the same name. Threads, a Slack alternative that has been around since 2019, saw more than 880,000 downloads on iOS between July 6th and July 12th, according to an estimate Data.ai shared with the outlet. Where previously it had “few downloads” before that period, Threads became the 52nd most downloaded App Store program globally. In a handful of European Union countries, including Germany, Spain and Italy, it even managed to crack the top 10. That might have something to do with the fact Instagram’s Threads isn’t available in the EU, and Meta has since started blocking people who try to access the service through a VPN.

In addition, owing to the fact it owns threads.com, Threads (the Slack alternative) has enjoyed a “significant” increase in traffic to its website. In fact, the company has since added a badge to its frontpage that declares it’s “not associated with Instagram.” Over on Twitter, you’ll find a similar disclaimer. “We have no affiliation with Meta. But you’re welcome to stick around!” the company’s profile states.

Of course, Meta and Threads aren’t the first companies to employ the same branding. As TechCrunch notes, there are more than a few companies called Lightyear, including a solar electric vehicle startup, an online course platform and two separate fintech firms. Still, it’s funny a coincidence when you consider Threads, the workplace chat app, was co-founded by Rousseau Kazi, a former Facebook product manager. Oh, and Meta used to operate an Instagram companion app also confusingly named Threads. I suppose there’s no originality left in Silicon Valley.

Russian authorities have begun to ban government employees from using Apple devices for official state use, according to the Financial Times. As of Monday, the country’s trade ministry will prohibit the use of iPhones for all “work purposes.” Other agencies, including Russia’s telecommunications and mass media ministry, either have similar mandates already in place or plan to begin enforcing ones soon. The Times reports the ban covers all Apple products. In some cases, however, officials can continue using those devices for personal use, provided they don’t open work correspondence on them.

Apple did not immediately respond to Engadget’s comment request. Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last February, the company cut off access to Apple Pay. It later halted all product sales in Russia. At the time, Apple made clear the decision was in response to the invasion, noting it stood “with all of the people” hurt by the incursion.

The ban comes after Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) claimed at the start of June that it had uncovered a “spying operation by US intelligence agencies” involving Apple devices. The FSB said thousands of iPhones, including those in use by the country’s diplomatic missions in NATO countries, had been “infected” with monitoring software. The FSB went on to claim — without showing evidence — that Apple had worked closely with US signal intelligence to provide agents “with a wide range of control tools.” The tech giant denied those allegations, stating it had “never worked with any government to build a backdoor into any Apple product, and never will.”

More broadly, the move is reflective of a desire by Russia’s government to lessen its dependence on foreign-made technology. As The Times notes, President Vladimir Putin signed a decree last year ordering institutions involved in “critical information infrastructure” to migrate to domestically developed software by 2025. 

The first batch of Apple’s M3-equipped Macs could arrive as early October, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. Writing in his latest Power On newsletter, Gurman reports there “should be another launch” after the company’s annual iPhone event in September, with a new slate of Macs likely the focus of whatever Apple has planned. “October is too early for new high-end MacBook Pros or desktops, so the first beneficiaries of the new chip should be the next iMac, 13-inch MacBook Air and 13-inch MacBook Pro,” he notes.

At the start of March, Gurman reported that Apple was at “a late stage” of development on two new iMac models that would feature its next-generation M3 silicon. The new chipset likely won’t feature many more CPU and GPU cores than Apple’s current M2 SoCs, but it is expected to offer significant performance and power efficiency gains thanks to TSMC’s 3nm process. At the time, Gurman predicted the new iMac could arrive as early as the second half of 2023, and that it would feature the same colorful design of the 2021 model. Last week, he wrote that Apple is also working on a new 32-inch iMac, but warned that model won’t arrive until late 2024 at the earliest.

In the past, Apple has typically announced new iPad models alongside its latest Macs, but it sounds like that won’t be the case this time around. “I wouldn’t expect any major upgrades until the M3 iPad Pros with OLED screens arrive next year,” Gurman writes. However, he notes Apple is working on a new iPad Air with refreshed internals. The current model features the company’s aging M1 chipset.

The Apollo 11 moon landing was a seminal event in American history, one etched deeply into our nation's collective psyche. The event ushered in an era of unbridled possibilities — the stars were finally coming into reach — and its effects were felt across the culture, from art and fashion to politics and culture. In After Apollo: Cultural Legacies of the Race to the Moon, a multidisciplinary collection of historians, researchers and academics explore the myriad ways that putting a man on the moon impacted the American Experience.

University of Florida Press

Excerpted from “Scientists Without Borders: Immigrants in NASA and the Apollo Program” by Rosanna Perotti from After Apollo: Cultural Legacies of the Race to the Moon, edited by J Bret Bennington and Rodney F. Hill. Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 2023. Reprinted with permission of the University of Florida Press.

Space Travel and the Immigrant Experience

From NASA’s very beginnings, immigrant engineers, scientists, and technicians lent their talent, labor, and technical skills to the space program. But space travel itself always represented more than a scientific endeavor. Human spaceflight was one of the “great dreams” of the 1960s, as space historian Valerie Neal reminds us, and as a “big idea,” spaceflight relied heavily on American cultural narratives. The Apollo program (1963–1972) conjured the image of pioneering the frontier in the 1960s—exploration and discovery were indispensable to America’s history and continuing redefinition, and Americans welcomed the frontier as a metaphor for space exploration (Neal 15). The shuttle program (1972–2011) echoed the narrative of Americans “going to work.” As the Apollo missions were replaced by the space shuttle, NASA supporters and commentators depicted the shuttle crews with imagery associated with blue-collar labor: “astronaut repairmen made service calls in a vehicle often called a space truck."

Both of these narratives — “pioneering the frontier” and “getting the job done” — are closely associated with a third narrative that was becoming deeply ingrained in American national identity in the 1960s: the myth of the United States as a nation of immigrants and of the immigrant as the backbone of America’s egalitarian democracy. This American immigrant myth was not born in the nineteenth or even in the early twentieth century, when immigration was peaking and Congress struggled to impose limitations and quotas. The myth reached wide acceptance only in the early 1960s. It is no coincidence that John F. Kennedy presented the immigrant myth most succinctly in his pamphlet, A Nation of Immigrants, in 1963, as Kennedy was preparing to ask Congress to overhaul the nation’s immigration laws. At the same time, his administration was pressing furiously to put a man on the Moon by the end of the decade, a central goal of the New Frontier. Interestingly, Kennedy’s space proposals were a far more important policy priority for the administration than immigration reform (the latter was not accomplished until 1965, as we shall see later). But his articulation of the “nation of immigrants” narrative provided powerful imagery in support of the space program he championed from the start of his administration.

Kennedy’s articulation of the complex immigration myth featured not just a welcoming America, but an idealized immigrant, united with others by little other than a common love of freedom. Ours was “a nation of people with the fresh memory of old traditions who dared to explore new frontiers, people eager to build lives for themselves in a spacious society that did not restrict their freedom of choice and action." Citing Tocqueville, Kennedy noted that immigrants’ very poverty made them more inclined toward egalitarian democracy. No arena of American life was untouched by the influence of immigrants, and immigrants themselves were paragons of self-reliance, ingenuity, entrepreneurship, and pioneer spirit. “It was the future and not the past to which he was compelled to address himself,” Kennedy wrote, describing the motivations of the nineteenth-century immigrant.

Except for the Negro slave, he could go anywhere and do anything his talents permitted. A sprawling continent lay before him, and he had only to weld it together by canals, by railroads and by roads . . . This has been the foundation of American inventiveness and ingenuity, of the multiplicity of new enterprises, and of the success in achieving the highest standard of living anywhere in the world.

The space program was the next frontier in the natural progression toward excellence. It evoked not only the immigrant’s capacity for adventure and discovery but also his practicality and capacity to work hard and tame his surroundings. From the time of the English settlers, who “fought a rugged land” in the words of Kennedy, immigrants had to overcome adversity to earn their fortunes and shape their environment. They had worked as artisans, provided cheap labor for American farms, factories, mills, and mines, and climbed the economic ladder to provide succeeding generations with educational opportunities. They had moved forward to get the job done. Launched under the motto “Going to Work in Space,” the space shuttle was a vehicle that could deliver satellites and repair them in orbit, carry commercial payloads, and support a research laboratory. Astronauts would carry out their work all but rolling up their sleeves as builders and repair technicians, wielding robotic arms and power hand tools. Businesses could use the shuttle as a workhorse to launch satellites or develop manufacturing capabilities. All of this economic productivity in space could be expected to resonate with a nation whose increasingly diverse immigrant workforce was transitioning to a new economy. American society was reflected not only symbolically but practically in NASA’s missions. They produced results that appeared almost impossibly ambitious. NASA represented excellence: the best work in the world. Space travel also mirrored some of the risks and hardships of the immigrant experience. As the American public began questioning the nation’s investment in space travel through the 1980s, advocates harked back to this part of the immigrant narrative. In the aftermath of the 1986 Challenger tragedy, the Report of the Advisory Committee on the Future of the US Space Program (1990) reminded Americans that acceptance and resilience in the face of failure were a part of America’s pioneer and immigrant legacies:

In a very real sense, the space program is analogous to the exploration and settlement of the new world. In this view, risk and sacrifice are seen to be constant features of the American experience. There is a national heritage of risk-taking handed down from early explorers, immigrants, settlers, and adventurers. It is this element of our national character that is the wellspring of the U.S. space program.

Following a bitter, months-long feud over the company's proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard, Microsoft and Sony have signed a deal to keep the Call of Duty franchise on PlayStation consoles. "We are pleased to announce that Microsoft and PlayStation have signed a binding agreement to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation following the acquisition of Activision Blizzard," Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer tweeted Sunday morning. "We are pleased to announce that Microsoft and @PlayStation have signed a binding agreement to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation following the acquisition of Activision Blizzard." 

The announcement comes after Microsoft on Friday defeated a last-ditch effort by the US Federal Trade Commission to scuttle the company's $68.7 billion purchase of Activision Blizzard. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals declined to grant the regulator an emergency stay of a ruling that allows the deal to proceed in the US. 

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

Electric vehicle startup Canoo has delivered its first shipment to NASA. This week, a trio of the company’s Crew Transportation Vehicles (CTVs) arrived at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Although they look like they’re made for exploring the surface of the Moon, the vans are designed to carry astronauts to the KSC’s launch pads, starting with NASA’s forthcoming Artemis 2 mission.

According to Canoo, the vans, based on the company’s existing lifestyle vehicle design, can carry fully-suited astronauts, as well as flight support crew and any equipment they may need. “The vehicles have an exclusive interior and exterior design that will provide astronaut and crew comfort and safety while on the nine-mile journey to the launch pad at Kennedy Space Center,” the company said, adding it would share interior shots of the vehicles later this year.

Canoo

The Artemis 2 mission will see NASA launch its first crewed mission to the Moon since the end of the Apollo program in 1972. Four astronauts will travel around the satellite during the 10-day flight. During Artemis 2, NASA plans to conduct additional tests of its Orion capsule and Space Launch System (SLS) super heavy-lift rocket to ensure both spacecraft are safe for future crewed missions to the lunar surface.

As for Canoo, this is a chance for the automaker to drum up interest for its EVs. In May 2022, the company warned investors it was running low on cash. Since then, it announced an agreement with Walmart to provide the retailer with 4,500 EVs. The company also delivered a test vehicle to the US Army. Still, even with those deals in place, it has a long way to go before achieving financial sustainability.

Twitter is still spending more money than it’s making, according to Elon Musk. In the early hours of Saturday morning, the billionaire tweeted the company was suffering from an ongoing negative cash flow issue due to an approximately 50 percent drop in advertising revenue and heavy debt burden. “Need to reach positive cash flow before we have the luxury of anything else,” Musk said.

The admission comes in the same week that Twitter’s ad-revenue sharing program began paying out some creators, including a handful of far-right influencers. On Friday, Musk also claimed the social network could see “all-time high device user seconds usage” sometime this week. He also previously said almost all the advertisers who had left the platform following his takeover in October had “either come back” or “said they will come back.”

According to an estimate research firm Sensor Tower shared with Bloomberg, advertising spending fell by 89 percent to $7.6 million during a two-month period earlier this year. Per Reuters, Twitter has annual interest payments of about $1.5 billion due to the debt the company took on when Musk took it private for $44 billion. This is the latest sign the aggressive cost-cutting measures Musk has undertaken in the last year have not been enough to put the company on solid financial footing. It also suggests the company’s newly appointed CEO, Linda Yaccarino, has her work cut out for her as she works to rebuild Twitter’s advertising base.