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VPN kill switches explained: how they stop IP leaks when connections drop

A kill switch is a VPN feature that watches the encrypted tunnel between a device and a VPN server, cutting internet access the moment that connection weakens or fails. This stops a device's real IP address or DNS requests from leaking during outages or server switches, restoring access automatically once the secure tunnel resumes. The feature comes in two forms: app-level, which blocks only chosen programs, and system-level, which halts all network traffic on the device.

TIFF 2026: 'Vintage Violence' turns phone addiction into crime-thriller chaos

Director Eugene Kotlyarenko's new film, screened at TIFF 2026, follows a disgraced influencer played by Cole Sprouse who travels to Tokyo to sell rare vintage Levi's and gets tangled up with yakuza scammers. The movie stands out by constantly showing characters' phone screens and livestreams onscreen, mimicking the experience of being perpetually online while blending comedy with bloody, Miike-style violence.

Apple bundles TV and Arcade into $1 iCloud+ plans across 100+ countries

Apple is adding Apple TV and Arcade, plus some ad-free Apple Music Select radio stations, to its base-tier iCloud+ subscriptions in more than 100 countries. The entry-level iCloud+ plan, which costs roughly $1 a month, will now include these extras without requiring customers to buy the pricier Apple One bundle. The US is not part of this rollout, but markets like India, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Türkiye and the UAE are included, and Apple TV itself is expanding to 59 new countries as a result.

Gentler Streak and The Outsiders add Siri AI support with iOS 27 update

Gentler Stories released updates to both its fitness apps, Gentler Streak 5.13 and The Outsiders 1.8, integrating new App Intents capabilities introduced in iOS 27. The updates let users query the new Siri AI directly for health and fitness data without opening the apps, and add support for Siri's onscreen awareness feature to give context on workout summaries and health charts.

Broadcom's Hock Tan reaffirms $230B AI chip revenue target for 2028

Broadcom CEO Hock Tan told CNBC that his company's AI semiconductor revenue forecasts remain unchanged despite market jitters over Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei's call to slow frontier AI development. Broadcom shares fell 4.8% and chip stocks broadly dropped after Amodei's comments, which drew backing from Sam Altman and Elon Musk. Tan said demand for AI compute infrastructure remains strong and durable, and reaffirmed that Anthropic is set to become Broadcom's largest custom chip customer by 2027.

New browser tool extracts all comments from Google Sheets exports

A developer launched a Show HN project that lets users upload an exported .xlsx Google Sheets workbook and extracts every comment thread from it in one list, showing the tab, cell reference, reply chains, and resolution status for each. The tool currently works only with spreadsheet files, not Google Docs or Slides. A companion add-on also lets users pull comments directly inside Google Sheets into a new tab without needing to export or upload a file.

Apple's iOS 27 lets users opt in to sharing Siri data for training Foundation Models

With today's iOS 27 rollout of Siri AI, Apple has replaced its old 'Improve Siri and Dictation' opt-in with a new setting called 'Improve Siri and Apple Intelligence.' Choosing 'Share Audio and Text' now lets Apple use voice and text interactions from Siri, Dictation and Translate to train its Foundation Models, not just refine Siri as before. Even users who previously consented will be prompted again during setup to confirm their choice under this expanded scope.

Australia's under-16 social media ban forces platforms to verify user age

Governments are increasingly stepping in to curb youth social media use after years of relying on parents, schools and platform self-regulation, which proved insufficient. Australia became the first country to enact a nationwide ban on social media accounts for children under 16, covering ten platforms including Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat and YouTube, while exempting messaging and gaming services like WhatsApp, Discord and Roblox. The law requires platforms to take reasonable steps to verify age and prevent account creation, though it does not restrict viewing public content without logging in.

Neobrutalism.dev adds Base UI support and new color theme

Neobrutalism.dev, a component library for building bold neobrutalism-style interfaces, has added support for Base UI alongside its existing shadcn/ui integration. The update also introduces a new color palette option, expanding the library's set of 64 React and Tailwind v4 components, charts, and star shapes.

Neobrutalism.dev component library adds Base UI support and new color theme

Neobrutalism.dev, a React and Tailwind v4 component kit for building neobrutalist-style interfaces, has released an update adding support for Base UI alongside its existing shadcn/ui foundation. The update also introduces a new color palette, expanding the library's set of 64 components, charts and star shapes that developers can use to quickly assemble bold, high-contrast layouts.

APL AI-Eval Flags Two MMLU Scores as Incomparable Despite Matching Benchmark Name

An analysis by Dmitrii Zatona examines two MMLU evaluation records for the same model family—one build scoring 0.781, another 0.79—that share identical provider, metric and benchmark labels but differ in dataset split, prompt format, grader and runner network access. Under the APL AI-Eval profile, which treats each evaluation as a content-addressed frame with its own hash, a query comparing the two scores returns 'incomparable' rather than a simple +0.009 delta.

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