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Apple's Browser Engine Ban Persists, Even Under the DMA

TL;DR: Apple’s rules and technical restrictions are blocking other browser vendors from successfully offering their own engines to users in the EU. At the recent Digital Markets Act (DMA) workshop, Apple claimed it didn’t know why no browser vendor has ported their engine to iOS over the past 15 months. But the reality is Apple knows exactly what the barriers are, and has chosen not to remove them. Safari is the highest margin product Apple has ever made, accounts for 14-16% of Apple’s annual o

Where are the iPhone’s WebKit-less browsers?

It’s been 16 months since a DMA ruling allowed iOS developers like Google and Mozilla to use their own browser engines in the EU, so… where are they? According to the Open Web Advocacy (OWA) — a nonprofit group of software engineers that advocates for the open web — Apple continues to place technical and financial restrictions on WebKit-alternative iOS browser engines that effectively stifle competition. OWA says these barriers include insufficient testing tools outside of the US, hostile legal

Summer Games Done Quick 2025 raises $2.4 million for Doctors Without Borders

Another weeklong round-the-clock spree of speedrunning video games has come to a close, with Summer Games Done Quick raising $2,436,614 for Doctors Without Borders. Held in Minneapolis, the event saw 37,776 donations, with the highest contribution being a solo $61,200 donation. This year, 2,600 in-person attendees got to experience a hectic relay race pitting two teams of four against each other to complete a Super Mario Maker 2 level and a full playthrough of Donkey Kong Jungle Beat in less th

Marc Andreessen reportedly told group chat that universities will ‘pay the price’ for DEI

In Brief Venture capitalist Marc Andreessen sharply criticized universities including Stanford and MIT, along with the National Science Foundation, in a group chat with AI scientists and Trump administration officials, according to screenshots viewed by the Washington Post. According to the Post, Andreessen described MIT and Stanford (which I attended two decades ago) as “mainly political lobbying operations fighting American innovation.” He also reportedly complained that Stanford “forced my

Chrome's hidden X-Browser-Validation header reverse engineered

Chrome X-Browser-Validation Header Reverse Engineering & Generator Chrome recently added a few new headers: "x-browser-channel": "stable", "x-browser-copyright": "Copyright 2025 Google LLC. All rights reserved.", "x-browser-validation": "6h3XF8YcD8syi2FF2BbuE2KllQo=", "x-browser-year": "2025" Apart from one of them, there isn’t much that’s interesting. They’re just bits of client specific information. However, base64 decoding x-browser-validation yields what appears to be a hash whose purpose

Should Student Loans Borrowers in SAVE Switch to Another Repayment Plan? It's Complicated

Interest will restart for SAVE borrowers whose loans remain in a general forbearance on August 1. Viva Tung / CNET Starting Aug. 1, borrowers enrolled in the Saving on a Valuable Education plan will start accruing interest charges on their loan balances. The trouble is, their payments remain on hold in a general forbearance. Now they're being encouraged to choose a new payment plan or face interest charges. The Department of Education "urges all borrowers in the SAVE plan to quickly transition

My top 6 open-source Android apps from the Google Play Store - and why that's important

Joan Cros/NurPhoto via Getty Images Android and open source are closely intertwined. In fact, most open-source fans I know also use Android. Coincidence? I think not. One nice thing about Android is that the Google Play Store has lots of open-source software. That's not to say every single open-source title is worth your time and effort, but there are plenty of FOSS apps that are not only worth your time but also some of the best in class. Also: I upgraded to Android 16 - here's what I love a

OpenAI to release web browser in challenge to Google Chrome

Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, at the Hope Global Forums annual meeting in Atlanta on Dec. 11, 2023. OpenAI is close to releasing an AI-powered web browser that will challenge Alphabet's market-dominating Google Chrome, three people familiar with the matter told Reuters. The browser is slated to launch in the coming weeks, three of the people said, and aims to use artificial intelligence to fundamentally change how consumers browse the web. It will give OpenAI more direct access to a cornerstone o

I tried Perplexity's Comet AI browser - here's what you need to know

Nazarii Neshcherenskyi/Getty Perplexity Comet isn't the first AI-powered web browser to arrive. That honor goes to Dia, but thanks to the popularity of Perplexity as an AI-enabled search engine and chatbot, it's getting a lot of attention. It deserves it. An agentic browser, Comet isn't just a web browser with AI glued to it, as are Chrome with Gemini and Edge with Copilot. It's designed from the ground up to use AI to automate tasks and improve your workflow. Also: Perplexity's Comet AI brow

OpenAI Is About to Release an AI Web Browser

OpenAI is on the verge of releasing its own AI-powered web browser, Reuters reports. Expected to launch in the coming weeks, the browser is being released with audacious ambitions. Per the reporting, it's meant to challenge Google Chrome's broad market dominance, with nearly two-thirds of internet users favoring the web browser, or about three billion people. That won't be easy, needless to say. But OpenAI has the prerequisites to at least put a sizable dent in Google's monopoly. Namely, the o

Apple vs the Law

Apple Vs The Law Copy the link to the current page Share the current page A week ago today I had the pleasure of attending both the Apple and Google DMA compliance workshops in Brussels. More detailed articles on the questions and answers, technical and legal analysis etc will be published over at the OWA blog, where we've just done the first write-up on the Google part. Here though I'd like to focus more on my own experience and personal opinions, and how I feel about some of the gatekeepers'

Topics: app apple browser lot web

Don't Put Your Takeout Containers in the Microwave. Here's Why

When hunger and laziness coincide, reheating last night's leftovers in the microwave seems like a great idea. But if you reheat them in the plastic container they came in, you could be ingesting microplastics and harmful chemicals. But is plastic contamination as dangerous as experts say? All signs point to yes. Study after study has shown that the resulting chemical exposure of microplastics could pose significant health risks, and has been linked to increases in medical issues like infertilit

OpenAI’s next big launch could be an AI web browser

is a news writer who covers the streaming wars, consumer tech, crypto, social media, and much more. Previously, she was a writer and editor at MUO. OpenAI is planning to launch an AI web browser in the “coming weeks,” according to a report from Reuters. Sources tell the outlet that OpenAI could build its Operator AI agent into the browser, allowing it to book reservations, fill out forms, and complete other tasks on a user’s behalf as it moves toward an “agentic” future. As noted by Reuters, t

OpenAI’s own web browser could arrive within weeks

OpenAI is said to be almost ready to unleash its own web browser, which could be out in the wild within weeks. According to Reuters sources, the company is aiming to more deeply integrate its services into users’ work and personal lives, and the browser is part of that strategy (as is its push into hardware ). Naturally, the browser is slated to have a ChatGPT-style chatbot baked in. OpenAI is reportedly looking to use the browser to capture more user data — a strategy that has worked out to Go

The End of the Internet As We Know It

The internet as we know it runs on clicks. Billions of them. They fuel ad revenue, shape search results, and dictate how knowledge is discovered, monetized, and, at times, manipulated. But a new wave of AI powered browsers is trying to kill the click. They’re coming for Google Chrome. On Wednesday, the AI search startup Perplexity officially launched Comet, a web browser designed to feel more like a conversation than a scroll. Think of it as ChatGPT with a browser tab, but souped up to handle y

Multi-Region Row Level Security in CockroachDB

Controlling who can access what data is more important than ever as organizations scale and modernize their data infrastructure. Enterprises are modernizing their critical databases, and they need fine-grained, built-in access controls that go beyond table-level permissions. That’s why, with the 25.2 release of CockroachDB , we’re introducing Row-Level Security — a powerful feature that allows you to define and enforce access policies at the row level, directly within the database. This form o

SAVE Borrowers, Your Student Loans Will Start Accruing Interest Again on Aug. 1: What to Know

Getty Images/Zooey Liao/CNET It looks like time has run out for the nearly 8 million student loan borrowers enrolled in SAVE. The US Department of Education announced that loans will resume accruing interest on Aug. 1. Borrowers enrolled in the Saving on a Valuable Education Plan, a product of the Biden administration, have been in limbo since June 2024, when Republican opponents challenged the plan and later struck down by a federal court. Since then, borrowers have had their loans placed in

Perplexity challenges Chrome by launching a (very expensive) AI web browser

TL;DR Perplexity is rolling out a new browser called “Comet.” Comet is currently only available to users who subscribe to the Perplexity Max plan. Availability will expand on an invite-only basis. It appears the rise of AI-centered browsers is upon us. Not too long ago, The Browser Company revealed it was moving on from its quirky Arc browser and shifting focus to its AI-powered successor, Dia. As The Browser Company continues to work on Dia, which is currently in beta, AI startup Perplexity

Perplexity launches Comet, its AI-based web browser

Busy day for AI-based browsing. Just as Reuters reported that OpenIA is just weeks away from releasing a browser, Perplexity, the company behind the famous AI-powered “answer engine,” launched Comet, its own take at what browsing looks like in the age of AI. Here’s what it looks like. Built on Chromium, Comet obviously uses Perplexity as its default search engine. It comes with a sidebar assistant that can summarize pages, answer questions, and even take actions on the user’s behalf (booking ho

OpenAI is launching its own AI-centric web browser very soon, per report

Google Chrome has long dominated the web browser space, despite many Apple users opting to stick with Safari. But a major new player is reportedly about to launch its own web browser: OpenAI, the makers of ChatGPT. ChatGPT makers are getting into the browser business Kenrick Cai, Krystal Hu and Anna Tong write at Reuters: OpenAI is close to releasing an AI-powered web browser that will challenge Alphabet’s market-dominating Google Chrome, three people familiar with the matter told Reuters. Th

OpenAI is reportedly releasing an AI browser in the coming weeks

In Brief Hot on the heels of Perplexity’s Comet launch, OpenAI is planning to release an AI-powered web browser of its own to challenge Google Chrome, according to a report from Reuters on Wednesday. The ChatGPT maker reportedly aims to release its browser in the coming weeks. Much like Perplexity’s Comet and The Browser Company’s Dia, OpenAI’s browser is said to use AI to rethink how users browse the web. Supposedly, the browser keeps some user interactions inside ChatGPT instead of linking o

Perplexity just launched an AI web browser

is a news writer who covers the streaming wars, consumer tech, crypto, social media, and much more. Previously, she was a writer and editor at MUO. Perplexity, the startup behind the AI “answer” engine, has just launched its own web browser. The browser, called Comet, incorporates Perplexity’s AI search tools and assistant in a way that CEO Aravind Srinivas says “transforms entire browsing sessions into single, seamless interactions.” Comet will only be available to users who subscribe to the

How startups are rewriting the late-stage playbook at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025

The rules of growth have changed. At TechCrunch Disrupt 2025, happening October 27-29 at Moscone West in San Francisco, 10,000+ startup and VC leaders will gather to explore how founders are adapting in a market that looks nothing like it did five years ago. And on October 27, on the premier industry stage Going Public, David George of Andreessen Horowitz will take the mic for a fireside chat focused one of the biggest questions facing founders today—how do you scale and succeed when the old r

Tree Borrows

The Rust programming language is well known for its ownership-based type system, which offers strong guarantees like memory safety and data race freedom. However, Rust also provides unsafe escape hatches, for which safety is not guaranteed automatically and must instead be manually upheld by the programmer. This creates a tension. On the one hand, compilers would like to exploit the strong guarantees of the type system—particularly those pertaining to aliasing of pointers—in order to unlock powe

Grow a Garden Calculator

What is Grow a Garden Calculator? The Grow a Garden Calculator is a comprehensive tool designed specifically for Roblox's popular game "Grow a Garden". This advanced calculator helps players accurately determine plant values based on various game mechanics including weight, mutations, friend bonuses, and other multipliers. Our Grow a Garden Calculator serves as an essential resource for players who want to maximize their profits and make informed decisions about their garden investments. As the

Bootstrapping a side project into a profitable seven-figure business

Bootstrapping a side project into a profitable seven-figure business in four years. We really did it! We bootstrapped ProjectionLab to $1,000,000 in annual recurring revenue. And I’m still processing that this is real. 🥹 Back in 2021, I was inspired by the financial independence movement and wanted a better way to plan my own life. I couldn’t find the right tool, so I started building. I had no idea that side project would one day help over 100,000 households plan for their financial future

7 days until doors open at TechCrunch All Stage — and up to $475 in ticket savings vanish

We’re in the final countdown — TechCrunch All Stage kicks off in less than 7 days, and your chance to save up to $475 disappears when it does. This is the ultimate founder summit, built for every stage of your startup journey. Whether you’re a founder, co-founder, or investor, this is where scaling strategies are revealed and future-shaping deals begin. Ready to move faster, smarter, and further? All signs point to Boston on July 15. Right now, Founder Passes are just $100, and Investor Passes

Student Loan Repayment Plans Will Last as Long as Most Mortgages. How Much the New Budget Bill Will Cost You

The Republican-led policy bill cuts repayment plans to two options for future borrowers. Getty Images/Zooey Liao/CNET The Republican-led "One Big Beautiful Bill" was signed into law by President Donald Trump last week, which will result in major changes to student loans, including fewer repayment options, caps on borrowing and new rules for Pell Grants. The nearly 900-page bill means a lot of changes for taxes and Medicare, but its impact on higher education could alter how colleges operate an

Microsoft’s Edge browser now loads sites even faster

is a senior reporter who’s been covering and reviewing the latest gadgets and tech since 2006, but has loved all things electronic since he was a kid. In a new post shared to its Windows blog, Microsoft says that it has “reached a major milestone” when it comes to improving the speed of Edge’s user interface. It now takes Microsoft’s browser less than 300 milliseconds to start rendering the first parts of a website for users, whether it’s text, images, or parts of the user interface. It’s a me

10 simple ways Mac users can better protect their privacy - and why they should

Kyle Kucharski/ZDNET MacOS is a solid operating system. But no matter how secure an operating system is, it's vulnerable if it's connected to a network. As for privacy, if you get online, your privacy is at stake, so never assume you're safe just because you're using Apple's OS. Also: I'm switching to the MacBook Air M4 from my Windows laptop - and you should too at this price You can always take steps to improve the chances that your privacy won't be infringed upon. What are those steps? Let