Apple has been selling Hide My Email to keep your real email address hidden, but it has a vulnerability that does the exact opposite. Hide My Email, part of Apple’s paid iCloud+ subscription, lets users generate anonymous email addresses for signing up to a website, so that their personal or work email remains free of promotional emails and spam. A security audit has now confirmed that the feature has a bug that links those anonymous addresses back to your real Apple ID email.
WhatsApp’s plan to let people use usernames instead of phone numbers has run into trouble in India, its biggest market. This newly introduced feature is meant to improve privacy by letting users connect without immediately sharing their phone number. India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has asked WhatsApp to pause the username rollout until consultations with the government are complete, noting that it could make scams and impersonation harder to control.
Over on the mobile side, an alleged iPhone 18 Pro Max leak hints that Apple may be quietly getting ready to out-battery Samsung's own flagship. The reported capacity nudges past the Galaxy S26 Ultra, which would be a notable flip if it holds up.
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Apple's Hide My Email feature has been leaking users' real email addresses despite its privacy protections, a bug the company has reportedly been investigating since June 2024.
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India orders WhatsApp to pause username rollout over impersonation fears
India has ordered WhatsApp to pause its rollout of usernames, a feature designed to let people connect without sharing their phone number, until the government completes its consultations on the matter. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology issued the directive in what amounts to a significant intervention in WhatsApp's largest market, where more than 500 million people rely on the app for daily personal and professional communication. The feature, which WhatsApp has already begun letting users reserve ahead of a wider launch, would allow people to connect via a handle rather than a phone number in group chats, business conversations, and creator pages.
The government's core concern is impersonation. India already contends with widespread WhatsApp-related fraud, including so-called digital arrest scams in which criminals pose as police officers, CBI officials, or other government figures to coerce victims into sending money, as well as everyday schemes where scammers pose as friends or family members and fabricate emergencies. Authorities worry that usernames, combined with familiar-looking display names and profile photos, could make those deceptions harder to detect and trace. WhatsApp says usernames will be optional, not publicly searchable, and that users will need to know an exact handle to initiate a chat, but critics at the Internet Freedom Foundation note that those safeguards do not fully eliminate impersonation risk and have also questioned whether MeitY has clearly identified the legal basis for pausing a software feature before launch.
The standoff leaves WhatsApp's username rollout in an uncertain position, and how Meta responds to the government's demands could shape not only the feature's fate in India but also how the company navigates regulatory scrutiny in other large markets going forward.
iPhone 18 Pro Max could pack a bigger battery, and it just might solve your mileage anxiety
Apple's iPhone 18 Pro Max could arrive this fall with a battery that outpaces its biggest Android rival. A new leak posted to Weibo claims the next Pro Max will ship with either a 5,235mAh cell in models that retain a physical SIM slot or a 5,425mAh cell in eSIM-only versions. Both figures would clear the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra's 5,000mAh battery, a threshold that Apple, which has traditionally prioritized hardware and software efficiency over raw capacity numbers, has never come close to crossing.
The regional split in battery size is itself notable. Apple already sells eSIM-only iPhones in select markets, and eliminating the physical SIM tray frees up internal space. If the leak holds, Apple appears ready to use that extra room for a meaningfully larger cell. Combined with the expected A20 Pro chip, battery life could emerge as one of the iPhone 18 Pro Max's most significant selling points rather than simply a footnote.
The advantage over Samsung may be short-lived, however. Rumors already point to a battery upgrade for the Galaxy S27 Ultra beyond the current 5,000mAh mark. Notably, neither company appears ready to adopt silicon-carbon battery technology, which Chinese flagship makers have used for years to pack far larger capacities into slim designs without adding meaningful bulk.
Quick Hits
Computing
AMD is reportedly raising the price of its GPU and VRAM bundles sold to graphics card manufacturers, meaning expect your next AMD card to cost a little more. (More)
Supermicro workers have been detained in Taiwan as prosecutors widen an investigation into how its Nvidia GPU-equipped servers were smuggled into China in violation of US export controls. (More)
Intel's next-gen Nova Lake CPUs could sustain over 470W of power (More)
Mobile
Android 17 is causing headaches for some Google Pixel owners, with reports of Wi-Fi disconnects and laggy games popping up after the update. (More)
Smartphone filmmaking is opening doors for independent creators telling stories that Hollywood tends to ignore, according to a new report from The Conversation. (More)
The Motorola Razr Fold is now the first Motorola phone to support AirDrop-style file sharing with iPhones, thanks to Google's Quick Share integration. (More)
Audio / Video
Amazon is reportedly pushing to design in-house chips for its Kindle, Fire TV, and Echo devices, following a supply chain report from Ming-Chi Kuo backed up by comments from devices chief Panos Panay. (More)
The Nothing Ear (3a) arrives July 7 in four colors: White, Black, Yellow, and Pink. It's the brand's latest attempt to rattle the budget earbud market. (More)
Gaming
Sony's PlayStation 6 could cost over $900 just in materials, suggesting a launch price that might double what the PS5 debuted at. (More)
Summer heat is making gaming less comfortable as rising temperatures turn living rooms into saunas, pushing players to reconsider their setup. (More)
Meta's AI datacenter buildout may already be outpacing demand, with analysts warning the company could need to scale back or halt infrastructure investment due to excess capacity. (More)
Godot bans AI-generated code contributions after flood of slop PRs (More)
Entertainment
Paramount+ just added a fresh batch of movies worth your weekend, including three standout picks perfect for the July 4th stretch. (More)
A film about prediction market rivals Kalshi and Polymarket was sold to former Netflix film chairman Scott Stuber after a heated bidding war, with the project described as a "cutthroat" story. (More)
Streaming movie rankings shift constantly, but Lifehacker's latest roundup reveals which 10 films are pulling the biggest numbers across platforms right now. (More)
AI
AI is starting to earn a place in food safety. It can spot contamination and speed up inspections, catching risks well before the old manual methods would. (More)
ChatGPT delivers better, more consistent answers when you stay in the same conversation thread rather than hitting "New Chat" for every task, since the model retains context about your preferences and goals. (More)
Cars / EV
When his car was stolen, one Kia owner learned exactly how little Kia Connect could do about it. He had doorbell footage of the theft. He had an AirTag pinging a location. (More)
Tesla's latest stock moves are pulling Rivian, Li Auto, and Lucid shares into the spotlight as investors watch the EV sector closely. (More)
Tesla's latest delivery numbers beat expectations, but investors shrugged off the results as shares slipped following the report. (More)
Final Bits
The ESA won't discuss digital game ownership rights
Sony is ditching physical game discs by 2028
A Hershey movie costume is on display at a local museum
Young Washington is not on Netflix or Prime Video
X Live Studio launches with a $1 million creator incentive
TripAdvisor's AI summaries are calling unsafe hotels "spotless"
Opera's Paste Protect blocks clipboard attacks in-browser
Obsidian Entertainment may be negotiating to avoid closure