Month: September 2026

iOS 27 lands next week, Apple says, and one of the more welcome changes has nothing to do with flashy new tricks. Older iPhones are supposed to feel faster.

In Apple’s early beta tests on an iPhone 11 Pro Max, the Camera app opened in 0.65 seconds instead of 0.98. Taking a photo and then opening it dropped from 3.61 seconds to 2.44. Maps also sped up, going from 3.01 seconds to 1.36. Apple says Safari, the App Store, and the share sheet feel smoother too.

If you’re using an iPhone 11, 12, or 13, this one looks worth installing.

Apple says an optimized CPU scheduler, along with other refinements, can cut app launch times by as much as 30%, make new photos load in the library up to 70% faster, and speed up AirDrop by up to 80%. The catch is that the headline AI features still depend on newer hardware: revamped Siri and Apple Intelligence require an iPhone 15 Pro or later, and some on-device features need an iPhone 17 or iPhone Air. Siri will also start as an English-only beta, with no availability in the EU or China at first. Apple says French, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish will follow in October 2026.

You’ll be able to download iOS 27 next week on supported iPhones, including the iPhone 11, which is now heading into roughly its eighth year of updates, Apple says. And if early beta users are right, the bigger story here is simple: iOS 27 makes older iPhones feel snappier than iOS 26 did, instead of just making them feel old enough to replace.

Cypress Cove Nudist Resort says it’s dealing with online harassment and a batch of fake Google reviews after Grand Theft Auto VI fans identified the Florida resort as a likely real-world inspiration for a nudist park shown in leaked GTA 6 footage.

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Based on Cypress Cove Nudist Resort’s public replies on its Google business listing, those fake reviews then started name-dropping GTA 6, Jason Duval, and an alleged binoculars “incident.” Some posters wrote as if the leaked scene had actually happened at the real resort, which could easily unsettle potential guests who aren’t in on the joke.

Cypress Cove Nudist Resort says the reviews weren’t legitimate, and that some of the people posting them asked for money to take them down. The resort described that as spam and “internet ransom.”

The business says it wouldn’t pay, joked that it’s in “Florida, not Leonida,” and worked with Google to report and remove the posts. For a small business, though, a campaign like this can be hard to contain quickly.

If you follow GTA 6 closely, this looks like another case of gaming hype spilling into the real world. Review-bombing and harassment have already hit developers, actors, and unrelated businesses, and Take-Two Interactive has previously said it was dealing with coordinated review activity. Neither Take-Two Interactive nor Rockstar Games had commented on this specific case when this story was published.

You can see Cypress Cove Nudist Resort’s public responses on its Google business listing.

Apple has published fresh clinical and validation data for the Apple Watch Series 12, laying out the research behind what it says is the watch’s biggest health feature. Apple says it matched Series 12 readings against established medical reference standards in controlled testing and in data gathered from everyday wear, with the emphasis on trends over time rather than any single reading.

That frames the Apple Watch Series 12 feature as an early-warning wellness and screening aid. It’s meant to flag patterns, not serve as your doctor or deliver a diagnosis on its own. Apple also says results can shift depending on how the watch fits, how much you move, how you use it, and your broader health profile.

If you use an Apple Watch to track health data, this update matters. Apple doesn’t usually show this much of the research sitting underneath a marketing claim, and the release gives people a documented testing process at a moment when regulators and consumer advocates are looking much more closely at health claims tied to consumer gadgets.

The larger point is pretty clear. Apple wants this Apple Watch Series 12 feature to land as clinically informed while still being made for everyday consumer use. Independent studies will still count, and so will long-term results from real people wearing it in real life, but Apple is now arguing from measurable evidence instead of leaning on marketing language alone.

You can read the new documentation on Apple’s website.

Trezor says a phishing campaign tied to Brevo sent roughly 347,000 fake emails to people subscribed to Trezor’s newsletter. One of the messages carried the subject line “Critical Security Alert: STM32 Entropy Vulnerability.”

Those emails tried to funnel people to a malicious app or a fake webpage that asked for a backup password, wallet password, or recovery seed. Trezor says its hardware wallets, products, core internal systems, and account systems were not directly compromised. The real damage came from impersonation made possible by stolen contact data.

Brevo says attackers got into 138 customer accounts, then took advantage of an access-control flaw where permissions were “not properly scoped.” That gave them access across organizations and turned what could have been a limited breach into a much broader spam and phishing campaign.

If you use a Trezor wallet, take this seriously. Recovery seeds are still the real prize here, because anyone who gets one can usually empty the wallet, and those transactions usually can’t be reversed.

This comes right after Trezor’s recent ShipMonk breach. Trezor later updated that incident to say it affected about 81,000 customers, including roughly 67,000 additional US customers. The exposed records dated back to November 2019 and included names, email addresses, phone numbers, and shipping addresses, which raises the risk of impersonation and even wrench attacks.

Trezor says some customers have already reported fraudulent letters, QR-code scams, and other unsolicited contact. Its warning is posted through Trezor’s official channels.

Tom and Jerry, the most famous cat and mouse in the history of animation, have turned 85. You’d think Warner, the current rights holders, would do something special to celebrate their anniversary. After all, even if they’re a bit out of fashion now, back in the day they won seven Oscars between 1943 and 1953 and gave rise to a franchise that has gradually gone downhill through a string of direct-to-video movies… which have just reached their lowest point.

Bad and Jerry

Tom and Jerry have starred in a total of 22 direct-to-video movies (including crossovers with Willy Wonka and The Wizard of Oz), each one more dreadful than the last and losing personality along the way. However, they’ve only made it to theaters three times: a terrible 1992 musical adaptation, a CGI one mixed with live action in 2021, and the latest one, a tremendous mess directed by some guy called Zhang Gang.

Tom and Jerry: The Magic Compass is the characters’ first fully computer-animated adventure (by a Chinese computer, that is) and it has turned out to be an absolute disaster. Instead of getting to know the characters and focusing on reviving their dynamics, it just throws them into a completely senseless trip through time across China, and one that nobody has liked.

The reviews haven’t exactly been kind, saying that it resembles the screams of a hyperactive child, Tom and Jerry end up as supporting characters and it’s, simply, a mess of noise and bright colors. Do you remember those shorts that won the Oscar eight decades ago? Well, they wouldn’t be embarrassed by this absolute garbage. What a disaster, folks.

The University of Michigan’s proposed research computing center in Ypsilanti Township, priced between $1.2 billion and $1.25 billion, is running into heavy local pushback. A recent town hall turned ugly fast, with jeers from the crowd, repeated interruptions, and residents accusing officials of keeping key details from the public.

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For the 144-acre site on Textile Road, University of Michigan planning documents lay out two main pieces: a 240,000-square-foot federal facility to be developed with Los Alamos National Laboratory, and a separate 50,000-square-foot university center. The university says that center would support work in medicine, engineering, energy, national security, cancer care, grid research, and sustainable computing.

People who live nearby are paying close attention, and for good reason. Residents say the benefits being promised don’t come close to easing their concerns about water use, noise, emissions, traffic, pressure on local infrastructure, and the project’s power needs. Those needs start at 50 megawatts and could climb to 100, based on the project plans, with a dedicated DTE Energy substation required. That puts it near the top end of U.S. data-center-scale power use.

A lot of the distrust comes back to Los Alamos National Laboratory and its role in nuclear weapons work. Officials have said the Ypsilanti Township site would only be used to run simulations on existing weapons, and that no nuclear or other hazardous materials would be stored there. Even so, township leaders have imposed a 180-day moratorium that affects the substation, following an earlier one-year water moratorium. The University of Michigan, for its part, says the building would be fully electric, designed to LEED standards, and produce zero operational emissions.

If you want to follow where this goes next, the paper trail is there in township records and University of Michigan filings.

You’d think that Destin Daniel Cretton, after knocking it out of the park this year with the new Spider-Man installment, could move straight on to the next one. However, he’s chosen to get himself into a different kind of trouble. After confirming that filming on the long-awaited live-action version of Naruto will start before long, we’ve now learned that after that he’ll be the director of the film adaptation of one of the cop shows that defined the last decade: Hawaii Five-0.

Hawaii, Bombay, is a paradise

Actually, this Hawaii Five-0 was itself a remake of the original series, which ran for 282 episodes between 1968 and 1980. So Cretton has plenty to choose from, though the choice, coming from two super-franchises like Marvel and Naruto, is, to say the least, surprising. For now we only know that Chris Bremner, best known for Bad Boys for Life, and Noah Oppenheim, writer of Jackie, are behind the script, and that Cretton plans to direct it once development is complete.

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We’ll have to see whether it’s too soon for another remake after the 2010 version, but it has everything it needs to succeed: action, a recognizable theme tune, idyllic beaches and someone in charge who, as he’s already shown, knows how to put a new spin on things. But of course, we can’t expect to see this movie soon because, obviously, Marvel and Sony are going to do whatever it takes to make Spider-Man 5 happen as soon as possible. With or without cops on paradisiacal beaches.

It’s still too early to know whether the film will take place in the 70s, as fans want, or be set in the present day, like the remake. Only one thing is clear: Cretton has what it takes to become the new King Midas of Hollywood. We’ll have to see whether he pulls it off.

The great scourge of our time: everyone has an opinion, all the time, especially if the subject has to do with women, other races, or minority groups. Boy, do they have an opinion, and they’re going to tell it to you from start to finish! If people on the Internet got hugely angry over a black man being given the spotlight, now just imagine the fit they’ve thrown over casting a woman as the Genie in Aladdin. A reaction as sad as it is boring.

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There’s no genie quite this genial

The woman cast as the Genie once played by Robin Williams is Sherri Shepherd, 59, a comedian, Emmy winner, and more than deserving of any role after more than three decades in the industry. Her run on Broadway will only run from October 16 to January 3, but it’s been enough for the usual crowd to take up arms in protest against the gender of a fictional character.

Twitter, of course, has filled up with “go woke go broke” comments (you know, like The Odyssey) and flat-out racist and sexist opinions galore, par for the course in 2026. People who never cared about the Aladdin musical have suddenly become staunch defenders of the idea that the character should be played by a white man. Luckily, most of the responses are positive because, frankly, it takes nothing at all to shut up people who actively fight against other people’s joy.

Daytime Emmy Award-winning actress, comedian, and talk show host Sherri Shepherd has been announced as the next Genie in Disney’s Aladdin on Broadway — becoming the first woman ever to play the role.

Shepherd will begin a limited engagement on October 16 at the New Amsterdam… pic.twitter.com/X8gAXlZuso

— Blackish Press (@blackishpress) September 8, 2026

It’s as ridiculous to claim that Hermione is canonically white as it is that the Genie is a man, as if it were impossible for him, if that’s somehow too hard for you to accept, to turn into a woman. Of course, all this will continue, and it will happen again, in the eternal Groundhog Day the Internet has become, with a few people crying over the pop culture most people enjoy without a problem. What a world this is.

Steam seems to have changed its Australian store, and users in Australia are now reporting a new age check for some R18+ games that relies on card-based verification. That means some Australian users may now have to prove they’re 18 or older before they can even view or buy certain titles.

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If you’re in Australia, those user reports say the prompt can show up before you get that far, and it appears to ask for a valid Australian credit card. There doesn’t seem to be any obvious PayPal option, or an alternative using a passport or other government ID.

The timing lines up with Australia’s Age-Restricted Material App Distribution Services Code, along with the country’s broader online safety rules. Users also say the block kicks in at the store-page level, which means you may be shut out of trailers, screenshots, system requirements, reviews, DLC pages, and even games like Doom Eternal before you ever reach checkout.

If you regularly browse mature games on Steam, this is where the backlash is landing. Going by user reactions, the frustration isn’t just about age verification itself. It’s about how limited this version of it looks.

Critics point out that credit card ownership is lower among Australians aged 18 to 24, so adult players could still end up locked out. Some users say certain debit cards work, but the reports are inconsistent, and it’s still unclear whether Steam is checking for credit products specifically, treating some debit cards differently, or simply getting different results depending on the bank.

PlayStation, Xbox, and the Epic Games Store reportedly offer selfie or government ID checks too, while Valve still hasn’t clarified its approach or announced any extra options for Steam users in Australia.