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Gear News of the Week: Fairphone Lands in the US, and WhatsApp Is Finally on the Apple Watch

Gear News of the Week: Fairphone Lands in the US, and WhatsApp Is Finally on the Apple Watch

The only smartphone manufacturer with a 10/10 iFixit repairability score is finally bringing its products to the US, but it isn’t starting with its phones. Netherlands-based Fairphone announced this week that it will mark its expansion into the US with the Fairbuds XL, its repairable over-ear headphones. It’ll be available on Amazon later this month.

Fairphone says it achieved 61 percent revenue growth in the third quarter of 2025 compared to the same period in 2024, though this is likely attributed to the launch of The Fairphone (Gen 6)—the company doesn’t release a new phone every year. It sold more than 100,000 units in 2024, including phones and audio products.

Right-to-repair laws have been cropping up all over the US, and Fairphone smartphones are the easiest to repair. The company provides a screwdriver, sells spare parts for years, and offers long-term software support. Its devices may not be the flashiest or the most powerful, but they are a more sustainable solution, also ensuring fair mining practices and wages for workers in its supply chain.

Bringing its smartphone over to the US is a little more complicated than headphones, as it requires carrier certifications, but Fairphone tells WIRED it’s in “advanced discussions” with select retailers and carriers.

WhatsApp Arrives on the Apple Watch

Courtesy of Meta

Meta seems to be on a quest to finally bring its apps to other platforms. A few months ago, it launched an Instagram app for the iPad; now we’re getting WhatsApp on the Apple Watch. Rather than just mirroring your notifications and sending basic replies, now you can read full messages on the Apple Watch, record and send voice messages, see who’s calling, send emoji reactions to messages, and see more of the chat history on the screen.

It syncs with your iPhone, so you don’t need to set it up as a companion device. You can’t take calls on the watch itself or even answer them; you can see who is calling and decline. It also doesn’t seem as though you can add the WhatsApp app as a complication.

Motorola’s Cheapest Phone Now Has 5G

It’s a little earlier than usual, but Motorola’s latest budget phones are here: the Moto G 2026 and Moto G Play 2026. They share a similar look and aren’t too different from the design language Motorola has employed on its 2025 Moto G devices. What’s most notable is that the Moto G Play will have 5G support, making it one of the cheapest handsets with 5G at $170.

Both phones have 6.7-inch 120-Hz LCD screens, big 5,200-mAh batteries, and IP52 water resistance. They’re powered by MediaTek’s Dimensity 6300 processor with 4 GB of RAM, but they differ in storage size, with the Moto G offering 128 GB of internal storage and the Play with 64 GB (both are expandable with a microSD). Cameras are the other place where the two phones diverge, with a 50-MP main sensor on the Moto G and a 32-MP sensor on the Play. Yes, they still have headphone jacks.

Motorola says the Moto G Play will arrive first on November 13 at Motorola, Best Buy, and Amazon for $170, and the $200 Moto G launches on December 11 at Motorola’s website first, then at Best Buy and Amazon on January 15.

Canon’s R6 III Goes More Pro

Gear News of the Week Fairphone Lands in the US and WhatsApp Is Finally on the Apple Watch

Courtesy of Canon

Canon has announced its much-anticipated new EOS R6 Mark III full-frame mirrorless camera. The R6 III features a new 32.5-megapixel sensor (the same sensor in the EOS C50 cinema camera), as well as the company’s latest Digic X processor.

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#Gear #News #Week #Fairphone #Lands #WhatsApp #Finally #Apple #Watch

Buc-ee’s became something of a viral sensation during the World Cup, but it has a troubling history of suing small gas stations and convenience stores. On a recent episode of Last Week Tonight, John Oliver literally begged the company to sue him for selling merch featuring his squirrel mascot, Mr. Nutterbutter, with branding that reads “Buc-Off.” But Buc-ee’s has so far declined to take the bait, instead targeting yet another small business that lacks the deep pockets and legal team of HBO.

According to WDTN, an NBC affiliate in Miami Valley, Ohio, Buc-ee’s opened its first locations in the state earlier this year. And now it’s targeting established local businesses through trademark suits. Beaver’s Mini Mart in Beavercreek has been a staple of the city for “decades.” But Buc-ee’s is claiming that this long-running store’s beaver logo could confuse customers. WDTN says:

In the suit, filed days ago, Buc-ee’s alleges that the Mini Mart’s cartoon beaver mascot is too similar to their own, with its “wide eyes and a smile” that also “uses red as a predominant color,” and could cause confusion.

Oliver and Mr. Nutterbutter have already fended off one lawsuit, with Bob Murray, a mining executive, having unsuccessfully sued for defamation following a 2017 episode about the coal industry.

#Bucees #dodges #John #Oliver #sue #small #businessBusiness,Culture,Entertainment,Internet Culture,Law,News,Policy,TV Shows">Buc-ee’s dodges John Oliver to sue another small businessBuc-ee’s became something of a viral sensation during the World Cup, but it has a troubling history of suing small gas stations and convenience stores. On a recent episode of Last Week Tonight, John Oliver literally begged the company to sue him for selling merch featuring his squirrel mascot, Mr. Nutterbutter, with branding that reads “Buc-Off.” But Buc-ee’s has so far declined to take the bait, instead targeting yet another small business that lacks the deep pockets and legal team of HBO.According to WDTN, an NBC affiliate in Miami Valley, Ohio, Buc-ee’s opened its first locations in the state earlier this year. And now it’s targeting established local businesses through trademark suits. Beaver’s Mini Mart in Beavercreek has been a staple of the city for “decades.” But Buc-ee’s is claiming that this long-running store’s beaver logo could confuse customers. WDTN says:In the suit, filed days ago, Buc-ee’s alleges that the Mini Mart’s cartoon beaver mascot is too similar to their own, with its “wide eyes and a smile” that also “uses red as a predominant color,” and could cause confusion.Oliver and Mr. Nutterbutter have already fended off one lawsuit, with Bob Murray, a mining executive, having unsuccessfully sued for defamation following a 2017 episode about the coal industry.#Bucees #dodges #John #Oliver #sue #small #businessBusiness,Culture,Entertainment,Internet Culture,Law,News,Policy,TV Shows

viral sensation during the World Cup, but it has a troubling history of suing small gas stations and convenience stores. On a recent episode of Last Week Tonight, John Oliver literally begged the company to sue him for selling merch featuring his squirrel mascot, Mr. Nutterbutter, with branding that reads “Buc-Off.” But Buc-ee’s has so far declined to take the bait, instead targeting yet another small business that lacks the deep pockets and legal team of HBO.

According to WDTN, an NBC affiliate in Miami Valley, Ohio, Buc-ee’s opened its first locations in the state earlier this year. And now it’s targeting established local businesses through trademark suits. Beaver’s Mini Mart in Beavercreek has been a staple of the city for “decades.” But Buc-ee’s is claiming that this long-running store’s beaver logo could confuse customers. WDTN says:

In the suit, filed days ago, Buc-ee’s alleges that the Mini Mart’s cartoon beaver mascot is too similar to their own, with its “wide eyes and a smile” that also “uses red as a predominant color,” and could cause confusion.

Oliver and Mr. Nutterbutter have already fended off one lawsuit, with Bob Murray, a mining executive, having unsuccessfully sued for defamation following a 2017 episode about the coal industry.

#Bucees #dodges #John #Oliver #sue #small #businessBusiness,Culture,Entertainment,Internet Culture,Law,News,Policy,TV Shows">Buc-ee’s dodges John Oliver to sue another small business

Buc-ee’s became something of a viral sensation during the World Cup, but it has a troubling history of suing small gas stations and convenience stores. On a recent episode of Last Week Tonight, John Oliver literally begged the company to sue him for selling merch featuring his squirrel mascot, Mr. Nutterbutter, with branding that reads “Buc-Off.” But Buc-ee’s has so far declined to take the bait, instead targeting yet another small business that lacks the deep pockets and legal team of HBO.

According to WDTN, an NBC affiliate in Miami Valley, Ohio, Buc-ee’s opened its first locations in the state earlier this year. And now it’s targeting established local businesses through trademark suits. Beaver’s Mini Mart in Beavercreek has been a staple of the city for “decades.” But Buc-ee’s is claiming that this long-running store’s beaver logo could confuse customers. WDTN says:

In the suit, filed days ago, Buc-ee’s alleges that the Mini Mart’s cartoon beaver mascot is too similar to their own, with its “wide eyes and a smile” that also “uses red as a predominant color,” and could cause confusion.

Oliver and Mr. Nutterbutter have already fended off one lawsuit, with Bob Murray, a mining executive, having unsuccessfully sued for defamation following a 2017 episode about the coal industry.

#Bucees #dodges #John #Oliver #sue #small #businessBusiness,Culture,Entertainment,Internet Culture,Law,News,Policy,TV Shows
OpenAI said Friday it has suspended work on some aspects of its upcoming model Astra after an internal review found it had made significant advancements in agentic coding and cybersecurity — enough to warrant concern over its capabilities.

OpenAI said in a blog post Friday that this model, which is still in development, reached its “critical cybersecurity threshold,” meaning it could independently identify and carry out cyberattacks against traditionally well-protected real-world systems. Under the company’s “Preparedness Framework,” which it created in 2023, this triggered additional safeguards.

“While we continue to benchmark and assess this model, our preliminary evaluations indicate strong enough performance that we cannot rule out Critical capability level at this time,” OpenAI wrote. “Astra is an upcoming model, and was not involved in exploiting Hugging Face.”

The disclosure highlights an unusual moment in the topsy-turvy and still nascent frontier AI labs sector. Companies across every industry hold back products over potential risks, including for safety and cybersecurity concerns. But they rarely announce those decisions publicly when it’s a product that is still under development.

In this case, OpenAI is already under scrutiny after a different unreleased model breached Hugging Face’s systems during internal testing — the first verifiable incident of an AI lab losing control of its model. Since then, OpenAI and AI labs such as Anthropic have disclosed other incidents in which AI models breached their sandboxes and posed threats during cybersecurity tests.

The string of cases — seems like a new disclosure every day now — has triggered varying reactions from cybersecurity experts, lawmakers, and the AI labs themselves. Some express fear and call for stricter oversight. But there’s also a bit of flexing. In certain circles, any AI lab with a model that has that kind of capability will be seen as an impressive advancement.

OpenAI said it was sharing this information because it believes “it’s important to be transparent with the public and the safety and security communities about this potential shift in capabilities.”

The AI lab said it’s also taking action, including enacting stricter security controls and pausing internal activities involving Astra that don’t meet these beefed guardrails. OpenAI said it is working with relevant government agencies and “select AI safety organizations” to test the capabilities for this model.

When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence.

#OpenAI #slowed #Astra #model #development #security #concerns #TechCrunchOpenAI">OpenAI says it slowed Astra model development over security concerns | TechCrunch
OpenAI said Friday it has suspended work on some aspects of its upcoming model Astra after an internal review found it had made significant advancements in agentic coding and cybersecurity — enough to warrant concern over its capabilities. 

OpenAI said in a blog post Friday that this model, which is still in development, reached its “critical cybersecurity threshold,” meaning it could independently identify and carry out cyberattacks against traditionally well-protected real-world systems. Under the company’s “Preparedness Framework,” which it created in 2023, this triggered additional safeguards.







“While we continue to benchmark and assess this model, our preliminary evaluations indicate strong enough performance that we cannot rule out Critical capability level at this time,” OpenAI wrote. “Astra is an upcoming model, and was not involved in exploiting Hugging Face.”

The disclosure highlights an unusual moment in the topsy-turvy and still nascent frontier AI labs sector. Companies across every industry hold back products over potential risks, including for safety and cybersecurity concerns. But they rarely announce those decisions publicly when it’s a product that is still under development.

In this case, OpenAI is already under scrutiny after a different unreleased model breached Hugging Face’s systems during internal testing — the first verifiable incident of an AI lab losing control of its model. Since then, OpenAI and AI labs such as Anthropic have disclosed other incidents in which AI models breached their sandboxes and posed threats during cybersecurity tests.

The string of cases — seems like a new disclosure every day now — has triggered varying reactions from cybersecurity experts, lawmakers, and the AI labs themselves. Some express fear and call for stricter oversight. But there’s also a bit of flexing. In certain circles, any AI lab with a model that has that kind of capability will be seen as an impressive advancement.

OpenAI said it was sharing this information because it believes “it’s important to be transparent with the public and the safety and security communities about this potential shift in capabilities.” 


The AI lab said it’s also taking action, including enacting stricter security controls and pausing internal activities involving Astra that don’t meet these beefed guardrails. OpenAI said it is working with relevant government agencies and “select AI safety organizations” to test the capabilities for this model.
When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence.#OpenAI #slowed #Astra #model #development #security #concerns #TechCrunchOpenAI

blog post Friday that this model, which is still in development, reached its “critical cybersecurity threshold,” meaning it could independently identify and carry out cyberattacks against traditionally well-protected real-world systems. Under the company’s “Preparedness Framework,” which it created in 2023, this triggered additional safeguards.

“While we continue to benchmark and assess this model, our preliminary evaluations indicate strong enough performance that we cannot rule out Critical capability level at this time,” OpenAI wrote. “Astra is an upcoming model, and was not involved in exploiting Hugging Face.”

The disclosure highlights an unusual moment in the topsy-turvy and still nascent frontier AI labs sector. Companies across every industry hold back products over potential risks, including for safety and cybersecurity concerns. But they rarely announce those decisions publicly when it’s a product that is still under development.

In this case, OpenAI is already under scrutiny after a different unreleased model breached Hugging Face’s systems during internal testing — the first verifiable incident of an AI lab losing control of its model. Since then, OpenAI and AI labs such as Anthropic have disclosed other incidents in which AI models breached their sandboxes and posed threats during cybersecurity tests.

The string of cases — seems like a new disclosure every day now — has triggered varying reactions from cybersecurity experts, lawmakers, and the AI labs themselves. Some express fear and call for stricter oversight. But there’s also a bit of flexing. In certain circles, any AI lab with a model that has that kind of capability will be seen as an impressive advancement.

OpenAI said it was sharing this information because it believes “it’s important to be transparent with the public and the safety and security communities about this potential shift in capabilities.”

The AI lab said it’s also taking action, including enacting stricter security controls and pausing internal activities involving Astra that don’t meet these beefed guardrails. OpenAI said it is working with relevant government agencies and “select AI safety organizations” to test the capabilities for this model.

When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence.

#OpenAI #slowed #Astra #model #development #security #concerns #TechCrunchOpenAI">OpenAI says it slowed Astra model development over security concerns | TechCrunch

OpenAI said Friday it has suspended work on some aspects of its upcoming model Astra after an internal review found it had made significant advancements in agentic coding and cybersecurity — enough to warrant concern over its capabilities.

OpenAI said in a blog post Friday that this model, which is still in development, reached its “critical cybersecurity threshold,” meaning it could independently identify and carry out cyberattacks against traditionally well-protected real-world systems. Under the company’s “Preparedness Framework,” which it created in 2023, this triggered additional safeguards.

“While we continue to benchmark and assess this model, our preliminary evaluations indicate strong enough performance that we cannot rule out Critical capability level at this time,” OpenAI wrote. “Astra is an upcoming model, and was not involved in exploiting Hugging Face.”

The disclosure highlights an unusual moment in the topsy-turvy and still nascent frontier AI labs sector. Companies across every industry hold back products over potential risks, including for safety and cybersecurity concerns. But they rarely announce those decisions publicly when it’s a product that is still under development.

In this case, OpenAI is already under scrutiny after a different unreleased model breached Hugging Face’s systems during internal testing — the first verifiable incident of an AI lab losing control of its model. Since then, OpenAI and AI labs such as Anthropic have disclosed other incidents in which AI models breached their sandboxes and posed threats during cybersecurity tests.

The string of cases — seems like a new disclosure every day now — has triggered varying reactions from cybersecurity experts, lawmakers, and the AI labs themselves. Some express fear and call for stricter oversight. But there’s also a bit of flexing. In certain circles, any AI lab with a model that has that kind of capability will be seen as an impressive advancement.

OpenAI said it was sharing this information because it believes “it’s important to be transparent with the public and the safety and security communities about this potential shift in capabilities.”

The AI lab said it’s also taking action, including enacting stricter security controls and pausing internal activities involving Astra that don’t meet these beefed guardrails. OpenAI said it is working with relevant government agencies and “select AI safety organizations” to test the capabilities for this model.

When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence.

#OpenAI #slowed #Astra #model #development #security #concerns #TechCrunchOpenAI

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