Apple executive Eddie Cue said that Apple is "actively looking at" shifting the focus of mobile Safari's search experience to AI search engines, potentially challenging Google's longstanding search dominance and the two companies' lucrative default search engine deal. The statements were made while Cue testified for the US Department of Justice in the Alphabet/Google antitrust trial, as first reported in Bloomberg .

Cue noted that searches in Safari fell for the first time ever last year, and attributed the shift to users increasingly using large language model-based solutions to perform their searches.

"Prior to AI, my feeling around this was, none of the others were valid choices," Cue said of the deal Apple had with Google, which is a key component in the DOJ's case against Alphabet. He added: "I think today there is much greater potential because there are new entrants attacking the problem in a different way."

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Starlink last week announced a new deal for its standard hardware kit, giving the satellite dish and Wi-Fi router for free to customers who sign up for a 12-month commitment.

The deal is reminiscent of the hardware rental agreements long used by cable companies, but Starlink's offer has generated a bit of excitement. Some analysts suggested that the free kits are a reason for the federal government's $42 billion broadband deployment fund to send grants to Starlink instead of to fiber-to-the-home providers, or that the government should buy Starlink kits at the regular price of $349 each so that Elon Musk's company doesn't have to eat the cost.

You may not be surprised to learn that the free hardware kit isn't really free. But much of the discussion around the offer has ignored the fine details that could make a reasonable Starlink buyer decide to reject the deal. Similarly, policymakers deciding which ISPs should get government money might be wise to remember that fiber provides superior and more future-proof Internet service and that Starlink's offers to customers could change at any time.

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Broadcom has been sending cease-and-desist letters to owners of VMware perpetual licenses with expired support contracts, Ars Technica has confirmed.

Following its November 2023 acquisition of VMware, Broadcom ended VMware perpetual license sales . Users with perpetual licenses can still use the software they bought, but they are unable to renew support services unless they had a pre-existing contract enabling them to do so . The controversial move aims to push VMware users to buy subscriptions to VMware products bundled such that associated costs have increased by 300 percent or, in some cases, more .

Some customers have opted to continue using VMware unsupported, often as they research alternatives , such as VMware rivals or devirtualization.

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Greetings, Arsians, and welcome to Mother's Day, which I am told is once again happening this weekend in the US! Do you, much like the rest of humanity, have a mother? Well, if you do, then this is the time of year when you're supposed to buy her something to make up for all the pain and suffering she went through in order to bring you into this world! Mom raised you, and while what your mother probably wants more than anything is for you to pick up the phone and talk , you could do a lot worse than throwing some money at the problem and buying your mother something from the list we've assembled below!

Stuff for under $100

Severance TV show mug, $17.99

From Allentown to Cold Harbor, discerning innies know the best way to drink beverages. Credit: Amazon

Whether the mom in your life operates primarily as an "innie" or an "outie," if she's a fan of the Apple TV+ show Severance , she may appreciate this ceramic coffee mug inspired by the series . The mug features the iconic phrase "The Work is Both Mysterious and Important" in blue text that mirrors Lumon Industries' sterile corporate aesthetic. It's an ideal conversation starter for fans enjoying the show's second season after the painfully long production delay. Best of all, it's perfect for morning coffee before Mom begins her own mysterious and important work. The same company also offers a "Woe's Hollow" mug if you'd like an alternative design. Celebrate the Sisyphean every-day-is-the-same blessing of motherhood with confidence as these mugs are dishwasher and microwave safe, and they are available in both 11oz and 15oz sizes.

Frameo digital picture frame, $49.99

Frame your mom! Credit: Amazon

From awkward baby pictures, to wedding memories and last year’s holidays, your mother likely has more photos than she knows what to do with. Frameo digital picture frames give your mom somewhere to show off those countless photos without embarrassing, unexpected tags on Facebook.

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Like any big industry, the automotive business has several dumpsters filled with products and ideas that should have remained conceptual. From modern climate controls buried within successive infotainment menus that neither Lawrence of Arabia nor Columbo could find to the old and unlamented Chrysler TC by Maserati with its atrocious build quality and a terrible cylinder head (the Maserati part), the collective car circus has spawned no shortage of bad ideas.

However, there are a few good ideas buried under the weight of poor execution, lousy technology, dreadful marketing, steep pricing, or just merely something being ahead of its time. Several of these morsels deserved a better launch and a second chance. One of them is four-wheel steering.

Four-wheel steering, in concept

The idea of steering a two-axle vehicle's front and rear wheels isn't new. Very early American 4x4 trucks from the dawn of the 20th Century sported four-wheel-steering systems (4WS), including the Cotta Cottamobile, the American ¾-ton to 10-ton trucks, and Jeffery/Nash Quad Lorry 3-ton trucks.

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"A threshold has been reached. We are effectively being DDoSed. If we could, we would charge them for this waste of our time," wrote Daniel Stenberg, original author and lead of the curl project , on LinkedIn this week .

Curl (cURL in some realms), which turned 25 years old in 2023 , is an essential command-line tool and library for interacting with Internet resources. The open source project receives bug reports and security issues through many channels, including HackerOne, a reporting service that helps companies manage vulnerability reporting and bug bounties. HackerOne has fervently taken to AI tools in recent years. "One platform, dual force: Human minds + AI power," the firm's home page reads .

Stenberg, saying that he's "had it" and is "putting my foot down on this craziness," suggested that every suspected AI-generated HackerOne report will have its reporter asked to verify if they used AI to find the problem or generate the submission. If a report is deemed "AI slop," the reporter will be banned. "We still have not seen a single valid security report done with AI help," Stenberg wrote.

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China has finally agreed to open negotiations with the Trump administration as the tech industry warns that tariffs could soon spike Americans' costs for the 10 most popular consumer technology products by more than $123 billion annually.

On Wednesday, the Chinese Embassy in the US announced on X (formerly Twitter) that "China’s lead on China-US economic and trade affairs," He Lifeng, will meet with US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent from May 9 to 12 to open talks. For those talks to go smoothly, China's Ministry of Commerce told reporters Wednesday , the US must "demonstrate sincerity" and come ready to "correct its wrongdoings," including facing "the severe negative impacts of its unilateral tariff measures on itself and the world."

Previously, China had demanded that President Trump drop all tariffs to begin negotiations, which Trump refused while seemingly holding out on making a deal on TikTok to keep the potential bargaining chip.

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It's been nearly two years, but the third season of Foundation, Apple TV+'s epic adaptation (or remix) of the Isaac Asimov series, is almost here. The streaming platform released an action-packed teaser of what we can expect from the new ten-episode season: the onset of the Third Crisis, a galactic war, and a shirtless Lee Pace.

(Some spoilers for first two seasons below.)

Showrunner David S. Goyer took great pains in S1 to carefully set up his expansive fictional world, and the scope only broadened in the second season. As previously reported , Asimov's fundamental narrative arc remains intact, with the series taking place across multiple planets over 1,000 years and featuring a huge cast of characters.

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One major surprise in the Trump administration's "skinny budget" proposal for NASA, released last Friday, was a demand that the US space agency reduce its activities on the International Space Station.

"The Budget reduces the space station’s crew size and onboard research, preparing for a safe decommissioning of the station by 2030 and replacement by commercial space stations," stated the budget request for fiscal year 2026 . "Crew and cargo flights to the station would be significantly reduced. The station’s reduced research capacity would be focused on efforts critical to the Moon and Mars exploration programs."

The budget proposal estimates this would save $508 million from a budget of about $3 billion annually to support the International Space Station.

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