Dominic Preston

News Editor

LinkedIn will let your verified identity show up on other platforms

Dominic PrestonApr 24, 2025

Age checks are coming to social media.

UK media regulator Ofcom has laid down the rules that social media sites and gaming apps will have to follow from July 25th under the Online Safety Act, which started coming into force last month. Sites and apps will have to offer child-safe algorithms, strong moderation tools, and any “harmful content” must be gated behind the same “highly effective” age checks required of porn sites, which can include face scans or credit card checks.

New rules for a safer generation of children online

[ofcom.org.uk]

Dominic PrestonApr 24, 2025

‘Regulatory death spiral’ would be a great name for a metal band.

That’s what White House National Security Council spokesperson Brian Hughes branded the EU’s first ever DMA fines, levied against Apple and Meta:

“The European Union has fined Meta and Apple – two major American tech companies – hundreds of millions of euros under their discriminatory Digital Markets Act. This novel form of economic extortion will not be tolerated by the United States. Extraterritorial regulations that specifically target and undermine American companies, stifle innovation, and enable censorship will be recognized as barriers to trade and a direct threat to free civil society. The EU’s malicious targeting of American companies and consumers must stop. End the EU’s regulatory death spiral!”

Nintendo issues Switch 2 supply warning in Japan

Dominic PrestonApr 23, 2025

Apple and Meta hit with the EU’s first DMA antitrust fines

Jess Weatherbed and Dominic PrestonApr 23, 2025

Samsung resumes its troubled One UI 7 rollout

Dominic PrestonApr 23, 2025

Succession, but make it tech.

HBO just dropped a trailer for Mountainhead, the new film from Succession creator Jesse Armstrong, which hits HBO and Max on May 31st.

While Succession skewered the media, Mountainhead has its sights on big tech. Steve Carell, Cory Michael Smith, Ramy Youssef, and Jason Schwartzman play Silicon Valley billionaires holed up in a mountain retreat while the outside world works through some crises, and I’m guessing they’ll have one or two of their own.

Dominic PrestonApr 23, 2025

Grok has a vision.

A new mode lets the xAI chatbot “see” what’s on your screen or in your camera, though only on iOS for now. Grok’s also been upgraded to support voice chats in a range of languages beyond English, with realtime search by voice too. It’s all a bit Gemini Live, with Elon Musk’s AI steadily closing the gap on the competition.