John Ternus is going to be Apple’s next CEO. And while outgoing CEO Tim Cook was lauded for his approach to logistics, Ternus’ history is that of a product person.

Ternus, Apple’s SVP of hardware engineering before being officially tapped to take over the top job, has been increasingly in the public eye to help Apple announce its latest products. Ternus helped introduce the iPhone Air last September, its flashiest new iPhone of the 2025 lineup. He’s also been the face of announcing new Macs for years, including Apple’s first Macs with Apple Silicon in 2020 that profoundly transformed Apple’s computer lineup, continuing through the 15-inch MacBook Air in 2023 and a suite of M4 Macs last year. Now, Ternus, who is 50 years old and has had a 25-year tenure at Apple, is going to be the one in charge of everything.

Ternus’ time at Apple has spanned both the Steve Jobs and Tim Cook eras. It began in 2001 when he joined Apple’s product design team after a few years as a mechanical engineer at Virtual Research Systems. Ternus’ first boss at Apple, Steve Siefert, told The New York Times that Ternus became a manager just a few years after getting hired at Apple. Siefert described him as “a man of the people,” recalling how Ternus turned down moving into his own office when he was promoted, insisting on sitting alongside his team instead. In 2013, Ternus was promoted again, this time to VP of hardware engineering. In 2021, he became senior VP of hardware engineering, taking over for Dan Riccio and officially joining Apple’s executive team. 

Apple has seen significant change in the company’s product lineup in the 13 years since Ternus rose to the leadership ranks of the hardware engineering department, including the launch of entirely new devices. Notably, Ternus oversaw the development of the original AirPods launched in 2016. In just the last five years with Ternus in his SVP role, Apple has transitioned the iPhone lineup to USB-C, redesigned the MacBook Air to pivot away from its old “wedge” look, revamped the iPad Pro with a thinner design and launched the Vision Pro. Apple is rumored to be releasing its first foldable iPhone this fall.

But not everything he’s worked on has been a hit. A Bloomberg profile in March about Apple’s heir apparent called him a “driving force” behind the MacBook Pro’s ill-fated Touch Bar, and his “next typing fiasco,” the butterfly keyboard.

In addition to showing up more prominently during product announcements, Ternus has reportedly been taking on increased responsibility inside the company. That included becoming the “executive sponsor” of Apple’s famed design team — even though the team has publicly been reporting to Tim Cook after former COO Jeff Williams retired late last year. The company reportedly moved its robotics team under Ternus’ purview last April and away from former AI chief John Giannandrea, who is no longer at Apple. In October, Ternus was reportedly given control of the Apple Watch’s hardware engineering, too.

Some of Ternus’ contributions have been less public, but still significant. Apple’s announcement that he will be stepping in as CEO says Ternus “has also driven much of Apple’s innovation in materials and hardware design” to help reduce its carbon footprint, like the use of 3D-printed titanium in the Apple Watch Ultra 3 and “innovations in repairability that have increased the lifespans of several Apple products.”

Ternus has big shoes to fill: he of course follows in the footsteps of Steve Jobs, but Tim Cook carried on Jobs’ legacy to make the company the hardware and services giant that it is today. Apple is rumored to have a bunch of interesting new products in the pipeline to shake things up, including new smart home hardware, a long-delayed revamp to Siri, OLED MacBook Pros with a touchscreen, and even smart glasses. Starting September 1st, all of those products — and the future of Apple — will become the responsibility of Ternus.

An autonomous scarlet robot named “Lightning” finished a 13-mile race in Beijing on Sunday in just 50 minutes and 26 seconds, less than half the time of last year’s fastest robot, which took two hours and 40 minutes. As Reuters reports, Du Xiaodi, one of the engineers who developed Lightning at smartphone company Honor, said the robot “was in development for a year, fitted with legs 90 to 95 cm (35 to 37 inches) long to mimic elite human runners and liquid cooling technology used in its smartphones.” 

Lightning not only won the half-marathon, beating all 12,000 human runners, but also beat the human world record of 57 minutes and 20 seconds, set by Ugandan runner Jacob Kiplimo.

At last year’s race, only six out of 21 robots managed to complete the half-marathon at all, and didn’t come close to winning. A total of 300 robots from 102 robot teams competed this year and 47 teams finished the race, including 18 teams using autonomous robots and 29 that relied on remote control. 

The fastest human runner this year finished almost 20 minutes behind Lightning, with a time of one hour, seven minutes, and 47 seconds, but no humans made the podium. The three fastest runners were all Lightning robots. 

According to the The Associated Press, the second and third place robots were other autonomous Lightning models that finished with times of 51 minutes and 53 minutes, respectively. There was also a remote-controlled Lightning that had the fastest time overall at 48 minutes and 19 seconds, but Chinese outlet Global Times says that due to how race results were weighted for the different categories, the autonomous version of Lightning was given first place.

Tinder users who prove they’re a real person by visiting an identity-verifying orb will soon be able to get five free boosts in the app — and it’s just the latest service to embrace the orb. World, which was co-founded by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, initially tested Tinder verification using its facial scanning orbs through a pilot program in Japan last year. It’s now expanding the service to “select markets, including Japan and the United States.” 

To verify that they’re not a bot or an AI agent, users have to physically visit one of World’s orbs in person. According to World, the orb “takes pictures of your face and eyes, then encrypts and stores them on your phone so that only you control them by default.” After completing the facial scan, users can connect their World ID to eligible apps like Tinder, which gives orb-verified users a “verified human badge” on their profile. Tinder users can also verify their profile with a photo or a government ID, but the offer for five free boosts is currently only for those who verify with World ID, and is only available for a limited time. 

World is also launching a World ID app, distinct from the World super app it announced last year. The World ID app is specifically for managing “proof of human” verification with the various apps and services that currently accept it, which doesn’t just include Tinder — World is also integrating its ID service into Zoom and Docusign.

Roku continues to solidify itself in a very busy streaming landscape. As of April, over 100 million households are streaming with Roku devices, including its streaming sticks and boxes and Roku TVs.  

Roku originally spun out of Netflix in 2008, where it was conceived as an in-house streaming device. It’s not just Roku that has exploded in popularity since then, as streaming services have come to dominate the entertainment world. Netflix had less than 10 million subscribers in 2008, but now has over 325 million; Hulu, which also launched to the public in 2008, had 64.1 million subscribers in the US by late 2025; and Disney Plus had over 131 million subscribers by the end of last year, just six years after launching in 2019. 

In addition to its hardware, Roku has streaming services of its own now, including its low-cost Howdy platform and the ad-supported Roku Channel, which is currently the sixth most-watched streaming platform in the US, according to Nielsen. Roku’s streaming platforms offer a mix of original content, movies and TV shows, live TV, and even games. 

Roku got into the streaming device market early, appealing to users who were looking to ditch their cable box and go all in on streaming. I’ve been using a Roku streaming stick for five years now, but have never subscribed to cable, like many others who have opted for a streaming device instead of a cable box over the past 18 years. Roku claims that as of this month’s milestone, its streaming devices are currently “used by more than half of all US broadband households.” As of late last year, Roku also has the most popular streaming OS in the US, used in 28 percent of households.