If it seems like every tech company is trying shove AI into all of their products and services, that's because they are. And as someone who rarely (if ever) uses AI, it's a lot: I don't need AI to write my emails, nor do I want it to generate realistic videos that might trick viewers into thinking they're human-made. I certainly don't need it to serve up incorrect information when I try to search the internet.But Firefox's latest AI feature seems genuinely useful, likely because it isn't "making" anything for me. Instead its new AI-powered link previews simply show a small summary of the content on a webpage hidden behind a URL, so you'll have a better idea whether or not it's worth clicking on. Mozilla first announced these AI-generated link previews last month, before rolling them out as part of Firefox 139. The feature is currently in the "experimental" phase, and Mozilla is open to user feedback on how to adjust it. Here's how it works in its current iteration: When you hover your cursor over a URL and hit the corresponding keyboard shortcut, Firefox retrieves and analyzes the webpage's HTML without actually loading the page. It then looks for metadata that can help inform the page's title, description, and cover image. Once it has the data it needs, it displays whatever it has pulled up in a pop-out window.Like what you see? Go ahead and click through to see the full page. Not what you're looking for? Move on to the next link. Assuming the summaries are accurate, I can actually see this being something I rely on to give me an idea of whether or not a particular link is relevant to my current query—especially once Mozilla irons out some of the bugs. How to test out Firefox's AI-generated link previewsIn order to try AI link previews for yourself, you need to be running Firefox 139 (or newer). (If you're not sure which version you're on, open Firefox, head to Settings > General, then scroll to Firefox Updates. If there's a new update, install it, then relaunch the browser.)That accomplished, head back to Settings, then select Firefox Labs. Under "Customize your browsing," click the checkmark next to "Link previews." Credit: Lifehacker Now, open any website, hover over any link on your screen, and hit Shift + Alt (Windows) or Shift + Option (Mac). A small pop-up window should open immediately, along with the webpage's title and a brief description. Soon, you should also see the cover image for the page, then, after a few moments, Firefox will generate the page's "Key points." Credit: Lifehacker Are Firefox's AI link previews worth using?So far, the feature has been a bit hit-or-miss for me. Sometimes the key points it offers up are three well-summarized takeaways from the article. Other times, they are quotes lifted straight out of the article. Plagiarism aside, it's tough to get a sense of the scope of an article if the "key points" are just listing the first few ideas in the text. I suspect part of the problem is that what the AI sees as most important will vary based on how each site is configured: I found the previews frequently copied the text on Lifehacker articles verbatim, for example, while summarizing articles found on other sites. Again, this feature is in development, so Mozilla may need to figure out how to accommodate the variations in in websites design to make it uniformly useful. But as AI features go, I don't hate it, and in 2025, that's saying something.

Macworld Just when you think Apple’s long-running dispute with Epic Games is finally over, someone manages to find a way to spin it out even longer. There’s always time for one more lawsuit, one more appeal, one more acrimonious tweet. And if two multibillion-dollar corporations can’t find a way to resolve their differences amicably, what hope have the rest of us? At the end of April, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers issued what felt at the time like a conclusively unambiguous ruling demanding that Apple comply instantly with previous measures and adding more on top. The company, it was made plain, will not merely have to allow other payment systems within iOS apps, but refrain from sabotaging them with satirically high fees and off-putting verbiage. That should have been that, but Cupertino is still feeling punchy. Epic thought, not unreasonably, that its Fortnite game would now be allowed back on the App Store, having originally been kicked off for the practices which Apple has just been told it must allow. But life is full of surprises. “Apple has blocked our Fortnite submission,” Epic tweeted on May 16, “so we cannot release to the U.S. App Store or to the Epic Games Store for iOS in the European Union.” But here’s the kicker: Epic promptly decided to retaliate by taking the game dark on iOS worldwide, including versions delivered through Epic’s own store. That might sound like cutting off your nose to spite your face, but this will hurt Apple too. And users. In fact barely anyone will have a nose by the time this is over. On the face of it, it makes little sense to prevent Fortnite from returning to iOS. It’s an immensely popular game with hundreds of millions of players across a wide range of platforms, and being able to play it on iPhone makes the iPhone a more appealing device. Even if Apple made zero revenue from sales and in-app purchases, it would still be worth having the title on iOS purely for the sake of user happiness. Conversely, refusing to allow it generates masses of bad PR and resentment, which is poison to a company that depends so much on its image. In this particular case, that zero-revenue idea isn’t entirely inconceivable, because Epic is a big enough company with a reputable enough storefront that it could (assuming the judge’s ruling isn’t watered down on appeal) cut Apple entirely out of the transactional loop. But most games developers don’t have that luxury. They will, at the very least, offer their own and Apple’s payment systems side by side, and I’m convinced that most users would vastly, vastly prefer to buy through the official App Store. Ask yourself this: How easy is it to find jailbreaking instructions online? And yet, how many (or how few) people do you know who actually jailbreak their iPhones? While following this saga, it’s occurred to me that I don’t actually want to buy iOS apps from alternative stores. I just want that to be an option because competition is healthy and would encourage Apple to lower fees and generally treat developers better. Having a bunch of different places to go whenever I want to buy something new or update what I’ve got is a dismaying prospect; I don’t want to enter my payment details in a dozen different websites and constantly worry about whether they can be trusted. But other people might. The App Store itself is one of Apple’s all-time great products, delivering such a reassuring, frictionless one-stop-shop experience that software became for the first time an impulse buy. It won’t lose its magic just because there’s another option. I get why Apple tried to maintain its control of iOS app installs and purchases; it has shareholders to think about and can’t just wave away swathes of revenue without pushback. But the vigor and uncompromising fierceness with which the company has defended that revenue stream has been alarming, to say the least, and may prove costly too. At multiple points in the saga Apple could have yielded a little and reached a compromise acceptable to all parties: allowed sideloading under strict limits; allowed third-party payment systems with a moderate instead of laughably high revenue cut. Instead it pushed and fought and, as the judge put it, “willfully chose not to comply.” And now it appears to be pursuing petty revenge which will hurt itself just as much as the opposition, for no clear rational reason. Saying that someone never knows when they’re beaten sounds like a compliment (“People should know when they’re conquered.” “Would you, Quintus? Would I?”) but often it just means suffering more than you need to for a lost cause. Apple lost this war, and choice was the winner. Now it needs to accept the result and get on with making that outcome work for its users… who are, after all, supposed to be the priority. Foundry Welcome to our weekly Apple Breakfast column, which includes all the Apple news you missed last week in a handy bite-sized roundup. We call it Apple Breakfast because we think it goes great with a Monday morning cup of coffee or tea, but it’s cool if you want to give it a read during lunch or dinner hours too. Trending: Top stories Apple is doomed because Apple isn’t doomed. Mahmoud Itani reveals 10 hidden Apple Watch features you’ve probably never used–but should. If the iPhone 17 Air is anything like the Galaxy S25 Edge, I don’t want it. The first thing Jason Cross installs on every new Mac is this little free emoji utility. If iPadOS 19 is going to be more like the Mac, it needs these 9 features stat. Podcast of the week When WWDC rolls around in June, it’ll be two years since Apple announced visionOS and the Apple Vision Pro. In episode 934 of the Macworld Podcast, we examine the state of Apple’s spatial computing platform and what Apple could have in store at WWDC and beyond. You can catch every episode of the Macworld Podcast on YouTube, Spotify, Soundcloud, the Podcasts app, or our own site. Reviews corner iPad Air (M3) review: Only slightly better, but still the best. Verbatim TurboMetal SSD review: Stylish portable drive. PowerPhotos 3 review: Time-saving Apple Photos tool for power users on the Mac. EcoFlow Power Hat review: A sun hat with solar panels. The rumor mill Apple is reportedly working on the hybrid Mac we all want–and it could arrive in 2028. Folding and curved iPhones are both predicted in 2027 ‘product blitz.’ In fact the iPhone 18’s edgeless curved display seems like a certainty now. iOS 19 will reportedly use AI to extend the iPhone’s battery life. Software updates, bugs, and problems A bizarre iPhone bug is causing some audio messages to fail. Here’s why. iOS 18.5 may be a minor update, but it has one major iPhone upgrade. Apple’s months-old C1 modem has a serious security flaw. And with that, we’re done for this week’s Apple Breakfast. If you’d like to get regular roundups, sign up for our newsletters, including our new email from The Macalope–an irreverent, humorous take on the latest news and rumors from a half-man, half-mythical Mac beast. You can also follow us on Facebook, Threads, Bluesky, or X for discussion of breaking Apple news stories. See you next Monday, and stay Appley.

Macworld At a glanceExpert's Rating Pros Good data transfer rate Quiet fan Cons Data rate drops during long, sustained data transfers No operation without fan Our Verdict With its quiet fan and attractive metal casing, the TurboMetal Portable SSD looks great. It offers a good transfer rate, but you can find faster drives. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today Price When Reviewed200 Euro Best Prices Today: Verbatim Turbometal Portable SSD Retailer Price 145,33 € View Deal €153.25 View Deal €249.95 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket The Verbatim TurboMetal SSD comes in the classic NVMe form factor with a length of around 106 millimeters. The beautifully rounded metal housing is 55 millimeters wide and only 18 millimeters thin. At 150 grams, it is not too heavy despite the metal housing, but it is no lightweight either. As with many USB4 enclosures, Verbatim also relies on cooling with an active fan and cooling slots. The fan is temperature-controlled and starts automatically if the temperature gets too high. Verbatim specifies a USB4 data transfer rate of 3600MBps for writing and 3700MBps for reading. However, we were not able to achieve this on an M3 MacBook Air; in our 4K test with Aja System Test Lite, it was 2664MBps for writing and 3123MBps for reading. Although these are not bad values, the best USB4 drives we have measured so far achieve slightly higher values for writing, but no higher values for reading. A check on the M4 Max Mac Studio showed much better values, with 2869MBps for writing and 3499MBps for reading. In a 30-minute endurance test with the Backmagicdesign Disk Speed Test, the fan started up after ten minutes. The TurboMetal getting too warm was also noticeable after around nine minutes in the data transfer rate, which had dropped significantly to below 1000MBps. Shortly after starting the fan, the temperature of the SSD levelled off again, and the data transfer rate rose to its original value. The runs only when it has to. During the endurance test, the data transfer rate dropped again and again for a short time, only to stabilise immediately. We measured the temperature with DriveDX at around 46 degrees Celsius after using the fan. Once the fan has started, it does not switch off. The TurboMetal Portable SSD is available in 1TB, 2TB, and 4TB capacities. A USB4 cable around 20 centimetres long is included. The drive comes formatted as FAT32, so Mac users will want to reformat the drive in APFS. The software supplied is only for Windows. Should you buy the Verbatim TurboMetal SSD? The TurboMetal SSD is a rather inconspicuous USB4 drive. The data transfer rates are fine for regular everyday use, but if you depend on speed, some SSDs perform better. The regular dips in the data transfer rate are evidence of a thermal protection mechanism, but in practice, this is unlikely to cause a problem with most applications