Disney Imagineering has a new idea for keeping you off your phone at Disneyland

• Disney's new AI guide could make navigating Disneyland easier
• Works with Ray-Ban Metas, AirPods, and your iPhone
• Coming soon in beta for Magic Key holders through Imagineering Labs

When you're at a Disney park, or really any theme park, the idea is to be immersed in the experience, right? But there's also no sugarcoating the fact that a phone, especially one equipped with the Disneyland app, My Disney Experience for Walt Disney World, or any other park app, is pretty essential for planning and making the most of your day.

The app is essentially the brain of your visit, letting you check wait times for attractions, meet-and-greets, and other experiences, but also helping you find your way to food — I mean, we're all after a corn dog or a churro, right? — other services, and entertainment. But as we've heard from Disney Parks leaders in the past, constantly looking down at your phone can break the immersion.

Now, we're getting a glimpse at a potential alternative, and it's coming soon for a select group of Disneyland guests through a new Disney Imagineering app that's set to offer a rare peek behind the curtain.

Dubbed Imagineering Labs, the opt-in experience won't replace the main Disneyland app, but it will give guests the chance to try select experiences before they're fully developed or even guaranteed to launch. It's a pretty exciting approach, especially since feedback from guests could help shape what Imagineers ultimately bring to life.

The first experiment is an augmented reality Star Wars adventure called Secrets of the Spire, which is decidedly entertainment-focused and uses your iPhone's camera to overlay digital elements onto the environment and trigger physical reactions throughout Galaxy's Edge.

But the Disneyland Enchanted Guide is a bit more utility-focused, and it's seriously piquing my interest. It's an AI-powered assistant that lets you ask questions in natural language, like, 'Where's the nearest Dole Whip?' 'How long is the wait for Rise of the Resistance right now?' or whether you should come back later if the line is too long. It's also multimodal, meaning you can point your phone's camera at something in the park and ask about it.

(Image credit: Disney)

Asa Kalama, Vice President and Executive Creative Director at Walt Disney Imagineering, described the thinking behind it to TechRadar: “Some of us are lucky enough to have that, you know, big Disney Parks fan as a friend, and there's no better park-going adventure than alongside them. They know all the tips, they know all the tricks, they can help you navigate your day. Well, what if we were able to provide that to every single guest that came to the park?”

And that's really the idea here. Rather than digging through menus or bouncing between different parts of an app, you can simply ask the Enchanted Guide and get an answer.

The interface is pretty neat, too. Rather than a traditional chatbot screen, the Enchanted Guide puts a familiar Disneyland map front and center, complete with attraction wait times and a glowing Mickey-shaped button at the bottom for asking questions. There are also buttons to type or use your camera, and the Guide can take into account your location, plans, and details you choose to share to make its recommendations more useful throughout the day.

It's using a combination of AI models to power the intelligence behind the Enchanted Guide, but there's been a whole host of customizations to make it feel uniquely Disney. Kalama explained that the team has worked to ensure the information comes from Disney's trusted sources, including real-time park information, and is delivered in a way that feels like the Disney voice, both literally and figuratively. From the pre-recorded preview I saw, it almost feels like chatting with a Cast Member you might stop on Main Street.

It gets even more interesting, though, when you can use another device to interact with it.

(Image credit: Disney)

You might recall that at Meta Connect 2025, Disney Imagineering showed off an early tease of an experience at Disneyland using Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses, letting guests look at their surroundings, ask questions, and hear responses through the glasses. And while that was just an early glimpse, the Disneyland Enchanted Guide is bringing that idea to life, letting you interact with Disney's new AI assistant without constantly reaching for your phone.

Essentially, you can connect the Disneyland Enchanted Guide within the Imagineering Labs app to compatible Meta smart glasses using Meta's Wearables Device Access Toolkit. Once that's enabled and you're rocking the shades, you can chat with the Guide through the glasses without necessarily needing to pull out your connected phone.

The Enchanted Guide can make use of the glasses' microphones, speakers, and cameras. That means you could look at an attraction, ask about it, and get real-time information without even knowing its name.

Speaking with TechRadar, Chris Barbour, Director, Content & Ecosystem, Meta, explained that the partnership with Disney Imagineering started with a pretty simple idea: “The best of keep me immersed, keep me not having to look down at my phone, but also give me all the advantages of the technology being present for me.”

As Chris explained, one of his favorite parts is “being able to look at an attraction and get real-time information about that,” with the Guide using what the camera sees to understand what you're asking about.

On paper, and without having tested it yet, that could be incredibly handy within the park.

(Image credit: Future/Jacob Krol)

For instance, Asa shared a few examples, from checking the current wait time for an attraction to something a little more useful, like getting an alert when that wait drops below a certain threshold.

“Can you let me know when Dumbo the Flying Elephant has a wait time of under 10 minutes?”

The Enchanted Guide could then deliver a notification when that condition is met, leaving you free to enjoy other parts of the park in the meantime.

Imagine if it could also remind you when your next Lightning Lane reservation is coming up or if a slot opens for an attraction you want to experience. That's the kind of functionality I'd love to see. While Asa didn't confirm either capability, he did note that some features, including actually making Lightning Lane reservations, still live within the core Disneyland app. For now, the Enchanted Guide can explain how Lightning Lanes work, but will send you over to the main app when it's time to book one.

“There are certain capabilities that are on our roadmap that aren't yet currently implemented,” Kalama explained.

And while the Meta Ray-Ban integration is especially interesting, you don't necessarily need smart glasses to go hands-free with the Enchanted Guide. Bluetooth earbuds, including Apple's AirPods, will also work, letting you keep your iPhone tucked away while exploring Disneyland. AirPods won't support multi-modal on their own, as they don't have cameras ... yet.

Of course, wearing camera-equipped smart glasses in the parks could raise some privacy concerns. Meta Ray-Ban glasses have a built-in capture LED that indicates when the camera is in use, but that might not be immediately obvious to everyone around you. Guests are already accustomed to seeing phones and earbuds throughout the parks, so just be prepared for some looks.

(Image credit: Future)

There will even be a dedicated wake word for the Enchanted Guide, though it's still being finalized ahead of launch. That means you won't need to pull out your phone and tap the Mickey-shaped microphone button every time you want to ask a question. I'm especially curious to see what Disney lands on for the wake word.

And given that this is an AI assistant capable of understanding images and voice prompts, privacy is another important consideration. Both prompts and images are processed and then deleted, and the Enchanted Guide doesn't support video. So while it can use a camera to understand what you're looking at, it isn't designed to continuously analyze a live video feed.

Of course, this is still an experiment, and there's plenty we don't know about how well it will all work. I'm especially curious to see how quickly the Enchanted Guide responds, how accurately it understands what's happening around you, and whether it really can make navigating Disneyland easier.

And we'll have to wait a little longer to find out.

The Disneyland Enchanted Guide is still listed as coming soon within Imagineering Labs, and when it does launch, it'll initially be limited to Disneyland Magic Key holders. The experience will live within the Imagineering Labs app, where you'll sign in with your Disney account. With an eligible Magic Key linked to your profile, you'll be able to access the Guide once it's available for testing.

(Image credit: Disney)

There will likely be some bugs, hiccups, or slowdowns along the way, but that's part of the whole Imagineering Labs approach. Rather than waiting until an experience is completely finished, Disney is opening up the development process and letting guests help shape what comes next.

A wider rollout is planned, though there's no firm date just yet, and for now, this is very much a Disneyland-focused experience.

But the goal behind it all is one that I think makes a lot of sense.

As Kalama put it, “The goal here really is to keep you invested and engaged with the physical world around you and the friends and family that you've brought to the park, to get you out of your device and back to your vacation as quickly as possible.”

And that's what has me excited about the Disneyland Enchanted Guide. Disney isn't trying to replace the magic of being in the parks with another screen or another digital experience. Instead, it's exploring how technology can help you make the most of your day without constantly having to reach for your smartphone.

There's still plenty to prove, especially when it comes to how well the AI works in a busy, sometimes unpredictable theme park environment. But if Disney can pull this off, the Enchanted Guide could become the kind of park companion you don't realize you need until you've spent a day with it.

And if it means more time enjoying Disneyland and less time staring at my iPhone, I'm all for it.

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Disney Imagineering is giving Disneyland guests the chance to help shape its next big ideas

• The Imagineering Labs app lets Disneyland guests test experimental experiences
• Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge gets an AR adventure featuring Leia
• Guest feedback will help Imagineers shape future Disney Parks experiences

If you’ve ever wanted to get a peek at what Disney Parks is building next — or even help Imagineers shape new experiences — the House of Mouse is starting to open up its creative process a bit more.

We’ve already had a glimpse behind the scenes with the Disney+ series We Call It Imagineering; and now, through a new app, select guests will be able to try new experiences before they’re fully signed, sealed, and delivered.

Asa Kalama, Vice President, Executive Creative Director at Walt Disney Imagineering, told TechRadar, “rather than waiting for an experience to be fully complete and polished, we're actually offering guests the opportunity to try out new experiences, whether they be entertainment-focused or maybe more utility in nature.”

It’s a different approach, and one Kalama was quick to note is new for Disney.

(Image credit: Disney)

At its heart is a new Disney Imagineering Labs iOS app, which will sit alongside the already-available Disneyland Resort app. An Android app is coming at a later date, but for now you'll need an iPhone.

You’ll need to sign in with your Disney account, and initial access to the experiments within Imagineering Labs will be reserved for Disneyland Magic Key holders — essentially the resort’s annual passholders and some of its biggest fans. A broader rollout to other Disneyland guests is “coming soon,” though there’s no exact timeframe just yet.

The idea is that new experiences, or parts of them, will be available for guests to test while they're still in development. It's certainly exciting, especially for someone like me who's fascinated by how Imagineering blends technology and storytelling.

As Kalama explained, “We love this because it allows designers and project teams to get meaningful feedback while the paint is still wet.” It gives Imagineers the chance to make important decisions about what ultimately gets developed, shipped, or potentially scrapped. It’s also clear these aren’t finished experiences, and within the app you’ll get a sense of each project's phase, with labels ranging from 'Early development' to 'Taking shape' and 'Nearly complete.'

And while Disney isn't committing to a regular schedule of new experiments or updates, guest feedback will help Imagineers decide whether an idea is worth pursuing further, or if it's time to move on to something else.

A new Star Wars adventure

(Image credit: Disney)

So, what's first? Well, we're heading to a galaxy far, far away, and an experience that seems pretty well thought-out. It also sees Disney heading back down the road of AR. Secrets of the Spire is a new augmented-reality experience that will take place inside Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge at Disneyland, specifically Black Spire Outpost, home to the Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run attraction and the TIE Echelon.

And if you've ever used the original Star Wars Datapad or enjoyed Batuu Bounty Hunters, this might sound familiar. Kalama even described it as “a spiritual successor to the Datapad experience that used to exist within the land,” calling it “the next chapter” of that adventure.

This time around, you'll receive a transmission from Leia Organa, who needs your help supporting the Rebellion. Your iPhone effectively becomes a pair of Star Wars quadnoculars (aka space binoculars), letting you track down signals across Black Spire Outpost, scan your surroundings, and slice into systems — essentially the Star Wars equivalent of hacking.

Rather than just standing and scanning with your phone, the experience is testing a more involved AR gameplay mechanic. Once you reach a location, your quadnoculars activate a scan mode that creates a grid-like mesh over the real-world environment, helping you hone in on the source of a transmission. From there, you'll reposition your device to locate the signal and begin slicing into a system, whether that's connected to a ship or a droid on land.

And there's a real-world ending here, too. As Kalama explained, “each of these slicing moments is then connected to a physical effect, so there's a physical payoff for that interaction.” In the preview I saw, successfully slicing into a droid brought it to life, with its head spinning in response.

You’ll play Spires of the Outpost in six locations throughout the land, potentially bridging classic attractions, shopping, or chatting with roaming characters. I like the notion of bridging digital and physical further in an already themed land, though.

(Image credit: Disney)

And, in a particularly fun twist, you'll eventually get to decide whether to remain loyal to Leia and the Rebellion or betray her and side with the Empire. Depending on your choice, the experience culminates near either the Millennium Falcon or the TIE Echelon.

There is an important distinction here, though. Secrets of the Spire isn't a full-fledged adventure just yet. Disney describes this initial release as more of a prologue, designed to test a specific AR gameplay mechanic and learn how guests interact with it.

And the feedback Disney is looking for goes beyond whether you enjoyed the adventure. Kalama raised questions like, “Does it feel like there's too much plot? Is there not enough plot?” Imagineers are also interested in the difficulty and duration of the interactions, with those insights helping to inform subsequent versions of the experience.

There are also some requirements and expectations here. Disney says it's designed for daytime use and requires an iPhone 14 or newer. To its credit, Disney is upfront about what you're getting — you might encounter more errors than usual, and functionality, gameplay, or features could change or even be removed.

(Image credit: Disney)

Hopefully just the beginning

Even so, this is an exciting development for Imagineering, and Disney at large. It's another rare look into the creative process, and rather than simply stumbling onto a potential play-test inside the park, Disney is deploying a dedicated app and giving guests a chance to try new experiences while they're still being developed.

It makes sense that Disney is starting with a select group, and arguably some of the biggest fans of the parks, in Disneyland Magic Key holders. But I do hope we see a wider release sooner rather than later. After all, part of the excitement here is getting a look at what Imagineers are dreaming up, even if some of those ideas never ship.

There's also the question of where Imagineering Labs goes next. For now, the focus is firmly on Disneyland, and with Secrets of the Spire, that makes sense. Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge at Disneyland has seen its timeline reworked to make room for classic characters, including Leia Organa. Still, as someone who's spent plenty of time exploring Galaxy's Edge on both coasts, I'd love to see experiments like this eventually make their way to Disney World, too.

And while Secrets of the Spire is the first experiment, it won't be the only one. It's very much focused on storytelling and immersion, effectively turning your iPhone into a Star Wars gadget that you can use while exploring Batuu. It's additive to the experience, giving you another way to interact with Galaxy's Edge if you choose so.

But Disney Imagineering is also exploring something more utility-focused; and interestingly, something that could help you spend less time looking at your phone while visiting the parks.

(Image credit: Disney)

You might recall that at Meta Connect 2025, Disney Imagineering and Meta teased the possibility of using Meta Ray-Ban glasses within Disney Parks. And this next experiment does take advantage of wearable technology in a pretty similar fashion.

Dubbed the Disneyland Enchanted Guide, it's an AI-powered assistant designed to help you navigate Disneyland, check attraction wait times, get recommendations, and more. You can talk to it or type questions on your iPhone, and it's multimodal, meaning it can also understand images. But perhaps most interestingly, you can interact with it hands-free through devices like Meta Ray-Ban smart glasses or Bluetooth earbuds, such as AirPods.

It's a pretty interesting contrast to Secrets of the Spire. One encourages you to pull out your iPhone and immerse yourself even further in the world of Star Wars, while the other aims to help you put it away and get back to enjoying the parks.

And I think that's what makes Imagineering Labs so interesting. We're getting a look at two very different approaches to technology in Disney Parks. I'm especially curious to see what Imagineering dreams up next — and hopefully, more of us will get the chance to try these experiments for ourselves soon.

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Some United Airlines flights now let you sign into Spotify on your flight — and it's totally free

• United Airlines now lets you stream Spotify on its in-flight entertainment system
• Available on some flights now, but rolling out to wider destinations in 2027
• Doesn't cost you for in-flight Wi-Fi (although you'll need a Spotify account)

Passport: check. Boarding pass: check. Water bottle you'll forget to empty until the security gate and will therefore have to drink in one go? Check. But have you remembered to download your Spotify playlists so you can listen while your phone is in airplane mode? Probably not — I always forget until the flight's boarding too.

Well, Spotify says there's no such thing as too late, because its new partnership ensures you can listen when you're at cruising altitude. This collab is with United, a US-based airline which the music streaming giant worked with before.

Rolling out immediately, but only to certain flights, you'll now be able to access your Spotify account via the plane's in-flight entertainment system. Initially, this'll just apply if the plane has a Starlink connection, but apparently in 2027 more of its fleet will support the function.

This is the second stage of United's Spotify collab. The first part put limited Spotify account libraries onto the airline's in-flight entertainment machines, with 450 hours of podcasts and playlists accessible — but if you share my views on what the streaming site tries to push, you'll agree that it's much better to be able to choose what you listen to.

Hitting those Wrapped numbers

You won't need to pay for in-flight Wi-Fi access to be able to use the United Spotify terminals. Otherwise, why wouldn't you pay for Wi-Fi and use it on your phone? However Spotify's press release didn't say if it's for all users, or just paid-for Premium accounts.

Instead, you need to log into your flight's United Wi-Fi network, open Spotify on the seat-back screen, and use your phone's camera to scan a QR code to log in. You'll quickly have access to all of your Spotify playlists and podcasts to enjoy on your flight. Presumably, you'll be automatically logged out once your flight ends.

Of course, the caveat here is that in-flight entertainment generally requires a wired headphone connection, but thankfully there are receivers which let you use your wireless headphones on flights and we covered some new ones recently.

Personally, when I'm not reading on a flight, I like to use those seat-back screens to smash through some recent movies I haven't seen before — watching them on a 240p display that judders in turbulence is probably just what the director intended. But if you prefer to be listening to music non-stop, or have a go-to napping playlist which you've forgotten to download, this'll be a useful addition to your journey.

With Spotify wrapped coming up, if you've got an intended result in mind, it's time to start playing that track on repeat so it's top of your charts. United's making that easy: log in, put Mmmbop on repeat, and nap through it for your 12-hour flight.

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Safari finally gets vertical tabs — and a new way to make any site dark, all thanks to iOS 27.3

• Safari is getting some useful updates
• Vertical tabs will arrive for iOS, iPadOS, and macOS, but it's only in the dev betas for now
• Other features like Adaptive Dark Mode and Siri AI browser tools are coming, too, along with our first glimpse of the new Audio Intelligence capabilities

On the global web browser stage, Safari lags behind Chrome, but when it comes to Apple's 2.5 billion customers, it reigns supreme. Yet, even those devoted users might've noticed that their favorite browser was lacking at least one long-sought feature. Now, with the introduction of Dev Betas for iOS 27.3, iPadOS 27.3, and macOS 27.3, they're getting their wish.

In beta today, the platform upgrade actually brings a series of relatively small but important updates to Safari across the iPhone Duo, iPad, and Mac, but chief among them is vertical tabs.

As is often the case, Apple didn't invent this idea. I started using vertical tabs in, of all things, Microsoft Edge years ago, and even Chrome recently added them. Now, with the Safari update, you can open the Safari View Menu or hop into Settings and select vertical tabs.

Future

Future

By default, the tabs, which will live on the left side of your browser window in iPadOS and macOS (and iOS for the iPhone Duo), appear as icons — a space-saving measure. You can hover over any of them for a quick look at the hidden browser window.

There are other vertical tab features like the ability to pin tabs at the top of your list by dragging and dropping them, and tab groups. The tabs will work on the iPad and, yes, the new iPhone Duo in portrait and landscape mode.

(Image credit: Future)

The platform updates also bring a new kind of Dark Mode. Instead of only showing the mode on web pages that support it, Safari will offer to tune unsupported pages to Dark Mode too, but in a way, Apple promises, that won't ruin the sites. The Adaptive Dark Mode will automatically darken light backgrounds, invert logos and graphics, recolor vector artwork, lift raised surfaces, and even detect shadows and adjust them. It will not touch already darkened sites. For developers, there are new tags they can use that will prevent Adaptive Dark Mode from adjusting them.

The update is also bringing some Siri AI browser tools to Safari for hardware that supports Apple Intelligence.

Siri AI already has, with your permission, an awareness of what's on your screen, but with this update, it'll see entire web pages (beyond what you see in the screen frame) and even hidden tabs.

This can be useful when you want to do wholesale organization and group tabs. Say you want all tabs relating to a trip to Malta sorted by activity, or you need all your car shopping tabs grouped and organized by car price.

Siri AI can, with new Custom Actions, do your bidding on the browser and clean up your history by topic, site, and time period. It might be useful when you don't want someone seeing that you've been shopping for the last few days on a particular site for that coveted gift. There might be other reasons for targeted history scrubbing, but no need to get into that here.

(Image credit: Apple)

Other notable updates arriving in iOS 27.3, iPadOS 27.3, macOS 27.3, watchOS 27.3 Dev Beta 1 include:

• Siri App Actions will let Siri AI dig even more deeply into your system by organizing files, making trip plans, creating playlists, scheduling group messages, and finding the best photos to share.
• The promised Apple Health app overhaul, which uses Apple Intelligence, will give you more insights from your health data.
• The pair of Audio Intelligence features that will work with your Apple Watch Series 12:
• Live rewind, for recalling what was said in conversation (you have to double-press the watch crown to read the last snippet of conversation). It might be a great tool for settling he said/he said arguments.
• Siri Recap, which, when enabled, can use Apple Intelligence to recap and summarize an entire talk, speech, lesson, or maybe a TED Talk.

The changes are coming to 27.3 betas first and will eventually roll out to the other platforms in a full release. For now, though, all of these updates are found only in the Dev Betas, which are typically the earliest and potentially buggiest releases before Apple moves on to Public Betas ( that anyone can install) and the final releases. There's no word on when the full releases will arrive, and we would caution you against installing Developer betas on any of your everyday Apple devices.

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Reddit is challenging Australia’s ‘inept’ social media ban for under-16s

• Reddit wants to overturn Australia’s social media ban for under-16s
• It is challenging the law in the Australian High Court
• Government says it’s defending the law from "sustained ideological attack"

In late 2025, Australia became the first nation in the world to ban social media for under-16s — and as you would expect, that hasn’t gone down particularly well with the app makers affected. Reddit, for example, has issued a stinging rebuke to the Australian government and is in the process of challenging the ban in court.

A lawyer representing Reddit called the ban “ill thought out” (via Reuters) and said it was a “profound ‌restriction on political debate.” The attorney was speaking at the Australian High Court, where Reddit is seeking to contest the country’s new law.

Together with a libertarian advocacy group, Reddit claimed in court that the social media ban was “a very substantial restriction on what young people can now do” and that it could stifle political debate. It added that the restrictions may stop users creating content and responding to posts.

Although Reddit said it supported the aims of the law, it branded the legislation “inept,” saying that it did not have any specific means to keep minors off social media and failed to regulate other platforms where cyberbullying might take place, such as on gaming websites. And the fact that users who were not logged in could still view huge amounts of material undermined the law, Reddit argued.

Could Reddit overturn the ban?

(Image credit: Getty Images / Anna Barclay)

Since the Australian law came into effect, several studies have shown that large numbers of teenage users targeted by it are still able to access restricted material. Sometimes, that might be as simple as using a VPN service to disguise your location, while at other times, social media firms are simply not taking action to restrict usage by under-16s.

Despite Reddit’s criticism, the Australian government has said it will defend its legislation. In court, the state’s lawyer, Joanna Davidson, said that children were more vulnerable to harmful online content because their brains were not fully developed compared to those of adults.

And speaking outside the High Court, communications ⁠minister Anika Wells ​said: “We ​are here to defend a fundamental tenet of Australian democracy, which is an Australian’s right, and particularly an Australian child’s right, to be free from harm. We seek ​to defend that from sustained ideological attack.”

The government has doubled the maximum fine for non-compliance with the law to AU$99 million (about $69.5 million / £51.5 million), increased the discovery powers of the eSafety Commissioner, and said it is preparing enforcement action against some of the largest social media platforms operating in Australia.

Whatever side you take on this matter, it’s clear that neither the Australian government nor Reddit are preparing to back down anytime soon. And with other nations considering similar laws, many people around the world will be watching closely.

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Reddit users criticize plan to require account logins

• Reddit has announced plans to switch to a primarily logged in experience
• This would mean most of the site won't be accessible without creating and logging in to an account
• Reddit users seem almost universally unhappy about this planned change

Reddit — a site that once had the tagline “the front page of the internet” — looks set to become a lot less accessible, and therefore far less of a front page, as the company plans to require users to be logged in.

Currently, you can access pretty much the entire site without having to log in or create an account, and this has a lot of upsides. It means people who get there through search results can find the information they’re looking for more easily and seamlessly, and it means you can browse Reddit without giving the site any information about yourself, or being subject to any personalization algorithms.

But in a post on the site, CEO Steve Huffman (known as Spez on Reddit) has explained that the site will now evolve to become a primarily logged-in experience.

Tests of this change will begin in select markets outside the US in the coming months, but once the details have been ironed out and tested, it sounds like this shift will become global and permanent.

According to Huffman, this is being done because it’s “better for user experience, better for our ads business, is more in line with safety regulations, and more protective of Reddit data,” but despite Huffman's claims, it’s a change that isn’t going down well with users.

Heading down a worrying path

(Image credit: Future)

Responses to Huffman’s post include “hard disagree,” “knew it was going to get worse,” and “truly fascinating to witness a CEO consistently act against their company's interests,” among many others. In fact, just about every reply to the post is negative.

Beyond not wanting to be forced to log in for all the reasons above, users also worry that this change will lead Reddit down the same road as Pinterest. As one commenter said: “this sounds like exactly what Pinterest did... and then Pinterest kinda died.”

So, this sounds like it’s going to be a bad change for just about everyone other than Reddit’s C-suite, though if it does die, then it’s bad for them too. Hopefully, though, if this does lead to a meaningfully worse experience, we’ll see an alternative rise up to take its place, much as the likes of Bluesky and Threads did when Twitter became X. Still, it would be sad to see Reddit go.

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Apple is making Creator Studio an even better deal with new AI features and creative tools

• Pixelmator Pro gets a new AI-powered Generate Fill tool
• Keynote, Pages, and Numbers add AI assistants and OpenAI model support
• Final Cut Pro gains thousands of MotionVFX creative assets in November

Apple's Pro and Tell week is marching on, and alongside the reveal of the M6-powered iMac and 14-inch MacBook Pro, the Cupertino-based giant is also shining a spotlight on software. Specifically, Apple Creator Studio is getting a wide-ranging update that brings a fresh batch of features and, ultimately, packs in more value.

As it stands, Apple Creator Studio is a software subscription priced at $12.99 / £12.99 / AU$19.99 a month or $129 / £129 / AU$199 per year, giving you access to Pages, Numbers, Keynote, Pixelmator Pro, Final Cut Pro, and Logic Pro across Mac, iPad, and iPhone. All that stays the same, including the especially excellent education discount — $2.99 / £2.99 / AU$4.99 per month or $29.99 / £29.99 / AU$49.99 per year — but there are some pretty big updates here, with AI playing a starring role.

Leading the charge is Pixelmator Pro, which is getting a new Generate Fill tool. This lets you select an area of an image, describe what you want to add or change, and let AI do the heavy lifting. It's the kind of feature that could come in handy when you're editing a photo and don't want to jump between apps to get the result you're after. It'll also help level the playing field between Pixelmator Pro and Adobe Photoshop by filling a feature gap.

(Image credit: Apple)

Keynote, Pages, and Numbers are also getting AI assistants designed to help you create presentations, write documents, and work with spreadsheets. Most interestingly, you'll be able to use OpenAI models alongside Apple's own, opening up more possibilities for working with AI in these apps. The apps also support compatible external AI tools, potentially making them a more useful part of your broader workflow.

(Image credit: Apple)

With Final Cut Pro, Apple is bringing MotionVFX content directly into its pro video editing suite, making thousands of creative elements, including transitions, templates, effects, and titles, available for use in your projects. It's another welcome addition that should let you get more done directly inside Final Cut Pro, rather than having to rely on other tools.

(Image credit: Apple)

All of this is coming in November as a free update for existing subscribers, though Apple isn't sharing specific timing just yet. These updates should also be right at home on the new Macs announced this week, but I'm curious to see if Apple introduces any more surprises, like the much-rumored touchscreen MacBook Pro, during its Pro and Tell event tomorrow.

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