The Morning After: Our verdict on the Galaxy S25 Edge
When I got an early look at Samsung's Galaxy S25 Edge, the first of a new supposed wave of thinner smartphones, it was easy to spot what I'd take issue with. But you know what? Those issues may not matter as much as I thought.
Engadget's Sam Rutherford has put the device through its paces, and thankfully, the impressive battery life of the S25 series continues. Our rundown test lasted a minute shy of 26 hours. That's less than other S25 phones with bigger batteries but roughly equal to Google's Pixel 9 Pro.
And while there's no optical zoom, the substantial 200-megapixel main camera sensor can crop in a lot, offering some kind of zoom, even if image quality doesn't match true telephoto cameras.
I've got the S25 Edge with me, and these compromises are fine . I also like it thinner. And lighter. I've suffered enough with Ultras and Pro Max phones. If anything, I wish the S25 Edge had a smaller screen, closer to the base S25, Pixel 9 Pro or iPhone 16 Pro.
The biggest weakness I didn't note with the S25 Edge? The perennial curse of measuring devices in millimeters and fractions of an inch means your protective case will almost certainly add those millimeters back on.
— Mat Smith
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Sure, the Nintendo Switch 2 is almost here, but early June also means a whole host of gaming showcases as part of Summer Game Fest. Along with the two big events — Summer Game Fest Live and the Xbox Games Showcase — there are many others in store, including the always-delightful Day of the Devs. We'll be there in person, and I'll be flying out on Switch 2 launch day. So I won't get to touch my Switch 2 until a week later. Bah.
We've pulled together all the livestream details revealed so far.
Continue reading.
A bill banning social media for anyone under 18 recently moved past the Senate committee and is due for a vote in the Texas State Senate. If made into law, the bill would force social media platforms to verify the age of anyone setting up an account, like how Texas passed legislation requiring porn websites to implement an age verification system.
Texas' social media ban also proposes letting parents delete their child's social media account, which definitely won't start blazing arguments in households across the state.
Continue reading.
On June 9, the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) keynote will showcase the changes coming with its 2025 software. What can we expect besides new numbers after every flavor of Apple software? Apparently, a platform-wide visual overhaul. The revamp is said to be a dramatic change, drawing inspiration from Apple's mixed reality headset. The aim is to integrate all the OSes to a singular design, so jumping from iPhone to iPad to Mac feels like different screens showing the same thing.
We could also see the iPad get even more Mac-like (thanks to those powerful M-series chips), Apple Intelligence delivering on those promises (Siri?) and more health coaching.
Continue reading.
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Trending in Texoma — New art from Banksy to $1 sodas at a fast food chain
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Is Bitcoin the new ‘Big Tech' stock?
Bitcoin has shed its outsider status and now moves in sync with big tech stocks — especially during 'risk-on' market conditions. The rise of spot Bitcoin ETFs and broader institutional adoption have blurred the lines between crypto and traditional finance, making Bitcoin more sensitive to interest rates, liquidity and global risk sentiment. Despite early comparisons to gold, Bitcoin hasn't held up well during times of crisis. While it's becoming more integrated into the financial system, Bitcoin's price is still largely driven by liquidity and belief — not fundamentals. Bitcoin used to be an outsider in the financial markets — unpredictable, uncorrelated and immune to Wall Street's mood swings. But lately? Bitcoin is moving like a tech stock — rising with the Nasdaq, falling when risk is off. From April 1 to April 8, as President Donald Trump announced new tariffs, Bitcoin plunged from $85,487 to $76,198. That drop, nearly 11 percent in a week, came alongside sharp declines in mega-cap tech stocks. Apple (AAPL) fell about 23 percent. Nvidia (NVDA) dropped almost 11 percent. Tesla (TSLA) slid more than 14 percent. Fast-forward to May 23. After stocks rallied to a dizzying V-shaped recovery, Bitcoin notched a new all-time high of $111,970 on May 22. It's the latest example of an emerging pattern. Since the 2020 pandemic crash, Bitcoin's price behavior has undergone a major shift. Once pitched as 'digital gold,' Bitcoin now tends to swing in sync with stocks, especially the tech-heavy indexes. 'In 2025, Bitcoin is no longer a purely speculative asset — it's part of the institutional financial system,' says Christopher Gannatti, global head of research at WisdomTree. 'Bitcoin is increasingly being judged not just by its ideology, but by its integration: How well it fits into a modern global portfolio.' Is crypto right for you?: Find a financial advisor who can help you maximize your investments Before the pandemic, Bitcoin's daily price moves had little in common with traditional financial markets. Between 2017 and 2019, its correlation with the S&P 500 hovered near zero, according to an analysis by the International Monetary Fund. Bitcoin didn't move with equities, didn't track commodities and didn't behave like bonds. That supported the theory that Bitcoin was a diversification tool or a hedge. Of course, back then, few investors had heard of Bitcoin, much less held it in their portfolios. Then came March 2020. As markets crashed and central banks hit the panic button with massive stimulus packages, Bitcoin's link with equities emerged. Analysts in one recent study by FTSE Russell found its correlation with U.S. tech stocks grew to 0.52 post-COVID, a sixfold increase. That's a strong relationship. Even riskier debt markets, like high-yield bonds, started moving in tandem with Bitcoin. Meanwhile, its correlation with gold — supposedly its analog cousin — moved from a negative to a positive but stayed low, at 0.15. Gold has continued to be less risky than Bitcoin, as analysts at J.P. Morgan noted in the company's mid-year outlook report. Instead of behaving like a safe haven or hedge, Bitcoin in the post-COVID era is acting like a high-beta tech stock: Volatile, reactive and deeply tied to investor sentiment. The COVID-era monetary response flooded markets with cheap money. Rate cuts and trillions in fiscal stimulus lit a fire under everything from stocks to crypto. Investors, flush with cash and stuck at home, piled into meme stocks, growth stocks and crypto. Bitcoin surged. So did Tesla. So did Ethereum. So did GameStop (GME). But when inflation spiked in 2022 and the Federal Reserve tightened the belt by raising interest rates, both stocks and Bitcoin fell together. Investors had the funds to go big during lockdown, and millions chose to bet on Big Tech and Bitcoin. Crypto and tech stocks share a common fan base: young, online and full of FOMO. J.P. Morgan analysts have noted that Bitcoin trades similarly to small-cap tech stocks — both are fueled by retail investors betting on innovation. 'Both Bitcoin and Big Tech appeal to investors with similar risk tolerance and secular conviction in transformative systems — AI for Big Tech and decentralized finance for Bitcoin,' says Gannatti. Crypto and big tech are both fueled by narrative. That helps explain why Bitcoin and the Nasdaq often peak — and plunge — together. They're riding the same wave of investor expectations. Bitcoin's rise from niche experiment to institutional asset also helped change the game. Hedge funds, asset managers and even pension funds began allocating capital to Bitcoin in 2022, and that trend continues to the present. That created overlap between fiat-based financial systems and crypto. 'Passive strategies, algorithmic trading and cross-asset portfolio models often bundle them together as 'innovation beta' or macro-levered growth proxies,' says Gannatti. The launch of spot Bitcoin ETFs in early 2024 only blurred the lines between traditional finance and cryptocurrency further. Investors no longer need to fuss with crypto wallets or exchanges — they can buy Bitcoin like a stock, even in their IRA, which opens the door to a broader audience. It didn't take long for investors to pile into Bitcoin ETFs. More than a dozen new funds drew $36 billion in capital in 2024 alone, pushing total assets north of $110 billion. 'This makes Bitcoin more sensitive to macro conditions — liquidity, rates and geopolitical stress — but also more influenced by traditional investor behavior, including rotations and rebalancing,' says Gannatti. Policy momentum is also pushing Bitcoin further into the mainstream. 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Investors wanted dollars, not digital coins. 'Bitcoin's not reliable as a short-term hedge against equity drawdowns,' says Gannatti. 'During market stress, Bitcoin often behaves like a risk asset, not a safe haven.' That held true recently, too. When Trump's tariff announcement triggered a global flight to safety, gold rallied while both the Nasdaq and Bitcoin dropped double digits. Capital flowed out of speculative assets and into traditional hedges, like gold. Bitcoin — and tech stocks — didn't recover until later. Bitcoin's transformation isn't unique. The behavior of assets can — and does — change when the macroeconomic backdrop shifts. Perhaps one of the best examples is dot-com era tech stocks. In the 1990s, early internet companies were wildly speculative — overly optimistic valuations, zero profits and unpredictable swings. The bubble burst in March 2000. The Nasdaq lost 77 percent of its value over the next two years, wiping out many of the over-hyped internet companies that never turned a profit. But over time, the survivors matured into fundamentally sound businesses, such as Amazon (AMZN) and Google (GOOG, GOOGL). As valuation models improved, so did pricing stability. Bitcoin might be on a similar path. 'Bitcoin has repeatedly shown that it is here for the long term,' says Joan Nix, an economics professor at Queens College in New York. 'As greater institutional adoption occurs and liquidity increases in the crypto world, Bitcoin is in a good position to emerge as a winner, like Amazon and eBay did after the tech boom bust in the late 1990s.' Part of the confusion around Bitcoin's behavior is that nobody quite knows how to value it — or even how to categorize it. Is it a currency? A commodity? A decentralized tech protocol? Unlike stocks, Bitcoin doesn't produce cash flow. Unlike bonds, it doesn't pay interest. And unlike commodities, its utility is purely digital. That makes traditional valuation models mostly useless. Some researchers have tried tweaking existing frameworks to help retail investors gauge Bitcoin's value. But none of these frameworks fully explain its behavior. Some asset managers now use a 'mosaic' approach — blending models based on adoption curves, network effects and even energy consumption (like hash rate). Still, none of them work perfectly, making it even more difficult to predict what the price of Bitcoin might do next. 'While Bitcoin trades as a risky asset, the jury is still out on whether traditional asset pricing models can adequately account for its volatility,' says Nix. Some analysts think the high correlation between Bitcoin and tech stocks is here to stay. As long as it's treated as a risk asset by institutional players, Bitcoin will likely continue moving with the broader market. If that's the case, retail investors may be wise to pay more attention to external drivers impacting tech stocks — such as interest rates and inflation — and give less credence to crypto-specific catalysts, like halving cycles, regulatory developments and network upgrades. But others argue the correlation might be morphing. In 2025, Bitcoin's price still moves in sync with Big Tech sometimes, but they're not rising and falling for the same reasons anymore, says Gannatti. When the overall market is in a 'risk-on' mood — meaning investors feel confident and are willing to take more risks — Bitcoin and tech stocks tend to move together. 'But when equity markets rotate based on sector earnings, Bitcoin often decouples,' says Gannatti. What's happening in 2025 shows how the market has evolved. Big Tech's gains are mostly about profits. Bitcoin's gains are more about investor beliefs and how much money is sloshing around in the system. 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Since 2020, its correlation with stocks has spiked and its behavior has shifted from 'digital gold' to 'digital Nasdaq.' But that might not last forever. Similar to how tech stocks evolved from dot-com chaos to blue-chip companies, Bitcoin could chart its own path. Its unique traits — fixed supply, decentralized design, long-term bullish investors — could put Bitcoin back into a class of its own as the market matures. For now, though, anyone treating Bitcoin as a hedge or safe haven is likely to be disappointed. It tends to ride the same roller coaster as Big Tech — and it's not showing signs of stepping off anytime soon. Editorial Disclaimer: All investors are advised to conduct their own independent research into investment strategies before making an investment decision. In addition, investors are advised that past investment product performance is no guarantee of future price appreciation. 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184M passwords for Google, Apple and more exposed in major data breach
The Brief A cybersecurity researcher found a mysterious database that was publicly exposed and included more than 184 million passwords. The login information and passwords included Google, Apple, Microsoft products, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Roblox, and "many more." Some of the passwords were linked to government portals that could "put exposed individuals at serious risk," he said. More than 184 million passwords and other login information – including Google, Apple and government accounts – were exposed through a mysterious, publicly exposed database that has since been taken offline. In a recent blog post, Jeremiah Fowler, a longtime cybersecurity researcher, said the database wasn't password-protected or encrypted, and it had 184.2 million logins and passwords – more than 47 Gigabytes of raw data. What we know Fowler believes the exposed data may have been obtained by using a type of "infostealer malware," a malicious software that can infect a system and extract sensitive information, like the kind stored in web browsers, email accounts and messaging apps. RELATED: Medusa ransomware: CISA issues email security warning The database is hosted by World Host Group, a company that manages operating systems for more than 2 million websites, according to Wired. But this mysterious trove of logins and other personal information is "an unmanaged server" fully controlled by a fraudulent user, the company said. What we don't know Fowler hasn't confirmed exactly how the data was collected, but he says there's a lot of evidence pointing to the info-stealing malware. Cybercriminals often deploy the malware through phishing emails, malicious websites or cracked software, he said. The stolen data is typically shared on the dark web and Telegram channels or used to commit fraud, identity theft or more cyber attacks. What they're saying "The database contained login and password credentials for a wide range of services, applications, and accounts, including email providers, Microsoft products, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Roblox, and many more," Fowler wrote. "I also saw credentials for bank and financial accounts, health platforms, and government portals from numerous countries that could put exposed individuals at significant risk." Why you should care Fowler said millions of people keep years' worth of sensitive information in their email accounts – including tax documents, medical records, passwords and more. If cybercriminals have access, you are at risk of having your data stolen. What you can do Fowler recommends keeping track of which sensitive data is stored in your email account and deleting emails that contain important files. He said to use an encrypted cloud storage method instead of email if you have to share personal information. If you're still using the same passwords on multiple accounts and devices, you're making it easier for cybercriminals to gain unauthorized access by using automated scripts to try login and password combinations for thousands of websites. "Even if one account is still active and they gain unauthorized access, it could create serious security risks and open the door to a wide range of potential attacks," Fowler wrote. Read his full blog on Website Planet here. The Source This report includes information from Jeremiah Fowler's post on Website Planet.
