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In June, Apple previewed the iPhones next operating system, iOS 26. Without a doubt, the headline feature of iOS 26 (yes, the iPhones OS has a new number system) is its complete design overhaul, known as Liquid Glass. The new design introduces a transparent look to iOS, utilizing animations to replicate the way light and other objects refract through glass. Liquid Glass is an ambitious overhaul for the iPhones operating system, but its not the only change coming to iOS 26 when it ships to the public this fall. The new operating system is packed with some truly useful new features that will make using your iPhone better than ever. And, if youre interested in trying out those new features before iOS 26s official September launch date, now you can, thanks to the availability of the iOS 26 Public Beta, which Apple released this week. How to get the iOS 26 Public Beta on your phone right now The great news is that anyone can sign up to be a public beta tester for iOS 26. Once you do this, youll be able to install the iOS 26 public beta on your iPhone, provided you have a compatible model, which is the iPhone 11 and later. To sign up for the public beta, go to beta.apple.com. Once youve signed up, open the Settings app on your iPhone and from there tap General, then Software Updates. Tap Public Beta, and select the iOS 26 public beta from the list presented to you. Now, tap the back button, and on the Software Update screen, youll see you can now update to the iOS 26 public beta by tapping the blue Update Now button. Once your iPhone restarts, itll have the iOS 26 public beta running on it. Now. you can check out some of the operating systems best new features. Onscreen Awareness Visual Intelligence Visual Intelligence is Apples name for iOSs ability to identify something by looking at it. This feature is powered by Apple Intelligence, and in the current iOS 18, is only usable via the Camera. In other words, Visual Intelligence can interpret things your camera sees in the real world, but not things on your iPhones actual screen. Onscreen Awareness for Visual Intelligence in iOS 26 changes that. Now, your iPhone can use Apple Intelligence to recognize what’s happening on its screen and take action based on that on-screen awareness. For example, if you take a screenshot of a social media feed that shows a celebrity chilling at a cafe, you can tap their sweater and ask Visual Intelligence to show you where you can buy a similar one. Or, if someone posts the details of an event in a text message or social channel, you can simply take a screenshot of the details and have Visual Intelligence add the event to your calendar for you. Hold Assist for phone calls The Phone app in iOS 26 is getting its first major redesign in more than a decade, and, as mentioned before, it may just make you want to use your phone to make phone calls again. Coming to the Phone app in iOS 26 is a redesigned layout that puts all your call history, contacts, and voicemails in one place; call screening, which forces a caller to identify themselves before the iPhone will let the call go through; and Live Translation, which can translate the spoken words of a caller who does not speak the same language as you. But perhaps the best new Phone feature in iOS 26 is the ability to have the iPhone wait on hold for you. Now, you can simply tap the Hold button whenever you are put on hold, and the iPhone will continue holding your place in line, notifying you only when you reach the front. Customized Messages backgrounds and polls Apples popular Messages app is getting several updates in iOS 26. The first is, like much of iOS 26, cosmetic, but welcome nonetheless. Now in Messages, youll be able to set a customized background image for each chat you are in. Yesno more seeing those blue chat bubbles against a white wall. You can now set a color or image you prefer, adding some flair to each chat. A second great feature of Messages in iOS 26 is the ability to create polls within a message thread. Polls can help streamline planning when you are asking a group chat what day works best for everyone to meet up. Now, instead of waiting for everyone to type in their reply, members of the chat can just select with a tap from the poll options you specify. Passport storag iOS 26 is also adding a few great features for travelers. The first is the ability to store your U.S. passport on your iPhone in the Wallet app. With your passport stored on your iPhone, you can use it to prove your identity at select TSA checkpoints. The stored passport can also be used to verify your age in third-party apps. Best of all, the stored U.S. passport is Real ID compliant. However, before anyone gets too excited about this feature, keep in mind that if you are traveling internationally, youll still need to bring your actual physical passport with you. As noted by MacRumors, your stored digital passport cannot be used for border crossings. Still, if you are just traveling domestically within the United States, this new feature is a great way to ensure that you always have some identity on youprovided you have your iPhone. Real-time flight information on your lock screen A second great travel-related feature Apple is adding to iOS 26 is Live Activities, for flights for which you have your boarding pass stored in the Wallet app. Now these flights will show real-time updates on a widget on your iPhones home screen, including the flights progress, its arrival gate information, and more. Whats even better is that you can share this real-time information with someone else, such as a person on the ground who is picking you up when your flight arrives.
Category:
E-Commerce
Its no secret companies are collecting data while consumers browse their sites. But some companies are doing more with the info than trying improve products or marketing efforts: They are adjusting prices for individual customers based on their personal data. This practice, known as surveillance pricing, has become more common in recent years, with more companies embracing artificial intelligence as a tool to make real-time price changes for individual customers. However, a new bill aims to stop these companies in their tracks. Representative Greg Casar introduced the Stop AI Price Gouging and Wage Fixing Act of 2025 on July 23. While some statessuch as California, Colorado, Georgia, and Illinoishave proposed similar bans, Casars bill is the first at the federal level. Giant corporations should not be allowed to jack up your prices or lower your wages using data they got spying on you, Casar said in a statement. Whether you know it or not, you may already be getting ripped off by corporations using your personal data to charge you more. This problem is only going to get worse, and Congress should act before this becomes a full blown crisis. How surveillance pricing works Companies engaging in surveillance pricing use customer data taken from the cookiestext files containing dataor tracking pixels that continue to follow you after leaving their website, providing information on your online activity, preferences, location, and device. This data can then be analyzed by AI programs to help the companies determine a personalized price for their products or services. The ban would impact the pricing systems of numerous retailers that reportedly engage in the practice, from retailers that increase prices for pickup orders when you are close to a store, to rideshare apps that charge more when your phone battery is low. Similarly, Delta Airlines recently came under fire for plans to expand their use of AI-driven pricing. We’ve seen things like people’s browsing history, device type, battery, location, and more, inform pricing that focuses on how much that individual might be willing to pay for somethingpreying on desperation rather than using fair market pricing, Ben Winters, director of AI and data privacy at the Consumer Federation of America, told Fast Company. (The Consumer Federation of America is one of several consumer-interest organizations and advocacy groups that have endorsed the proposed bill, according to a statement by Casars office.) One of the benefits of the bill, Winters says, is that it would draw clear lines in the sand prohibiting the use of AI systems to apply data-driven pricing on consumers, and provide customers harmed by this practice the right to sue the company behind the AI-driven prices. Too few bills focused on AI and data abuse have this key feature, Winters says. It’s one of many reasons we support the bill.” The Federal Trade Commission would be the entity responsible for enforcing the ban against surveillance pricing, which would be treated as a violation of two existing FTC acts regarding unfair or deceptive acts or practices and unfair methods of competition, according to the proposed bill. Surveillance pricing may be more common than you think Last year, the Federal Trade Commission launched an investigation into surveillance pricing, hoping learn more about how companies were using personal data to change prices. The initial results, released in January, found that retailers were using everything from demographic and location information, to mouse movements and abandoned online shopping carts, to match prices to consumers. Retailers frequently use peoples personal information to set targeted, tailored prices for goods and servicesfrom a person’s location and demographics, down to their mouse movements on a webpage, FTC Chair Lina M. Khan said in a statement earlier this year. The new legislation would not impact higher prices that result from reasonable costs the business takes on to serve different customers, or lower prices from discounts for teachers, veterans, seniors, students, or rewards program members. Lawmakers and advocates that support the bill suggest the ban could make a big difference for consumers struggling to find fair prices amid rising prices and economic uncertainty. The ability to compare prices, to rely on consistent prices, and to know why a price is being chargedthis is what gives us the power to know if we are getting a fair deal,” Nidhi Hegde, executive director at the American Economic Liberties Project, said in a statement. “Surveillance pricing destroys the social contract of the marketplace.”
Category:
E-Commerce
Lyft just got a new logo, but you probably didnt notice it.Over the past few weeks, Lyft has quietly rolled out an updated logo, broadened color palette, and custom typeface on its app and across its social media platforms. The new look, designed by the branding studio Koto, is meant to serve as a natural progression of the brands existing identity, injecting it with a subtle boost of structure and maturity.According to Arthur Foliard, executive creative director at Koto, the changes come at a pivotal moment for Lyft, which is currently testing out an expansion into autonomous driving and slowly gaining on its main competitor (and dominant industry player), Uber. In an interview with Fast Company this May, Lyft CEO David Risher noted that, since he joined Lyft in 2023, the company has brought its market share in the U.S. from 26% to 31%.Lyfts blink-and-youll-miss-it new look follows a recent trend in which larger brands like Walmart and Adobe have skipped the big rebrand (which ruled the branding world several years ago) in favor of an understated-yet-practical refresh.Lyft’s previous logo (top) and new version (bottom) [Image: Koto/Lyft]Lyft’s new lookLooking at Lyfts new logo next to its old one is a bit like a game of spot the difference. But one key detail in the logo immediately jumps out: The playful path connecting the f and t characters has been severed. “The Lyft logo is one of the most recognizable in tech, so we approached it with a lot of care, Foliard says. The original had a ton of character, but it wasnt optimized for the way the brand shows up today, especially in smaller, digital contexts. The ligature between the f and t in particular caused legibility issues and sometimes felt overly stylized.[Image: Koto/Lyft]To preserve the visual cues that make Lyfts logo recognizable, Foliards team broke up the ligature but kept the spirit of the marks swooping, bold letters the same. Besides the newly separated f and t characters, the rest of the logo has been just slightly slimmed down and realigned. We adjusted the weight, spacing, and proportions to make the wordmark feel more confident and contemporary, less ornamental, more intentional, Foliard says. The result is a logo that feels mature without being cold. It still has that signature Lyft charm, but now it holds up wherever it appears, from app icons to car decals to national campaigns.That focus on versatility was also applied to Lyfts color palette and typography. Lyft Pink, the companys signature shade of neon purplish-pink, has been given a more focused role. Whereas Lyft Pink was previously used more wholesale across the branding, Koto built out an accompanying palette of off-whites, deep pinks, and neutrals to keep the bright hue reserved for the most important moments of the brand, like the logo.[Image: Koto/Lyft]One feature of the branding that was entirely overhauled is its typography. Foliard says Lyft was previously using several functional typefaces that while serviceable, didn’t quite capture Lyft’s warmth and humanity. So, in collaboration with the type design studio NaN, Kotos team created a custom typeface for Lyft called Rebel Sans. Its a classic-looking sans serif, available in a range of weights, that echoes the logo with flourishes like a half-smile shape in the y character.We wanted it to feel like it had been made by people, for people, Foliard says. It features distinct humanist detailsslight line weight variation, gentle curves, and subtle flaresthat bring a sense of the human hand into both display and text. Underneath it all, its grounded in a more geometric structure, giving it the clarity and sophistication needed to scale across the brand.[Image: Koto/Lyft]Lyft gets the baby Botox treatmentLyfts spruced-up identity is the latest in a series of similar approaches from other major brands. If the early 2020s were the heyday of the major rebrand, and 2024 was the era of the dialed-back brand refresh, then 2025 is currently seeing an even more minimal wave of baby Botox branding. This year, several brands have moved away from headline-grabbing overhauls in favor of small updates that are intended to fly under the radar. For an ultra-recognizable brand like Walmart, this approach is meant to avoid alienating the customer by shedding too much core brand affinity at once. In January, Walmart introduced its biggest branding update in two decadesan update that, rather than actually replacing any assets, instead opted to simply spruce up the existing look with brighter colors and chunkier shapes. Other brands, like Amazon (which also worked with Koto on its logo touch-up) and Google, have similarly rolled out new logos in rcent months that would likely require a trained eye to spot. In May, Mother Design studio, which gave Adobes logotype a subtle facelift, encapsulated this trend by explaining that its goal was to create an update that looks as if it’s always been there. For Lyft, Foliard says, this new branding wasn’t about changing who Lyft is, but rather about sharpening what was already there.The timing felt right to strike that balance between evolution and preservation, ensuring the brand could grow with the business while keeping the heart and humanity that made it iconic in the first place, Foliard says.
Category:
E-Commerce
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