DuckDuckGo's free web browser now blocks most video ads on YouTube, and the feature is on by default for iPhone and Mac users running the latest version of the app.


Announced on Wednesday, YouTube Ad Blocking stops ads that play before and during videos on YouTube's website, and DuckDuckGo says the result is the regular YouTube experience minus the interruptions, so features like viewing history and saving your spot in playlists keep working.

One thing to watch on iPhone is if you tap a YouTube link, it often opens the dedicated YouTube app if you have it installed. The blocking feature obviously won't work there, and you'll need to open the YouTube website inside the DuckDuckGo browser instead.

DuckDuckGo says it is using a community-maintained filter lists from uBlock Origin, along with its own rules to help minimize breakage. The company warns that videos may buffer a little longer than usual, but playback should run uninterrupted once a clip loads.

Note that YouTube Ad Blocking is separate from Duck Player, the browser's distraction-free video viewing mode, but the two can be enabled together.


The move follows Google's ongoing efforts to break ad blockers every which way it can, including recent changes to Chrome that targeted uBlock Origin. It's worth mentioning that DuckDuckGo isn't the first browser to block YouTube ads, with similar features already available in Brave and Opera.

DuckDuckGo's browser offers more than a dozen privacy protections, including ad tracker blocking and cookie pop-up removal. It's available for iOS devices on the App Store and for Mac on the Mac App Store and DuckDuckGo website.
This article, "DuckDuckGo Browser Now Blocks YouTube Ads on iPhone and Mac" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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Meta has prototyped "super sensing" smart glasses that use cameras and audio recordings to capture the wearer's every moment, reports the Financial Times ($).


The smart glasses continuously collect audio while taking photos every few seconds, allowing the user to leverage AI to help query what they saw or heard, or recall their day, according to the report's sources.

Meta's current AI smart glasses have an LED in the corner of the frame that lights up to signal to others when a wearer is taking photographs or filming. But Meta executives don't want to activate the LED when the super-sensing features are turned on.

In one proposed system, raw footage and audio would not be stored by Meta or made available to the user, several people said. Instead, the metadata from that audio and images would be extracted and uploaded to the server for Meta's AI to query, which proponents argue would have fewer privacy implications.

The company is also discussing whether data collected through the glasses and their features could be used to train its own AI models, as it pours billions into rivalling competition such as OpenAI, Google and Anthropic in the AI race.

The report suggests the features could be activated on Meta's existing glasses via a software update.

Meta's plan, which could still change, highlights the obvious civil liberty and privacy risks of smart glasses. Privacy experts argue that always-on devices could violate data privacy or biometric data laws. It is also unclear whether the company or the wearer would be liable for potential violations of wiretapping laws, given that several U.S. states prohibit recording third-party conversations without consent.

Meta's existing Ray-Ban smart glasses already lack a visual indicator when AI is being used to analyze the wearer's surroundings. The company says it safeguards privacy by stripping out key identifying information.

In February, it was reported that the social media giant had an inactive facial recognition feature embedded in its Ray-Ban smart glasses platform. The company later removed the system.

Apple is widely expected to release its first smart glasses in 2027, designed in-house rather than through a partner brand.

Apple's smart glasses are expected to include cameras, microphones, and AI capabilities, and will have the ability to take photos, record video, provide translations, give turn-by-turn directions, and more. However, they won't have augmented reality capabilities, and it's not clear how Apple will manage privacy concerns.
This article, "Meta's 'Super Sensing' Prototype Glasses Quietly Record Everything" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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Apple's upcoming iPhone 18 Pro Max could be noticeably thicker and heavier than its predecessor, suggesting a trade-off behind the device's rumored larger battery.


Chinese leaker Ice Universe today claimed the iPhone 18 Pro Max will measure around 9mm thick and weigh approximately 240 grams. That would make the device around 0.25mm thicker and roughly 7 grams heavier than the current iPhone 17 Pro Max.

The latest claim comes off the back of recent regulatory filings indicating the iPhone 18 Pro Max will feature a 5,391mAh battery in China and a 5,567mAh battery in the U.S. – an increase of nearly 500mAh over the iPhone 17 Pro Max.

Ice Universe suggested the added thickness and weight are a direct result of the larger battery, but Apple is also said to be adopting a new type of vapor chamber that uses stainless steel, which could also be a contributing factor.

The rumor builds on an earlier claim that Apple's next flagship could become the heaviest iPhone ever. If so, it would have to be heavier than the iPhone 14 Pro Max, which also weighed 240 grams, so it may turn out that there are only milligram-level differences between the two.

Apple's use of titanium instead of stainless steel made the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro models lighter than the iPhone 14 Pro models. Apple then switched away from titanium to less-dense aluminum for the iPhone 17 Pro models, but internal changes and slightly thicker designs bumped up their weight again.

The ‌iPhone 18 Pro‌ and ‌iPhone 18 Pro‌ Max are expected to launch alongside Apple's first foldable iPhone this September.
This article, "iPhone 18 Pro Max Said to Be Thicker and Heavier Than Predecessor" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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