Bumming off someone’s Netflix account just got more cumbersome
We’re living in a post-Netflix password-sharing world. You’d think that’d be enough for the streaming behemoth, but apparently not. Earlier this month, Netflix changed how shared household accounts work, now requiring every profile to have its own unique email address tied to it. Preferably, one owned by the watcher in question.
Before, only a single email address and password controlled the entire Netflix ‘household’. Each user, assuming they lived at the same address as the account holder, had access to their own profile inside the service, no strings attached. As recently as this month, users began reporting on Reddit that they’d been hit with a new error — “must add an email to personalize”. The streamer also asked for the user’s name and surname.
Netflix later confirmed to Ars Technica that the change was not a bug, but a feature. “This sign-in update is a permanent change that started rolling out on June 15, 2026,” a spokesperson for the company said.
It’s not the worst news ever. There are a couple of potential benefits to adding your email address as a non-paying member of the household. For one thing, profile owners can now set their own language, audio, and display settings separately, as well as recover their accounts without first bugging the owner. Not that it was that tiresome beforehand. But it’s also an excuse for Netflix to gather more info on potential future subscribers.
Netflix’s final goal may be a little more sinister. In its Privacy Policy (the one you agreed to), the company states that it can share your personal info with ”the Netflix family of companies”. For what? That’s still unclear. But with approximately five times more emails to dish out, we reckon it’ll do whatever it is a lot more successfully.
Apple’s iPhone 18 and 18e may get a smidge more RAM
Really.
If the RAM wars of 2026 have taught us anything, it’s that companies don’t like to part with their memory. At least, not without being fully compensated (and then some). Apple, certainly, will be compensated just fine for its upcoming run of iPhones — more specifically, the lower-end iPhone 18 and 18e, which are said to include more RAM than their iPhone 17 and 17e counterparts. That’s according to Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.
“My latest industry checks suggest Apple’s lower-end 1H27 iPhones, powered by the A20 chip, will move to 9GB DRAM (1.5GB × 6 dies), up from 8GB (2GB × 4 dies) in the current A19 models, to keep the system running smoothly under AI workloads,” Kuo wrote in a post on X.
Kuo doesn’t specifically mention the iPhone 18 or the 18e, but they do call out ‘1H27’iPhones. That’s around the time when Apple will drop the iPhone 18e, and, if the rumours are true, the base iPhone 18 as well. The change is supposedly to allow the Fruit Company to make room for its newest high-end offering — the iPhone foldable.
That’ll take place in September this year, leaving the floor open for the iPhone 18 and 18e, both bearing the A20 chip, to launch in either March or April 2027. How much more Apple will charge customers in the present climate, though, will have to wait. It’s certainly not giving that extra GB of RAM for free.
Don’t get your hopes up for Grand Theft Auto VI on a disc
Don’t get your hopes up to see Grand Theft Auto VI released on disc. Not now, not ever, if the recent reports from The Hollywood Reporter are true. Last week, Rockstar Games finally unveiled pricing for the highly anticipated GTA sequel, and with it, pre-orders. The only issue — the”physical” edition doesn’t have a disc.
Instead, buyers will get a code in a box and a spare bit of plastic. This sent fans into a frenzy (though not enough to stop them from pre-ordering the game), and rightly so. Hope resurfaced when a fan received a Rockstar Support email stating, “You will be able to acquire a physical copy during the following months.”
As it turns out, that was merely a miscommunication from a lowly Rockstar employee who didn’t realise how much power they wielded. The Hollywood Reporter notes that “at this point in time, there are no plans for Grand Theft Auto VI discs to be printed — not at launch, and not months after.” The supposed “physical copy mentioned in the email is simply referring to the physical edition of the game that currently exists. A code in a box.
Of course, there’s always the chance Rockstar changes course and sticks their game on a disc. The odds are low, considering Rockstar gets to skip the financial cost that printing discs brings, and still reap all the rewards.
Instagram wants ‘Your Algorithm’ to actually be your algorithm
Instagram is working on more ways to help the app work for its users. After it launched ‘Your Algorithm’ last year, Instagram head Adam Mosseri confirmed that the photo-sharing social media app was testing new ways to make the feature more accessible, allowing users to adjust the app’s feed in-house.
“We want to evolve Your Algorithm from a setting to something that feels central to your experience on Instagram,” Mosseri said in an Instagram post. “Some of this is testing now, some is coming soon, some might not work,” he continued. “Ideally, you can tune it in real time.”
Mosseri showed off how some of these might be implemented. First, pulling down on the app’s home page could prompt it to open the Your Algorithm feature and allow users to tune their recommendations directly by asking to see more topics and less of others. The next idea is one we can’t see making it past the concept phase. It involves interrupting your Reels time to quiz you on the experience, and tune it from there.
The third is simply a button fixed to Reels and posts that ask the user whether they want to see more just like it or not. Notably, none of the ideas mentioned includes the ones users would like to see. Like disabling AI slop for good, or simply being able to keep up with their followers — without all the recommended stuff in between.
