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Texas could become the next US state to lay down the law with social media platforms. A Texas bill that would ban social media use for anyone under 18 recently moved past the Senate committee and is due for a vote in front of the Texas State Senate. The bill has until the state’s legislative session comes to an end on June 2, leaving roughly a week for it to be approved by both the Senate and the governor.

Earlier this year, the bill passed the House committee stage and was later voted in favor of by the state’s House of Representatives. If made into law, the bill would force social media platforms to verify the age of anyone setting up an account, much like how Texas passed legislation requiring websites hosting porn to implement an age verification system. On top of that, Texas’ social media ban proposes to let parents delete their child’s social media account, allowing the platforms 10 days to comply with the request or face a fine from the state’s attorney general.

Texas isn’t the only governing body interested in restricting social media access. Last year, Florida’s governor, Ron DeSantis, signed into law a bill that outright bans anyone under 14 from using social media and requires 14- and 15-year-olds to get parental consent to make an account or use an existing account. Notably, Texas’ proposed law is much stricter than that. 

On a larger scale, the US Senate introduced a bill to ban social media platforms for anyone under 13 in April 2024. After being stuck in the committee stage, Senators Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas) recently made comments that signal a potential second attempt at getting this passed.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/texas-is-getting-ready-to-ban-social-media-for-anyone-under-18-180202219.html?src=rss 

If you’ve been eyeing Apple‘s new MacBook Air with the M4 chip, now’s a good time to scoop one up. The 13-inch model (16GB RAM, 256GB SSD) is over $100 off its usual starting price of $999 in a Memorial Day sale on Amazon — and a coupon available for three of the four colors brings the price down even further to $850. That applies to the 13-inch M4 MacBook Air in Midnight, Silver and Sky Blue. The Starlight variant is on sale too, but with no additional coupon, making it $899.

Models with higher storage options are on sale too, also with savings of more than $100 and a coupon for certain colors. The model with 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD is down to around $1,050 from its usual $1,199, while the version above that (24GB RAM, 512GB SSD) is around $1,250 compared to the normal $1,399 price tag. The prices are unbeatable for the laptop that’s only been out for a few months, and is our pick for the best MacBook you can get in 2025.

The 13-inch MacBook Air M4 was released in March and scored a 92 in our review. Engadget’s Devindra Hardawar called it “a nearly flawless ultraportable,” especially with a starting price that’s lower than what we’ve seen in earlier models. It weighs just 2.7 pounds and measures 0.44 inches thick, but is a fast and capable laptop with a bright display and impressive battery life. In Engadget’s tests, the 13-inch MacBook Air lasted for more than 18 hours with HD video running.

Even the base model should be fine for most users, with a 10-core CPU, 8-core GPU and 16-core Neural Engine. As Devindra noted in his review, this year’s 13- and 15-inch MacBook Airs are “zippy, wonderfully light and can last well beyond a full day of work.”

Check out our coverage of the best Apple deals for more discounts, and follow @EngadgetDeals on X for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/apples-13-inch-macbook-air-m4-drops-to-850-for-memorial-day-164500635.html?src=rss 

Apple‘s long-awaited smart home hub could be available as soon as the end of this year, according to the latest report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. Rumors surrounding Apple’s smart home hub began circulating as early as 2022, when the product was first reportedly greenlit. However, the road to its release has been rocky since the product was expected to heavily rely on Apple Intelligence. Gurman previously reported in March that Apple had delayed the announcement of its smart home hub thanks to issues with upgrading Siri.

Gurman has since updated his expected timeline for Apple’s upcoming product, claiming that a lower-end version will release “by the end of this year at the earliest.” Gurman also revealed that a more advanced version that can “move around a person’s desk on the end of a robotic arm” should release a year or two after the basic model’s launch and is a “major priority at Apple.” To meet this release window, Apple will reportedly abandon some of the “bolder features” with the robotic arm model. Gurman added that those features could be pushed back to later models instead.

Apple has said very little about its smart home hub, but rumors detail a design that draws from both the HomePod and iPad. It’s rumored to have a seven-inch display, a new operating system called homeOS, and a dashboard that resembles the iPhone’s StandBy mode. Apple will have to compete with existing smart home hubs like Amazon’s Echo lineup and Google’s Nest Hub, but it’s rumored that the starting price for the robotic arm version could start at $1,000.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/home/smart-home/apples-smart-home-hub-could-reportedly-make-its-debut-later-this-year-161702487.html?src=rss