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6 Jun 2025

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Former footballer charged with assaulting Sugababe
Former Luton Town player Taiwo Leo Atieno faces eight charges relating to his ex, Keisha Buchanan.

Microsoft is adding a simpler text editor than Notepad to Windows 11 soon
Following the deprecation of WordPad, Microsoft has been adding a lot of features to Notepad, which has led to criticism from users who prefer Notepad for its no-frills simplicity. If you’re such a user, you might be interested to know that Microsoft is bringing a new minimalist text editor to Windows 11—one that runs in the Command Prompt. It’s called Edit and it “pays homage to the classic MS-DOS Editor, but with a modern interface and input controls similar to [Visual Studio Code].” Windows Latest took a closer look at a preview version of Edit, and sure enough it’s a svelte and compact text editor only 230KB in size. Microsoft You open Edit by typing edit in the Command Prompt and then pressing the Enter key. When Edit is running, you can open text files for barebones text editing. You can jump to a specific line with the go to line command, switch between open documents, and more. But you can’t format the text, use AI summaries, or any other advanced features. It should be noted that it currently isn’t possible to save files in Edit, so you should copy the finished edited text to another app like Notepad, Visual Studio Code, or even Microsoft Word. Edit is still going through major development, and right now you can only get it by installing it manually from GitHub. However, Microsoft said in a statement to Windows Latest that the plan is to “ship Edit as the default text editor, but only for the command line.” We don’t know when that’ll happen, but probably not for a few more months at least.

Disney’s free streaming ‘perks’ are just insulting
Disney is in a bind. The company is struggling to keep its streaming subscriber numbers up after years of price hikes, but it also wants to spend less money producing new content that might draw more people in. The solution? Perks! Disney is making a big to-do about its new “always-on” perks programs for both Disney+ and Hulu. In a press release, the company boasted of “rewards ranging from one-of-a-kind experiences and limited-time sweepstakes to everyday savings and special discounts.” But despite the grand proclamations, the perks program is pretty much an empty gesture, full of sweepstakes you’ll never win and cross-promos that ultimately lead to the customer spending more money. If Disney really wants to reward subscriber loyalty and incentivize year-round subscriptions, it needs to try a little harder. Oops! All upsells Part of what Disney is offering is just a set of free trials to other services. Those include six months of DoorDash’s DashPass, three months of Clear+, and two months of Super Duolingo. Not all of these offers are new or unique. I spent two minutes searching the web and found a promo code for the same three months of Clear+ (MDGP25EN2CC8C6, if you’re wondering), with no Disney+ subscription necessary. DoorDash regularly hands out its own extended trials (including the same six-month offer with Roku last year), and you can’t redeem a new trial from Disney if you’ve ever enrolled in DashPass before.. All of these trials also require payment info up front and the services will auto-bill you at the end. If you don’t cancel the trials before they’re over (or sign up with a limited-use payment card), you’ll eventually be paying full price just like everyone else. Disney’s shopping discounts aren’t much better. There’s a 15-percent discount on Funko and Loungefly store items—barely more than the WELCOME10 code that works for anyone—and a 20-percent Adidas store discount that’s only available with an Adiclub membership, which requires handing over a bunch of personal info. (Amusingly, Disney-branded items are also on Adidas’ long list of discount exclusions.) Once you get past all the cross-selling, you’re basically left with a handful of digital items in games like Disney Emoji Blitz and access to a few Disney-related sweepstakes (which you can also just enter by mail without a subscription). With the fine print noting that “millions of internet users” could participate, your odds of winning a Disney cruise or Comic-Con tickets are pretty slim. Perhaps Hulu’s promise of “exclusive” perks “inspired by” shows such as The Handmaid’s Tale and Only Murders in the Building will fare better, but Disney hasn’t explained what those are going to be. For now, the perks program serves little purpose beyond getting you to spend more money on unrelated products and services. Coming soon: An undefined celebration of totalitarian theonomy, and also Bob Dylan.Jared Newman / Foundry What real loyalty rewards could look like In theory, it makes sense for Disney to offer streaming subscribers a little extra for their loyalty, especially during the slow summer months when new content isn’t flowing. But those perks should be more relevant for Disney fans or at least have some real lasting value. Instead of just offering the same kind of extended trials you can get anywhere, for instance, how about offering ongoing discounts that accrue for longtime subscribers? Instead of a few meaningless mobile game trinkets, how about giving Disney fans some actual games, with redemption codes for titles from the vast Star Wars and Disney back catalogs? Perhaps Disney could throw in some theme park perks as well. A free churro or two would be a far nicer gesture to longtime Disney+ subscribers than a modest discount on a DoorDash-delivered burrito. Better yet, Disney could offer discounts on Disney+ and Hulu themselves. That’s what DirecTV does with its own perks program, which rewards customers with tokens that accrue over time. Customers say they’ve been able to redeem these tokens for monthly bill credits and movie rentals, among other things. Disney might not feel like it needs to try all that hard while its profits are up, but subscriber numbers have been wobbly. While Disney+ added 1.4 million subscribers last quarter, that was aided by a deep four-month discount promotion that ran through most of March. Disney+ lost 700,000 subscribers at the end of last year, and the company projects only a “modest increase” next quarter, despite an ongoing crackdown on password sharing. But in that case, let’s not pretend Disney’s new streaming perks program is anything but the bare minimum in terms of effort. Sign up for Jared’s Cord Cutter weekly newsletter to get more streaming advice every Friday.

“In 10 years, all bets are off”—Anthropic CEO opposes decadelong freeze on state AI laws
Amodei says AI "too fast" for blanket law ban; sees fundamental world change in 2 years.

Google Drive gets AI-generated summaries of changes made to files
According to a recent Google Workspace Updates blog post, Google Drive now supports AI-generated summaries of changes made to files. The summaries are created by Google Gemini and the idea is to quickly catch you up on what’s changed with your data. To get a summary, simply click the new Catch me up button in Google Drive. You’ll then get a summary in the sidebar with an overview of all changes made to files. You can also do something similar within specific files, which will generate a synopsis of all the changes and comments made to that particular file since you last opened it. Google warns that Gemini’s summaries may show incorrect information about the files. Google This new Google Drive feature is rolling out to users over the next two weeks, although it currently only works in English and is only available to Google Workspace users with Business Standard and Plus plans, Enterprise Standard and Plus plans, Google One AI Premium plan, and Gemini Education and Gemini Education Premium add-ons. It’ll also be available to those who previously purchased the Gemini Business or Gemini Enterprise add-ons.

'Draco is back' - Harry Potter star Tom Felton to reprise role on stage
He is the first star of the original movie series to appear in the spin-off stage show.

I use this $18 box to safely plug in all my outdoor smart devices
My smart home extends to both my front and back yards. But I have only one weather-protected duplex outlet in each location, which isn’t enough to accommodate all the smart devices I need to plug in. I have multi-outlet surge protectors all over the inside the house to power things like smart plugs, smart speakers, and my router, but I can’t do that in the yard—at least not without some way of protecting everything from the weather. That’s where the $18 Iwillink Outdoor Electrical Box comes in. Measuring 12.6 x 8.6 x 5.1 inches (LxWxD), this box is big enough to accommodate two mid-sized power strips, or one if—as I did—you’re plugging in bulky wall warts. The box has an IP54 weatherization rating, which according to our IP code guide, delivers protection from particulate matter like dirt and sand, as well as water sprayed from any direction. Notches with cable guides and silicone seals allow cords to enter the box. There are four of these in front and two on each end.Michael Brown/Foundry The manufacturer stipulates the box shouldn’t be placed in water, nor should it be buried in the ground. But I’ve disguised similar products with loose mulch and haven’t had any problems. I like the latches on the plastic Iwillink box better than the ones on the size-large SockitBox ($30) I use for a similar purpose. The Iwillink box has four plastic clamp latches—one in the middle of each side—that secure the lid tightly, where the SockitBox has only one at each end (although I’ve never had any problems with water getting into that one, either). Eight notches cut into the top of the bottom of the box—four in front and two on each end—allow cables to come into the box. Four latches help to clamp the lid on the box and sandwich cables between the top and bottom silicone seals.Michael Brown/Foundry Cable guides in these notches, and silicone seals on both the bottom of the box and on the lid, sandwich the cables to prevent water ingress. As you can see in the photos, the seals aren’t absolutely perfect, hence the warning about not immersing the box in water, but they provide more than enough protection to keep rainfall or sprinkler spray from getting inside. I’m using the Iwillink box to house a 3-outlet extension cord, using one outlet to connect a Kasa Smart EP25 smart plug that powers the pump in a small water feature on my deck. I’m using a second plug for the wall wart that powers a set of four Eufy Outdoor Pathway Lights. Unfortunately, those two items are big enough to block the third outlet on the extension cord. The box can hold two medium-sized outlet strips or one if you need to plug in bulky wall warts or smart plugs, as I did here, using a 3-outlet extension cord.Michael Brown/Foundry This story is part of TechHive’s in-depth coverage of the best smart lighting. You’ll find many larger—and smaller—weatherproof electrical boxes on the market to fit your needs. I have a surge protector in the larger SockitBox to power my Wi-Fi-connected Traeger Timberline 850 smoker, Enbrighten smart café lights, a second set of Eufy pathlights, and four Philips Hue Lily landscape spotlights. If you need only to plug in single small smart plug or wall wart, something like the $13 Flemoon Outdoor Electrical Box might do the trick.