Lately, Sonos has been making headlines for what it’s not going to do. It’s not bringing back the old version of its once-beloved app, it’s (reportedly) not going to make a streaming video player, and now it’s not making any more speakers with Ikea.  Sonos has confirmed to The Verge that it’s winding down its partnership with Ikea, the iconic home furnishings brand that teamed up with the networked home audio manufacturer for some of our favorite wireless speakers.  Among them were the very first products developed by the duo, the Ikea Symfonisk lamp and bookshelf speakers, which landed in 2019. The speakers, which won our Editors’ Choice award, demonstrated how great-sounding home audio components could also look terrific in the living room while maintaining Ikea-friendly price tags.  Sonos says it will continue to support existing Symfonisk speakers while also confirming that no more new models will be coming. The speakers will remain on sale while supplies last.  “Over the past eight years, we’ve had the pleasure of working closely with Idea and are proud of what we’ve achieved,” a Sonos spokesperson told The Verge, adding that “our work together has largely wound down and we won’t be releasing new products as partners.”  Besides the original Symfonisk lamp and bookshelf speakers, the Sonos/Ikea partnership also yielded the Symfonisk floor lamp speaker (which came with a bamboo light shade—again, very Ikea), an updated Symfonisk Speaker Lamp 2, and a Symfonisk picture-frame speaker. (Tech Advisor, our sibling publication, was only so-so about the latter product, although it’s still a nifty idea.)  The breakup between Sonos and Ikea is disappointing for a couple of key reasons. For starters, the partnership inspired some of the most cleverly designed speakers we’ve ever tested—a floor lamp that’s also a speaker? Really? Yes, really.  Also, Ikea’s Symfonisk speakers were surprisingly affordable, with the original Symfonisk speaker retailing for a mere $99, compared to $199 for the cheapest (at the time) Sonos speaker.  Word that Sonos won’t make any more speakers with Ikea comes roughly two months after we learned that Sonos won’t be going into the streaming-video business—a wise move.  Meanwhile, Sonos continues to forge ahead with fixes for its much-maligned app. The company remains in a defensive crouch over the poorly received app revamp, which was slammed upon release last year for its spotty performance and array of dropped features.  Indeed, Sonos’s app update was such a disaster that then-CEO Patrick Spence, who once floated the idea of bringing back the old app before walking back his remarks, stepped down from his position in early 2025. Read...

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Is it way too nerdy to feel nostalgia for a laptop charger? Not for me. Microsoft latest Surface 13-inch Surface Laptop and 12-inch Surface Pro have finally done away with the iconic Surface Connect connector in favor of USB-C. If you’ve never used a Surface, that means little; if you have, it’s a big part of what made a Surface a Surface. The Surface Connect debuted about a decade ago, with the Surface Pro 3 — which, in keeping with Microsoft’s rule of threes, was the first Microsoft Surface tablet that really nailed what a Windows tablet could do. I wrote then that the new charger broke compatibility with previous chargers, and that’s true. But it did two things: offered a convenient, safe way to charge your Microsoft laptop or tablet, and kicked off an 11-year run where one Surface charger ruled them all. There’s a lot made about Apple’s MagSafe charger, and rightly so. MagSafe debuted with the MacBook Pro, and its magnetic connector meant that if you kicked the power cable by mistake, you wouldn’t yank the laptop off its desk. Surface Connect offered the same advantage, though a few years later. For years, my only concern was whether to insert the Surface Connect with the cord either going back-to-front or front-to-back.Mark Hachman / Foundry Even better, it meant that consumers didn’t have to worry about losing a Surface charger. For years, charger compatibility was one of the best attributes of the IBM/Lenovo ThinkPad ecosystem: if you had one charger, chances are you’d be able to use it again and again on successive purchases. Over time, loyal customers amassed multiple chargers, one for home and on the road. I only ever had one Surface charger wear out, and only the Surface Book 2’s infamous power problem made me question Microsoft’s decision. In recent years Microsoft moved to lower-power 45W and 65W chargers, which meant that older, more powerful chargers tended to work just fine as backups. The one feature that Microsoft never really updated was the hidden USB-A port inside the Surface’s power brick, which served as a simplistic way to power early smartphones but later became outdated. Microsoft could have updated it with a more sophisticated USB-C connection, but probably wanted to sell more Surface Docks instead. Ironically, the 2023 Surface Thunderbolt Dock was the first time Microsoft ditched the Surface Connect port. The world was moving to Thunderbolt, and regulatory bodies like the European Union were demanding a move away from proprietary standards and to universal ones like USB-C. Thunderbolt, which uses the USB-C connector, became the chosen standard instead. In the intervening years, you could charge a Surface either with its own charger or over USB-C or Thunderbolt, which meant that it offered flexibility many other laptops couldn’t. Microsoft’s Surface chargers boasted an extra USB-A power port. Because you never knew when.Mark Hachman / Foundry But there’s another thing that brings it a touch of ennui: like Thunderbolt — and before Thunderbolt became popular — Surface Connect was specifically designed to move both power and data. We live in a world where Microsoft never introduced an Xbox gaming PC, and where it never launched a Surface laptop with an external Xbox-branded eGPU that could have turned the business day’s business PC into that evening’s gaming PC. If only. Microsoft never even bothered to let a third-party company accomplish what it was itself unwilling to do. Now, the only reason I’ll keep old Surface chargers around will be to power the old Surface devices that still hang around my office. Over time, however, more and more USB-C chargers will replace them, especially as gaming-optimized USB-C chargers emerge. I don’t know if the Surface Connect charger deserves to be buried in the graveyard of dead Microsoft hardware, but I’ll miss it anyway. Farewell, old friend. Read...

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The US Department of Justice wants to break up Google’s search monopoly. But while this might seem like good news for Google’s competitors, it could actually be harmful to some. For example, Mozilla now warns that it could result in the death of Firefox, reports The Verge. Last year, a federal judge ruled that Google’s search business was an illegal monopoly, forged via exclusive contracts that restrict competition. In the wake of that ruling, the US Department of Justice is now demanding that Google no longer be allowed to pay to be the default search engine in third-party browsers—like Mozilla’s Firefox. Further measures to break up Google’s search monopoly include the potential forced sale of the Chrome web browser. There are already several companies waiting to jump in and snatch Chrome for themselves if that happens, but that part isn’t set in stone just yet. Mozilla depends on Google’s search deal If Google is no longer allowed to strike deals to be the default search engine in third-party browsers, it would mean a massive financial hit for Mozilla. Firefox brings in about 90 percent of the Mozilla Foundation’s revenue, 85 percent of which comes from a deal with Google. The loss of this revenue would lead to “significant cuts across the company,” said Mozilla’s CFO Eric Muhlheim to The Verge. Should Mozilla be forced to reduce investments in Firefox product development, it could lead to a dangerous downward spiral. The browser could become less attractive to users and “put Firefox out of business.” Other Mozilla projects, including open-source web tools and efforts to combat climate change through AI research, would also be at risk. Ironically, should the ban on Google actually materialize, it could even strengthen Google’s position. As Muhlheim points out, Firefox’s Gecko engine is “the only browser engine that is held not by Big Tech but by a nonprofit.” Should Firefox die, there’d only be two relevant browser engines remaining: Google’s Blink and Apple’s WebKit. Mozilla negotiates with competitors Mozilla is now negotiating with other search engine providers like Microsoft, looking into the feasibility of making Bing Search the default in Firefox. But even a company like Microsoft probably couldn’t offer as much direct revenue as Google does—and without a bid from Google, the amount Mozilla could negotiate for itself would likely fall. Mozilla has already tried to change the default search engine for all users in the past, which was met with massive outcry and pushback from the user community. This was despite the fact that it would have been possible for every user to simply change it themselves. Further reading: Strong reasons to switch from Chrome to Firefox Read...