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An unfortunate couple excitedly traveled for hours for a chance to take a mountaintop cable car called the Kuak Skyride. They’d seen it online, complete with smiling tourists gliding along and a TV journalist narrating the whole video.

However, when the couple arrived, there was nothing but a small town and confused locals unaware of what they were talking about. Turns out it was all an AI-generated video that they had believed was real. That story, detailed in a report by Fast Company, sounds like it would be unique, but I suspect it's something everyone will have to consider when perusing the internet for ideas of things to buy or places to visit.

A small logo in the corner of the video indicates the video was made with Veo 3, Google’s newest AI video engine, and it's hardly the only indicator that the video is made with AI. The appearance of the people and the structures all has that AI sheen of unreality to it. However, if you're not well-versed in deepfakes or looking for the signs, you might not have noticed, as it would seem silly to be suspicious of a well-made tourist video.

However, our new reality is that AI can now sell you not just a product, but a place – and that place might never have existed before. Slightly wrong spelling and suspicious URLs are practically quaint in comparison. It wasn’t even clear whether the video was malicious or just someone’s misguided attempt at content creation. It’s easy to roll your eyes and say, it would never happen to you. But we all have blind spots. And AI is getting really good at aiming for them.

This is obviously a much more problematic use of AI video than showing cats as Olympic divers. Still, the necessity of really paying attention to spot the clues of an AI creation is universal.

We’re past the visual age of trust. In the AI era, even seeing is just the beginning of the vetting process. Of course, that doesn’t mean you should abandon all travel plans. However, it does mean that the average person now needs a new kind of consumer savvy, calibrated not just for Nigerian princes and surprise crypto pitches, but for video illusions and AI travel influencers who can go places no human can follow.

And that's before considering real places with review sections flooded by AI-written, fake testimonials extolling places, almost certainly with AI-generated exaggerations of things to do that don't exist outside of their own hallucinations.

Dealing with it might mean having to be suspicious of things that look too good to be true. You might need to cross-check multiple sources to see if they all agree that something is real. Maybe a reverse image search or public social media post search would be necessary. And when it comes to images and videos, make sure they aren't too perfect. If no one is frowning or sneezing in a crowd shot, I'd be wary about its reality.

It's unfortunate. I don't like the idea of seeing a beautiful location in a video and doubting its reality instead of planning a trip there. But maybe that’s the price of living in a world where anyone can make realistic illusions of almost-real worlds. But you'll need to do more to ensure you're headed somewhere with a foundation that's more than just pixels and algorithms.

• Midjourney just dropped its first AI video model and Sora and Veo 3 should be worried
• Forget virtual pets – the next AI video craze is cats doing Olympic diving, and it’s all thanks to this new Google Veo 3 rival
• I watched some of the viral ASMR videos made with AI and I feel more confused than soothed

- Officially renewed in May
- Filming reportedly due to begin in December
- No official trailer just yet
- Main cast all set to return
- Plot details kept firmly under wraps
- Hopes for more incredible guest star appearances

The Studio season 2 was officially renewed on Apple TV+ in May – before season 1 of the self-described 'workplace comedy' had even finished. No surprise given The Studio had 100% on Rotten Tomatoes from critics before the show was even released (now, a still incredible 93%).

And it easily made it onto our best Apple TV+ shows list, thanks to its fun, satirical look at the movie industry with a star-studded cast to boot. So, as Matt Remick and the team at Continental Studios are set to return for another series, we're more than ready to strap in for more. And I'm pretty hopeful it'll have a similarly incredible list of guest stars and cameos as season 1.

Here's everything we know about The Studio season 2 on Apple TV+ from release date prediction, trailer, expected cast, plot rumors and more.

Potential spoilers follow for The Studio season 1.

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The Studio season 2 was officially renewed on May 6. In an Instagram post by Apple TV, Seth, Ike and Chase Sui are seen discussing the return of the show with their 'winning formula', or as Seth puts it: "a structure that we 100% know works, so we're going to do it over and over again".

And, according to a post on the Film & Television Industry Alliance, season 2 is already in pre-production with a possible filming date of December 3. For season 1, they filmed in March 2024 and the show started streaming a year later. So, I'd say for my The Studio season 2 release date prediction, we're looking at late 2026.

There's no The Studio season 2 trailer yet, and I don't expect we'll see one until late 2026. The season 1 trailer dropped only a couple of weeks before the show dropped on Apple TV+.

So, considering what I've already mentioned about a potential release date, it's a while off yet. I'll be sure to update here as soon as one drops though.

Full spoilers follow for The Studio season 1.

Given how The Studio season 1 ended, I'd predict all of the main cast to return, as follows:

• Seth Rogen as Matt Remick
• Catherine O'Hara as Patty Leigh
• Ike Barinholtz as Sal Saperstein
• Chase Sui Wonders as Quinn Hackett
• Kathryn Hahn as Maya Mason

The Studio became quickly well-known for its incredible roster of guest stars and cameos who appeared throughout season 1. These included Bryan Cranston, Zoë Kravitz, Martin Scorsese, Charlize Theron, Ben Stiller and so many more.

I actually can't list all of them because we'd be here all day, but I'm sure more seriously standout names will be making an appearance in season 2. Though, in conversation with Deadline, co-creators Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg may have run out of people to ask. Rogen said: "We've called in all our favors many, many years ago. We got everyone who was only willing to do this stuff because we were friends with them".

And Goldberg added: "And that was by far the hardest part of the show, delivering those cameos. It was exhausting. Every single day at lunch during pre-production, we had to go and do a phone call with a different celebrity of some nature, or the filmmaker. And it was really draining".

Major spoilers follow for Slow Horses seasons 1 through 4.

The Studio season 2 is in pre-production and I'm sure the plot will be kept firmly under wraps until it's available to stream on Apple TV+. But, Goldberg did tell Deadline there's one episode that's leftover from season 1: "We actually have on script that I assume will be in season 2, that's finished, called 'The Test Screening'. We worked on it for months because it required a very specific actor, and we almost got that actor, but then they were too busy, so we had to move on".

We also know from the season 1 finale that Continental Studios were at a bit of an impasse with Amazon trying to buy them out and Matt pitching at CinemaCon to stop the sale (and hopefully save their jobs).

And since CinemaCon has been done, there seems to be scope for even bigger. Speaking to The Direct, write Peter Huyck said: "I think one thing we want to do is the big international film festival. That would be a dream to do an episode set there".

Plus, considering the Kool-Aid movie was a big part of season 1, we might find out if all that hard work finally pays off – and hopefully we'll actually get to see it.

Luckily, from the success of season 1, the stories now seem to be coming to them: "This show has legs. It just keeps writing itself. Things keep happening. We're in an industry that is ever-evolving. Before, we sat with studio heads and heads of marketing to get their input to help us. Now people are just coming up to us, telling us stuff. So, the influx of stories is never ending".

And I'm sure The Studio season 2 will be full of these movie-centric stories crafted beautifully for Apple TV+ in the way Rogen and Goldberg know how.

Given The Studio season 2 is still revelling in its own renewal status, it's unlikely we'll hear about more seasons any time soon. Season 2 received its renewal before season 1 wrapped, so if I was to predict when we'd hear, I'd say when the show is back streaming on Apple TV+. I'll be sure to update here though, if and when news arrives.

For more Apple TV+ coverage, read our guides on Ted Lasso season 4, Foundation season 3, Presumed Innocent season 2, and Silo season 3.

If there’s one thing about Nothing’s entire philosophy as a company that rings completely true, it’s that modern tech looks boring. With focus applied to manufacturing efficiency and broad appeal, the most impressive aesthetics we can get from mainstream phones these days come down to a handful of colour options or an interesting camera bump, with clean-looking backsides to match equally sparse glass screens. The Nothing Phone 3 tries something quite different, mixing practical minimalism and an eye-catching design language into a solid flagship.

I’ve seen folks praise these phones for their focus on reserved user interfaces, while others applaud the unique aesthetics – looking more cassette-futurism than simply sci-fi – but both descriptions apply well across the company's family of products. With the Phone 3, Nothing wants to draw people in with a far-reaching design that is paradoxically both simple and extra with its most powerful device yet.

The exterior, adorned with plenty of plastic to invoke a faux see-through look, along with a pixelated ‘Glyph Matrix’ on the back that can run several animations with varying levels of practicality (and fun), feed into an extremely deliberate style completely unique to Nothing’s tech.

Conversely, the company’s Android version ‘Nothing OS’ goes for a bold monochrome look, completely foreign to any other consumer-oriented user interface. It shifts between New Roman-like fonts and dotted lettering, while the system is ultimately built around a focus on disconnecting from your tech. The ‘Essential Key’ below the standby button on the right side of the handset allows you to take quick voice memos and jot notes down to then access later in one unified ‘Nothing Space’ app, incentivising minimalism by treating the phone as more of a reminder box.

This approach is growing on me, but I’m not sure the Nothing Phone 3’s point of difference is compelling enough to pull me away from phones like the Google Pixel 9, the Samsung Galaxy S25, or even Nothing’s own Phone 3a Pro, which was released in March 2025.

To be clear, I don’t think the Phone 3 is a bad phone, but I do think it’s risky for a niche brand like Nothing to get in direct competition with the market-leading flagships, which outmaneuver it on spec and wider support. Nothing will surely have its fans with the Phone 3, but it also lacks the broad appeal of the phones it’s trying to compete with.

The Nothing Phone 3 has such a divisive exterior aesthetic to it. The layout of the camera array seems kind of ridiculous. The lenses are positioned seemingly nonsensically, with the microphone and telephoto lenses positioned off-centre in the top left corner, and the wide and ultrawide lenses below it.

It’s only when taking in the rest of the exterior that it makes a little bit more sense, but even then you’d have to really want the Nothing Phone 3 to like this aesthetic. I adore it – it evokes an 80s-90s cassette futurism vibe that makes me think of the chunky computers from Starfield, Alien or 2001: A Space Odyssey. A red square on the back flashes as a video recording icon, while the lines and shapes are meant to evoke the imagery of the handset’s circuitry and internal parts. This approach to aesthetic maximalism is best exemplified by the Glyph Matrix, though.

This is a really weird feature for a smartphone. This small circle of large pixels can run through several features (interactive with the back button below the panel), such as displaying battery life, acting as a level, offering advice as an eight ball and functioning as a stopwatch. The most useful feature I’ve found is using the panel to view a pixelated depiction of yourself, allowing you to take selfies using your rear cameras. It’s a neat feature!

Is any of this necessary? Nope, but that’s not the point. Nothing’s pretty explicit about wanting to make a ‘fun’ phone that’s as exciting as it is useful, and this third generation of the glyph matrix idea, evolving from simple flashing lights on previous handsets, hits the nail on the head. That said, I find the near-minimalist operating system to not gel as well with this design, and the user interface doesn’t have much of the flair it needs to truly be iconic.

I’ve tried really hard to commit to the operating system offered here. I’ve migrated my standard smartphone use over almost entirely to the Phone 3, applied the brand’s iconic ‘glass’ wallpaper filter, switched the icons to Nothing’s monochrome (as opposed to Android’s standard Material You coloring, which is also available) and have even taken advantage of the brand’s exceptional widgets.

Nothing’s approach to widgets is second to none. Having quick action buttons such as Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, Airplane Mode and Hotspot accessible from the Home Screen without having to swipe the quick settings menu down is really cool. The same goes for all of the other widgets offered by Nothing – the company’s weather widgets look great, and the inbuilt media player widget is exactly what I’ve wanted from Google and Samsung for years.

But then the phone rubs up against the rest of Android – the stuff it has limited ability to change – and you start to see the cracks forming, with Android’s neutral design visible in some menus. But while this breaks the immersion, the thing limiting Nothing’s success more is its ambitious position in the market.

The Phone 3 is properly separate from the rest of the Nothing range, as it’s the only smartphone designed and priced to directly compete with flagship handsets offered by Apple, Samsung and Google – but it feels like we’re veering off course from what Nothing is actually trying to do in the smartphone market.

Make no mistake, the powerful camera set, Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 processor and gorgeous display put the Phone 3 well above Nothing’s previously released handsets in terms of quality and capability, but compared to other leading brands, the phone underperforms.

I’d argue the more premium price point and specs kind of diminish the whole point of a Nothing phone. Take the Essential Key, a multi-button for writing notes, recording voice memos, taking screenshots and launching the Nothing Space, where you can view all of these things. This tool doesn’t actually require much processing power to work smoothly, and indeed it fits quite well into the ecosystem of the considerably cheaper 3a and 3a Pro. It’s a good feature, but it doesn’t feel like the higher price point is doing much to improve it (though, as I wrote in my 3a Pro article, I would like the choice to remap the button).

Conversely, the cameras absolutely need improvement, and I would have happily traded the more powerful processor for better photography. I’ve included reference images below of a car I’ll be reviewing soon, the Porsche Macan 4 electric, but know that there’s detail missing from the shots that I don’t believe would have been an issue had I captured the same images with the Google Pixel 9 or the iPhone 16.

Perhaps the Nothing Phone 3 is holding court until the arrival of an even better equipped Phone 3 Pro to take on the iPhone 16 Pro and Galaxy S25 Ultra. For now, these cameras don’t really keep up.

I’m taking a hard stance on the Nothing Phone 3 because, while I love what the London-based company is trying to do and am indeed swayed by the aesthetics, I believe this phone could have benefited from a slightly more competitive, or conservative, arrangement of features.

The cameras are fairly unimpressive and the processor, for its added performance, still doesn’t keep up as well as with more established rivals (and even cheaper handsets from mentioned rivals). It kind of feels like Nothing’s tied up – when your goals are minimalism and maximalism, how do you find the right fit?

A premium price makes the device more of an eyebrow-raiser to casual customers, but looking at Nothing’s focus on a healthier relationship with technology, the extra additions don’t feel substantiated, particularly for an inherently niche userbase that Nothing is restricted to by virtue of its divisive aesthetics.

Nothing has created an awesome handset with the Phone 3. One that truly challenges the Galaxy S25 and Pixel 9 families. However, its strong commitment to niche aesthetics makes it exactly that – niche.

I’m among the folks that love this design approach – one that does accomplish the goal of make tech fun-looking – but as someone who needs broader utility from a flagship handset, I don’t think the Phone 3 is for me.

The Nothing Phone 3 will be a capable handset for those craving fast recharging speeds, great on-device processing performance, high framerate gameplay and even some casual photography. And, if you like the aesthetic, then you’ll be pleased to know that the Phone 3 is cheaper than all of its major competitors.

That being said, the underwhelming array of cameras certainly leaves something to be desired and, although it’s a fairly cost-effective handset, I would highly recommend waiting for it to go on sale.

Major phonemakers are likely not too worried about Nothing at the moment, but it's getting close to a perfectly balanced device here.

If you like the Nothing approach to handsets and want to save some money, I recommend reading our Nothing Phone 3a Pro review.

• I went hands-on with the Nothing Phone 3, and it might just be the most interesting phone of the year – here's why
• ‘We're not just chasing whatever competitors are doing’: Nothing’s AI chief explains why the Phone 3 uses the Snapdragon 8s Gen 4, not the 8 Elite
• ‘Our relationship with phones has grown unhealthy’: Nothing’s AI chief explains how the Nothing Phone 3 will ‘help you be more human’

• The iPhone 17 Air battery could be under 3,000 mAh
• This fits in with previous leaks about the handset
• iOS 26 could extend battery life to last an entire day

When Apple gets around to launching the new iPhone 17 series in September, it looks very likely that there's going to be a brand new model: the super-slim iPhone 17 Air. As per a new rumor, that slimness could come at the expense of battery capacity.

Well-known tipster Instant Digital (via MacRumors) says the iPhone 17 Air is going to come with a battery that's under 3,000 mAh in terms of its capacity. The iPhone 16, in comparison, is fitted with a 3,651 mAh battery.

Of course we don't know how that's going to translate into actual battery life, but it seems the new handset might struggle to match the time between charges that the current models offer. According to Apple, the iPhone 16 gives you 22 hours of video playback on a single charge, though more demanding tasks use up more battery life.

As per the same tipster, the power saving mode on the iPhone – which is being enhanced with a new adaptive mode in iOS 26, also due in September – will mean you can get through a day's moderate use with the iPhone 17 Air.

It's perhaps no surprise that the iPhone 17 Air is going to come with a smaller-than-normal battery. It makes sense that if the thickness of the chassis is shrinking, then there's going to be less room for a battery to power the handset.

Previous leaks have put the iPhone 17 Air battery size at 2,800 mAh, which fits in with the new information. However, there have also been rumors around upgraded battery tech that could enable more battery life to be provided by smaller batteries.

It's also worth mentioning that battery capacity isn't the whole story when it comes to battery life, though it does of course have a major role. iPhones typically have smaller batteries than the best Android phones, but can maximize battery life through design efficiencies and software optimizations.

Bear in mind that none of this is certain until Apple makes it official. If you're wondering what a high-end, ultra-thin phone might actually be like to use in 2025, check out our Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge review.

• We have some leaked specs for the iPhone 17 Air
• These are the best iPhones you can buy
• The iPhone 17 Air might come in these 4 colors