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This TikTok trend makes *anything* your CarPlay start-up sound (and heres how to do it)

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People showing their CarPlay sounds on TikTok.

Did you know Apple's CarPlay will let you make anything — and I mean truly anything — the sound that plays when you start up your car? Well, TikTok found out, and now it's a quickly spreading trend.

It has almost become competitive at this point: How weird, funny, or esoteric can you make your start-up sound?

It's become a trend to start your car and begin filming as it slowly loads, then plays the sound. (The custom sound is played only when your phone connects to CarPlay, so that builds a natural bit of tension as the audience waits for the reveal.) Here are just a few we've spotted on TikTok.

This person used the race sound from Nintendo's Mario Kart.

This person gets greeted by Taylor Swift.

This driver gets a little motivation from the internet's new favorite character, Chit.

This person has a sound from the classic film Billy Madison.

This driver recycles an old meme sound.

It's a funny, silly trend that brings a little bit of whimsy each time you start up your car. I live in New York City and don't have a car, but if I did, I'd probably choose something from the Tim Robinson/I Think You Should Leave/Conner O'Malley extended universe.

Still, if you want to set up your own sound via CarPlay, we can show you how.

How to change your CarPlay start-up sound like the TikTok trend

Per usual, TikTok itself is very helpful for this trend. This post from @cronloya does a really good job of breaking it down step-by-step.

Here's another quick tutorial from @JimKirkVO on Instagram.


View this post on Instagram

I was able to recreate the process, though I could not test it out in my non-existent car. But here's how you do it, in seven steps.

Total Time

  • 5 min
What You Need

  • iPhone

Step 1:
Go to the Shortcuts app.

It should already be installed on your iPhone.

the shortcuts icon on a phone


Credit: Screenshot: iPhone

Step 2:
Create a CarPlay automation.

Navigate to the "automation" tab at the bottom of the screen, click "new automation," then scroll down and select CarPlay.

an iphone screenshot with an arrow pointing to carplay tab


Credit: Screenshot: iPhone / Mashable

Step 3:
Select "run immediately."

Then hit "next."

"run immediately" selected


Credit: Screenshot: iPhone

Step 4:
Create a "new blank automation" and navigate to "files."

You may need to hit the button for "add action" to find the files tab, depending on your iOS.

the files tab shown


Credit: Screenshot: iPhone

Step 5:
Select "file," then click the blue "file" to pick your sound.

You need to select "file" within the "files" tab… then click the blue word "file" to actually pick the sound. A bit confusing, but you've got this.

a red arrow pointing to the blue word file


Credit: Screenshot: iPhone / Mashable

Step 6:
Select your sound from within your files.

Once you see the file is uploaded, hit the "done" button. (For some reason, the only sound I could find on my phone was The Rock telling someone it doesn't matter what their name is.)

A document attached to  the carplay sound automation


Credit: Screenshot: iPhone

Step 7:
Click into the automation, search for "play sound," and select that automation.

You'll have to search for "play sound" to find it. Once you click that option, hit done and your custom sound is complete.

the play sound option selected


Credit: Screenshot: iPhone

Now, you'll need to download a sound file — an MP3, most likely — to do this trick. Luckily, Mashable has some tutorials on how to do just that. Typically speaking, you can also Google a popular sound and find a downloadable version.

So, with just a little bit of effort, you can add a pinch of whimsy to your daily commute.

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Stop your AI subscriptions and get an all-in-one tool for life

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TL;DR: Access dozens of top AI tools in one platform — 1min.AI bundles content, chat, design, audio, video, PDF, and more under a single lifetime license for just $79.97.



1min.AI Advanced Business Plan Lifetime Subscription

Credit: 1minAI

One of the bigger annoyances of the digital age is the subscription model. Juggling a half-dozen AI tools, each with its own login credentials, pricing tiers, and learning curve, is exhausting. That’s why 1min.AI can be a helpful alternative to the usual chaos.

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Whether you’re a solo creator or running a small team, 1min.AI simplifies your stack. You’ll have access to multiple flagship models like GPT, Claude, Gemini, and Llama, plus unlimited brand voice slots, unlimited prompt storage, and 4,000,000 credits/month to spend on whatever you want to make.

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Get lifetime access to the 1min.AI Advanced Business Plan for just $79.97 while you can and streamline your digital tools forever.

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Anthropic reportedly cut OpenAI access to Claude

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It seems OpenAI has been caught with its hands in the proverbial cookie jar. Anthropic has reportedly cut off OpenAI’s access to Anthropic’s APIs over what Anthropic is calling a terms of service breach.

As reported by Wired, multiple sources claim that OpenAI has been cut off from Anthropic’s APIs. Allegedly, OpenAI was using Anthropic’s Claude Code to assist in creating and testing OpenAI’s upcoming GPT-5, which is due to release in August.

According to these sources, OpenAI was plugging into Claude’s internal tools instead of using the chat interface. From there, they used the API to run tests against GPT-5 to check things like coding and creative writing against Claude to compare performance. OpenAI allegedly also tested safety prompts related to things like CSAM, self-harm, and defamation. This would give OpenAI data that it could then use to fine-tune GPT-5 to make it more competitive against Claude.

Unfortunately for OpenAI, this violates Anthropic’s commercial terms of service, which ban companies from using Anthropic’s tools to build competitor AI products.

“Customer may not and must not attempt to access the Services to build a competing product or service, including to train competing AI models or resell the Services except as expressly approved by Anthropic,” the terms read.

OpenAI responded by saying that what the company was doing was an industry standard, as all the AI companies test their models against the competing models. The company then went on to say that it respected Anthropic’s decision but expressed disappointment in having its API access shut off, especially considering that Anthropic’s access to OpenAI’s API remains open.

A spokesperson told Wired that OpenAI’s access would be reinstated for “benchmarking and safety evaluations.”

It’s not the first time this year that Anthropic has cut off API access. In June, the company cut off Windsurf’s API access after rumors that it was being sold to OpenAI. That deal ultimately fell through, but Anthropic’s cofounder, Jared Kaplan, told TechCrunch at the time that “it would be odd for us to be selling Claude to OpenAI.”

Anthropic has also tweaked its rate limits for Claude, which will take effect in late August, with one of the reasons being that a small number of users are violating the company’s policy by sharing and reselling accounts.


Disclosure: Ziff Davis, Mashable’s parent company, in April filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.

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Amazon is toying around with putting ads in Alexa+

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It’s the end of another quarter, which means it’s time for yet another earnings call with concerning ideas for generating more revenue. This time around, it's Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, who told shareholders on Thursday that there’s “significant financial opportunity” in delivering ads through Alexa+, the company’s new AI-powered voice assistant.

“I think over time, there will be opportunities, you know, as people are engaging in more multi-turn conversations to have advertising play a role — to help people find discovery and also as a lever to drive revenue,” Jassy said, per the investor call transcript.

Since launching earlier this year, Alexa+ has reportedly reached millions of users. Unlike the original Alexa, which mostly turns off lights and sets timers, Alexa+ is designed to be more conversational, context-aware, and AI-driven. It can help you plan your date night, entertain your kids, and even dabble in basic image and video generation — all under the banner of your $14.99/month Prime subscription.

But so far, Amazon Alexa has been an ad-free experience. It's also more than 10 years old, and it doesn't make money; thus, it's been deemed a "colossal failure" by those within the company.

Of course, Amazon isn’t alone in trying to figure out how to make AI pay for itself. Both Google and OpenAI have explored ad integration in their AI products as a way to generate revenue. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, in particular, has made a notable pivot: once firmly against advertising in his chatbot, he’s since reversed course, possibly opening the door for ads in future versions of ChatGPT.

Whatever the motivation, injecting ads into Alexa+ would mark a major shift in both user experience and Amazon’s strategy, especially given the assistant’s long history of being expensive to maintain and hard to monetize. Ad-supported Alexa+ could be Amazon’s attempt to finally turn its once-money-burning smart assistant into a revenue machine, without hiking the subscription fee (at least for now).

Alexa+ is still new, and what an ad-supported experience would actually look like remains unclear. According to Jassy, the idea is to frame ads as helpful, something to assist customers in discovering products they might be interested in buying.

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