Tech
Move over, Octobuddy — PopSockets first suction grip is here

PopSockets' latest grip, the Suck-Up Grip and Mount, is coming July 30. The Suck-Up grip borrows the classic PopSockets design but adds suction cups to the surface, letting you stick your phone anywhere. It's geared toward content creators for hands-free filming, but there's a broader appeal of being able to mount your phone to watch videos or scroll social media without having to hold up the phone.

Credit: PopSockets
Phone accessories range from decorative, like a Sonny Angel Hipper hanging on for dear life, to the practical, like a PopSockets offering a more ergonomic grip. Content creators often lead the charge on these mobile embellishments, not surprising considering the profession centers around the phone. But those needs are dictating the evolution of classic phone accessories, like PopSockets.
PopSockets CEO Jiayu Lin says on the product's design: "You’ve seen countless creators and celebrities with suction phone accessories, but PopSockets is stepping up the game. We designed the Suck-Up Grip & Mount as a versatile 3-in-1 solution that combines our signature grip and stand with strong suction mount technology. It empowers content creation on-the-go, has MagSafe snap-on convenience, and is a great addition to anyone’s phone wardrobe."
The suction cup-style phone accessory has been in the creator sphere for some time, but popularity is at an all-time high. When we ask creators what their essential tools are for creating content, the most common answer is the Octobuddy, a suction grip tool that clings to surfaces so you can film hands-free almost anywhere.

Credit: PopSockets
PopSockets' new suction cup grips work on the same premise as the Octobuddy, but in a different design. While Octobuddies attach with adhesive to the back of a phone, the Suck-Up grip attaches through MagSafe, making it easily removable. The grip remains true to PopSockets' style, popping in and out for a better phone grip, but now the top of the PopSockets will be adorned with suction cups. The Suck-Up Grip and Mount is designed to hold for up to 10 hours on smooth surfaces.
The Suck-Up Grip will be available to purchase from PopSockets.com starting July 30, 2025.
Tech
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Tech
Anthropic reportedly cut OpenAI access to Claude

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.
Tech
Amazon is toying around with putting ads in Alexa+

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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