Today, Meta went to trial in the state of New Mexico for allegedly failing to protect minors from sexual exploitation on its apps, including Facebook and Instagram. The state claims that Meta violated New Mexico’s Unfair Practices Act by implementing design features and algorithms that created dangerous conditions for users. Now, more than two years after the case was filed, opening arguments have begun in Santa Fe.

It’s a big week for Meta in court: A landmark social media trial kicks off in California today as well, the nation’s first legal test of social media addiction. That case is part of a “JCCP,” or judicial council coordinated proceedings, that brings together many civil suits that focus on similar issues.

The plaintiffs in that case allege that social media companies designed their products in a negligent manner and caused various harms to minors using their apps. Snap, TikTok, and Google were named as defendants alongside Meta; Snap and TikTok have already settled. The fact that Meta has not means that some of the company’s top executives may be called to the witness stand in the coming weeks.

Meta executives, including Mark Zuckerberg, are not likely to testify live in the New Mexico trial. But the proceedings may still be noteworthy for a few reasons. It’s the first stand-alone, state-led case against Meta that has actually gone to trial in the US. It’s also a highly charged case alleging child sexual exploitation that will ultimately lean on very technical arguments, including what it means to “mislead” the public, how algorithmic amplification works on social media, and what protections Meta and other social media platforms have through Section 230.

And, while Meta’s top brass might not be required to appear in person, executive depositions and testimonies from other witnesses could still offer an interesting look at the inner workings of the company as it established policies around underage users and responded to complaints that claim it wasn’t doing enough to protect them.

Meta has so far given no indication that it plans to settle. The company has denied the allegations, and Meta spokesperson Aaron Simpson told WIRED previously, “While New Mexico makes sensationalist, irrelevant, and distracting arguments, we’re focused on demonstrating our long-standing commitment to supporting young people … We’re proud of the progress we’ve made, and we’re always working to do better.”

Sacha Haworth, executive director of the Tech Oversight Project, a tech industry watchdog, said in an emailed statement that these two trials represent “the split screen of Mark Zuckerberg’s nightmares: a landmark trial in Los Angeles over addicting children to Facebook and Instagram, and a trial in New Mexico exposing how Meta enabled predators to use social media to exploit and abuse kids.”

“These are the trials of a generation,” Haworth added. “Just as the world watched courtrooms hold Big Tobacco and Big Pharma accountable, we will, for the first time, see Big Tech CEOs like Zuckerberg take the stand.”

The Cost of Doing Business

New Mexico attorney general Raúl Torrez filed his complaint against Meta in December 2023. In it, he alleged that Meta proactively served underage users explicit content, enabled adults to exploit children on the platform, allowed Facebook and Instagram users to easily find child pornography, and allowed an investigator on the case, purporting to be a mother, to offer her underage daughter to sex traffickers.

The trial is expected to take place over seven weeks. Last week jurors were selected, a panel of 10 women and eight men (12 jurors and six alternates). New Mexico First Judicial District judge Bryan Biedscheid is presiding over the case.

While testing printers usually isn’t that exciting, sometimes I find an offering that’s almost too good to be true. You can scoop up our favorite printer, the Epson ET-2980, from Best Buy for just $220, a $100 markdown from the usual price tag. You’ll get thousands of pages of excellent printing, and it could be years before you have to buy a refill.

One of the most appealing features for any ink tank printer is the low cost to print. As I discussed in my review of the Epson, classic ink cartridges are generally expensive to replace, and manufacturers are increasingly looking for ways to keep you from using less expensive, and often less reliable, third-party cartridges. Ink in bottles is far harder to restrict, which means ink costs are often much lower per page.

To that end, the Epson claims that the bottles included with the ET-2980 should last around 5,000 pages, and replacements are only about $50. Compare that with upwards of $100 for a set of cartridges that only print 1,000 pages or so, and it won’t take long for the ink tank to pay for itself, particularly with the discount. That alone makes this an extremely appealing purchase, and one that you won’t need to maintain or refill for months or years, depending on how often you print.

The Epson was also less of a headache than a lot of the other printers I’ve worked with. While it sometimes has to think a little before it starts printing, it runs nice and quiet, and both regular black and white pages and color photos came out nice and crisp. It doesn’t have the biggest paper tray, but it’s easily accessible in case you need to switch paper types on a whim. It also has a flatbed scanner for occasional photos and documents, but I’d suggest checking out our other printer options if you often scan large stacks.

For everyone else, this $100 discount on the Epson ET-2980 is a deal you can’t afford to miss, particularly if you’re in a home that prints on a regular basis.

Ive says that the emphasis on physical buttons, each with a singular purpose, is to let the driver keep their eyes on the road and off the screen. “When you look at this, you are not wondering, ‘How many layers deep am I going to have to go to find something to make my bottom warm?’” he said.

“You don’t touch anything but aluminum, glass, or leather,” multiple Ferrari employees said multiple times over the event. (The only bits of plastic they owned up to were a couple of gears in the control panel.)

The result is a truly tactile experience. Everything feels satisfyingly clicky or twisty. The aluminum buttons have, unsurprisingly, an incredible feel. The glass knobs were similarly smooth. We were particularly taken with the air vents, which have aluminum shields that flip around when you twist them open and closed. We fiddled with these over and over until the Ferrari people had to come tell us it was time to leave the room.

Familiar Friends

Ferrari’s glass partner is Corning, the company whose Gorilla Glass has been used on every iPhone model. Corning says there are more than 40 glass parts in the Luce, including buttons, screens, and even the casing of the center console and gear-shift knob.

Ive calls glass a “truthful material.” Compared to a more standard plastic option, glass certainly feels more premium as a knob or gear shifter. But will it shatter in an instant if you get in a wreck? Hopefully not, as Corning says its technicians have done countless crash tests to make sure this version of Gorilla Glass is safe enough.

The steering wheel has the signature three-spoke design Ferrari is famous for. It is almost a circle but has a squished bottom that gives the wheel a shape that evokes a dumpling (or a flat tire). The wheel has a leather grip all the way around, of course, but clicky aluminum buttons right by your fingers let you signal or change music tracks and volume.

Behind the steering wheel is the binnacle, the console where the odometer, speedometer, and other indicators are placed. Taken by itself, the screen looks like a large iPhone in landscape mode with three Apple Watches positioned in the center. Convex lenses with a parallax effect magnify the circular OLED screens supplied by Samsung, which Ferrari has partnered with for the display tech. Additional icons appear in the top-right corner to indicate things like road conditions.

Though the binnacle is dominated by screens, very select bits are entirely analog. Namely, the needles of the speedometer and odometer, which are made of aluminum and polycarbonates. When the car is off, the dials’ screens go dark and the needles seem to float in a black void. When the screens come on, they light up the needles as well, making them glow.

Taking Control

To the right of the wheel sits a control panel display, a rectangular screen with smooth curved edges and almost no bezel. In other words, iPad shaped. However, the screen is mounted on a ball-and-socket joint and so can be moved around in a manner that brings to mind another relic of Ive’s tenure in Cupertino, the iMac G4.