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A handful of cities across the U.S. have ditched Flock’s automatic license plate reader (ALPR) cameras and immediately replaced them with equivalent systems from law enforcement contracting giant Axon, according to local media reports and government documents from around the country. Axon, for example, advertises AI-powered cameras that attach to an existing streetlamp and are designed to completely blend in with their surroundings, and also collects license plate data with cameras installed inside police officers’ patrol vehicles.

The switch to Axon, which is not yet widespread but appears to be increasing as people oppose Flock, signals what might come next for the nationwide conversation around ALPR cameras: instead of doing away with the cameras entirely — which 404 Media has linked to ICE, the tracking of a woman who self-administered an abortion, and rampant abuse by cops stalking their exes — some cities may enter contracts with another company which has faced less scrutiny and backlash.

In February, Syracuse lawmakers voted 7-1 to approve a license plate reader contract between the Syracuse Police Department and Axon, Central Current reported. That came after the department used Flock cameras starting in summer 2024, the outlet added.

In March, the Denver, Colorado, city council voted 7-6 to replace the city’s Flock cameras with Axon ones, Denver7 reported. The one-year contract was for 50 ALPR cameras, which is less than half of the total Flock cameras, the outlet added. 

In June, Grand Chute, Wisconsin, voted to get rid of its Flock cameras and transition to Axon, NBC26 reported. The town was already evaluating Axon’s product, but repeated problems with Flock led officials to speed up the transition, the report said.

The Douglas County Sheriff’s Office in Colorado dropped Flock for a nearly $22.8 million contract with Axon in July, the Denver Gazette reported. That deal included 100 Axon cameras, doubling the 50 Flock cameras the agency had, and first responder drones, the report said.

In December the City of Ferndale, Michigan, dumped Flock and approved a deal with Axon, according to a local government document. The document explained it was making the switch because “citing privacy concerns and failures by [Flock] to protect images stored on the city's ALPR network from unauthorized agencies [...] Axon does not have a national look-up feature. Axon's ALPR data sharing software only operates on a one-to-one’ basis.” An 88-page report about the switch, however, shows that residents there are concerned about Axon’s ALPR cameras, too.

Longmont, Colorado, voted unanimously in March to approve a new deal with Axon, Times-Call reported. The purchase came after the city let its agreement with Flock lapse.

Knoxville, Texas, added a $9.4 million amendment to its existing contract with Axon, which included replacement ALPR cameras, according to a press release from the mayor. That purchase came after the city’s contract with Flock expired and the city was unable to secure a short-term extension.

As for why cities are switching, local cops performing lookups for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), data sharing, and Flock cameras sometimes being down or unavailable all came up in the media reports and documents.

One key feature of Flock is its national lookup tool. This lets, say, a police officer in Texas search ALPR cameras not just in their own neighborhood, or even state, but nationwide. That has included states which have explicit bans on sharing ALPR data out of state, like Illinois, or sanctuary states like California. After 404 Media revealed ICE was indirectly tapping into Flock camera data, Flock removed various states from the national lookup tool and made other changes to its product. When 404 Media contacted some police departments during that reporting, some were not even aware their cameras could be searched by other agencies across the country.

Axon, simply, does not have a national network. Meaning that it would not be possible for cops in one jurisdiction to search cameras across the country. Flock even highlights this in its own side by side feature sheet about Axon: it says Flock has an “unmatched nationwide network” while Axon “data sharing is limited to agency-specific data/ecosystem; no shared national network.”

Denver, just like the City of Ferndale, explicitly mentioned this lack of this national network as part of its decision to ditch Flock for Axon. “As far as data sharing under this contract, Axon does not have a national network. There's no way that we can share it nationally. No law enforcement officer in Texas, Ohio, New York, or California can log into our system. It's only Denver Police officers and only when they're investigating an actual criminal incident,” council member Kevin Flynn said according to the Denver7 report.

Police departments using Axon can enter into data sharing agreements with each other, though. In Axon’s documentation for its ALPR product, a “shared data” option “extends the query to partner-agency detections once a sharing relationship is active.”

Of course, none of that changes the basic fact of how ALPR cameras work, which constantly scan all passing vehicles regardless of which vendor runs them. Switching vendors also does not address the more fundamental issue of whether such technology should require a warrant or not.

Neither Flock nor Axon responded to a request for comment.

Axon’s ALPR cameras differ from Flock's in some key ways. First, many of them are installed inside police officers’ vehicles. These Axon Fleet 3 cameras constantly scan the license plate of every vehicle they drive past and create a timestamped log of where each was, collecting data from locations that may not be covered by a stationary camera. 

Another is Axon Lightpost, a camera that fits onto an existing streetlight and adds a surveillance camera to it. Axon’s Lightposts are built in partnership with Ubicquia. Ubicquia’s pitch is that the devices “mount to existing streetlight infrastructure, blend seamlessly into urban landscape,” and “avoid complex permitting processes.” These cameras can also livestream, according to Axon’s website.

Sticking a camera onto an existing lamppost draws less attention than Flock’s purpose built cameras but provides similar functionality. According to Axon, “Lightpost uses an Axis Q1800-LE-based license plate camera engineered for high-accuracy captures in real traffic conditions.” The camera draws power from the local grid and runs on a cellular network maintained by Ubicquia.

Axon Outpost cameras are the ones that most closely resemble Flock’s. Like Lightpost, they also livestream, and, like Flock, record a vehicle’s characteristics like their color and make.

Axon also partners with surveillance doorbell company Ring to let Ring customers share video with law enforcement. Flock and Ring cancelled a similar planned arrangement after massive backlash.

Axon then brings essentially all of this data together in Fusus. Fusus started as a system and company that linked together a city or town’s security cameras, added AI capabilities to them, and let police query all of that data at once. 404 Media previously reported how Fusus was spreading across the country. In 2024, Axon acquired Fusus.

One reason why journalists, activists, and residents have been able to learn so much about what police use Flock for is that the company has built auditing tools that the public can access through records requests. Because of Flock’s nationwide network, it is often possible to get insight into what cops are doing in an entire state or throughout the country from a local public records request. It is not clear if the same granularity of data can be learned about Axon systems, although it does allow agencies to generate audit reports.

At one point, Axon and Flock worked together before having a very public falling out. In a January 2025 blog post, Flock said, “Axon made a surprise decision to end our partnership and cut off the API access that law enforcement depends upon.” A month later, Forbes reported Axon’s CEO Rick Smith emailed customers saying, “Flock has demonstrated a pattern of behavior that creates barriers for customer integrations in attempts to create a digital silo and coerce customers to purchase additional Flock services over Axon’s.” After that, Flock and Axon became heated rivals.

Matthew Gault contributed reporting.

Microsoft has introduced new limits to how much its engineers can spend on AI tools at work and told employees that maximizing AI use internally is not the company’s goal. 

This makes Microsoft one of the last major companies to rein in its employees’ expensive AI use. Scaling back maximalist AI use, or what some companies have called “tokenmaxxing,” is a trend we’ve covered in recent months as the price for using AI has increased while not always delivering commensurate productivity gains. 

For many public artworks, permanence is the exception rather than the rule. Jen Lewin’s The Ursas, however, has made the uncommon leap from the ephemeral landscape of Burning Man to a permanent installation along Brooklyn’s evolving Gowanus waterfront, where the monumental sculptures now anchor a newly accessible stretch of the canal.

‘The Ursas’ were installed at their new home along the Gowanus Canal on Aug. 1. Photography by Diane Bondareff/AP Content Services for Charney Companies and Tavros.

Installed at Nevins Landing on Aug. 1, the paired sculptures occupy a prominent position between the residential towers and the canal. The development, designed by Fogarty Finger with waterfront landscape architecture by Field Operations, is part of the larger Gowanus Wharf campus. The project adds a new public landmark to a neighborhood undergoing dramatic physical and cultural transformation, as former industrial sites are increasingly giving way to housing, parks, and civic spaces.

Photography by Diane Bondareff/AP Content Services for Charney Companies and Tavros

Inspired by the Ursa Major and Ursa Minor constellations, The Ursas explores ideas of navigation, orientation, and environmental stewardship. The larger of the two works, Ursa Major, rises 30 feet and is constructed from reclaimed ocean plastic originally sourced from Lewin’s 2022 installation The Last Ocean. Visitors can step inside the sculpture, where an infinity-mirrored chamber contains hand-drawn illustrations of species listed as extinct or presumed extinct on the IUCN Red List. Beside it, the 13-foot-tall Ursa Minor is clad in infinity mirrors and programmable LED lighting that creates an ever-shifting sense of depth and reflection.

Photography by Diane Bondareff/AP Content Services for Charney Companies and Tavros

“The Ursas grew out of my research into the melting Ross Ice Shelf while developing The Last Ocean,” Lewin says. “What began as scientific inquiry became a personal reckoning with the scale and speed of environmental change.”

Lewin describes Ursa Minor as “a beacon” seeking the North Star, while Ursa Major carries illustrations honoring recently extinct species. “Together, the works hold two realities at once: grief and responsibility, but also direction,” she explains. “They ask us not only to reflect, but to decide how we move forward.”

Photography by Diane Bondareff/AP Content Services for Charney Companies and Tavros

The installation also marks a notable moment for Gowanus, where public art is increasingly being positioned as part of broader neighborhood redevelopment rather than an afterthought. The Ursas become one of the first permanent artworks to define the identity of the four-building Gowanus Wharf campus. (The project—which will ultimately introduce more than 2,200 residential units along the waterfront—is being developed by Tavros Holdings in partnership with Charney Companies.)

Before arriving at their new home, the sculptures made a dramatic journey across the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge before being hoisted over Brooklyn’s Union Street Bridge and lowered into place along the canal. What began as a temporary installation in the Nevada desert in 2023 is now part of the everyday fabric of the city.

Editorial Transparency: This article was developed with the assistance of AI tools, which may have been used for research, outlining, editing, or copy refinement. Reporting, fact-checking, and editorial decisions were made by the Design Milk editorial team.

Rather than disguising its 1980s origins, this three-story Toronto penthouse embraces them. Designed by Dvira Interiors for a creative couple in their 30s, the once-dated penthouse has been transformed into a layered sanctuary where sculptural architecture, earthy materials, and global influences coexist in effortless balance. 

Photography by Lauren Miller

Located near Toronto’s historic St. Lawrence Market, the residence already possessed distinctive architectural bones, including subtly curved walls and dramatic half-arched windows characteristic of late-’80s modernism. Rather than flattening those details into something more conventionally contemporary, founder and principal designer Dvira Ovadia chose to amplify them. 

“Throughout the apartment we discovered original walls that had subtle curves to them, a design feature we chose to celebrate and enhance further in our design,” Ovadia says. “By emphasizing and refining these curved walls, we reinforced the building’s inherent architectural language.”

Photography by Lauren Miller

 The homeowners’ travels also informed the design, though the references remain subtle rather than literal. Drawing on the warmth of the Arizona desert, the lushness of Bali, and an effortless California ease, Dvira Interiors translated those influences into a palette of white oak stained in deeper honey tones, travertine, green marble, and richly textured finishes that feel warm, layered, and grounded. 

Photography by Lauren Miller

Wallpaper becomes an architectural element rather than merely decorative, appearing across walls—and even ceilings—to create immersive environments unique to each room. A burlap-inspired covering envelops the primary bedroom, cork wallpaper adds tactile depth to the office, and lush botanical patterns reinforce the home’s connection to the outdoors.  

“We drew strong inspiration from the jungle, most notably through the creative and expressive use of wallpaper throughout the condo, layering pattern and texture to bring depth and a sense of escapism to each space,” Ovadia says. The homeowners’ appreciation for the eclectic interiors of Austin’s Proper Hotel served as a point of reference for the home’s layered mix of pattern, texture, and atmosphere. 

Photography by Lauren Miller

That immersive quality reaches its peak on the third floor, where terracotta limewash coats nearly every surface, from walls and ceilings to doors and trim. The monochromatic treatment wraps the family room in cocooning warmth that shifts beautifully throughout the day as sunlight filters through the home’s expansive windows. Combined with a palette of earthy neutrals and honey-toned wood, the result is a retreat that feels worlds away from downtown Toronto.  

Photography by Lauren Miller

Equally compelling is the penthouse’s relationship with the outdoors. Multiple balconies and patios extend from nearly every room, softening the line between inside and out while filling the home with natural light. The main level flows seamlessly between the kitchen, dining, living areas, and exterior terraces, while an open-to-above lounge visually connects the upper floors. 

“We set out to create a home that feels equally suited for living, working, and entertaining,” Ovadia explains. “By fully embracing design through layered color, pattern, and texture across every room, wall, custom cabinetry, and furnishing, we achieved an atmosphere that feels immersive, welcoming, and uniquely their own.”  

Photography by Lauren Miller

The renovation also demanded creative problem-solving. Existing condominium infrastructure meant plumbing, HVAC, and ventilation systems could not easily be relocated. Midway through construction, the kitchen required a significant redesign after the original ventilation strategy proved impossible. Elsewhere, unforeseen plumbing conditions in the primary ensuite led to new bulkheads that the designers softened with graceful curves, transforming construction constraints into architectural features that now feel entirely intentional rather than imposed.  

The finished residence resists easy categorization. It borrows the warmth of Mediterranean interiors, the lushness of tropical landscapes, and the sculptural confidence of late-modern architecture while remaining deeply personal to its owners. By working with the building’s original architecture instead of against it, Dvira Interiors created a home that feels at once rooted in its past and unmistakably contemporary. 

Photography by Lauren Miller

What an exciting WWDC26! We always look forward to Apple’s announcements, as well as getting together with the developer community. This year was our first experience attending CommunityKit, with two occasions to have a table and meet with community members. We enjoyed meeting with long-time OmniGraffle users at the CommunityKit Indie Fair, reminiscing about OmniGraffle’s 25-year history and looking ahead to the upcoming OmniGraffle 8 release.

I also really enjoyed meeting up with other visionOS developers at the Step Into Vision event during this year’s WWDC. The energy of the visionOS community reminds me of the NeXT era, with passionate developers and users working with a tiny platform because they believe it’s on the path towards the future they want to build—not because they’re trying to hitch themselves onto an existing juggernaut of commercial success.

It was also fun to join James Dempsey and the Breakpoints playing at Live Near WWDC.

And, of course, beyond meeting up with the community, for this year’s WWDC we thought that Apple might refine some of the major leaps forward from the last two years. And they did not disappoint!

Heading into WWDC is a moment to look back at what we’ve achieved so far from our January Roadmap. This year looked different in that we had just shipped OmniOutliner 6 at the start of the new year. We’ve since shipped two feature updates to OmniOutliner, introducing a powerful collection of new Shortcuts actions using App Intents in OmniOutliner 6.1, and localizing into ten more languages in OmniOutliner 6.2 including Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Simplified Chinese and Spanish.

As planned, for the past several months we’ve predominantly focused our attention on OmniGraffle 8. However, that didn’t keep us from delivering maintenance updates to OmniFocus and OmniPlan, and continuing to test our new OmniFocus sync servers in Amsterdam and Singapore.

As discussed in the 2026 Roadmap, OmniGraffle 8 is designed to be a universal app. For current testers, we’ve expanded its test beyond macOS to include iOS and iPadOS. We’ve been working hard to craft OmniGraffle 8 as a universal app and add new diagramming features. OmniGraffle 8 is still the biggest release we have planned for this year, and we’re really looking forward to it!

With all of this work under our belt, we headed to Cupertino to see how Apple’s announcements might affect those plans.

Looking Ahead

Last year we started designing our approach to Kanban in OmniFocus. I originally started off thinking that Kanban might simply be another way of viewing existing perspective contents. But then I went back and re-read the book, “Personal Kanban: Mapping Work | Navigating Life,” which refreshed my sense of some of the flexibility we may want to offer.

I shared those thoughts with the team; and the more deeply we thought about the use cases for Kanban, the more we realized we needed new flexibility that our current perspectives don’t provide. I think we now have most of the initial design work done, so it should be ready for our engineers to work on soon after OmniGraffle 8 ships.

At WWDC, Apple shared how they’ve been making SwiftUI more robust. Apple has been using it themselves as the foundation for new AppKit and UIKit features, whereas previously SwiftUI was entirely built on top of AppKit and UIKit foundations. Fortunately, our investment in SwiftUI continues to pay dividends: both immediately with its cross-platform benefits, and in the long-term as Apple demonstrates their clear commitment to it. For example, they’re making SwiftUI view content much easier to drag and drop, making swipe gesture support easier to add, and so on. We can see it’s not just talk; they’re walking the walk.

Even smarter intelligence

Siri is the face of Apple Intelligence, but behind the scenes Apple Intelligence has a whole range of technologies in Golden Gate and OS 27: Siri App Intents, App Entities, On-screen Awareness, App Domains, Foundation Models, Private Cloud Compute, Core AI, Visual Intelligence, and Image Playgrounds.

Over the last two years, our team has continually to worked to adopt App Intents in our apps. So far, this has given us powerful new Shortcuts actions for OmniFocus and OmniOutliner, modernized Omni Automation support, and has improved our integration with Spotlight. This year, the investment will pay off even more as Siri begins to work with App Intents, including the ability to work with our apps using natural language, and for Siri to know what elements of our apps are on screen.

We’ve already implemented access to Apple’s Foundation Models by way of Omni Automation plug-ins, and with the new APIs introduced at WWDC26 we’ll be able to expand that support to support alternate models. We’re also prototyping new ways we might leverage Foundation Models directly in our apps to implement new natural language features.

Our particular approach to querying the on-board Apple Intelligence is well-aligned with Apple’s approach, valuing privacy and working locally. We’re glad to see Apple build a platform for AI, not just a narrow solution. You can expect our future efforts to continue to value privacy, work locally, and put the user in control.

We have been thinking deeply about how AI has been advancing. The technology itself can have some really great applications, when put to good use. But there are also real controversies and real concerns. We’re very careful about how we use AI ourselves. I look forward to talking about that in more depth, but that’s a whole different topic for another day.

AI technologies are moving fast, so we applaud Apple’s nimble approach. Apple doesn’t need to limit the system to one LLM, when they can instead make it easy for third parties to provide LLM options.

At WWDC, we also watched to learn whether Apple’s architecture would have a place for existing AI harnesses and orchestration tools, which talk to apps using the Model Context Protocol (MCP). We’ve been watching the MCP space all year, but we’ve been reluctant to implement something that might be redundant with work Apple was doing. This year, Apple did announce MCP integration for Xcode, but not for App Intents; Xcode’s integration is only for developers, not for end users.

Now that we know what Apple is (and is not) planning, we can continue thinking about how best to add first-class MCP support (perhaps by integrating directly with Omni Automation or with our App Intents).

Implementing MCP support will make it easy for customers who have started working with Claude and other LLM orchestrators to integrate their AI-based workflows with our apps. Some customers have already wired up MCP to all of our apps using our Omni Automation APIs, but we want to make this easier for all of our customers who have this need.

We want our apps to be available for our customers who are trying to work in those AI ecosystems, but we also want to be careful not to impose AI on those who have concerns or who are not interested. Wish us luck! And if you’re interested in helping us test this work, let us know.

OS 27 Compatibilty

While we are excited about the new features described above, our very first priority for this summer (as it is every summer) is to ensure compatibility of our apps by September, across all operating systems, on all platforms (Mac, iPhone, iPad, Apple Vision Pro, and Apple Watch).

Behind the scenes, this includes all of our universal apps (OmniPlan 4, OmniFocus 4, OmniOutliner 6, and the upcoming OmniGraffle 8), of course—plus OmniGraffle 7 for Mac and OmniGraffle 3 for iPhone and iPad. (Updating multiple different versions of OmniGraffle… have we mentioned we can’t wait for OmniGraffle 8 to also be universal?)

It’s amazing to think that the iPad’s support for multiple windows is only a year old. It already seems like it’s been there forever. Liquid Glass was an ambitious project, but has indeed unified app interfaces across Apple’s platforms. And the promise of a Siri that can actually understand natural language is finally being realized. After two years of Apple announcing dramatic changes at WWDC, we’re enjoying the calmer waters of the important refinements in this year’s updates.

Once again, we have a fun, busy summer and fall ahead!

(At the Omni Group, we make powerful productivity apps which help you accomplish more every day. Feedback? I’d love to hear from you! You can find me in the Mastodon corner of the Fediverse at @kcase@mastodon.social, or send me email at kc@omnigroup.com.)