Techmeme: Xbox had a terrible 2025: Microsoft canceled games and raised console and Game Pass prices, Costco stopped selling Xbox, and Valve's Steam Machine upstaged it (Devindra Hardawar/Engadget)

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Juli Clover / MacRumors:

The European Commission says Apple will bring AirPods-like pairing and iPhone notification access to third-party devices under the DMA in iOS 26.3 in 2026 — The European Commission today praised the interoperability changes that Apple is introducing in iOS 26.3, once again crediting the Digital Markets Act …

More: Wall Street Journal, Engadget, Thurrott, TechRadar, iPhone in Canada, BGR, Cult of Mac, SammyGuru, Mashable, 9to5Mac, and SamMobile

Bluesky: @gateklons. Forums: Hacker News, r/technology, r/europe, and MacRumors Forums

Bloomberg:

ServiceNow agrees to acquire cybersecurity startup Armis for $7.75B, set to close in H2 2026, pending approvals; Insight acquired Armis in a $1.1B deal in 2020 — ServiceNow Inc. has reached a deal to buy the cybersecurity startup Armis in a deal valued at $7.75 billion, representing its largest acquisition to date.

More: ServiceNow, CNBC, Cybersecurity Dive, CyberScoop, Globes, CRN, Security Boulevard, The Information, Investor's Business Daily, Pulse 2.0, Reuters, diginomica, MarketWatch, Axios, Benzinga, Constellation Research, Wall Street Journal, VINnews, and Bloomberg Law. LinkedIn: Syra Arif

Reece Rogers / Wired:

Google's Nano Banana Pro and OpenAI's ChatGPT Images can make nonconsensual bikini deepfakes from photos of fully clothed women; Reddit bans r/ChatGPTJailbreak — Users of AI image generators are offering each other instructions on how to use the tech to alter pictures of women into realistic, revealing deepfakes.

More: Associated Press. Bluesky: @thiccreese and @hypervisible.blacksky.app. Forums: r/artificial

Lauren Feiner / The Verge:

A federal judge grants a temporary injunction blocking a Texas law requiring mobile app stores to verify users' ages from taking effect on January 1 — The law was set to take effect next month. … A federal judge blocked a Texas law requiring mobile app stores to verify users' ages from taking effect on January 1st.

More: Reuters, Austin American-Statesman, Bloomberg Law, iPhone in Canada, CourtListener, and CCIA

X: @wendyndavis. Forums: r/technology

Devindra Hardawar / Engadget:

Xbox had a terrible 2025: Microsoft canceled games and raised console and Game Pass prices, Costco stopped selling Xbox, and Valve's Steam Machine upstaged it — But can it be resurrected in PC form? — Want to see a dead body? I present to you the Xbox.

More: Kotaku and Tech Times

Bluesky: @thedimpsler, @scalehelix.net, @quinnypig.com, and @econreporter. Forums: r/DreamStationcc

Heather Somerville / Wall Street Journal:

The US FCC bans imports, marketing, and sales of new foreign-made drones and components, including from China's DJI and Autel, citing national security concerns — American customers hoarding products in anticipation of restrictions against popular Chinese manufacturer DJI and a smaller competitor, Autel Robotics

More: Politico, Ars Technica, The Verge, Gizmodo, PCMag, US FCC, Tom's Hardware, iTnews, Global Times, DroneXL.co, SlashGear, iClarified, The National Pulse, Mashable, Washington Examiner, PetaPixel, The Independent, Digital Trends, Reuters, Tom's Guide, The Daily Caller, Android Authority, Modern Diplomacy, DroneDJ, CNN, Sherwood News, Associated Press, TechNode, The Hill, GSMArena.com, and Bloomberg

X: @brendancarrfcc and @fcc. Mastodon: @SuffolkLITLab@esq.social

Forums: r/radiocontrol, r/technology, r/politics, and r/fpv

Yueqi Yang / The Information:

Brett Harrison, the former president of FTX US, raised $35M for his new global exchange AX, which offers perpetual futures, a source says at a $187M valuation — Brett Harrison, the former president of FTX US, has raised $35 million for his startup Architect Financial Technologies, which offers a global perpetual futures exchange.

More: FinSMEs, The Block, Architect Financial …, Chicago Business, Crypto Briefing, and Pulse 2.0

X: @brettharrison88 and @brettharrison88

MiniMax:

China's MiniMax releases M2.1, an upgrade to its open-source M2 model that it says has “significantly enhanced” coding capabilities in Rust, Java, and others — MiniMax has been continuously transforming itself in a more AI-native way. The core driving forces of this process are models …

More: SiliconANGLE. X: @arafatkatze, @yashasgunderia, @tokenbender, @tphuang, @rudrank, @minimax__ai, @goosewin, and @minimax__ai. Forums: r/singularity

Kate Duguid / Financial Times:

US companies sold $1.7T of investment-grade bonds in 2025, nearing the $1.8T 2020 record, driven by AI infrastructure borrowing; Goldman says AI makes up ~30% — Investment-grade borrowers have issued $1.7tn of bonds this year, closing in on 2020s Covid debt rush

More: NOTUS, Silicon UK, Tech in Asia, Reuters, and Semafor

Rebecca Bellan / TechCrunch:

OpenAI details efforts to secure its ChatGPT Atlas browser against prompt injection attacks, including building an “LLM-based automated attacker” — Even as OpenAI works to harden its Atlas AI browser against cyberattacks, the company admits that prompt injections …

More: OpenAI, Fortune, eWeek, Gizmodo, BankInfoSecurity.com, Shelly Palmer, The Decoder, WinBuzzer, The Indian Express, Digital Trends, KnowTechie, and Digit

X: @dfinke, @_lamaahmad, and @xiangyuqi_pton

Forums: r/BlackboxAI_, r/artificial, r/BetterOffline, and r/firefox

Bloomberg:

Samsung's Harman agrees to acquire ZF's radar and automotive computing driver-assistance business for €1.5B, as the European auto-supplier sector struggles — Samsung Electronics Co.-owned Harman International is buying the advanced driver assistance systems business of Germany's ZF Group …

More: Samsung Newsroom, Reuters, Korea Joongang Daily, Wall Street Journal, electrive.com, SammyGuru, Analytics India Magazine, SamMobile, Automotive World, and KED Global

Keith Bradsher / New York Times:

Chinese automakers delay plans to mass-produce self-driving vehicles as Beijing becomes more cautious, after a fatal Xiaomi crash in March caused public concern — After years of planning for cars that would let drivers take their hands off the wheel and eyes off the road, China's regulators have become more cautious.

More: UKTN, Semafor, and BBC

Angus Whitley / Bloomberg:

The Canada Pension Plan Board and Australia's Goodman agree to invest $2.6B+ in data centers in Frankfurt, Amsterdam, and Paris, starting to build in June 2026 — The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Australia's Goodman Group agreed to set up a multibillion dollar European data center business …

More: Data Center Knowledge, DatacenterDynamics, iPhone in Canada, Verdict, Telecompaper, Capital Brief, and Dow Jones Newswires

Marina Temkin / TechCrunch:

Marissa Mayer's new startup Dazzle, which is building next-gen AI personal assistants, raised an $8M seed at a $35M valuation and plans to exit stealth in 2026 — The former Yahoo CEO, Marissa Mayer, refuses to sit on the sidelines of the generative AI revolution.

More: Financial Post

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