Techmeme
June 26, 2026, 2:55 PM

Top News

Axios:
OpenAI releases three versions of GPT-5.6, called Sol, Terra, and Luna, as a limited preview to ~20 companies, with participants disclosed to the US government  —  OpenAI is rolling out GPT-5.6 Friday, but says it's limiting access to all three versions of the new model at the behest of the U.S. government.
Dean W. Ball / Hyperdimensional:
How US federal AI policy has gone from implausibly libertarian to increasingly draconian and opaque, and how to fix it, including using independent auditors  —  35 thoughts on what has happened and what America should do  —  Nothing below is an official or unofficial view of OpenAI.
OpenAI:
GPT-5.6 Sol matches Mythos Preview on ExploitBench, adds Ultra mode with subagents for complex workflows, and max reasoning for deep problem-solving  —  We're beginning a limited preview of the GPT-5.6 series: Sol, our flagship model; Terra, a balanced model for everyday work; and Luna, a fast and affordable model.
Amrith Ramkumar / Wall Street Journal:
OpenAI hopes to make GPT-5.6 generally available in the coming weeks and says “this kind of government access process” should not become the long-term default  —  Company says White House review of AI releases shouldn't become long-term default; ban on Anthropic's Mythos model remains
The Information:
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple's 14" and 16" OLED touch screen MacBook Pros will be powered by the existing M5 Pro and M5 Max chips and have an updated industrial design  —  Apple Inc.'s first-ever touch-screen laptop will rely on the company's current high-end M5 chips, rather than next-generation silicon …
Financial Times:
Sources: during SpaceX's IPO roadshow, COO Gwynne Shotwell told investors that it may launch a Starlink mobile service and build its own terrestrial US network  —  Move would test whether group can turn sky-high ambition into a mass-market phone business  —  Elon Musk's SpaceX has told investors …
New York Times:
Aya Wagatsuma / Bloomberg:
Kevin Breuninger / CNBC:
President Trump threatens to impose a 100% tariff on any country that imposes a digital services tax on US companies  —  President Donald Trump on Friday threatened to impose a “100% TARIFF” on the goods of any country that imposes a digital services tax on U.S. companies.
Om Malik / On my Om:
Om Malik, a longtime technology writer, the founder of Gigaom, and a partner at True Ventures, died on Wednesday at 59  —  Om Malik passed away on June 24, 2026, at Stanford Hospital after a long health journey with his heart.  He was surrounded by family and friends.
More: RuntimeWire, Thurrott, Axios, Silicon Valley Business …, Implicator.ai, Inc.com, Platformonomics, SiliconANGLE, Michael Tsai, Ben Werdmuller, Howie Town, The Economic Times, Hindustan Times, Matt Mullenweg, TheDesk.net, The Verge, and kottke.org
Forums: Hacker News and Lobsters
Tim Clark / PC Gamer:
Q&A with Tim Sweeney on his vision for a cross-platform gaming social system, Unreal Engine 6, AI's PR challenges, the state of AAA game development, and more  —  The Epic Games CEO discusses his vision for “Team Open,” his objections to Steam's AI disclosure requirement, and the huge problems facing AAA game development.
Anna Bawden / The Guardian:
A study of 408 teens in Australia finds 80%+ were still using social media three months after the ban came into force, citing inadequate age verification checks  —  Experts say law not enough to stop children accessing harmful content online and more ‘convincing strategy is required’
Kenneth Shepard / Kotaku:
Microsoft says it will increase the prices of Xbox consoles on August 1 by $100 for 512GB models and $150 for 1TB models, the third price hike since May 2025  —  Microsoft is increasing the prices of Xbox Series consoles once more and introducing a ‘Buy Now, Pay Later’ option
Financial Times:
Binance tells EU customers that it will stop providing services for them from July 1, after Greece rejected its application for a bloc-wide license last week  —  World's biggest crypto exchange tells customers how to withdraw their money as MiCA rules set to come into force
MacKenzie Sigalos / CNBC:
Apple's stock closed down 6.15% on Thursday after the company raised prices on several products and hinted at more increases, its worst fall since April 2025  —  Apple on Thursday announced price hikes on MacBooks and iPads, its first formal move to pass higher memory and storage costs …
Rolfe Winkler / Wall Street Journal:

Sponsor Posts

Subquadratic:
SubQ Snap 1.1: the first long-context decision model for real enterprise work  —  Tied for #1 on the AA Decision Index, Snap is a multimodal model with a 384k-token context window for fast reasoning and agentic decisions.
Zoho:
How EWS deprecation affects Zoho Calendar Interoperability  —  Understanding the impactMicrosoft began blocking Exchange Web Services (EWS) requests in Exchange Online (Microsoft 365) as of October 1, 2026.
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Salesforce data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.
WebBrain:
WebBrain: an open-source AI agent for your browser  —  Read pages, fill forms and automate tasks in Chrome or Firefox.  Use local models or your preferred AI provider.  Get started free.

Featured Podcasts

Lenny's Podcast:
Why PMs are suddenly valuable again | Tulsee Doshi (Head of Product, Gemini)
Interviews with world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover actionable advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product.
Subscribe to Lenny's Podcast.
Big Technology Podcast:
AI Stockpocalypse, Anthropic Nears RSI?, Prediction Markets vs. Pollsters
The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.
Subscribe to Big Technology Podcast.
Machine Gods:
The Purple Tsunami Against Data Centers
The official podcast of the singularity, from Casey Newton and Kevin Roose. Twice-weekly news, analysis, and interviews with the people who are building the future.
Subscribe to Machine Gods.
Invest Like the Best:
Ramtin Naimi - The State of Venture
The leading destination to learn about business and investing. We do this by showcasing exceptional talent and ideas.
Subscribe to Invest Like the Best.
The Upstarts Podcast:
How Ramp Built A $60B AI Product Factory Off A Corporate Card | Co-CEO Eric Glyman
Veteran tech reporter Alex Konrad sits down with breakout entrepreneurs taking on the status quo to shake up their fields in AI, design, nuclear energy, space, and more.
Subscribe to The Upstarts Podcast.
Great Chat:
Would you let a robot do it?
A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.
Subscribe to Great Chat.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 2:55 PM ET, June 26, 2026.

The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.

More News

Justin Lahart / Wall Street Journal:

Earlier Picks

Sean O'Kane / TechCrunch:
Reuters:
Zac Bowden / Windows Central:
Ethan Gach / Kotaku: