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August 18, 2026, 12:40 PM
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Mediagazer
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WeSmirchTop News
| Juli Clover / MacRumors: |
A short video found in Apple's macOS Tahoe 26.7 RC appears to show a man demoing camera-equipped AirPods using Visual Intelligence and Siri to answer questions — Apple is working on camera-equipped AirPods that appear to be nearly ready to launch, based on a video MacRumors found in the macOS Tahoe 26.7 release candidate.
More: TechCrunch, Computerworld, 9to5Mac, 9to5Mac, Futurism, What Hi-Fi?, Digital Trends, Spyglass, Daring Fireball, The Shortcut, TechRadar, Android Authority, Tom's Guide, Gizmodo, Forbes, Engadget, The Mac Observer, Mashable, Notebookcheck, TechSpot, SoundGuys, PCMag, Gizchina, iThinkDifferent, GSMArena.com, T3, Creative Bloq, Moneycontrol, OSnews, The Verge, Times of India, Digit, Appleosophy, Business Today, Macworld, and AppleInsider
X: @aaronp613, @aaronp613, @kylebrussell, @caro_milanesi, @autismcapital, @dylanmcd8, @parkerortolani, @mweinbach, @mweinbach, @brandonbutch, @samkohl, @zellzoi, @taylorlorenz, @st_eppel, @parkerortolani, @outofgalaxyy, @appltrack, @gregorymcfadden, @tgod34748, @shishirshelke1, @oliviatheehye, @snazzylabs, @aaronp613, @markgurman, @zollotech, @leakerapple, @michaelmiraflor, @idevicehelpus, @benbajarin, and @matthewberman
Bluesky: @simli, @manton.org, @martinsfp, and @carnage4life. Mastodon: @zackwhittaker@mastodon.social
Forums: r/apple, r/apple, and MacRumors Forums
| Juli Clover / MacRumors: |
Apple's macOS Tahoe 26.7 RC references unreleased products: a Home Hub, home accessories, two new Beats, AirPods Pro 4, Apple Intelligence in China, and more — The macOS Tahoe 26.7 release candidate that Apple seeded today has references to several unreleased products, from home devices to iPhones, iPads, AirPods, and Macs.
More: Thurrott, 9to5Mac, Gizmodo, Engadget, Apple Must, MacRumors, iThinkDifferent, and AppleInsider. Forums: MacRumors Forums
| Cecilia Kang / New York Times: |
OpenAI debuts ChatGPT for Teens, a mode that limits high-risk chats about self-harm, eating disorders, violence, and more, and has studying tools and guardrails — The artificial intelligence start-up announced a chatbot mode that will automatically limit some conversations to better protect young users.
More: OpenAI, The Verge, PCWorld, Business Standard, Moneycontrol, 9to5Mac, MacRumors, PCMag, TechCrunch, Livemint, Associated Press, Neowin, UPI, Blockonomi, Digit, Los Angeles Times, Reuters, Android Authority, Engadget, BBC, The Economic Times, Finimize, Digital Trends, Axios, Quartz, Seeking Alpha, Bitcoin Insider, The Decoder, CNN, Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Fast Company, The Independent, Unite.AI, Mashable, BMI, Daily Sabah, Yahoo Finance, Telecompaper, and MediaBrief
X: @kimmonismus, @btibor91, and @foxandfriends
LinkedIn: Lauren Haber Jonas and Leigh N.
| Apple: |
Apple unveils new EU business terms from October 1, resolving disputes with the EU, including a new Core Technology Commission and App Store commission tiers — Apple today announced changes to its business terms for apps in the European Union, following close collaboration with the European Commission.| Bloomberg: |
The EU says it “welcomes Apple's changes” and they follow a “close dialogue”; IAP fees are 26%, alt payment processing fees are 20%, and link-out fees are 15% — Apple Inc. has agreed to a set of sweeping changes for its App Store in Europe, including dropping per-install fees … | Julian Chokkattu / Wired: |
Dutch company Fairphone launches its $650 flagship repairable Fairphone (Gen. 6+) in the US and plans to keep launching new phone generations every two years — More than a decade after launching in Europe, the Netherlands company is now selling its repairable phones in the US, starting with the Fairphone (Gen 6+).| Wired: |
Meta ran ads for a nudify app featuring a porn video with a deepfake closely resembling a prominent US politician; Apple removed the app from the App Store — One advertisement featured a pornographic video with a deepfake closely resembling a prominent US politician.| Michael Acton / Financial Times: |
In filings, Apple acknowledges App Store regulatory changes are weighing on its $100B+ services business; US App Store spend fell 6% YoY in Q2, per Sensor Tower — Court rulings and new App Store rules are beginning to weigh on one of the iPhone maker's profitable growth engines
More: AppleInsider, Macworld, MacRumors, PYMNTS, and MacTech.com
| Jonathan Vanian / CNBC: |
Opening arguments begin on Tuesday in the US state AGs' social media addiction lawsuit against Meta; New Mexico AG says the consequences could be “astronomical” — If New Mexico created the blueprint for taking on Meta, California could determine the company's fate when it comes …
More: Breitbart, Gizmodo, BBC, The Guardian, Engadget, Silicon Republic, Mirror, UPI, New York Times, India Today, Sky News, Fortune, Implicator.ai, Washington Post, Protecting Kids Online, New Jersey Office …, State of California, TechRadar, Attack of the Fanboy, Law.com, Motley Fool, Straight Arrow, The American Bazaar, NPR, New York Post, Fox Business, Livemint, Quartz, Reuters, Los Angeles Times, PetaPixel, and Associated Press
X: @agrobbonta, @moreperfectus, @agjayjones, @agjayjones, @rahmemanuel, and @robbonta
Bluesky: @whodat35 and @ukbastard
Forums: Hacker News, r/inthenews, r/Foodforthought, r/democrats, r/UpliftingNews, r/technology, r/facebook, and Slashdot
| Andy Greenberg / Wired: |
Q&A with Proton CEO Andy Yen on Proton's story, dislodging “a hundred million people” from Google, AI backlash, privacy, US politics, EU Chat Control, and more — Proton's CEO is a champion of encryption for everyone. So why is he going all in on un-encryptable AI?
Mastodon: @agreenberg@infosec.exchange
| Juro Osawa / The Information: |
Alibaba says its new open-source multimodal model, Qwen3.8-27B, passed 1M+ downloads within a few days of release, making it one of its fastest-growing models — Alibaba Group said its new small-size AI model that customers can run on their own personal computers has been downloaded …
| Owen Dahlkamp / Politico: |
Sources: AI-drafted bills are swamping the US House's Legislative Counsel, which now spends more time fixing them than it would spend to draft them from scratch — Congressional lawyers are struggling to manage a flood of legislative proposals generated using artificial intelligence tools …
More: Engadget, Gizmodo, New York Times, Townhall, and The Lever
Bluesky: @jackjenkins.me, @annmlipton, @fry69.dev, @andrewlevesque, @ohnoim.online, @jamesgoodwin, @frankpasquale, and @jtlg. Mastodon: @hrbrmstr@mastodon.social
Forums: r/politics and r/law
| Wall Street Journal: |
Sources: Situational Awareness offered part of its $5B Anthropic stake at a 20% discount as it scrambled for cash; word of its trouble left it “being hunted” — From whispers of an Anthropic stake sale to strange options moves, traders sensed trouble and swung into action
More: MarketWatch and New York Post
| Brock E.W. Turner / Axios: |
Francisco Partners plans to take patient engagement software company Weave Communications private for ~$650M; Weave went public at a ~$1.5B valuation in 2021 — Francisco Partners plans to take patient engagement software company Weave Communications private for approximately $650 million, the companies announced Tuesday.
More: Pulse 2.0 and Seeking Alpha
| Lauly Li / Nikkei Asia: |
Sources: Google has told suppliers it plans to move all Pixel phone, smartwatch, and wireless earbud manufacturing out of China in 2027 amid US-China tensions — TAIPEI — Google has told suppliers it plans to have all of its Pixel smartphones, watches and wireless earbuds produced outside …
More: Moneycontrol, MobileSyrup, 9to5Google, Digit, Engadget, Livemint, Blockonomi, @theweek, Notebookcheck, Business Today, and Telecompaper
X: @pstasiatech and @tculpan
| Mike Wheatley / SiliconANGLE: |
Palona, which uses AI agents to automate real-time workflows in brick-and-mortar businesses, raised a $20M Series A, following a $10M seed in 2025 — Artificial intelligence startup Palona AI, which is building an intelligence operating layer for physical businesses, is ready to show …
More: Restaurant Technology News, Pulse 2.0, RuntimeWire, and FinSMEs
| Jason Parham / Wired: |
Rogue Studio, which calls itself a “playground for creative ethical mischief”, launches Rogue 1.0, an AI video tool to make adult content of Hollywood quality — Rogue Studios, a new cinematic adult AI-generator, is betting big on the future of “sophisticated” spicy content.| Jay Peters / The Verge: |
Reddit launches an early experiment to convert select text posts and comments into short videos with AI voiceovers, rolling out on the web, iOS, and Android — Reddit's latest experiment creates videos with AI voices reading posts and comments out loud.
More: Mashable, TechCrunch, PCMag, TechRepublic, WeRSM, Engadget, and RuntimeWire
Bluesky: @jaypeters.net and @seosavvyagent.com
Forums: r/redditstock and r/technology
| Jeanny Yu / Bloomberg: |
Alibaba's Alipay launches a new “all-in-one” platform for businesses to use AI agents to automate tasks; Alibaba's stock jumps 5%+ and is up 40%+ since June — Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. shares rose the most in two weeks as the launch of a new ecommerce platform boosted optimism toward …
More: Ant Group and Blockonomi
| Shane Goldmacher / New York Times: |
Google quietly rolled out a new program to let verified political campaigns more easily bypass Gmail's spam filter, after years of complaints from the GOP — Republicans previously sued Google claiming its spam filter was biased, but the case was dismissed.| Robbie Whelan / Wall Street Journal: |
AI inference chip startup Etched raised $700M led by its new server rack customer Jane Street at a $21B valuation, up from $10.3B after raising $300M in July — Etched, founded by Harvard dropouts, has its own in-office data center and has signed quant-trading firm Jane Street as its first customer.
More: Reuters, Finimize, Etched, and RuntimeWire
X: @packym, @christophersaum, @mattshumer_, @bentossell, @etched, @etched, @etched, and @trace_cohen
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