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August 18, 2026, 2:15 PM
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| Apple: |
Apple unveils new EU business terms from October 1, resolving disputes with the EU, including a new 5% 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.
More: MacRumors, Thurrott, TechCrunch, The Verge, 9to5Mac, AppleInsider, CNBC, Mobilegamer.biz, Blockonomi, and Apple Must
LinkedIn: Damien Geradin. Mastodon: @stroughtonsmith …. Forums: Hacker News, r/europe, r/apple, Slashdot, and MacRumors Forums
| Bloomberg: |
The EU says it “welcomes Apple's changes”; Apple will reduce its fees in the EU, charging 26% for apps with IAP, 20% for alt payments, and 15% for link-outs — Apple Inc. has agreed to a set of sweeping changes for its App Store in Europe, including dropping per-install fees … | 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, Apple Must, 9to5Mac, PYMNTS, and MacTech.com
| 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: The Information, TechCrunch, 9to5Mac, AppleInsider, Computerworld, 9to5Mac, iPhone in Canada, Futurism, TechSpot, Spyglass, TechRadar, What Hi-Fi?, Daring Fireball, Engadget, The Mac Observer, Mashable, SoundGuys, Digital Trends, Notebookcheck, PCMag, Tom's Guide, Gizchina, Forbes, GSMArena.com, The Shortcut, T3, Android Authority, Creative Bloq, Moneycontrol, OSnews, The Verge, iThinkDifferent, Gizmodo, Business Today, Times of India, Digit, Appleosophy, and Macworld
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, @markgurman, @zollotech, @leakerapple, @michaelmiraflor, @idevicehelpus, @benbajarin, @matthewberman, and @aaronp613
Bluesky: @martinsfp, @simli, @manton.org, 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: Macworld, Thurrott, 9to5Mac, Gizmodo, Implicator.ai, Engadget, MacRumors, iThinkDifferent, Apple Must, 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, PCWorld, The Verge, Thurrott, Business Insider, Forbes Middle East, Gizmodo, Business Standard, Moneycontrol, Associated Press, PCMag, MacRumors, TechCrunch, Livemint, Straight Arrow, Blockonomi, Neowin, Engadget, UPI, Axios, Digit, Los Angeles Times, Android Authority, Quartz, The Independent, The Decoder, Wall Street Journal, Digital Trends, CNN, Unite.AI, Bloomberg, Bitcoin Insider, Mashable, The Economic Times, Fast Company, Seeking Alpha, BMI, BBC, Financial Times, Daily Sabah, Reuters, Yahoo Finance, Finimize, Telecompaper, and MediaBrief
X: @kimmonismus, @btibor91, and @foxandfriends
LinkedIn: Leigh N. and Lauren Haber Jonas
| 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+).
More: Gizmodo, How-To Geek, Ars Technica, Fairphone, PCMag, BGR, 9to5Google, Trusted Reviews, Android Police, TechCrunch, Digital Trends, The Verge, Android Authority, and Engadget
| 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 …
| Wired: |
Meta ran ads for a nudify app; one ad showed 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.| Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge: |
Comcast is rolling out Wi-Fi motion sensing to its Xfinity gateways, a free opt-in feature that allows its routers to detect movement at home — Comcast is activating free Wi-Fi motion sensing on Xfinity gateways, allowing its routers to detect movement at home.
More: Reuters, TechCrunch, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Light Reading, Phandroid, and Comcast
Forums: r/privacy and r/technology
| Bloomberg: |
Sources: Anthropic's revolving credit facility is set to surpass its roughly $10B target as banks compete for roles on the company's upcoming IPO — Anthropic PBC's revolving credit facility is set to rise above its roughly $10 billion target, according to people familiar with the matter …
More: Reuters
| 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
| 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: TechCrunch, Finimize, Reuters, Etched, RuntimeWire, and Unite.AI
X: @packym, @mamoonha, @christophersaum, @mattshumer_, @etched, @etched, @trace_cohen, @bentossell, and @etched. LinkedIn: Hans Roesch
| 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: Gizmodo, New York Times, Engadget, 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
| 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: TechCrunch, Mashable, The American Bazaar, PCMag, TechRepublic, Engadget, WeRSM, and RuntimeWire
Bluesky: @jaypeters.net and @seosavvyagent.com
Forums: r/redditstock and r/technology
| Melia Robinson / Business Insider: |
Harvey announces Harvey Tenet, its first in-house, proprietary model for legal work, trained on mock disputes and case files using a version of Kimi K3 — Harvey built an $11 billion legal-software business on top of other companies' AI models. Now it's trying to prove it can build one of its own.| Diana Novak Jones / Reuters: |
How a bipartisan coalition of US states fought to present a united case against Meta; District Judge Rogers adopted a hybrid structure for the multiweek trial — As opening statements get underway in a landmark trial over claims that Meta Platforms (META.O) misled the public about the safety …
More: NPR, PYMNTS, Motley Fool, Ubergizmo, Reuters, Newser, Forbes, ZeroHedge News, BMI, MediaNews4U, and Tech in Asia
| Jonathan Vanian / CNBC: |
More: Bloomberg, Gizmodo, Breitbart, The Guardian, BBC, WKYT-TV, Engadget, Silicon Republic, New York Times, UPI, India Today, Sky News, Mirror, 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, New York Post, Fox Business, Livemint, NPR, Reuters, and Los Angeles Times
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
| 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.| Ina Fried / Axios: |
OpenAI says it has made several changes to its safety practices following the Hugging Face breach and has paused two weeks of deployment-focused RL training — OpenAI said Tuesday that it has made several changes to its safety practices following its determination that an upcoming system …
More: Sources, TechCrunch, and PC Gamer
| 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 and Pulse 2.0
| 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, Engadget, Digit, Blockonomi, @theweek, 9to5Google, Notebookcheck, Livemint, Business Today, and Telecompaper
X: @pstasiatech and @tculpan
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