4 – Breaking News & Latest Updates 2026
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News

All the news you need to keep up with the latest developments in the tech world, from product announcements and live events to tariffs, policies, and regulations. Tech touches every aspect of daily news, and our experts are here to keep you informed on what happens and how it all affects you.

Jess Weatherbed
Jess Weatherbed
Streamlabs can use your old phone as a relay link.

Network Boost is a new feature that aims to provide reliable connectivity for IRL streamers. It requires a Streamlabs Ultra subscription (which starts from $27 per month) and works by pooling cellular and local Wi-Fi connections together on both the iPhone you’re broadcasting on, and a secondary iPhone or Android device running the Streamlabs Controller app.

Jess Weatherbed
Jess Weatherbed
WhatsApp now lets you ping the entire group chat.

The communications app has introduced an “@all” alert to get everyone’s attention instead of tagging people individually — a feature that’s thankfully restricted to admins for group chats with more than 32 members. You can now also start new group chats from existing groups, and polls have been updated, adding the ability to hide voter names, edit questions, and set voting deadlines.

Andrew Liszewski
Andrew Liszewski
DJI’s upgraded Mic Mini 2S is now available everywhere except the US.

First announced nearly a month ago in China, DJI’s wireless Mic Mini 2S that adds redundant recording with 14.5GB of storage in each transmitter is now available globally, but not the US. A kit with two mics, a receiver, and a charging case is €189, £169, or CAD $265, according to PetaPixel.

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A person removes one of the wireless transmitters from the DJI Mic Mini 2S’ charging case.
Image: DJI
Charles Pulliam-Moore
Charles Pulliam-Moore
David Ellison promises he’s not going to ruin CNN.
Stevie Bonifield
Stevie Bonifield
Apple’s limiting bug report submissions after getting flooded with “AI slop.”

According to the Financial Times, Apple “has introduced a cap and a 30-day cool-off period” for researchers’ vulnerability reports for its operating systems due to an uptick in reports using AI that “can hallucinate security risks.” Apple is also reportedly using AI internally to help manage the recent “upsurge” in bug reports.

Andrew Liszewski
Andrew Liszewski
These trackable batteries could help you locate a missing camera.

In addition to built-in USB-C charging ports, Falcam’s new 2,600mAh TagBatt rechargeable batteries support Apple’s Find My tracking network so you can potentially use them to find a camera that’s been misplaced or stolen. They’re available now in a $69.99 Sony NP-FZ100 version, and a $64.99 LP-E6 option for Canon cameras.

A Falcam camera battery next to a device with a tracking map on screen.
Falcam’s trackable batteries are a more discreet alternative to accessories like lens caps that hide an Apple AirTag on the outside of your camera.
Image: Falcam
Thomas Ricker
Thomas Ricker
Spotify hits 300 million paid subscribers.

It’s the first company to reach the audio streaming milestone, showing 9 precent year-over-year growth in premium subscribers. Monthly active users climbed to 777 million, up 12 percent since the same quarter last year.

Robert Hart
Robert Hart
15 AGs tell OpenAI to preserve records on Hugging Face hack.

In a letter to CEO Sam Altman, a coalition of red-state attorneys general demanded the company retain information and halt risky cybersecurity testing after an AI agent escaped confinement and went on a hacking spree during testing. “OpenAI’s inability or unwillingness to ensure the safety of its products poses an imminent risk of substantial harm to our States,” the AGs wrote.

The request comes as the White House reportedly briefs tech leaders on a voluntary model testing framework.

Thomas Ricker
Thomas Ricker
Amazon is now worth over three Elon Musks.

AMZN surpassed $3 trillion in market value for the first time on the strength of accelerating cloud-computing revenue. It joins only Nvidia, Alphabet, Microsoft, and Apple in ever reaching the milestone. It first crossed the $1 trillion mark in 2018.

Jay Peters
Jay Peters
The White House will brief AI companies about its model testing framework on Tuesday.

Anthropic, OpenAI, and Google are all expected to attend the meeting, CNBC reports.

Jay Peters
Jay Peters
Who needs IMAX when you have iMacs?
Jay Peters
Jay Peters
T-Mobile shut down its 2G service today.
Stevie Bonifield
Stevie Bonifield
Snap reports 971 million monthly active users ahead of its Specs launch event on September 16th.

That’s up from 932 million a year ago, according to Snap’s latest earnings report. The company also says its revenue is up 19 percent year-over-year, as it prepares to launch its $2,195 augmented-reality glasses next month.

An image of Snap’s Specs AR glasses.
An image of Snap’s Specs AR glasses.
Image: Snap
Emma Roth
Emma Roth
Just peachy.

Leaker Evan Blass shared what appears to be marketing materials for the Pixel 11 Pro XL, and it shows the upcoming device in a peachy shade of pink. If the leaks are true, the Pixel 11 might come in a bunch of fun colors this year.

Image: Evan Blass
Image: Evan Blass
Emma Roth
Emma Roth
The Galaxy S27 Ultra might come with one less telephoto lens.

A report from ET News suggests that Samsung is planning to ditch the 10-megapixel 3x telephoto lens on its next-gen flagship, leaving it with a 50MP 5x telephoto lens and third camera. Samsung is reportedly making the change to cut costs amid surging chip prices.

Jay Peters
Jay Peters
Google Drive will let you add comments on video timestamps.

If you’re working on a video with others, the new feature should make it much easier to share specific feedback. You can only leave timestamped comments on the web, but on mobile, you’ll see those comments “as standard file-level comments,” Google says.

Jay Peters
Jay Peters
Google is teasing its next foldable.

In a new video on Monday, you can catch brief and shadowy glimpses of the Pixel 11 Pro Fold, which is set to be fully revealed at an event on August 12th.

But the phone’s design has already leaked, if you want to see it ahead of time.

Microsoft is bringing Xbox 360 games to PCMicrosoft is bringing Xbox 360 games to PC
Jay Peters and Tom Warren
Stevie Bonifield
Stevie Bonifield
Amazon’s developing a Warhammer 40,000 animated series produced by Henry Cavill.

According to Variety, the series will be a spin-off of Amazon’s 2024 Secret Level anthology series, which includes a Warhammer episode. It’s in development alongside the live-action Warhammer project Cavill’s also working on, and reportedly features the Deathwatch, “an elite group of Space Marines that specialize in hunting down alien threats.”

Jay Peters
Jay Peters
Matte black everything.

Leaker Evan Blass posted what appear to be marketing renders of the Pixel 11 Pro, including a few showing off an excellent matte gray / black model. In the renders, it looks great.

Apple is also rumored to launch a gray / black option for this year’s Pro lineup. But the shade on this Pixel 11 Pro might be hard to top.

A leaked marketing render of a Pixel 11 Pro.
Image: Evan Blass
Jess Weatherbed
Jess Weatherbed
Apple fights the UK’s iCloud backdoor order (again).

The Cupertino company has reportedly launched another legal challenge against the UK government’s attempt to force Apple into providing it with backdoor access to encrypted iCloud data. While the UK dropped its initial demands in August 2025, it apparently issued a second order last October that specifically targets British user data.

Jess Weatherbed
Jess Weatherbed
Amazon’s bot crackdown is blocking reviews.

Some Amazon shoppers have had limited access to customer reviews since late last year because the shopping platform is mistakenly flagging them as bots in its attempt to restrict unauthorized data scraping. Amazon hasn’t disclosed how many customers are affected, or what behaviors are getting people flagged.

Jess Weatherbed
Jess Weatherbed
The MacBook Air is looking scarce.

Apple is struggling to keep the laptop in stock, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, with new orders on some configurations experiencing “essentially unprecedented” delays of roughly a month. This joins the shortages for the Mac Mini and Studio, all of which are seemingly connected to the ongoing memory crisis.

Thomas Ricker
Thomas Ricker
A security flaw in widely used crime lab equipment exposed digital DNA evidence to undetectable tampering.

Using Antrophic’s Claude to exploit a security flaw that’s existed for decades, researchers successfully added and removed DNA profiles from files, meaning bad actors could theoretically frame an innocent person or erase a suspect. Equipment manufacturer Thermo Fisher has issued a software patch. There’s no evidence the vulnerability — which requires local lab access — had ever been exploited.

Thomas Ricker
Thomas Ricker
Spider-Man has blockbuster opening.

Tom Holland’s fourth stint as the web-slinging superhero brought in $927m ⁠in worldwide ticket sales, with $355m earned in North America alone. That makes it the second most lucrative opening weekend of all time both domestically and globally, behind only 2019’s Avengers: Endgame at $1.22b.

Terrence O'Brien
Terrence O'Brien
Tom Holland teases that he knows when Miles Morales is joining the MCU.

In an interview with 1Live, Holland wasted no time trying to send Marvel fans into a tizzy. When asked what his first question would be if he were in the interviewer’s chair, he responded, “When will we get Miles Morales? Would be the question I would ask, because I know the answer.”

Terrence O'Brien
Terrence O'Brien
Capital One says it closed Trump ⁠Organization accounts over money laundering concerns.

In 2021, the bank closed over 300 accounts affiliated with the Trump family business. The reasons why weren’t made public at the time. Last year, the organization filed suit claiming the closures were politically motivated, but in a filing this week, Capital One revealed that they resulted from an anti-money laundering review.

“The closures were the result of months of analysis and a careful review by ‌Capital One’s AML team in accordance with bank policies and regulatory guidance … The transaction patterns identified by Capital One are among the types of activity flagged by federal banking guidance.”

Terrence O'Brien
Terrence O'Brien
This robot plays pretty acoustic guitar melodies.

Music-playing robots are nothing new. It’s been 13 years since Compressorhead went viral, after all. But this DIY project from Reddit user MegCell is still pretty impressive. The melody isn’t hard-coded, either. Instead, the robot can read MusicXML files, meaning, theoretically, it can play almost any song you want.

Terrence O'Brien
Terrence O'Brien
Truth Social’s priority access subscription goes live and raises corruption concerns.

Trump Media announced the plan earlier this month for paid, real-time access to its most influential accounts. Today the API went live, with subscriptions as high as $100,000 per month. Other platforms offer similar API services, but none of those count the sitting US president as its most influential user and its largest shareholder.