China advances reusable spacecraft ambitions with new Shenlong launch, similar to US’ X-37B

Summary:
Beijing has pushed forward its push into reusable orbital systems with the launch of another...

This Week In Techdirt History: February 1st – 7th

Summary:
Five Years Ago This week in 2021, the attacks on Section 230 were coming fast, with a Columbia law professor spewing blatantly false information in the Wall Street Journal and Joe Lieberman calling for its repeal, followed by the Democrats introducing the dumpster fire that was the SAFE TECH Act, which we dug into in […]

DOJ-released emails: Jeffrey Epstein helped Ian Osborne, founder of London-based fund Hedosophia, after Osborne's outreach to help Epstein fix his image in 2011 (Financial Times)

Summary:

Financial Times:
DOJ-released emails: Jeffrey Epstein helped Ian

Trump-linked World Liberty Financial's stablecoin, USD1, hit $5B in total circulation in January with 85% held in Binance accounts; Trump pardoned CZ in October (David Yaffe-Bellany/New York Times)

Summary:

David Yaffe-Bellany / New York Times:
Trump-linked World Liberty Financial's stablecoin, USD1, hit $5B in total circulation in January with 85% held in Binance accounts; Trump pardoned CZ in October  —  Ties between the exchange and the president's company, World Liberty Financial, have only strengthened since the president pardoned Binance's founder, Changpeng Zhao.

Docker versus Nix: The quest for true reproducibility

Summary:

When conducting performance benchmarks, the ultimate goal is an apples-to-apples comparison. Docker, widely recognized as one of the most brilliant

The post Docker versus Nix: The quest for true reproducibility appeared first on The New Stack.

Astronomers move closer to pinpointing where giant black holes merge

Summary:
Somewhere in the universe, enormous black holes are circling each other so slowly that their...

Apple Shows Off a Key Reason to Upgrade to the iPhone 17

Summary:
Apple today shared an ad that shows how the upgraded Center Stage front camera on the latest iPhones improves the process of taking a group selfie.

Users no longer have to rotate their iPhone to take a landscape selfie — they can now take photos and videos in portrait or landscape while holding their iPhone vertically, enabling a more comfortable, secure grip and centred gaze. For group shots, Center Stage for photos uses AI to automatically expand the field of view and can rota

How WebAssembly and Web Workers prevent UI freezes

Summary:

We’ve all experienced a frozen web page followed by endless refreshing, frustrated sighs, and the occasional foot stomp, only to

The post How WebAssembly and Web Workers prevent UI freezes appeared first on The New Stack.

How GSD turns Claude into a self-steering developer

Summary:

The speed at which ClawdBot MoltBot OpenClaw climbed in popularity was quite phenomenal, and for good reason: It has an

The post How GSD turns Claude into a self-steering developer appeared first on The New Stack.

Tether froze $544M in alleged illicit income at Turkey's request, part of its push to aid governments in crackdowns against crypto use in alleged crimes (Bloomberg)

Summary:

Bloomberg:
Tether froze $544M in alleged illicit income at Turkey's request, part of its push to aid governments in crackdowns against crypto use in alleged crimes  —  On Jan. 30, Turkish authorities announced the freezing of more than half a billion dollars in assets owned by Veysel Sahin …

Apple, whose capital expenditure is just a fraction of its peers, is the only Big Tech company that saw capex decline YoY in Q4, decreasing 19% to $2.37B (Rani Molla/Sherwood News)

Summary:

Rani Molla / Sherwood News:
Apple, whose capital expenditure is just a fraction of its peers, is the only Big Tech company that saw capex decline YoY in Q4, decreasing 19% to $2.37B  —  One of these companies is not like the others.  —  If you've been following the Big Tech companies' earnings reports …

Memory-Safe Jule language emerges as C/C++ alternative

Summary:

With the U.S. government and other institutions calling for the use of memory-safe programming languages in critical systems, Jule, a

The post Memory-Safe Jule language emerges as C/C++ alternative appeared first on The New Stack.

Get $100 Off Apple Watch Series 11 on Amazon, Available From $299

Summary:
Amazon this weekend has all-time low prices on the Apple Watch Series 11, with $100 discounts across numerous models of the smartwatch. This time around, we're tracking these record low prices on nearly every aluminum model.

Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Amazon. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.

You can get the 42mm GPS Apple Watch Series 11 for $299.00 [...]

Chinese firm unveils new pyramid-shaped PC that runs AI locally, not on the cloud

Summary:
M5Stack has unveiled its 24 TOPS AI Pyramid Pro pyramid-shaped desktop personal computer. Apart from...

An interview with Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour about the "wisdom of the crowd", political polarization, having Trump Jr. as an adviser, casino comparisons, and more (Oliver Roeder/Financial Times)

Summary:

Oliver Roeder / Financial Times:
An interview with Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour about the “wisdom of the crowd”, political polarization, having Trump Jr. as an adviser, casino comparisons, and more  —  The co-founder of America's biggest predictions market on the ‘wisdom of the crowd’, political polarisation — and the company's adviser, Donald Trump Jr

China’s ‘artificial photosynthesis’ method could create petrol from carbon dioxide

Summary:
A team of Chinese scientists has unveiled a breakthrough method that turns carbon dioxide and...

Top Stories: iOS 26.3 and 26.4 Features, Foldable iPhone Details, and More

Summary:
The iOS 26.3 release looks to be right around the corner with a highly anticipated iOS 26.4 update following right behind, so Apple software rumors were big in the news this week.


Hardware wasn't left out, however, as we're still awaiting a few early-year launches like the M5 Pro and M5 Max MacBook Pro, while we're also looking further down the road at major new products coming later in the year like the first foldable iPhone, so read on below for all the details on these stories and more!

Top Stories

iOS 26.3 and iOS 26.4 Will Add These New Features to Your iPhone

Rare 2,200-year-old bone suggests elephants crushed enemies in the Punic War

Summary:
Although elephants appear in ancient texts, on coins, and in depictions of the legendary Punic...

‘Impossible’ material: Researchers create glass-plastic hybrid that defies physics theory

Summary:
Researchers at Wageningen University & Research (WUR) have defied long-standing material theories by developing a...

China conducted secret nuclear tests, US alleges a day after new arms control proposal

Summary:
China has been accused of carrying out secret nuclear testing in 2020 by the United...

Chinese EV pairs 93 kW methanol engine with electric motor for new powerful hybrid

Summary:
Chinese automotive giant Geely is expanding its Galaxy Starshine 6 lineup with a new methanol...

New US rules banning Chinese software in internet-connected vehicles from March 17 add urgency to industrywide efforts to reduce reliance on Chinese components (Stephen Wilmot/Wall Street Journal)

Summary:

Stephen Wilmot / Wall Street Journal:
New US rules banning Chinese software in internet-connected vehicles from March 17 add urgency to industrywide efforts to reduce reliance on Chinese components  —  New U.S. rules ban Chinese software in vehicles on national-security grounds  —  How

Summary:

The weird bastion stuff in D&D 5e 2024 makes a lot more sense after reading Dungeon Crawler Carl.

Exotic dark matter candidate that could replace supermassive black hole theory modeled

Summary:
At the center of our galaxy, something incredibly heavy is pulling the strings. Stars there...

AI Reality Bites, Wall Street Panics, and Everyone Becomes an Architect

Summary:

Original Content

A few things since last time:

• Kubernetes use rising, large organizations slowest to adapt, not many people train their own AI model or deploy new AI models frequently - my highlights from the most recent CNCF state of stuff survey.

• Enterprise ROI is elusive - maybe ROI is just headcount chopping, not revenue growth and “transformation” - Executives continue to say they don’t know how to measure ROI for AI, and/or that it’s low. Despite that: “Our survey reveals a troubling disconnect: 48% of firms have already cut headcount due to AI.” I round up a few surveys with some link-commentary. Also, here’s an additional link on that topic.

• There was a tech freakout

German team discovers new type of magnetism in 2D materials to help store future data

Summary:
Researchers have discovered a new type of magnetism in 2D materials that can help store...

Kalshi and Polymarket have facilitated over $800M in Super Bowl contracts, as pro gamblers shift to prediction markets and adopt Wall Street-style strategies (Bloomberg)

Summary:

Bloomberg:

Chinese regulators fined Kuaishou $17.2M for failing to curb illegal content; pornographic content appeared on Kuaishou during its December 2025 cyberattacks (Bloomberg)

Summary:

Bloomberg:
Chinese regulators fined Kuaishou $17.2M for failing to curb illegal content; pornographic content appeared on Kuaishou during its December 2025 cyberattacks  —  Chinese regulators fined Kuaishou Technology 119.1 million yuan ($17.2 million) over pornographic content that swamped its platform last December …

US data center demand has driven stock surges of contractors and equipment makers like Corning, Sterling Infrastructure, Comfort Systems USA, and Carrier Global (Wall Street Journal)

Summary:

Wall Street Journal:
US data center demand has driven stock surges of contractors and equipment makers like Corning, Sterling Infrastructure, Comfort Systems USA, and Carrier Global  —  Data-center demand has sent shares in contractors, equipment makers and more surging  —  The intensity of Americ

Source: Benchmark raised $225M in special funds to invest in Cerebras' ~$1B Series H, led by Tiger Global; Benchmark led Cerebras' $27M Series A in 2016 (Marina Temkin/TechCrunch)

Summary:

Marina Temkin / TechCrunch:
Source: Benchmark raised $225M in special funds to invest in Cerebras' ~$1B Series H, led by Tiger Global; Benchmark led Cerebras' $27M Series A in 2016  —  This week, AI chipmaker Cerebras Systems announced that it raised $1 billion in fresh capital at a valuation of $23 billion …

RADICL, which offers threat detection and response services to SMBs supporting US defense industrial base and critical infrastructure, raised a $31M Series A (Duncan Riley/SiliconANGLE)

Summary:

Duncan Riley / SiliconANGLE:
RADICL, which offers threat detection and response services to SMBs supporting US defense industrial base and critical infrastructure, raised a $31M Series A  —  Cybersecurity-as-a-service startup Radicl Defense Inc. announced today that it has raised $31 million in early-stage funding …

Reminder: Don’t Believe The NFL’s Lies About Its Super Bowl Trademarks

Summary:
It’s been several years since we last did this, but I’d like to remind you all that the National Football League plays a lot of make believe when it comes to what its trademarks for the “Super Bowl” do and do not allow it to do in terms of enforcement. Thanks largely to media outlets […]

South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb says it accidentally sent $44B worth of bitcoin to customers as promotional rewards and has recovered 99.7% of it (Hyunjoo Jin/Reuters)

Summary:

Hyunjoo Jin / Reuters:
South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb says it accidentally sent $44B worth of bitcoin to customers as promotional rewards and has recovered 99.7% of it  —  South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb said on Saturday it had accidentally given away more than $40 billion worth of bitcoins …

A look at the state of AI agents, the evolution of thinking models, the staggering need for inference compute in the coming years, automated research, and more (Eric Jang/Evjang.com)

Summary:

Eric Jang / Evjang.com:
A look at the state of AI agents, the evolution of thinking models, the staggering need for inference compute in the coming years, automated research, and more  —  — Dr. Vannevar Bush, As We May Think, 1945  —  If we consider life to be a sort of open-ended MMO, the game server has just received a major update.

New York lawmakers propose a bill to impose a three-year moratorium on data center development, making NY at least the sixth state to introduce such legislation (Molly Taft/Wired)

Summary:

Molly Taft / Wired:
New York lawmakers propose a bill to impose a three-year moratorium on data center development, making NY at least the sixth state to introduce such legislation  —  Red and blue states alike have introduced legislation in recent weeks that would halt data center development, citing concerns from climate to high energy prices.

US tech stocks and bitcoin rally after three days of selling; Nasdaq Composite closed up 2.18%, Broadcom 7.22%, Strategy 26.11%, and bitcoin rebounded to ~$70K (Emily Herbert/Financial Times)

Summary:

Emily Herbert / Financial Times:
US tech stocks and bitcoin r

Former Federal Judge: ICE’s Home Raiding Policy Violates A Basic Constitutional Right

Summary:
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. As Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, agents continued to use aggressive and sometimes violent methods to make arrests in its mass deportation campaign, including breaking down doors in Minneapolis homes, a bombshell report from the Associated Press on Jan. 21, […]

Why Apple's iOS 26.4 Siri Upgrade Will Be Bigger Than Originally Promised

Summary:
In the iOS 26.4 update that's coming this spring, Apple will introduce a new version of Siri that's going to overhaul how we interact with the personal assistant and what it's able to do.


The iOS 26.4 version of ‌Siri‌ won't work like ChatGPT or Claude, but it will rely on large language models (LLMs) and has been updated from the ground up.

Upgraded Architecture

DOJ’s Frivolous Boasberg Complaint Dismissed—While Nobody Can Explain How DOJ Got The ‘Evidence’ It Never Provided

Summary:
Back in August, we wrote about the Department of Justice’s unprecedented decision to file a judicial misconduct complaint against D.C. Chief Judge James Boasberg. The complaint, which Attorney General Pam Bondi tweeted about in what was itself likely a violation of the law governing such complaints, accused Boasberg of violating judicial ethics by… privately expressing […]

iPhone Air Review: Four Months Later, is Apple's Thinnest iPhone Worth $999?

Summary:
It's been four months since the iPhone Air came out, and it hasn't exactly been a resounding success. Sales are reportedly so low that Apple is delaying the next-generation model. MacRumors videographer Dan Barbera shares what it's been like using Apple's thinnest and lightest iPhone on a daily basis over the last few months.

Telly’s Plan For ‘Free’ Ad-Based TV Revolution Runs Into Quality Control Problems

Summary:
Back in 2023 we noted how a company named Telly proclaimed it had come up with a new idea for a TV: a free TV, with a second small TV below it, that shows users ads pretty much all of the time. While the bottom TV could also be used for useful things (like weather […]

Apple to Allow ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini in CarPlay

Summary:
Apple is planning to bring new AI features to CarPlay, reports Bloomberg. Apple will allow third-party chatbot apps to integrate with ‌CarPlay‌, so AI services like Claude, Gemini, and ChatGPT will be accessible in the car for the first time.


‌CarPlay‌ already supports third-party apps, but the types of apps that are supported are limited. Companies like Anthropic and OpenAI aren't currently able to create ‌CarPlay‌ apps, so users are limited to using Siri voice controls in the vehicle.

With the change, ‌CarPlay‌ u [...]

Veracode Extends Package Firewall Reach to Microsoft Artifacts

Summary:

MacRumors Giveaway: Win an iPhone 17 and Fresh Coat Screen Protector From Astropad

Summary:
For this week's giveaway, we've teamed up with Astropad to offer MacRumors readers a chance to win an iPhone 17 and one of Astropad's anti-reflective Fresh Coat screen protectors to go along with it.


Fresh Coat is a new kind of screen protector that Astropad designed with an optical-grade anti-reflective coating to reduce glare and provide a better iPhone viewing experience. The technology that Astropad is using cuts reflections [...]

The CIA Erased The World Factbook With No Warning… And Told Everyone To ‘Stay Curious’

Summary:
For over half a century, the CIA’s World Factbook has been one of the most quietly useful things the federal government has ever produced. A comprehensive, regularly updated, freely available reference on every country in the world—population stats, government structures, economic data, geography, the works. It was the kind of thing that made you think, […]

Daily Deal: The Ultimate AWS Data Master Class Bundle

Summary:
The Ultimate AWS Data Master Class Bundle has 9 courses to get you up to speed on Amazon Web Services. The courses cover AWS, DevOPs, Kubernetes Mesosphere DC/OS, AWS Redshift, and more. It’s on sale for $40. Note: The Techdirt Deals Store is powered and curated by StackCommerce. A portion of all sales from Techdirt […]

Best Apple Deals of the Week: Apple Watch Series 11 Get $100 Discounts Amid Valentine's Day and Super Bowl Sales

Summary:
This week we began tracking big savings thanks to Valentine's Day and Super Bowl sales, which include discounts on everything from iPhone 17 cases to monitors and TVs. You'll also find deals below on Apple Watch Series 11 and AirPods 4, with the best prices of the year so far on each.

Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with some of these vendors. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.

Valentine's Day Deals

Super Bowl: Stream For Free Tomorrow on iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV

Summary:
Super Bowl LX is tomorrow (Sunday, February 8), and there is a way for U.S. viewers to watch for free. Our instructions below are focused on the iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple TV, but this method will of course work across a variety of devices.


2026's Super Bowl has the New England Patriots facing the Seattle Seahawks at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, California, with the kickoff time on Sunday scheduled for 3:30 p.m. Pacific Time / 6:30 p.m. Eastern Time. These two teams already met in the 2015 Super Bowl, which ended in a Patriots championship.

The big game is airing on NBC and streaming on Peacock Premium tomorrow.

One way to stream the 2026 Super Bowl for free on the iPhone, iPad, Mac, a [...]

Operant AI targets ‘shadow’ AI agents with real-time security platform

Summary:

As AI agents fan out across enterprise apps, APIs, and data stores, they’re creating a security blind spot: autonomous systems

The post Operant AI targets ‘shadow’ AI agents with real-time security platform appeared first on The New Stack.

Facial Recognition Tech Used To Hunt Migrants Was Deployed Without Required Privacy Paperwork

Summary:
In the grand scheme of things — the wanton cruelty, the routine violations of rights, the actual fucking murders — this may only seem like a blip on the mass deportation continuum. But this report from Dell Cameron for Wired is still important. It not only explains why federal officers are approaching people with cellphones […]

NASA Now Allowing Astronauts to Bring Their iPhones on Space Missions

Summary:
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman on Wednesday announced that NASA astronauts will soon be permitted to fly with "the latest smartphones," beginning with the SpaceX Crew-12 and Artemis II missions over the next few months.


In an email, an Apple spokesperson said this will mark the first time the iPhone has been fully qualified for extended use in orbit and beyond.

NASA astronauts were previously not allowed to carry their own personal smartphones on space flights, but they did allow some approved DSLR cameras and other equipment. With smartphones, Isaacman said astronauts will be able to "capture special moments for their families and share inspiring images and video with the world."

It is unclear exactly which iPhone mode [...]

The MacRumors Show: All the New Macs Coming This Year

Summary:
We discuss all of the new Macs Apple is expected to release this year, starting with the M5 Pro and M5 Max MacBook Pro, on this week's episode of The MacRumors Show.

Swift Student Challenge Submissions Now Open Ahead of WWDC 2026

Summary:
Apple today announced that submissions for the 2026 Swift Student Challenge are now open through Saturday, February 28.


The annual Swift Student Challenge gives eligible student developers around the world the opportunity to showcase their coding capabilities by using the Swift Playground or Xcode apps to create an interactive "app playground."

Apple said winners will be selected based on submissions that "demonstrate excellence in innovation, creativity, social impact, or inclusivity." A subset of [...]

Is the SaaSpocalypse nigh? The era of paying for software seats may be ending.

Summary:

In December 2024, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella appeared on the BG2 podcast and made a prediction that felt provocative and

The post Is the SaaSpocalypse nigh? The era of paying for software seats may be ending. appeared first on The New Stack.

How AI Is Expanding Who Gets to Build Infrastructure

Summary:

How Homepage simplifies monitoring your self-hosted services

Summary:

Slowly but surely, I’ve been migrating over to self-hosted services so I can finally cut the cord to third parties.

The post How Homepage simplifies monitoring your self-hosted services appeared first on The New Stack.

Apple CEO Tim Cook Asked About Retirement Again, Here's What He Said

Summary:
In an all-hands meeting with employees on Thursday, Apple CEO Tim Cook briefly touched on the topic of retirement, but he remained coy about his plans.


"I spend a lot of time thinking about who's in the room five years from now, 10 years from now," said Cook, who was taking questions, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. "I am obsessed with this — who's in the room 15 years from now."

A few months ago, the Financial Times reported that Apple was preparing for Cook to step down as soon as early 2026. However, Gurman has previously said that this t [...]

AirTag 1 Gets Major Discounts With 1-Pack at $17 and 4-Pack at $64

Summary:
Apple's first-generation AirTag 4-Pack has dropped to $64.00 this week on Amazon, down from the original price of $99.00. Free shipping options have a delivery estimate around February 11, while Prime members should be able to get it delivered a few days sooner.

Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Amazon. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.

Overall, this is a solid second-best price on the AirTag 4-pack that's within $1 of the Amazon all-time low price. If you're shopping for a single AirTag, Amazon has the AirTag 1- [...]

MAGA Zealots Are Waging War On Affordable Broadband

Summary:
The Trump administration keeps demonstrating that it really hates affordable broadband. It particularly hates it when the government tries to make broadband affordable to poor people or rural school kids. In just the last year the Trump administration has: I’m sure I missed a few. This week, the administration’s war on affordable broadband shifted back […]

iPhone 18 Pro Max Rumored to Deliver Next-Level Battery Life

Summary:
The iPhone 18 Pro Max will feature a bigger battery for continued best-in-class battery life, according to a known Weibo leaker.


Citing supply chain information, the Weibo user known as "Digital Chat Station" said that the ‌iPhone 18‌ Pro Max will have a battery capacity of 5,100 to 5,200 mAh. Combined with the efficiency improvements of the A20 Pro chip, made with TSMC's 2nm process, the device could tout extremely impressive battery life. It is expected to be thicker than its predecessor to facilitate the larger battery.

The [...]

Qodo Adds Multiple AI Agents to Code Review Platform

Summary:

Beyond Test Case Generation: How to Create Intelligent Quality Ecosystems

Summary:

pg_lake comes to Snowflake Postgres: What it means for open standards

Summary:

The pg_lake extension, which was initially released to the open source community in November, is now natively available in Postgres,

The post pg_lake comes to Snowflake Postgres: What it means for open standards appeared first on The New Stack.

The 10-Layer Monitoring Framework That Saved Our Clients From 3 a.m. Pages

Summary:

Is Claude Opus 4.6 the Best Security Researcher Ever?

Summary:

Two theories of the AI investor spook-out

Summary:

First, there is the fear that AI generated apps will replace existing software companies. This from Benji Edwards at Ars:

These releases occurred during a week of exceptional volatility for software stocks. On January 30, Anthropic released 11 open source plugins for Cowork, its agentic productivity tool that launched on January 12. Cowork itself is a general-purpose tool that gives Claude access to local folders for work tasks, but the plugins extended it into specific professional domains: legal contract review, non-disclosure agreement triage, compliance workflows, financial analysis, sales, and marketing.<

Relative to your interests, Friday

Summary:

• A Perfect Match for Big Data: VMware vSphere Kubernetes Service and Tanzu Greenplum
• MCP Auth made easier in Spring - doing auth in MCP has always been a shit-show.
• The AI Free Lunch is Over - Links to several analyst surveys on enterp

NIH Boss Jay Bhattacharya Breaks With RFK Jr. On Vaccines

Summary:
Echo chambers are generally bad. Any group making important decisions should have a certain level of diversity of thought to avoid groupthink. But I would argue that there are some stances that are so fundamental that it’s good when everyone is on the same page about them. Vaccines, for instance. It would be just the […]

Does Go have a 'boilerplate tax'?

Summary:

#​588 — February 6, 2026 Read the Web Version Go Weekly

Apple Reportedly Scaling Back This Long-Rumored iOS 27 Feature

Summary:
iOS 27 will no longer include a long-rumored feature known as Apple Health+ inside Apple, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.


Apple Health+ was supposed to be a virtual health coach that could give users AI-powered health recommendations in the Apple Health app, based on their personal health data, the report said. The feature would have provided users with detailed health reports, videos that explained medical conditions and offered wellness tips, and more.

"The major new service would have combined new surveys and health assessments with data from Apple Watches and externa [...]

Apple Releases watchOS 11.6.2 With an Important Fix

Summary:
Apple today released watchOS 11.6.2 for the Apple Watch Series 6 through Series 10, Apple Watch SE 2, and Apple Watch Ultra and Ultra 2.


"This update provides important bug fixes and is recommended for all users," says Apple.

watchOS 11.6.2 will only appear on Apple Watch models that have not already been updated to watchOS 26 or later. There are no specific details available yet beyond Apple's vague release notes, so it is unclear what exactly the update includes.

Update: Apple says watchOS 11.6.2 "addresses a cellular network issue for Series 6, Series 7, Series 8, Series 9, Series 10, SE 2, Ultra, and Ultra 2 when establishing a connection to emergency services in Australia."

How Convera built fine-grained API authorization with Amazon Verified Permissions

Summary:
In this post, we share how Convera used Amazon Verified Permissions to build a fine-grained authorization model for their API platform.

EU Spares Apple Maps and Apple Ads

Summary:
The European Commission today said it found that Apple Maps and Apple Ads should not be designated as "gateways" under the EU's Digital Markets Act.


In a press release, the European Commission said that Apple Maps and Apple Ads are not big enough individually to qualify as "important gateways between business users and end users," and therefore the platforms will not be subject to stricter regulations. This follows an investigation that began in late November.

"This assessment is based on a number of considerations, including that Apple Maps has a relatively low overa [...]

Where on Earth is vibe coding taking off the most?

Summary:

Despite talk of its impending demise, the vibe coding craze appears to be alive and well, particularly in Europe. A new study by

The post Where on Earth is vibe coding taking off the most? appeared first on The New Stack.

Tim Cook Teases Plans for Apple's Upcoming 50th Anniversary

Summary:
Apple turns 50 this year, and its CEO Tim Cook has promised to celebrate the milestone. The big day falls on April 1, 2026.


"I've been unusually reflective lately about Apple because we have been working on what do we do to mark this moment," Cook told employees today, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. "When you really stop and pause and think about the last 50 years, it makes your heart sing. It really does. I promise some celebration."

Apple was founded on April 1, 1976, so the company will celebrate its 50th anniversary in a little less than two months from now.

While it is likely that Cook was referring to a celebration for Apple employees, the company will [...]

The one structural shift CISOs must make before AI outpaces their security strategy

Summary:

Enterprise CISOs are stuck at a crossroads. Their budgets aren’t growing fast enough, AI is sucking up every bit of

The post The one structural shift CISOs must make before AI outpaces their security strategy appeared first on The New Stack.

Open source USearch library jumpstarts ScyllaDB vector search

Summary:

ScyllaDB recently added vector search capabilities underpinned by USearch, an open source clustering and vector search library. The addition of

The post Open source USearch library jumpstarts ScyllaDB vector search appeared first on The New Stack.

Apple CEO Tim Cook Promises to Lobby U.S. Government on Immigration

Summary:
In an all-hands meeting with employees today, Apple CEO Tim Cook promised to lobby the U.S. government on immigration, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.


Cook said he is "deeply distraught" with the U.S. government's current approach to immigration, and he promised to make his voice heard on the matter, the report said.

"For as long as I can remember, we have been a smarter, wiser, more innovative company because we've attracted the best and brightest from all corners of the world," Cook told employees, according to the report. Cook ensured that he would "continue to lobby lawmakers on this issue" going forward, per the report.

Cook said immigration is especia [...]

The enterprise is not ready for “the rise of the developer”

Summary:

Asked what enterprises aren’t ready for as AI advances, Sean O’Dell of Dynatrace offers a prediction — and before doing

The post The enterprise is not ready for “the rise of the developer” appeared first on The New Stack.

OpenAI’s GPT-5.3-Codex helped build itself

Summary:

OpenAI’s new GPT-5.3-Codex model is the company’s most capable agentic coding model yet. However, unlike previous Codex models, it focuses

The post OpenAI’s GPT-5.3-Codex helped build itself appeared first on The New Stack.

Google hints at big AirDrop expansion for Android "very soon"

Summary:
AirDrop came to the Pixel 10 last year, and more Android phones will join the party in 2026.

Anthropic debuts Opus 4.6 with standout scores for solving hard problems that other AIs miss

Summary:

Anthropic launched Opus 4.6 on Thursday, an update to its flagship Opus model that delivers major improvements over its predecessor—and

The post Anthropic debuts Opus 4.6 with standout scores for solving hard problems that other AIs miss appeared first on The New Stack.

It took a researcher fewer than 2 hours to hijack OpenClaw

Summary:

All those security fears about the OpenClaw AI agent and its social network, Moltbook, are already proving true, according to

The post It took a researcher fewer than 2 hours to hijack OpenClaw appeared first on The New Stack.

10 strategies to reduce MCP token bloat

Summary:

The Model Context Protocol (MCP) has reached an inflection point. While some MCP deployments are still in the experimentation phase,

The post 10 strategies to reduce MCP token bloat appeared first on The New Stack.

Steam Machine and Steam Frame delays are the latest product of the RAM crisis

Summary:
Valve says it still hopes to ship both devices "in the first half of the year."

2025 Q4 DDoS threat report: A record-setting 31.4 Tbps attack caps a year of massive DDoS assaults

Summary:
The number of DDoS attacks more than doubled in 2025. The network layer is under particular threat as hyper-volumetric attacks grew 700%.

AI, open source, talent, and more, live at cfgmgmtcamp 2026, with Andrew Clay Shafer

Summary:

This week’s Software Defined Interviews episode was recorded live at #cfgmgmtcamp with Andrew Clay Shafer as a returning guest:

Spotting talent, getting innovation adoption and driving use, open source, AI, and developing taste - those are the major topics Andrew and I discussed this week at a live recording. Also, a framework for creating the perfect burger.

Also, if you’re a podcast traditionalist, here’s the audio-only version: https://www.softwaredefinedinterviews.com/119

No Display? No Problem: Cross-Device Passkey Authentication for XR Devices

Summary:

We’re sharing a novel approach to enabling cross-device passkey authentication for devices with inaccessible displays (like XR devices). Our approach bypasses the use of QR codes and enables cross-device authentication without the need for an on-device display, while still complying with all trust and proximity requirements. This approach builds on work done by the FIDO [...]

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The post No Display? No Problem: Cross-Device Passkey Authentication for XR Devices appeared first on Engineering at Meta.

Survey Surfaces More Focus on Software Security Testing and API Security

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GitHub is letting developers choose between Copilot and its biggest rivals

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GitHub subscribers now have a choice of coding agents to help them create. In addition to GitHub’s own Copilot, users

The post GitHub is letting developers choose between Copilot and its biggest rivals appeared first on The New Stack.

User blowback convinces Adobe to keep supporting 30-year-old 2D animation app

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Despite the about-face, some customers think "the damage is done."

Mastering millisecond latency and millions of events: The event-driven architecture behind the Amazon Key Suite

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In this post, we explore how the Amazon Key team used Amazon EventBridge to modernize their architecture, transforming a tightly coupled monolithic system into a resilient, event-driven solution. We explore the technical challenges we faced, our implementation approach, and the architectural patterns that helped us achieve improved reliability and scalability. The post covers our solutions for managing event schemas at scale, handling multiple service integrations efficiently, and building an extensible architecture that accommodates future growth.

The ‘weird’ things that happened when Clickhouse replaced C++ with Rust

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ClickHouse’s decision to shift parts of its codebase to Rust is a perfect storm: the convergence of a wildly popular

The post The ‘weird’ things that happened when Clickhouse replaced C++ with Rust appeared first on The New Stack.

MomentProof Deploys Patented Digital Asset Protection

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MCP-Powered Agentic AI in DevOps: Building Secure, Scalable Multi-Agent Pipelines for Autonomous SRE and Observability

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4 Security Risks of AI Code Assistants

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Netflix says users can cancel service if HBO Max merger makes it too expensive

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Eighty percent of HBO Max subscribers subscribe to Netflix, Sarandos tells Senate.

Nintendo Switch is the second-bestselling game console ever, behind only the PS2

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Switch 2 has already beaten the Wii U and is on its way to overtaking GameCube.

Moltbook: Hype or the Singularity?

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Hysteria continues to build over Moltbook, the so-called AI Agent social network. If you believe Elon Musk, Moltbook is at

The post Moltbook: Hype or the Singularity? appeared first on The New Stack.

Why Kubernetes is retiring Ingress NGINX

Summary:

We warned you! Today, Ingress NGINX is still being used by 50% of Kubernetes users to manage incoming traffic, but it’s

The post Why Kubernetes is retiring Ingress NGINX appeared first on The New Stack.