Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt

Summary:
This week, our first place winner on the insightful side is Stephen T. Stone with a comment about ICE and CBP stealing money from citizens at the Minneapolis airport: Dear Democrats in leadership positions: There is no reforming or retraining this level of institutional rot. Your centrist asses need to start demanding the abolishment of […]

The Future of Apple Fitness+ Remains 'Under Review'

Summary:
The future of Apple Fitness+ remains "under review," according to the latest word from Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. However, he did not share any specific details.


"If I were to guess, Apple will ultimately meld its Health app with Fitness+ in some fashion — perhaps offering it as a combined subscription," said Gurman.

Gurman recently reported that Apple has scaled back plans for a separate Apple Health+ subscription service, which would have provided AI-powered health recommendations. However, he [...]

T-glass, a type of ultrathin glass sheet used in advanced chips, is in short supply and largely comes from Nittobo, which is not adding capacity for months (Yang Jie/Wall Street Journal)

Summary:

Yang Jie / Wall Street Journal:
T-glass, a type of ultrathin glass sheet used in advanced chips, is in short supply and largely comes from Nittobo, which is not adding capacity for months  —  A type of ultrathin glass sheet, used in advanced chips, is in short supply and prices are up sharply

Here Are Tim Cook's Full Remarks About Apple's 50th Anniversary Plans

Summary:
In a recent all-hands meeting, Apple CEO Tim Cook told employees to "stay tuned" about the company's plans for its upcoming 50th anniversary. Apple was founded on April 1, 1976, so the company will turn 50 in a few more months.


Following a snippet last week, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman has since shared Cook's full remarks:

I've been unusually reflective lately about Apple because we have been working on what do we do to mark this moment — 50 years. It's an extraordinary accomplishment. We've been going back through old archives, old photographs. We've been going back th

Amazon Discounts Anker's Newest Prime Chargers

Summary:
Earlier this week, Anker debuted its new Prime 3-in-1 Wireless Charging Station with a launch discount on Amazon. If ordered this week, you can clip the on-page coupon on Amazon to get the accessory for $119.99, down from $149.99.

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.

The Prime 3-in-1 Wireless Charging Station features Qi2.2 support, which lets a compatible MagSafe ‌iPhone‌ charge at up to 25W. It's the same speed as Apple's ‌MagSafe‌ charger, a [...]

2026 Super Bowl: How to Watch For Free on iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV

Summary:
Super Bowl LX is today (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 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 today.

One way to stream the 2026 Super Bowl for free on the iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple TV in t [...]

A software engineer explains AI fatigue, compounded by a FOMO treadmill of using labs' latest tools, thinking atrophy, and more, alongside boosted productivity (Siddhant Khare)

Summary:

Siddhant Khare:
A software engineer explains AI fatigue, compounded by a FOMO treadmill of using labs' latest tools, thinking atrophy, and more, alongside boosted productivity  —  You're using AI to be more productive.  So why are you more exhausted than ever?  The paradox every engineer needs to confront.

OpenClaw partners with VirusTotal and says that all skills published to ClawHub are now scanned using VirusTotal's threat intelligence (The Hacker News)

Summary:

The Hacker News:
OpenClaw partners with VirusTotal and says that all skills published to ClawHub are now scanned using VirusTotal's threat intelligence  —  Artificial Intelligence / Vulnerability  —  OpenClaw (formerly Moltbot and Clawdbot) has announced that it's partnering with Google-owned VirusTotal …

IDEcline: How the world’s most powerful coding tools became second-class citizens overnight

Summary:

During the early phase of my career, I used to spend eight hours a day inside the Visual Studio IDE.

The post IDEcline: How the world’s most powerful coding tools became second-class citizens overnight appeared first on The New Stack.

Sources: Block is notifying hundreds of staff their jobs may be eliminated during annual performance reviews; up to 10% of the workforce is at risk of being cut (Bloomberg)

Summary:

Bloomberg:
Sources: Block is notifying hundreds of staff their jobs may be eliminated during annual performance reviews; up to 10% of the workforce is at risk of being cut  —  Jack Dorsey's Block Inc. has been notifying hundreds of employees that their jobs may be eliminated during annual performance reviews …

Q&A with mathematicians behind the "First Proof" experiment, which tests AI's mathematical competence on questions drawn from the authors' unpublished research (Siobhan Roberts/New York Times)

Summary:

Siobhan Roberts / New York Times:
Q&A with mathematicians behind the “First Proof” experiment, which tests AI's mathematical competence on questions drawn from the authors' unpublished research  —  Large language models struggle to solve research-level math questions.  It takes

2,000-year-old Roman Mithras Sanctuary unearthed in Bavaria stuns experts

Summary:
Bavarian archaeologists just unearthed an astonishing sanctuary dedicated to the god Mithras in the historic...

350 folklore records reveal Ireland’s infant burial grounds were infused with superstition

Summary:
A new study brings together folklore and archaeology to reveal the superstitions surrounding Ireland’s intriguing...

Sources: iPhone 17e with MagSafe is coming soon; iOS 26.4 beta with updated Siri slated for the week of Feb. 23, M5 MacBook Pros as early as the week of Mar. 2 (Mark Gurman/Bloomberg)

Summary:

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: iPhone 17e with MagSafe is coming soon; iOS 26.4 beta with updated Siri slated for the week of Feb. 23, M5 MacBook Pros as early as the week of Mar. 2  —  Apple is going to begin a 2026 product blitz with the iPhone 17e, updated iPads and fresh Macs.

Neither classical nor quantum: This computer lets light solve complex calculations

Summary:
For decades, the solution to harder problems has been ‘build a bigger computer’— but what...

How Anthropic's bet on enterprise users is paying off; sources: Anthropic's guidance to investors claims annualized revenue will exceed $30B by the end of 2026 (George Hammond/Financial Times)

Summary:

George Hammond / Financial Times:
How Anthropic's bet on enterpri

New MacBook Pros Could Now Arrive in March

Summary:
New MacBook Pro models with the M5 Pro and M5 Max chips could arrive as soon as Monday, March 2, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.


In today's "Power On" newsletter, Gurman said that the release of new ‌MacBook Pro‌ models is tied to the release of macOS Tahoe 26.3. The launch is said to be slated for as early as the week of March 2. He added that the M4 Pro and M4 Max models on [...]

Report Reveals iOS 26.4 Beta Release Date

Summary:
Apple is set to release the first beta version of iOS 26.4 later this month, providing the first real-world look at the Apple Intelligence features promised at WWDC 2024, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman claims.


Gurman revealed the timing in his "Power On" newsletter. Barring further delays, the first beta version of iOS 26.4 is apparently set to release to developers during the week of February 23. The update will "include some components" of the long-anticipate [...]

iPad 12 and iPad Air 8 Reportedly Coming Soon

Summary:
Apple is planning to launch new iPad and iPad Air models in the near future, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reports.


Writing in today's "Power On" newsletter, Gurman explained that updated iPads are "coming soon," including a new entry-level ‌iPad‌ and a new ‌iPad Air‌. Both devices are not expected to feature design changes or major enhancements, instead focusing on new chips. The 12th-generati [...]

Gurman: iPhone 17e Launch 'Imminent' With Four New Features

Summary:
Apple's iPhone 17e is set to launch "imminently" with at least four new features, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.


In the latest edition of his "Power On" newsletter, Gurman said that the new lost-cost ‌iPhone‌ will feature the A19 chip first introduced with the iPhone 17 last year. The device will also address one of the most glaring omissions from the current generation and add [...]

China’s fastest anti-ship missile may have quietly entered naval service

Summary:
A photo has appeared online of what appears to be a People’s Liberation Army (PLA)...

Analysis: World Liberty Financial has earned the Trump family at least $1.2B in cash since its launch, while the Witkoff family has earned at least $200M (Wall Street Journal)

Summary:

Wall Street Journal:
Analysis: World Liberty Financial has earned the Trump family at least $1.2B in cash since its launch, while the Witkoff family has earned at least $200M  —  Sons of top Trump administration officials made billions for their families, but their investors didn't always fare so well

Korea’s new spray seals battlefield wounds and stops severe bleeding in under a second

Summary:
Scientists from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) have developed a new...

New catalyst solves decades-old stability issue to unlock 85% hydrogen fuel efficiency

Summary:
Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis have developed a method to stabilize iron catalysts...

European countries are moving toward social media bans for children, even as doubts persist over implementation and the risk of a new battle with US tech groups (Financial Times)

Summary:

Financial Times:
European countries are moving toward social media bans for children, even as doubts persist over implementation and the risk of a new battle with US tech groups  —  Move follows Australia's decision to introduce age restrictions over child safety concerns  —  Leila Abboud in Paris, Barbara Moens in Brussels and Nic Fildes in Sydney

World’s first mass-produced pure electronic braking system to be launched in China

Summary:
Chinese carmaker Chery Automobile revealed that it is preparing to put pure electronic mechanical braking...

Relative to your interests, Saturday morning

Summary:

• The Draw Boy - Remove a bottleneck (usually humans), and supply can meet demand. New demand is created, people but more, new things are invented, people but those. New roles are often created to handle the new businesses.
• It Turns Out That When Waymos Are Stumped, They Get Intervention From Workers in the Philippines - Weird. The off-shoring jobs angle is ponderous.
• The top 1,000 Roblox creators earned an average of $1.3 million last year
• 40 Forgotten Realms novels at name your own price; I paid €25. Excellent deal here if you’re into this kind of thing. Getting the five books of the Brimstone Ang

Summary:

If everyone can ship software, what will distinguish the successful companies from the apps that are lost in the noise? It’s no longer enough to just spend more time coding, or to be the first with a good idea.

I think it’s going to become even more important to grow other aspects of running a software business:

• Marketing
• Customer support
• Documentation
• Building trust
• Servers (speed)

Of course I’ll be writing a lot of code too, adding features, fixing bugs. But that’s the bare minimum now.

🔗 What to grow

Invisible dark matter halo million times heavier than sun could be hiding in Milky Way

Summary:
Astronomers have spent decades hunting for dark matter by looking for light that isn’t there...

This year's projected capex ramp-up will all but wipe out free cash flow for Amazon, Google, and Meta, potentially forcing stock buyback cuts or more borrowing (Martin Peers/The Information)

Summary:

Martin Peers / The Information:
This year's projected capex ramp-up will all but wipe out free cash flow for Amazon, Google, and Meta, potentially forcing stock buyback cuts or more borrowing  —  Big tech's dramatic ramp-up in projected capital expenditures this year will all but wipe out free cash flow for Amazon, Google and Meta Platforms.

Analysts say a design refresh for the iPhone 17 lineup has reinforced Apple's status-symbol appeal in China, with the "cosmic orange" Pro model going viral (Financial Times)

Summary:

Financial Times:
Analysts say a design refresh for the iPhone 17 lineup has reinforced Apple's status-symbol appeal in China, with the “cosmic orange” Pro model going viral  —  Vivid redesign and social media buzz lure Chinese buyers back after a prolonged slump

A profile of Ali Ansari, the 25-year-old co-founder of micro1, which recruits human experts to train AI systems; micro1 was last valued at $500M in Sept. 2025 (Nilesh Christopher/Los Angeles Times)

Summary:

Nilesh Christopher / Los Angeles Times:
A profile of Ali Ansari, the 25-year-old co-founder of micro1, which recruits human experts to train AI systems; micro1 was last valued at $500M in Sept. 2025  —  The man set to become one of the world's youngest artificial intelligence billionaires started his entrepreneurial journey as a bored preteen living in

Anthropic rolls out a fast mode for Claude Opus 4.6 in research preview, saying it offers the same model quality 2.5 times faster but costs six times more (Simon Willison/Simon Willison's Weblog)

Summary:

Simon Willison / Simon Willison's Weblog:
Anthropic rolls out a fast mode for Claude Opus 4.6 in research preview, saying it offers the same model quality 2.5 times faster but costs six times more  —  Claude: Speed up responses with fast mode.  New “research preview” from Anthropic today: you can now access a faster version …

US firm’s powerful 70,000-lb amphibious combat vehicles to bolster Marine Corps’ power

Summary:
A Virginia-based company is set to deliver dozens of amphibious combat vehicles (ACVs) to the...

India's updated startup framework doubles deep-tech startup eligibility to 20 years and triples the revenue cap for tax, grant, and regulatory benefits to ~$33M (Jagmeet Singh/TechCrunch)

Summary:

Jagmeet Singh / TechCrunch:
India's updated startup framework doubles deep-tech startup eligibility to 20 years and triples the revenue cap for tax, grant, and regulatory benefits to ~$33M  —  Deep tech startups in sectors such as space, semiconductors, and biotech take far longer to mature than conventional ventures.

Chinese regulators reiterate the mainland crypto ban and expand enforcement to cover real-world asset tokenization and offshore yuan-pegged stablecoin issuance (Naga Avan-Nomayo/The Block)

Summary:

Naga Avan-Nomayo / The Block:
Chinese regulators reiterate the mainland crypto ban and expand enforcement to cover real-world asset tokenization and offshore yuan-pegged stablecoin issuance  —  Quick Take  — Beijing authorities have explicitly widened the net to target real-world asset tokenization …

New study of Petra’s amazing water system uncovers 380-foot-long lead pipe

Summary:
A recent survey of the ‘Ain Barq aqueduct in the mega-famous ancient city of Petra...

Apple Testing Two Major iPhone 18 Pro Camera Upgrades

Summary:
Apple is actively testing two major rear camera improvements for the iPhone, according to a reputable leaker.


The Weibo user known as "Digital Chat Station" claims that Apple is testing a new main camera for the ‌iPhone‌ with a variable aperture. A variable aperture allows the camera to adjust the amount of light that reaches the sensor. This means that in dark environments, the aperture can be opened to receive more light, while in light environments, it can be closed to prevent over-exposure. It also should provide users with greater control over depth of field, which refers to how sharp a subject appears in the foreground compared to the background.

The claim corroborates a [...]

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 […]

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.

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.

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 [...]

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

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

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 […]

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 […]

It's a renaissance woman's world (Friends)

Summary:
Amal Hussein returns to tell us all about her new role at Istari, what life is like outside the web browser, how she's helping ambitious orgs in aerospace, what the SDLC looks like in 2026, and a whole lot more. Wait, moon vacuums?!

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

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.

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 […]

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

Does Go have a 'boilerplate tax'?

Summary:

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

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.

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.

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.

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 [...]

Read More...

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

Setting Docker Hardened Images free (Interview)

Summary:
In May of 2025, Docker launched Hardened Images, a secure, minimal, production-ready set of images. In December, they made DHI freely available and open source to everyone who builds software. On this episode, we're joined by Tushar Jain, EVP of Engineering at Docker to learn all about it.

Survey Surfaces More Focus on Software Security Testing and API Security

Summary:

GitHub is letting developers choose between Copilot and its biggest rivals

Summary:

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

Summary:
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

Summary:
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

Summary:

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

Summary:

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

Summary:

4 Security Risks of AI Code Assistants

Summary: