Ahead of its IPO, OpenAI hired Google DeepMind researcher Noam Shazeer and ex–White House AI policy official Dean Ball. Shazeer co-authored 2017’s “Attention Is All You Need” and rejoined Google via a $2.7B Character AI deal; Ball starts July 6 to lead Strategic Futures, reporting to Jason Kwon.
Firefox is rolling out new home-page widgets (between v151 and v152; spotted in June 2026), including a focus timer that defaults to 25 minutes on/5 minutes off with optional end notifications. You can add/remove or expand widgets like a checklist, sports scores, and time zone display via home-page customization; Mozilla also shared a “Project Nova” redesign roadmap this week.
Spotify launched “Reserved by Spotify” on June 18, 2026, a new system that identifies an artist’s top fans and holds up to two concert tickets for them before the general public sale opens.
The…
Waymo has recalled its fleet of nearly 4,000 robotaxis and pulled them from all highway operations after identifying at least 13 instances in which the vehicles drove into highway sections closed for…
Google introduced the Google Home Speaker on June 17, 2026, its first stand-alone smart speaker since the Nest Audio in September 2020. Priced at $99.99, the device is built specifically around…
The Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA) announced Matter 1.6 in June 2026 at Unify, its inaugural conference in Austin, Texas. The updated smart home interoperability standard introduces Joint…
BobDaHacker says a June 2026 FIFA back-end API bug skipped authorization checks, potentially letting one attacker hijack the live TV stream for every World Cup match. Starting from FIFA’s public player-agent registration, she accessed systems controlling broadcast and commentator screens; FIFA patched within hours after a Tuesday-night Japan report, but didn’t acknowledge.
African payments infrastructure company Flutterwave announced on Tuesday, June 16, 2026, a Series E funding round that values the company at $3.2 billion. The round includes an equity investment from…
Google will close the last MV2 ad-blocker workarounds in Chrome 150 and 151, arriving in late June 2026 and July 2026, respectively. That ends functionality tied to Manifest V2 extensions like uBlock Origin after Google stopped official MV2 support in 2024, citing security risks and tech debt.
Google turned a nearly two-decade hidden Google Earth desktop flight simulator into a browser feature as of Friday, June 15, 2026—no app download needed. Open Google Earth, click “Explore Earth,” then Flight Simulator (last item in Tools), set basemap to Satellite, and control via keyboard/mouse; crashes pause for a reset to safe altitude.
A gay OnlyFans creator had his X account hijacked in April 2026, with attackers demanding cryptocurrency ransoms and, after he refused to pay, filling his feed with pro-MAGA political content….
At WWDC 2026, Apple said iOS 27 (due later this year) will support iPhones back to the 2019 iPhone 11 while speeding app launches up to 30%, AirDrop up to 80%, and photo library loads up to 70%. It also optimizes the iPhone 11 CPU scheduler and rebuilds search for Spotlight, Photos, and Mail.
