IT news

Computing capacity bottlenecks: Google limits Meta's access to Gemini

Meta actually wants to use Gemini much more, but Google cannot provide the necessary computing power for AI use. (Gemini, Google)

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Falcon Cloud Security June 2026 Release: Updates for Azure and Google Cloud

Interior Ministry partially specifies the Cyberdome

The planned cyberdome is intended to offer national monitoring with information exchange in real time. This is intended to make networked IT products “Cyberdome-ready”.

Taiwan: Cybersecurity agency warns against surveillance via cheap eSIMs

eSIMs purchased cheaply for vacation could route data traffic through China, warns Taiwan's digital ministry. Data could be tapped.

Press remarks by Commissioner Šefčovič on the EU-China Trade and Investment Consultations

European Commission Speech Brussels, 29 Jun 2026 Good afternoon. Today, I have the opportunity to host my counterpart from China, Minister Wang Wentao. We held a series of substantive talks as of this morning ...

Commission calls on the Netherlands to improve competition for international rail passenger services

European Commission Press release Brussels, 29 Jun 2026 The European Commission has informed the Netherlands that the rules for the allocation of capacity on the Dutch main railway network may be in breach of EU antitrust rules.

Commission approves €402 million Spanish State aid for road transport companies facing increased fuel prices

European Commission Press release Brussels, 29 Jun 2026 The European Commission has approved a €402 million Spanish State aid scheme to support road transport companies facing increased fuel prices due to the Middle East crisis.

China’s Z.ai claims it can match Mythos on cybersecurity

China's Zhipu AI (Z.ai) released its open-weight GLM-5.2, and some researchers have claimed that it matches Mythos in certain bug-finding and cybersecurity scenarios. While GLM lags behind models from Anthropic and OpenAI in other, more general tasks, it seems that China has dramatically reduced the gap in the capabilities between its models and those of the US. This level of advancement is particularly concerning to the US government, which has worked to restrict China's access to powerful mode

Suno launches Spark incubator program to feed independent artists to its AI machine

Suno has ambitions to be more than just a toy to churn out AI slop, it also wants to be a streaming destination and to break new artists. Spark is their new incubator program for independent artists that provides grants, mentorship, and marketing support. To apply, artists need to be an unsigned singer, songwriter, or producer releasing music under their own name. They also need to agree to some terms and conditions that have raised some eyebrows over on the Suno subreddit. For one, you need to

China claims the world’s fastest supercomputer

The LineShine supercomputer at the National Supercomputing Center in Shenzhen. | Photo: Liang Xu/Xinhua via Getty Images Despite trade restrictions, China has reclaimed the title of the world's fastest supercomputer for the first time since 2018. LineShine has pushed El Capitan out of number one on the TOP500 ranking. That's despite strict limits on what high-powered computing components can be sold to China by US firms, which dominate the list, with America holding three of the top five spots.

The Cube is Jim Henson’s little-known proto-Black Mirror masterpiece

That sure is a man in a cube, alright. | Image: NBC / Jim Henson Company I'm sure we're all familiar with Dark Crystal, so we know that Jim Henson can be weird and tackle slightly more mature subject matter. But there is little in his oeuvre that is quite as mind-bending as the Muppetless The Cube. This 1969 teleplay was produced for an NBC anthology series called Experiment in Television, which featured, appropriately enough, various experimental films, plays, and documentaries. One episode eve

Data breach exposes up to 14.2 million email logins at six ISPs

Japanese telecommunications operator KDDI Corporation disclosed a data breach where threat actors gained access to one of its email systems used by five other internet service providers (ISPs) in the country. [...]

Prosecutors used ChatGPT logs as evidence in the Palisades fire trial

Jonathan Rinderknecht was facing arson charges for setting a fire on New Year's Day in 2025, which became one of the deadliest wildfires in LA history. To make their case, prosecutors turned to location data from his iPhone, security camera footage, and witness testimony. But they also turned to his ChatGPT logs. Prosecutors said that Rinderknecht had ChatGPT generate images of fire, asked the chatbot, "Why am I so angry all the time?", and ranted to it about how the wealthy were destroying the

Geran 4: Russia uses jet drones against Ukrainian fighter jets

From June 26 to 27, 2026, Ukraine lost two MiG 29s. One of the planes was destroyed on the ground by a new Russian jet drone. (military, politics)

Nest’s quest to fix your thermostat

The founding story of Nest is pretty much a perfect tech myth. A legendary product maker (in this case, Tony Fadell) helps create one of the most successful products ever (the iPhone) and then rides off into the sunset to enjoy the rest of his life, only to have an experience that drags him back for one last job. For Fadell, that job was to try and reinvent the thermostat. And maybe change the way our homes work forever. On this episode of Version History, we tell the story of the early days of

Ad-free streaming is a luxury now

This is The Stepback, a weekly newsletter breaking down one essential story from the tech world. For more news about the streaming industry, follow Emma Roth. The Stepback arrives in our subscribers' inboxes at 8AM ET. Opt in for The Stepback here. How it started Streaming was once a reprieve from cable. Not only could you watch whatever you wanted at any given time, but you didn't have to sit through five-minute-long commercial breaks. And the best part was the price: Netflix, for example, cost

Pilots: Belfast sends electric hydrofoil boat into port

Belfast gets a near-zero emissions hydrofoil pilot boat that glides across the water at the push of a button. (shipping, mobility)

Digital payment is becoming increasingly popular: Most Germans want to pay cashless everywhere...

The majority of Germans have no understanding if they can only pay with cash in shops or restaurants. (Pay, Studies)

South Korea: Every soldier should become a drone pilot

South Korea wants to make drones standard equipment for its entire army, similar to the rifle. (drone, politics)

Streaming subscription: Netflix requires a separate email address for each profile

Netflix has recently started requiring customers to provide their own email address for all profiles within a subscription. (Netflix, streaming)

City and Amazon don't want to change anything: Court overturns development plan for building already in use...

A court overturns the development plan for an Amazon warehouse in Horn-Bad Meinberg. The resulting effects are controversial. (Amazon, litigation)

Despite AI: According to the employment agency, jobs in the IT industry have a future

The use of AI is changing the job market. However, the head of the regional directorate of the Federal Employment Agency warns against scaremongering. (work, AI)

(g+) Local language model: From the Ollama demo to the productive Open LLM app

A local language model runs in minutes. The code around it decides how it becomes an application. A guide from Bastian Gruber (AI, speech recognition)

TMD’s keyless bike lock is a $280 solution to a $60 problem

A $280 bike lock on a $10,000 e-bike. I've seen lots of so-called "smart" bike locks over the years, but none so far could justify the added cost. A newcomer that got its start securing ATMs for banks is trying to change that. There's nothing wholly unique about the TMD Chain Lock, but the combination of materials, performance, and insurance-friendly ART-2 certification makes it worth considering. TMD's first bicycle lock combines a Bluetooth proximity sensor and motion alarm with a slender core

Breakpoint: Who's your Big Brother?

Big brother's little viewfinder: Meta's "Smart Glasses". – All rights reserved: IMAGO / MiS, editing: netzpolitik.orgSurveillance is fun when you do it yourself. With the feeling of having control over others, large corporations are marketing their new surveillance systems for private use. But what is intended to serve the safety or entertainment of individuals harms the safety and freedom of all of us.

AI in war: Autonomous weapons take over the battlefield

2026 seems to be the year in which AI finally establishes itself as a weapon of war. How artificial intelligence is changing warfare. An analysis by Friedrich List (military, AI)

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Teenage Engineering adds lo-fi mode, USB audio, and more to its KO II sampler

Teenage Engineering has already issued multiple substantial updates for its surprisingly capable $329 EP-133 KO II sampler. Its latest is one of the biggest yet. OS 2.5 adds audio over USB, selectable sample rates for lo-fi fun, sample reverse, an arpeggiator, equal-length autochopping, and it extends the maximum length of a sample from 20 seconds to 40 seconds by capturing mono, instead of stereo, audio. Sample reverse is such a simple feature that it's shocking it wasn't implemented earlier. A

Margaret Atwood says the problem with AI is ‘garbage in, garbage out’

Margaret Atwood onstage at Detroit Opera House on January 26, 2026 | Photo: Monica Morgan/Getty Images Maraget Atwood, the storied author of The Handmaid's Tale and The Blind Assassin, was interviewed as part of the Babell Literary and Cultural Festival in Porto, Portugal. As it usually does at these things, the issue of AI came up, and Atwood didn't mince words. According to Deadline's recap, Atwood said she'd used an AI chatbot exactly once, Anthropic's Claude, and came away unimpressed. She w