Jun 28th 2026
This Week in Tech 1090
Flock of SQLs
Apple & Microsoft Grapple With Soaring Hardware Prices
Tech giants and chipmakers are facing off as AI-fueled memory shortages trigger sweeping price hikes on everything from Macs to game consoles. Hear why global supply chain standoffs, long-term contracts, and old-school market forces are quietly reshaping your daily technology.
• Apple and Microsoft hike prices on devices amid global memory shortages
• Surge in AI data centers drives RAM and storage crisis
• Intel’s comeback: Core Ultra chips compete with AMD in handheld gaming
• Microsoft’s pivot to ARM, Qualcomm-NVIDIA alliance, and x86 rivalry
• AI fear and backlash; organic concern amplified by international actors
• White House abruptly pulls Anthropic’s Fable model, sparking industry uproar
• US government U-turns on AI regulation, restricts top models to select partners
• Tension over AI innovation vs. regulatory “rug pull” and global competition
• Smart home chaos: Matter 1.6 standard, Samsung and Level Lock shake-up
• Debate over local vs. cloud smart home control and API access fees
• Ring and Flock cameras ignite privacy and surveillance state concerns
• Social media bans for under-16s fail in Australia, UK, and Norway plan similar rules
• BBC Radio 4 long wave broadcast ends after a century
• Meta gets caught tracking employees for AI; PlayStation deletes owned movies
• US regulators propose removing brake pedals from Robotaxis
• Ford’s automated systems flop, company rehiring engineers
• Farewell to tech journalist and GigaOm founder Om Malik
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Links
- Apple raises prices due to memory chip shortage
- Apple’s Full Statement on Yesterday’s Price Increases
- Apple is ‘working tirelessly’ to find solutions to component shortage as it hikes prices across Mac, iPad and more
- US releases powerful Anthropic model Mythos to some US companies
- What Should Be Done
- Inside the room where the smart home industry is still betting on Matter
- Smart lock maker Level has been gutted and its founders are out
- I'd love to plug the Smart Home Season of Version History at some point
- SpaceX plans to launch Starlink mobile service in the US
- Flock cameras track more than your license plate, and they're spreading fast
- Microsoft extends extended updates for Windows 10 in the most muted way imaginable
- Windows 11 Patch Tuesday will finally deliver features people have been asking for
- Samsung will start charging for SmartThings API access
- Russian hackers were behind $2.5B hack of Jaguar Land Rover: Report
- Four in five under-16s in Australia using social media despite ban, study shows
- Lost books by ancient philosophers recovered from 'unreadable' scrolls
- Ford had to hire back former engineers to fix mistakes made by its automated systems
- Notion kills its Gmail client after AI agents keep humans from troubling inbox
- Meta pauses its employee mouse-tracking program over data-security fears
- PlayStation Is Deleting 551 Movies from Customers' Accounts
- US auto regulators want to kill robotaxi brake pedals
- One Million Passports Leaked Online
- Careless People' author accuses Meta of 'punishing' whistleblower
- Requiem For Long Wave, As The BBC Goes Silent
- Om Malik, 1966-2026
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- MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ review of a masterpiece priced for the few