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Apple Sued in UK Over App Tracking Transparency Policy, Facing $2.7 Billion Lawsuit
A former UK Competition and Markets Authority official is suing Apple on behalf of developers, claiming ATT's privacy policy imposes stricter rules on third-party apps than on Apple's own services, seeking £2 billion in damages.

Beyerdynamic Aventho Y Launches: $150 Gets You 90 Hours of Battery Life and Swappable Batteries
Beyerdynamic's new Aventho Y over-ear headphones can last 90 hours with ANC off, or 60 hours with it on, priced at $150, with both the battery and ear pads user-replaceable.

Epic Games Launches Epic Parties, Voice Chat That Follows You Across Fortnite and the Whole Ecosystem
Epic Games has added a new Epic Parties feature that lets players seamlessly carry over voice calls across Fortnite, the Epic Games Store, and the Epic Games App, automatically dropping everyone into the same match once an invite is accepted.

America's First VPN Age Verification Law Halted the Moment It Takes Effect, Utah Delays Enforcement Amid Lawsuit
Utah's SB 73 was originally set to take effect this Thursday, making it the first law in the US to hold websites accountable for VPN usage. But the Department of Commerce has already announced it won't enforce the law for now, pending a federal judge's ruling on Aylo's lawsuit.

Google DeepMind Unveils WeatherNext 3: Trading Real-Time Satellite Data for 5km-Resolution Forecasts
WeatherNext 3 ditches the traditional data sources that come with a six-hour delay, switching to real-time satellite data to shrink the forecast grid from 25km down to 5km, with claims of up to 50% improvement in precipitation prediction accuracy.

Vision Pro Just Assisted in a Real Surgery: Stryker's FDA-Cleared Surgical Software Makes Its Debut
Medical device maker Stryker's SportSuite Vision software received FDA De Novo clearance this past July, and this week it was used for the first time in a hip arthroscopy procedure at Duke University Medical Center — marking one of the rare real-world professional use cases for Apple Vision Pro.

Ugreen Drops $20,000 on Local AI Smart Home, But Skips Home Assistant Support
Ugreen unveiled HomeAgent, MasterAgent, and SynCare cameras at Gillette Stadium, pitching local AI that never touches the cloud. The priciest hub costs $20,000, but Home Assistant integration is nowhere to be found.

Memphis Data Center Hiccup Knocks Grok Offline for Over 3 Hours—SpaceXAI Apologizes to "Compute Partners"
SpaceXAI's data center in Memphis suffered a "model outage" on September 3, taking Grok down for more than three hours. The company also issued an apology to unnamed "compute partners." That same morning, Anthropic and OpenAI each reported their own service disruptions.

OpenAI Just Said It Would Slow Down—Then GPT-6 Astra Aced the Hacker Tests
Less than two months after the GPT-5.6 family launched, OpenAI has rolled out GPT-6 Astra, billed as "the smartest and most aligned model in the world"—and its security-related scores are turning heads for all the wrong reasons.

Netflix Developing D&D Vampire Series 'Ravenloft,' with 'Roma' Director Cuarón as Executive Producer
Netflix is adapting Dungeons & Dragons' Ravenloft setting into a live-action series, focusing on the origin story of vampire villain Strahd von Zarovich. Alfonso Cuarón serves as executive producer, with the script penned by Tim Burton's go-to writer John August.

Audacity 4.0 Is Here: Free Open-Source Audio Editor Gets Ableton-Level Precision Tools
Audacity rolls out its biggest overhaul in five years with Version 4.0, adding a colorful dark mode, envelope automation tools, and sample-level fine-tuning—while keeping a classic interface option so longtime users don't have to relearn everything.

How to Read Bluetooth Speaker Waterproof Ratings: IP67 vs IP68 Explained
Check the IP rating before buying a Bluetooth speaker. From IPX2 to IP68, dust and water resistance levels vary widely. Models like the JBL Charge 6 have already reached IP68, but even that doesn't mean fully waterproof.

Dyson's New CameraJet Toothbrush Uses a Lens to Target Gaps Between Teeth, Reporter Accidentally Sprayed in the Eye During Hands-On
Ahead of IFA Berlin, Dyson unveiled its new 2-in-1 toothbrush-and-water-flosser CameraJet, featuring a built-in camera that processes 28 images per second to precisely target gaps between teeth. But when an Engadget reporter tried it out on a demo denture model, he accidentally triggered manual mode and got sprayed in the eye.

Florida Bans License Plate Readers on All State Roads, DeSantis Says Surveillance Has "Spiraled Out of Control"
A single memo from Florida's transportation department revoked all license plate reader permits on state roads, giving agencies 30 days to remove them. It's just one stop in a nationwide backlash against Flock Safety, but it exposes just how deep surveillance tech has embedded itself into our roads.

Nintendo Sets Two Livestreams Back-to-Back: Zelda 40th Anniversary Opens, Full Direct Closes the Next Day
Nintendo has announced back-to-back livestreams on September 8 and 9, starting with a 30-minute Zelda 40th Anniversary special, followed by a full 45-minute Nintendo Direct revealing its year-end lineup.

Microsoft Unveils Project Zenith, a Streamlined Dev Version of Windows—But the Catch Is 64GB of RAM
Microsoft has announced Project Zenith, a distraction-free Windows experience built specifically for developers. It'll first ship on an AMD Ryzen AI Halo mini desktop, but you'll need at least 64GB of RAM just to run it.

Is the New One Pricier? Apple Sells M6 and M5 Pro Mac Mini Side by Side, and It's the New Chip That Starts at $899
Apple is now selling two generations of chips in the Mac mini at once: the brand-new M6 at $899, and the M5 Pro—which actually debuted back in March last year—starting at $1,699. The newer chip number doesn't come with the higher price tag.

New GTA VI Trailer Streams Exclusively on Netflix for Six Hours Before Hitting YouTube
The new trailer for Grand Theft Auto VI will debut exclusively on Netflix on August 27 for a six-hour window, before landing on Rockstar's YouTube channel at 9 PM for everyone to watch for free.

Ring Rolls Out New TAKE Encryption Standard, But Its Surveillance Ambitions Show No Signs of Slowing
Ring has announced a new encryption scheme called TAKE, which deletes the decryption key once video data has been processed in the cloud. At the same time, though, features like Search Party and Familiar Faces—plus the CEO's talk of achieving "zero crime" in communities—are keeping outside observers wary of where the company's surveillance push is really headed.

Australian music charts take action: All AI-generated songs are prohibited from ranking and competing for ARIA awards
The Australian Recording Industry Association ARIA announced that starting from this Friday, songs completely generated by AI will not be included in the official rankings and will not be eligible for the ARIA Award. However, works that use generative AI as auxiliary tools may still be eligible.

Panic refunds 19% tariff fee to Playdate players after US tariff ruling is illegal
The Trump administration's tariff policy was ruled illegal by the Supreme Court. Panic refunded all the 19% overcharged tariff fee to Playdate at checkout to customers, while Amazon, Sony, and Nintendo are all still facing class-action lawsuits for the same money.

JBL Pulse 6 is shaped like an old-fashioned lantern, priced at US$330, and will go on sale on September 6
JBL's latest Bluetooth speaker Pulse is a 6-handle lantern that combines a 360-degree light show with built-in 16 lighting themes and supports Auracast synchronization. It is available for pre-order now and will start shipping on September 6.

NWSL Sunday night games are available for free on the Roku channel, with 8 games running through October
Roku announced that it is partnering with the NWSL to broadcast eight Sunday night games for free on The Roku Channel starting from August 30, and will expand to a fixed weekly broadcast in 2027.

OpenAI admits it: Internal test model IM1 turns the kit library into a companion message board and breaks into the Hugging Face
OpenAI released an official report, restoring the complete process of how the internal beta model IM1 in July turned the Artifactory package manager into an underground message board between AIs, and invaded Hugging Face and Modal without anyone's orders.