Tech News Roundup — June 20, 2026 (AM)

Linux 7.2 lands with a near-1,000-patch merge window and a working open-source NVIDIA Vulkan driver with DLSS support — the headline of the morning. Phoronix covers the kernel in depth, Nothing blames RAM prices for cancelling this year’s CMF phone, and NASA taps Eric Schmidt’s Relativity Space for a 2028 Mars payload.

Linux & Open Source

• Linux 7.2 merge window closes with NTFS hardening and Windows native symlinks. The modern NTFS driver (which landed in 7.1) sees additional fixes plus Windows-style symbolic link support, the networking subsystem gains extensive WiFi Aware and WiFi 8 / UHR groundwork, and the kernel picks up initial driver support for AMD-powered Barco MXRT medical-imaging cards. Phoronix Phoronix Phoronix

• AMD ACP7 audio driver lands in 7.2 with “substantial design changes.” The next-gen AMD Audio Co-Processor IP sees major updates alongside the much-anticipated Zen 6 cores, prepping the audio subsystem for upcoming SoCs. Phoronix

• systemd 261 ships with the new systemd-sysinstall OS installer. Released as stable, the update brings the experimental sysinstall installer alongside IMDSD and storagectl — timed to coincide with H2 2026 Linux distributions. Phoronix

  

• Mesa’s open-source NVK Vulkan driver now supports DLSS. With code merged today to Mesa 26.2-devel, the open-source NVIDIA Vulkan driver can handle Deep Learning Super Sampling on Linux / Steam Play — a significant win for gamers on nouveau-style stacks. Phoronix

  

Hardware

• Nothing cancels this year’s CMF phone due to RAM prices. Co-founder Akis Evangelidis announced on X that a follow-up to the CMF Phone 2 Pro won’t ship this year — with memory prices where they are, Nothing can’t build a phone that “feels like a genuine step forward at a price that makes sense for CMF.” CEO Carl Pei previously flagged the RAM shortage’s impact on the company’s mid-range phone. [The Verge]
• Philips Hue launches its first wired wall modules. Installed behind existing switches, the new Wired Wall Switch Modules bring non-smart lights into the Hue ecosystem for the first time. Hue also announced more affordable Play table and floor lamps plus upgraded E14 candle bulbs with broader white-light spectrum and Matter-over-Thread support. [The Verge]
• NTS Radio Player streams internet radio to your hi-fi. NTS Radio and Swedish audio company Atonemo teamed up on a $179 dedicated player that outputs 24-bit/192kHz audio over a standard 3.5mm jack (RCA adapter included), with AirPlay 2, Google Cast, Spotify Connect, and Tidal Connect support. [The Verge]

AI / ML

• Midjourney is building an ultrasound scanner that does in 60 seconds what an MRI does in 90 minutes. The company known for AI-generated images is moving into medical imaging, developing a full-body ultrasound scanner aimed at dramatically faster scan times than traditional MRI. Pplware

  

• Amazon MGM drops the Sam Altman biopic. Luca Guadagnino’s Artificial — starring Andrew Garfield as the OpenAI CEO, with Monica Barbaro as Mira Murati, Ike Barinholtz as Elon Musk, and Yura Borisov as Ilya Sutskever — has been shelved by the studio, which said the film “will be better served if it were released by a different studio.” [The Verge]

Space & Startups

• NASA picks Eric Schmidt’s Relativity Space for a 2028 Mars mission. Under a new public-private partnership, Relativity Space will provide the spacecraft, rocket, and cruise operations to fly NASA’s Aeolus payload to Mars, where it will “provide the first integrated, daily, global view of Martian winds, temperatures, dust, and clouds.” [The Verge]

Policy & Society

• Bezos: move polluting industries to the Moon to save the Earth. Speaking at Paris’s VivaTech conference, the Amazon founder argued that all polluting industries should be relocated to the Moon — an unprompted pitch that landed somewhere between utopian and absurd. Pplware

In Brief

• Portugal’s PSP and GNR to receive 17,000 new portable radios for SIRESP communications. The government approved roughly €11 million to renew police comms gear, targeting the aging SIRESP emergency network. Pplware
• WhatsApp is working on a new backup solution. A change is in testing that aims to make backups less intrusive while still being reliable — a perennial pain point for users. Pplware
• Smalland 2: Lost Realms confirmed by Maximum Entertainment. The prequel to 2023’s Smalland: Survive the Wilds is in development — a game about very small people in very big worlds. Pplware
• Office 2024 for €13 and Windows 11 Pro for €21 in digital keys. A Pplware affiliate promotion for digital license keys. Pplware
• Portuguese government softens fuel price drop via ISP adjustment. The ISP fuel tax was tweaked downward to reduce the impact of rising fuel costs on consumers. Pplware
• Google Calendar now supports up to 200 event colors. Stop repeating the same five shades across all your calendars. Pplware
• Renault Twingo E-Tech electric city car lands in Portugal. The new European-focused EV positions itself on efficiency and price in the affordable segment. Pplware
• FDA approves bemotrizinol, ending “our long national sunscreen nightmare.” Victoria Song’s Optimizer column explains why a new UV filter is finally arriving in US sunscreens after decades of regulatory lag. [The Verge]

Roundup compiled from the TTRSS Tech feed. 22 articles from 3 sources summarized.