Tech News Roundup — July 3, 2026 (AM)
Sony’s Austria-based PlayStation disc factory is already being retrained onto microlenses, three outlets report this morning, with Windows Central and The Verge both picking up a Salzburg ORF interview that pegs the 600,000-disc-a-day Thalgau plant at “10 percent of that volume in 2028.” The broader disc story threads through Microsoft’s 100-day reset (Kojima’s OD and Obsidian both survive, per Windows Central), Tesla’s FSD manslaughter indictment in Texas, and a Phoronix-heavy Linux kernel morning that touches Fedora 45, an EFS removal after 20+ years, a renewed push to drop AI-agent attribution rules, RISC-V vector benchmarks, and ReactOS’s first NT6 system call. Below: a Windows 11 Steam milestone paired with a real PC-storage crunch, plus in-brief from The Verge, Pplware, and Marius Hosting.
Gaming
Sony’s Thalgau disc plant is being retrained onto optical microlenses. Sony DADC president Dietmar Tanzer told ORF Salzburg that the Austria plant — which currently produces 600,000 discs a day, half of them for PlayStation — will run at 10% of that volume by 2028, and all 300 employees are being moved to microlens work. The plant isn’t just one of Sony’s disc facilities; it’s where the disc-making division is headquartered and appears to be its only wholly owned disc-manufacturing site.
A Vergecast episode this week makes the broader case: decades of console, controller, accessory, and (briefly) VR-glove accumulation is winding down, with Sony’s disc exit and Microsoft’s digitisation push both pointing to the end of physical game media.
The VergeWindows Central frames the moment as an existential one for collectors: with physical media disappearing, the only extant form of game preservation is piracy, and Sony killing discs just proved the point.
Microsoft’s 100-day reset spares Kojima’s OD and Obsidian, but a Halo-shaped hole remains. Windows Central reports Hideo Kojima’s Xbox horror project OD is still on the slate, and new on-the-record comments from Xbox leadership dispute the recent claims that Obsidian is being closed. Both stories sit inside the broader shake-up of Microsoft’s gaming portfolio that the “100-day reset” has been driving.
A Space Marine 2 mod is the Halo game fans have been waiting for. Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 modder Skykiller has built a community Halo conversion that Windows Central’s Adam Hales calls the closest thing fans are likely to get to a fresh Halo experience. The article also serves as a meditation on Master Chief’s hypothetical chances against a Space Marine, which the author flatly refuses to concede.
American Truck Simulator leaves the USA for the first time. SCS Software’s long-running sim is finally expanding beyond US highways, and Windows Central runs through the new European locations fans can look forward to.
Control Resonant is the SGF game that stuck. Windows Central’s post-Summer-Game-Fest writeup singles out Remedy’s Control Resonant as the one game they’re still thinking about — high praise from a room full of demos.
Influencer screenings aren’t going away. The Verge argues that influencer-only press screenings are an established part of the modern games-marketing playbook, despite recurring grumbling from outlets that don’t get invited.
The Verge
Linux & Open Source
Fedora 45 is considering enabling x86_64 shadow stacks by default. The Fedora engineering team is weighing whether to flip the hardware-level shadow-stack mitigation on for x86_64 builds of Fedora 45, which would make it the first major desktop distro to do so.
EFS is being removed from the Linux kernel in 7.3 after 20+ years unmaintained. The Encrypted File System, the kernel’s original in-tree filesystem-level crypto effort, is finally being marked for deletion in Linux 7.3 — the next release after the 7.2 cycle.
Linux kernel developers are again discussing whether to attribute AI agent commits. The “Signed-off-by” convention has come up again on the kernel mailing list, with maintainers weighing whether AI-generated patches should carry a human Co-developed-by line or be excluded entirely.
RISC-V RVV vector benchmarks land on the SpacemiT K3 SoC. Phoronix’s first look at the SpacemiT K3 — one of the first volume RISC-V chips to ship with the RVV 1.0 vector extension — includes SPEC-style vector benchmarks and early performance numbers.
ReactOS lands its first NT6 system call, a step toward Vista compatibility. The open-source Windows reimplementation has been targeting Windows NT 5.2 (XP / Server 2003) for years; landing the first NT6 syscall moves ReactOS closer to supporting Windows Vista-era software.
Microsoft / Windows
Windows 11 hits 70%+ market share on Steam, with Windows 10’s clock visibly ticking. June 2026’s Steam Hardware Survey puts Windows 11 above the 70% mark for the first time, with Windows 10 sliding and Linux down 0.30 points to 3.69% (still up year-over-year from 2.57%).
The PC storage crunch is real: RAM Crisis-era supply is squeezing SSD inventory. Windows Central’s “FOMO is real” piece documents how the same supply-chain forces that hit DRAM are now rippling into NAND/SSD channels, with retail units running thin.
Hardware
Tesla driver faces manslaughter charges in Texas FSD crash that killed a woman inside her home. A Waller County affidavit names 44-year-old Michael Butler, who told police he was operating Full Self-Driving at the time. Phone-extraction data shows several FSD-related Google searches in May 2026 (“Tesla fsd not aggressive enough 2026 model,” “tesla fsdn…”).
The VergeTesla’s Q2 sales jump 25%. Even as the FSD manslaughter case proceeds, Tesla posted a sharp Q2 sales increase, with The Verge reporting the year-on-year jump.
The Verge
AI / ML
AI won’t save advertising, says Digitas’ Amy Lanzi. The Digitas North America CEO pushes back on the agency-side AI hype, arguing the technology is real but doesn’t substitute for the structural shifts the ad business actually needs.
The Verge
In Brief
Meta launches a new Pocket app — and insists it is “absolutely nothing like the old Pocket.” The new read-later service is a separate product with no migration path from Mozilla’s Pocket.
The VergeWeber grills and griddles hit their best prices of the year for July 4th. The Verge’s deals team flags a round of markdowns on Weber’s premium lines timed to the US holiday weekend.
The VergeGodox’s feature-packed key light drops to its best price yet. The Verge’s deals desk flags the discount on a creator-targeted panel that has been quietly building a fanbase.
The VergeHow to install Lockstep on your Synology NAS. Marius Hosting walks through setting up Lockstep (the personal finance / ledger app) on Synology hardware via Docker.
Portuguese tech helps rescue a man buried for seven days in Venezuela. Pplware covers a story from a collapsed site where a Portuguese-developed sensor/communications system helped locate a survivor a week into the rescue effort.
Solar coronal mass ejection — auroras possible in coming days. Pplware reports on the latest CME and the increased chance of visible auroras at lower latitudes over the next few nights.
BYD DOLPHIN G DM-i launches in Portugal with up to 1,040 km combined range. Pplware covers the official launch event with the new plug-in hybrid hatchback.
OASIS: the smart ring that promises to replace the keyboard. Pplware previews a Portuguese-developed smart ring with an integrated projection-based input system.
Five iPhone features that help protect you from a theft. Pplware rounds up the iOS settings and behaviours that reduce the impact of a phone-snatch.
505 Games and Paradark Studio announce ExeKiller. Pplware picks up the reveal of the new IP from the publisher and the indie studio.
What’s new on Prime Video in July 2026. Pplware’s monthly roundup of the streaming service’s new additions.
Is SpaceX preparing an iPhone competitor? Here’s what’s known. Pplware reads the tea leaves on SpaceX/Starlink’s reported interest in a direct-to-device phone.
France removes the small-parcel tax for AliExpress, Shein and Temu. Pplware covers the French policy reversal.
Heatwave: Portuguese government declares alert status. Pplware lists the active restrictions during the heatwave.
EvilTokens: a silent threat that steals accounts without stealing passwords. Pplware covers a phishing-adjacent attack that abuses OAuth refresh tokens.
Roundup compiled from the TTRSS Tech feed. 35 articles from 5 sources summarized across 6 sections.