Tech News Roundup — July 3, 2026 (PM)

2026-07-03

Linux kernel hardening, a Microsoft Copilot OS prototype that runs on Windows or Android, and a fresh Apple lawsuit reply lead a quieter Friday edition. The Phoronix stack is busy with Rust Coreutils regressions, Nova Lake display enablement for Linux 7.3, NVIDIA’s OpenBMC upstreaming, and the start of a 32-bit MSR retirement. On the legal-and-products side, YouTuber Jon Prosser files a formal answer blaming “the other guy” for the iOS 26 leak, and Halo Studios quietly proves that physical game discs aren’t dead yet.

Linux & Open Source

Rust Coreutils cp breaks Ubuntu image builds. The Rust rewrite of GNU Coreutils keeps surfacing subtle command-level incompatibilities, and the latest one surfaced this week: differences in argument handling between GNU cp and the Rust cp broke Ubuntu’s image build pipeline. The incident is the most visible production hit so far for the otherwise memory-safety-positive rewrite. [Phoronix]
Intel ships first batch of Nova Lake graphics/display work for Linux 7.3. The drm-intel-next tree for v7.3 keeps lining up Xe3P integrated graphics/display support for Intel’s next-generation Nova Lake client silicon. It is the first in what will be many -next pulls across the 7.3 cycle. [Phoronix]
Linux 7.2-rc2 hardens the BPF verifier against JIT spraying. Post-merge-window changes merged overnight ahead of the 7.2-rc2 weekend cut add mitigations to the kernel’s BPF subsystem to make JIT spraying attacks materially harder to land. [Phoronix]
NVIDIA upstreams Device Tree for Vera Rubin VR-NVL BMC to OpenBMC. New Linux kernel and U-Boot patches document the baseboard management controller on NVIDIA’s Vera Rubin VR-NVL server platform and feed the broader effort to support the open-source OpenBMC stack on NVIDIA’s latest hardware. [Phoronix]
Linux begins retiring 32-bit MSR interfaces. A 32-patch series led by a SUSE engineer stops using the kernel’s 32-bit model-specific register interfaces in favour of the modern 64-bit ones, enabling better code unification and cleanup of the MSR paths. [Phoronix]

Microsoft

Leaked 2024 materials reveal Microsoft’s “Project Aion” — an Edge-based Copilot OS that runs on Windows and Android. Microsoft built a working prototype of a platform-agnostic agentic OS shell derived from a modified Edge browser, intended to run on top of Windows or Android with a UI built entirely from web technologies. The codename was Aion; current status is unknown, but the leaked materials show a functional codebase and a desktop-shaped experience built entirely around Copilot and agentic AI. [Windows Central]
Microsoft 365 deal roundup: 12 months for $59.99 personal / $89.99 family. Woot’s limited-stock Microsoft 365 deal of the year is live — 12 months of access to either the Personal or Family tier at the listed prices, until stock runs out. [Windows Central]

Apple

Jon Prosser answers Apple’s iOS leak lawsuit by blaming “the other guy”. YouTuber Jon Prosser has filed a formal response to Apple’s lawsuit over the alleged iOS 26 trade-secret leak, denying that he “planned or participated in any conspiracy” while admitting he recorded a FaceTime call showing unreleased iOS software and shared revenue with the person who first showed him the information. He argues the other defendant is “completely responsible” for the disclosure. [The Verge]
Apple TV is hitting its stride in 2026. Five years in, Apple’s streaming service is finally producing the volume-and-quality mix that brings comparisons to the HBO of old — a year of strong new hits and returning favourites spread across genres, built on a deliberate quality-over-quantity strategy. [The Verge]

AI / ML

A behind-the-scenes tour of Midjourney’s medical scanner leaves more questions than answers. Midjourney released a 20-minute YouTube walkthrough of its dunk-tank ultrasound scanner (narrated by a Midjourney engineer), intended for spas and pitched as a cheap, radiation-free, detailed imaging revolution. The tour shows a “phantom” body segmented cleanly, but the post still flags a lack of independent evidence that the device works as marketed. [The Verge]
OpenAI reportedly negotiating a 5% equity stake for the US government. Sam Altman is leading talks with the Trump administration to spin up an Alaska-style sovereign-wealth mechanism that would distribute a slice of AI-generated wealth back to citizens, a structure that would commit roughly 5% of OpenAI to the arrangement. [Pplware]

Security

Sponsored ads on X are being used to install malware on macOS. Security researchers warn that a fresh malicious ad campaign on X is pushing Mac malware; victims only need a brief interaction with the ad creative before the payload lands on the machine. [Pplware]

Gaming

A French presidential candidate weighs in on Sony’s decision to end physical PlayStation discs. Jean-Luc Mélenchon, currently running for President of France, publicly responded to Sony’s plan to cease producing physical PlayStation game discs, framing video games as “cultural assets” that should remain bound by the laws in force. [Windows Central]
Halo: Campaign Evolved will ship with an actual disc. Halo Studios’ latest community Q&A confirms that physical copies of Halo: Campaign Evolved — on Xbox or PlayStation — will include a real game disc in the box, a quietly defiant commitment to collectors in a year where both Sony and Xbox’s Project Helix are moving away from physical media. [Windows Central]
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 World Update 22 lands early. The US National Parks-themed World Update 22 (originally pegged to July 4) is already live for MSFS 2024 on Xbox, PC, and PS5, with 30 new locations from the Grand Canyon to Mount Rushmore plus three new guided flights. [Windows Central]

Linux & Tools

Rufus 4.15 is available. The popular bootable-USB tool ships a new release that makes creating bootable USB sticks and SD cards with the latest operating systems a simpler click-through. [Pplware]

The Verge

The Verge’s 2026 summer “in” and “out” list. The Verge staff returns with their annual trend predictions — this year handing “in” to motion-sickness glasses, fiber, and other picks while sending “AI ‘pervert’ glasses,” protein, and the rest of the list to “out.” [The Verge]

In Brief

The largest “second-hand” EV battery factory in the world opened in Canada in just six weeks. [Pplware]
Portuguese national exams’ second phase was delayed by IT failures at several schools on its first day. [Pplware]
A new free app catalogues more than 100 Portuguese river and reservoir beaches for swimmers. [Pplware]
Computer-vision goal-line and AI camera tech is being credited with the technology that “saved” Portugal in the 2026 World Cup match against Croatia. [Pplware]
The Portuguese government has expanded its “Psychologist and Nutritionist Vouchers” programme for 12-to-35-year-olds, raising per-voucher values. [Pplware]
A warning to Portuguese apartment dwellers: putting a washer-dryer on the balcony or terrace can attract a fine depending on the building’s regulations. [Pplware]
Fuel prices in Portugal are forecast to rise again next week, after a calm week for motorists’ wallets. [Pplware]

Roundup compiled from the TTRSS Tech feed. 24 working articles from 5 sources (Pplware, The Verge, Phoronix, Windows Central, Marius Hosting) clustered into 7 thematic sections plus in-brief. All non-Verge source links point to the original article; Verge items are summarized with attribution only.