Tech News Roundup — July 13, 2026 (PM)
A Brazilian Xbox player’s court victory has put digital ownership and account-recovery policies under fresh scrutiny, while Europe is preparing tighter rules for young people’s use of social media. Elsewhere, Linux development spans a new GNOME testing platform, Raspberry Pi 5 IOMMU work, kernel syscall-entry cleanup and a Cloud Hypervisor release, as AI moves further into navigation and logistics.
Apple
WhatCable turns an Apple Silicon Mac into a free USB-C cable tester. The menu-bar utility exposes USB data macOS already collects, helping users identify whether an attached cable and device can deliver the expected speed and power without buying a separate tester.
[The Verge]
Google/Android
Waze is adding Gemini-powered conversational controls. Drivers will be able to report incidents and suggest map corrections using natural voice commands, while a new destination search can handle requests such as finding an open coffee shop. The broader update also aims to make Waze less intrusive during routine trips.
[The Verge]
Microsoft
Edge experiments with locally processed “Web Remix” tools. A Canary preview can force sites into dark mode, change page styling, simplify or summarize long articles, turn recipes into shopping lists and convert prices into local currency. The feature is still rough around the edges—especially when recoloring images and icons—and may not reach the stable browser.
Gaming
A Brazilian court ordered Microsoft to restore a hacked player’s Xbox library. After Microsoft suspended an account it considered unrecoverable, cutting off the owner’s games and OneDrive files, the player sued under Brazilian consumer law. The court ordered full account restoration and roughly $400 in damages, offering a notable test of whether platform policies can extinguish access to purchased digital goods.
iRacing’s long-awaited IndyCar title is targeting early 2027. IndyCar Racing The Game is planned for Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5 and Steam ahead of the 2027 Indianapolis 500. Built on an in-house engine, it will adapt iRacing’s simulation expertise into a more traditional racing game and become the first official standalone IndyCar game in more than two decades.
Linux & Open Source
GNOME OS is building a “Test Center” for experimental software. Funded by Germany’s Prototype Fund, the proposed developer tool suite would make it easier to test applications and libraries using technologies such as systemd-sysext and BuildStream—an approach broadly comparable to TestFlight for the GNOME ecosystem.
Linux 7.3 is set for a rework of system-call entry handling. What began as a review of syscall-number handling led veteran kernel developer Thomas Gleixner into a broader cleanup of the entry path. The resulting code improvements are now expected to land during the Linux 7.3 cycle.
Raspberry Pi 5 IOMMU support is moving toward the mainline kernel. More than two years after the board launched, Raspberry Pi’s downstream IOMMU driver is being adapted for upstream Linux. Mainlining it would close an important gap in Pi 5 support and improve isolation and device-assignment capabilities.
Cloud Hypervisor 53 offloads snapshot and restore work. The Rust-based virtual machine monitor now includes a separate daemon for snapshot and restore operations. The project, originally started at Intel and now developed with backing from Microsoft, Meta, Arm and others, remains focused on modern cloud workloads and security.
AI/ML
AI-guided drones are helping US truck drivers find parking. With truck spaces scarce in many regions, systems are using aerial reconnaissance and machine vision to locate available spots and relay them to drivers. The idea targets a practical logistics bottleneck that wastes time and fuel and can create safety risks when drivers near mandated rest limits.
Anthropic’s Reflect explores how dependent people have become on Claude. The tool is designed to help users review their use of the assistant and consider how often they delegate needs or decisions to AI. Its release reflects growing concern that increasingly capable assistants can become habitual infrastructure rather than an occasional tool.
Security/CVE
The EU is weighing broad youth social-media restrictions. Options include age thresholds, phased access and potentially outright bans, alongside rules that could require platforms to demonstrate their services are not harmful before admitting younger users. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said legislation could follow within months after an expert panel’s recommendations.
Pplware [The Verge]EDP warns of a more convincing wave of customer scams. Fraudsters are incorporating real personal or account details into their approaches, making messages and calls harder to dismiss at a glance. Customers should independently verify unexpected contact and avoid treating accurate data as proof that a request is legitimate.
Hardware
Tesla is expanding Portuguese Superchargers and adding smart queuing. The rollout is intended to reduce uncertainty when charging locations fill up during busy travel periods. A managed virtual queue should make access fairer and limit the circling and informal line formation that can occur around occupied stalls.
In Brief
Pigeon-mounted cameras are revealing how birds use vision in flight. Researchers equipped more than a dozen pigeons with lightweight camera backpacks to observe eye and head behaviour from the birds’ own moving perspective.
Portugal’s Social Security portal allows beneficiaries to update their IBAN online. The feature can prevent payment delays for pensions and benefits without requiring an in-person visit.
Portugal’s Volta deposit-return system has an app for bank payouts. SDR Portugal confirmed that users can transfer refunds from returned beverage containers directly to a bank account rather than receiving only an in-store voucher.
Roundup compiled from the TT-RSS Tech feed. 19 articles from four sources consolidated into 17 stories.