Tech News Roundup — July 18, 2026 (PM)
The afternoon roundup leans heavily on gaming and Linux desktop news: Bungie’s Marathon is collapsing on Steam while Bethesda’s Todd Howard describes the Xbox layoffs as “very difficult” — both sides of the same studio-consolidation story. The Linux desktop side is busy too, with Phoronix tracking fresh drops from KDE Plasma 6.8, GNOME OS safe mode, D7VK 2.0, oneDNN 3.13, and an AMD display driver fix for the Apple Studio Display. The Verge gives us a gushing Bravia 9 II hands-on, a record-setting Starlink report, and FL Studio’s new agent-engineer mode. Pplware rounds out the slate with seven Portuguese-language stories on macOS malware, Android changes, and a delayed Lamborghini EV.
Gaming & Industry
Marathon’s player base collapses, Bethesda boss calls Xbox cuts “very difficult.” Bungie shifted focus away from Destiny in favour of Marathon — but Marathon peaked at only ~6,000 concurrent Steam players versus Destiny 2’s ~60,000, and isn’t even in the top 100 most-played Xbox titles (behind Gears of War 2 and Fable 3). Marathon’s game director Joseph Ziegler has also left the studio. Separately, Bethesda’s Todd Howard moved to reassure fans that Fallout 5 and Elder Scrolls VI remain on track, while acknowledging Xbox’s cuts are “very difficult, very difficult for our teams” — and Sony has already booked a ~$766M impairment loss against its Bungie acquisition.
More games should be on rails (literally). A review of Denshattack! from Undercoders — billed as a rail-shooter where the action plays out like carefully orchestrated sequences. The Verge rides the trend alongside the recent Star Fox remake and finds the format underused.
[The Verge]
Hardware & Space
Sony’s flagship RGB LED TV is incredible. The Bravia 9 II lands as Sony’s most anticipated TV in years — a full-array RGB LED panel praised for natural landscapes and vibrant colours while watching Honor Among Thieves. Specular highlights pop without halos.
[The Verge]
Starlink deployments on record pace. SpaceX launched 1,589 Starlink satellites into low-Earth orbit in H1 2026 versus 1,489 at the same point in 2025 (per Jonathan McDowell’s tracker), putting the company ahead of last year’s record-setting cadence.
[The Verge]
FL Studio 2026’s Gopher becomes an assistant engineer. Last year Image Line’s Gopher was effectively a glorified instruction manual; the 2026 release lets it actually execute actions on your behalf — laying down beats, adjusting mixer settings, and so on — turning the chatbot into a hands-on assistant.
[The Verge]
Linux & Open Source
AMD Linux graphics driver preps fix for Apple Studio Display. This week’s AMDGPU Display Core (“DC”) update is heavy with 70 new patches, including work to improve open-source Radeon support for the Apple Studio Display on Linux.
GNOME OS safe mode improves system reliability. Update from GUADEC in Spain on the current state of GNOME OS, with safe-mode work aimed at making the rolling GNOME distribution more resilient.
KDE Plasma 6.8 System Monitor makes CPU affinity easier. Nate Graham and John Veness’s This Week in Plasma covers the latest desktop improvements, headlined by a redesigned System Monitor for assigning processes to specific cores.
D7VK 2.0 released with up to 2× performance. The Direct3D 7-on-Vulkan implementation ships its 2.0 major alongside DXVK 3.0.2, offering big perf wins for older Direct3D titles on Linux.
UXL’s oneDNN 3.13 preps for Intel Nova Lake with AVX10.2. The deep-learning library (now under the UXL Foundation) lands its post-AMD ZenDNN 6.0 feature release, with heavy Intel next-gen optimisations.
Pplware in Brief
New macOS malware “kills” apps until victims enter their password. A new macOS malware strain freezes apps and demands the user authenticate before unlocking them — making the attacker look like a legitimate system prompt.
Signal now lets you use the same account on multiple Android smartphones. A multi-device capability finally lands for Android (iOS got it earlier).
Apple raises Apple Music prices in Portugal. Subscriptions in Portugal go up; the article breaks down what each tier now costs.
One of Android’s biggest changes ever arrives next week. Pplware previews a major upcoming Android platform change rolling out across devices.
European Commission approves the first weight-loss pill. Not strictly tech, but a regulatory first — the EU greenlights a pharmaceutical for weight management.
National exam grades published — how to request a review. Education-season practical guide on Portuguese secondary-school grade appeals.
“Technology isn’t mature”: Lamborghini delays its electric car (again). The Italian supercar maker pushes the EV launch back once more, citing battery and powertrain readiness.
[Pplware] [Pplware] [Pplware] [Pplware] [Pplware] [Pplware] [Pplware]
In Brief
Verge Installer #136: apps, gadgets, and tools every reader needs. The weekly roundup of Verge-recommended apps and gear, curated by readers.
GNOME, KDE, D7VK, oneDNN, AMD GPU driver. See the Linux section above — five Phoronix stories folded into one bullet.
[The Verge]
Roundup compiled from the TTRSS Tech feed. 19 articles from 4 sources summarised.