Month: July 2026

Sony says it has locked in enough memory for fiscal 2026, which runs through March 31, 2027. For PlayStation fans, that’s the headline: the company appears to have secured what it needs to keep its PlayStation 5 sales plans moving, even with the wider DRAM and NAND crunch that some market watchers have started calling “Ramageddon.”

That squeeze has largely been tied to heavy demand from data centers, analysts say, and it could become a bigger issue if Grand Theft Auto VI does, in fact, land in November 2026. Sony already bumped the base PlayStation 5 from $550 to $650 in April 2026, and the company hasn’t ruled out more price pressure if component costs stay elevated. Meanwhile, one forecast sees global console shipments falling 19.5% in 2026.

So if you’re thinking about buying a PS5, this does matter. Sony says first-quarter fiscal 2026 sales slipped to 1.38 million units, down from 1.56 million a year earlier, but lifetime sales have still reached 95.3 million. The platform is still in a strong position.

You can buy the PlayStation 5 from Sony and the usual major retailers. What Sony still isn’t spelling out is how that memory supply is divided by region, which supplier deals are actually in place, or what the plan looks like after March 2027. And analysts still expect plenty of volatility through 2027 and likely beyond.

Australia does not, at this point, have a nationwide social media ban for under-16s. So when you see claims that Australian teenagers are still on social platforms months after a national ban supposedly kicked in, the premise is off from the start.

What Australia actually has is an argument that’s still unfolding. Opposition leader Peter Dutton says he’d require age checks if elected. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has signaled he’s open to some form of action. And the pressure, coming from both sides of politics, has pulled in parents, platforms, regulators, and child-safety advocates.

South Australia has gone further than anyone else so far. It has put A$1 million into a state trial that would block children under 14, require parental consent for 14- and 15-year-olds, and bring in a citizens’ jury. Still, that’s a state-level test, not a national rollout.

That difference matters if you’re trying to follow the story. Supporters of a ban point to research linking social media use with anxiety, depression and other harms. They also raise concerns about addictive design, harmful content, and the social pressure these platforms can amplify, even if experts still argue over how direct those effects really are.

Critics make a different case. They say bans are a blunt instrument, could drive teenagers into less visible online spaces, and may do less good than education, platform accountability, and stronger digital literacy. Australian eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant has made that argument herself.

For now, all you can really point to are proposals, plus the fights over age checks: privacy, accuracy, data storage. Add to that the moves underway in Florida and the UK, and one more gap stands out. The views of technology companies, and of teenagers themselves, still haven’t been explored enough.

OnePlus has started teasing the OnePlus 16 ahead of its expected October debut, and the angle is pretty different this time. More than usual, it’s pitching the phone as a gaming-first flagship.

PUBG MOBILE Download

The company is name-checking the Fengchi Gaming Kernel, support for extreme high refresh rates, and an “eSports tri-core” system. That likely points to CPU and GPU tuning, better efficiency and steadier thermals, plus dedicated display and touch chips to cut latency and make quick inputs feel snappier. If that reading is right, the OnePlus 16 sits a lot closer to phones from Asus ROG, Red Magic, iQOO, and Poco, while still keeping the look of a mainstream flagship.

Leaks so far suggest a 6.78-inch display running at 165Hz, or maybe even 185Hz, a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 Pro chip, and a massive 9,000mAh battery.

The camera story is murkier. The OnePlus 16 could get a 200MP main camera alongside 50MP ultrawide and 50MP periscope lenses, but some reports flip that around and say the 200MP sensor may actually be the periscope.

If you want a flagship that leans harder into gaming than most, this is one to keep an eye on.

Design leaks are all over the place, with some showing a circular camera island similar to the OnePlus 13 and others pointing to a smaller square module. There are also signs the OnePlus 16 may stay limited to Asia , especially China and India, since North America and Europe aren’t expected to get it. OnePlus also says its sales for the first half of 2026 were up 13% from a year earlier.

Call of Duty: Mobile Download

A few weeks after the arrival of GPT-5.6 with Sol, Terra, and Luna, OpenAI has announced a major price cut. Luna now costs 80% less, while Terra reduces its price by 20%, an improvement that also affects those of us who use ChatGPT Work and Codex.

Luna and Terra become more affordable

Luna Download

Terra Download

Starting July 30, GPT-5.6 Terra costs $2 per million input tokens and $12 per million output tokens. Luna drops to $0.20 and $1.20, respectively. OpenAI’s fast model thus becomes much more appealing for certain tasks; classifying files or emails, preliminary document analysis, or repetitive tasks now come with a much lower cost.

According to OpenAI, the reduction is possible thanks to efficiency improvements resulting from the optimization of the models and of the infrastructure that runs them. Each response now requires less time, fewer tokens, and fewer resources, while offering the same results.

More usage within the same subscriptions

For those of us who use ChatGPT Work for projects and tasks, it comes down to how usage is counted. Terra and Luna now use fewer credits per task, so we can use them for longer before reaching the limits of our subscription.

The monthly fees stay the same overall, but requests are more efficient. Something we’ll also notice especially in Codex’s long workflows, where agents can carry out many more actions in a row. The price cut means you can get more work done within the same plan.

Reddit has reported excellent quarterly results, with revenue of $805 million (61% more year-on-year) and a net profit of 253 million. Future forecasts are also beating expectations and, even so, the shares have fallen more than 10% after the close. It’s down to changes in traffic from Google.

Reddit Download

AI search changes the rules

Steve Huffman, CEO of Reddit, explained in a letter to shareholders that search-engine traffic were pretty volatile during the quarter, especially in the latter part of it. The rise of Google’s AI search summaries lets us find answers directly on Google without having to visit Reddit or any other website.

Those summaries are already affecting search-engine traffic significantly for many websites. In Reddit’s case, the situation is especially delicate because in 2024 the company signed a deal with Google worth $60 million a year in which it handed over its content for AI training, the same one that now seems responsible for the decline in visits.

Reddit has tightened access to its data and requires companies training AI models to sign agreements. At the same time, it is seeking to raise the profile of Reddit Answers to compete directly with Google while it considers whether to renew the 2024 deal.

Huffman believes communities and real conversations will keep Reddit appealing, but that requires visits. We’ll see how the situation evolves, but, in the meantime, shareholders are showing concern.