Big Tech stories

Apple has opened submissions for the 2026 Swift Student Challenge, inviting student developers worldwide to submit Swift app playgrounds by 28 February.

Health NZ says a third-party hardware failure caused a 36-hour South Island hospital IT outage that forced staff back to pen and paper.

Study finds over 28,000 fake domains mimicking top global sites, exposing users to rising phishing, malware and industrial-scale squatting.

Amazon, Microsoft, Meta and Alphabet eye USD $650 billion AI splurge for 2026, stirring investor unease over margins and cloud growth.

myFirst expands its kid-focused tech range and Circle app, offering smartphone-style features with tighter safety controls for families.

Most Australians doubt the under-16 social media ban has made the internet safer, with many expecting teens to bypass the new rules.

Meta promotes parental controls over teen social media bans at NZ Instagram safety camp as debate grows on under-16s’ online access.

Snap locks 415,000 suspected under-16 Snapchat accounts in Australia and renews calls for stricter app store-level age checks.

Ireland ends its data centre freeze with strict rules tying new projects to onsite power, renewables and a shift beyond Dublin’s grid limits.

Snap forms Specs unit to spearhead next-gen smart glasses, promising AI-driven, low-friction eyewear that blends digital and real worlds.

Big banks and AI leaders signal they will layer new AI tools on top of, not instead of, core enterprise software systems.

Google Photos is rolling out AI-powered editing in Australia, letting Android users transform images simply by typing or speaking prompts.

Digital rights group warns Australians to resist ‘privacy paradox’, urging tougher laws and everyday steps to curb online data tracking.

YouTube sets 2026 agenda with tougher child safety tools, bigger creator payouts and expanded AI across production and viewing.

Walmart to embed shopping in Google’s Gemini app, letting users browse and buy Walmart and Sam’s Club items directly via AI chats.

Prism Power plans a USD $40m US acquisition and UK expansion to tackle critical power kit shortages amid a fast-growing data centre boom.

Governments worldwide tighten social media age checks for children, fuelling demand for privacy-friendly facial age estimation tools.

Canada’s GBP £925.6 million AI pledge backs chips and servers, but critics say true sovereignty needs home-grown models, not US black boxes.

Ben Goertzel and Jaron Lanier clash over whether increasingly autonomous AI deserves moral standing or must always remain under human control.

Apple will build its next-generation AI foundation models on Google’s Gemini cloud, promising a more personalised Siri later this year.