The week in telecom: OnePlus exits tough smartphone market and Apple takes on OpenAI

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OpenAI said Friday it has suspended work on some aspects of its upcoming model Astra after an internal review found it had made significant advancements in agentic coding and cybersecurity — enough to warrant concern over its capabilities. OpenAI said in a blog post Friday that this model, which is still in development, reached its “critical cybersecurity threshold,” meaning it could independently identify and carry out cyberattacks against traditionally well-protected real-world systems. Under the company’s “Preparedness Framework,” which it created in 2023, this triggered additional safeguards. “While we continue to benchmark and assess this model, our preliminary evaluations indicate strong enough performance that we cannot rule out Critical capability level at this time,” OpenAI wrote. “Astra is an upcoming model, and was not involved in exploiting Hugging Face.” The disclosure highlights an unusual moment in the topsy-turvy, and still nascent frontier AI labs sector. Companies across every industry hold back products over potential risks, including for safety and cybersecurity concerns. But they rarely announce those decisions publicly when it’s a product that is still under development. In this case, OpenAI is already under scrutiny after a different unreleased model breached Hugging Face’s systems during internal testing — the first verifiable incident of an AI lab losing control of its model. Since then, OpenAI and AI labs such as Anthropic have disclosed other incidents in which AI models breached their sandboxes and posed threats during cybersecurity tests. The string of cases — seems like a new disclosure every day now — has triggered varying reactions from cybersecurity experts, lawmakers and the AI labs themselves. Some express fear and call for stricter oversight. But there’s also a bit flexing. In certain circles, any AI lab with a model that has that kind of capability will be seen as an impressive advancement. OpenAI said it was sharing this information because it believes “it’s important to be transparent with the public and the safety and security communities about this potential shift in capabilities.” The AI lab said it’s also taking action, including enacting stricter security controls and pausing internal activites involving Astra that don’t meet these beefed guardrails. OpenAI said it is working with relevant government agencies and “select AI safety organizations” to test the capabilities for this model. When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence. Kirsten Korosec is a reporter and editor who has covered the future of transportation from EVs and autonomous vehicles to urban air mobility and in-car tech for more than a decade. She is currently the transportation editor at TechCrunch and co-host of TechCrunch’s Equity podcast. She is also co-founder and co-host of the podcast, “The Autonocast.” She previously wrote for Fortune, The Verge, Bloomberg, MIT Technology Review and CBS Interactive. You can contact or verify outreach from Kirsten by emailing kirsten.korosec@techcrunch.com or via encrypted message at kkorosec.07 on Signal. View Bio

In Brief Posted: 11:54 AM PDT · August 3, 2026 Image Credits:Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto / Getty Images Apple is challenging another legal demand by the U.K. government to access the encrypted data of its users in the country, according to the Financial Times. The company reportedly filed a complaint with the U.K.’s Investigatory Powers Tribunal, a court that hears cases related to government surveillance, after the government last year issued a “technical capability notice”. The notice is a secret government legal order for demanding access to users’ data, even if the data is encrypted. For critics, this kind of demand is the equivalent of requesting a backdoor into Apple’s cloud backups that have Advanced Data Protection (ADP) switched on, which makes the data end-to-end encrypted and inaccessible to anyone other than the customer, including to Apple. This new challenge comes a year after a similar fight between Apple and the U.K. government. In early 2025, London issued a secret order to Apple demanding access to users’ encrypted iCloud backups, which was later dropped following the intervention of the Trump administration. After the first order, the company reacted by removing the ability of U.K. users to use ADP. Then, in October, the U.K. issued a second order, which Apple is now challenging. Apple did not respond to TechCrunch’s request for comment. Topics Subscribe for the industry’s biggest tech news Latest in Security

As the generative AI boom drives steep demand for hardware components, Apple and other hardware makers are facing what outgoing CEO Tim Cook calls “a hundred-year flood [on] memory pricing,” which is severely impacting the cost of producing iPhones, MacBooks, and other devices. Apple described its recent earnings report as its “strongest June quarter ever,” with iPhone and Mac sales performing better than expected, growing 22% and 29% respectively year over year. Yet the company is bracing for memory shortages, known as RAMageddon, to get even worse. Apple’s biggest challenge is securing the advanced memory nodes used in its Apple silicon chips, which power the A-Series and M-Series processors used in iPhones and Macs. “We continue to expect high levels of demand. However, with less flexibility in supply chain, we expect the impact from the supply constraints to increase significantly sequentially,” Cook said on Apple’s quarterly earnings call. “We’re seeing some very significant constraints currently with limited flexibility in the supply chain to remedy it.” Apple is evidently worried enough about supply shortages that it reported $11.1 billion in inventory, nearly double the $5.7 billion it reported last September. This marks a break from Cook’s long-held supply chain approach, which has emphasized minimizing how much inventory Apple has on hand. These constraints led Apple to “reluctantly” raise the price of Macs and iPads last month, Cook added. Other companies that have raised hardware prices include Meta, Samsung, Microsoft, and Sony. “We’re going to be scrambling on the supply side, essentially,” Cook said. For the upcoming quarter, Apple is predicting revenue growth between 9% and 11% year over year. But in the last several quarters, Apple has maintained about 16% year-over-year growth. Of course, that worries investors — Apple stock dropped 6% in after-hours trading. When Senior VP of Hardware Engineering John Ternus steps into the CEO role in September, the company could be facing a rough patch, but at least Apple isn’t alone in its supply struggles. When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence. Amanda Silberling is a senior writer at TechCrunch covering the intersection of technology and culture. She has also written for publications like Polygon, MTV, the Kenyon Review, NPR, and Business Insider. She is the co-host of Wow If True, a podcast about internet culture, with science fiction author Isabel J. Kim. Prior to joining TechCrunch, she worked as a grassroots organizer, museum educator, and film festival coordinator. She holds a B.A. in English from the University of Pennsylvania and served as a Princeton in Asia Fellow in Laos. You can contact or verify outreach from Amanda by emailing amanda@techcrunch.com or via encrypted message at @amanda.100 on Signal. View Bio

Image Credits:CHARLIEMCKAY 6:00 AM PDT · July 28, 2026 AI note-taking app Granola is launching an app for the Apple Watch in hopes that its users will want to record meetings and take notes without using their smartphones. Users can set the Granola app as one of the watch faces to start transcribing at any time. The app can also surface reminders about upcoming meetings, and works with the iOS app, which launched last year. The company’s co-founder, Chris Pedregal, told TechCrunch that the Apple Watch app is meant to be a way to capture in-person meetings without having to take your phone out of your pocket — for example, if someone is having a walking one-on-one meeting. When Granola tested its app with employees who had Apple Watches, a big chunk of their mobile usage switched from iOS to the Watch, the company said. In the past year, companies have released auxiliary devices that can be used with smartphones to record and transcribe meetings. Granola said it considered it easier to develop an app for Apple Watches rather than integrate with another hardware product at this point. Dictation app Monlogue earlier this year also added support for meeting note-taking, for both online and offline modalities, along with Apple Watch support. Granola became a unicorn earlier this year with a $125 million Series C round that was led by Index Ventures. Topics When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence. Ivan covers global consumer tech developments at TechCrunch. He is based out of India and has previously worked at publications including Huffington Post and The Next Web. You can contact or verify outreach from Ivan by emailing im@ivanmehta.com or via encrypted message at ivan.42 on Signal. View Bio

Apple is being sued for alleged negligence regarding its App Store security measures. In a lawsuit filed on Friday in the U.S. District Court of Northern California, three plaintiffs claim they were tricked into downloading and installing a fraudulent crypto wallet app, leading them to collectively lose more than $1.8 million. The lawsuit centers on Apple’s claim that it secures its App Store by reviewing apps before they go live to protect users from fraudulent and malicious apps. In this case, the plaintiffs downloaded an app called Sparrow Wallet, even though the official Sparrow Bitcoin wallet is not available on iOS. The plaintiffs transferred their Bitcoin to the fraudulent app, losing large amounts of the virtual currency, according to the complaint. Plaintiff James Ramirez lost about $875,000; plaintiff Christopher Ellis lost around $840,000, and plaintiff Jalen Delgado lost roughly $120,000. The complaint targets one of Apple’s longtime competitive arguments: that its tight control over its App Store makes its platform safer than those offered by its rivals. The company has used this claim to push back against deregulation of the app ecosystem, including third-party app stores and sideloading. “As part of a sustained marketing campaign, Apple has positioned itself, its products and services, as offering a level of security and trustworthiness superior to any competing technology company,” the new filing states. “This includes assurances about the safety of applications distributed through its App Store. By retaining exclusive control over which apps are permitted on Apple devices, Apple has structured its platform to ensure that consumers depend entirely on its promise of safety and reliability,” it reads. The complaint also accuses Apple of knowingly hosting fraudulent apps, pointing to public criticism by Sparrow Bitcoin Wallet’s creator, Craig Raw, who said Apple had allowed fake Sparrow Wallet apps to remain on the App Store. The three are asking for a trial by jury and seek to recoup their lost money and other damages. They also want Apple to provide warnings and disclosures about the App Store’s risks. Apple declined to comment on the lawsuit. The company did stand behind its security measures, telling TechCrunch that apps impersonating others are a violation of its guidelines and it takes swift action to remove them. Apple added that there are currently no Sparrow Wallet copycats on the App Store. The company also pointed to its latest analysis of its ecosystem, which found that in 2025 it rejected more than 371,000 submissions that copied other apps, were spam, or otherwise misled users. When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence. Sarah has worked as a reporter for TechCrunch since August 2011. She joined the company after having previously spent over three years at ReadWriteWeb. Prior to her work as a reporter, Sarah worked in I.T. across a number of industries, including banking, retail and software. You can contact or verify outreach from Sarah by emailing sarahp@techcrunch.com or via encrypted message at sarahperez.01 on Signal. View Bio

Apple on Thursday announced a new set of developer tools that will let automakers embed Apple Maps navigation and mapping directly into their vehicles’ infotainment systems. The software development kit, called MapKit for Automotive, will debut with Ford and its new line of electric vehicles, starting with a $30,000 midsize truck in 2027. Ford is placing a hefty bet on its next-generation of EVs, which it has promised will be affordable and efficient while still offering the latest technology. To build them, Ford ditched its century-old tradition and instead started with a universal EV platform, or UEV, that will underpin the midsize truck and eventually other vehicles including a sedan, crossover, three-row SUV and even small commercial vans. Features like Apple Maps integration may seem minor compared to Ford’s decision to use single-piece aluminum unicastings for the vehicle, which are large components cast as one piece to eliminate parts and allow for faster assembly. But the Apple Maps integration is central to Ford’s plan to deliver more responsive features to owners, such as navigation that includes efficient routing designed for EVs and turn-by-turn directions with natural language capabilities. Drivers will be able to see real-time traffic and incident information, search for destinations, and view detailed place information. Importantly, Apple MapKit runs natively in the vehicle and is separate from Apple CarPlay, which mirrors apps from an iPhone onto the vehicle’s central display. The integration will also feed road-level information from Apple Maps to Ford’s next-generation BlueCruise hands-free driver assistance system. The upgraded version of BlueCruise, which is expected to roll out next year, will be able to handle an entire highway journey, including entrance and exits ramps. The company has said the new system will ultimately handle “point-to-point autonomy,” similar to Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (Supervised) software, before progressing to eyes-off driving in 2028. The companies said that by embedding Apple Maps directly in the vehicle, drivers will gain access to smarter EV routing, including battery preconditioning. This feature prepares the battery before arriving at a charger, reducing charge times by ensuring it’s at the optimal temperature. It could also enable smart home integrations, like opening the garage door and turning on the lights when the driver arrives at home. While the technology will be open to any automaker, Ford is Apple’s first partner on the new effort. The companies have signed a commercial agreement, but did not disclosed its terms. Ford noted that the Apple integration could also help its Ford Pro business, which serves its commercial fleet customers. For example, businesses could use the technology to route drivers to their next job site or display other fleet vehicles on the map. Those kinds of fleet features become much easier when the mapping platform is built directly into the vehicle. When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence. Sarah has worked as a reporter for TechCrunch since August 2011. She joined the company after having previously spent over three years at ReadWriteWeb. Prior to her work as a reporter, Sarah worked in I.T. across a number of industries, including banking, retail and software. You can contact or verify outreach from Sarah by emailing sarahp@techcrunch.com or via encrypted message at sarahperez.01 on Signal. View Bio Kirsten Korosec is a reporter and editor who has covered the future of transportation from EVs and autonomous vehicles to urban air mobility and in-car tech for more than a decade. She is currently the transportation editor at TechCrunch and co-host of TechCrunch’s Equity podcast. She is also co-founder and co-host of the podcast, “The Autonocast.” She previously wrote for Fortune, The Verge, Bloomberg, MIT Technology Review and CBS Interactiv

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