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Google I/O 2026 live: Gemini AI, Android 17, Android XR updates and more

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Google I/O 2026 live: Gemini AI, Android 17, Android XR updates and more

A Google security engineer has been charged with crimes stemming from allegedly placing trades on Polymarket using confidential internal information from the tech giant. Michele Spagnuolo, a 36-year-old Italian citizen, was arrested this morning in New York, as first reported by ABC News.Spagnuolo is charged with one count each of commodities fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering. He has worked at Google since 2014 and was based out of the company’s Zurich, Switzerland offices.According to the complaint, Spagnuolo placed trades on Polymarket from around October 2025 to December 2025 using internal Google data. In one instance, he netted $1.2 million trading on who Google’s most-searched person of the year would be in 2025, correctly predicting that the winner would be D4vd, a once obscure singer who became the subject of intense public scrutiny after he was suspected of murder. (D4vd was ultimately charged in the case in April.)“Unlike the counterparties to his trades, Spagnuolo knew the outcome of these wagers before the trading public did because he had accessed Google’s confidential, commercially valuable internal data,” FBI agent Brandon Racz wrote in the complaint.Got a Tip?Do you have information about what's happening on prediction markets? We'd like to hear from you. Using a nonwork phone or computer, contact the reporter securely on Signal atKateknibbs.09.This is the second known arrest in the United States for illicit activity on prediction markets. In April, a US Army special forces officer was arrested for allegedly placing bets on markets related to the capture of former Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro. Both cases have been brought by the Southern District of New York.OpenAI fired an employee earlier this year for using insider information to make trades on a prediction platform, but this is the first time that a tech worker has been arrested for their alleged activity.Polymarket has come under fire from lawmakers for its reputation as a hub of illegal activity. Last week, House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform chairman James Comer launched an investigation into insider trading on prediction markets platforms and requested information from Polymarket about how the company vets its customers. There are two versions of Polymarket: a smaller platform that is legal in the United States, and a much larger offshore version that is technically blocked in the US and where traders use cryptocurrency to place their wagers."We’re working with law enforcement on their investigation. The employee accessed our marketing material using a tool available to all employees, but using such confidential information to place bets is a serious breach of our policies. We’ve placed the employee on leave and will take the appropriate action,” Google spokesperson Jaclyn Vazquez said in a statement to Wired."Polymarket worked closely with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York and the CFTC, and is the only prediction platform to date whose cooperation has led to insider trading charges in the United States,” Polymarket spokesperson Connor Brandi told WIRED. “Blockchain trading is transparent, traceable, and bad actors leave footprints. We are committed to maintaining accurate, fair, and transparent markets as well as enforcing our rules and working with our regulators and law enforcement.” In a social media post, Polymarket said the arrest was the result of a referral it made to authorities.Anyone can trace activity on Polymarket’s crypto-based platform, since all of the wallet transactions are public. Spagnuolo allegedly made his trades using an account with the user name AlphaRaccoon, which Polymarket watchers had long speculated may have belonged to a Google insider, since the odds of correctly predicting the answers to the questions he wagered on were so improbable.Earlier this month, Michael Selig, chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which is tasked with regulating prediction m

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Apple Memorial Day sales are here: We found sweet deals on MacBooks, AirPods, iPads and more

Apple hints at major AI push ahead of WWDC 2026 Communications Today Apple Preparing New 'Gen AI' Website Ahead of WWDC MacRumors Apple registers new ‘gen AI’ subdomain ahead of next month’s WWDC keynote 9to5Mac Apple kicks off Worldwide Developers Conference on June 8 Apple Apple quietly prepares new Gen AI website ahead of WWDC 2026 India Today

First Public macOS Kernel Exploit on Apple M5 Prepared Using Mythos Preview in Five Days

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First Public macOS Kernel Exploit on Apple M5 Prepared Using Mythos Preview in Five Days

Spyware attacks on journalists, human rights defenders, and political dissidents are no longer rare or exotic. In early 2025, WhatsApp notified roughly 90 users — many of them journalists and civil society members across Europe — that they had been targeted by Israeli spyware company Paragon Solutions. Months later, Apple sent threat notifications to a new group of iOS users; forensic analysis confirmed two of them, both journalists, had been hit with Paragon’s Graphite spyware using a zero-click attack, meaning they didn’t even have to tap a link to be compromised. These aren’t isolated incidents. They’re the norm. For the last 15 years, security researchers have documented countless cases where government hackers have targeted and successfully compromised journalists, human rights defenders, critics, and political opponents. These attacks rely on expensive, sophisticated, and stealthy tools that allow their operators to hack into and install spyware on computers, but especially smartphones, which hold virtually all of the data about a person’s daily life. Spyware gives its operators virtually full access to the target’s device and data. Government spies can record phone calls, steal chat messages, access photos, and switch on the device’s camera and microphone to record ambient sound and record nearby conversations. Spyware also typically tracks a person’s real-time location. In response to these attacks, tech giants now provide their users with better defenses. In particular, Apple, Google, and Meta offer opt-in features specifically designed to counter targeted spyware attacks. Generally speaking, these features add extra protection, sometimes by turning off or limiting some regular features. It’s a tradeoff, but having used these myself for a long time, I have never found them to be too onerous or annoying to use. Tech companies, security researchers who have studied spyware for years, and we at TechCrunch, recommend that you use these features if you suspect you may be a target of government surveillance because of who you are or what you do. Even if you’re not, these security features will keep your data better protected from entering the wrong hands. No security measure is perfect, and it’s a constant effort to keep security flaws at bay. Spyware makers find new ways to hack into phones and services, then software makers learn from those attacks and respond. Rinse and repeat. But that doesn’t mean these features are not worth using. On the contrary; these features have been proven effective. “These features are free, easy to enable, and the best defense we have today against sophisticated spyware,” said Runa Sandvik, a security researcher who has worked to protect journalists and other at-risk communities for more than a decade. “If the features get in the way of something you need to do, you can easily turn them off again — meaning it costs very little to turn them on and try them out.” Here’s a recap of these features, and how to switch them on. Image Credits:TechCrunch / Screenshot / Apple’s Lockdown Mode Apple’s Lockdown Mode is available on all Apple devices, including iPhones. Apple says that when Lockdown Mode is enabled, “your device won’t function like it typically does.” In exchange for this inconvenience, your device will be more secure. There is evidence that Lockdown Mode has helped in the past. Citizen Lab found that Lockdown Mode stopped one spyware attack carried out with NSO Group’s Pegasus software. As recently as March, Apple said it has never detected a successful attack on an Apple device with Lockdown Mode enabled. This is what Lockdown Mode changes on your device when you turn it on: Attachments received on iMessage other than some images, video, and audio are blocked by default. Links and previews in iMessage are blocked and appear as non-linked web addresses. (You can copy and paste the links into Safari or another browser if you want.) Fonts, some images, and some web technol

Apple bets on iPhone 17, MacBook Neo to power growth amid chip shortages

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Apple bets on iPhone 17, MacBook Neo to power growth amid chip shortages

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), in its reply before the National Green Tribunal (NGT), on Wednesday termed the landslide in Shimla that allegedly damaged agricultural land and around 550 apple plants worth around Rs 40 lakh in Mashobra last year as an “act of God”. To support its submission, the NHAI placed on record a May 2025 report of the India Meteorological Department, stating that Shimla recorded 104.5 mm rainfall against the normal rainfall of 69.8 mm during the period, reflecting a departure of nearly 50 per cent.The response was filed in a petition moved by orchardist Narender Singh Rathore from the Mashobra block, who moved NGT in 2025, stating that he suffered a huge loss due to the collapse of crate walls during NHAI’s construction work. The work was being carried out under the four-lane project in the Shakral Village-Dhalli section of the Kaithlighat-Dhalli stretch of National Highway-5 (NH-5).Rathore approached the NGT under provisions of the Environment (Protection) Act, alleging large-scale environmental degradation and damage to his agricultural and orchard land due to the highway-widening project. The NHAI stated, “…Further, the rainfall on May 25, 2025 — the day when the landslide damaged the orchard — was widespread and vigorous in the State of Himachal Pradesh. Isolated hailstorm activity was also recorded in Shimla district on May 22 and May 25. This clearly establishes that heavy rainfall and the resulting landslides were an extraordinary natural event constituting an ‘Act of God’ or ‘Vis Major’, beyond the reasonable anticipation and/or control of NHAI and its concessionaire.” In the reply, the NHAI also disputed the assessment of the Himachal Pradesh Horticulture department, which informed the tribunal that the petitioner suffered a loss of approximately Rs 40L. The NHAI stated, “Our concessionaire conducted an independent site visit and found that only 40 apple trees were actually damaged, as against the 440 trees claimed. We requested the SDM Shimla to direct the Horticulture Department to re-examine the total damage.” The respondents in the matter include the Himachal Pradesh Public Works Department, the State Government, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, the NHAI, Gawar Construction Limited and Gawar Shimla Highway Private Limited. The matter is being heard by a Bench comprising Justice Prakash Shrivastava, chairperson, and Dr A Senthil Vel, expert member. On May 19, the Himachal Pradesh Horticulture Department informed NGT that around 550 fruit-bearing apple plants were damaged due to the landslides and debris generated during the highway widening work. C. Paulrasu, Secretary (Horticulture), told the tribunal that inspections were conducted following complaints regarding damage caused by collapsing crate walls near the construction site.Story continues below this ad “The first inspection was carried out by the Horticulture Development Officer, Mashobra, on June 10, 2025. The value of the damaged fruit plants was calculated in accordance with the government-approved Harbans Singh Formula. A report submitted thereafter stated that 110 fruit plants had been damaged, causing losses estimated at Rs 7,65,650,” he stated. Paulrasu further informed the Tribunal that a second inspection was conducted on July 17, 2025, along with revenue officials and the landowner. During the inspection, it was found that a high-density apple plantation, along with old apple plants, had been buried under debris following the collapse. According to the revenue authorities, a total of 440 plants were affected, including 400 high-density apple plants and 40 Royal apple plants. The plants were found completely buried and totally damaged under the debris generated from the collapse. A second assessment report submitted on July 24, 2025, assessed the losses from the second incident at Rs 32,31,452. The State authorities informed the Tribunal that, combining both assessment reports, a total

Apple was surprised by AI-driven demand for Macs

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Apple was surprised by AI-driven demand for Macs

Smartphones can be distracting with their dizzying array of apps and constant stream of notifications. A new app called Poppy aims to organize the chaos by combining your calendar, email, messages and other sources into a single dashboard. The idea, per the company’s website, is that “Poppy pays attention so you don’t have to.” Users can connect various services to Poppy’s app, like their email, calendar, and, at a minimum, their location. Poppy then uses that data along with AI to guess what’s important to you right now based on what’s going on in your life. At a high level, this means you can open Poppy’s app or glance at its widgets to see the meetings or tasks you have on your plate. But Poppy’s most powerful feature is likely its proactive suggestions. Image Credits:Poppy/Second Nature Computing For instance, if Poppy has access to your calendar and sees that you have a 30-minute gap while you’re near a park, it could suggest you take a break and go for a walk before your next appointment. And if you’re planning a brunch with a friend who mentioned their food preferences in a previous communication, it could factor in that information when suggesting restaurants. You can also message Poppy with questions or requests, almost as if you had a personal assistant working on your behalf. Poppy can track your flights and alert you to changes, or nudge you when it’s time to take your medication. Image Credits:Poppy/Second Nature Computing Poppy’s maker, Sai Kambampati, says he’s always been fascinated by human-computer interaction, having earned his Master’s degree in Computer Science with a specialization in this area. Previously a software engineer at the AI hardware startup Humane, he said he has seen first-hand how people are trying to rethink how we engage with technology. "I've always been interested in challenging what computers are able to do, especially the idea of ambient computing and computers that can proactively sense what you need and anticipate your needs," Kambampati told TechCrunch. "That's something that I found very, very exciting. And I felt like with all the AI technology that we're seeing around us, it has never been more possible to embark on something like this." Image Credits:Poppy/Second Nature Computing At launch, Poppy works with everyday apps like Apple Calendar, Google Calendar, Gmail, Outlook, iCloud Mail, Apple Health, Reminders, Contacts, iMessage, WhatsApp, and others. (It uses a Mac app to access iMessage, which could later be a problem as Apple generally doesn't allow third-party apps to access its messaging service.) It also works with apps like Uber and Instacart, and Kambampati plans to extend support to others over time. The company says users' data is encrypted when stored in its database, and it has a zero-retention policy enabled when it uses cloud-based LLMs for its suggestions. In time, however, Kambampati would like make the switch to using local, on-device AI models when technology advances. "My hope, my dream is — within two to three years from now, when our devices have much more powerful compute, and the models get much smaller, cheaper and more high quality — eventually we can have all of this running on our own devices, and there won't even be a need to hit the servers," he says. Poppy's San Francisco-based team of four is backed by $1.25 million in pre-seed funding led by Kindred Ventures, with various angels also participating, including DeepMind's Logan Kilpatrick. 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

iPhone 18 Pro to Launch in September With These 10 New Features

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iPhone 18 Pro to Launch in September With These 10 New Features

At long last, Android and iPhone users will be able to send each other end-to-end encrypted text messages. On Monday, end-to-end encrypted messaging is starting to roll out in beta for conversations between iPhone and Android users running the most up-to-date software. End-to-end encrypted (e2ee) messaging is an important privacy feature that makes users far less susceptible to surveillance by hackers, governments, or the companies that make these communication platforms. When these messages are sent between devices, they’re encrypted while in transit, making it near-impossible for anyone else to intercept and read the message. But until now, messages sent between iPhone and Android devices could not be end-to-end encrypted (e2ee), even though iMessage has been encrypted since its launch in 2011, and Android users have been able to communicate among themselves via e2ee since 2021. Over the years, iOS and Android users have had clunky communications — Android users can’t use Apple’s proprietary iMessage, but Apple refused to support RCS messaging, a more sophisticated upgrade to decades-old SMS texting, since 2020. Now the industry-standard texting protocol, RCS brings features like typing indicators, read receipts, emoji reactions, longer message lengths, and encryption to text messages. But Apple didn’t support RCS until 2023, once it finally caved due to regulatory pressure. Google had urged Apple to support RCS texting to make communication between their devices more seamless — this was such an issue that people sincerely thought about “green bubble stigma,” referring to the color of the message bubbles that iPhone users receive from Androids. Until Apple started supporting RCS, it was a common headache for iPhone users to get texts from their Android-using friends that would break group chats, or result in terrible quality multimedia sharing. Now, Apple’s long-awaited support of e2ee on RCS helps further close the gap between green and blue bubbles. End-to-end encrypted RCS messaging has only begun to roll out in beta, so users may not have access just yet. If a conversation between Google and Apple devices is encrypted, the users will see a lock icon that indicates that the chat is protected. 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

Economy

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Apple agrees to $250M settlement over claims it overhyped iPhone AI features

Apple agrees to $250M settlement over claims it overhyped iPhone AI features Class Action Lawsuits Apple AI lawsuit settled: Every iPhone included in the $250 million settlement Mashable iPhone owners could get up to $95 from Apple settlement. Here's what to know. CBS News Apple class action settlement could pay you money. See who's eligible USA Today Apple promised a smarter Siri, but a lawsuit says it didn't deliver—and you can get up to $95 back Fortune

Apple to pay $250m to iPhone buyers over AI features lawsuit

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Apple to pay $250m to iPhone buyers over AI features lawsuit

14 minutes agoKali HaysTechnology reporterEPATim Cook in 2024 talking about the abilities of AI in Apple products.Apple has agreed to pay some iPhone buyers a collective $250m (£184m) to end a lawsuit accusing the company of misleading people about new artificial intelligence (AI) features and capabilities.In a settlement filed Tuesday in California federal court, Apple did not admit any wrongdoing, but agreed to a deal that will resolve claims in a large consolidated class action lawsuit filed last year.It accused Apple of false advertising around its AI features on the iPhone, which the company called Apple Intelligence, including an enhancement of its Siri voice assistant.Apple will pay between $25 and $95 to people who bought an iPhone 15 and iPhone 16 between June 2024 and March 2025.An Apple spokeswoman said the lawsuit was focused on "the availability of two additional features" in a lineup of many released as part of its Apple Intelligence rollout. "We resolved this matter to stay focused on doing what we do best, delivering the most innovative products and services to our users", she said. In a revised complaint filed last week for the consolidated class of iPhone buyers, lawyers said that Apple's marketing around new AI features amounted to false advertising."Apple promoted AI capabilities that did not exist at the time, do not exist now, and will not exist for two or more years, if ever, all while marketing them as the breakthrough innovation," lawyers wrote.They added that Apple undertook this campaign around AI specifically in an effort to catch up in a Big Tech race for new technology being driven by new companies like OpenAI and Anthropic.Outgoing chief executive Tim Cook has been criticised over the years for not being innovative enough with Apple's products.But its marketing of Apple Intelligence as being able to deliver to iPhone customers a new, better version of Siri that would transform it from a "limited voice interface into a full-fledged personal AI assistant" was allegedly false."The iPhone 16 was delivered to consumers without "Apple Intelligence," and Enhanced Siri never came," the lawyers wrote.

US Supreme Court appears split over controversial use of geofence search warrants

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US Supreme Court appears split over controversial use of geofence search warrants

In Brief Posted: 7:06 AM PDT · April 29, 2026 Image Credits:CHRIS DELMAS/AFP / Getty Images Epic Games has scored another procedural win in its fight with Apple over App Store fees, as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has now granted the Fortnite maker’s latest motion. The decision means Apple must continue to allow developers to use external payments in apps without charging fees. An earlier order had let Apple temporarily pause the required App Store changes while it sought Supreme Court review. Epic Games derided Apple’s move as “another delay...

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