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A yard sign opposing a planned data center is displayed along Route 54 in Mount Carmel Township Northumberland County. | Image: Getty Images This is The Stepback , a weekly newsletter breaking down one essential story from the tech world. For more on the data center buildout, follow Emma Roth . The Stepback arrives in our subscribers' inboxes on Sunday at 8AM ET. Opt in for The Stepback here . How it started Years before the AI boom threatened local power grids, a small group of protesters set the stage for the battles cropping up across communities today. In 2015, Apple announced plans to build a roughly $1 billion data center in the sleepy town of Athenry, Ireland. The data center's 500-acre site would power Apple's services in Europe, including iTunes, iMessage, and Siri. At th … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/JbYDR6v

More mint green synths please. | Image: Nopia After setting the music gear corner of the internet on fire back in 2023 with the first glimpse at the Nopia , creators Martin Grieco and Rocío Gal are almost ready to bring it to market. The duo brought it to the MusicRadar offices for an in-depth first look and revealed that it will be launching in "a couple of months" for around £550. Nopia is built around harmonic interplay in a unique way. Rather than a few knobs and a keyboard controlling a single synth patch, it blends multiple modules - keys, bass, arp, and pad - into a single performance, not unlike a drumless groovebox . There's a one-octave keyboard called the Chord Builder, a 12-b … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/au1iBM2

Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield had been seeking documents from Paramount related to its takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery. Rayfield also asked a state circuit court judge to delay the closing of the deal by 60 days so that his office could review the documents. But according to Deadline and Variety , he's now dropped his civil investigative demand for the records. Obviously, Paramount is pleased with Rayfield's decision to withdraw his request, but the AG's office isn't exactly satisfied with the outcome. Jenny Hansson, communications director for Rayfield, told Deadline that, "Paramount made it clear that they weren't going to compl … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/EogVxrk

The Xtra Muse and the DJI Osmo Pocket 3. | Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge Last year, we told you about Xtra , the company that lets DJI sneak its popular cameras into the US, and Skyrover, a brand seemingly selling DJI drones in disguise . They're just two of the many firms DJI is suspected of starting to skirt the United States' foreign drone ban . But it appears the FCC is finally doing something about "DJI front companies," as watcher Konrad Iturbe dubbed them last year . Today, the FCC is fining eight of them $25,000 each - and giving them until Monday, July 20th, just 10 calendar days, to answer the FCC's questions before the agency takes further action. Those companies include Cogito Tech, Fixaxo Technology, … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/xYgpV0w

Apple has sued OpenAI, alleging that former employees that now work for the AI company have stolen Apple's trade secrets "for the benefit of OpenAI." In its complaint , Apple alleges that it has uncovered "a pattern of theft of Apple's trade secrets by OpenAI employees who were formerly at Apple," and it names IO Products (Jony Ive's hardware startup that OpenAI bought in 2025 ), Tang Tan (OpenAI's chief hardware officer), and Chang Liu (who joined OpenAI from Apple in January) as defendants. An Apple spokesperson shared this statement with 9to5Mac : At Apple, our teams are constantly developing breakthrough technologies to create the best … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/7OWsHhb

Department of Homeland Security. | Image: The Verge Advocates are demanding that the Department of Homeland Security release bodycam footage of the fatal shooting of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a Mexican immigrant who was killed by ICE officers in Houston during a traffic stop earlier this week. But DHS claims the agents involved in the shooting weren't wearing body cameras because of the lengthy government shutdown that prevented ICE and Customs and Border Protection from receiving additional federal funding for 76 days - a shutdown that was itself spurred by congressional bickering over reforms to DHS after federal agents killed two civilians earlier this year. Two competing narratives have em … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/QKjLTFi