Tech News Roundup: SpaceX’s Starlink Carrier Play, OpenAI Defends Safety Firings, iPhone 18 Pro Cuts & More (Oct 9, 2026)
Friday’s tech news is all about who controls the pipes, who gets to talk about AI safety, and whether people still want pricier phones. SpaceX bought its way closer to being a real mobile carrier, OpenAI is standing by its firing of three safety researchers, and Apple is reportedly trimming iPhone 18 Pro orders on soft demand. Add a Musk-vs-Ambani fight over Starlink in India, GitHub rebuilding its storage for the AI agent flood, and a Claude bill nobody wants to refund, and here’s the Lanbrew tech roundup for October 9, 2026.
Update: SpaceX buys low-band spectrum to turn Starlink Mobile into a real carrier
What’s new: earlier this week we posted about the FCC’s plan to auction spectrum for satellite-to-phone service, and now SpaceX has gone and bought some of its own. It’s acquiring Grain Management’s nationwide portfolio of up to 14MHz of paired 800MHz spectrum, pending FCC approval, which SpaceX says fills “one of the key remaining technical gaps” for Starlink Mobile to become a major US carrier. Low-band signal gets through walls, and most phones already support the band. AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile shares all dropped Friday, though analyst Tim Farrar notes it’s still a small slice of spectrum and SpaceX would need towers on the ground for reliable indoor coverage in cities.
OpenAI doubles down on firing three safety researchers
OpenAI says Jasmine Wang, Tomek Korbak and Mikita Balesni were fired for “a significant breach of trust” and for violating “clear policies on handling sensitive information,” not for speaking out about AI safety. The statement on X answers an open letter the trio published Thursday, in which they said they believe they were let go for raising safety concerns. OpenAI says its internal investigation found breaches “beyond what’s outlined in the letter,” but didn’t share details.
Apple reportedly cuts iPhone 18 Pro orders on “soft demand”
Nikkei Asia reports Apple told some suppliers to cut component orders for the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max, with October orders down 15% to 20% from what Apple originally asked for. Sources blame the $100 price hikes, plus a weaker launch lineup now that the base iPhone 18 doesn’t arrive until spring. One source expects a “similar fate” for the iPhone Duo. We’ll get a better look when Apple reports earnings on November 6.
The FBI seizes domains tied to a Chinese firm behind Flax Typhoon’s hacking tools
The FBI seized seven web domains linked to tools allegedly run by Integrity Technology Group, a Chinese security firm the feds say has PRC government contracts. Court documents say the Beijing-backed Flax Typhoon crew used its Microscan scanner on a South Carolina power company, Japanese and Polish airports, and Taiwanese gas and power firms. Agencies from seven countries, including the US, UK, Japan and Australia, also put out a joint warning about the group’s botnets and data theft, and CISA added five CVEs to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities list.
Musk vs. Ambani: Starlink’s India launch turns into a feud
Elon Musk asked “Is Ambani the real boss of India?” a day after blaming “oligarchs” for keeping Starlink out of the country. He says Starlink spent “five years complying with every single law and requirement” and still hasn’t been allowed to launch. Mukesh Ambani’s Jio and rival Airtel control about 80% of India’s telecom market, and Jio is planning its own satellite network of about 1,600 LEO satellites. The jab even pulled in opposition leader Rahul Gandhi.
GitHub is rebuilding its Git storage from scratch for the AI agent flood
AI agents are crushing GitHub. Its traffic more than doubled from 218.2 billion to 473.3 billion events a month between September 2025 and August 2026, and September commits hit 7.38 billion, 5x a year ago. So GitHub is retiring its “Spokes” storage system, writing each commit once to Azure Blob Storage, splitting reads out to lightweight workers, and moving maintenance to the background. Early internal tests show writes running about 35x faster. No timeline yet, but GitHub says developer workflows won’t change.
Microsoft 365 Family members finally get to share the AI features (but lose storage)
Until now, only the main account holder on a Microsoft 365 Family or Premium plan could use the Copilot and AI features. Over the coming months, Microsoft will let up to five other people on the plan share them. The catch: instead of 1TB of OneDrive storage per person, the whole plan gets a shared 2TB pool. Some existing subscribers may qualify for “transitional bonus storage,” and the new “more flexible AI usage” setup could mean some heavy Copilot users end up paying more.
OpenAI and Anthropic keep hiring Trump officials
Anthropic has brought on at least two former Trump administration officials this year, one for its board and one as head of frontier compute strategy, former White House OSTP adviser Sihao Huang. OpenAI has hired at least three across strategy and special projects. One national security expert told CNBC the labs “have learned from the Anthropic episode that it pays to be on the good side of the White House,” after an appeals court upheld the Pentagon’s supply chain risk label for Anthropic in September.
Update: Flock cuts about 18% of its staff as the backlash grows
What’s new: we’ve covered the court ruling and the Ban Flock Act, and now the license-plate camera company is shrinking. Flock is cutting about 270 employees, around 18% of staff, who leave at the end of October through a voluntary buyout program, per Reuters. Flock says it was “a voluntary program, not a layoff.” The company has more than 100,000 cameras across the US, but some police departments, including the LAPD, have let their contracts lapse over privacy and civil liberties concerns.
Nvidia-backed Firmus pulls its giant AI data center IPO
Australian AI data center operator Firmus has scrapped its IPO, citing market volatility and saying the terms “did not adequately reflect the strength of its business.” It had reportedly planned to raise $5 billion at a roughly $30.6 billion valuation, which would have been Australia’s second-largest share sale ever. Firmus, which has backing from Nvidia, Coatue, Blackstone and Jane Street and a GPU deal with Meta, will turn to private markets instead.
YouTube, Meta, Twitch and X won’t say if they’d host a government-livestreamed execution
An unnamed Pentagon official says the December 3 firing-squad execution of Nidal Hasan, convicted of the 2009 Fort Hood mass shooting, will be livestreamed. The Verge asked the big platforms whether they’d allow it: YouTube, Twitch, Meta and X didn’t respond, even though their own rules ban violent content involving death. TikTok and Kick both said such a stream would break their policies.
A new DarkSword spyware variant is hitting unpatched iPhones through ads
Security firm iVerify found “P7 DarkSword,” a new version of the iPhone exploit chain, while investigating an infection on a financial-institution employee’s phone in August. It now works on iOS 18.7, adds keychain and crypto-wallet theft, leaves less of a footprint, and talks both ways with the attacker’s servers. It’s spreading through malicious ads in watering-hole attacks, so you don’t have to be a specific target to get caught. Translation: install your iOS updates.
Microsoft and Anthropic bounce a startup’s surprise $17,600 Claude bill back and forth
Norwegian startup Vegalabs ran Claude through Microsoft Foundry thinking its $25,060 in Microsoft for Startups Azure credits would cover it. Nope: Anthropic models bought through Azure Marketplace are excluded, so it got invoiced $17,600 while $21,168 in credits expired unused. When it asked for a waiver, Microsoft pointed it to Anthropic and Anthropic pointed it back to Microsoft. Vegalabs admits it never read the exclusions or set a budget alert, and says four of the seven support replies it got were AI-generated.
VW kills the ID.4 and replaces it with the ID. Tiguan
After almost a million ID.4s and ID.5s sold, Volkswagen’s electric crossover gets the name of its best-seller. The ID. Tiguan rides on the updated MEB+ platform with 58kWh or 77kWh batteries, up to 295hp with AWD, and up to 373 miles of WLTP range. Even better, it brings back real buttons, normal door handles and physical air vents, and the digital gauges can mimic the dials from an Mk1 Golf or the Beetle. Europe pre-sales start next week at €42,695 (about $44,716), and US timing is still to come.
Google is shutting down Safety Signal on older Pixel Watches
Heads up if you have an LTE Pixel Watch 2 or 3: Google is ending Safety Signal, which gave you emergency SOS, fall detection and emergency contact calls over LTE without a separate watch plan. Users will get an email and a 30-day transition, and all access ends by December 12. The features still work over Wi-Fi, through your paired phone, or with an active carrier line on the watch.
That’s the Lanbrew tech roundup for today. Check back tomorrow at 10am CT for the next one.
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