Where Have All The Ultra-Slim Phones Gone - DTNS 5132

Apple might disable Apple Tracking Transparency in parts of Europe due to "intense lobbying," and Firefox Extension will soon be required to disclose its data collection practices.

Starring Jason Howell and Huyen Tue Dao.

JASON: This is the Daily Tech News for Friday, October 24th, 2025. We tell you what you need to know, follow up on the context of those stories and help each other understand.

HUYEN: Today ultraslim and light phones are dropping like flies! 

I’m Jason Howell,

I’m Huyen Tue Dao.

JASON: Let’s start with what you need to know with the big story.

BIG STORY

Apple's ultra-thin iPhone flops as foldable iPad hits a crease
Samsung reportedly cancels Galaxy S26 Edge
It now looks very likely that the Samsung Galaxy S26 series has been delayed

JASON: Earlier this week, Tom and Sarah briefly mentioned that Nikkei's supply chain sources claim apple is drastically cutting orders for the iPhone Air to 10 percent compared to September. Now notable Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo is sharing that demand for the slim and light iPhone most suppliers are set to reduce capacity by more than 80 percent by the first quarter of 2026, with some components expected to be discontinued by the end of this year.

We also heard reports last week that Samsung has canceled the Galaxy S26 Edge in what would be a swift reversal of its plans to carve out a new variant for its S26 lineup.

Now, reputable leaker Ice Universe is sharing that the Galaxy S26 series might get its release date pushed by a few months to March of next year, with other leakers pointing to a similar prediction. Some of those reports suggest that the cancellation of the Edge series could at least be a piece of the puzzle.

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JASON: There’s more we need to know today, let’s get to the briefs.

BRIEFS

Apple decries ‘intense lobbying,’ says it may be forced to turn off App Tracking Transparency in Europe
https://9to5mac.com/2025/10/23/apple-decries-intense-lobbying-threatens-to-turn-off-app-tracking-transparency-in-europe/
HUYEN: Apple warned that it may disable its App Tracking Transparency feature in Europe due to what it calls "intense lobbying" by advertisers and regulators in Germany and Italy among other countries in Europe. ATT is a feature that gives users control over cross-app tracking by asking for permission before tracking activity across apps and websites on iOS and iPadOS devices. Apple admits that such a move would be a detriment to European consumers and that they will continue to push for the tool in those areas if they choose to disable it. This follows a preliminary assessment in Germany that ATT could be anticompetitive in its current form. Apple received a fine in France two months ago related to ATT as well.

Intel’s tick-tock isn’t coming back, and everything else I just learned
https://www.theverge.com/tech/805652/intel-q3-2025-earnings-18a-panther-lake-ai-gpus-annual
JASON: Intel's Q3 earnings call revealed that the company is in a cautious recovery period as it reported its first profit in two years. Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan said chip shortages will persist into early 2026, and the company will put more resources into AI server production while limiting its consumer CPU output. Much of its recovery is due to much-needed financial lifelines from partners like Nvidia, SoftBank, and the US government. They've helped stabilize company operations after a few challenging years. Intel plans to slowly roll out its upcoming Panther Lake chips, starting with a single SKU this year followed by others in 2026. Intel also said that yields on its 18A process aren't where they want them to be, suggesting that profitability might not arrive until 2026 or 2027.

Google and Anthropic announce cloud deal worth tens of billions of dollars
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/10/23/anthropic-google-cloud-deal-tpu.html
HUYEN: Anthropic has struck a partnership with Google that gives them access to up to one million of Google's Tensor Processing Units in a major expansion of its compute capacity. The deal will bring more than a gigawatt of capacity to Anthropic's service in 2026 and is Google's largest TPU deal to date. Unlike its rivals, like OpenAI which is pursuing a 33-gigawatt arsenal with Stargate, Anthropic is splitting its workloads across Google TPUs, Amazon Trainium chips, and Nvidia GPUs in a multi-cloud strategy that will allow it to fine-tune for price, performance and power efficiency. This deepens Google's investment in Anthropic, already totaling $3 billion.

Mozilla: New Firefox extensions must disclose data collection practices
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/software/mozilla-new-firefox-extensions-must-disclose-data-collection-practices/
JASON: Mozilla will require all new Firefox extensions to clearly disclose how they collect and share user data beginning November 3, 2025. Developers will be required to specific data practices in each extension's manifest.json file using a new data_collection_permissions key. It will specify whether names, emails, or browsing activity are gathered. The gathered information will then appear in installation prompts, extension listings, and Firefox's add-ons manager. Extensions that collect no data must explicitly say so, and noncompliant submissions will be blocked. All extension developers must have this framework in place by mid-2026.

JASON: And finally, some quick headlines that are just good to know if you want to understand the news in the future.

Instagram Gets New Generative AI Features. What to Know and How to Use Them
https://www.cnet.com/news/social-media/instagram-gets-new-generative-ai-features-what-to-know-and-how-to-use-them/
HUYEN: The latest update from Instagram has a few new generative AI tools that let users edit photos and videos using text prompts, similar to conversational editing features rolled out by Google to its Photos service this year.

Windows Insiders get special anniversary desktop wallpaper
https://www.theregister.com/2025/10/24/windows_insiders_given_special_anniversary/
JASON: Microsoft is celebrating the Windows Insider Program's 11th anniversary with special anniversary wallpapers for its volunteer testers who have spent countless hours testing pre-built releases of Windows. What, no t-shirt at least?

Anthropic's Claude adds new memory features
https://www.axios.com/2025/10/23/anthropic-claude-memory-subscribers
HUYEN: Anthropic's Claude now has long-term memory features, allowing it to recall and integrate information from past chatbot conversations for paid subscribers.

Netflix reportedly shutters studio behind Squid Game mobile spinoff
https://www.engadget.com/gaming/netflix-reportedly-shutters-studio-behind-squid-game-mobile-spinoff-151156987.html
JASON: Netflix has reportedly shut down Boss Fight Entertainment, the studio behind the hit mobile game Squid Game Unleashed, the company's second internal game studio closure this year.

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HELPING EACH OTHER UNDERSTAND

JASON: We end every episode of DTNS with some shared wisdom. Yesterday, we mentioned the surge in downloads of the ZorinOS Linux Distro. Today Mohan adds some further observations.

HUYEN: Mohan writes:
Regarding ZorinOS, that is great news. Also I would like to point to I am seeing many people migrating over to Linux Mint and Ubuntu as I see the posts on their respective subreddit (r/linuxmint and r/ubuntu). It's good to new users to my choice of operating system.

HUYEN: What are you thinking about? Got some insight into a story? Share it with us at feedback@dailytechnewsshow.com

JASON: Thanks to Mohan for contributing to today’s show. And thank YOU for being along for Daily Tech News Show. You can keep us in business by becoming a patron at Patreon.com/dtns