Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman has a solid idea of what the new Siri features will look like in iOS 27, and Intel announced its Arc G-series chips for handheld gaming.
Starring Jason Howell, Huyen Tue Dao, Tom Merritt and Dr. Niki
JASON: This is the Daily Tech News for Thursday, May 28th, 2026. We tell you what you need to know, give you the important context, and help each other understand.
HUYEN: Today, Meta launched its paid subscription tiers, but what is the value of those upgrades?
I’m Jason Howell,
I’m Huyen Tue Dao.
JASON: Let’s start with what you need to know with the big story.
Meta Starts Selling Subscriptions
https://thenextweb.com/news/meta-ai-chatbot-subscription-meta-one-pricing
Meta sells AI subscriptions while OpenAI and xAI walk into the ad business
https://thenextweb.com/news/meta-ai-subscriptions-openai-xai-ad-business-collision
Meta close to passing Google in ad business
https://thenextweb.com/news/meta-surpass-google-digital-ad-revenue-emarketer-2026
Meta may get into cloud compute business
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/05/27/mark-zuckerberg-says-meta-starting-cloud-business-on-the-table.html
JASON: Meta launched paid subscription plans on Wednesday.
Facebook Plus and Instagram Plus cost $3.99 a month, and WhatsApp Plus costs $2.99 a month.
TechCrunch says Instagram and Facebook subscribers will get profile customization options, story insights, and other exclusive features, including “super reactions.”
WhatsApp’s subscription includes themes, extra pinned chats, stickers, and ringtones.
Instagram and Facebook’s verified subscriptions will continue to be offered separately for blue checkmarks and impersonation protection.
Meta is also testing a subscription for Meta AI. Meta One Plus is $7.99 a month. Meta One Premium is $19.99 a month. Both tiers give you expanded access to image generation, video creation, and extended reasoning capabilities, which will be capped for free users. And these subscriptions include all the Facebook Plus, Instagram Plus, and WhatsApp Plus features. The rollout of Meta AI subscriptions has started in Singapore, Guatemala, and Bolivia.
And if all that sounds like a lot to manage, don’t worry, Meta will eventually let you bundle things together.
As Meta’s subscription revenue expands, Emarketer projects that Meta may pass Google in global digital ad revenue this year, with $243.5 billion to Google’s $239.5 billion. Meta has opened new ad opportunities on WhatsApp and Threads. But Meta’s Advantage+ automated ad suite is the main driver, with more than a million advertisers using it per month. Meta’s ad growth is projected to be 24.1% to Google’s 11.9%.
Meta would also like to get a cut of the cloud computing business, with CEO Mark Zuckerberg telling investors Wednesday that entering the cloud computing market is “definitely on the table,” especially if Meta builds out more data center capacity than it will eventually need.
The Next Web points out that this is happening as OpenAI moves toward more advertising, with $2.5 billion in advertising revenue expected this year. And X is planning to use xAI to enhance its advertising business.
So to recap, everyone is trying to eat Google’s lunch.
HUYEN: DTNS is made possible by you, the listener. Thanks to Justin Zellers, Chris Beneteau, Jeffrey Zylks, and TJ Drennan.
JASON: There’s more we need to know today, let’s get to the briefs.
Intel Arc-G series chips for handheld gaming
https://www.engadget.com/2182813/intel-arc-g-series-chips-will-power-a-new-generation-of-gaming-handhelds/
Is it a bad time to pitch a $300 laptop platform?
https://www.theregister.com/systems/2026/05/28/qualcomm-picks-bad-time-to-pitch-a-300-laptop-platform/5247841
Acer Predator Atlas 8 uses new Arc-G chip
https://www.engadget.com/2182504/the-acer-predator-atlas-8-is-one-of-the-first-handhelds-to-feature-intel-s-latest-arc-g3-chips/
HUYEN: In advance of the beginning of Computex, we’re getting some chip news. Intel announced its Arc G-series chips built on the Core 3 Ultra line. The G3 and G3 Extreme models will have the Arc B390 GPUs with real-time ray tracing and XESS 3 upscaling. Details are still thin, but the chips will have two performance cores and four efficiency cores, and all are built on the 18A process with support for WiFi 7 R2, Thunderbolt 4, and Bluetooth 6. All of the chips are optimized for Windows full-screen Xbox mode.
The Acer Predator Atlas 8 gaming handheld will be one of the first devices with the new chips.
Meanwhile, Qualcomm is trying to take a bite of the MacBook Neo market with the Snapdragon C line of chips for laptops at the $300 price point. Specs were not announced, but it does include an integrated NPU and is built on Qualcomm’s smartphone Kryo architecture. The Register points out it may be hard for manufacturers to hit $300 with a Snapdragon C laptop because of the price of memory.
Gurman shows leaks of Siri-centric iOS 27 interface
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2026-05-28/apple-ios-27-photos-screenshots-revamped-siri-pro-camera-app-new-ai-features
iOS 27 leaks
https://www.engadget.com/2182861/heres-what-apples-siri-overhaul-for-ios-27-could-look-like/
Sneak peek at iOS 27
https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/28/sneak-peek-at-new-siri-app-reveals-apples-plans-to-take-on-chatgpt-and-more/
JASON: Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman used info from his sources to recreate what the interface of the forthcoming iOS 27 might look like.
Siri gets a new app that works like a chatbot, similar to the ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini apps.
Siri responses will also continue to be available OS-wide, through a button push or voice activation, with results emerging from the Dynamic Island, especially meant for quick queries.
But you can also use Spotlight search, which will still launch when you swipe down from the top, but now include Siri-powered responses using Gemini tech to power them. You can use it to launch apps, search across calendars and notes and such, start messages, and all the usual queries you might do. A card with the response emerges from the Dynamic Island. You can also swipe down further to enter a chatbot-style conversation.
Because of this, you’ll need to swipe down from the top left to see notifications.
The camera app will let you do a reverse image search with Google or send it to your favorite agent for analysis. The camera may also get “Reframe” and “Extend” tools, which can use a generative model to change perspective or extend it.
Siri, in general, will now be able to use screen context and personal information on-device to answer queries.
Gurman notes that “The company often tests multiple designs of features internally, and the final version set to be introduced to the public in June could differ.”
HUYEN: If you have feedback about anything that gets brought up on the show… get in touch with us on the socials. @DTNSshow on X, Instagram, Threads, Bluesky, and Mastodon. For TikTok and YouTube, you can find us at Daily Tech News Show.
JASON: And now, some quick headlines that are just good to know and might make you look smarter in the future.
Oura Ring 5 details
https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/28/oura-unveils-its-ring-5-with-a-thinner-lighter-design-starting-at-399
HUYEN: The Oura Ring 5 is 30 percent thinner than the previous model, which drops from 4 low-power photodetectors to three more powerful ones while still getting a week on a charge. It’s available for preorder now, shipping June 4, starting at $399 for silver and black and $499 for other colors.
Directory for AI Agents
https://www.theregister.com/ai-ml/2026/05/28/ai-agents-get-their-own-phone-directory-built-atop-dns/5247539
JASON: The Linux Foundation is overseeing a project called DNS for AI Discovery or DNS-AID to help agent-to-agent discovery to help “developers to publish and discover agents with the same reliability and ubiquity that we’ve used to navigate the internet for decades.”
Xiaomi 17T series with 5X telephoto
https://www.engadget.com/2182747/xiaomi-17t-midrange-phones-5x-telephoto/
HUYEN: Xiaomi’s 17T and 17T Pro are new midrange phones that pack 5x OIS telephoto cameras along with large silicon-carbon batteries up to 7,000mAh with 100W fast charging, 1.5K AMOLED displays with 144Hz refresh, and an affordable price tag starting at 650 pounds. No US launch planned, big surprise.
$6880 foldable phone
https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/28/vertu-wants-ceos-to-run-companies-from-an-ai-foldable-starting-at-6880/
JASON: On the other end of the price teeter-totter, Vertu launched the Alphafold, a luxury foldable with an Hermes Agent onboard that’s aimed at executives, starting at $6,880 for calfskin touches, all the way up to $46,800 that can include 18K gold, diamond accents, and alligator leather.
Valve raised price of Steam Deck
https://www.ign.com/articles/the-steam-deck-is-sold-out-again-even-after-the-huge-price-rise
HUYEN: Valve raised the price of the Steam Deck as it came back in stock. The 512 GB version of the OLED unit is now $789, up from $549, and the 1 TB handheld is up from $649 to $949. Oh, and it’s now out of stock again.
Last.fm goes independent
https://www.reddit.com/r/DailyTechNewsShow/comments/1tpunqd/lastfm_goes_independent_after_breaking_up_with/
Last.fm goes independent after breaking up with Paramount Skydance
https://www.engadget.com/2182644/lastfm-independent-company-cbs-paramount-skydance/
JASON: Thanks for the heads up, rwnash in our subreddit: Last.fm is going independent again after nearly 20 years as part of first CBS and then Paramount Skydance, with its core functionality of music scrobbling to work exactly as it always has, at least for now.
YouTube automates playlist creation
https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/28/youtube-adds-new-podcast-features-including-an-ai-recommendation-tool-and-auto-speed/
HUYEN: YouTube is rolling out new Premium-only podcast tools including a new “Ask Music” chatbot for recommendations, an “Auto speed” smart playback control for dynamic speed control based on content variability, and a new on-the-go listening UI.
Google engineer charged with insider trading in predictive markets
https://thenextweb.com/news/google-engineer-polymarket-insider-trading-charges
JASON: US prosecutors charged Google information-security engineer Michele Spagnuolo with wire fraud, commodities fraud, and money laundering for using internal search-trend data to place $2.7m in Polymarket bets on the 2025 Google Year-in-Search market and netting $1.2m in the process.
Security researchers use SSD activity to spy on users
https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/cyber-security/researchers-say-they-can-spy-on-your-browsing-by-measuring-ssd-activity-through-a-browser-api
HUYEN: Researchers at Graz University of Technology demonstrated a no-permission web attack called FROST that uses the browser’s OPFS storage API on an M2 Mac to fingerprint which sites and apps are open with 89% accuracy for sites and 96% accuracy for running apps.
Interesting Read: New Moms return to changed coding jobs
https://www.wired.com/story/women-parental-leave-return-office-ai/
JASON: Finally, an interesting read on Wired that focuses on new moms returning from parental leave to software jobs, only to find that generative AI tools have rewritten coding workflows and changed expectations in the job market. How quickly things have changed.
JASON: Those are the essentials for today. Let’s dive a little deeper.
HUYEN: In April, a team of students deployed robotic birds in Grand Teton National Park to help restore a declining population. Tom caught up with Dr. Niki to find out why robots are playing a part.
JASON: We end every episode of DTNS with some shared perspectives. Yesterday we mentioned the need to reboot your Windows machine and update the secure boot certificate before June 1. Martin has another use case for why you might need to do that.
HUYEN: Martin writes:
Thank you for covering the Secure Boot certificate expiration. I have a laptop that dual boots Windows and Ubuntu... And it’s been a while since I booted into Windows. I’ll have to boot into Windows soon and let it do its updates.
HUYEN: What are you thinking about? Got some insight into a story? Share it with us at feedback@dailytechnewsshow.com
JASON: Thanks to Dr. Niki and Martin 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 https://patreon.com/dtns
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