OpenAI (Hacker News):
Today, we’re introducing the Codex app for macOS—a powerful new interface designed to effortlessly manage multiple agents at once, run work in parallel, and collaborate with agents over long-running tasks.
We’re also excited to show more people what’s now possible with Codex. For a limited time we’re including Codex with ChatGPT Free and Go, and we’re doubling the rate limits on Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise, and Edu plans. Those higher limits apply everywhere you use Codex—in the app, from the CLI, in your IDE, and in the cloud.
The Codex app changes how software gets built and who can build it—from pairing with a single coding agent on targeted edits to supervising coordinated teams of agents across the full lifecycle of designing, building, shipping, and maintaining software.
Samuel Axon:
Skills—basically extensions in the form of folders filled with instructions and other resources—are also supported. The app lets users configure Automations, which follow instructions on a user-set schedule, with Skills support.
Based on my time using Codex, it seems capable, even though OpenAI has been running a few months behind Anthropic on the product side. To help bridge the gap, OpenAI is using a strategy it has used before: higher usage limits at a similar cost.
David Gewirtz:
In addition to the app itself, OpenAI announced a new plan mode for Codex that allows for a read-only review (meaning the AI won’t muck with your code) and selectable personalities. Personally, I’ve had just about enough personality from the human programmers I’ve managed, so I’d prefer a nice, personality-free personality in my coding agent.
Recently, OpenAI also announced that Codex has an IDE extension for use in the JetBrains IDEs. Readers may recall that back in June I moved off of PhpStorm, my favorite JetBrains development environment. I moved to VS Code simply because the AI tools were more available for that environment. It’s nice to see JetBrains IDE availability for those of us who prefer it over VS Code.
[…]
The new Mac app adds a sandbox mode and lets developers set approval levels, including Untrusted, On failure, On request, and Never (meaning the app is never permitted to ask for elevated permissions).
Previously:
Artificial Intelligence ChatGPT Codex Developer Tool Mac Mac App macOS Tahoe 26 OpenAI Programming
Jeff Johnson:
This [Apple documentation] is wrong, a discovery that took me about a half dozen attempts to update macOS on an external disk. I have a 16-inch MacBook Pro with an M4 chip, specifically an M4 Pro chip, and the DFU port seems to be the USB-C port on the right side of the Mac, not on the left side.
[…]
Over the past few days, every attempt I made to update the disk volume to macOS 15.7.3 failed inexplicably. I tried both Software Update in System Settings and the softwareupdate command-line tool in Terminal. They went through all the motions, downloading the entire update, rebooting, etc., but afterwards I always ended up right where I started, at macOS 15.2. The softwareupdate tool gave no error message.
[…]
By the way, Software Update in System Settings allowed my Mac to go to sleep during the “Preparing” phase, despite the fact that the battery was charged to 99%, so when I returned home from a workout I unhappily found 30 minutes remaining.
Previously:
Update (2026-02-03): Howard Oakley:
I have suggested a way of discovering which is the DFU port by discovering which is listed as Receptacle 1 in System Info.
Update (2026-02-06): Howard Oakley:
The original version of that support note appears to have been published on 9 December 2024, four years after the release of the first Apple silicon Macs, and almost seven years after the first Intel Macs with T2 chips. When I discovered it in January 2025, I found it internally inconsistent, “for instance, it shows the DFU port as being that on the left of the left side of a MacBook Pro, but states in the text that on a MacBook Pro 14-inch 2024 with an M4 chip, the DFU port is that on the right of the left side instead.”
[…]
Future Macs should identify the DFU port on their case.
Yes, but also you shouldn’t have to know what the marking on the case means. The software should just tell you if an error is because of the DFU port. (Or, better yet, make it work with all the ports. Is that really not possible?)
Apple M4 Max Apple M4 Pro DFU Mode Documentation Mac MacBook Pro macOS 15 Sequoia Sleep Mode Software Update Storage Thunderbolt USB-C
Juli Clover:
Mobile networks determine location based on the cellular towers that a device connects to, but with the setting enabled, some of the data typically made available to mobile networks is being restricted. Rather than being able to see location down to a street address, carriers will instead be limited to the neighborhood where a device is located, for example.
According to a new support document, iPhone models from supported network providers will offer the limit precise location feature. In the U.S., only Boost Mobile will support the option, but EE and BT will offer support in the UK.
Andy Wang (Hacker News):
The feature is only available to devices with Apple’s in-house modem introduced in 2025.
[…]
[Cellular] standards have built-in protocols that make your device silently send GNSS (i.e. GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, BeiDou) location to the carrier. This would have the same precision as what you see in your Map apps, in single-digit metres.
[…]
A major caveat is that I don’t know if RRLP and LPP are the exact techniques, and the only techniques, used by DEA, Shin Bet, and possibly others to collect GNSS data; there could be other protocols or backdoors we’re not privy to.
Apple C1 Apple C1X Carrier GPS iOS iOS 26 iPhone iPhone 16e iPhone Air Privacy
Proton’s Tech Fines Tracker (via Ben Lovejoy):
While $7.8 billion in fines sounds substantial, it represents little more than a rounding error for Big Tech. Based on free cash flow, Alphabet, Apple, Meta, and Amazon could collectively pay off all 2025 penalties in just 28 days and 48 minutes. Alphabet alone — fined more than $4 billion — could wipe out its penalties in about three weeks.
Here’s one that I missed at the time:
During the February 25 meeting with the Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC), Apple representatives were asked which other countries used Apple’s NSF scores.
[…]
The incident in question stemmed from data collected by Kakao Pay, a mobile payment and digital wallet service based in South Korea. The data was sent to Alipay, a Singapore-based mobile payment platform.
[…]
KakaoPay customers were not being told that their data was being transferred overseas. This sort of data collection is a direct violation of South Korea’s Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA).
Additionally, Apple did not disclose that it had a trustee relationship with Alipay. PIPA required Apple to be transparent about the relationship, but it did not mention Alipay in its privacy policy.
I find this reporting confusing, but it sounds like Apple was partnering with an online payment service (akin to PayPal) that could be used to pay for transactions users made using their Apple account. Apple gave Kakao Pay access to customer information (such as NSF scores), which it then transmitted to its partner Alipay. 40 million users were affected, but the fines only totaled $3.2 million.
Data collection occurred between April and July 2018 and affected roughly 40 million users. According to PIPC, “less than 20% of users registered Kakao Pay with Apple as a payment method, but Kakao Pay sent the information of all users, including not only Apple users but also non-Apple users (e.g. Android users), to Alipay.”
I don’t understand whether this is saying that Apple had 20% marketshare and the rest were Android or that data from iOS users who were not using Kakao Pay was nonetheless shared, too.
Previously:
Antitrust App Store Apple Apple ID Financial Legal Payments Privacy South Korea
