☕️ Apple unveils $599 MacBook Neo

Hi there, this is your daily ☕️ Techpresso.

In today's Techpresso:

💻 Apple launches $599 MacBook Neo

🤖 OpenAI launches GPT-5.3 Instant

👀 OpenAI is building a GitHub rival

📱 US government iPhone hacking toolkit leaks to criminals and spies

☢️ Polymarket removes nuclear detonation betting markets

🎮 PlayStation is reportedly moving away from PC ports

Plus: 🎁 22 other news you might like, 🧰 5 tools, and 📚 4 papers.

💻 Apple launches $599 MacBook Neo LINK

Apple announced the MacBook Neo, a new $599 laptop that replaces the 13-inch MacBook Air as the company's entry-level option, priced far below the $1,099 M5 MacBook Air.

The MacBook Neo uses an Apple A18 Pro processor with a six-core CPU and five GPU cores instead of an M-series chip, and is limited to 8GB of memory.

It goes up for preorder today with availability on March 11 in four colors — silver, indigo, blush, and citrus — through Apple's stores and third-party retailers.

🤖 OpenAI launches GPT-5.3 Instant LINK

OpenAI released GPT-5.3 Instant, a new model designed to cut down on the "cringe" and "preachy disclaimers" that made ChatGPT sound condescending, especially when users were just looking for information.

The GPT-5.2 Instant model annoyed users so much with phrases like "you're not broken" and unsolicited reminders to breathe that some people canceled their subscriptions over the tone.

OpenAI said the GPT-5.3 update focuses on tone, relevance, and conversational flow — areas that don't show up in benchmarks but directly affect how frustrating ChatGPT feels to talk to.

👀 OpenAI is building a GitHub rival LINK

OpenAI is reportedly developing a code-hosting platform that would compete directly with GitHub, though the project is still in early development and the company plans to sell it to existing customers.

The move follows months of severe GitHub service outages, including network faults that degraded GitHub Actions, broke Copilot connections, and caused Azure configuration problems across multiple regions.

Building a GitHub rival puts OpenAI in direct conflict with Microsoft, which owns GitHub, holds a major stake in OpenAI, and provides the Azure cloud infrastructure OpenAI depends on.

📱 US government iPhone hacking toolkit leaks to criminals and spies LINK

A set of iPhone hacking tools reportedly linked to the U.S. government has leaked and spread to Russian spies and financially motivated hackers in China, according to Google and iVerify.

Google first spotted the exploit kit, called Coruna, in February 2025 and found it can hack iPhones running iOS 13 through 17.2.1 by chaining together 23 separate vulnerabilities.

The tools can compromise an iPhone simply through visiting a malicious website in a "watering hole" attack, bypassing the phone's defenses without requiring any other action from the target.

☢️ Polymarket removes nuclear detonation betting markets LINK

Polymarket has taken down its betting markets on nuclear weapon detonation, apparently because of the current conflict with Iran and growing scrutiny over insiders trading on war.

The removal follows criticism after a trader reportedly made more than $400,000 betting on Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro's ouster shortly before the U.S. operation that led to his capture.

The CFTC proposed rules in 2024 that would bar exchanges from listing event contracts tied to war, terrorism, or assassination, and plans to issue clearer guidance soon.

🎮 PlayStation is reportedly moving away from PC ports LINK

Sony's PlayStation division is reportedly pulling back from releasing its PS5 games on PC, a shift that includes cancelling a planned PC port of Ghost of Yōtei, according to Bloomberg.

The move reverses Sony's earlier goal of having half its games on PC and mobile by 2025, after PlayStation ports like Horizon and God of War reportedly didn't sell particularly well.

By returning to console exclusives, Sony may be trying to avoid the kind of confused strategy that has muddled Xbox's brand identity after its aggressive multiplatform push in recent years.

Other news you might like

• Amid new competition, Chrome speeds up its release scheduleLINK

• Google releases Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite at 1/8th the cost of ProLINK

• Alibaba’s Qwen tech lead steps down after major AI pushLINK

• X says it will suspend creators from revenue-sharing program for unlabeled AI posts of ‘armed conflict’LINK

• Trump administration weighs forcing China's Tencent to sell its stakes in Epic Games, Riot Games, and Supercell — meetings held over security risk ahead of China summit with Xi JinpingLINK

• Trump Urges Congress to Move on Crypto Rules Amid Banking ClashLINK

• Claude Code rolls out a voice mode capabilityLINK

• Meta to Create New Applied AI Engineering OrganizationLINK

• Downdetector and Speedtest have been sold for over $1 billionLINK

• Studio Display XDR doesn't work on Intel Macs at all, big limitations on early Apple SiliconLINK

• Anthropic Nears $20 Billion Revenue Run Rate Amid Pentagon FeudLINK

• Audible launches a cheaper ‘Standard’ subscription plan, challenging SpotifyLINK

• Meta signs a multimillion dollar AI licensing deal with News CorpLINK

• Seagate just unleashed 44TB hard drivesLINK

• TikTok says it won’t introduce end-to-end encryption for DMsLINK

• OpenAI CEO Sam Altman Defends Pentagon Work to Staff, Calls Backlash ‘Really Painful’LINK

• Why AI startups are selling the same equity at two different pricesLINK

• FCC chair calls Paramount/WBD merger "a lot cleaner" than defunct Netflix dealLINK

🧰 Trending tools

Anything API: managed infrastructure for building reliable browser automation agents with session handling, proxies, and hybrid scripting that combines deterministic logic with AI reasoning.LINK

Kodo: an AI design tool that generates fully editable, layered graphics from prompts, letting you customize text, colors, and layouts without template constraints.LINK

GPT‑5.3 Instant in ChatGPT: provides immediate access to OpenAI's latest language model within the ChatGPT interface for faster responses and enhanced reasoning capabilities.LINK

Picsart Persona & Storyline: a creative platform offering AI-powered photo and video editing tools with an open-source content library for fast content creation.LINK

Maxclaw on Mobile: a multi-agent system that breaks down complex goals into automated workflows, delivering research reports, applications, or presentations through multi-step planning.LINK

📚 Trending papers & reports

Translating Math Textbooks into Machine Checkable Proofs: researchers converted 130,000 lines of topology into formal logic that computers can verify, showing automated translation is becoming practical.LINK

McDonald's Kiosk Design Pushes Larger Orders: researchers tracked how the ordering interface changes over time to nudge customers toward more expensive items and meal upgrades.LINK

CuTe: Mathematical System for GPU Memory Layout: researchers created a way to describe how data sits in GPU memory using algebra, letting programmers write faster code without manual optimization.LINK

Privacy policies from major AI companies: researchers found that leading AI providers collect extensive user data including prompts and conversations, often retaining it indefinitely for model improvement.LINK

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