Hi friends, welcome to TechPP Daily Brief. Today’s news is about SpaceX AI acquiring Cursor AI IDE for $60 billion, Google is officially rolling out Android 17 for Pixel devices, Snap is officially taking pre-orders for its Snap Specs for $2,200, Telegram is banned in India until June 22, and we also have more details about Apple’s 2027 product lineup.

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The Daily Brief: June 17, 2026

AI News

Elon Musk’s SpaceX AI Is Acquiring Cursor for $60 Billion

SpaceX AI Buys Cursor for $60 Billion

SpaceX AI is officially acquiring Cursor IDE for $60 billion. This deal first came into sight in April, when SpaceX agreed to acquire Cursor AI for either $60 billion or a $10 billion investment. Now Elon Musk has decided to pay 60 billion.

The Big Picture:
AI war isn’t going to end anytime soon. Almost all frontier models are now chasing coding benchmarks. OpenAI has Codex IDE, Anthropic has Claude Code, Google has Antigravity, and now Grok AI, which is xAI’s frontier model, will have Cursor as an IDE interface for the frontend.

The merge is expected to finish in the second half of 2026, but currently, there is no information on whether Cursor will operate as an independent entity, merge with Grok, or Elon will rename it completely as Grok IDE. Cursor IDE is currently very popular, used by many developers. It offers all the models, including those from Claude and Google. If you are already using Cursor, currently, there is no change for you. You can continue using it for now.

More AI News: OpenAI Codex now supports Chrome DevTools, where it can inspect websites in Chrome directly

Android News

Android 17 Is Now Rolling Out to Eligible Pixel Devices

Android 17 Rolls Out to Pixel Phones

After months of beta testing, Google is finally rolling out Android 17 to the eligible Pixel devices. If you are an eligible Pixel owner, you can go to Settings, About, and Software Update to install Android 17. This update also adds June Pixel Dropped features, including the ability to create videos using the Gemini Omni model and generate music using Google’s Lyria. And Google’s Quick Share with AirDrop support now comes to Google Pixel 8a and 9a.

The Big Picture:
Not all features Google announced at the Android Show 2026 are available with this update. For instance, several features are not available at launch. Rambler Google’s AI voice dictation app that converts speech into polished text. The ability to create your own widgets using Gemini is also not available at launch. Finally, Advanced Gemini automation tasks are also missing.

Google says those features will arrive later this summer to eligible Pixel and Samsung devices, and they are currently not part of the Android 17 rollout.

If you are using a non-Pixel smartphone, it will take a few months for you to get Android 17, depending on the model and the software support you are getting. You can check our full Android 17 device support list to see whether your device is eligible. You can also check the full Android 17 changelog.

Apple News

Apple’s Product Roadmap for 2027 Is Very Exciting

Apple’s Major Product Plans for 2027

2027 is going to be huge for Apple fans as Apple is preparing to launch new product categories. According to the report by Mark Gurman, in 2027, Apple is going to launch three new products. AirPods Pro with built-in cameras for Siri AI Visual Intelligence, A 20th anniversary iPhone, and the second generation of Apple’s foldable iPhone.

The Big Picture:
There is a lot of speculation about the upcoming Apple product lineup already, and Mark Gurman has provided more details on what we can expect so far. Apple’s AirPods with built-in cameras were originally planned to be released in 2026. However, due to the setback of Apple Intelligence, Apple has pushed the launch to 2027.

The new AirPods with built-in cameras, code-named B798, will have built-in cameras in the stems, which are used to analyze the surroundings for Siri AI visual intelligence. While wearing these, the user can ask Siri visual questions, and it will analyze their surroundings to answer.

These new AirPods are expected to look exactly like the current AirPods. However, the cameras will be placed in the stems, also with an external light that blinks when cloud processing is being used. Mark Gurman says these cameras are not intended to take photos and videos, but only to be used for Siri Visual Intelligence. Apple is also planning to use them for turn-by-turn navigation and contextual reminders.

Next year marks the 20th anniversary of the iPhone’s debut, and Apple is planning huge design changes. Reports already suggest that the upcoming 20th anniversary iPhones will feature a nearly edge-to-edge display.

Finally, Apple is also going to announce its next generation of foldable smartphones along with the 20th anniversary iPhones. The first foldable smartphone from Apple is expected this year, alongside the iPhone 18 series. We already have plenty of details about it; you can check the full details here.

The Upcoming iPhone 18 Will Have 12 GB of RAM for the Base Variant.

Apple’s upcoming base iPhone 18 will have 12GB of RAM to support Apple Intelligence. Only a few iPhone models, including the iPhone 17 Air and iPhone 17 Pro series, are currently eligible for Apple’s advanced on-device AI models, which require a minimum of 12GB of RAM. The base iPhone 17, which Apple announced less than a year ago, is being left out for this reason.

Mixed Reality News

Snap’s Augmented Reality Glasses Are Now Available for Pre-Order for $2,200

Snap Specs Pre-Orders Open at $2,200

The Snap specs will be initially available in the U.S., the UK, and France. Users can pre-order now, and Snap says it will deliver to them this fall.

The Big Picture:
Snap originally announced the product in 2025. Now we have complete details on how it works, its price, and when it is going to be available.

Snap Specs will be available in two variants.in 47mm and 52mm sizes, weighing 132g and 136g. Both lenses can display AR content with support for 16 million colors and a 51-degree field of view. Snap says they can automatically change from clear to tinted in under 10 seconds. Under the hood, it is powered by Snapdragon processors. The best part is that you don’t need to attach external devices like a battery pack or a separate device for processing your queries. These glasses can offer up to four hours of battery life, with an additional four hours provided by the case.

On the other hand, Google is also taking reservations for its upcoming Xreal Aura augmented reality glasses. It is powered by Android XR. You can reserve them for $99. Google can offer up to $200 credits at the time of launch, and Google promises that these upcoming AR glasses will not exceed $1,500.

Qualcomm Announced Snapdragon Reality Elite at Augmented World Expo 2026

Qualcomm Unveils Snapdragon Reality Elite

Qualcomm has officially announced a new platform, Snapdragon Reality Elite, which will power upcoming Android XR devices. Compared to Snapdragon XR2+ Gen 2, , Qualcomm says the new Reality Elite can delivers up to 60% higher Adreno GPU performance and up to 160% higher AI performance using Hexagon NPU delivers 48 TOPS. It can also run advanced visual LLMs (large visual models) locally on the device. It also displays with up to 4.4K resolution per eye at 90fps. Qualcomm also introduced Snapdragon Start to increase its adoption.

Apps and Software

Telegram Is Banned in India Until June 22

Telegram Banned in India Until June 22

To combat exam paper leaks through Telegram, India has banned the platform until June 22, 2026. The ban applies to all Indian users using Telegram. It seems like the ban came into effect starting today. When I tried to open Telegram, it was stuck on connecting.

Spotify Will Stop Supporting Username-Based Logins From September 1, 2026

If you are a Spotify user, later this year you will no longer be able to log in to your Spotify account using a username and password. In a reminder sent via email to some users, Spotify said that it is removing the username sign-in method. Users will need to switch to using an email address, a phone number, or sign in with Google or Apple accounts to log in or sign up. If you already use a username for the Spotify sign-in, you can switch to either email or other methods before the deadline.

Launch Monitor

Apart from the launches that we already covered, here are a few more consumer launches that happened in the last 24 hours:

  • Xiaomi officially launched its Redmi Turbo 5 in India. It comes with a Dimensity 8500 Ultra processor, 6.59-inch 1.5K 120Hz AMOLED display, 7,540mAh battery, 100W charging, and a 50MP Sony main camera. It starts at ₹37,999.
  • Microsoft released its new Snapdragon-powered Copilot Plus PCs in the US. The 13-inch Surface Pro starts at $1,499, while the Surface Laptop is offered in 13.8-inch and 15-inch versions starting at $1,599
  • DJI unveiled its premium dual-camera pocket gimbal. It comes with a 1-inch main sensor, a 60 mm telephoto camera, 4K/240fps recording support, and 103GB of internal storage. Chinese pricing starts at CNY 3,799. No info about the global launch for now.

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