Apple announced that Tim Cook will become executive chairman of Apple’s board of directors and John Ternus, senior vice president of Hardware Engineering, will become Apple’s next chief executive officer effective on September 1, 2026. The transition, which was approved unanimously by the Board of Directors, follows a thoughtful, long-term succession planning process.
Cook will continue in his role as CEO through the summer as he works closely with Ternus on a smooth transition. As executive chairman, Cook will assist with certain aspects of the company, including engaging with policymakers around the world.
Following a high-level meeting with the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) and the Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC), Roblox has announced a major safety initiative tailored for Filipino users.
The platform is introducing two new account types—Roblox Kids and Roblox Select—designed to bolster online protection for children through age-appropriate content and verified security measures.
Key safety measures include:
Automatic Placement: Users are sorted into accounts based on verified age.
Restricted Communication: Chat is disabled for those under 9, while older children have access to filtered chat limited to peers and “Trusted Friends.”
Enhanced Parental Controls: Filipino parents can now block specific games and manage chat settings.
DICT Secretary Henry Aguda and CICC Usec. Aboy Paraiso highlighted a new “green lane” agreement, allowing parents to report grievances or harmful content directly via Hotline 1326. While the government commends Roblox’s commitment to “Digital Bayanihan,” officials emphasized that online safety remains a shared responsibility. They urged parents to remain vigilant in monitoring their children’s digital activities to ensure a secure and positive environment for their development.
We’re introducing two new age-based accounts for younger users on Roblox: Roblox Kids for users ages 5 to 8 and Roblox Select for users ages 9 to 15*. When they roll out in early June, these accounts will more closely align content access, communication settings, and parental controls with a user’s age. We’re also establishing an ongoing selection process for games available to users under 16.
This update will bring age checks, account-level defaults, content ratings, ongoing moderation, and expanded parental controls together into a unified framework for younger users. Based on our selection criteria, we believe age-checked users under 16 will have access to the vast majority of their favorite games at launch. Age-checked users 16 and older will not see any change to their Roblox experience.
With these two new age-based accounts for younger users, Roblox is putting social media giants to shame, specially if those social media networks are basically “sweeping this social-media-is-addicting-to-kids topic under the rug.”
As a father of children who play Roblox, I find this to be an essential safeguard alongside our existing parental controls. It provides much-needed peace of mind, particularly as they explore the wide variety of games the platform offers.
Nissan has announced that it will launch its autonomous driving ProPILOT technology in 2027. The ProPILOT features Nissan Ground Truth Perception technology with next-generation Lidar and Wayve AI Driver software, “will set a new standard for autonomous driving with advanced collision avoidance capability.”
From Nissan’s official statement, “Wayve AI Driver software, built on Wayve’s embodied AI foundation model, is designed to handle highly complex real-world driving conditions in a human-like manner. The technology’s ability to efficiently and rapidly learn from vast amounts of data ensures continuous advantage to Nissan vehicles for the future.”
The company previously demoed their aautonomous-drive (AD) technology in Yokohama’s Minato Mirai area.
Amazon just announced Q, a generative AI-powered assistant that aims to “answers to pressing questions, solve problems, generate content, and take actions using the data and expertise found in your company’s information repositories, code, and enterprise systems.”
From their press release;
Amazon Q provides information and advice to employees to streamline tasks, accelerate decision making and problem solving, and help spark creativity and innovation at work. Designed to meet enterprise customers’ stringent requirements, Amazon Q can personalize its interactions to each individual user based on an organization’s existing identities, roles, and permissions. Additionally, Amazon Q never uses business customers’ content to train its underlying models. Amazon Q brings generative AI-powered assistance to customers building on AWS, working internally, and using AWS applications for business intelligence (BI), contact centers, and supply chain management to help organizations of all sizes and across industries use generative AI safely. Amazon Q is available to customers in preview, with Amazon Q in Connect generally available and Amazon Q in AWS Supply Chain coming soon.
Amazon Q will compete with OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Bard and Microsoft’s Copilot, which is also powered ChatGPT. Amazon Q will be available in 2 Pricing plan; Amazon Q Business for $20/month/user, while the Amazon Q Builder will be $25/month/user.
Fans of Apple can now buy their favourite Apple products on Lazada, Southeast Asia’s leading eCommerce company.
As an authorised online reseller, Lazada’s customers can choose from a wide range of Apple products including iPhone, MacBook, MacBook Pro, iPad, iPad Pro, Apple TV, Beats by Dr. Dre, and other accessories.
Start shopping this holiday season
Consumers can start browsing this holiday season when the Apple ‘Shop-in-Shop’ on Lazada officially launches today (8th December) in the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand and Singapore. This will be followed by Malaysia on 11th December, and then in Vietnam.
By shopping on Lazada, customers can choose to pay for their Apple devices through Lazada’s 0% financing instalment plans. Exciting surprises also await Lazada customers looking to score savings from deals offered during the finale of Lazada’s Online Revolution shopping event, the 12.12 Final Sale. More details will be announced later.
The “preferred choice” for global brands
Lazada Group Chief Executive Officer Max Bittner said the Apple ‘Shop-in-Shop’ concept is a testament to Lazada’s reputation as the undisputed and trusted online shopping and selling platform in Southeast Asia. “Lazada is the preferred choice for global brands who, like us, want to drive the explosive growth of eCommerce in Southeast Asia,” said Mr. Bittner, adding: “It also underscores our commitment to give consumers better and convenient access to the world’s best brands and products, especially those from Apple.”
