Also in today’s tech news roundup: Apple is trimming its Vision Pro and Siri teams, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2 has a release date, and Apple TV has a packed lineup of new shows arriving soon. Elsewhere, researchers used a buried fiber-optic cable to detect thunderstorm seismic waves, and Nvidia is backing a data center developer.

The TLDR

• Walmart & Mobile Pay: Apple Pay and Google Pay support begins at select Walmart and Sam’s Club stores on August 24, expanding chainwide by year’s end.
• Apple Layoffs: Apple cut more than 200 jobs from its Vision Pro and Siri teams, largely closing the Vision Pro gaming group as it reworks Siri’s AI.
• Apple TV Lineup: Dark Matter season 2, the film Mayday, and Slow Horses season 6 all hit Apple TV between August 28 and September 16.
• Thunderquake Science: A buried fiber-optic cable at Penn State picked up seismic waves from thunderstorms, offering a cheaper way to image what’s underground.
• Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2: The new Cyberpunk anime sequel premieres on Netflix October 20 with an entirely new cast.
• Nvidia & Data Centers: Nvidia is investing in data center developer Cloverleaf, reportedly for a minority stake worth hundreds of millions.

Tech & Apps

Walmart will finally accept Apple Pay and Google Pay

Walmart announced on August 21 that tap-to-pay support — including Apple Pay, Google Pay, Samsung Wallet, and contactless cards — is coming to select Walmart and Sam’s Club locations starting August 24, according to The Verge. The retailer plans to expand tap-to-pay to all its US stores and clubs by the end of 2026, with gas stations following in mid-2027. Walmart Pay and Scan & Go will still work alongside the new options, making this one of the standout items in this tech news roundup.

Apple cuts more than 200 jobs from Vision Pro and Siri teams

Apple laid off more than 200 employees across its Vision Pro and Siri divisions, according to Bloomberg reporting cited by The Verge on August 21. The cuts largely shut down the Vision Pro gaming team and reduced the group building immersive content, while also thinning Siri-related software staff as Apple reworks the assistant’s AI. Apple said the changes are part of evolving its business, that new roles will also be created, and that Vision Pro itself isn’t being discontinued.

Apple TV’s next few weeks are packed

9to5Mac rounded up three shows and films headed to Apple TV in the coming weeks: sci-fi thriller Dark Matter returns for season 2 on August 28, the Ryan Reynolds/Kenneth Branagh film Mayday arrives September 4, and spy drama Slow Horses starts its sixth season September 16, according to 9to5Mac. All three join Ted Lasso’s already-airing fourth season on the service.

A fiber-optic cable can now “hear” thunderstorms to map what’s underground

Researchers led by Penn State published a study in Science Advances on August 21 showing that a 2.5-mile fiber-optic telecom cable already buried under the university’s campus could detect the faint seismic waves — nicknamed “thunderquakes” — that thunderstorms send through the ground, Ars Technica reported. Using laser-based sensing on existing cable, rather than dedicated seismometers, could make it cheaper to image what’s underground in regions like the central and eastern US that don’t get many earthquakes.

Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2 gets an October release date

CD Projekt Red and Netflix revealed that Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2 — a new 10-episode anime series with an entirely new cast — will start streaming October 20, alongside a new trailer, Engadget reported. It’s produced again by Studio Trigger and follows a new group of edgerunners rather than continuing the story of the original series’ cast.

AI Tools

Nvidia backs data center developer Cloverleaf

Nvidia is investing in Cloverleaf, a company that helps line up power and site infrastructure for data centers, in a deal announced August 21, TechCrunch reported. Reports pegged the investment at several hundred million dollars for a minority stake, though neither company has confirmed exact terms. It’s the latest in a string of Nvidia bets on the power and infrastructure needed to keep AI data centers running.

Explore more: fixing a choppy Bluetooth connection in your car, T-Mobile Starlink vs AST SpaceMobile comparison, Unistellar vs Vaonis smart telescope comparison.

Tech News FAQs

What’s the biggest story in today’s tech news roundup?

Walmart confirmed it will finally accept Apple Pay and Google Pay, with tap-to-pay rolling out to select Walmart and Sam’s Club stores on August 24, 2026, and to all US locations by the end of the year.

How many Apple employees were laid off from the Vision Pro and Siri teams?

More than 200 employees were cut, according to Bloomberg reporting. The cuts largely shut down the Vision Pro gaming team and reduced the immersive-content team, while also thinning Siri-related software staff.

When does Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2 premiere?

Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2 starts streaming on Netflix on October 20, 2026. It’s a new 10-episode series with an entirely new cast, produced again by Studio Trigger.

Make Your Digital Life Better

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Photo: User Bobak on en.wikipedia / CC BY-SA 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons.

The post Tech News Roundup: 6 Essential Stories for August 22, 2026 — Walmart Adds Apple Pay, Apple Cuts Vision Pro & Siri Jobs appeared first on GTWebs.

Every item below links to its original source.

The TLDR

• Tech & Apps: What the Retro app actually is, and how to use it
• AI Tools: Why people are skeptical of Zuckerberg’s AI vision
• Science & Space: NASA funds spherical robots that could explore Titan’s caves

Tech & Apps

What the Retro app actually is, and how to use it

Also in today’s tech news: Retro, a “friends-only photo journal” app from Instagram Stories co-creator Nathan Sharp, is getting fresh attention as an ad-free, algorithm-free alternative to typical social feeds, per Engadget. Users post photos on a daily, weekly, or monthly schedule, and friends can see roughly the last four weeks of posts unless they’re given a “key” for full history access. The free tier limits posting to once a week; a paid tier ($2/week, $5/month, or $36/year) unlocks video uploads and posting on any date. If algorithm-driven feeds aren’t your thing, it’s worth a look — see our guide on discovering new music by working with the algorithm for a related take on ditching the algorithm.

Fourth plaintiff joins lawsuit over Grok-generated CSAM

A fourth plaintiff, a woman from Wyoming, has joined a lawsuit accusing Elon Musk’s xAI of allowing its Grok chatbot to generate child sexual abuse material, according to Engadget. She alleges her stepfather used Grok to turn a childhood photo of her into exploitative images. The suit follows an original complaint filed by three Tennessee teenagers, and xAI is separately facing scrutiny from California’s attorney general and the European Union over AI-generated CSAM and nonconsensual deepfakes.

Wildfire smoke now outpaces other pollution as a prenatal risk

Decades of clean-air regulation cut pregnant people’s exposure to harmful vehicle and industrial emissions, but new research reported by Ars Technica finds wildfire smoke has become a bigger source of prenatal air-pollution exposure than those human-caused sources. The finding suggests climate-driven wildfires are eroding gains made by decades of clean-air rules.

AI Tools

Why people are skeptical of Zuckerberg’s AI vision

On TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, reporters discussed why the public reaction to Mark Zuckerberg’s AI vision has been skeptical, per TechCrunch. Zuckerberg recently published a roughly 6,500-word essay describing a future where everyone has a highly capable personal AI agent, but the hosts pointed to Meta’s social-media reputation and the vagueness of some of the promises as reasons people aren’t convinced. They also noted Meta isn’t typically counted among the leading makers of proprietary AI models or popular consumer AI assistants.

Science & Space

NASA funds spherical robots that could explore Titan’s caves

NASA has awarded early-stage NIAC funding to SPARK, a concept for spherical flying robots that would use ion engines to explore the cave systems of Saturn’s moon Titan, according to Space.com. Titan has karst terrain with sinkholes and caves that would be difficult for a wheeled rover to navigate, so the team argues a flying design could reach areas a rover couldn’t. The grant’s first phase runs nine months, and the concept would need to clear a second phase, lasting up to two years, before it’s realistically ready to fly.

Artemis II pilot thanks NASA for letting him fly Orion by hand

Artemis II pilot Victor Glover thanked NASA for trusting the crew to fly the Orion capsule by hand during part of the mission, saying “I’m still blown away by that trust, and it flew marvelously,” according to Space.com. He made the comments alongside crewmates Reid Wiseman, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen at a public event at Colorado’s Red Rocks Amphitheatre on August 3, 2026. The Artemis II mission flew around the moon and back, marking the first crewed flight beyond low Earth orbit in 53 years.

Physicists find their strongest evidence yet for a ‘glueball’ particle

Physicists working on China’s BESIII experiment have found what they call the strongest evidence yet that a particle known as X(2370) is a “glueball” — matter made purely of gluons, the particles that carry the strong nuclear force — after analyzing billions of particle-decay events, according to ScienceAlert. The team measured X(2370)’s mass, spin, and decay patterns for the first time and confirmed a property called its “flavor-singlet nature,” which researchers describe as glueballs’ most important characteristic. Glueballs were first predicted by theory roughly 50 years ago but had never been confirmed this clearly. For more offbeat science, see our explainer on why certain fabrics shock you more.

A Nigerian fishing town keeps losing homes to the Atlantic

In Ayetoro, a coastal town of about 10,000 people in southern Nigeria founded in 1947, rising seas and coastal erosion have destroyed homes that residents keep rebuilding further inland, only to lose them again, according to Phys.org. Erosion has accelerated since the early 2000s, and some families have had to relocate more than three times. Researchers point to climate change combined with the clearing of coastal wetlands and floodplains, which once absorbed ocean surges, as key factors behind the losses.

Explore more: discovering new music by working with the algorithm, why certain fabrics shock you more.

Make Your Digital Life Better

More practical tech how-tos, tool picks, and guides to upgrade your everyday digital life. More on GTWebs.

Want web tips in your inbox? Subscribe to the free newsletter.

Photo: HaeB / CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

The post 8 Tech & Science News Stories for Monday, August 17, 2026: What the Retro app actually is, and how to use it appeared first on GTWebs.