Nitter, an open source project that allowed people to read X posts without logging into or even opening the X app, has received cease-and-desist letters from X demanding that it shut down. The news was shared via a brief message posted to the project’s website, and follows X’s earlier attempts to knock Nitter offline by technical means.

The service also powers a number of other sites, including XCancel, that allow people to view X posts directly.

This isn’t X’s first attempt to shut down Nitter. In 2024, Nitter’s flagship instance, Nitter.net, went dark temporarily after X rolled out new API restrictions. Nitter worked by fetching public X posts and then stripping out the ads, tracking cookies, and JavaScript, giving people a clean, clutter-free way to read posts without an account or the app.

After that crackdown, those who wanted to host a Nitter instance had to connect it to a real X account, according to the project’s GitHub page. Despite the restrictions, development picked back up and Nitter instances came back online.

This time, X is working to shut down Nitter and its instances via legal means. Nitter’s website states that the Nitter.net project is offline while its creator seeks legal advice after receiving a cease-and-desist letter. That creator, a developer who goes by the handle Zedeus, told TechCrunch by email that other Nitter instances received similar letters.

On Nitter’s website, the message currently reads:

On 24 August 2026 cease and desist letters have been sent by X Corp. demanding a permanent takedown of Nitter instances and the project’s repository.

nitter.net is offline and development has stopped for the time being. I’m seeking legal advice and won’t be commenting further on the specifics for now.

Thank you to everyone who used, hosted, packaged, donated and contributed to Nitter over the past seven years.

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The letter from X, which TechCrunch has viewed, accuses Nitter of an “unlawful use and circumvention of X’s Application Programming Interface (API) and associated data,” through its service, saying that X has evidence that Nitter scraped X data and accessed X accounts and session tokens in violation of X’s rules.

Lawyers for X said the actions are in violation of “various state and federal laws, including, but not limited to, the Texas Harmful Access by Computer Act (§ 143.001 and § 33.02) and the Lanham Act (15 U.S.C. §§ 1114, 1125).” The letter gave Nitter until 5 p.m. EST on August 25 to shut down.

X is hardly alone in policing alleged scrapers. Meta has taken numerous scrapers to court, and most larger social networks today restrict the use of third-party readers, forcing users to log in and access the site’s content through the official app, where they can be tracked and shown personalized ads.

It’s an unfortunate development for lurkers, given that Nitter and its instances offered a handy way to keep up with certain people’s posts on X without an account. Now those people will either need to give up that access or, as X likely hopes, create an account and log in.

Having a bank account with plenty of zeroes does not mean every listening room needs six figures of loudspeakers, amplification, and source components. Room size, system matching, and how you actually listen should still determine where the spending stops. But if the budget really is secondary, finding the best state-of-the-art audiophile gear of 2026 shows just how far manufacturers are willing to push performance when cost is no object.

That pursuit can take very different forms. Some listeners will spend heavily on reference headphones and headphone amplifiers, while others will build systems around statement loudspeakers, turntables, digital sources, DACs, and amplification designed to extract every last ounce of information from a recording. The best examples are not expensive simply for the sake of being expensive; they represent years, and sometimes decades, of engineering, refinement, and very deliberate choices about how music should sound in a serious listening space.

Our cost-no-object audiophile gift guide focuses on products that deserve to be heard before anyone dismisses their price tags as high-end audio lunacy. You may never buy any of them, but a proper demonstration can be instructive, occasionally humbling, and dangerous to both your expectations and your retirement account.

Bowers & Wilkins 801 D5

The 801 D5 reference tower loudspeakers are the latest and most advanced version of the iconic Bowers & Wilkins 801, which have been the preferred speaker of Abbey Road Studios since 1988, because of their precision and accuracy. Available now in Light or Dark Walnut, Black or White finishes.

$65,000/pair at Bowers & Wilkins

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MartinLogan Neolith

Combining massive physical scale with lightning-fast transient response, the MartinLogan Neolith stands near the absolute summit of modern loudspeaker design. Its balance of micro-detail resolution, electrostatic transparency, and effortless dynamic slam produces an expansive, three-dimensional soundstage that simply must be experienced to be believed.

$59,999/each at MartinLogan

Kaleidescape Connoisseur System

Escape beyond cinema with Kaleidescape Strato K and Terra Prime 120TB. Strato K is the world’s highest-fidelity movie player, providing access to Kaleidescape’s exclusive 4K Cinematic™ format. Terra Prime 120TB movie server stores up to 2,000 4K movies and unlocks the full Kaleidescape experience. Available from Kaleidescape dealers at $39,990 US MSRP.

Learn more at kaleidescape.com

Focal Scala Utopia Evo M

An exceptional 3-way floorstanding loudspeaker designed and manufactured in France. It unites innovative drive units, state-of-the-art audio technologies and an iconic, sculptural design, delivering sound reproduction with remarkable precision and expression for a truly unique musical experience. Engineered for high-end audio systems, it is conceived for the most dedicated high-fidelity enthusiasts.

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$50,000/pair at House of Stereo

Paradigm Persona 9H

Completely designed, engineered, and crafted in Canada, the flagship Persona 9H unleashes the full, untamed power of Paradigm engineering. This 6-driver, 3.5-way hybrid floorstander packs 1,400 watts RMS of DSP-controlled amplification to drive its active bass architecture. Encased in an intricately braced, vibration-canceling cabinet, it delivers surgical precision with effortless dynamics and total acoustic authority.

$19,999/each at Paradigm

MartinLogan Depth 215

The ultimate expression of MartinLogan bass, the Depth 215 delivers pure low-end dominance. Dual 15-inch Carbon Aerocore woofers in a force-canceling setup eliminate cabinet vibration, while a 64-bit Vojtko DSP engine ensures surgical accuracy. Bone-rattlingly deep and distortion-free, it anchors high-end two-channel setups and elite home theaters alike.

$6,999 at MartinLogan

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Marantz 10 Series

Unlock the pinnacle of music performances with the top-of-the-line Marantz 10 Series hi-fi components consisting of the Model 10 Integrated Amplifier, SACD 10 Disc Player, and LINK 10n Streaming Preamplifier.

Bartolotta T10 Bespoke

One-of-a-kind in-ear computers combine the craftsmanship of two artisans, Bear Clark and Phil Bartolotta. The charging case pendant features a soft-brushed 925 sterling silver metal frame with a 14k gold inlay border, while the buds deliver astonishing musical playback and functionality.

$22,012.50 at T10 Bespoke

Need more gift giving ideas?

Disclosure: The products listed above are approved by our Editors, but may be requested by our sponsors. When links to buy are provided, we’ll direct you to the lowest price at time of publication. In doing so, eCoustics may earn a small commission from the associated retailer if purchased.

Some things are too bizarre to make up, and Sony’s inability to read the room is one of them.

Over the last week or so, the media giant has sent emails to PlayStation users with its entire Terms of Service, which includes a reminder that their digital games are “licensed” and not “sold.” The communication comes as gamers continue to protest Sony’s removal of physical media from the PlayStation 6.

As an isolated incident, Sony’s email isn’t really anything untoward. It lets the user know that they have recently accepted the most recent Terms of Service, Code of Conduct, End User License Agreement and Privacy Policy. The company even included full copies of each in the email. 

But the timing of Sony’s email appears intentional, not just unfortunate. PlayStation users are furious over the company’s decision to remove the physical disc drive from the PlayStation 6, as well as its announcement that it will stop producing game discs altogether as of January 2028. Sony announced the end of physical discs just a few days after removing several digitally purchased movies from users’ accounts.

The email was spotted by The Verge’s Tom Warren, who posted about it on X over the weekend: “Sony emailing everyone about PlayStation terms of use during a backlash over the end of discs and a lack of digital ownership is certainly a choice.”

The backlash has grown large enough to inspire a PlayStation boycott — starting Sunday — with players pledging not to buy, log in to or play games for a week to protest Sony’s abandonment of physical media for the console.

So, right in the middle of a protest centered on concerns about game ownership, Sony is reminding us we’re merely buying a license to use a game under the company’s terms.

The new normal: Lease, not own

A move like this from another multibillion-dollar company underscores the new normal in gaming and tech, where companies appear to be shifting further away from the idea of ownership. Instead, they ask consumers to retain access to products that may be revoked or restricted at the company’s discretion. These changes didn’t come in one dramatic wave, but in a steady stream of small consumer-facing microaggressions that have built up over time. 

Take the recent HP printer controversy, for example. HP programmed its printers to lock users out if third-party ink is detected. That means you can buy an HP printer and own it — but if you don’t fill it with the official (more expensive) ink cartridges, the printer can sass back like an angsty, spoiled teenager and refuse to work. 

There are subtler attempts to chip away at our agency (and purchasing power) as consumers. Apple raised MacBook prices this year, then started a program where the company will literally rent you one, presumably because you can’t afford it otherwise. You wouldn’t own the MacBook, so Apple could lock you out of your device if you missed a lease payment. 

When it comes to music and movies, streaming has been the norm for years — we’re dutifully reminded every so often that we’re renting the ability to listen or watch something rather than owning it. I’ll never forget a couple of years ago when the entire library from the rock band Coheed and Cambria’s was removed from YouTube Music due to a licensing dispute while I was in the middle of listening. 

Sony and other gaming companies are starting to adopt the same lending-access business model in software and digital entertainment: In this brave new world, mega corporations can own everything and make us “purchase” rentals entirely on their terms. That means they can change, restrict, discontinue or shut down access, but we can never keep, lend, sell or pass down a product.

The shift is leaving older generations (millennials like myself included) increasingly nostalgic for a time when buying something meant taking home something tangible — something that belonged to us.

Apple’s iCloud Private Relay is back to private status, after an apparent fix in iOS 26.6.1 patched the vulnerability that would expose a person’s IP address even when the feature was enabled.

iCloud Private Relay is a paid feature available only to those with an iCloud Plus subscription. When it’s active, it routes web traffic through proxy servers to mask your physical location and web traffic. It’s specific to Apple’s Safari web browser and apps that use Apple’s WebKit framework, and is not the same as a VPN, which hides all internet traffic.

Earlier in August, developers Talal Haj Bakry and Tommy Mysk noticed that Apple devices with iCloud Private Relay enabled could still leak their IP addresses in three circumstances. The developers set up a web page at leaks.psylo.app where you could check whether you’re vulnerable.

On Tuesday, Mysk posted on X that Apple’s iOS 26.2.1 release (and the 26.2.1 releases of Apple’s other operating systems) is where the fix appeared, even though it’s not noted in Apple’s security release notes. Now, if you go to that leaks page, it reports the masked IP address, not the actual address, of the device you’re running. You need to have iCloud Private Relay on in Settings > iCloud.

Mysk also noted in a reply on X that, “It’s near to impossible Apple would have addressed this issue so quickly had we reported it to Apple first. As expected, they only fixed it for Safari.”

An Apple representative didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Soon after its existence was revealed, the iCloud Private Relay vulnerability prompted a lawsuit by Clarkson Law Firm, the same outfit that negotiated a $250 million settlement with Apple over how the company advertised its Apple Intelligence features at launch. The firm has also recently sued smart ring maker Oura.

A Clarkson Law Firm representative didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Jeff Carlson

Senior Writer

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Jeff Carlson writes about mobile technology at CNET, from cellular phone plans to devices and emerging technology.

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Current owners of the popular RPG will get the upgrade for free.

from the good-deals-on-cool-stuff dept

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Filed Under: daily deal

from the only-white-people-deemed-to-do-it-the-right-way dept

Many Trump supporters keep insisting that his immigration purges are justified because the people swept up in them came here “illegally,” so who cares if they get kicked out (or shipped off to some random war-torn country). When asked what people seeking asylum should do, the answer is often “do it the legal way.” That the US government has spent years making “the legal way” harder and harder — and, as we’re about to see, has now started punishing the people who actually took it — never seems to enter the conversation. But here we have a really clear example of people doing it “the legal way, as instructed by Trump himself” who are about to get kicked out of the US.

The AP is reporting that the administration is about to pull out on the order of 200,000 visas from those who came to the US legally under B1 or B2 visas, and then sought asylum, just as Trump said they should. This would be the largest mass revocation of visas in US history.

The Trump administration is preparing to revoke the business and tourism visas of up to 200,000 foreigners who have applied for or are currently seeking asylum status in the United States. If it happens, the move would be the largest single mass revocation of visas in U.S. history and would likely face legal challenges.

Unless challenged or revised, the State Department is expected to announce in the coming weeks the revocation of so-called B1 and B2 visas issued between 2016 and 2026 whose holders have sought asylum or are now seeking asylum, according to State Department documents obtained by The Associated Press and two U.S. officials. The action will be taken in coordination with the Department of Homeland Security.

“We are coordinating with DHS to identify and revoke the nonimmigrant visas of foreigners who have come to the United States claiming to be short-term visitors, but then file for asylum to stay here permanently,” said State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott.

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Go back to 2018, when the first Trump administration proclaimed that anyone crossing the southern border anywhere other than an official port of entry would be ineligible for asylum. The whole framing was that there was a legal way to seek asylum and an illegal way, and only the legal way was going to count. In remarks about this executive order, Trump said that those who wished to seek asylum would have to “lawfully present themselves at a port of entry,” at which point they could seek asylum.

Under this plan, the illegal aliens will no longer get a free pass into our country by lodging meritless claims in seeking asylum. Instead, migrants seeking asylum will have to present themselves lawfully at a port of entry. So they’re going to have to lawfully present themselves at a port of entry.

A few months later, in his State of the Union, he claimed he wanted immigrants to enter the country legally (in large numbers!):

“I want people to come into our country in the largest numbers ever, but they have to come in legally,” he declared…

Note that these are two separate demands: show up at a port of entry rather than sneaking across, and get into the country through legal channels in the first place. The people about to lose their visas satisfied both, and then some. They applied for a visa, got vetted and approved by the State Department, walked in through the front door, and filed an asylum claim through the official process. If there’s a more “legal way” available, nobody has described it.

That demand, that people come “legally” and then make their asylum claims at a port of entry (though the courts later deemed this “asylum only counts at port of entry” to be wildly against the law) still resulted in a ton of people getting legal visas to the US, and then seeking asylum when they entered.

It now appears that (unsurprisingly) the Trump administration was full of shit when they claimed they wanted asylum seekers to “come the legal way.”

There was nothing in what Trump said initially that said they had to get other types of visas to seek asylum. It just said “get here legally and then make your case.” Which is exactly what all of these people did, and Trump and Marco Rubio are about to pull their visas, even though they literally did things “the legal way” that Trump himself had encouraged.

While this won’t necessarily mean immediate deportations, it will likely mean that people with live, pending asylum claims lose their lawful status while those claims are still being adjudicated — which is precisely how you end up removable. And with bands of roving ICE thugs looking for anyone without legal status to deport, you know these people are likely to be added to the target list.

So once again, doing things “the legal way” turns out to protect you from exactly nothing. Follow the instructions the president himself gave you and on the visa the State Department itself issued you, file the paperwork the process demands, and the reward is having that visa pulled while your claim is still pending. What good is doing things “the legal way” when, with the stroke of a pen, Trump and Rubio will make that “legal way” illegal?

The New Colossus poem on the Statue of Liberty reads:

Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free…

To which the Trump administration responds: “get the fuck out of here.”

Filed Under: asylum, deportation, donald trump, immigration, marco rubio, trump administratin, visa revocation, visas