Tech news today: Claude Fable 5 returns, GPT-5.6 stays gated, and Sony kills the disc.

Claude Fable 5 is back, worldwide

Anthropic's Claude Fable 5 became available again to everyone starting Wednesday, July 1, across the Claude Platform, Claude.ai, Claude Code, and Claude Cowork. The model, along with its more tightly controlled sibling Claude Mythos 5, had been pulled from global access after the U.S. government issued an export control order in mid June, about two and a half weeks after both models originally launched. The Commerce Department lifted those controls on June 30. Anthropic says it redeployed the model with a new set of classifiers meant to target and block cybersecurity misuse specifically. (MacRumors)

For Pro, Max, Team, and select Enterprise plans, Fable 5 is included for up to half of weekly usage limits through July 7, after which it shifts to usage based credits. Pricing for both Fable 5 and Mythos 5 is $10 per million input tokens and $50 per million output tokens.

GPT-5.6 is out, but you probably cannot use it yet

A lot of headlines this week made it sound like OpenAI's GPT-5.6 launched for everyone. It did not, at least not yet. OpenAI previewed GPT-5.6 in three tiers, Sol, Terra, and Luna, on June 26, but access is currently limited to roughly 20 pre approved organizations, a restriction tied to a new federal review process for frontier AI models that followed a June 2 executive order. OpenAI says it plans to widen access to GPT-5.6 in the coming weeks, but has not given a firm date for general availability. (VentureBeat)

Put side by side, the Fable 5 and GPT-5.6 stories are really one story, the most capable AI models are increasingly subject to a government review step before they reach the public, and different companies are moving through that process on different timelines. Whatever you think of the policy, it means the release date on a flagship model is no longer purely up to the company that built it.

Sony will stop making PlayStation game discs in 2028

Sony announced it will end physical disc production for new PlayStation games starting January 2028. Games that release before that date in disc format are unaffected, and Sony says it plans to keep selling games at physical retailers after the cutoff, just not on discs, likely as boxed download codes instead. The company framed the move as following consumer habits, since digital purchases have outpaced physical ones by a wide margin for years now. (PlayStation Blog)

It is not a surprise, but it is a real milestone, the console that grew up on discs is formally moving on from them. If you collect physical games or rely on being able to lend, resell, or play a used copy, the runway to do that with new PlayStation titles is now a little over a year and a half.

For more on the AI model review process shaping releases like Fable 5 and GPT-5.6, see the earlier piece on the export control order, and for the memory shortage still driving device prices, why Apple raised prices on Macs and iPads. You can see what this studio builds at jcmobileappstudio.com.