JDK 27 entered Ramp-Down-Phase 1 in early June, so we can go over its features. Valhalla's first JDK Enhancement Proposal (401) will likely be part of JDK 28. Show off your Java ideas in the "Modern Java in the Wild" hackathon. There are two interesting articles for those who want to dive deeper into AOT with agents or into using GPU tensor cores from Java.

Links:

• JDK 27 JEP list: https://openjdk.org/projects/jdk/27/
• Valhalla mail: https://mail.openjdk.org/archives/list/jdk-dev@openjdk.org/threadAIA3O3LHFZ6T7TIPH7KZT4WS4B6U72U5/
• JEP 401 PR: https://github.com/openjdk/jdk/pull/31120
• "Java in the Wild" hackathon: https://www.hackster.io/contests/modern-java-in-the-wild
• AOT vs agents: https://bugs.openjdk.org/browse/JDK-8387190
• AOT and JVMTI agents: https://bugs.openjdk.org/browse/JDK-8387194
• "Exploiting GPU Tensor Cores": https://openjdk.org/projects/babylon/articles/hat-tensors/hat-tensors

OpenJDK recently resurrected Project Detroit, an effort to ease Java's interoperability with Python and JavaScript. Interestingly, while both integrations will work through the _java.scripting_ API, there are still differences between them. On top of that, the JavaScript integration needs to explain how it related to the removal of Nashorn in JDK 16.

In this "Ask the Architect" episode of the Inside Java Podcast, recorded during JavaOne 2026, Nicolai Parlog talks to Mikael Vidsted, lead of the Java Virtual Machine team at Oracle, about Project Detroit.

Project Detroit: https://openjdk.org/projects/detroit/

JDK Enhancement Proposals are OpenJDK's vehicle for documenting and communicating substantial changes of the Java language, its APIs, and the runtime but also the JDK project itself, for example when it comes to development processes. Their well-defined structure and the immense care that goes into writing them make them eminently readable and understanding them well is essential to understanding Java's development.

In this "Ask the Architect" episode of the Inside Java Podcast, recorded during JavaOne 2026, Nicolai Parlog talks to Alex Buckley, the Guardian of the JEP process.

Java's use of memory, often chided for being excessive, is actually a strength as it trades more memory use for fewer CPU cycles. Java can only make this tradeoff due to its moving garbage collectors, something more memory efficient platforms often cannot. But what's the point in leaving available memory on the table if using it makes your program run faster? Efficient use of that resource wouldn't be to leave it untapped but to use it to speed up the program.

In this "Ask the Architect" episode of the Inside Java Podcast, recorded during JavaOne 2026, Nicolai Parlog talks to Ron Pressler, Java Architect at Oracle.

With JDK 27 introducing hybrid key exchange schemes that combine ML-KEM with traditional ECDHE algorithms, Java applications can gain TLS-layer protection against the harvest-now, decrypt-later threat without rewriting business logic.

In this episode of the Inside Java Newscast, Ana explains post-quantum hybrid key exchange for TLS 1.3 and demonstrates how a Java application can take advantage of it.

See https://inside.java/podcast

Flexible constructor bodies were added to Java 25 with JEP 513. In this episode of the Inside Java Newscast Billy Korando will review the issues with how constructors used to work before Java 25, either forcing developers to write convoluted code, or in some cases undermining the safety and integrity of child classes. Billy will then cover how flexible constructor bodies address these issues and how Java developers can use them to write safer code and better designed applications.

Make sure to check https://inside.java/podcast

In JavaOne 2026's closing session, audience members had the opportunity to ask the Java architects questions. They asked about the state of structured concurrency and Project Babylon, how Java is being developed and the role AI plays in that process, the architects' pet projects, and whether they would ever consider breaking backward compatibility, etc.

Make sure to check https://inside.java/podcast

With JDK 26 / JEP 500 starting to prevent final field mutation through reflection, it is important that Java projects stop employing that practice.

For more, check https://inside.java/podcast