Zoom Reverses on AI After Uproar; iPhone 15 Launch Date; Another Amazon Prime Day Coming; Google Search Gets Grammar Checker

We had just reported on…and ranted about…Zoom’s new policy allowing them to train AI on your customer data…and smiling mug in video calls. Well now, engadget.com reports that there has been a big enough blowback, that Zoom has decided to reverse the policy…at least for now. It will ask for customer consent to use your video or audio chats to train its AI, however. This will require them to present you with two consent boxes before joining a meeting…the one we have all been checking to join the meeting, and another granting or denying permission to train their AI on your data. It’s not a giant victory, but as we noted in the earlier report, this is your face and voice we are talking about here!

We just had written about a rumor that Apple will be holding the iPhone 15 rollout on Wednesday, September 13th. Now, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reveals that he’s been told the iPhone will go on sale on September 22nd, and that the event will be either Tuesday September 12th or Wednesday September 13th. This the usual time of year for Apple’s phone event, although they did one as early as the 7th one year, and delayed until October once due to COVID. So if you are an Apple fanboy or fangirl, block out both September 12th and 13th for now…we’ll post the official date as soon as Apple puts out one of their trademark cryptic invites.

Yeah, we just had a Prime Day, and Amazon did do a fall one during the pandemic. Well now, the online giant is planning an additional one in October. Androidpolice.com says it is getting a slight re-branding…it will be called Amazon Prime Big Deal Days. Amazon hasn’t given us an exact date yet, but you can bet when they do, they will hype the hell out of it for weeks…so you won’t be able to miss the date!

Google just introduced a feature that lets you check your grammar right in the search bar. A lot of folks need this. In case you hadn’t noticed that, YOU are probably one of them! Mashable.com reports that you just enter a sentence or phrase into Google Search, followed with the word: “grammar check” or “check grammar” or “grammar checker”. Sometimes these phrases aren’t even needed, but using them will ensure that the tool will pop up. If the phrase entered is correct, Google will present a green check mark. Easy…so use it!

I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now