iPhone Reclaims Top Spot After 14 Years; RAM Prices Astronomical As GPU Prices Drop; Bug in Jury Software Exposes Personal Info; OpenAI Claims Teen Violated Their Rules in Suicide Case

Posted: November 26, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

For the first time in 14 years, Apple has taken back the crown as the world’s top smartphone maker from Samsung. Macrumors.com reports that the move is due to the popularity of the iPhone 17, particularly in China. Overall iPhone shipments are projected to grow 10% in 2025, compared to Samsung’s 4.6% growth..according to Counterpoint Research. For 2026, it looks like the more budget conscious are also going to be eyeing the iPhone 17e. The well-heeled will make up a small bump as we noted yesterday…Apple will likely sell only about 5.4 million of the pricy folding phone starting next September. Adding to Apple’s predicted strong continuing sales…the 2027 model will be they 20th anniversary, and it is expected that Apple will make some spectacular changes to the iPhones…or at least hype features to make us think it’s the greatest thing since sliced bread.

I was just talking with my son the IT guy last night about the crazy high pricers of computer RAM. He was complaining that in trying to buy a DDR5 RAM kit to upgrade a laptop, the prices were much higher than before. According to arstechnica.com, there is a shortage mainly caused by the AI boom. Prices are more than double in a number of cases than they were just a few months ago. Keep in mind that this won’t affect your purchase of a PC or laptop…the big manufacturers have deals in place to buy massive numbers and their prices will not be affected under their contracts. On the plus side, as memory prices have gone nuts, GPU prices have actually dropped. You can actually buy high end graphics cards for less than suggested retail prices right now should you be in the market for one of those. 

Most people get them at some point or another…a postcard with a jury summons. Now, TechCrunch.com says that a bug has been found in the systems used by several states that exposed peoples’ personal information. At least a dozen juror websites made by government software maker Tyler Technologies appear to be vulnerable to the exploit, according to a security researchers. Some of the states include California. Illinois, Michigan, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Virginia. Tyler has said it is fixing the flaw now. The bug meant it was possible for anyone to obtain the information about jurors who are selected for service. To log into these platforms, a juror is provided a unique numerical identifier assigned to them, which could be brute-forced since the number was sequentially incremental. The platform also did not have any mechanism to prevent anyone from flooding the login pages with a large number of guesses, a feature known as “rate-limiting.”

ChatGPT argues in a court filing that it shouldn’t be held liable in the death of a 16 year old because the youngster violated their rules. Gizmodo.com notes the AI company said in the document that there was “[M]isuse, unauthorized use, unintended use, unforeseeable use, and/or improper use of ChatGPT.” Those are potential causal factors that could have led to the “tragic event” that was the death by suicide of 16-year-old Adam Raine. The firm apparently denies responsibility, and is reportedly skeptical of the “extent that any ‘cause’ can be attributed to” Raine’s death. Raine’s family is suing OpenAI over the teen’s April suicide, alleging that ChatGPT drove him to the act. An attorney for the Raines family, Jay Edelson, said in an email that OpenAI “tries to find fault in everyone else, including, amazingly, saying that Adam himself violated its terms and conditions by engaging with ChatGPT in the very way it was programmed to act.” He also claims that the defendants, “abjectly ignore” the “damning facts” the plaintiffs have put forward. We’ll keep an eye on this case, which is really what they call an issue of first impression…AI assisting a user to commit suicide.

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

Amazon Testing New Fast Delivery Setup; Folding iPhone-May be $2400; Landlord Rent Setting Tool Gets Gutted; Amazon Web Services- $50 Billion to Build Government AI Infrastructure 

Posted: November 25, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Amazon is trialing a new rapid delivery idea in Seattle. Geekwire.com reports that Amazon is using a closed Amazon Fresh site as a mini warehouse for  most popular and fast moving items. It is something like a convenience store…open 24/7 but not to you. It functions as a pick up site for  Amazon Flex drivers. Amazon employees will fulfill online orders…picking and bagging items from a stock room, then putting them on shelves for Flex drivers to pick up and deliver to the nearby neighborhoods within hours of ordering. Flex drivers are independent contractors who deliver packages using their own vehicles, signing up for delivery blocks through the Amazon Flex app. The program has often been described as Uber for package delivery. 

We’ve heard price rumors ranging from the $1900 plus level up to $2500 for the upcoming folding iPhone. Now, according to mac rumors.com, analyst Arthur Liao is postulating it will be $2399. Noted analyst Ming-Chi Kuo had previously said it would land at between $2000 and $2500, and Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman has predicted it will be somewhere around $2000. The foldable ‌iPhone‌ will be expensive because of the premium components that Apple plans to use. The display panel and hinge will push pricing toward the upper end of market expectations, Fubon Research suggests. One truly big deal is that the iPhone is expected to be the first folder with no crease at all in the middle of the screen. Fubon Research sees Apple selling about 5.4 million of the folders in 2026. That is a pretty modest number compared to 228 million total iPhones sold in 2024, the last full year we have figures for. 

A controversial tool used by landlords to set rental prices has had its ears pinned back after a settlement with the Department of Justice. The DOJ said in a press release that the proposed settlement “would help restore free market competition in rental markets for millions of American renters.” The antitrust settlement is with RealPage. For years since the pandemic started, rental prices outpaced inflation, and the DOJ suspected that RealPage was the dominant force driving a market that never favored renters. Under the settlement, RealPage admits no wrongdoing, and doesn’t pay a fine. Arstechnica.com notes that if the court approves the deal, however, RealPage has agreed to update its software so that rival landlords cannot access “competitively sensitive information to determine rental prices in runtime operation.” Additionally, RealPage will “remove or redesign features that limited price decreases or aligned pricing between competing users of the software.” And the company will “cooperate in the United States’ lawsuit against property management companies that have used its software.”

Amazon is spending an eye-watering $50 billion to build out AI infrastructure for the US government. Techcrunch.com reports that it will be a ‘high performance computing infrastructure’ built specially for the feds. It will expand government agency access to AWS AI services. Amazon will break ground on the data centers in 2026. Amazon has long supplied cloud infrastructure to the US government…starting back in 2011. 

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

Amazon Leo-Faster Satellite Internet; OpenAI Settles on ‘Device’; Apple iOS27-Internal Improvements No Major Changes; Tesla Can’t Sell Cybercabs Until A Regulatory Exemption is Obtained

Posted: November 24, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Watch out StarLink! Amazon Leo is starting to roll out its fastest satellite internet service. Geekwire.com reports that the sat internet was previously known as Project Kuiper. Amazon has started shipping its top of the line terminals to select customers for testing. Although Amazon is way behind SpaceX Starlink at the moment, they are touting their top tier global broadband service…dubbed Leo Ultra…as having 1 gig per second download speed and 400 mbps upload speed. The antenna is 20 by 30 inches in size, and it’s powered by a custom chip optimized for videoconferencing, real-time monitoring, and cloud computing. It can connect directly to Amazon Web Services and other cloud networks. There are two lower tier services, too. Leo Nano uses a compact 7 inch antenna and it has download speeds of up to 100 mbps. Leo Pro uses a standard 11 inch antenna and has download speeds of up to 400 mbps. Amazon says they are continuing to build things out, and will be launching more satellites. At the moment, they just have 153, but they are planning 3,000 more. Pricing hasn’t yet been disclosed on the hardware or monthly plans. 

Since we reported months ago about Jony Ive, former design wizard at Apple, teaming up with OpenAI on a device, all has been quiet. Now, according to theverge.com, Ive and Sam Altman at OpenAI have a prototype of the OpenAI device. This word came out in an interview with Laurene Powell Jobs. Ive said that they are definitely prototyping the device and that it could arrive in ‘less than 2 years.’ There is very little known about the gizmo, except we now know hear it will be screen free and ‘roughly the size of a smartphone.’ OpenAI CEO Sam Altman described the design as ’simple and beautiful and playful.’ Ive commented “I love solutions that teeter on appearing almost naive in their simplicity, and I also love incredibly intelligent, sophisticated products that you want to touch, and you feel no intimidation, and you want to use almost carelessly, that you use them almost without thought, that they’re just tools.” This is in line with the old Steve Jobs mantra that tech gadgets ought to be as simple and un-intimadating as toasters.

After the rather dramatic changes to iOS26, with the ‘Liquid Glass’ look everywhere, Apple says it will focus on ‘quality and underlying performance’ in the iOS 27 release. 9to5mac.com says it will be something of a Snow Leopard update, where Apple will drill down on quality rather than bowing flashy new features. That said, they will still add some new AI features….tow of them worth noting. One is their new AI health agent, that will launch with a rumored Apple Health+ subscription. The other is Apple’s first AI powered web search. Count me among the people that will be happy with Apple just cleaning up things in the OS to make it more reliable and robust. I know flashy updates are a necessary thing…like the changes to styling on new car models, but the ‘under the hood’ stuff really makes a difference…in software as well as in cars!

Elon Musk has hyped the driverless Cybercab endlessly, but none will be sold or hitting the streets without a regulatory exemption…which Tesla hasn’t yet obtained. The reason is that the vehicle doesn’t have any controls…no steering wheel or pedals, among other requirements. The company still doesn’t have authority for full self-driving for the vehicle, either. Amazon’s Zoox has applied for a waiver for its vehicles that lack standard controls. Alphabet’s Waymo doesn’t need waivers, as they are leaving conventional controls in all their robotaxi vehicles. Musk has insisted that the Cybercab will remain without controls, but Tesla’s board chair, Robyn Denholm, has said that Tesla has contingency plans to install a steering wheel and pedals if necessary. 

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

iPhone 18 Could See Big Upgrades; TikTok Will Now Let you Choose How Much AI Content You See; YouTube TV’s “Lower Cost Sports Bundle” Coming; CDC-US Close to Losing Measles Elimination Status

Posted: November 19, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , | Leave a comment

Several cool changes may be coming to the iPhone 18 Pro series. Bgr.com reports that the first thing might be a major camera upgrade…a variable aperture. If this makes your eyes cross as too camera nerdy, the net is it would improve low-light pictures and make brighter scenes more realistic with better depth of field. Another rumor has a smaller dynamic island coming, and in fact…Apple may hide the FaceID sensors under the display…that rumor is coming from both analyst Ross Young and Bloombergs Mark Gurman. Another possibility is Cupertino adding a single pinhole cam in the upper left corner of the display. Sources in China have the 18 Pro thicker and heavier…probably due to a bigger battery. This has been rumored for a while, but the iPhone 18 Pro may have its processor made using a 2 nanometer process…that means more power without sapping battery life. A cool rumor has Apple adding support for 5G networks via satellites, which would expand satellite connection from emergency calls to mainstream use…this means for you using your iPhone 18 Pro with unlimited online access anywhere in the world. 

TikTok is now adding a setting that lets you pick how much AI generated content you want to see in your ‘For You’ feed. According to techcrunch.com, they are also adding more advanced labeling tech for AI generated content. Since OpenAI has launched Sora, realistic AI-generated videos have been posted to TikTok. Additionally, many TikTok users are leveraging AI to create visuals for posts about other topics, like history or celebrities. TikTok says that with the new AI-generated content control, users who want to see less of this sort of content can now dial things down, while those who enjoy it can choose to see more of it.

YouTube may be preparing to launch a new, ‘lower-cost’ sports bundle in 2026, after cutting a deal with Disney. 9to5google.com notes that there’s a catch…there’s always a catch. MLB.TV won’t be included. Disney’s ESPN unit just recently finalized a deal with MLB.TV…probably at a significant bump in cost. Another issue that has held up a deal with the House of Mouse sports content is that traditional cable and satellite providers have had similar access to the content, but up to now, Roku Amazon, and Apple have never had access to Disney’s direct to consumer content. As the saying goes…stay tuned.

In a sad report…thanks Robert F. Kennedy, Jr…CDC date confirms that the US is only about 2 months away from losing measles elimination status. Arstechnica.com reports that Federal health officials have linked two massive US measles outbreaks at the border of Arizona and Utah as a continuation of the explosive outbreak in West Texas that began in mid- to late-January. That is, the two massive outbreaks are being caused by the same subtype of measles virus. The finding that the outbreaks are linked means there’s been continuous circulation within the country for about 10 months. If the same measles virus subtype from the outbreaks—dubbed 9171—continues to spread and surpasses the 12-month mark in January 2026, the US will lose its elimination status.

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

Google Bows Gemini 3 AI & Antigravity Agent; iPhone 17 Powers Apple to 25% of China’s Phone Sales; Cloudflare-Latent Bug Caused Huge Outage; Anthropic Now Valued at $350 Billion

Posted: November 18, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

Google has released its Gemini 3 AI, and a new agent called Antigravity. Arstechnica.com reports that the release of Gemini 3 Pro is just available in a limited form today, though. Google is touting more immersive, visual outputs and fewer lies, Google says. The company also says Gemini 3 sets a new high-water mark for vibe coding. In addition to Gemini 3, Google has also unveiled a new AI-first integrated development environment…or IDE…named Antigravity. Google says 3 has improved simulated reasoning abilities, and better understanding of text, images, and video. Google says math and coding are the primary focus of this release. Google says people should think of Antigravity  as a “mission control” for creating and monitoring multiple development agents. The AI in Antigravity can operate autonomously across the editor, terminal, and browser to create and modify projects, but everything they do is relayed to the user in the form of “Artifacts.” 

The lower priced iPhone 17 has helped Apple to pick up 25% of China’s smartphone sales. According to bgr.com, the base model 17 made up 80% of Apple’s iPhone sales in China. Apple sold 37% more iPhones than last year in China. The top line iPhone 17 Pro Max is experiencing shipping delays in China, but just 2-5 days. The premium phone segment is still hotly contested…The Huawei Mate 80 flagship phone is coming out, and that is expected to cut into Apple’s market share. 

Cloudflare had a major outage this Tuesday morning that took down or snarled a significant piece of the internet. TechCrunch.com says the outage hit ChatGPT, Claude, Spotify, X, and others. In a post on X, Cloudflare’s chief technology officer Dane Knecht said a latent bug was responsible, and he apologized for the outage. The problem occurred when Cloudflare’s bot mitigation system started to crash after a routine configuration change. A few users were still having some issues logging onto their Cloudflare dashboards by late morning.

As part of new strategic partnerships with both Nvidia and Anthropic, Microsoft will pour up to $5 billion into Anthropic, while Nvidia will dump $10 billion into the AI startup. Cnbc.com notes that this will put the valuation of Anthropic…maker of the Claude AI model…at around $350 billion, up from $183 billion in September. Anthropic has committed to purchasing $30 billion of Azure compute capacity from Microsoft and has contracted for additional compute capacity up to 1 gigawatt, according to a blog post. Anthropic has also committed to purchase up to 1 gigawatt of compute capacity with Nvidia’s Grace Blackwell and Vera Rubin systems. Amazon Web Services continue to be Anthropic’s primary cloud provider, however.

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

Bezos Co-CEO in AI Startup; Major Tech Investor Dumps Nvidia; Door Dash Data Breach; Steam Machine-Easy Cheats in Games an Issue

Posted: November 17, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , | Leave a comment

Jeff Bezos has apparently decided he couldn’t stay away from running a company, even with all his billions. Bezos is now co-CEO of an AI startup called Project Prometheus…which has raised $6.2 billion in funding. This will be the first time the former Amazon founder and CEO has been in an actual working executive role since leaving the Amazon CEO position in 2021. The details are scant about Project Prometheus. On LinkedIn, the only description is ‘AI for the physical economy.’ The other co-CEO is Vic Bajaj, who formerly worked in research at Alphabet’s ‘moonshot’ division Google X. Vic is also a director at biotech startup in Seattle called Xaira Therapeutics. Bezos said earlier this year that there are signs of an AI “industrial bubble” — but also said the technology will bring massive benefits to society. “When the dust settles and you see who are the winners, society benefits from those inventions. … The benefits to society from AI are going to be gigantic,” according to Bezos.

Just last week, we reported on a major investor-a Japanese billionaire- selling all his Nvidia stock. Now comes word that tech venture capitalist Peter Thiel has sold ALL his Nvidia stock. According to raw story.com, the sale had amounted to about 40% of a Thiel controlled hedge fund. One post on line said just “Uh, oh.” This is another red flag that there is very likely an AI bubble, and that it may be getting precariously close to popping. There has been some $350 billion pumped into AI this year just in the US. The AI boom reportedly now makes up about a third of the value of the entire stock market. It isn’t helpful that Sam Altman – CEO of OpenAI – about the U.S. government being the “insurer of last resort,” suggesting that taxpayers may be forced to bail AI companies out should they financially collapse. Well, the government has bailed out banks and savings and loans…but of course, not the poor, working poor, or middle class…nor has it helped younger people get into homes. Kamala Harris’ plan to give new home buyers $25 grand to do that seems like it might have been a lot better investment for the government than bailing out billionaires that have bet big on a flaky at this point but promising technology. 

DoorDash has had a data breach that includes user phone numbers and physical addresses. Techcrunch.com says that DoorDash hasn’t released a number affected…but that it does include customers, delivery workers, and merchants. The company did say that “no sensitive information was accessed by the unauthorized third party and we have no indication the data has been misused for fraud or identity theft at this time.” No social security numbers or driver licenses, or bank information or credit card info was exposed in the hack. All affected users have been notified. 

A lot of gamers are looking at jumping to the new Linux-based Steam Machine from Valve. One sticky issue is keeping some popular games off the platform and may keep some gamers from switching. Engadget.com reports that the problem is its Linux OS. It is apparently way easy to make cheating software for Linux based operating systems. This has kept some big games like Fortnite and Rainbow Six Siege from porting to the platform. Still, for a lot of folks that are unhappy with the intrusiveness of Windows 11…and the specter of Windows 12 even possibly being subscription based like Office 360…something Microsoft has backed off of for now…I expect to see a good minority of users jump to the Steam Machine. As with the Mac Mini, you do need to get your own keyboard, mouse, and monitor…but those things are widely available. 

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

Anthropic Will Pour $50 Billion into AI Infrastructure; Apple Launches Digital ID-Passports on Your iPhone; People Can’t Tell If a Song is AI or Not; Airbnb Tests Ordering Groceries via Instacart

Posted: November 12, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , | Leave a comment

We have just reported in the past couple days on eye-watering billions being dropped on AI infrastructure by Meta and others…now comes Anthropic, announcing plans to drop $50 billion on custom data centers in Texas and New York. Cnbc.com reports that the facilities are being developed in partnership with Fulidsack…an AI cloud platform that supplies large-scale graphics processing unit (GPU) clusters to clients like Meta, Midjourney, and Mistral. Anthropic is also planning to build out several other locations…but these will be live in 2026 if all goes well. The AI firm said they would create some 2,000 construction jobs and about 800 permanent jobs. Meanwhile, arch-competitor OpenAI has locked up some $1.4 trillion in long term infrastructure commitments. We are in the crazy money spending stage of AI infrastructure building apparently. 

Apple has rolled out Digital ID…in beta at least.. it’s a way to carry your passport on your iPhone or Apple Watch that is useable at TSA checkpoints. According to techcrunch.com, up to 250 airports will allow this for domestic travel. A number of states already allow a version of driver’s licenses to live in Apple Wallet. Note that it isn’t intended to replace your physical passport. Also, for international travel, you will still need the real thing…no way to stamp your phone at this point…although a digital way to do that might be possible. The TSA website has a list of states that support mobile ID, by the way. 

This is maddening for artists and musicians, but according to music streamer Deezer, a huge majority of people can’t tell AI generated music from the real thing…composed and performed by actual humans! Gizmodo.com notes that Deezer did a joint survey with Ipsos, and queried 9,000 people across eight countries: the US, Canada, Brazil, the UK, France, the Netherlands, Germany, and Japan. Sadly, 97% of those surveyed couldn’t tell the difference. 80% of participants did say that AI generated music should be clearly labeled. Deezer already does this. As of September, the streamer found that 28% of music uploaded to its platform was completely AI generated. Of course the AI is trained on the actual works of real musicians…so it could be thought of as a type of theft of intellectual property…but copyright laws are unclear about this right now. 

So you are headed out for a little getaway and have rented an Airbnb. When you get there, you are gonna need groceries. Well now, Airbnb is testing out letting you order them either ahead of time or upon arrival using Instacart. Engadget.com reports that Airbnb will give hosts who do the ordering $25 for every completed order, so long as the food is put away before the guests arrive. Customers will be able to place orders on Instacart up to 3 weeks before their stay. The service is being tested out in Phoenix, Orlando, and LA.

I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technifled’ for now. 

Next Year’s iPhone’s May Get Big Overhaul; SoftBank Sells All Its Nvidia Stock; Meta’s Top AI Scientist Leaving to Found Startup; Sony-84.2 Million PS 5s Sold

Posted: November 11, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

Apple may be making some major changes to next year’s iPhones. At the top of the list…adding a 2nd camera to the poor-selling iPhone Air. 9to5mac.com reports that the new model may be delayed until Spring 2027 in order to redesign and add a second camera. The other big change to the line will be adding the new iPhone Fold…or whatever they end up calling it. Right now, it looks like the Fall 2026 rollout will only include the iPhone 18 Pro, Pro Max, and Fold. The base iPhone 18 may be joining the Air in a Spring rollout. 

In a big move in the AI world, SoftBank has sold its entire stake in Nvidia for $5.83 billion. According to cnbc.com, the company is going ‘all in’ on its stake in OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT. SoftBank said in a statement this wan’t a knock on Nvidia, of which they were an early backer, but that they needed some $30 billion in capital as they continue to pump money into ChatGPT and other investments. OpenAI is now showing up as worth some $500 billion…while Nvidia is a leader in the trillion dollar valuation club. 

Meta has paid astronomical amounts to steal AI experts from other companies, but now their top AI scientist is bailing…to found his own startup. Gizomodo.com notes that Yan LeCun is in talks to raise capital. Meta, like Apple, is admittedly running behind leaders like OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic in the AI race. Meta has taken out some $27 billion in loans to pour into their AI race.

Sony has announced that they have now sold 84.2 million PlayStation 5s since it was introduced. Engadget.com says that they actually sold more PS5s last quarter than a year ago…3.9 million compared to 3.8 million. The company is still concerned due to the flaky tariff regime of the Trump administration and also the delay of Grand Theft Auto VI. That said, Sony now predicts they will make $29 billion in gaming revenue for the full year ending March 31, 2026. 

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

Apple-Working on More iPhone Satellite Features; Spyware ‘Landfall’ Was on Samsung Phones for a Year; AI Isn’t Replacing Jobs-AI Spending Is; Lawyers- Not Checking AI Writing Means Bad Legal Briefs

Posted: November 10, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

Satellite features have been pretty limited on phones to now. Apple’s iPhones have really only been able to send a call for emergency help or send messages via satellite when a cellular connection is unavailable….like at the beach, or hiking in the woods. Now, engadget.com reports that Mark Gurman says Apple is planning on adding to their satellite feature offerings. Personally, I’m betting this is ahead of making satellite connection a paid monthly charge, adding to Apple’s quiver of monthly charges that give them a nice cash flow! Right now, you can send and receive texts via the Messages app over satellite when you are out in the boonies. Now Apple is looking to let you send photos, too. They are also aiming to enable 5G NTN support. That allows cell towers to get a coverage boost by tapping into satellites. For anyone who needs directions in a remote area without a cellular or Wi-Fi connection, Apple reportedly has plans to introduce satellite connectivity to Apple Maps. Boy, I could have used that a few times! In a really cool possible upgrade, Apple is working on ‘natural usage.’ That would mean you won’t have to hold the phone up and point it towards a spot in the sky to connect to a satellite. They are working to make it possible to stay connected even without a clear view of the sky or indoors. All this could be a couple years away…and some features no doubt will be needing the latest greatest iPhone hardware. As a friend of mine frequently says, ‘That’s how they getcha!’ 

It has reportedly been patched as of last April, but for over a year, a very sophisticated spyware called ‘Landfall’ was making the rounds on Samsung Galaxy phones. According to arstechnica.com, it was one of those nasty ‘zero-click’ hacks, which can get into your phone without your direct involvement. The spyware was picked up by Researchers at Unit 42, the intelligence arm of Palo Alto Networks. They only found it because of a couple of similar bugs found in Apple’s iOS and on WhatsApp. The hack involved images. The attackers used modified DNG files, which are a modified type of file based on the TIFF format. They imbedded ZIP archives with the bad programs in them. The hack basically gave the bad actors pretty complete access to user information on the phones. It is pretty tough to remove, too. The good news…the hack was mainly confined to Iraq, Iran, Turkey, and Morocco. If you didn’t travel to those countries, you are probably fine, but these zero-click hacks are pretty scary. 

Lately, there has been a pretty substantial number of layoffs across industry. A good deal of them have been blamed…at least partially, on AI. As it turns out, that isn’t exactly accurate. AI itself isn’t replacing jobs, so much as spending on AI. Fastcompany.com notes that an MIT Media Lab study has found that 95% of generative AI pilot business projects were failing. Another survey by Atlassian concluded that 96% of businesses “have not seen dramatic improvements in organizational efficiency, innovation, or work quality.” Still another study found that 40% of the business people surveyed have received “AI slop” at work in the last month and that it takes nearly two hours, on average, to fix each instance of slop. In addition, they “no longer trust their AI-enabled peers, find them less creative, and find them less intelligent or capable.” What IS sucking up money that had been going to salaries is the massive amount of money being poured into spending on AI infrastructure. Just Amazon…which chopped some 14,000 last month with another 14,000 jobs to go in January…has increased capital spending from $54 billion in 2023 to $118 billion in 2025! Meta is working to lock up at $27 billion credit line to build data centers. Oracle will borrow $25 billion a year the next few years to cover its AI contracts. Financial stress…especially in the tech sector makes the C Suite folks look for some easy cuts…it’s always headcount…the employees that take it in the tail. 

A bit more AI-related news. Attorneys have been using AI to more quickly turn out legal briefs, and the stories continue to come out about those who aren’t double checking the work of the AI bots, and ending up with the likes of fake case citations. Gizomdo.com reports that more courts are levying fines or the like. Now, some lawyers have started a tracking system to compile information on cases involving AI misuse. A French attorney is presently in the forefront of this with a website…Damien Charlotin has listed some 509 cases so far. At this point, sadly, no bar association has meted out any punishment for the sloppy briefs, only some courts.

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

Softbank, Others Drop on AI Jitters; Tesla Euro and Chinese Sales Tank; Cloud Streaming Here for Playstation Portal; Google Maps Gets Gemini-You Can Chat Conversationally

Posted: November 5, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

Japan’s Softbank shares were down 10% on Wednesday, which was a loss of $23 billion in market capitalization. Cnbc.com reports most of the drop was due to investor worry about what most observers are calling the AI bubble. Billions have been pumped into AI, but at this point, no one is making any kind of real money from it. Softbank has a controlling stake in ARM Holdings, which designs mobile processors and AI processors. Softbank also has money in OpenAI, and a few other AI application level startups. Other Asian stocks are also down, including Samsung Electronics, which was down 4.1% and Taiwan’s TSMC, the biggest contract chip maker on earth, was down 2.99%. The declines come after U.S. software company Palantir dropped about 8% overnight, even after topping expectations for the third quarter. Some analysts say valuations of AI companies increasingly resemble the dot-com boom of the late 1990s, with share prices soaring far ahead of credible profit expectations. Hey, my son and I have been saying this for over a year, and we aren’t even analysts!

Yet another speed bump in Elon Musk’s quest for his trillion dollar, 10 year pay package from Tesla. Just ahead of the shareholder vote tomorrow, too. According to arstechnica.com, new car registrations in Europe show Tesla sales down anywhere from 89% in Sweden to 34% in Spain. France was the outlier…Tesla sales were up 2% year over year there. In China, sales were down 9.9% in October, year over year. Anti-Musk sentiment aside, there is now a much wider selection of electric vehicles from a number of manufacturers. Tesla’s line is pretty stale, with the sales-leading Models 3 and Y barely getting a facelift…a slight change in the rear, and light bar in the front like the Cyber Truck. Over the weekend, Musk teased on a major podcast that a much delayed roadster was coming, and said it would have cool features like every James Bond car ever, and might even fly. It may be that HE was flying a bit on that one…heavy batteries have made electric planes a tall order, and his roadster will be no different. 

Cloud streaming is officially rolling out to Playstation Portal. There has been a beta running of it since last year. Theverge.com notes that Premium Plus members will be able to stream select titles from their own library without the need to connect to their PS5 console. The device also has a newly updated menu, with three tabs to swipe through for Remote Play from your PS5, cloud streaming, or search. Over 2,000 games are available for cloud streaming at launch. As with so much on the web, the update is a rolling one, so expect it to take a few weeks to get to everyone. 

Google is now including Gemini in Google Maps for both Android and iOS. Zdnet.com says the update is rolling out this month, and with it updated, you can use Talk to Google Maps to find your destination. You can also use Lens to learn more about your present location. You could ask if there is a steak house nearby that doesn’t require reservations, for example. With directions, instead of ‘turn right in 300 feet,’ you can hear ‘turn right after the Starbucks on the corner.’ With Lens, you can ask in a conversational manner for Maps to tell you more about a place like a restaurant…like if the food is worth a few minutes of wait time, or if it is noisy. 

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

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