Apple Freshens MacBook Pros; ChatGPT Uninstalls up 295%-DoD Deal; Gorilla Glass Ceramic 3 on New Razr Fold; Wild Lenovo Legion Go Fold

The Apple multi-day rollout of new devices continues. Macrumors.com reports that Cupertino has dropped new 14 and 16 inch MacBook Pro models. The latest Pros are powered by the M5 Pro and M5 Max chips. They are also underpinned by a new Fusion Architecture that bonds two 3rd gen 3 nanometer dies into a single chip. They have 18 core CPU-6 ‘super cores,’ which Apple claims give a 30% faster pro workload compared to the M4 machines. The new Pros come in either space black or silver. The 14 inch MacBook pro with M5 Pro starts at $2199, and the 16 inch starts at $2699. Preorders start tomorrow, with availability on March 11th. 

More fallout continues from the government blacklisting Anthropic’s Claude, and signing with OpenAI. OpenAI claimed that it got a deal that Anthropic couldn’t assuring that ChatGPT wouldn’t be used for mass surveillance of US citizens or for operating completely autonomous weapons. The language in the contract doesn’t support this. Just today, Sam Altman said that they got an amendment to the contract that disallows such use. That may or may not be true, but the fallout is. According to techcrunch.com, ChatGPT uninstalls have surged 295% since the DoD deal was cut. That data comes from market intelligence provider Sensor Tower. Meanwhile, Anthropic’s Claude saw a 37% increase in installs on Friday and 51% on Saturday. Consumers showed their displeasure with OpenAI with app ratings, too…1 star reviews for ChatGPT jumped 775% on Saturday, then 100% more on Sunday. Five star reviews dropped 50% over the same period. 

Corning’s Gorilla Glass is used on all top line smartphones, and over the years, the iterations of it have gotten more and more accident proof. Now, Corning bows Gorilla Glass Ceramic 3 on the upcoming Motorola Razr Fold. 9to5google.com says that Ceramic 3 is designed to handle repeat drop for years, and stay intact. For those who tend toward the clumsy side or are just careless, this will be great. Corning claims Gorilla Glass Ceramic 3 can stay whole and not crack or break over ‘at least’ 20 repeated one-meter drops onto asphalt or concrete surfaces. Time and drops will tell if this proves out for regular users. Honestly, if you tend to drop your phone over 20 times while you have it…get an Otterbox!

Mobile World Congress is on, and lots of new hardware is out. One of the most interesting…and really wild…devices is the Lenovo Legion Go Fold. Engadget.com notes that it is a concept folding gaming hand held. It has a flexible display, that can open up to a huge 11.6 inches…or be folded in half to be used as a 7.7 inch display. Controllers attach on each side, and not only that, there are multiple ports so you can use it in landscape or portrait mode. It also has a laptop mode and can connect to a wireless keyboard. In that mode, the right gamepad can act as a mouse. Will we see this released into the world as a product? Who can say right now, but what a concept! 

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