Apple Announces WWDC, New Features & Watch Ultra; Google I/O News; Musk Loses in OpenAI Suit & Will Appeal; Iran Wants $ From Big Tech to Use Hormuz Undersea Cable

Apple announced their World Wide Developers Conference today. It will start June 8th. Besides that, macrumors.com reports that the next Apple Watch Ultra is getting a new high blood pressure notification feature. It isn’t clear how this differs from the Hypertension Notifications they already have, but whatever it is…is under FDA review, so it might actually be able to give you blood pressure readings. The new feature uses the optical heart-rate sensor to analyze how blood vessels respond to each heartbeat. Apple is still working on blood-glucose monitoring. The actually had this a couple years ago, but the working model is too big to fit into a watch…and they need to shrink it down to fit…so not surprising that it is taking a while. 

Apple has also updated accessibility features to use Apple Intelligence. VoiceOver, Magnifier, Voice Control and Accessibility reader will all get the beefed up AI help. VoiceOver Image Explorer gives more detailed descriptions to the user….and lets you ask questions about what the camera viewfinder sees. Voice Control has natural language input, so you can describe onscreen elements conversationally. Accessibility Reader has added support for articles with multiple columns, images, and tables. It will also give on-demand summaries to you. This is a wild feature for those few users who have Apple Vision Pro headsets…power wheelchair control. The headset’s precision eye-tracking system can be used to control the chair for users who can’t use a joystick! Expect most of these features in the fall when iOS27 etc roll out. 

The Google A/I 2 day developer conference got underway this morning, with a flood of announcements. First off, it’s Gemini 3.5, a new family of models. According to theverge.com, Gemini 3.5 Flash is now the default model for the Gemini app and AI mode in Search. The Pro version will be out next month. A new family of models is also out…Gemini Omni. This will be in the Gemini app, Google Flow, and YouTube Shorts. Omni Flash will be able to generate video clips from prompts that include a variety of inputs including text, photos, video, and audio (unlike Google’s Veo model, which is only text to video). Google also rolled out Spark, their response to the very popular OpenClaw. The always-on agent can write emails, make study guides, and watch for hidden credit card fees. Google AI Studio lets you build Android apps using prompts. 

There was more, but in the spirit of a Steve Jobs ‘one more thing,’ Google showed an updated version of its Project Aura smart glasses. The refreshed compute puck has a fingerprint sensor, and has a lanyard so you can wear the puck and the glasses. Continuing on the glasses topic, there were 2 new pairs of Android XR glasses shown off…one from Warby Parker and another from Gentle Monster. Like the base Meta Ray-Bans, these glasses are audio only…no display…so not quite a return of the old Google Glass. Google has also launched Universal Cart. You can add products to it from YouTube, Search, Gemini, and Gmail. Google says this “intelligent shopping cart” works across different merchants and services, like Nike, Target, Walmart, Ulta Beauty, Sephora, Wayfair, and Shopify. So, you could add products from Nike and Target to your Universal Cart and check out from both at the same time. It will also spot and includes perks and loyalty discounts. 

As you have no doubt heard, Elon Musk lost his suit against OpenAI yesterday. The jury only took 2 hours to bring the verdict. Cnbc.com notes that the primary issue was that the case was brought too late to make it in under the statute of limitations. Musk had claimed that OpenAI execs had ‘stole a charity’, with the change by the company to allow part of it to go public and be for-profit. It apparently wan’t lost on the jury and the court that Musk has a rival company in xAI, which is a for-profit entity…although it hasn’t turned any profit yet. OpenAI is now planning to move forward with its IPO stock offering this year. Musk is expected to appeal to the Ninth Circuit, as his attorneys say he lost on a technicality. It seems unlikely that the Court will buy that argument since the statute of limitations has long passed. 

Not satisfied with trying to extract fees for ships getting through the Strait of Hormuz, now Iran is demanding that Big Tech pay fees for the undersea internet cables in the Strait. Arstechnica.com reports that the Iranians have specifically named Meta, Google, Amazon, and Microsoft. They want to extract what they are calling license fees for use and maintenance of the cables. Tech firms are already looking at alternatives. Iran has intimated that they might damage or cut the cables if they don’t get their way. Cables do get damaged anyway, as some ships accidentally drag their anchors, or trawlers using weighted fishing nets do damage as they fish the sea floor. Te4ch companies are looking to bypass this extortion by using over land fiber optic cables. With huge data centers planned in the Middle East, more of those will need to be run, and soon.

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