Global Smartphone Sales Down-Chip Shortage; Cars Sharing Data with Third Parties; HomeView & HomeOS-Likely Apple’s; Parents Angry Over Planned Tesla Fremont Increased Emissions

Counterpointresearch.com reports that the global smartphone market declined 20% year over year in the third quarter of 2026, reaching its lowest third quarter level in 14 years…primarily due to continued memory chip shortages. Samsung continues to top the market with a 23% share, powered by better-than-competitive positioning in securing shipments and robust early demand for its Z8 foldable series, led by the Z Fold 8. Apple’s market share got past the 20% mark for the first time in any third quarter, reaching 22%, despite a year over year decline in shipments. The market saw a widening gap between premium and price-sensitive segments, with premium demand remaining relatively strong while higher device prices put greater pressure on affordability, hurting the lower end phone sales.

You likely won’t be surprised, but still pissed about this. Many new cars are sharing your data with third parties. According to engadget.com, top US car maker General Motors’ app has sent data…including the vehicle ID number to Snap, Yahoo, Meta, Microsoft, Adobe, Google, Pinterest, and data broker Acxiom. This all according to a study from Northwestern University. The GM apps include myCadillac, myChevrolet, myBuick, and myGMC. HondaLink sent your VIN and location to analytics firm Amplitude. Lincoln and myNissan apps also were guilty of sending off your data to third parties. Because a VIN can’t be changed, the third parties can pair that with your email, and they can tie you to activity on other apps and websites. To give credit where it is due, Honda has asked Amplitude to delete location data, and then updated the HondaLink app to stop sending it. 

Apple is going to hold their ‘Welcome Home’ event tomorrow, rolling out their new smart home hub and other goodies. We will cover it of course, but right now a little tidbit or two besides the rumored devices has leaked out. Macrumors.com notes that a company called Home Services LLC secretly filed for a trademark for “HomeView” in the US and other countries. The firm has been tied to Apple. Another Apple-connected company filed for HomeOS. Speculation is that the new home hub might be called HomeView. At any rate, we’ll know tomorrow…and will see it as well as several other either new or updated Apple hardware.

There is an elementary school near the Fremont, CA Tesla factory. It’s very close…less than 1,000 feet away. Thenextweb.com says parents of school kids want more time to question a plan that could raise emissions from the factory. Tesla has applied to change emission limits on two aluminum melting furnaces and add new equipment to cut nitrogen oxides, according to a notice from the Bay Area Air District. Notice of the proposed change came over one single message on a school app on the third of September. That notice said that Limits would be modified…but didn’t specify that they would go up. Then, someone posted on an anonymous Substack that the school district’s own engineering papers showed that emissions would go up 13-fold! Parts of the engineering review were blacked out, too. The parents have a petition that has gathered over 1,000 signatures demanding more time for the comment period. Tesla has not replied to requests for comment from the EV maker.

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