OpenAI Returns GPT-4o Over User Revolt; Amazon Same-Day Grocery Delivery-2300 Cities by Year’s End; TeaOnHer-Driver Licenses Exposed in 10 Minutes; US Secretly Tracked Diversion of Dell & Super Micro Chips to China

Posted: August 13, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

OpenAI has had a pretty rocky rollout of its latest-greatest…or allegedly greatest, GPT-5. in fact, it has been rough enough that arstechnica.com reports that the user backlash has forced OpenAI to let users revert to GPT-4o. That AI model now appears in the model picker for all paid ChatGPT users by default (including ChatGPT Plus accounts), marking a swift reversal after thousands of users complained about losing access to their preferred models. The backlash wasn’t pretty at all, with a Reddit thread titled “GPT-5 is horrible” amassing over 2,000 comments in just days. OpenAI has now made some modifications to address the user outrage over GPT-5. Rate limits for GPT-5 Thinking mode increased from 200 to 3,000 messages per week, with additional capacity available through “GPT-5 Thinking mini” after reaching that limit. The company also added new routing options—”Auto,” “Fast,” and “Thinking”—giving users more control over which GPT-5 variant handles their queries.

Amazon has announced that it will offer same-day grocery delivery in some 2300 cities by the end of the year…that’s double what they are doing now. According to Bloomberg, users will be able to order perishables like produce, meat, seafood, dairy, and baked goods…in addition to frozen foods and household items. Same day delivery for grocery items is free for Amazon Prime subscribers on orders over $25 in most cities. For non-members, it runs $12.99 per order, no matter what the order size is. 

We recently reported on the Tea app, an app that lets women clue each other in on men they know or have dated, and tip them off to ‘red flags’ with those men. It turned out, the app was leaking the women’s information, including driver’s licenses. Well, as the old saying goes, ‘what’s good for the goose is good for the gander,’ only in this case it’s what’s bad! Techcrunch.com says the app for guys, TeaOnHer, also leaked like a sieve…with driver’s licenses found by TechCrunch within 10 minutes of being sent a link to the app in the App Store! The flaws that allowed this kind of leak have apparently been resolved now, but not before thousands of guys’ driver’s license info was exposed. Once again, I get to warn…no matter what an app might potentially do for you…DON’T upload your driver’s license or government ID to use it! With new laws in the United Kingdom, this has become a major issue, with authorities there enacting a law requiring sites to demand age verification…even Wikipedia! The Wiki is fighting it, and may even make itself unavailable in Britain over this issue if it loses in court. 

The US government has apparently put location tracking devices in targeted shipments of advanced AI chips considered at hight risk of illegal diversion to China. Benzinga.com reports that the trackers are hidden in server packaging from Dell and Super Micro Computer for units containing chips from NVIDIA and AMD. Some shipments of the restricted chips have resumed, after the chipmakers agreed to virtual extortion by the Trump administration of 15% of their profits on sales of the chips in China. Normally the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security oversees such operations, but this appears to also involved Homeland Security Investigations, and the FBI. Super Micro declined to comment on the issue, and Dell said it was ‘not aware’ of such trackers in its shipments. To me this has the vibe of Mad Magazine’s old ‘Spy vs. Spy’ cartoons. Will the Black Spy get the upper hand on the White Spy…or will the Lady in Gray bamboozle both of them?

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

Live Translation Coming to AirPods; Musk Rages Apple Favors OpenAI over Grok; Ford Universal EV Platform Called Game Changer; Reddit Blocks Internet Archive Over AI Scraping

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

Some folks have noted new images in iOS 26’s latest beta version that point to in-person Live Translation being available soon on Apple AirPods. Macrumors.com reports that a graphic shows AirPods with ‘Hello’ in several different languages, along with a suggestion that the feature will be activated with a double press. There is also a file in the beta named ‘Translate.’ Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman had previously reported that Apple was working on such a feature. From what shows up the the iOS 26 beta, Live Translation will work on AirPods Pro 2 and AirPods 4…and will be very similar to what is already offered in Apple’s Phone App, Messages App, and FaceTime. Note that existing Live Translation is linked to Apple Intelligence, so the AirPods might need to be connected to an iPhone that supports Apple Intelligence. My 15 Pro Max supports Apple Intelligence, as does the 15 Pro, and all the iPhone 16 models do, too. Of course, the upcoming iPhone 17 handsets will support Apple Intelligence. It will be super handy doing Live Translate right from the AirPods at the double touch of a finger!

Elon Musk is harping again on something of a favorite target of his…Apple. Now, Musk claims that Apple is favoring OpenAI in its App Store Rankings over Grok 4, the product from his xAI. According to 9to5mac.com, Elon is accusing Apple of an “unequivocal antitrust violation.” After introduction of Grok 4, the app moved from about 60th in the App Store to 29th place last week. Today, August 12th, xAI made Grok 4 free for users worldwide…pushing it to 5th overall in the App Store ratings and to #2 in the Productivity category. That sounds like it is doing pretty well…yet ChatGPT is still at or near the top, as it has been for most of the last year. It should be noted that Apple has repeatedly featured ChatGPT in its App Store editorial content, and has partnered with OpenAI as part of the new Apple Intelligence…where it is directly integrated with Siri. Musk is mad, and threatening immediate legal action. That is quite a threat from the richest man on earth…but he’d best keep in mind that his wealth is dwarfed by the value of Apple…they are a more than worthy opponent in court, as many have found out. 

Ford is looking to its new Universal EV platform to be a serious game changer…one the will hit a holy grail of sorts for EVs…breaking the $30,000 barrier. Electrek.co says that Ford is claiming that its new midsize EV pickup will have a lower cost of ownership than the Tesla Model Y and will have more space than a Toyota RAV4. It will have a base price of $30,000…about the same as the RAV4. The midsize pickups will be built at Ford’s Louisville Assembly Plant. Ford will be the first vehicle maker to build prismatic LFP batteries in the US, which will not only cut costs but also free up interior space. Ford CEO Jim Farley says the new universal platform will reduce parts by 20% compared with the average vehicle. It features 25% less fasteners, 40% fewer workstations dock-to-dock in the plant, and….15% faster assembly time. Ford claims a “lower cost of ownership over five years than a three-year-old used Tesla Model Y.”

Reddit is blocking the Internet Archive from indexing popular threads on Reddit. Why? Apparently, they have caught sneaky AI firms scraping data from the archive…data the have been restricted from scraping from Reddit itself. Arstechnica.com reports that the Internet Archive is in ongoing discussions with Reddit since the block. The AI firms who were doing the scraping haven’t been named so far. Internet Archive has not signaled whether it’s looking into fixes to get Reddit’s restrictions lifted. It could be completely over protecting users, or Reddit might be jockeying for a more lucrative licensing deal like Reddit struck with OpenAI and Google. The OpenAI deal isn’t publicly known, but the Google one is reportedly worth some $60 million. Reddit expects to make more than $200 million the next 3 years on licensing deals around AI.

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

Nvidia & AMD-May Sell Chips to China if Pay Uncle Sam a Cut; AI Industry Alarm-Huge Copyright Class Action; Apple Testing Improved Siri; AOL  Dial Up Going Away for The Few Who Still Use It

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

In what smacks of extortion to me, Nvidia and AMD have agreed to pay the US government 15% of the revenue they make from sales of high-end chips to China, in exchange for licenses to sell those chips in China. TechCrunch.com reports that Nvidia will share revenues from sales of its H20 AI chips in China, and AMD will give up a cut of MI308 chips. This truly sounds like tribute paid to a mob boss. Apparently, besides the cut to the US government, the resumption of sales of the high-end AI chips also restarted in exchange for China resuming selling rare-earth elements that are needed for rechargeable batteries in electric vehicles. 

An entire industry built on basically stealing the work of others to build its large language models is now clutching its pearls over a class-action lawsuit that could bring in up to 7 million class members, all demanding cash should they successfully prevail in litigation or a settlement. According to arstechnica.com, the suit has been brought by 3 authors as lead plaintiffs who are suing Anthropic over using their works for free to train its AI. AI industry groups are urging an appeals court to block certification of what they call the largest copyright class action ever certified, whining that it threatens to ‘financially ruin’ the entire AI industry. Up to 7 million claimants, and a possible fine for each of $150,000…yep…that’s a ton of money. The AI companies have managed to raise and spend billions on the tech already…but precious little has gone to any of the creators of the work the large language models have hoovered up…just a handful of newspapers and organizations have received some compensation. It is more difficult than you might think to prove ownership of the likes of a book, but stand by…this could be a biggie, either way it goes. 

Apple is apparently testing out a revised version of Siri with a few third party apps…including Uber, Threads, Temu, Amazon, YouTube, Facebook, WhatsApp, AllTrails, and some games. Macrumors.com says Apple is also test-driving the better Siri with its own apps. They cite Mark Gurman from Bloomberg, saying the new App Intents system will let you take action entirely with Siri voice commands. With nothing but your voice, you’ll be able to tell Siri to find a specific photo, edit it and send it off. Or comment on an Instagram post. Or scroll a shopping app and add something to your cart. Or log in to a service without touching the screen. Essentially, Siri could operate your apps like you would — with precision, inside their own interfaces. The key part…with precision…we’ll see if that actually ends up being true!

From the ‘who knew this still existed’ department….AOL is dropping its dial-up internet service on September 30th. Engadget.com notes that the service has survived some 34 years now. Of course, back in the day millions used it…and were constantly spammed with tins of CDs in the mail…or before that floppy discs…remember those? Apparently, there are still a few luddites around, now numbering in the low thousands, who still listen to the awful screeching and hissing as their wheezing dial-up modem tries to connect with the internet. Besides the dial-up service, AOL Dialer software and AOL Shield browser will head for the silicon graveyard on the last day of September.

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

iPhone 17 Date Leak; Disney+ Will Assimilate Hulu; Nvidia Rejects Demand for Backdoor in AI Chips; Grok Generates Fake Taylor Swift Nudes

Posted: August 6, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Mark Gurman has reported, and we have also that the likely date for the iPhone 17 rollout will be the week of September 8th. That’s based on prior year activity, and not exactly rocket science. Now, Bgr.com reports that a leak has picked up internal info from a German mobile phone provider which indicates the actual date will be Tuesday, September 9th. That will mean if Apple follows its usual routine, the phones will be available in stores and delivered by September 19th. We have already reported on a couple of the headlines…like the super thin iPhone 17 Air (if that’s what they end up calling it) and a noticeably better 48 MP telephoto lens. Do expect a relatively modest $50 price hike across the board on the iPhone 17 models…the first price bump in several years. 

Now that Disney owns all of Hulu, it looks like the House of Mouse will tie a bow around things, killing off the Hulu app and totally integrating Hulu’s streaming service into a new, unified Disney Plus app next year. According to engadget.com, a Disney spokesperson said that they will still offer standalone plans for Disney Plus and Hulu….presumably by just dimming out one or the other in the unified app if you aren’t paying for all of it. Having both on the same app will not only be convenient for users, but will give Disney more ways to package ad sales. Disney will also stop disclosing separate subscriber numbers for Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+.  Between the 3, Disney had 183 million subscribers as of the end of June…up 2.6 million from March. 

A number of countries including the USA, China, and the UK have called for or demanded back doors before. Now, it is Nvidia and their AI chips. Theverge.com says Nvidia has responded in a blog post saying that its GPUs ‘do not and should not have kill switches and backdoors.’ In fact, China actually claimed that such already exist in Nvidia AI chips. Regarding the US, a bipartisan group of lawmakers have introduced the Chip Security Act, which would require Nvidia and other manufacturers to include tracking technology to identify when chips are illegally transported internationally, and leaves the door open for further security measures including remote kill switches. While Nvidia is expecting to be granted permits to once again sell certain AI chips in China, its most powerful hardware is still under strict US export controls there and elsewhere. David Reber Jr, Chief Security Officer for Nvidia notes that “There is no such thing as a ‘good’ secret backdoor.” He commented in a post that there are “only dangerous vulnerabilities that need to be eliminated.” He goes on to call kill switches “an open invitation for disaster.”

Elon Musk’s Grok has gone further in offending and pissing off some people than before. Now, it’s not political…think MechaHitler of a couple weeks back…the video generator has spewed out topless images of Taylor Swift without even being asked to do so! Editorial: she’s a billionaire…I hope she sues. Arstechnica.com reports that a reporter for the Verge, Jess Weatherbed, was testing the Grok Imagine video generator shortly after it was released, and it displayed the images of Swift ‘the very first time’ she used it. In fact, when she ask it to show ’Taylor Swift celebrating at Coachella with the boys,’ the thing cranked out 30 images of Swift in revealing outfits. There are presets on the latest iteration of Grok Imagine…custom, normal, fun, and spicy…that can convert images into video clips in 15 seconds. All the reporter did was input ‘spicy’ and confirm her birthdate. The AI then produced a clip of swift ‘tearing off her clothes’ and dancing in a thong.’

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

Jury-Meta Violated CA Privacy Over Flo Data; VPN Use Up Dramatically in the UK; Former Taiwan Semi Staff Arrested-Stealing Chip Trade Secrets; Google New AI Model-Creates Video Game Worlds in Real Time

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

A California jury has found that Meta violated California privacy laws, by surreptitiously collecting FLO users’ menstrual health data. TechCrunch.com reports that the info was collected without user consent and it was used for ad-tracking purposes. The plaintiffs, claiming to represent millions of Flo users, had accused Flo and Meta of collecting private health data, like their period dates and fertility goals, via Flo’s app without permission, therefore violating California Invasion of Privacy Act. Besides Flo and Meta, the 2021 suit also named ad analytics companies AppFlyers and Flurry as defendants. Attorneys for the lead plaintiffs said in a statement “Companies like Meta that covertly profit from users’ most intimate information must be held accountable. Today’s outcome reinforces the fundamental right to privacy—especially when it comes to sensitive health data.”  Meta understandably disagreed with the verdict, and is exploring legal options. 

The United Kingdom is pressing ahead with their Online Safety Act, which is intended to bring ‘age assurance,’ so that kids can’t view pornography or health-threatening sites like ones that lionize dangerous thinness. Now, according to techdirt.com, the use of VPNs, virtual private networks, has spiked dramatically. One, Proton VPN, reported an 1800% increase in UK sign-ups. Five of the top 10 free apps on Apple’s UK app store in the United Kingdom are VPNs. A heck of a lot of people don’t want to upload a government ID or selfie to get past the invasive age verification systems. Ah, the law of unintended consequences. A law supposedly designed to protect children now requires victims of sexual assault to submit government IDs to access support communities. People struggling with addiction must undergo facial recognition scans to find help quitting drinking or smoking. The UK government has somehow concluded that access to basic health information and peer support networks poses such a grave threat to minors that it justifies creating a comprehensive surveillance infrastructure around it. Even Wikipedia is threatening to limit access in the UK, saying the law is unworkable. 

Industrial espionage never rests. Three people, including a couple former employees of Taiwan Semiconductor, have been arrested from allegedly stealing proprietary tech from Apple’s chip partner. This all according to appleinsider.com, citing Taiwanese prosecutors. The theft dealt with TSMC’s 2-nanometer production process. Tokyo Electron may be involved, but prosecutors declined to say if a search of that firm was carried out. Apple, a major…or THE major client of TSMC, is expected to be among the first to get chips using the 2-nanometer process…and that could happen as soon as later this year. Just to refresh how small things are getting in chips…a human hair is 80,000 to 100,000 nanometers wide!

Google DeepMind has revealed a new iteration of its AI ‘world’ model, Genie 3, and it can generate 3D environments that users and agents can interact with in real time. Theverge.com reports that users are going to be able to interact with the worlds for a lot longer and the model will remember where things are when you look away from them. so far, the model is only launched as ‘a limited research preview’ which is open to ‘a small cohort of academics and creators’. Google hasn’t announced when it might be out to the general public.

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

OpenAI Hits 700 Million Weekly Users; Anthropic Cuts, Part Restores OpenAI Access to Claude; Tesla Gives $29 Million in Comp to Musk; Apple Hiring for ‘ChatGPT-like’ Search

Posted: August 4, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

OpenAI is looking to hit 700 million active weekly users this week for ChatGPT. CNBC.com reports that the figure is up 200 million for the 500 million actives they had just in March…and it is also 4 times the number of just a year ago. This user number includes folks using all ChatGPT AI products…free, Plus, Pro, Enterprise, Team, and Edu. OpenAI also reports having 5 million paying business users on ChatGPT, up from 3 million in June. 

Anthropic cut OpenAI access to its Claude model, after OpenAI was found to be using Anthropic’s Claude Code to assist in creating and testing OpenAI’s upcoming GPT-5, which is due to release in August. According to mashable.com, this act of plugging into Claude’s internal tools violated Anthropic’s commercial terms of service. A spokesperson for Anthropic did say that OpenAI’s access to their API would be reinstated for ‘benchmarking and safety evaluations.’ 

Even though Elon Musk’s around $56 billion payout has been tied up in the courts for a while, the board has now decided to award him a new compensation package of about $29 billion in shares. TechCrunch.com says the board released a statement citing the “ever-intensifying AI talent war and Tesla’s position at a critical inflection point” as reasons for the payout. Back to the court…this new compensation plan will be entirely voided if the Delaware Supreme Court decides to overturn a judge’s January 2024 decision to strike down Musk’s 2018 compensation package because of how it was negotiated behind the scenes. That pay package was worth around $56 billion. That’s because it is based on the 2019 Equity Incentive plan which was approved by shareholders. Musk has threatened to stop working on AI and robotics at Tesla unless he gains more control over the company. 

Apple is hiring engineers for a team to work on improving Siri, Spotlight, and Safari. Macrumors.com reports that the team has the unwieldy name Answers, Knowledge, and Information. Cupertino is looking to attract around a dozen engineers for the team to develop a ‘new ChatGPT-like search experience.’ Mark Gurman of Bloomberg notes that Apple is even apparently exploring a standalone app in addition to bulking up back end infrastructure to power future Siri, Spotlight, and Safari iterations. 

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

iPhone 17-Small Price Hike; VPN Use Way Up in UK; YouTube Bows Age Estimation Tech; Google Will Sign EU’s AI Code of Practice

Posted: July 30, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Apple is apparently planning a $50 across the board price hike for all iPhone 17 models. macrumors.com reports that this is to offset rising component costs and the China tariffs. The news came in an investor note from Jefferies analyst Edison Lee. Actually, with Trump’s China tariffs, Apple is eating a lot of the cost increase, but has decided to pass at least some of it on to consumers. Cupertino will try to position the increase as worth it due to new features and design changes, and won’t blame the hike on the tariffs…not wanting to anger the thin-skinned Donald Trump. 

The Online Safety Act just went into effect last Friday in the United Kingdom. That’s the law that requires porn platforms and other adult content sites to implement user age verifications. Not shockingly, the use of VPNs…virtual private networks, has spiked already. According to wired.com, experts had expected such a surge. Besides VPNs, apparently users are also trying a video game called Death Stranding that has a photo mode to take a selfie of a character and submit it to the age-gated forum content. What the Online Safety Act requires is that websites hosting porn, self-harm, suicide, and eating disorder content implement “highly effective” age checks for visitors from the UK. These checks can include uploading an ID document and selfie for validation and analysis. On the up side for the UK regulators, over 6,600 pro websites have introduced age checks so far. I am still processing the fact that there are that many porn websites. I don’t think I’ve ever visited even close to that many websites of any kind in my life! 

There is a good deal of resistance and skepticism about age verification online…as in our story yesterday about an app designed to protect women from bad dates that got hacked and their driver’s licenses were compromised. Now, techcrunch.com says YouTube is taking a different approach, rolling out age-estimation tech to identify US teens so they can apply additional protections for the kids. The company says it will use a variety of signals to determine the users’ possible age, regardless of what the user entered as their birthday when they signed up for an account. When the platform marks someone as a teen, it introduces new protections and experiences, which include disabling personalized advertising, safeguards that limit repetitive viewing of certain types of content, and enabling digital well-being tools such as screen time and bedtime reminders, among others. These are the same safeguards as are in effect already for those who have identified as teens…now YouTube will use their system to check. If someone is flagged as a teen and isn’t, they have the option to verify their age with a credit card, government ID, or selfie. DON’T give them your driver’s license! 

Google has announced that it will sign the European Union’s AI Code of Practice. Engadget.com notes that the Act was passed in 2024, but many parts of it have yet to go into effect…they will take months or even years. The Code is a non-binding, voluntary pact. Meta has said it won’t sign on, calling the Code ‘over-reach.’ The EU’s AI Act is the first of its kind from a major regulator and is comprehensive in its approach. Meanwhile, the United States is in the earliest stages of determining its approach to AI regulation Obligations under the EU AI act start kicking in on August 1st of this year, with all AI models to be fully compliant by August of 2027.

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

ChatGPT Study Mode; Tea App Security Breaches; Photoshop-Even Easier AI to Edit People & Objects in & Out of Photos; Meta Continues AI Poaching Drive

Posted: July 29, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

ChatGPT has bowed its new Study Mode which they claim will help give students a better understanding of complex subjects. Engadget.com reports that it is much like Learning Mode from Anthropic’s Claude, which came out in April. Study Mode uses something like the Socratic method…instead of answering a question outright, it will try to steer the user to their own solution. OpenAI says the conversations will unfold using a ‘scaffold’ structure, which means ChatGPT will slowly roll out info so as not to overwhelm the user. The feature is available to Edu users, and also to Free, Plus, Pro, and Team users. The Edu users will get it first over the next few weeks. 

A couple of major Security vulnerabilities have showed up in the Tea app…an app that is supposed to make dating safer for women. According to 9to5mac.com, the Tea app is designed to let women share ‘red flags’ for men they have dated, and the app supposedly has 4 million active users. That’s all cool, but the security breaches have exposed a database containing personal data, including selfies and images of driver’s licenses Tea uses to verify user identities. To quote the late, great Ron Popiel…’but wait, there’s more.’ Tea claims that was an old database, but the other breach affects messages through this past week. The chats just have user names, but also links and images. Over 70,000 images have been exposed….possibly many more. Unless you are dealing with the state or federal government, I’d avoid any app that wants an image of your driver’s license!

The dark side of AI is that it just keeps making it easier and easier to blur reality. Now, Adobe has launched new AI features for Photoshop that make it even more simple to convincingly add people and objects to photos or to delete them from same. The “Harmonize” feature is a step further than the Project Perfect Blend that Adobe showed last year. Theverge.com notes that when you add a new object to a photo, Harmonize will automatically adjust the color, lighting, shadows, and visual tone of the item to blend it into the main image…like a skilled Photoshop user would do manually. The automatic removal tool uses AI to ‘clean up your images with more precision,’ too. Note that Adobe says there are safeguards in place to prevent it from generating anything concerning, like deepfakes of notable public figures, violence, or sexually explicit materials. Let’s hope.

Meta’s AI recruiting binge continues, as Zuckerberg tries to scoop up more top tier talent for his Meta Superintellegence labs. Wired.com reports that over a dozen staffers at Mira Murati’s 50 person startup…Thinking Machines Lab…have been approached with big offers. Murati is the former chief tech officer at OpenAI. In a move that will make sports contracts look pale, one person was offered over a billion dollars over a multi-year period. Others have seen offers of between $200 and $500 million over 4 years! First year payouts are between $50 and $100 million! I need to use AI to convince Zuck I’m one of the top talents in the field, so I can cash in on this bonanza. Ok, kidding…but hey, Mark…if you could spare a million or two for a tech report writer, here I am!

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

Samsung Snares $16.5 Billion Deal for Tesla Chips; iPhone 17 Pro May Get 8x Zoom & Pro Cam App; Microsoft Dropping China Based DoD Support Teams; Amazon Refund Text Scam

Posted: July 28, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Samsung has inked a deal to build the Tesla A16 chip. The pact is worth some $16.5 billion. Engadget.com reports that the deal runs through 2033, and that the chips will be produced at Samsung’s huge new plant they are building near Tyler, Texas. Until this deal, Samsung had been thinking about delaying opening the plant due to not enough business. Samsung makes the A14 chips that run Tesla’s Full Self-Driving platform, but the A15 contract went to their competitor, Taiwan Semiconductor. The deal does come with a short leash for Samsung…”Samsung agreed to allow Tesla to assist in maximizing manufacturing efficiency,” Elon Musk stated in a post on his X platform.

The camera apps have become a banner feature for all smartphones, and as they have gotten better across the board, major upgrades have gotten less common. According to macrumors.com, the iPhone 17 Pro models will be getting some cool cameral upgrades. A tipster has apparently seen a commercial for the handsets that shows the telephoto zoom will go from 5 power to 8 power optically…and may even have a moving lens, allowing for continuous optical zoom at various focal lengths. On top of that, there is apparently a new pro camera app for both photos and videos. There are already some pro camera apps available from third parties, but this would be a first from Apple. A third rumor…which seems a bit dubious…is that there will be an additional cameral control button on the top edge. Since case makers are already producing cases for the phones, and none seem to have an opening for such a button, take this one with a grain of salt. Finally, Apple will allow shooting video with both front and rear cameras at the same time. As with the pro apps, you have been able to do this with third party software, but not with Apple’s own until now. 

From the ‘why were they doing this in the first place’ department…Microsoft is going to stop using China based teams to support the Department of Defense. Ya think? Propublica.org notes that Redmond had been using the teams to support the Defense Department’s cloud computing systems. The support supposedly was for information that is not classified…BUT is nonetheless sensitive. As you might figure, this was a fertile area for spying and espionage. With the increasing amount of data in the cloud servers and AI to analyze it fast, Microsoft is moving away from these China based teams. 

Here’s a new scam you may not have heard about. It’s a text proported to be from Amazon about a refund. Zdnet.com reports that the texts may say it was due to the product being recalled, or it is below Amazon standards, or maybe failed a routine inspection. You don’t even have to return it to get the refund…just click the link. You are correct….DON’T click that link! It goes to a phishing page where you are prompted to enter your Amazon credentials, payment info, and contact info. It’s always good practice to refrain from clicking links in texts and emails. Go to the site saved in your bookmarks and check there to see if there are any messages from the merchant like Amazon.

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

Amazon AI Wearable Listens to Everything You Do; Starlink Bows Battery Powered Mini; YouTub Shorts Gets AI Image to Video Tool; Apple Care Plus Covers 3 Devices

Posted: July 23, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Amazon is in the process of picking up a Bay Area startup called Bee. Bee makes a wearable and Apple Watch app that can record everything a wearer says. Engadget.com says the deal isn’t finalized yet, but that all Bee employees have gotten offers to join Amazon. Bee positions its snoopy device and app as being like a personalized AI assistant that passively learns from its wearer by listening to all of their conversations and activities. While the wearable does have a button to mute recording, it can theoretically observe every single thing the owner does or says. The app can then summarize daily activities, suggest to-do items or recall previously discussed details. Basically, now you can take your Alexa with you everywhere, so the ‘A-Lady’ won’t miss a snappy or off-color remark, or other regrettable thing you might utter. By the way, the wearable starts at $50. That’s a heck of a price point compared to the doomed Humane AI pin that ran $499.

The Starlink Mini satellite dish has gotten more useful. According to theverge.com, you can now attach a $119 LinkPower 1 power bank from PeakDo. The pack locks onto the back to the smallest terminal from SpaceX and you can run on the battery pack for over 4.5 hours. The pack can also be simultaneously charged via a USB-C port from your vehicle, solar generator, or solar panel. It is still small enough to fit into a backpack, even with the power bank. If you travel, or are one of those folks like a couple I know that live in a van or sailboat full-time, the battery pack will come in very handy!

YouTube is unveiling an image to video AI tool that will make photos into a short video. TechCrunch.com notes that the tool lets you turn a picture from your camera roll into a 6 second video. You will get a list of suggestions, or you can choose I Feel Lucky, and see what you get. Look for the feature under the Effects icon in the Shorts camera, then tap AI to browse the generative effects. YouTube does say it uses SynthID watermarks and clear labels to indicate that the creations are made with generative AI. 

Apple is rolling out AppleCare+ tomorrow. The new plan will cover more than just iPhones…your iPhone, Watch, and iPad can be covered. Macrumors.com reports that the plan includes coverage for up to two incidents of theft or loss in a one-year period, and unlimited repairs for accidental damage. It starts at $4.99 a month for an iPad, and $2.99 a month for Apple Watch. The theft and loss coverage was previously only available for iPhones. Note that AppleCare+ with theft and loss is still not available for other devices, such as the Mac, Apple TV, HomePod, AirPods, and Apple Vision Pro.

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

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