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. 

Target & Walmart Tariff Price Hikes Leak Online; TikTok Blocks ‘SkinnyTok’; Google Delays Release of ‘Ask Photos’ Feature; Meta & Yandex Break Android Browser Anonymity to Track You

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

The Trump tariffs…they’re up, they’re down, they’re off, they’re postponed, they’re on again. Trump’s hangup with tariffs is making a mess of international commerce. Now, mashable.com reports that price hikes based on what the tariffs have been…or may be…have crept into places like Walmart and Target…and employees have started leaking some online. Examples can be found on Reddit’s r/Walmart subreddit. One example has an 8 ounce jar of cocoa powder that was $3.44 and has now been re-priced up to $6.18..and 80% price jump. A Jurassic World T-Rex toy has been bumped from $39.95 to $55, a 38% hike due to the tariffs, and a fishing reel that was formerly $57.37 is now $83.26. As Walmart CFO John Rainey told CNBC last month, “We’re wired for everyday low prices, but the magnitude of these increases is more than any retailer can absorb. It’s more than any supplier can absorb.” A 2023 Reuters report said that 60% of Walmart’s goods were sourced from China between January and April of that year. Since then, Walmart has started shifting part of its supply chain to India, as is true with a number of electronics makers like Foxconn, that supplies Apple’s iPhones. 

TikTok has stopped showing search results for the hashtag #SkinnyTok. According to engadget.com, critics have complained that videos with this label promoting disordered eating and other unhealthy or risky diet behaviors. France’s Ministry of State for Digital Affairs was a leading critic of this, and it has also been on the radar of the EU regulators since April. It is likely that determined users will come up with a work around, but this will stop the most blatant abuse. in 2020, TikTok had put restrictions on ads that might “promote a negative or harmful body image,” such as fasting apps and weight loss supplements. TikTok began a partnership with the National Eating Disorder Association in 2021 to offer more resources for users with eating disorders. Later that year, it also introduced a new approach to the For You page in an effort to reduce the impact of watching too many repeated clips on a negative topic.

Google has had to hold off on the rollout of its ‘Ask Photos’ AI search feature for a couple of weeks. TechCrunch.com says that they have had issues with latency, quality and user experience. Some users already have the feature, but an updated version will be sent out correcting the problems in the next two weeks. The feature uses Google’s Gemini AI to let users search their Google Photos libraries using natural language prompts. 

Meta and Russia-based Yandex have figured out how to abuse legit internet protocols to de-anonymize website visitors and secretly send unique identifiers to native apps stored on Android devices. Arstechnica.com reports that the tracking, via the Meta Pixel and Yandex Metrica trackers, let them bypass core privacy and security protections that are in the Android OS and browsers that run on it. Yandex has used this bypass to track people since 2017, and Meta picked up on it last September. It allows them to pass cookies or other identifiers from Firefox and Chromium based browsers to native Android apps for Facebook, Instagram, and various Yandex apps. Then…presto…they can tie the browsing history to the account holder….YOU…that is logged into the app! So far, the tracking hasn’t shown up on Apple’s iOS. It may be technically possible, but iOS has tighter controls on local host communications and background executions of mobile apps. Although Orwell wrote that Big Brother is watching you…which is more true than ever now, he never imagined a Big Tech that was watching you even more, and using your data to make more money for themselves. 

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

Apple Pre-Shipped High End Devices to Beat Tariffs; Google Messages Makes Clearing Spam Texts Easier; Samsung Ballie Robot Out This Summer; Instagram Improves Search to Compete with TikTok 

Posted: April 9, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

Apple took extra pains to avoid the pain of the new Trump tariffs. Macrumors.com reports that Cupertino urgently requested suppliers to ship as many premium devices as possible to the United States by air freight, especially those priced above $3,000. Besides Apple, Dell, Microsoft, and Lenovo rushed to accelerate shipments before the tax went into effect today. Trump has now put a total US tariff on Chinese exports of 104%**…that’s the 20% existing tariff, plus the 34% he added last week, and the 50% tacked on after Beijing refused to withdraw a retaliatory tariff on US goods. For its part, Apple will be sourcing more iPhones from India now…maybe accounting for as much as 50% of US iPhone demand this year. **Minutes after recording this, Trump paused all tariffs for 90 days, EXCEPT on China, which he has now jacked up to 125%!

Google Messages is now making it much easier to get rid of automated spam texts. According to androidcentral.com, they have added an ‘Unsubscribe’ button. A new prompt shows up at the end of spammy messages, letting you unsubscribe with a tap. You can then pick a reason for opting out. Afterwards, you will see a ‘request sent’ notice and a ‘start’ button…should you change your mind…yeah, go ahead and laugh…like any of us will change our mind and want spam texts back from some sender. By the way, the opt-out reasons include:  “not signed up,” “too many messages,” “no longer interested,” “spam,” or “other.”

Did you love BB-8, the cute little ball-shaped robot from Star Wars? Boy has Samsung got a deal for you! Engadget.com says Samsung will be rolling out…sorry…a cute little robot called Ballie the summer. Not only is it cute and round, but Ballie will come with Google’s Gemini AI model. Samsung claims the robot has multimodal abilities, which means it can process voice, audio, and visual data from its sensors. It can manage your smart home devices, and even offer health and styling recommendations. Samsung isn’t pricing the little roll-bot yet..what with the Trump tariffs now in effect, but will need to do so before the device hits shelves this summer. 

Instagram is putting more into bulking up their search function, after admitting that they were not competing with TikTok well on this. Techcrunch.com reports that Instagram head Adam Mosseri and his team realize that younger Generation Z users frequently turn to apps like TikTok for answers, in lieu of using actual search engines. Instagram is focusing on content search, not account search. Even mighty Google, the 800 lb. gorilla of search, noticed in 2022 that social apps like TikTok and instagram were getting into their metaphorical drawers when it comes to Search and Maps. Even playing catch up with TikTok, Instagram tops Google Search and other rivals as Gen Z’s preferred search engine. HerCampus research found last year that 51% of Zoomers used TikTok over Google Search.

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

Nintendo Announces Date for Switch 2; China Threatens App Store Probe-Retaliation for Tariffs; Reddit Temporarily Bans r/WhitePeopleTwitter; Waymo is on Uber App-Austin

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

After reporting on Nintendo’s tease of a new Switch a couple weeks ago or so, now they have announced a date. Bgr.com reports that there will be a Nintendo Direct event on April 2nd at 9am Eastern time. The company promises a close look at the new Switch 2. They didn’t share if there would be a reveal of new games for the updated platform, including the widely expected Mario Kart 9. We should learn more deets on the Switch 2 at the event…including if it will have an LCD instead of OLED screen, and maybe that all-important info about pricing and when you can actually have it in your hands.

With the new Trump administration tariffs in effect on China, the Chinese have come back with the threat of investigating Apple’s App Store practices. Of course, tariffs  imposed on China will be paid by US businesses and consumers, not China or any other foreign country. But they mean higher prices for Americans, which will mean a decrease in sales, so China has been announcing retaliatory measures. According to appleinsider.com, China is talking about reviewing Apple’s App Store fees and practices…with particular interest in the 30% commission on in-app purchases. China had previously ruled that the fee was in line with other companies’ fees. They are also looking at Cupertino’s restrictions on third-party payment services and app stores. Apple shares dropped 3% on this report. 

Reddit has put a 72 hour ban on the subreddit r/WhitePeopleTwitter after complaints from Elon Musk. Engadget.com says Reddit is applying the ban due  to “a prevalence of violent content.” Apparently what set off Musk was that users on the subreddit were discussing the identities of the individuals with ties to Musk who have reportedly played a key role in the takeover of technical systems within the federal government. In another action, Reddit also permanently banned a subreddit called r/IsElonDeadYet for breaking its rules around violent content, according to a notice posted to the community. Many Reddit users have grown increasingly frustrated with Musk, who was once a popular figure on the site. Last month, dozens of subreddits announced that they were banning links to X following Musk’s speech at President Donald Trump’s inauguration in which he made an apparent Nazi salute.

Austin, Texas Uber users will see something new when they open the app….an invitation to show their interest in a Waymo robotaxi. TechCrunch.com notes that right now, that doesn’t mean a Waymo could be picking them up…but that such a service is coming. The ‘interest list,’ is part of a partnership between Uber and Waymo to run a robotaxi service in Austin and Atlanta. The service is expected to start soon in Austin…but no firm date has been announced yet. The service will be available on a 37 square mile zone of Austin…including downtown, Hyde Park, and Montopolis. The cars are Waymo’s Jaguar I-Pace vehicles. Uber claimed that riders who take a Waymo will pay the same rate as human driven vehicles via UberX or Uber Comfort. 

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

Nintendo Switch 2-Official; FTC Sues John Deere; Bluesky Getting Own Photo-Sharing App; YouTube, Google; Meta, & Snap Pitch In-LA Fire Help

Posted: January 16, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

The rumors are true…there is a Nintendo Switch 2 on the way. In a YouTube video, Nintendo officially teased the long-awaited Switch 2. Engadget.com reports that we will learn a lot more about the new portable console on April 2nd, during the Nintendo Direct presentation. Nintendo didn’t disclose a release date with the video. There IS backwards compatibility for existing Switch games. The Switch has been out since 2017, and has and some minor upgrades, but this is the first real successor to the popular handheld console. 

The FTC is suing John Deere over its repair monopoly. According to gizmodo.com, this comes as for years, Deere has made it hard for farmers to fix their equipment. Today the Federal Trade Commission announced it’s going to sue to try to stop them. The FTC and the Attorneys General of the states of Illinois and Minnesota are suing John Deere over unfair business practices related to repair. According to the complaint, Deere has unlawfully restricted farmers from fixing their own farm equipment. Under the scheme, farmers had to return tractors to John Deere-authorized dealerships to make official repairs. Sometimes those can take weeks or more, just when farmers need their equipment to harvest, for example. Letting independent shops do the work would free the backlog, so farmers and stockmen could have their Deere gear back in the fields when they need them most. Deere is saying that letting outsiders do the work interferes with their protection of the rights of proprietary software. The FTC wants Deere to make the tools to fix the software available to farmers and indy repair shops. 

If you are a refugee from Meta’s apps like Instagram, and are jonesing for a photo sharing app now, you are in luck. Techcrunch.com says an independent developer is building a photo-sharing app for Bluesky called Flashes. It is powered by the same tech that runs Bluesky, the AT Protocol. As Meta drops real moderation like X did, a lot of people are wanting to used decentralized apps like Bluesky and Mastodon. A lot of the younger users are joining Chinese App RedNote as a possible shutdown of TikTok looms. RedNote is more heavily controlled by the Chinese government, but some younger users feel that US apps have spied on us and stolen data since day one, so no big deal. Back to Flashes, though…at launch it will support photo posts of up to 4 images and videos of up to a minute, just like Bluesky. The posts will appear on Bluesky, too. 

Google and YouTube are kicking in $15 million to LA area relief organizations for fire relief. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan are sending a $4 million contribution, and Snap CEO and co-founder Evan Spiegel said that he and co-founder Bobby Murphy have already distributed $5 million in ‘immediate aid’ to LA relief organizations. According to variety.com, they said they plan to donate more.  Disney, Paramount, CAA, Comcast and NBCUniversal, Netflix, Amazon and Warner Bros. Discovery have also ponied up to help LA fire victims. 

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

Congress May Give TikTok 270 Day Extension; FBI Forces Chinese Malware to Self-Delete; LinkedIn-Apply for Less Jobs, AI Will Match You; UnitedHealth Hid Change Healthcare Data Breach for Months

Posted: January 15, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

TikTok is supposed to completely shut down in the US on Sunday, unless Bytedance sells the US portion to a US company. Now, it appears that Congress may backpedal, and throw the platform a bone. 9to5mac.com reports that Congress may quickly pass a new law giving TikTok another 270 days before the ban goes into effect. In related news, Chinese officials have joined ByteDance in denying a Bloomberg report that ByteDance was thinking of selling its US operations to X owner Elon Musk. Although the law actually only requires new downloads of the app to be blocked by app stores, TikTok has said it will shut down US operations completely by Sunday if it can’t sell or isn’t granted the extension by Congress. 

With some info shared by France law enforcement, the FBI has removed Chinese malware from some 4258 Us based computers and networks. According to arstechnica.com, they actually didn’t remove the malware…the commands they got from the French caused the malware to activate its ‘self-delete’ function. The Chinese government apparently paid the Mustang Panda group to develop a version of PlugX malware that was used to infect and steal info from PCs. It has been around since 2014. A French security company called Sekoia.io found and reported the delete commands.

LinkedIn says in today’s job market, too many people are applying for jobs they aren’t actually qualified for…and that this makes it more difficult for good candidates to stand out. Now, engadget.com says they are rolling out a new, AI powered ‘Job Match’ feature that uses the artificial intelligence to provide detailed summaries next to job listings that let users know how qualified they are for a particular role. According to LinkedIn, this goes well beyond just keyword matching that job hunters have been using. Although the feature is open to all users, Premium members will get more granular info about their job match level. LinkedIn claims that the AI will also help steer unqualified applicants away from jobs and towards other ones that it determines you are a better fit for. 

As of yesterday, Change Healthcare, a subsidiary of UnitedHealth, said it has ‘substantially’ completed notifying affected victims of a huge data breach. TechCrunch.com reports that the breach included over 100 million users’ sensitive health data. The breach happened in a ransomware attack in February of 2024, and Change paid a ransom to the hackers. The thing is, if you do a search for the breach notice, you probably won’t find it. Change dropped in a ‘noindex’ code on its data breach notice at least as far back as November 20, 2024. The firm was unable to give a specific number of people it had actually notified. They were sued by the state of Nebraska this past December for security failings that left Nebraskans “more vulnerable to exploitation of the sensitive personal financial, health, and identifying information.”

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

Celebs & Techies Team Up-Open Social Media Ecosystem; China Considers Selling TikTok to Musk; Disney Bows Food Order Track on Lock Screens; Texas Sues Allstate-Collecting Driver Data to Jack Up Premiums

Posted: January 14, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

As more and more people have ditched X, formerly Twitter (and I mention Twitter primarily to irritate a particular former radio journalist who takes great umbrage with language and usage these days) as well as Facebook, for their new lack of moderation changes and head to Bluesky, some celebrities and techies are looking beyond Bluesky. Engadget.com reports that the group wants to try to build out something to “save social media from billionaire capture.” They want to create a new social media ecosystem that is focused on the public good instead of profit-driven incentives. Big names in the deal include actor Mark Ruffalo, actor/director Alex Winter, and writer/journalist Cory Doctorow. Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia is involved, The plan involves building new social media apps on top of the pre-existing AT Protocol, which is a decentralized framework that Bluesky runs on. This would ostensibly give users significant control over their data, algorithms and the entire online experience. Bluesky is funded by venture capital, and this group wants to raise money in a way to keep it independent. They are shooting to raise $30 million in the next 3 years, 

China is considering a number of options for TikTok as the deadline approaches for ByteDance to divest of the app in the US or be blocked from the US. According to cnbc.com, one option is to try to sell the app to Elon Musk, who would then oversee both it in the US and X. TikTok has called the story involving Musk ‘pure fiction.’ As usual, X has not commented. Even if such a sale happened, it isn’t clear that even the incoming administration would approve Musk controlling both platforms. Although the Supreme Court hasn’t ruled against TikTok as of this report, the oral arguments seemed to be going in favor of the government and against TikTok, which the US government has claimed was a national security risk under present owner ByteDance. 

Starting now, you can track your food order at Disneyland and Disney World right from the lock screen of your iPhone. Macrumors.com says that Disney has rolled out support for the Live Activities feature on the phones. You can track status of mobile food orders on the lock screen or Dynamic Island, without having to open the My Disney Experience or Disneyland apps. Just tap the ‘I’m Here, Prepare My Order’ button, to have your food freshly prepared. You can view your order number, status, and pickup location right from the Lock Screen. If you are going to use the feature, you need iOS 16.1 or later, and an iPhone 14 Pro or any iPhone 15 or 16. Be sure to update the Disney app first.

Texas is suing Allstate and an Allstate subsidiary called Arity over data privacy. Gizomdo.com reports that the state says the insurer is violating Texas  privacy laws by surreptitiously collecting detailed location data on millions of drivers and using that information to justify raising insurance premiums. I had read that this was going on, and now Texas is the first state to file suit. The Texas Attorney General said “Our investigation revealed that Allstate and Arity paid mobile apps millions of dollars to install Allstate’s tracking software. The personal data of millions of Americans was sold to insurance companies without their knowledge or consent in violation of the law. Texans deserve better and we will hold all these companies accountable.” Allstate developed the Arity Driving Engine software back in 2015, and allegedly had mobile app developers install the products to collect a variety of sensitive data from consumers’ phones…like geolocation data, accelerometer, details about stops and starts, and whether the phone owners were speeding or driving distracted. The apps that had the data stealing function included Gas Buddy and Fuel Rewards, among others. 

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

Gemini Contractors Forced To Rate AI Responses Outside Their Expertise; TikTok Gets SCOTUS Hearing; Apple Drops iPhone Hardware Subscription Plan; FAA Bans Drones in Parts of NJ

Posted: December 19, 2024 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

As if there isn’t enough of a problem with artificial intelligence ‘hallucinations…or in plain language…lying…now we find that Google has been making Gemini contractors to rate AI responses outside their areas of expertise. Techcrunch.com reports that these people behind the proverbial curtain…sometimes called ‘prompt engineers’ and analysts, have been pushed to evaluate AI responses outside their area. Google has been using some contractors from GlobalLogic, an outsourcing firm owned by Hitachi. Until recently, they were able to ’skip’ certain prompts, and opt out of evaluating various AI-written responses to those prompts, if the prompt was way outside their domain expertise. For example, a contractor could skip a prompt that was asking a niche question about cardiology because the contractor had no scientific background. Well, as of last week, they won’t be allowed to skip prompts, even if they have no clue about the area being queried about. Contractors can now only skip prompts in two cases: if they’re “completely missing information” like the full prompt or response, or if they contain harmful content that requires special consent forms to evaluate, the new guidelines show. So far, Google hasn’t commented about this. 

It’s not a total reprieve, but now TikTok will get its day in court…in the Supreme Court…to argue why it should not be banned in the US. According to gizmodo.com, the Supremes will hear arguments on January 10th, only 9 days before the ban on TikTok is set to go into place. Most court watchers expect the Supreme Court to make a decision before the January 19th ban date. ByteDance already lost in the DC Court Of Appeals, where the Court said that the First Amendment exists to protect free speech in the United States, and the ban represents the government acting “solely to protect that freedom from a foreign adversary nation and to limit that adversary’s ability to gather data on people in the United States.”

Apple has dropped plans to offer a hardware subscription service for iPhones. Macrumors.com says that Cupertino had considered a service that would let users ‘subscribe’ to get a new iPhone every year…something that had been in the works since 2022. It appears that Apple has decided that such a plan is not feasible due to regulatory concerns, software bugs, and other issues. You can still buy an iPhone from them with a 12 or 24 month payment plan at zero interest, which really isn’t much different from the subscription idea.

Although there have been sightings/issues elsewhere, New Jersey has seemed to be the hub of late for freakouts over drone activity. Now, the Federal Aviation Administration has stepped in. Bloomberg.com reports that the FAA has prohibited drone flights over parts of the Garden State as public hysteria over sightings has continued. The FAA just published 22 temporary flight restrictions over critical infrastructure in the state. The agency said  it was instituting the ban “at the request of federal security partners.”

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

New Nvidia AI Audio Model Synthesizes Never-Heard Sounds; Threads Tests Users Choosing Own Default Feed; iPhone 17 Slim-Too Thin for SIM Tray; Raw Milk in CA Recalled-Bird Flu Virus

Posted: November 26, 2024 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

In some respects, AI has stalled out right now, but there are still discoveries and advances being made. Arstechnica.com reports that Nvidia has a new AI audio model that can synthesize sounds that have never existed. A couple included a ‘screaming’ saxophone, and an ‘angry’ ‘cello. The AI can also mix voices and sounds together in a new mashup. The model, called Fugatto, isn’t available for public testing yet, but Nvidia has a sample-filled website that shows off some possibilities for you. They describe the audio AI as a ’Swiss Army knife for sound.’ 

Threads is feeling the heat from quickly growing upstart Bluesky. Yesterday, Mark Zuckerberg posted that Threads is testing the option to let users choose their own default feed…like Bluesky. In fact, you can have multiple feeds on Bluesky…I have a default of people I follow and 3 others. According to theverge.com, Threads will let you choose from For You, Following, or any custom feed that you have set up. Right now, they are still testing it out, but Zuck said they will make the choice ‘more visible’ in the app soon. 

New details about the upcoming iPhone Slim…or Air, or whatever they end up calling it. Appleinsider.com says it will be so slim, it won’t be able to have a tray for SIM cards. This is not an issue in the US, where all iPhones use eSIM, the no-card alternative to a physical SIM card, but in a number of countries they still use physical SIM cards. One of those countries is China, which uses a name-registration system. eSims don’t allow the same verification level as China requires. It remains to be seen if this becomes a problem for Apple. The slim phone also will use Apple’s in-house 5G modem instead of a Qualcomm one, and it will have a smaller battery. 

Not tech, but science…or an ignoring of it. Bird flu virus has been found in a batch of raw, unpasteurized milk sold in California. Arstechnica.com reports that so far, no illness has been connected to the contaminated milk, which came from Raw Farm LLC in Fresno County. A lab in Santa Clara County detected the virus, and it was confirmed by the state lab. There is a reason Louis Pasteur came up with the pasteurization process…lots of people used to get sick and even die from raw milk. Science and medicine…hey, they can keep us alive!

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

EU Whacks LinkedIn for Ad Tracking; Apple AI Editing Tools-Not As Good By Design; Cops Can Track to Abortion Clinics-No Warrants; Tesla Will Launch Cheaper EVs Next Year

Posted: October 24, 2024 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

While the US the last few years has been less aggressive with tech firms, the European Union has stepped in aggressively. Techcrunch.com reports that the EU has fined LinkedIn $356 million for tracking ads and privacy breaches. LinkedIn had claimed ‘consent,’ ‘legitimate interests,’ and ‘ contractual necessity,’ based on legal bases for processing peoples’ info…but the Irish Data Protection Commission…under the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation, wasn’t buying any of it. The complaint against LinkedIn originated in France in 2018. The EU has given them 90 days to bring their EU operations into compliance. LinkedIn said in a statement that while they believed they were in compliance all along, they will work to make sure they are under this new ruling by the deadline.

Apple Intelligence features are going to be out to a lot of folks imminently…although you have to sign up and go on a waitlist after the final version of iOS with the features drops next week. Apple has been getting some heat from users of the beta over their photo editing tools not being as good as Android’s. Now, according to bgr.com, Apple’s head of software, Craig Federighi, has said in an interview that this is by design. He keyed on the Clean Up tool. He noted that while many AI tools try to generate new parts of the photo, Apple has chosen not to. “People view photographic content as something they can rely on as indicative of reality,” Federighi said. “It’s important to us that we help purvey accurate information, not fantasy.” 

There is all kinds of software and hardware to track people in the world today. Here’s a scary one…it is a tool law enforcement agencies now have called Locate X. Mashable.com says the software, from data surveillance company Babel Street, has ben known since 2020. What’s new is that police agencies in states like Alabama…which has completely outlawed abortion… have been able to track women traveling out of state for abortions. One tracked a woman from her home to a big box retailer, then to church, and finally to an abortion clinic in Florida…where the software indicated she stayed for 2 hours, before returning to her Alabama residence. A word to the wise to any woman in  a state where the procedure is outlawed now…turn off your phone, or take a burner phone with you out of state. 

Yes, you have to take things Elon Musk promises with a grain of salt…or sometimes, an entire salt mine. With that disclaimer, I turn to engadget.com’s story that Tesla has said in its 3rd quarter disclosure report that it is making preparations for ‘more affordable models,’ ‘its lowest level ever’ at $35,100. Tesla goes on to say they will start production in the first half of 2025, and that “These vehicles will utilize aspects of the next generation platform as well as aspects of our current platforms and will be able to be produced on the same manufacturing lines as our current vehicle line-up.” Tesla did have a decent 3rd quarter, finally ending a 4 quarter streak of missed earnings targets.

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

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