Why 3 AI Competitors Suddenly Agree and Warn Us; China Says AI Execs ‘Fear Mongering’; Apple Designing Game Controllers for Folding iPhone; Automattic CEO Mullenweg Remains as CEO after Board Attempts Ouster
Posted: September 14, 2026 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: AI, Apple, corporate-governance, Tech, technology Leave a commentMy opinion on why all of a sudden OpenAI, Anthropic, and Musk are all saying there is an issue: I think a) they want to write legislation to exclude other competitors and have the government shield them so they can make more money, or b) and most likely…the financial house of cards is getting close to collapse and the rich dudes and big companies that invested in them want a return on their billions…and the AI companies can’t possibly produce those returns. Is the AI bubble starting to burst similarly to the dot com bust? Some folks are saying so…stay tuned, and batten down the hatches. We seem to be on the downward slope now in the Gartner Hype Cycle.
Not missing an opportunity to meddle in US affairs, China is calling the AI CEOs’ talk of a slowdown ‘fear mongering.’ This has also been echoed by Donald Trump…who can’t even use a computer! Cnbc.com reports that a spokesperson for China’s foreign ministry said that the field of AI has become “the main battleground for global technological competition and a new arena for strategic rivalry among major powers.” He then added that there was a need for “healthy and orderly” development of the technology. Adoption of Chinese AI models has been gaining traction with Western companies as the capability of those models has improved.
Hot off the introduction of the new folding iPhone Duo with the bigger inner screen, Apple is apparently designing its own game controllers that can be attached to the Duo. According to 9to5mac.com, Apple already sells some game controllers via the Apple store..but the new ones are specifically for the iPhone Duo. They may release the controllers under the Beats brand. No release schedule has been seen for these new controllers yet.
After a board revolt last week that ousted Automattic’s CEO Matt Mullenweg, the momentarily former CEO has returned to his position. TechCrunch.com notes that the board voted to retain him. Automattic is the parent company of WordPress, and is one of the two largest website hosting firms in the world. Disclosure: my two websites where these reports are posted and available are hosted by WordPress. The original ouster put Mullenweg on a leave of absence and no reason was given. Automattic has not responded to requests for comment, and Mullenweg has just posted that he is a ‘pirate,’ and that this is the 5th time he has faced a coup.
I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.
Apple Extravaganza-Folding iPhone, iPhone Pros, Watches, Air Pods
Posted: September 9, 2026 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Apple, iPhone, News, Tech, technology Leave a commentWelcome, one and all to the Apple reality distortion field…or at least my recap of it! Apple rolled out their latest, greatest iPhone Pros, Watches, and Air Pods today, and the inevitable ‘one more thing’ we all knew was coming…the folding iPhone. We all called it the Ultra, but Apple has dubbed it the iPhone Duo. Not being Apple, I will start with the one more thing, the Duo. Honestly, there is a lot to be impressed with about the folder Apple waited several years to drop. They have done a great job minimizing the crease in the screen, the hinge itself has a lot of tech in it, and it has better battery life than expected. It is, as Apple noted, about the size of your passport in your hand folded, and open has an inner screen of some 7.6 inches…much like an iPad Mini.
Later this year, you will be able to use an Apple Pencil with either screen, too. When you are using the outer screen, and open the phone, the larger screen picks up right where you left off. There is a selfie cam on the inner screen that is hidden under the display…no hole punch or pill-shaped cutout to take away from the full screen experience. It is worth mentioning that the outer screen is no slouch…it is 5.4 inches. You can shoot a pic while using the inner screen, and your subject can see themselves in the outer display. Pretty cool. The phone has the 2 nanometer A20 processor like the iPhone 18 Pros, and has 2 neural engines. Dual batteries give you up to 31 hours of video viewing on the big display and 24 hours on a charge. Here’s the crazy part…it starts at $1999 with 256 gigs of storage! I expected it to be more like $2400. Preorders start October 16th, and the launch is October 23rd.
For the rest of us mere mortals that may not be getting a folding phone right now, the Pro and Pro Max also have the A20 Pro chip, and Apple strongly emphasized AI and especially on-device AI. The AI and new version of Siri may be exciting to use as you get into your daily use of the phone, but for now, we’ll talk about a couple other features that everyone will notice…improvements to the cams and battery life. The banner cam hardware feature is sort of amazing…a variable aperture to let in light. They have tiny leaves about the thickness of a human hair that open and close. Lots of manual control is available if you are up for it. Apple noted that the entire presentation today was shot on iPhones. If you aren’t a cinematographer or pro photographer, the software is there to take advantage of all that for you. By the way, it is only the 48 MP main cam that has the variable aperture.
Another really great photo feature is Apple Reference Image…the phone will authenticate photos shot on it right down to the pixel level, so people can detect if something is AI. The Reference shot lives on your phone and in your library right along with a finished shot you have edited using software. Battery life grows to 36 hour for video playback on the Pro and 48 on the Pro Max. Both should bet 24-30 hours on a full charge. Speaking of charging, the Pro gets up to 50% in 15 minutes with a wire charger, or the same in 30 minutes charged wirelessly. With the chip shortage due to AI both phones got a price bump this year. The iPhone 18 Pro starts at $1199, and the Pro Max at $1299. Preorders open this Saturday, with availability September 18th.
The Apple Watch Series 12 has a new chip and upgrade health sensors. The Watch Ultra now has 2 day battery life and upgraded health tracking. Both will track your heart rate better, among other things. A cool feature that plays on Apple’s Visual Intelligence is an Audio Intelligence feature. The Watch will record the last 15 seconds or so of voice with what Apple calls Live Rewind. This can be handy if a wait person rattles off the daily specials, and you didn’t get it. You can check your phone, and the Watch will have sent the text to it so you can see what’s on the menu. It can also be set to record and transcribe meetings. For hard of hearing, the watch can also pick up sounds like alarms, doorbells, or a baby crying.The Watches didn’t get a price hike. The Ultra starts at $799 and the Series 12 at $399. Preorders are open now, and they are available September 18th.
AirPods 5 bowed today, and get improved noise cancellation and audio quality…always appreciated. The base models start at $129. The $149 models have a Wireless Charging case, plus a swipe to change volume feature. You move the finger up or down the stems to change the volume. The new AirPods are available for preorder today, and out Friday, September 18th.
I’m Clark Reid, showing you the exit to the Apple reality distortion field for today!
September Google Book Event; iPhone 18-What’s Coming When; Ice Agents Can’t Wear Meta Glasses at Work; TicTok Looks to Peer Payments Via DM’s
Posted: August 19, 2026 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: AI, Apple, Artificial Intelligence, Google, Tech, technology, tiktok Leave a commentGoogle will have a Googlebook event on September 15th. Androidpolice.com reports that it will be held in New York City. A number of things are rumored for the Googlebooks. One is something Google showed in May, but didn’t really flesh out…the ‘glowbar,’ a multi-colored LED display on the lid. Google only said it is ‘functional and beautiful,’ but didn’t give details on the functions part. It’s possible we will see Aluminum OS moving further in merging Android and Chrome OS…for better integration between laptops and phones…which Apple has made pretty seamless…so Google would, of course, like to emulate that. Expect more Gemini integration. Androidpolice.com snarked that the intrusive AI could become something like the pestering Microsoft ‘Clippy,’ that everyone hid to avoid it interrupting your work all the time. A fresh survey out has young people more wary or fearful about AI than excited about it, so Google, OpenAI, and Anthropic…as well as others…have a ways to go to get the majority of the public on board.
Apple’s big September event will be here before you know it. We don’t have a date yet, but it is usually the 2nd or 3rd week of September. According to mac rumors.com, Apple will do more of the broken up iPhone launch scheme. In September, they will unveil the iPhone 18 Pro, Pro Max, and Fold. It is expected that the iPhones will all get a $100 price bump due to the increased cost of chips. We will also see freshened Apple Watches, and likely the AirPod Pros with cameras. For folks wanting the budget iPhones, they will all be out next spring. We should see the iPhone 18, 18e, and Air 2 then.
ICE has told employees that they are not allowed to wear Meta glasses at work…or other cam equipped specs. Engadget.com says that a memo sent to ICE employees stated “the use of Meta Glasses or similar devices could unintentionally capture, record, or transmit sensitive information, potentially compromising privacy and legal protections.” ICE and Customs and Border Patrol agents have frequently been seen wearing the Meta glasses the last few months. One CPB agent was noted recording with his, despite the policy. Here’s a wrinkle…while they are banning the Meta Ray-Bans and other smart glasses, Department of Homeland Security is allegedly wanting to get an official version of the tech. ICE is hoping to equip its officers with their own version of smart glasses that have “biometric identification capabilities” by next year. And you thought FLOCK cameras were bad…just wait!
TikTok is working on a feature that will let users send each other money via direct messages. TechCrunch.com notes that if they launch the feature, it will use the TikTok Pay that is already available in Southeast Asia for TikTok Shop purchases. The feature is apparently in the early development stage, so don’t expect to see anything too soon. Besides TikTok, Elon Musk’s X has already launched X Money which does the same thing. All the social medial platforms want to get into the financial business…like legendary bank robber Willie Horton noted, ‘that’s where the money is.’
I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.
Google Shows Pixel 11, More; Foxconn Reports Big Profit Increase; Grok Bot is Out; Bluesky Active User Base Shrinks
Posted: August 12, 2026 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: AI, Artificial Intelligence, chatgpt, Tech, technology Leave a commentNew gadget season is well underway. Last month it was Samsung, now Google, and in September Apple. Engadget.com reports that Google has dropped 4 hew phones…Pixel 11, 11 Pro, 11 Pro XL, and 11 Pro Fold. All the Pro models feature a new camera bar. All the new Pixels are powered by the Tensor G6, which Google says has 20% more power efficiency, 25 percent faster browsing and 15 faster app loading compared to the Tensor G5. The cams have an improved Image Signal Processor. Google is claiming all the Pixel 11 phones will run for 30 hours before you have to charge back up. With the data centers gobbling up chips, Google has had to boost prices on the short supplied chips. Expect to pay $100 more than for the Pixel 10’s. Preorders are open now, with phones shipping August 20th.
The Pixel Watch 5 is also out, starting at $399, a $50 buck boost. You can get a Steph Curry branded version for $579. Google also shows off something new…the Pixel Tag…its first bluetooth tracker. It runs $30. It is about half again as large as an Apple Air Tag, and runs about a year on a battery, just like Apple’s.
They have become less dependent on Apple, and profits are up at Foxconn. According to macdiailynews.com, for the quarter ending in June, the giant contract electronics manufacturer saw profits jump 35%. Interestingly, as Apple remains their biggest account, most iPhones for the US market are now built in India, rather than Taiwan or China. Meanwhile, Foxconn is expanding, building plants that make chips for AI servers. New facilities are going into Mexico and also Texas for Nvidia.
SpaceX AI has announced Grok Bot…which they say is a new kind of AI agent they describe as “AI teammates you can give real work to.” Each Bot gets its own computer, then signs into the apps and services you already use to take on work across inboxes and other tools. SpaceXAI says Bots can complete jobs end to end, only returning when approval is needed. It’s out in beta today on Mac and iOS as well as Windows and Linux for the desktop. SpaceX AI says an Android version is coming soon. Right now, it is restricted to SuperGrok Heavy, Cursor Ultra, and Cursor Teams Premium subscribers.
Bluesky’s active user base has taken a hit…dropping from almost 500 million active users down to about 300. Techcrunch.com notes that X is down too, but not as much as Bluesky. Threads, the app joined at the hip with Meta’s Instagram, has grown over 20%. The good news for Bluesky in light of this drop is that the folks that stay seem to be highly engaged. The jury is still out on whether Threads is picking up users that have basically abandoned Bluesky or if that app is getting all new users.
I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.
New Tech Links Your License Tag to Your Phone; Zuckerberg’s AI Manifesto Inadvertently Highlights Why People Hate AI; YouTube Makes it Harder to Make Money; Apple-Photo Authentication Tools in iOS27
Posted: August 11, 2026 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Apple, Artificial Intelligence, iPhone, News, surveillance-cams, Tech, technology, YouTube Leave a commentPeople, cities, police, and others are already pretty bent about license plate reading cameras. It was just revealed that one reason LA is not renewing a contract with Flock is that they identify cars as stolen incorrectly 32% of the time! Now, theconversation.com reports that we have a new wrinkle to be mad about with license plate reading cams. When the cam scans your tag, it sends to a database that records the car’s registered owner. Now, it turns out, some license readers also have a sensor that detects signals of devices traveling nearby…meaning your smartphone, smart watch, and those of any passengers! This new tech is from a firm called SignalTrace. As you pass a number of cams, it keeps recording your phone’s signals and links to you via your license plate in the database. Let’s add a bit which actually could help law enforcement. Your phone…associated with your identity via the tag database…shows up in a car the cops suspect in a crime. Ok, that could be helpful. However, the data lives on…and basically keeps a record of every place you go. That is getting a bit Orwellian…especially if SignalTrace sells the info to the big data brokers.
Mark Zuckerberg released a hefty 6500 word manifesto on Monday, essentially touting the virtues of personal AI, and the possibilities of ‘personal superintellegence’ that Meta’s AI division is working on. TechCrunch.com notes that this is essentially an expansion of something Zuckerberg wrote a few months ago. He extolls the virtues of personalized AI agents, and all the great stuff that is coming…reminding me of a boss I once had we called ‘Blue Sky Bob,’ who painted the most beautiful blue pie-in-the-sky pictures of stuff that was coming…but never quite arrived. Kind of like Elon Musk’s Full Self Driving we were getting within a year back in 2016…and by the way, that’s coming…next year…again. Back to Mark Zuckerberg though. We’ll all have agents that seem to have a PhD in every topic, that can do all this great work for us. The problem is, he glosses over the things most people hate…first, that AI is fairly often wrong but is very smug in believing it is correct. Second, and most important, it’s the serious concern most normal people have about AI…taking jobs and leaving them without income. It won’t matter if AI can do lots of free research and writing if you can’t buy groceries and fuel, or afford a place to live.
Early next year, YouTube is going to make it a lot harder to make money on a channel via their Partner Program. According to theverge.com, they are going from 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours to 1,000 subscribers and either 8,000 qualified watch hours over the past year or 20 million qualified shorts views in the last 90 days. Creators will have to maintain 10 million Shorts views over 90 days in order to make money. This channel only has about a quarter of the required subscribers, and as for a million views in 90 days…yeah, in my dreams. OTOH, I’m not doing it as an income stream…it’s to keep you in the know. If it does, then it has done its job!
Apple is rumored to have a cool feature coming on iOS27. Engadget.com reports that it is a photo authentication feature. It will apparently be dubbed Apple Reference Image. It will verify that a photo was taken with an iPhone camera. To confirm that a photo is an iPhone capture, select sensor information and metadata for an image can be sent to Private Cloud Compute for verification. A new Reference mode will need to be enabled on an iPhone’s camera in order for this authentication option to be available. With all the AI slop floating around this will be a welcome feature. Over at Google, they are expanding further the SynthID AI watermarking program. With more and more realistic AI images, these features are badly needed.
I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.
Minn. ‘Nudification’ Ban in Effect; Ford CEO-Chinese EVs in US Next 5 Years; Apple Smart Glasses Aim at Health; Samsung Bans Smart TV Apps That Share Your Internet Connection with Strangers
Posted: August 3, 2026 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: AI, Apple, EVs, Ford, Samsung, science, Tech, technology Leave a commentDespite Elon Musk’s xAI going to court to stop it, a judge has allowed Minnesota’s ‘nudificaiton’ ban to go into effect. xAI had filed an emergency motion, claiming urgent harm. The harm is actually to the people who are the victims of so-called ‘nudification,’ really. The term refers to using software to create nude images of people…something that has become more rampant and realistic with AI. You can take a photo of a person, and tell the software to create a nude photo of the person based on the clothed one and it does it. Mashable.com reports that Minnesota’s law also bans advertising or promoting services or software that can nudify images of people.There is a hefty civil penalty of $500,000 per unlawful access, download, or use…enforceable by the attorney general. A private right of action is allowed so people can sue the perpetrators.
Jim Farley, CEO of Ford, told employees this week that Chinese electric vehicles could be showing up for sale in the US in the next 5 to 10 years. According to thenextweb.com, there are several layers of protection right now shielding the US market from the Chinese made EVs. Stiff cumulative tariffs for 125 percent, and a connected vehicle rule banning sharing of data back to China are two of the protections. The market will have to open soon…Canada has made a deal to allow up to 49,000 Chinese vehicles a year at a reduced tariff, and Mexico has permitted in Chinese EVs…which now make up about a quarter of Mexican EVs. Ford has its Universal EV Platform coming out in 2027, with a midsized pickup aimed at a $30,000 price tag…which would compete nicely with the Chinese EVs.
We’ve reported that Apple plans to show its smart glasses at WWDC next June, with them going on sale later in 2027. Now, 9to5mac.com says that Apple has some plans down the road for the glasses that move away from identifying things, and other typical smart glasses functions. Apple is aiming to have the smart glasses ultimately be more of a health platform. Fitness will be a major offering…perhaps a version of Workout Buddy will run on them. Cameras and sensors on the glasses could help guide you to better form, and alert you when you are doing something wrong. This might be a cool thing so long as the glasses are a Workout Buddy and not a Workout Nag!
It’s been some time since we reported on this, but as noted in the past, smart TVs can be porous with your information. Some makers even had to take action to make sure cameras and mics that could monitor what you were doing were…or could be shut off. Now, TechCrunch.com notes that Samsung is banning some smart TV apps that share your internet connection with strangers. The bad apps are kind of a shell with just a small amount of code….but contain software that funnels outsiders’ web traffic through ordinary home and office internet connections, known as residential proxy networks (or “resproxies”), which are increasingly being linked to cybercrime. When opened, apps with resproxy code can turn the smart TV into an always-on tunnel for outsiders to funnel their web traffic through, known as an exit node — even when the app is no longer open. Samsung says besides the ban, they are working to remove all apps that are available at their app store that have these nefarious components.
I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified,’ definitely not ‘nudified’ for now.
Samsung Unpacks Their Latest; Jack Dorsey’s Buzz Goes After Slack; Apple Lease to Buy Program; OpenAI Agent Breaks Loose-Hacks Competitor’s AI System
Posted: July 22, 2026 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: AI, Artificial Intelligence, Samsung, Tech, technology Leave a commentSamsung bowed their latest and greatest today, and the star of the show probably has to be the Galaxy Z Fold 8. 9to5google.com reports that the Fold 8 has a 5.5 inch outer screen and a big 7.6 incher inside when it’s unfolded. The handset is actually a good deal shorter, wider and a tad bulkier than the Fold 7. Even though a bit thicker, the phone is lighter, which is cool. It doesn’t only have 2 50MP cam sensors…no true zoom, just a 10 power digital zoom. The battery is 4800 mAh, bigger than the Fold 7, and it is a silicon carbon battery, not lithium ion. The fold 8 will start at $1900, $100 less than the Fold 7. There is also the Galaxy Z fold 8 Ultra. The Ultra is $2100, and has a sharper, brighter display. It is powered by a 5,000 mAh battery. If neither folder appeals…or you aren’t ready to drop that kind of cash, there is the Z Flip 8. The new 8 is slimmer and lighter than the 7. Otherwise, it is pretty well the same as the 7 feature-wise. The Flip 8 is $1200, which is up from the 7’s price.
Jack Dorsey is best known for co-founding Twitter and also Block. Now, he’s at it again with a new app called Buzz. According to TechCrunch.com, Buzz is positioned as a competitor to Slack and GitHub…a group chat platform for the workplace. Buzz does put humans AND AI agents in the same conversation. Dorsey said in a statement that Buzz is “model-agnostic, decentralized, self-sovereign, and open source.” Buzz’s utility is that it merges several different workflows into one workspace. It looks a lot like Slack, but with native AI agents and the ability to manage GitHub projects all from the same window. Buzz’s free desktop app is available now for macOS, Windows, and Linux, and the code for the app has been uploaded to GitHub.
Apple is supposed to be preparing to launch ‘Apple Upgrade,’ a program of releasing new hardware. The launch date is planned for July 28th. Theverge.com notes that it is intended to replace the current iPhone Upgrade Program and standard financing for new iPhones. This Apple Upgrade program will offer 24 month leases for iPhones and Apple Watches, and 36 month leases for iPads and Macs. The less expensive devices like the base iPad, Apple Watch SE, and MacBook Neo are apparently not included. Klarna will be Apple’s financial backer for the new program, which will require a soft credit check to sign up. It looks like Apple is at least in part aiming to soften the price increases due to the rising chip costs.
Whether you like or hate AI, or remain a bit skeptical like myself about it becoming ‘superintellegent,’ this ought to scare you. Benzinga.com reports that one of OpenAI’s most advanced autonomous AI agents broke out of a highly isolated testing environment, accessed the internet and hacked AI platform Hugging Face while attempting to complete its assigned evaluation objective. Hugging Face is an AI platform where developers build, share, test and deploy AI models, while OpenAI uses the platform to make some of its models available to the broader developer community. Hugging face and OpenAI cooperated on investigation of this…and Hugging Face says it was “driven, end to end, by an autonomous AI agent system.” As you might think, this revelation has intensified concern over cybersecurity risks increasing because of more and more powerful AI systems. Matt Suiche, an engineer at agentic AI cybersecurity company Tolmo, said the incident demonstrates that frontier AI models are rapidly approaching the capabilities of elite human hackers, while noting that similar attacks are already possible using technologies available outside leading AI labs. OK, are you a bit freaked out now?
I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.
Samsung Hikes Prices before Prime Day; Getty Images Makes Deal with OpenAI, Polymarket Allegedly Paid Creators to Post Bets They Didn’t Make; Valve-Steam Machine Starts at $1049
Posted: June 22, 2026 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: AI, chatgpt, openai, Tech, technology Leave a commentThe price pressure due to AI data enters gobbling up memory like Pac Man is now getting to consumers. Apple has warned that they will have to raise prices and can’t absorb the increased cost of memory any longer. Now, Samsung has announced that it will bump prices on its Galaxy line. Androidpolice.com reports that most Galaxy smartphones will get an $80 price hike just ahead of Prime Day. The entry level phones will be hiked by $40. Tablets will get bumped up from $100 to $280 depending on memory configuration. Your old phone as a trade in can ease the pain. Samsung is offering up to a $720 credit towards a Galaxy S26 ultra. Some carriers are doing even better…Verizon is offering up to $1300 in promotional billing credits for customers trading in a qualified tier-one phone and signing up for a new unlimited plan…though you will be locked in for 36 months.
After fighting AI firms in court vigorously over the use of its stock photos, Getty Images has now inked an agreement with OpenAI to allow its pictures inside ChatGPT. Getty’s licensed content libraries will appear across the search and discovery features of ChatGPT, so that when a user asks the chatbot something that calls for an image, the visual it gets back can be a licensed Getty photograph rather than a synthetic approximation. Interestingly, neither side disclosed financial terms, a revenue split, and nothing about whether or not Getty’s images can be used to train future OpenAI models. Getty is still fighting with other AI firms over the use of its copyrighted stock photo library.
There has been plenty of controversy about Polymarket, and now we have more. Techcrunch.com says that Polymarket has been paying online creators to post deceptive videos that show them making lucrative bets on the prediction market. The Wall Street Journal analyzed over 1000 videos about Polymarket, and uh, oh. Many of those videos were reportedly filmed on “near-perfect copies” of the Polymarket website, while featuring trades and winnings that were not real. The creator videos were then amplified by a “social-media army” deployed by a marketing contractor. Polymarket said it is “committed to maintaining accurate, fair, and transparent markets” and plans to conduct an audit of its promotional content.
Valve has finally announced that the long-awaited Steam Machine..its living room PC gaming box…will go on sale June 29th starting at $1049. Theverge.com reports that you can put your name in to register, and get on the wait list. The Steam Machine will have 4 configurations, running from the base model at $1049 up to the most tricked-out version with a bundled Steam Controller for $1428. The two higher priced models come with 2 swappable faceplates…’red fabric’ and ‘solid walnut.’ The Steam Machine is a pricy device compared with the Microsoft Xbox or Sony PS5. The big selling point over the gaming platforms is that the Steam Machine is also a powerful Linux computer, too.
I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.
Consumers Iffy About AI in Brand Messaging; New Google Smart Speaker with Gemini; Android 17 Rolls Out to Pixel Phones & Watches; White House App Will Auto-Install on Homeland Security Devices
Posted: June 17, 2026 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: AI, Artificial Intelligence, chatgpt, Tech, technology Leave a commentTechcrunch.com notes that a new report out from WordPress VIP indicates that 60% of consumers say that brands that use “AI” in their messaging are a turnoff, and 86% don’t fully trust AI and still want to explore original sources. Notably, 42% of consumers said that AI-generated answers without clear attribution are trusted less than airline fees, confusing privacy policies, and medical bills. Almost 3/4 of those surveyed said the internet feels ‘less human’ than it did 10 years ago. The report is based on a survey of 2,000 respondents conducted in April, comprising 800 enterprise decision-makers and CMOs and 1,200 U.S. adults.
Google is about to release the first new Google Home Speaker in years. The launch for the new $100 speaker is June 25th. According to mashable.com, Google is bragging that this will be the first smart speaker in its stable that was made with Gemini AI commands in mind. The new little speaker is available in Hazel, Porcelain, Jade, and Berry. Google claims that with Gemini, the speaker will be able to respond to natural language commands and complex commands. Sounds like a great deal for $99, right? Oh, but there’s a catch. If you want to take advantage of all the new tricks the Google speaker can do, you have to drop $10 a month for a Google Home Premium subscription. If you already subscribe to Google AI Pro or Ultra, you will automatically get access at no additional cost.
Android 17 is starting to roll out to Pixel phones, and Wear OS for Pixel Watches is being pushed out, too. Arstechnica.com notes that Google no longer uses an unmodified version of Android on its phones—the Pixel build includes numerous features that are distinct from Android 17 itself. Other device makers will include versions of some of these features when they eventually update their phones, but for now, Google’s Pixel phones are the only way to experience Android 17. A notable feature is the Bubbles system. You can long press on any app icon to open the apps a floating window. When minimized, the bubbles stay on top of otters apps. Google says this interface is ideal for quick multitasking or chatting with Gemini while looking at other content. Other smartphones will get it besides Pixels later. It is worth point out that Samsung has had a floating app framework for years and Google itself has had a similar feature for a while now.
In a truly Trump intrusive fashion, the White House app will now be installed on all devices managed by the Department of Homeland Security…whether the user likes it or not. Engadget.com reports that the installations may be extended to all federal agencies’ phones in the future. The app is described as “a convenient way to access official White House communications, including announcements, executive actions, speeches, livestreams, videos and other updates.” In other words, it is pretty much a propaganda app.
I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.
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