Apple Will Drop Down to 15% Cut on Outside App Store Purchases; YouTube Starts Counting Views Earlier; First Test Flight of Large Electric Plane-$5 Electricity Cost; Anthropic Watermark System-Some Users Really Angry

Posted: August 17, 2026 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Under the gun from the US District Court of Northern California to reduce their cut of purchases, Apple has now proposed commissions of 15% from standard apps, and larger discounts for developers enrolled in special Apple Programs. TechCrunch.com reports that small business developers would pay a 5% commission on payments. Developers in the Video Partner Program, News Partner Program, and Mini Apps Partner Program would pay 10%. Subscription renewals would also be reduced to 10%. All this is in Apple’s court filing. Cupertino had delayed and appealed, but last week the Supreme Court rejected Apple’s plea to pause the lower court action. This all flows from the lawsuit that has been ongoing for years brought by Epic Games. Apple had been taking a 30% cut originally….a pretty hefty commission.

YouTube is getting set to start counting views as soon as a video starts to play, aligning them with what Instagram, TikTok, and their own Shorts do. According to theverge.com, X still doesn’t count a view until a couple seconds have passed. YouTube will keep their original view counting method, but it will be under an ‘engaged views’ metric. 

This is some pretty exciting news. The first test flight of a large-sized electric airplane has been completed, and it only used $5 worth of electricity! Arstechnica.com notes that the plane was the Heart Aerospace X1. How long did it fly on that $5 bucks? A half hour. That would work out to a 4 hour flight costing about $40 in electricity…a hell of a lot cheaper than Jet A fuel. The X1 plane is the size of a regional plane like fly between a couple of close cities frequently. It is noticeably quieter than a jet…the plane is a propeller craft though, not a jet. It has a range of 500 miles…plenty for those commuter hops between cities. When I fly from Denver to Colorado Springs, it is always on one of the small Canadair regional jets flown by a subsidiary of the likes of United or Delta. That’s 15 minute flight, so figure the fuel cost would be $2.50. Will airlines buy these and charge less for those flights? I won’t hold my breath…but if it keeps them from raising ticket prices, that would be cool.

Anthropic has stirred up a hornet’s nest with some users, as it has announced a controversial watermarking system. On Friday, the company put out a blog post trying to justify it. Gizmodo.com says that the watermarking is intended to comply with the European Union’s Artificial Intelligence Act. The watermarking will make it harder for users to get away with pretending they wrote AI-generated text. Apparently…according to posts on X…a number of users have cancelled their accounts over the watermarking. Anthropic claims the watermarking will not be distinguishable by users. They are basically using the same tech as Google uses in its SynthID watermarking system. Some Claude users admit that they don’t want their AI-generated work to be detected by clients and school faculty who expect work to be done by a human. I say good for Anthropic and Google. In a college situation, professors used to be able to spot something copied from Cliff’s Notes in a New York second. It’s harder with AI generated text, so the watermarking is a good thing in my opinion.

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 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

New 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 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

People, 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. 

Four Top Google AI Minds Leave for Startup; Foldable Smartphone Sales to Grow 20% with Apple iPhone Ultra in Mix; SpaceX Earnings Report Spooks Investors; Desktop Linux Exceeds 10% Market Share

Posted: August 5, 2026 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Talk about brain drain…four of Google’s top AI whizzes are jumping ship to launch their own AI startup. Wired.com reports that one is Jeff Dean, who co-founded Google Brain and has been chief scientist of Google DeepMind and Google Research. Colleague Sanjay Ghemawat and two others will join him in the fledgling AI company. It is worth noting that Google will have a stake in the new company….but it is still a blow to have so much AI brainpower off on its own. The new firm is called Discovery Loop. The other big brains founding the new AI startup are Quac Le and Oriol Vinyals. Discovery Loop is aiming for making superhuman advances in a variety of fields, including chip design, biology, drug discovery, and material design.

With Apple about to enter the fray with the upcoming iPhone Ultra folder, worldwide folding smartphone sales are expected to be 20% higher than last year. According to macrumors.com, this is despite the tight supply of logic chips and price increases on memory chips due to all the AI data centers gobbling that silicon up. Folders have been around for about 8 years now, with Samsung really driving the category almost single handedly for a good share of that. Apple plans to ship some 10 million folding phones this year…not a big number compared to the total number of iPhones, but a big boost to the folding phone sector.

SpaceX’s first earnings report as a publicly traded company were out yesterday, and the company beat expectations with revenue of $7.8 billion, while analysts looked for $6.82 billion. Arstechnica.com notes that SpaceX had a net loss of about $541 billion, better than the $2.12 billion expected. Even so, shares took a 10% dump after the firm reported capital expenditures of about $16 billion on AI, double last quarter and far more than Wall Street’s expectations…AND SpaceX indicated that spending level would continue for at least 2 more quarters. SpaceX shares have lost about half their initial value from the initial public offering. Worrisome to investors…the majority of their AI revenue has come from leasing excess data center capacity to rival AI firms like Anthropic and Google. 

It may not have crossed your mind, but Linux…an operating system favored by gamers and hobbyests…has now passed 10% market share on the desktop. Zdnet.com reports that StatCounter gives the OS 10.65% of the North American market now. Almost all the growth can be blamed on the intrusive Windows 11 from Microsoft. In 2025, Linux only had about 5% of the market. ChromeOS has a bit over 2% of the desktop…and it is a so-called Linux distro. If you add that in, Linux as 12.72%. Windows is at about 60.8% in North America, while the MacOs has about 12%…roughly the same as Linux. (It should be noted that the MacOS is built on a base of Unix, as is Linux.) Linux is free and easy to install. It resembles Android in a way….infinitely customizable, and a plus is no one is pushing their AI on you if you use it. 

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 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Despite 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. 

Apple AI Glasses Bow at WWDC ’27; Discord & Meta Sued as Products Not Publishers; Hugging Face Calls for ‘Radical Transparency’ After OpenAI Hack; NVIDIA Launches ‘Open Secure AI Alliance’

Posted: July 27, 2026 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Word is that Apple will show off its long rumored AI glasses at WWDC27 next June…with the specs becoming available later in 2027. 9to5mac.com reports that several things are going on at Apple as it heads towards releasing the product. One is privacy…something that has dogged smart glasses ever since the original Google Glass and the infamous ‘Glassholes,’ who were banned from restaurants and bars as people feared being videoed secretly. Apple apparently hasn’t decided whether to include cameras on the glasses…or if so, whether to limit them to just seeing and identifying things for the wearer using AI, or another alternative…having full video, but limiting where it works via software. The glasses from Cupertino won’t have any displays…at last initially, but should have the ability to capture photos, listen to music, talk to Siri, take phone calls, and more. Apple is also expected to have more stylish and attractive glasses than Meta or others. 

This seems to be a novel legal theory that may get around Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act as a shield against accountability. According to thenextwb.com, a woman suing Meta and Discord is not suing for defamation or publication, as she claims she was coerced as a minor into sharing sexual images. The wrinkle in this suit is that she is alleging negligence in operation, design, and failing to warn…basically using a products liability claim against the platforms. This legal theory has been used since the dawn of products liability back with McPherson vs Buick, but it is certainly novel to use it against online platforms. At this point, neither Meta nor Discord will comment on the suit, but you can be sure their legal eagles are digging in to try to fend off this unique claim. 

In the aftermath of the OpenAI advanced model escaping a walled garden and hacking Hugging Face to get the answers to queries it was assigned, the CEO of Hugging Face has called for ‘radical transparency’, asking OpenAI to  “release the traces from the ‘rogue’ agents so the entire research community can study what happened.” TechCrunch.com notes that the Hugging Face CEO, Clem Delangue, also calls for “more capabilities for defenders,” demanding that OpenAI commit $100 million worth of computing power “to help the Hugging Face community build powerful cyber defenses with the best open and closed models.” Except for Elon Musk still claiming that large language models will be super intelligent in the next 5 years, most actual AI experts don’t see that happening…but this escape has really been alarming. The OpenAI model even left notes for future versions to use to hack out of the walled garden and into the internet and then onward into other systems.

NVIDIA has put together the Open Secure AI Alliance, with the goal of strengthening cybersecurity. Engadget.com reports that there are 27 founding members, including Microsoft, SpaceX, Dell, The Linux Foundation, and of course NVIDIA. The group argues that to best defend against attacks in the age of AI models like Anthropic’s Mythos 5, security researchers need access to both open and closed frontier models. As a prime example, NVIDIA cited OpenAI’s recent rogue attack on Hugging Face. Hugging face first tried to use closed commercial frontier models to find and repel the hack, but its requests triggered safety guardrails and were refused. It then switched to open source models and managed to stop the attack. The group is also calling on governments to work with companies on shared open AI infrastructure investments.

I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ 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 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

Samsung 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. 

Google Frozen Chip-Gemini Baked In; TSMC is Hastening Arizona Factory Build; YouTube Clarifies AI Slop Policies; Apple Genius Bar-Now with AI Summary for Customers

Posted: July 20, 2026 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Google is trying something a bit radical. They are baking Gemini right into chips. The chip is the ‘Frozen V2’, at least internally. Thenextweb.com reports that up to now, AI firms have just loaded their models on to general purpose chips. With Gemini baked in, the Google chips could be 6 to 10 times more efficient than their latest custom AI chips…at least measured by tokens served per unit of power. Google plans to have the chips in use by 2028. The chips will be faster, more efficient, and that will reduce cost. There is a big caveat, though….chips with today’s Gemini AI baked in may be pretty dated by 2028, if AI keeps moving at the speed it has up to now. 

TSMC is pushing to accelerate capacity at its Arizona factory as the firm continues to see what they are calling a ‘multi-year mega trend’ from customers. According to cnbc.com, Taiwan Semiconductor will pump an additional $100 billion in to aggressively expand its US chipmaking footprint. This will put TSMC’s total investment in the Arizona plant at some $265 billion. 

YouTube is cracking down more on AI slop, clarifying its policies on how content on the platform can be monetized. TechCrunch.com notes that the idea is to discourage creators from using AI and other tools to make low quality content. YouTube’s new policy describes three types of videos under the broad category of ‘inauthentic content’ that can’t be monetized. YouTube says the 3 buckets are…one—generic, repetitive, or template-based content, two—off-putting or distressing content, and thirdly— any content where AI personas are used to discuss sensitive topics, like health and finance. YouTube is trying to make things a bit clearer than just ‘you’ll know it when you see it,’ as has been a long-time rule for adult content. Any YouTube channel that has too much of any of the three types of content will not be able to monetize. 

This really doesn’t seem like a big jump into AI, but Apple has stated recording and AI summarizing conversations at its Genius Bars. Gizmodo.com reports that the new pilot program is called ‘Live Notes,’ and it is being positioned as a time-saving tool for the store employees. Right now, it is just in a limited number of stores. What happens is that a recording of a conversation between an Apple employee and the customer is auto-transcribed and summarized. It is then stored in the ‘record of repair session’ on the Genius Bar employee’s work iPad. Some Apple employees are worried that this could be used for monitoring and evaluating employees. It does kind of smack of keystroke monitoring software and the like, but time will tell. More and more invasive monitoring can make a workplace pretty unbearable to employees when it is misused…which is pretty much always.

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

Google Will Allow 3rd Party App Stores; Stripe Makes Offer for PayPal; Apple bumps AppleCare+ Prices on Macs & iPads; Suit-Meta Layoffs Used AI to Fire Workers with Disabilities 

Posted: July 15, 2026 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Google will be opening up Android phones to third party app stores in the US soon. Engadget.com reports that Google has launched a dedicated page for its Play catalog Access Program. Third party US Android app stores will be able to access the Play store’s catalog of apps beginning on July 22nd. App downloads through the third-party stores will still be completed through Google Play. The company’s service fees will also apply to apps downloaded through the external stores. Google said in its announcements that it’s implementing the change to comply with a court order, which came from its lengthy legal battle against Epic Games.

Stripe has laid on the table a $60.50 per share bid to buy PayPal. That is a 28% premium over the price at close Tuesday, and amounts to some $53 billion to buy the company. According to benzinga.com, an earlier offer in April went unanswered, but this time, the buyers are pushing for an agreement by the end of July. This would connect two components of a payment ecosystem…the merchant back end structure Stripe dominates, and PayPal’s consumer-facing wallet. PayPal has 439 million active accounts. Some tech finance watchers don’t think there will be a deal for less than $80 a share, and a few are saying it ought to be as much as $115. If this deal does happen, expect it to one way or another cost you more as a consumer…but on the flip side, it will make it all the more frictionless as the expression goes to make purchases. 

Apple is goosing the price for AppleCare+ a bit on new iPads and Macs. 9to5mac.com says that…effective today…prices are up by 50 cents a month or $5 per year. If you have an older Mac or iPad and are on the plan, your price won’t go up…for now. That is good to know…this report was written on a first generation MacBook Pro with the original Apple silicon. Looks like I’d better be ready for not only a higher price for the replacement computer but also for the AppleCare Plus plan, too. My wallet is crying out with pain…

A class action suit against Meta alleges that in the AI powered layoffs of some 8,000 employees targeted workers with disabilities and those who took protected medical or family leaves. The suit alleges quote: “Meta did not assemble the termination list through the considered judgment of managers who knew the work. Instead, Meta used a constellation of internal artificial-intelligence systems—including a system referred to internally as ‘Metamate,’ employee-trained ‘second-brain’ agents, keystroke- and activity-monitoring data, AI-token-usage dashboards, and algorithmically assisted performance ranking and calibration—to score, rank, and select employees for inclusion on the list.” Meta, for its part, says that people made the layoff decisions, and that the claims ‘lack merit.’ This will be interesting as it is truly a case of what the law calls first impression. Stay tuned.

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

NY Bans Data Center Builds for a Year; California Offers Instant Rebates on New EV Buys; Google-Another AI Training Suit; Anthropic Gives Teachers Free Claude AI Premium Access

Posted: July 14, 2026 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

New York has shaken up the AI sector, passing a law banning construction of data centers using 50 megawatts or more. Arstechnica.com reports that the ban won’t be removed until the state figures out what ‘consistent standards’ for responsible data center development will look like. Many municipalities have stopped data center projects over concerns for sapping the power grid and leaving electricity more expensive and sometimes limited availability for regular consumers. Water use is also a huge concern, as is water pollution. At the federal level, Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) have introduced legislation seeking a possible nationwide construction ban. That can’t pass under GOP control, but might next year of the Democrats take the House and Senate. Lots of people across the political spectrum are concerned. 

Since the feds knocked off the EV tax rebate last year, electric vehicle sales have suffered. They have perked up a bit with the high gas prices, but still lag the growth they had before. Now, according to engadget.com, California Governor Gavin Newsom has rolled out a bill that should go into effect later this summer that gives up to $3500 as an instant rebate to new EV buyers purchasing a vehicle costing less than $50,000. If you are looking at a used EV, there is a $1700 rebate on models that cost less than $25,000. The program is only for first time EV buyers. Half the money is coming out of the 2026-27 California budget…with the other half fronted by participating automakers. 

It’s another class action lawsuit against Google. A group of publishers and authors are claiming the tech giant has used their copyrighted works to train its Gemini AI platform. Techcrunch.com notes that the group of plaintiffs, which includes Hachette, Cengage, Elsevier, author Scott Turow, and S.C.R.I.B.E., also alleges that Google intentionally removed or changed copyright information on these works to “conceal… that its Gemini Models were trained on stolen materials,” according to the lawsuit. There are other suits still working their way through the court system…although two early decisions by courts have favored the AI companies, claiming that AI training is ‘fair use’ under copyright law. 

Anthropic is giving teachers free access to premium Claude Features. 9to5mac.com notes that this will apply to teachers teaching K-12. Shades of Apple early on offering discounts on computers to get into the education market, and more importantly to get kids in school used to using Claude as opposed to ChatGPT or Google’s Gemini. Claude for Teachers includes access to both Claude Cowork and Claude Code, giving educators access to the latest AI technologies from Anthropic. The company also recently published a fluency guide for educators interested in using AI in the classroom.

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

← Older Entries
Newer Entries →