Switch 2-Fastest Selling Console Ever; X Threatened Lawsuits to Get Advertisers Back; Disney & Universal Sue Midjourney Over Copyright Infringement; New Suit Claims Costco Free Shipping Isn’t Free

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

A big win for Nintendo! It’s official…the Switch 2 is the fastest selling game console of all time. Theverge.com reports that Nintendo says it sold more than 3.5 million Switch 2’s in just the first 4 days, passing up records it had set previously with systems, but also others. Niko Partners notes that it took Sony 16 days to sell 2.1 million PS4 consoles, and six weeks to reach 4.2 million units. The Switch 2 has also easily passed up the PS5 launch sales. It took 7 weeks…admittedly during the pandemic…to move 4.4 million units. Will Nintendo be able to continue this torrid pace? No one knows, but they are off to a hell of a start!

It is apparently lawsuit day for this report! According to a story picked up by mashable.com, Elon Musk, his stand-in CEO Linda Yaccarino, and X threatened  several major advertisers with inclusion in their suit against the World Federation of Advertisers where X has accused the group of orchestrating an industry-wide boycott of the social media platform. This all dates back to 2022 when Musk took over Twitter and almost half the major advertisers headed for the exits. Some brands returned, but others didn’t. Now, the alleged message from X’s leadership is explicit: advertise with us, or risk becoming a defendant. Having come from the world of radio, I have to shake my head…I can’t remember anyone in the business threatening to sue an advertiser to get their business. Stay tuned, as they say!

Disney and Universal have sued Midjourney, claiming AI-related copyright infringement. Techcrunch.com says the platform has allegedly trained its art-generating and editing models on their content without permission. In the suit, the plaintiffs have included numerous examples of the studios’ copyrighted characters…like Homer Simpson and Darth Vader. Tech companies including OpenAI have pushed for legal cover to train on publicly available works, including copyrighted works, without having to ask creators for authorization or compensate them. In other words, they want to build their businesses on theft of other folks’ intellectual property. I think Midjourney will lose this…and it should be a warning to others like OpenAI. Disney…never mind Universal…has probably the toughest intellectual property legal department on earth!

A suit filed this week claims Costco misleads online shoppers…by implying free shipping, while the big-box retailer quietly inflates product prices to cover delivery costs. Geekwire.com notes that the suit says Costco displays “$0.00” for shipping during online checkout, leading customers to believe delivery is free when the cost is actually embedded in the product price. Costco acknowledges on its support pages that online prices may include shipping and handling, sometimes leading to higher prices online than in the company’s warehouse stores. However, the lawsuit argues those disclosures are buried in FAQ sections, not presented during checkout or on product pages. I would look for a vigorous defense…Costco can argue that customers know this. People know that ‘free shipping’ on Amazon with Prime isn’t free…nor covered by the membership…the shipping is simply built into the price! The same goes for Costco’s website.

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. 

Google Leak Reveals AI That Web Surfs for You; Nintendo’s Next Gen Switch-Backward Compatible for Gaming; EU Will Fine Apple For App Store DMA Violations; Amazon Kicks off Drone Deliveries in Phoenix

Posted: November 6, 2024 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

We reported about Google’s next iteration of its AI, called Jarvis, last week. Now, bgr.com is reporting that a leak has given us more information about it. Apparently the AI Chrome extension will be able to “take over” your Chrome browser, performing tasks on your behalf like booking a flight or purchasing a product. Apparently, Google accidentally posted an internal preview of the product on the Chrome extension store. Listed as a “helpful companion that surfs the web with you,” Google quickly took it down. Apparently, some Chrome users did download it, but it didn’t work…as the prototype lacked some specific access permissions it needed. Honestly, if you are on the web, and can’t book a flight or buy something without help, I’m not sure AI is the answer for you….even if it ends up being called Jarvis. 

We know Nintendo is planning a newer version of the Switch, but don’t have a date or name…but now, thanks to their mid year policy briefing, we know that it will be able to play current Switch games, and have carryover for your Nintendo Switch Online services and account. According to theverge.com, Nintendo said that there was a drop of 31% in Switch sales the last 90 days…with some 4.72 million sold. Still, Nintendo crowed that ‘More software has been played on Nintendo Switch than on any other Nintendo hardware.’ Backward compatibility is a big issue, because systems haven’t tended to be 100% on it…although Xbox Series X and the Sony PS5 are mainly backward compatible. The Switch 2 or whatever they name it will be out before March 2025, according to Nintendo. 

Apple did not make changes that allowed developers to steer users to cheaper prices outside of the ‌App Store‌. Macrumors.com says the EU is now planning to fine Apple. I know…hard to imagine Apple not directing users to other, cheaper alternatives besides them! Apple did make some changes in August, but it apparently wasn’t good enough for European regulators. The fine amount hasn’t been disclosed, but the EU fined Apple $2 billion for anticompetitive behavior against third party music services earlier this year so that kind of gives us an idea. They could be fined up to 10% of their global annual sales. 

After ending its drone delivery experiment in Southern California, Amazon has kicked off deliveries in the West Valley Phoenix Metro Area. Techcrunch.com reports that people will be able to order relatively small stuff including household, beauty, office, health, and tech supplies. By relatively small, we’re talking 5 pounds or less…but that does include some 50,000 items Amazon sells. Most deliveries will be at your location in an hour or less. Note that these deliveries are only going to be available during daylight hours and ‘favorable’ weather conditions…no heavy winds or heavy rain. Amazon has been testing prescription deliveries for over a year in College Station, Texas, and now they will expand to products like are being offered in the Phoenix area. 

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

iPad Pro OLED May Get M4 Chip; FTC Calls Out Amazon for Using Signal to Hide Comms; Switch 2 May Play All Original Switch Games; TikTok Ban-Minimal Impact on Creator Economy

Posted: April 29, 2024 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

In about a week, we expect to see new iPads, and here’s a late breaking rumor. The OLED screen iPad Pro may be powered my a next generation M4 chip, instead of an M3 as widely expected. Engadget.com picked up the word from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman in his Power On Newsletter. Gurman wrote “I believe Apple will position the tablet as its first truly AI-powered device — and that it will tout each new product from then on as an AI device.” If this is the case, expect big announcements at Apple’s World Wide Developers Conference in June. New AI features have already been predicted for iOS 18 and the upcoming iPhone models…with some features expected to also work on the current crop of iPhones. 

It’s never a good thing when the government tells you to keep communications around for an investigation, and then they find out you are deliberately hiding them. That is what the Federal Trade Commission is accusing Amazon of doing. According to mashable.com, the FTC has accused former top Amazon execs…including former CEO Jeff Bezos…of using Signal, and its automatic message deletion feature to hide communications…and doing so after the FTC ordered it to keep messages around as it was investigated for antitrust violations. No word about what kind of a spanking the FTC will give Amazon, but it’s never good to willfully disobey and order from an agency that can cause your business some pain.

A new rumor would be great news for portable gamers. Nintendo has been pretty vague about whether or not the Switch 2 will run original Switch games. MobaPad, which makes controllers and carrying cases says it is “in the process of developing the next-generation console controller” for the Switch 2 and has “acquired a lot of first-hand information” about the console as a result. the biggest takeaway from MobaPad’s blog post is that “the cartridge slot of the Switch 2 will support backward compatibility with physical Switch game cartridges, ensuring compatibility with players’ existing game libraries, including digital versions.” Game cards designed specifically for the Switch 2, on the other hand, “may not be compatible with the first-generation console.” Backward compatibility is a big deal, as many gamers have significant investments in games, and it is always a great good-will thing when a company allows for backward compatibility. The Switch 2 is expected in early 2025.

As the TikTok ban looms over the next 9 months, some analysts are saying that it will likely have minimal effect on the creator economy. TechCrunch.com reports that the reasoning behind this thinking is that former President Trump already tried banning it in 2020, and since then established creators have diversified to other platforms. The groups that might be affected though are live streamers who monetize via the TikTok Shop…which has a richer feature set than YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels. This is particularly true of political content…which was a good deal of the point of the legislation banning the platform unless the Chinese government and related organizations divest ownership in the next months.

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

EU Opens TikTok Investigation; Patent Office Denies OpenAI Trademark for ChatGPT; Switch 2 Bumped back to 2025; Apple May Get Dinged for a $538 Million Fine by EU

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

The US has been scrutinizing TikTok, and now it is joined by the EU, and the European Commission has announce a formal probe into the social platform’s compliance (or lack thereof) with the Digital Services Act. The act, which was approved late last year and went into effect on Jan. 1, exists to legislate against things like illegal content, disinformation, and targeted advertising. Mashable.com reports that some of the things the EU is looking at include TikTok’s potential use of algorithmic systems to encourage addictive behavior, or what it calls a “rabbit hole effect.” In other words, they’re worried about if TikTok does too much to force you to keep looking at it. Other points of concern include privacy and safety for minors, advertising transparency, and proper age verification for users. If TikTok is found to be in violation of any DSA policies, it may have to fork over as much as 6 percent of its annual turnover. TikTok says it will cooperate with the investigation.

The US Patent and Trademark Office has issued two separate decisions denying OpenAI’s applications to trademark ‘ChatGPT’ and ‘GPT.’ According to geekwire.com, the AI company can appeal to the Trademark Trial and Appeal board within 90 days. The PTO wrote in their decisions that ‘Internet evidence shows that “CHAT” means “a synchronous exchange of remarks over a computer network.” Further, the evidence of record also establishes that “GPT” is a widely used acronym that means “generative pre trained transformers.” OpenAI’s partner Microsoft has applied for trademarks for their version, Copilot, as well as variations on Copilot in conjunction with other brand names. 

A lot of people have been itching to get a Nintendo Switch 2, but now it looks like that itch won’t get scratched until next year. Bgr.com says that a Brazilian game Journalist has heard from 5 separate sources that Nintendo now plans to launch the next version in early 2025. Previously, rumors had the Switch 2 coming out in the fall of this year in order to take advantage of the lucrative holiday selling season. Nintendo also plans to launch their switch 2 games early next year, which makes sense in light of the system coming out then.The original Switch is the third best selling video game console of all time, and it launched in March of 2017…so it’s definitely due for a refresh. 

The EU is considering a 500 euro fine…or $528 million over Apple Music’s treatment of competitors. Appleinsider.com reports that the European Commission is nearly finished with its investigation of whether Apple broke antitrust laws following a 2019 complaint from Spotify, and is on the verge of levying punishments. The official announcement may come in March. Along with the fine will come a ruling that Apple broke EU laws with its App Store anti-steering rules. Apple could be banned from preventing music streaming services from advising customers that they could get a better deal elsewhere than the App Store and the In-App Purchases system. These will apparently be referred to by the EU as “unfair trading conditions.” 

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

Scammers Edit Google Maps; Logitech Looks to Buy Plantronics; Video Game Spending Breaks Record; Disney Spend-More on Parks than All Movie Divisions Together

Posted: November 26, 2018 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Scammers have figured out a new way to separate you from your money, and this one is particularly sneaky. Businessinsider.com reports that Google Maps has let users submit changes and corrections to listings. The hackers change contact info for banks listed via Google Maps, and when customers call what they think is their financial institution, the scammers confirm banking details from the unsuspecting customer and then drain their account! The scam is apparently hottest in India right now, but Google has previously advised that if you need to talk to your bank, get the number off the bank’s website, not from the Maps app!

You may well have or have had a Plantronics Bluetooth earpiece. I’ve had several over the years. Now, cnet.com says Swiss computer accessories giant Logitech has been in discussions about acquiring Santa Cruz, Ca based Plantronics…which was founded by a couple of pilots. The latest as of this morning is that those talks have ended, but it’s been known that the earpiece maker had put itself up for sale. Logitech had apparently offered $2.2 billion before the talks were called off. Plantronics just bought video conferencing equipment maker Polycom for $2 billion in July, so they probably thought the offer was pretty light.

Movies cost a lot to make, but rake in big bucks. Ralph Breaks the Internet pulled down $55.6 million opening weekend. Black Panther is the third highest grossing movie of all time, making $700 million just in the US. Movies pale at the revenue from video games and gaming systems nowadays, though. According to geekwire.com, video game spending hit a new record of $1.5 billion in October, up 75%. The Nintendo Switch and re-release of the NES Classic and a number of hot games raked in the cash. With the holiday quarter still in progress, game and game system makers have to be smiling broadly. 2019 should be big, too…with the remake of Resident Evil 2, Crackdown 3, Dead or Alive 6, and Jump Force all on the way…not to mention Kingdom Hearts 3, which will drop in January.

Disney has dropped a pretty penny to buy Marvel, Pixar, and Lucasfilm, and they make good money on the products. The investments in movie companies pales on what the House of Mouse is pumping into its 6 theme parks around the world, though. Bgr.com reports that Disney is spending or about to spend $24 billion on the parks and new ships for Disney Cruise Line. By comparison, buying Pixar, Marvel, and Lucasfilm only cost Disney $15.4 billion combined! They are finishing up on the Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at Disneyland, and will also complete one at Walt Disney World. The media nets and movies still make more…counting ESPN and ABC, Disney pulled in $6.6 billion for the fiscal year…but that’s down 3%. The parks made $4.5 billion, and that’s up over 100% from 5 years ago!