Google is updating its AI, branding it Gemini. Up to now Google’s chatbot Bard has been a distant also-ran to ChatGPT. According to gizmodo.com, the new Gemini AI from Google will come in 3 versions. Gemini Nano is the mildest one, made for mobile devices. Then, there is the mid-level Gemini Pro, which is claimed to beat ChatGPT 3.5. The top level Gemini Ultra is one that Google says will be a paid version of Bard Advanced, and will out perform ChatGPT-4. No pricing has been released, and the top level Ultra version hasn’t been given a public release date as yet. 

For several years now, people on Instagram have been able to message you on your Facebook Messenger app, and vice versa. The cross platform messaging never was extended by Meta to WhatsApp due to its end-to-end encryption. Now, bgr,com reports that Meta is removing the capability. You will still be able to see cross-platform convos that you already have, but only in read-only mode. 

I can remember repeatedly telling the kids…back when they WERE kids…that you may as well consider everything you do on the internet as public. Now, we are finding out that governments are spying on smartphone users via their apps’ push notifications. Reuters.com says the tip about this comes from Senator Ron Wyden, who sent a letter to the Department of Justice warning about it. Most apps have push notifications…which you may enable or disable…to alert you to incoming messages, breaking news, and other updates. These are the audible “dings” or visual indicators users get when they receive an email or their sports team wins a game. What users often do not realize is that almost all such notifications travel over Google and Apple servers. After Wyden’s letter, Apple disclosed that they are aware of the governments nosing around in these, but had been prohibited from letting the users know by those governments. They declined to identify the governments making the requests, but a source described them as democracies allied with the US.

Not a fun thing to report or hear about, but an attack has been identified that affects virtually every Windows and Linux machine. It has been named LogoFAIL, and it allows high infections during the boot sequence that are nearly impossible to detect or remove using current defense mechanisms. Arstechnica.com reports that the vulnerabilities have taken almost a year’s worth of work by Binarly, a firm that helps customers identify and secure vulnerable firmware. LogoFAIL involves logos, specifically those of the hardware seller that are displayed on the device screen early in the boot process…before the main OS even loads.  By replacing the legitimate logo images with identical-looking ones that have been specially crafted to exploit these bugs, LogoFAIL makes it possible to execute malicious code at the most sensitive stage of the boot process. You can be sure that teams at Microsoft and various coders of Linux, in addition to device manufacturers, are working hard right now to fix this mess.

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