Sony is working on a handheld gaming console that will let users play PS 5 games anywhere. Theverge.com reports that this will put Sony into the fray with Nintendo, Microsoft, and The Valve Steam Deck. That’s all well and good, but the reporting has the portable ‘years away from launch.’ Not so good for Sony. While Sony fiddles, Nintendo will have a next gen successor to its very popular Switch console next year. Microsoft is developing its own Xbox prototype…but that also may be a few years out, as with Sony. This doesn’t leave the market entirely to Nintendo…Valve has already put out a second generation Steam Deck that plays its games. 

Amazon has pumped another $4 billion into AI maker Anthropic, the people that make the Claude large language model that is the biggest competitor for OpenAI’s ChatGPT. According to arstechnica.com, this will bring Amazon’s stake to $8 billion…but they do remain in a minority investor position at that level. One key behind the deal…chips. While Nvidia currently dominates the AI chip market with customers that include most major tech companies, some cloud providers like Amazon have begun developing their own AI-specific processors. Under the agreement, Anthropic will train and deploy its foundation models using Amazon’s custom-built Trainium (for training AI models) and its Inferentia chips (for AI inference, the term for running trained models). The company will also work with Amazon’s Annapurna Labs division to advance processor development for AI applications.

We have previously reported that iOS 18 and later updates make it harder for hackers…as well as governments…to get into your phone. Now, none other than the NSA…the National Security Agency…warns that you should turn your phone on and off at least once a week. Why? Zdnet.com says the government spy agency indicates that doing so will make it harder for hackers to steal info from your phone. The feds also say to update your apps, and update your operation system regularly. You also ought to avoid public networks…just use cellular unless you have a VPN for your phone. 

In one of the wilder stories I’ve seen, some researchers have figured out a way to grow plants without sunlight. Bgr.com reports that they are doing so through what they call electro-agriculture. Simply put, they leverage electricity to power plant growth, bypassing the need for photosynthesis. The scientists have engineered plants capable of thriving in total darkness, feeding off acetate instead of sunlight, making it possible to grow plants without sunlight. And the implications of this breakthrough are absolutely staggering. Some researchers believe that it could lower the land needed for agriculture by as much as 90 percent. Imagine freeing up vast tracts of farmland for reforestation or conservation while growing crops in vertical indoor farms closer to urban centers. Combined with the ongoing success of lab-grown meats, we could be on the verge of a food industry revolution.

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