In a stunning and embarrassing move, Google Maps will rename the Gulf of Mexico the ‘Gulf of America,’ in order to appease new president Donald Trump. 9to5google.com reports that the rest of the world besides the US will see both Gulf of Mexico and ‘Gulf of America.’ The name of Mount Denali in Alaska will also revert to Mount McKinley. Again, non-US users will see both names. Google says it has had a ‘longstanding practice to use official government sources.’ Expect to see these ridiculous changes soon. I can sense the laughter from the rest of the world right now. 

Apple’s big release of the year may not be an iPhone Air or whatever they decide to call the skinny phone. Some Apple watchers think the big push will be the new home unit, being dubbed the ‘HomePad’ instead. According to bgr.com, the gadget will have a 7 inch screen and can be attached to a wall or a base with built in speakers. Such a device will be a major expansion into the home hub market for Apple. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman thinks it will be smaller and cheaper than an iPad and will run its own operating system. With an A18 chip in it, it will be significantly more powerful than the HomePods, which run on an Apple Watch chip. 

Little by little, they keep expanding the territory. Now, Waymo’s robotaxis in Los Angeles are moving from city streets to the metro’s famous…or infamous…freeway system. Techcrunch.com says to expect to see the Alphabet-owned robot vehicles on I-10, 110, 405, and 90 for the time being. The cars will NOT have a safety driver behind the wheel! At first, they will only be transporting company employees, but plan to expand to the general public. Waymo has already been running on highways in the Bay Area on Peninsula and San Francisco freeways.

The Google Play store is adding ‘Verified’ badges of consumer facing VPN apps. 9to5google.com notes that the store already introduced a ‘Government’ badge last year, so this is something of an expansion of that. Google says the VPNs have an ‘independent security review’ in the Data safety section. A banner will also appear in search results. The new ‘Verified’ badge with shield and checkmark will show up next to the app rating and above the install button. Google has a list of requirements the VPN must meet to get verified. 

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