Amazon has rolled out Nova Act, a general purpose AI agent that can  take control of a web browser and independently perform some simple actions. Techcrunch.com reports that Nova Act will also power major features of the upcoming Alexa Plus upgrade. The version out now isn’t a bit less ready for prime time…Amazon calls it a ‘research preview.’ What it can do, according to Amazon, is automate basic actions on behalf of users, such as ordering salads or making dinner reservations. With the Nova Act toolkit, developers can pull together tools that allow an AI agent to navigate web pages, fill out forms, or pick dates on a calendar.

This Fall’s MacBook Pros will just get a refresh it looks like. Apple will upgrade the laptops to their new M5 chip. According to 9to5mac.com, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman claims in his PowerOn newsletter that there will be a larger overhaul of the MacBook Pro in 2026. That update will bring the M6 chip, an OLED display, and a thinner design. Having dealt with the ’thinner design’ concept in an earlier MacBook Pro myself…and hassled with the infamous ‘butterfly’ keyboard, I am a bit less excited about the 2026 model than I might have been. I still have the old rig as a backup…and it is always a challenge to use it and see if I will get no letter when I hit a key or 11 repeats of that letter. Great for entering passwords!

Google announced over the weekend that it is rolling out the latest Gemini 2.5 model…which is experimental…to all free Gemini app users. 9to5google.com notes that this is the one that  integrates thinking capabilities rather than offering it as a separate variant. It is currently in the “experimental” phase, but has support for a number of features. Previously, Google had just made it available for Gemini Advanced subscribers, with Google One AI Premium at $19.95 a month…but the decision was made to push it out to all Gemini users. 

The Department of Government Efficiency…so-called, is getting a team to work on trying to migrate Social Security’s computer systems completely off COBOL in the next few months. If that doesn’t scare you after they didn’t understand the dating system and thought there were 200 year old recipients getting checks, I don’t know what will! Wired.com reports that normally a migration of this size and scale…some 65 million peoples’ accounts involved….should take much longer. One technologist told Wired “one of the big risks is not underpayment or overpayment per se but [it’s also] not paying someone at all and not knowing about it. The invisible errors and omissions.” In 2017, Social Security got funding to try to move off COBOL, calculating it would take 5 years…but when COVID-19 happened, they took the foot off the gas on that to focus on helping people by phone and web, since offices were closed for a bit. 

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