Netflix is testing a TikTok style feed of vertical video for its mobile app as a way to help you discover new programs to watch. Theverge.com reports the test will start in just weeks. From the clips, you’ll be able to watch the show or movie right away, or you can add it to your list of saved things to watch or pass the clip along to a friend. The controls are in the bottom-right corner of the screen, much like on TikTok. Netflix is also going to roll out a revamped design for its TV app…all to help you binge even more and stay on Netflix longer. 

Apple is adding AI search providers to the Safari browser on iPhones, iPads, and Macs. According to 9to5mac.com, word of this comes from court testimony by Apple SVP Eddy Cue. He said “we will add them to the list — they probably won’t be the default” in reference to providers like Perplexity and Anthropic. Cue also said that the number of searches through Safari fell for the first time ever in April, suggesting users are looking to AI sources as alternative ways to find information. Apple has had a deal for years with Google whereby Google payed them a large sum to be the default search on the Safari browser…currently Apple takes in about $20 billion a year from its share of revenue from Google searches using Safari on Apple devices. While it is unlikely that Apple can replace that sum with one AI provider like OpenAI, it certainly might using multiple ones. 

WhatsApp has won a jury award of $167 million in punitive damages against NSO Group out of Israel for hacking the phones of thousands of users. Arstechnica.com notes that the jury also awarded $444 million in compensatory damages. WhatsApp sued NSO in 2019 for an attack that targeted roughly 1,400 mobile phones belonging to attorneys, journalists, human-rights activists, political dissidents, diplomats, and senior foreign government officials. NSO, which works on behalf of governments and law enforcement authorities in various countries, exploited a critical WhatsApp vulnerability that allowed it to install NSO’s proprietary spyware Pegasus on iOS and Android devices.

The Energy Star program for appliances, around since 1992, is getting terminated if the Trump Administration has its way. Engadget.com reports that the program has helped people save some $500 billion in energy costs the past 33 years. It’s technically illegal for a presidential administration to end this program without Congress, but the same goes for many of Trump’s pronouncements and executive orders. It’s a curious move, since if you crunch the numbers…for $32 million a year, it has saved families over $40 billion a year in annual energy costs…an annual return of $350 for every federal dollar invested. 

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