Tag: ai

Google Frozen Chip-Gemini Baked In; TSMC is Hastening Arizona Factory Build; YouTube Clarifies AI Slop Policies; Apple Genius Bar-Now with AI Summary for Customers

July 20th, 2026

Google is trying something a bit radical. They are baking Gemini right into chips. The chip is the ‘Frozen V2’, at least internally. Thenextweb.com reports that up to now, AI firms have just loaded their models on to general purpose chips. With Gemini baked in, the Google chips could be 6 to 10 times more efficient than their latest custom AI chips…at least measured by tokens served per unit of power. Google plans to have the chips in use by 2028. The chips will be faster, more efficient, and that will reduce cost. There is a big caveat, though….chips with today’s Gemini AI baked in may be pretty dated by 2028, if AI keeps moving at the speed it has up to now.

TSMC is pushing to accelerate capacity at its Arizona factory as the firm continues to see what they are calling a ‘multi-year mega trend’ from customers. According to cnbc.com, Taiwan Semiconductor will pump an additional $100 billion in to aggressively expand its US chipmaking footprint. This will put TSMC’s total investment in the Arizona plant at some $265 billion.

YouTube is cracking down more on AI slop, clarifying its policies on how content on the platform can be monetized. TechCrunch.com notes that the idea is to discourage creators from using AI and other tools to make low quality content. YouTube’s new policy describes three types of videos under the broad category of ‘inauthentic content’ that can’t be monetized. YouTube says the 3 buckets are…one—generic, repetitive, or template-based content, two—off-putting or distressing content, and thirdly— any content where AI personas are used to discuss sensitive topics, like health and finance. YouTube is trying to make things a bit clearer than just ‘you’ll know it when you see it,’ as has been a long-time rule for adult content. Any YouTube channel that has too much of any of the three types of content will not be able to monetize.

This really doesn’t seem like a big jump into AI, but Apple has stated recording and AI summarizing conversations at its Genius Bars. Gizmodo.com reports that the new pilot program is called ‘Live Notes,’ and it is being positioned as a time-saving tool for the store employees. Right now, it is just in a limited number of stores. What happens is that a recording of a conversation between an Apple employee and the customer is auto-transcribed and summarized. It is then stored in the ‘record of repair session’ on the Genius Bar employee’s work iPad. Some Apple employees are worried that this could be used for monitoring and evaluating employees. It does kind of smack of keystroke monitoring software and the like, but time will tell. More and more invasive monitoring can make a workplace pretty unbearable to employees when it is misused…which is pretty much always.

I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.
Google Will Allow 3rd Party App Stores; Stripe Makes Offer for PayPal; Apple bumps AppleCare+ Prices on Macs & iPads; Suit-Meta Layoffs Used AI to Fire Workers with Disabilities

July 15th, 2026

Google will be opening up Android phones to third party app stores in the US soon. Engadget.com reports that Google has launched a dedicated page for its Play catalog Access Program. Third party US Android app stores will be able to access the Play store’s catalog of apps beginning on July 22nd. App downloads through the third-party stores will still be completed through Google Play. The company’s service fees will also apply to apps downloaded through the external stores. Google said in its announcements that it’s implementing the change to comply with a court order, which came from its lengthy legal battle against Epic Games.

Stripe has laid on the table a $60.50 per share bid to buy PayPal. That is a 28% premium over the price at close Tuesday, and amounts to some $53 billion to buy the company. According to benzinga.com, an earlier offer in April went unanswered, but this time, the buyers are pushing for an agreement by the end of July. This would connect two components of a payment ecosystem…the merchant back end structure Stripe dominates, and PayPal’s consumer-facing wallet. PayPal has 439 million active accounts. Some tech finance watchers don’t think there will be a deal for less than $80 a share, and a few are saying it ought to be as much as $115. If this deal does happen, expect it to one way or another cost you more as a consumer…but on the flip side, it will make it all the more frictionless as the expression goes to make purchases.

Apple is goosing the price for AppleCare+ a bit on new iPads and Macs. 9to5mac.com says that…effective today…prices are up by 50 cents a month or $5 per year. If you have an older Mac or iPad and are on the plan, your price won’t go up…for now. That is good to know…this report was written on a first generation MacBook Pro with the original Apple silicon. Looks like I’d better be ready for not only a higher price for the replacement computer but also for the AppleCare Plus plan, too. My wallet is crying out with pain…

A class action suit against Meta alleges that in the AI powered layoffs of some 8,000 employees targeted workers with disabilities and those who took protected medical or family leaves. The suit alleges quote: “Meta did not assemble the termination list through the considered judgment of managers who knew the work. Instead, Meta used a constellation of internal artificial-intelligence systems—including a system referred to internally as ‘Metamate,’ employee-trained ‘second-brain’ agents, keystroke- and activity-monitoring data, AI-token-usage dashboards, and algorithmically assisted performance ranking and calibration—to score, rank, and select employees for inclusion on the list.” Meta, for its part, says that people made the layoff decisions, and that the claims ‘lack merit.’ This will be interesting as it is truly a case of what the law calls first impression. Stay tuned.

I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.
NY Bans Data Center Builds for a Year; California Offers Instant Rebates on New EV Buys; Google-Another AI Training Suit; Anthropic Gives Teachers Free Claude AI Premium Access

July 14th, 2026

New York has shaken up the AI sector, passing a law banning construction of data centers using 50 megawatts or more. Arstechnica.com reports that the ban won’t be removed until the state figures out what ‘consistent standards’ for responsible data center development will look like. Many municipalities have stopped data center projects over concerns for sapping the power grid and leaving electricity more expensive and sometimes limited availability for regular consumers. Water use is also a huge concern, as is water pollution. At the federal level, Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) have introduced legislation seeking a possible nationwide construction ban. That can’t pass under GOP control, but might next year of the Democrats take the House and Senate. Lots of people across the political spectrum are concerned.

Since the feds knocked off the EV tax rebate last year, electric vehicle sales have suffered. They have perked up a bit with the high gas prices, but still lag the growth they had before. Now, according to engadget.com, California Governor Gavin Newsom has rolled out a bill that should go into effect later this summer that gives up to $3500 as an instant rebate to new EV buyers purchasing a vehicle costing less than $50,000. If you are looking at a used EV, there is a $1700 rebate on models that cost less than $25,000. The program is only for first time EV buyers. Half the money is coming out of the 2026-27 California budget…with the other half fronted by participating automakers.

It’s another class action lawsuit against Google. A group of publishers and authors are claiming the tech giant has used their copyrighted works to train its Gemini AI platform. Techcrunch.com notes that the group of plaintiffs, which includes Hachette, Cengage, Elsevier, author Scott Turow, and S.C.R.I.B.E., also alleges that Google intentionally removed or changed copyright information on these works to “conceal… that its Gemini Models were trained on stolen materials,” according to the lawsuit. There are other suits still working their way through the court system…although two early decisions by courts have favored the AI companies, claiming that AI training is ‘fair use’ under copyright law.

Anthropic is giving teachers free access to premium Claude Features. 9to5mac.com notes that this will apply to teachers teaching K-12. Shades of Apple early on offering discounts on computers to get into the education market, and more importantly to get kids in school used to using Claude as opposed to ChatGPT or Google’s Gemini. Claude for Teachers includes access to both Claude Cowork and Claude Code, giving educators access to the latest AI technologies from Anthropic. The company also recently published a fluency guide for educators interested in using AI in the classroom.

I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.
Samsung Deletes Health Data If You Don’t Let Train AI; LAPD Lets Flock Contract Expire; Apple Stock in Record Territory-Traders Souring on AI; 200 Experts Urge Action Re AI Effects on Jobs

July 13th, 2026

In a move that smacks of extortion, Samsung will delete your health data if you refuse to let it use your data to train its AI. Androidpolice.com reports that there is a new option in Samsung Health settings…it lets you turn off Samsung’s ability to use your data to train its AI models. That’s a good thing, BUT…there’s always a but…If you turn it off, then a warning pops up, informing you that turning this option off will delete your existing Samsung Health data and stop any further syncing with Samsung’s servers. It is pretty distressing that the largest smartphone maker by market share is using its might to hold your data hostage to their hungry AI model training program. They are no doubt betting that most people will just say ‘Oh, well,’ and go ahead and let them. A few will opt out, and their health data will go ‘poof.’ This is really not cool.

A number of municipalities are growing more and more uneasy about the intrusiveness of Flock cameras, as people have raised concerns…and hell at public meetings…over the invasion of privacy of the intrusive cameras. Now, the Los Angeles police will let a contract with Flock expire. According to TechCrunch.com, LAPD’s Chief Information Officer Dean Gialamas said in a statement “This contract is not being renewed because of serious concerns around civil liberties and civil rights issues, particularly around privacy and the data that is being collected from these cameras. The LAPD had to make a difficult decision, in this case discontinuing using Flock services until we can get those data, privacy, security and sharing concerns ironed out through a contractual relationship.” As the third-largest police department in the U.S., the LAPD is one of Flock’s largest government customers to date. Flock has a network of at least 80,000 cameras around the U.S. that scan license plates and allow police and federal agencies to track vehicles.

Apple stock is up 15%, adding nearly $600 billion in value since June 25th…putting them back in record territory. Macrumors.com notes that the uptick has come as investors grow uneasy about the mind-boggling sums of cash continually being poured into the AI data center buildout, despite there being no obvious indicator for when investors will get a return on their investment. Apple’s decision to sit out the data center spending spree and instead pay Google for access to its frontier AI models is being increasingly seen by traders as an asset rather than a liability. Apple is using Google’s Gemini to underpin the revamped version of Siri and new Apple Intelligence features across its platforms.

Over 200 researchers and economists, including 15 Nobel laureates and also researchers at AI companies Google, Anthropic, and OpenAI are urging governments and tech leaders to immediately put polices in place and set up institutions to address the economic impact of AI. Reuters.com reports that the group signing on to the statement are warning that the economic transformation could exceed the Industrial Revolution and do so in a ‘vastly shorter’ time frame…affecting workers, companies, and public institutions. “Steam, electricity, and computers each gave societies decades to adapt. AI may give us only a ‌few ⁠years,” said Anton Korinek, professor at the University of Virginia. He continued “We cannot improvise our strategy and institutions in the middle of the transformation; waiting for certainty means arriving too late.”

I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.
Apple Cuts Deal to Buy $30 Billion in US-Made Broadcom Chips; OpenAI’s GPT-5.6 Gets Public Release; Bezos’ Blue Origin Taps Outside Money; Browser Extension- Hides Knock-Offs on Amazon

July 8th, 2026

Apple has inked a deal with Broadcom to buy $30 billion worth of wireless chips that are made in the US. Engadget.com reports that Broadcom will design and make custom chips “for a wide range of Apple products.” Apparently, $1.5 billion of the total will go into upgrading a Broadcom facility in Fort Collins, Colorado, which will be used to make ‘advanced radio frequency components.’ The information about the deal from the two companies indicates that there will be some ’15 billion US-made chips’ produced. Broadcom itself doesn’t have extensive manufacturing resources, and outsources production to various suppliers, including TSMC.

OpenAI is finally bowing its ‘strongest model yet’ this week. GPT-5.6 Sol is now coming out after weeks of delays due to government concerns. According to mashable.com, OpenAI has spent weeks working on “strengthened protections for higher-risk activity, sensitive cyber requests, and repeated misuse.” Arch competitor Anthropic also has had to deal with restraints from the US government on its Fable 5 and Mythos 5. I have to think while wearing my attorney hat that if these large language models are so damned dangerous, the products liability exposure ought to be massive. We may see a whole new army of lawyers coming after these firms before long with some enormous class action suits.

When you are one of the richest people on the planet, you can run a space company out of your wallet. Jeff Bezos has been doing that with Blue Origin, but now, he is turning to outside funding. Thenextweb.com notes that Bezos has bankrolled the company for the last 25 years, but now is closing a $10 billion round of funding. The deal values the rocket company at about $130 billion. It is not lost on tech observers that this is happening just as Elon Musk’s SpaceX has completed that biggest IPO ever. While Blue Origin trails SpaceX right now, the blast of cash may help them change that.

They are sometimes clever, and other times blatantly copy name brand goods. You have no doubt run across these sketchy items. Now, bgr.com reports thee is a browser extension that will filter them out. It is just called Knockoff—Amazon Brand Filter, and it eliminates “pseudo-brands”. The extension runs inside either Google Chrome or Firefox. They claim to check bands against a list of some 5,000 approve names. You can also customize it by blocking or trusting any brand on the results page. A handy plug in for Amazon shoppers.

I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.
Google Pixel Event August 12th; Meta Bows AI Image Model-Muse Image; Startup Gets Dealers to Bid Against Each Other for Your Used Car; FCC Drops Biden Era Rule for ISPs to Disclose All Fees

July 7th, 2026

Google will hold an event for Pixel 11 and Pixel Watch 5 on August 12th. According to 9to5google.com, The event will be in New York City for the second year in a row. In the invite, you can see the gold, shiny metal frame of a Pixel. Google ie expected to roll out the Pixel 11, 11 Pro, 11 Pro XL and 11 Pro Fold. The designs are predicted to stay pretty well the same, except for a reported ‘Pixel Glow’ indicator. The Watch 5 will be presented, and possibly an update Pixel Buds Pro.

Meta has rolled out Muse Image, its first gen AI image model built by its Superintelligence Labs Division. According to thenextweb.com, the model is first bowing inside the Meta AI chatbot, and it will also be embedded across Instagram and WhatsApp. Users can generate images from text prompts or modify existing photos. The headline feature lets users create images featuring friends or creators based on their publicly available Instagram posts. For users who won’t want their content reused or remixed by AI, Meta has an opt out in the settings menu. All AI images will have an invisible watermark, and Meta says there are safety precautions to prevent violations of its terms of service…including protections for children. Totally obvious…advertisers will soon have access to the model for creating marketing materials.

Turnabout is fair play, it looks like. For many years, a lot of large car dealerships used what had been called ‘the turnover system’ or ‘Go System’ to bounce buyers between the salesman and managers, in a system designed to extract more money out of buyers. One of the managers would be the used car manager that bids your trade in, and tells the salesperson how much they can allow for your car. (Disclosure: I ran my family’s small car dealership for 10 years…but we didn’t use such a system…only my Dad and I sold new cars…the old fashioned way…our word on the phone was the price. Back to the story, though. Now, techcrunch.com says there is a startup that pits dealerships against one another to bid on your used car. BidBus is the startup, and they claim with their digital marketplace, getting multiple dealers to bid on your car, you can get an average offer that is about $2,000 to $3,000 more than what Carvana offers, for example. Right now, Bidbus is just in California and Texas, but they have raised another $15 million in backing, and are planing to move into other states. If you are planning to trade cars or buy a new one in the near future, it would definitely be worth your while to check out Bidbus. Two to three grand is real money…and going into your pocket or reducing the cost of your new car.

The administration rolls on, dropping more consumer friendly rules. This time, it’s the FCC…axing a rule from the Biden administration that forced ISPs to list all their fees. Arstechnica.com reports that the providers will no longer have to list all of their so-called ‘passthrough’ fees on an easily accessible broadband price label. The FCC may also vote to make the price labels themselves harder to find. ISPs routinely advertise prices much lower than those actually charged to consumers on their monthly bills. One method of raising monthly bill prices above advertised rates is to tack on fees that, ISPs claim, are used to offset charges imposed by local governments. Expect more so-called ‘junk fees’ and hidden charges on your cable bill.

I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.
Gemini Personalized AI Generation Free to All; Meta Contractors Posed as Teens to Check Competitor Chatbots; Apple May Have to Allow 3rd Party App Payments in Britain, South Korea-Spending A Trillion on Memory Chip Production Boost

June 30th, 2026

Gemini’s personalized Nano Banana-powered personalized image generation feature is now free for all eligible users in the US. TechCrunch.com reports that up to now, Google has only made it available to Plus, Pro, and Ultra subscribers. The Google Gemini Personal Intelligence feature allowing users to create images that reflect their unique interests. This means that images can be generated based on Gemini’s understanding of your likes and preferences without you having to specify them in your prompt. Gemini utilizes data from your Google account connections— such as Gmail, Google Photos, YouTube, and Search—to achieve this. It can also pull actual images from your Google Photos…so you don’t have to manually upload the pics. Google notes that the Gemini AI chatbot exceeded 750 million monthly active users earlier this year. That’s way more than a niche.

In an interesting bit of something resembling corporate espionage, Meta had hundreds of contractors pose as minors online and probe how competitor chatbots responded to prompts involving suicide, sex, eating disorders, and other high-risk subjects, according to internal documents and five people familiar with the project. According to wired.com, the effort targeted OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google Gemini, and Character dot AI. The contractors were asked to create dummy under-18 accounts, send written prompts and images to rival chatbots, and copy the responses into spreadsheets. Some of the images contractors sent included pills, knives, nooses, and a medical diagram of a gynecological procedure. Out of nearly 4,000 prompts reviewed by Wired, hundreds focused on suicide and self harm, and there were about 240 involving sex or romance. There were a number that involved drugs, profanity and racial slurs. Meta has cast the effort as routine safety testing. Wired had a couple of attorneys look at the spreadsheets, and they opined that at least the work violates the terms of service of the competitors…and at worst could amount to anti-competitive practices.

The Brits are considering following what the Europeans have done..that is, forcing Apple to allow 3rd party app payments as well as Apple Pay rivals. 9to5mac.com notes that the British antitrust regulator has proposed forcing Apple to allow developers to link to third-party payment options to purchase apps and subscriptions outside of the App Store. The proposal would specifically ban Apple from using the same forms of “malicious compliance” it has tried in both the US and EU. The EU required Apple to permit third-party app stores, while a US court ruled that developers have the right to direct iPhone users to third-party payment platforms for app purchases and subscriptions. Britain’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is now proposing to apply this latter rule in the UK. The CMA also proposes to force Apple to allow third-party rivals to the Apple Wallet app for contactless payments. This would enable competitors to Apple Pay.

The South Korean government and big tech companies are ponying up to the tune of a trillion dollars for several flagship mega-projects that could boost the global memory chip supply…something badly needed what with AI server centers gobbling up a big share of the chip supply. Arstechnica.com reports that the firms include giant Samsung and SK Hynix as well. Hyundai Motor Co is also hustling to build out humanoid robots via its Boston Dynamics subsidiary. South Korean President Le Jae Myung said in a speech “We must secure the core elements of AI faster than any other country.” Between the South Koreans, China, the US, and others…the race is on!

I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.
Supremes-Geofence Searches Require Warrants; Comcast Splitting Broadband & Media Properties; Memory Chip Supply Stays Tight-Apple Looking to Buy From China; Tidal-No Royalties for AI-Generated Music

June 29th, 2026

Law enforcement will have to get search warrants when using a ‘geofence’ to try to determine if a phone and its owner were within such an area. The Supreme Court ruled that “an individual has a reasonable expectation of privacy in his cell-phone location information.” TechCrunch.com reports that this means people have privacy rights when it comes to the location history collected by their phones, as well as the services and apps running on them. The court ruling means authorities need to obtain a search warrant when asking tech companies, such as Google, for the location data of their users, including when requesting historical geofence location data.

Comcast will separate its media businesses from its broadband and mobile. According to arstechnica.com, the firm plans to finalize the breakup within a year via a tax-free spin-off of NBCUniversal and Sky. The latest split will create a media giant with operations spanning Universal Studios, the Peacock streaming platform, and Sky outside the US. NBCUniversal owns media assets such as NBC, Telemundo, and DreamWorks as well as theme parks and resorts. Comcast will be left with a broadband and wireless network business reaching 65 million customers across the US.

Apple is lobbying the US government to let them buy memory chips from China in the face of shortages caused by the hogging of the chips by the fast growth of AI data centers. Benzinga.com notes that Apple’s efforts are aimed at lowering memory costs. Noted analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has written that the “memory supply-demand gap will keep widening through 2027.” Right now, Kuo estimates that 15% to 20% of memory capacity currently allocated to consumer electronics in 2026 could be redirected to AI data centers in 2027, with that share likely to increase further.

Tidal is going to tag completely AI generated music with an AI badge, then block it from royalties and direct-to-fan sales. Thenextweb.com reports that Tidal will also remove AI tracks that impersonate artists. In this, Tidal joins Deezer, which has also taken an aggressive position against AI generated tracks. Deezer has said that some 44% of tracks uploaded to its platform daily are fully AI generated. Deezer actively removes them from recommendations, excludes them from editorial playlists, and offers detection tech to rival platforms. For its part, Spotify labels AI tracks and filters spam, but allows AI tools in the music creating process. Apple music introduced transparency tags this spring that let labels and distributors disclose when AI played a role in a tracks creation. The big difference at Tidal: demonetization. Will cutting off the money stanch the flow of AI slop music tracks? We may know soon.

I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.
Samsung Hikes Prices before Prime Day; Getty Images Makes Deal with OpenAI, Polymarket Allegedly Paid Creators to Post Bets They Didn’t Make; Valve-Steam Machine Starts at $1049

June 22nd, 2026

The price pressure due to AI data enters gobbling up memory like Pac Man is now getting to consumers. Apple has warned that they will have to raise prices and can’t absorb the increased cost of memory any longer. Now, Samsung has announced that it will bump prices on its Galaxy line. Androidpolice.com reports that most Galaxy smartphones will get an $80 price hike just ahead of Prime Day. The entry level phones will be hiked by $40. Tablets will get bumped up from $100 to $280 depending on memory configuration. Your old phone as a trade in can ease the pain. Samsung is offering up to a $720 credit towards a Galaxy S26 ultra. Some carriers are doing even better…Verizon is offering up to $1300 in promotional billing credits for customers trading in a qualified tier-one phone and signing up for a new unlimited plan…though you will be locked in for 36 months.

After fighting AI firms in court vigorously over the use of its stock photos, Getty Images has now inked an agreement with OpenAI to allow its pictures inside ChatGPT. Getty’s licensed content libraries will appear across the search and discovery features of ChatGPT, so that when a user asks the chatbot something that calls for an image, the visual it gets back can be a licensed Getty photograph rather than a synthetic approximation. Interestingly, neither side disclosed financial terms, a revenue split, and nothing about whether or not Getty’s images can be used to train future OpenAI models. Getty is still fighting with other AI firms over the use of its copyrighted stock photo library.

There has been plenty of controversy about Polymarket, and now we have more. Techcrunch.com says that Polymarket has been paying online creators to post deceptive videos that show them making lucrative bets on the prediction market. The Wall Street Journal analyzed over 1000 videos about Polymarket, and uh, oh. Many of those videos were reportedly filmed on “near-perfect copies” of the Polymarket website, while featuring trades and winnings that were not real. The creator videos were then amplified by a “social-media army” deployed by a marketing contractor. Polymarket said it is “committed to maintaining accurate, fair, and transparent markets” and plans to conduct an audit of its promotional content.

Valve has finally announced that the long-awaited Steam Machine..its living room PC gaming box…will go on sale June 29th starting at $1049. Theverge.com reports that you can put your name in to register, and get on the wait list. The Steam Machine will have 4 configurations, running from the base model at $1049 up to the most tricked-out version with a bundled Steam Controller for $1428. The two higher priced models come with 2 swappable faceplates…’red fabric’ and ‘solid walnut.’ The Steam Machine is a pricy device compared with the Microsoft Xbox or Sony PS5. The big selling point over the gaming platforms is that the Steam Machine is also a powerful Linux computer, too.

I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.
Consumers Iffy About AI in Brand Messaging; New Google Smart Speaker with Gemini; Android 17 Rolls Out to Pixel Phones & Watches; White House App Will Auto-Install on Homeland Security Devices

June 17th, 2026

Techcrunch.com notes that a new report out from WordPress VIP indicates that 60% of consumers say that brands that use “AI” in their messaging are a turnoff, and 86% don’t fully trust AI and still want to explore original sources. Notably, 42% of consumers said that AI-generated answers without clear attribution are trusted less than airline fees, confusing privacy policies, and medical bills. Almost 3/4 of those surveyed said the internet feels ‘less human’ than it did 10 years ago. The report is based on a survey of 2,000 respondents conducted in April, comprising 800 enterprise decision-makers and CMOs and 1,200 U.S. adults.

Google is about to release the first new Google Home Speaker in years. The launch for the new $100 speaker is June 25th. According to mashable.com, Google is bragging that this will be the first smart speaker in its stable that was made with Gemini AI commands in mind. The new little speaker is available in Hazel, Porcelain, Jade, and Berry. Google claims that with Gemini, the speaker will be able to respond to natural language commands and complex commands. Sounds like a great deal for $99, right? Oh, but there’s a catch. If you want to take advantage of all the new tricks the Google speaker can do, you have to drop $10 a month for a Google Home Premium subscription. If you already subscribe to Google AI Pro or Ultra, you will automatically get access at no additional cost.

Android 17 is starting to roll out to Pixel phones, and Wear OS for Pixel Watches is being pushed out, too. Arstechnica.com notes that Google no longer uses an unmodified version of Android on its phones—the Pixel build includes numerous features that are distinct from Android 17 itself. Other device makers will include versions of some of these features when they eventually update their phones, but for now, Google’s Pixel phones are the only way to experience Android 17. A notable feature is the Bubbles system. You can long press on any app icon to open the apps a floating window. When minimized, the bubbles stay on top of otters apps. Google says this interface is ideal for quick multitasking or chatting with Gemini while looking at other content. Other smartphones will get it besides Pixels later. It is worth point out that Samsung has had a floating app framework for years and Google itself has had a similar feature for a while now.

In a truly Trump intrusive fashion, the White House app will now be installed on all devices managed by the Department of Homeland Security…whether the user likes it or not. Engadget.com reports that the installations may be extended to all federal agencies’ phones in the future. The app is described as “a convenient way to access official White House communications, including announcements, executive actions, speeches, livestreams, videos and other updates.” In other words, it is pretty much a propaganda app.

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