Oh, so it's tech news you want.
Apple has been making some positively wacky moves lately with notoriously
accurate analyst Mingchi Quo claiming a more affordable MacBook is coming next
year with an A18 Processor.
Yeah, as in the chip that powers the iPhone 16 Pro. If any other company was
putting a phone CPU in a laptop, we'd probably all immediately burst out
laughing. But this is an Apple silicon chip. Scientists don't even know how to
measure its upper limits. I'm pretty sure it could power an Iron Man suit.
Lending some credence to Quo's claim, Mac Rumor said they spotted references
to this iPhone book in some backend code
last year. So Quo also made it clear Apple ain't
giving up on spatial computing just yet,
predicting a new Vision Pro with an M5
chip launching this year, a Vision Air and XR glasses in 2027, followed by a
Vision Pro 2 in 2028. Maybe by then
they'll have stopped trying to slither around EU regulations like they did last
week when they announced a new tiered commission system that punishes iOS app
developers with less visibility on the app store and the removal of basic
features unless they pay Apple a 13%
commission on external purchases. Apple also said they have no choice but to
withhold some iOS 26 features from EU
users due to bureaucratic complexities introduced by the so-called digital
markets act and they implore regulators to consider making it easier for small
businesses such as themselves to make a living and say hi to your mother for me.
The US Supreme Court on Friday upheld a Texas law requiring adult websites to
verify the age of their users, indicating that similar laws passed in
nearly half of all US states are totally fine despite Pornhub ceasing operations
in many of them and horn dogs have nowhere else to go. Twitter's not a
thing anymore. The ruling is igniting dick sores, I mean discourse around how
such laws interact with the first amendment, aka free speech, with some
analysts saying age verification could demolish the internet as a tool for
speech and that the Supreme Court judges are scared of nudity. And while there
are legitimate concerns about how easy it is to legalize censorship as long as
you're doing it to protect the kids, more and more countries and US states
are passing age verification laws for social media, too. Now, if we could just
find a way to do it without forcing people to upload their driver's licenses
or something, because we'd have to start giving kids driver's licenses, and
that's a whole another can of worms. Supposed human person Mark Zuckerberg
has announced all of Meta's AI stuff is
being restructured under a new division called Meta Super Intelligence Labs, led
by Scale AI founder Alexander Wang, who
was recruited earlier this month as part of a 14 billion investment in Scale AI.
Zuck also treated himself to some billionaire fund. You know, he splurged
a bit, offered massive pay packages, and successfully poached 11 top researchers
from Google Anthropic and especially Open AI, where so many employees were
getting meta offers that the company is now re-calibrating compensation for
staff and giving them the whole week off so the execs can please have quiet in
the office for 5 seconds. Meta wants all those AI researchers because A, Meta's
models need some serious work to catch up, and B, they really want AI in every
corner of their products, including Facebook, where users have reported
being shown AI versions of private pictures from their camera roll. This is
a feature, not a bug. In the US, at least some users were shown a pop-up
with allow and disallow options for letting Meta AI automatically AIFI your
private photos. In the EU, some users say they got an email to opt out, which
was likely missed by many. Regardless, you can opt out yourself on the Facebook
mobile app. Can't do it on desktop by going to settings, then preferences,
then camera roll sharing suggestions. Meta AI, the personal AI that
understands you because it already went through all of your How about instead
you go through hell and back in our sponsor, War Thunder, the game that
immerses you in intense combat with more than 2500 incredibly detailed tanks,
planes, helicopters, and ships in one of the most sophisticated vehicle damage
models in gaming. We're talking individual components like engines, fuel
tanks, weapons, and even crew members. This is still a video game. They're a
component all susceptible to damage or disabling by enemy shells or missiles,
different types of which behave differently according to the type of
armor you have equipped. It's science. You can learn about how all those things
interacted to cause you to blow up using the X-ray view, which would be great to
have in real life. Join a worldwide community of over 70 million players in
one of the most comprehensive vehicle combat games ever made. Check out War
Thunder for free today on PC, console, and mobile using our links. What? Now
you want quick bits? Tell me you're
joking. Microsoft is making it easier for
regular non-b businessiness users to stay on Windows 10 for an extra year by
making extended security updates free for users who sync their PC settings to
Windows Backup with their Microsoft account. You can still pay 30 bucks if
you prefer. Or you can now redeem a thousand Microsoft rewards points if you
know what those are, cuz I don't. Microsoft's even just providing an
option in Windows settings to enroll in the ESU program because Windows 10's end
of support in October is fast approaching. And I guess they'll do
anything to stop you from migrating to Linux. For they know the pain that
awaits you there. Anker has announced
another recall for five more of the company's power banks. The A1257,
A1647. I'm not going to read all of those. They don't exactly roll off the tongue.
Unlike the previous recall of the Power Core 10,000 power bank, there are
reportedly no reports of explosions, but Anker figured, hey, why not try being
proactive and do something to stop their batteries from exploding before they
explode? It's weird and new, but they're open-minded. Canada has canled plans to
enact a digital services tax on American tech companies, the first payments of
which were supposed to start coming in today. US President Trump ended all
trade talks with Canada on Friday in response to the tax, which left Canada
feeling pretty dumb. So, you know, sorry
about that. And after making their tiny humanoid robots fight each other
physically, China is making them play the world's most popular game, football.
While humans may love it, the robots show no celebration whatsoever when they
score a goal. But they do capture the spirit of the game perfectly in one
respect. These bots take some of the most dramatic dives I've ever seen for
no discernable reason at all. Oh, what? They're bringing out the stretcher. Come
on. He's fine. I won't be fine if you
don't come back on Wednesday for more tech news, though. It'll be as emotionally damaging to me as it is to
soccer players, none of whom have ever suffered a single real injury. I love
sports.