I can't believe Android would do something like this! Back in my day, I was a teeny little baby boy.
That's not related, but it is true. Some Android users are being blocked from
side-loading apps and instead forced to download them from the Play Store. It's a weird move,
since side-loading has been one of Android's main selling points, whereas the iPhone's selling
point was not getting bullied over the color green. Android users who have side-loaded certain apps
have received unsurpassable pop-ups, prompting them to install the app from the Play Store instead.
There are some issues with enforcing this. For starters, some apps can't be downloaded from
the Play Store in certain regions. On top of that, this affects users of alternate operating systems
like the privacy and security-focused graphing OS. And on top of that, I'm uncomfortable with the
idea of being told what to do by a f***ing rectangle! Not all restrictions are bad. For example,
Android 15 will restrict sensitive permissions like being able to listen to notifications from
side-loaded apps by default, which can prevent malicious apps from accessing your data. It's
just weird to me that Android apps are being restricted at the same time that Apple is preparing
to allow third-party app stores on EU iPads. I mean, what is it? Opposite day? OpenAI has released
01? Allegedly, the company's first family to have reasoning skills. In their official announcement,
OpenAI said 01 was trained to spend more time thinking about problems before responding,
like a person would. I feel like that's kind of an inaccurate description of people based on, you
know, all of history. Whatever the reason, thanks to OpenAI's overestimation of what a person is
capable of, 01 is apparently far more accurate than their previous model, GPT-4O, at answering math,
coding, and PhD-level science questions. Even more impressively, it nearly passed the
I'm Not Your Buddy guy test, developed by totally real Canadian computer scientist,
Terrence and Philip. Now, before you get all excited about using 01, you should know that
there are some massive restrictions that nobody will be able to bypass. Not only is the model
unable to browse the web or analyze files, but users are also limited to 30 or 50 messages a week,
depending on the model version. On top of that, at least one of the models, the 01 preview,
is up to four times more expensive than GPT-4O. On the plus side, it hasn't expressed a desire
to bring about the downfall of mankind, at least not yet. The US government is allegedly asking
NVIDIA and Apple to kindly use Intel's foundries. What? In case you weren't aware,
Intel has been having a bit of a rough go. Apparently CEO Pat Gelsinger was so upset,
he went and cried to mom. Or rather, United States Commerce Secretary Gina Ramondo.
In a meeting with Ramondo, Gelsinger apparently expressed frustration with America's reliance on
TSMC for chip production. Ramondo, like any support a parent would do, then set up private
meetings with the shareholders of NVIDIA and Apple, hoping to convince the shareholders to
convince the companies to give US foundries a shot. It's a bit interesting to see the US government
indirectly help Intel in this way, specifically because they're currently withholding billions
of dollars in funding from the company. Around $20 billion under the CHIPS Act,
but that's because it's all dependent on Intel's promises to actively establish semiconductor
facilities inside the US. It turns out that's kind of hard to do when your business is a little bit
on fire, including your processors. It's a real fire sale. Meanwhile, TSMC's trial production
at its Arizona fab last week produced yield rates on par with their Taiwanese facilities,
probably making Intel's all-time low field just a little bit lower.
And Pat Gelsinger's already pretty short. Is he? Oh, sorry, I'm just used to short people around all the time.
Our quick bits, they're quicker than Vin Diesel when he's running late to a family reunion,
because family. Speaking of family, the final specs of Intel's upcoming Arrow Lake desktop
CPU family have been leaked by a Chinese outlet, Bench Life, merely a week after a UK retailer
accidentally listed the chips on its site. I'm kind of starting to feel bad for Intel,
I'm not. While the CPUs are expected to be officially announced on October 10th,
Bench Life claims they won't be released until October 24th. Haha, better wait.
But you should maybe consider buying one. For Pat Gelsinger's sake, if not anyone else,
if enough sell, he might stop crying. But he definitely won't get taller.
Several AI vendors such as Microsoft, OpenAI, and Anthropic have apparently committed to help
combat non-consensual deep fakes and child sexual abuse material.
Around the same time, Meta, Snap, and TikTok have formed an unholy alliance to stop the
spread of self-harm content. Which is good, since those three companies' platforms are
not exactly known for being good for people. The coalition hopes that they'll be able to share
what problematic content they've found on their platform so that other members can easily find
it on their own platforms. I never thought I'd see the day when Meta, Snap, and TikTok share
data for good. I mean, they're not really doing it for good, they're just doing it because they
have to, right? I mean, they did it voluntarily. Really? Are you sure?
On a completely different note, Uber is adding autonomous taxis to its apps in Austin and Atlanta,
thanks to a partnership with Waymo. So don't be too surprised if you hail a ride sometime in
early 2025 and an empty car shows up. App users can apparently increase the likelihood of getting
chauffeured around by a ghost by opting into autonomous rides, but it's not clear if that
includes the option to be completely opted out. Can you request a Victorian ghost?
While there have been concerns of robo taxis roaming the streets without human supervision,
Waymo has been comparatively open about its crash statistics, which not only show that
Waymo taxis get into severe crashes around a third as much as human drivers,
but also that most of those crashes involve getting rear-ended by flesh-and-blood drivers on the road.
It's because they're robots, isn't it? Yes.
Yes. Google's notebook LM has a new AI feature called Audio Overview, which summarizes
documents in the form of a lively podcast with banter between two AI hosts, not unlike the WAN Show.
This is potentially a novel new way to take in otherwise boring information
and a serious threat to the long-term employment of stoned white dudes with microphones in their
basement, not like the WAN Show. Users can even download the file to take it on the go,
though they should be conscious of the fact that LLMs, much like podcast hosts,
are extremely prone to what we in the biz call just making shit up, like the WAN Show.
And a collaboration between LEGO and McLaren has resulted in a fully functional replica of a McLaren
P1 made out of 342,817 LEGO Technic pieces. Plus, of course, a metal frame, standard wheels,
and a typical car battery. Look, imagination be damned, you can't make everything out of LEGO.
But in 2018, LEGO did create a life-size Bugatti Chiron, but that model could only go
12 miles per hour and had no steering. The LEGO P1, however, uses 768 electric
LEGO motors to reach top speeds of 40 miles per hour. Plus, it can, you know, turn.
And you'll get your turn to watch more tech news when you come back on Monday. Bye!