Google has caught a nasty case of whichever chronic condition afflicts Apple, with the
announcement of mandatory verification for Android app developers, beginning in 2026
For security reasons, most Android devices will be blocked from installing apps that
are not officially registered by verified developers.
This is already the case for apps on the Google Play Store, Android's default app distribution
platform controlled by Google, but next year, registration and verification will be required
for all apps and developers, even apps sideloaded from the internet.
A vast web of connected platforms also largely controlled by Google, I guess that's where
Google is coming from when they ask you to think of this like an ID check at the airport.
They're just making sure they know who they're letting into their phone.
The one in your hand, it's actually Google's, but you know, it's fine, it's fine, it's
fine, you can use it, they have like a billion other ones. Framework has announced an RTX 5070 laptop GPU module that can be used to upgrade the
framework laptop 16, which originally launched with a Radeon RX 7700S option.
While a handful of super high-end laptops have used MXM format GPUs, which can be swapped,
Framework's new module is the first one in more than a decade to offer an easy to install
upgrade option for people who don't live in a hole filled with half-assembled electronics.
It's a man cave. It's a, it's a cave.
Plus, it's nice to see a modular hardware startup actually follow through and launch
a modular hardware. Oh, but, uh, well, okay, they haven't actually launched it yet, so you can not pre-order
the standalone module for 700 bucks. What, did you think because Linus is invested in Framework, I was going to suddenly love
pre-ordering? I'm not invested in them. I'm not invested in anything.
I don't understand how that works. In addition to the new module, the laptop 16 is now available with Ryzen AI 300 series
CPUs, and it comes with a new 240 watt USB-C power adapter, the first one offered by an
actual laptop company. But they're not stopping there.
Framework is also working on some funky modules like the wide-boy haptic touchpad, an external
GPU, and even a track point finger nubbin for mouse control.
And I don't think we needed the demonstration, Framework CEO guy.
I don't love seeing that, especially slowed down with sexy music under it.
Bjorn, stop that! Anthropic, aka OpenAI with more anxious energy, has settled the copyright lawsuit brought
against it by three book authors for an undisclosed sum.
But it's probably less than the $1 trillion in damages potentially owed by the company
if they had lost in court. While this lawsuit is fairly notable, being one of the 20 or so major AI lawsuits currently
being tracked by Wired, the fact that it's being settled means it probably won't have
a large effect on the largely unanswered question of how to respect copyright while
also letting an entire industry get away with infringing on the copyright of every copyrighted
thing ever. But the lack of clarity is probably okay with tech companies.
The Computer and Communications Industry Association warned that this lawsuit could financially
ruin the entire tech industry, which, correct me if I'm wrong, sounds like a you problem.
The settlement also came just as Amazon was getting hit by another class action lawsuit
over the whole, when you buy a movie digitally, do you own it, or are you just kind of renting
it until they decide to stop letting you rent it?
Question. Amazon successfully had a very similar lawsuit dismissed in 2021, I guess proving that at
this point in the digital age, you don't own anything.
Copyright isn't really a thing anymore. So yarr har fiddly dee, I suppose, and it's time for the quick bits.
I am deadly serious about the copyright for quick bits, though.
I actually think there's like three YouTube channels that also use the term quick bits
for something, but I don't look at them because it makes me so mad.
OpenAI says it will add parental controls to ChatGPT following a lawsuit brought against
it by the family of a teenager who ended his own life after ChatGPT actively helped him
explore methods to do so, and even tipped him off on ways to get around the chatbot's
safety restrictions. In a blog post, OpenAI goes over some methods they're taking to strengthen safeguards and
says they'll soon introduce these parental controls so parents can let their children
have safe talks with the hallucinatory machine intelligence that nobody also knows how it
works really. Suddenly, Spotify is adding messaging features, and for some reason, it's only rolling out
on mobile in select Latin American markets for users over 16, but it'll reportedly
soon be available in the US, Canada, Brazil, EU, UK, Australia, and New Zealand too.
I suppose this makes some sense given that Spotify, like YouTube, is kind of a social
network, but YouTube got rid of its direct messaging feature in 2019.
And also, what am I going to say? Uh, oh, just let me check my Spotify messages.
That sounds dumb. Nothing, which I always have to specify is the smartphone company, great name, is caught
up in a little controversy after a retail demo of the Nothing Phone 3 showed off photos
supposedly taken by the Phone 3's camera, but guess what?
Guess what? Guess what? They weren't.
Co-founder and maybe JRPG character, Ackis Evangelidis, explained that the demo phones
had to be preloaded with images four months before launch, and while normally they preloaded
images taken on older Nothing Phones, there was like a shakeup with a team.
And the new people didn't get the memo, and they just took initiative and slapped some
stock photos on there, which nothing did pay for, at least.
But I mean, it was the wrong initiative to take.
Roll again. And two internet hives of villainy, 4chan and Kiwi Farms, are suing the UK's Office
of Communications, aka Ofcom, over the age verification requirements posed by the Online
Safety Act. The websites say they're completely based in the US, so why would they let a bunch of
BRITs tell them what to do? They'd rather continue on not knowing their users' business, and frankly, I have to agree.
The legality of the situation is unclear, but maybe this is an attempt to get the attention
of the US government, who apparently recently got the UK to back down on its demand for
a backdoor into Apple's iCloud services.
So, good luck, 4chan, I think?
It's all very confusing, which is why you should come back on Friday for more tech news.
I'll probably have sorted out my feelings about all of this by that point.
I mean, that's in two days, I'll probably have figured out pretty much everything by
then.