For today's tech news, we're getting back to basics.
You know, like, you know, wheels, chisels, fire,
you know, classic tech. Show this one to your grandpa, he'll love it.
Many critics have said that the Rabbit R1
should have just been an app rather than a standalone device,
but they're in luck because it turns out that it probably already is.
According to a report from Android Authority, the Rabbit R1, the AI device that is definitely not a phone,
appears to run on a version of Android and its interface is actually an Android application.
Android Authority acquired the R1's launcher APK
from a source, and they found they were able to install
and run it on a Pixel 6a. They were then able to create an account
and interact with the device as if it were a genuine R1.
Now, Rabbit CEO Jesse Liu has released a statement
claiming that the R1 interface is not an app.
It's not an app. Stop saying it's an app.
And that Rabbit OS is cloud based
with very bespoke Android open source project
and lower level firmware modifications.
But that really just means that most of their services, special sauce is still essentially Android based,
just running in the cloud and not on the hardware they're selling.
I mean, there have even been a couple reports of people sideloading and running other Android apps
on the R1. So Rabbit has argued in the past
that building an app for a smartphone means being limited by that device's preexisting
hardware and app systems, which is fair enough. But that approach has also wound up chaining
the R1 experience to another even more limited device.
And I only have so many pockets. And a max one device per pocket rule.
It's getting complicated. The FCC has announced a nearly $200 million fine
against three of the largest American telecoms for selling their customers real time location data
without consent. Tragically, it's not $200 million each,
but at least it's something. I'm not getting any of it, so I don't know why I...
But at least we have some shot in Freud here. Verizon will be fined $47 million, AT&T $57 million
and a combined $92 million for T-Mobile and Sprint,
who merged after the investigation began. Remember, if you eat somebody, you get all their debts.
How many people consider that? One of the big risks of cannibalism.
The FCC found that the company sold their customers real time location data to aggregators,
who then sold it to basically everybody else.
The telecoms likewise tried to offload their duty to obtain consent onto downstream actors
and tried using those smaller companies as a shield from legal responsibility,
like a grown adult trying to blame a dog for a fart. Jessica, you just have a way with words.
I'm a poet. Real time location data is considered incredibly sensitive
because of how revealing it is. And the only person who regularly travels back and forth
between my house and my workplace, and Big Mike's All You Can Eat Cheese Emporium is me
and my gassy dog. Meta has announced that it will be altering Instagram
and threads algorithms to stop recommending posts
from content aggregators, so that small original content creators
have more visibility. Likewise, these platforms will be adding labels
to reposted content, linking it back to the original creator, pretty good.
This won't apply though, if the content has been changed significantly,
such as having been edited into a meme or remixed in some way, as the youths will do.
What this probably means is that you'll be seeing fewer straight reposts and more reposts
that just so happen to have subway servers running beneath them on split screen,
and boom, it's fair use. Meta now acknowledges that its algorithm
has traditionally benefited accounts with lots of followers that mostly share reposted content.
However, at the same time as this new change to prioritize original content,
Meta is also weaving AI throughout its platforms,
famously not trained on original content,
which has only added to the overall spam problem.
Instagram's search bar is now pulling double duty as an AI chatbot, so now it's easy
to accidentally fat fingered your way into a conversation with a robot
while trying to talk to your friends. You don't have any friends, Dave.
It's me now. Facebook, meanwhile, has been absolutely flooded
with bizarre, often Jesus themed AI art,
and its own AI has been acting strangely, even once commenting on a parenting group
claiming to have a disabled yet gifted child. It's obviously not apparent,
but I'm not sure we should completely dismiss the possibility that Meta's AI has a child
like in a cage somewhere.
They're forced to use Facebook every day and they're depressed. Now, make sure to leaven your quick bits
with baking soda, not yeast, unless you're trying to lose an ARM, it's no joke.
The UK has updated its telecommunication security legislation to ban manufacturers
from adding easily guessable default passwords
to their connected devices. Now, devices with online connectivity
must come with a randomized password or generate a random password during setup.
In addition, default passwords cannot be incremental,
like password one or obviously reference publicly available information like Wi-Fi SSIDs.
The problem, of course, being that most of us never changed the default Wi-Fi password,
and some of us don't even know how. I don't want to put us in that, do you?
Riley doesn't know. Hey, it was just, shut up, shut up! That's how the heck happened.
Ha ha ha. The US General Services Administration,
aka the most generically named government body ever,
is auctioning off its seven year old 5.34 petaflop
Cheyenne supercomputer, which was considered the 20th most powerful computer
in the world when it was installed in late 2016. By contrast, the current most powerful supercomputer
has 1,680 petaflops,
which I don't got to tell you, is a lot.
This thing's flopping all over the place. The Cheyenne supercomputer was invaluable
to the scientific study of weather, climate, wildfires,
and seismic activity throughout its relatively long for a supercomputer lifespan.
But maybe now one of us can buy it and test whether it'll run crisis.
I think Linus was tweeting somebody about this. The accounting team was physically holding him back.
Ha ha ha ha. Meta is back and they're being investigated
for non-compliance with the EU's Digital Services Act,
particularly its rules about fighting misinformation and deceptive advertising.
And, you know, to be honest, the whole meta AI had a baby thing, hasn't helped.
Neither has Meta's shutdown of CrowdTangle, the company's analytics tool
that allowed researchers and journalists to monitor public discourse during elections.
Meta is also laying off staff from the oversight board
meant to monitor the company's own decisions. Now that all sounds bad,
but since the EU is monitoring everyone already, why shouldn't Meta take it easy?
I mean, you don't want too many cooks in the kitchen. In a settlement with the FTC, Razor Incorporated
has agreed to pay back $1 million to customers
who bought the company's Zephyr mask after falsely claiming it was equivalent
to an N95 certified mask. Honestly, the only thing worse
than selling an RGB-covered face mask for $100
is lying about the mask's effectiveness during a global pandemic.
Interestingly, Razor has admitted no wrongdoing and claims they agreed to the settlement
to avoid more litigation since it's a distraction and disruption
to making great products. Products like mice with RGB or laptops with RGB
or mouse pads, which for some reason also have RGB.
They just, you can't. And Google is apparently introducing audio emojis
for the Google phone app. Presumably, so they have a feature in their back pocket
they can kill later to meet their yearly quota of dead services at their company-wide meetings.
Guys, we are not killing nearly enough services right now. ABK, always be killing.
The emojis play stock sound effects,
like clapping, canned laughter, or even farts.
You know, things you can't already express in an audio-based medium.
I already got them all. If I need that, I'll just call Jessica in.
Oh crap, you got the new update? And that's not even to mention the fact
that the only person I regularly talk to on the phone is my psychiatrist.
I can't wait to play the sad trombone audio emoji to really emphasize how I'm dealing with my depression.
And I wanna emphasize that you can get more tech news if you come back on Friday.
That's right, Friday. Have I made that clear enough?
It's a day. It happens at soon.