Is Software Over? - DTNS 5371

Tom Merritt (0:06)

Welcome to the Daily Tech News Show Big Tech Question, where every Friday we look at the tech news from the week and ask, what does that mean? What does that even mean? I'm Tom Merritt, and this week, the big questions are, are we headed to a chatbot-controlled world? Windows thinks so. Are you Team Smart Lock or Team Simple Lock? They're not dumb locks, they're just simple.

And is software over? One developer says yes, the rest of us say probably not. Joining us here to draw the top tech news of the week, of course, is Len Peralta. Welcome, Len. We've set a challenge for you. Go, Guardians.

But first, today's tech news here. Sarah Lane and Jason Howell.

Sarah Lane (0:48)

Bloomberg's Mark Gurman sources say Apple plans to unveil its first touchscreen MacBook Pro and a new iPad Mini around October 27th. That is separate from the already announced October 13th smart home event, which we still really don't know if that's what it is, but probably. The redesigned MacBook Pros are rumored to be lighter with OLED touchscreens and the iPhone Dynamic Island interface. The iPad Mini would also rumored to get an OLED screen, a front camera positioned for landscape phone calls, video calls and redesigned speakers. Separate M6 updates to the 14-inch MacBook Pro and iMac are also expected at the same event.

Jason Howell (1:30)

Over in Microsoft land, Microsoft 365 family, premium and pro plans will switch from one terabyte of storage per person to a two terabyte pool that's shared by everyone on the account. This starts for new accounts after, well, it's already in effect as far as I can tell, and for renewals after May 2nd, 2027 That means any household with more than two people on the plan ends up with less total storage. A full six person plan loses two thirds of it. Prices aren't changing though, and if you need more room, add-ons start at $2 a month for 200 gigabytes.

Sarah Lane (2:10)

Nikkei Asia's sources say Apple has cut October component orders for the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max by 15 to 20 percent amid softer demand. Suppliers point to the $100 price increases, nobody likes those, and Apple's staggered rollout with the standard iPhone 18 coming next spring or at least expected, and the iPhone Duo still unreleased. The cuts affect some suppliers more than others.

Not clear whether Apple will make further reductions in November, but we will be watching.

Jason Howell (2:43)

We will be. IDC says PC shipments fell 20.1 percent year over year in the third quarter to 62.7 million units. All five of the biggest vendors shipped fewer machines with HP down nearly 31 percent. Vendors and retailers stocked up earlier in the year to get ahead of price hikes from, of course, the component crunch. Now they're sitting on inventory because those high prices are keeping buyers away. You may see some promotions this quarter, but IDC says prices will stay well above where they were a year ago.

Sarah Lane (3:17)

Metta has stopped accepting ads from TikTok parent ByteDance in the US, Canada, Egypt, Indonesia, Japan, Thailand, and Vietnam. The ban took effect immediately and also covers ads placed by third parties that link to TikTok or other ByteDance properties. Metta considers TikTok a competitor, obviously, and says the restriction follows its policy on competitors advertising on its platforms.

Jason Howell (3:45)

Big thanks to RWNash in the subreddit for this one. Anthropic launched OSS Scanner. It's a free opt-in service that runs periodic security scans on open-source projects using its most capable models. That includes Cloud Mythos, of course. It's inspired by Google's OSS Fuzz, which has offered something similar since 2016

There is no human review, though. And Anthropic warns that some reports may be incorrect or invalid. So take it with a grain of salt.

Sarah Lane (4:15)

SpaceX has agreed to buy Grain Management's nationwide 800 MHz spectrum portfolio as it works to turn Starlink into a major US mobile carrier. The deal covers up to 14 MHz of paired spectrum.

Still needs FCC approval, so it's not a done deal just yet. But SpaceX says the lower frequency airwaves would help its service reach phones inside buildings. Currently a coverage gap alongside Starlink's existing spectrum.

Jason Howell (4:46)

I really like this next one. UCLA researchers built PhoneBot. It's a two-legged robot about a foot and a half tall. It uses an old Android phone as its brain. The phone's camera tracks people, its motion sensors report movement and orientation, it runs the control software, all for around $400 in parts, not counting the phone, by the way.

That means that it can do things like walk, it can follow a person, it can get back up after falling on its face or its phone face. It has no arms, it has only been tested on flat ground, so there's serious limitations here, of course, but the team designed it as an open-source platform for robotics education. Very cool.