Tech Briefs
There is always lots of tech news breaking every day. I grabbed some stories that I thought were interesting and added my thoughts.
Over Halloween weekend, some Grok Bot subscribers found their weekly usage limits maxed out, with a few jumping from about 50 percent to 100 percent without any use. Musk confirmed on X on Sunday that this was not a glitch and said the cost of serving the bot is unsustainably high compared with revenue. He has not said how limits will change going forward.
Read moreOllie, a subscription AI assistant for households, will shut down on November 6, its CEO said. The app connected to email and calendars and handled bookings, meal planning, and bill payments. The founders said they could not keep pace with rivals or raise the money they needed, and customers will get instructions for exporting data and requesting refunds.
Read moreClaude will now decline requests to rebuild a specific existing video game. An X user spotted the new instruction, and Anthropic’s Addy Osmani confirmed it, saying the goal is to avoid helping with IP infringement. Original games, genre-style games, and games built from your own designs and assets are still supported.
Read moreApple published a support document for Apple Watch owners whose watch shows the wrong hour after the clocks change. The error appears only on the Always On display when your wrist is down, and it corrects itself when the screen wakes. Switching to a different watch face and back, or restarting the watch, clears it up.
Read moreThe Gemini app can now generate, preview, and edit text documents, slide decks, and spreadsheets inline in a chat, with export to PPTX or PDF and one-tap opening in Google Slides or Sheets. PDF preview and editing work on the web and in the mobile apps, while Docs, Sheets, Slides, Markdown, and code files are web-only for now. Google also pushed its new blurred overlay design to all Android devices, after debuting it on the Pixel 11.
Read moreOpenAI is rolling out a preview to US Pro users that lets them message their Dot agent by text, photos, and voice memos. Dot can also text you first with task updates. Setup happens in the Dot’s profile in ChatGPT under Texting, using iMessage on iPhone or RCS on Android, and memory is shared between ChatGPT and text.
Read moreReddit CEO Steve Huffman told shareholders the company will stop showing content to visitors who aren’t logged in. Tests begin in select markets outside the US, with no full rollout date given. Reddit says search traffic has dropped sharply and cites ad targeting, data protection, and emerging regulations as reasons.
Read moreGoogle announced the Connected Apps Platform, a unified way for developers to bring their services into Gemini and Search. More than 50 third-party apps already work in Gemini, including Adobe, Dropbox, Instacart, OpenTable, and Ticketmaster, and a Calm integration arrives in the coming weeks. Existing connected apps will also come to Search, and developers can choose Search, Gemini, or both, with access opening in phases over the coming months.
Read moreApple announced a new MacBook Pro with a tandem OLED display called PROLED XDR, the first Mac with touch input. It also has a light-up Apple logo and runs on the M5 Pro and M5 Max chips. The 14-inch model starts at $2,899 and the 16-inch at $3,399, with pre-orders open now and deliveries starting November 6.
Read moreOpera introduced WebAI, a web standard that lets browsers run open-weight AI models on your own device instead of in the cloud. Examples include Google’s Gemma and, on Macs, Apple’s on-device model. It is an early, opt-in preview in Opera One, with Opera GX and Opera Neon to follow.
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