Nerd News Tracker

Sam Altman returns as CEO, OpenAI has a new initial board

In the past couple of weeks, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman was fired along with some of the management team, the workers freaked, and everyone was then brought back four days later. Interestingly enough the entire leadership team is back in place, and no employees were lost....

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CTR News Headlines

After 50 years, US to return to Moon on January 25

After 50 years, US to return to Moon on January 25

A new mission will land an unmanned craft on the Moon, from the United States on January 25th. It's likely to be the first private company to touch down as well. Takeoff from Florida, will be on Christmas Eve. More to come...More than 50 years after the last Apollo...

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Alexa just cost Amazon another $46.7 million | Ars Technica

Alexa just cost Amazon another $46.7 million | Ars Technica

Amazon lost a lawsuit for $46.7 million over patent infringement on a virtual voice assistant named... Alexus. "Alexus" voice assistant demoed 6 months before Alexa reveal, patent lawsuit said. See full story on Alexa just cost Amazon another $46.7 million | Ars...

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Tesla Cybertruck Owners Will Face Absurd Resell Penalties

Tesla Cybertruck Owners Will Face Absurd Resell Penalties

Resell your Tesla Cybertruck within a year? You'll pay a massive fine... something that Ferrari has done for years. Cybertruck resellers could be barred from purchasing Elon Musk's cars ever again, and face penalties of $50,000. See full story on Tesla Cybertruck...

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Tesla Cybertruck Owners Will Face Absurd Resell Penalties

Tesla Cybertruck Owners Will Face Absurd Resell Penalties

Resell your Tesla Cybertruck within a year? You'll pay a massive fine... something that Ferrari has done for years. Cybertruck resellers could be barred from purchasing Elon Musk's cars ever again, and face penalties of $50,000. See full story on Tesla Cybertruck...

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WeWork files for bankruptcy

A company that had a novel idea of office-sharing before COVID, called WeWork, has finally succumbed to the work-from-anywhere concept. They are in Chapter 11, but I'm not sure how much longer they have. Office-sharing company WeWork filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy...

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The Beatles New Song ‘Now and Then’: Single Review

The Beatles New Song ‘Now and Then’: Single Review

It's a well over 40 years since John Lennon died, and over 50 years since the Beatles split up. This week delivered what is being called the last "new" Beatles song called "Now and Then". Why talk about it in a tech show? Because AI technology was used to bring the...

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Western Digital Won’t Make SSDs Anymore

A click-bait headline announces the end of Western Digital making Solid State Drives. Before I continue, Western Digital is one of the biggest manufacturers out there for hard drives. They purchased another leader, SanDisk, in 2016. So, this update is simply that they...

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New AirTag firmware starts to roll out to trackers

New AirTag firmware starts to roll out to trackers

Apple Airtag firmware is getting an update. It's not important, and is happening. Tons of media talked about it, and even they don't know why. Bug fixes... Apple has released new firmware for AirTag, an update that will gradually roll out to all of the tracking...

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Quishing is the new phishing: What you need to know | ZDNET

Quishing is the new phishing: What you need to know | ZDNET

We've talked about this on the show as Covid changed how we were looking at menu's in restaurants. QR codes were setup for malicious ways, from diversion from where you wanted to go, all the way to pointing you to malware. We finally received a word for it, called...

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AI anxiety as computers get super smart

This topic is a double-edged sword, cutting at both sides of the issue. A 2-day summit this week in London, explored regulations against AI risks, and it represents a certain level of anxiety that people are having. We fear the unknown... all of us. We fear big...

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Meta sued by 42 AGs for addictive features targeting kids

Meta sued by 42 AGs for addictive features targeting kids

Meta, aka Facebook, had a massive lawsuit, encompassing 42 states who allege that Facebook and Instagram features are addictive and target kids. No surprise... but a little late in the game. The lawsuits demonstrate the broad bipartisan interest in protecting kids and...

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YouTube’s New Ad Blocker Crackdown—What You Need To Know

YouTube’s New Ad Blocker Crackdown—What You Need To Know

YouTube gained the ire of many folks this past week, demanding everyone to disable ad-blockers. This, after raking in massive bucks on pre-roll ads and other spying activity to rake in money off of us elsewhere. YouTube is cracking down on the use of ad blockers on...

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I’m Back Film by Samuel Mello Medeiros — Kickstarter

I’m Back Film by Samuel Mello Medeiros — Kickstarter

I was excited a few weeks ago to hear someone had developed a 35mm film replacement to turn your old film camera into digital. The concept is cool, in that you can leverage old lenses, have a 20 megapixel pickup, and it works with all cameras. Downsides initially were...

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Best Buy to stop selling DVDs, Blu-Ray discs

Best Buy announced this past week that they are pulling DVD's and Blu-Ray discs from shelves and inventory after this holiday season. They realize that the world of media and entertainment has changed, and they don't want to be sitting with a lot of inventory that...

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Microsoft Walks Back OneDrive Photo Limits After Backlash

Microsoft Walks Back OneDrive Photo Limits After Backlash

Microsoft is backing off an unpopular decision that would count single photos in multiple albums, as multiple photos... forcing OneDrive users to need to pay more. People freaked, Microsoft has said sorry. Microsoft previously announced that all copies of a photo in a...

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Now Disney is Coming For Password Sharing, Too

Now Disney is Coming For Password Sharing, Too

Disney+ is following Netflix in the crackdown against password sharing. They have announced they will be launching their own analysis of accounts to see who may or may not be abusing the terms. They'll start with Canada around the end of this year, and if experience...

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Best leather iPhone 15 cases in 2023 | CNN Underscored

Best leather iPhone 15 cases in 2023 | CNN Underscored

Apple's abandonment of leather cases has driven an interesting response from many journalists. Instead of heaping praise for going vegan, many are pointing out that there are plenty of options for those who embrace the true organic feel of leather. I'll admit that I'm...

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UK’s controversial Online Safety Bill to become law

The UK passed a broad Online Safety Bill that included massive amounts of rules on social media companies, leaving them legally responsible for material that makes it onto their systems. Age-inappropriate content must be locked down to prevent kids from viewing....

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Cisco to acquire Splunk in $28B mega deal | TechCrunch

Cisco to acquire Splunk in $28B mega deal | TechCrunch

Cisco is acquiring a big pro package used by IT Pros called Splunk, which is a tool used for monitoring security threats and watching the network for potential problems. $28 Billion was a nice fair price for this powerful tool. Cisco entered the world of mega deals...

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Volvo will make its last diesel car in 2024 | TechCrunch

Volvo will make its last diesel car in 2024 | TechCrunch

Volvo announced this last week that Volvo diesel cars days will be numbered... to early 2024. This is a company that 4 years ago considered diesel their strength in Europe. They are still selling gas cars, but have stopped spending any research and development money...

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Volvo will make its last diesel car in 2024 | TechCrunch

Volvo will make its last diesel car in 2024 | TechCrunch

Volvo announced this last week that Volvo diesel cars days will be numbered... to early 2024. This is a company that 4 years ago considered diesel their strength in Europe. They are still selling gas cars, but have stopped spending any research and development money...

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Google extends automatic updates for Chromebooks

Google extends automatic updates for Chromebooks

Companies often want to hold on to your cash, and offer what competitors do. So, when Google offered 10 years of automatic updates for Chromebooks this past week, it was surprising. But they did more than that... Chromebooks purchased that were made since Jan 1st,...

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NASA’s Rubio Breaks Longest U.S. Space Mission Record

NASA’s Rubio Breaks Longest U.S. Space Mission Record

Due to some issues with a return trip, NASA astronaut Frank Rubio will soon be logging the most time for a US astronaut in space. He's about to hit a year, and will be only one of six at that point. Part of this comes from the Soyuz capsule that brought him to the ISS...

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New York City cracks down on Airbnb, other short-term rentals

I haven't stayed in an AirBNB or VRBO, but that's just me and my approach. I am shocked that New York City just shut down rentals like those after all of the problems that I've had getting a dismal room an hour away from the Big Apple. This is not good news for those...

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Apple Events – Apple

Apple Events – Apple

Apple has announced their next event. September 12 at 10:am Pacific. Keith will update us on the following show about his take on all of the announcements. Watch the latest Apple event stream, and check out the archive of special event announcements for our products...

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Dark mode is a lie | Android Central

Dark mode is a lie | Android Central

Recent research is finding out that dark mode, or at least a number of variations of it, are worse for your eyes than simple fully lit. It has to do with some of the options to dim the screen, which then create a flicker that may give you headaches or other ill...

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ChatGPT turns to business as popularity wanes

It's interesting how the big huge topic from earlier this year is falling on hard times. The latest news from the AI front is that just over half of us are more concerned than excited about the increase in the usage of AI. From there, the usage of ChatGPT has been...

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