My quick thoughts on a five pack of tech news stories doing the rounds right now.
In Tech News Today, I muse over news stories from the past 24 hours that catch my attention
Apple and Google lose (at least for now) in Australian court
Undoubtedly one of the bigger consumer tech stories for Australians right now, as Epic Games has scored something of a victory against Google and Apple in its long-running fight to get Fortnite back onto app stores, with the Australian Federal Court ruling that it might just constitute conduct likely to diminish competition.
This could open up matters, especially for Apple in terms of alternative routes to app installations or additional app stores, as is the case in the EU right now.
Alex’s Quick Thoughts: In some ways, this is just a billionaire’s money fight – Epic frames it around consumer choice (and it is), but it’s mostly about the Fortnite cash cow and making sure it can be milked as efficiently as possible.
In any case, this is still before the courts, and it will absolutely be appealed, so don’t expect to see secondary app stores on your iPhone any time soon.
I wonder what the Pixel 10 Pro Fold looks like?
If only there was some way of knowing ahead of Google’s reveal next week. Well… there’s always this, officially from Google.
Alex’s Quick Thoughts: Looks… like the Pixel 9 Pro Fold.
Locally it’s a battle between Google and Samsung for large format foldable supremacy, and while I preferred the Pixel 9 Pro Fold last year over the Galaxy Z Fold6, this year’s Galaxy Z Fold7 is a sweet, sweet device. Can Google pull out an AI miracle to make the Pixel 10 Pro Fold the must-have foldable phone? We’ll have to wait and see, though, while I’m pondering on AI…
Reliance on AI might be quite bad for your health
Reliance on AI might not be that great a thing, with one study suggesting that doctors who used AI as part of colon cancer detection becoming actively worse at then diagnosing that ailment if those AI tools were no longer present.
Alex’s Quick Thoughts: There absolutely can be some positive uses for AI, lessening the need for grunt work computationally in the same way that I’m writing this on an actual computer, not typing it on a mechanical keyboard or carving it into a rock.
That being said, ouch.
I’ve had a few discussions with folks who are super reliant on AI for generative work, and most of them don’t tend to think that it’s making them stupider, but, well…
Polestar 3 sets EV long distance record
A trio of drivers in the UK set a new distance record in the UK, getting 935.4km out of a single-motor Polestar 3 before it finally ran out of power, apparently a new world record for a stock version of an EV.
Alex’s Quick Thoughts: That’s a nice long distance, though it does come with caveats; three drivers is a lot, but it’s the time taken that really matters, because the distance covered took 22 hours and 57 minutes, which means that it was done at just over 40kph the whole way – or possibly 110kph for the first hour and then 20kph thereafter, but I’m going to guess that they sat on a comfortable slow speed to maximise range.
The reality here though is that it’s still impressive, and it’s basically identical to what you’d do if you wanted to maximise the range of a fuel-based car; go slower to make the most of your momentum rather than burning lots of either fuel or power to get there faster.
Also, it’s still Summer in the UK, and warm weather does optimise EV range nicely; having driven an EV through a UK winter, I’d be far more interested to see the maximum range in cold conditions.
I’ve not driven the Polestar 3, but I did take a Polestar 2 on a road trip last year; you can read about that here.
EB Games adds PS1 to its Retro stock, but… well… this is awkward…
EB Games announced its whole retro deal some months ago (I wrote about it here), and it’s slowly expanding out the range of systems it’ll sell as retro through its stores and online, adding – as per the sponsored posts that seem to be flooding my socials right now – PlayStation 1 titles.
Alex’s Quick Thoughts: It’s just that, well… there’s not many of them, and they’re all as common as hell and they’re kind of pricey.
Online, at time of writing, they’re offering a grand total of 11 titles – and four of those are Crash Bandicoot titles, two are Gran Turismos, two are Final Fantasy titles, leaving just solo Tomb Raider, Spyro and Spider-Man games to pick up at not-exactly-compelling prices. Also, some of them aren’t even in stock, just to twist the knife a little deeper.
Also, it’s amusing to me that while everything is labelled as pre-owned – I mean, I guess it’s feasible that EB Games might find a very dusty box of copies of Vib Ribbon that were still sealed in a warehouse somewhere, but I doubt it – some titles form part of a “Buy 2 get 1 free” promotion, but not others.
Because of course, you’ve got to protect the margin on that super-valuable copy of… checks notes… Crash Bandicoot, right?
Yes, I’m experimenting with a format. Let me know your thoughts below!
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