Apple’s New CEO Announces a New Foldable iPhone - DTNS 5349

This is the daily tech news for Wednesday, September 9th, 2026. We tell you what you need to know, give you important context, and help each other understand. >> Today, Apple's got a new CEO and a new foldable, and Sarah Lane is here to make sense of it all. >> Woo! Triple win. I'm John Merritt. >> I'm Window. >> Let's start with what you need to know with that big story. John Turnis, CEO of Apple, uh made his big debut at an announcement, uh made the big foldable announcement. You could tell he's a hardware guy because we can get any of those numbers Tim Cook likes to say. It was all about like hardware and and processors and stuff right from the start. And of course, joining us uh to talk about it is Sarah Lane. Uh Sarah, what what was your takeaway overall on the announcement? Well, you know, I w I was uh Hi, everyone. I I was I was wondering how John Turnis', you know, big debut was going to be. We got a little Tim Cook off the top. >> Oh, yeah. We got the handover. That's right. >> For anybody who, you know, who who watched, you know, the whole thing as we did. Um which I thought was I thought was nice. Um and then it was kind of like just me being like, "All right, man. Can you do this? what do you what do you got? Uh because I don't know him, you know, he he's been behind the scenes for so long. Um so it was a very interesting event uh for a variety of reasons. We got a lot of uh lot of updates and and and unveils, but uh for the most part, I thought he did good. >> Yeah. Yeah. Uh slightly different style, but not that different, frankly. You know, just different presentation style because he's a different guy, right? I mean, the whole the whole Apple announcement thing has become very, you know, like we do it beforehand, you know, like no one's gonna f up, you know, like that. We've been doing that for a while. So, um, the the sort of polished nature of it doesn't um I don't know, it doesn't really rattle me, but but it definitely was. I mean, there were a lot of green screens going on. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. Count the green screens. It' be a fun game if you want to rewatch it. Uh well, let's start with the big one. Uh the final announcement at the very end. I believe he may have even said one more thing. Although he didn't make a big deal out of it. >> He said another thing. >> Another thing. That's what it was. Yeah. So maybe that's the new John Turnis version of One More Thing. Uh it was the foldable phone. iPhone Duo. Apple's first foldable. Has a 5.4 in outer display, 7.6 inner display. Has the new A20 Pro, which is also in the iPhone 18 Pro. Uh has its own display engine. Uses Touch ID. Uh they went into all the details on the hinge and the screen and how all that works. Uh h are you sad that we have to wait until October 16th to pre-order it for $2,000? Uh that's the starting price. 256 gigabytes up to two terabytes. And of course shipping October >> 2 terab. Yeah. By the way, >> in a phone. >> Yeah. Yeah. It's like it's like 256. I mean I I could survive with that. >> Squeeze by on that. Yeah, >> but two terabytes, I mean, who doesn't want that? Yeah, that that's big distinction. >> What's your uh what's your top takeaways from the fold? >> Mine? Um so, well, we knew this was coming. Um and Mark German over at Bloomberg um had mentioned already that it was going to be called the iPhone Duo, which it is. Uh, so I wouldn't say I was super surprised about anything, but at the same time, just this very very different form factor for Apple um is is a big deal. And I, you know, Apple is clearly catching up to many other companies who have been doing this for years. We know this. Um, and that was that was sort of like, okay, how are they going to introduce this to people who either just haven't ever had a foldable before or um just, you know, think that like the Samsung option is better. Um, and that's where Apple really shines. Apple is like, here's how this is going to change your life. a friend of mine um who was watching the announcement at the same time as me was like, "Wow, so like I don't need an iPad anymore." >> Yeah. >> And I was like, "Huh, that's an interesting question because I don't I mean Apple certainly is not trying to like reduce that category, but at the same time, it's offering something that can do more or less what a tablet could do and a phone could not." >> Yeah. >> You know, all in one. I think that's one of the the most impressive parts of of their demonstration is a 1.4 to1 aspect ratio on both screens so that your screen looks the same when you're closed or open. Uh FaceTime camera behind the display uh is a nice touch uh so that you don't have to see it. You see it when you're doing a FaceTime call so you know where it is but it goes away uh the rest of the time. Uh, I thought they did a good job of explaining all of their hardware, uh, innovations, >> the magnets, >> the carbon fiber support, the titanium back plate, the polymer for scratch resistance, all of that sort of stuff, >> which is may which is maybe um the, you know, the teras uh era, you know, let's talk about how we did this. >> Yeah, I thought they spent more time talking about that than I would have expected under the Tim Cook era. Uh, and then camera, you know, talking about the fact that this is mostly the same camera that you're going to get in the iPhone 18 because I think a lot of people have that question of like, well, camera is very important to me. Do I want to get the foldable and what am I going to compromise if I do that? But you get the same ultrawide, you get the 2x telephoto. It is pretty much the same one. >> Yeah, you got the A20 Pro chip. Um, and yeah, you're off and running. when do you what are your thoughts on the Apple foldable? >> I like it. >> The Duo. Sorry. >> No, I I like it a lot. I do think that it being called a Duo is hilarious. Um I really like this device. I an Android user, but I love foldables and so of course we're all waiting to see what I what Apple did with it. And I think they honestly took all the lessons that the Android side has been learning that that we've been learning and and all of us users have been complaining out for years and they basically papered over a lot of those rough edges. I I think to be fair uh the the the the squatty the squatty aspect is what we've been calling it probably could find a better name for that is brilliant. Uh I I do wonder whether everyone just kind of scooped Apple on that a little bit knowing that it would be like basically an iPad mini folded in half. But the the the aspect ratio was great. The the and the things that people complain about even it lying flat because I remember when the OG Pixel Fold came out, people were complaining about it lying flat. They they mentioned it lie it lays flat. Um it's got a horizontal cam camera bar which means like more room for accessories on the bottom with the Mag Safe. The screen has that amazing glass which should hopefully address creasing and creasing issues as well as any kind of like scratches because infamously most Android foldables had that very very soft inner screen. So using something like a stylus is kind of like a or even getting any kind of like crumb in there is is like is like fraud. So they they did that. It's IP68 which again as as good as like say things like the Zold 8 have been, the Samsung's are not IP68. The Pixel Fold is, but it's a lot thicker and heavier. The iPhone Duo is not. It's just about as thin as a Zfold, I believe, and just as light. So, that's pretty amazing. And even little things like there was that really great match cut animation that they do when you open it and close it that just gives that little bit of like, you know, Apple magic on it there that that really kind of brings everything together. I think they did an amazing job. I I honestly want one of these phones just because I'm an Android user, but I also enjoy technology. I used to be an iOS developer and I think that we have a lot to like like we I say we the Android OEMs will hopefully you know as much >> Yeah, collective Wii will take inspiration of that. And I think again as you mentioned the camera, the one thing that has been pretty consistent with uh foldables on the Android side or foldables rather is that the camera is always a a um is is something that you know you kind of compromise. I I appreciate them them kind of emphasizing that. Um and like other things like even the folding mode, the tent mode and the laptop mode very notably even though Android has introduced features to take advantage of this. The Z48 again being probably the most popular Android foldable right now lacks all of that. So I I just see all the Oh, and the Mag Safe. Just the fact that it has Mag Safe, whereas again Samsung doesn't have Mag Safe built in. It's CH2 ready, >> but not CH but not actual CH2 compliant. Like it it just there's all these wonderful things that it's just a great device. >> Yeah, just little touches, right? >> Little touches. A great device. I know. We'll wait to see how the actual when people get in their hands. Is the form factor great? How does the glass actually hold up to creasing? I think they did a great job. I know it took forever, but that's a very Apple thing, right? To really get it right. And I I I think >> Well, you you said it best when it it's like uh Apple just sat back quietly and was like, "Let's just see what the Android people are doing." >> I think the Squatty is winning. We see Samsung and Google. Okay, we're going with the Squatty. >> And then we're Yeah. And then we're going to, you know, introduce our our own version. And the rest of us, well, you know, some of us are will say like, "Wow, cool. What a great form factor. I'm in." >> Yeah. >> Yeah. The joke being like, "Uh, oh, it's great that Apple finally invented the foldable phone." You're >> right. Um, if it if it pushes innovation forward on on the other side of the aisle, I'm for it. And again, I I I just like the form factor a lot. I I love the the the productivity aspect of it. And again, even the little like like even the little gesture touches and the way the way that they're doing multitasking, multi-winding, very impressed. Very impressive. >> Yeah, I I think the software is one of the things that'll differentiate it. I mean, we talked about the hardware and the crease and and the lay flat and all of that. And it looks like that will turn out to be an advantage. But the one thing when I'm looking at my Pixel Fold and looking at this is like, yeah, this looks more seamless where I'm not going to notice so much that I've gone from the front to the inside. uh it's going to >> like I can just put it in tent mode, I can put it in laptop mode and it will automatically do that. And Android does some of that. Uh but it looks like Apple is is doing it really well and if it is as seamless as they want to present, which you know they always make it look better in the presentation than it does in real life, then I think it will be cool. I wonder which apps work for this all the time, right? There's going to be those apps like, "Oh, that one doesn't do it. That one didn't adapt because it's not integrated properly." Well, that that's the question, right? Is like what do you do on your iPhone currently? >> Um, and you know, we all have, you know, the three four apps that, you know, if we're being honest, like are the only ones that we used, you know, all the time. Do we does that uh change with a different form factor? And again, if you have an iPhone and an iPad and a Mac, uh, you know, how does this particular model change the way that you do your work? And I I don't have the answer. That's that's actually my question. >> When I know you've done development on your foldables before, like, so >> yeah. Um, it's it's interesting. Yeah. Um, that's these are all great questions. I will point out that something that again I I I'm in an Android slot community. a lot of Android a lot of iOS users in there. So we are often comparing contrasting in regards to support I will say that the slack that slack that they showed with that twopane view that is not an Android and this is a thing that happens and in fact uh I guess at my company other companies because they know that that the news was coming out there have been initiatives to work on adaptable sizing UIs. So not only and that this is this is something that that Apple has been very good at to some extent. I Google does it too, but they're very good at basically making developers jump when they say jump and and how and and and having them ask how high. They're very good at that. And and that's again the kind of that's the power and I think this device actually is a good distillation of why in particular this particular model that Apple does with being both the the single hardware manufacturer as well as the people making the software and that tight integration and that that kind of high quality. It's things like that animation from open to close that you get which I and I I'm not 100% sure but given that Android is an ecosystem and it's a it's a more broader system there are things that Apple can do that tie together and they can make developers do things like support in certain apps and I will say that also generally speaking people are going to be more aware of iOS they have been for the last 10 12 years no I'm not sad about that um and they will they will focus on this I'm sure there are a lot of companies that are I I No, I know there are a lot of friends, Android friends and iOS friends on teams out there that this has been on their radar and their priority is supporting this and maybe they'll throw some love over at Android large screens to begin with. But I I I wouldn't be surprised. It will be a factor because that's one thing that's still an issue on Android is that there are a lot of apps, a lot of commonly used apps like Instagram, it comes right off the top of my head, that are still absolutely horrible experiences on a larger device because they just kind of shrink into portrait mode and you got tons of space and it's it's really bad to use. I would say that I expect it to be better on iOS and in the iPhone Duo, but I don't know how much. >> Yeah, >> I don't This is definitely pushing really hard, which hopefully the high tide lifts all of our our mobile boats, but I don't know how hard that will push. I I just I'm not familiar. So, we'll see. We'll see. >> Uh let's talk about the iPhone 18 Pro and the Pro Max. Uh these are they they pitched them mostly with the Apple intelligence features. Uh they are a similar design to the 17 Pro. New H20 Pro chip in there though. Uh so there was a little talk about that. Uh also brand new color colors uh glacier and burgundy for the first time. Uh Apple also added a reference image feature uh so that you can digitally authenticate a photo taken with the camera at the pixel layer. It stays with the image. Uh they're going to support synth ID too, but they have their own on top of that. Uh Apple also has uh oh let's talk a little about the A20 Pro. Two nanometer A20 Pro, six core CPU, two of those are desktop class cores, uh 7 core GPU up to 40% faster and 32 neural engine cores because they've got two basically 16 neural engine uh chips next to each other. Uh and the camera has variable aperture uh which is really interesting. I think it has it in the foldable as well, but but the the actual like blades are in there uh so that it can it can automatically contract or expand automatically based on the kind of picture you're taking. Uh Sarah, after the glory of the foldable, how does the iPhone 18 Pro strike you? >> Well, it it strikes me as a a really great phone. Um, I'm still rocking the 15 Pro Max. So, you know, I'm I'm a few cycles behind, but at the same time, it's like it's a great phone. Now, um, what I do think that Apple does, and I I think that every time Apple has an announcement about a camera that's better, um, they start to speak to advertising agencies. It's kind of like, I mean, what are we all doing with, you know, with the camera? like are we filmmakers? If we are great, you know, it's we can do that. But I I felt like today watching the event was sort of like we are talking to people who want to use the camera in order to, you know, sell things online. That was that was just kind of my takeaway. And and that's not wrong. That's I mean that you want a good camera to be able to do those things, but I do feel like as a consumer um unless again you are just really like hyped up about photography and everything that you get out of it. Some of that stuff is a little bit lost on me. >> Yeah, a lot of it is for advertising and influencing, right? Uh which are two big things. Uh there was there was some interesting Apple intelligence stuff like expressive voices for you to customize Siri. Uh 16 languages. Uh so we're going to get uh French, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish in October uh for Siri AI. Um a lot of stuff about the custom packaging and the sidebyside memory of of the A20 Pro. They you could tell the hardware guys in charge because they they got to spend a lot of time talking about the A20 Pro. Um but yeah, I think you're right. Most of the big cell here is either Apple intelligence on device, which we kind of knew after WWDC, or the camera. >> Yeah. And and listen, I mean, I I'm never going to be like, I don't care about cameras. I do. But what am I doing with that? You know, if that is part of my livelihood, then it really matters to me. And I think that's who Apple is speaking to. And a a lot of people even if it doesn't matter to them, they they they react to they're like, "Oo, I got pro controls. I can set the aperture and shutter speed. I got smart focus tracking." >> Uh the one that caught my eye was audio that's only in frame. >> So that if like if you're film, this happens to be a concert >> soccer game. It's like I don't want to hear myself singing. I want them singing in the video I'm doing. >> Uh stuff like that. I don't know if you uh if you had too many takeaways on the iPhone 18 Pro when did you think? >> Um it looks nice. Sorry. I'm very much an Android user, so I I mean I I I know that they're amazing devices and I I was curious to see more about what the Apple Intelligence looked like and everything seems impressive. I I feel like there's like a bunch of core features that we're all kind of like, you know, kind of um as a society of mobile users are kind of uh focusing on and kind of uh what am I trying to say like um zeroing in on. I did really like the rampl like feature and someone in in again my developer chat mentioned that all of these things especially like things like rample could be really great accessibility features and I think that is one thing that Apple excels in is that accessibility story they have been for a long time and they continue to be. So I'd be excited to kind of see again like more of this actually in the hands of real people and and seeing how it does but yeah I think it's exciting time >> and ramble of course if anybody doesn't know on Android is like you can just kind of say something and then Gemini will make sense of it for you. uh there was a feature like that uh for Siri and it's like well you got Gemini under the hood so you know not not surprising that they they took their adapted Gemini model uh and did a similar thing. iPhone Pro uh 6.3 in screen starts at $1,199. 256 gigabytes also up to two two terabytes that you can put in there. Quite a bit more expensive though if you do that. Uh and then the iPhone Pro Max is the 6.9 in screen. That one starts at $100 more, $1,299. I also just before we get off the subject of the Pro and the Pro Max, the Pro Max had used to be like, "And if you want a bigger screen, let's talk about the Pro Max." The Pro Max was barely mentioned today. >> It was just the bigger screen. That was it. >> Yeah. It was just like, "You want the Pro or the Pro Max? That's it. You want to pay $1 doesn't have anything that the Pro doesn't have at this point." >> No, that's a good point. Uh you can they did talk about their monthly leasing the new Apple upgrade uh system. Uh they talked about they introduced Apple Care 1 family to people. Uh you can pre-order the iPhone Pro and Pro Max September 12th. Uh so in 3 days from when we're recording and then it'll ship on September 18th. Also, they didn't mention this in the announcement, but we did get the news that iOS 27 with Siri AI coming September 14th for older iPhones. So 4 days before the shipping of the new iPhone, which is about standard. Let's talk about the Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4, both with a new S11 chip. Bunch of upgraded health tracking, an audio intelligence feature, so it can recap your day by listening and taking notes. It could recap a meeting. Uh it can give you the last 15 seconds of a conversation. Uh they used a weird uh restaurant uh demo of that where the the waiter was was saying a lot of menu specials really fast, which I thought it would be rude if you just looked at them and then started tapping your watch to hear what they just said. Um but anyway, uh there's also a readiness feature uh that's kind of like a lot of what you get from Garmin and and Fitbit, you know, >> based on your overall like >> Yeah, it's like a score. Um, so yeah, uh, increased electrode surface area for better ECG, redesigned photo dodes, and the green LEDs are larger, which will be better and more efficient for your heart rate. But overall, I didn't think this was the kind of upgrade where you're like, "Oo, I'm really tempted, even though I have the current one." Uh, it's it it was a a more evolutionary, not revolutionary upgrade. >> I mean, I'm rocking the series 7. Um, and it's fine. You know, Tom and I talked about this on an upcoming live with it uh episode, but uh but yeah, I think that you know, Apple saying like our heart rate sensing best in the business. It's like okay. >> Yeah. Well, they tested against strapped ones and all of that. >> Yeah. Like I I mean, if that's true, that's great. Um not everybody cares about that on the same level, but you know, let let's just you know, let's say we all do. Um, you've got the readiness based on your overall uh, you know, score. You've got insights based on Apple Intelligence that's, you know, trying >> Oh, yeah. Redesigned Health app gives you all of that. >> Yeah. Keep keeping you healthy. Um, new cardio fitness options. Um, and yeah, I mean, the whole thing to me is like great. I think that it is lost on a lot of people who are just like, I don't want to track myself that way. for the rest of us, and I know all three of us here do really care about that. This is this is a pretty cool option, but it's not your only option. So, you know, here's Apple kind of trying to keep up with the Garmins and the >> Yeah. Yeah. And and when as someone who has all of those >> I do actually have all of those. Um Yeah. No, I and I honestly I'd have an Apple Watch if it actually integrated with Android because it's already been an amazing option for health tracking. I know a lot of my Android friends jumped ship to iOS because of the Apple Watch and a lot of them are runners, cyclists and things like that. I I'd say like yeah, this is definitely coming on par like as you said readiness is something that pretty much everyone has their own version of. I'm curious about the the AI insights because that is something of course that Google is doing with their Fitbit their all of their Fitbits. Is it safe to assume that this is also possibly powered by Gemini as well or >> It is well it's powered by Apple Intelligence which is a modified version of Gemini. So yeah. >> Yeah. And I mean we we talked about kind of my experiences with you know the health app Sarah on live with it where it's fine like I think it and and I think you're right on the point that a lot that this is going to be a loss on a lot of people. I mean, I enjoyed hearing them talk about what HRV is and what it means because I already care about it a lot, but it is going to be lost on a lot of people. And I I always wonder with especially with companies like Apple, like Google, like Samsung, what niche are they trying to fill and are they making any headway on it? Because there already are hyperenthusiast you devices out there. Garmin, Garmin to a large extent and other devices. Whoop of course. I wonder what this does for Apple whether it's just hey we have these things too so that they don't they're not missing anything but I'm not I'm not blown away either these are all kind of like yeah health like integration of all health records all of these other things are things that everyone else already has so it's maybe just like hey we you know leveling the playing field >> table stakes >> table stakes exactly so >> yeah and if you you missed it health age longevity uh are two of those tabs in the health app but those will come to the other watches too a lot of these features are not exclusive to the new watch uh either like syncing your health records or ordering labs from Quest or something like that which is coming later this year. Uh Apple Watch Series 12 available in ceramic now along with its usual materials and the Hermes version gets a radiant gold titanium uh if you can afford the Hermes version. Uh not the Hermes version, but the regular Apple Watch Series 12 starts at $399. and the uh Ultra 4, 50 hours of battery life, 18 hours with workout tracking, $799. Pre-order now, shipping September 18th, and those prices are the same as the previous series. So, >> yeah. >> Uh they did not give us the and these are the watches that will stay in stock, which they usually do. So, it'll be I'll be curious if they keep the series 11 and the Ultra 3 available and whether they do price reductions on those or not. Uh last thing we got was AirPods 5, which yeah, take away is better active noise cancellation. Uh these these are available in two models. Uh AirPods uh five for $129. Or if you want wireless charging case and the little uh ability to swipe for volume control, $149. Uh again, these are the AirPods, not the AirPods Pro. So if you're like, "Wait, didn't they have a lot of these features?" They did. And that was when I was first like, "Wait, I mean volume, but that's >> that's an AirPods Pro feature now available >> because I have the AirPods Pro." I was like, "Who doesn't do that?" But yes. Yeah. >> A wireless charging case. Also an AirPods Pro thing that you can now get if you pay for the higherend uh AirPods 5. Uh pre-order now for those shipping September 18th. So there you go. Uh big day for John Turnis. Uh big day uh for Apple. And there's still lots more to think about, lots more to talk about, lots more to evaluate. So Sarah, you're going to be doing a roundt on all of this stuff that we're going to put up this weekend. >> Uh yes. Uh along with Jen Cutter um and Nika Manford and Terrence Gaines from the Snob OS podcast. We're all getting together. Um the show will go up on Saturday. We wanted to have a little bit of time to just think about, okay, what did we hear about? What do we want? You know, what were we interested in? or maybe not that interested in. Um, and we're we're going to give that to you. It'll come out on Saturday. >> Fantastic. Well, uh, thank you Sarah for jumping in and chatting with us and we'll talk to you on the show again tomorrow. >> Sounds good. Have a good show everybody. >> DTNS is made possible by you, the listener. Big thanks to Nick Gushlo, Kirk Stephenson, Miranda Janelle, and that Charlie Doo. There's more we need to know today. So, let's get to the briefs and the quick headlines. We're going to pack them all together in one. >> All right. Well, Anthropics Jacob Coxin, a researcher who specializes in training new models, left the company, saying he is worried that companies are working too fast to develop self-improving models to the point that they may spiral out of control. Quote, "We are on track for a lot of the most aggressive of these scenarios where by the end of next year, things could be out of control already." Coxin left Open OpenAI earlier this year to join Anthropic because he preferred its approach to safety. Several researchers have left OpenAI, Anthropic, and other companies previously for similar reasons. Anthropic's leader of alignment science science rather wrote on X quote, "Jacob is correct here. We really do earnestly believe AI could kill all humans. I I personally think it is greater than 10% within the next decade. I believe Anthropic is trying its best, but we do not yet have a plan to solve alignment for super intelligence and are not clearly on track to. Meanwhile, Anthropic declined to submit Mythos 5.1 to the UK's AI security institute for testing before released. It was only released to US organizations. >> Yeah, Jacob Coxin re leaving relieving to me felt like one of the more higher profile versions of someone who's worried about this. And my question in those is always like, okay, what are they going to do next? That's what I'm curious about. like like when I left and then began his own operation to try to promote safety. So, and I still have that question about Jacob Coxin. I'm curious like, okay, would he's very concerned about this. He's very knowledgeable. I'm I I want to see what he does. The the post from Anthropic's leader of alignment sites uh really threw me. I I I almost feel like it's irresponsible. >> Yes. But it's also very much in the vein of what Enthropic does, which is scare tactics about safety, which I don't even think are in their necessarily their own best interests. If they really believe this, then they should be in a different business is what I think. Like if that's true, then you should be doing something different than what you're doing. Don't be like, "Yeah, I think it could kill us all, but hey, you know what? Who are we to stop developing it?" Like doesn't something doesn't track there. >> Yeah. It's really weird because I feel like normally if you want to be cynical about it, most companies if they believe that their technology was at this much of a risk would either not say that out loud and cover it up or you know make you know like you know corporate speak for covering up such things and not be so blly like yeah sure we we 10 oh greater than 10% chance of killing everybody. I I and it is kind of like a well do you want to stop? Do you want to like >> and what are you doing about it? >> And it's not like this is happening in in isolation. And we've got obviously Bernie Sanders and like calling for you know stop like like I I don't necessarily agree with I don't necessarily agree with all of the perspectives but like yeah there there's definitely public call like the pe like nor ordinary people are already upset about like kind of like the side effects of all this development technology like data centers and everything else and and job dis job market disruption. It feels very odd to sit here and have all this input come in. And again, I I think we could classify that some people tended to think of Anthropic as the at some point in time ethical AI company. And to hear them say that it does feel very dissonant and very odd to feel like um what's the phrase like polish it feels like it's like the people who someone's polishing the the the silverware and the Titanic. Not quite that, but a little bit like so you want to do something about it like everyone's leaving because >> I personally think it's greater than 10% within the next decade. I believe Anthropic is trying its best, but we are working on a plan to solve alignment and we would like to create a uh global uh inter agency uh you know effort uh to reach a clear plan for alignment for super intelligence and containment is what I want to hear him say. >> Yeah. >> But we don't have a plan. So I don't know. I'm just going to go back to work now. >> Uh yeah, it's um it's really odd. I'm not surprised. I'm I'm surprised by my lack of surprise, but I would have expected a lot more, especially from Anthropic, frankly speaking. >> Um, so we'll see. >> Yeah. Uh, OpenAI says one of its unreleased models solved the Navier Stokes Millennium Prize problem, which would be historic. Uh, the equations explain how fluids move. OpenAI said approximately 10,000 agents worked on the problem. However, some mathematicians who have been doing work getting close to the problem, uh, NYU mathematician Tristan Buckmaster and an anthropic researcher Leavon Alpigy have also been working on this research. And Buckmaster wrote publicly that he suspected OpenAI might have used prompts he put into Codeex to help them in their research. Buckmaster says, "We're one of the only people that were taking this approach. It seems coincidental that Codeex and their agents took a similar approach. Buckmaster also alleges that OpenAI researcher Sebastian Bubck wanted to remove Alpigy from authorship because he worked for Anthropic. OpenAI denies accessing Buckmaster or Alpig's uh specific user data for the proof. They did say while unlikely, we cannot rule out that deidentified data derived from their usage of our products helped improve our models. Uh, OpenAI does not train on inputs and outputs from enterprise users. Uh, and personal users can opt out. But if you don't opt out, then some of that data is is not associated with you, but it just goes into the pool uh of training data. And I think that's what they're saying is like, well, if they were using a version where they hadn't opted out, then some of that data could have down the road informed them. But what they are trying directly to say is we didn't go spy on their use of codecs. That's so fascinating especially since I don't necessarily give this point of view but a lot of people are are postulating that you know prompt engineering is going to replace current programming and other engineerings. So in a in a sense do we have the structure for understanding IP in regards to prompting and data? I mean to some extent but not really. So it's fascinating. >> Yeah. And this is another this is a very small example of what we were talking about earlier. We're like well we need a framework for that so that we can judge this stuff better. >> Yes please. Um, well, we have to thank RW Nash for this next one, uh, and alerting to alerting us to it on the DTNS subreddit. Microsoft September patch fixes a record 972 vulnerabilities with 112 of them being rated as high critical severity. Last month, Microsoft patched a record 620 and a record 570 the month before that. Just breaking records every single month. Boom, boom, boom. I think this is a good news story because they are keeping up and patching more things than ever. Uh which means that they are making it more secure. So I I take that as a positive. Uh Meta announced a personal agent called Muse which is designed to anticipate your needs and work longer than typical chat bots but do all the agentic stuff like you know do shopping for you or whatever you want. It has a separate app called Sentinel that will make sure it doesn't do things without your permission. Uh, and there's some personalization stuff. You can name your agent. You can create an avatar for it. You can customize its communication style. Uh, you can use this for free. Meta says that for most people that'll be good enough, but if you are a power user, uh, you can pay for additional use and capacity for $20 a month or $100 a month. Muse is available right now in the United States on Android, iOS, and the web. Well, Sunno announced new models for its music creation service that are trained entirely on a new data set that includes licensed data for from music music label partners Warner Music and BMG. >> Well, that's progress of a sort. >> Sorry. >> Yeah. Uh, OpenAI released Chat GPT images 2.5. Uh, among the improvements, it can output in 2K resolution, has non-Latin language expertise, uh, and the ability to make a sketch in chat GPT and then have your sketch turned into a full image. >> Well, Whimo launched its service on Lyft in Nashville, the first market where it is available from both the Whimo app and a partner. >> Yeah, usually it's been either or. Now it's both. That's interesting. Prime Minister of the United Kingdom declined to support a moratorium on building new data centers in the country, saying it's important for communities to see the benefits of data centers, which he said can be the magnet that clusters in other investments over time. >> Okay. Well, Mang noted that the Tom's harbor story about a person posting on Reddit that they found more than 30 sticks of DDR4 266 2,666 RAM in their garage from an old from an old from an old server. Very old. His employer had given him when it was when it was retired. He estimates the RAM is worth wait for it about $12,000. But but but but can only be used in servers like Zeon uh Zeon uh is it epic or epic or Thread Ripper systems. >> Yeah. So this is not going to this is not RAM you're going to put in your personal machine, you know, cuz people were like, can you send me a stick? And it's like it's not going to be worth for you, but he could sell it to a data center for sure. >> There you go. >> Yeah, that's sitting on a gold mine. Uh thanks to Greg N who posted this one on the DTNS subreddit. Guardian reports on internal documents from several US police departments, uh, New York City, Maine, California cities, uh, issuing warnings about the fact that citizens might record them with Meta's smart glasses, uh, which of course could be used for criminal or terrorist purposes. >> And the US installed 20.2 2 gawatt hours of battery capacity in Q2 2026, a new record for the country and enough storage to power about 700,000 homes. Overall, the US is on track to install 71 gatt hours of battery capacity in 2026. And that's a 70% increase over 2025. >> That's there's a long way to go on batteries, but that's that's encouraging. And a lot of it is not in the home. Some of it is people putting them in the homes, but a lot of a lot of it is on the power side of stuff for like solar arrays and things. >> Uh if you have feedback about anything that gets brought up on the show, please do uh reach out to us. Uh one way to do it is on social networks, tina show on x, Instagram, threads, blue sky, and mastadon. For Tik Tok and YouTube, you can find us at Daily Tech News Show. >> All right, we end every episode of DTNS with some shared perspectives today. Nate has a question about EIMS in Japan. >> Yes, and luckily the two people on the crew who most recently went to Japan are on the show today, me and Wen. Uh Nate writes, "Hey Tom and team, I'm going to Japan for a month shortly. I haven't visited since smartphone eims became a mainstream thing and I wondered if you or the DTNS audience had experience with them specifically in Japan. Uh, I've been recommended a company called SY, which I hadn't heard of, and I downloaded an app called Aero, which was wellreed in the UK app store and seems reasonably priced, but I've not signed up for anything yet. I'd welcome any recommendations or advice. I only really care about data, not calls and texts. Having all three is probably better, but I'm assuming just looking for data is simpler and probably cheaper. Argato, Nate, >> brilliant. Um, I actually cheat a bit. I use Google Fi. Uh so I it generally rolls into my >> you just roamed. >> Yeah. But I have used Eim in the past because I when I had like a cheaper Google Fi plan and and uh we decided not to get a pocket Wi-Fi which uh if you're not aware is kind of been like this little pocket, you know, Wi-Fi device that you bring with you was the standard for a very very very long time for internet connectivity for Japanese travelers. Um did have you bought a separate eim or >> Yeah. Uh I I also use Google Fi roaming on my on my fold, but for the iPhone, I have T-Mobile, which also gives me free roaming, but I found that it can be spotty. Uh so I went with Aero because I have used them. I found them on EIM database and they've worked very well for me. Although I did have a problem with them in England, oddly. Uh they were great in Switzerland though, they were great in Germany and they've been great in Japan and Korea. Uh, and when I went to Japan at the end of July, I used Aero and it was great. And I configured the iPhone so that Aerolo was always my primary connection, but I kept the T-Mobile one active so that if the data wasn't great from Aero, it would switch over to T-Mobile. Uh, and between those two, uh, you know, you you have a few dropouts here and there when you're you're traveling through rural areas on a train maybe or something like that, but for the most part, it was great. Uh, and and it worked really well for me and it was reasonably priced. You can get them in whatever days you you need and whatever megabytes you think you need or unlimited. Uh so was the one I've used. I've never used s. I don't know if you use s in the past or anything like that. >> Yeah, I have. Um it was relatively simple. I do believe that there are certain like um for do you need like an eim per country or something like that or >> depends on the plant. Uh so you can you can buy them for a single country or you can buy them for a region and they've got different regions in there. >> Okay. I think s is a pretty budget option. If I am remembering correctly, they do data only, which is why I was kind of >> so so on them because I was trying to get a Japanese number, but >> but um I do think SY >> I've seen them at least advertise them advertise a lot from creators. They seem to be pretty solid. I didn't really have a problem when I used it. It was pretty straightforward. The app is very straightforward. Um and I do think they're a little more budgety and again I believe it might depend on the plan, but I think they generally have mostly data only plans. So if if you're looking I think it also depends on on on like your budget and if you really want to go super like budgety and save money um maybe look at Saleo s but I I'm with you well I'm not with you I haven't tried Aerolo yet but I've heard nothing but great things although I think most of these countries if you're staying within like the big three cities Tokyo Kyoto and Osaka you're you're going to be fine but as Tom said in Naka if you're going out to the the the rural areas or if you're on a train you might drop out but generally should be good. >> But I yeah most of the time you're good. The other thing I would point out is if you do if you are interested in phone, which I know Nate says he's probably not worried about, uh, a lot of countries have different rules on getting a phone number. Yes. So, I would recommend going to a local provers's counter in the airport. That's when I wanted to get a phone number in Seoul, I went to the LGU Plus counter and said, "I would like the plan that gives me a phone number." and then they have to look at your passport and your ID. But you can get one and and it's temporary and it doesn't cost actually that much more uh than the data only plans. But that's one of the reasons you only see data only so much is that a lot of countries are like no you got to show an ID if you want a phone number. Um if you just want data that that's fine. >> Yeah, I think the same is at Narita because I consider getting a phone but I've only ever stayed for a couple weeks which feels a little bit short for a phone but if I was going to stay for a month or longer uh yeah definitely see what you can get at Narita Nate. There was there was a time when you needed a phone number to do reservations for certain things, which is why I did it in the past, but I think that time has passed now. Everything's on an app. So, >> go on uh go to tab tabog uh tab tab log table uh and you can do reservations now. And actually, since I last been even last year, their English website is much better. They're much more fully featured. You can get reservations there. So, enjoy Nate, enjoy Japan. Hopefully, you get a good e service and let us know which one you picked and and what you liked about it. Uh, and if any of you are thinking about anything, whether that's the impending doom of AI, the iPhone duo, or how to get your data in foreign countries, let us know. Feedback at dailytechnewshow.com. >> Thanks to Nate for contributing to today's show. Thanks to Sarah Lane for being with us today. And thank you for being along for Daily Tech News Show. You're the folks who keep us in business. Become a patron. Keep this stuff coming. patreon.com/dtns The DTNS family of podcasts helping each other understand. >> Diamond Club hopes you have enjoyed this broker.