Old friendships have been feeling unstable lately, and this is forcing the EU to reconsider its reliance on non-European tech infrastructure. To get things moving, over 80 signatories representing around 100 organizations have signed an open letter to the president of the European Commission, urging the EU to increase support for local alternatives to big tech products, services, and infrastructure.
So, what will happen if Europe decides to go self-sufficient on the tech front and create its own “Euro Stack“? How will it affect both Europeans and other people around the world? Well, they say competition is good for everyone, and I’m inclined to agree. More European tech would mean more competition for American tech, and more competition means better products for consumers.
You might think there are more tech products out there than we could possibly need, but the reality is a little more complicated. Take search engines, for example — we all know that Google and Bing are the most popular choices, but there are plenty of alternatives, right? Well, not really. Right now, just about every alternative search engine, from DuckDuckGo to Qwant, uses the search indexes from Google or Bing. This means that, if Google and Bing decided to stop sharing their search indexes, all of these alternative products would stop working.
Initiatives to build new, independent search indexes have started — such as Brave Search or the new partnership between Qwant and Ecosia — but building a search index is a big project and it will take a lot of time to get the quality of these new products to where Google and Bing are now.
There are plenty of other examples, too. All of the biggest map software apps are owned by big tech companies, as are most big AI models and LLM services, instant messaging apps, operating systems, browsers, social media platforms — and a lot more. When buying a new PC, most consumers have to choose between Windows devices or macOS devices — in other words, Microsoft or Apple.
For phones, it’s Android or iOS — so Google or Apple. The main problems with current alternatives are that firstly, they’re too small. In most cases, you have to sacrifice functionality, features, and support to try out something new. Secondly, many are built on existing infrastructure from companies like Microsoft and Google.
The point is — we don’t have enough choices. Availability, affordability, and convenience are always pushing us into the hands of American big tech companies. If the EU decides that its people and its organizations need to have access to homegrown alternatives — you can bet those alternatives will be available worldwide. That means more tech for everyone, and with the strict data laws in the EU, we would finally have a choice between selling our data and not selling it (instead of the choice we have now, which is just deciding who to sell it to).
The absolutely absurd idea of putting a touchscreen display on a mouse isn't exactly new. Turtle Beach already did it with its Command Series MC7, which features a 2.25-inch control screen. But apparently, even that wasn't ridiculous enough for Arctic Fox Technologies. Its new Super Mouse looks like someone took the chunky old Atari ST mouse, slapped a touchscreen and scroll wheel on it, and called it an upgrade.
The result is a rather unusual-looking mouse that is now on Kickstarter, starting at $199. And as ridiculous as it looks, some of its features are genuinely intriguing.
Apple is less than a day away from launching its highly anticipated OLED MacBook Pro with a touch-sensitive screen. But it appears that the upgrade is going to cost a pretty penny. According to a report by Bloomberg, Apple is reportedly eyeing a starting price of $2,899 for the 14-inch MacBook Pro, while the 16-inch version could start at $3,399 in the US.
"At $2,899, the 14-inch model would mark the highest starting price for a new MacBook Pro model, surpassing the $2,799 Apple charged for a 17-inch version introduced in 2006," says the report. The report claims that Apple is targeting a minimum price hike of $400 for its upcoming redesigned 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models.
I've spent a good amount of time digging into the spec sheet of the new M6 MacBook Pro (14-inch), and for all intents and purposes, this is a classic Apple "chip and connectivity" refresh. It's not a full redesign. The chassis, Liquid Retina XDR panel, speakers, ports, and battery, all of them carry over unchanged.
However, the M6 brings more cores, stronger on-device AI, higher memory bandwidth on the larger configs, and modern wireless. Here’s the practical rundown of what actually improved, and whether those gains are worth your money.