It feels like all of the big tech companies practically live in courtrooms lately, but it also feels like not much really comes of it. Decisions get made and unmade again, and it takes a long time for anything to affect consumers. At the moment, Google is in danger of getting dismantled and sold for parts — and if it really happens, OpenAI has told the judge that it would be interested in buying.
OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, currently doesn’t work with Google at all. Apparently, it wanted to make a deal last year to use Google’s search technology with ChatGPT but it didn’t work out. Instead, OpenAI is now working on its own search index but it’s turning out to be a much more time-consuming project than anticipated.
The company originally thought it would be taking care of 80% of ChatGPT queries with its own search index by the end of this year, but now thinks that milestone will take multiple years to reach. This, along with “significant quality issues” with the search technology it’s currently using, are the reasons OpenAI says it would be interested in buying Chrome if it goes on sale.
Since millions and millions of people use Chrome as their browser, this is something that would definitely affect users if it really happened. What would OpenAI do with Chrome after buying it? There’s no way to know, of course, but one might assume that the product would be rebranded and combined with ChatGPT to make some kind of AI-powered browsing, searching, and image-generating monster. Maybe the rumored OpenAI social network would end up in there as well.
Naturally, Google is appealing the ruling that officially labels it a “monopolist” in online search, so the fight likely isn’t over yet. But Google’s search engine market share hovers right around the 90% mark, and it seems very hard to argue that it’s not a monopoly. Here’s hoping it doesn’t take another five years to find out how this will all end.
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.
Two new highly requested iCloud plugins just got added to ChatGPT, giving people who rely on Apple’s Mail and Calendar services a way to search emails, check appointments, and manage their schedules directly through the chatbot.
The integration is rolling out to all ChatGPT plans, including the free tier. You can access it on the web, desktop, and iOS.