I use Google Maps every day, but Apple Maps still does these 4 things better

Google Maps is great, but Apple Maps gets these four things surprisingly right.

https://www.androidauthority.com/google-maps-vs-apple-maps-2026-3708131/

#Tech #Technology #TechNews #AI #Gadgets #Software #Cybersecurity #Apple #Google #Microsoft #Startup #AndroidAuthority [Android Authority]

@jwildeboer viral marketing so the #ai labs don’t have to buy #google #adwords to promote their #frontierai #slop and #hyperscalers will continue to fund the deathloop until Q3 numbers are announced

Don’t expect the #techbros to tell you when their apocalypse seeking LLM has almost reached its goal…

#Google
#OpenAI
#Anthropic
#AI

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/sep/18/google-gemini-ai-hack

AI is TERRIBLE for the #internet

If we like it or not, traffic has always been the currency on the web. Many news outlets and #journalists would not be able to do their work without it

A lot of this traffic was coming from search engines like #Google, again like it or not. Nowadays Google uses their AI to pull info from sites making visiting websites for info obsolete and in turn killing traffic and a lot of sites

For the love of the internet, please DO NOT use the #AI summary but browse!♥️

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, children of all ages, it's all true!

It's now basically inevitable that we'll have AGI superintelligence by the end of 2024.

And there's a 10% chance this AGI superintelligence, which will basically be LLM software running on physical hardware that fills a massive data centre with the energy and water use of a small European country, will cause humans to go extinct by 2030.

And by extinct, I don't mean as a result of climate change from the fossil fuel air pollution we're using to fuel it. Please don't think about that stuff!

No, I mean by, erm... Things like hacking the power grid and such... Which would also presumably cause it to cease existing... Which wouldn't exactly be superintelligent.

But... y'know... details!

How will we ever stop it?!

I mean, it's not like we live in a world where less intelligent creatures and even inanimate objects kill off more intelligent creatures every day.

It's not like we live in a world where virii and microbes and bricks can kill off more intelligent creatures.

Brains beat brawn every time!

Put a statistician in a fight with an MMA champion and clearly the maths professor is going to win, right?

And if that doesn't sound true when it's phrased like that, then you need to just shush for a moment and pretend that it does.

And if one of our LLMs in a massive hyperscale AI data centre somehow magically became sentient, it's not like we could just shut off the water. Or the electricity. Or stop delivering massive quantities of gas and oil to the onsite gas turbines.

Or just find the nearest Telstra pit and put a bloody shovel through the fibre optic cables that connect it to the outside world.

So we need to immediately figure out ways to stop this happening!

What's that?

You say we could prevent this happening by just not building the massive AI data centres?

You say we could tax the rich so they don't have the money to build massive AI data centres?

No! We absolutely must not do that under any circumstances!

See, our position is really quite straightforward.

We're claiming our product poses an existential risk to humanity that justifies urgent action to mitigate the risk, but also simultaneously we don't want you to think it /genuinely/ poses an existential risk to humanity that /actually/ justifies urgent action that would be guaranteed mitigate the risk, such as not building massive AI data centres, or by not providing access to the ginormous quantities of water and land and energy and capital that our product which is causing this supposed threat depends on.

So why say it?

Mostly, because if we say things like: "We can make a product that could make massive monopolistic short-term profits in a few years, but there's a 10% chance it kills everyone alive, give us money to build it," then the Silicon Valley VCs and Wall Street bankers will throw literal billions our way.

Whereas if we were to say: "We can make a product that solves a genuine problem and we have a sustainable business model for it that will deliver stable long-term returns," then they won't.

Because under American capitalism, "a chance it kills every person" is seen to be a worthwhile risk to take in exchange for short-term profits.

I really hope that clarifies our argument.

#AI #LLM #DataCenter #DataCentre #GenAI #tech #Anthropic #OpenAI #Google #Microsoft #Gemini #Copilot #Claude #AGI #capitalism #aimarketing #BigTech #tech

I'm beyond gone crazy, please help: I NEED an Android gallery app that can show photos and videos SEPARATELY. I've tried over 30 apps. This is in-fucking-sane. Clearly no one at Google has ever used an Android phone to take and share photos and videos.
#Android #Google #fedihelp #askfedi #photography

@rl_dane @jperkin

#Google is suffering from a problem of its own making. It's the WWW scrapers feeding LLMs that are creating a lot of this traffic.

#GoogleGroups

OpenAI Is Beefing With Mathematicians, Will No Longer Sponsor Caltech ‘Mathathon’

OpenAI will no longer sponsor the event after mathematicians criticized the company's 'destructive impacts' on the discipline.

https://gizmodo.com/openai-is-beefing-with-mathematicians-will-no-longer-sponsor-caltech-mathathon-2000810868

#Tech #Technology #TechNews #AI #Gadgets #Software #Cybersecurity #Apple #Google #Microsoft #Startup #Gizmodo [Gizmodo]

It's really time for everyone to just admit the truth:

#RCS is just #Google's iMessage.

It's not a replacement for #MMS, let alone an update to it. You can say it's an "open spec," but it's as closed as iMessage is in practice.

We've been sold a bill of goods.

It's not every day that I get to show up my old friends at #Google so hard. This graph demonstrates #atomdrift's uncanny ability to detect 0-day #malware (median sample age 10 h, youngest 0.7 h):

The #Google #pixel experience (and #android in general) seems increasingly driven by corporate committee, raising prices while underdelivering on stuff users actually care about while aggressively pitching more and more paid services. eg, just think about all the stuff that Google Assistant could do without a Gemini subscription 10 years ago. 12 years ago the phones shipped with universal remote controls and FM radio without a subscription required for either.

A #Gmail scam is exploiting #Google Account recovery emails

https://proton.me/blog/google-account-recovery-gmail-scam

#email #cybersecurity

@globcoco Yes, I guess #Google is deliberately rate-limiting or causing shit…

Open #AuroraStore and go to the gear icon in the top-right corner, where your anonymous user is.

Click on the right side of your anonymous user, go to the three dots at the top right next to “Account,” and click “Refresh all accounts

Amazing Enshitification by Google #google #search

https://productrise.app/blog/google-ai-mode-prefers-more-expensive-products

There's some #Google apology circulating that #GoogleMaps follows national government rules in each country.

This is observably false.

Here in the U.K., the WWW Google Maps has changed #LakeOntario to add the Trump U.S.A. rename. I took this screenshot today.

The U.K. official source for these things is the Permanent Committee on Geographical Names, and the FCDO, which have not mandated any such rename.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/geographical-names-and-information

#Canada #ElbowsUp #LakeOntario #GulfOfMexico #USPolitics

Alt...

A screenshot of the WWW Google Maps search sidebar in the U.K. as of 2026-09-02, which shows 'Lake Ontario (Lake America)' twice, in the heading and against the map pin. All of the other stuff (overview/reviews/about tabs and a short blurb about the lake) is as usual.

#Google has run out of PRIVATE IP ADDRESS SPACE! All 192.168, 10.0.0.0, 172.16... All gone. Wow. #AusNOG #IPv6

Alt...

Photo of Google IPv6 presentation saying they have run out of private IP address stuff

If companies like #Google and #Apple are so easily "persuaded" to change the bullshit renames #Trump does...

..how easy do you think they will turn over personal data on us?

Big Tech CANNOT be trusted, that's the unfortunate reality we live in and always have

@debian Great work!! Just saying: Those videos would look nice in a Hyper8 website (would present them as thumbnails with captions, a bit like a #Youtube channel, but without those heinous shitheads: #Google).

"MapQuest stood up to President Donald Trump, and now its app is reaping the rewards.

The “OG of online mapping,” as the company calls itself, announced on Thursday that it would not change the name of Lake Ontario on its maps to Lake America, despite Trump’s executive order directing the U.S. Department of the Interior to update the lake’s name in the U.S. geographic naming service. As a result, MapQuest’s mobile app downloads soared, sending the iOS app to the No. 4 position on the U.S. App Store’s Top Charts for apps (not including games) as of Monday morning on the U.S. east coast.

MapQuest also reached the No. 8 position overall in the U.S. App Store across both apps and games, and it became the No. 1 Navigation app in the United States.

In Canada’s App Store, the app reached No. 2 overall as of Sunday evening."

https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/31/mapquests-app-surges-to-no-1-in-navigation-after-refusing-to-rename-lake-ontario/

#USA #Trump #MAGA #Canada #Google #MapQuest #LakeOntario #BigTech

@SecureOwl

"Do no evil"
Becomes
"Lemme lemme!"

#google quislings

Does anyone know who the point of contact is at #Google Maps? I renamed the street we live on.

#shitpost

Google. No, not cowards. Not desperate, not lickspittle, not craven fawning weaklings.

Google are totalitarian fascists. Pichai is a totalitarian fascist.

#google #fascism #antifa

I already had done this on my pixel pro xl 10 and found today that it had been turned back off and required another 24 hour delay to turn it back on again 😩.

#android #Google #pixel

Alt...

Security delay to install non play store apps

https://www.404media.co/google-maps-lake-america-lake-ontario-name-change/

Google being evil.

#Google #LakeOntario #Canada #USPolitics #Hydronym #DonaldTrump

Anyone inside or outside the US that thinks they're safe relying on American tech providers and financial institutions should consider how quickly and enthusiastically they carried out the diktats of the Trump regime.

Just in the last week, Google changed Google Maps' references from Lake Ontario to Lake America, and Paypal and the Internet Society froze financial assets and domain names of Autistici/Inventati.

You risk instant humiliation, immiseration, and social death at the whims of a corrupt, vindictive, narcissistic dictator. No due process required or given.

#google #uspol #digitalAutonomy #digitalsovereignty #austiciinventsti #paypal #internetsociety

RE: https://mastodon.bsd.cafe/@grahamperrin/117118053470002816

@pikesley

Hello son, you got me thinking.

I don't know whether I'm centrist, or perceptibly centrist, so I (naturally) sought (artificial) intelligence about my online activities.

I very rarely use Google in AI mode, however it does seem appropriate for this because Reddit has partnerships with Google and others; and because I spend too much time on Reddit. I asked Google:

From what's known publicly about me (Graham Perrin) – my publicly available Reddit posts and comments at https://www.reddit.com/user/grahamperrin/ in particular – is it possible to tell whether I'm "centrist" with regard to recent debates about AI/LLM?

The response took around two seconds, amazingly quick IMHO. It began:

"Based on your public Reddit footprint, no, you would not be characterized as a "centrist" in the typical sense of recent AI/LLM debates. Instead, your public posts and comments lean distinctly toward the critical and cautious side of the spectrum, paired with a highly pragmatic, strictly-defined stance on utility. …"

The truth: some of <https://share.google/aimode/ve0pe4JqmwDwKr7Zf> is hilariously out of tune. It gained a thumbs-up from me, not only for comedy value.

This was outstanding:

"Loudly aligning with or sharing anti-AI sentiments in open-source discussions, including promoting AI-free forks of operating systems (like FreeBSD) and tracking alternative BSD operating systems that establish strict anti-AI policies."

There's an element of truth. I'm gonna print and frame that, as if it's entirely true. I haven't got a printer, so you'll have to trust me about truth-telling.

Certainly, I used this Mastodon ID for the unbiased CoffeeBSD promotion below (18th August). I do not recall using my grahamperrin Reddit ID in the same way – certainly not that ID – for the unbiased Reddit promotion of the same fork. Maybe I'm a master of undisguised disguise …

#AI #Google #LLM #LLMs #intelligence #Reddit #Mastodon

🆕 blog! “Contactless Payments with GrapheneOS”

Google's monopolistic stranglehold on Android results in poor experience for power-users, and artificially restricts choice for those who have older phones. For example, Google Wallet is the de facto way to use NFC payments on Android. There's one problem though - it only works with Google's Android. If you have…

👀 Read more: https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/contactless-payments-with-grapheneos/
⸻
#android #google #GrapheneOS #nfc

🆕 blog! “"iT woRKs BeTter in THe aPp!!"”

The monkey-punchers at Google never quite seem to finish any of their apps. There's always some useful bit of work left undone, or showstopping bug which remains unfixed, a thousand jagged edges as yet unsolved by the greatest minds of their generation.

I wanted to subscribe to an events calendar. I had a URl. I had my Google™ Pixel® ph…

👀 Read more: https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/it-works-better-in-the-app/
⸻
#android #Apps #google #rant

Why should you block ads?

Because of THIS shit. I have an ultrawide monitor. Look how fucking much usable screen estate is robbed from me.

Note, on the left hand column further down, another ad looms into view as you start scrolling. None of these disappear when scrolling.

#Google #Tech #Ads

Alt...

A screenshot of a news article I'm reading. To try and explain it, about 75% of the actual screen is taken up by blocks of adverts. I imagine that's like adverts playing over the top of your screenreader or something? Better not say that too loudly, we might give them ideas...

#google mag mich nicht mehr ohne Anmeldung 🤔

Alt...

Zum Fortfahren anmelden Melde dich an, um zu bestätigen, dass du ein Mensch bist, und um weitere Ergebnisse zu sehen. Anmelden

I’m watching some videos about the new Pixel 11 Pro. I’m…I don’t know, but I don’t like what I see.
It looks a total downgrade.

#Android #Pixel #Google

Hey Canada? 🇨🇦 ?

In dealing with Trump/billionaire/techbros, Europeans suddenly had prominent Europeans locked out of their google mail and Microsoft software.

Europe is moving off US software.
Canada has more reasons than Europe to abandon Gmail, Windows, Word, cloud and data.

Its time for a concerted effort, including government.

Get off American Software, stat.

https://techcrunch.com/2026/04/27/whats-behind-europes-efforts-to-ditch-u-s-software-in-favor-of-sovereign-tech/

#cdnpoli #software #sovereignty #apple #google #linux #microsoft #meta #drm

The constant arms race between #google and #yt-dlp is amusing to watch, in a tragic sense.

Came very close to running the somewhat scary "curl ${some_url} |sh" install "procedure" for #deno on my #devuan box until I saw that yt-dlp had been updated only yesterday.

I don't know why #debian (upstream) doesn't package Deno like #FreeBSD does.

“ #Google buys crashed airline Spirit’s data at auction, because its #AI needs data.

$10 million buys over 100 million emails, 30 million recorded phone calls, reams of stuff from Teams, Oracle, and SAP”

https://www.theregister.com/ai-and-ml/2026/08/18/google-buys-crashed-airline-spirits-data-at-auction-because-ai/5288962

The truth about the change in #YouTube view counts

I've gotten questions about this so let me tell ya what I think is really going on. YouTube announced that the public view counts displayed on all videos will now increment if someone so much as views a single subsecond frame of video, instead of the (never made public) algorithm used to determine true viewers not extremely brief or robot-triggered "touching" of a video that really shouldn't count as genuine views. The implication is that this is to match the behavior of other competing video platforms.

The upshot of this will be a big boost to many creators' public view numbers, encouraging the creation of ever more automated AI Slop.

But here's the thing. This ONLY applies to those public view counts. Google/YouTube says explicitly that this is to give creators inflated numbers to impress potential sponsors. Now comes the fun part. #Google isn't going to use these "fake" inflated numbers internally for any purposes related to monetization or YouTube privilege levels or the like. All of that will still be based on what YouTube calls "Engaged
Views" -- which apparently will be using the same secret algorithm as before. Creators will be able to see both numbers -- the inflated public views, and the actually meaningful engaged views. But the public cannot see the engaged views.

In other words boys and girls, it's essentially a fake. There's no other way to put it. And a rather cruel one too, because many creators won't realize what's going on right away, and will see the inflated public view numbers and get excited, when in reality it's all just YouTube playing with the numbers to count "views" that really aren't views at all.

Another nail in the coffin of "Don't Be Evil".

RAM has become 5 to 10 times more expensive during the past year. 🤯 ✊🤬🤜💥

https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/ram/memory-prices-climb-500-percent-in-12-months-up-to-10x-the-lowest-ever-tracked-prices-128gb-of-ddr5-now-usd3-399

#RAM #tech #technology #BigTech #IT #AI #ArtificialIntelligence #LLM #LLMs #ML #MachineLearning #GenAI #generativeAI #AIAgent #AISlop #FuckAI #Fuck_AI #enshittification #microslop #microsoft #copilot #meta #google #NVIDIA #amazon #gemini #OpenAI #ChatGPT #anthropic #claude

🗺️ While visiting Pride #Berlin, I learned how utterly pointless #GoogleMaps Reviews in #Germany are.

⭐ Any place can simply report negative #reviews for defamation or claim the person was never there and have it removed.

Users can then appeal & risk a lawsuit.

When a review is removed the removed count on #Google Maps goes up (🖼️ 1)

1/2

#Reviews #Degoogle #Corporation #Internet #Review #Rating #Online #Maps #Feedback #stupid #company #technology #tech #german #legal #law #defamation

Alt...

Screenshot of a business on Google Maps with "Over 250 reviews removed due to defamation complaints." in the past past 365 days.

Dear EU, don't listen to #Google, kill the cookie banner now!

Alt...

Gru meme: Let's have ONE single cookie setting on browser level. Everyone gets easier privacy. Google objects. We're keeping cookie banners?

WARNING: Massive "account verification" phishing attack from Google servers is in progress (via "googleusercontent.com"). BE CAREFUL.

Google is now a MASSIVE source of phishing attacks from Gmail to non-Gmail addresses, and googleusercontent.com // Google Cloud Platform is a primary source of these and associated malware payload links.

Google doesn't care.

#google #gmail