Dominic Preston

Years of irate comments have hammered home that not all our readers want us to cover politics. And hey, I’m just a humble phone reviewer, so I should stick to what I know. Now, let’s see if there are any new players in the phone industry this year...

Microsoft wants to build superintelligent AI “designed only to serve humanity,” and y’know what? I think this a company that’s proved it’s got what it takes.

Google says it wants to use AI to turn Maps into an “all-knowing copilot,” but someone else in the AI space got to that name first.

So says France’s equality watchdog, ruling Meta needs to improve its job listings, where mechanic roles are mostly being shown to men, with preschool teacher ads going to women. We’ve been talking about sexism in job algorithms for a decade now, including at Facebook, but apparently some things never change.

No-one should be surprised that students are using AI tools to cheat on exams and homework, and we shouldn’t be any more surprised that the companies behind those tools don’t really mind. That won’t stop us taking them to task for it though.

Just... not the actual phones. Instead, it’s 2023’s repairable Fairbuds XL headphones that will go on sale on Amazon this month. As for the excellent Fairphone 6, CEO Raymond van Eck tells me launching that is a “complicated process,” but one he hopes will be sorted “in the near future.”

It’s been added to the list of social media sites that will be required to block under-16s in the country, alongside Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube, X, Facebook, and Instagram. Local Twitch rival Kick has also made the cut. The ban kicks in December 10th, the next stage in age-gating the internet.