Good morning. It’s Thursday, September 25. Today we are covering:
Neon, the No. 2 social app on the Apple App Store, pays users to record their phone calls and sells data to AI firms
Apple asks EU to scrap landmark digital competition law
Microsoft opens the doors to more AI-powered Windows apps
You can Google the world around you by video now for free - with Search Live
A Former Apple Luminary Sets Out to Create the Ultimate GPU Software
Let’s dive in
By Sarah Perez via TechCrunch
Neon Mobile, now the No. 2 social app on Apple’s U.S. App Store, pays users up to 30¢ per minute (capped at $30 per day) to record phone calls and sells the audio to AI companies for training models.
The app’s terms of service grant it sweeping rights to use, sell, and distribute recordings, raising privacy and security concerns, including risks of fraud, impersonation, and weak anonymization of user data.
Despite legal gray areas, Neon’s rise highlights how AI-driven incentives are normalizing surveillance, with users trading personal privacy for cash, often at the expense of others’ consent.
𝕏: Humanity’s last use case is to generate training data. - Sandeep Srinivasa (@sandeepssrin)
Apple asks EU to scrap landmark digital competition law
FRANCE 24
Apple urged the EU to repeal the Digital Markets Act (DMA), arguing it harms user experience, raises security risks, and delays new features such as live translation.
The European Commission rejected Apple’s demand, insisting the DMA ensures fair competition, mandates interoperability, and dismissed claims it lowers privacy or security standards.
The standoff follows Apple’s €500 million DMA fine and broader EU scrutiny, as Brussels pushes to curb Big Tech dominance despite Apple’s warnings of negative impacts on consumers.
𝕏: Apple has just released a scathing press release about the EU’s Digital Markets Act It discusses feature delays, restrictions, and even hits back at AltStore for distributing a pornography app - Aaron (@aaronp613)
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Microsoft opens the doors to more AI-powered Windows apps
By Jess Weatherbed via The Verge
Microsoft has made Windows ML generally available on Windows 11 24H2 and newer, giving developers a local AI inference framework that optimizes workloads across CPUs, GPUs, and NPUs.
Partners like Adobe, McAfee, and Topaz Labs are adopting the platform, with planned integrations including Premiere Pro and After Effects features like semantic search, scene detection, and audio tagging.
Use cases already include deepfake detection by McAfee and AI-powered image editing by Topaz, with Microsoft aiming to drive more AI-enabled apps to its ecosystem.
𝕏: Microsoft opens the doors to more AI-powered Windows apps. Windows ML is now available for all app developers, and it connects apps like Adobe Premiere Pro to your PC’s CPU, GPU, or NPU for AI features - Tom Warren (@tomwarren)
You can Google the world around you by video now for free - with Search Live
By Sabrina Ortiz via ZDNET
Google Search Live is now officially available in the US, letting users share live video and ask questions with real-time voice and link responses.
The feature works like Google Lens but adds live video and spoken queries, distinguishing it from Gemini Live, which gives conversational answers without links.
Early demos showed practical use cases, such as choosing snacks or fixing a broken fan, with Search Live providing both verbal guidance and relevant search links.
𝕏: Having a Live conversation with Search is officially a thing for everyone in the US! 💬 Now, all English users in the US will see the “Live” button in the Google App or Lens to ask questions, get real-time help, and even point your camera to show what you’re seeing and ask questions. Labs opt-in no longer required! It’s a whole new, natural way to get real-time help. Let me know how you’re using it! - Rajan Patel (@rajanpatel)
A Former Apple Luminary Sets Out to Create the Ultimate GPU Software
By Lauren Goode via WIRED
Chris Lattner, creator of LLVM and Apple’s Swift, co-founded Modular to build a unified software layer and new Python-based language that lets AI apps run seamlessly across GPUs and CPUs.
Modular has partnered with Nvidia, AMD, Amazon, and Apple Silicon, raised $250M in funding at a $1.6B valuation, and aims to loosen Nvidia and AMD’s dominance over GPU software.
By targeting the fragmented GPU software ecosystem—dominated by Nvidia’s proprietary CUDA and AMD’s open-source ROCm—Modular seeks to become the standard software stack for AI chips.
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