Adrian Weckler

“Littered with errors including three nonexistent academic references and a made-up quote from a Federal Court judgement.”

Deloitte issues refund to (Aus) government for using AI in $440k report

Garretstown #StormAmy

Kinsale #StormAmy

Meta boss says Irish parents should take charge of kids’ Instagram and Facebook usage more Meta's global head of safety, Antigone Davis, says Irish parents should increasingly be the ones to keep young teenagers from seeing harmful things online.

Visiting Dublin, Meta’s safety boss emphasises that it’s parents who should probably be the main guardians for what their kids/teens see on Insta/FB/social.

I put it to her that Meta may now be optimising for ‘free speech’ over ‘kid safety’?
She said no.
m.independent.ie/business/tec...

Interesting, I don’t know. It showed a bit of independence on the Azure backtracking issue this week. Worth reading Brad Smth’s blogpost on it.

Trump requests that Microsoft fire its newly-appointed president of global affairs because she worked for Biden.
Another test run — will Microsoft cave?

Microsoft blocks Israeli military from some AI and cloud services over use in targeting of Gazans Microsoft disabled some use of its software by the Israeli military after an investigation spurred by news reports that the company's products were involved in the mass surveillance of civilians.

Microsoft blocks Israeli military from some AI and cloud services over use in targeting of Gazans www.independent.ie/world-news/m...

Apple slams European Commission tech fines as ‘political’ and calls for repeal of EU Digital Markets Act Apple has called for the repeal of the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA), claiming that the regulation is preventing it from launching new features in Europe.

Apple suggests European Commission is politically influenced when regulating tech firms and imposing fines — and calls for EU’s anchor DMA regulation to be scrapped

m.independent.ie/business/tec...

TikTok is tagging videos from Gaza with TikTok Shop products TikTok’s new AI feature automatically looks for products in your videos.

A new AI-powered feature on TikTok scans videos for products and matches images with TikTok Shop listings — even using footage from the war in Gaza.
www.theverge.com/tech/782540/...

Nvidia pours $100 billion into OpenAI just days after pledging $5 billion to Intel | Fortune The companies announced a blockbuster partnership and letter of intent on Monday.

Fortune following Business Insider's lead and having AI write the first draft of stories....

"For this story, Fortune used generative AI to help with an initial draft. An editor verified the accuracy of the information before publishing."

fortune.com/2025/09/22/n...

The telephoto zoom is one of the two biggest upgrades on iPhone 17 Pro, I found — it’s a big jump on 16 Pro.

Once again here’s 1x, then 30x .

Taken from same spot

iPhone 17 Pro

1x main, 30x telephoto

This is one of the big new features that Apple says it can’t launch on iPhones or AirPods in the EU (because of DMA regs) — ‘Live Translation’

Joswiak says “Meta alone has made more than a dozen of these requests”.
“This type of data is so sensitive that Apple itself can’t see it and we purposely engineer it that way. But under DMA rules we’re forced to hand it over to other companies no matter how they plan to use it.”

“With this kind of access, you know which hospitals I visited, which courthouse, hotels, fertility clinics.
We’ve been asked to provide the complete contents of notifications you get on your device, even though they reveal contents of messages, emails or even medical alerts.”

Main issue, Joswiak says, is DMA’s requirement for interoperability.
“Some of the interoperability requests we’ve gotten out of Europe are, quite honestly, just mind boggling. As an example, we’ve been asked to share a full history of every wifi network a user has ever joined.”

“We’ve had to delay or water down features for Europe and in some cases, we won’t be able to ship them at all,” Greg Joswiak said.
“People are excited about Live Translation, but we can’t ship it in the EU. This is pissing off customers. It pisses us off.”

Apple boss says EU is hurting innovation with anti-tech regulations that prevent it from launching features such as Live Translation A senior Apple vice president says the company is “pissed off” at the EU for damaging innovation in the tech industry.

Apple is “pissed off” that features like Live Translation and iPhone Mirroring can’t launch in EU because, it says, of Digital Markets Act.

“We have been singled out and it’s become a huge barrier to our ability to do business in Europe,” VP Greg Jozwiak told me.

m.independent.ie/business/tec...

iPhone 17 Pro, 8x zoom — not bad at all

Autumn colour starting on Dublin’s Griffith Ave

Adrian Weckler: Does the Jimmy Kimmel sacking mean Coimisiún na Meán can now regulate social media? Does the firing of Jimmy Kimmel for wrongspeak mean Coimisiún na Meán is now out of the firing line of US officials set on sanctioning the Irish regulator for moderating extreme speech?

The firing of Jimmy Kimmel for wrongspeak could ease pressure on Ireland’s regulator, Coimisiún na Meán, which had faced US travel bans for the offence of moderating online speech on social media.

Apparent new zeal for content moderation in US govt
m.independent.ie/business/tec...

Review: better battery life and a massive zoom boost make iPhone 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max worthy upgrades While we’ve all been focused on the shiny, skinny new iPhone Air (see our in-depth review here), Apple’s iPhone 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max are what most flagship upgraders may actually be ordering over the...

iPhone 17 Pro/Pro Max review.

Two outstanding upgrades, one of which (from photography point of view) isn’t mentioned nearly enough.

A couple of other good updates, too. Two fairly minor downsides.

m.independent.ie/business/tec...

A message worth repeating

Adrian Weckler: Demise of the phone call leaves us all more isolated In the iPhone’s updated iOS 26 operating system, there’s a feature that lets you screen calls. The iPhone itself will answer the call and ask politely who is calling and what it’s about before putting...

When did we stop taking phone calls?

It’s not just scam and marketing robocalls — more people just dislike taking voice calls for almost any reason. Is it generational?

Seeping into work culture, too. Even PR people now don’t give out mobile numbers

www.independent.ie/business/tec...

Think I can take a break from Disney+ for a while

In-depth review of iPhone Air for an Irish/EU user.

Will it bend? What are the restrictions with it being eSim-only? What about battery life?

www.independent.ie/business/tec...

Full plain English review of iPhone Air/17/17 Pro/17Pro Max, Apple Watch S11/SE3/Ultra 3, AirPods Pro 3

The basic pros and cons of each and the main reasons why some are better (or worse) than others

open.spotify.com/episode/27LF...

One thing to genuinely surprised me about iPhone 17 Pro is how noticeably better its telephoto camera system is vs iPhone 16 Pro.

It moved the optical range from 5x to 4x but has a 56% bigger sensor. So 5x (or 10x, 15x) shots are still clearer, even though more digitally zoomed

Review: Watch SE 3 is the surprise pick of Apple’s new Watch range The biggest upgrade at Apple’s big September launch event this year is one that few are talking about — Apple’s Watch SE3. Having tested it, here are the reasons why.

I’ve been testing the new Apple Watches and, oddly, the most compelling new one is the also the (€269) entry-level one — the Watch SE 3.

Reason? The upgrades — always-on display, fast-charging and 5G cellular.

Only real gap now is battery life.

Full review: www.independent.ie/business/tec...