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OpenAI's Sam Altman said the company will amend its deal with the Defense Department (or the Department of War) to explicitly prohibit the use of its AI system on mass surveillance against Americans. Altman has published an internal memo previously sent to employees on X, telling them that the company will tweak the agreement to add language to make that point especially clear. Specifically, it says:
"Consistent with applicable laws, including the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution, National Security Act of 1947, FISA Act of 1978, the AI system shall not be intentionally used for domestic surveillance of U.S. persons and nationals.
For the avoidance of doubt, the Department understands this limitation to prohibit deliberate tracking, surveillance, or monitoring of U.S. persons or nationals, including through the procurement or use of commercially acquired personal or identifiable information."
Altman has also claimed in the memo that the agency affirmed that its services will not be used by its intelligence agencies, including the NSA, without a modification to their contract. He added that if he received what he believed was an unconstitutional order, he would rather go to jail than follow it.
In addition, the OpenAI CEO has admitted in the memo that the company shouldn't have rushed to get the deal out on Friday, February 27, since the issues were "super complex and demand clear communication." Altman explained that the company was "trying to de-escalate things and avoid a much worse outcome" but it "looked opportunistic" in the end. If you'll recall, OpenAI announced the partnership shortly after President Trump
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Google's showcase is like a tech-centric block party with demos and upcoming products. Here's what I tried out.
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After strikes killed senior Iranian officials, Iran cut off internet access. Journalists are relying on satellite links, encrypted apps, and smuggled footage to report from inside the country.
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Commentary: The iPad Air just got a chip bump. Meanwhile, the most affordable iPad remains cut off from AI and is another year older.
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Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for March 3.
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 Apple has unveiled the iPhone 17e, with key upgrades over the iPhone 16e including the A19 chip, MagSafe, and the Ceramic Shield 2 for a more scratch-resistant screen. The device also has Apple's latest C1X modem for faster 5G, a doubled 256GB of base storage, and a new Soft Pink color option alongside White and Black.
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The new pact includes additional protections to prevent the use of the company's technology for mass surveillance of Americans.
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Get ready to spring forward and lose an hour of sleep -- but gain more daylight.
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It's a follow-up to the 2025 iPhone 16E and comes with double the base storage of last year's budget device.
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Here are hints and the answer for today's Wordle for March 3, No. 1,718.
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Critics are worried OpenAI's technology will be used for mass surveillance and fully autonomous military strikes.
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The iPad Air, the middle child in Apple's tablet lineup, has been upgraded to the M4 chip with increased RAM and… Well, there's not a whole lot else if I'm being honest. At the very least, the new iPad Air M4 models remain at the same price as the iPad Air M3, with the 11-inch version starting at $599 and the 13-inch at $799. I would give Apple more credit if it had increased the starting storage or added literally anything else.
If you put them side by side, you might not be able to tell the difference, but this upgrade would benefit creatives and professionals more than anything. There's a significant performance bump from the M3 to the M4, and the increased RAM is doing a lot of work, especially if you're taking advantage of Apple Intelligence.
If you're using an M1-powered iPad Air or something even older, though, the new iPad Air M4 should be a compelling upgrade. Pre-orders start at 9:15AM ET on March 4, with the units arriving a week later. We expect full reviews will be published by then. But in the meantime, let's dive into what the performance gains might look like and what we're missing out on in this year's iteration of the iPad Air.
iPad Air M4 vs. iPad Air M3: Performance and battery lifeThe most significant difference between the two iPad Air generations is their chipsets. The latest iPad Air launches with the M4 chip versus its predecessor's M3 chip, and it gets a bump in RAM from 8GB to 12GB.
I don't give much fanfare to incremental chip increases because the performance gain is usually min
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 Anthropic is aiming to lure customers from ChatGPT and Gemini with a new memory import tool that's available to free users as of today. Conversations and memories from other AI providers can be imported into Claude, so new users will not need to start from scratch.
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Cloud customers are being urged to migrate their data away from the Middle East.
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X is rolling out a built-in "Paid Partnership" label that creators can apply to sponsored posts, replacing the hashtag workarounds they've had to rely on until now. The feature, announced by the platform's head of product Nikita Bier, adds a toggle that places a disclosure label directly below a post's content. It can also be applied retroactively.
The label is meant to help creators comply with years-old FTC regulations requiring clear disclosure of sponsored content. The agency sent out letters reminding influencers about this requirement in 2017, and Instagram added a disclosure feature that same year. Without a native tool, X creators had been left to use hashtags like #ad and #paidpartnership.
X has been trying to court creators for some time with tools like ad-revenue sharing and creator subscriptions, but the platform still struggles with major image issues following a string of scandals like Grok creating CSAM. The Elon Musk-ow
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 Amazon this week has all-time low prices on the Apple Watch Series 11, with $100 discounts across numerous models of the smartwatch. We first started tracking the return of these deals about a week ago, but this sale has now expanded with many more options on both 42mm and 46mm GPS models.
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 After briefly announcing its new foldable at CES, Motorola is now ready to debut its first book-style foldable in full at MWC 2026. There are several features we already knew, including support for Motorola's new Pen Ultra stylus and no fewer than five cameras. However, many specs were still unknown. There are some pleasant surprises.
Motorola decided to make both screens brighter than any of its rivals by quite a margin. The main 8.1-inch foldable display of the Razr Fold has a peak brightness of 6200 nits, while the external screen almost matches it with 6000 nits. For comparison, both screens on the Pixel 10 Fold Pro have a peak brightness of 3000 nits and other foldables' internal screens typically have substantially lower brightness levels. Inside Motorola's demo room, filled with windows and Barcelona sun, I had no trouble reading either screen.
The main display is a 2K (2,484 x 2,232) LTPO display that can reach a peak refresh rate of 120Hz, while the external display has a 2,520 x 1,080 resolution and peaks at 165Hz. Both screens also support Dolby Vision.
Image by Mat Smith for Engadget
With those high-brightness levels, Motorola has opted for a silicon-carbon 6,000mAh battery, another leading specification among foldables at the time of writing. It'll be interesting to see how battery life fares, powering those big, bright
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AI glasses accounted for 88% of smart glasses shipments in the second half of 2025.
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The new budget iPhone also starts with double the base storage, adding a little extra value.
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NEW RESOURCES BoingBoing: A retired geneticist built an online museum of electrical plugs. "A man with the delightful name of Oof Oud spent his career studying DNA and chromosomes at the University […]
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The iPhone 17e and iPad Air with M4 cost the same as last year. Somehow, that's a victory.
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Claude overtook ChatGPT to become the No. 1 US App Store app after the Pentagon moved to blacklist Anthropic, sparking a "Cancel ChatGPT" backlash.
The post Claude Overtakes ChatGPT in US App Store Amid Pentagon AI Dispute appeared first on eWEEK.
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 Apple has asked Google to investigate setting up servers in its data centers to run a future version of Siri powered by Gemini, The Information reports.
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The conflict in the Middle East is driving oil prices up in a midterm year when Americans are already focused on high energy bills.
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New chip, but it's the same $599 for the 11-inch model and $799 for the 13-inch model.
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 Apple's just-announced iPhone 17e comes with doubled base storage compared to last year's predecessor while remaining at a $599 starting price.
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NEW RESOURCES Spotted on Reddit: J6 Timeline ( https://j6times.com/ ). From the Reddit announcement: "Hey all! I'm a J6 researcher that worked with SH and thinks that the misinformation presented in the […]
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You probably aren't using these iOS features, but they're definitely draining your battery.
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Qualcomm announces the Snapdragon Wear Elite platform, which will be integrated into the next Galaxy Watch, at MWC in Barcelona.
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Even some small household devices should always be unplugged when they're not in use.
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Many DIY tax software programs offer free tax filing for basic tax situations. But if your income is complex, most will prompt you to upgrade to a paid version.
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Paramount CEO David Ellison revealed that a single streaming service is in the plans.
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Commentary: At a time when companies are using AI to alter images, it's refreshing to see a phone that embraces the best aspects of traditional photography.
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This is your step-by-step guide to creating distilled water at home for regular use or emergencies.
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 On its own, at 4.9mm thin, Tecno's modular phone concept barely feels like a smartphone. It has a screen, a basic camera module, four low-profile pogo-pin connectors and that's about it. From there, you can seemingly build your conceptual phone however you want.
At its booth at MWC 2026, Tecno had two families of modular components in two different colorways, which is surprising at this concept stage. The chunky telephoto lens and housing must weigh over three times as much as the base phone, adding up to 20x zoom capabilities, even if it was a little glitchy during my hands-on. The barrel also offers manual focus, which is always a nice touch. The lens itself is huge, though, making even Vivo's latest 400mm telephoto lens peripheral look reasonable by comparison.
Image by Mat Smith for Engadget
There are more subtle camera modules, including ultrawide options and a more streamlined periscope telephoto. There's even an action cam that can attach through Wi-Fi and be used on its own. Depending on the module, transmission is also done through Bluetooth and even mmWave. One module has an antenna that folds out, turning the phone into a walkie-talkie messenger… thing th
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As the battle over prediction markets rages on, Mick Mulvaney is leading a new coalition that calls these platforms illegal gambling.
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If your wine rack is anywhere near your oven, it's time you find it a new home.
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President Donald Trump has ordered all US government agencies to stop using Claude and other Anthropic services, escalating an already volatile feud between the Department of Defense and company over AI safeguards. Taking to Truth Social on Friday afternoon, the president said there would be a six-month phase out period for federal agencies, including the Defense Department, to migrate off of Anthropic's products.
"The Leftwing nut jobs at Anthropic have made a DISASTROUS MISTAKE trying to STRONG-ARM the Department of War, and force them to obey their Terms of Service instead of our Constitution," the president wrote. "Anthropic better get their act together, and be helpful during this phase out period, or I will use the Full Power of the Presidency to make them comply, with major civil and criminal consequences to follow."
Before today, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had threatened to label Anthropic a "supply chain risk" if it did not agree to withdraw safeguards that insist Claude not be used for mass surveillance against Americans or in fully autonomous weapons. In a post on X published after President Trump's statement, Hegseth said he was "directing the Department of War to designate Anthropic a Supply-Chain Risk to National Security. Effective immediately, no contractor, supplier, or partner that does business with the United States military may conduct any commercial activity with Anthropic."
Anthropic did not immediately respond to Engadget's comment request. Earlier in the day, a spokesperson for the co
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NEW RESOURCES New-to-me, from Village Preservation Blog: Exploring Black History Through Village Preservation's Online Resources. "To help make these histories visible and accessible, Village Preservation has created a rich collection of online […]
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 With the second iOS 26.4 beta, Apple and Google have started testing end-to-end encryption (E2EE) for RCS messages exchanged between iPhone and Android users.
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