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This advanced reasoning translates to practical applications

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like quote when you're looking for a

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clear visual explanation of a complex topic,

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a way to synthesize data into a single view, or bringing a creative project to life. According to Google, Gemini 3.1 Pro is

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rolling out to the Gemini app today

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as well as NotebookLM for Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers. It's also available in the Gemini API

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via Google AI Studio, AntiGravity Vertex AI

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Gemini Enterprise, Gemini Klee and Android Studio. For developers. Gemini 3.1 Pro is launch launching in preview to quote validate these updates and

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continue to make further advancements in areas

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such as ambitious agentic workflows before we make it generally available soon End quote.

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Here's a dispatch from that social media

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trial where Mark Zuckerberg took the stand yesterday. Quoting cnbc, Zuckerberg said that Meta consulted

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with various stakeholders about the use of

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beauty filters on Instagram, but he did not specifically name them. The plaintiff's lawyer questioned Zuckerberg about messages showing he he lifted the ban because it was paternalistic. It sounds like something I would say and something I feel, zuckerberg replied.

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It feels a little overbearing.

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Zuckerberg was pressed about the decision to

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allow the feature when the company had guidance from experts that the beauty filters

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had negative effects, particularly on young girls.

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He was specifically asked about one study by the University of Chicago in which 18 experts said that beauty filters as

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a feature cause harm to teenage girls.

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Zuckerberg, who noted that he believed this

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was referring to so called cosmetic surgery

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filters, said he saw that feedback and discussed with the team and it came

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down to free expression.

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Quote, I genuinely want to err on

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the side of giving people the ability to express themselves, zuckerberg said.

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Zuckerberg echoed Adam Mosseri's previous sentiments, shared in court, that Meta ultimately decided to

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lift a temporary ban on the plastic surgery digital filters without promoting them to other users. Defense attorney Marc Lanier noted that Facebook vice president of product design and responsible innovation Margaret Stewart said in an email

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that while she would support Zuckerberg's ultimate decision, she said she didn't believe it

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was the right call given the risks. She mentioned in her message that she dealt with a personal family situation that she acknowledged made her biased, but gives

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her, quote, firsthand knowledge of the alleged harms.

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Zuckerberg said that many Meta employees disagree with the company's decisions, which is something the company encourages.

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And while he understood Stewart's perspective, there was ultimately not enough causal evidence to

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support the assertions of harms by the outside experts. When Lanier asked if Zuckerberg had a

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college degree that would indicate expertise in

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causation, the Meta chief said, I don't have a college degree in anything.

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I agree. I do not know the legal understanding

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of causation, but I think I have

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a pretty good idea of how statistics work.

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Zuckerberg said the trial, which began in

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late January, centers on a young woman who alleged that she became addicted to

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social media and video streaming apps like Instagram and YouTube. The Facebook founder pushed back against the notion that the social media company made increasing time spent on Instagram a company goal. Zuckerberg was addressing a 2015 email thread

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in which he appeared to highlight improving

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engagement metrics as an urgent matter for the company. And while the email chain may have contained the words company goals, Zuckerberg said

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the comments could have been an aspiration

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and asserted that Meta doesn't have those objectives. Lawyers later brought up evidence from Mosseri, which included goals to actively up user

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daily engagement time on the platform to

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40 minutes in 2023 and to 46 minutes in 2026. Zuckerberg said the company uses milestones internally to measure against competitors and, quote, deliver

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the results we want to asserted that the company is building services to help people connect.

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Lawyers also raised questions over whether the company has taken adequate steps to remove

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underage users from its platform. Zuckerberg said during his testimony that some users lie about their age when signing

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up for Instagram, which requires users to be 13 or older.

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Lawyers also shared a document which stated that 4 million kids under the age of 13 use the platform in the

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U.S. the Facebook founder said that the company removes all underage users it identifies and includes terms about age usage during the signup process.

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You expect a nine year old to

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read all the fine print?

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A lawyer for the plaintiff questioned.

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That's your basis for swearing under oath that children under 13 are not allowed.

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Instagram did not begin requiring birthdays at

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signup until late 2019. At several times, Zuckerberg brought up his belief that age verification is better suited for companies like Apple and Google, which maintain mobile operating systems and app stores. Zuckerberg later responded to questions about documents in which the company reported a higher

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retention rate on its platform for users

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who join as tweens.

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He said lawyers were, quote, mischaracterizing his

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words and that Meta doesn't always launch products in development, such as an Instagram app for users under 13.

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During Wednesday's session, Judge Carolyn B. Cole threatened to hold anyone using AI smart

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glasses during Zuckerberg's testimony in contempt of court.

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If you have done that, you must delete that or you will be held

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in contempt of the court, the judge said. This is very serious. Members of the team escorting Zuckerberg into the building just before noon Eastern time

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were pictured wearing the Meta Ray Ban Artificial Intelligence glasses.

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Recording is not allowed in the courtroom.

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Lawyers also questioned whether Zuckerberg previously lied about the board's inability to fire him.

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If the board wants to fire me, I could elect a new board and reinstate myself, he said in response to remarks he previously made on Joe Rogan's podcast. During his interview with the podcaster last

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year, Zuckerberg had said he wasn't worried about losing his job because he holds voting power.

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Zuckerberg told the courtroom. He is, quote, very bad at media, end quote.

Brian McCullough (7:41)

Amazon has dethroned Walmart as the world's largest company in terms of revenue, reporting $717 billion worth of revenue in 2025 compared to Walmart's $713.2 billion for the

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12 months to January 31.

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Quoting Bloomberg Amazon has officially dethroned Walmart as the biggest global company by revenue, a milestone attesting to the massive scale

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the e commerce and cloud computing giant has achie since its humble beginnings in 1994 as an online bookseller in Jeff Bezos Seattle area garage.

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Walmart, which had been the largest company by revenue for more than a decade, on Thursday reported sales of $713.2 billion

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for the 12 months ending January 31. Amazon, which operates on a fiscal year

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ending in December, earlier this month reported

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2025 sales of $717 billion.

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Bezos carefully studied Walmart founder Sam Waltman,

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embracing many of his business strategies while building his company. Over the past decade, Amazon's has increased

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at almost 10 times the pace of

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Walmart's, fueled by a shift in consumer spending from stores to websites and its rapidly growing cloud computing business. Amazon Web Services Amazon and Walmart compete

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head to head for shoppers dollars Amazon is the biggest online retailer with its

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website and mobile apps, attracting 2.7 billion visits each month. Walmart is the biggest physical retailer in the world, with more than 10,000 stores and shopping clubs globally. Both companies generate most of their revenue in the U.S. walmart is having more success developing its e commerce operation than Amazon is having in creating a physical stores business, despite its 2017 acquisition of Whole Foods Market.

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But the revenue story is more about Amazon's dominance in cloud computing, a business

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Walmart doesn't compete in. Without AWS, Amazon's 2025 revenue would have been $588 billion. So its ascendance rests largely on the

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importance of data centers as critical infrastructure.

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In the age of artificial intelligence.

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This is a hollow victory, said Krithi

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Kaliman, executive director of the Retail Management Institute at Santa Clara University.

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Amazon didn't beat Walmart in the retail game, it just beat them in revenue

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by launching a new business Walmart doesn't operate in, end quote.

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Just because your team is small, that

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doesn't mean that they're not a target for bad actors.

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Cybercriminals know that, but lean teams often lack the resources to prevent or respond to a breach. The good news is even the smallest teams can foil cybercrime 1Password provides simple security to help small teams manage the

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number one risk that bad actors exploit,

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which is weak passwords. Take the first step to better security by securing your team's credentials. Find out more@1Password.com Ride so you can secure every login that's 1Password.com Ride

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Mark Gurman keeping Apple in the Headlines

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Quote Apple is ramping up work on

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smart glasses, a pendant that can be

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pinned to a shirt or worn as a necklace, and AirPods with expanded AI capabilities, according to people with knowledge of the plans. All three devices are being built around the Siri Digital Assistant, which will rely on visual context to carry out actions.

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Each of the products, which will be linked to Apple's iPhone, depends on a

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camera system with varying capabilities, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the plans haven't been announced. A spokesperson for Apple declined to comment.

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The AirPods and pendant are envisioned as simpler offerings equipped with lower resolution cameras

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designed to help the AI work rather than for taking photos or videos. The glasses, meanwhile, will be more upscale and feature rich in an all hands

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meeting with employees earlier this month, Chief executive Tim Cook hinted that the company would be pushing hard into AI devices,

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saying Apple is working on new categories of products that are enabled by artificial intelligence. We're extremely excited about that, he said. Cook added that the company was investing in new technology. The world is changing fast, he said. The smart glasses are planned to be positioned as an advanced offering in the company's AI hardware lineup. Intended to compete with Meta's camera equipped eyewear. They would include a high resolution camera capable of capturing photos and video.

Brian McCullough (12:55)

Apple has made significant progress in recent

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months on its glasses codenamed N50, and has recently distributed a broader set of prototypes within its hardware engineering division. The company is targeting the start of

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production as early as December, ahead of

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a public release in 2027. Employees say the company initially developed the hardware by embedding electronics and cameras into

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the off the shelf frames from a

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variety of popular brands.

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Apple at one point even discussed relying on partnerships to launch the product.

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Following a broader industry trend. Meta works with Essilor Luxottica while Google has team with Warby Parker.

Brian McCullough (13:29)

More recently, however, Apple decided to develop its own frames in house in a

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variety of styles and colors. Early prototypes of the glasses connect via a cable to a standalone battery pack and an iPhone, but newer versions have the components embedded in the frame. The design uses high end materials, including acrylic elements intended to give the glasses a premium feel. Apple is already discussing launching the device in additional styles over time.

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The glasses will include two camera lenses, one for high resolution imagery and another

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dedicated to computer vision, a technology similar what's used in the Vision Pro. The second sensor is designed to give the device environmental context, helping it more accurately interpret surroundings and measure distance between objects.

Brian McCullough (14:09)

The goal is for the glasses to function as an all day AI companion

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capable of understanding what a user is seeing and doing in real time. Wearers could look at an object and ask what it is and get assistance with everyday tasks. That could mean inquiring about ingredients in a meal, for instance.

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Apple is also exploring more advanced uses.

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The glasses could read printed text and convert it into digital data, say by adding the information on an event poster directly to a calendar.

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The device could also create context aware

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reminders, such as prompting a user to grab an item when they're looking at the right shelf in a grocery store.

Brian McCullough (14:43)

For navigation, Siri could reference real world

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landmarks rather than just giving more generic instructions. The assistant could tell users to walk past a described building or vehicle before making a turn.

Brian McCullough (14:54)

Of course, some users prefer not to wear something on their face, especially if

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they don't already have glasses. Apple is aiming to serve that market with its other wearable AI devices, the pendant and the camera equipped AirPods.

Brian McCullough (15:06)

Apple's industrial design team hatched the pendant

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idea while working on the glasses before they had settled on a design for that product. The device is reminiscent of the failed

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Humane AI pin, but it's designed as

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an iPhone accessory rather than a standalone product. The Pendant would essentially serve as an

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always on camera for the smartphone that

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also includes a microphone for Siri input. Some Apple employees call it the eyes and ears of the phone. One area of debate for the product has been whether or not to include a speaker, which would allow users to hold back and forth conversations with the device directly. That means they could leave their iPhone in their pocket or bag and not wear AirPods.

Brian McCullough (15:42)

The AirPods, though planned for as early as this year, have been in development

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for a while, with Bloomberg News first reporting in early 2024 that Apple was exploring camera equipped earbuds. The company has steadily added AI features

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to the product, including new live translation

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modes introduced last year, end quote.

Brian McCullough (16:07)

Finally, Microsoft is developing a new way

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to store digits and therefore knowledge. Quoting Gizmodo Our knowledge of the past

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comes from stone tablets and old parchment,

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but thousands of years from now, our

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descendants may learn of our lives from

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a thin slice of glass carrying an

Brian McCullough (16:23)

impressive load of data, all thanks to physics that sounds borderline magical. Today, Microsoft's project Silica unveiled the latest technological advances in what is essentially laser

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modified glass storage for sensitive data described in a Nature paper.

Brian McCullough (16:37)

The system, called Silica, works somewhat like a multidimensional cd, but the revolutionary, perhaps

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strange aspect of the technique is that

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it harnesses the properties of light to encode gigabits of data within a tiny square of borosilica glass roughly 0.08 inches or 2 millimeters thick.

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What's more, the material could theoretically last

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10,000 years, potentially making it the ultimate storage device.

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Existing options such as magnetic tape, data storage all eventually wear out. Silica's primary innovation lies in its novel modification technique, which the team calls the phase voxel.

Brian McCullough (17:13)

Contrary to Southampton's blueprint, phase voxels use differences in the phase of light wavelengths

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to record data in voxels or a

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three dimensional equivalent of a pixel.

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It only takes a single zap of the femtosecond laser to engrave the voxels onto the glass surface. The durability of Silica should offer huge

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benefits for researchers, engineers, and more especially

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as we live in an era of information overload.

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With Silica, users can write the data into the glass, and then once it's done, then it's done.

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There's no ongoing cost, one researcher said.

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And when we talk to people, that's

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actually a really big change.

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This will change the way we think

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about keeping data and archival preservation. End quote. Alright, I couldn't resist doing one more. I asked Gemini's AI Music Generator for a podcast theme song in the style of Gilbert and Sullivan, but I don't know, this kind of sounds a bit like something from the soundtrack of a Miyazaki movie. Maybe. Enjoy.

AI Music Generator (18:17)

The daily toil at last is done. We've pondered on the latest tech and held our friendly chats in check. So hear the joyful, jovial theme of the Tech Brew Ride Home a Happy Dream. It's the Tech Brew Ride Home a Happy Dream. The Tech Brew Ride Home a Happy Dream.