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AI Makes Google Maps Sound Much Better
00:21:13
More AI inspired job cuts. I gotta say, adding AI to Google Maps makes it sound like it might work much, much better. A new entrant into the AI health space. An Iran-war-related hacking takes down a company. And Mark Gurman tells us what to expect from a foldable iPhone.
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Welcome to the Tech Brew Ride home for Thursday, March 12, 2026. I'm Brian McCullough. Today more AI inspired job cuts I gotta say, adding AI to Google Maps makes it sound like it might work much, much better. A new entrant into the AI health space in Iran. War related hacking takes down a company and Mark Gurman tells us what to expect from a foldable iPhone. Here's what you missed today in the world of tech. Still on this beat as these stories continue to come in. Atlassian is cutting 10% of its workforce, or around 1600 jobs, to fund investments in AI and enterprise sales. Quoting cnbc, Sydney based Atlassian has lost more than half of its value this year, alongside a broader sell off in software stocks brought on by concerns about the competitive threat of generative AI tools such as Anthropic's Claude coworkers. The stock is down 84% from its peak in 2021. It had been a big winner during the COVID era as cloud based collaboration tools surged in popularity with office workers stuck at home. Shares of Atlassian gained 1% in extended trading after the announcement. The cuts will result in $225 million to $236 million in charges and should be mostly done by the end of June, the company said in a filing. The maker of Jira project tracking software has been trying to expand demand of its Rovo AI features, and in February the company touted 5 million monthly users. Atlassian offers Rovo credits in its subscriptions and the company's year over year revenue growth has accelerated for the past three quarters. CEO Mike Cannon Brooks said on Wednesday that for Atlassian, AI is not replacing employees, but it would be disingenuous to pretend AI doesn't change the mix of skills we need or the number of roles required in certain areas it does, he wrote. This is primarily about adaptation. We are reshaping our skill mix and changing how we work to build for the future. Atlassian is also speeding up its path to sustained profitability, wrote Cannon Brooks, who co founded the company in 2002 after going public in 2015. It has been unprofitable every year going back to 2017. End quote. Google has launched Ask Maps, a Gemini powered conversational feature for iOS and Android in the US and India that lets users ask complex world questions of Google Maps. Quoting the Verge in the past, Google Maps would struggle with hyper specific questions like where can I charge my phone without having to wait in line for coffee? Or where is the closest public bathroom that isn't completely disgusting? Parents of kids with tiny bladders, I'm looking at you. But now, thanks to Gemini, all our weird, slightly embarrassing questions can be answered, directions included. Ask Maps lets you describe your plans conversationally, including as much or as little detail as you want, and Gemini will sift through your query to provide as detailed a response as you need, often using personal details you've provided through your past interactions with Google Maps. In a briefing with reporters, Google Product Manager Andrew Duchai used this example. I have some friends coming from Midtown east to meet me after work. Can you find a spot between the office and Midtown east that's vegetarian, has a cozy aesthetic and a table for four at 7 o' clock tonight. Using Gemini Maps would then provide a number of examples, analyzing user submitted reviews and photos to pull data about the aesthetics or general busyness of possible locations. If there are places you've favorited or interacted with in the past, they might appear in the reply as well. And if you'd like what you see, Ask Maps will go one step further and book a table for you with just a single tap. It's personalized for you and lets you turn those plans into action, duchai said. Less scrolling, more strolling the responses Gemini spits out will rely solely on data from Google Maps and not any information from other Google apps like Gmail, said Miriam Daniel, VP and general manager for Google Maps. When responses are personalized, the information will be based on previous searches within Maps or Google Search that are relevant to locations users have saved in Maps or places they have favorited or added to lists, she said. Asked whether Google plans to allow businesses such as restaurants or hotels to pay for prominent placement in AI generated itineraries or recommendations, Juchai reflected saying he couldn't speculate about long term monetization plans. He did say that currently paid placements won't influence which locations appear in Ask Maps recommendations. In addition, Google is using Gemini to change the look of Maps itself. The company announced its new immersive navigation, describing it as the largest upgrade to the Google Maps navigation experience in more than a decade. When you start a navigation, the map will now feature refreshed colors, detailed 3D buildings, elevated roadways, realistic terrain, and even greenery. The camera dynamically zooms in when necessary to highlight critical road information, adjusting its view along your route by presenting 3D perspectives that mirror the surrounding environment. Buildings, overpasses, terrain features, and other structures are represented in a way that closely reflects the real world. Google says immersive navigation will also highlight key road features such as lanes, crosswalks, traffic lights, and stop signs when they are relevant to the next maneuver in your navigation. Google says this helps drivers make turns or merge with greater confidence since they'll have a better idea of what's ahead. In addition, the new navigation interface will explain the reasoning behind route suggestions so drivers can see why a particular path is recommended and compare alternatives more easily. These insights are powered by Google's live traffic data, as well as user submitted contributions about construction, crashes or upcoming hazards. And after you reach your destination, immersive navigation will offer more details about where to park or additional walking directions, if that's required. End quote. Anthropic says Claude can now generate custom charts, diagrams and other visualizations directly in a conversation available to all users now in beta, quoting the Verge. If Claude determines a visual is useful based on the context of your chat, it will insert the image inline rather than in its side panel. As an example, Anthropic says a conversation about the periodic table could lead Claude to generate a visualization of it, featuring interactive elements that let you click inside the table for more information. Another example shows how Claude can generate a visual related to a question about how weight travels through a building, though Claude will automatically determine whether it should generate a visualization in your chat. Anthropic notes that you can also ask the chatbot to generate a diagram, table or chart directly. Earlier this week, OpenAI launched a new feature in ChatGPT that can generate interactive visualizations of math and science concepts, while Google Gemini can create educational images you can interact with too. Anthropic already allows you to create charts, documents, tools and apps through Claude's Artifacts feature, which opens in a side panel where you can interact, share and download the AI generated creation, but as noted by Anthropic, artifacts are persistent, while the visualizations created within Claude's conversations will change or disappear as the conversation progresses. You can also ask Claude to make changes to the visualizations it creates. End quote. Microsoft is launching Copilot Health, which integrates medical records, biometric data from wearables and lab test results to give personalized medical advice in the US Quoting the journal Health data imported into the feature will be encrypted and firewalled from the rest of the app to address the privacy concerns of handing over one's medical records to a generative AI platform, Microsoft AI chief executive Mustafa Soliman said in an interview. It's something that Microsoft is uniquely placed to do with our scale, with our regulatory experience, with the kind of trust and confidence that people have in our security and the history that we have as a mature, stable player, suleiman said. The software giant is counting on the new health service to drive engagement for Copilot and attract new users to its app, which trails competitors such as OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google's Gemini. Microsoft plans to eventually charge users for the feature, which is first launching in the US In a phased rollout. In focusing the general consumer version of Copilot on healthcare, Microsoft is following user behavior. The most common category of questions asked on the mobile app is health, the company said. The new tool, which appears as a tab within the Copilot app, allows users to connect their hospital and lab data, as well as data from wearables such as Apple Watch and Fitbit, to receive personalized answers to inquiries about conditions or symptoms. For users who don't plug in their personal data, the tool can provide more generalized answers. The service could especially benefit those managing chronic medical conditions, executives said. The tool can plug into information from more than 50,000 U.S. hospitals and provider organizations, including lab results from those institutions, or through Function Health. Once users authenticate their identity through the identification service Clear, their data is pulled by the vendor HealthX, which adheres to the federal initiative known as TEFCA, a nationwide framework for accessing health records. The data is then streamed into Copilot Health. Microsoft said. Users can manage or delete their information and any information and data and conversations are kept separate from the general. Copilot chat on the app using encryption and strict access controls. End quote.
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I'll be with you every step of the way. One in four was a fraud paying American. Not anymore. Save up to 40% your first year. Visit lifelock.com/podcast Terms apply US medical tech giant Stryker is confirming a global outage due to a cyber attack. Iran linked group handalla says the hack is in retaliation for a strike on a school in Iran. Quoting the journal, Stryker, which makes joint implants, robotic surgery systems and other medical devices and equipment, told its roughly 56,000 employees Wednesday to disconnect from all networks and avoid turning on company issued devices. Shares of the Michigan based company slipped 4% after the wall Street Journal first reported on the attack. The hackers displayed on the company's internal login pages the logo of a collective that Western cyber threat exper have said is an Iran linked group, according to people familiar with the matter. Stryker confirmed it had experienced a global disruption to its Microsoft systems as a result of a cyber attack. We have no indication of ransomware or malware and believe the incident is contained, the company said. Microsoft didn't have an immediate comment. The Trump administration is always proactively monitoring potential cyber threats and driving a response with our world class critical infrastructure, regulator agencies and law enforcement entities, a White House official said in a securities filing later in the day, Stryker said it was working diligently to restore affected functions, but it expects the attack will keep disrupting company operations for an undetermined period. An Iranian cyber attack on a major US Company would be a new turn in the war with Iran. Current and former U.S. national security officials have long said Iran could respond to military strikes through disruptive or destructive cyber operations against American businesses. As we think about who would be targeted in a conflict, industry becomes the most relevant set of targets because because it's a place that's going to be public facing, they will present vulnerabilities and someone can claim credit for it, retired general Tim Ha, who led both the national security agency and U.S. cyber Command, said Wednesday during an interview at the Journal's Tech Live Cybersecurity event. Starting shortly after midnight on the east coast of the U.S. stryker staff found that devices such as cell phones and laptops running Microsoft's Windows operating system had been wiped. In the message it sent to employees, Stryker advised against clicking suspicious links and urged removal of mobile dev management apps and work profiles from cell phones immediately. The issue is widespread and significantly affecting users ability to access systems and services, the notice said. The company hadn't identified the root cause and was actively engaged with Microsoft. The notice also said the logo of Handala, a pro Palestinian hacking group, appeared on logging pages, according to people familiar with the matter and social media posts. Handala, which emerged around 2022, has been linked to Iran by several threat intelligence companies. It has claimed strings of attacks on IS Daily companies and others in the Gulf in recent weeks. End quote. Finally today, Mark Gurman has an update on that upcoming Foldable iPhone. The product Apple's long awaited entry into this category will feature an interior foldable display roughly the size of an iPad mini, according to people with knowledge of the matter. There's there's also an external screen that's about the size of the display on a small iPhone. The inside display will use a wide aspect ratio, a departure from the narrower formats of foldable phones currently on the market. That should be a key selling point, according to the people who asked not to be identified because the project is still under wraps. The Apple design is intended to make the device more appealing for watching video, the people said. It should also be easier for developers to redesign their iPhone apps to more closely resemble iPad software. Apple is developing new iOS app layouts and revamping its core iPhone programs to add sidebars along the left edge of the screen, similar to many of its iPad apps. Developers will also be able to adapt their iPhone software for the new interface, which will use proportions similar to an iPad in landscape mode. Despite offering an iPad like app experience, the foldable iPhone will run the standard iOS, not iPad OS, the company's tablet operating system. This means it will retain a simpler multitasking system rather than adopting the more desolate desktop like interface introduced in iPadOS 26. It also won't run existing iPad apps out of the box, while the foldable iPhone won't run several windows at Once, like an iPad mini, it will be able to show two apps side by side that matches a key feature in the foldable phones offered by Samsung, Alphabet's, Google and others. During development, Apple concluded that the two biggest shortcomings of current foldable phones were the narrow internal displays and the visible crease, the line that can be seen when the device is open. But fixing these problems hasn't been easy, and it's one of the reasons Apple is entering the category so much later than its competition. The company opted for a new display technology that reduces the crease without eliminating it entirely. Though not perfect, the approach could potentially give the company a marketing advantage. Another key issue Apple worked to solve is durability, a common concern with foldable devices. The goal was to increase the number of times the screen can be opened and shut before failing. The outside display, shorter than the screen on most iPhones, will introduce another first for Apple, a small hole punch cutout for the front facing camera. That element replaces the pill shaped notch on today's iPhones. The design is also coming to a touch screen version of the MacBook Pro later this year, Bloomberg News has reported. Apple was left with little choice but to take this approach because the foldable iPhone's front panel is too thin to accommodate the face ID sensor array. The hole punch design will still include the dynamic island interface for viewing system alerts and monitoring information from apps. For the inner display, Apple has tested two approaches. One uses an emerging technology that hides the camera completely behind the screen. The other relies on the small hole punch cutout. During testing, the company determined that the under display approach produced worse image quality. The back of the phone will include two rear cameras, one fewer than on today's high end iPhones. Apple believes the device's large internal display, better productivity features and roughly a $2,000 price will still position it at the top of the iPhone lineup. The company also aims to attract fans of foldable Android devices. End Quote. Nothing more for you today. Talk to you tomorrow.