Apple Makes Warranties a Subscription Business - DTNSB 5066

Plus, Mistral AI discloses its environmental impact and Nuclear Fusion gets closer. 

Starring Tom Merritt, Jenn Cutter, and Andy Beach.

TOM: This is the Daily Tech News for Wednesday, July 23, 2025. We tell you what you need to know, follow up on the context of those stories and help each other understand.

JENN: Today, Andy Beach tells us what really went on with AI when the billionaires met in Sun Valley, Idaho, and Apple has turned its AppleCare maintenance plan into a monthly subscription.

I’m Tom Merritt,
I’m Jenn Cutter

TOM: Let’s start with what you need to know with the big story.

BIG STORY
SOLO story of the day. Basic details, monitor commentary and sound when possible.

Apple debuts AppleCare One service with protection for 3 devices for $19.99 per month
Apple (AAPL) Debuts $20-a-Month AppleCare One Plan Covering Up to 3 Devices – Bloomberg
Apple introduces AppleCare One, streamlining coverage into a single plan – Apple

TOM: Apple introduced a new option in the US for its AppleCare maintenance service called AppleCare One. Starting July 24th, you can buy the service for up to 3 devices, including iPhones, iPads, Macs, watches, the Vision Pro headset, displays, headphones, TV set‑top boxes, and HomePod speakers, for $19.99 a month. Additional devices are $5.99 each. The plan covers unlimited device repairs for things like drops and spills, battery replacements, tech support, and loss and theft. You must add it to a product within 60 days of purchase or change to it from an existing AppleCare+ plan. However, after that first device, you can add any other device that is less than four years old. The plan automatically transfers to a new device when you trade it in.

Apple gives any customer a one‑year limited warranty with 90 days of tech support. It will also continue to offer AppleCare+ for individual devices.

TOM: So Jenn, when this comes to Canada, will you spring for it?

DISCUSS

JENN: DTNS is made possible by you the listener. Thanks to
Ken Hays
Philip Shane
Paul Boyer
and Mike Villareale (villa‑re‑Al)

BREAK
PAUSE

TOM: There’s more we need to know today, let’s get to the briefs.

BRIEFS
3‑9 more solo reads with sound to complete the day in tech news. These are informational with minor commentary. They do not need to include stories that could be done another day in follow ups. Just the essentials of the day. Should include sound where possible.

An engineer’s new smartphone cases can give any iPhone a USB‑C port

JENN: If you recognize Ken Pillonel’s name, it might be because you remember his mod of an iPhone to use USB‑C instead of Lightning back in 2021. Of course, new models of the iPhone now come with USB‑C. But some folks still have the Lightning port, and most folks won’t want to mod their phone the way Pillonel did. Not to worry—Pillonel has created phone cases that fit iPhones with Lightning ports, but have USB‑C ports in the case. He put up a video showing how he designed the case. The cases range between 40 and 50 Swiss Francs, which is about 70–80 Canadian dollars.

Microsoft SharePoint Hack Claims 400 Victims as Damage Spreads – Bloomberg
Microsoft Knew of SharePoint Security Flaw But Failed to Effectively Patch It, Timeline Shows
Microsoft SharePoint Hack Sees US Nuclear Weapons Agency Breached – Bloomberg

TOM: A few more details have come out related to the two Microsoft SharePoint vulnerabilities we’ve been talking about. Eye Security now estimates that at least 400 organizations have been compromised, across government agencies and corporations in the US, Mauritius, Jordan, South Africa, and the Netherlands. The US National Nuclear Security Administration is among them. The agency is responsible for maintaining and designing nuclear weapons. A source told Bloomberg that no sensitive or classified information is known to be compromised. And Reuters reports that the vulnerabilities were first identified in May at a bug‑hacking competition in Berlin. A researcher from Vietnam’s military telecom Vittel identified a bug and received a $100,000 award. Microsoft patched it on July 8th, but attackers circumvented the patch. Microsoft has since issued new patches that fix the vulnerabilities.

Uber Launches Female‑Only Ride Option in Los Angeles, SF, and Detroit – Bloomberg
Uber is finally letting women riders in the US match with women drivers | TechCrunch

JENN: Uber is expanding a test of its service that matches women drivers with women riders in the US cities of Detroit, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. If a rider has a name that Uber’s system identifies as female, or if they have specified their gender as female, they will get the option to be matched with a woman driver. Female drivers can also choose a preference for women riders. The preference can be set per ride or as a default in settings. Uber launched the feature in Saudi Arabia in 2019 and expanded it to Australia, Brazil, Canada, India, and Mexico, and is testing it in Germany and France. Lyft has had a similar feature for about two years.

Operator of Jetflix illegal streaming service gets 7 years in prison

TOM: 42‑year‑old Kristopher Lee Dallmann of Las Vegas, Nevada, has been sentenced to seven years in prison for conspiracy to commit copyright infringement. Dallmann was also found guilty by a federal jury of money laundering, criminal copyright infringement by distribution, and criminal copyright infringement by public performance. Dallmann operated Jetflicks, which found pirated content and then stored it on servers in the US and Canada and sold it to tens of thousands of subscribers to stream or download. Jetflicks operated from 2012 until it was shut down by the FBI in 2019.

Proton Announces Lumo, a Private AI Chatbot – Thurrott.com
Proton’s new privacy‑first AI assistant encrypts all chats, keeps no logs | TechCrunch

JENN: Proton launched a new chatbot called Lumo, which you can use for free without an account. Folks with a Proton account can save chat history, and paid subscribers get more features, like unlimited chats, web search, multiple file queries, and priority support. Lumo end‑to‑end encrypts your conversations and does not save logs. Proton does not use chats to train its models, since it cannot access your chats. Proton does not name the models it runs, but says they are based on open source and run on European data centers. It does say that the models are not from US or Chinese companies. Lumo is available on the Web and in apps for Android and iOS.

“Surface Laptop 5G” for businesses shows Microsoft isn’t done with Intel yet – Ars Technica

TOM: Microsoft just launched the Surface Laptop 5G with, as you may have guessed, built‑in 5G service and running on an Intel Core Ultra Series 2 chip, aka Lunar Lake, as well as the Intel Arc GPU and an NPU that qualifies it for Copilot+ status. The Surface Laptop 5G begins shipping on August 26. No price yet.

Amazon acquires Bee, the AI wearable that records everything you say | TechCrunch
Why Amazon Is Buying Bee, an AI Bracelet That Records Everything You Say – WSJ

JENN: Amazon has acquired the wearable company Bee that makes a smart bracelet and an Apple Watch app that can record conversations and create reminders and to‑do lists. Bee’s current policies let users delete transcriptions anytime, and it does not save, store, or use voice recordings for training.

A generic non‑invasive neuromotor interface for human‑computer interaction | Nature
Meta’s wristband translates gestures into digital commands
Avalanche Energy hits key milestone on the road to a desktop fusion reactor | TechCrunch

TOM: A couple of science notes here. Scientists from Meta’s Reality Labs published an article in Nature, describing a prototype for a wristband that can detect gestures and let you control computers, like moving a cursor and pinching to select, or transcribe handwriting at 20.9 words per minute. The scientists used training data collected from thousands of participants to create generic decoding models. The scientists say, “this is the first high‑bandwidth neuromotor interface with performant out‑of‑the‑box generalization across people.”

And for our second sciencey story, Avalanche Energy says it has operated a desktop fusion energy machine for hours while maintaining 300,000 volts. The company believes it can scale this up to a larger machine that would generate more energy than it consumes. Avalanche uses electrical currents instead of magnets to draw ions into tight orbits around an electrode. The colliding ions fuse to release energy.

Asia Morning Briefing: The First AI vs BTC Environmental Impact Numbers are Here. And it Might Start a New Debate
Our contribution to a global environmental standard for AI | Mistral AI

JENN: Mistral AI published a report of an evaluation of the environmental footprint of its Mistral Large 2 LLM. An average 400‑token response from its chatbot, called Le Chat, emits 1.14 grams of CO₂, uses 45 mL of water, and 0.16 mg of minerals. Mistral says that’s equivalent to watching 10 seconds of streaming video, using water to grow a small pink radish, or using materials to produce a 2‑cent coin.
By comparison, according to the Cambridge Centre, one bitcoin transaction emits more than 600 kg of CO₂ and uses more than 17,000 liters of water. Even if those are overestimations, as some contend, it uses more.
Mistral encourages other companies to publish environmental transparency reports as well.

TOM: Those are the essentials for today. Let’s dive a little deeper.

IN DEPTH
1‑3 Pre‑made packages, interviews, discussions. Each is 3‑10 mins, depending on the topic and what else is in the show that day

SEGMENT A – FROM SCHEDULE

JENN: Sun Valley’s billionaire retreat came back — and this year, AI and political power quietly dominated the guest list. Andy Beach breaks down what really went on.
[TRT – 6:35]

PROMO
TOM: Join in the conversation in our Discord, which you can join by linking to a Patreon account at patreon.com/dtns

BREAK
PAUSE

HELPING EACH OTHER UNDERSTAND
This is the mailbag/special contributions segments. Should be short missives from people with experience. Could be written email or pre‑recorded from the person.

JENN: We end every episode of DTNS with some shared wisdom. Today, Rob Bugslife just has a thank you.

TOM: Rob Bugslife writes:

Thank you, Tom and Jason, for your continued moderated views and takes. I was worried many people were going to hit the brakes on these tools. It's good to hear the full context reported and the reminder that it's not the end of the world, but as with any tool their limits should be tested and understood.

DISCUSS

JENN: What are you thinking about? Got some insight into a story? Share it with us feedback@dailytechnewsshow.com

TOM: Thanks to Andy Beach and Rob Bugslife for contributing to today’s show. And thank YOU for being along for Daily Tech News Show. You can keep us in business by becoming a patron, at Patreon.com/dtns