Middle East Conflict Drone Strikes Take Down Three AWS Data Centers, Apple Unveils New M5 Pro and M5 Max Chips, and Meta AI Tests Experimental Shopping Tool with US Desktop Users.
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Show Notes
OpenAI Faces Backlash Over Department of War Deal
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has received criticism for the company’s quick deal with the U.S. Department of War (DOW) over fears it would enable mass domestic surveillance and autonomous weapons. While amendments addressed some surveillance concerns, the contract’s reliance on legality and its loophole for “incidental collection” of data remain controversial, and the weapons issue is still not fully resolved. Altman’s position to defer ethical decisions to the government has not satisfied users, leading to a surge in uninstalls and a rise in popularity for competitor Anthropic’s Claude chatbot.
Drone Strikes Disrupt AWS Data Centers in UAE and Bahrain
AWS reported that drone strikes, linked to the Middle East conflict, took two data centers in the UAE and one in Bahrain offline on Sunday morning. The strikes caused structural and water damage, disrupting power and impacting AWS services like EC2, S3, and DynamoDB with degraded availability and high error rates. AWS is working on recovery but warned customers of prolonged service restoration due to the physical damage and advised them to take mitigation steps, such as data backups and workload migration, given the region’s continued instability.
Apple Unveils M5 Pro and M5 Max Chips
Apple has launched the new M5 Pro and M5 Max chips, which feature a Fusion Architecture integrating two dies for the latest MacBook Pro. These chips include an upgraded 18-core CPU, delivering up to a 30% performance increase, and an up-to-40-core GPU with a 20% boost in overall graphics performance and 4x peak AI compute. The M5 Pro now supports up to 64GB of unified memory, and the M5 Max maintains support for up to 128GB, targeting demanding professionals. Pre-orders begin March 4th, with availability starting March 11.
Apple Announces New 27-Inch Studio Displays
In other Apple news, the company announced two new 27-inch displays: the $1,599 Studio Display and the $3,299 Studio Display XDR. Both displays, available March 11 (pre-orders March 4), feature a 12MP Center Stage camera, Thunderbolt 5, a three-mic array, and Spatial Audio via a six-speaker system. The standard Studio Display offers a 5K Retina display with 600 nits and a tilt stand. The higher-end Studio Display XDR includes a 5K Retina XDR display, mini-LED backlight, up to 2000 nits peak HDR brightness, 120Hz refresh rate, and a stand with tilt and height adjustment. Both come with standard or nano-texture glass options.
Meta Tests AI Shopping Assistant
Meta is testing an experimental AI shopping tool with a limited number of US desktop users through its Meta AI web interface. The tool, accessed via a “Shopping research” button, provides product suggestions in a carousel with images, pricing, links to e-commerce sites, brand details, and a recommendation explanation. It can personalize suggestions using available user data. While purchases can’t be completed within Meta AI, users can click links to shop online. This development supports Mark Zuckerberg’s earlier statements about launching agentic shopping tools and mirrors similar offerings from competitors like OpenAI, Google’s Gemini, and Perplexity.
Amazon Launches 15-Minute Delivery Service in Brazil
Amazon launched its Amazon Now service in Brazil, aiming to deliver products like essentials and groceries in just 15 minutes, according to Fernanda Grumach, director of shopping experience at Amazon Brasil. The service will initially launch in Sao Paulo starting Tuesday, with a gradual expansion planned to seven other Brazilian cities by March 9th, she announced during a press conference in Sao Paulo.
Report Raises Privacy Concerns Over Meta AI Smart Glasses in Europe
A report by Sweden’s Svenska Dagbladet indicates that users of Meta’s AI smart glasses in Europe may be unintentionally exposing highly sensitive data, such as nudity and financial details, to human moderators, including employees in Kenya. These moderators perform “annotation” to train Meta’s AI models. Although users agree to human review in the terms of service, the practice raises serious concerns about compliance with Europe’s GDPR transparency rules, especially since Meta’s wearables privacy policy was reportedly difficult to access and largely shifts the responsibility for data sensitivity to the user.
Iran Faces Near-Total Internet Blackout
Iran is experiencing a near-total internet blackout (approx. 1% connectivity) due to a “regime-imposed” shutdown and suspected cyber operations by the U.S. and Israel. Analysts believe the disruption is a dual effort: state suppression and U.S.-Israeli cyberattacks targeting telecom infrastructure to disrupt IRGC networks and display psychological warfare messages. Cybersecurity experts anticipate Iranian cyber retaliation targeting critical sectors like energy, finance, and healthcare.
Musk’s X and xAI Plan $17.5 Billion Debt Repayment
Elon Musk’s companies, X and xAI, plan to repay about $17.5 billion in debt, managed by Morgan Stanley. This includes an early, premium redemption of xAI’s $3 billion in high-yield bonds, compensating investors for lost interest. This repayment follows SpaceX’s $250 billion acquisition of xAI in February, granting SpaceX more financial control. The debt includes $12 billion inherited when xAI acquired X in 2025, prior to xAI raising $20 billion in a Series E funding round in January.
And OpenAI is benefiting. Plus, new mobile concepts and chips from MWC Barcelona.
Tom Merritt and Jenn Cutter look back on the biggest tech stories of February. 
Xbox replaces its leadership. Is this a sign that Microsoft is looking to sunset its gaming division or is there something else afoot? Samsung unveils its new Galaxy S26 lineup. We ask local Galaxy fan, Robb Dunewood, what he thinks of the new phone line? And Josh asks us “Do you think Meta is moving to close down Messenger?… Are they trying to get everyone on Facebook again OR are they planning to consolidate messaging into WhatsApp? Besides making it easier to maintain just one product, it might move to lock-in WhatsApp as the de facto world messaging app?”