Google cleared a small forest for an AI data center and forgot the permission slip. Your inbox got a side hustle. And a console is running another console's games. NX Tech Tips #38 โ let's go. ๐๏ธ
1. Your Gmail can now inform your ads (check this tonight) ๐ง
For years Google's privacy policy had a refreshingly blunt promise: "We don't show you personalized ads based on your content from Drive, Gmail, or Photos." On October 16, that line grew an asterisk โ it now reads "unless you choose to make data from these services available to other Google services that support personalized ads." The mechanism is Personal Intelligence, the opt-in feature that pipes your apps into Gemini and AI Mode search โ and AI search carries sponsored content. Google's own statement says ads "will not be based directly" on your inbox. "Directly" is doing a lot of work in that sentence.
The tip: open Gemini settings โ Personal Intelligence โ disable connected apps (or account settings โ Data & privacy โ Personalization settings โ Connected Content Apps). Thirty seconds, and your email goes back to being nobody's business.
Sources: Ars Technica ยท The Verge ยท Android Authority
2. The PS5 runs Steam games now (if you're brave) ๐ฎ
Jailbroken PlayStation 5s are running Windows PC games from Steam libraries directly on the console's own hardware โ no Remote Play, no cloud, no streaming. The project is called Playden for PS5: it uses prospero-win, a port of Wine built for the PS5, so there's no Linux detour โ Steam signs in, downloads, and launches right from the home screen. The compatibility list says Cyberpunk 2077, Hollow Knight, Cuphead, Portal 2, Dead Cells and Deep Rock Galactic have reached playable states. Caveats abound: demos crash, there's no online multiplayer, anti-cheat titles won't run, and this requires a jailbroken console โ so maybe don't connect your main Steam account to experimental software.
The tip: the "closed box" was a PC in a costume all along. Watch this space โ the console wars just got a third front.
Sources: VideoCardz ยท Playden on GitHub
3. Finland hit pause on Google's 250,000 trees ๐ฒ
Google cleared roughly 740 acres of forest โ about a quarter-million trees โ at two planned AI data center sites in Muhos and Kajaani, before finishing the required environmental impact assessments. Finland's Licensing and Supervision Authority has now ordered Google's subsidiary to suspend all environmentally significant preparatory work until those assessments are done. Google admitted it "fell short of our own high standards in this instance."
The tip: the AI gold rush needs land, water, and power โ and every one of those has a regulator. The assessments come first; the chainsaws wait.
Sources: Tom's Hardware ยท Fortune ยท The Guardian
4. The iPod turns 25 โ and Apple hid one on its website ๐ต
October 23 marked 25 years since the original iPod. To celebrate, Apple hid a fully interactive virtual iPod on its site โ it's actually the error page on the Apple Music domain โ with a working scroll wheel, menus, 1,029 songs at 90-second previews, and even a playable Brick.
The tip: everything in tech gets replaced eventually. Except the things Apple decides are heritage โ those get museums.
5. EA shut down BioWare โ and the ghost looks great ๐ป
EA announced October 21 it is shutting down BioWare, the 30-year studio behind Mass Effect and Dragon Age, cancelling the next Mass Effect and cutting about 400 jobs in a restructuring. Days later, a leaked trailer for the cancelled game โ "Mass Effect: Universe" โ surfaced, and fans are upset about how good it looks for something that will never exist.
The tip: the joke here is on the trailer, not the people. Four hundred careers ended this week โ be kind out there.
Sources: Bloomberg ยท IGN ยท Forbes
6. The AI Graveyard is a growth market ๐ชฆ
TechCrunch now maintains a running list called "The AI Graveyard" โ every AI project and startup that shut down or missed the mark this year, from Apple's repeatedly delayed Siri to OpenAI's messy super app launch. The list keeps needing updates, which tells you everything about the pace of the gold rush.
The tip: in this economy, the tombstone business is the only business with guaranteed growth.
Sources: TechCrunch
That's #38 โ the trees are paused, BioWare's a ghost, and the click wheel outlives us all. Check those Personal Intelligence settings tonight, and I'll see you tomorrow.
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