S11E25 – Forced Reboots, Maps Ads and AI Search

Episode Summary

Mike and co-host Howard opened with a week of changes that were made for users rather than by them. Microsoft is bringing back forced reboots for the business editions of Windows, and Mike used that to talk about restarting phones, computers and home networking gear on a regular schedule.

He then covered Apple Maps showing paid results, Google’s AI overviews pushing real search results down the page, and Meta agreeing to settle with states over how its apps hook children. Later he talked data centers with a caller and took a question about where to go after Comcast moves email to Yahoo.

Topics Covered

Forced reboots and restarting devices

Mike said Microsoft will push hard reboots on Windows Pro for Workstations and Enterprise machines because of kernel patching that cannot be applied in the background. Mike recommended logging out at night rather than shutting down, since nightly backups still need the machine on. Howard said he has his family restart their phones weekly, and Mike said computers and phones should be restarted about weekly, and routers and access points roughly every month or two, with automatic firmware updates turned on so the restart actually applies them.

Ads in Apple Maps

Apple Maps now shows paid placements first, so a coffee shop search ranks whoever paid ahead of the closest or best rated. Mike said the results carry a small blue ad tag. He described how long-time users develop ad blindness and scroll past anything marked as an ad.

AI overviews in search

Mike said Google’s AI overview now sits where search results used to be, and he questioned whether the summaries can be trusted. Typing a minus sign and AI before a search removes the overview, but there is no global setting, and he does that on about half of his searches. He found Gmail’s AI inbox useful but was uneasy that people will stop paying attention and just accept the drafted replies.

Meta, social media and data centers

Mike said Meta is agreeing to pay states, citing a possible figure of up to $18 billion while hedging on it, with Meta saying it did nothing wrong, and to add a two-hour daily limit on its social apps. The discussion moved to local pushback on data centers. Mike said water use and electricity prices are the real local concerns, and that AI data centers should provide their own power. Howard said Microsoft’s year-long test of underwater servers ended with more failures than the land-based comparison.

Android hides traffic from carriers

Mike said Android will stop carriers from seeing which sites a device visits. He noted Google still sees that traffic itself, and Howard suggested it may be a way to sell the data instead.

Calls

• Charles asked why anyone was surprised that social media was designed to be addictive, and why data centers draw so much resistance. Mike agreed people overestimate their willpower and said data centers should supply their own power; Charles said the Texas governor had just issued an order requiring that. Charles called back to explain that broadcast licenses carry decency standards, which is why Mike cannot use profanity on air.
• Ann asked which email provider to move to now that Comcast is shifting accounts to Yahoo. Mike said she has no choice about the move, advised keeping the old address as a junk address, and suggested an independent provider such as Gmail, Outlook or Proton Mail, warning that Proton cannot recover a forgotten login.