Also this week: iPhone leases, a movable taskbar, and a deepfake law in court

I can't write a full piece on everything that happens in tech every week, and you don't have time to read one anyway. So on Fridays I point you at the handful of stories that actually matter to everyday people, tell you in a sentence or two why you should care, and send you to someone who reported it well. Here is what caught my eye this week.

Apple will rent you an iPhone now

On Tuesday Apple launched Apple Upgrade, a leasing program run by the payment company Klarna. Twelve or twenty four months on an iPhone or a Watch, twenty four or thirty six on a Mac or an iPad, starting at $17.99 a month for a phone. The monthly number is lower than the old iPhone Upgrade Program, which Apple is shutting down along with iPhone Payments.

Before you sign anything, understand that this is a lease and not a payment plan. At the end of the term you do not own the phone unless you pay a purchase fee. Getting out early can cost you what Apple's own fine print calls “substantial fees”. You can be billed for damage if the device comes back scratched up. Leasing is a reasonable answer to a $1,099 phone, but it is a different deal than buying one.

Source: CNN

Windows is giving you back the taskbar you used to have

Microsoft's fall update to Windows 11 puts the taskbar back where you want it. Top, bottom, left, right, your call. Windows 11 has only ever let you shove the icons over to the left corner, while the bar itself has been glued to the bottom since 2021, and people have complained about it ever since. The same update lets you shrink the taskbar, hide the parts of the Start menu you never use, and hide your name and picture from the Start menu while you are sharing your screen. Windows Search finally puts your own files and settings ahead of web results, with a switch to turn the web results off entirely. There is nothing to do about any of this now. It arrives this fall, and some of it will show up sooner in the regular monthly updates.

Source: Windows Central

The first state law aimed at nudify apps is already in court

Minnesota's new law takes effect Saturday. It goes after the software rather than the person using it: an app, a website, or a program is not allowed to let someone generate a fake nude image of a real, identifiable person. Elon Musk's AI company xAI sued the state attorney general on Monday to stop it. xAI argues the wording is too broad to survive the First Amendment because the definition of an intimate part would also cover a man with his shirt off or a woman in a swimsuit. Attorney General Keith Ellison says he will defend it. This is not an abstraction for the person it happens to. When a fake of you shows up today, your options are thin and mostly depend on the platform, which is exactly what a law like this one is trying to change. Other states are writing copies of it and watching this case.

Source: CBS Minnesota

Amazon asked permission to put cell service in orbit

Amazon filed with the FCC to launch up to 5,105 satellites that would beam voice calls, texts, data, and emergency service to an ordinary phone with no special equipment and no dish. Deployment starts in 2028 at the earliest, and the FCC has to approve it first, so this changes nothing about your dead spot this year. SpaceX has been sending texts to T-Mobile phones from orbit since last July, and Amazon is already building a satellite internet service to compete with Starlink. If you live somewhere the bars disappear on the drive home, two companies are now fighting over selling you coverage there.

Source: CBS News