This week began with a bang on the gadgets front. Apple brought forth its new budget phone, the iPhone 17e, along with the M4 iPad Air on Monday, following up with devices though the week. In another part of the globe, the Mobile World Congress saw a slew of smartphones and other gadgets being unveiled, none more eye-catching than the Honor Robot Phone, Motorola Razr Fold, and the Vivo X300 Ultra with its massive 400mm telephoto kit.
There were controversies galore in the AI world: Claude was reportedly used during U.S.-Israel joint strikes against Iran, OpenAI's partnership with the U.S. Department of War saw a massive backlash against ChatGPT, a global privacy storm brewed amid reports of Meta's AI glasses exposing the private lives of users, even as Anthropic vowed to legally contest a Pentagon decision to declare it a supply chain risk.
AI War, Beyond Iran
Reports revealed that Anthropic's Claude family of large language models was used by U.S. Central Command to support intelligence assessments, target selection, and battlefield simulations during major U.S.-Israel strikes on Iran on Feb. 28. This occurred mere hours after the Trump administration banned federal use of Anthropic tools, labelling the company a supply chain risk. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei vowed to challenge the ban in court, calling it legally unsound. READ MORE
Apple Launches iPhone 17e, Other Hardware
Apple introduced the iPhone 17e, with key upgrades like A19 chipset, MagSafe, and higher base storage. Among other Apple devices launched were the faster iPad Air with M4 chip, MacBook Air and MacBook Pro with M5 chip and M5 Pro/M5 Max chips, respectively, and the all-new MacBook Neo, an entry-level laptop priced at $599. READ MORE
MWC 2026 Innovations
The MWC in Barcelona saw a wave of innovative displays: Xiaomi's flagship Xiaomi 17 series with advanced Leica-tuned cameras, Lenovo's Legion Go Fold concept — a versatile foldable gaming handheld with expandable screen and detachable controllers — Honor's Robot Phone complete with nods, head shakes, and expressive gestures, Vivo's X300 Ultra with a large Zeiss telephoto setup, and Motorola's debut book-style foldable, Razr Fold. READ MORE
ChatGPT Boycott
In response to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman's announcement of a partnership with the U.S. Department of War for deploying models in classified networks, ChatGPT users launched a backlash. U.S. uninstalls of the app surged 295% on Feb. 28 compared to the prior day, with downloads declining sharply. READ MORE
Meta's AI Glasses Exposing Users' Intimate Lives
Meta's AI-powered smart glasses were caught in the middle of a privacy storm. Swedish newspapers reported that contractors reviewing data from its AI-powered smart glasses accessed highly intimate user recordings, prompting widespread criticism over data handling practices. READ MORE
Nothing Phone (4a) Series Launched
Nothing launched the Phone (4a) series, with the standard Phone (4a) introducing a new Glyph Bar design element and the Phone (4a) Pro featuring a larger always-on Glyph Matrix interface. The devices continue the brand's signature expressive, mid-range aesthetic with unique lighting effects and transparency. READ MORE
OpenAI Releases ChatGPT GPT-5.4
OpenAI released GPT-5.4, touted as its most capable and efficient frontier model yet, alongside a high-performance GPT-5.4 Pro variant for demanding tasks. The update brings major leaps in reasoning, coding, and agentic capabilities, plus a massive 1 million token context window for processing long documents or conversations. READ MORE
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