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Apple Doesn’t Want You to Worry About the New Apple Watch's Listening Features

Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4 add opt-in audio intelligence features that process microphone audio on-device via a new Secure Exclave.

The Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4 ship with four opt-in audio intelligence features: Sound Recognition, Shazam music identification, Siri Recap conversation summaries, and Live Rewind 15-second transcription. Audio is held and processed in an isolated Secure Exclave buffer on the new S11 chips, with on-device speech recognition on iPhone producing a distilled transcript that foundation models in Private Cloud Compute then summarize. Apple says no raw audio is stored or accessible to the operating system, apps, the user, or Apple, and untransferred audio is automatically deleted.

WIRED · Security · 7d agoAI industry1

Apple's Siri AI Can Be Swapped Out for Claude, ChatGPT, Code Shows

Code analysis of iOS 27 and macOS Golden Gate frameworks shows Apple engineered Siri to deeply interoperate with third-party AI models like Claude and GPT-5.6.

Code sleuth 'pdfu' uncovered private frameworks in iOS 27 and macOS Golden Gate revealing a 'Model Delegation' mechanism that lets Claude act as a Siri extension like the built-in ChatGPT extension. A second 'Inference Providing' protocol in Model Manager Services can fully replace Siri's server-side model with models such as GPT-5.6, which then receives Apple's Siri planner prompt and tool definitions to perform system actions and process personal data. The EU Digital Markets Act, which requires Apple to give third parties effective access to iOS features, may have shaped this approach. The entitlement is not yet open to third parties and Claude is not yet available in the macOS 27 Golden Gate RC.

Apple Watch’s new AI features are normalizing the idea that technology is always listening

TechCrunch argues Apple Watch's Live Rewind and Siri Recap normalize always-listening AI, raising consent and legal questions despite privacy safeguards.

Analysis of Apple's new Apple Watch AI features contends that Live Rewind, which transcribes the previous 15 seconds of audio, and Siri Recap, which generates high-level conversation notes, are pushing consumers toward accepting always-listening technology. The piece acknowledges the accessibility value of on-device Audio Intelligence, which alerts deaf or hard-of-hearing users to sounds like sirens, alarms, doorbells, and crying babies. It also raises concerns about consent, the evidentiary status of text-only transcripts in court, and cultural effects of pervasive capture, noting competitors like Friend, Amazon's Bee, and Plaud in the AI transcription space.

TechCrunch · AI · 7d agoAI industry

Read the Apple document explaining how new listening features still protect your privacy

Apple published a document explaining its new Audio Intelligence features process audio in a hardware-isolated Secure Exclave inaccessible to Apple, apps, or the OS.

Apple released a privacy document alongside the Siri AI Audio Intelligence features announced at its iPhone event, covering Siri Recap, Live Rewind, Sound Recognition, and Music Recognition. It states microphone audio is processed in the Secure Exclave of the S11 chip in Apple Watch Series 12 and Apple Watch Ultra 4, is never saved as a file, and cannot be accessed by watchOS, apps, the user, or Apple. Transfers between watch and iPhone are encrypted between Secure Exclaves, and transcripts sync end-to-end encrypted when a device passcode and iCloud two-factor authentication are enabled.

The Verge · AI · 7d agoAI industry

Apple brings a fully revamped Siri built on Google's Gemini, but not to the EU

Apple shipped its fully rebuilt Siri running on Google's Gemini models with iOS 27, initially excluding the EU and China over regulatory hurdles.

Apple released 'Siri AI' as an English beta within iOS 27, iPadOS 27, macOS 27, watchOS 27, and visionOS 27, built on Google's Gemini models running partly on-device and partly through Private Cloud Compute. The rollout excludes the EU and China at launch due to regulatory requirements, with French, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish support due next month. Early reviewers call it a step forward but report failures on personal-context queries and occasional hallucinations. Siri integrates with third-party apps like WhatsApp and Audible, with Outlook, Notability, and Tripsy coming later.

The Decoder · 1d agoAI industry

Apple’s revamped Health app will calculate your ‘health age’ and readiness score

Apple redesigned its Health app with Apple Intelligence-powered Insights, readiness scores, Health Age, and a $119 Quest 50-biomarker lab panel.

Announced alongside the Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4, the redesigned Apple Health app adds an Insights tab, a readiness score, and a 'Health Age' metric computed from VO2 max, sleep, and blood biomarkers. A partnership with Quest offers a 50-biomarker lab panel for $119. The app also adds movement assessments and a longevity tab, and rolls out later this year in U.S. English.

TechCrunch · AI · 7d agoAI industry

Apple reportedly building server packed with M-series Ultra chips for AI

Apple is reportedly developing an enterprise AI server with two or four future M8 Ultra chips, targeting a 2029 release.

According to The Information, Apple is working on an AI server built around its M-series Ultra chips, in configurations with two or four future M8 Ultra chips. The project, which reportedly received support from new CEO John Ternus, would be Apple's first server product in nearly two decades. Surging sales of Mac mini and Mac Studio to AI developers, including purchases by OpenAI and rentals by Anthropic via AWS, reportedly motivated the effort.

Ars Technica · AI · 12h agoAI industry 3 sources

OpenAI stuck fighting Musk antitrust suit after Apple finds a way out

Musk voluntarily dismissed all antitrust claims against Apple but continues pursuing OpenAI over alleged ChatGPT-iPhone chatbot market monopolization.

Elon Musk filed court papers confirming all claims against Apple over its ChatGPT iPhone integration are resolved, agreeing never to raise them again. He refuses to drop parallel claims that OpenAI used the non-exclusive Apple deal to monopolize the chatbot market. OpenAI has dismissed the suit as harassment as Musk's AI firm, now called SpaceXAI, races to catch up.

Ars Technica · AI · 2d agoAI industry

Apple CEO John Ternus says the best AI device is still the iPhone

Apple CEO John Ternus said the iPhone is the best AI device, emphasizing on-device processing and privacy in Apple's AI strategy.

At Apple's Surprise and Shine event, new CEO John Ternus, who succeeded Tim Cook (now executive chairman), framed the iPhone as the ideal 'intelligent personal hub' for AI. He listed requirements including on-device AI processing, personal context awareness, high-quality cameras and microphones, long battery life, and seamless integration with other devices. Ternus contrasted Apple's privacy-first approach with rivals' data collection, saying Apple Intelligence runs on device whenever possible.

TechCrunch · AI · 7d agoAI industry1

With iOS 27, I’m actually using Siri again

Apple's rebuilt Siri, powered by Google Gemini models in iOS 27, finally handles complex multi-step and on-screen-context requests, per TechCrunch review.

Apple's iOS 27 ships a redesigned Siri built on Google's Gemini models, supporting multi-step instructions, on-screen context, file/message/email lookups, and camera viewfinder queries. Siri AI gets a dedicated app with chat history, plus settings for voice and expressiveness. Apple Intelligence also adds natural-language Shortcuts creation and automatic password rotation in the Passwords app.

TechCrunch · AI · 2d agoAI industry

The hinge for Apple’s new foldable phone was built with AI

Apple's first foldable phone, the Duo, uses AI algorithms and 3D printing to manufacture its precision-matched hinge and durability coatings.

Apple introduced its first foldable phone, the Duo, at its Surprise and Shine event on September 9. Chief hardware officer Johny Srouji said AI algorithms match each hinge with its best-fit housing, while confocal laser scans guide 3D printing of up to 25 micro layers of custom photopolymer to eliminate residual waviness. The device also features a nano-texture anti-glare finish and multi-layer lamination aimed at improving foldable durability.

TechCrunch · AI · 7d agoAI industry

Apple has a new way prove your iPhone photos aren’t AI slop

Apple launched Reference Image, cryptographically signing iPhone 18 Pro photos via Private Cloud Compute to prove image authenticity.

Announced at Apple's Surprise and Shine event, Apple Reference Image captures signed sensor data with the iPhone 18 Pro camera and uses Private Cloud Compute to create an unalterable 'digital negative' viewable in Photos. The reference image can be compared with edited versions to verify authenticity, and developer APIs enable third-party integration. Apple also said it will support the SynthID standard to identify AI-created or altered images.

TechCrunch · AI · 7d agoAI industry

Apple releases iOS 27, macOS Golden Gate 27 with Siri AI and Liquid Glass refinements

Apple released iOS 27 and macOS Golden Gate 27 with a LLM-based Siri AI overhaul powered by new AFM 3 on-device and cloud models.

Apple shipped its 2026 annual OS updates: iOS 27, macOS 27 Golden Gate, watchOS 27, visionOS 27, and tvOS 27. Siri AI is the flagship feature, offering context-aware responses, personal history search, app interaction, and a dedicated Siri app. The stack includes AFM 3 Core (3B parameters on-device), AFM 3 Core Advanced (20B sparse model activating 1-4B parameters), plus AFM 3 Cloud, ADM 3 Cloud (Image), and AFM 3 Cloud Pro server models. Additional features include prompt-generated Shortcuts and Safari extensions, new photo editing options, and a Liquid Glass transparency slider.

Ars Technica · AIupdated · 14h agofirst · 2d agoAI industry 2 sources1

Apple’s new iPhone camera mode promises to prove your photo isn’t AI

Apple's iPhone 18 Pro adds a Reference Image mode that cryptographically signs camera sensor pixels to prove photos were not AI-generated or edited.

Apple will launch a Reference Image mode with the iPhone 18 Pro lineup, using the new camera sensor to sign every pixel and develop the signed data via Private Cloud Compute into an unalterable reference image viewable in Photos. Users can compare the reference image against edited versions to verify authenticity, building on provenance standards like SynthID, C2PA, and Meta's Content Seal. A Reference Image API will span iOS, iPadOS, and macOS for third-party apps, though the feature launches without EU support, arriving there in iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27.

The Verge · AI · 7d agoAI industry

Apple’s Ternus era begins as Nvidia bets on the whole AI stack

Apple's John Ternus becomes CEO as Tim Cook steps down; Nvidia expands across the AI stack while a16z launches a $1.1B Machine Age fund.

Tim Cook stepped down as Apple CEO, handing the company to former hardware chief John Ternus, with Cook staying as Executive Chairman focused on policy relationships. TechCrunch's Equity podcast also unpacks Nvidia's moves to own the entire AI stack, including its Hugging Face acquisition, a MediaTek investment, and deeper compute deals. Other items include robotaxi competition (Tesla Cybercab, Waymo expansion, Zoox paid rides), Andreessen Horowitz's new $1.1 billion 'Machine Age' fund, and the $285 million GoPro acquisition.

TechCrunch · AI · 12d agoAI industry

Tell HN: iOS 27 does not allow Apple Intelligence to be disabled

Hacker News discussion argues Apple Intelligence is a marketing umbrella for disparate long-standing ML features, explaining why iOS 27 lacks a disable switch.

A 'Tell HN' post reports that iOS 27 does not allow users to fully disable Apple Intelligence. Discussion replies argue 'Apple Intelligence' is a marketing term covering disparate features rather than a single product. Commenters cite long-standing local-model features such as image OCR, battery-life prediction, and the Latent Semantic Mapping text classification framework available since 2007.

Fashion app Daydream uses Apple Intelligence to help you shop the outfits in your camera roll

Fashion app Daydream uses iOS 27 Apple Intelligence APIs to turn saved outfit photos into shoppable matches and enable Siri voice search.

Daydream launched photo-based outfit shopping and Siri natural-language search built on Apple's iOS 27 developer tools, matching images against roughly 3 million products from 325+ retailers and 10,000 brands. The app claims over 1.5 million shoppers and frames the features as steps toward a cross-surface shopping agent. Competitors include Google, Amazon, Onton, and Alta.

TechCrunch · AI · 2d agoAI industry

Sure, Meta’s AI Muse works, but it sure creeps me out

Hands-on review finds Meta's Muse AI agent completes shopping and email tasks but surfaces personal Instagram API data beyond user-visible ad-topic settings.

Meta launched Muse, its first agentic AI productivity assistant, which performs tasks like shopping, email management, trip planning, media generation, and creating webpages or documents via a cloud-based virtual computer. The Verge's hands-on found it successfully deleted thousands of promotional emails and completed an Amazon purchase, but it also revealed detailed personal interests inferred from Instagram and Facebook account API data that is not visible in the apps' ad-topic settings. Meta says Muse only exchanges data needed for third-party integrations and does not share information with advertisers; the reviewer frames privacy unease as the main adoption hurdle.

The Verge · AIupdated · 2h agofirst · 6d agoAI industry 12 sources

[AINews] Hot Chips: OpenAI’s Jalapeño, Cerebras CS-5, Groq 3 LPX, Apple M6

OpenAI unveiled Jalapeno custom inference chip claiming 1.5-1.9x better perf-per-watt than NVIDIA GB200/GB300, deploying in-house by year-end.

At the 37th Hot Chips conference, OpenAI published first benchmark details for its custom Jalapeno inference chip, claiming 1.5-1.9x more work per watt, 1.7-3.6x lower end-to-end latency, and 2.1-4.1x higher interactive-workload performance versus NVIDIA GB200/GB300, with the 700W-rated part staying at or below 550W in tests. Deployment into OpenAI's own infrastructure begins by year-end, with Gen 2 deep in development and Gen 3 underway. OpenAI also said GPT-Astra and Codex helped write low-level kernels, reportedly 1.5-1.8x faster than human-expert code for selected attention and MoE blocks. Cerebras CS-5, Groq 3 LPX and Apple M6 were also featured at the conference.

Latent Space · 21d agoAI industry

The AI graveyard: a running list of projects and startups that didn’t make it

TechCrunch compiles a running list of failed AI products and startups, including Relay, OpenAI's Sora, Humane AI Pin, Notion Mail, and Microsoft's Recall.

TechCrunch's 'AI graveyard' tracks notable AI products and startups that shut down or underperformed, citing S&P Global data that about 42% of AI initiatives are abandoned. Examples include the Relay automation startup, OpenAI's Sora video platform (shut March 2026), ChatGPT Atlas browser (discontinued August 9), Notion Mail (shutting September 22), and Apple's delayed Siri AI that contributed to a $250 million settlement. Hardware failures include the Humane AI Pin ($230 million raised, assets sold to HP for $116 million) and the Rabbit R1, which sold 100,000 units but received poor reviews. Microsoft's Recall feature remains controversial after a researcher demonstrated a tool extracting its captured data.

TechCrunch · AI · 1d agoAI industry1

Jensen Huang took a call from Trump, and showed off something else, too

At the All-In conference, Nvidia's Jensen Huang took a live Trump call dismissing AI safety fears while flaunting Apple's unreleased $1,999 foldable phone.

At the All-In conference in L.A., Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang answered a live on-stage call from President Trump using Apple's unreleased foldable phone, which hits stores in five weeks at $1,999. During the call, Trump and Huang agreed that fears about AI safety amount to what Trump called a 'hoax,' with Trump claiming the AI panic benefits China and 'political people' and arguing the technology is 'bigger than the internet.' Nvidia stock is up 33% over the past year but fell a few percentage points on the day. The article notes Apple now depends on Nvidia hardware to run part of Apple Intelligence, a decade after dropping Nvidia chips from its devices.

TechCrunch · AI · 2d agoAI industry

OpenAI buys smartphone camera maker Glass Imaging for $300 million, report says

OpenAI acquired smartphone camera startup Glass Imaging for over $300 million, deepening rumored hardware ambitions after its $6.5 billion io deal.

OpenAI bought Glass Imaging, a Los Altos startup founded in 2019 by former Apple engineers Ziv Attar and Tom Bishop who led Apple's Portrait Mode team, per a Wall Street Journal report. Glass Imaging had raised about $30 million and uses neural networks that learn individual camera systems to improve image quality at capture time. The acquisition fuels speculation about OpenAI hardware plans including smartphones, earbuds, and AI companion devices, following its $6.5 billion purchase of Jony Ive's io startup in 2025.

TechCrunch · AI · 2d agoAI industry

I spent $4,000 on a robot dog from China

Hands-on review finds the $4,017 Unitree Go2 Pro robot dog affordable but impractical, as Unitree reaches a $34 billion valuation after its IPO.

Ars Technica reviewed the Unitree Go2 Pro quadruped, purchased for $4,017, finding it astonishingly cheap but of limited practical use; it collapsed from battery drain and heat (84°C internal temperature) on an uphill walk at 87°F. Unitree democratized quadruped research, sells humanoid robots from $13,500, and debuted on the Shanghai stock exchange on August 19 with shares rising over fivefold on day one, valuing the company at $34 billion. Its robots now face legal restrictions in the United States, and it competes with Boston Dynamics, whose Spot starts around $75,000.

Ars Technica · AI · 4d agoAI industry

An Anthropic researcher’s doomsday warning comes at a very interesting time

An Anthropic researcher resigned warning the company is 'gambling with our lives' racing toward superintelligence, timed with its reported IPO preparation.

TechCrunch's Equity podcast discusses the resignation of an Anthropic researcher who warned on X that the company is 'racing straight to self-improving superintelligence and gambling with our lives'. The company's own alignment lead co-signed the message rather than walking it back. The hosts note the warning lands differently with Anthropic reportedly preparing for an IPO. The episode also covers Apple's AI-focused event, Stokes Space's $1 billion raise, Cognition raising $2 billion at a $48 billion valuation, and a $50 million seed round for floating nuclear reactors.

TechCrunch · AI · 5d agoAI industry1

Instagram’s AI detection is a mess (again)

Instagram is mislabeling ordinary edited photos as AI Content while some AI imagery goes unlabeled, repeating a 2024 detection failure.

The Verge documents weeks of erroneous AI Content labels on Instagram, including images edited only with Canva's Background Remover or an iPhone Photos app, while some generative images escape tagging. Canva said some of its assistive AI tools were being tagged as generative and claims the issue is fixed, though users still report tagging. Meta scans IPTC and C2PA metadata and uses signals like Google's SynthID, but remains vague about detection criteria; one tester found only Meta AI-created or edited images reliably triggered labels, and an image-poisoned photo was tagged. A similar mislabeling wave hit Instagram in 2024.

The Verge · AI · 12d agoAI industry

[AINews] Fal’s H3 Max Live breaks the infinite videogen barrier

Fal post-trained MiniMax H3 into a 'Max' variant with 35x-faster inference, enabling faster-than-realtime AI video generation and infinite streams.

Fal post-trained MiniMax's H3 model into a 'Max' variant and optimized it for its in-house inference engine, achieving roughly 35x the speed of the official endpoint. The optimization enables faster-than-realtime video generation, demonstrated by an infinite interactive AI-generated stream productized by levels.io. The roundup also notes Meta Muse Code's general availability with an SDK, open DeepSeek-V4-Flash-Vision-Exp weights, GLM-5.3-Flash's strong agentic cost/performance rankings, and Tencent's 770B-parameter Hy4 Preview MoE with 49B active parameters.

Latent Space · 16d agoAI industry

Schools are catching on to Big Tech’s playbook

A new book warns AI firms are repeating Big Tech's education playbook, as New York City and Los Angeles restrict classroom AI use.

NYT education reporter Natasha Singer's book 'Coding Kids' documents how Apple, Microsoft and Google embedded proprietary curricula and Chromebooks in US schools over 15 years, building product loyalty and market position. Google's Chromebook and Classroom dominance positioned it to promote generative AI in classrooms. New York City banned AI in elementary and middle schools and Los Angeles imposed broader restrictions including high schoolers, as parents and teachers push back against screens and AI in classrooms.

The Verge · AI · 6d agoAI industry

Tell HN: OpenAI keeps re-enabling the 'allow training' setting

A Hacker News user reports OpenAI's 'allow training' setting re-enables itself after being disabled, raising concerns about opt-out data usage.

A Hacker News user reports resetting OpenAI's 'allow training' opt-out multiple times, with careful tracking, only to find the setting re-enabled on later checks. Commenters speculate about backend sync failures, optimistic UI updates and local storage behavior, or deliberate re-enabling to widen training data usage. Some users report the setting remained disabled, including one EU citizen.

[AINews] Poolside gets $12B reverse-execuhire to NVIDIA; founders stay for $1B, employees go for $6B, Infraco scaling to 7GW neocloud

NVIDIA struck a $12B deal with AI coding startup Poolside, licensing its Model Factory and hiring 109 of its technical employees.

NVIDIA spent roughly $12B in an unusual reverse-execuhire of Poolside, licensing the company's Model Factory while hiring 109 of its ~115 technical staff; founders retain a $1B stake and employees receive about $6B. Poolside had raced to raise $2B to fund a 40,000 GB300 cluster after missing a six-week funding window, and founders argue frontier-scale training now requires an order of magnitude more compute plus contracted data center space. An infrastructure arm spun out in January 2026 is scaling toward 7GW as a neocloud. The newsletter also recaps OpenAI and Anthropic agent-platform releases.

Latent Space · 27d agoAI industry

Open-Source AI & Open Models Reading List

Interconnects publishes a curated open-model reading list covering release strategy, US-China competition, adoption data, and a narrowed 4-6 month open-closed frontier gap.

The list, updated September 11, 2026, compiles essays on open-model strategy, licensing gradients, safety of open weights, adoption data, and Chinese open-source history. It notes leading open models have come from Chinese labs since roughly 2024, citing Kimi K3 and GLM-5.2/5.3, and that the open-closed gap has narrowed to roughly 4-6 months. It also documents Western adoption of Chinese models, including Perplexity's use of DeepSeek R1 and Thomson Reuters moving to Qwen, which has drawn lawmaker probes at DoorDash, Airbnb, Anysphere/Cursor, and Apple.

Interconnectsupdated · 16h agofirst · 5d agoAI industry 20 sources1

India’s Pocket FM doubles revenue run rate to $500M as AI powers 93% of audio content

Indian audio platform Pocket FM doubled its annualized revenue run rate to $500M, with AI now producing 93% of its catalog.

Pocket FM, an Indian serialized audio storytelling platform, doubled its annualized revenue run rate to $500 million in a year, with AI powering 93% of its catalog and 99% of new content. The company says generative AI, including in-house creative-writing and text-to-speech models, made production roughly 80 times cheaper, letting 550,000+ creators produce about 2.5 million hours of content annually across 770,000 audio series for 250 million listeners. Parent Pocket Entertainment is reportedly in talks to raise $100-120 million at about a $2 billion valuation, is profitable on an adjusted basis, and its AI-only microdrama app Pocket Saga has reached a $15 million annualized run rate.

TechCrunch · AI · 6d agoAI industry

Maven Robotics wants to steal your robot deployment deal

Warehouse robotics startup Maven Robotics emerges from stealth with $100 million to build 250 third-generation palletizing robots.

Maven Robotics, founded in 2024 by former Apple special projects engineer Hamza Derbas and his brother Khalid, emerged from stealth after raising $100 million from RoboStrategy, LocalGlobe, Vine Ventures, and XTX Markets Ventures. Its wheeled dual-arm robots, moving 10 mph and lifting up to 30 kg, perform mixed palletizing in distribution centers, with up to eight units reportedly running 16 hours a day at 99%+ uptime. The company plans to build 250 third-generation robots, start design on a fourth-generation platform, and expand toward material handling and fabrication, positioning itself against rivals like Agility, which is going public via a $2.4 billion SPAC deal.

TechCrunch · AI · 6d agoAI industry

Meta debuts its Muse AI agent. Will consumers trust it?

Meta launched Muse, a consumer AI agent powered by Muse Spark that connects to users' apps to execute tasks like emailing, booking travel, and payments.

Meta introduced Muse, a personal AI agent for US users that connects to email, calendars, payments, shopping, and other services to execute tasks such as booking travel, lowering bills, and completing purchases via Link by Stripe. The agent runs in a dedicated Muse Secure VM with a separate Sentinel agent kept apart at the system level, and Meta claims it cannot see passwords or payment data and does not share conversations with ad systems. Muse is free to start, with Power ($20/month) and Maximum ($100/month) subscription tiers, and is available on the web, iOS, Android, and WhatsApp, with Meta AI glasses support planned. The launch follows Meta's $18 billion multistate consumer-harms settlement and comes as rivals like Gemini Spark and Claude Cowork push agentic AI.

TechCrunch · AI · 8d agoAI industry 3 sources1

Tell HN: OpenAI brings back 5 hour limit for plus and business standard users

OpenAI reinstated a 5-hour usage limit for Plus and Business Standard subscribers, sparking Hacker News debate about subsidized inference pricing and subscription value.

A Hacker News discussion reports that OpenAI has brought back a 5-hour usage limit for Plus and Business Standard users. Commenters debated whether cheap tokens are a subsidized customer acquisition strategy, whether AI companies have sustainable margins on inference, and how switching costs between providers affect dependency. The thread reflects community sentiment on pricing and usage caps rather than an official policy announcement.