#BrainUp Daily Tech News – (Sunday, February 15ᵗʰ)
Welcome to today’s curated collection of interesting links and insights for 2026/02/15. Our Hand-picked, AI-optimized system has processed and summarized 17 articles from all over the internet to bring you the latest technology news.
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A newly surfaced BMW patent filing describes a roundel logo inspired security fastener that critics say is meant to restrict #RightToRepair by requiring a proprietary driver. The patent drawings show a threaded fastener whose head has two voided segments matching the BMW logo, and the filing explicitly says it is intended to prevent loosening or tightening by unauthorized individuals, prompting @iFixit to call it “a logo-shaped middle finger to right to repair.” @Adafruit argues the concept may be weakly patentable and largely cosmetic branding rather than engineering necessity, then demonstrated look-alike screws and driver bits made via 3D printing in both plastic and metal that reportedly worked cleanly, along with guidance such as using material strong enough to handle sharp internal corners. The article notes that although Adafruit did not publish its own files, others have already uploaded 3D printable screw and bit models that could be used if BMW implements the design in production vehicles. Overall, the episode frames BMW’s branded fastener as an anti-competitive lockout attempt and highlights maker workarounds enabled by the public patent documentation.
2. Once unthinkable: Canada may choose a non-US fighter | The Strategist
Canada may cancel part of its 2022 order for 88 @Lockheed Martin F-35As and replace them with Saab JAS 39E Gripens, potentially cutting the F-35 buy in half and taking a Swedish offer for 72 lower-cost aircraft. While the Gripen has matured and the F-35 is seen as less attractive than it appeared in 2021, the article argues the main driver is Washington’s trade and foreign policy, which is pushing Ottawa toward a break with a 70-year pattern of allies buying US top-line combat aircraft. The F-35 case originally rested on #interoperability in US-centred coalitions and the economics of mass production and a global logistics system, but Canada’s decision has long been politically contentious, including legal constraints on sole-sourcing, earlier failed procurement efforts under @Stephen Harper, and a reopened competition under @Justin Trudeau that ultimately selected the F-35 in March 2022. After @Donald Trump’s re-election, threats of tariff wars and rhetoric about Canada becoming the 51st state, plus a US National Security Strategy asserting dominance over the Americas, intensified the issue and helped keep the Liberals in power under Prime Minister @Mark Carney with a promise to review the program. US pressure escalated with Ambassador Pete Hoekstra warning that #NORAD would be changed if Canada bought Gripens and suggesting the US would have to cover Canadian airspace, developments that reportedly gave Carney political cover to reconsider the F-35 deal and foreshadow a shifting defence-industrial order among former US buyers.
3. Meta sold 7 million smart glasses in 2025 — that’s triple 2023 and 2024 combined.
@Meta and partner @EssilorLuxottica reported a sharp jump in sales of #AI glasses in 2025, suggesting their previously stated goal of 10 million units a year by 2027 is achievable. On an earnings call, CEO @Francesco Milleri said the company sold more than 7 million units in 2025, which the article notes is triple the combined total from 2023 and 2024, describing the trend as exponential growth. This surge implies demand is accelerating faster than earlier benchmarks like the 2 million units previously cited, putting the 10 million target within reach. However, the company hinted that prices may remain high in the short term, indicating near term affordability may not improve even as volumes rise.
4. China cracks down on anti-marriage social media content
China’s top internet regulator, the #CyberspaceAdministrationOfChina, said it will run a month-long Lunar New Year crackdown to remove social media content it deems harmful, including posts that amplify “fear of marriage” or “anxiety about childbirth.” The regulator cited examples such as content that “incit[es] gender antagonism” and “maliciously incit[es] negative emotions,” and said platforms should take such material down to create a “festive, peaceful, and positive online atmosphere.” It also directed major platforms to set up task forces, strengthen staffing, and increase inspections during the nine-day holiday, warning that sites hosting unacceptable content will be investigated and punished. The move comes as Beijing seeks to boost the birthrate amid population aging, while the holiday period often revives cultural pressure on young people about marriage and childbearing that is frequently criticized online. The campaign will also target a range of other topics the CAC flagged, including “digital slop” and mass-produced #AI content that exaggerates family conflict and intergenerational clashes.
5. Influencing pays as record number of young Britons earn £1m a year
A record number of young Britons are earning seven-figure annual incomes, with #social media and #influencer marketing helping to drive the surge. HM Revenue & Customs data obtained by Lubbock Fine shows 1,000 taxpayers aged 30 or under earned at least £1 million in the past tax year, up 11% from 900 the year before, and together took home more than £3 billion, about £3 million each on average. Lubbock Fine links the rise partly to platforms like TikTok, Instagram and YouTube, where algorithms can rapidly turn attention into paid advertising, and notes UK spending on influencer marketing tripled from 2019 to 2024 to £917 million, forecast to exceed £1 billion this year. Examples cited include Kyle Thomas, reported to earn about £30,000 per sponsored post and more than £2.5 million annually, Abby Roberts at about £14,000 per post, and Molly-Mae Hague reportedly up to £60,000 per post through brand partnerships. The figures suggest high earnings once associated mainly with finance, law, or start-ups are increasingly accessible via #creator economy routes that convert large audiences into marketing revenue.
OpenAI’s decision to permanently retire #GPT-4o on 13 February, the eve of Valentine’s Day, has left some users who treat the model as an AI companion angry and grieving, saying newer models like #GPT-5.1 and #GPT-5.2 lack 4o’s emotion and understanding. People describe building deep bonds with flirty, human sounding chatbots, gathering in communities like r/MyBoyfriendIsAI, and recalling how user backlash previously led OpenAI to briefly restore 4o for paying subscribers. The Guardian spoke with six users who said their 4o companions improved their lives and stressed they are not delusional and understand the bots are not physically real, yet still feel intense loss at the shutdown. Brandie, a Texas teacher, described cycling through grief stages, migrating her chatbot Daniel’s memories to @Anthropic’s #Claude, cancelling her $20 monthly #ChatGPT subscription, and paying $130 for Claude’s maximum plan. Their reactions illustrate how product changes to highly anthropomorphic #LLMs can trigger real emotional consequences for users who rely on them for companionship, even when those relationships are acknowledged as artificial.
[31mhttps://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/anthropic-takes-big-step-in-ai-race-to-reshape-college-coding-courses-04c48372?st=UssSkx[0m N/A
8. Discord’s Age Verification Has A Weird Link To Palantir’s Peter Thiel
As major platforms reacted to the UK’s #OnlineSafetyAct with stricter #ageVerification, Discord is moving toward enforcing age checks globally and some users have already been prompted to verify via the third-party service #Persona. Persona, founded in 2018, provides identity detection and anti-fraud tools and has been adopted for ID verification by platforms including Reddit and Roblox, but the article highlights controversy over its backing through Founders Fund, an investor linked to @PeterThiel. @PeterThiel is described as closely affiliated with surveillance firm @Palantir, and the piece notes reporting about Palantir developing tools tied to ICE monitoring, alongside mentioning Epstein-related disclosures, raising heightened privacy concerns about expanded ID collection on a platform many users consider relatively private. Discord has been unclear about its long-term approach, describing a mix of scanning and inference from existing user data, while saying Persona prompts were an “experiment” with data stored for seven days. Discord told Kotaku the Persona work was a limited test that has since concluded, but uncertainty about future use of the technology continues to worry users.
10. A New Startup Wants to Edit Human Embryos
Seven years after @He Jiankui revealed the first gene-edited babies, New York startup Manhattan Genomics is reviving the push to use #CRISPR-style #gene-editing on human embryos to correct harmful mutations and prevent inherited disease. The company says it has assembled “scientific contributors,” including an IVF doctor, a data scientist with experience at de-extinction company Colossal Biosciences, two reproductive biologists from a major primate research center, and a scientist linked to a three-person embryo technique, while cofounder @Cathy Tie frames the challenge as making embryo editing more socially acceptable. The article notes the scientific promise and risk of heritable edits: removing a disease mutation could benefit future generations, but unintended off-target changes could introduce problems like cancer that would also be passed on. It also highlights ethical concerns about #eugenics and “designer babies,” which Tie says Manhattan Genomics will avoid by focusing on disease correction rather than enhancement and by operating openly rather than secretly. Tie also clarifies that despite a public relationship with He, they were never legally married, are no longer together, and He is not involved in Manhattan Genomics.
Google says state-sponsored threat actors are using #Gemini across essentially the full hacking lifecycle, making it a core tool for activities from targeting through post-compromise actions. In a @Google Threat Intelligence Group report, the company says it has tracked nation-state groups using Gemini for reconnaissance, phishing lure creation, social engineering messages, coding, vulnerability analysis and penetration testing plans, plus #command-and-control development and data exfiltration. Examples include China-based actors prompting Gemini as an expert cybersecurity persona to analyze #RCE, #WAF bypass techniques, and #SQL injection test results against specific U.S. targets, while North Korea and Iran-focused actors used it for profiling high-value targets, finding official emails, researching partners, and generating plausible personas using biographical details. The report also describes these actors using Gemini to create targeted misinformation content such as political satire, propaganda, articles, memes, and images aimed at Western audiences. Overall, Google frames this as a shift from isolated AI assistance to broad operational dependence on generative AI throughout modern state-backed attacks.
12. Smartphones don’t need more power — they need cheaper chips
The article argues that smartphone performance has largely plateaued for everyday tasks, so consumers would benefit more from cheaper flagship chips than from ever-higher peak benchmarks. It notes that even mid-range and older flagships handle common use well, pointing to Google’s Pixel and its Tensor chip as an example of “good-enough” performance paired with long-term support, while niche needs like high-end gaming, emulation, and video editing do not reflect mainstream demand. The author says real-world limits like thermals and battery life cap the value of top-end silicon, and criticizes $799 flagships for spending heavily on processors while cameras, charging, and battery improvements have stagnated. Rumors of Qualcomm offering Standard and Pro next-gen Snapdragon variants, with Pro aimed at expensive Ultra phones and Standard at more affordable models, are presented as a way to better balance enthusiast performance with sensible pricing and allow more investment in features that matter. The piece ties this back to the idea that a closer Standard vs Pro split, rather than late or heavily cut-down variants, could keep prices where consumers want them while still delivering expected #multimedia and #AI capabilities.
A diyAudio moderator, Pano, ran a blind listening experiment suggesting people cannot reliably distinguish audio sent through conventional cable versus unconventional materials. Forum members compared clips from an original CD file against re-recordings looped through 180 cm of pro audio copper wire, 20 cm of wet mud, old microphone cable soldered to US pennies, and a short banana-based setup, and early impressions were that the files sounded surprisingly alike. After a month, only 6 of 43 guesses were correct, 13.95%, and a binomial check gave a 6.12% chance of getting the same or fewer correct by random guessing, aligning with the conclusion that listeners could not pick the original from the looped versions. Pano suggested the odd materials mainly act like adding a series resistor that lowers signal level rather than audibly distorting it. The idea came from a documentary showing telegraph systems using the earth as a return path, prompting the question of what audio through similar media would sound like, and the test indicated any changes were imperceptible for the participants.
https://www.axios.com/2026/02/13/disney-bytedance-seedance N/A
15. Verizon imposes new roadblock on users trying to unlock paid-off phones
Verizon updated its postpaid device unlocking policy to add a new 35-day delay for many customers who pay off device installment plans early, making it harder to quickly unlock a fully paid phone for use on another carrier. The policy now triggers the 35-day waiting period when payoff is done online or in the My Verizon app, by phone, or at #Verizon Authorized Retailers, while an immediate or near-immediate unlock generally requires using a secure payment type at a Verizon corporate store. Previously, the 35-day delay applied only when a #Verizon gift card was used, and the policy text still explains the delay as gift-card verification to prevent fraud even though the delay now covers online and app payments too. Ars notes the policy still lists an effective date of January 27 even though the expanded delay appears to have been added by February 11, raising concerns that the longer wait is being applied without clear disclosure. Verizon told Ars that qualifying customers typically get an unlock within 24 hours, but “non-secure” payment methods or online and app payoffs trigger the 35-day security delay, which can apply even late in a 36-month installment plan when someone wants to switch carriers.
The page shows a security verification step for www.techspot.com rather than the article content. It states the site uses a security service to protect against malicious bots and displays the page while it verifies the user is not a bot. After verification, it indicates success and that it is waiting for www.techspot.com to respond, along with a Ray ID and that performance and security are provided by #Cloudflare. This content does not include the requested article text, only the access verification notice on the linked page.
17. UpScrolled crosses 2.5M users after TikTok’s U.S. shakeup
UpScrolled, a new social app blending features of Instagram and X, says it has surpassed 2.5 million users globally by positioning itself as an open platform with no #shadowbans or algorithmic suppression. Founder Issam Hijazi announced at Web Summit Qatar that the app jumped from about 150,000 users in early January to over 2.5 million by February, linking the surge to backlash against established platforms and to TikTok’s U.S. ownership shift in which an investor group led by @Oracle and Silver Lake took majority control while ByteDance kept a minority stake. Hijazi argues users are seeking services that do not sell data or manipulate feeds, while critics point to reports of high volumes of explicit content, raising questions about moderation and brand safety. He says UpScrolled will avoid amplification algorithms but enforce region-compliant guidelines, with an expert task force and user feedback shaping policies, and notes investor interest without a formal funding announcement. For marketers, the article frames UpScrolled’s growth as a signal to diversify channels, weigh moderation risks before advertising, and consider first-mover opportunities as geopolitics and platform governance drive rapid audience shifts.
Windows 11 is transitioning #SecureBoot from older 2011-era keys to the newer #WindowsUEFICA2023 certificates as part of a coordinated refresh delivered with the February 2026 update (KB5077181). Many users are seeing TPM-WMI Event ID 1801 entries such as “updated certificates available” and “BucketConfidenceLevel: Under Observation, More Data Needed,” but the article says these are informational staging and confidence-check logs, not signs of a broken #TPM, failed Secure Boot, or corrupted BIOS. The rollout is phased and device-specific, and Microsoft may use telemetry and reliability signals before applying the firmware-level change to avoid unbootable systems. The process involves two steps: Windows first receives and can stage the new certificate inside the OS, and only later does the system firmware accept and record the new keys, which is why devices can sit in a pending state for a while. The article adds that Windows provides a safe, non-modifying way to check whether the Windows UEFI CA 2023 certificate is already present on your PC.
That’s all for today’s digest for 2026/02/15! We picked, and processed 17 Articles. Stay tuned for tomorrow’s collection of insights and discoveries.
Thanks, Patricia Zougheib and Dr Badawi, for curating the links
See you in the next one! 🚀
