“I pay Apple 99 cents a month for iCloud storage. What are the bad outcomes if I exceed the 50-gigabyte limit?” a reader asked.

Nothing bad. There’s a 30-day grace period. Then you can decide whether you want to pay $3 a month for 200 GB of storage space or transfer your excess iCloud files to your computer or elsewhere. To transfer them to your computer, go to iCloud.com, click one of your photos or videos, and hold down the “Ctrl” key in Windows (or the “Cmd” key on the Mac). Now tap the “A” key to select all. Then click the download icon.

Alternatively, you could upload your iCloud files to a different cloud service. For example, Amazon Prime members get free unlimited photo storage and 5 GB for videos. Start by installing the Amazon Photos app on your iPad and/or iPhone.

But it could be that you’re only running out of physical storage, not iCloud space online. On my iPad, my iCloud backup wasn’t even turned on. So I tapped “Settings,”

tapped my name, tapped “iCloud,” and finally “iCloud Backup,” then turned the switch on.

Storage-wise, the Amazon Fire tablet is superior to the iPad, because it has a slot for a memory card, also called an “SD card.” For transfers, I can pop one into a slot on my computer. But it’s best to save files on an external drive too. SD cards and flash drives only last about ten years, according to PCWorld, even under ideal conditions.

Croc Case

Croc lovers can celebrate their favorite plastic shoes with a $70 phone case that looks like a pair of Crocs. Unfortunately, it’s only for the Samsung Galaxy S25. But it comes in beige or blue and has a heart on it plus a Mickey Mouse.

Robot News

• Apple’s new “Elegnt” robot looks like the animated lamp seen in the logo of every Pixar movie since the film “Toy Story” debuted in 1995. It dances to music and expresses disappointment when it feels left out. It turns toward the window when asked about the weather. It wants to be your friend. Though it’s not out yet, you can see it in action by searching on the phrase “Apple’s new robot looks like the Pixar lamp.” So why didn’t Apple name it “the Pixar Lamp,” instead of “Elegnt?” Because Apple no longer owns Pixar. The company sold it to Disney for $7.4 billion in 2006.
• A new kind of robot moves like an octopus and grasps objects like an elephant, with its soft, trunk-like body. It’s amazing. Developed by researchers at the University of Science and Technology of China, the “Spirobs” uses its whole body to bend, wrap and adjust its shape to handle new situations. It can pick up fragile items like eggs and strawberries and can even catch tennis balls or grasp ants. When attached to a drone, it can pick up a bucket of water 250 times its own weight. Best of all, it’s cheap to produce. See it in action at Mashable.com.

AI Strikes Out

When asked to summarize 100 news stories from BBC news, Open AI’s ChatGPT, Microsoft’s Copilot, Google’s Gemini and Perplexity AI all made significant mistakes. The BBC found that 51 percent of all AI answers to questions about the news had significant issues. Nineteen percent of AI answers got factual statements, dates and numbers wrong. For example, Gemini incorrectly said Britain’s National Health Service did not recommend vaping as an aid to quit smoking. ChatGPT thought two politicians who had left office were still there. Perplexity misquoted BBC news when it said that Iran initially showed restraint.

Keeping Fit   

When I use the free app Google Fit as my step counter, it bugs me if I don’t get credit for my swimming. Now I know how to track it.

Open Google Fit, tap the plus sign, and select “add activity.” There’s swimming, rowing, biking, yoga and much more. Alternatively, you can track your workout in real time. Just tap the plus sign, then tap “track workout.” Don’t forget to tap it again when you’re finished.

Computer Jobs

I keep hearing that programmers are being replaced by AI, but there are still a ton of information technology jobs out there, according to data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, analyzed by RationalFX.

Despite the mass layoffs in the tech sector last year, there’s a huge demand for artificial intelligence specialists. For example, there are over 80,000 AI jobs advertised on LinkedIn, and more than 43,000 AI-related positions on Glassdoor. According to GeekFlare, there will be a net addition of 78 million jobs globally by 2030.

IT jobs pay well. Even the lowest paid computer user support specialist gets $63,640 annually. The highest-paying IT job, the computer and information research scientist, gets an average yearly salary of $157,160.

Internut

 Carbonzero.eco was started by a 16-year-old girl named Harper Moss. Her company takes discarded almond shells and turns them into “biochar,” a nutrient for the soil. But first, carbon is taken out of the shells and sequestered for up to 1,000 years. That way, it won’t pollute the atmosphere as the shells decompose. The purified biochar is then sold back to the farmers who produced it. They use it to make their soil more fertile.

Filed under: AI, Apple, cloud computing, Internuts, robots, storage, trends, Uncategorized