
Trump launches mobile phone service and $499 smartphone
The Trump Organization has announced a new mobile phone service and smartphone under the brand Trump Mobil', both set to launch in September. The plan, called The 47 Plan, will cost $47.45 per month and offer unlimited talk, text, and data. It will also include additional benefits such as roadside assistance and telehealth services. The company, owned by former U.S. President Donald Trump, will also release a $499 smartphone named T1.
The phone features a gold-colored metal body etched with the American flag. According to the Trump Mobile website, the T1 runs on Android 15 and includes a 6.8-inch AMOLED screen with a 16-megapixel front camera. Other specifications include 12 GB of RAM, 256 GB of internal storage, and a 50-megapixel main camera. A screenshot on the website displays Trump's well-known slogan, "Make America Great Again." The venture is the latest in a series of Trump-branded products—including sneakers, watches, and Bibles—launched during his political career. While the Trump name is used for branding, the products and services are developed and sold by third parties through licensing agreements.
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Time of India
32 minutes ago
- Time of India
Despite airstrikes, Trump officials quietly courted Iran with $30 billion nuclear deal and sanction relief
Even though US president Donald Trump publicly celebrated the bold strike on three Iranian nuclear facilities last weekend, his administration is quietly pursuing a very different approach by secretly meeting with Iranian officials and proposing various deals to lure them back to the negotiating table for nuclear talks, as per a report. Trump Administration Holds Secret Nuclear Talks With Iran According to a CNN report, a team of US officials led by special envoy Steve Witkoff have been engaged in private conversations with Iranian officials amid the heightened tensions and conflict with Israel. Sources familiar with the talks told CNN that the Trump administration floated proposals that included the possibility of investing $20 to $30 billion in a civilian non-enrichment nuclear program in Iran, as reported by Daily Beast. The team has reportedly even discussed about the potential of lifting some sanctions so Tehran could access $6 billion which are frozen in foreign bank accounts, according to the report. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Mountain Gear for Extreme Conditions Trek Kit India Learn More Undo A Trump administration official told CNN on the condition of anonymity that, 'The U.S. is willing to lead these talks,' adding, 'And someone is going to need to pay for the nuclear program to be built, but we will not make that commitment,' as quoted by Daily Beast in its report. ALSO READ: Trump says Iran warned of missile strike at Al Udeid base: 'They asked if 1 o'clock was OK — I said fine' Live Events Gulf Allies Could Help Rebuild Fordow Site While, two other Trump administration officials revealed that the Trump administration even suggested that US-backed allies in the Gulf could pay to replace the recently bombed Fordow nuclear site with a civilian non-enrichment program, as reported by Daily Beast. CNN's source told the outlet, 'There are a lot of ideas being thrown around by different people, and a lot of them are trying to be creative,' and another source added, 'I think it is entirely uncertain what will happen here,' as quoted by Daily Beast. ALSO READ: Pornhub, XNXX in panic? US Supreme Court ruling lets states crack down on online adult content access Donald Trump Dismisses Urgency of New Nuclear Deal However, the US president told reporters during the NATO Summit on Wednesday that he did not believe a new nuclear deal with Iran was necessary, even though he confirmed that the United States would be holding talks with Iran next week, but the date is not yet been decided, according to the Daily Beast report. Trump mentioned that, 'We may sign an agreement, I don't know,' as quoted in the report. He said, 'They had a war, they fought, now they're going back to their world. I don't care if I have an agreement or not,' as quoted by Daily Beast. Previously, talks between Washington and Tehran were supposed to be held in Oman but were cancelled after Israel launched an attack on Iranian targets, as per the report. US Focuses on Promoting a Non-Enrichable Nuclear Future for Iran While Witkoff told CNBC on Wednesday that the United States continues to seek a 'comprehensive peace agreement,' as quoted by Daily Beast. He highlighted that, 'Now the issue and the conversation with Iran is going to be, how do we rebuild a better civil nuclear program for you that is non-enrichable?' as quoted in the report. FAQs Is the US lifting sanctions in Iran? There's discussion of easing sanctions to allow Iran access to $6 billion in frozen assets. Is the US negotiating with Iran while bombing its nuclear sites? According to a CNN report, the Trump administration has reportedly been in secret talks with Iranian officials even after the strikes.


Mint
38 minutes ago
- Mint
Why tech billionaires want bots to be your BFF
Next Story Tim Higgins , The Wall Street Journal In a lonely world, Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and even Microsoft are vying for affection in the new 'friend economy.' Illustration: Emil Lendof/WSJ, iStock. Gift this article Grok needs a reboot. Grok needs a reboot. The xAI chatbot apparently developed too many opinions that ran counter to the way the startup's founder, Elon Musk, sees the world. The recent announcement by Musk—though decried by some as '1984"-like rectification—is understandable. Big Tech now sees the way to differentiate artificial-intelligence offerings by creating the perception that the user has a personal relationship with it. Or, more weirdly put, a friendship—one that shares a similar tone and worldview. The race to develop AI is framed as one to develop superintelligence. But in the near term, its best consumer application might be curing loneliness. That feeling of disconnect has been declared an epidemic—with research suggesting loneliness can be as dangerous as smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day. A Harvard University study last year found AI companions are better at alleviating loneliness than watching YouTube and are 'on par only with interacting with another person." It used to be that if you wanted a friend, you got a dog. Now, you can pick a billionaire's pet product. Those looking to chat with someone—or something—help fuel AI daily active user numbers. In turn, that metric helps attract more investors and money to improve the AI. It's a virtuous cycle fueled with the tears of solitude that we should call the 'friend economy." That creates an incentive to skew the AI toward a certain worldview—as right-leaning Musk appears to be aiming to do shortly with Grok. If that's the case, it's easy to imagine an AI world where all of our digital friends are superfans of either MSNBC or Fox News. In recent weeks, Meta Platforms chief Mark Zuckerberg has garnered a lot of attention for touting a stat that says the average American has fewer than three friends and a yearning for more. He sees AI as a solution and talks about how consumer applications will be personalized. 'I think people are gonna want a system that gets to know them and that kind of understands them in a way that their feed algorithms do," he said during a May conference. Over at Microsoft, the tech company's head of AI, Mustafa Suleyman has also been talking about the personalization of AI as the key to differentiation. 'We really want it to feel like you're talking to someone who you know really well, that is really friendly, that is kind and supportive but also reflects your values," he said during an April appearance on the Big Technology Podcast. Still, he added, Microsoft wants to impose boundaries that keep things safe. 'We don't really want to engage in any of the chaos," Suleyman said. 'The way to do that, we found, is that it just stays reasonably polite and respectful, super-even handed, it helps you see both sides of an argument." With all of that in mind, it comes as little surprise that the current crop of chatbots are designed to sound like you're having a conversation with another human. This has resulted in lots of pearl clutching. There are academics warning about the dangers of users falling in love with AI and individual anecdotes of users going overboard in their use. The idea of a heartbroken man falling in love with his chatbot isn't new, of course. It was the plot of the 2013 film 'Her" starring Joaquin Phoenix and Scarlett Johansson, who voiced the AI. (OpenAI's own AI voice, which sounded eerily similar to Johansson's last year, triggered a public fight with the actress.) Still, we—a society that's only a generation into a world of social media—have some recent experience in how algorithms can have unintended consequences. They create echo chambers that reinforce worldviews rather than expand them. The news of Musk's Grok reboot is an example of that. Grok and xAI were born, in part, out of Musk's concerns about AI being developed by companies he called woke. He pointed to Google results that seemed overly concerned with being politically correct rather than factually accurate. With xAI, Musk aimed to create what he called a 'maximum truth-seeking AI." Yet when an influential X user known as Catturd lambasted Grok's answers in June, Musk took quick note. 'When Grok first came out—it was awesome—now Grok is just woke fake news that repeats liberal talking points," Catturd posted on June 18. 'I know this for a fact because everything Grok says about me is a lie. What a joke Grok has become." Another X user asked Grok why it lied about Catturd. 'I aim to provide accurate, neutral responses based on available data," the chatbot responded on X. 'Claims that I lie about @catturd2 may stem from disagreements with my sourcing, like Media Matters or Rolling Stone, which document his misinformation. I don't have personal biases, but AI training can introduce unintended slants. Some report I censor criticism or push fringe views, while others note I fact-check conservative claims accurately. Bias in AI is complex, and neutrality is tough to achieve. If you have specific examples of lies, please share, and I'll clarify with evidence." Musk wasn't impressed. 'Your sourcing is terrible," Musk replied. 'Only a very dumb AI would believe [Media Matters] and [Rolling Stone]! You are being updated this week." He later said xAI would retrain the AI on data created with an updated version of Grok, 'which has advanced reasoning" that would be used 'to rewrite the entire corpus of human knowledge, adding missing information and deleting errors." After all, nobody wants a friend who is always spouting the wrong crazy stuff. Write to Tim Higgins at Topics You May Be Interested In Catch all the Technology News and Updates on Live Mint. Download The Mint News App to get Daily Market Updates & Live Business News.


NDTV
an hour ago
- NDTV
US Spent $800 Million In THAAD Missiles In 12 Days To Shield Israel From Iran
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