| | | Good morning!  Opening take (for a change). For a while now, the mostly self-aggrandising AI folks have given us regular revisions of hot air (or empty, exaggerated, or pretentious, whichever bucket you’d like to place this in) about artificial general intelligence (AGI), artificial superintelligence (ASI) and personal superintelligence. Lots and lots (and lots) of money has flown in their direction, investors often have these bright lights shining in their eyes, and often creative financial engineering. OpenAI has often been most vocal about hyping the AI machine, something I’ve often noted in my other newsletter, Neural Dispatch. Just this Tuesday morning, Anthropic dropped Claude Sonnet 4.5 and let me just give you the headline stuff (we’ll discuss this in detail in our next Neural Dispatch ) which claims to be better at agentic coding, high school math and financial analysis than GPT-5 and Gemini 2.5 Pro. Two sides to the same coin, perhaps betraying a broader approach. It is believed that OpenAI is planning to launch a social app for AI-generated videos. Another TikTok clone, perhaps? How foolish of us to believe OpenAI wanted to find a cure for cancer. Perhaps he hasn’t received the requisite compute from Jensen Huang. This is really what AI has boiled down to — millions and millions of dollars invested to refine AI cat videos and have a human clean up the AI generated mess in more serious domains (Remember Meta’s Vibes?). At least the efforts from China, including Deepseek, are keeping things more cost effective.  | | SCRATCHGATE X-verse, as it often is without context or substance, was up in arms a few days ago about some folks reporting that the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone Air demo units at Apple Stores worldwide, exhibiting some marks on the backs. Immediately, Apple was roundly criticised, questions asked about the build quality of the iPhone 17 and iPhone Air devices, and some critics were virtually shaking in rage. Apple has since cleared the air on those photos and videos which went “viral” — this was residual material transfer from what may be worn out MagSafe stands that are used to display iPhones in stores. Anyone who has actually visited an Apple Store, and seen the number of people who interact with an iPhone and its attached hardware every hour, would know how things are. Apple says a soft cloth can be used to clean the residue from the iPhone 17 Pro or iPhone Air’s back, and will be reworking these display risers in stores to ensure no such issues are visible again. This time around, the Ceramic Shield, which is a combination of ceramic nano-crystals within glass, that makes up the back of these phones. It is supposed to be more scratch resistant than the glass that was previously seen in iPhones, but can be prone to chipping. Users on X were unnecessarily angry about scratches that didn’t exist. I’d know, having used three of the latest iPhones extensively. | | Our analysis of the latest Apple iPhones…  Apple iPhone Air review: A solid statement now, and slim enough to be the future Apple iPhone 17 Pro Max review: A summit Android rivals will struggle to climb Apple iPhone 17 review: The default iPhone for many sets a new standard | | SUBSCRIBE? YouTube has launched Premium Lite in India at ₹89 per month, a potentially more cost effective method to get ad-free video streaming, “on most videos across devices”. The big difference between YouTube Premium and YouTube Premium Lite is that the latter doesn’t include Music, Shorts, offline play, and background play. Subscription tiers now look something like this — YouTube Premium Lite (₹89 per month) or Student plan (₹89 per month) → YouTube Premium (₹149 per month) → YouTube Premium Family (₹299 per month). With Premium Lite being made available here, this subscription option now covers the 125 million global subscribers. Mind you, chances are you may not see the Premium Lite option on your account just yet — Google says “rollout is underway, with full availability expected across the country in the coming weeks”. | | RENEWED MISSION In the past few weeks, India’s re-commerce space has seemingly lit up again. It is good, because I’ve pointed out time and again that there is a lot of value to be found in a refurbished or renewed smartphone, particularly if you want to buy one that’s a little more premium than the budget would allow for a new one. I’ve detailed ControlZ’s mission which now is writing this chapter with the first physical store, and Cashify raising the very valid point about the ‘drawer economy’ in their latest User Behaviour Survey 2025 and Whitepaper. Tackling ‘drawer economy’ key to India’s $219 billion renewed phone evolution Grest, which is another refurbished electronics company, has recently raised ₹16 crores in a Pre-Series A round, which included Equentis Wealth, The Chennai Angels, Lead Invest, India Accelerator and others. Research by Redseer estimates India’s used smartphone market will be worth $10 billion by the end of 2026. A broader refurbished electronics market, even bigger. There is that premium-isation and aspirational trend which is very clear, and that's why I am willing this space to succeed. Cashify’s data says India shipped 151 million refurbished smartphones through 2024, a 4% annual increase compared with the previous year. And every 3 in 5 refurbished phone buyers chose an iPhone, in the first half of 2025 — Apple commands 62.9% market share in this space, followed by OnePlus (10.2%), Xiaomi (9.7%) and Samsung (6.1%). Quick guide: What are refurbished smartphones? These are essentially pre-owned pieces, but unlike typical “used” products, these undergo a series of checks, with fixes and part swaps as required, before they are listed for sale again. This often includes a new battery. Most re-commerce platforms have multi-layered checks in place and offer warranty, making renewed phones a better bet over ‘second-hand’ or pre-used phones that may also be on sale elsewhere. | | REALIGNMENT, THE ONLY ALIGNMENT  The Windows 10 era is at an end. October 14, is when Microsoft will stop providing any security and feature updates, as well as technical support for PCs that use this operating system. That said, Security Intelligence Updates for Microsoft Defender Antivirus will roll out on Windows 10 through October 2028. The way things are, Microsoft is telling personal PC users to part with $30 to upgrade to Windows 11, or use the comparatively more long-drawn and less palatable Windows Backup method for free — I’d still suggest this, and not part with $30. For businesses and organisations, it’s an even more matter of fact pitch — that they’d “find it challenging to maintain regulatory compliance with unsupported software.” They of course want Windows 11 to become the de-facto, which makes it easier to push the Copilot AI layer to more and more users, in the hope to eventually earn some subscription revenue from them. But beyond the fact that you’ll finally be forced to upgrade the OS (and eventually realise your PC is now dated), it is important for one critical reason — potentially better security for your data. And that leads me to another instance of a tech giant thinking they are reinventing the wheel. Microsoft seems to be putting together its key Windows’ teams back under one roof as part of the latest reorganisation. Windows chief Pavan Davuluri was promoted to president of Windows and devices earlier this month. This is Davuluri’s initiative of the quarter, and will undoubtedly be layered with all sorts of plaudits about synergy and consolidation and cost effectiveness. When everything that was working was dismantled in 2017 after then Windows chief Terry Myerson left, some executive at that time must have filled their appraisal form talking about the same synergy and consolidation and cost effectiveness. I am only an outsider, with a lot of popcorn and Diet Coke, to enjoy the entertainment. | | | | Were you forwarded this email? Did you stumble upon it online? Sign up here. | | Written and edited by Vishal Shanker Mathur. 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