Apple AI Fail, Quantum Hype & SUSE’s Bold Move | Tech News of the Week
🚀 Welcome back to Tech News of the Week, where Chris and I break down the biggest, weirdest, and occasionally most questionable tech stories from the past week.
🧪 **D-Wave’s Dubious Quantum Supremacy Claim**
D-Wave is back at it again, this time claiming "quantum supremacy" (insert dramatic echo here). They say their quantum chip solved a complex magnetic field simulation in 20 minutes—something they claim would take a classical supercomputer 200 years. But some researchers aren't buying it. Teams at NYU and EPFL Switzerland have already shown that a laptop or a few GPUs can solve parts of the problem much faster than D-Wave suggests. So, is this true supremacy or just more quantum marketing hype? 🤔 https://siliconangle.com/2025/03/12/d-wave-claims-achieved-quantum-supremacy-last-others-disagree/
🐧 **SUSE Wants to Support Red Hat (Yes, Really)**
In a move that has everyone doing a double take, SUSE announced at SUSECon that they’re launching the "SUSE Multi My Linux" support program—meaning they’ll support older Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) systems, even after Red Hat stops maintaining them. It's a bold strategy, Cotton. The program covers proactive and reactive support for different Linux versions, and, oh yeah, SUSE Enterprise Linux 16 is dropping soon with support through *2047*. Optimistic much? 🌍 https://thenewstack.io/suse-displays-enhanced-enterprise-linux-at-susecon/
🚗 **Hacking Infotainment Systems: A New Cybersecurity Nightmare**
If your car has a Pioneer DMH infotainment system, you might want to pay attention. Researchers at NCC Group exploited multiple zero-day vulnerabilities to inject spyware, track locations, and gain access to system data—all through a flaw in the Gracenote music database. While the proof-of-concept required physical access, they say it could be adapted for remote attacks. Pioneer has issued patches, so update your system… or just rip it out and go back to that 5-disc CD changer. 🎶 https://www.darkreading.com/vulnerabilities-threats/car-exploit-spy-drivers-real-time
🍏 **Apple Delays AI-Powered Siri Updates—Blames Marketing**
Apple’s much-hyped "Apple Intelligence" features for Siri have been shelved, possibly for up to a year, after internal testing revealed they don’t actually work. Success rates hovered between 66–80%, which is, uh, *not great*. Apple’s decision to pull back has led to some well-deserved mockery, but let’s be real—shipping half-baked AI features would’ve been way worse. Still waiting on that flying car, though. 🚁 https://9to5mac.com/2025/03/14/siri-delays-hurt-but-apple-averted-disaster-by-not-shipping-half-baked-product/
00:00 - - Intro
00:06 - - D-Wave’s Quantum Supremacy Claim
02:28 - - SUSE’s New Support for RHEL
04:41 - - Hacking Infotainment Systems
06:49 - - Apple Delays AI Siri Updates
[00:00:00.00]
Announcer: Welcome to Tech News of the Week with your host, Cthulu. All Hail, Cthulu.
[00:00:06.21]
Ned: Welcome to Tech News of the Week. This is our weekly Tech News podcast where Chris and I go over four interesting things that caught our eye in the previous week, and I'm going to go first. D-wave claims questionable quantum supremacy. This is a nice follow-up to last week's main episode, wherein I attempted to explain how superconducting qubits work to a lesser or greater degree of success. Perhaps both. I get it. During our examination of Qubit technology, I brought up the somewhat contentious past that hangs around D-wave, like an electron shell around a nucleus. Adding fuel rods to that fire is the recent claim by D-wave that they have achieved, quote, quantum supremacy, end quote. We need to add an echo effect to that or something. That was their words, not mine. Within this statement is a claim that the D-wave chip has successfully solved a problem that would prove impossible for a classical computer. The problem in question is the simulation of materials with a complex magnetic field as they change state, which their system solved in about 20 minutes. The paper, published in the Journal of Science, implies that a classical supercomputer would take 200 years to do the same calculation.
[00:01:29.16]
Ned: However, two groups of scientists have pushed back on the peer-reviewed paper. They aren't taking issue with D-wave's solution, rather the bold claim that a classical computer couldn't solve the same problems in a reasonable amount of time. Dries cells at NYU performed a smaller scale version of the problem on a laptop with tensor networks in two hours. And a team of EPFL in Switzerland claimed they solved another aspect of the problem using a system with four GPUs and no tensor networks in three days. D-wave has strongly pushed back on both of these counter claims, but there are still lingering doubts given D-wave's past claims that have decohered upon closer inspection.
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Chris: Haven't we had this conversation every single time the phrase quantum supremacy came up?
[00:02:20.29]
Ned: Yes, Google made similar claims in 2009, which then they had to walk back.
[00:02:28.28]
Chris: Susei announces new enterprise support plans that also cover Red Hat. Huh? Susei, erstwhile Linux competitor to Red Hat enterprise Linux, or REL, announced that in their Susei Con conference that they will be supporting other Linuxes, even if those other Linuxes are no longer supported by their manufacturer. Not so subtly calling out Red Hat and CentOS. The aptly named Susei Multi My Linux support program will allow you to maintain your cozy little rel7 installs, which ended standard maintenance support in June of 2024. The support covers major releases of the older Linux packages with proactive support, meaning what you normally expect, a standard cadence of updates being pushed to your systems. Minor releases, on the other hand, will be reactive and focus only on you pulling security updates as needed. We found a bug, fix it. Susei also announced a new version of Susei Manager, which helps administration and identity management in Multi-Lynx environments. Obviously, all of this is being done with the goal of getting people to update, and hey, why not update to Susei enterprise. And they had some updates there, too. Both Susei enterprise Linux 16 and the final service pack for Susei enterprise Linux 15 will be announced, or I'm sorry, will released this month with a promise of support through, and I am not making this up, 2047.
[00:04:08.07]
Ned: Oh.
[00:04:09.28]
Chris: Bold to claim that humanity will exist that long.
[00:04:13.23]
Ned: Got to admire the optimism.
[00:04:15.26]
Chris: This support level is in stark contrast to the well-known rel standard of 10 years. Welcome news to the Sousea fan who just absolutely never wants to update the OS, ever. I won't bother naming names here because let's face it, it's probably all of you. Sinners.
[00:04:41.06]
Ned: Hacking infotainment systems for fun and profit. That Did you know that cars are all computer these days? Truly revelatory stuff coming from the worst dynamic duo since Orange Juice and Drano. I'm Drano. Fair enough. Well, just because it's stupid doesn't make it wrong. And in fact, your car is loaded to the gills with computer systems, up to and including the N-Dash infotainment system, a portmanteau I both hate and don't have a good alternative for. Where there's computers, there's software, and where there's software, there's potential for exploits. A team of security researchers from the NCC Group have successfully hacked the Pioneer DMH system at the Pone to Own Automotive 2024 Expo. The exploit takes advantage of several zero-day exploits to inject spyware onto the system, allowing an attacker to access all the information on the system and track the location of the driver. The hack involved placing the attacker in the network path and intercepting image requests from the Gracenote service. The system doesn't validate the certificate from Gracenote properly, and it doesn't check the file type that is returned. The attack places the returned file in a special path that will be executed by the built-in web browser on a reboot.
[00:06:08.29]
Ned: The researcher's version of the attack did require physical access to the car's USB ports, but they claim it could be easily adapted to run over the air. Pioneer has issued patches for the vulnerabilities, but updating the unit is not an automatic affair. If you have a Pioneer DMH, we recommend taking it in for service or trying to pull the firmware update yourself. Or you could just rip the whole thing out and put that five disk changer back into your trunk. You deserve it.
[00:06:39.29]
Chris: Do you need anything else aside from that Duncan Chic CD? You and I both know you don't. Apple delays...
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Ned: Jesus, girl. Damn it.
[00:06:55.15]
Chris: Apple delays Apple intelligence feature releases in Siri for up to a year Blames marketing. Ai isn't ready, and it's marketing's fault. Doesn't that sum up AI in general? Never mind. In this case, I'm sure you've heard of Apple intelligence by now. That questionably useful feature that you have to go in and turn off on all your devices every time they push even a minor upgrade. They really want you to use it. Don't know why. There There has been a lot of discussion about Apple intelligence all being directly added to Siri with new and exciting features. Siri, of course, is Apple's little helper that has only ever worked since it was introduced. The AI features in question have been pushed by Apple on stage and in ad campaigns since last June. But here's the problem. In beta testing, they just... How do I word this? Don't work. Internal assessments put the features giving operational success at something between 66 and 80 %. And that's the company being optimistic enough that people aren't going to get fired. In response to this, Apple has made the decision to completely shelve the upgrades rather than force the broken features.
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Chris: This has led to much mockery of the company, but honestly, it is not a surprise. Apple used to be famous for only releasing perfect products. Now, admittedly for macOS, that stopped after Snow Leopard. Don't come at me, Apple Bros. You know in your heart that it's true. The reality is that pulling back from aggressive marketing promises is bad and perhaps embarrassing, but releasing something that is known to be that broken would have been way, way worse. A lesson for many companies to learn, perhaps, is that we as a society could just... Wait, Oh, they what? All the companies on Earth have stopped listening and they're just selling products that haven't been invented yet again?
[00:09:07.17]
Ned: Mm-hmm. Great.
[00:09:10.22]
Chris: I'm going back to bed. Wake me up when they finally build me my flying car. Stay out of the left lane. I swear it will be shipping.
[00:09:19.20]
Ned: I swear it will be shipping in 2023. Oh, wait. All right, that's it. We're done now. Go away..
