On a busy afternoon in Lagos or Kampala, you’ll notice something outside practically every mobile phone store that the global smartphone industry would prefer not to focus on for too long. The phones being advertised on billboards are not the ones that people are actually purchasing, the ones that are being passed from hand to hand across scratched glass countertops. They are used. These phones have features. They are anything that is affordable enough to bring home. For years, it has been clear that the majority of Africans cannot afford what the industry sells. What’s new is that a serious…
Author: Taylor Lowery
Taylor Lowery
Taylor Lowery is a senior editor at glofiish.com, a technology writer, and a true circuit enthusiast. She works in the tech sector, so she does more than just cover it. Taylor works for a smartphone company during the day, which gives her a firsthand look at how gadgets are designed, manufactured, promoted, and ultimately placed in people's hands.Her writing is unique because of this insider viewpoint. Taylor makes the technical connections that other writers overlook, whether she's dissecting the silicon architecture of a new flagship chipset, analyzing the implications of a significant Android update for actual users, or tracking the effects of a new AI model announcement across the mobile industry.Her editorial focus covers every aspect of the current tech stack, including smartphone software and hardware, artificial intelligence (from large language models and generative tools to on-device inference), and the broader innovation trends influencing the direction of the consumer technology sector. She is especially passionate about the nexus of AI and mobile computing, which she feels is still in its most exciting early stages.
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When you stroll through some Singaporean neighborhoods at night, there’s a subtle difference that takes some time to identify. Before you realize they have changed, the streetlights react. The timing of traffic signal adjustments doesn’t seem haphazard. In a subtle, hard-to-express way, the city appears to be listening. It used to sound like science fiction. It’s only Tuesday more and more. As a result of a recent government initiative, Singapore has developed over 100 generative AI solutions that are integrated into its urban operations. It is far ahead of practically every other city on the planet, and the difference between…
When leadership is aware that the decision was probably the right one but the optics were clearly poor, a certain type of corporate unease takes hold. “To try so hard to do the right thing and get so absolutely, like, personally crushed for it — is really painful,” said Sam Altman, a tech CEO, during an all-hands meeting in early March. The statement felt surprisingly raw. Those in charge of billion-dollar businesses don’t often say things like that. It’s difficult to tell if it was calculated, sincere, or somewhere in between. However, it ended up in a room full of…
Even though Elon Musk’s Colossus data center in southwest Memphis is enormous—more than a dozen football fields crammed together—it’s not the first thing you notice when you walk up to it. It’s the odor. Before you even see the structure, a slight chemical itch slides into your throat. Natural gas and soot. The unseen aftermath of industrial ambition at full speed. Memphis Community Against Pollution’s director, KeShaun Pearson, saw it right away. He’s been observing it for some time now. That building is at the heart of something far bigger than a technological boom, as are thousands of similar structures…
Observing a technological boom lead to a technological collapse is particularly ironic. That’s about how the global smartphone market is going in 2026. The same wave of artificial intelligence that has investors pouring money into server farms, data centers, and GPU clusters is silently depriving the consumer device industry of memory chips, the one essential component. As a result, the International Data Corporation projects that global smartphone shipments will drop by 12.9% this year, the largest annual decline in over ten years, bringing the total volume down to about 1.12 billion units, levels the industry hasn’t seen since 2013. Letting…
Last spring, Chinese and American envoys sat across from one another in a conference room in Geneva for what both governments referred to as a “candid and constructive” meeting. They were discussing artificial intelligence, including its hazards, risks, and who gets to set the rules. You quickly realize that they weren’t actually describing the same conversation when you read the separate summaries that each side subsequently released. Washington mentioned China’s “misuse of AI.” Beijing took issue with the United States’ “restrictions and pressure.” The diplomatic language remained unaltered. It wasn’t the underlying tension. By geopolitical standards, that meeting—the first official…
San José’s choice of a library has a subtle symbolic meaning. Not a campus for technology. Not an incubator for startups. It’s not a chic co-working space with cold brew available. On the morning of March 3, 2026, representatives from some of the biggest names in artificial intelligence, university administrators, and city officials convened at the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The AI Center for Civic and Social Good, a public space where anyone can, at least in theory, walk in and begin learning how to use one of the most significant technologies of our time, will be inaugurated by…
A Recent Entrance to Paradise is a painting that frequently appears in legal circles. Its color scheme is dreamy, lush, and almost romantic. The kind of piece you might find in a gallery in lower Manhattan, with the artist’s name and the year written on a little white card next to it. However, there isn’t an artist. Computer scientist Stephen Thaler’s algorithm, DABUS, produced the entire piece. Thaler applied for copyright protection but was categorically turned down. Upheld by the courts and upheld by the Supreme Court in March 2026, that denial has quietly emerged as one of the most…
A warehouse worker in the Midwest of the United States goes through a tiny, nearly unmemorable moment dozens of times during a shift. They hesitate. Perhaps they look at a window, or perhaps they stretch their back. When thirty minutes of that accumulate over the course of a shift, the system issues a warning. After an hour, the disciplinary procedure starts. They are fired after two hours. A supervisor did not call. There had been no discussion. No one gave them a direct look. That was the decision made by the algorithm. FieldDetailsTopic / ConceptAlgorithmic Management (ALMA)Also Known AsAI-driven management,…
Carbon dioxide extracted from the open air is gradually turning into a diamond somewhere in a reactor facility in Chicago under intense heat and pressure driven by clean electricity. Atom by atom. Week by week. It sounds like something from a novel by Jules Verne. However, the man behind it has a waitlist to show that it is actually happening right now. The CEO and co-founder of Aether, a startup in New York, Ryan Shearman has spent years creating a patent-pending method that uses CO2 straight from the atmosphere to create gem-grade diamonds in about four weeks. For comparison, Mother…