Wendy's Surge Pricing, AI Willy Wonka Sham, R.I.P Apple Car and More Fun With Phones

There are some things near and dear to many. For some, it’s fast food at a good price, and for others, it’s Willy Wonka. Both were messed with this week by people who wanted to make a quick buck. Here are those stories and the other top tech stories of the week.

Putting your phone in airplane mode when boarding a flight feels like common sense. You wouldn’t be crazy for thinking your phone signal could interfere with an airplane’s navigation systems, potentially causing a disaster. However, the necessity of airplane mode is largely a myth, and there’s another reason airlines are asking you to turn your phone off. - Maxwell Zeff Read More

Police were called to the scene of “Willy’s Chocolate Experience” in Glasgow, Scotland, as children burst into tears when the “immersive experience” promised in AI advertisements turned out to be a sparsely decorated warehouse. - Thomas Germain Read More

Wendy’s will start experimenting with surge pricing, much like Uber and Lyft, as the company rolls out digital menus to all its United States restaurants by 2025, according to the company’s February earnings call. Under the test, burgers, Frosties, and other menu items will have “dynamic prices,” costing more during times of increased demand. - Maxwell Zeff Read More

Most people turn on mobile push notifications and then promptly forget about them. However, it turns out that if you’re up to no good, those notifications could get you thrown in prison. The Washington Post reports that the FBI has been using mobile push notification data to unmask people suspected of serious crimes, like pedophilia, terrorism, and murder. - Lucas Ropek Read More

Have you seen a photo on social media recently that appears to show a man in 1980s-style clothes smoking a cigarette in McDonald’s? The image has gone viral, racking up over 21 million views at the time of this writing. But it’s completely fake. The image was made using generative AI. - Matt Novak Read More

Apple’s long-anticipated (and much delayed) project to build an electric car is going to that junkyard heap in the sky, according to a new report from Bloomberg. And much of the team will transition to working on generative AI, though it’s unclear how many people might be laid off. - Matt Novak Read More

Gizmodo chats with a sex tech expert about the emerging AI Girlfriend chat bots.

Billionaires: They’re just like us. That’s what Elon Musk reminded us when he started using X, the social media network that he bought for $44 billion, to resolve his personal tech support problems. - Jody Serrano Read More