Today’s Big Story

The Tyranny of Apps

Those with smartphones are being overrun and those without are being left out

How many apps are currently on your phone? I just flicked through a few screens worth on mine and decided it’s too many to count. Some I use all the time. Others I don’t even remember downloading—probably from some ad I saw on Instagram and decided it was worth the free trial. Turns out, it wasn’t.

Apps are all around us now. Are there too many? It depends on who you ask. Perhaps you’re old enough to remember when Apple launched their ad campaign, “there’s an app for that.” The Atlantic writes, today, that message sounds less like a promise than a threat. “There’s an app for that? If only there weren’t.”

UNIQLO has an app. McDonald’s has an app. Every chain restaurant and big box has an app. Of course, every food-delivery service too. Much to my wallet’s relief, every loyalty card I have is now digitized into an app or my phone’s wallet app. But, of course, there are some things you can’t do without an app. Want to park your car at that modern meter? Then you have to first get this app. Want a discount for that expensive movie ticket? Snap this QR code and start downloading.

According to The Guardian, apps have burrowed their way into seemingly every aspect of our lives and there are lots of reasons why companies are pushing us to use them. With an app, it is often “one click and you’re in”, rather than having to faff around online finding the website and remembering passwords. It is also for the “push notifications” that mobile apps send to grab our attention and get us to buy stuff. Many tech experts also argue that apps are generally more secure than websites and allow banks and others to carry out sophisticated ID verification using face, voice and fingerprint biometrics.

But those without smartphones, some advocates say, are being left out of deals and opportunities. There are millions of people who cannot afford a smartphone or have an older device that does not support some services are increasingly being locked out of discounts, unable to secure concert tickets and even access some vital services. Then again, they’re not buried under all those little squares either.

New devices are now being sold with up to 32 preinstalled apps that you don’t need (and can safely delete). And you probably know this, but it’s worth mentioning that holding on to those apps that you aren’t using or no longer need can take up valuable storage space and slow down your phone. And experts say that even when you delete them, remnants of their data might continue to lurk on your device.

Judge Blocks Trump’s Mass Firing

Ruling that terminations at agencies including the Department of Defense were probably illegal

A federal judge ordered the Trump administration on Thursday to retract directives that prompted the firing of thousands of federal workers, saying that those directives were likely “illegal”—as a group of labor unions argued in court—and suggested that the layoffs be stopped.

It poses one of the largest hurdles yet to President Trump’s goal of shrinking the federal workforce. But the ruling, by Judge William Alsup of the Northern District of California, stopped short of ordering a halt in the firings and added to the confusion for federal employees, who have been rattled by the mass firings in recent weeks. Many, who’d been fired in recent days, reacted with joy to the judge’s ruling, and attempted to parse whether it could get them their jobs back.

It’s still unclear how soon and whether the ruling might result in tangible benefits for federal workers who already have been let go. An OPM spokesperson told the Washington Post the agency had no immediate comment. In his remarks from the bench, the judge specifically blocked the Defense Department from proceeding with an effort to fire civilian employees on Friday. But he did not say what he expected to happen in detail at other agencies. A written order is expected later, and the judge said he would hold another court hearing on March 13.

A Shift in Temperature?

A woman's viral fever sparked a very real debate. Is 98.6 outdated?

Could it be that our body temperature isn’t really 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit? Or, perhaps, at least not anymore. After all, the idea of an average of 98.6 degrees was based on temperature readings of 25,000 people in the mid-19th century by a German physician. And then it just kinda … stuck around.

So when a TikToker was feeling sick and taking her temperature last month, she raised a valid concern that maybe we should update our thinking. Citing research that the more common average body temperature of today is actually 97.9, she mused: “Should we adjust our idealization of when a fever actually happens? I have a normal body temperature of 97.6, but I feel horrible but my temperature is only 99.1.” Her video quickly racked up around half a million views and over 1,600 comments—with many users also sharing that their temperature tends to skew lower than 98.6.

And she’s not the only one. “We are not the same people that we were in the middle of the 19th century,” one epidemiologist told USA Today. “Those people dealt with constant inflammation, putting our immune systems in overdrive to fend off pathogens, which raised our body temperature.” Similarly, a Stanford study in January found that the average human body temperature is decreasing. It was found that the normal human body temperatures varied between 97.1° F and 98.4° F.

OpenAI Launches GPT-4.5

Its newest and largest model is being released as a research preview

In late 2022, when OpenAI started giving private demonstrations of its new GPT-4 technology, its skills shocked even the most experienced A.I. researchers. It could answer questions, write poetry and generate computer code in ways that seemed far ahead of its time. Now, OpenAI has released its successor: GPT-4.5. The new technology signifies the end of an era: The company said GPT-4.5 would be the last version of its chatbot system that did not do “chain-of-thought reasoning.”

GPT-4.5 will have better writing capabilities, improved world knowledge and is less likely to make up false information than previous models. “Early testing shows that interacting with GPT‑4.5 feels more natural. Its broader knowledge base, improved ability to follow user intent, and greater ‘EQ’ make it useful for tasks like improving writing, programming and solving practical problems,” the company said in a blog post. Users who want to be part of the first wave to try GPT-4.5, labeled as a research preview, will be required to pay for OpenAI’s $200-a-month ChatGPT Pro subscription.

Following its launch for Pro users, OpenAI says GPT-4.5 will roll out to Plus and Team users next week and then to Enterprise and Edu users after that. However, OpenAI notes it won’t introduce enough new capabilities to be considered a frontier model. In a post on X, CEO Sam Altman says the good news is that this “is the first model that feels like talking to a thoughtful person,” but “this isn’t a reasoning model and won’t crush benchmarks.” Nevertheless, it clearly represents progress for one of the most highly prized startups in the world.

A Weekend Pairing

‘Running Point’ + a Tumeric Crush Smoothie

“Gordons don’t lose.” This is the motto of the dysfunctional family at the center of the new Netflix comedy Running Point. Co-created by Mindy Kaling, the show stars Kate Hudson as an exec who takes over the family business, which just happens to be the LA Waves basketball team.

The cast will definitely make you pay attention: Justin Theroux play the eldest boy and franchise president Cam, while Brenda Song and Max Greenfield also star. Oh, and so does Chet Hanks. Critics are somewhat divided, but everyone seems to agree that the comedy is solid. The series is being called a “Succession Meets Ted Lasso” hybrid and it’s already got a 70% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Don’t neglect your own needs.