Start Up No.2671: RAM shortage chokes cheap smartphones, Pope Leo warns on AI, LA’s hapless robots, big solar!, and more

The mystery of why the SNP’s embezzling former chief executive spent hundreds on games consoles and video games might never be solved. CC-licensed photo by Marcin Wichary on Flickr. You can sign up to receive each day’s Start Up post by email. You’ll need to click a confirmation link, so no spam. A selection of 9 links for you. Non-paying character. I’m @charlesarthur on Twitter. On Threads: charles_arthur. On Mastodon: https://newsie.social/@charlesarthur. On Bluesky: @charlesarthur.bsky.social. Observations and links welcome. AI is killing the cheap smartphone • David Oks David Oks: » For a long time, the budget smartphone companies—like Transsion, Oppo, Vivo, and Lava—followed a simple model. They would buy last-generation components on the spot market, assemble them cheaply as Android handsets, and then sell the finished product for an extremely low price. The budget phone makers had extremely thin margins, usually somewhere in the low single digits; but they sold phones at huge…