Welcome to the TechMe brand home for Tuesday, April 8th, 2025. I'm Brian McCullough today. Uh-oh.

It looks like the tech price hikes are already starting. People are accusing meta of doing

some weird things with those latest AI models. Shopify tells workers that they need to embrace

AI for everything. Is AI killing web traffic,

and how AI is being used to automatically create sequels for books.

Here's what you miss today in the world of tech.

Well, maya culpa, because it's happening faster than I was led to believe.

Framework, the seller of those modular framework series of laptops, is pausing sales of its

six lowest-priced laptops in the US, saying the models would sell at a loss due to the

10% tariff that went into effect on April 5th, quoting Ars Technica.

The affected models will be removed from Frameworks Online Store for now,

and there's no word on when buyers can expect them to come back.

We priced our laptops when tariffs on imports from Taiwan were 0%

the company responded to a post asking why it was pausing sales.

At a 10% tariff, we would have to sell the lowest end skews at a loss.

Other consumer goods makers have performed the same calculations and taken the same actions,

though most have not been open about it, Framework said.

Nintendo also paused U.S. orders for its upcoming Switch 2 console last week after the tariffs

were announced.

For right now, Framework Sales Pause affects at least two specific laptop

configurations. As of April 1st, Framework was selling pre-built versions of those laptops for

$999 and $8.99, respectively. Without those options, the cheapest versions of those laptops

...