Starbucks Pauses Social Media Ads; iPhone 12 Packaging; California e-Trucks; Google Upgrades Meet

Starbucks is the latest company to say it will pause advertising on “all social media platforms” and promises to have discussions internally and with media partners and civil rights organizations to stop the spread of hate speech. The company will continue to post on social media without paid promotion, it announced Sunday. CNBC notes the boycott that began with Facebook is now hitting other social media platforms. Coca Cola on Friday also said it would pause advertising on all social media platforms globally, while Unilever is halting advertising on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter in the U.S. through Dec. 31. Last year, Facebook brought in $69.7 billion in ad revenue globally through its millions of advertisers.

Apple is set to be significantly slimming its packaging for its upcoming iPhone line. Noted analyst Ming-Chi Kuo previously said that Apple will no longer include wired earbuds with the iPhone 12, and today reports that he also expects the power adapter to now be sold separately too. Kuo says that Apple wants to keep selling the iPhone 12 at a similar price to the iPhone 11 and removing in-box accessories will offset the cost of the 5G networking components. This will presumably reduce the size of the iPhone packaging considerably, helping lower Apple’s freight costs and be better for the environment. It’s not clear if the Lightning cable is still included.

The California Air Resources Board adopted a new electric standard for cargo truck manufacturing at the end of June. Mashable.com says by 2035, the Advanced Clean Trucks (ACT) Rule will require zero-emissions trucks, meaning large pickups, delivery, and semi trucks, make up a majority of big-rig truck sales. Starting in 2024, truck makers have to start producing electric or other no-emission trucks in some capacity. This should boost interest in electric trucks and vans. There are over 70 in the works, from Tesla and Nikola and other makers.

Google Meet is working on several new features that will match its competitors, including allowing users to add images or a blur effect to backgrounds on video calls, 9to5 Google reported. Now, Meet features will match rival videoconferencing platforms Zoom and Microsoft Teams, and users will be able to either choose their own image or pick from several default options. Google confirmed that in addition to background blur and background replacement images, real-time captioning, low-light mode, hand-raising, and a tile view of up to 49 meeting participants will be rolled out to the consumer version of Meet.