Apple, Google, & Microsoft Going Passwordless; Musk Picks Up Twitter Investors and $$; Google Buys MicroLED Firm; Microsoft & VW Working on HoloLens for Cars

You’d think Cinco de Mayo was a big enough deal, May 5th is apparently also World Password Day. According to theverge.com, the ubiquitous and annoying little fake words we all make up (and I HOPE you are, and aren’t using Password1), may become a thing of the past at long last. In a joint effort, Apple, Google, and Microsoft announced that they have committed to building support for passwordless sign-in across all of the mobile, desktop, and browser platforms that they control in the coming year, based on the FIDO standard. Look for passwordless authentication to come to all major device platforms in the not too distant future: Android and iOS mobile operating systems; Chrome, Edge, and Safari browsers; and the Windows and macOS desktop environments. 

The system relies on use of one device…the default is your phone. You will still need to use the biometric like your fingerprint or FaceID or the code to access your phone, but then all apps and websites will authenticate from it. The big tech firms believe this will help eliminate phishing, and other hacks. Should you lose your phone, you will be able to download your info to the new phone and set up authentication on that device…or whatever device you choose. If you have a Microsoft Outlook work account, you may already be using Microsoft Authenticator on your phone…this will all work very similar to that. I won’t be sorry to see World Password Day become a relic of the past!

Elon Musk has raised $7.14 billion of funding for his $44 billion buyout of Twitter, from investors including Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, crypto exchange Binance and asset management firms Fidelity, Brookfield and Sequoia Capital. Arstechnica.com reports that with the new financing commitments, Musk will cut the margin loan he has taken with a group of lenders by half to $6.25 billion and increase the equity portion to $27.25 billion. The remainder of the purchase price will be paid with debt raised from global banks. Ellison is kicking in the biggest chunk at a cool billion. He currently sits on Elon’s Tesla board. Musk will also become the temporary CEO of Twitter when the deal closes. 

Google has acquired Raxium, an innovator in single panel MicroLED display technologies, according to a blog post from the company. The post says “The team at Raxium has spent five years creating miniaturized, cost-effective and energy efficient high-resolution displays that have laid the foundation for future display technologies.” A deal with Raxium was rumored last March in a report from The Information. Unlike Meta and other rivals, Google hasn’t said much about its augmented reality plans, but that doesn’t mean the company isn’t working on it. Last year, news of Google’s Augmented Reality OS leaked out late last year through job listings and the company reportedly plans to release an AR headset by 2024. 

Microsoft and Volkswagen are working together to advance the existing Moving Platform mode for Windows Holographic, the OS inside Microsoft’s HoloLens augmented-reality headset. Zdnet.com says the goal is to enable the use of mixed-reality headsets inside vehicles for tasks like training drivers to handle challenging road conditions or creating new experiences for autonomous vehicles. Microsoft officials believe this capability could be applied to other industries in the future. Volkswagen has been experimenting for several years on how augmented reality could be used in cars. The company added an augmented reality head-up display to its ID. family of electric cars in 2020 that project navigation arrows, lane markings, and other relevant information onto the area in front of cars. Before that, it had done experiments on how augmented reality could help teach driving on a race course.

NFT Sales Plummeting; Musk Will Do Twitter IPO Next 3 Years, Charge Co’s & Gvts; Group 14’s NextGen Battery Tech Gets Cash Infusion; Apple iPad Keyboard Triggers macOS UI

Sales of NFTs, those infamous non-fungible tokens, dropped to a daily average of around 19,000 this week, a sharp dive of 92%. The Wall Street Journal notes that the peak was about 225,000 back in September. In terms of money, Forbes says sales are down from $160 million in January to $26 million last Thursday. The average selling price is now down to $2000. You might as well hold ‘em, ‘cause if you sell now, you are not just getting a haircut, but a full body defoliation!

He doesn’t own it yet…and still may not, but Elon Musk is planning things for Twitter. According to PCMag.com, Musk wants to charge companies and governments to use the platform, although he claims it will always be free for ‘casual users.’ Musk also wants to charge users who embed or quote Tweets from verified individuals or groups on the platform. On top of that, he has said he would probably do an IPO and take Twitter back public again within 3 years. Twitter itself is warning investors the company could face tumultuous changes once Musk takes over. On Monday, the company published an SEC filing that said Twitter could experience an exodus of employees and lose advertisers due to the merger. 

We have reported on Group 14 Technologies before. TheWashington state based company has plans to mass produce their batteries, which use a silicon-carbon composite material that can replace the graphite anodes in lithium-ion batteries….improving performance by 50% and giving users faster recharging. Now, geekwire.com says Group 14 has picked up $400 million in new capital that will help them ‘supercharge’ commercialization of their battery tech. One of the investors is Porsche AG, which plans to use them to power some of their EVs. Group 14 says they have some 40 different customers, so it appears they will have huge demand once they are ramped up. 

It is always best to not that Apple patents lots of stuff that never sees the light of day, but here’s one that is pretty interesting. 9to5mac.com says there is a patent that describes an iPad accessory keyboard that triggers an macOS-like UI when it is connected. The male heir, who works in IT, has been predicting a blurring of Apple OS devices ever since the iPad came out, and if this keyboard actually is produced, it will take things to the next level. You can already use some iOS apps on Macs, and now a Mac-like interface on iPads? Yep, things are really merging if that happens. In the patent drawings, Apple shows the familiar bar at the top, and tiled windows. Again, it may not happen, but if it does, the higher line iPads may flat replace the entry level MacBooks.

Facebook Dumping Podcasts, Amazon Adding Thousands More SoCal Employees; Rivian Gets Incentives for New EV Plant in GA; Android Firefox Now Auto Switches Sites to HTTPS

After just about a year, Facebook is killing off their podcast business. They will pull the plug after June 3rd, according to bloomberg.com. The social net will also end their short-form audio feature, SoundBites. Facebook has been really pushing its reels feature, feeling the heat from TikTok, which is exploding and remains the top downloaded social app in the world. In addition to the short videos, Facebook plans to push online shopping and metaverse events. Note that while the company’s killing off podcasts and Soundbites, it’ll integrate Live Audio Rooms (for hosting Clubhouse-like chats) into Facebook Live, allowing users to decide whether to go live with just audio or streaming video, too. 

Amazon has announced that they are adding 2,500 corporate and tech jobs in several of its Southern California locations. Geekwire.com reports that 1,000 of the jobs will be at their new office space in Santa Monica. Those hires will be brought on next year. There are going to be 800 more positions in Irvine, and another 700 in San Diego. Roles include software development, engineering, game design, user experience and more across such Amazon teams as retail, games, operations and Amazon Web Services.

EV maker Rivian, which is building EVs in their Illinois factory, has secured about a billion and a half worth of incentives for its planned second EV plant in Georgia. Electrek.co says the new plant is expected to cost about $5 billion. It will be a massive plant, running some 20 million square feet in the buildings, and they will also build a test track and adventure trail. Since Rivian had planned to start construction in summer of 2022 and to be building cars by 2024, things are right on track to meet that goal. 

For the 100th version of Firefox, Mozilla has added HTTPS-only connections for all websites you hit, provided they have HTTPS. According to androidcentral.com, the new release will also add an option to organize your browsing history on Android and iOS. The new Android mobile browser also has also picked up new wallpapers. BTW, the wallpapers will also be available on iOS late this week. On desktops, Firefox is adding subtitles and captions to picture-in-picture mode. This comes in handy, particularly for users with hearing impairments. The feature will initially work with Youtube, Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, and other websites that support WebVTT format.

Meta Planning 4 AR/VR Headsets; More Pixel Watch; Apple Watch Getting Body Temp Sensor; Former TikTok Exec Launches Dating App

Meta apparently has four…count ‘em….four AR/VR headsets in the works, and is shooting to release all of them by 2024. The Information reports that the one Meta has teased as Project Cambria is being described as a ‘Chromebook for the face.’ Apparently it will have “high-resolution image quality for reading text, with the idea that people can use it to send emails or code.” Its mixed reality nature also means that the external cameras can be activated to view your surroundings (“full color pass-through”) with similar resolution. The price target is $799. Meta sees this device as eventually replacing your laptop or work setup. A second iteration of the Cambria dubbed Funston is planned for 2024. The company is also working on a less pricey Quest headset, which is code named Stinson and Cardiff. Those rigs are planned for next year and 2024. Google is expected to release its first mixed reality headset (Project Iris) in 2024, and who knows when Apple will roll theirs out…so the next couple years could see a bumper crop of mixed reality headsets hitting the market. 

While a lot has already leaked out about the upcoming Pixel Watch, here are a couple more leaked details. According to 9to5google.com, the watch will have a 300 mAh battery and will also have cellular connectivity. The latter may not be on all three models, that’s unclear. For comparison, Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 4 has a 247 mAh battery. That watch touts a 40 hour run time, so the Pixel should have no trouble making it through the day on a charge. The big detail still unknown….how much will the Pixel Watches sell for. We will probably know more later this month as Google holds I/O.

It may not get the golden fleece blood sugar measurement or even blood pressure, but it looks like the Apple Watch Series 8 may get body temperature sensing if the algorithm pans out. Appleinsider.com notes that getting a core body temp reading is more tricky than you would think…that’s why most doctor offices or hospitals still use under the tongue or ear instruments. Your skin temperature can vary quickly depending on outside elements. Apple had wanted to announce the feature in the Watch 7, but didn’t think it was good enough. Samsung is reported to be working on a temperature sensing feature too, and grappling with the same issues.

Alex Hoffmann, former president of musical.ly (now TikTok) has dropped a dating app. Techcrunch.com says that Hoffmann had just intended to be an investor after ByteDance Bought musical.ly 4 years ago, but couldn’t resist getting back to making apps. He notes that most apps and platforms have multiple products (think Meta with Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp), so founded a company called 9count. So far, they have made Everland, Helpline, and a friend making app called Wink, which has attracted several million users. Now, its a dating app called Spark. Unlike a lot of dating apps, there’s no swiping left or right…you see a grid of people who have some proximity to you…rather like Grindr. With Spark, though, you can only get messages from someone if you have both ‘sparked’ (or liked) each other. Messages on Spark go ‘poof’ and disappear after 24 hours. Its subscription based…$19.99 a month, with a small discount for either 3 or 12 months in advance. Hoffmann uses AI moderation tool Hive to try to keep NSFW stuff from profiles. They also field a 24/7 trust and safety team.