Stranger Things 4 #2 All Time-Netflix; EU Big Tech Regs Final Passage; Tesla Pothole Software; Firms to Use More AWS

Stranger Things 4, the most recent season of the hit show, just became the second Netflix show ever to surpass a billion hours viewed. Theverge.com reports that since the first installment of the season dropped on May 27th, viewers have spent a cumulative 1.15 billion hours watching the season’s nine episodes, including 301 million hours just this past weekend. Theverge.com reports that the big viewing number makes Stranger Things 4 the second most-watched Netflix season ever, after Squid Game in 2021. It is a long way from catching Squid Game, though.  Squid Game is well out of reach right now… with 1.65 billion hours viewed. Stranger Things could still catch it, though. At this rate,  you can assume that Stranger Things 5 is going to be huge.

EU lawmakers gave the thumbs up on Tuesday to landmark rules to rein in tech giants such as Alphabet unit Google, Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Microsoft, but enforcement could be hampered by regulators’ limited resources. According to Reuters, in addition to the rules known as the Digital Markets Act (DMA), lawmakers also approved the Digital Services Act (DSA), which requires online platforms to do more to police the internet for illegal content.Companies face fines of up to 10% of annual global turnover for DMA violations and 6% for DSA breaches. This is all well and good, but the real trick will be how…or if…they can enforce the new rules. 

Tesla has introduced a software update that allows its vehicles to scan for potholes, broken pavement and other defects, Electrek has reported. It can then use that to generate “rough road map data,” and trigger the adaptive suspension in supported vehicles to adjust the ride height for more comfort. The ride adjustment will only work in Tesla Model S and Model X cars with adaptive suspensions. It’s not clear if the Model 3 or Y vehicles also scan for rough roads, even if they lack the adaptive suspension to benefit from the data. Ford has also previewed such a feature for some models.

 68% of organizations using Amazon Web Services report they plan to become more reliant on cloud managed or professional services over the next 12 months alone, according to a new report from 451 Research. The report surveyed 950 North American organizations using AWS. Venture Beat notes that fifty-nine percent of respondents report using AWS to increase the speed and agility of launching applications, the top single driver for organizations’ selection of AWS. Even sophisticated users have issues with AWS, though.  41% of respondents named cloud performance optimization and cost, 39% cited building cloud-native applications, and 38% reported struggling with migrations from legacy infrastructure to AWS. 

iPhone Production Steady-Kuo; Google Will Remove Sensitive Location Data

Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo doubts a Digitimes report that says TSMC’s iPhone 14 orders have been cut by 10%. In a thread on Twitter, the analyst says the shipment forecast for iPhone 14 components and EMS remains the same as he reported early this week. Acording to 9to5mac.com, Kuo says that “Apple’s slight adjustments for iPhone shipment forecasts (single-digit increase/decrease) are common, including new models before mass productions.” “Apple doesn’t usually markedly change shipment forecasts for new iPhones (double-digit increase/decrease) before launching new models and confirming the actual market demand/feedback.” He expects them to still produce about 90 million phones in the first wave of production.

Google has announced in a blog post that it would remove Location History data about some “particularly personal” places from a Google account shortly after someone visits. Locations that will have their data deleted include “medical facilities like counseling centers, domestic violence shelters, abortion clinics, fertility centers, addiction treatment facilities, weight loss clinics, cosmetic surgery clinics, and others.” TechCrunch reports that Fitbit users who use the device’s companion software as a period tracker currently must delete those entries one by one, but an easier way to “delete multiple logs at once” is on the way.