Drone Deliveries Coming-and Not Amazon; Meta Bringing Messenger Back to FB App; Spotify New Design Melds TikTok & Instagram; Starfish Space to Launch Satellite Servicing Mini-Satellites

Drone deliveries will start fanning out around the country later this year, from original test cities. Amazon? Nope. They’re from Wing, the Alphebet-owned drone delivery company. CNET.com reports that they are putting together “a decentralized, automated system that can support high-volume drone delivery across a major metro area or a more sparsely populated region,” according to Wing CEO Adam Woodworth…who wrote in a blog post. The network will be consist of drones; pads where they take off, land and recharge; and auto loaders, which will allow packages to be preloaded for pickup by a drone. Wing is one of the companies trying to work on last mile delivery. Wing says that by mid-2024 it expects its “system to be capable of handling millions of deliveries for millions of consumers.”

Remember the day when Facebook Messenger was just built right into the Facebook app? Well, it looks like Meta is going to reverse the 10 year old decision to make people download the free standing Messenger App ro use the service on a phone. According to bgr.com, Tom Alison, Head of Facebook, revealed that the company is currently “testing the ability for people to access their Messenger inbox within the Facebook app,” and noted that testing will expand to even more users soon. “Over the coming year, we’ll build more ways to integrate messaging features in Facebook,” wrote Alison. “Ultimately, we want it to be easy and convenient for people to connect and share, whether in the Messenger app or directly within Facebook.” What a concept, huh?

Spotify has revamped the look of its home screen, in an effort to make it easier for users to find new things to listen to…and watch. Theverge.com notes that the home screen, which was previewed at Spotify’s Stream On event, seems to be a mash up of TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube. Going forward, when you open Spotify, you’ll still see a bunch of album and playlist covers at the top. But underneath, you might see an autoplaying video podcast, which you can jump into with a tap. Or you might see a big, Instagram-style photo meant to tell you a little more about a playlist you might like. Spotify remains the big dog in streaming, but seems to be looking over its shoulder and trying to diversify more into podcasts and videos to hold on to its users.

A startup out of Seattle founded by a couple of former Blue Origin vets has raised $14 million to develop a spacecraft designed to hook on to bigger satellites…to either boost their orbits or safely dispose of them. According to geekwire.com, it’s called Starfish Space. The company is working on a prototype servicing vehicle that is the size of a microwave oven, plus the full sized Otter spacecraft. They hope to get the prototype into orbit this summer, and then execute a series of maneuvers with the little xenon-fueled electric propulsion spacecraft. It will launch and hopefully return to the Space X Orbiter space tug. If all goes well, the full sized craft could be into orbit in the next couple years.

I’m Clark Reid, and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.