Twitter April Foolishness; YouTube Will Stream Coachella Stages; Apple’s WatchOS 10- Not Minor Update; GM Dumps CarPlay & Android Auto for Custom Google Interface

YouTube announced that they will stream all 6 stages at Coachella this year. The festival kicks off April 14th at 4PM Pacific. According to engadget.com, in the past you had to get by with three streams. Replays will be available until the next day kicks off. YouTube Premium subscribers will have access to backstage ‘pre-parties’ and other perks. Headliners this year include Bad Bunny, Blackpink, and Frank Ocean. YouTube will offer special merchandise during the streams, too…but mainly are looking to get lots of new eyeball time and signups for Premium. 

The Twitter mess continues. As promised, on April 1st, they started taking away blue checkmarks from legacy verified accounts. Elon Musk said any account that has said or Tweeted they won’t pay $8 will lose the check right away, instead of getting a couple weeks of grace period. Theverge.com reports that even the main account of the New York Times lost theirs. Here’s something to try. Search for ‘Eight Dollars’ in Twitter. A developer has built a plug in that works on different browsers (we’ve tried on both Safari and Chrome) to show which are paid Blue accounts—they show up with a dollar sign, and which are legacy actual verified ones. It’s a free download, and works for now. Who knows if Twitter will try to block it, but it helps for now. 

Up to now, Apple’s WatchOS has been pretty incremental in updates every year. That may change this time around. In his Power On newsletter, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reports the system will be previewed at WWDC in June, along with the other Apple operating systems. Of most interest to users…the Watch interface will get what Gurman calls ‘notable changes.’ Part of the reason for the major update? At least one of the Watch models will have a micro-LED display, instead of OLED, like on all Watches so far. 

In a move that won’t make customers happy, GM is going to cut Apple CarPlay and Android Auto out of using the main screen on their EVs starting with the 2024 Chevy Blazer. Gas cars will still have the access to those apps on their screens, according to appleinsider.com. GM is partnering with Google to build its own infotainment system based on Android Automotive. The General claims it will be more closely integrated with other car systems, like GM’s Super Cruise. Of course, this also gives GM better data collection on how you drive and charge your EV. GM claims they have more driver assistance features on the way, and they don’t want them dependent on someone having an iPhone or Android connecting over Bluetooth. Note that both iPhones and Androids will still connect to the main screen for phone calls, texts, and such…just not their maps or other features. GM’s system will give access to Google Maps and Google Assistant at no cost for 8 years…and will offer apps like Spotify, Audible, and other services. 

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