Apple Announces Sept. Date; Amazon Raises Minimum Free Ship Amount for Non-Prime; YouTube Violaters Can Take Class to Clear Record; WhatsApp Launches Native macOS App

Wanderlust is the signature cryptic name for Apple’s September event, and we have a date now…it’s September 12. Macrumors.com reports that we can log on at 10am Pacific to catch the event for the new iPhone 15 series, Apple Watch Series 9, and all the other things Apple will be hyping to get all of us to say ‘Shut up and take my money!’ The event will emanate from the Steve Jobs Theater on the Apple Park campus. It is expected that everything will be prerecorded, as it has been the last several years. Besides the stream on Apple’s website, you can catch all the excitement…well, hype, anyway…on YouTube and also on the Apple TV app. 

Amazon is testing out goosing the amount for free shipping for non-prime users from $25 to $35. According to geekwire.com, it’s another way the online giant is looking to shave costs and increase revenue. Free shipping for non-Prime users had been $35 before, but they dropped back to $25 to compete with Walmart. Of course for those of us that pay the princely $139 a year for Prime, shipping will remain free, and you will continue to get other perks like use of Amazon’s streaming content. No word on when the price hike will be fully in effect, but expect it to be soon.

WhatsApp has launched a new native app for macOS. Users can download it from WhatsApp’s website, according to Mark Zuckerberg, who posted about it on his Facebook account. The app will allow users to participate in video calls with up to 8 people and audio calls with up to 32 people. Zuck said in the post “The app is redesigned to be familiar to Mac users, helping you get more done faster when using WhatsApp on a large screen. You can now share files by easily dragging and dropping into a chat, and can view more of your chat history.” WhatsApp had announced a Windows client with similar features back in March.

If you ever took a course to clear your driving record…maybe to keep your insurance from going through the roof, this will sound familiar. YouTube has announced that Starting today, creators will now have the option of taking an educational training course when they receive a warning. When completed, YouTube will lift the warning from the creator’s channel as long as they don’t violate the same policy for 90 days. TechCrunch.com reports that The company says this new policy came about because creators told YouTube they wanted more resources to better understand the rules.YouTube also said it will now issue individual warnings depending on the specific policy violated instead of one warning for the lifetime of the creator’s channel. That will give them more opportunities to remove warnings before they turn into strikes. 

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