Meta Building Prediction Markets App; Qualcomm in Talks to Make Chips for ByteDance; White House App-Can’t Be Uninstalled by Fed Workers; Google Home Alerts You to AC System Issues

In what Mel Brooks called ‘The Search for More Money,’ with regards to a second Spaceballs movie, Meta is building a predictions market app to compete with Polymarket and Kalshi. Gizmodo.com reports that the app would work effectively like those two…users can place bets on events as far-flung as the outcome of sporting events, to the fluctuations of the stock market, to the success of overseas military operations. Meanwhile, regulators are eyeing prediction market apps. Last month, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform—an investigative unit within the U.S. House of Representatives—launched a probe into Polymarket and Kalshi aimed at understanding how they enforce against insider trading and other abuses. Meta and Mark Zuckerberg will be keeping an eye peeled on government proceedings as they look to cash in big time on the prediction markets.

Chipmaker Qualcomm is in talks to build a custom designed chip for ByteDance, the parent of TikTok. The proposed chips for ByteDance would partially utilize technology from AlphaWave Semi, a high-speed connectivity company acquired by Qualcomm last year. According to benzinga.com, The discussions also reportedly involve the design of video processing units (VPUs), with the aim of starting mass production by the end of the year.

A follow up to the story we had about the White House pushing out their app to the work phones of government employees. The app, which is effectively a propaganda app or a ‘rah, rah, we are great’ app not only auto downloads to government employee phones…wired.com says it can’t be uninstalled. One employee tried to delete it and reported that it instantly came back.  Of course government phones, like company phones can be controlled by IT techs, and that means they can control the software the handset gets. They are generally remote wipeable when an employee leaves, too. A creepy aspect…besides not being deletable…Wired also notes that the app incorporated widgets created by a Russia-based company called Elfsight, which exposed the personal information of White House officials. Elfsight did not respond to a request for comment. At the time of this reporting, the White House said Elfsight had been made aware of this vulnerability. The question remains: why would any US government allow Russian made software on the phones of US government employees?

A new update to Google Home, v. 4.20, can now warn homeowners when their compressor is failing to work correctly. Androidpolice.com reports that the Nest Thermostat will send out an alert that says “A/C not cooling. There’s an issue with your compressor.“ The alert shows up on your Nest and on the Google Home app, too. If you have a heat pump, it will similarly notify you of compressor issues. If it isn’t heating, you will get a message saying “Heat pump not heating. There’s an issue with your compressor.“ You will no doubt have already noticed if your house isn’t getting cool or hot, but at least this will point you to the compressor, so you can call a repair person.

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