Google Pixel Event August 12th; Meta Bows AI Image Model-Muse Image; Startup Gets Dealers to Bid Against Each Other for Your Used Car; FCC Drops Biden Era Rule for ISPs to Disclose All Fees

Google will hold an event for Pixel 11 and Pixel Watch 5 on August 12th. According to 9to5google.com, The event will be in New York City for the second year in a row. In the invite, you can see the gold, shiny metal frame of a Pixel. Google ie expected to roll out the Pixel 11, 11 Pro, 11 Pro XL and 11 Pro Fold. The designs are predicted to stay pretty well the same, except for a reported ‘Pixel Glow’ indicator. The Watch 5 will be presented, and possibly an update Pixel Buds Pro. 

Meta has rolled out Muse Image, its first gen AI image model built by its Superintelligence Labs Division. According to thenextweb.com, the model is first bowing inside the Meta AI chatbot, and it will also be embedded across Instagram and WhatsApp. Users can generate images from text prompts or modify existing photos. The headline feature lets users create images featuring friends or creators based on their publicly available Instagram posts. For users who won’t want their content reused or remixed by AI, Meta has an opt out in the settings menu. All AI images will have an invisible watermark, and Meta says there are safety precautions to prevent violations of its terms of service…including protections for children. Totally obvious…advertisers will soon have access to the model for creating marketing materials. 

Turnabout is fair play, it looks like. For many years, a lot of large car dealerships used what had been called ‘the turnover system’ or ‘Go System’ to bounce buyers between the salesman and managers, in a system designed to extract more money out of buyers. One of the managers would be the used car manager that bids your trade in, and tells the salesperson how much they can allow for your car. (Disclosure: I ran my family’s small car dealership for 10 years…but we didn’t use such a system…only my Dad and I sold new cars…the old fashioned way…our word on the phone was the price. Back to the story, though. Now, techcrunch.com says there is a startup that pits dealerships against one another to bid on your used car. BidBus is the startup, and they claim with their digital marketplace, getting multiple dealers to bid on your car, you can get an average offer that is about $2,000 to $3,000 more than what Carvana offers, for example. Right now, Bidbus is just in California and Texas, but they have raised another $15 million in backing, and are planing to move into other states. If you are planning to trade cars or buy a new one in the near future, it would definitely be worth your while to check out Bidbus. Two to three grand is real money…and going into your pocket or reducing the cost of your new car. 

The administration rolls on, dropping more consumer friendly rules. This time, it’s the FCC…axing a rule from the Biden administration that forced ISPs to list all their fees. Arstechnica.com reports that the providers will no longer have to list all of their so-called ‘passthrough’ fees on an easily accessible broadband price label. The FCC may also vote to make the price labels themselves harder to find. ISPs routinely advertise prices much lower than those actually charged to consumers on their monthly bills. One method of raising monthly bill prices above advertised rates is to tack on fees that, ISPs claim, are used to offset charges imposed by local governments. Expect more so-called ‘junk fees’ and hidden charges on your cable bill.

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