Record Cyber Monday Sales; Reddit May Go Public in 2024; Research: No Smoking Gun Links Internet Use to Mental Health Problems; Foxconn Will Invest $1.5 Billion in India
Posted: November 28, 2023 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a commentCyber Monday sales in the US raked in a record $12.4 billion with deep discounts on goods of all sorts. Reuters.com reports that online consumer spending was up 9.6%, blowing past Adobe Analytics’ expectation of a 6.1% increase. Some discounts on electronics peaked at 31%, while apparel topped out with 23% discounts. Shoppers did take advantage of buy now, pay later services, with $940 million worth of purchases made via BNPL…that was up 42.% percent from last year.
Reddit is reportedly ‘holding talks with potential investors’ about an IPO that could happen as soon as first quarter of next year. According to Bloomberg, Reddit filed a confidential S-1 with the SEC in 2021 but hasn’t gone public so far.
A study of more than 2 million people’s Internet use found no “smoking gun” for widespread harm to mental health from online activities such as browsing social media and gaming, despite widely claimed concerns that mobile apps can cause depression and anxiety. Arstechnica.com says the research was done by the Oxford Internet Institute, and the study is the largest of its kind to date. The researchers said they found no evidence to support “popular ideas that certain groups are more at risk” from the technology. This to me harks back to when some people were claiming that playing violent video games would result in a generation of homicidal maniacs. Well, we seem have as many maniacs as ever, but no more…and not due to video game play!
Foxconn is aiming to invest $1.5 billion in India, after a surge in revenue from the South Asian market. The investment comes two months after the Taiwanese firm said it plans to double its workforce and investment in India by next year. Techcrunch.com reports that Apple’s biggest supplier has been trying to move operations out of China due to US-China tension, among other reasons.
I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.
US, UK & 16 Other Nations Pledge AI ‘Secure by Design’; Unsealed Complaint-Meta ‘Cover Under 13 Kid Users; Black Friday Online Buying Sets Record; Amazon Rebrands Fire TV Cube as ‘Workspaces Thin Client’
Posted: November 27, 2023 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a commentThe US, UK and 16 other nations have inked an agreement pledging to make AI ‘secure by design.’ 9to5mac.com reports that while it is only a basic statement of principles, the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency says it is an important first step. CISA director Jen Easterly said that it was important that countries recognize that AI development needs a safety-first approach, and encouraged other countries to sign up. Other nations on board so far include: other countries to sign up so far are Germany, Italy, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Poland, Australia, Chile, Israel, Nigeria, and Singapore.
An unsealed complaint in a lawsuit filed against Meta by 33 states doesn’t look good for them. According to engadget.com, the complaint alleges that Meta is not only aware that children under the age of 13 use its platforms, but has also “coveted and pursued” this demographic for years on Instagram. The document, which was first spotted by The New York Times, claims that Meta has long been dishonest about how it handles underage users’ accounts when they’re discovered, often failing to disable them when reported and continuing to harvest their data. The suit alleges the presence of under-13s is an “open secret” at Meta.
With deep discounts being touted everywhere, Black Friday saw a record $9.8 billion worth of online buying in the US…$70.9 billion worldwide. Techcrunch.com says the figure comes from Adobe Analytics, which notes that sales were up 7.5% over last year’s numbers. What about brick and mortar stores? The numbers are still coming in, but it looks like they were up 2% over last year.
Amazon has repurposed and rebranded the Fire TV Cube…it’s now the ‘Workspaces Thin Client’. Geekwire.com reports that it will sell for $195, and will be a very basic essentially terminal which will rely on cloud based processing and storage. Sounds a lot like a Chromebook, doesn’t it? Amazon has built a custom version of the Fire OS to run the device, and customers can pay either fixed monthly subscription fees to connect to the cloud, or choose usage-based costs that bill based on hourly metering.
I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.
Altman Back-OpenAI Drama Quiets…for Now; AI Agents Could Cut Work Week to 3 Days; Vision Pro Batteries Move to Head Mounted; YouTube Ad Crackdown Makes Ad Blockers Slow Your Loading
Posted: November 22, 2023 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a commentThe dust may finally be settling at OpenAI, with the return of Sam Altman as CEO, but the firing of the board that fired him. Techcrunch.com reports that a reformed governing structure in place of the former setup will probably be a lot more friendly towards Microsoft. Employees…some 710 of the 770 at the company, who had threatened to quit will be staying put now. It does look like the powers that favored rapid expansion have overruled the ones concerned with the safety of the product, so the results of that fallout remain to be seen.
What would you say to a work week of just 3 days? Probably a first thought might be: will the company want to just PAY for 3 days? Well, that I can’t answer, but a startup in the UK called Tomoro spelled T-o-m-o-r-o, believes it will be able to introduce AI ‘agents’ in the next 5 years that can freely make decisions within defined guardrails, as opposed to rule-based machines. These agents will act like robotic personal assistants. According to thenextweb.com, the company’s founder says “Tomoro will be integrating synthetic employees into businesses alongside real people that have the ability to reason, grow, increase their knowledge, adapt their tone and problem solve. This is a huge departure from what’s currently on the market.” Tomoro is working ‘in alliance’ with OpenAI.
When Apple previewed its new mixed reality headset last summer, the battery back was tethered, and worn a the waist..or laid on a surface. Now, 9to5mac.com says Cupertino is trying something different…a rear battery mount on the head strap where you can attach swappable batteries. It’s something that Meta has already been doing, and while it will make the whole device heavier, it will better balance your head…which could mean less neck fatigue or pain. It still looks like a March release date for the premium priced headset.
Google has gone pretty scorched earth in battling ad blockers on the platform. Now, bgr.com reports that ad blockers are causing slow loading of videos, and also what Google terms ‘suboptimal viewing’. With Google’s latest attempt at a YouTube ad crackdown, the company has now added code to the backend that checks for an ad blocker anytime you launch a video. The result has been seamless for some users, but others have complained about small hiccups when first loading a video, with some even mentioning seeing these issues on Firefox and Edge but not on Chrome.
I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.
More OpenAI Drama & Negotiations; Microsoft, Salesforce, & Nvidia Offer to Hire OpenAI Employees; AI ‘Hallucinations’ Threat to Science; Samsung Galaxy S24 Launch Date, etc
Posted: November 21, 2023 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a commentThe drama and back-and-forth negotiations continue to swirl around OpenAI and founder and former CEO Sam Altman. According to theverge.com, the latest is that Altman wants to return to OpenAI instead of going to Microsoft. Apparently, negotiations are still in process with the OpenAI board. New interim CEO Emmet Shear is involved…which has to be pretty strange. We’ll try to update again tomorrow as things proceed.
Meanwhile, Microsoft, Salesforce, and Nvidia have all offered to hire OpenAI employees, as most of those have threatened to walk out unless Sam Altman is brought back. Microsoft CTO Kevin Scott and Salesforce founder and CEO Marc Benioff have offered to match the compensation of any OpenAI employees looking to jump ship while team leaders at both Meta’s FAIR and Nvidia have solicited resumes and offered to place former OpenAI employees in their divisions. My best guess? At some point, if things don’t work out with Altman and the OpenAI board, Microsoft may try to swoop in and just buy the startup. They already have invested or pledged some $15 billion so they are pretty deep into OpenAI already.
Large Language Models — such as those used in chatbots — have an alarming tendency to hallucinate. That is, to generate false content that they present as accurate. These AI hallucinations pose, among other risks, a direct threat to science and scientific truth, researchers at the Oxford Internet Institute warn. Thenextweb.com says the Institute warns that “LLMs are designed to produce helpful and convincing responses without any overriding guarantees regarding their accuracy or alignment with fact.” The researchers note that when it comes to science and education, information accuracy is of vital importance. That also applies to math and accounting…accuracy matters!
Samsung’s next Unpacked event will be January 17th…a couple weeks earlier than usual. Androidpolice.com reports that the company has confirmed the date to the Korean press. Samsung says they aim to create the “smartest AI phones ever” with the Galaxy S24 series, incorporating features like AI Live Translate Call and competing with Google’s Pixel 8 in AI capabilities. It is expected that Samsung will start taking preorders for the S24 line right after the event.
I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.
OpenAI Drama-At Least to Now; Apple Vision Pro May Launch in March; Buy a Car on Amazon in 2024; Germany, France, & Italy Reach AI Regs Agreement
Posted: November 20, 2023 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a commentThe drama has been ongoing and changing by the minute all weekend after the board at OpenAI fired CEO and founder Sam Altman. There were negotiations to get him back, and several hundred employees signed a letter threatening to quit if he didn’t come back. Techcrunch.com reports that investors and particularly Microsoft were angry and felt blindsided. Now, Redmond has done something about it. Sam Altman and co-founder Greg Brockman and a number of their former OpenAI colleagues will join Microsoft, according to word from Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. Microsoft had invested $10 billion in OpenAI already, and they say they are still committed to the startup. Altman and crew will lead a ‘new advanced AI research team’ at Microsoft.
Last summer when they showed off the Vision Pro headset, Apple was shooting for releasing the pricy gadget in January. That date has slipped, but not by a lot. According to macrumors.com, the $3500 mixed reality headset should be getting to well-heeled early adapters by March of 2024. Apple is still doing testing on the device, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. At launch, there will be special areas in the Apple stores where customers can try the headset out and learn to use it. Some select Apple employees have already been sent to Cupertino for training, and they will be the trainers for other Apple store employees (or team members, as Apple euphemistically calls them.) The latest beta of the software includes onboarding videos that show the setup process, so Apple is close to the finish line on the high dollar new product.
They have been dubbed the ‘everything’ store on the internet, and soon you will even be able to buy a car on Amazon…what’s next? A house? At any rate, bgr.com says that Amazon and Hyundai have announced, via a press release, that auto dealers will be able to sell vehicles directly through the Amazon website in the United States starting next year. Customers will be able to search for available inventory in their area by model, trim, color, and other features. When they are ready to make a purchase, they’ll be able to choose their preferred payment method — even applying for and using financing — all through the Amazon website. Once purchased, they can either choose to pick up the vehicle or have it delivered. No word on returns, but because of the titling and registration, it seems unlikely that you could return one the way you do other goods on Amazon…but the lemon laws, and car manufacturer returns would probably be how one would deal with a new car that just has too many problems.
Germany, France, and Italy have reached an agreement on how AI should be regulated going forward. Reuters.com reports that this should move negotiations along for the whole EU. The three large EU countries favor binding voluntary commitments for both large and small AI providers in the EU. An EU proposal earlier called for a binding code of conduct only applying to major AI providers. In either case, if violations are identified, sanctions could be applied. It sounds pretty mild, but it’s a start on regulating what could be a threat to humanity at some point.
I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.
Windows as an App for Mac & iOS; Google Bard Available for Teens-With Guardrails; Threads Tests Hashtags; UK-First Country to Approve Crispr Gene Editing Therapy
Posted: November 16, 2023 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a commentYears ago, I used software called Parallels to run a Windows window on my Mac for a couple programs I needed for work that didn’t offer Mac versions. Now, Microsoft is getting into the act themselves…releasing a Windows App for iOS, iPadOS, MacOS, Windows, and Web browsers. Theverge.com reports that the app essentially takes the previous Windows 365 app and turns it into a central hub for streaming a copy of Windows from a remote PC, Azure Virtual Desktop, Windows 365, Microsoft Dev Box, and Microsoft’s Remote Desktop Services. So far the preview version isn’t available yet on Android. Right now it is also limited to Microsoft’s range of business accounts, but apparently they are planning to offer it using a personal Microsoft Account.
Google is rolling out Bard for teens, albeit with safety guardrails in place. According to 9to5google.com, It will specifically be available for those that “meet the minimum age requirement to manage their own Google Account” and have English set, while more languages are coming over time. Bard has been trained to “recognize areas that are inappropriate to younger users.” Safety features are in place to “prevent unsafe content, such as illegal or age-gated substances, from appearing in its responses to teens.” Of course teens need no training in trying to get around guard rails, so we’ll see how well the large language system copes with their prodding!
As it moves further towards being a replacement for Twitter, what with the train wreck Elon Musk has made out of what’s now X, Threads is testing hashtags without the hash. Techcrunch.com says the platform is testing the ability to tag topics on Threads to categorize posts by interest or theme. Though users will call up the tags feature using the “#” symbol, it won’t actually display the “#” symbol when the tags are shown. Instead, the tags will appear as clickable blue links. The first test is in Australia, but according to a post by Zuck, it should be showing up on other countries ‘soon.’
The United Kingdom is now the first country to approve therapy based on Crisper gene editing tech…starting with treatment for sickle cell disease. Arstechnica.com reports that the therapy has been developed by Vertex Pharmaceuticals and Crispr Therapeutics. The drug could be used to replace bone marrow transplants. The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency has approved the therapy, and has promised to focus on speeding the most innovative treatments to market after being given permission from next year to cut its workload by following other countries’ recommendations on approvals of other drugs.
I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.
Bing Chat Becomes Copilot; Threads May Get DMs After All…Kinda; Tesla Backtracks on Suing Cybertruck Resellers; Cruise Suspends Supervised & Manual Car Trips
Posted: November 15, 2023 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a commentMicrosoft has rebranded Bing Chat as Copilot, with the former Bing Chat Enterprise becoming Copilot Pro. TechCrunch.com reports that the AI powered chatbot hadn’t really gained much ground or taken market share from Google, so Microsoft is hoping that separating it from the also-ran Bing might give it a boost. Microsoft also says that after December 1st, users that sign into Bing with a corporate account will receive the benefit of “commercial data protection” while using Copilot. That means their data won’t be saved nor used to train AI models and Microsoft won’t have access to it.
According to theverge.com, a lot of users have been asking for it and now it looks like Threads may get DMs…kind of. Up to now, Threads and Instagram head Adam Mosseri has said there wouldn’t be such a feature, but apparently there will be…albeit in an Instagram box inside Threads…so really an Instagram direct message. Even so, it’s a start. Really, at some point, they will have to cave and build a separate DM system for Threads if it is ever to be a true replacement for X.
Only a day after we reported about Tesla’s nutty purchase contract clause that allowed them to sue Cybertruck buyers who resold the vehicles within a year for $50,000, the EV maker has dropped the clause. My take is that Tesla heard from one or more high powered law firms notifying them that they would sue on behalf of clients if the controversial clause stayed in the purchase agreement. Engadget.com says that such causes have been used for rare, one of a kind, or expensive cars, but never for a mass produced vehicle…Tesla plans to build about 125,000 Cybertrucks per year. Production has been delayed yet again…full production won’t start now until 2024.
General Motors’ Cruise driverless car unit said on Tuesday it will pause all supervised and manual car trips in the U.S. and expand the scope of investigations at the robotaxi operator in the aftermath of an accident that initially led to the suspension of driverless vehicle operations. Reuters.com reports that Cruise said in a blog post “This orderly pause is a further step to rebuild public trust while we undergo a full safety review. We will continue to operate our vehicles in closed course training environments and maintain an active simulation program in order to stay focused on advancing AV technology.”
I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.
Google’s Cut from Search to Apple Revealed; YouTube-Disclose AI Content or Be Demonetized; Exxon Wants to Mine Lithium in Arkansas; Big Losses for Truth Social
Posted: November 14, 2023 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a commentA witness in the Google antitrust case let it drop how much they pay Apple as a cut of all search ad revenue…and it is a bundle…36%! Theverge.com reports that University of Chicago professor Kevin Murphy testified in Google’s defense, and revealed the figure the search giant pays Apple for searches that come from Safari. We already knew that Google has been paying some $18 billion to keep Google as the default search engine for Safari. Neither Google nor Apple have responded to requests for comment from media organizations.
YouTube is gearing up to require creators to disclose if their video has AI generated content. According to androidauthority.com, the platform will penalize consistent non-complying creators with content removal, demonetization, or even suspension from the YouTube Partner Program. Users will soon see ‘altered or synthetic content’ labels on videos that have AI generated content. Note that if the video violates YouTube’s Community Guidelines, it could still be removed, regardless of whether it correctly labeled itself as AI-generated content. It is good to see YouTube trying to get out ahead of this situation.
Numerous companies are looking for ways to get lithium for EV batteries without having to depend on China. The US has hundreds of thousands of tons of ‘recoverable’ lithium, but there is just one American commercial scale lithium mining site in the country right now…it’s in Nevada, and run by Albermarle. TechCrunch.com says that Exxon is angling to drill for lithium in Arkansas. Meanwhile, Tesla is working on extracting the metal from clay in Texas. There are at least 3 other firms in the hunt for the rare metal. Exxon hopes to start producing lithium by 2027. So you think electric vehicles will be the demise of big oil companies…think again! A side note: Exxon was involved in lithium-ion battery production back in the 70’s but quit because the business wouldn’t ‘scale’ in those days.
Truth Social, the Trump social media platform has lost $73 million in net sales since the official launch in February of 2022. TheHill.com reports that the info comes from a filing from Digital World Acquisition Corp. Digital is a merger partner with Trump Media and Technology Group. If the Trump group can’t complete its merger with DWAC and get more funds in, the company likely won’t survive, according to the amended S-4 filing.
I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.
iPad Air with 12.9 Inch Display rumored in 2024; Threads Users Can Keep Posts Off Instagram and Facebook Now; Tesla Threatens to Sue Cybertruck Resellers; WhatsApp Unveils New Discord-esque Voice Chat Feature
Posted: November 13, 2023 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a commentWe have been seeing reports about new iPads in 2024…some are saying the entire line will be refreshed. Now, appleinsider.com has picked up a report from noted analyst Ming-Chi Kuo that says there will be a new 12.9 inch iPad Air. Up to now, most of the reports have been about the Mini and the Pro. The 10.9 inch Air and 12.9 inch new model won’t have the mini-LED tech of the Pro iPads, but will get the better Oxide backplane the the Pros will sport. The two Air models should go into mass production first quarter of next year. The 10.9 inch one is supposed to stay at the same price level as before, but the larger 12.9 inch new tablet will come in at a higher price….of course.
Threads users are getting the ability to opt out of having their posts shown in Instagram and Facebook. According to the verge.com, you can tap the two lines at the upper right of the Threads app and choose Privacy, then Suggesting posts on other apps. There, you will find a couple of toggle switches that let you turn off suggestions on Instagram or Facebook. The feature is being rolled out slowly, so you may not see it for a week or two.
In a really unusual move, Tesla is including a ‘Cybertruck Only’ clause in their purchase agreements that stipulates that buyers can’t sell their new vehicle within a year without explicit permission from Tesla…or the car maker can sue them for $50 grand! Engadget.com says that the Tesla contract indicates that the EV maker “may seek injunctive relief to prevent the transfer of title of the Vehicle” if buyers breach its resale provision, or it may “demand liquidated damages from you in the amount of $50,000 or the value received as consideration for the sale or transfer, whichever is greater.” The terms also warn that offending resellers could be barred from buying vehicles from Tesla in the future. This type of unusual and threatening behavior by a seller of a product will no doubt bring a lawsuit or two as buyers decide to test out the validity of such a clause.
WhatsApp has unveiled a new Discord-esque voice chat for large groups. The feature is intended to be less disruptive than a group call, which rings every member in a group. TechCrunch.com reports that the voice chats start quietly without any ringing involved with an in-chat bubble you can tap on to join. WhatsApp has been testing the feature since summer, and it will roll out globally to large groups of 33 or more in the coming weeks.
I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.
Disney+ & Hulu Apps to Merge; Sony Passes Big PS5 Milestone; OpenAI Hit with DDoS Attack Affecting ChatGPT; New Open Standard for Smart Locks
Posted: November 9, 2023 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a commentAs reported here and elsewhere, Disney has bought out Comcast’s share of Hulu to become the sole owner of the platform. Now, bgr.com reports that the two platforms will be available in a single app starting next month…provided you subscribe to both, of course! Be advised that the new app will be in beta, however…the wider rollout for it is planned for the first quarter of 2024.
The last quarter was a biggie for Sony…particularly for sales of the PS5. The company has announced that they sold 4.9 million PlayStation 5’s third quarter (which is Sony’s 2nd financial quarter), bringing the total number of PS5’s out in the world to 46.6 million! According to engadget.com, that number didn’t match last year’s holiday figure, but it was still 1.6 million more than in the same quarter of 2022. Sony is shooting for shipping 25 million units this financial year…that will be a tall order, even with the holiday season, because they will need to sell 16.8 million more gaming systems by the end of the year.
There have been ‘periodic outages’ affecting ChatGPT and its developer tools. Now, OpenAI has confirmed that DDoS attacks…denial of service…are behind the problem. TechCrunch.com says the outages have been happening on and off the last 24 hours. Users have seen a message saying “ChatGPT is at capacity right now,” and have been unable to log into the service. OpenAI says the problem was fixed at about 1 PM yesterday afternoon. Hacktivist group Anonymous Sudan took credit for the alleged attack.
Theverge.com reports that Apple, Google, and Samsung have teamed up with lock makers and chip makers, including the makers of Schlage and Yale locks…as well as Qualcomm and NXP, to build an open standard for smart locks and digital keys, using devices like your smartphone or smartwatch. the standard is called Aliro, and it is out today. Obviously, it will take a while for everything to come to market, but look for this to work a lot like the smart home standard Matter…it will just make various smart locking systems work nicely with your digital devices without having to download a proprietary app or carrying around some kind of tag or card reader. From what they have released, it sounds a lot like Apple’s Home Key…a digital key stored in your phone’s digital wallet and accessible on your watch that doesn’t require a proprietary app and works with any door lock that supports the standard. Access to the key could be controlled and managed by the owner of the lock through an app. If you are the type of person who misplaces keys, this will be a boon…just don’t also lose track of your phone or watch!
I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.
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