Drop Off Amazon Returns at Staples; TSMC Tripling Arizona Chip Plant Investment; Google Desktop Search Gets Continuous Scrolling; Neuralink Hit With Federal Probe

If you have had to return things to Amazon, you probably have used some of their drop off locations. I only have a couple times, but had to go to a sketchy convenience store in an even sketchier neighborhood…instead of the big, yellow lockers in my local grocery a mile away. Now, according to geekwire.com, Amazon is partnering with Staples for drop offs. Apparently, these locations will work a lot like the one’s in Kohl’s, Whole Foods, or UPS  stores…which is to say, pretty stress free if you have one of those nearby…you don’t have to re-box and pack the item. The National Retail Federation says that consumers returned more than 20% of online purchases last year, to the tune of over $218 billion worth of merchandise. As with the other locations, Staples expects to get an increase in foot traffic and therefore sales. 

Taiwan Semiconductor, TSMC, is tripling their investment in the Arizona chip making plants they are building…to some $40 billion. 9to5mac.com notes that the first plant is already finished, but production isn’t expected to start until 2024. On the down side…the plants apparently won’t ever build the latest and greatest Apple A series or M series chips. TSMC indicates the plants will always be a generation behind the production on Taiwan. The net is, the new plants won’t reduce Apple’s exposure to Taiwan by much. 

Google Search has had continuous scrolling on mobile since 2021, and now it is finally coming to the desktop browsers. No more having to click to the 2nd, 3rd, or 4th page, etc. Androidpolice.com says the continuous scrolling will be rolling out today in the US for searches in English. If you don’t see it right away, keep in mind they are doing it in stages, so it may be a few weeks before everyone sees the feature. 

Neuralink, Elon Musk’s brain implant device, is being investigated for potential animal-welfare violations. Reuters reports that internal staff complaints about animal testing being rushed, and causing needless suffering and deaths, has prompted the probe. Neuralink has been touted as a brain implant which could help people walk again, among other things. Neuralink had planned to move on to studies on people. Reportedly, the company has killed some 1500 pigs, sheep, and monkeys since 2018. 

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

Meta Tests Age Verification-Facebook Dating; Apple AR Headset May Ship 2nd Half of 2023; Hackers in China Stole Millions in COVID Relief; DHL Buying Fleet of Ford EV Vans

Meta is testing age verification tools for Facebook Dating, in an effort to make that product safer…and to get ahead of an expected tightened regulatory environment. Axios.com reports that Meta and other tech platforms think the government is getting ready to crack down on them, in an effort to make things safer for children and teens online. Facebook Dating rolled out in 2019, and the age verification tools they are testing are borrowed from co-owned Instagram. One method of verification includes video selfies, which are screened by partner company Yoti’s software…which guesses the age from the uploaded image. The other method is via ID uploads. You DO trust Meta with an image of your driver’s license, right? Anyway, Meta claims these techniques have kept 96% of teens on Instagram who tried to edit their birthdays from doing so…or so they think.

We just reported last week that Bloomberg said Apple’s mixed reality headset should be out next spring. Now, according to macrumors.com, noted Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo says it will be delayed until the second half of next year, due to unspecified ’software-related issues.’ Kuo says shipments of components WILL start in the first half of 2023, but the fully assembled units won’t be out until the 2nd half of the year. Originally, rumors had Apple introducing the system in January, but now it could be revealed at WWDC in June. As we noted earlier, the Apple mixed reality headset will be pricey. Kuo thinks they will ship less than a half million of them next year for that reason. 

Hackers linked to the Chinese government stole at least $20 million in early COVID relief funds…both via SBA loans and from unemployment funds in over a dozen states, according to the Secret Service. NBC says the theft was by a hacking group in China called APT41. It may not be close to all of the theft, either. The Secret Service, through spokesman Roy Dotson says “It would be crazy to think this group didn’t target all 50 states.” The Secret Service declined to confirm the scope of other investigations, saying there are more than 1,000 ongoing investigations involving transnational and domestic criminal actors defrauding public benefits programs.

Courier company DHL is buying a couple thousand Ford E-Transit electric vans for last mile deliveries. Arstechnica.com reports that the vans will be used in both the US and Europe. EVs are particularly suited to last mile use, as they are never terribly far from their bases, and can return for charging relatively easily. DHL already runs some 27,000 electric vans worldwide. Some have been converted from diesel motors. They also use EVs from Rivian, and from a maker called BrightDrop. 

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

Apple Mixed Reality Headset; Tesla Delivers EV Semis; Vendor Certificate Leak Allowed Android Malware; Hive Shut Down Issues-Back Working Today

Apple is shooting for unveiling its new mixed reality headset as early as this spring. Mark Gurman of Bloomberg is reporting that they have changed the name of the operating system to xrOS from realityOS. The EX stands for ‘extended reality’. This is an internal name, so the final product could still have a different one for the operating system. The first headset is supposed to be a pricey (from Apple…ya think?) unit with premium hardware. It is expected that the price will blow past Meta’s high end Meta Quest Pro headset. Interestingly, the engineering chiefs for Pages, Keynote, Numbers, Notes, and Apple News are involved…so the headset may be able to run core Apple apps right out of the box. 

Yesterday, Tesla delivered its first electric semi trucks from its Gigafactory in Sparks, Nevada. Theverge.com notes that the deliveries are only 3 years later than promised. The rigs are powered by 4 independent motors on the rear axles. They can go from 0-60 in 20 seconds, and have a battery range of 500 miles, hauling a trailer with 81,000 pounds of cargo. The base price starts at about $150,000. The first ones were wrapped with Pepsi and Frito Lay logos…two of the earlier buyers. Walmart and FedEx also have a few dozen each ordered. 

Not something you want to hear about, but there was a vendor certificate leak that allowed malware full control of Android phones. Androidpolice.com report that it is ‘mostly fixed’ for now. It did affect vendors putting apps on both Samsung and LG…which is a major share of Android phones. When the certificate leak happened, it allowed malware makers to sign their bad actor programs so the phones would see them as legit. This is not a new problem….as early as 2016 a certificate leaked out. This leak was reported then allegedly fixed in May, but only now marked as fixed by Google. Google has warned phone makers to limit use of their platform certificate to as few apps as possible. For you, it means…keep your software up to date so it gets patches for issues like this!

Buzzy Twitter alternative Hive shut down completely for a couple days to fix several critical vulnerabilities. TechCrunch.com reports the platform is back up and running now. I checked before this report, and could get in to the still quirky app. What were the issues? They would allow attackers access to all data, including private posts and messages, shared media and even deleted direct messages, as well as the ability to edit other people’s Hive posts. Not cool. Now that these are supposedly fixed, maybe they can get busy on a desktop or browser version. Phones are great, but it’s much easier and faster to type on a real keyboard!

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

COVID Lockdown at Apple Chinese Factory Lifted; DoorDash Announces Layoff; Starlink Jacks Up Ukraine Prices; Honda ‘Sensing 360’ Coming

The world’s largest iPhone plant in Jung Joe in central China will reopen after a COVID lockdown. CNN reports that Apple has lost about a billion dollars a week with the Foxconn factory closed. There are normally about 200,000 workers employed at the complex. There have been protests there predating the wider ones across Chinese cities, with some workers escaping guards and fleeing. In the 5 years between 2014 and 2019, Apple cut reliance on Chinese production of its product line from 47% to 44%. That dropped to 41% in 2020, and 36% in 2021. They are still moving more iPhone production to places like India, though. With 70% of iPhones made in just China, Apple will move more production out…not only to India, but also to Vietnam, Taiwan, and even the US. 

DoorDash will cut 1250 workers in what the company says is an adjustment in size after the company grew too fast during the pandemic. According to theverge.com, the laid off workers will get 17 weeks of compensation, their February 2023 stock vest, and healthcare benefits through the end of March 2023. 

With widespread loss of mobile networks and net access in Ukraine, Starlink (which is owned by Elon Musk’s SpaceX) has started jacking up prices for the dishes and service, citing ‘market conditions.’ In what sounds like good, old fashioned price gouging, arstechnica.com says the prices are going up from $385 earlier this year to $700 for new Starlink customers. The monthly fee had been dropped from $100 a month to $60 to celebrate Ukraine Independence day August 24th…those will now go back up to $75. No comment from either SpaceX or Musk on the price increases. 

Honda’s level 2 driver assist system, which is already rolling out in China, should be getting to the US a bit at a time over the next few years…with the whole suite standard by 2030. Engadget.com reports that the Sensing 360 and Sensing Elite systems use 5 millimeter wave sensors in addition to the monocular camera on present models to give 360 degree sensing. This will allow hands free lane changing (which several other manufacturers already have) as well as help avoid ‘abnormal conditions.’ Honda didn’t say what those might be. Some of the features will be hitting higher end Hondas like the touring models next year, but again…the entire suite of features won’t be standard on all models until 2030. 

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

3 Months Free Spotify Premium; Musk v Apple; Create With Alexa for Kids; Cyber Monday Sets Record

Everyone likes a freebie, and here’s one from Spotify for the holidays. Bgr.com reports that you can get 3 months of Spotify Premium if you sign up for the Individual Premium Plan before the end of the year. After that, it will automatically renew for $9.99 a month unless you cancel. In addition to that…if you ever signed up for Spotify Premium before, but canceled before October 28 of this year, you can sign up again, and get 3 months for the price of one, $9.99. As with the other deal, it renews for the $9.99 a month after the third month. If you’ve been wanting ad free Spotify, here’s your chance.

It’s been all over the news, but Elon Musk is taking on…of all firms…Apple…the richest company on earth. He is accusing them of being against free speech by ditching advertising on Twitter. Apple had previously been one of the platform’s major advertisers. According to Media Matters, Twitter has lost half its top 100 advertisers since Musk started changing things. Those firms spent some $750 million with Twitter in 2022 up to that point. Musk is also claiming Apple has threatened to take Twitter off the App Store due to the lack of moderation now. I think Matt Gertz summed things up pretty well in this Tweet: ‘I dunno if you’re going to try to make an example of one of your advertisers in an attempt to keep others from dropping you maybe shouldn’t start with the richest company on the planet which can also killshot your business?’

As we have reported before, Amazon is losing money with Alexa devices. Now, they’ve come up with a way to try to hook kids in to using them more, to pump things up. Engadget.com says they are rolling out ‘Create With Alexa’ on Echo Show devices. The system uses AI to let kids guide the creation of animated stories using kid-friendly prompts. Note that it works whether the device is in Amazon Kids mode or not. There are only 3 themes available at start: space exploration, underwater, and enchanted forest. The child can pick the scene, pick the hero, then color scheme, etc. When it’s done, they can watch the story, which is saved so your kid can show it to you again and again ad nauseam. 

Black Friday was up this year, and now the data is in, and Cyber Monday was up even more. Driven by deep discounts, Cyber Monday hauled in $11.3 billion in online sales, according to Adobe Analytics. That was up 5.8% over the day last year. Cyber Monday continues to be the biggest day of the Thanksgiving weekend. This year, Thanksgiving Day had $5.29 billion in sales, and Black Friday $9.12 billion….both up from last year. 

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

Twitter Being Spammed in China; WhatsApp-Message Yourself; Tesla Refreshing Model 3; Black Friday Sales Set Record 

With the protests all weekend going on in China, one the draconian COVID policy there, and with some calling for a regime change, there is now Twitter spam that is flooding timelines…and apparent effort by the Chinese government to make it harder for people to get information about the protests in China’s largest cities. According to engadget.com, most of the spam centers around porn or gambling. Local activists use Twitter through a VPN to avoid Chinese government censorship of the protests on domestic social networks. With Twitter’s Elon Musk wiping out over half the platform’s staff, they are having a heck of a time trying to keep up and get rid of the spam. The spam bots appear to be prompted when a person keys in the names of the cities in Chinese characters. Meanwhile, the protests continue, with crowds holding up blank sheets of paper. 

WhatsApp has introduced an interesting feature, which should be handy you are on the app a lot, and haven’t ever gotten into the habit of using the notes feature on your phone. Techcrunch.com reports that you will be able to message yourself. In fact, that’s what they are calling it…Message Yourself. It’s a good way to make a quick note of something or send yourself a reminder. Again, if you don’t use the notes feature on your phone, you could even message yourself your shopping list. The feature is rolling out now, and should hit all iOS and Android devices in the next few weeks. Signal has a similar feature, but with WhatsApp, you can set it to put your reminder at the top of the contact list so you can find it more easily. 

Tesla has a refresh of the Model 3 in the works. Theverge.com says it will have fewer interior components (and it is already pretty stark inside) with a slightly redesigned exterior. The goal is to cut production costs and increase appeal. Whether they will pass on the savings is anyone’s guess right now. The freshened model should be rolling off the Shanghai lines in the 3rd quarter of 2023, and will be built at the Fremont factory as well…but no date has been mentioned for that as yet. Although it was hyped as the affordable Tesla, at $35,000, it only hit that price point for a minute. Right now, the cheapest Model 3 has a base price at $46,900.

Despite inflation and worries by some of recession, Black Friday online sales hit a record $9.1 billion. That was up 2.3% from last year, according to geekwire.com…with the data coming from Adobe Analytics. Electronics were the big segment…up 221% over all. Smart home items were up 271%, audio equipment up 230%, toys were up a whopping 285%, and exercise equipment increased by 218%. 

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

More Twitter Litter; Galaxy S23-Maybe Better Satellite Than Apple; Mercedes-Pay Up, and Go Faster; LG Will Build EV Batt Cathode Plant in US

Yesterday, people were all a-Twitter (sorry) about Elon Musk announcing a ‘general amnesty’ for suspended accounts starting next week. Theverge.com reports that Musk will allow those that may post horrible but legal things back on the platform…free speech, ya know. There may be a fly in the ointment with this…besides more people leaving Twitter. Except the US, most countries don’t have anything like the 1st Amendment, and he may be fined billions by the European Union.

As famed pitchman Ron Popiel would say…’but wait…there’s more!’ Yes, the blue checkmarks for paid accounts will resume December 2nd..BUT with company. It will be called ‘Verified,’ not Twitter Blue, AND there will be different colors of checkmarks. Basically, companies will get a gold check, governments a gray one, and individuals will have the blue ones. Individual public officials will have a ‘tiny logo’ showing their organization if it is verified. Hive, Mastodon and Post are licking their chops at even more users bailing on Twitter for their platforms.

A ‘killer feature’ of the new iPhone 14 models is the emergency satellite connectivity. Now, it looks like the Samsung Galaxy S23 may outshine them with something better. According to 9to5google.com, Samsung is partnering with Iridium to use their low orbit satellites to not only give users emergency messaging, but also the ability to transmit text messages and low-capacity images. In addition, the Galaxy S23 Ultra is supposed to be getting a new fingerprint sensor that will have better speed and accuracy. The S23 phones should be out in February. 

Mercedes-Benz is one of the car makers taking a page out of Tesla’s book for its electric vehicles. Gizmodo.com says the German car maker will have an ‘acceleration increase’ feature on it’s EQ electric vehicles…BUT…you will have to pay $1200 a year for the privilege of having neck-snapping acceleration. Tesla has charged thousands in fees for years for their ‘Full Self-Driving’ feature…which of course, isn’t really full self-driving. Tesla’s fee isn’t yearly, though. BMW has already joined the fee for features club, but with a much lighter touch…you want heated seats? $18 dollars a month, please. 

As car makers work to introduce and sell more and more electric models, battery availability becomes an issue. Now, LG Chem has announced a factory to be built in Tennessee to make cathodes for EV batteries. Electrek.co reports that the new $3 billion plant will be in Clarksville. When up and running in 2027, it will be able to supply cathode material for some 1.2 million EVs. It will bring 850 jobs to Tennessee, too.

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

Alexa Loses Big Money; iPhone 15-Rounded Back,Titanium Case; Musk Claims Twitter Hiring Again; Domino’s Readies for All-EV Delivery Fleet

Apparently, Meta’s Metaverse project isn’t the only big tech company division that’s losing huge money. Arstechnica.com reports that Amazon’s Alexa division is on its way to joining the ‘lose $10 billion a year’ club! One difference, however. In the 10 years Alexa and Alexa devices have been around, they have been considered something of a loss leader by Amazon. The problem is that the losses from the Alexa division are twice the amount of any other Amazon unit. Most of the Echo devices, which are among the “best-selling items on Amazon, most of the devices sold at cost.” The idea has been to make money on your using Alexa, not on the devices. Google is also not making any money on Google Assistant. Apple never did try to sell their Siri powered gadgets like the HomePod at cost…like Apple has EVER sold anything at cost…so they don’t seem to be in such a hole. Are voice assistants doomed? Stay tuned, we may find out before long.

Since Apple leaked into the first story, here is a new rumor about their iPhone 15. According to 9to5mac.com, quoting a leaker called ShrimpApplePro…who has a good, but not perfect record…the new iPhone 15 models may have a titanium casing, and rounded back. The titanium may only go to the Pro or Ultra models, though. The idea is to lighten the weight with the titanium. As for the rounded shoulders on the back, that is intended to help people pick the phones up off a surface. Even with the camera bump, you can’t always quickly grab your phone off a desk or table. The square corners top, rounded bottom isn’t completely foreign to Apple…the latest MacBooks also feature that design. 

Despite a few more layoffs this week, Elon Musk told an all hands meeting Monday that the company is done with layoffs and actively recruiting for engineering and sales help (like some of those he recently fired. The company is down to about 2700 employees from the 7500 before Musk took over. Theverge.com also noted that Musk said “This is not a right-wing takeover of Twitter. It is a moderate-wing takeover of Twitter.” In looking at what accounts he has allowed back on…from Trump to Marge Taylor Green…although drawing a line in the sand at Alex Jones, not many people would agree that it is a moderate take over!

Domino’s is going big on electric vehicles. The pizza delivery company has ordered 800 Chevy Bolt EVs for its delivery fleet. Theverge.com says the cars are sans any bells and whistles, but will be wrapped with custom Domino’s branding. The 855 EVs won’t mean one for each of Domino’s 6135 locations, but it will be a heck of a start! Domino’s thinks with local deliveries, the cars shouldn’t need to be charged more than every other or every 3 days. 

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

Disney-Iger’s Back; US EV Market to Jump 20%; Twitter Copyright Strike System Broken; Apple Switches iPhones to Samsung Memory Chips

In a bombshell from the House of Mouse, an announcement came late Sunday that Bob Chapek was out, and Bob Iger back as CEO of Disney. CNBC reports that the change is effective immediately. Chapek had been widely criticized for his management of Disney. Disney stock jumped 9% on the announcement. The company earnings in the last quarter way underperformed Wall Street expectations. This, despite a surge in revenue from the theme parks. Iger will stay a couple more years, and help the board develop a successor CEO. 

If you seem to be seeing more electric vehicles on the road as you commute or just drive around…you’re right. According to electrek.co, the US EV market share was up to 6.7% the first half of 2022, from just 1.8% in 2019. Mainly due to charger availability, EV market share is up even more: Germany has gone from 3% to 26%, the UK from 2.2% to 24%, and France from 2.8% to 21%. The climate incentives passed into law last summer in the US are expected to push US market share up over 20% before 2030…earlier than expected. Incentives are a big help, but the real key is building out charging stations to all but eliminate ‘range anxiety.’

There has been plenty of talk about Twitter completely breaking down in the aftermath of Elon Musk’s layoffs and now staff quitting over his demands to return to the office. As of this report, Twitter is still up, but some things are breaking. Theverge.com says one is the copyright strike system. A user posted the entirety of ‘The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift’ movie in a series of some 50 tweets containing two minute clips. The thread has been up for a couple days now, without any apparent attempt or maybe ability to take it down. 

Since the US has imposed export controls on one of China’s top NAND flash chip makers, Apple is pivoting to Samsung for iPhone Memory chips. Macrumors.com reports that Apple had been using chips from Yangtze Memory Technologies, but will now rely on Samsung starting in 2023. Unlike some other chip makers, Samsung hasn’t put production cuts in place in response to decreased market demands. The export controls are an effort by the US to slow China’s tech and military advances from copying US tech. 

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

Twitter Even More ‘Musked; Up; Ticketmaster-Antitrust Investigation from Swift Presale Mess; Personalized 3D Meds-Almost Here; Google Improves Maps for EV Owners

Twitter descended further into chaos yesterday after more employees than expected refused to go for Elon Musk’s latest demand of ‘working long hours at high intensity’ or else. Arstechnica.com says enough refused that Twitter again locked down buildings and blocked badge access…fearing sabotage. Some reports have less than half the remaining 4,000 employees after Musk’s original purge deciding to stay. Thousands of contractors were also laid off. One former employee said “I know of six critical systems (like ‘serving tweets’ levels of critical) which no longer have any engineers,” the former employee said. “There is no longer even a skeleton crew manning the system. It will continue to coast until it runs into something, and then it will stop.” Meanwhile, Elon Musk is touting increased usage numbers…although a lot seem to be logging on to see if the platform has crashed yet. Stay tuned to see how ‘Musked up’ Twitter gets. A hat tip to my KGO in Exile colleague Nikki Medoro for ‘Musked up.’ 

The Taylor Swift presale chaos has gotten the attention of Tennessee’s attorney general. According to techcrunch.com, that office is examining whether Ticketmaster violated consumer’s rights and antitrust regulations. Ticketmaster cancelled its public sales for Swift’s ‘Eras’ tour after the presale, citing “extraordinarily high demands on ticketing systems and insufficient remaining ticket inventory to meet that demand.” In addition to the Tennessee AG, the presale mess has also piqued the interest of several Members of Congress. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Tweeted that “Ticketmaster is a monopoly, its merger with LiveNation should never have been approved, and they needed to be reigned in. Break them up.” 

In a crazy sounding yet cool story out of Finland, a startup there is working on #D printed, personalized medications. Thenextweb.com says the idea is to be able to make drugs in doses other than those offered by mass produced drugs, and even allowing for a different ingredient mix in the 3D made pills. They are aiming not just at medications for people, but also for veterinary use. It makes sense, as people come in all sizes, as do dogs and even cats…so getting personalized dosing could provide better care to patients. Curify Labs is the startup working on the tech. For humans, it would be particularly useful in producing lower dose meds for children…and even flavoring them like orange aspirin to get the kids to take them. Don’t expect these 3D pills in the next year or two, but they could ultimately be quite a sea change in providing meds to people and their fur babies. 

Google has pushed out a new update to Maps with a handy feature for owners of electric vehicles. Mashable.com reports that you can now filter EV charging stations in order to select ‘fast charging’ ones! On top of that, you can filter for plug compatibility. Both the new features should be available right now on both Android and iOS apps. Another new feature will show you if a business is wheelchair accessible or not. That feature is only in the US and Canada right now. 

I’m Clark Reid and you’ve been ‘technified’ for now.