Meta- Quest Pro; Twitter Fights Screenshotting Tweets; Lufthansa is NOT Banning Air Tags; YouTube-Better Support for Username ‘Handles’

Mark Zuckerberg has announced the latest VR headset at Meta Connect. It’s called the Quest Pro, and will be a princely $1499. TechCrunch.com reports that Meta will keep selling the more mass-market geared Quest. The Pro unit is being pitched as a productivity device. It features full color passthrough, and uses 4 cams outside to capture and display the space. New ‘pancake’ lenses reduce size with a 40% thinner display stack than the Quest 2. A down side? Battery life will only be 1-2 hours (really, 1 probably.) That’s a tough sell. The Quest Pro is available for preorder now, and ships October 25th.

We got editing Tweets, but as Twitter gives, they try to take away. When you try to take a screen shot, you may get a popup saying ‘Share Tweet instead?’ There are buttons for copy link and share Tweet below. According to Mashable.com, the prompt stays up for several seconds, delaying your screen shot of the Tweet. They really want you to share Tweets, and especially don’t want them posted on another social media platform…since they don’t get any money from that. Do what you like, but I’m going to keep screenshooting whenever I need to.

In spite of Tweets saying it was banning Apple AirTags from checked luggage, Lufthansa now says that’s not so. 9to5mac.com notes that the Twitter account had called the trackers ‘dangerous goods!’ They are apparently thinking of lithium ion batteries that are in phones, tablets, & laptops. the AirTag just uses those CR2032 batteries…about the size of a quarter. The REAL reason they probably wanted to ban AirTags is that you can use them to track your checked bag…like when the airline loses it! I have flown internationally on other airlines, and no one has ever asked me to turn off or remove the AirTag.

YouTube is making it easier to direct users to their channels to watch videos. According to techcrunch.com, they have announced ‘handles,’ which let you identify your channel with an @username format. The feature will be available to everyone on YouTube….you don’t have to be a creator of a certain size, or subscriber count to claim your own unique @handle. Handles have been in common use on numerous social media platforms…sites like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Telegram and others. YouTube says the handles will show up on both channel pages and Shorts. It’s a gradual rollout, so be patient!

Amazon Can Make $ on Non-Amazon Purchases; Boston Dynamics-Don’t Weaponize Robots; Apple Sticks with Qualcomm Modems  for Now; ICYMI-Kanye Bounced from Twitter Again

Amazon offers pretty much anything you can think of online to lure your dollars into their coffers. But what about the bucks you spend elsewhere? Apparently in some cases, they are getting a taste of that cash, too! Cnet.com reports that while Amazon claimed more than 37% of US e-commerce last year, it has started dipping into some of your other buying. In April, the online giant rolled out ‘Buy with Prime,’ a program that lets sellers add a button on their websites that lets users buy from them, but with Amazon handling the payment and shipping. Amazon also has Local Shopping, which lets a third party seller offer curbside pickup from their storefronts on Amazon’s online marketplace. Their Amazon Pay and Multi-Channel Fulfillment programs are a couple other ways Amazon leverages their massive logistics operation to pickup extra cash from the sales of others. Although they claim not to sell user data, Amazon also has a treasure trove of that on you and everyone else who’s ever gotten a box with the smiley arrow on it!

Boston Dynamics, which makes Spot the robot dog, and some humanoid robots, has put out a pledge vowing to counter attempts by buyers to weaponize its products. According to zdnet.com, the formerly Google owned firm has been concerned about recent ‘makeshift efforts’ to weaponize its robots. Several other robotics firms, including Agility Robotics, ANYbotics, Clearpath Robotics, Open Robotics, and Unitree Robotics, have also signed the commitment. “Robots should be used to help, not harm. We prohibit weaponization, while supporting the safe, ethical, and effective use of robots in public safety,” Boston Dynamics said in a blog post.

Although Apple is alleged to be developing its own 5G chip for future iPhones, word is they will stick with Qualcomm modems for all iPhones though the iPhone 16 model. Macrumors.com notes that Apple probably won’t roll out its own chip until at least 2025. All of the iPhone 15 models will use the Snapdragon X70, which was announced this past February. They will have a theoretical download speed of 10 gigs per second, with artificial intelligence allowing for even faster average speeds. 

Kanye West was back on Twitter for the first time since 2020 on Friday night, but apparently got his account locked later in the weekend for posting anti-Jewish stereotypes often spouted by white supremacists. Techcrunch.com says the lockdown was “due to a violation of Twitter’s policies.” He also had content removed from Instagram, and that account also is under restriction for repeated policy violations. 

WhatsApp Blocks Screenshots for ‘View Once’; FCC-Game Over on Robocalls; Ford Triples EV Sales YoY; Amazon Freezes Corp. Hiring

Last year, WhatsApp introduced a new feature called ‘View Once’, which let users send photos and videos that disappear after they are opened…much like you can do in Snapchat and Instagram. Now, according to 9to5mac.com, WhatsApp is taking things further, by adding blocking of screenshots and screen recordings for ‘View Once’ pics and videos. If a user tries to screenshot one, a pop up message indicates ‘blocked for added privacy.’ Right now, the feature is just in a beta version, and no word on when it will become available to everyone. Another feature being tested— users can create links to invite others to join a call…like Zoom, Teams, and FaceTime. 

Will it REALLY stop all those robocalls? Well, no one knows, but the Federal Communications Commission has announced it will block services from 7 voice service providers, or VoIPs, if they don’t comply with efforts to mitigate the rampant scam calls that hit us all by the hundreds. Mashable.com reports that the FCC is giving the VoIP companies 14 days to show that they are taking steps to mitigate robocalls, or their service will be blocked from their customers. Will this threat work, or will the FCC prove to be a toothless tiger in this instance? We may know soon.

We’ve seen big numbers in Tesla sales, and now Ford posts strong EV gains. Electrek.co says Ford’s EV sales tripled year over year, up to a 3.1% market share. Ford is on track to hit its goal of 600,000 EVs by year’s end. For comparison, overall sales were down 9% year over year, so that makes the increase all the more important. The electric F-150 pickup did ok, but the Mustang was really hot…and the Ford E-Transit van was the top seller in that segment. 

Amazon is freezing corporate hiring for its retail business for the rest of the year. According to geekwire.com, the online everything firm is concerned about high inflation and worried about an economic downturn. They won’t freeze hiring for cloud computer roles, however. The majority of revenue for Amazon comes through its retail business…although Amazon Web Services is more profitable. When asked for a statement, Amazon put out a vague, word salad statement about hiring and roles. 

Twitter-Elon Buy & Edit Button Rollout; Pixel 7 Leak; Android Dynamic Island; Walmart & CVS-Trial Over Homeopathic Placement

Twitter trading was halted halted over report that Elon Musk will go ahead with bid to buy company at $54.20 a share.  Meanwhile, Twitter is rolling out the coveted edit button to edit Tweets. According to TechCrunch.com, right now it is only being released to Twitter Blue subscribers in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, but Twitter says US Twitter Blue users will get it ‘soon.’ With the edit button, you will be able to edit a Tweet any time within 30 minutes of sending it…and can edit it up to 5 times in that 30 minute period. Edited Tweets will show a time stamp indicating when the Tweet was edited. Also, as you scroll through your feed, edited Tweets will display a little pencil icon next to them to indicate that the Tweet has been modified. 

The Pixel 7 and 7 Pro, as well as the Pixel Watch will be rolled out officially on the 6th…just a couple days from now. Of course, there is a nice, big leak! Mashable.com reports that the Pixel 7 has a 6.3 inch display and a 90 Hertz refresh rate…the latter not even an upgrade from the 6. The rear cams are also unchanged. The Pixel 7 pro has a humongous 6.7 inch screen with  adaptive 120 Hertz refresh rate…that’s the same as last Year’s Pixel 6 Pro, but also the same as the new iPhone 14 Plus and Pro Max. One leak has face unlock and another doesn’t…so on that point, we’ll have to wait a couple days to see which is right.  

If you have an Android phone and you’re having the sads because your phone doesn’t have a ‘dynamic island’ like the new iPhone 14s, cheer up! ‘There’s an app for that!’ Androidpolice.com says you can get DynamicSpot…which has already gotten a million downloads at the Google Play store! You will need a relatively recent Android that has a hole-punch cutout. If so, you’re good to go. No more Apple envy…at least for this feature.

A three judge panel on the District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeal ruled unanimously that CVS and Walmart will have to go to trial over placing homeopathic products right next to legitimate over the counter medicines approved by the FDA. Arstechnica.com says the cases were filed against the firms by the nonprofit Center for Inquiry in 2018 and 2019. CFI may need more evidence to prove their case at trial, but they claimed that deceptive placement of the water-based products violated the District of Columbia Consumer Protection Procedures Act (CPPA).

YouTube-Pay For 4K; Dish & Sling Drop Disney Channels; Stadia-RIP; TikTok Live Shopping

How about another fee to pay? Now, YouTube is asking users to subscribe to Premium to watch 4K videos. Engadget.com reports that Premium does eliminate ads, and gets you background playback and new features, but some users on Reddit and Twitter have posted that they are being dinged to watch in 4K now. It’s not clear if this is a test, or a full rollout, but it will set you back $12 a month for YouTube Premium if you want to watch in 4K.

Dish and Sling TV have dropped channels after failing to get a deal made before a contract expired. According to theverge.com, Disney Channel, ESPN, FX, Freeform, National Geographic, and some local ABC networks are no longer available. Dish is claiming that Disney had demanded a $1 billion fee increase and ‘walked away from the negotiation table.’ For its part, Disney says Dish “declined to reach a fair, market-based agreement.” 

**Update- At least some service has been restored today. Channels were off last night. The sides have apparently resumed trying to make a deal.

Google has struggled to get any kind of real traction for its Stadia gaming system. Now, it looks like they are finally throwing in the towel. 9to5google.com says they have released a final 6 games for the Stadia Pro subscribers before closing the Stadia Store to the public. The plug-pulling caught not only subscribers by surprise…some game publishers said they had no idea, and even some of Google’s own Stadia employees didn’t know about the closure until about 30 minutes before the public announcement. 

TikTok is launching live shopping in the US, in partnership with TalkShopLive. Financial Times reports that TalkShop will provide the tech and support for live streams hosted by influencers, brands, and retailers that want to sell their products on the app. TikTok Shop launched in Britain last year, and has been available in more than a half dozen Asian countries. 

Russia’s Meta Campaign Against Ukraine; Fast Company Hack; Tesla-Fleet Deliveries; Samsung Galaxy S23 Leak

Meta caught and disrupted a highly sophisticated Russian influence operation that had been launched on its Facebook and Instagram platforms…as well as on Twitter, YouTube, Telegram, and LiveJournal. Theverge.com reports that the propaganda was being spread by a network of over 60 fake websites. A number of the sites impersonated actual mainstream European news sources like Der Spiegel, The Guardian, and Bild. The propaganda criticized Ukraine and Ukrainian refugees, and railed against sanctions on Russia. Meta said “This is the largest and most complex Russian-origin operation that we’ve disrupted since the beginning of the war in Ukraine.” The Russians apparently spent around $105,000 on promoting the articles and memes via Facebook and instagram ads. 

Biz-tech magazine Fast Company reported this week that its Apple News account was hacked, and the hacker then proceeded to bomb subscribers with racist content. According to gizmodo.com, the magazine made the announcement on Twitter, saying that “Two obscene and racist push notifications were sent about a minute apart. The messages are vile and not in line with the content and ethos of Fast Company,”  Apple News disabled the channel until they are able to resolve the situation. 

Tesla is shooting for a new all-time delivery record this quarter, and hypoing sales by pumping out a large volume of fleet deliveries. Electrek.co notes that Tesla is trying to fill a Hertz order for 100,000 vehicles by year’s end, and is also selling to other car rental companies such as Avis and Enterprise. EV subscription service Autonomy is expecting to take delivery of about 500 vehicles by the end of the week. Autonomy has 23,000 EVs on order…most of them Teslas. Unlike legacy car makers, Tesla doesn’t give a discount to car rental companies. 

There are always more and earlier leaks about Samsung’s smartphones compared to notoriously secretive Apple. Now, cnet.com says photos have leaked online of the upcoming Galaxy S23 that’s due out early next year. The pics don’t really show much of a change, save for a slight update to the rear camera. Again, the lenses aren’t on a ‘bump,’ but just protrude individually. the phone also appears to be just about 6.1 inches…like the S22. (It is actually a couple tenths of an inch bigger.) Word is that inside, the next Samsung will be powered by a new Exynos processor, and may get a 200Mp sensor on the Ultra model. 

WhatsApp Squashes Critical Bug; Amazon ‘Prime Early Access’ Sale; Ad Fraud Apps Removed from Google & Apple Stores; New Deepfake Threat

WhatsApp haș  crushed a ‘critical’ security vulnerability that affects its Android app. The bug allowed attackers to remotely plant malware on a victim’s smartphone during a video call. Techcrunch.com reports that the bug had a severity rating of 9.8 out of 10! Malwarebytes said it was an app component called ‘Video Call Handler,’ which when triggered allowed an attacker to take complete control over a victim’s app. The bug was discovered in house and, and WhatsApp says they have seen ‘no evidence of exploitation.’ The patch is in the latest version of WhatsApp. Install it now!

Amazon has slated its two-day ‘Prime Early Access Sale’ for October 11th and 12th. According to geekwire.com, the online giant hopes to boost sales similarly to the bump they get from Prime Day during the summer. They will release a Top 100 list of products in conjunction with the sale. Amazon says no decision has been made on this becoming an annual event. HINT: If it is successful, you can count on it!

Security researchers from HUMAN’s Satori Threat Intelligence Team spotted 75 apps on the Google Play Store and 10 on Apple’s App Store that engaged in fraud. All together, they had been downloaded 13 million times. Bleepingcomputer.com says that besides flooding mobile users with ads…both visible and hidden, the apps generated revenue by impersonating legitimate apps. Both Google and Apple have removed them all after being notified. 

Deepfakes are unfortunately getting better. In a research paper by Microsoft’s Chief Science Officer Eric Horovitz, he warns of ‘interactive’ and ‘compositional’ deepfakes on the horizon. Venturebeat.com reports that interactive deepfakes as “the illusion of talking to a real person. Imagine a scammer calling your grandmom who looks and sounds exactly like you.” Compositional deepfakes, he continued, go further with a bad actor creating many deepfakes to compile a “synthetic history.” Thankfully, in the paper, Horvitz cites a variety of ways governments, organizations, researchers and enterprises can prepare for and defend against the expected rise of interactive and compositional deepfakes…including more use of multi factor identification, new watermarking, and more fingerprint ID. Let’s hope they get busy!

Apple-Maybe No Oct. Event; Starlink Speeds Slowing Down; Microsoft-Results Not Micromanaging; Mercedes EV G-Wagen in 2024

Apple watching analyst Mark Gurman of Bloomberg is now saying there may not be a physical or online event in October to roll out more Apple products. He is saying that the updated iPad Pro, Mac Mini, and the M-2 chipped 14 and 16-inch MacBook Pros may just be announced by a press release on the Apple website instead. Apple had originally planned an October product event. Another nugget from Gurman’s PowerOn newsletter…Apple may ditch the ‘Pro Max’ name for its top of the line iPhone 15 next September. Apple may decide to go with “Ultra,” instead. That’s what Cupertino is calling the new top Apple Watch.

Starlink median download speeds have dropped rather dramatically this year. Arstechnica.com reports that Ookla speed tests show they are down from 90.6 Mbps to 62.6 Mbps. Upload speeds are also way down…as low as 2 Mbps…Starlink has been telling users to expect 10 to 20 Mbps for those. One bright spot…latency is still relatively flat, but still higher than fixed broadband service in most countries. 

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella says remote work has spurred “productivity paranoia” among managers, leading to efforts to spy on employees. Businessinsider.com says that Microsoft held a corporate survey that polled 20,000 people across 11 countries on productivity during the era of remote and hybrid work. The survey found that 85% of managers are concerned that workers aren’t being productive and 87% of employees say they are working effectively — a disconnect between workers and managers that Microsoft aims to fix. Microsoft VP Jared Spatero added “We don’t think that employers should be surveilling and taking note of the activity of keystrokes and mouse clicks and those types of things because, in so many ways, we feel like that’s measuring heat rather than outcome.”

Mercedes-Benz electric G-Wagon will be hitting the streets in the middle of 2024, according to theverge.com. The word came from a roundtable the Mercedes chairman held for reporters this week. He didn’t reveal any information about range, battery size, or power output…or of course, the price.  It will have all-wheel drive, though. Mercedes plans to go all-electric by 2030. 

Spotify Sells Audiobooks; Morgan Stanley Fined-Security Lapses; Google’s ‘Results About You’; Nvidia Bows Next High End GPU

Spotify moves into another area to feed more to your ears. Mashable.com reports that they picked up audio book platform Findaway in 2021, and now are launching Spotify Audiobooks in the US. One big difference between the books and the music streams and podcasts on the platform—the books aren’t free. You will have to pay like with Spotify Premium…and by the way, there’s no discount for Premium users on books. Spotify says they have over 300,000 titles to choose from. 

Morgan Stanley has been fined for playing fast and loose with customer data. According to arstechnica.com, for 5 years they sold unencrypted, unwired hard drives at auction! The Security and Exchange Commission has nicked them for $35 million. The SEC says data for more than 15 million customers was exposed. Of course, besides the fine, there are no consequences to the bank. They paid the fine with the usual ‘we neither admit nor deny’. 

In May, at their I/O event, Google announced a new tool to streamline the process of removing Search results that contain your contact and other personal identifiable information (PII), and it’s now starting to go live. 9to5google.com says you can open the Google app on Android and when you tap the profile avatar in the top right corner, you’ll see a new ‘Results about you” menu item. From there, you can hit a page that tells how to ask Google to remove Search results that contain your phone number, home address, email, etc. There is an ‘In Progress’ and an ‘Approved’ feed where you can check back and see what they have removed.

The last several years, graphics processors have been hard to get and crazy expensive, driven by crypto miners who have been scooping them up to make money in the crypto field. Now, Nvidia has debuted a new high end RTX 4090 GPU…for $1599. Techcrunch.com notes that the new 4-series cards have a new architecture that improves image quality…and of course are faster than ever. The cards will be available in November, so long as you have the ‘coin.’

Gmail & Political Mail; VW ID Buzz Production Bump; Amazon Product Event; Pixel 7 May Be Slightly Late

In a move to appease politicians…and one none of the rest of us will like, Google will apparently launch a pilot program to exempt political campaign email from the spam filter. 9to5google.com reports that this is to stay in the good graces of the Federal Election Commission. In a concession to non-politicians who hate the begging spam, there will be a ‘prominent notification’ asking ‘whether the user wishes to continue receiving messages from the sender.’ Now you will have to click on that email from the politician’s so-called ‘personal account!’

Volkswagen is apparently getting much stronger interest than expected in their ID Buzz…the electric revival of the legendary micro bus. Although production is still 2 years from hitting the pavement, VW has started taking orders in Europe, and according to arstechnica.com, the demand has been so strong, they are bumping production up to 130,000 units a year. The Buzz is built on VW’s modular EV platform. The initial ones will be a smaller, two row passenger version and a commercial version that ls all cargo space. They plan to start building US ones for sale here in 2024 in their Chattanooga, TN plant.

Amazon’s annual product launch event kicks off virtually next week, on September 28th. Theverge.com says it will begin at 9am Pacific. The online giant is expected to roll out new Echo devices, new Ring products, new services, and more. Interestingly, there haven’t been many leaks about what’s coming. Don’t expect much regarding Roomba…which amazon bought…the acquisition of Roomba maker iRobot hasn’t closed yet. 

Google’s launch event is coming up on October 6th, and new Pixel 7, Pixel 7 Pro, Pixel Watch, and Nest products are expected. Androidpolice.com note that a usually reliably leaker—Caschys Blog—says that although the devices will be shown that day, the Pixel 7 won’t really be available for sale October 13th, as expected. You will be able to preorder after the 6th, but the Pixel 7’s won’t be available until October 18th. As for the Pixel Watch, it won’t be arriving until November 4th.