Meta Announces New Tools to Help Teens Fight Sextortion; YouTube Has Apple Vision Pro App in Works; Bluesky Opening to Public; Android 15 May Get Freeze Feature for All Unused Apps

Posted: February 6, 2024 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

Meta is rolling out new updates to help teens on its platforms that will help teens battle sextortion. According to techcrunch.com, Meta is expanding availability of Take It Down, an online tool that it helps finance and is run by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). The company also updated its Sextortion hub with new guidance and is launching a global campaign to raise awareness about sextortion. Take It Down is intended to stop the spread of non-consensual intimate imagery. It allows teens to take back control of their personal intimate photos and prevents ex-partners and scammers from spreading them online. The system can be used by people under 18 who are worried their content has been or may be posted online. It can also be used by parents or trusted adults on behalf of a young person. Plus, it can be used by adults who are concerned about images taken of them when they were under 18.

We have previously reported that neither Netflix nor YouTube nor Spotify would have a native app for Apple’s new Vision Pro headset. Now, bgr.com reports that YouTube spokesperson Jessica Gibby has said that a native Vision Pro app is “on our roadmap,” but she didn’t share a release date. While we wait on a native app from YouTube, there’s already one developer that beat them to the punch. Christian Selig, the developer of the beloved Apollo for Reddit app that shut down recently, whipped up a third-party YouTube app called Juno for the headset. The app costs $4.99 and gives users the full native experience that Google hasn’t built yet.

Bluesky, the social media platform started by Jack Dorsey, former CEO of Twitter, has been available by invitation only for a while. Now, theverge.com says the app is ready to go public. Bluesky had grown to 2 million users and 3 million sign ups in closed beta, but has quite a ways to go to get even remotely close to Twitter successor X, or even Meta’s Threads app. 

Google has had a feature in place that archives unused apps to save memory. Now, androidpolice.com reports that Android 15 may extend the auto-archiving feature for unused apps to ones side loaded from other sources besides the Play Store. When you archive an app on Android, it does some spring cleaning. The heavy stuff gets tossed out, leaving behind a slimmed-down version on your device. Archived apps are also easy to spot—just look for a cloud icon hanging out on the app icon. If you ever feel the need to resurrect an archived app, just give it a tap. It’ll zip back to life, fully restored, as long as the app is still available.

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

New Nonprofit AI Tool to Detect Deepfakes, etc; Apple-600 Native Apps Available for Vision Pro Tomorrow; US Social Media Use; Tesla Sued over Hazardous Waste by 25 California Counties

Posted: February 1, 2024 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

A new nonprofit, nonpartisan tech organization called TrueMedia is working on an AI-powered tool to detect deepfake videos, photos, and audio, aiming to combat political disinformation in the run up to the 2024 elections. According to geekwire.com, it’s headed up by a University of Washington professor who was also CEO of the Allen Institute for AI. TrueMedia plans to release a free, web-based tool in the first quarter of this year that combines advances from TrueMedia with existing deepfake detection tools in areas including computer vision and audio analysis. It will be available initially for use by journalists, fact-checkers, and online influencers before broader public release later in the year.

A day ahead of the release of the Apple Vision Pro, Apple has announced over 600 apps that are optimized and ready to use on the pricy headset. We reported earlier about all the Microsoft apps, but now here are some others, as reported by macrumors.com. For entertainment, we already noted that Netflix and YouTube won’t have apps…but Disney+, IMAX, Max, MLB, NBA, PGA TOUR Vision, and Red Bull TV have all been optimized to take full advantage of the Vision Pro’s spatial design elements and immersive capabilities. In addition, soccer fans can subscribe to MLS Season Pass in the Apple TV app. A few other notable apps include Box, Wayfair, Webex, Zillow, Zoom, Airmail, Night Sky, Parcel. There are also over a million apps that are really for iOS and iPadOS, but will run on the Vision Pro. 

With Congress grilling the social media CEOs yesterday, how much do Americans use social media? Here are some numbers from Pew Research…this is the % of all US adults who say they ever use the platforms. Here are the top 10: YouTube rules, with 83%, Facebook is #2 with 68%. Instagram claims 47% of Americans, Pinterest has 35%, TikTok gets 33%, LinkedIn garners 30%. WhatsApp is close behind at 29%, Snapchat gets 27%, X has 22%, and Reddit also has 22%. 

Twenty five California counties have sued Tesla, alleging that the automaker has repeatedly mishandled hazardous waste at facilities throughout the state. The lawsuit was filed after months of settlement talks apparently fell apart. The claim states that Tesla  improperly labeled and disposed of materials like “lead acid batteries and other batteries,” paints, brake fluid, aerosols, antifreeze, acetone, diesel fuel and more at its production and service facilities throughout the state. Tesla also allegedly improperly disposed of the waste, both on-site and at landfills that can’t accept hazardous waste. Tesla could be on the hook for as much as $70,000 per violation per day, according to Reuters, which first reported the suit. For its part, Tesla says it “had implemented various remedial measures, including conducting training and audits, and enhancements to its site waste management programs.”

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

Unredacted Meta Docs-“Historical Reluctance’ to Protect Kids; Apple SellingWatch 9 & Ultra Sans Blood Oxygen Feature; Samsung Teases Smart Ring; Costco Trials Membership Card Scan for Entrance

Posted: January 18, 2024 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

Internal Meta documents about child safety have been unsealed as part of a lawsuit filed by the New Mexico Department of Justice against both Meta and its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg. The documents reveal that Meta not only intentionally marketed its messaging platforms to children, but also knew about the massive volume of inappropriate and sexually explicit content being shared between adults and minors. TechCrunch.com reports that the documents were unsealed yesterday as part of an amended complaint. In a statement to TechCrunch, New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez said that Meta and Zuckerberg enabled child predators to sexually exploit children. Originally filed in December, the lawsuit alleges that Meta platforms like Instagram and Facebook have become “a marketplace for predators in search of children upon whom to prey,” and that Meta failed to remove many instances of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) after they were reported on Instagram and Facebook. 

Apple Watch 9 and Ultra 2 models are back on sale today, albeit without the Blood Oxygen feature that is at the center of legal action between Cupertino and Masimo. According to macrumors.com, removing the feature allows Apple to continue selling the watches and stay in the good graces of the US International Trade Commission. Older Watch models and those sold outside the US will still have the Blood Oxygen feature. Apple is appealing a ruling in Masimo’s favor by the ITCk and is also working on changes to the Blood Oxygen app’s algorithm in an attempt to avoid Masimo’s patented technology.

After all the hoopla surrounding the new Galaxy smartphones at Samsung Unpacked yesterday, the company had a quick video tease about the Galaxy Ring they are working on. Theverge.com notes that the ring is intended to be what the company called a “powerful and accessible” health and wellness device. Samsung didn’t provide any details about the tech in the ring, when it might be released, or pricing. Here’s a hint from last year though… Samsung filed a patent for a smart ring that would offer EKG and smart home controls. 

In case you missed it, Costco is running a trial at some stores, requiring you to scan your card in a scanner to get into the store. Geekwire.com reports that instead of flashing your card to an employee, the scanner will be able to tell if the person holding the card is really a member, since they have your photo on them. Costco says this is to prevent account sharing. The company claims it is able to sell items so cheaply partly due to the membership fees paid each year by members. When you pay, you will no longer need to have the card scanned again as has been the practice up to now. We may know later this year if Costco will adapt the new system to all stores.

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

Unredacted Meta Docs-“Historical Reluctance’ to Protect Kids; Apple SellingWatch 9 & Ultra Sans Blood Oxygen Feature; Samsung Teases Smart Ring; Costco Trials Membership Card Scan for Entrance

Posted: January 18, 2024 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

Internal Meta documents about child safety have been unsealed as part of a lawsuit filed by the New Mexico Department of Justice against both Meta and its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg. The documents reveal that Meta not only intentionally marketed its messaging platforms to children, but also knew about the massive volume of inappropriate and sexually explicit content being shared between adults and minors. TechCrunch.com reports that the documents were unsealed yesterday as part of an amended complaint. In a statement to TechCrunch, New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez said that Meta and Zuckerberg enabled child predators to sexually exploit children. Originally filed in December, the lawsuit alleges that Meta platforms like Instagram and Facebook have become “a marketplace for predators in search of children upon whom to prey,” and that Meta failed to remove many instances of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) after they were reported on Instagram and Facebook. 

Apple Watch 9 and Ultra 2 models are back on sale today, albeit without the Blood Oxygen feature that is at the center of legal action between Cupertino and Masimo. According to macrumors.com, removing the feature allows apple to continue selling the watches and stay in the good graces of the US International Trade Commission. Older Watch models and those sold outside the US will still have the Blood Oxygen feature. Apple is appealing a ruling in Masimo’s favor by the ITCk and is also working on changes to the Blood Oxygen app’s algorithm in an attempt to avoid Masimo’s patented technology.

After all the hoopla surrounding the new Galaxy smartphones at Samsung Unpacked yesterday, the company had a quick video tease about the Galaxy Ring they are working on. Theverge.com notes that the ring is intended to be what the company called a “powerful and accessible” health and wellness device. Samsung didn’t provide any details about the tech in the ring, when it might be released, or pricing. Here’s a hint from last year though… Samsung filed a patent for a smart ring that would offer EKG and smart home controls. 

In case you missed it, Costco is running a trial at some stores, requiring you to scan your card in a scanner to get into the store. Geekwire.com reports that instead of flashing your card to an employee, the scanner will be able to tell if the person holding the card is really a member, since they have your photo on them. Costco says this is to prevent account sharing. The company claims it is able to sell items so cheaply partly due to the membership fees paid each year by members. When you pay, you will no longer need to have the card scanned again as has been the practice up to now. We may know later this year if Costco will adapt the new system to all stores.

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

Samsung & Huawei Cut in To Apple’s Premium Phone Sales; Nikon, Sony, & Canon Fight AI Fakes With Tech; 40% of US Electricity is Now Emissions Free; First EV With Lithium-Free Sodium Battery Hits Market

Posted: January 2, 2024 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

Samsung and Huawei were able to shave off a few percentage points from Apple in the premium smartphone market in 2023. 9to5mac.com, citing a report from Counterpoint Research, says that almost a quarter of smartphones sold worldwide in the past year were so-called premium devices…defined as over $600 wholesale…which generally means a retail price of $800 or more. Don’t shed too many tears for Apple, though. They only dropped from 75% to 71% of the premium market! Samsung has 17%, and Huawei is up from 3% to 5%. 

It will likely be an ongoing cat and mouse game for decades to come…people putting out more fake images and videos, and companies and governments trying to stop or at least label them. Now, according to a report from nikkei.com, Nikon, Sony, and Canon are developing camera technology that embeds digital signatures in images so that they can be distinguished from increasingly sophisticated fakes. All three makers will roll out top end cameras with digital signatures. When a photographer sends images to a news organization, Sony’s authentication servers detect digital signatures and determine whether they are AI-generated. Sony and The Associated Press field-tested this tool In October. Besides these big 3 camera makers, in August, Google released a tool that embeds invisible digital watermarks into AI-generated pictures. I expect an ongoing battle between the fakers and the tech companies and governments…not unlike that which has gone on for years between the makers of police radar and the radar detection makers. 

In some good news over the holidays, the US Energy Information Agency dropped some data on US electrical generation. Arstechnica.com notes that the monthly data runs through October, so it doesn’t provide a complete picture of the changes we’ve seen in 2023. Some of the trends now seem locked in for the year though: wind and solar are likely to be in a dead heat with coal, and all carbon-emissions-free sources combined will account for roughly 40 percent of US electricity production. In addition, energy use is almost flat…only up 1% year over year. This is in keeping with a general trend of flat-to-declining electricity use as greater efficiency is offsetting factors like population growth and expanding electrification. That’s important because it means that any newly added capacity will displace the use of existing facilities. And, at the moment, that displacement is happening to coal.

A Volkswagen-backed Chinese car maker called JAC Motors is launching the first mass-produced EV with a sodium-ion battery instead of Lithium-Ion. Engadget.com reports that although sodium-ion battery tech has a lower density (and is less mature) than lithium-ion, its lower costs, more abundant supplies and superior cold-weather performance could help accelerate mass EV adoption. CarNewsChina reports that the JAC Yiwei EV hatchback deliveries will begin in January. There are several other types of batteries coming that are aimed at getting away from lithium, which is rare and environmentally unfriendly to mine. China has one of the largest known supply, with another large one in Southern California. A company says they have worked out an environmentally friendly way to mine the US cache of the metal, but has yet to begin.

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

Samsung & Huawei Cut in To Apple’s Premium Phone Sales; Nikon, Sony, & Canon Fight AI Fakes With Tech; 40% of US Electricity is Now Emissions Free; First EV With Lithium-Free Sodium Battery Hits Market

Posted: January 2, 2024 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

Samsung and Huawei were able to shave off a few percentage points from Apple in the premium smartphone market in 2023. 9to5mac.com, citing a report from Counterpoint Research, says that almost a quarter of smartphones sold worldwide in the past year were so-called premium devices…defined as over $600 wholesale…which generally means a retail price of $800 or more. Don’t shed too many tears for Apple, though. They only dropped from 75% to 71% of the premium market! Samsung has 17%, and Huawei is up from 3% to 5%. 

It will likely be an ongoing cat and mouse game for decades to come…people putting out more fake images and videos, and companies and governments trying to stop or at least label them. Now, according to a report from nikkei.com, Nikon, Sony, and Canon are developing camera technology that embeds digital signatures in images so that they can be distinguished from increasingly sophisticated fakes. All three makers will roll out top end cameras with digital signatures. When a photographer sends images to a news organization, Sony’s authentication servers detect digital signatures and determine whether they are AI-generated. Sony and The Associated Press field-tested this tool In October. Besides these big 3 camera makers, in August, Google released a tool that embeds invisible digital watermarks into AI-generated pictures. I expect an ongoing battle between the fakers and the tech companies and governments…not unlike that which has gone on for years between the makers of police radar and the radar detection makers. 

In some good news over the holidays, the US Energy Information Agency dropped some data on US electrical generation. Arstechnica.com notes that the monthly data runs through October, so it doesn’t provide a complete picture of the changes we’ve seen in 2023. Some of the trends now seem locked in for the year though: wind and solar are likely to be in a dead heat with coal, and all carbon-emissions-free sources combined will account for roughly 40 percent of US electricity production. In addition, energy use is almost flat…only up 1% year over year. This is in keeping with a general trend of flat-to-declining electricity use as greater efficiency is offsetting factors like population growth and expanding electrification. That’s important because it means that any newly added capacity will displace the use of existing facilities. And, at the moment, that displacement is happening to coal.

A Volkswagen-backed Chinese car maker called JAC Motors is launching the first mass-produced EV with a sodium-ion battery instead of Lithium-Ion. Engadget.com reports that although sodium-ion battery tech has a lower density (and is less mature) than lithium-ion, its lower costs, more abundant supplies and superior cold-weather performance could help accelerate mass EV adoption. CarNewsChina reports that the JAC Yiwei EV hatchback deliveries will begin in January. There are several other types of batteries coming that are aimed at getting away from lithium, which is rare and environmentally unfriendly to mine. China has one of the largest known supply, with another large one in Southern California. A company says they have worked out an environmentally friendly way to mine the US cache of the metal, but has yet to begin.

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

Appeals Court Pauses Apple Watch Ban; NY Times Sues OpenAI & Microsoft -Copyright Infringement; Amazon Prime Video Gets Ads in January; Get Instant $7500 EV Credit at over 7,000 Car Dealers Now

Posted: December 27, 2023 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

Even though the Biden Administration didn’t intervene and stop the International Trade Commission ban on current Apple Watch model sales, a court has. Reuters.com reports that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has granted Apple’s emergency request to halt the order after Apple appealed the U.S. International Trade Commission’s (ITC) decision that it had infringed Masimo’s patents over blood oxygen monitoring. Masimo didn’t have an immediate response to the court’s move. The court is considering a longer term pause requested by Apple, and the ITC has until January 10th to respond. 

Meanwhile, in another legal move affecting tech companies, the New York Times has sued OpenAI and Microsoft for copyright infringement. According to theverge.com, the times claims the two companies built their AI models by “copying and using millions” of the publication’s articles and now “directly compete” with its content as a result. the Times alleges OpenAI and Microsoft’s large language models (LLMs), which power ChatGPT and Copilot, “can generate output that recites Times content verbatim, closely summarizes it, and mimics its expressive style.” The Times alleges that this damages its relationship with readers and deprives it of revenue.

We reported this in September, but just a heads up as the time approaches. Amazon Prime Video will begin showing ads alongside content unless customers pay an additional fee starting in January 2024. Amazon has supposedly sent out a reminder video to Prime Members, although I haven’t gotten one yet. At any rate, 9to5google.com notes that you will need to fork over an extra $2.99 a month to the online giant if you want to avoid betting bombarded by what Amazon calls ‘limited advertisements.’ 

Federal tax credits have been around for a while to help cut the expense of electric vehicles, but there has been that pesky catch…you had to wait for tax time to get the money. In fact, if you bought an EV last April, you could be waiting until April 2024 for the tax credit. Now, as bgr.com reports, there are some 7,000 car dealers that have signed up for a program to get you the credit immediately…right off the price of the car. It’s either $7500 for many new EVs, and $3500 for used. 

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

Apple Stops Watch Sales-Patent Dispute; EU Investigating X Over Israeli-Hamas War Content; Britain’s NHS to Deliver Med Supplies via Drone; Tesla Model 3 May Sues $7500 Credit-New Battery Rules

Posted: December 18, 2023 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

A long simmering patent dispute is stopping Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2 sales later this week. 9to5mac.com reports the action is coming due to an ITC ruling over the dispute between Apple and Masimo, a medical tech company about the Apple Watch’s blood oxygen sensor tech. The International 

Trade Commission  announced its ruling in October, upholding a judge’s decision from January. This sent the case to the Biden administration for a 60-day Presidential Review Period. During this process, President Biden could veto the ruling, although this has not yet occurred. The Presidential Review Period expires on December 25, and Apple is making this announcement today to “preemptively” take steps to comply with the ITC’s decision. Existing Apple Watches, including the Series 9 and Ultra 2 models, and older models with blood oxygen sensors which have already been sold will not be affected. 

The European Union has started a formal Digital Services Act investigation into X, with regulators saying the platform may have broken the EU’s rules. The major issue is quote “the dissemination of illegal content in the context of Hamas’ terrorist attacks against Israel.” According to theverge.com, the commission said it will look at X’s attempts to counter the spread of illegal content on its platform and will examine X’s efforts to stop “information manipulation” via its Community Notes system and other policies. It’s also looking into matters beyond content moderation, including “deceptive design” relating to “the so-called Blue checks,” advertising transparency, and data access for researchers.

The UK’s National Health Service is launching a drone delivery program across 30 medical facilities in the north of the country. Thenextweb.com says the aim is to cut costs, while improving service to hundreds of thousands of patients. The Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust has been experimenting with autonomous drone deliveries for a while now, in partnership with UK-based Apian. While the healthcare trust’s drone trials have been pretty small-scale to date, it just teamed up with San Francisco-based Zipline — the world’s largest autonomous drone delivery company. Zipline’s fixed-wing drones can travel up to130 miles and parachute packages onto hospital landing zones.

Tesla’s model 3 is about to lose the $7500 federal subsidy the first of the year. Arstechnica.com reports that this is due to the new battery rules that came with the IRS clean vehicle tax credit starting in 2024. The Model 3 Performance may retain elgiblity. An additional wrinkle that comes to into effect involves materials from so-called ‘foreign entities of concern.’ One of those is China. Tesla isn’t the only maker to get a cut in subsidy….Ford thinks the Mustang Mach-E will lose its $3750 tax credit the first of the year, too.

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

Most Popular App Store Apps 2023; Jury Finds Google Has Monopoly in App Store Battle; Ford Cutting Production on F-150 Lightning EV Trucks; Microsoft Agrees to Union Position on Use of AI

Posted: December 12, 2023 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

As we near the end of the year, there are always a myriad of lists that come out. Here’s one that is interesting I think. Apple has revealed the most popular App Store apps and games of 2023. Macrumors.com has details on the top free and top paid apps. We’ll just cover the top free apps here. Topping the list is Chinese shopping app Temu. In 2nd place is CapCut Video Editor. #3 is Max, the streaming app for HBO. 4th place is Threads, the barely 6 month old Meta answer to what Twitter used to be before Elon Musk changed it to X and mucked it all up. TikTok is holding down 5th place, and as we reported, it has become the first non-game to top $10 billion in revenue. Instagram is #6…probably getting some growth from people who had to sign up for it like I did in order to sign up for Threads. Google is the 7th place app, and Alphabet—or Google-owned YouTube is close behind at 8th. In 9th place is WhatsApp Messenger…also owned by Meta. 10th place is Gmail. It’s worth noting that 3 of the top ten apps are owned by Meta, and 3 are owned by Google parent Alphabet…so 60% of the top ten apps are owned by two companies…and two apps…Temu and TikTok…come from China. 

It’s being called an Epic win…typical of reporters who love such plays on words…but a jury found in favor of Epic games vs Google over their claimed illegal monopoly battle about Google’s App Store. According to theverge.com, the jury found  that Google turned its Google Play app store and Google Play Billing service into an illegal monopoly. This case was much different from the one Epic lost vs Apple. Here, the issue turned on secret revenue sharing deals between Google, smartphone makers, and big game developers, ones that Google execs internally believed were designed to keep rival app stores down. The damages and remedies are yet to be decided, and you can bet on Google appealing, but for now, Epic as the boss of the level has beaten mighty Google.

Earlier in the year, Ford announced it was dramatically increasing production of the then hot selling F-150 Lightening electric pickup. Now, the Blue Oval company is halving production as sales have slowed. Arstechnica.com says production will drop from 3200 trucks a week to 1600. Ford has said they weren’t making money on the truck, and goosed the base price considerably earlier…from $39,974 before tax credits up about $10 grand to $49,995. Guess what, Ford? You are out of the ‘sweet spot’ for regular joe buyers at that price point. Battery packs are expensive, but with so many less components…like big engines and transmissions, and the like…it seems like they could actually have been making some money at the lower figure…maybe just not what they wanted to make. 

Not an historically union friendly employer, but Microsoft has agreed to union contract language about the use of artificial intelligence. The deal gives workers a voice when challenging how the tech is employed. Engadget.com reports that this is the first time ever Microsoft has done collective bargaining. The Communications Workers of America contract language pretty well echoes Microsoft’s previously announced AI principles, including that AI systems will “treat all people fairly” and “empower everyone.” To that end, it will give employees covered under the contract an avenue of recourse should they feel that Microsoft isn’t holding up its end of the bargain. Principles are fine, but now, it is memorialized in a written contract, which should offer employees more security when it comes to future AI tech.

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

Facebook Keyword Snooze; Apple Content Bundle; Google Duplex; Amazon Delivery Entrepreneurs

Posted: June 28, 2018 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Facebook is trying out a useful feature to add to their 30 day snooze feature. Instead of snoozing accounts that annoy you, you can snooze by keyword to fight spoilers for sports events, movies, and even triggers…like the names of politicians you may be fed up with seeing posts about. The test drive of this feature is rolling out this week to a small number of users, who will be able to make such things go away for 30 days in their news feeds and groups. Techcrunch.com reports you go to a post in your feed with the subject, then hit the dropdown and look for the word you want to snooze…say for example ‘World Cup.’ Facebook says requests for the feature kept coming up in interviews with users, so they’re giving it a test run.

Apple is reported to be working on a big bundle of services including original TV content, Apple Music, and news. Macrumors.com says Apple has ordered multiple original shows, so won’t continue to offer all of them for free like Carpool Karaoke on Apple Music. The news and digital magazines from Texture will also be included in the service along with Apple Music…all for one price. Apple will continue to offer all of the services a la carte, too. The original TV series are expected to roll out next March, and it’s likely the bundled service will debut at that time, too. Pricing is apparently still up in the air, but top tier Netflix is about $14, so a good guess would be something like $25 a month for the 4 bundled services. 

Yesterday, Google gave some journalists the chance to demo their Duplex intelligent assistant. The AI with the human-like voice and delivery had been debuted earlier with a call to make a hair appointment at a beauty shop. According to theverge.com, this demo had reporters (actually at a restaurant in Mountain View) call a restaurant and try to book a reservation. Google says they will be expanding tests for the AI system in coming weeks with a group of ‘trusted tester users.’ The larger test will be with businesses Google has already partnered with. The test calls are limited to holiday hours, booking a restaurant reservation, and hair appointments, the only 3 domains Duplex has been trained for so far. As a backup, Google does have a bank of human operators standing by for when Duplex inevitably goes sideways.

Amazon has rolled out…in home town Seattle at first…a new delivery program, staffed by entrepreneurs decked out in Prime branded vans and uniforms. Geekwire.com notes that Amazon has already been using this type of ‘last mile’ service to supplement the post office, UPS, and FedEx, but those have been plain white vans and only in some cases, an Amazon branded safety vest. This new program lets entrepreneurs own a delivery fleet of up to 40 vehicles and field staff of up to 100 employees. Amazon requires them to offer healthcare, paid time off, and competitive wages. The online giant said entrepreneurs can get started with as low as $10,000 and earn up to $300,000 annually in profit.

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