Samsung All In With Google Messages; CrowdStrike Mess-Delta Cancels 1,000 More Flights; Astronomers Find New Way to Spot AI Deepfakes; EVs-New Battery Tech is 50% Lighter

Posted: July 22, 2024 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

Samsung will stop pre-installing Samsung Messages on Galaxy phones, and just go with Google Messages. 9to5google.com reports that…starting with the Z Fold 6 and Z Flip 6, you will just get Googles Messages. RCS will be enabled by default on the phones in the Google Messages app. The Samsung app will still be available for download at the Galaxy Store, but with a note that ’some features will be excluded.’

Although it’s been since Thursday, some users are still dealing with the aftermath of the corrupt CrowdStrike download that screwed up what Microsoft claims was a little over 8 million computers. Microsoft says that is about 1% of the installed base. That noted, according to engadget.com, Delta has had to cancel over 1,000 more flights…it’s a total of about 5,000 flights cancelled now, and around 1,700 delayed. That amounts to around a third of Delta’s scheduled flights. Delta was the worst hit US airline, with United a distant second…at 266 flights cancelled on Sunday. At first, United and Delta told stranded travelers that they wouldn’t cover bills since the CrowdStrike crash was out of their control. However, US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg later stepped in and said that he considered the situation self-inflicted, so carriers would need to cover food, transportation and lodging costs for any delays longer than three hours as required by law. Secretary Pete also said don’t let them talk you into a credit…you can get the cash back…that’s the law!

In an interesting application of one tech to another, astronomers and researchers at the University of Hull have shown a novel way to detect AI Deepfakes. Arstechnica.com says it involves analyzing the reflections in human eyes. The technique was shown at the Royal Astronomical Society meeting last week. It utilizes tools used by astronomers. A pair of eyes being illuminated by the same set of light sources will normally have similarly shaped light reflections in each eyeball. Most AI deepfakes so far don’t account for eyeball reflections, so they show up inconsistently between the eyes. Some differences can be detected with the naked eye…like when one eye has white lights and the other red, but the astronomical tools can detect automatically and much faster…and with detail that a person can’t match. One down side…the technique requires a clear, up-close view of the eyeballs to work. It isn’t 100% yet…there are a few false negatives and false positives…but it’s a new tool in the battle against deepfakes.

A Swedish firm, using research from Chalmers University of Technology, has developed carbon fiber-based structural batteries that not only store energy but also become an integral part of a product’s structure. Their possible span of energy density is said to be around 25-50% of a conventional lithium-ion battery at current technology level. Bgr.com notes that by integrating the batteries into the actual structure of the car (or aircraft), these batteries could lighten the weight of the vehicle by up to 50%! This tech is the first that has given good mechanical strength plus good electrical properties. Previous tries have had one or the other, but not both.

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

Prime Day Underway; Easier for Cops to Crack Phones; New HIV Drug 100% Effective So Far in Human Tests; Kaspersky Exiting the US

Posted: July 16, 2024 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

If Amazon Prime Day was an actual 24 hour day, it would be half over…but of course, it isn’t. Amazon has stretched Prime Day to 48 hours for several years now…I suspect it will be a week at some point in the future. At any rate, engadget.com reminds us that there are deals to be had even on gear from Apple…you can score AirPods Pro from $80 off, for example. Sony WH-1000XM5 Headphones are $298, that’s $102 off. Pick up an iRobot Roomba Combo Essential robot vacuum and mop for $190, a $110 discount. Amazon’s own Echo Show 8 is $85, a $65 reduction. You get the idea. 

We heard yesterday that the FBI had already gotten into the phone of the shooter who nicked former President Trump’s ear on Saturday. Theverge.com reports that the phone was sent to the FBI lab in Quantico, VA. It’s worth noting that nearly every police department in the country now has Cellebrite, the Israeli gadget that is made for extracting data from phones, and also has some capability to unlock phones. The Electronic Frontier Foundation also says that the FBI more than likely has its own in-house tools to hack into phones. Until recently, it had taken the FBI weeks or even months to get into a suspect’s phone. Just a reminder that tech often moves at warp speed. It now takes only minutes to brute-force a 4 digit password and just hours to crack a 6 digit one.

This is more bio-tech, but still pretty amazing. A clinical trial in Africa has found an HIV drug to be 100% effective in a human trial. According to bgr.com, the results were reported by The Conversation. The drug is called Lenacapavir, and it was trialed by Gilead at 25 different sites in South Africa and Uganda. This drug and two others were tested on 5,000 women. The Lenacapavir is an injection given twice a year. The 2134 women given this drug did not get HIV at all…the ones that got the other two drugs got some protection but not close to 100% protection. Hopefully this will get approval by various governments…it could be a boon to millions of people.

On the heels of the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioning 12 Kaspersky Lab execs and freeing their US assets, Kaspersky Lab will start shutting down operations in the US on July 20th. Bleepingcomputer.com reports they will lay off all US employees…but that only amounts to about 50 people. The Department of Commerce Bureau of Industry and Security said in a release “Today’s Final Determination and Entity Listing are the result of a lengthy and thorough investigation, which found that the company’s continued operations in the United States presented a national security risk—due to the Russian Government’s offensive cyber capabilities and capacity to influence or direct Kaspersky’s operations—that could not be addressed through mitigation measures short of a total prohibition.” 

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

YouTube Shorts Adds Text to Speech Narration; Samsung Live Translate-Available on 3rd Party Apps; Apple Opens Mobile Payment System-EU Compliance; Tesla Robotaxi Event Delayed to October

Posted: July 11, 2024 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

YouTube Shorts is getting a new text-to-speech narration, something of an artificial voiceover like TikTok has. Theverge.com reports that after you write some text, you can tap the ‘add voice’ icon’ in the upper left corner and pick out a voice you want. For starters, YouTube has 4 voices…TikTok has numerous ones. YouTube is also rolling out auto-generated captions so you don’t have to leave the platform or use an app to add them. There is a selection of fonts and colors, just like the manual text overlay feature. Another new feature is a new set of Minecraft effects, and a mini game called Minecraft Rush. The mimicking of TikTok appears to be giving YouTube Shorts a real boost. 

Samsung announced Live Translate yesterday at Unpacked, and mentioned that it would be available on third party apps. Now, according to Mashable.com, one of the apps supported will be the widely used WhatsApp. Initially, 16 languages will be supported, with that growing to 20 by the end of the year. Samsung underscores that the translation takes place entirely on device, so your data is more secure. It is available on Galaxy S24 devices, and now S23 and S22 as well…and also the Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Galaxy Z Flip 4 and newer. 

Approximately two weeks from now, European Union iPhone users will be able to use any mobile wallet they wish as a ‘Tap and Go’ payment method, with the ease of using the native Apple Pay. Arstechnica.com says this is part of a settlement with the European Commission over Apple’s shutting out rivals from their NFC tech. NFC is not an Apple tech in the first place, and it has been free to developers. Now, Apple has agreed not to charge developers fees to provide NFC on Apple devices. 

Tesla won’t be doing a big reveal of its robotaxi in August. The event has been kicked down the road to October now. Bloomberg reports that after the announcement that the August 8th date had been cancelled, Tesla shares dropped over 6%. Back in April, Elon Musk said Tesla was dropping their next-gen car platform for a $25,000 cheaper Tesla in favor of accelerating the robotaxi project. 

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

Apple Finally Approves Epic Game Store; Tesla Insiders-Musk Ordered Optimized Self Driving for Self & Influencers; Meta Expands Policy Removing More Posts Attacking ‘Zionists;’ Chinese Self-Driving Cars-Mapping & Gathering US Data

Posted: July 9, 2024 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

The third time is apparently the charm…after a couple of rejections, Apple has finally approved the Epic Games Store app for iOS in the European Union. Arstechnica.com reports that this will move Apple into compliance with the letter of the law under the Digital Markets Act, although not necessarily the spirit. The latest squabble involved Apple claiming that the shape of the buttons in the app too closely resembled Apple’s own. After kicking up a fuss on social Media, Epic finally got approval…with the caveat that they have to change the buttons going forward. Epic can now finish building out its game store, which will be available soon to EU users. 

A lot of people have figured out that when it comes to Tesla and other Elon Musk controlled companies…it’s always all about Elon. Now, according to electrek.co, insiders are saying the Muskman had his Full Self-Driving team optimize routes that he himself takes as well as routes taken by Tesla FSD content creators, which would explain the discrepancies in the efficacy of the system. Business Insider put out a report today based on conversations with current and former Tesla workers who claim Tesla has been optimizing its self-driving neural nets specifically for routes taken by CEO Elon Musk and Tesla influencers producing FSD content. The report claims that data annotators, people who review clips from Tesla vehicles to help train its self-driving neural nets, were given the task to focus on two categories: “Tesla CEO Elon Musk and a select set of “VIP” drivers.” Several confirmed that they were told specifically to focus on routes around Tesla, SpaceX, Twitter locations, and also a mansion previously owned by Musk. Now there’s a good personal use of corporate resources!

Facebook and Instagram will start removing more posts that attack ‘Zionists’ when the term is used to represent Jewish people or Israelis in general. Bloomberg.com says that Meta is putting the term into what they call attacks on a person’s ‘protected characteristics.’ Up to now, that has just included their race, nationality, or religion. Posts will still  be allowed that refer to actual Zionists, but just not Jewish or Israeli people more broadly. 

There has been a good deal of reporting about the Chinese weather balloons flying near US bases inside American borders. There is also ongoing coverage about buyers who might or do have connections to China buying land near US military bases. Now, it turns out that 7 Chinese self-driving car makers have had vehicles cruising US roadways…mostly in California and on the west coast, quietly mapping and shooting pictures, with the data going back to servers in China. They have traveled 1.8 million miles! Slashdot.org reports that around 30 cars owned by Chinese companies and equipped with cameras and geospatial mapping technology were navigating the streets of greater Los Angeles, San Francisco, and San Jose. They collected detailed videos, audio recordings, and location data on their surroundings to chart out California’s roads and develop their autonomous driving algorithms. The data could provide a foreign adversary with a treasure trove of intelligence that could be used for everything from mass surveillance to war planning, according to security experts who spoke with Fortune Magazine. At present there are no rules in place preventing such activity. Let’s hope our political leaders get in gear!

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

Apple Watch 10 Grows & Siri Gets Smarter-Later; Amazon Updates Echo Spot; MS Notepad Finally Gets Spellcheck; YouTube Improved Eraser Tool

Posted: July 8, 2024 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

There has been more and more buzz about the upcoming Apple Watch 10. Now, 9to5mac.com reports that Mark Gurman in his PowerOn newsletter is confirming that both models of the Watch will have bigger screens…the larger one will be about the size of the Apple Watch Ultra screen. As others have leaked, the new Watch 10 series will be thinner, and will have a more powerful processor…possibly one that can run some of the Apple AI features coming soon. It looks like health features like blood pressure monitoring and sleep apnea monitoring won’t make it by the rollout in September. Apple has hit some speed bumps. Back to the Apple AI…word is, the fully upgraded Siri with AI won’t be ready for September, either. Now, it appears the better Siri will drop with iOS 18.4 in the spring of 2025. There will be some features like Chat GPT integration that will make the big fall Apple extravaganza. 

Aș a lead in to Prime Day, Amazon has bowed a refreshed version of the Echo Spot. According to TechCrunch.com, the Alexa-enabled smart alarm clock will sell for $79.99, but Prime members can pick it up on sale right now for $44.99. The upgraded Spot has better visuals and improved audio. It comes in Black, White, or Blue. The display shows alarms, the time, weather, and song titles. There’s a 1.73” front-firing directional speaker that Amazon says delivers ‘clear vocals and deep bass.’ The camera for video calling has been dropped…who ever wanted this in their bedroom, really? It relies on Alexa to set your time, alarms, play songs, make a phone call, or make intercom announcements through your home.

As amazing as it seems, Microsoft Notepad has been around 40 years, and Redmond has never gotten around to giving it spellcheck…until now. Engadget.com says the functionality has just been rolled out in the Notepad app for Windows 11. Not to snark too much, but I write these reports in Apple’s TextEdit, which has had spellcheck for years, and also has other correction features…some of which are irritating when writing about tech….it will un-helpfully change a word that is correct which it doesn’t know. Anyway, back to Microsoft…the spell check works the same as the one in Word or Edge…you see a red underline, then you can right click on the word and get a list of correct spellings. Amazingly, Microsoft has also just now added autocorrect! Maybe it will be smarter than Apple’s…which with some new AI seems to be less helpful than before!

YouTube released an updated eraser tool late last week. The tool makes it easy to remove copyrighted material from a video without affecting other audio like spoken word or sound effects. YouTube chief Neal Mohan posted about the tool on X and said, “Good news, creators: our updated Erase Song tool helps you easily remove copyright-claimed music from your video (while leaving the rest of your audio intact).” They have designed a new AI-powered algorithm that specifically detects and removes the song without impacting other audio in the clip. Note that YouTube says it still isn’t perfect, but it goes a long way towards removal without having to recut the whole video. 

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

EU Says Apple Breaches the DMA-Big Fine Looms; Amazon’s AI ‘Remarkable Alexa’-for a fee; Google Bringing Gemini Access to Teens in School; Dozens of Cybertrucks Vandalized 

Posted: June 24, 2024 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

The European Union has announced preliminary findings that Apple is in breach of its Digital Markets Act. 9to5mac.com reports that violating the DMA’s App Store anti-steering rules could get Cupertino socked with and enormous fine…up to 10% of the company’s worldwide revenue. A final decision is expected by March 2025. The DMA rules require that an app store should inform customers of alternative purchase options, direct them to those offers and make those purchases — free of charge. Apple doesn’t do that at present. The DMA does say Apple may charge a fee for facilitating ‘the initial acquisition of a new customer’ via the App Store…it just can’t charge for each ongoing transaction. Expect Apple to fight this. 

Amazon is getting set to unleash what they are calling ‘Remarkable Alexa.’ The AI powered version will hit users with a monthly fee of $5-10 a month. According to androidpolice.com, there will still be a free tier of Alexa. Amazon has been playing catch up on the AI front, as has Apple. Remarkable Alexa (sorry, sounds clunky Amazon) will feature improved home automation…although users will probably have to buy additional Alexa-branded hardware to use that. The paid tier won’t be bundled with your Prime subscription, it will be on top of that $139 per year. The company has apparently set a deadline of this August for Remarkable Alexa to be ready, so you early adapters be ready to shell out another $120 a year. 

Google has announced that it is bringing its Gemini AI tech to teens using their school accounts. This is in addition to allowing them to access it through personal accounts. Techcrunch.com says that Google believe3s this will help prepare them with skills they will need in the future when generative AI is more commonplace. Google also says it will not use data from chats with students to train and improve its AI models, and has taken steps to ensure it’s bringing this technology to students responsibly. Gemini has guardrails that will prevent inappropriate responses, such as illegal or age-gated substances, from appearing in responses. It will also actively recommend teens use its double-check feature to help them develop information literacy and critical thinking skills.

This was obviously not a Musk super fan or fans. Dozens of Cybertrucks in Fort Lauderdale got a paint job of sorts last week. Someone sprayed the tailgates with ‘EFF’ Elon. Theverge.com reports the trucks were being held on a public parking lot due to a reported warranty problem with the windshield wiper. The tagging was apparently easily removed from the stainless steel trucks. One reporter said it wouldn’t surprise him if Elon started selling EFF Elon decals for a price…as he has monetized insults in the past.

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

Apple-Thinner iPhone, MacBook Pro; Surgeon General Wants Warning Labels on Social Media; McDonald’s Drops Drive-Thru AI from IBM; YouTube is Trialing Notes

Posted: June 17, 2024 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

After a bit of a waver when they dropped the miserable butterfly keyboard, it looks like Apple is back on its crusade to be thinner than ever. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reports that the company wants to make a thinner iPhone and a MacBook Pro that will be perhaps thinner than an iPad Pro! The Apple Watch won’t evade the thinning, either. Gurman goes on to say that Apple is on the brink of introducing “a new class of Apple devices that should be the thinnest and lightest products in their categories across the whole tech industry.” The skinny new Cupertino gadgets may hit as soon as 2025 with the iPhone 17. As for the near future, here’s something cool in the upcoming iOS 18…you can change the wake word for Siri. No more Hey, Siri, or just Siri if you want. With Vocal Shortcuts, you can use your own…like Computer…like on Star Trek. This will only work on the iPhone at first…I can’t wait to say ‘Computer,’ instead of Siri…now if I can just find a reasonably priced Captain Kirk chair!

US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy is pressing Congress to pass legislation to introduce warning labels for social media platforms…much like the ones tobacco and alcohol products have had for decades. According to theverge.com, Murthy wrote in an essay that was published widely “The mental health crisis among young people is an emergency — and social media has emerged as an important contributor.” The chief doc pointed to studies that found almost half of adolescents say social media gives them body image issues and that those who spend over three hours a day on it are twice as likely to face symptoms of anxiety and depression. In addition to warning labels, Murthy is calling for legislation that shields young people from online harassment, abuse, exploitation, and exposure to extreme violence and sexual content in social media algorithms. Murthy proposed these protections alongside others that recommend banning platforms from collecting children’s data and restricting features like push notifications, autoplay, and infinite scroll, which he says “prey on developing brains and contribute to excessive use.”

Along with a few colleagues, I have been both amazed and amused at the hype over AI…which often doesn’t seem terribly intelligent. Now, gizmodo.com says McDonald’s is sunsetting its partnership of 2 year with IBM to test AI’s ability to replace drive-thru workers at over 100 restaurants. McDonald’s told Gizmodo this experiment with IBM has “given us the confidence that a voice-ordering solution for drive-thru will be part of our restaurants’ future.” Apparently it isn’t ready for prime time yet, though. One customer watched in disbelief as the AI system malfunctioned and ordered 2,510 McNuggets Meals, totaling $264.75. Another customer struggled with the AI system for roughly a minute attempting to order a Big Mac and drink, before a human took over to speed things along. Someone else tried to order a large water and ice cream, and the AI ended up ordering them three butter containers, four ketchup packets, and a caramel sundae!

YouTube is testing out a new feature that will allow viewers of videos to add ‘Notes’ to provide more context and info. Techcrunch.com reports that it sounds much like the Community Notes on X…which started when it was Twitter. According to Google, the Notes feature can be used for things like clarifying when a song is meant to be a parody, or letting viewers know when older footage is being portrayed as a current event. The pilot program is available for starters on mobile in the US in English. A limited number of users are initially going to get invites to write notes. 

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

Better Texting between Android & iOS Coming; New Tech May Bring Holograms to Glasses-Size Wearable; ISPs Ask FCC for Tax on Big Tech; GM Pours $850 Million into Cruise Division

Posted: June 11, 2024 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

Better texting is coming between Android and iOS this fall, with the announcement at WWDC yesterday that iOS is getting RCS support. This comes on the heels of years of campaigning by Google and others to make Apple ‘play nice’ with Android messaging. Androidpolice.com reports that having RCS will bring “richer media and deliver and read receipts for those who don’t use iMessage.” Unfortunately, Apple didn’t elaborate much, so we don’t know if iOS will play completely nice with the Google standard, but it is at the very least a good move to have Apple Messages and Google Messages working better…now, you will have tapback support and scheduled messaging working cross platform. Bet that this DOESN’T mean Apple will stop putting non-iOS replies in the green bubbles…I bet they will never give up the exclusive blue bubbles for iPhone users!

In a study published in Nature Communications, some scientists have claimed that the wave developed a new device small enough to fit in a regular pair of glasses that can display realistic holograms. According to bgr.com, the new tech wouldn’t have to have such a narrow viewing angle as current tech with so-called ‘spatial light modulators.’ The new tech allows the field of light to be directly in front of the viewer, no matter  where they look. No bulky headsets and just glasses-sized ones would be quite a breakthrough for VR and AR displays! Think of an Apple Vision Pro that you could put in your pocket, like a pair of glasses! There still remains the need right now for external power and probably external processing…so some sort of connection to a phone and or battery pack..but still, this is a big step forward.

Some ISPs, via a lobbying group, are asking the Federal Communications Commission to start levying new fees on Big Tech firms, with the money to go to subsidies for broadband network deployment and affordability programs. Arstechnica.com says approval of the request would make Big Tech drop money into the FCC’s Universal Service Fund, which distributes it to broadband providers. By the way, the ISPs are not exactly small players scrounging for crumbs in the business. They include AT&T, Verizon, CenturyLink/Lumen and some smaller ISPs. USTelcom had already made similar arguments to the FCC. The USF doles out about $8 billion a year. Phone companies have to pay a percentage of their revenue into the fund, to cover folks who need a subsidy. Naturally, they hit us all with a fee for ‘Universal Service’ to recoup the tax by passing it directly on to us! We’ll keep an eye out to see if the Friendly Candy Company…the FCC…moves on this request. Expect Big Tech companies to fight it if they do. 

General Motors has poured another $850 million into its Cruise division, helping to cover costs since the shutdown of the robotaxi service after hitting a pedestrian in San Francisco. Theverge.com notes that so far, Cruise has been a money pit for the General…the automaker has lost $8.2 billion on it since 2017. Now, Cruise is slowly deploying more cars back onto the road…albeit with human drivers behind the wheel for safety. Houston is the latest city to get Cruise vehicles…which are being driven by humans right now, but will switch to autonomous driving with human safety drivers in the next few weeks. They are also back on the road in Phoenix and Dallas…but not yet in San Francisco.

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

Apple Advanced AI Features Likely Opt-In; Samsung Foldables Leak; Twice is Twitching Subscription Pricing Up; Musk Diverting Tesla GPUs to His Other Companies

Posted: June 5, 2024 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

Just a few days until next Monday’s Apple WWDC keynote, and Bloomberg is reporting that the advanced AI features in iOS 18 will most likely be an opt-in service. As we have reported here, Apple has been working with OpenAI for over a year to incorporate its ChatGPT tech into iOS 18. The partnership will be fleshed out for us at the keynote. Meanwhile, Apple has also been hedging their bets, talking to Google about utilizing its Gemini in Apple operating systems. Apple has been working on their own large language model, but apparently felt they were behind the curve enough that they needed to partner with a competitor. It is expected that Apple’s own LLM will be limited to new Siri features, and that they will work on device. the more advanced AI will rely on cloud servers. 

Design info has been leaked about the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Z Flip 6 and they’re more ‘chonky’ as the saying goes. According to androidpolice.com, the handsets will adapt a boxy design much like the Galaxy S24 Ultra. When they are shown off in about a month, expect new AI features like live translator, circle to search and more. They also will have upgraded camera features and will run on Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 silicon. One widely anticipated change…both phones will have a less visible crease! The Z Flip 6 may get an upgraded 50 MP rear cam, too. 

Apparently, ’Tis the Season…we just reported on Spotify jacking up prices, and now here comes Twitch, joining Spotify, Peacock, Max, and others in increasing prices. Engadget.com says starting July 11th, Twitch Tier 1 subscriptions will go up a buck from $4.99 to $5.99. In Twitch’s defense, this is the first increase of monthly subscriptions to US users. Twitch already goosed prices up on Canada, Australia, the UK, and Turkey. 

Again, Elon Musk is being accused of diverting Tesla resources to his other privately owned companies. CNBC reports that…according to emails from Nvidia staffers…he’s redirected some 12,0000 GPUs to his social media platform X. Musk told investors in April that Tesla had spent about a billion dollars on GPUs the first quarter of this year…nearly as much as the car maker dropped on R & D, despite being desperate for new models to add to what is now an old and very limited product lineup that is suffering rapidly declining sales in the US and China. Tesla has been working on its own in-house supercomputer for AI, named Dojo. Musk was accused of diverting Tesla resources previously to his other companies…back in 2022. Senator Elizabeth Warren noted in a letter to Tesla that this could violate what are called ‘anti-tunneling rules’ that are in place to prevent corporate insiders from extracting resources from their firms.

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

Spotify Hiking US Prices Again; New Breakthrough May Allow 1 Minute Charging; X Formally Allows Adult Content; Instagram Confirms Testing Unskippable Ads

Posted: June 3, 2024 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

It’s only been a year since Spotify bumped up prices for Spotify Premium in the US…and oops…they’re doing it again! Theverge.com reports that Premium is being increased a buck to $11.99 a month. Spotify Duo is going up two bucks from $14.99 to $16.99 a month. Family will go from $16.99 a month to socking you for $19.99 a month. In an email, Spotify says this is needed “So that we can continue to invest in and innovate on our product features and bring users the best experience.” Also so they can make more money. 

In an amazing study which just appeared in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers at University of Colorado Boulder have discovered a new cutting-edge technique that could make it possible to charge devices almost instantaneously. This would make charging phones, laptops, and even electric cars much more efficient and convenient. The foundation of the new technique is based on new insights into how ions move through supercapacitors. According to bgr.com, the key is to make moving ions more efficient. This allows charging a phone battery from dead to 100% in a minute or less! The scientists made a discovery that modifies the Kirchoff circuit law, which has been the rule for 175 years. It’s a bit dense to get into, but they say that the discovery may be the ‘missing link’ they have been looking for. With phones and electric vehicles that could be charged in a minute or less, it would be a whole new world! Let’s hope this gets from lab to general use soon!

When Elon Musk renamed Twitter ‘X,’ there was a certain amount of ribbing about that making it sound like a porn site. Well now, it is moving a little bit in that direction. Arstechnica.com notes that there have been some not safe for work communities on the platform for some time, and now X has added clauses to its rules, formally allowing users to post adult and graphic content on the platform — with a few caveats. Users can now post consensually-produced NSFW content as long as it is prominently labeled as such. The new rules also cover AI-generated videos and images. About 13% of posts on the platform in 2022 contained adult content, according to a Reuters report in 2022 that cited internal company documents. Adult content on X has seemingly gone up since then, especially as porn bots have proliferated on the platform.

Instagram has confirmed that it is testing out unskippable ads. Techcrunch.com reports that the new ad breaks will show a countdown timer that stops your browsing on the app until you have viewed the ad. This will be something of a copycat function to YouTube’s….where you have and ad roll before your video with the little timer in the corner and ‘skip’ appears when you can finally view the video you wanted to watch. Instagram declined to say where in the Instagram app the ad breaks show and whether the company was testing the feature globally. The screenshots, however, show the ad breaks appearing in the app’s Feed while watching video posts. It’s not clear at this time if Instagram creators will have any control over these ads’ appearance. So far, it is just a test…but you might as well brace for it…it will be coming.

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

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