New Nvidia AI Audio Model Synthesizes Never-Heard Sounds; Threads Tests Users Choosing Own Default Feed; iPhone 17 Slim-Too Thin for SIM Tray; Raw Milk in CA Recalled-Bird Flu Virus

Posted: November 26, 2024 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

In some respects, AI has stalled out right now, but there are still discoveries and advances being made. Arstechnica.com reports that Nvidia has a new AI audio model that can synthesize sounds that have never existed. A couple included a ‘screaming’ saxophone, and an ‘angry’ ‘cello. The AI can also mix voices and sounds together in a new mashup. The model, called Fugatto, isn’t available for public testing yet, but Nvidia has a sample-filled website that shows off some possibilities for you. They describe the audio AI as a ’Swiss Army knife for sound.’ 

Threads is feeling the heat from quickly growing upstart Bluesky. Yesterday, Mark Zuckerberg posted that Threads is testing the option to let users choose their own default feed…like Bluesky. In fact, you can have multiple feeds on Bluesky…I have a default of people I follow and 3 others. According to theverge.com, Threads will let you choose from For You, Following, or any custom feed that you have set up. Right now, they are still testing it out, but Zuck said they will make the choice ‘more visible’ in the app soon. 

New details about the upcoming iPhone Slim…or Air, or whatever they end up calling it. Appleinsider.com says it will be so slim, it won’t be able to have a tray for SIM cards. This is not an issue in the US, where all iPhones use eSIM, the no-card alternative to a physical SIM card, but in a number of countries they still use physical SIM cards. One of those countries is China, which uses a name-registration system. eSims don’t allow the same verification level as China requires. It remains to be seen if this becomes a problem for Apple. The slim phone also will use Apple’s in-house 5G modem instead of a Qualcomm one, and it will have a smaller battery. 

Not tech, but science…or an ignoring of it. Bird flu virus has been found in a batch of raw, unpasteurized milk sold in California. Arstechnica.com reports that so far, no illness has been connected to the contaminated milk, which came from Raw Farm LLC in Fresno County. A lab in Santa Clara County detected the virus, and it was confirmed by the state lab. There is a reason Louis Pasteur came up with the pasteurization process…lots of people used to get sick and even die from raw milk. Science and medicine…hey, they can keep us alive!

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

EU Whacks LinkedIn for Ad Tracking; Apple AI Editing Tools-Not As Good By Design; Cops Can Track to Abortion Clinics-No Warrants; Tesla Will Launch Cheaper EVs Next Year

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

While the US the last few years has been less aggressive with tech firms, the European Union has stepped in aggressively. Techcrunch.com reports that the EU has fined LinkedIn $356 million for tracking ads and privacy breaches. LinkedIn had claimed ‘consent,’ ‘legitimate interests,’ and ‘ contractual necessity,’ based on legal bases for processing peoples’ info…but the Irish Data Protection Commission…under the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation, wasn’t buying any of it. The complaint against LinkedIn originated in France in 2018. The EU has given them 90 days to bring their EU operations into compliance. LinkedIn said in a statement that while they believed they were in compliance all along, they will work to make sure they are under this new ruling by the deadline.

Apple Intelligence features are going to be out to a lot of folks imminently…although you have to sign up and go on a waitlist after the final version of iOS with the features drops next week. Apple has been getting some heat from users of the beta over their photo editing tools not being as good as Android’s. Now, according to bgr.com, Apple’s head of software, Craig Federighi, has said in an interview that this is by design. He keyed on the Clean Up tool. He noted that while many AI tools try to generate new parts of the photo, Apple has chosen not to. “People view photographic content as something they can rely on as indicative of reality,” Federighi said. “It’s important to us that we help purvey accurate information, not fantasy.” 

There is all kinds of software and hardware to track people in the world today. Here’s a scary one…it is a tool law enforcement agencies now have called Locate X. Mashable.com says the software, from data surveillance company Babel Street, has ben known since 2020. What’s new is that police agencies in states like Alabama…which has completely outlawed abortion… have been able to track women traveling out of state for abortions. One tracked a woman from her home to a big box retailer, then to church, and finally to an abortion clinic in Florida…where the software indicated she stayed for 2 hours, before returning to her Alabama residence. A word to the wise to any woman in  a state where the procedure is outlawed now…turn off your phone, or take a burner phone with you out of state. 

Yes, you have to take things Elon Musk promises with a grain of salt…or sometimes, an entire salt mine. With that disclaimer, I turn to engadget.com’s story that Tesla has said in its 3rd quarter disclosure report that it is making preparations for ‘more affordable models,’ ‘its lowest level ever’ at $35,100. Tesla goes on to say they will start production in the first half of 2025, and that “These vehicles will utilize aspects of the next generation platform as well as aspects of our current platforms and will be able to be produced on the same manufacturing lines as our current vehicle line-up.” Tesla did have a decent 3rd quarter, finally ending a 4 quarter streak of missed earnings targets.

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

It’s October Prime Days; Fourteen State Attorneys General Sue TikTok; China Hacked Verizon and AT&T; Google-Must Open Android for 3rd Party Stores

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

It’s here…Christmas in October for a lot of folks. Amazon’s October Prime Days…or Big Deal Days, as they are trying to re-brand them. Engadget.com reports that as usual, many of the best deals are on Amazon’s own hardware…like an Amazon Echo Spot for $45…$35 off. They are also shaving prices on Apple gear, with AirPods Pro for $169, an $80 discount. You can score and Anker MagGo 3-in-1 charging stand for $72, which is $28 off. Looking for a robot vacuum….well you can buy an iRobot Roomba Combo j9+ vacuum and mop for $799…that’s a whopping $600 off. Oh, and can’t forget Lego…a number of Lego sets are 20% off, including a Star Wars set and a Super Mario set. 

The Attorneys General of 14 states have sued TikTok, claiming it damages young users’ mental health and that the platform collects the kids data without consent. According to NBC, the states say TikTok violated their laws by falsely claiming the service is safe for young people. The suits are all separate, but the Attorneys General of New York and California have taken the lead. TikTok put out a statement saying  “We strongly disagree with these claims, many of which we believe to be inaccurate and misleading. We’re proud of and remain deeply committed to the work we’ve done to protect teens and we will continue to update and improve our product.” The states include California, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, South Carolina, Vermont, Washington state and the District Of Columbia.

Chinese government hackers pierced AT&T and Verizon’s networks and were able to snoop around for months. Arstechnica.com says they were likely able to access information from systems the federal government uses for court-authorized wiretapping requests. The hacking group has been named Salt Typhoon. Investigations are proceeding by the FBI and other intelligence agencies, but they are apparently in early stages. The hackers were able to get some of Verizons data by reconfiguring Cisco routers…which they did without detection. Of course the Chinese Embassy, when reached for comment, claimed this was all false information made up by the US intelligence community and cyber security companies.  

In a final court ruling in the Epic v. Google case, Judge James Donato ordered Google to effectively open the Google Play app store to competition for 3 years. Theverge.com reports that Google will have to distribute rival third-party app stores within Google Play, and it must give rival third-party app stores access to the full catalog of Google Play apps, unless developers opt out individually. These were Epic’s biggest asks. A permanent injunction was also issued blocking Google from other behavior that the court found to be anticompetitive. As you might imagine, Google has said it will appeal.

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

YouTube Goes After TikTok With Longer Shorts; Google Lens Now Lets You Search With Video; Tesla Dropped its Cheapest Model; Amazon to Hire Quarter Million for Holidays

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

YouTube has expanded the length of YouTube Shorts. So maybe now they are YouTube Bermuda Shorts? Ok, enough with the snark. Shorts will now be able to be up to 3 minutes long. Techcrunch.com reports that YouTube is hoping to be more competitive with TikTok now. TikTok, though, already allows videos of up to 10 minutes when recording, and uploads of up to an hour. It also makes participating in trends easier for users. YouTube says the new Shorts player is designed to streamline the look of these short videos, making the creator’s content stand out by placing it front and center in the user interface. The addition of templates by YouTube will allow creators to more quickly jump on trends. You will be able to tap a ‘Remix’ option in a Short, then choose ‘Use this template’ to make your own video. The race continues to be trendy. Hey, these tech reports are on YouTube and they are generally short…but trendy….nope…I’m afraid I missed the boat on that! I’ll just try to keep YOU up on tech trends!

Google Lens is now letting you search with video. Previously, you could search with just a picture. In addition, you can use your voice to ask about what you are seeing. According to theverge.com, the new feature will bring up an AI Overview and search results based on the video’s contents and your question. It is rolling out in Search Labs on both Android and iOS today. This is a feature Google promised and previewed at I/O in May. Google Lens is also updating its photo search feature with the ability to ask a question using your voice. To try it, aim your camera at your subject, hold down the shutter button, and then ask your question. Note that the voice part is only available in English for the time being.

With Elon Musk’s lates hype fest coming right up…with more on the robotaxis that have been promised for several years…Tesla has dropped its entry level car. The EV maker has stopped selling the Model 3 Standard Range Rear-Wheel Drive. Engadget.com notes that it had had a price of $39,000. Now, the cheapest Tesla will be the Model 3 Long-Range Rear-Wheel Drive version at $42,500. Tesla gave out their third quarter numbers yesterday, delivering 462,890 units between July and the end of September. This was short of analyst expectations of 469,000 vehicles. 

As brick and mortar stores do for the holidays, and as online retailers also have done for a number of years now, Amazon is gearing up for the holidays….and planning to hire a whopping 250,000 workers. Geekwire.com says this will at least match their hiring effort for the holidays last year, so they expect a robust holiday selling season. The online giant has also announce a buck and a half boost in pay to $22 per hour for US hourly workers, and for seasonal workers, the rate will be $18 an hour or more.  Full time seasonal workers will have health care benefits from day one on the job. Amazon claims that seasonal work is often a path to long-term employment…although long term is relative. Amazon is known for a strong ‘churn’ of employees leaving due to the conditions in the warehouses.

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

Open AI Sets Investment Round Record; Microsoft Sunsets HoloLens 2; iOS Privacy Change May Screw New Social Apps; Threads-More Time to Edit Posts

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

OpenAI has wrapped up its latest venture capital round, raising $6.6 billion dollars…that’s the biggest venture capital round of all time. Techcrunch.com reports that now OpenAI is valued at $157 billion. Total VC funds including this latest blast of cash brings OpenAI’s total raised to $17.9 billion. OpenAI has asked investors to avoid backing rival startups in AI like Anthropic and xAI. Trying to get investors to not hedge their bets seems like a fool’s errand. Elon Musk’s xAI raised over $6 billion, and is now valued at $24 billion…a long ways from OpenAI’s valuation. Anthropic has raised some $9.7 billion. 

Mixed reality headsets are all still too expensive, too heavy, and not quite good enough…save for Apple’s ridiculously expensive Vision Pro. Now, according to macrumors.com, Microsoft is dropping the HoloLens2 headsets. They will sell off the remaining stock and then that’s it. Microsoft will support security updates until the end of 2027, then support will end all together too. Right now, there are no rumors of a new HoloLens headset. My take is that Facebook is on the right track…until you can get things miniaturized enough to fit into a pair of Buddy Holly thick glasses, instead of a big headset…and price said glasses at the price point of a top smartphone or less…mixed reality vision gadgets will stay very much a niche item. 

A change in iOS 18 intended to provide better privacy for users may really take a toll on new social apps. 9to5mac.com says contact sharing is more restrictive than ever under iOS 18. Up to now, apps like Instagram or WhatsApp would request access to your contact and you could either grant that access or deny it. Personally, I always deny…I think it is not cool to share your contacts…many of whom are friends in real life…with an app you are on, so that company can pester them to join up.  iOS 18 makes matters a lot more granular than before. If an app requests access to your contacts post-update, you can select exactly which contacts you’re okay sharing….if any. This change will make it harder than ever for new social platforms to grow, compared to giants like Meta’s Facebook and Instagram, or TikTok. I look it this way….it’s like if you buy a car, and they ask you to write down all your friends who might be interested in buying one from that dealer, too…or a credit card that offers you a little cash for referring your friends and family. Go get your own prospects, you lazy bum new social apps!

Meta’s Threads platform has been slow of late at adding features, but has just bowed a nifty one. Theverge.com notes that you will now have 15 minutes to edit posts on Threads…up from 5 minutes. This does mean, however, if you have the fediverse switched on, you won’t see your post on other platforms like Mastodon for 15 minutes. Even though tripling time to edit, 15 minutes is a bit miserly compared to other platforms. X, for example, gives you up to an hour if you have a paid subscriptions. Mastodon lets you edit your posts at any time after they are published for free. Another feature add…Threads will now show you who follows you and likes your posts from other fediverse servers like Mastodon. 

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

YouTube Hype-To Boost Small Creators; Discord Rolls Out End-To-End Chat Encryption; CA Gov. Newsom Signs AI Bills; Biden Admin. Awards $3 Billion to Intel

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

YouTube is making a move to help out smaller creators. Apparently when a YouTube creator hits 500,000 subscribers, it is a real tipping point as far as growth and revenue. Theverge.com reports that the new feature is called Hype, and it is aimed at smaller creators and helping people discover and share new creators. Hype is an entirely new promotional system inside of YouTube: there’s a new button for hyping a video, and the most-hyped videos will appear on a platform-wide leaderboard. It’s a bit like Trending, but it’s focused specifically on smaller channels and on what people specifically choose to recommend rather than just what they watch.

Discord, a platform widely used by gamers, which is one of the largest group chat apps in the world, has announced that audio and video calls will all be end-to-end encrypted. According to techcrunch.com, even Discord won’t know what users talk about in the conversations. Many other popular chat apps like iMessage, WhatsApp, Signal, and Facebook Messenger already have end-to-end encryption. Discord has 200 million monthly users. 

California Governor Newsom has signed a couple of AI bills that had the strong backing of the SAG-AFTRA entertainment union. Variety says that the bills build on the protections the union got following signing of deals after the 4 month actors strike against major studios last year. The studios’ Motion Picture Association had initially opposed the bills, but dropped its opposition after changes that were put in that protect standard post-production techniques and free speech rights. SAG-AFTRA is not trying to prevent producers from using AI to replicate performances. But it does want to ensure that actors and other performers don’t see their likenesses used without their consent and reasonable payment for their use. One bill basically applies to living actors and their likeness and voices, while the other puts protections in place for dead performers…granting their rights to their estate, so the heirs can give or withhold consent…and get paid. James Earl Jones, who just recently passed, had signed an agreement allowing AI to imitate his Darth Vader voice, which should provide a nice little income stream for his heirs. 

The Biden Administration has awarded Intel another $3 billion under the CHIPS and Science Act for the ‘Secure Enclave’ program. CNBC reports that Intel is building foundry plants in 4 states to ramp up domestic semiconductor manufacturing. They had already received $8.5 billion under the CHIPS act. The Secure Enclave program is the latest development in the relationship between Intel and the Department of Defense, which includes projects to build Rapid Assured Microelectronics Prototypes, or RAMPs, and State-of-the-Art Heterogeneous Integration Prototypes, or SHIPs.

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

Instagram Moves Teens into Private, Restrictive Accounts; Meta Bans Russian Media RT; Amazon-Back to Office 5 Days; Google Plan to Reveal AI Images

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

Instagram has started putting all users….both current and new ones that are age 18 or under…into new ‘Teen Accounts.’ Theverge.com reports that the move will affect how tens of millions of teens are able to interact with Instagram. The new account type automatically applies a set of protections to young users, and only users 16 years of age and older can loosen some of these settings. The most notable thing for the teen accounts is that all the minors will have private accounts by default, and will prevent strangers from direct messaging them. Also on the way will be a Sleep Mode that silences interactions between 10 PM and 7 AM. Instagram is also updating parental controls. Parents that want to supervise their kids on the app will be able to see who the child has messaged in the past 7 days (but not the contents of the messages.) They can also view what topics their teens have looked at most often. The Teen accounts are rolling out to users in the US, UK, Canada, and Australia.  They will show up in the EU later this year. 

Meta has banned Russian media outlet RT, and other Russian state media outlets from all its platforms. According to 9to5mac.com, that includes Facebook, Instagram, Threads, and WhatsApp. The reason? Meta says ‘foreign interference activity’ in the US presidential election. in a statement, Meta said “After careful consideration, we expanded our ongoing enforcement against Russian state media outlets. Rossiya Segodnya, RT and other related entities are now banned from our apps globally for foreign interference activity.” Just a few days ago, the US Department of Justice announced charges against two employees for allegedly funneling almost $10 million to a Tennessee-based shell company that was providing controversial and misleading online content. 

You may have heard that after getting non-warehouse workers back in the office 3 days a week, that Amazon will now require staff to be in the office 5 days a week beginning the first of the year. Geekwire.com says that the company is planning to flatten management layers, and that they actually expect the return to office mandate to get staff to self-separate. Sounds like a neat way to do a layoff without having to get hit for an increase in your unemployment insurance contributions, actually. Amazon is really swimming against the tide on this return full time to the office….time will tell if it works for them, or if they lose top talent who will flee to the open arms of startups and other tech companies that are still doing partial or total work from home.

Google (as well as Amazon, Meta, and OpenAI) has been working on tech to watermark AI created images or modified content. Engadget.com reports that Google is touting its latest version of Content Credentials as more secure and tamperproof. They claim it should soon be easier to tell if an image was created or modified using generative AI tools in your Google search results. If an image pops up that has C2PA metadata…C2PA is the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity…you should be able to find out what GAI has been used on it and how much with Google’s ‘About this Image’ tool. It will also be available in Google Images, Lens, and Circle to Search. They are working on how to use C2PA to tell YouTube viewers when footage was captured with a camera. Expect more on that later this year. 

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

After a Year,Threads Has 175 Million Users; Noplace-New Twitter/MySpace-Like Platform for Gen Z; Tesla EVs Finally getting YouTube Music; Michigan Building first US Smart Highway

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

In just a year, Threads…the Meta answer to X, has reached 175 million monthly active users. CEO Mark Zuckerberg made the announcement today. Theverge.com reports that although that is a strong number, Threads has yet to report its daily numbers. This may mean they are still getting a lot of traffic from users than haven’t yet become regulars. On the other hand, X hasn’t shared comparable metrics since he took over Twitter and…changed it, to put it nicely. It may be pie in the sky CEO hype, but Zuckerberg claims that Threads may become Meta’s next billion dollar app. Right now, it runs at a loss, though. Apparently, they are thinking about starting ads next year. 

Yes, it’s yet another social media platform…and one which claims to ‘bring the social back to social media.’ According to techcrunch.com, the new app is called noplace, and it is aimed at Gen Z. It has rocketed to the top of the Apple App Store. What’s the draw? The platform is something of a mashup of Twitter and MySpace. The idea is for users to be able to connect with friends or with people who have shared interest. It is colorful, customizable profiles that allow people to share everything from relationship status, to what they’re listening to or watching, what they’re reading or doing, and more.Although aimed at Gen Z and younger users, noplace (no capitalization…that kind of says younger generations right there) will add extra moderation to users under 18. The platform has built their own internal dashboard for just that purpose. It doesn’t use algorithms, they claim, but leverages AI to drive suggestions and curation. Time will tell if the notoriously fickle Gen Z crowd will continue to embrace noplace.

Tesla is adding YouTube Music and Amazon Music as native apps by a software update. Androidpolice.com says the update is 2024.26, and it should start rolling out soon to Models S, 3, X, & Y. Some cars have both Apple’s Car Play, and Android Auto…I have one of those…but lately, some manufacturers are doing a one or the other thing. Meanwhile, always dancing to a different drummer…or maybe a drum machine…Elon Musk won’t use either one, opting from the start for the home brew Tesla OS. Tesla vehicles already support Spotify, Apple Music, Slacker, Tidal, and TuneIn. 

Michigan is making a 3 mile section of I-94 into the first US smart highway. Engadget.com reports that an Alphabet backed startup has started building it out. It will use cams and sensors to talk to connected cars…any autonomous or semi-autonomous car…really, most any with built in guidance systems. The state will get data, and divers will get traffic updates, weather, and stranded vehicle info…as well as other congestion advisories. The pilot program roadway is between Ann Arbor and Detroit. The plan is to extend it to 40 miles in the future. 

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

EU Goes After Microsoft for Teams Bundling; Meta Replies Visible on Other Federated Platforms; Uber Locking Drivers Out of Apps; Apple Works to Automate iPhone Assembly

Posted: June 25, 2024 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

The European Union has called out Microsoft for breaching competition rules. Techcrunch.com reports that the EU has put out a formal statement of objections to what they call abuse of antitrust rules, due to bundling Teams with their cloud based suites for businesses…those would be Office 365 and Microsoft 365. The EU just opened an antitrust probe a year ago, after 2 years of complaints from Teams rival Slack. Microsoft did partially unbundle Teams last August (which wasn’t fully in place until April of this year), but the EU says Microsoft has to do more. The EU says the bundling of Teams gives Redmond a ‘distribution advantage’ over rivals like Slack and German platform alfaview. They also point to the lack of interoperability between Teams and rival programs. Microsoft was invited to respond to the charges, but as yet hasn’t acted. 

Meta is getting set to let Threads users like and see replies to their Threads posts on federated platforms. According to theverge.com, up to now, if you made a post on Threads that was syndicated to another platform like Mastodon…you couldn’t see responses to that post while still on Threads…you would have to head over to Mastodon. Now, you can see those likes and replies right in Threads…although to reply to a reply on Mastodon, you will have to actually log in to it. 

New York City has had a pay rule for a half dozen years that has made companies like Uber and Lyft pay the drivers even during idle time between fares. Now, engadget.com says for the past month, Uber has been locking drivers out of its apps during low-demand periods. Lyft has threatened to follow suit. At least one drivers’ union says it may consider a strike if the lockouts continue. The drivers, of course are mad. Some of them blame Uber for over-hiring…saying that is one of the main causes of the problem.

Apple has been concerned for years about over reliance on production of iPhones in China. Macrumors.com reports that Apple has instructed managers at Foxconn and other assembly partners to reduce the number of workers on assembly lines by up to 50% the next several years. There is already a significant amount of automation in the iPhone 15 lines, but some work is just too complex yet to automate. Cupertino has shelved some further automation for iPhone 16 due to a ‘high rate of defects.’ The goal doesn’t seem so much to cut humans to save costs as to be able to move even more iPhone assembly to countries outside of China, such as India, Vietnam, and Thailand.

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

How Americans See News on Major Web Platforms; X Makes Likes (Mostly) Private; Apple Stock Hits All-Time High After WWDC Keynote on AI; Waymo-2nd Recall After Robotaxi Hits Phone Pole

Posted: June 12, 2024 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

Pew Research.org has just released a study on how Americans get news and information from the likes of TikTok, X, Instagram, and Facebook. The study surveyed over 10,000 adult internet users in the US between March 18th and 24th of 2024. Here are some interesting headlines. First, the majority of Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok users say keeping up with news is not a reason they use the sites. X (formerly Twitter) is the exception to this pattern: Most X users say that keeping up with news is either a major or minor reason they use the platform, and about half say they regularly get news there. That said, users do see news on all four platforms…particularly through opinion or humor based content…in other words, they’re seeing news through memes! Those who regularly get news on Facebook and Instagram are more likely than those on TikTok and X to get news from friends, family and acquaintances. More news consumers get news from influencers or other people they don’t know personally on TikTok than on other platforms. And news outlets or journalists are a more common source of news on X than on any other site. Lastly, and in general, Democrats tend to be more skeptical than Republicans of the news they see on X, while the reverse is true on Facebook. Among those who regularly get news on X, for example, 42% of Democrats and independents who lean toward the Democratic Party say they often see news there that seems inaccurate, compared with 31% of Republicans and GOP leaners. As one talk host I used to manage used to say…and still does, actually…’We’re doomed….doomed!’

The platform known as X (why do I feel like I’m echoing the old ‘artist formerly known as Prince) will now make likes mostly private. Engadget.com says this is coming from Elon Musk, who calls it an important change so people can  “like posts without getting attacked for doing so.” Hiding likes up to now has been a feature of the paid X Premium tier. Premium costs $16 a month and does cut ads from timelines. You will still be able to see who liked your own tweets and the count of likes and other metrics…but others won’t be able to. 

Apple got a nice stock price boost after introducing ‘Apple Intelligence,’ its flavor of AI at the WWDC keynote Monday. The stock moved above the $200 per share mark, and hit a new all- time high in intraday trading, according to macrumors.com. We had reported that Nvidia had briefly passed Apple last week to become the world’s second most valuable company after Microsoft, but Apple has retaken the #2 spot…with a market cap of $3.1 trillion. Microsoft is at $3.2 trillion at the moment. 

Waymo has put out a recall for all 672 of its iPace EV Jaguars after one hit a phone pole in Phoenix. Techcrunch.com reports that the Alphabet division had to recall software for vehicles in February after two one them hit the same pickup that was being towed by a tow truck. According to Waymo spokesperson Katherine Barna, this is just the 2nd voluntary recall by the autonomous vehicle company. Waymo is being proactive after incidents with GM-owned Cruise, including one where a Cruise vehicle hit and dragged a pedestrian  in San Francisco last year.  

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

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