FCC Will Vote to Restore Net Neutrality; WhatsApp Outages; Apple Working on Home Robot; Spotify Readies to Hike Prices

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

The Federal Communications Commission will vote on restoring net neutrality later this month. It’s been a long time coming, but engadget.com notes it had to wait for Democrats to finally hold a majority on the Commission. A vote will fulfill an executive order from 2021 and bring back Obama era rules that the Trump administration FCC shredded in 2017. Net neutrality trades broadband services as an essential resource under Title II of the Communications Act, giving the FCC grater authority to regulate the industry.  It lets the agency prevent ISPs from anti-consumer behavior like unfair pricing, blocking or throttling content and providing pay-to-play “fast lanes” to internet access. I note that my provider 2 weeks ago voluntarily increased my upload and download speeds out of the goodness of its heart…that and the fact that new federal rules will not allow them to call it high speed broadband in their ads and promotion at the lower speeds! Republicans and Joe Manchin opposed Biden appointee Gigi Sohn to the Commission for 16 months. she withdrew, and Anna Gomez was sworn in last September, giving Democrats a majority.

Meta has had some issues yesterday and today. Yesterday, Threads wouldn’t allow uploads for several hours for some users. Today, WhatsApp and to a degree Messenger and Instagram, is facing outages and intermittent issues. According to techcrunch.com, Meta’s status page also shows disruptions to critical business services like Ads Manager, Messenger Platform, WhatsApp Business API, and others. WhatsApp confirmed the outage there on its X account, which must gall them. As of midday Wednesday, a number of users seemed to have services restored. Back on March 5th, Facebook, Instagram, and Threads all went down, so today’s outage is the second major one for Meta in a month.

The Apple Car may be gone, but something else is rolling out of the smoke from the Apple Car division….a robotics division. Appleinsider.com says Apple is working on a home robot…not just a vacuum, but an autonomous home robot companion for your home. This project is not close to completion, but involves a robot that would follow a user around the house. It might have issues with mine, as I have stairs, but perhaps they will give it a little rotor blade for folks like myself. The little robot will lean heavily on Apples AI, which they have called ‘machine learning’ until recently. Since we have robot vacuums that sweep and mop floors, and robot security guards, it will be interesting to see what Apple comes up with that people will really feel compelled to buy…at an Apple price!

Spotify is preparing to hike prices on some plans, and also thinking about adding new subscription options. 9to5google.com says the base US price is $11 a month for an individual Premium plan, and also the Duo plan that gives couples 2 accounts for $15 a month. Family Plan covers 6 users and is $17 a month. All those will change this month, as Spotify is raising prices about $2 across the board in the UK, Australia, Pakistan, and a couple un-named countries. The US account holders will get dinged for more money later this year. Meanwhile, the platform will introduce new Premium plans that are the same cost as the current ones, but won’t have the Audiobooks availability. How about the long promised Hi-Fi plan? Well that one is still in the works after 2 years…maybe due to cost.

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

Foxconn Sees  Non-iPhone Growth; Growth; TikTok CEO Responds to Possible US Ban; Teams Moving to EZ Switching From Work to Personal Accounts; Instagram Working on Spin Feature for Reels Vids

Posted: March 14, 2024 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

Foxconn is forecasting ‘robust growth’ in 2024, but the increase isn’t coming from iPhones. Bgr.com reports that Foxconn sees the growth coming from stronger AI server demand. As Apple has already hinted that there will be AI features coming with iOS 18 and even more for the iPhone 16, Foxconn CEO Young Liu said  “Revenue from AI servers is estimated to climb 40% year-on-year, while revenue from graphic processing unit modules will jump by a triple-digit percentage.” Overall, AI server-related revenue will account for 40% of Foxconn’s total server business in 2024, up from 30% in 2023. Analysts have said Apple is building a number of new AI servers in anticipation of the changes in iOS 18 and with the iPhone 16. 

The CEO of TikTok has responded to the overwhelming US House vote to force ByteDance to either sell off the platform or face a ban of it in the US. According to mashable.com, the CEO called the bill ‘disappointing’ and intimated that TikTok may take legal action if the bill becomes law. It still has to pass the Senate, but President Biden has said he will sign it. TikTok had lobbied its users to flood Congress with calls and emails before the bill passed, but it did pass 352 to 65. CEO Chew claims that the bill will give more power and dollars to a handful of other social media platforms. He also says  “It will put more than 300,000 American jobs at risk and it will take away your TikTok.” Few believe ByteDance won’t sell TikTok if it comes down to it…the Chinese economy is hurting for cash right now, and most agree a sale would bring as much as several hundred billion. 

Microsoft is building a single version of Teams that will let you switch easily between work and personal accounts. Theverge.com says new app is being tested right now. The new version will be rolled out to commercial users in April. In future updates, you’ll be able to select the account you want to use when joining a meeting link or even join a meeting without signing in. This unified app will even let you launch personal and work accounts for Teams with separate icons on the taskbar instead of having to install and launch separate apps. Microsoft is also baking in notifications that show you clearly where a notification has come from. Personal notifications will also have more detail. 

Instagram has a feature they call ‘Spins’ in the works for its Reels short form videos. Techcrunch.com reports that the feature would allow other users to switch out the text or audio in your Reels. The feature is in the very early stage of development. It could be used as a way for users to start trends by creating templates that other people can then put their own creative spin on. At best, this could be like dropping samples into rap songs. On the other hand, I see it as a way to get a lot of humor…intended or unintended…and mischief! Laying in a track making someone say naughty things or making them talk like a duck. The possibilities are numerous. The original creator would get credit for their original every time someone makes a Spin of it. It isn’t a sure thing that Instagram will even release the feature…it isn’t being tested internally yet. 

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

Former Activision Blizzard CEO Wants TikTok; Car Makers Sharing Driver Data With Insurers; AirPods Getting ‘Hearing Aid Mode’; Influencers Paid for Promoting Counterfeit Goods

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

The former CEO of Activision Blizzard, Bobby Kotick, is angling to buy TikTok as the US government is threatening to ban the app unless it is sold off by Chinese firm ByteDance. Engadget.com reports that Kotick…and hey, tick is part of his name, so running TikTok ought to be a natural…ok, kidding…has talked about partnerning with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. If ByteDance will even sell, it would be a multi-hundred billion dollar deal. Kotick chaired Activision for 30 plus years. TikTok has had influencers and people who make a living on the platform flood Congressional representatives with calls and email, urging them not to ban or force a sale of the app. A bipartisan group of law makers are concerned about the data the app is getting which can be going to the Chinese government. President Biden has said he would sign a bill banning or forcing the sale of the app. 

Most people know that our data is currency to many businesses and organizations. Here’s a wrinkle you may not be aware of…a number of car makers are selling your driving data to LexisNexis, which in turn is selling the info to insurance companies, and it’s raising folks’ insurance rates! According to the New York Times, a number of makers have programs you can sign up for to keep track of your driving habits…some, like GM, have made it like a game where you can earn badges for you good driving. The down side is they track hard braking, hard cornering, speeding, tickets and accidents, and your insurance rates can go through the roof…or sunroof in this case. In some instances, people haven’t even signed up for the programs. Several states don’t permit this activity…including California, Massachusetts, Michigan, and Hawaii. Besides General Motors, Kia, Subaru, and Mitsubishi contribute to the LexisNexis ‘Telematics Exchange.’ Ford, Honda, and Hyundai are also claimed to be included…although both Ford and Subaru deny this. If you want to see what data your car can collect, go to vehicleprivacyreport dot com. https://vehicleprivacyreport.com/. You can also see your LexisNexis report at consumer dot risk dot lexisnexis dot com slash consumer. https://consumer.risk.lexisnexis.com/consumer

An interesting new feature may be coming to Apple’s AirPods Pro. Apparently in iOS 18, there will be ‘a major new hearing aid mode.’ The word comes from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. The feature apparently won’t require any hardware changes. AirPods already have a feature called Live Listen, that came out own 2018. That feature turns an iPhone into a directional microphone, sending the audio to the AirPods in real time. A couple of years ago, AirPods got Conversation Boost, which boosts the mic directly in front to better pick up what a person is saying. With the new relaxed FDA guidelines allowing over the counter hearing aids, the hearing aid feature seems like a natural extension of what they already do. 

Quite a few social media influencers are making money promoting great prices on goods over TikTok. Well, it turns out…unsurprisingly, that most of the goods are counterfeit. Wired.com says it isn’t just on TikTok, either. Some influencers are also hawking the illegal knock offs on Facebook, Discord, and Reddit. One firm called Pandabuy claims to have hundreds of content creators touting goods. Some of the knocks offs are not only cheap, but also look cheap, but others are very good fakes. If it is a designer brand and it’s being marketed by an influencer on one of these platforms, it is most likely not the real deal. One example as a pair of $1000 Rick Owens high top sneakers for $73 that apparently are pretty accurate. As always, caveat emptor…let the buyer beware.

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

Meta Platforms Melted down Tuesday; Former Twitter CEO & Others Sue for Severance; X Calling Feature Warning; ChatGPT Now Reads Answers Out Loud

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

Meta’s platforms had a major meltdown Tuesday morning. Untold teeming masses were locked out of Facebook, Instagram, and Threads. In fact, on Threads, nothing would load at all. Theverge.com reports that the crash started around 10am Eastern. Some people were locked out of their Meta Quest headsets, too. Facebook just logged users out of their accounts, with them unable to log back in. As with Threads, Instagram users just could’t refresh their feeds at all. Meta communications head Andy Stone had to resort to posting about the outage on Threads rival X, writing that the company is “aware people are having trouble accessing our services” and that Meta is “working on this now.” A similar Meta outage took place in 2021 when a configuration issue brought down access to Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp for several hours. All seems to be fixed now, so everyone hearing or reading this has presumably gotten their social media fix for today! 

A couple of items of X news. First off, a group of former Twitter execs, including former CEO Parag Agrawal, are suing Elon Musk for millions in unpaid severance benefits. According to engadget.com, the tab is around $128 million. The suit claims that the CEO alone is owed some $57.4 million. The legal action cites Musk biographer Walter Isaacson’s account of the events, which explains that Musk rushed to close the Twitter deal a day early so he could fire the executives “for cause” just before their final stock options were set to vest. According to Isaacson, Musk bragged that the legal maneuver saved him about $200 million. At this time, X has not responded to calls for it to comment about the lawsuit.

In the second piece of X news…which is more news you can use…Elon Musk turned on the platform’s new calling feature with no real notice or fanfare. TechCrunch.com says with audio and video calling on by default, the platform leaks your IP address to anyone you talk with…and it is difficult to figure out how to limit who can call you. The best thing to do for now is to go to settings, and slide the little calling switch to off until they get this worked out. If you see it in the upper right of your app, you can click on the phone icon and go to the calling feature directly and switch it off. X calling may become useful, but for now, protect yourself until they get this cleaned up. 

Apparently, it’s not enough to have Alexa, Siri, Google, and the rest talking to us. Now, OpenAI has added a Read Aloud feature for ChatGPT. Theverge.com notes that you have your choice of 5 voice options, too. The Read Aloud feature is available on the web version, and well as iOS and Android. It speaks 37 languages and will automatically detect the language of the text it is reading. By the way, it is available in both GPT-4 and GPT-3.5. You can also set up the chatbot to always respond verbally when replying to prompts. 

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

TikTok Tests 30 Min. Videos; Facebook Loses Data Scraper Suit; Microsoft Hits $3 Trillion Value Briefly; Tesla Has Underwhelming Financial Results

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

TikTok is testing letting people upload videos up to 30 minutes long…in an obvious move to go after YouTube. Bgr.com notes that this is triple the present 10 minute length. When a user gets ready to upload a video, a pop up announces “Introducing 30 minutes video — You can now upload videos up to 30 minutes long!” Of course, YouTube still allows much longer videos…actually up to 12 hours. The 30 minute time will be interesting, but I have several friends who do programs of 1 to 2 hours in length, so the 30 minute limit won’t be suitable for that sort of longer form programming. Most videos on YouTube aren’t over 30 minutes, though…so this is a big move for TikTok.

Facebook sued a data scraping company last year, and now a federal judge has tossed Meta’s breach-of-contract claim. According to arstechnica.com, this is because the defendant Bright Data obtained only public data from Facebook and Instagram.  Bright Data is an Israeli company that collects data from various websites and offers related products to businesses. Meta alleged that Bright Data violated Facebook and Instagram policies by developing and using “unauthorized automation software to scrape data from Facebook and Instagram, including users’ profile information, followers, and posts that users have shared with others.” The judge did let stand one claim…for tortious interference with contract. Us District Judge Edward Chen has scheduled a status conference May 5th to discuss litigation of that remaining claim by Facebook. 

Microsoft hit an historic milestone Wednesday as they briefly surpassed $3 trillion in market value. Bloomberg reports that a lot of the gain was due to optimism over AI. The Redmond firm wasn’t able to hold above that mark for long, but did close right under $3 trillion, with a valuation of $2.99 trillion. Microsoft joins a very exclusive corporate club now…Apple had previously became the first company to ever hit the milestone last summer. 

In some not so hot financial news, Tesla revealed its final quarter of 2023 results yesterday. On the plus side, arstechnica.com reports that they did hit the goal of delivering 1.8 million EVs to customers…but gross profits were down 23% year over year…even with a net income increase of 115% (although in large part, this was due to Tesla recording a “one-time non-cash tax benefit of $5.9 [billion] in Q4 for the release of valuation allowance on certain deferred tax assets.” Tesla also warned that vehicle growth rate may be ‘notably lower’ in 2024. 2025 could pick back up for them, though, with a leak to Automotive News that a compact crossover could be out in that model year. 

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

Microsoft Better Battery Prototype; Amazon Launches Matter Casting at CES; Meta to Restrict Teen Instagram & Facebook Accounts-Blocking Self-Harm & Eating Disorder Content; Google Chromecast-Watch TikTok on Your TV

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

Researchers at Microsoft and the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) say they’ve discovered a way to reduce the lithium content in batteries by as much as 70%, using a process that shows the potential for artificial intelligence to significantly accelerate all sorts of scientific research. Geekwire.com reports that The researchers used AI and high-performance computing to identify promising materials for batteries in a matter of days, successfully shortcutting a process that would normally take years or decades, according to an announcement Tuesday from Microsoft and the lab. Researchers acknowledge that the chemistry has yet to be fully proven, and might not work at a larger scale. They say it’s nonetheless a promising development in the quest for alternatives to traditional lithium-ion batteries, which are widely used but have drawbacks such as scarcity, cost, environmental impact and safety.

Amazon just showed off Matter Casting at CES. The system is an interoperable rival to Apple’s AirPlay. Initially, it will only support streaming content from Amazon’s Prime Video app to Echo Show devices, but the feature will support Fire TV in the coming months according to macrumors.com. Later in the year, it will work across a range of other video services, including Plex, Starz, Pluto TV, Sling TV, and ZDF. The Matter standard allows interoperability between platforms, and is backed by Amazon, Google, and Apple. Besides streaming, it is designed to make internet of things devices in your home from your fridge to your thermostat…all play nicely together…eventually. 

Meta has announced that it will automatically limit some types of content teens can see on their Facebook and Instagram accounts. Techcrunch.com says those accounts will be automatically restricted from seeing harmful content, such as posts about self-harm, graphic violence and eating disorders. That content was already kept from Reels and Explore, but now will not be shown in Feed and Stories…even if shared by someone a teen follows. Meta is also automatically placing all teen accounts in Instagram’s and Facebook’s most restrictive content control setting. The setting is automatically applied for new teens joining the platforms, but now it will be applied to teens who are already using the apps. The content recommendation controls, which are called “Sensitive Content Control” on Instagram and “Reduce” on Facebook, are designed to make it harder for users to come across potentially sensitive content or accounts in places like Search and Explore.

Not that more people need more ways to view TikTok, but now Google has announced at CES that they have added TikTok compatibility to Chromecast. Cnet.com reports that in addition, Google has rolled out Fast Pair support for quicker Bluetooth connections…this will work on LG TVs with built in Chromecast this year in addition to the Chromecast dongle. As for the TikTok content…that compatibility is available now…you can stream content including live videos from your phone or tablet over Chromecast to your TV. 

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

Amazon Prime Shipped 5 Billion; Apple’s iPhone Battery Replacement; Germany Enforcing Social Media Hate Speech Law; Yes-Robocalls Have Gotten Worse; Wireless Android Auto Coming

Posted: January 2, 2018 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Order lots or stuff with free shipping using Amazon Prime? Yeah, you and everyone else. According to techcrunch.com Amazon shipped over 5 billion items with Prime in 2017. We don’t know how much growth this shows, as they’ve never released numbers before, but 5 billion is a staggering number! A third party estimate from Consumer Intelligence Research Partners has 63% of all Amazon customers as Prime members, though, and calculates that there are 90 million Prime members just in the US!

You probably heard the flap over the holidays about Apple using software to slow down older iPhones to conserve dying batteries…and not telling anyone, and hence, the uproar. Apple last week issued a rare apology, and dropped the price of replacement batteries from $79 to $29…available right now in limited quantities. The replacement applies to ‘anyone with an iPhone 6 or newer whose battery needs to be replaced.’ In the rush, Apple didn’t note what happened if the phone fails an official Genius Bar diagnostic test. Now, macrumors.com reports that Apple will replace the batteries at their stores even if the phone doesn’t flunk the Genius Bar test! How about phones older than iPhone 6? Basically…you’re screwed….you’ll have to pay the $79 bucks.

Germany has waded into the arena of hate speech, fake news, and illegal material on social media. BBC.com says they are now starting enforcement of a law banning such content. If the content isn’t removed within 24 hours after the social media company is notified, the fine is up to 50 million Euro…or about $60 million bucks! That MIGHT get their attention. Facebook, Twitter and YouTube will be the law’s main focus but it is also likely to be applied to Reddit, Tumblr and Russian social network VK. Other sites such as Vimeo and Flickr could also be caught up in the dragnet.

If it seems like you’ve been getting more robocalls…you are. According to theverge.com, a recent FTC report shows they have quintupled since 2009! The agency has gotten 375,000 complaints a month in 2017, compared to 63,000 a month in 2009. One reason is cheap access to internet calling services and autodialing. Now, there is vastly more neighborhood or area number spoofing, with the calls really calling from almost anywhere in the world. The do not call registry and blocking tools from phone companies and phone makers MAY have helped, but aren’t remotely keeping up with the problem.

Lots of cool things will be rolled out at the upcoming Consumer Electronics Show. 9to5google.com says one will be wireless Android Auto. JVC/Kenwood will show off an Android Auto screen that doesn’t have to be plugged into your USB port, but runs over the Bluetooth. There was already such a device for Apple CarPlay rolled out by Alpine a few months ago. They use a 6.8 inch screen, and will sell under the JVC and Kenwood brands. It’s expected that they will also be bringing out an Apple CarPlay compatible version later on. Let’s hope they are easily detachable and can be hidden in trunks, for break-in prone cities like San Francisco!

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