As more and more people have ditched X, formerly Twitter (and I mention Twitter primarily to irritate a particular former radio journalist who takes great umbrage with language and usage these days) as well as Facebook, for their new lack of moderation changes and head to Bluesky, some celebrities and techies are looking beyond Bluesky. Engadget.com reports that the group wants to try to build out something to “save social media from billionaire capture.” They want to create a new social media ecosystem that is focused on the public good instead of profit-driven incentives. Big names in the deal include actor Mark Ruffalo, actor/director Alex Winter, and writer/journalist Cory Doctorow. Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia is involved, The plan involves building new social media apps on top of the pre-existing AT Protocol, which is a decentralized framework that Bluesky runs on. This would ostensibly give users significant control over their data, algorithms and the entire online experience. Bluesky is funded by venture capital, and this group wants to raise money in a way to keep it independent. They are shooting to raise $30 million in the next 3 years,
China is considering a number of options for TikTok as the deadline approaches for ByteDance to divest of the app in the US or be blocked from the US. According to cnbc.com, one option is to try to sell the app to Elon Musk, who would then oversee both it in the US and X. TikTok has called the story involving Musk ‘pure fiction.’ As usual, X has not commented. Even if such a sale happened, it isn’t clear that even the incoming administration would approve Musk controlling both platforms. Although the Supreme Court hasn’t ruled against TikTok as of this report, the oral arguments seemed to be going in favor of the government and against TikTok, which the US government has claimed was a national security risk under present owner ByteDance.
Starting now, you can track your food order at Disneyland and Disney World right from the lock screen of your iPhone. Macrumors.com says that Disney has rolled out support for the Live Activities feature on the phones. You can track status of mobile food orders on the lock screen or Dynamic Island, without having to open the My Disney Experience or Disneyland apps. Just tap the ‘I’m Here, Prepare My Order’ button, to have your food freshly prepared. You can view your order number, status, and pickup location right from the Lock Screen. If you are going to use the feature, you need iOS 16.1 or later, and an iPhone 14 Pro or any iPhone 15 or 16. Be sure to update the Disney app first.
Texas is suing Allstate and an Allstate subsidiary called Arity over data privacy. Gizomdo.com reports that the state says the insurer is violating Texas privacy laws by surreptitiously collecting detailed location data on millions of drivers and using that information to justify raising insurance premiums. I had read that this was going on, and now Texas is the first state to file suit. The Texas Attorney General said “Our investigation revealed that Allstate and Arity paid mobile apps millions of dollars to install Allstate’s tracking software. The personal data of millions of Americans was sold to insurance companies without their knowledge or consent in violation of the law. Texans deserve better and we will hold all these companies accountable.” Allstate developed the Arity Driving Engine software back in 2015, and allegedly had mobile app developers install the products to collect a variety of sensitive data from consumers’ phones…like geolocation data, accelerometer, details about stops and starts, and whether the phone owners were speeding or driving distracted. The apps that had the data stealing function included Gas Buddy and Fuel Rewards, among others.
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!
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.
Meta has settled with Texas over the use of facial recognition on Facebook…to the tune of $1.4 billion. Reuters.com reports that the huge fine resolves a lawsuit dating from 2022 that claimed that the “Tag Suggestions” feature on photos uploaded to Facebook violated the state’s Capture or Use of Biometric Identifier Act and Deceptive Trade Practices Act. It’s the largest settlement ever resulting from an action brought by a single state, according to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. Meta admitted no wrongdoing in the settlement.
Automakers continue to sell your driving data, and some Congressmen have complained to the Federal Trade Commission about the practice. According to mashable.com, Senators Ron Wyden and Ed Markey sent a letter to the FTC, asking the commission to investigate the continued practice of car manufacturers collecting and then selling the driving data of its customers — which includes information like the exact time, distance, speed, and braking behavior of every auto trip. This data is then offered to insurance companies. So if your insurance mysteriously went up with no tickets or accidents, this could be why. the Senators said in their letter that “Companies should not be selling Americans’ data without their consent, period. But it is particularly insulting for automakers that are selling cars for tens of thousands of dollars to then squeeze out a few additional pennies of profit with consumers’ private data,”
Twitch is getting a new look that looks a lot like TikTok. Theverge.com says the new app is rolling out on Android and iOS. The main change is that it will now open on a feed of content you might like, instead of on the ‘Following’ tab. This is also what Threads and others have done to try to drive people to their algorithm based feeds. More than 50% of Twitch users ‘primarily’ watch on their phones. The app is supposed to make it quote “easy to find streamers that you already love while also exploring and discovering new streamers.”
Soon, if you send a direct message to a big Instagram creator, you may hear back from an AI bot they have made. Engadget.com reports that Meta is rolling out its AI Studio, and the tool box will allow Instagram creators to make an AI persona that can answer questions and chat with their followers and fans on their behalf. Meta says the new creator AIs are meant to address a long-running issue for Instagram users with large followings: it can be nearly impossible for the service’s most popular users to keep up with the flood of messages they receive every day. Meta claims that the creators’ AI will function as ‘an extension of themselves.’
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.
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.
As previously rumored, Apple will launch its Vision Pro mixed reality headset soon…and now we have an actual date. The $3500 headset will start shipping February 2nd in the US. Theverge.com reports that pre-orders will start January 19th at 8 AM Eastern. Apple also revealed the pricing for the Zeiss prescription lenses that users can get with it. Readers will be available for an extra $99, while prescription lenses will cost $149. The base model of the Vision Pro offers 256GB of storage and is packaged with the following accessories: solo knit band and dual loop band, a light seal and 2 light cushions, a cover, polishing cloth (wow, that’s an exciting one), battery, and USB-C charging cable and power adaptor.
Over the weekend, a report came out that SpaceX and Tesla execs are concerned about Elon Musk’s drug use, and its possible affects on his security clearance and on SpaceX contracts. According to pcmag.com, in a report originally appearing in the Wall Street Journal, the Journal claims that Musk has used marijuana, mushrooms, ketamine, LSD, ecstasy, and cocaine. His marijuana use put his security clearance at risk in 2019 after he smoked it on camera during an appearance on Joe Rogan’s podcast. SpaceX has federal spaceflight contracts, and the Drug-Free Workplace Act requires federal and non-federal workplaces with contracts of $100,000 or more to implement a Drug-Free Workplace Program, which includes drug testing requirements (even if the drug in question is legal in the state). NASA tests for marijuana, cocaine, amphetamines, opioids, and PCP, according to NASA documentation from March. The Journal details several incidents during which Musk appeared to be under the influence, though his use of drugs was not confirmed and no one in Tesla or SpaceX leadership officially called him out on it.
The Waymo One ride-hailing service will soon be able to use freeways. 9to5google.com says that in Phoenix, Waymo will “begin testing its fully autonomous passenger cars without a human driver on freeways” for a “significantly” faster experience. For example, a trip from Sky Harbor Airport to the northern parts of Scottsdale takes 25 minutes, instead of 50, when utilizing the AZ-101 compared to just surface streets. Waymo says it is “laser focused on our freeway ride hailing testing.” This is “especially important” for bringing Waymo One to other cities. In Los Angeles, for example, they are vital for getting from one part of town to another in a reasonable amount of time. The vehicles without human divers on freeways will initially be ridden in only by employees for further testing before it becomes available to the public.
Volkswagen has announced at the CES that they will be adding ChatGPT AI to every European model that has their IDA voice assistant. Techcrunch.com reports that the chatbot will be primarily used to read content out loud to drivers and passengers. It should start rolling out in the 2nd quarter in Europe…VW says the feature is being considered for US cars, but didn’t give a date when they might offer it. Mercedes-Benz already added the chatbot to its MBUX infotainment system last June.
New MacBook Air— Now gets Retina display….finally.
It has no bezel….13.3 inch display. 4x resolution compared to old Air. They have added Touch ID with the keyboard. There’s a T2 chip and secure enclave. The keyboard is improved, and there’s a Force Touch trackpad.
Stereo speakers are 25% louder and have better bass. 3 mics improve use of Siri. 2 Thunderbolt 3 ports ( yep…only 2..you’d better buy a bag full of dongles!!)
Even though it has a 13.3” screen the new Air is 17% smaller than the old air and only weighs 2.75 lbs, dropping a quarter lb. Every new Air is made of 100% recycled aluminum.
1.6GHz i5 processor, 128GB storage, 8GB Ram Starts at $1199 and available next week.
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Updated Mac Mini— All get 4 cores, with 6 cores available. They aren’t mobile chips, but regular cpu’s. The new Mini is 5X faster. The new Mini is able to support 64 Gigs of memory on SO-DIMMs. They are available with up to 2TB of SSD memory. 4 Thunderbolt 3 ports, HDMI, 2 USB A ports.
Mini starts at 799 with a base config of 8GB, 3.6GHz quad-core processor. Order today and available next week.
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New iPad Mini, iPad, and Pro. The new iPads have Face ID, no home button, a thinner bezel, and a magnetically attached Apple Pencil.
The Pro has the ‘liquid retina’ display. With no bezel, it 12.9” screen, but in a smaller package. The iPads Face ID works like it does in the iPhone X, Xs, etc.
The new iPads are running the new A12X Bionic chip. There’s an 8 core CPU…7 core GPU. It’s 90% faster, and is faster than 92% of PCs sold in the last year. The new Pro will be available with 1TB of storage, and will get USB-C. You will be able to charge your iPhone from your iPad Pro, too!
The new Pencil attaches magnetically, automatically pairs, and charges wirelessly. New magnetically attachable smart keyboard folio (that also protects the iPad.)
They demoed a basketball game (NBA 2K Mobile) that looks nearly like video of an actual game. Apple claims this kind of resolution has never been done on a mobile device.
Adobe demoed actual Photoshop on the iPad Pro. Adobe also showed off their new augmented reality product, which will be out next year.
11″ starts at $799, 12.9″ starts at $999. Orders start today, arrive November 7. Current 10.5-inch remains at $649. LTE versions available.
iOS 12.1 will be available today, with Group FaceTime, eSIM support for iPhone Xs and Xs Max, 70 new emoji, and more.
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Other things are happening besides with Apple. Twitter is rumored to be considering killing the ‘Like’ button, in order to force more debate between users. CEO Jack Dorsey said so at a private Twitter event last week, according to vox.com. Also of note…increasing the character count from 140 to 280 didn’t really produce an avalanche of longer Tweets.
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The era of electric aviation is nearly upon us. easyJet says they will launch a 9 passenger electric plane next year. They are also working on a battery powered 150 seat plane for short haul trips of under 300 miles. Electrek.co reports that 30% of flights are in that range, and that Boeing and Airbus sold nearly 1000 jets for those routes last year at around $90 million a pop, so an electric model would really shake up the market.
Twitter is going to start testing a way to switch between what they think are the ‘best’ Tweets for you to pure chronological like they used to have. Engadget.com reports that the testing should start within the next few weeks. Eventually, they will have something similar to Facebook’s news feed switch between ‘Top Stories’ and ‘Most Recent.’ It can’t happen too soon!
Amazon will be dropping at least 8 new Alexa powered devices by the end of the year, according to CNBC. Look for a Microwave oven, an amplifier, a receiver, subwoofer, some sort of in-car gadget, and more. Alexa will be baked in to all. Expect Amazon to unveil at least some of the new gear at an event later this month.
Not a good sign for the Samsung Galaxy Note 9….a woman from New York says one ‘spontaneously combusted’ in her purse, echoing the old Galaxy Note 7. The story picked up by appleinsider.com came from the New York Post. Apparently, a Long Island real estate agent said her phone got ‘extremely hot’ and she dropped it into her bag. The bag smoked, caught fire, and burned up the stuff in her bag. This seems to be the only instance involving a Note 9 so far…stay tuned….
Mercedes has started delivery of the eActros electric trucks. Electrek.co says it ws to Hermes, Germany’s biggest logistics company. They are buying about 1500 all electric vans from Mercedes. The delivery vans have dual electric motors and two battery packs at 240 kWh. Even at that, it is only good for 125 miles of range with a full payload. The trucks can recharge in 3-11 hours depending on charge rate, which can run from as low as 20 kW up to 80 kW. Mercedes says Hermes is one of 20 ‘test customers’ as they work the kinks out of their all electric truck fleet.
It may not be out by the models next week, but Apple is working on an always-on Apple watch display. Bgr.com says the trick is to minimize burn on OLED screens, which an always-on condition causes. Apple is toiling on a method of artificially adjusting the brightness and colors of particular areas of the screen, which would minimize burn. People have been clamoring for an always on time display at the least (raising hand here), so lets hope this happens. The Apple Watch 3 can make it (barely) 3 days on a charge, and it may be that the new model coming out on the 12th can even improve on that.
Lots of sets of eyeballs, not to mention bots and trolls, must be pretty critical to Twitter. Gizmodo.com reports that Jack Dorsey overruled staff to keep Alex Jones and White Supremacist Richard Spencer on the platform. The Twitter CEO is apparently terrified of infuriating a loud, angry extreme conservative movement, so he caved on banning high profile accounts like conspiracy master Alex Jones. The Wall Street Journal reported extensively on this, but Twitter is officially denying it.
Audi ramped up production on its first all-electric SUV last week, according to techcrunch.com. The company plans to show the e-tron SUV September 17th in San Francisco. Audi had been working on an e-tron quattro for several years. The electric SUV is being built in Brussels, Belgium where the company also has its own battery production line. the e-SUV is supposed to have fast charging capability and a range of about 250 miles. It should go on sale by the end of the year.
New research from Chinese University/Hong Kong indicates that a magnetic field can be used to control movement of swarms of nanobots, and implement swarm behaviors. Cnet.com says this could be used by surgeons to perform complex medical tasks. By using swarms of nanobots, surgeons may be able to target drug delivery, cancer therapies, and do eye surgeries. A university team has already begun animal tests on the nano-swarms.
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