News Signal Secure Messenger Is Rolling Out an Instagram-Like Stories Feature Macro Strategist: James Sterling You can share your stories with everyone on your phone's contact list who uses the app, anybody you've had a one-on-one conversation with, or anyone whose message request you've accepted.
News Apple to Drop 'Hey' From the 'Hey Siri' Trigger Phrase Macro Strategist: James Sterling The tech giant has been working on this for months, and is expected to release the change next year or the year after, if all goes according to plan. As Mark Gurman noted, the change requires a significant amount of AI training and underlying engineering work.
News Netflix Finally Launches Its Ad-Supported Plan for $6.99 per Month Macro Strategist: James Sterling Users of the "basic" subscription will see an average of 4 to 5 minutes of ads per hour – before and during shows or films. Each ad insert will be 15-30 seconds long with no ability to skip or fast-forward through them.
News WhatsApp Is Rolling Out Its New Communities Feature Globally Macro Strategist: James Sterling To start using this feature, you need to open the new Communities tab, which can be found at the top of your chats on Android or at the bottom on iOS. Here you can both create a new Community and add existing groups to a new Community.
BigTech Google Acquires AI Avatar Startup Alter for $100 Million Macro Strategist: James Sterling TechCrunch reported that Google paid about $100 million to acquire Alter. The acquisition took place about two months ago without a public announcement, but the tech giant has already confirmed the purchase.
News Elon Musk Released a Perfume That Smells Like Burnt Hair Macro Strategist: James Sterling The release of the perfume is related to a post the billionaire jokingly posted on Twitter back in late September. Musk announced plans to release a fragrance for men called Burnt Hair, which would help men "stand out in a crowd."
News Kanye West to Buy Controversial Social Media App Parler Macro Strategist: James Sterling Parler was created in 2018 as an alternative to Twitter, but with a "softer" post moderation policy that appealed to the American right and Trump supporters often blocked on other major social media platforms.
News NVIDIA Unveils a New AI Model That Can Quickly Generate 3D Objects Macro Strategist: James Sterling NVIDIA engineers trained the AI using synthetic 2D images of three-dimensional objects made from different angles. It took just two days to feed a million sample images into GET3D using A100 Tensor Core GPUs.
News WhatsApp Introduced a Premium Subscription Plan for Business Users Macro Strategist: James Sterling According to WABetaInfo, the messaging platform has started testing the subscription plan for certain business users with the latest beta update on iOS and Android via TestFlight and the Play Store.
News Apple Could Bring USB-C to Mac Accessories and AirPods by 2024 Macro Strategist: James Sterling Apple might bring USB-C to the next-gen AirPods, AirPods Max, and AirPods Pro by 2024. At the same time, Mac accessories, such as Magic Trackpad, Magic Mouse, and Magic Keyboard, could switch to USB-C as early as next year.
BigTech Meta Now Lets Users Share Their NFTs on Both Facebook and Instagram Macro Strategist: James Sterling In May, Meta announced that it would test the NFT sharing feature on a small number of users in the US. Now the company has officially introduced the option to all of its social media users from the United States.
News Twitter Is Rolling Out Its Edit Button for Twitter Blue Subscribers Macro Strategist: James Sterling From now on, these users can edit the content of a tweet after it has been published, which means that they will no longer have to delete and publish the tweet again in case they make a mistake or a typo.
News Meta's New AI Can Generate Short Videos From Text Prompts Macro Strategist: James Sterling The model analyses a text query and outputs 16 frames of video at a resolution of 64 by 64 pixels which are then boosted using a separate AI model to 768 by 768 pixels. Despite these limitations, Meta says that the resulting videos will become much better in the future.
News Google Expands Eco-Friendly Routing Across European Countries Macro Strategist: James Sterling Last year, this feature was available for residents of the United States and Canada, offering routes with the least energy consumption. Eco-friendly routing is now available across most European countries.
News TikTok Users Can Now Downvote Comments Macro Strategist: James Sterling After testing it for several months, TikTok has officially introduced the new downvote button that will let users easily flag irrelevant or inappropriate comments.
News YouTube to Launch an Ad-Free Video Player for Education Macro Strategist: James Sterling It was created specifically for educational organizations that often use YouTube as a platform for learning. Educational institutions will now be able to embed videos on websites without distracting students from the online learning experience.
News Steve Jobs' Family Has Launched a Digital Archive in His Memory Macro Strategist: James Sterling Friends and family of Steve Jobs, the co-founder of Apple, have launched an online archive dedicated to his legacy. This digital archive will serve as a repository of historical materials relating to Jobs, some of which have never been published before.
News LG Electronics Launches an NFT Platform for Its Smart TVs Macro Strategist: James Sterling LG Electronics has launched its NFT marketplace called LG Art Lab. The platform is already available in the US for those who have LG TVs with webOS 5.0 or later, and can be accessed directly from the home screen.
News Xiaomi Unveiled Its Humanoid Robot CyberOne Macro Strategist: James Sterling CyberOne can also carry small objects. The robot demonstrated this capability during the presentation by presenting a flower to Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun. CyberOne also took a short walk to the middle of the stage and then took selfies with Xiaomi CEO.
News Snapchat Will Let Parents See Who Their Children Are Messaging Macro Strategist: James Sterling Parents and guardians will be able to view their kid’s friend list as well as a list of accounts they interacted with over the past week. They will also be able to report concerning accounts to the Trust and Safety Team of Snap.
News Twitter Is Bringing Podcasts to Its Platform Macro Strategist: James Sterling Twitter internal research shows that 45% of the platform's US users listen to podcasts every month, so it's worth recommending audio content to them. Listeners will now have access to a more personalized selection of audio content.
News Mark Zuckerberg Confirms That Meta Will Launch Its New VR Headset in October Macro Strategist: James Sterling Zuckerberg confirmed that the headset will likely be revealed closer to their annual Connect event. According to him, the new device will allow for eye contact in virtual reality. The headset will also track facial expressions and transmit them to a virtual avatar.
News Google Launches an Educational Website for Kids Learning to Read Macro Strategist: James Sterling After selecting a story, the kid starts reading into the microphone of a connected device. Read words are highlighted in blue, whereas mispronounced words are underlined in red. After you click on the underlined word, a virtual assistant named Diya pronounces it.
News YouTube to Launch an Online Store for Streaming Video Services Macro Strategist: James Sterling YouTube is preparing to launch an online store where users will be able to buy paid subscriptions to other streaming video services. YouTube's management is currently in talks with several entertainment companies.
News Netflix Introduces Subscription Payment Option That Bypasses the App Store Macro Strategist: James Sterling Earlier this year, Apple began allowing some apps to use external links to let their users log in and pay for subscriptions outside of the Apple Store. Netflix is now launching an option in its iOS app that takes users to its website to finish a new subscription.
