News Google Assistant and Calendar Reminders Will Automatically Migrate to Tasks Macro Strategist: James Sterling In September 2022, Google announced its plan to consolidate reminders by migrating them to Google Tasks. This aims to provide users with a unified experience for managing their to-do lists across various Google platforms.
News Google Now Lets Users Access Their Accounts with Passkeys Macro Strategist: James Sterling The new technology uses your device biometrics (either your fingerprint or your face) or its pin to confirm it's you signing in. It basically allows using your device instead of a password for authentication.
BigTech Meta Ends Support for NFTs on Instagram and Facebook Macro Strategist: James Sterling A company spokesperson said that Meta is shifting its investments away from NFTs to products such as Meta Pay, as well as other tools that allow creators to earn money directly on Meta's platforms.
BigTech YouTube Will No Longer Run Overlay Ads on Desktop Starting April 6 Macro Strategist: James Sterling YouTube will no longer display overlay ads atop videos that users are watching on the desktop app and web browsers, the company announced in a YouTube Help forum post. This ad format has long been unavailable on mobile devices, too.
BigTech Meta Is Testing a Paid Verification Scheme on Facebook and Instagram Macro Strategist: James Sterling To sign up to become Meta Verified, users must be 18 or older and provide an official government-issued ID that matches the profile name and photo they have on Facebook or Instagram.
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.
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 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 Facebook Parent Meta Reports Its First-Ever Quarterly Revenue Decline Macro Strategist: James Sterling Outgoing Meta COO Sheryl Sandberg blamed this decline on the decreasing value of the Euro. Had it not been for the decreasing value of the Euro, the company's revenue would have been up 3 percent year over year, she said.
News Apple Showed Off Its AR Headset to the Company's Board of Directors Macro Strategist: James Sterling Apple has already shown its AR headset to board members, which means that it is almost ready for release. Most likely, the novelty will be presented to the public later this year, and it will go on sale in 2023.
News Google Will Make Search Dark Theme Fully Black Macro Strategist: James Sterling The black search background color could potentially help save battery life on smartphones and laptops. However, it won't make any big difference since users do not spend much time in Search.
News Mark Zuckerberg Announced Meta's Updated Values Macro Strategist: James Sterling The head of Meta noted that the current values were defined back in 2007. And while they have proven remarkably durable, the time has come to update them since the company is now heading towards developing a metaverse.
News Facebook Is Losing Daily Active Users for the First Time in History Macro Strategist: James Sterling In the third quarter of 2021, Facebook had 1.93 billion daily active users, while in the last three months of 2021, this number decreased to 1.929 billion, the quarterly earnings report of Meta revealed.
News Google Is Working on an AR Headset Codenamed Project Iris Macro Strategist: James Sterling Like upcoming headsets from Meta and Apple, Google's headset uses outward-facing cameras to bring computer graphics into the real world, creating a more immersive mixed reality experience.
News Google Abandons FLoC and Replaces Third-Party Cookies With Topics Macro Strategist: James Sterling With Topics, the new concept will assign users five interests per week based on their web activity. These interests will be stored for up to three weeks. To do this, Google created a list of about 350 topics available in its advertising taxonomy.
News Apple Pays $100K to a Student Who Revealed a Mac Webcam Bug Macro Strategist: James Sterling Pickren explained that this hack could ultimately allow the attacked to access the entire filesystem of the device by exploiting Safari's webarchive files, the system used to save local copies of websites. A user has to download such a file and then open it.
News Indian Regulator Ordered an Antitrust Probe Against Google Macro Strategist: James Sterling The Competition Commission of India (CCI) suspects Google is violating the country's antitrust laws. The investigation should help determine whether Google imposes any discriminatory conditions or price on digital news publishers.
News Google's Year in Search 2021 Reveals Popular Search Trends Macro Strategist: James Sterling The company also named the main trends, events, and heroes of 2021. The rating was compiled based on users' search queries over the past year.
News Meta Launches a New Tool to Stop the Spread of Revenge Porn Macro Strategist: James Sterling This platform is the first global initiative to help people concerned that their intimate photos might have been shared or may be shared on social media platforms like Instagram or Facebook without their consent.
News Apple Will Let Mac and iPhone Owners Repair Their Own Devices Macro Strategist: James Sterling Apple announced the launch of the Self Service Repair program for iPhone and Mac owners. It will initially launch in the United States in early 2022 and will first only be available for iPhone 12 and iPhone 13 lineups and Macs with M1 chips.
News Meta's AI Team Is Working on a Thin Robot Skin and Touch Sensors Macro Strategist: James Sterling The metaverse the company is working on should provide a close imitation of reality in the virtual world. That is why Meta is developing new sensors to simulate one of the human sensations – the touch.
News Microsoft Introduces Mesh for Teams to Collaborate in the Metaverse Macro Strategist: James Sterling Microsoft plans to combine its software products into a single metaverse where people can interact with each other using augmented and virtual reality. In Mesh for Teams, users can create their own virtual 3D avatar and use it during meetings.
News Apple Will Soon Let Your Family Access Your iCloud Data When You Die Macro Strategist: James Sterling With the Digital Legacy feature, you can choose up to five people who will gain access to your iCloud data after you die. Heirs will need to provide a death certificate of the account holder and a special access key to log into their account.
News Facebook Changed Its Company Name to Meta Macro Strategist: James Sterling The name Meta should reflect the new direction the company plans to take – creating the so-called metaverse. The main goal of the metaverse is to connect people and help them communicate easily even if they are far away from each other.
News Apple Unveiled New MacBook Pro, Next-Gen AirPods, and HomePod Mini Macro Strategist: James Sterling The new laptops have no Touch Bar but feature the return of MagSafe, an SD card slot, an HDMI port, and an improved headphone jack. According to the Cupertino company, the MacBook Pro supports fast charging.
