Meta is taking more steps to limit potentially harmful ad campaigns. The company is placing more restrictions on advertisers' ability to target teens. From February onward, Facebook and Instagram will no longer let marketers aim ads at teens based on gender — only age and location. Follows and likes on the social networks also won't influence the ads teens see.

In March, Meta will expand the ad preferences in Facebook and Instagram to let teens see fewer sales pitches for a given topic. Teens could already hide the ads from specific advertisers, but this gives them the choice of automatically downplaying whole categories like TV dramas or footwear.

The social media giant has put ever-tighter restrictions on the content teens can access. In 2021, Facebook and Instagram barred advertisers from using teens' interests to target ads. Instagram also made accounts private by default for teens under 16, and this year limited sensitive content for all new teen users. Meta has likewise limited the ability of "suspicious" adults to message teens on both platforms.

This is the second major ad policy change in a week. Just a day before, Meta rolled out an AI-based system meant to reduce discriminatory ad distribution. The technology is launching as part of a settlement with the federal government over charges that Facebook let companies target ads based on ethnicity, gender and other protected classes.

As with those earlier efforts, Meta has a strong incentive to act. The attorneys general of 10 states are investigating Instagram's effects on teens, while the European Union recently fined Meta the equivalent of $402 million for allegedly mishandling privacy settings for younger users. Governments are concerned that Meta might be exploiting teens' usage habits or exposing them to threats, including content that could lead to mental health issues. The new protections won't solve these problems by themselves, but they might show officials that Meta is serious about curbing ads that prey on teens.

NASA is still willing to fund unusual concepts in its bid to advance space exploration. The agency is handing out $175,000 initial study grants to 14 projects that could be useful for missions in and beyond the Solar System. The highlight may be TitanAir, a seaplane from Planet Enterprises' Quinn Morley that could both fly through the nitrogen-and-methane atmosphere of Saturn's moon Titan and sail its oceans. The "flying boat" would collect methane and complex organic material for study by sucking it in through a porous leading edge.

A project from UCLA's Artur Davoyan, meanwhile, could speed up missions to the outer edge of the Solar System and even interstellar space. His design (shown at middle) would propel spacecraft by producing a "pellet-beam" of microscopic particles travelling at very high speed (over 74 miles per second) using laser blasts. The concept could dramatically shorten the time it takes to explore deep space. Where Voyager 1 took 35 years to reach interstellar space (the heliopause, roughly 123AU from the Sun), a one-ton spacecraft could reach 100AU in just three years. It could travel 500AU in 15 years.

Artur Davoyan

Other efforts are sometimes similarly ambitious. MIT's Mary Knapp has proposed a deep space observatory that would use a swarm of thousands of tiny satellites to detect low-frequency radio emissions from the early universe, not to mention the magnetic fields of Earth-like exoplanets. Congrui Jin from the University of Nebraska in Lincoln has envisioned self-growing habitat building blocks that could save space on missions to Mars, while Lunar Resources' Peter Curreri has devised pipelines that could shuttle oxygen between Moon bases.

These are all very early initiatives that aren't guaranteed to lead to real-world tests, let alone missions. However, they illustrate NASA's thinking. The administration is funding the projects now in hopes that at least one will eventually pay off. If there's even partial success, NASA could make discoveries that aren't practical using existing technology.

Like it or not, Amazon is expanding Prime to cover more of the web. The company says it's making Buy with Prime "widely available" to eligible third-party sites in the US on January 31st. More shops can offer free shipping, a streamlined checkout and simplified returns to Prime members. Before now, stores had to already be using Amazon's fulfillment system and receive an invitation.

The company is also introducing an option that lets Buy with Prime partners feature Amazon customer ratings and reviews on their store pages. A site won't have to hope that someone leaves a glowing review on its own storefron. If someone shopping at Amazon likes a product, it'll be visible on the third-party shop.

The theoretical advantages are clear. You get products with less hassle, while stores are more likely to turn visitors into paying customers. Amazon, meanwhile, is hoping to boost interest in Prime subscriptions and play an important role at other merchants.

The catch, of course, is that you have to pay Amazon to reap the benefits — and not everyone may be thrilled by the prospect. Amazon is already facing government scrutiny over the treatment of third-party sellers on its marketplace, including accusations it uses their sales data to develop rival products. Buy with Prime extends Amazon's influence to yet more sellers, and could invite more attention from regulators as a result.

Apple's long-rumored plans to use its own wireless chipsets in iPhones may be solidifying. Bloombergsources claim Apple is not only prepping its first cellular modem (now slated for late 2024 or early 2025), but is working on a combination Bluetooth and WiFi chip to replace the Broadcom chip that handles those duties. That part would arrive in 2025, according to the tipsters.

The company is also said to be working on a follow-up that would combine the Bluetooth, cellular and WiFi functionality in a single design. A move like this could both simplify production and save space in the iPhone's tightly packed chassis.

Apple and Qualcomm have already declined to comment. We've asked Broadcom for comment. Qualcomm said in November that it would supply the clear majority of iPhone cellular modems for 2023 models, but that it expected a "minimal contribution" from Apple hardware in its fiscal 2025. Broadcom chief Hock Tan, meanwhile, said in December that he believed Apple would continue to use his firm's components.

While the exact reasoning for the transition wasn't mentioned, it's no secret that Apple started designing its own silicon to have more control over its products and reduce dependence on companies that might not always be on friendly terms. The tech behemoth notably got into a bitter royalty dispute with Qualcomm that led to a costly settlement, and Broadcom is known to strike hard bargains. Apple-made parts wouldn't completely avoid problems like these, but they could reduce the chances of third parties effectively holding Apple captive.

There's still no guarantee things will go according to plan, provided the rumor is accurate. Earlier scoops suggested Apple could switch to its own cellular chips as soon as 2023, and analyst Ming-Chi Kuo claims Apple cancelled a fourth-gen iPhone SE that would use the company's first internally-designed modem in 2024. If there are development troubles, Apple may have to lean on Broadcom and Qualcomm for a while yet.

Were you irked that Instagram's shopping obsession relegated the "new post" button to a corner? You're not alone. Instagram has revealed a home screen refresh, due in February, that axes the Shop tab and moves the Create button back to the center of the bottom navigation bar. That, in turn, shunts the Reels tab to the side.

The social network's Adam Mosseri added in a video that shopping will still exist in your feed, Reels, Stories and ads. There just won't be a dedicated tab for it. The section usually offers targeted recommendations to encourage shopping beyond the usual mid-feed offerings.

Instagram started testing the new design in September. In a video announcing the rollout, Mosseri characterized the refresh as a bid to "simplify" the service and focus on connecting people to the "things they love." Insta is remembering that it's a social network, to put it bluntly.

However, the change may also be part of a larger strategy shakeup. As The Vergenotes, The Informationclaimed to have seen an internal memo in September indicating that Instagram would cut many of its shopping features. Instead, the site would concentrate on commerce efforts that are "more directly tied" to ad revenue. Simply put, the shopping push doesn't appear to have helped — this would boost Meta's bottom line as it pivots to the metaverse.

There's also the matter of competition. TikTok, the inspiration for numerous Instagram features, still features a prominent "new post" button. That placement isn't a guarantee of success, of course, but that platform has continued to thrive in spite of Instagram. It had about 1.64 billion monthly active users as of October, according to Data.ai figures. The Instagram rethink might encourage more posts, not to mention give would-be converts a more familiar experience.

Meta is acting on its vow to reduce ad discrimination through technology. The company is rolling out a Variance Reduction System (VRS) in the US that ensures the real audience for an ad more closely matches the eligible target audience — that is, it shouldn't skew unfairly toward certain cultural groups. Once enough people have seen an ad, a machine learning system compares the aggregate demographics of viewers with those the marketers intended to reach. It then tweaks the ad's auction value (that is, the likelihood you'll see the ad) to display it more or less often to certain groups.

VRS keeps working throughout an ad run. And yes, Meta is aware of the potential privacy issues. It stresses that the system can't see an individual's age, gender or estimated ethnicity. Differential privacy tech also introduces "noise" that prevents the AI from learning individual demographic info over time.

The anti-discrimination method will initially apply to the housing ads that prompted the settlement. VRS will reach credit and employment ads in the country over the following year, Meta says.

The feature comes after more than a year of work alongside both the Justice Department and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Meta (then Facebook) was charged in 2019 with enabling discrimination in housing ads by letting advertisers exclude certain demographics, including those protected by the Fair Housing Act. In a June 2022 settlement, the social media giant said it would both deploy VRS and scrap the "Special Ad Audience" tool whose algorithm allegedly led to discrimination. Meta had already limited ad targeting in 2019 in response to another lawsuit.

Meta isn't alone in trying to limit discriminatory ads. Google barred advertisers from targeting credit, housing and job ads starting in 2020. However, the tech used to fight that discrimination is relatively novel. It won't be surprising if other internet services implement VRS-like systems of their own so long as Meta's AI proves effective.

NASA's 38-year-old dead satellite has returned to Earth without incident. The Defense Department has confirmed that the Earth Radiation Budget Satellite (ERBS) reentered the atmosphere off the Alaskan coast at 11:04PM Eastern on January 8th. There are no reports of damage or injuries, according to the Associated Press. That isn't surprising when NASA said there was a 1-in-9,400 chance of someone getting hurt, but it's notable when officials said there was a possibility of some parts surviving the plunge.

ERBS had a storied life. It travelled to aboard Space Shuttle Challenger in 1984, and pioneering woman astronaut Sally Ride placed it in orbit using the robotic Canadarm. Crewmate Kathryn Sullivan performed the first spacewalk by an American woman during that mission. The satellite was only expected to collect ozone data for two years, but was only retired in 2005 — over two decades later. The vehicle helped scientists understand how Earth absorbs and radiates solar energy.

You might not see much ancient equipment fall to Earth in coming decades. The FCC recently proposed a five-year cap on the operation of domestically owned satellites that aren't in geostationary orbits. The current guidelines suggest deorbiting within 25 years. While there could be waivers for exceptional cases, future satellites like ERBS (which was in a non-Sun synchronous orbit) might bow out long before they're reduced to space junk.

Don't worry if you missed some of the holiday deals for Google phones — you're getting a second chance. Amazon is selling the 128GB Pixel 7 Pro for $749, or $150 off, while the standard Pixel 7 is available for $499 ($100 off). You'll find similar discounts for larger capacities and different colors, too. These are near the best prices we've seen, and make the Pixels particularly good value for money.

The Pixel 7 family is ultimately a refinement of last year's lineup, but that's not a bad thing. You're getting a reasonably speedy device with some of the best cameras in any phone, let alone in its price class. You can likewise expect modern creature comforts like fast displays, wireless charging and strong water resistance. As Google phones, they also represent the definitive Android experience — you'll get a 'pure' interface with Pixel-first or exclusive features like Clear Calling and a free VPN.

The Pixel 7 line won't be as fast as the highest-end Android phones and iPhones. And while Google has improve both its fingerprint reader and overall software quality, you might prefer the quicker readers on some rivals as well as Samsung's longer OS update policy. You can also find some competitors, like the Galaxy A53, that pack 120Hz screens versus the base Pixel 7's 90Hz panel. At prices like these, though, it's difficult to complain.

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John Deere has been one of the stauncher opponents of right to repair regulation, but it's now willing to make some concessions. Deere & Company has signed a memorandum of understanding with the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) that lets US farmers and independent repair shops fix equipment, rather than requiring the use of authorized parts and service centers. Users will have access to official diagnostics, manuals, tools and training. Deere will let owners disable electronic locks, and won't bar people from legally obtaining repair resources even if the company no longer offers them.

The agreement includes some protections for the equipment maker. John Deere won't be required to "divulge trade secrets," or to allow repairs that might disable emissions controls, remove safety features or modify power levels. Unsurprisingly, fixes also can't violate the law.

The memorandum is effective as of January 8th, although John Deere didn't detail exactly how or when it would alter its practices. We've asked the company for comment. In a statement, senior VP Dave Gilmore said the company was looking forward to working with customers and the ABFB in the "months and years ahead" to provide repair facilities.

The pact is characterized as a "voluntary" private arrangement. However, it comes alongside mounting political pressure that effectively gave John Deere little choice but to improve repairability. President Biden ordered the Federal Trade Commission to draft right to repair regulation in 2021, while states like New York have passed their own (sometimes weakened) legislation. If Deere doesn't act, it risks legal battles that could limit where and how it does business in the country.

As it stands, the farm equipment maker isn't alone in responding to government action. Apple, Google, Samsung and other tech brands now have do-it-yourself repair programs in place. Microsoft will offer Surface parts to users later this year.

The Federal Communications Commission isn't done dragging data breach policy into the modern era. The agency has proposed rules that would improve reporting for breaches at carriers. Most notably, the move would scrap a mandatory wait of seven business days before a telecom can warn customers about a security incident. Hackers would have a shorter window of opportunity to abuse your data without your knowledge, to put it another way.

The proposal would also clarify that carriers must notify the FCC, FBI and Secret Service of any reportable data breaches. Providers would likewise have to alert customers to inadvertent breaches, such as leaving account info exposed. The Commission is simultaneously asking for public input on whether or not breach alerts should include specific information to help people take action. such as the nature of the compromised data.

The FCC isn't shy about its reasoning behind the tentative rule change. The existing rules are more than 15 years old, and are reportedly "out-of-step" at a time where it's frequently vital to notify victims and authorities as quickly as possible. In theory, telecoms will warn users sooner and reduce the chances of identity fraud and follow-up hacks. This won't guarantee timely alerts, but it could minimize the damage for both customers and the networks' bottom line. It's also more consistent with other laws on breach reporting, particularly in states like California.

There are potential problems. The proposed rule change would let federal agencies delay customer warnings for an initial period of up to 30 days if the notice might jeopardize a criminal investigation or national security. That could put the general public at risk. The FCC is also wondering whether or not there should be a ceiling on the notification period, and whether smaller carriers should get more time to report intrusions. Public comments (open 30 days after the proposal reaches the Federal Register) may help shape these rules, but there's no guarantee the end result will address every concern.