Meta is putting its considerable weight behind the tech industry's push to do away with the leap second. In a post on the company's engineering blog, Meta production engineer Oleg Obleukhov and research scientist Ahmad Byagowi talked about how a leap second can wreak havoc on a network, along with the solution Meta implements to prevent outages and any issues it could cause. 

The leap second was introduced back in 1972 as a way to adjust Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) and make up for the difference between the International Atomic Time (TAI), which is measured by atomic clocks, and imprecise observed solar time (UT1). They sometimes don't match due to irregularities and slowdown in the Earth's rotation caused by various climate-induced and geological events, such as the melting and refreezing of ice caps on the tallest mountains.

As Obleukhov and Byagowi note, the offset a leap second creates can cause issues all over the industry. In 2012, for instance, it took Reddit out for 40 minutes when the time change confused its servers and locked up its CPUs. A time leap added in 2017 also affected Cloudflare's DNS service.

To prevent unwanted outages, Meta and other tech companies, such as Google and Amazon, use a technique called "smearing." These companies "smear" a leap second by slowing down or speeding up the clock throughout a number of hours. Meta smears a leap second throughout 17 hours, while Google uses a 24-hour smear technique that lasts from noon to noon and encourages everyone to follow suit. That way, a leap second doesn't create any weird time stamps that could throw networks off.

But Meta isn't advocating for the adoption of its smearing technique — its new post's purpose is to lend its voice to the movement that's calling for the leap second's retirement. The body responsible for deciding whether to adjust UTC, the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service, has added 27 leap seconds since 1972. Meta believes that's enough adjustment for the next millennium.

The company's post comes over a year before the fate of the leap second is decided. Back in 2015, the International Telecommunications Union discussed the leap second at its World Radiocommunication Conference and came to the conclusion that further studies are needed to figure out the impact of dumping it. The union is expected to examine the studies' results and to consider the proposal to retire the leap second at its next conference in 2023.

Meta said in its post:

"Leap second events have caused issues across the industry and continue to present many risks. As an industry, we bump into problems whenever a leap second is introduced. And because it’s such a rare event, it devastates the community every time it happens. With a growing demand for clock precision across all industries, the leap second is now causing more damage than good, resulting in disturbances and outages."

Back in February, Faraday Future presented the production version of its FF91 electric SUV at its California plant and said it would start manufacturing its long-delayed vehicle in the third quarter of 2022. Now, according to Bloomberg, the embattled company has revealed in a filing for investors that it has to push back the EV's production yet again and that it needs more cash for its commercial launch. 

Apparently, the company said it has to delay FF91's deliveries to the "third or fourth quarter of 2022." Seeing as the third quarter has already started, it's now likely aiming for late Q3 — that said, the fourth quarter seems more likely, and that is if Faraday Future's plans finally go as intended. Especially since it also has to find the money needed to keep running: The company also told investors that it needs additional cash to launch the FF91 and that it's looking to raise around $325 million to fund its operations until December 31st, 2022. 

Faraday Future was founded in 2014 and planned to launch its first electric vehicle way back in 2018. It's had to postpone launching its EV several times over the past years as it grappled with a litany of financial issues. The company almost ran out of cash in 2017 until a company called Season Smart, which was later acquired by Chinese company Evergrande, agreed to invest $2 billion in it. Faraday Future quickly burned through Season Smart's $800 million initial cash injection, though, and it spent 2018 feuding with its main investor. 

While it reached a restructuring deal with Evergrande by the end of 2018, it wasn't able to secure enough money to bring back the employees it put on unpaid leave. The company also had to give up on its plans to build a factory in Las Vegas and put up the 900-acre plot for sale for $40 million. Faraday went public in a merger with a blank-check company back in 2021, but it looks like that wasn't enough to solve its financial woes.

As Bloomberg notes, the delay comes in the midst of an issue between the company and its founder, Jia Yueting, who stepped down as CEO in 2019 as part of the company' restructuring deal. Apparently, a shareholder group associated with Yueting offering Faraday Future "at least $100 million" to remove an unnamed director from the startup's board. The company reportedly pushed back, and the group accused it of not treating the offer "with the gravity, urgency and fairness it deserves" considering Faraday's financial condition. 

Google has started making good on its promise to update and optimize 20 of its apps for tablets. The tech giant has rolled out a number of new features for Google Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides and Keep, which all take advantage of tablets' larger screens. They're tools you can use to make it easier to juggle multiple tasks and to transfer content from one app to another when you have two windows open side-by-side. You can now easily drag-and-drop text and images from apps like Chrome, for instance, to a Google document or a spreadsheet cell. That could make writing up notes or reports go much quicker than before.

If you need to upload anything to Google Drive, you can simply open the app in a split window and then drag-and-drop the files in. You can now even open two Drive windows side-by-side, so you can compare files without losing the current view for whatever's already open. Sounds useful if you're reviewing particularly lengthy PDF files or documents. To access the feature, make sure to click the three-dot menu on a Drive file and choose the "Open in new window" option.

Now, if you want to create links for direct access to specific drive files, you can easily do so by dragging files into Google Keep. And if you have any images in Keep that you want to use elsewhere, you can drag them out of a note and into another app. Finally, you'll now be able to use keyboard shortcuts such as select, cut, copy, paste, undo and redo while navigating Drive, Docs and Slides if you're using a keyboard with your tablet.  

Google hasn't exactly been prioritizing Android tablet users over the past few years, but Android 12L's release seems like a promising start in its attempt to address the platform's shortcomings for larger screens. When it announced that it was going to optimize its apps at Google I/O back in May, the company showed it was getting serious about building apps for Android tablets again. Hopefully, that doesn't change and future updates could continue improving the Android experience for tablet users.

If you were a T-Mobile customer in August 2021, you may get a few dollars from the carrier in the near future. It has agreed to settle a consolidated class action lawsuit filed against the company over a data breach that exposed the personal information of 76.6 million "current, former and prospective customers." Back when T-Mobile's CEO, Mike Sievert, admitted and apologized for the breach, the carrier said the individual who hacked its network used "specialized" tools and knowledge of its infrastructure in order to gain access to its testing environment. That individual then stole customer data from the network and sold them on hacker forums.

The type of information that the bad actor sold varies per person, but it could include the name, birth date and social security number for each individual. T-Mobile got in touch with people affected by the data leak shortly after it came to light and offered them two free years of access to McAfee’s ID Theft Protection Service. Now, they're also getting monetary compensation, though it will likely be a few dollars at most. While the $350 million settlement may sound substantial, a huge chunk of that amount will go towards paying off legal fees. The rest will be divided among tens of millions of affected customers. According to the SEC filing spotted by GeekWire, the company will also spend $150 million on data security technologies throughout this year and the next.

The settlement still has to be approved by the court. But if it does, it will "resolve substantially all of the claims brought by the company’s current, former and prospective customers who were impacted by the 2021 cyberattack." You can read the full proposed settlement here.

The BBC has already started preparing for Facebook's 20th anniversary in 2024: The broadcaster has announced that its factual entertainment team has commissioned a three-part documentary about Mark Zuckerberg and the social network he founded. Facebook's story is pretty well-known at this point, and it's common knowledge that Zuckerberg originally designed it to connect students at Harvard. And that the Winklevoss twins sued the Meta chief, claiming he stole their idea. BBC, however, aims to present a "definitive account" of Mark Zuckerberg and the social network he founded. 

That means no dramatized events like in the 2010 David Fincher-directed film starring Jesse Eisenberg. Instead, BBC promises access to "key players, insider testimony, personal journals and rare archive material." Mindhouse, the TV production company behind the project, will also examine the rise of the social media and how it has changed human behavior and interaction. It's unclear if the documentary will also examine Facebook's role in spreading fake news around the world. 

Nancy Strang, Minhouse Creative Director, Mindhouse, said in a statement: 

"The remarkable story of Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook is one of the tales of our time. He has arguably done more to transform human behaviour and connectivity than any other person this century. I'm thrilled that we've been given this opportunity to tell the extraordinary inside story of the social media giant, and the man behind it."

The docuseries, which has a working title of Zuckerberg, has no premiere date yet. But it will air on BBC Two and will be streamable from BBC iPlayer when it comes out.

A 65-year-old man named Michael Williams spent almost a year in jail over the shooting of a man inside his car before prosecutors asked a judge to dismiss his case due to insufficient evidence. Now, the MacArthur Justice Center has sued the city of Chicago for using ShotSpotter, which it calls an "unreliable" gunshot detection technology, as critical evidence in charging him with first-degree murder. The human rights advocate group out of Northwestern University accuses the city's cops of relying on the technology and failing to pursue other leads in the investigation.

Williams was arrested in 2021 over the death of Safarian Herring, a young man from the neighborhood, who asked him for a ride in the middle of unrest over police brutality in May that year. According to an AP report from March, the key piece of evidence used for his arrest was a clip of noiseless security video showing a car driving through an intersection. That's coupled with a loud bang picked up by ShotSpotter's network of surveillance microphones. ShotSpotter uses a large network of audio sensors distributed through a specific area to pick up the sound of gunfire. The sensors work with each other to triangulate the shot's location, so perpetrators can't hide behind walls or other structures to mask their crime.

However, a study conducted by the MacArthur Justice Center in 2021 found that 89 percent of the alerts the system sends law enforcement turn up no evidence of any gun-related crime. "In less than two years, there were more than 40,000 dead-end ShotSpotter deployments," the report said. The group also pointed out that ShotSpotter alerts "should only be used for initial investigative purposes." San Francisco's surveillance technology policy (PDF), for instance, states that its police department must only use ShotSpotter information to find shell casing evidence on the scene and to further analyze the incident.

The lawsuit accuses Chicago's police department of failing to pursue other leads in investigating Williams, including reports that the victim was shot earlier at a bus stop. Authorities never established what's supposed to be Williams' motive, didn't find a firearm or any kind of physical evidence that proves that Williams shot Herring, the group said.

On its website, ShotSpotter posted a response to "false claims" about its technology, calling reports about its inaccuracy "absolutely false." The company claims its technology has a 97 percent accuracy rate, including a 0.5 percent false positive rate, and says those numbers were independently confirmed by Edgeworth Analytics, a data science firm in Washington, D.C. It also answers the part of the lawsuit that criticizes Chicago's decision to place most of it sensors in predominantly Black and Latino neighborhoods, which could lead to potentially dangerous clashes with the police. ShotSpotter said it's a false narrative that its coverage areas are biased and racially discriminatory and that it works with clients to determine coverage areas based on historical gunfire and homicide data .

As AP reports, the lawsuit is seeking class-action status for any Chicago resident who was stopped because of a ShotSpotter alert. The MacArthur Justice Center is also seeking damages from the city for the mental anguish and loss of income Williams had experienced throughout the whole ordeal, as well as for the legal fees he incurred. Further, the group is asking the court to ban the technology's use in the city altogether.

Meta has introduced new tools to expand the ways you can collaborate with others using Reels, as part of its strategy to be able to better compete with TikTok. To start with, you can now remix not just videos, but also photos on Instagram, giving you more material to use. The company has added more Remix layouts to include a green screen, a split screen or a picture-in-picture reaction view, as well, to make it easier to add your own spin or take to an existing Reel. Plus, you can choose to attach your remix to the end of the original Reel instead of having them play side-by-side. That format works better if you have a hot take or a rebuttal you want to publish.

In addition, Meta is rolling out templates to make it easy to create Reels with preloaded audio and video effects — you simply need to add your photo or video to one. You can see the company's template collection by tapping on the camera icon in the Reels tab. Another new feature that makes the feature a more veritable rival to TikTok is the ability to record with the phone's front and rear cameras at the same time using the Instagram camera. 

Finally, Meta has confirmed a previous feature leak that it will be turning all videos posted on Instagram as Reels, as long as they're shorter than 15 minutes. Videos under 90 seconds long may be recommended on the app and, hence, may have a wider reach. But you don't have to worry about becoming famous if you don't want to be: Instagram won't be using your Reels as a recommendation if your profile is set to private, and it will not retroactively convert old uploads. This feature is rolling out in the coming weeks and will also consolidate all your videos and Reels under one tab in the app.

Just a few days ago, Instagram also introduced a feature that would allow influencers to earn from their Reels. Creators can now share subscriber-only feeds that lock their content behind a paywall. Meta promised creators that it won't be taking a cut from their earnings until 2024, but putting Reels behind a paywall is one way of monetizing them.The company's executives previously said that they intend to focus on monetizing Reels as quickly as possible in the second half of 2022, so we'll likely see more features intended to make money off the short videos in the near future.

SoundCloud has found a powerful partner for its unusual royalty system that ensures lesser-known artists and indie acts are getting the money they deserve. The service has signed a global licensing agreement with Warner Music Group, making the company the first record label to adopt its Fan-Powered Royalties model. Some of the record label's most popular acts are Ed Sheeran, Coldplay, Cher, Gorillaz, Hayley Kiyoko, Kelly Clarkson and Lizzo. However, it's most likely the artists who aren't quite as well-known who would benefit the most from the scheme.

This deal ensures every artist across the label's roster gets paid based on users' listening habits. Most streaming services' pro-rata model puts their ad earnings and their customers' subscription payments in one big pot used to pay artists based on their share of total plays across the service. SoundCloud's system, however, sends listeners' subscription money directly to the artists they're listening to. 

The service launched the new model in 2021 and implemented it for performers using SoundCloud Premier, Repost and Repost Select. Back then, it said artists could collect as much as five times their previous royalties under the scheme. Company President Eliah Seton said in a statement: "Warner Music Group is known for developing some of today's biggest superstars and helping them build long-term careers by investing in technologies and models which grow and support their fan communities. This makes them an ideal partner for SoundCloud... [The company] is known for our community of music-loving fans and this partnership aligns with our commitment to a fan-powered, artist-centric business."

When SoundCloud introduced the fan-powered royalties model, critics noted that it might potentially be expensive to operate and, while it looks good on paper, it may not work well in practice. Warner signing the deal adds weight to the royalties scheme, though, and other major labels might be more inclined to follow suit.

Lyft will stop renting out cars from its own fleet and has laid off around 60 employees, according to The Wall Street Journal. As TechCrunch notes, the layoffs have also been confirmed by the LinkedIn posts of affected workers. The people who lost their jobs, The Journal said, worked in operations and covered 2 percent of the company's workforce. Back in May, the company reportedly wrote in a staff memo that it's slowing down hiring due to the economic downturn, but that it didn't have any layoffs planned. Things have clearly changed since then.

In an internal memo from Lyft VP Cal Lankton seen by The Journal, the executive said that the company's road to in-house rentals is "long and challenging with significant uncertainty." Lankton also explained that Lyft started discussing the possibility of exiting the business last fall and that talks ramped up as the "economy made the business case unworkable."

The ride-hailing service debuted its car rental business in Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area back in 2019 after a few months of testing, eventually expanding its first-party car rental offering to five locations. While it's sunsetting the option to rent vehicles from its fleet, the company isn't leaving the space completely. Lyft already runs more than 30 rental locations with Sixt SE and Hertz Global Holdings Inc., and it said it will continue working with big car-rental companies. "This decision," a spokesperson told the publication, "will ensure we continue to have national coverage and offer riders a more seamless booking experience."

Lyft is also in the midst of reorganizing its global operations and consolidating its offers from 13 to nine regions. That will lead to the closure of a location in Northern California and of its Detroit Hub, but it's unclear if the move will cause more layoffs. Either way, Lyft is merely the latest company in the tech industry to cut jobs due to the economy. Tesla reportedly laid off 500 employees from its Nevada Gigafactory without 60 days of advanced notice. Netflix cut 300 jobs in June after cutting 150 jobs in May. And more recently, TikTok started laying people off around the world. Even the biggest companies in the industry aren't immune: Meta reportedly told managers to keep an eye out for low-performing workers and to "move to exit" them if they're unable to get back on track.

Just a couple of short weeks before its next Unpacked event, Samsung has revealed that it shipped "almost 10 million foldable smartphones" worldwide. In a post on the Samsung Newsroom, the company's chief of Mobile Experience (MX) Business, Dr. TM Roh, said that's a 300 percent increase from 2020 and that he expects what he calls "fast-paced growth" to continue. Most of its foldable customers, 70 percent of them apparently, went for the clamshell-like Flip. That's not surprising in the least: Samsung previously admitted that the Flip 3motivated more people to switch brands than its flagships did.

The 10 million units Roh claims Samsung shipped last year is considerably larger than the shipment numbers IDC previously published, though. In a report by the International Data Corporation in February, it said it "witnessed worldwide shipments of foldable phones, inclusive of both flip and fold form factors, reach a total of 7.1 million units in 2021." Whichever figure is true, Samsung's MX division posted an increase in revenue last year, mostly due to the strong sales of its foldables and its latest Galaxy S devices.

In addition to giving an update on how Samsung's devices are doing, Roh has also confirmed that the company is introducing its next Flip and Fold models at its next Unpacked event. He also said Samsung made advancements to enhance users' experiences with the upcoming devices:

"I am excited to see people to discover new ways to do more of the things they love with the new foldable.... At our upcoming Unpacked on August 10th, you’ll see that the impact of our innovation is not only about what technology can do. It’s about what you can do. We’ve once again taken our inspiration from the most important source — Galaxy users — to push the limits of what’s possible. I can’t wait to show you the potential of our new Samsung Galaxy foldables as the ultimate tool for both productivity and self-expression."

Samsung's upcoming Unpacked event will take place on August 10th at 9AM ET. Join us at our YouTube channel to tune into our coverage, which begins at around 8:40AM.