Comcast subscribers in the US Northeast just got another reprieve from data caps, and this one might stick. According to Light Reading and The Verge, a Comcast spokesperson said the cable giant now had "no plans" to enforce internet data caps in the region throughout 2022. State Rep. Andy Vargas even claimed the strategy might be on indefinite hold — he understood Comcast had "no plans to reintroduce" the ceiling at any point.
The telecom first said in November 2020 that it would expand its 1.2TB cap enforcement to the Northeast in 2021, but delayed the move by a year in February 2021. The extra time was ostensibly meant to help customers "become familiar" with caps, but many have attributed the decision to pushback from politicians angry Comcast was trying to curb (or charge extra for) internet usage during a pandemic when many have no choice but to work from home.
This won't help subscribers that still have to live with caps in other states. It will help Northeastern residents breathe easier, though, and could keep their costs down if they don't want to pay for overages or unlimited data. The additional delay also casts doubt on the need for caps in the first place. If Comcast can go without enforcing caps in numerous states for two years, and rivals like AT&T can make even broader gestures, why do the caps exist? Comcast's move doesn't preclude enforcement in 2023 or later, but the company might have a tough time justifying the revival after such a long wait.
Following months of speculation, electric transport startup Rivian shared where it plans to build a second factory. In the summer of 2022, the automaker will break ground on a facility about an hour east of Atlanta, Georgia, it announced on Thursday. Once the plant is complete sometime in 2024, the company hopes to eventually produce 400,000 electric vehicles there. It also plans to build a battery production facility nearby.
Rivian says the EV facility will cost approximately $5 billion to build and will employ more than 7,500 employees. The company will pay for it with proceeds from its recent November 10th IPO. Once complete, the facility will significantly boost Rivan’s manufacturing capacity. The automaker claims its first and currently only factory in Normal, Illinois can produce about 150,000 cars annually. It plans to eventually manufacture about 200,000 there every year.
That might seem like a lot but Rivian is still in the process of scaling production and meeting demand for its vehicles. As of December 15th, 2021, the company said it had produced 652 of its R1 vehicles. As of that same day, it had a total of 71,000 pre-orders from customers. It also needs to produce at least 100,000 trucks for Amazon. In other words, it has its work cut out for it.
General Motors announced Thursday that Dan Ammann, CEO of its self-driving vehicle division, Cruise, is leaving both his position and the company. Details are remain scarce on the reason for Ammann's sudden departure, though the company has already named Cruise President and CTO Kyle Vogt the interim CEO. What's more, former Northrop Grumman CEO, Wesley Bush, will be joining the Cruise Board of Directors as well.
"GM will accelerate the strategy the company detailed in its recent Investor Day, in which Cruise will play an integral role in building GM’s autonomous vehicle (AV) platform as GM aggressively pursues addressable AV markets beyond rideshare and delivery," GM PR wrote in Thursday's staffing announcement.
Meta has banned seven “surveillance for hire” companies that targeted at least 50,000 people around the world. The company also banned more than 1,000 accounts associated with these companies.
The companies targeted in the takedowns include Cobwebs, Cognyte, Black Cube, Bluehawk CI, BelltroX and Cytrox. Facebook’s security researchers also identified “an unknown entity in China,” which was “developing surveillanceware” and used facial recognition software. Facebook’s researchers didn’t say who was behind the group, but said the software had been used by “domestic law enforcement” in the country.
While some of the companies make spyware, the groups use other tactics as well, including social engineering with fake accounts in order to gain access to targets’ personal information. During a call with reporters Thursday, Meta’s security chief Nathaniel Gleicher said that while there has been a lot of attention on “hacking for hire” groups like NSO, the broader “surveillance for hire” industry is also troubling. “One of the things that characterizes the surveillance or hire industry is indiscriminate targeting,” he said.
Meta
“Cyber mercenaries often claim that their services and their surveillance were are meant to focus on tracking criminals and terrorists. But our investigation and similar investigations …have demonstrated that the targeting is in fact indiscriminate and includes journalists, dissidents, critics of authoritarian regimes, families of opposition figures and human rights activists.”
In all, Meta says it will notify “around 50,000” people from more than 100 countries who it believes were targeted by these companies. Facebook will recommend these users revisit their privacy settings, and enable additional account security measure like two-factor authentication.
Spotify has bought another audio platform, and this time it's hoping to bring radio into the modern era. The streaming company has acquired Whooshkaa, an Australia-based firm that offers a tool to convert radio broadcasters' shows into podcasts. Spotify plans to integrate the tech into its Megaphone suite for podcasters with a clear goal — stations could further profit from shows by offering ad-supported podcast episodes.
Whooshkaa might also boost some of Spotify's other efforts. Founder Rob Loewenthal noted Whooshkaa also had speech-to-text (and text-to-speech) technology, smart home integration and "enterprise grade" podcasting tools. Neither Spotify nor Whooshkaa mentioned using this tech to auto-transcribe podcasts or otherwise augment podcasting features, but it wouldn't be surprising if some of this know-how carried over.
The appeal of the purchase is clear. If Spotify can persuade more radio networks to offer podcasts, it could expand its catalog and lure more listeners. Even if few of those shows become exclusives, Spotify could thrive as radio listening declines and more stations look for ways to supplement their usual on-air ads.
An update is rolling out for the Google Home app that should make it faster for users to hop between events captured by Nest devices. New “Transport Controls,” as Google calls them, include play/pause, back and forward buttons. The feature works with footage from the wired and wireless version of Nest Cam, the battery-powered Nest Doorbell and Nest Cam with Floodlight.
Until now, as 9to5 Google notes, users needed to scrub through the timeline or make their way to the Full History tab to get to all of the events. While it might now be faster to move from one event to the next compared with the Nest app, Home users won't have the granular control of the forward and backward buttons from the older app, which moved the playhead 15 seconds at a time in either direction.
Navigation of Nest recording history in the Google Home app has seemingly been a bugbear for many Nest users. As such, improving that experience is a welcome move. Users have been able to view Nest activity in the Google Home Feed tab since March 2020, so the change seems overdue.
When Facebook announced it was rebranding to Meta, the company was prepared. Right after Mark Zuckerberg delivered a meandering keynote extolling the benefits of the metaverse, the company revealed it had repainted its iconic “thumbs up” sign that sits at its headquarters in Menlo Park. Many of its social media accounts also switched over, from Facebook to Meta.
Except for one key account, that is. As many pointed out at the time, the company didn’t control the @Meta handle on Instagram. It belonged to a small Denver-based magazine called META. The day of Facebook’s announcement, the company, which publishes lifestyle stories about motorcycles, posted a photo of assorted print issues with the caption “Since 2014.”
That evening, recent posts from the @Meta account were filled with comments encouraging the owner to “hold” the account, or at least sell it for a high price. “Hold and sell high,” one user wrote. But by the next day, the account had mysteriously vanished, as Quartz reported. It’s unclear exactly what happened, but @Meta has now subsumed all the content from the previous @Facebook Instagram page. Posts on the account predate October 28th, as if the social network had always controlled it. Posts from META, the magazine, now appear under the @readmeta handle.
META the publisher didn’t respond to requests for comment. But there are still signs of its former Instagram account on its website. The company’s website still links to its old instagram.com/meta account. Oddly, clicking on that link from the publisher’s website turns up an error, even though it links to the same URL as the now Facebook-owned Meta account.
Screenshot / Engadget
On Tuesday, Ben Geise, META’s co-founder and editor-in-chief, announced that the magazine’s most recent issue would be the last under the name it had used for more than eight years. “We value our individuality above all else, so when the news broke that a corporate Goliath was changing its name to Meta, it felt like a punch to the gut,” he wrote in a blog post. “With the flip of a switch our identity was suddenly watered down, and we watched our name circle the drain and wash away with something we had no control over.”
Geise didn’t respond to requests for comment, so it’s difficult to know exactly what happened. But Instagram’s terms of service state that businesses are unable to “reserve” handles. And the terms stipulate that companies can’t claim trademark violations if the account owner is using it for an unrelated purpose. “Using another's trademark in a way that has nothing to do with the product or service for which the trademark was granted is not a violation of Instagram's trademark policy,” the policy states. “Instagram usernames are provided on a first-come, first-served basis.”
Of course, accounts and handles often trade hands anyway. Businesses have been known to use escrow services to negotiate account transfers, while others have used shadier marketplaces to gain access to accounts with desirable handles.
But the practice is also officially prohibited by Instagram’s terms of service. “You can’t sell, license, or purchase any account or data obtained from us or our Service,” the terms of service states. “This includes attempts to buy, sell, or transfer any aspect of your account (including your username); solicit, collect, or use login credentials or badges of other users; or request or collect Instagram usernames, passwords, or misappropriate access tokens.”
That raises questions about whether Facebook skirted its own rules in order to gain access to a coveted username, the kind of action other users are routinely banned for. Or whether the company found another justification for taking over the account. An Instagram spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
For now, META the publisher says it’s focused on the future. “Our brand is much more than just a name. We represent a way of living,” Geise wrote. “We speak to inspire and encourage the rare breed of humans out there bold enough to chase their dreams and never look back.”
Block may have hit a snag in its rebranding effort. Per The Wall Street Journal, H&R Block is suing the company formerly known as Square. In a federal complaint filed on Thursday, the tax-prep firm said the name change could hurt its brand. It wants Jack Dorsey’s payments outfit to stop using the name and a logo it contends is “nearly identical” to its own.
“The goodwill that Block has so carefully created and nurtured over the past six decades is now under attack by a Silicon Valley fintech company,” it said. We’ve reached out to Block, the other one, for comment.
Square changed its name to Block at the start of December. At the time, the company said it wanted a name that better reflected the expansion of its business beyond payments and the growing importance of blockchain technologies to its identity. Since its founding in 2009, Block’s business has expanded to include stock and crypto trading, money lending and even music streaming.
Where things may get tricky in terms of a trademark infringement complaint is that Block bought Credit Karma's tax-prep business in 2020. It plans to offer tax returns through its Cash App. In trademark cases, a court will look at similarities between the products and services two companies offer. It will also consider how the two may compete against one another in the future. Jack, if you're reading this: it's never been a better time to rebrand the company to "Tesseract."
Uber and autonomous vehicle company Motional announced a partnership today for "autonomous deliveries" through Uber Eats. As you might imagine, there are some caveats.
The pilot is slated to launch at some point in "early 2022," though Motional (itself a partnership between Hyundai and Aptiv) would not provide further details on timing. The full array of food options normally available through Uber Eats also won't be available. Instead customers will pick from "a curated set of meal kits from select restaurants."
Nor will this joint venture really be "driverless" per se. A Motional spokesperson told Engadget that "we will be launching the service with safety operators present in the vehicle." Not-quite-autonomous meal kit deliveries will be confined to Santa Monica, California, where a large portion of Motional's team works.
Other lingering questions, for instance the number of vehicles Motional plans to put on public roads, or what types of weather they'll be allowed to operate in, remain unanswered.
Under its original leadership, Uber initially planned to convert the semi-professionalized cab driver workforce into a contingent one, and then remove those overhead costs entirely by investing in self-driving vehicles. "The reason Uber could be expensive is you're paying for the other dude in the car," former CEO Travis Kalanick said in 2014, "When there is no other dude in the car, the cost of taking an Uber anywhere is cheaper." Six years later the company sold off its self-driving arm, known as the Advanced Technologies Group, to Aurora.
Since then, Uber has pursued partnerships with outside self-driving firms, like Waymo. Motional has an ongoing partnership with Uber's chief rival, Lyft, to launch an autonomous fleet in 2023.
It's a busy day for TikTok. Not only has the company announced upcoming changes for the recommendation algorithm, it's rolling out a bunch of editing features that should improve the look (and maybe the sound) of your videos.
Perhaps the most important update is support for 1080p uploads in select countries. You'll be able to share videos at that resolution by switching on the Upload HD setting from the "More options" section of the publishing page.
The app is offering an easy way to improve the overall look of a video. With the new Visual Enhancement button, TikTok says it will improve the exposure, low-light and color correction aspects with a single tap. After you record or upload a video, you can tap the Enhance button on the right panel. If you don't like the changes, tapping the button again will undo them.
Elsewhere, the Green Screen effect now has Giphy integration, so you can use a GIF from that platform's library as the background of a video. There are more musical and animal voice effects too. TikTok can turn your voice or other sounds into a cat's meow, a flute or a suona (a Chinese double-reed horn). You can try these out by tapping the Voice Effect button on the Editing page.
