Tech Roundup: Meta E.U. Fine, Humane CosmOS & More

[A recurring feature on the latest in Science & Technology.]

• Meta gets fined €251 million for a 2018 security breach that exposed the data of three million European Union citizens, the big-ticket run-in with the authorities in the region.
• The Spanish government announces a new bill that requires digital platforms and social media influencers with more than 100,000 followers on a single platform or 200,000 across several to mandatorily publish corrections to combat disinformation.
• Meta says Threads has over 100 million daily active users and more than 300 million monthly active users, up from 275 million monthly active users in Q3 2024 (Bluesky, in contrast, has over 25 million users in total); rolls out a way to reshare photos and videos without quote posting the original post, while crediting the original poster.
• Google debuts Whisk, an Imagen 3-based image generator that takes other images as prompts to suggest the subject, scene and style; unveils Veo 2, a video generation model that can create clips over two minutes long at resolutions up to 4K.
• Chinese shopping app Temu becomes 2024's top free app in the U.S. iOS App Store, same as 2023, followed by Threads, TikTok, ChatGPT, Google, Instagram and WhatsApp.
• OpenAI makes ChatGPT Search (aka SearchGPT) available to logged-in users, not just subscribers, and says they can set ChatGPT Search as their browser's default search engine; rolls out its most advanced model, o1, to third-party developers through its application programming interface (API).
• Snapchat plans to roll out a unified monetisation program to pay influencers for ads placed in eligible Stories and Spotlight posts starting February 1, 2025.
• Meta adds an option to schedule a direct message on Instagram and posts on Threads; rolls out live AI, live translation between several different languages and Shazam integration to its Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses, and says it's testing generative AI features for Instagram that will allow creators to "change nearly any aspect" of their videos using text prompts.
• Midjourney adds Pinterest-like moodboards' and support for multiple custom AI image models; launches a collaborative worldbuilding tool called Patchwork.
• Google's YouTube begins rolling out a way for creators to let third-party companies use their videos to train AI models from different companies (the option is disabled by default); adds support for third-party tools to Gemini Code Assist, letting the code completion service access real-time data and information from outside apps.
• Congo files criminal complaints against Apple subsidiaries in France and Belgium, accusing the tech firm of using conflict minerals in its supply chain.
• Apple Maps on the web adds support for Look Around, Apple's version of Google Street View.
• Grammarly announces plans to acquire collaborative tools startup Coda for undisclosed sum as part an effort to turn it into an "AI productivity platform."
• The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issues long-awaited rules requiring companies to display the full price of hotels and concert ticket up front, rather than burying "junk fees."
• Google introduces FACTS Grounding benchmark for evaluating the factuality of large language models (LLMs); says it will start cracking down on videos with clickbait titles in India.
• Apple says Meta has made 15 interoperability requests under the EU's DMA, more than any other company, and that it's "seeking to alter functionality in a way that raises concerns about the privacy and security of users"; Meta responds by saying "every time Apple is called out for its anticompetitive behaviour, they defend themselves on privacy grounds that have no basis in reality." (The efforts are part of a broader initiative by the E.U. to force Apple to make iOS and iPadOS more interoperable with competitors, including technologies related to media casting, Wi-Fi sharing, and close-range file transfers like AirDrop and AirPlay.)
• Apple reportedly halts work on a project to build an iPhone hardware subscription service, which had been in development since around 2022.
• Sony details PlayStation 5 Pro specs, including its GPU based on AMD RDNA 2 with 16.7TF of performance and ray tracing improvements; announces deeper collaboration with AMD to work on "Machine Learning-based technology for graphics and gameplay."
• Microsoft's GitHub makes its Copilot free in Visual Studio Code, with 2,000 code completions and 50 chat messages per month; says the code hosting platform has 150 million developers, up from 100 million in early 2023.
• OpenAI launches a way to talk to ChatGPT by dialing 1-800-CHATGPT for 15 minutes of free access per month in the U.S. or messaging it via WhatsApp globally.
• Flipboard launches Surf, an app to create custom feeds from YouTube, Mastodon, Threads, Bluesky, Pixelfed, PeerTube, Friendica, Ghost, RSS and podcasts, in beta on Android, iOS and iPadOS; describes it as the "world's first browser for the social web."
• Amazon unveils new packaging for its Echo, Kindle and Fire TV products, including removing plastic, less paper and ink, and using more recycled fibres.
• The U.K. Gambling Commission blocks eight illegal casinos using Roblox to lure children as young as 12 into online gambling.
• Microsoft introduces the ability to create synthetic images directly from the Bing search bar and the Edge browser address bar; unveils an upgraded Weather homepage in MSN.
• Global app downloads touch 110 billion (28.3 billion in iOS and 81.4 billion in Android), a drop from 112.3 billion in 2023, according to data from Appfigures; combined consumer spending surges to US$ 127.3 billion (US$ 91.6 billion from the App Store and US$ 35.7 billion from Google Play), up from US$ 110 billion the previous year.
• Ai Pin-maker Humane demos AI software called CosmOS for cars, phones and smart speakers.
• Google tests a default third-party video calling app feature in its Contacts app for Android to improve user experience; expands Cross-device services, its take on Apple Handoff, to more Android devices beyond Pixel and Galaxy phones to include Nothing devices.
• X rival Bluesky rolls out a dedicated mentions tab in notifications; also takes steps to reserve old .bsky.social handles when users switch to a handle with their custom domain. (This domain-based approach has also led to some unusual extortion attempts where unscrupulous actors purchasing namesake domains of well-known individuals and then selling it to them for a fee. As this report from Tedium puts it well: "Cybersquatting is not a new issue, of course, but Bluesky's decision to tie verification to domains as social proof shows the limitations of the strategy.")
• Google upgrades Keep to a system app on Android 16 devices, joining the ranks of other Android apps that provide essential services like calling and messaging. (This also means that users on the newest version will no longer be able to uninstall the app unless they have root access.)
• The Pakistan government announces plans to launch a national face biometrics authentication service to help citizens who cannot complete biometric authentication with their fingerprints starting January 15, 2025, as part of efforts to ease the process of applying for a national ID card via the Pak Identity service.
• Google tests an AI-powered tool for Chrome called "Client Side Detection Brand and Intent for Scam Detection" to flag and block advanced online scams by using on-device AI to analyse websites, similar to Microsoft's AI-powered scareware blocker in Edge to combat phishing and fraud; also introduces a new feature dubbed "Store reviews" that uses AI to provide a summary of reviews from independent websites about the store or website being visited from the web browser.
• Music streaming service Spotify gets accused of using cheaply produced, generic music to fill playlists, and that it contracts production studios to generate cheap music that is quietly inserted into playlists as part of an internal program called Perfect Fit Content (PFC).
• Apple faces calls to remove its AI-powered notification summaries feature following reports that it's providing inaccurate information and misinterpreting news headlines.
• Google says it wouldn't force its device makers, browser, and wireless carrier licensees to distribute Gemini to U.S. users for three years, in a proposed remedy to address an antitrust ruling in the U.S. that it unlawfully dominates online search; to also make its Android agreements with OEMs non-exclusive and allow them to unbundle Play Store from Chrome and Search, and let browser companies have multiple default agreements across platforms and change their default search provider at least every 12 months.
• Global shipments of VR and MR headsets are expected to reach about 9.6 million units in 2024, up 8.8% YoY; Meta remains the global leader with a 73% market share.