Tech Roundup: Google U.K. Scrutiny, Pixelfed Official Apps & More
[A recurring feature on the latest in Science & Technology.]
- Social media giant Meta says it does not plan to end fact-checking outside the United States until it had fully tested the changes, and says it intends to test and refine Community Ratings before beginning any expansion to other countries; comes as the company dismantles system that identified viral hoaxes and limited their reach; tells content-ranking teams to stop penalising misinformation.
- The U.S. government announces a new round of regulations on global AI chip exports that create three tiers of countries for exports of advanced AI chips and technology, while blocking access to countries like China and Russia; NVIDIA calls the laws "sweeping overreach" and that they would "derail" innovation and economic growth worldwide.
- Global smartphone shipments grow 4% YoY in 2024 after a decade-low in 2023; top two brands, Samsung and Apple, remain mostly flat, while Xiaomi surges 12% YoY
- Amazon plans to wind down its Prime Try Before You Buy program, which let Prime members try on clothes before paying for them, on January 31, 2025; says it only worked for a "limited number of items" and customers have been "increasingly using our new AI-powered features" to decide what to buy.
- Microsoft notifies customers in Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand of upcoming ~30% to ~45% price hikes for Microsoft 365 plans.
- Advertisers raise brand safety concerns over Meta's sweeping content moderation changes, fearing a surge in harmful content and misinformation on its platforms, as the company's policy shift is seen as an attempt to boost engagement on its platforms at any cost.
- Meta briefly blocks links to Pixelfed, a decentralised, open-source Instagram competitor, labelling them as "spam" on Facebook and removing them immediately; Pixelfed debuts iOS and Android apps, amid a series of changes to Meta's content moderation policies and enforcement strategies.
- Two Chinese social media apps Xiaohongshu, aka RedNote, and ByteDance's Lemon8, witness a surge in downloads ahead of a possible ban of TikTok (ironically also owned by ByteDance) on January 19, 2025, in the U.S.
- X rival Mastodon announces plans to transfer ownership to a new non-profit, saying the entity "should not be owned or controlled by a single individual."
- Google updates the profile sharing feature in its Google Messages app for Android to allow users to set custom contact names and photos on their devices.
- European Union regulators investigate Apple's revised app store fees amid concerns they may increase costs for developers; focusses on the company's new "core technology fee" of US$ 0.51 per app installation, as part of its compliance with E.U.'s Digital Markets Act.
- eBay signs a definitive agreement to buy online automotive transaction platform provider Caramel to help make buying and selling vehicles on the auction site "more simple than ever."
- Microsoft drops waitlist requirement for GitHub Copilot Workspace, allowing developers to access its AI-powered coding assistant; creates a new AI engineering group called CoreAI – Platform and Tools division to build AI tools for Microsoft and its customers.
- Google unveils Automotive AI Agent, which it describes as a "new way for automakers to create helpful generative AI experiences" and "highly personalised and intuitive in-car agents that go beyond current vehicle voice control"; says the technology will be integrated into Mercedes-Benz's MBUX Virtual Assistant later this year.
- Samsung makes the Galaxy Ring available to more people by adding size 14 and 15 rings to its options starting on January 22, 2025.
- Adobe launches new generative AI tools such as Firefly Bulk Create and Dubbing and Lip Sync that can automate editing large batches of images and translating video presentations.
- Meta-owned WhatsApp adds a new home screen widget for Android that provides direct access to Meta AI, making it easier for users to engage with the AI assistant; updates the messaging app to allow users to double-tap to react to messages in chats.
- OpenAI ChatGPT adds the ability for paying users to schedule reminders and repeated tasks through a feature named Tasks; users can store up to 10 active reminders at any given time.
- Microsoft and OpenAI defend the practice of scraping news stories to train their AI models and call for the dismissal of news outlets' copyright claims.
- The U.K. Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) opens an investigation into whether Google has "strategic market status" in search and how it impacts consumers, advertisers, publishers and rivals.
- The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission sues CEO Elon Musk over his delayed disclosure of the Twitter stock he amassed before announcing his intention to acquire the company in 2022.
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