Vacation rental site VRBO wants you to have a fun Super Bowl bash – just not in one of its thousands of listed properties.
The deployment of what it’s calling a “new unauthorized event prevention technology” is responsible for blocking over 500 event-related bookings in the first 12 months of being piloted in the U.S.
The Phoenix area has been testing ground for the anti-party technology for the past year ahead of Super Bowl LVII in cooperation with a local tourism group.
How VRBO can detect a problem party rental
While I have not had the opportunity to put it to the test, VRBO says the technology generates a “risk score” for each booking based on multiple factors.
An algorithm examines length of stay, the timing ahead of a stay, the number of guests, number of beds, property amenities and the weekday of the first night’s stay.
VRBO offers little details on how it determines the cost of nuisance partygoers and claims that its first 500 blocked bookings saved an estimated $2.5 million in party-related damages.
The dreaded vacation rental blacklist
It joins competitor Airbnb in sharing a database of known problematic renters along with deploying a party detection technology inside vacation rentals that can detect elevated disturbances.
Monitoring sensors installed from NoiseAware can give real-time updates to property owners when loud living becomes costly noise trouble.
VRBO says it has a zero-tolerance policy for party houses and will ban a guest who has violated the published house rules and turns their vacation rental into a party house. Airbnb has a similar policy that can result in kicking off repeat party property listings permanently.
Party Noise detectors are listening
VRBO says it has a zero-tolerance policy for party houses and will ban a guest who has violated the published house rules and turns their vacation rental into a party house. (Kurt Knutsson)
Dallas-based NoiseAware started in 2017 with the idea to offer property owners a monthly noise detection sensor and monitoring service now priced at $15 per month per home on an annual contract.
The technology balances out personal privacy against outrageous guest behaviors leading to a noisy ruckus disturbing a neighbor.
Crowd detection technology foils party animals
When CrowdControl detects a growing crowd with cell phones in pockets, it sends the owner or manager an “elevated occupancy” alert. (Kurt Knutsson)
A recently introduced feature called CrowdControl measures the volume of wireless signals in and near the vacation rental. When it detects a growing crowd with cellphones in pockets, it sends the owner or manager an “elevated occupancy” alert. That’s a pretty clever and sneaky way to discover the presence of lots of people. There’s no information telling if putting guest phones in airplane mode would let partygoers trick the system.
According to the company, NoiseAware sensors are FCC-compliant and do not record voices or sounds. That’s not always the case with overly protective and curious property owners.
Are cameras watching you on vacation?
I’ve long found onsite cameras a privacy problem when renting a vacation rental. I customarily make sure ahead of time that there will be no monitoring cameras that record sound or video during my holiday.
Hosts are mostly compliant and a good roll of tape or a shower cap serves to block indoor cameras when we cannot find a way to unplug them.
Privacy protection when renting a vacation rental
Guest surveillance. Agree ahead of time if you will allow cameras and other detection technologies.
Block cameras. Travel with painter’s tape that is easily removed without damaging cameras.
Find hidden cameras. Scan the interior of a vacation for hidden cameras upon arrival. Even the light from your phone can make a hidden camera lens reveal itself with a blue reflection.
Know Rules. Understand rules ahead of each stay and make sure a dinner with friends is not off-limits. And in the case of a friend having a family reunion, a small clause allowing the owner to use the house’s pool from noon to 3 p.m. each day went unnoticed and became an awkward problem.
Have fun. Enjoy yourself and be a good neighbor during your stay to avoid anyone from spoiling your hard-earned vacation.
For more of my tips, subscribe to my free CyberGuy Report Newsletter by clicking the “Free newsletter” link at the top of my website.
Copyright 2023 CyberGuy.com. All rights reserved. CyberGuy.com articles and content may contain affiliate links that earn a commission when purchases are made.
Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson is an award-winning tech journalist who has a deep love of technology, gear and gadgets that make life better with his contributions for Fox News & FOX Business beginning mornings on “FOX & Friends.” Got a tech question? Get Kurt’s CyberGuy Newsletter, share your voice, a story idea or comment at CyberGuy.com.
It is recommended that you install motion sensor lighting in your home if you want to either prevent burglars from accessing your home or light up your home so that it is safer to walk around in. It is one of the most beneficial investments you can make for your property, and it will also save you money in the long run. The positioning of these lights is extremely important to maximizing both their usefulness and the level of safety provided within the home.
The following are four key locations around your house where motion sensor lighting should be installed:
1. Within the Garage
The installation of motion sensor lights within the garage carries with it not one but two significant advantages. To begin, it is highly likely that some of the most precious goods that you own (such as tools, bicycles, or vehicles) are kept in the garage, which is why it is important to have lights installed in that space. Second, installing motion detector lights in the garage will make it possible for you to complete any necessary work there at any time of the day. If someone breaks into your garage, they will be found out because the motion sensor lights will turn on and illuminate the area when they detect motion.
2. Property Walkways
Motion sensor lighting on your property walks, similar to the ones in the garage, will offer two benefits: first, it will illuminate things for your guests and non-intrusive visitors, and second, it will dissuade thieves from utilising walkways, especially those that lead to home doors. You will not only be able to improve the safety of your home by doing so, but you will also reduce the risk of injuries sustained in slip-and-fall incidents.
3. All Home Entrances
It is recommended that you install motion sensor lighting not only on your home’s primary entryways but also on all of your home’s entrances, including the ones that may not seem like likely candidates. Burglars can break into a house through any number of entry points, including doors, windows, and backdoors. These are some of their favourite spots to hang out. If you equip such parts of your house with lighting controlled by motion sensors, potential intruders will be found out if they try to break in.
In addition to this, it is a smart idea to place motion sensor lights on fence gates, the entrance to a driveway, and other similar locations.
4. Open Areas, Gardens, and Pools
In the event that an intruder is caught by the motion sensor illumination while they are breaking and entering, the burglar’s initial response will most likely be to flee to a more concealed location. These kinds of settings typically include a garden, a pool, an open expanse of yard, and other similar features. Putting motion sensor lights in these sections of your home will ensure that there are no obvious hiding locations for an intruder, and it will also prevent an intruder from seeking comfort in darker regions of your yard, which is another benefit of installing such lighting.
5. Dark Corners
Install motion sensor lights in dark corners of your yard or around the perimeter of your home. This will help to discourage intruders and make it easier to see potential hazards.
6. Trees and Shrubs
If you have trees or shrubs that are difficult to see at night, consider installing motion sensor lights nearby. This will help to highlight the area and make it easier to see any potential hazards.
Steps to install motion sensor lights easily
Installing motion sensor lights can be done in a few simple steps:
Gather all necessary tools and materials, including the motion sensor light fixture, mounting plate, screws, wire connectors, and a drill.
Turn off power to the electrical circuit where the light will be installed.
Mount the motion sensor light fixture to the mounting plate using screws, following the manufacturer’s instructions.
Connect the wires from the motion sensor light fixture to the electrical circuit using wire connectors.
Attach the mounting plate to the wall or ceiling using screws.
Install and adjust the light bulb, following the manufacturer’s instructions.
Test the motion sensor light to ensure it is working properly, making any necessary adjustments.
Turn the power back on and enjoy your new motion sensor lights.
Note: If you are unfamiliar with electrical wiring, it is recommended that you hire a professional electrician to install the lights for you.
Conclusion
It will pay off in the long run with a number of benefits if you invest some time and effort into carefully planning the placement of motion sensor lighting around your home. Make sure that the overall layout of your home, the primary reason for the motion lighting, the layout of your yard, and any existing limitations (whether from electric wiring issues or existing lighting) that you may run into when installing the motion sensor lighting are taken into consideration when planning the placement of these lights.
By keeping these things in mind, you will be able to make the most of the practical and protective purposes of your lighting.
There is a possibility that you are having trouble establishing a lighting system in your home or place of business. This is due to the fact that it may be expensive and may have an impact on the attractiveness of your home.
Lumenology offers a cutting-edge answer to the issue you’re having with lighting. This is a battery-free LED light that can be moved around easily and comes equipped with motion sensor technology.
Don’t be concerned! Please allow me the opportunity to explain why and how lumenology is the superior lighting solution for your area. After that, the choice is entirely up to you.
What is Lumenology?
The Lumenology Portable Security LED Motion Light is an unique and portable motion light that generates an impressive 148 Lumens from a single, high-luminance white LED bulb. This light can be used nearly anyplace! The flexible tripod base enables a fast, simple, and varied installation on any floor or ground, as well as the ability to wrap around any post, fence, deck, beam, porch, car hood, closet, cabinet, and more. Take off the flexible tripod and use the magnets to attach it to any magnetic surface. Alternatively, you can use the magnetic plate that is included to attach it to any surface that is not magnetic.
It is not affected by adverse climatic conditions of any kind, including intense heat, heavy rain, or snowfall, for example. because lumenology has been confirmed to have an IP43 rating for its resistance to water. Because of this, it is impossible to penetrate.
The fact that lumenology makes use of motion sensing technologies is easily the most fascinating aspect of this field. It has the ability to detect motions up to 4 metres away. This will alert you in advance to any potentially harmful situation that may arise. It has been featured on FOX, NBC, CBS, USA Today, Marketwatch.
Features and Benefits
We would like to provide you with a few reasons why you should purchase lumenology.
Affordable
The cost-effectiveness of purchasing Lumenology is the primary argument in favour of doing so. The installation of a lighting system that relies on wires will result in an immediate expense of several thousand dollars.
Additionally, it may have a negative impact on the structure that is already there at your location. However, the lumenology procedure will only run you about $40. In addition to this, it provides you with incredible features at the most affordable possible price.
Reliable
Lumenology’s amazing smart features make it reliable. Additionally, it gives you a sense of security. In the event of an electrical power outage, you won’t need to worry. Lumenology will provide you with light and warmth.
Motion detection technology
The mode that activates when motion is detected helps you save battery life. Because it will only emit light if there is anybody there or if there are any movements within a distance of thirteen feet from it, it is a security feature. In the event that it is not turned on, it will turn off by itself to conserve energy.
In this manner, the power it possesses can endure for an entire year. You will not be able to turn the lights on or off manually because the automation system is installed.
Adapt to hostile weather conditions
No matter what kind of weather it faces, whether it’s heavy snowfall or heavy rain, it can withstand it. It is for this reason that this modern light has been certified IP43 water-resistant. You can purchase this product for that reason.
Professional lighting experience
LED light with 148 lumens. In a radius of 40 feet, you will be able to see crystal clear and bright light.
Can be used anywhere
Lumenology can be attached wherever you like. Lighting is installed permanently with a wire-based system. It is also very labor-intensive and expensive. However, lumenology can be moved anywhere and detachable easily.
Comes with refund guarantee
If for any reason you don’t like this product and would like to return it, please do so. You can get a 100% refund if you return it within 30 days. They include it in their sales strategy.
Suitable for renters
Renting a place might mean spending thousands of dollars just on lighting. Leaving the place will not allow you to remove the wired lighting and take it with you.
You can solve this problem with Lumenology. As a result of the cost-effectiveness, ease of attachment, and detachability of this device.
Who is behind this invention?
The question “how might we avoid the difficulty and discomfort of installing light fixtures?” was the impetus behind the founding of Lumenology. Brothers Rock and Mike Smeja collaborated on the development of a solution that would shake up the entire lighting and electrical business. They got to work right once on their project. Michael Smeja (left), and Rock Smeja (middle) Back in 2012, Rock and Mike launched their own firm, which is now owned by their family, out of a desire to pursue their passion for conceiving of and inventing goods that assist people in simplifying and enjoying their lives.
After installing a few additional light fixtures in their home, they were shocked to receive a hefty electrical bill, which inspired the creation of the field of lumenology. “Our objective was straightforward: to design a solution that would make it possible for regular people to instal professional lights in their homes without having to pay a fortune or waste an entire weekend tearing up their walls.
We set out to design something that would be easy for everyone to use and could be deployed in a variety of settings. And it gives us great pleasure to boast that we were able to accomplish this.
Why buy Lumenology lights?
Lumenology lights are a great option for both residential and commercial lighting projects. The lights are designed to be energy efficient, with LED bulbs that offer up to 90% savings in electricity compared to conventional lighting solutions.
Additionally, the lights come with a range of features such as dimmable lighting and motion sensors, making them an ideal choice for illuminating large areas. Most importantly, the Lumenology lights are aesthetically pleasing, with their modern design adding a touch of sophistication to any space. All in all, Lumenology lights offer an excellent blend of aesthetics and efficiency that makes them an ideal choice for any project.
Save Hundreds On Hiring An Electrician
The fact that employing an electrician comes at a significant financial cost is something that is common knowledge among homeowners. The most recent figures from Homeadvisor indicate that the cost of hiring an electrician to instal a single light fixture at your home is currently $520! You can light up your doors, windows, garden, shed patio, and just about everything else you can think of by purchasing eight Lumenology light kits for a price that is only a fraction of the total cost.
Lumenology‘s one-of-a-kind mounting mechanism and wireless design are two of the ways it seeks to realise its mission of making light installations simple and within everyone’s financial reach. Because it can run for up to a year on a single pair of AA batteries, there is absolutely no wiring that needs to be done. As a result, you can easily instal it yourself in just a few seconds without the need for any power equipment or a certain degree.
The Lumenology lighting kit provides a variety of different mounting choices for the lights. You can easily mount it to any wall or flat surface using the magnetic base, or you can stand it upright and use it as a lamp with the flexible tripod base that is supplied with every kit. This means that it may be used just like a conventional light.
Because it is not affected by the elements, it can be utilised successfully either inside or outside. Any person who is interested in sprucing up their outdoor lighting, patio, shed, attic, workshop, or closet absolutely needs to invest in Lumenology.
Lumenology also gives you peace of mind whenever someone walks outside at night to do things like walk the dog, take out the garbage, or fetch anything from the car. This is because the light in your yard is constantly ready to be turned on. In addition, given that it runs on batteries, Lumenology will continue to function in the event of a power outage, flooding, or a hurricane in the home.
A light that may be brought with you wherever you go
There is never a dull moment in life. There are certain adventures that you seek out, while others find you. Lumenology has you covered in any situation, whether you’re enjoying a camping trip miles away from the next power outlet or your car is unfortunate enough to break down on the side of the road in the middle of the night.
Since Lumenology is powered entirely by batteries, it does not require a wall outlet or plug to be charged; hence, it is an excellent choice for portability. Its portable size makes it easy to bring it along wherever you go, and its illumination is powerful enough to illuminate an entire campsite or provide you with sufficient light to fix a flat tyre and fill up your radiator in the event of an unexpected breakdown on the road.
Is there a deluge occurring right now? Lumenology, in contrast to the majority of lanterns and flashlights on the market, is designed to function in adverse weather circumstances thanks to its certified water-resistant construction. When you need it the most, you can rely on it to perform properly.
Take comfort in the knowledge that you are more secure after the sun goes down
Lumenology has developed a revolutionary motion-activated outdoor lighting kit that will allow you and your family to sleep soundly at night, knowing that you are protected from potential dangers.
Lumenology provides you with the peace of mind you need whenever someone walks the dog, walks down the stairs, takes out the garbage, or grabs something from the car in the middle of the night. Be certain that Lumenology will always be fully charged and prepared to illuminate your home in order to forestall mishaps and close calls with peril.
Lumenology makes use of motion-sensing technology, which can identify people and animals within a 100-degree angle up to a distance of 13 feet away. After being discovered, the strong light will immediately expose and terrify any unwanted would-be trespassers, package thieves, or CONFIDENTIAL giddyup.io destructive animals. This will aid to fend off any unwanted would-be trespassers, package thieves, or destructive animals. Even if you’re not there, the automatic light makes it appear as though you’re at home and paying attention to what’s going on.
Lumenology can be fastened to the overhanging edges of the roof, the ceiling of your garage, the branches of trees, or the surface of exterior walls. You may also use it to shine a broad beam of light downward onto the primary walkways or the entry to the garden fence.
Standard lights vs Lumenology lights
Standard lights are typically much less expensive than Lumenology lights, making them an attractive option for those on a budget. However, Lumenology lights offer a number of features that make them well worth the investment. For starters, they provide significantly greater energy-efficiency, which can help to offset costs over time. Additionally, their modern design and range of features such as dimmable lighting and motion sensors make them ideal for illuminating large areas.
Finally, their aesthetically pleasing design adds a touch of sophistication to any space – something traditional lighting solutions cannot match. Overall, Lumenology lights offer superior value for money compared to standard lighting solutions.
How Does Lumenology Work?
Lumenology is powered by three AA batteries. Luminology is therefore the most efficient and cheap source of lighting. There are three modes of operation, as previously mentioned:
Off mode
On mode
Motion activation mode
Off Mode
It can be turned off when not in use (during daylight hours). It will simply stop providing you with light in off mode, thereby saving you energy.
On Mode
You can turn it on whenever you need light. A long-term use of the light will reduce its lifetime to eight hours max. Don’t forget to turn it on only when you need it.
Motion Activation Mode
In addition to resolving the previous problem, the motion activation mode works as well. This is due to the device’s motion sensor technology. It is possible for the battery to last for one year if you activate motion activation mode. When a motion or movement is detected, the light turns on automatically.
Movements can be detected within a 100-degree area and a 13-degree range. If there are any unwanted guests arriving, you’ll be able to notice them. Whether it’s a thief or an animal. A unique feature of this mode allows it to save power as well.
Technical Specifications
Title
Specification
Units
Bulb*
High-Luminance White LED
N/A
Battery
3x AA Alkaline
N/A
Brightness
148lm
Lumens
Activations
Approx. 1,000
N/A
Stay-On Mode
Approx. 7 Hours
Hours
Mode
Off / On / 30 – Second Auto Shut Off
Seconds
Light Sensor Mode
Night Only
N/A
Detecting Method
Passive Infrared Sensor
N/A
Detectable Range
100° , 13ft
Degrees | Feet
Adjustable Range
360°
Degrees
Size / Weight
3.6in x 3.1in x 3.9in | 4.6oz
Inches | Ounces
Attachment Options
Flexible Tripod / Magnet
N/A
Threaded Insert
1/4 – 20
Inches
How To Use Lumenology?
Before you even begin to install it, Lumenology consists of three primary components. Following that is a powerful magnetic plate, and then the tripod legs come in last place. First is the LED light. LED lights are the primary source of illumination for your immediate environment. Now, in order to instal it, you can choose from the following accessible options:
Option 1
You will only need a screw and a metal surface in order to attach the magnetic plate to it. However, you must ensure that it is attached to a level surface area. It is able to tenaciously hold the light in any given circumstance. It’s go time! Simply switch on the light, and you can get things done! You may also disconnect it quickly and painlessly without any difficulty.
Option 2
In this area, you can wrap the legs of the tripod around any items that do not have a flat surface by using the provided tools. Attaching it to tree branches, the handles of a barbecue grill, poles, or the fences of your backyard, etc., are all possibilities. The legs of the tripod can be bent in any direction that is most convenient for you. Nevertheless, it will hold your light securely.
Why Is It Different From Other Solutions?
Lumenology is a quick and simple method that eliminates the effort and expense of installing electrical wiring in order to illuminate any area. Even though it simply takes a few minutes to set up, it provides the same level of illumination and cutting-edge motion detection that you would anticipate from a system that was professionally installed. Changing the lighting in your room has never been simpler or more economical than it is right now.
Enjoy Professional Lighting Without Spending A Fortune – You won’t require the services of an electrician thanks to the wireless design, which will save you both money and time. Simply remove it from the packaging, insert the batteries, and then bask in the glow of your brilliantly illuminated room.
Mount It Anywhere In Seconds – The built-in magnet or metal base may adhere to any metal or flat surface, and the tripod legs can be positioned nearly anywhere, such as on fences, tree branches, or barbecues — It is ideal for use in a variety of settings, including entryways, car hoods, patios, gatherings, do-it-yourself projects, and more.
Turns On When You Need It & Off When You Don’t – Lumenology is completely hands-free thanks to the motion sensor, which means you will never have to manually turn your lights on or off again. The long-range motion detection is effective up to four metres away and extends the battery life by one whole year. Alternatively, you can set it to “always on” to maintain a steady glow.
Perfectly Bright (Not Blinding!) – This white LED bulb is bright enough to illuminate any dark area, improving your vision and ensuring you are never blinded. Take advantage of our bundle pricing so that you can utilize many lights to illuminate your whole house and save money in the process.
Quickly Remove & Take It Anywhere -Lumenology may be detached fast and cleanly, with no messy residue left behind. Because of its small size, lightweight construction, and wireless capability, it is easy to take it with you everywhere, making it ideal for holidays, roadside emergencies, and camping trips, among other activities. Also fantastic for people who rent!
Added Security & Peace Of Mind – The brilliant motion-sensing light provided by Lumenology helps to keep your home safe by discouraging intruders and wild animals. To ensure that your house is as secure as possible, install them in the garage, the doorway, the yard, and all along the sides of your house.
Do The Above Claims Have Any Testimonials?
There is evidence to support the claim that this product offers the superior answer to the issue you are having with the lighting. If you search the term “lumenology” on the internet, you will see thousands of reviews written by users that are all five stars. That alone might be sufficient to demonstrate its usefulness.
However, if you are not content with the reviews, there is yet another approach to provide evidence to support your claim.
And it is the fact that lumenology has been given the safety certification of IP43 for its resistance to water. This indicates that its quality satisfies the requirements of both the “FCC Standard Part 15” and the “RoHS Compliant” standards.
Pros and Cons
Pros
Built with Wireless technology
It is more affordable than a wired lighting system
Motion detection is built into the device
No technical knowledge is required to attach the device
All of it is weatherproof
Cons
Its batteries need to be changed frequently
Lumenology Price
One lumenology kit costs $39.99. You can get discounts on several packages. Here is its pricing strategy:
Buy 1 kit – $39.99
Buy 2, Get 1 Free – $99.98
Buy 3, Get 2 Free – $149.97
Buy 4, Get 4 Free – $199.96
Conclusion
Lumenology lights are of the highest quality while being within a reasonable price range. The lights are an investment, and in return, you will receive amazing and dependable characteristics that meet all of your requirements in terms of lighting.
The amount of adaptability that comes standard with the system is remarkable. You have the option of either permanently mounting the Lumenology lights on the spot of your choice or using a tripod that allows you to freely move the light to wherever it is required for the highest possible light output.
Choose the LED Lumenology LED Portable Motion Sensor Light option if you are looking for high-quality LED lighting. These lights have received excellent ratings and stand out above other brands.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do they provide a warranty?
It comes with a 1-year warranty and a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Is this light all-weather suited?
Any type of hostile weather can be handled by this light.
How long does its batteries last?
A full year of battery life can be achieved by using the motion activation mode.
Over 120,000 views of a video showing a boy being sexually assaulted. A recommendation engine suggesting that a user follow content related to exploited children. Users continually posting abusive material, delays in taking it down when it is detected and friction with organizations that police it.
All since Elon Musk declared that “removing child exploitation is priority #1” in a tweet in late November.
Under Mr. Musk’s ownership, Twitter’s head of safety, Ella Irwin, said she had been moving rapidly to combat child sexual abuse material, which was prevalent on the site — as it is on most tech platforms — under the previous owners. “Twitter 2.0” will be different, the company promised.
But a review by The New York Times found that the imagery, commonly known as child pornography, persisted on the platform, including widely circulated material that the authorities consider the easiest to detect and eliminate.
After Mr. Musk took the reins in late October, Twitter largely eliminated or lost staff experienced with the problem and failed to prevent the spread of abusive images previously identified by the authorities, the review shows. Twitter also stopped paying for some detection software considered key to its efforts.
All the while, people on dark-web forums discuss how Twitter remains a platform where they can easily find the material while avoiding detection, according to transcripts of those forums from an anti-abuse group that monitors them.
“If you let sewer rats in,” said Julie Inman Grant, Australia’s online safety commissioner, “you know that pestilence is going to come.”
In a Twitter audio chat with Ms. Irwin in early December, an independent researcher working with Twitter said illegal content had been publicly available on the platform for years and garnered millions of views. But Ms. Irwin and others at Twitter said their efforts under Mr. Musk were paying off. During the first full month of the new ownership, the company suspended nearly 300,000 accounts for violating “child sexual exploitation” policies, 57 percent more than usual, the company said.
The effort accelerated in January, Twitter said, when it suspended 404,000 accounts. “Our recent approach is more aggressive,” the company declared in a series of tweets on Wednesday, saying it had also cracked down on people who search for the exploitative material and had reduced successful searches by 99 percent since December.
Ms. Irwin, in an interview, said the bulk of suspensions involved accounts that engaged with the material or were claiming to sell or distribute it, rather than those that posted it. She did not dispute that child sexual abuse content remains openly available on the platform, saying that “we absolutely know that we are still missing some things that we need to be able to detect better.”
She added that Twitter was hiring employees and deploying “new mechanisms” to fight the problem. “We have been working on this nonstop,” she said.
Wired, NBC and others have detailed Twitter’s ongoing struggles with child abuse imagery under Mr. Musk. On Tuesday, Senator Richard J. Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, asked the Justice Department to review Twitter’s record in addressing the problem.
To assess the company’s claims of progress, The Times created an individual Twitter account and wrote an automated computer program that could scour the platform for the content without displaying the actual images, which are illegal to view. The material wasn’t difficult to find. In fact, Twitter helped promote it through its recommendation algorithm — a feature that suggests accounts to follow based on user activity.
Among the recommendations was an account that featured a profile picture of a shirtless boy. The child in the photo is a known victim of sexual abuse, according to the Canadian Center for Child Protection, which helped identify exploitative material on the platform for The Times by matching it against a database of previously identified imagery.
That same user followed other suspicious accounts, including one that had “liked” a video of boys sexually assaulting another boy. By Jan. 19, the video, which had been on Twitter for more than a month, had gotten more than 122,000 views, nearly 300 retweets and more than 2,600 likes. Twitter later removed the video after the Canadian center flagged it for the company.
In the first few hours of searching, the computer program found a number of images previously identified as abusive — and accounts offering to sell more. The Times flagged the posts without viewing any images, sending the web addresses to services run by Microsoft and the Canadian center.
One account in late December offered a discounted “Christmas pack” of photos and videos. That user tweeted a partly obscured image of a child who had been abused from about age 8 through adolescence.Twitter took down the post five days later, but only after the Canadian center sent the company repeated notices.
In all, the computer program found imagery of 10 victims appearing over 150 times across multiple accounts, most recently on Thursday. The accompanying tweets often advertised child rape videos and included links to encrypted platforms.
Alex Stamos, the director of the Stanford Internet Observatory and the former top security executive at Facebook, found the results alarming. “Considering the focus Musk has put on child safety, it is surprising they are not doing the basics,” he said.
Separately, to confirm The Times’s findings, the Canadian center ran a test to determine how often one video series involving known victims appeared on Twitter. Analysts found 31 different videos shared by more than 40 accounts, some of which were retweeted and liked thousands of times. The videos depicted a young teenager who had been extorted online to engage in sexual acts with a prepubescent child over a period of months.
The center also did a broader scan against the most explicit videos in their database. There were more than 260 hits, with more than 174,000 likes and 63,000 retweets.
“The volume we’re able to find with a minimal amount of effort is quite significant,” said Lloyd Richardson, the technology director at the Canadian center. “It shouldn’t be the job of external people to find this sort of content sitting on their system.”
In 2019, The Times reported that many tech companies had serious gaps in policing child exploitation on their platforms. This past December, Ms. Inman Grant, the Australian online safety official, conducted an audit that found many of the same problems remained at a sampling of tech companies.
The Australian review did not include Twitter, but some of the platform’s difficulties are similar to those of other tech companies and predate Mr. Musk’s arrival, according to multiple current and former employees.
Twitter, founded in 2006, started using a more comprehensive tool to scan for videos of child sexual abuse last fall, they said, and the engineering team dedicated to finding illegal photos and videos was formed just 10 months earlier. In addition, the company’s trust and safety teams have been perennially understaffed, though the company continued expanding them even amid a broad hiring freeze that began last April, four former employees said.
Over the years, the company did build internal tools to find and remove some images, and the national center often lauded the company for the thoroughness of its reports.
The platform in recent months has also experienced problems with its abuse reporting system, which allows users to notify the company when they encounter child exploitation material. (Twitter offers a guide to reporting abusive content on its platform.)
The Times used its research account to report multiple profiles that were claiming to sell or trade the content in December and January. Many of the accounts remained active and even appeared as recommendations to follow on The Times’s own account. The company said it would need more time to unravel why such recommendations would appear.
To find the material, Twitter relies on software created by an anti-trafficking organization called Thorn. Twitter has not paid the organization since Mr. Musk took over, according to people familiar with the relationship, presumably part of his larger effort to cut costs. Twitter has also stopped working with Thorn to improve the technology. The collaboration had industrywide benefits because other companies use the software.
Ms. Irwin declined to comment on Twitter’s business with specific vendors.
Twitter’s relationship with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has also suffered, according to people who work there.
John Shehan, an executive at the center, said he was worried about the “high level of turnover” at Twitter and where the company “stands in trust and safety and their commitment to identifying and removing child sexual abuse material from their platform.”
After the transition to Mr. Musk’s ownership, Twitter initially reacted more slowly to the center’s notifications of sexual abuse content, according to data from the center, a delay of great importance to abuse survivors, who are revictimized with every new post. Twitter, like other social media sites, has a two-way relationship with the center. The site notifies the center (which can then notify law enforcement) when it is made aware of illegal content. And when the center learns of illegal content on Twitter, it alerts the site so the images and accounts can be removed.
Late last year, the company’s response time was more than double what it had been during the same period a year earlier under the prior ownership, even though the center sent it fewer alerts. In December 2021, Twitter took an average of 1.6 days to respond to 98 notices; last December, after Mr. Musk took over the company, it took 3.5 days to respond to 55. By January, it had greatly improved, taking 1.3 days to respond to 82.
The Canadian center, which serves the same function in that country, said it had seen delays as long as a week. In one instance, the Canadian center detected a video on Jan. 6 depicting the abuse of a naked girl, age 8 to 10. The organization said it sent out daily notices for about a week before Twitter removed the video.
In addition, Twitter and the U.S. national center seem to disagree about Twitter’s obligation to report accounts that claim to sell illegal material without directly posting it.
The company has not reported to the national center the hundreds of thousands of accounts it has suspended because the rules require that they “have high confidence that the person is knowingly transmitting” the illegal imagery and those accounts did not meet that threshold, Ms. Irwin said.
Mr. Shehan of the national center disputed that interpretation of the rules, noting that tech companies are also legally required to report users even if they only claim to sell or solicit the material. So far, the national center’s data show, Twitter has made about 8,000 reports monthly, a small fraction of the accounts it has suspended.
Ms. Inman Grant, the Australian regulator, said she had been unable to communicate with local representatives of the company because her agency’s contacts in Australia had quit or been fired since Mr. Musk took over. She feared that the staff reductions could lead to more trafficking in exploitative imagery.
“These local contacts play a vital role in addressing time-sensitive matters,” said Ms. Inman Grant, who was previously a safety executive at both Twitter and Microsoft.
Ms. Irwin said the company continued to be in touch with the Australian agency, and more generally she expressed confidence that Twitter was “getting a lot better” while acknowledging the challenges ahead.
“In no way are we patting ourselves on the back and saying, ‘Man, we’ve got this nailed,’” Ms. Irwin said.
Offenders continue to trade tips on dark-web forums about how to find the material on Twitter, according to posts found by the Canadian center.
On Jan. 12, one user described following hundreds of “legit” Twitter accounts that sold videos of young boys who were tricked into sending explicit recordings of themselves. Another user characterized Twitter as an easy venue for watching sexual abuse videos of all types. “People share so much,” the user wrote.
Apple supplier Foxconn says its January monthly sales hit a record high as it bounced back from Covid-19 disruptions in China.
In a sales update on Sunday, the Taiwanese manufacturing giant reported revenue of 660.4 billion Taiwan dollars ($22 billion) in January, 48% more than the same period a year ago and its highest-ever level for that month. Revenue was up nearly 5% compared to the previous month.
The manufacturer attributed its performance to a strong rebound at its sprawling campus in Zhengzhou, central China.
The site, which is home to the world’s biggest iPhone factory, was crippled late last year by Covid-19 restrictions and workers’ protests.
Now, operations there are “returning to normal,” and product shipments have jumped, Foxconn said.
The company also said a “better components supply” helped boost sales.
Two of Foxconn’s most-watched divisions: smart consumer electronics, which includes smartphones and televisions, and computing products, which includes laptops and tablets, both “showed strong double-digit growth,” it said.
The figures underscore how Foxconn’s Zhengzhou campus, also known as “iPhone city,” is roaring back to life after the massive setbacks.
The company’s troubles started in October, when workers left the site because of concerns about Covid-related working conditions and shortages of food. Short on staff, bonuses were later offered to workers to return.
But violent protests broke out in November, when newly-hired staff said management had reneged on their promises. Workers clashed with security officers, before the company eventually offered them cash to quit and leave the site.
The headaches had led analysts to predict that Apple would likely speed up its supply chain diversification away from China.
CEO Tim Cook said the company’s problems in the country had hurt its supply of the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max during the key holiday shopping season.
Foxconn has since managed to stabilize operations at its facility. Last month, Chinese state media reported that the Zhengzhou plant was almost back to normal, reaching 90% of capacity as of the end of December.
The company also expressed confidence for the road ahead. On Sunday, it said in a statement that its outlook for the first quarter would likely meet analysts’ expectations, without providing specifics. Analysts polled by Refinitiv expect the firm’s revenue to grow 4% during the January-to-March period.
Foxconn’s shares rose 1.9% in Taipei on Monday.
— CNN’s Wayne Chang and Juliana Liu contributed to this report.
If you follow Southeast Asia funding, you’re probably familiar with iSeed SEA. Some of the startups the fund has invested in since it launched in 2020 include Dat Bike, Skuad and Upmesh. What you might not know, however, is that iSeed SEA is a solo GP fund. Now that solo GP, AngelList alum Wing Vasiksiri, is back with a new fund, called WV Fund II.
The second fund brings Wing Vasiksiri’s total assets under management to $14 million. The core thesis of iSeed SEA and WV Fund II is to close the gap between Southeast Asia and Silicon Valley, since most of Vasiksiri’s network and many of his LPs are in the U.S. This means investing in seed-stage startups from a wide range of sectors, and introducing them to LPs or operators in the U.S., or bringing them onboard as co-investors.
Vasiksiri typically writes checks between $100,000 to $500,000, depending on whether he is the lead investor or not, and the valuation stage of a company.
The 30 startups in Vasiksiri’s portfolio have raised a combined total of over $85 million in follow-on funding from a who’s who of investors, including Sequoia Capital, Y Combinator, AlphaJWC, AC Ventures, East Ventures, Jungle Ventures, Openspace Ventures, Monks Hill Ventures, Golden Gate Ventures and MDI Ventures. Some examples of his investments include Humble, HD, Virtual Internships, Mio, Delos, Staffinc, Rukita and TCC.
Investors in Vasiksiri’s second fund include institutional LPs such as Republic Capital, EGR Partners (Elisabeth de Rothschild’s family office), Kamco Invest and Central Pattana. Individual LPs include Duo founder and CEO Dug Song, Albert Wenger and USV managing partner Susan Danziger, Doordash and Square executive Gokul Rajaram, former Airbnb China COO Kum Hong Siew and operators from Dropbox, Discord and Github.
The solo GP model is new to Southeast Asia, but has gained traction in Europe and the U.S., where Elad Gill, Lachy Groom and Josh Buckley are examples of investors running funds on their own.
Vasiksiri told TechCrunch that solo GP funds first started in the U.S. with angel investors who were getting allocations to good deals and proprietary networks, and wanted to institutionalize their investing. So they raised capital from other sources to invest at a larger scale.
Before launching his own funds, Vasiksiri worked in operations at AngelList, where he got close to AngelList India founder Utsav Somani, who now serves as one of his advisors and is the founder of micro-fund iSeed. The two thought about launching AngelList Southeast Asia, but then the pandemic got in the way of their plans. They continued talking to investors and founders, however, and got excited about trends they were seeing in the region. These included a relatively high GDP per capita, a growing middle class and more people coming online. The first generation of startups were going public, including Grab and Bukalapak, and the problem of downstream capital was being solved by funds like Tiger.
Vasiksiri said benefits of a solo GP fund include speed and transparency since he’s the only decision maker and can commit to a round within days, or even hours.
“There are both pros and cons to this model, but I think the biggest pro is the shape of your relationships with founders is drastically different when the relationship is entirely with you. There’s no kind of hierarchy to it,” he said. “You think about a traditional fund, what a founder does is talk to the analyst, the top-tier associate, maybe talk to a partner and then they talk to ICs or GPs. Oftentimes, the founder is telling the same story.”
With a solo GP fund, however, the GP plays all those roles. “You can dig deeper, you can really build up more of an authentic, genuine relationship with the founder by spending more time with them. I think it eliminates the principal/agent problem entirely.”
Another benefit is that a solo GP can relate to the experiences of founders. “I consider myself a founder, too, just instead of starting a company, I started a fund. I think having that high empathy for the entrepreneur journey, thinking through similar things and understanding how hard it is to be a new entrant competing with incumbents in this space.”
Being a solo GP is also helpful when working with other investors because Vasiksiri isn’t fighting to get high allocations and he doesn’t have ownership requirements. This lets him collaborate instead of compete with other funds. “As you scale up your fund, your collaborators and competitors change at every stage of them game,” he said. “I think remaining disciplined and small, this fund size allows me to do things like openly share deals, avoid adverse selection from other funds, and build off other relationships in a win-win way.”
Vasiksiri focuses on Singapore, Vietnam and Indonesia as his core markets, and also looks for opportunities in the Philippines, Malaysia and Thailand. Vasiksiri is sector agnostic, and instead looks at big contributors to GDP in each country. For example, this include agriculture and aquaculture in Indonesia, so Vasiksiri invests in companies like Delos, a startup developing sensors and other tech to help shrimp farmers increase their yields.
Other areas he’s interested in include fintech, particularly payments and infrastructure, and gaming. “I think Southeast Asia is uniquely positioned for either a big game publisher or a game developer to emerge,” he said. “There are a lot of users here, especially with mobile games, and a lot of players are located in Thailand, the Philippines, a lot of creative talent as well.” Climate tech is also another important sector, since Southeast Asia is expected to become a net importer of natural gas by 2025, and needs to transition to green energy.
While there are only a handful of solo GPs in Southeast Asia, Vasiksiri expects more to emerge as the ecosystem matures, especially as founders of successful startups become angel investors.
“I think a source of solo GPs might emerge it becomes more institutionalized, from writing personal checks to raising funds,” he said. “This is the first generation of solo GPs here and I believe as the ecosystem matures, we’ll see a lot more.”
A federal judge will not block Meta from buying a virtual reality tech startup, according to multiple reports, in a setback for the US government, which had alleged the deal would threaten competition in a nascent market.
Tuesday’s decision, issued by the US District Court for the Northern District of California, is sealed. But according to The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, the contents of the decision dealt Meta a victory by denying the US government’s request for a preliminary injunction that would have prevented the acquisition from closing. The New York Times cited two people with knowledge of the matter and the Wall Street Journal cited one person familiar with the ruling.
CNN has not independently confirmed the contents of the court’s decision. The Federal Trade Commission, which had sued to block the deal last summer, declined to comment. Meta declined to comment, and several outside attorneys for the company didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
The closely watched case involves Meta’s purchase of Within Unlimited, a virtual reality company and maker of a VR fitness app called “Supernatural.” The FTC’s suit had been seen as a major test for Chair Lina Khan, a critic of large tech platforms, as well as of the FTC’s unusual legal theory alleging that Meta’s deal would harm future competition in a rapidly evolving industry.
According to the reports, the judge in the case also issued a separate order that delays Meta’s ability to close its deal for another week to allow the FTC to decide whether to appeal the ruling.
A separate challenge to Meta’s deal is ongoing before an in-house administrative law judge at the FTC. That proceeding could continue despite Tuesday’s ruling, but whether agency officials intend to press ahead is unclear.
Your iPhone has a ton of important privacy features. For example, there is a setting to hide your IP address when you send an email. This way, advertisers cannot track you this way. Here’s how to turn it on.
Face ID icon displayed on a phone screen. (Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Your Face ID is vulnerable unless you change this setting
First, Apple’s Face ID uses the TrueDepth camera to capture accurate face data by projecting and analyzing thousands of invisible dots. It maps all your curves and wrinkles and stores that data as a key to unlock your phone.
Face ID automatically adapts to changes in your appearance, like if you wear makeup or grow facial hair. When there’s a more significant change in your appearance, like shaving your beard, Face ID confirms your identity by using your passcode before it updates your face data. Neat, right?
Face ID is designed to work with hats, scarves, glasses, contact lenses, face masks, and sunglasses. Apple claims there’s a one-in-a-million chance someone else’s face can unlock your iPhone. OK, that’s good to know.
What about your face?
A woman on her phone. (iStock)
A common fear is that someone could hold your phone to your face while you’re sleeping to unlock it. The good news is these systems generally don’t work if your eyes are closed.
Smartphones come packed with accessibility features for people with vision, hearing, or mobility impairments. You can make the text on your screen larger or have the phone dictate what’s on the screen. AssistiveTouch helps you use your iPhone if you have difficulty touching the screen or pressing the buttons.
These are essential tools for the people who need them, but there’s one setting that could put your security at risk. Face ID also has an accessibility feature to support people who are blind or have poor vision. With this setting, you don’t need to open your eyes to unlock your phone.
While some people need this, you shouldn’t use it if your vision isn’t impaired. Here’s where to find it:
Go to Settings > Accessibility > Face ID & Attention.
Make sure Require Attention for Face ID is enabled.
While this setting is enabled by default, someone with access to your phone could disable it and unlock it while you sleep. That’s a scary thought, so a quick check here is more than worth it.
Note: This accessibility setting is automatically disabled if you enabled VoiceOver during the initial setup.
Copyright 2023, WestStar Multimedia Entertainment. All rights reserved. By clicking the shopping links, you’re supporting my research. As an Amazon Associate, I earn a small commission from qualifying purchases. I only recommend products I believe in.
Rivian Automotive is laying off 6% of its workforce in an effort to cut costs as the EV maker, already grappling with falling cash reserves and a weak economy, braces for an industry-wide price war.
The company is focusing resources on ramping up vehicle production and reaching profitability, Chief Executive R.J. Scaringe said in an email to employees on Wednesday announcing the job cuts. Reuters obtained a copy of the email.
Layoffs at Rivian come amid falling EV prices kicked off by cuts made recently by Elon Musk-led Tesla
(TSLA) and Ford Motor Co.
The price cuts by Tesla and Ford are expected to hurt EV upstarts such as Rivian, Lucid Group and British startup Arrival, which Monday said it would lay off half its staff.
Despite a blockbuster initial public offering in November 2021, Rivian’s shares have fallen nearly 90% from their peak that month to Tuesday’s close. Rivian’s stock was trading down 4% on Nasdaq on Wednesday, paring some losses after news of the job cuts.
“We must focus our resources on ramp and our path to profitability,” Scaringe said in the email, in which he apologized to employees for the necessity of the cuts.
A Rivian spokesman confirmed the email was sent, but declined further comment.
“They’re bleeding cash and would like to grow at a much faster rate, but they continue to struggle with their EV production ramp and have been unable to meaningfully drive down unit costs,” CFRA Research analyst Garrett Nelson said. “We think that is what’s behind this decision.”
Rivian is focusing on ramping up production of its R1 trucks and EDV delivery vans for top shareholder Amazon.com and launching its R2 platform, he said. “The changes we are announcing today reflect this focused roadmap.”
Irvine, California-based Rivian, which has about 14,000 employees, will let go of about 840 staff in a move that will not affect manufacturing operations at its plant in Normal, Illinois.
Rivian, which has been losing money on every vehicle it builds, narrowly missed its full-year production target of 25,000 vehicles last year as it dealt with supply-chain disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. It had previously halved that target.
To further conserve its cash, Rivian late last year shelved plans to build delivery vans in Europe with Mercedes. Rivian had earlier pushed back by a year to 2026 the planned launch of a smaller R2 vehicle family at the $5 billion plant it is building in Georgia.
Last July, Rivian, which is scheduled to report fourth-quarter results on Feb. 28, laid off staff and suspended some programs as part of a broader restructuring.
The company has a market valuation of $17.8 billion. Its cash and cash equivalents stood at $13.27 billion as of Sept. 30, 2022, down from over $18 billion a year earlier.
If you have ever parked your car on the street and returned to find a parking ticket on the windshield, you know how frustrating and expensive that can be. It usually involves a hefty fine.
Well, the Better Business Bureau is now warning of a new scam known as “ticket fraud.” Scammers create fake parking tickets and leave them on unsuspecting drivers’ cars.
The fake tickets often generated from portable printers look legit and ask for payment of a fine to a bogus agency. It’s similar to the scam we told you about in 2022, where hackers used parking meters to steal your money.
Photo of a parking ticket which is part of scam in which fake tickets prompt victims to scan a QR code and pay. (Fox News)
How does the Parking Ticket Scam happen?
Parking scammers are hoping that you won’t pay that much attention to a ticket you find on your windshield and are hoping you just pay the fine.
The fake ticket will prompt you to scan a QR code which will then take you to a payment website that end up sending your cash to crooks. These websites will ask you to give away personal and financial information so that hackers can get money out of you.
A person driving their vehicle who will fall victim to a parking ticket scam. (Fox News)
Another version of this scam is when a hacker sends you an email claiming you have a pending parking ticket.
Scammers typically include official-looking logos and warn that there will be dire consequences if you don’t pay immediately. They may include a link and prompt you to click it to pay the fake fine, and this link could potentially install malware on your device.
How can I avoid falling for a parking ticket scam?
Pay attention to where you’re parking: If you receive a ticket, look up the local parking laws for where you received it to make sure you’re parked in an illegal area.
Look carefully at any ticket or citation you receive: Scammers will imitate official logos to make them look legit. Do an internet search on your own to check what the ticket website is for the area. Make sure you’re not falling for a fake website that doesn’t end in .gov.
If you’re being asked to send a check, make sure you’re looking carefully at who it says your ticket should be made out to. Any real parking tickets will require checks to be made out to specific government departments or divisions.
If you do receive a ticket that you’re sure is legitimate, if possible, pay it with a credit card: This will make it easier to report fraudulent charges if you do end up falling for a scam.
If in doubt, contact your local parking authority or police department for verification.
A parking ticket on a car windshield in Washington, D.C. A plan recently introduced in the District of Columbia Council calls for officials to train 80 residents on how they can use their smartphones to take pictures of vehicles illegally parked in locations such as crosswalks, bicycle lanes and in front of hydrants. (iStock)
Find out how scammers are also tricking people in scams with parking meters by heading over to CyberGuy.com and searching “parking” by clicking the magnifying glass at the top of my website.
Have you fallen for a parking ticket scam? I want to hear your stories.
For more of my tips, subscribe to my free CyberGuy Report Newsletter by clicking the “Free newsletter” link at the top of my website.
Copyright 2023 CyberGuy.com. All rights reserved. CyberGuy.com articles and content may contain affiliate links that earn a commission when purchases are made.
Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson is an award-winning tech journalist who has a deep love of technology, gear and gadgets that make life better with his contributions for Fox News & FOX Business beginning mornings on “FOX & Friends.” Got a tech question? Get Kurt’s CyberGuy Newsletter, share your voice, a story idea or comment at CyberGuy.com.
TL;DR: Weave sustainability into the product design as early as you can
Nobody starts a hardware company with the express goal of destroying as much of the planet as they possibly can. Walking around the startup hall at CES, however, I noticed that — with a few notable exceptions — there was painfully little attention given to material choice, repairability, ease of disassembly and considerations around the end of usable life.
It’s embarrassing, really — but as someone who used to run a hardware startup, I know it can be hard to prioritize when you have limited time and resources. However, if you can’t make planet-friendly choices as the founder of a startup, when the buck literally stops with you, when can you?
In an effort to figure out how you can create greener hardware, we spoke with Lauryn Menard, a professor at the California College of the Arts, where she teaches the future of biodesign. She’s also an adviser to Women in Design SF and the co-founder and creative director at PROWL Studio, an Oakland, California-based design and material futures consultancy focusing on sustainable solutions.
“As a startup, you have choices. The thing is, it’s such a capitalistic society we live in, and a lot of decisions are made based on time and money,” Menard explained. The startups want to think about sustainability, but they are moving at breakneck speed and trying to get a product to market as soon as possible. “The startups need to hit their target price point and all that good stuff.”
“You don’t have to adopt a new bioplastic, you can instead choose something that already exists: Not everything has to be made from a new freaking material!” Lauryn Menard
But there are some big things moving out there in the market. Consumer demands are shifting, and climate pledges, circularity strategies and environmental questions are all bubbling to the surface. It’s hard to say whether enough customers are making purchasing decisions based on a company’s green credentials to move the needle meaningfully, but product development cycles can take years, and who knows what the landscape looks like by the time your product makes it to market? To some companies, it might make sense to take the risk, but other founders are starting to think differently about how products are made.
“If a startup is being run by solely engineers, that can be problematic: Engineers tend to be worried [about] making sure they’re getting to the finish line. They put all of their energy into making something function and are probably leaning toward materials, ways of making and manufacturing processes that they’re already familiar with,” Menard explained. “What we’ve seen [be] really helpful is working with a design studio that specializes in more sustainable ways of thinking and healthier materials. Or partnering with someone like a materials library, so they’ve already started thinking about the functionality of the materials by the time they are making a prototype. Just in the same way that it takes a really long time to get an MVP product that works and looks the way you want, it sometimes takes a long time to put a new material into an existing manufacturing process.”
Thinking sustainability
One of the big challenges we have with creating more sustainable products is that we are often replacing plastics with something else. The problem is that plastics are deeply embedded in workflows already. Product designers love how predictable, easy to design and repeatable plastic is.
There also isn’t an obvious one-for-one replacement for plastic; depending on the use case and material properties you need, you may have to replace it with wool, paper, wood, plant pulp, carbon fiber, seaweed, hemp, mycelium,lab-grown leather or any number of other materials that are available.
Here’s what founders and product designers can do to think about sustainability and product development in a more conscious way.
A record $3.8 billion worth of cryptocurrency was stolen from various services last year, with much of those thefts driven by North Korean-linked hackers, according to a report Wednesday from blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis.
The increase in crypto heists, from $3.3 billion in 2021, came as the overall market for cryptocurrencies suffered significant declines.The value of Bitcoin, for example, fell by more than 60% last year.
North Korea was a key driver for the surge in thefts, according to the report. Hackers linked to the country stole an estimated $1.7 billion worth of crytopcurrency through various hacks in 2022, up from $429 million in the prior year, Chainalysis said.
Some of the biggest crypto hacks of the year have since been attributed to North Korea. The FBI has blamed hackers linked to the North Korean government for more than $600 million hack of video game Axie Infinity’s Ronin network in March and a $100 million Harmony, a cryptocurrency firm, in June.
“North Korea’s total exports in 2020 totalled $142 million worth of goods, so it isn’t a stretch to say that cryptocurrency hacking is a sizable chunk of the nation’s economy,” Chainalysis noted in the report.
US officials worry Pyongyang will use money stolen from crypto hacks to fund its illicit nuclear and ballistic weapons program. North Korean hackers have stolen the equivalent of billions of dollars in recent years by raiding cryptocurrency exchanges, according to the United Nations.
In addition to hacking cryptocurrency firms, suspected North Koreans have posed as other nationalities to apply for work at such firms and send money back to Pyongyang, US agencies have publicly warned.
In general, decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols were the main target of hackers, accounting for more than 80% of all cryptocurrency stolen for the year, according to the report. These protocols are used to replace traditional financial institutions with software that allows users to transact directly with each other via the blockchain, the digital ledger that underpins cryptocurrencies.
Of the attacks on DeFi systems, 64% targeted cross-chain bridge protocols, which allow users to exchange assets between different blockchains. Bridge services typically hold large reserves of various coins, making them targets for hackers. (The thefts on Axie Infinity and Harmony were both bridge hacks.)
While crypto hacks continued to rise last year, there is some cause for hope. Law enforcement and national security agencies are expanding their abilities to combat digital criminals, such as the FBI’s recovery of $30 million worth of cryptocurrency stolen in the Axie Infinity hack.
Those efforts, combined with other agencies cracking down on money laundering techniques, “means that these hacks will get harder and less fruitful with each passing year,” according to Chainalysis.
India is moving to block 232 apps, some with links to China, that offer betting and loan services in the South Asian market to prevent misuse of the citizens’ data, the state-owned public broadcaster said Sunday.
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology is in the process to enforce an emergency order to ban 138 betting and gambling apps and another 94 that provided unauthorized loan services in the interest of protecting the country’s integrity, the broadcaster said.
The ministry’s move was prompted at the direction of the Ministry of Home Affairs, Prasar Bharti added. The apps sought to mislead customers into taking big debts without realizing the terms and there were concerns that they could be used as tools for espionage and propaganda.
Sunday’s step is the latest in a series of government efforts to crack down on shark loan apps and other services that are posing a threat to the nation’s citizens.
According to the new rules, lenders are not permitted to increase a customer’s credit limit without obtaining their consent and are required to disclose the annual loan rate in explicit terms. Digital lending apps are also mandated to take prior explicit consent from customers before collecting any data and all such requests should be “need-based.”
India has also blocked over 300 apps with links to China in recent years to protect the nation’s sovereignty and integrity. New Delhi banned Tencent’s Xriver, Garena’s Free Fire, NetEase’s Onmyoji Arena and Astracraft and 50 more apps with apparent links to China early last year. The Indian government also banned dozens of apps including ByteDance’s TikTok, Xiaomi’s Community and Video Call apps and Alibaba Group’s UC Browser and UC News in mid-2020 amid geopolitical tensions between the two neighboring countries.
New Delhi has never specifically said that it’s taking actions on apps from any particular country.
Brendan Carr, the senior Republican on the Federal Communications Commission, however praised India’s blocking of TikTok and other apps last month, saying the country set an “incredibly important precedent” by banning the ByteDance app.
Carr warned that TikTok “operates as a sophisticated surveillance tool” and found that banning the social app was a “natural next step in our efforts to secure communication network.” Carr said he was worried that China could use sensitive and non-public data gleaned from TikTok for “blackmail, espionage, foreign influence campaigns and surveillance.”
“We need to follow India’s lead more broadly to weed out other nefarious apps as well,” he added.
Last week, Twitter said it is shutting down free access to its APIs starting February 9. Now, days before the deadline, Elon Musk said that after getting feedback from developers, Twitter will provide a write-only API for “bots providing good content that is free.”
This decision is as opaque as some of the other policy decisions under Musk’s management. There is no information on what constitutes “good content” and who will decide that. However, if Twitter ends up implementing this rule, some bots will get a new lifeline on the social network.
Previously, Twitter shuttered API access to third-party clients saying they broke a “long-standing rule” without any specification. Then the company silently updated its developer terms to reflect that app can’t “use or access the Licensed Materials to create or attempt to create a substitute or similar service or product to the Twitter Applications.”
Responding to feedback, Twitter will enable a light, write-only API for bots providing good content that is free
Following the announcement, a lot of developers who made fun of bots criticized the decision saying that their automation provided free content to people and in turn enhanced the services. Last week, Buzzfeed interviewed several bot developers who were unhappy with the decision. These include @_restaurant_bot which tweets random photos of restaurants and @_weather_bot_which tweets images of different places with weather updates.
Each of us Twitter bot makers already pay for the servers that send these tweets. That’s fine. But now some clownstick at Twitter decides they also want money for the priviledge of receiving these tweets.
Because making their site a funner place mUsT Be mOnEtIzEd.
At the moment, it’s not clear if accounts like @BigTechAlert, which tweets about big tech execs and organizations following and unfollowing each other, will be eligible for this free tier as they might need to scan account information.
Darius Kazemi, a developer who has made over 80bots and even organized a bot devs summit in 2016, told TechCrunch over a call that these automated accounts have been an integral part of Twitter for years. He said that some of these bots with thousands of followers bring joy to many people daily.
He mentioned that it would be costly to maintain these bots who are providing free content to the platform
“I have more than 80 bots on Twitter so it would take me several thousand dollars to keep them up every year and I can’t afford that kind of money,” he said.
Musk has been trying to generate more revenue for Twitter with moves like a new costly subscription plan and ramping up ad money. He also plans to show ads in replies to share revenue with creators. While the details on how this will work are thin, the Twitter CEO said that only Blue Subscribers can earn this money. So it’s likely that content bots won’t earn money even if ads are displayed on their accounts or in replies below their tweets.
Twitter’s free API discontinuation doesn’t just affect bot developers. There are tons of student developers and hate speech or misinformation researchers who might not have a budget to pay a monthly fee. Twitter’s v2 API had special access for academics but that might not be the case under the new API rules.
Developers have also pointedout that a lot of bots spreading spam don’t use actually use the official API. So the company’s intention to shut down free API to weed out spam might not work well.
Activision Blizzard will pay $35 million to settle US government allegations that the video game giant violated a whistleblower protection rule and lacked processes to collect workplace misconduct complaints, according to the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The agreement announced Friday is the latest blow to the embattled publisher, which has faced widespread criticism over numerous allegations of sexual harassment, retaliation and other workplace misconduct. The company is also the subject of a highly scrutinized $69 billion acquisition deal by Microsoft.
Because of its lack of procedures to understand the breadth and nature of misconduct complaints, Activision Blizzard could not adequately determine whether it needed to disclose those issues to investors, the SEC said.
The SEC also alleged that between 2016 and 2021, Activision Blizzard illegally included a clause in employee separation agreements that required them to notify the company if the SEC began asking them questions.
The company’s settlement with the SEC is not an admission of fault. In a statement, Activision Blizzard said it was pleased to have resolved the government investigation.
“As the order recognizes, we have enhanced our disclosure processes with regard to workplace reporting and updated our separation contract language,” the company said. “We did so as part of our continuing commitment to operational excellence and transparency. Activision Blizzard is confident in its workplace disclosures.”
In Red Lodge, Montana, the issue is impacting Carbon County authorities.
“When people crash up there, and they have these watches, they automatically dial 911, but then it’s an open-ended line. So, our dispatchers are able to tell if there’s a true emergency or if they can hear the rustling in the background and that it’s just a misdial. We took our numbers from 911 misdials from previous years, even last year, and they’re up 30% this year,” Carbon County Sheriff Josh McQuillan told KTVQ in January.
In Oregon and Idaho, KATU said that local agencies had reported unintentional 911 calls on Mount Hood and Schweitzer Mountain.
Mount Hood beyond the Willamette River during a heatwave in Portland, Oregon, U.S., on Monday, June 28, 2021. (Photographer: Maranie Staab/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
However, Cheryl Bledsoe, the director of Clackamas 911, told the station that it was not overwhelming them from a call standpoint.
Last December, The Colorado Sun reported that at least five counties in the state had been receiving a record number of automated calls from skiers’ Apple products.
“But we have not seen our numbers change. We are seeing as many as 20 a day and it’s a tremendous drain on our resources,” Summit County Sheriff Jaime FitzSimons told the publication. “We are communicating with Apple to get them to pay more attention to this but it feels like we are trying to turn a battleship in a bathtub.”
Speaking with The New York Times, Summit County’s interim director of emergency services, Trina Dummer, said that her whole day was spent managing crash notifications, noting that the calls were threatening to divert limited resources from real emergencies.
Attendees examine a brand new iPhone 14 Pro during an Apple special event on September 7, 2022, in Cupertino, California. ((Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images))
“Apple needs to put in their own call center if this is a feature they want,” she said, telling the Times that Apple had sent representatives to observe Dummer and her team for a day.
As of September, Apple Watches and iPhone 14s were equipped with technology that was meant to alert 911 dispatchers. Fall detection technology was introduced in 2018.
While Apple did not immediately return Fox News Digital’s multiple requests for comment, an Apple spokesman told the Times that the company was aware of the issue and that it provides warnings to the user that a call is being placed to 911, with 10 seconds allotted to cancel it.
“We have been aware that in some specific scenarios these features have triggered emergency services when a user didn’t experience a severe car crash or hard fall,” Alex Kirschner, an Apple spokesman, said.
A new Apple Watch is displayed during an Apple special event on September 7, 2022, in Cupertino, California. ((Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images))
The tech giant also said that updates to the software in late 2022 had been intended to reduce the number of false dials.
“Crash Detection and Fall Detection are designed to get users help when they need it most, and it has already contributed to saving several lives,” Kirschner added.
Crash Detection works on iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro models with the latest version of iOS, as well as Apple Watch Series 8, Apple Watch SE (2nd generation) and Apple Watch Ultra with the latest version of watchOS.
It is designed to detect severe car crashes, and automatically calls emergency services after a 20-second delay if the owner is unable to respond. To turn the feature off, go to Settings and Emergency SOS on the iPhone, or My Watch and Emergency SOS on an Apple Watch. Users can also turn fall detection off this way.
Julia Musto is a reporter for Fox News and Fox Business Digital.
You see it one second and then one, two, or sometimes more emails seem to vanish. Emails are hard to keep track of, especially since we all get flooded with lots of them on a daily basis.
Things can get even more frustrating when they are automatically grouped together without your knowledge. You may not know that most email services do this by default.
The good news is that there’s a way for you to shut this feature off.
Email messages are grouped automatically when each message has the same recipients, senders, or subject of a previous message. It will stack all messages that fall into this category, with the oldest ones at the top and the newest at the bottom.
The conversation may break into a new chain if the subject changes or if the chain gets to more than 100 emails. This is typically the default within every email service. Still, you can turn it off by going into your Settings and doing the following steps.
How to turn the conversations feature off in Gmail
Log in to your Gmail account
In the top right corner, click the Settings icon (gear icon)
Note: These steps may vary slightly depending on the version of AOL mail you are using.
For more of my tips, subscribe to my free CyberGuy Report Newsletter by clicking the “Free newsletter” link at the top of my website.
Copyright 2023 CyberGuy.com. All rights reserved. CyberGuy.com articles and content may contain affiliate links that earn a commission when purchases are made.
Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson is an award-winning tech journalist who has a deep love of technology, gear and gadgets that make life better with his contributions for Fox News & FOX Business beginning mornings on “FOX & Friends.” Got a tech question? Get Kurt’s CyberGuy Newsletter, share your voice, a story idea or comment at CyberGuy.com.
Two months after OpenAI unnerved some educators with the public release of ChatGPT, an AI chatbot that can help students and professionals generate shockingly convincing essays, the company is unveiling a new tool to help teachers adapt.
OpenAI on Tuesday announceda new feature, called an “AI text classifier,” that allows users to check if an essay was written by a human or AI. But even OpenAI admits it’s “imperfect.”
The tool, which works on English AI-generated text, is powered by a machine learning system that takes an input and assigns it to several categories. In this case, after pasting a body of text such as a school essay into the new tool, it will give one of five possible outcomes, ranging from “likely generated by AI” to “very unlikely.”
Lama Ahmad, policy research director at OpenAI, told CNN that educators have been asking for a ChatGPT feature like this, but warns it should be “taken with a grain of salt.”
“We really don’t recommend taking this tool in isolation because we know that it can be wrong and will be wrong at times – much like using AI for any kind of assessment purposes,” Ahmad said. “We are emphasizing how important it is to keep a human in the loop … and that it’s just one data point among many others.”
Ahmad notes that some teachers have referenced past examples of student work and writing style to gauge whether it was written by the student. While the new tool might provide another reference point, Ahmad said “teachers need to be really careful in how they include it in academic dishonesty decisions.”
Since it was made available in late November, ChatGPT has been used to generate original essays, stories and song lyrics in response to user prompts. It has drafted research paper abstracts that fooled some scientists. It even recently passed law exams in four courses at the University of Minnesota, another exam at University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business and a US medical licensing exam.
In the process, it has raised alarms among some educators.Public schools in New York City and Seattle have already banned students and teachers from using ChatGPT on the district’s networks and devices. Some educators are now moving with remarkable speed to rethink their assignments in response to ChatGPT, even as it remains unclear how widespread use is of the tool among students and how harmful it could really be to learning.
OpenAI now joins a small but growing list of efforts to help educators detect when a written work is generated by ChatGPT.Some companies such as Turnitin are actively working on ChatGPT plagiarism detection tools that could help teachers identify when assignments are written by the tool. Meanwhile, Princeton student Edward Tuan told CNN more than 95,000 people have already tried the beta version of his own ChatGPT detection feature, called ZeroGPT, noting there has been “incredible demand among teachers” so far.
Jan Leike – a lead on the OpenAI alignment team, which works to make sure the AI tool is aligned with human values –listed several reasons for why detecting plagiarism via ChatGPT may be a challenge. People can edit text to avoid being identified by the tool, for example. It will also “be best at identifying text that is very similar to the kind of text that we’ve trained it on.”
In addition, thecompanysaid it’s impossible to determine if predictable text – such as a list of the first 1,000 prime numbers – was written by AI or a human because the correct answer is always the same, according to a company blog post. The classifier is also “very unreliable” on short texts below 1,000 characters.
During a demo with CNN ahead of Tuesday’s launch, ChatGPT successfully labeled several bodies of work. An excerpt from the book “Peter Pan,” for example, was deemed “unlikely” to be AI generated. In the company blog post, however, OpenAI said it incorrectly labeled human-written text as AI-written 5% of the time.
Despite the possibility of false positives, Leike said the company aims to use the tool to spark conversations around AI literacy and possibly deter people from claiming that AI-written text was created by a human. He said the decision to release thenew feature also stems from the debate around whether humans have a right to know if they’re interacting with AI.
“This question is much bigger than what we are doing here; society as a whole has to grapple with that question,” he said.
OpenAI said it encourages the general public to share their feedback on the AI check feature. Ahmad said the company continues to talk with K-12 educators and thoseat the collegiate level and beyond, such as Harvard University and the Stanford Design School.
The company sees its role as “an educator to the educators,” according to Ahmad, in the sense that OpenAI wants to make them more “aware about the technologies and what they can be used for and what they should not be used for.”
“We’re not educators ourselves – we’re very aware of that – and so our goals are really to help equip teachers to deploy these models effectively in and out of the classroom,” Ahmad said. “That means giving them the language to speak about it, help them understand the capabilities and the limitations, and then secondarily through them, equip students to navigate the complexities that AI is already introducing in the world.”
Welcome back to This Week in Apps, the weekly TechCrunch series that recaps the latest in mobile OS news, mobile applications and the overall app economy.
The app economy in 2023 hit a few snags, as consumer spending last year dropped for the first time by 2% to $167 billion, according to the latest “State of Mobile” report by data.ai (previously App Annie). However, downloads are continuing to grow, up 11% year-over-year in 2022 to reach 255 billion. Consumers are also spending more time in mobile apps than ever before. On Android devices alone, hours spent in 2022 grew 9%, reaching 4.1 trillion.
This Week in Apps offers a way to keep up with this fast-moving industry in one place with the latest from the world of apps, including news, updates, startup fundings, mergers and acquisitions, and much more.
Surprising news this week saw Instagram’s co-founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger return to the mobile app market with the launch of a news reading app called Artifact. The app is part of a new venture aimed at exploring social apps, a report in The Verge noted.
Artifact itself is not yet publicly available but offers a waitlist where interested users can sign up. As described, it sounds like a modern-day twist on Google Reader, a long-ago RSS newsreader app that Google shut down back in 2013. Except in this case, Artifact is described as a newsreader that uses machine learning to personalize the experience for the end user, while also adding social elements that allow users to discuss articles they come across with friends. (To be fair, Google Reader had a similar feature, but the app itself had to be programmed by the user who would add RSS feeds directly.)
The app presents a curated selection of news stories, which become more attuned to the user’s interests over time. According to a demo version of the app, you’ll need to read at last 25 articles for the app to personalize your feed. (You can track your progress in the app.)
During onboarding, you’ll tap on news interests you want to track to initially customize the experience. Users can also add their own paid news subscriptions for top publishers, like The New York Times and Bloomberg, if they choose. This will then prioritize those outlets in the app’s interface but links open in a web view. There’s no publisher integration or exclusive deals here, it seems.
Future app features will include comment controls, separate feeds for articles posted by people you follow alongside their commentary, and a direct message inbox for discussing posts more privately. But for now, you can thumbs down articles or hide the publisher, save articles to read later, share articles through iOS or Android’s built-in sharing features, report content, view your reading history and read articles in a cleaned-up reader mode.
There are some odd design choices, like the slightly too-small font for a text-heavy app and the italicized font styling on the sign-up page, but the latter isn’t present in the app itself. The app had two news reading tabs, which is strange, as one is a scrollable list of headlines, similar to an RSS reader like Feedly, while the other is a browsable page, similar to Apple News’ Today tab, but with categories at the top.
The app doesn’t immediately feel original, as it overlaps with other news readers and read-it-later apps, like Flipboard, SmartNews, Newsbreak, Pocket and Matter, plus other RSS readers and the default news apps from Apple and Google. It seems as if the company is hoping to reproduce the success of something like ByteDance’s Toutiao, but in the U.S. that’s difficult to do. The new market is more competitive here, where consumers also rely heavily on getting news from Google Search and Facebook — a platform not available in China. Plus, as TechCrunch’s Catherine Shu previously reported, many people in the country skipped the PC and first went online with their phones, paving the way for a mobile news app to eat up market share.
It will be interesting to track how well Artifact fares in this environment.
The Biden administration calls out app stores as anticompetitive
The Biden administration called out Apple and Google’s app stores for stifling competition. A new report, issued on Wednesday by the Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), said it had investigated the competitive conditions in the mobile app ecosystem and found that it’s “not a level playing field, which is harmful to developers and consumers.”
The report also made several policy suggestions that could improve the ecosystem and open up competition. These included pushes for more transparent app review process; limits on pre-installed apps and self-preferencing; bans on rules that restrict other means of installing apps, like sideloading; support for third-party payments; support for links to developers’ websites from apps; and more.
The recommendations, however, are just that — ideas, not policy. The report only helps to solidify and clarify the Biden administration’s position on app store competition. As the report points out, “Congress should enact laws” and “relevant agencies should consider measures” to limit anticompetitive conduct.
Another decentralized social app launches to take on Twitter, then gets kicked out of the China App Store
Image Credits: Damus
Twitter has another competitor, with this week’s arrival of Damus, a decentralized social networking application that’s powered by an open and decentralized social networking protocol known as Nostr, which is based on cryptographic key pairs.
Last year, Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey donated around $245,000 in bitcoin (then roughly 14 BTC) to fund the development of Nostr even though he’s already investing in a different decentralized protocol with his Bluesky project.
Though there are some venture-backed Twitter rivals coming onto the scene, like Spill, T2 and Post, Damus is not one of them. It’s an experiment in decentralized social networking. The app’s promise is a social network without a central authority that makes decisions about the network’s content or who’s allowed to participate, as Facebook or Twitter do. Explains the app’s homepage, “you are in control…there is no platform that can ban or censor you. You are in control of your data,” it reads.
There’s no requirement to sign up with a phone number, email or name because of how the Nostr works. That’s a big point of differentiation with the federated platform, Mastodon, where a user’s account is attached to a particular server and admins have some control over their server’s registered users. That means issues with the Mastodon server you’re using — like an outage — could impact your ability to use the network. And you could risk losing data if that shutdown was sudden or permanent.
The new app also includes end-to-end encrypted messaging — something Twitter does not have, and which has concerned users in the wake of the Musk takeover. Messages are distributed through decentralized relays — in fact, the name Nostr is an acronym for “Notes and Other Stuff Transmitted by Relays.” And users can tip one another thanks to Bitcoin Lightning Network integrations.
The decentralization and promise of anonymity brought a flood of Chinese users to the app at launch, as typical social networks in China have censorship tools to eliminate content that’s illegal or banned in the country. Plus, anonymity is not allowed. Not surprisingly, China’s government soon took action on Damus and the iOS app was pulled from the App Store in China just two days after its launch.
Apple missed on earnings. The company reported fiscal Q1 revenue that was down 5% year-over-year to $117.2 billion, its largest annual quarterly revenue decline since 2016 and below expectations of $121.10 billion. Net income was down 13% year-over-year to $30 billion.
Except for Services (up 6.4%) and iPad (up 30%), all business lines were down, including iPhone (down 8%), Mac (down 29%), Wearables/Home/Accessories (down 8%). Revenue in Greater China also fell 7.3% year-over-year to $23.9 billion.
Apple will raise the App Store app and IAP prices in the U.K. and some other markets on February 13. The company said it’s adjusting for taxes and conversion rate changes. Additional countries impacted include Colombia, Egypt, Hungary, Nigeria, Norway and South Africa. Prices in Uzbekistan will decrease to reflect a reduction of the value-added tax rate from 15% to 12%, the company also noted. Meanwhile, proceeds are being adjusted in Ireland, Luxembourg, Singapore and Zimbabwe due to tax changes, but prices aren’t changing.
Apple’s Support app adds Bulgarian, Croatian and Greek and expanded into 118 new markets.
Google/Android News
Spotify, an earlier tester of Google’s User Choice Billing option for third-party payments, said during earnings the offering has now expanded to more than 140 markets worldwide. The streamer didn’t say which markets were included nor how much of a commission cut it receives, but Google had previously said the program would reduce commissions by 4%.
Google’s new policy requiring digital lenders in Kenya to submit proof of license to operate has taken effect. The policy aims to cut down on the rogue loan apps that have been offering unsecured personal and business loans. Some apps have been sharing contact info from browsers with third-party debt collectors without consent.
Social
Meta reported Q4 earnings, with revenue down 4% year-over-year to $32.2 billion and net income down 55% year-over-year to $4.7 billion. However, the company said its family daily active users were up 5% year-over-year to 2.96 billion and Facebook had 2 billion daily active users, after adding 16 million DAUs in the quarter. WhatsApp had passed 2 billion DAUs in October. The stock jumped up by 24%+ after earnings, and is now up 110%+ since November, adding $250 billion to its market cap. (Apple observer John Gruber suggested that maybe Meta should maybe now stop “whining” about ATT!)
Instagram’s newly launched Notes feature, which lets users post a status update that can be seen at the top of their inbox, expanded to global markets outside the U.S., including the EU, U.K. and Japan. The feature was already available in Latin America, North America and parts of Asia, and should have become available across all regions sometime during this past week.
Debt-laden Twitter made its first interest payment under Elon Musk to seven banks, led by Morgan Stanley, on the $12.5 billion Musk borrowed to take the company private last year. The payment was around $300 million, Bloomberg reported.
One of Meta’s last apps built by the experimental projects group, NPE Team, is shutting down. The company announced its social to-do list app Move will close down on March 2, 2023.
Snap reported mixed Q4 earnings. The company missed on revenue ($1.30 billion versus $1.31 expected) but beat on earnings per share (14 cents versus 11 cents expected). The app now has global daily active users of 375 million, close to expectations of 375.3 million. Snap’s stock plunged following the results as investors reacted to the net loss of $288 million and lack of official guidance for Q1.
Spotify reported its Q4 earnings with revenue up 18% year-over-year to €3.2 billion and a €270 million loss, up from €39 million year-over-year.Paid subscribers were up 10 million to reach 205 million.
Investors asked Spotify about the tests of a new Friends tab in the app,which suggests the company has expanded social ambitions as fewer young people use Facebook, which is what powers Spotify’s existing social features.
Netflix’s “Kids Mystery Box” feature hit Android devices. The discovery tool works similarly to the Shuffle button offered to adult viewers but offers kids the ability to find new content in a more playful way.
Apple rolled out Apple Music Replay 2023, its annual collection of the top songs by year. The playlist is made available to the music app’s subscribers alongside a website that offers personalized details, like your top albums, songs and artists of the year.
Apple launched MLS Season Pass in more than 100 territories, offering soccer fans access to all MLS matches, playoffs and more for $14.99/mo or $99/year. The subscription service is available through the Apple TV app and can be shared with up to six family members with Apple’s Family Sharing.
Gaming
EA surprised investors this week with the news that it’s pulling the plug on “Apex Legends Mobile,” which was just named Game of the Year by both Apple and Google. According to CEO Andrew Wilson, the issue was that the game failed to keep enough casual players engaged. The decision also led the company to kill the planned mobile version of “Battlefield.”
Sony added support for Discord voice calls in beta on its PS5 in the U.S., Canada, Japan and the U.K., similar to support on the Xbox. The Xbox version was recently updated to allow for direct joining from the console itself without needing a phone or PC.
Roblox is going to host a free virtual Super Bowl concert featuring Saweetie. The concert will take place at 7:00 pm ET in Warner Music Group’s Rhythm City, a new destination on Roblox that was announced earlier this week.
Security
1Password previewed new features coming to its iOS app, including the ability to reorder fields and sections inside items, the (returning) ability to search within any list of items, PIN unlock on mobile, improved Face ID unlock, better VoiceOver support and more.
A victim of the recent Google Fi hack had his Coinbase and 2FA app, Authy, hijacked by hackers, raising concerns about further potential fallout from the Google Fi data breach, which was likely related to the recent security incident at T-Mobile.
Password manager Dashlane published its source code to GitHub in a new transparency push. The published code includes the Android app code, iOS app code and code related to the Apple Watch and Mac apps. It plans to later publish the code for its web extension, too.
Etc.
Samsung reported a ~$1.38 billion mobile profit in Q4 2022, down from $2.15 billion in the year-ago quarter. Its operating profit was down 69% year-over-year to ~$3.5 billion, its lowest since Q3 2014. Revenue was down 8% year-over-year to ~$57.3 billion, due to weak chip and smartphone demand.
Samsung’s SmartThings iOS app now supports Matter devices.
Egyptian fintech and e-commerce MNT-Halan raised up to $400 million in equity and debt financing. A large portion of the equity, about $200 million, was provided by Abu Dhabi-based Chimera Investments. MNT-Halan runs the Halan digital wallet app offering bill pay, e-commerce, ride-hailing and loans.
Meta won a ruling against the FTC in a closely watched case over its proposed acquisition of VR software company Within. A U.S. district court judge denied the FTC’s request to block Meta’s purchase of Within, which makes a VR fitness app called Supernatural. The FTC had said Meta’s purchase would help the company dominate in VR, potentially creating a monopoly in the market.
U.K. neobank Zopa raised £75 million (around $93 million) in an all-equity investment round, without a lead investor. The company said it was an inside round from existing investors including IAG Silverstripe, Uprising and Augmentum, but not SoftBank.
Mexican employee wellness company Minu raised $30 million in a combination of equity and debt. The round includes $10 million in a bridge round from Coppel Capital, Besant Capital and Enea Capital, plus existing investors FinTech Collective, QED and Salkantay, and $20 million of debt from Accial Capital.
Forum
Image Credits: Waverly Labs
TechCrunch’s Ivan Mehta took a look atForum, a new app from Waverly Labs, the company behind wearables focused on translation. With Forum, users can translate and transcribe audio in real time across 20 languages and 42 dialects, including Arabic, Dutch, English, Hindi, German, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese and Spanish. Users can switch to a new language in the middle of a session to get both a text and audio translation. The app also works with video calling apps like Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Google Meet.
Rewind
Image Credits: Rewind
A new app called Rewind wants to make it easier for music fans to explore the top songs of decades past. Hoping to cater to consumer demand for nostalgic music experiences, Rewind allows users to “time travel” through the music charts from 1960 through 2010 to learn about how older songs have influenced today’s hits. Users can explore the music from a given year by top albums and top music videos, in addition to growing the top Billboard charts. It also delves into relevant trends from a given time period — like 1991’s selection of “grunge-defining records.”
Other sections present tracks that saw major radio airtime that year, highly anticipated releases and newly formed bands that emerged that year, and so on. A TikTok-like feed lets you swipe through the year’s top songs quickly.
There’s also a “news” section that includes major events and moments from the year, and “ads” that give the app a retro feel. For example, in 1965, listeners will see ads for the first distortion guitar pedal while users browsing the 1980s might see ads for new synth instruments that helped shape 80s sounds. The app, a side project from a TIDAL developer, integrates only with TIDAL for now. Everyone else can hear 30-second song clips.
elcome to the TechCrunch Exchange, a weekly startups-and-markets newsletter. It’s inspired by the daily TechCrunch+ column where it gets its name. Want it in your inbox every Saturday? Sign up here.
“It’s not either usage-based or subscription pricing,” VC firm OpenView wrote in its second State of Usage-Based Pricing report. These hybrid approaches call for new tools, but which ones? Let’s explore. —Anna
Sure, more SaaS companies are billing their customers based on how they are using the service. But this often comes in combination with other pricing approaches, such as tiered subscriptions.
OpenAI’s ChatGPT is the latest example of this hybrid pricing approach. In addition to its free tier, it introduced ChatGPT Plus, a fairly plain subscription model starting at $20 per month. But the company also said it was “actively exploring options for lower-cost plans, business plans, and data packs.”
Data packs: That would be a form of usage-based pricing, but one that wouldn’t replace subscriptions. Meaning that ChatGPT would join the growing range of complexly priced products.
