Apple's upcoming iPhone 13 will support low-earth-orbit (LEO) satellite communications to make calls and texts without cellular coverage.
According to reliable analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, this will let users make calls and send messages in areas without 4G or 5G coverage. He also said in the future they could be used in Apple's AR headset, the Apple Car, and IoT devices. The LEO satellite communication service provider that is "most likely to cooperate with Apple" is said to be Globalstar. Network operators will work with Globalstar to offer iPhone users a satellite connection, users won't need to have any additional contracts. Link

TSMC, the world’s largest chip maker, plans to increase prices, which could result in consumers paying more for electronics.
The Taiwan based company plans to increase prices by about 10% for advanced chips and 20% for less advanced chips, starting later this year or early next year. This will likely increase the price of consumer electronics, cars, and other products that use TSMC's chips. TSMC makes 90+% of the world's advanced semiconductors. Apple is one of TSMC's largest customers and its iPhones use TSMC's advanced microprocessors. TSMC has a market cap of $560B, making it the ninth most valuable company in the world. Link

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons

Snapchat updates Scan feature, turning it into a visual search engine that recognizes things like dog breeds, cars, clothing brands, and more...
Snapchat Scan can identify similar clothes, dog breeds, plants, car models, nutrition label information, and more... turning it into a Shazam for the real world. Snapchat wants to replace Google as the place where people ask quick questions about things they see around them, like "what kind of plant is that?" or "who makes that shirt?". Scan also now recommends AR effects based on what you are looking at, which promotes third-party Lenses and incentivizes their creation. Link

Photo credit: Youtube The Verge

Waymo is expanding and now offering Jaguar autonomous taxis in San Francisco.
Alphabet's self-driving car company is starting with selected riders ("Trusted Testers") in SF who can take autonomous rides, free of charge and with a safety operator onboard "for now". Waymo was previously running in Phoenix Arizona on Chrysler minivans, SF will get all-electric, self-driving Jaguar I-Paces. GM's Cruise and Amazon's Zoox are both also working on running robotaxis in San Francisco. Link

Photo credit: Waymo

OnlyFans suspends its ban on porn in an abrupt u-turn, after securing "assurances".
OnlyFans will suspend its decision to ban sexually explicit content following backlash from its adult content creator community. According to their statement they aim to become a "home for all creators" and "the proposed Oct 1st changes are no longer required due to banking partners' assurances that OnlyFans can support all genres of creators". Link

Here's our previous update about OnlyFans' plan to ban sexual content.

Instagram is replacing the swipe-up link feature in favor of link stickers, starting Aug. 30.
Link stickers are tappable stickers in stories that take people to external websites. Instagram says they are doing this to give people more "creative control" since users can format the look of stickers and not the swipe up. For now, only people who had swipe up privileges will receive the sticker option, but Instagram are "still evaluating" rolling it out to more users (users have to be verified or have at least 10K followers to get swipe up). Link

Visa acquired CryptoPunk 7610, a female Crypto Punk NFT, for around $150K, as its first step into "NFT commerce".
Visa believes NFTs will play an important role in the future of commerce. When asked why Visa bought it Visa's head of crypto, Cuy Sheffield, said CryptoPunks "pioneered the NFT technology and wave of NFT commerce" so Visa wanted to own a punk. He said the decision was less about the individual punk but more about CryptoPunks in general, given that it is a historical NFT project. CryptoPunks are computer generated pixel art images of different faces, and are considered the original NFTs, launched in 2017 by Larva Labs. Link

Photo of CryptoPunk 7610, that Visa bought

Amazon is planning to open physical department stores in California and Ohio.
The new retail locations will be around 30K square feet, smaller than most department stores, that are typically 100K square feet, and will carry clothing, household goods, electronics and more, including items from top consumer brands. This move enables Amazon to better showcase its products, reach new customers, and compete with Walmart, which it just passed as the biggest retailer outside China. Link

Illustration by RN in TECH

Elon Musk announced Tesla plans to release a humanoid robot "sometime next year".
The robots will be designed to handle "tasks that are unsafe, repetitive or boring" and will be based on Tesla's experience with automated manufacturing machines and the hardware and software that powers their Autopilot driver assistance. The Tesla Bot is "intended to be friendly" but the company is designing so that "you can run away from it, and most likely overpower it". It will be five feet, eight inches tall, weigh 125 pounds, and have a screen for a face. The code name for the bot inside the company is "Optimus". Link

Photo credit: Tesla

OnlyFans will ban users from posting any sexually explicit content starting in October.
Creators will still be allowed to post nude photos and videos that comply with OnlyFans' policy. This change comes because of pressure from "banking partners and payment providers". OnlyFans is trying to raise at a valuation of more than $1B. They have more than 130M users, handled more than $2B in sales last year, and will more than double that this year. OnlyFans keep 20% of that. Link

Palantir acquired $50.7M in 100-ounce gold bars, in preparation for a "black swan event" amid economic uncertainty.
They will also accept payment from clients in gold. Palantir's gold bars will be kept in a secure location in the northeastern U.S., according to their filing last week for their quarterly financial results. "The company is able to take physical possession of the gold bars stored at the facility at any time with reasonable notice" Palantir wrote. Gold is considered a safe-haven asset that protects against inflation. Palantir previously said it would accept Bitcoin as a form of payment, but say no one has done so yet. Link

The US is investigating Tesla's Autopilot system after multiple crashes into parked emergency vehicles.
There were 11 incidents where Teslas using Autopilot crashed into stationary first-responder vehicles, causing injury to 17 people and one death. The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) investigation covers 765K vehicles, almost all Teslas sold in the US from 2014 - 2021. Most of the incidents took place after dark, with the software ignoring scene control measures including flashing lights, flares, an illuminated arrow board or cones warning of hazards.

Both Tesla and Volvo's driving assist manuals warn about this problem: "Traffic-Aware cannot detect all objects and may not brake/decelerate for stationary vehicles, especially in situations when you are driving over 50 mph (80 km/h) and a vehicle you are following moves out of your driving path and a stationary vehicle or object is in front of you instead."
Link

Photo credit: Tesla

Controversial anonymous chat app Yik Yak is officially back, 4 years after shutting down.
Yik Yak exploded in popularity in 2014 and even had a $400 million valuation. It shut down in 2017 after a rise in bullying, harassment, bomb-threats, etc... and users moved elsewhere. It's now back under new ownership with an updated look and new rules. As before, users can post anonymously to people in a 5 mile radius, and now there's a zero tolerance, one strike policy for bullying and threats. It's currently available only on iOS in the US store but will expand to other regions and devices soon. Link

Photo credit: YikYak

Reddit rolls out a Tiktok-like video feed in its iOS app.
The video feed shows you videos from subreddits you follow, and from some other popular subreddits, and can be found via a play icon next to the search bar. The experience looks very much like Tiktok's feed with a vertical, perpetual scrolling list of videos. You can upvote and downvote, comment, award (using Reddit's in-app currency to purchase medals and reactions), and share videos. Link

Apple changes plans for scanning iPhones for child abuse content as they admit they "jumbled" the announcement.
Last week Apple announced that they'll scan iMessage and iCloud photos for child abuse images. They now say they'll only search devices for child sex abuse images that have been flagged in multiple countries, after receiving backlash from privacy advocates and security researchers who say it could be used for surveillance or in government censorship. They say that the system needs to detect 30 images on a phone or computer before it notifies Apple for human review. Link

Photo credit: Apple

Nvidia says part of its keynote in April was delivered by a CGI replica of CEO Jensen Huang, not the real person as everybody thought.
The virtual version of Nvidia's CEO who addressed the audience was created by doing a full face and body scan of Huang and then training an AI to mimic his gestures and expressions. It was broadcast from Huang's kitchen, which he's done before, which meant no one saw anything different. The CGI clone delivered part of the keynote speech, seamlessly transitioning from the real thing. Link

Photo credit: Nvidia

US senators unveil Open App Markets Act, which would force app stores to allow sideloading and let developers use other payment systems.
3 US senators just announced the bipartisan bill that would require Google and Apple to allow installing apps from outside their official appstores, and allow alternative in-app payments in their stores. It aims to boost competition and protect consumers by restricting how the stores operate and what rules they can impose on app developers. This basically sounds like Epic's wildest dreams come true. And the biggest winner out of all of this will probably be Stripe. Link

Samsung announces Galaxy Z Flip3 foldable flip phone with 6.7" display, for $999, and Galaxy Z Fold3 with 7.6" screen for $1,799.
The Flip3 is the first foldable phone that's under $1000. It has an internal 6.7" 120Hz display and external 1.9" screen, with 8GB RAM. Unlike the expensive Z Fold3, the Flip series is designed like a classic flip phone, that fits better in your pocket yet still has a normal smartphone screen. The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 has a 7.6" 120Hz main screen, 12GB RAM, supports S Pen, and is IPX8 water resistance. Both devices have a Snapdragon 888 and ship August 27th. Samsung wants to make foldables mainstream now that they've figured out how to make them durable enough and lowered the cost. Link

Photo credit: Samsung

Apple's iPhone update will be modest: smaller notch, video Portrait mode, ProRes video recording, and a faster refresh rate.
ProRes is a higher-quality video format used by professional video editors in the film industry. The phone design will remain with the same 5.4-inch and 6.1-inch regular sizes and 6.1-inch and 6.7-inch Pro screens. It will include a faster A15 chip and have a new AI enhanced filters system that improves the look and colors of photos. Apple will probably announce the iPhone 13 (iPhone 12S?) line in October. Link

Amazon announced Echo devices will support Matter, an open-source standard that makes smart home devices cross-compatible.
Smarthome devices that support Matter will work seamlessly with each other. So a smart lighting system will work whether you have Siri, Alexa, or Google Assistant. Matter uses wi-fi, Bluetooth Low Energy, and Thread (a mesh networking protocol) for interoperability between different smart-home devices. Only Amazon's first-gen Echo speakers will not get the upgrade. Apple, Google, Samsung SmartThings, and over 170 other companies are also working on Matter, which is expected to be fully operational by the end of 2021. Link

Photo credit: Amazon

SpaceX and a Canadian startup are launching a satellite that will display billboard ads in space.
Anybody will be able to buy pixels on the satellite's screen with dogecoin. Geometric Energy Corporation (GEC) is partnering with SpaceX to launch an advertisement satellite, called a CubeSat, which will have a massive screen on one side where people can bid to have their logos and advertisements displayed. A selfie-stick attached to the side of the CubeSat will film the screen and livestream it to YouTube or Twitch. It's planned to be released in early 2022. Link

Illustration by RN in TECH

Apple announces they will scan iCloud photos and iMessage for child abuse images, and alert parents.
Apple will scan photos on iPhone, iPad, Mac, and photos uploaded to iCloud, for evidence of child sex abuse, beginning in the US with iOS 15 and macOS Monterey. They'll use on-device machine learning to analyze if images shared in iMessage are sexually explicit and warn children and parents. All the processing happens on the device, nothing is passed to Apple's servers. Security researchers, while supportive of combating child abuse, are concerned that this step risks enabling governments to seek access to citizens' personal data. Link

Photo credit: Apple

TikTok is testing a Stories feature, called TikTok Stories, which is available in a handful of markets outside the US.
Tiktok confirmed the new feature will be another option, in addition to its existing tools like videos, Duets, Stitch and LIVE, and is not going to replace them. The feature is very similar to Instagram Stories (they're ephemeral and disappear in 24 hours), although it does let users comment publicly on the creator's story. Having ephemeral stories could encourage users who don't post regularly to feel comfortable with a familiar format and start posting, and to get regular Tiktokers to post more casual content. The timing of this is interesting, right after Twitter shut down their Fleets features (Twitter stories). Link

Photo credit: Matt Navarra

Microsoft pauses free trials of its new Windows 365 service, which streams Windows via a web browser, after "significant demand".
Microsoft's cloud PC Windows 365 service just launched earlier this week and has already reached their max capacity after a few days. It lets businesses (for now) choose from a variety of CPU, RAM, and storage configurations and stream Windows 10 or Windows 11 via a web browser. Microsoft says they are pausing the program until they add more capacity. You can sign up to get notified when they'll open it up again. Link

Here's our previous update about Windows 365 Cloud PC.

Photo credit: Microsoft

Facebook is trying to read encrypted data without actually decrypting it in order to understand WhatsApp messages and target ads.
The company is recruiting AI researchers to study how to analyze the content of encrypted data without having to decrypt it. This area of research is called "homomorphic encryption" and Microsoft, Amazon, and Google are also working on the same approach. The goal is to allow companies to analyze encrypted data while preserving privacy to protect from cybersecurity threats and to maintain privacy. Protecting data without impacting the effectiveness of ad targeting could allow Facebook to both meet its business goals and satisfy regulators who have expressed concern about how the company handles user information. Link

A major Apple iPhone trend that worried Wall Street for years has just reversed: people are back to upgrading their iPhones.
For the past 5 years iPhone users have been holding onto their phones for longer and longer, which harmed Apple's growth and worried Wall Street analysts. Research firm CIRP's recent data shows that the negative trend has recently reversed. In the June 21 quarter, 30% of iPhone users had their phone for three years or more, vs 34% from the previous quarter. Before this period, the upgrade cycle had been steadily lengthening. In 2017, for example, less than 20% of iPhone users had their phone for three years or more. Link

Photo credit: Apple

Google unveils high-end Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro phones with a Google-designed Tensor SoC, coming in fall.
The focus was on the new system on a chip (SoC), named Tensor SoC, which is similar to the AI processing units Google uses in its data centers and is dedicated to performing AI and ML (machine learning) tasks (Google has been designing it for 4 years!). The Pixel 6 will have a 6.4" 90Hz display, and the Pixel 6 Pro a 6.7" 120Hz display and 4x optical zoom. Both will have the new Tensor SoC, a Titan M2 security chip, and in-display fingerprint sensor. Link

Square to acquire Australian buy-now-pay-later firm Afterpay for $29B in an all-stock deal.
The acquisition is Square's largest yet, and will let Square's SMB clients offer Afterpay's buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) option to their customers. Afterpay lets customers pay for purchases in installments, interest-free. They already have 100k e-commerce merchants and 16M consumers. BNPL services have become increasingly popular across the web, offered by companies like Afterpay, Affirm, and Klarna. Apple is reportedly also working on a similar service called "Apple Pay Later". Link

Photo credit: Square

New book claims Apple tried to buy Tesla in 2016 and Elon Musk demanded to be made Apple CEO.
A new book called "Power Play: Tesla, Elon Musk and the Bet of the Century" by Wall Street Journal reporter Tim Higgins says that Tesla was in serious financial trouble and Tim Cook had an idea: Apple buys Tesla. Elon Musk had one condition: they he remains CEO. Not of Tesla, of Apple! Tim cook said "F— you" and hung up. In response, Musk now tweeted that he never spoke with Tim Cook, that he wanted to meet with Cook about Apple buying Tesla but Cook refused to meet. Tesla was worth about 6% of today's value. Link

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons