Tech News – Page 63 – by Arlin Schaffel

Instagram now lets you edit DMs up to 15 mins after sending them

The ability to edit your DMs lets you fix a typo or change things around if your message doesn’t quite sound right. To edit a message, you need to press and hold it, and then choose “edit” from the drop-down menu. Once you edit a message, the purple text bubble will have an “Edited” label on top of it to notify the other person that the message has been changed. The feature works similar to Apple’s edit feature for iMessage, which launched nearly two years ago.
https://techcrunch.com/2024/03/04/instagram-now-lets-you-edit-dms-up-to-15-mins-after-sending-them/

Apple terminates Epic Games developer account calling it a ‘threat’ to the iOS ecosystem

In response to Epic’s news, Apple shared the following statement: Epic’s egregious breach of its contractual obligations to Apple led courts to determine that Apple has the right to terminate ‘any or all of Epic Games’ wholly owned subsidiaries, affiliates, and/or other entities under Epic Games’ control at any time and at Apple’s sole discretion.’ In light of Epic’s past and ongoing behavior, Apple chose to exercise that right.
https://techcrunch.com/2024/03/06/apple-terminates-epic-games-developer-account-calling-it-a-threat-to-the-ios-ecosystem/

Facebook will remove its News tab and stop paying publishers for news

Facebook’s News tab launched in 2019 with millions of dollars in content deals for publishers (a reported $10 million for the Wall Street Journal, $20 million for the New York Times, and $3 million for CNN), but in April it’s going away for good. Meta says it will “deprecate” Facebook News in the US and Australia in April 2024, it won’t enter new commercial deals for news, and it “will not offer new Facebook products specifically for news publishers in the future.”
https://www.theverge.com/2024/2/29/24087220/facebook-news-tab-united-states-australia

Samsung has big ambitions for the Galaxy Ring

amsung’s VP of Digital Health Dr. Hon Pak didn’t specifically say what sensors are in the ring, but mentioned sleep insights based on heart rate, movement, and respiratory indicators. Dr. Pak says that Samsung’s partnership with Natural Cycles (which already brings period and fertility tracking to its Galaxy Watch series) will extend to the Ring, too — putting it in direct competition with the Oura ring. On the Galaxy Ring, battery size increases slightly in the larger band sizes, though Dr. Pak couldn’t share any exact battery life estimates.
https://www.theverge.com/2024/2/26/24082729/samsung-has-big-ambitions-for-the-galaxy-ring

Vending machine error reveals secret face image database of college students

Canada-based University of Waterloo is racing to remove M&M-branded smart vending machines from campus after outraged students discovered the machines were covertly collecting facial-recognition data without their consent. The scandal started when a student using the alias SquidKid47 posted an image on Reddit showing a campus vending machine error message, "Invenda.Vending.FacialRecognitionApp.exe," displayed after the machine failed to launch a facial recognition application that nobody expected to be part of the process of using a vending machine.
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/02/vending-machine-error-reveals-secret-face-image-database-of-college-students/

Vice Media to halt publishing to namesake site, cut ‘several hundred’ jobs in restructuring

image via cbc.ca

A memo from Vice CEO Bruce Dixon, which was sent to staff on Thursday, explains that restructuring changes are being made "to adapt and best align our strategies to be more competitive in the long term." According to Dixon's memo, "it is no longer cost-effective for us to distribute our digital content the way we have done previously." He said Vice Media would seek to distribute its digital content by partnering with established media companies rather than publishing directly to its own site.
https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.7123068

Google gets its way, bakes a user-tracking ad platform directly into Chrome

Don't let Chrome's big redesign distract you from the fact that Chrome's invasive new ad platform, ridiculously branded the "Privacy Sandbox," is also getting a widespread rollout in Chrome today. If you haven't been following this, this feature will track the web pages you visit and generate a list of advertising topics that it will share with web pages whenever they ask, and it's built directly into the Chrome browser.
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/09/googles-widely-opposed-ad-platform-the-privacy-sandbox-launches-in-chrome/