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CEO of Ford Jim Farley has revealed that the company developed a “skunkworks” lab two years ago – a start-up separate from the Ford mothership, which is aimed at producing electric vehicles at affordable prices. The lab’s team is being led by Alan Clarke, executive director of advanced EV development at Ford.

 

In 2023, Ford reported a loss of $1.6 billion and announced that it would reduce its expenditure on EVs, so it could fulfil customers’ needs in a better way. However, the current news of Ford’s experimentations with low-cost EVs suggests that the company is still adamant on competing with Tesla and other EV automakers like BYD.

Ford Reveals it Silently Developed a Skunkworks Lab for the Production of Low-Cost EVs



Bluesky, the decentralized Twitter rival, is preparing to be officially released for users to sign up to it. The platform has been in beta testing for a year now, where it has been able to gain over 3 million users.


CEO of Bluesky, Jay Graber, revealed that the company had been working on some moderation features and attempting to further stabilize the platform’s setup before launching it out of the beta stage.

 

As a decentralized platform, Blusky currently has no more than 40 full-time employees. Graber has reported there are 1.6 million monthly users on the app and thanks to its unique AT Protocol feature, it has 25,000 custom feeds too. Later this month, Bluesky will also start allowing third-party developers to host their own servers on its underlying Protocol, which will enable anyone to set up their own server.

Twitter Competitor Bluesky is Rolling out of Beta Testing Soon



LinkedIn is gradually altering the way Creator Mode works on its platform, while maintaining some of its existing elements as optional tools. Some of the Creator Mode options that LinkedIn has launched in the past include topical hashtags on profile, a ‘Featured’ section that showcase a user’s content, and a ‘Follow’ button on their profile.

 

In LinkedIn’s own words, it is working to open up “additional creation tool access and deeper analytics to all members.”

 

LinkedIn is starting off by shifting its focus off of ‘Talks About’ hashtags for connectivity and plans to remove the option of turning on Creator Mode from profile settings next. The Follow button will remain, and the ‘About’ section will be placed on the top of profiles, as before.

LinkedIn Seems to be Getting Rid of Creator Mode



Roblox has developed its own AI model for swift translation of text in chats, so users can understand each other beyond the language barrier. The technology can translate the messages exchanged between users in 16 languages, including English, French, Japanese, Thai, Polish, and Vietnamese. 

 

The model is built on Roblox’s own large language model (LLM) that it has trained on internal, publicly available data. Instead of creating an LLM for each language, Roblox integrated the LLM within a Mixture of Experts (MoE) architecture, that ran multiple translation apps, each of which was an expert in one language.

 

Roblox’s AI translator automatically translates messages as they come in, and users can also see the original text by clicking on an icon. You can also provide feedback to the translator if you find its translations to not be very accurate.

Roblox Launches a Real-Time Translation AI Feature to Assist Users in their Interactions



Snapchat has launched a new promotional campaign, where it has highlighted how its platform is “different” from others in the present era of social media.

 

Snapchat asserts that social media, in its “adolescence” age, has begun to lose its essential purpose of connection and support. Instead, according to Snapchat, social media platforms and the way we share our moments on them, have become more curated now, and friends have started to feel more like strangers.

 

Well, Snapchat is not really wrong here. But what is it that its platform is doing differently? One aspect that Snapchat could be seen as distinguishable from in its usage is the absence of a feed. Unlike other platforms, Snapchat’s goal is not to make a user’s content reach as many people as possible.

Snapchat’s Recent Promotional Campaign Shows the Platform as “Less Social Media”



According to reports, Microsoft’s employees were surprised by a newly added custom emoji feature on Teams after they spotted an emoji of Pepe the Frog in reactions and messages in the primitive internal versions of Teams.

 

Pepe the Frog has been a trademark in itself for a very long time and emojis of the character have been integrated in Discord servers and on Twitch, representing cheerful responses.

 

Currently, Teams only supports a Unicode emoji panel for videos and messages, along with a Giphy service. Although the custom emoji feature is expected to roll out, that doesn’t mean that the functionality will appear to users in the form of Pepe the Frog memes. Ultimately, the IT admins will control how custom emojis will be accessed and used in Teams.

Microsoft Employees Discover A New Custom Emoji Feature in Teams



Hulu is updating its Terms of Service to disallow password sharing among friends, family, and freeloaders. The streaming service is sending out emails to notify users of the new policy, which will go into effect on March 14th. This means that you can only stream on Hulu if you have signed up for its service.

 

More precisely, Hulu is banning its users from sharing their subscriptions outside of their “household.” The term household, according to Hulu, implies “the collection of devices associated with your primary personal residence that are used by the individuals who reside therein.”

Hulu is Putting an End to Password Sharing with a New Agreement



Microsoft’s new OneDrive cloud storage service design that made its first appearance last year, will be available to consumers at the end of February.


The new OneDrive UI not just enhances the visual experience of the cloud service but also makes things easier to organize and access. It ‘ll make the content stand out more and look neater by reducing clutter and distractions, Microsoft’s product manager explains.

 

The visual element of the new OneDrive interface is more in alignment with those of Windows 11, while the overall interface appears more modernized and streamlined.

Microsoft Plans to Roll out the New OneDrive Design at the End of February

 

After an unsuccessful attempt at reaching a new rights agreement, TikTok and Universal Music are parting ways, which will likely have a significant impact on TikTok, considering that music is a key element on the platform.

 

The decision was announced by Universal Music, revealing that it will pull out from TikTok on the 1st of February, after a partnership of 3 years. The music company also claimed that the reason behind its withdrawal has been due to TikTok’s offered deal being insufficient to compensate for its artists and protection regarding generative AI. 

 

“Upon expiration of the current agreement, Universal Music Group, including Universal Music Publishing Group, will cease licensing content to TikTok and TikTok Music services,” adds the music company.

TikTok and Universal Music End Partnership following Failed Negotiations



As a way to celebrate black history, TikTok has announced a Black History Month program, which will highlight some of the top talent from the black community in the app. This program is part of TikTok’s larger initiative ‘Visionary Voices’ that has been running for three years now – where TikTok shares the best performing and most influential creators on its app.

 

TikTok’s 2024 #BlackTikTok Visionary Voices List shines a spotlight on black creators, business owners, as well as industry disruptors that have used their creativity to generate a positive influence across TikTok and other platforms.

 



TikTok Introduces a Bunch of Initiatives and Activities in Celebration of Black History



AT&T plans to launch a new call screening service that enables businesses to make “branded calls.” This means that if a business signs up for the service, then a call that it makes to any AT&T user will show the receiver the name and logo of the business. 

 


The service is called “TruContact Branded Call Display” and it is available via credit reporting firm TransUnion. The technology is based on the STIR/SHAKEN protocol, which ensures that a number hasn’t been illegally hoaxed.

AT&T is Making it Possible for Customers to Screen Spammy Calls with a New Service



TikTok seems to be moving away from one of its core elements: vertical format for videos. Some creators have reported that they are being prompted by TikTok to post videos in a horizontal format. The pop-up message says that posting videos longer than 1 minute and in landscape mode would boost views within the first 72 hours after they are posted.

 

In fact, TikTok is asserting that these videos will be the only “eligible” ones to get increased views. Considering that vertical, full-screen videos are an essential visual element of the app, it doesn’t leave much room to see why TikTok is promoting landscape format.

TikTok is Encouraging Creators to Post Landscape-Shot Clips for Increased Views



Despite the integration of Community Notes in X (formerly Twitter), which were expected to help in reducing the spread of false information, it seems like plenty of harmful content could still easily spread across the platform.

 

This has been especially evident from a recent occurrence involving singer Taylor Swift, whose fake and controversial AI-generated images gained more than 27 million views and 260,000 likes on X, eventually leading to the account responsible for them being taken down by X. Failing to control the spreading of the images, X adopted a rather poor approach of entirely blocking searches for ‘Taylor Swift’ in the app.

X Reveals it is Setting up a Content Moderation Center in Texas



X has announced that it is experimenting with its new video promotion offering: Amplify program. The company has also confirmed that MrBeast is the first partner of the program during its testing phase. This explains why MrBeast has been able to earn $260k from ad revenue share in just a week after reposting an old clip of his on the platform, unlike other X creators who don’t yet have access to the program.

X Begins Testing its New ‘Amplify’ Monetization Program with Select Creators



Gaming and streaming services like Xbox Cloud Streaming and GeForce Now, that were previously only available on iOS web, can now be accessed as apps on iOS devices. This is because Apple is allowing developers to submit apps that contain all the games offered in their catalogue in one place on the App Store.

 

Although earlier in 2020, Apple had opened the gates for these cloud gaming services in the App Store, it required all games offered via each service to be submitted and reviewed as standalone apps. The proposal couldn’t turn into a reality and therefore the present change is a significant one.

Apple Enables Access of Gaming and Streaming Services as Apps in the App Store



Meta is updating its Brand Rights Protection Manager tool that helps detect product replicas in product listings, with new measures directed at helping brands to protect their IP. Around the same theme, Meta is also launching a new Intellectual Property Reporting Center that consists of a database of IP reports to ensure more efficient tracking of them. Additionally, a new Protecting Businesses section has been added on the Meta for Business website, where businesses can find helpful notes and guides to assist them in developing a brand protection strategy.

 

Within the Brand Rights Protection Manager, Meta is adding some AI-powered features to the Brand Rights tracking tool that provides product security by detecting duplicates based on reference images uploaded by the business. The updated system, according to Meta, will ensure broader protection of products by finding better, more refined matches based on how a brand has previously made use of the tool. Its search abilities will also be also broader-reaching, hence simplifying the process of discovery. Moreover, Meta has increased the limit of image uploads from 50 to 200 images at once. This will allow Meta’s systems to have a wider range of variations for better cross-checking.

 

Meta Introduces New Brand Protection Tools to Businesses, Including a new Intellectual Property Reporting Center



To help marketers and advertisers plan out their content campaigns in advance for the year 2024, X has put out its latest ‘marketing calendar.’ The calendar contains an overview of all the anticipated key events and dates of this year, in a simplified and interactive format.

 


You can tap one a date to view the events that are expected to take place on that day. On the right side of the calendar, the events are also listed individually so you can simply scroll through them all if you want to. The listing can also be downloaded on your device so you can easily access it as needed.

X’s 2024 Marketing Calendar is Now Available to Assist you in your Campaign Planning in Advance



Google is bringing three new experimental generative AI features to Chrome in its latest version. Aimed at for enhancing browsing experience, the features will assist users in organizing their tabs, creating custom themes and writing on the web, according to Google.

 

In the next few days, the features will be available to users in the US first, on Mac devices and Windows PCs. Users can access them from the ‘Experimental AI’ tab in their Chrome Settings. “Because these features are early public experiments, they’ll be disabled for enterprise and educational accounts for now,” says Google.

 

Starting with Chrome’s AI Tab Organizer - it is developed to provide automatic suggestions and create tab groups based on a user’s open tabs. By right-clicking on a tab, you will find the ‘Organize Similar Tabs’ clicking on which will activate the option. “Chrome will even suggest names and emoji for these new groups so you can easily find them again when you need them next,” Google adds.

 

Check Out Google’s Latest Generative AI Features for Chrome, Including a Tab Organizer and More



LinkedIn is taking down its ad targeting option ‘Lookalike Audiences,’ preventing their creation and editing in ad development processes, starting the 29th of February.

 

With the help of Lookalike Audiences, advertisers could extract a list of customer information from their own database. LinkedIn’s system in turn could scan the list for different characteristics and match them with other similar and potentially interested users. The process has since been helpful to advertisers in specifically targeting people who match the profile of their existing customers.

 

Advertisers who have been relying on Lookalike Audiences would need to make changes to their active campaigns that are using the option. LinkedIn also adds that active campaigns using Lookalike Audiences “will continue to deliver using the static audience.”

LinkedIn Will No Longer Offer the Lookalike Audiences Ad Option

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