Apple is still a year away from releasing its first smartglasses, but the company is already brainstorming solutions to the privacy problem that has been dogging other brands in the space.

The public’s acceptance of camera-equipped smartglasses is going to be contingent on how companies like Apple go about alleviating worries about unauthorized recording. Handled poorly, the same concerns could undermine the reputation for privacy that Apple has spent over a decade building.

Continue reading “Apple’s Smart Glasses Will Put Its Privacy Reputation to the Test” →

Netflix executives are considering adding live, always-on channels and selling bundles that include subscriptions to other streaming services through Netflix’s platform, according to reporting from The Wall Street Journal.

Meanwhile, Disney is thinking about making some of its Disney+ content available for free, Business Insider reported.

These discussions are happening as streaming giants move further away from what originally made them so different from traditional TV and cable.

When early streaming platforms like Netflix first appeared, they promised to free us from traditional television. They sold us on watching TV on our schedule, without channel surfing or cable bundles, and, in the beginning, with very few ads. Continue reading “Netflix Eyes Live TV as Disney+ Weighs a Free Tier While Traditional TV Makes a Comeback” →

Instagram users with public accounts may want to check their settings, as Meta now lets anyone use publicly posted photos to create new AI-generated images without requiring consent. The new feature can be turned off, but is opt-out rather than opt-in.

The tool that lets the public use your pictures is called Muse Image, and Meta released it on July 7. It’s the first image-generation model from Meta Superintelligence Labs.

To use photos from a public account, all users have to do is @-mention an eligible public Instagram account in the Meta AI app and generate new images using photos from that profile.

Continue reading “Meta’s New AI Image Tool Appropriates Your Public Instagram Photos” →

Potential damages in Meta’s youth safety lawsuit have grown so large that it’s hard to pay attention to any of the other details. The company is now potentially on the hook for $1.4 trillion — that’s trillion with a T.

To put that in context, the company’s current market capitalization is barely higher than that figure, at $1.5 trillion.

The plaintiffs in the case are the states of California, Colorado, Kentucky, and New Jersey. They allege that Facebook and Instagram were designed to turn young users into addicts and that the company misled the public about the safety of its platforms. Continue reading “Meta’s $1.4 Trillion Teen Safety Case Puts Facebook and Instagram on Trial” →