Category: Technology

Twitter has altered the rules for its $8 Blue subscription service to prevent new accounts from getting a blue checkmark. Yesterday evening, the company edited the service’s help page to add that accounts created on or after November 9th, 2022 “will be unable to subscribe to Twitter Blue at this time.” The website also added that Twitter Blue is only available on iOS for users in the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the UK, with plans to expand in the future. 

While Twitter didn’t explain why it’s putting the restriction on new accounts, the move came after an influx of impersonators got verified by paying for the service. “Twitter’s current lords & peasants system for who has or doesn’t have a blue checkmark is bullshit,” the website’s new owner, Elon Musk, tweeted earlier this month before details about the revamped subscription service were revealed. Yesterday marked the launch of the new Twitter Blue, and it allowed people to get the formerly elusive blue checkmark by paying for its perks that include instant verification. 

The internet being the internet, people quickly realized that they can pretend to be someone else and that the checkmark could help them fool unsuspecting users. A bunch of impersonators popped up on the website, including one claiming to be LeBron James who tweeted that the basketball star was requesting a trade. A fake Nintendo of America account tweeted a photo of Mario giving Twitter the middle finger, while a fake Valve account tweeted about a new competitive platform. Twitter started banning them after a few hours. The new rule could help curb the number of fake accounts, but it’s unclear how Twitter plans to address the issue going forward — it can’t lock new users out of Blue forever. 

While Twitter’s blue checkmarks are now for sale, it has another smaller, gray checkmark reserved for public figures. It started rolling out these “official” checkmarks yesterday, but it quickly pulled them back down and will hand them out to “government and commercial entities” first. 

 

The iOS 16.1.1 update Apple rolled out in China came with something extra that wasn’t included in the release for other regions. According to Bloomberg, it limits the window of time a user can receive files via AirDrop from non-contacts to 10 minutes. Prior to this change, people can choose to get AirDrops from everyone indefinitely. 

As the news organization notes, activists and protesters in China have been using AirDrop as a way to circumvent the country’s online censorship measures. It was widely used during Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protests to share images of police brutality. More recently, protesters have been using it to spread messages opposing the Chinese government and denouncing Xi Jinping’s rule. By limiting the “everyone” option, users are less likely to receive messages from random protesters. They will, after all, have to reactivate the option after every few minutes. 

This isn’t the first the time Apple has introduced a feature — or, in this case, a restriction — exclusive to a certain region. That said, the tech giant has been criticized in the past for complying with rules meant to limit dissent in China and for implementing changes that would ensure it stays in the Chinese government’s good graces. Apple was previously accused of handing over some of its data centers in the country to Chinese authorities. More recently, the company reportedly told Taiwanese suppliers to ensure that parts bound for the mainland don’t come with “Made in Taiwan” labels. Instead, their source should be noted down as “Chinese Taipei” or “Taiwan, China.” 

While Apple didn’t tell Bloomberg why the limitation was introduced in the country, it told the organization that it won’t remain a Chinese exclusive. It reportedly plans to roll out the new setting to all users around the world next year to “mitigate unwanted file sharing.”

 

With the holidays around the corner, Signify, the company formerly known as Philips Lighting, is finally introducing a set of festive fairy lights. Measuring 20 meters (or just a touch over 65 feet), the Festavia string lights feature 250 mini LEDs. Naturally, they’re fully compatible with the company’s recently redesigned Philips Hue app. 

Thanks to that software support, the Festavia lights possess a few advantages over their conventional counterparts. For one, you don’t need to duck under your Christmas tree to turn them on and off. You can also use the app to dim and brighten the LEDs, change their color and set timers and schedules. You can even sync the lights to music with built-in Spotify and Samsung SmartThings integration.

Additionally, Signify is introducing two new features within the Philips Hue app. The first is a new “Sparkle” effect that gives each LED on the string a twinkle to make the lights look more festive. There’s also a new lighting style called Scattered included. It allows you to choose up to five colors, which the software will then randomly assign to each light. As with most Philips Hue products, you’ll pay a premium for all Festavia’s smart features. The lights are slated to cost a cool $160 when they arrive on November 15th. For that price, you’re probably better off buying a smart plug to use with your existing Christmas lights. You might not get all the features the Festavia lights offer, but you can still do things like set schedules.

 

In 2021, Twitter launched an in-app tipping feature that people can use to send money to creators, but it needs to be connected to a third-party payment processor to work. If Elon Musk’s vision for the social network comes true, though, Twitter may have a payment system of its own. 

Twitter’s new owner and temporary CEO has discussed his plans for the social network in a Spaces Q&A for advertisers. One of the things he revealed is that he envisions a future wherein users can connect their bank accounts to Twitter, enabling them to send money to each other. While it will likely take a long time before we see that happen, if it actually does, The New York Times has confirmed that the company filed registration paperwork to process payments with the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) last week. 

In the Spaces discussion, Musk spoke about the feature in relation to creators. He talked about how the website needs to enable monetization for creators to entice them to post their work on the platform. “Now we can say that, okay, you’ve got a balance in your account, do you want to send money to someone else within Twitter?” the executive said. He also discussed how users will be able to take money out of Twitter by linking their bank accounts, hinting at a system similar to PayPal, which he helped found. The company might even offer an “extremely compelling money market account,” as well as debit and credit cards, if things work well. 

This is but one of the changes Musk has planned for the social network. The $8-a-month Twitter Blue subscription that gives users access to instant account verification was one of the very first changes he implemented after taking over the company. Twitter will still verify government entities, celebrities, publishers and other public figures with a second gray “official” checkmark, but the big blue checks are now reserved for paying subscribers. This unpaid checkmark started rolling out yesterday before Twitter stopped its deployment and pulled it back to focus on “government and commercial entities” first.

 

FTX won’t be rescued by its biggest rival. One day after announcing a proposed deal to buy the cryptocurrency exchange, Binance said it didn’t like what it found in the company’s books. “As a result of corporate due diligence, as well as the latest news reports regarding mishandled customer funds and alleged US agency investigations, we have decided that we will not pursue the potential acquisition of FTX,” Binance tweeted on Wednesday afternoon. “Our hope was to be able to support FTX’s customers to provide liquidity, but the issues are beyond our control or ability to help.”

The abandoned takeover bid caps off a tumultuous week for FTX. On November 2nd, Coinbasepublished a report that revealed that the cryptocurrency exchange was facing a liquidity crisis. In response to the article, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao announced that the company would sell about $529 million worth of FTX’s FTT token, a move that wiped out the value of the cryptocurrency and launched a public spat between the competing exchanges.

Even when the acquisition was first announced, the likelihood of it moving forward seemed uncertain at best, with Zhao stressing at the time that the deal was non-binding. “This is a highly dynamic situation, and we are assessing the situation in real time. Binance has the discretion to pull out from the deal at any time.” he said on Tuesday. By the following morning, The Wall Street Journal and Coinbase came out with separate reports claiming Binance was strongly leaning toward abandoning the rescue.

Less than an hour later, Bloomberg reported that the US Securities and Exchange Commission was investigating FTX to determine if the company had mishandled customer funds. It’s worth noting here that the Department of Justice and SEC are also investigating Binance.

 

President Joe Biden says that Elon Musk’s dealings with countries outside of the United States are “worthy of being looked at.” Speaking to reporters, Biden didn’t elaborate on if some kind of of investigation was underway, but suggested the Tesla and Twitter CEO deserved further scrutiny.

“I think that Elon musk’s cooperation and/or technical relationships with other countries is worthy of being looked at,” Biden said. “Whether or not he is doing anything inappropriate – I’m not suggesting that. I’m suggesting it’s worth being looked at, and that’s all I’ll say.”

It’s unclear exactly which of Musk’s relationships Biden was referring to, but he’s not the first official to raise Musk’s ties to other countries as a potential concern. Senator Chris Murphy has said the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US (CFIUS) should investigate the “national security implications” of Musk’s deal to buy the company. Murphy and others have pointed to major investments from Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

Other critics have noted that Tesla’s business dealings in China could make it difficult for Musk to make content decisions that affect the country, or that government officials could pressure him to turn over data. The Washington Postreported in June that “some U.S. intelligence analysts and White House officials are among those concerned about the potential for arm-twisting by China if Musk gets hold of Twitter.”

Musk was also widely criticized for tweets suggesting that “the will of the people” should decide whether parts of Ukraine taken over by Russia should become part of Russia. He later threatened to stop paying for Starlink internet for the Ukrainian government, but later walked back the comments.

 

Elon Musk is trying, once again, to sell his vision of Twitter’s future to the company’s advertisers. Musk, who by all accounts has yet to address Twitter’s remaining staff as a group, joined an hour-long “town hall” to take questions from advertisers and share more about his plans for the platform.

The company’s advertising business has taken a significant hit in recent days as a number of major brands have pulled back from the platform and activists have called for a boycott. Musk said last week that these actions had caused a “massive drop in revenue” for Twitter.

In his talk on Twitter Spaces, Musk tried again to reassure advertisers that their brands would be safe on the platform. He said that ads appearing next to hate speech “isn’t great” and pitched the newly launched Twitter Blue as a way to decrease hate speech on the platform. Under the new Twitter Blue, brands will need to pay for the blue check like all other accounts, Musk said. He added that anyone impersonating a brand would be permanently banned from the service.

He also said that he hopes to make Twitter ads a lot more relevant, and wants to integrate ads into recommended tweets. The goal, he said, was to “drive sales in the short term and protect the demand in the long term.”

Notably, he struck a much different tone than in recent tweets when he threatened “a thermonuclear name and shame” for advertisers boycotting the platform. “I understand if people kind of want to give it a minute and see how things are evolving,” he said. “We’ve been more rigorous about clamping down on bad content and bots and trolls, not less. So my observation of Twitter over the past few weeks is that the content is actually improving, not getting worse.” He added that brands and advertisers should be more active on the platform and that if they see something they don’t like they should “reply to one of my tweets and I’ll do my best to respond.”

Musk also talked more about his philosophy on content moderation, though he didn’t share any concrete changes to Twitter’s policies or how its moderation council might function. “We have to be, I think, tolerant of views we don’t agree with, but those views don’t need to be amplified,” he said.

He also stated that he has plans to make Community Notes, the crowd-sourced fact checking feature that used to be known as Birdwatch, a more central part of the platform. “This is really gonna help in improving the accuracy of what’s said in the system.” He also suggested that Community Notes would have an impact on the visibility of content on Twitter. “It’s analogous to the way sort of Page Rank works in Google, where the the prominence of a webpage is proportionate to how much weight other prominent web pages give that web page. I think it’s a game changer.”

 

If you use an iPhone and a Windows PC, syncing photos is about to get a lot easier. The feature Microsoft announced last month that adds iCloud Photos to the Windows Photos app begins rolling out today. Microsoft says it will be available to all Windows 11 users by the end of November.

Previously, if iPhone users wanted to transfer images to their Windows PCs, they had to either plug in their iPhone with a USB cable or use the iCloud web app in a browser – a dated and clunky setup, though the site is undergoing some much-needed changes soon. Microsoft’s new feature gives you an integrated view of all your iCloud photos through the Windows 11 Photos app.

To use the new feature, you’ll need to ensure your Windows Photos app is up-to-date. Then, you’ll need to install the iCloud for Windows app from the Windows Store, sign in, and choose to sync your photos.

iCloud Photos integration is part of Microsoft’s broader initiative to make its software the “most open,” removing friction points between rival services. For example, the Windows maker launched Apple Music on Xbox consoles last month, and Apple TV and Music apps are coming to Windows 11 next year. Microsoft’s desktop OS also supports Android apps and Linux instances, and its Phone Link app syncs Android phone messaging and notifications with your desktop.

 

Following a false start over the weekend, the new Twitter Blue has arrived. Priced at $8 per month in the US, the service grants subscribers access to instant account verification and an accompanying blue checkmark that shows up on their profile page and alongside their tweets. As of the writing of this article, the subscription isn’t available on Android. It’s also unclear when Twitter Blue will arrive outside of the markets where the service was already available before today.    

The other perks Twitter owner and CEO Elon Musk announced would be part of the package, including the ability to see half as many ads and post longer videos, also aren’t available yet, with the subscription prompt listing those as “coming soon.” Notably, the signup form lists the $8 monthly price as a “limited-time offer.” 

Since finalizing his takeover of the company nearly two weeks ago, Musk has positioned paid account verification as a way to make Twitter sustainable and increase trust in the platform. However, when it briefly began rolling out the new Twitter Blue on Saturday, many were quick to point out the service was likely to have the opposite effect since almost anyone could pay for verification and then theoretically change their account name to impersonate another user. After a handful of verified “blue-check” users changed their accounts to impersonate Musk, he announced users who were impersonating others would need to explicitly specify they were running a parody account or face a permanent suspension.   

Twitter’s verification situation became murkier early Wednesday when the social media website briefly began attaching an “Official” label to some major accounts, including those belonging to celebrities, large publications and politicians. After a few hours, Musk said he had “just killed” the deployment. “Please note that Twitter will do lots of dumb things in the coming months,” he tweeted shortly after. “We will keep what works and change what doesn’t.”

 

It’s a great day to be a Switch fan. If you missed Nintendo’s latest Indie World Showcase, the company announced on Wednesday that Rogue Legacy 2 and A Little to the Left would be available to download later today. Both indies came out earlier this year to critical acclaim and are well worth your time if you enjoy smaller experiences. The former is the sequel to 2013’s Rogue Legacy and improves on its predecessor in nearly every way, with a new art style and tighter gameplay. Meanwhile, A Little to the Left is a cozy and relaxing game for those who enjoy tidying up.

Looking to the weeks and months ahead, there are a handful of other notable indie games heading to the platform. At the start of next month, roguelike deck builder Incscryption arrives. It was one of the most critically acclaimed games of 2021. If a card game that’s infused with horror elements sounds appealing to you, I would try to go into Incscryption knowing as little as possible. December will also see the release of Sports Story. The follow-up to the Golf Story was first announced in 2020 and was supposed to arrive on Nintendo Switch that same year. To say fans of the original have been patiently waiting ever since would be an understatement.

In 2023, Switch owners can also look forward to Desta: The Memories Between, the next game from Monument Valley creator Ustwo arriving. Nintendo shared a new look at the turn-based dodgeball game. Between those games and a handful of others, Nintendo Switch fans have a lot to look forward to in the near future.