European Commission says Instagram and Facebook's addictive design breaches the Digital Services Act

Today, the European Commission (EC) has announced that it has preliminarily found Meta in breach of the EU's Digital Services Act for what it calls "the addictive design of Instagram and Facebook". Specifically, its investigation focuses on features like infinite scroll, autoplay, push notifications, and the services' "highly personalized recommender systems". The EC's investigation indicates that Meta "did not adequately assess the risks of its addictive design on the physical and mental wellbeing of users, including minors and vulnerable adults". Highly personalized recommendations,...

Source: https://www.gsmarena.com/european_commission_says_instagram_and_facebooks_addictive_design_breaches_the_digital_services_act-news-73680.php

Verizon will provide 5G connectivity services for new BMW vehicles in the US

KDDI, which is a company that provides IoT services and connected experiences to its OEM partners, has a partnership with BMW Group. KDDI, on the other hand, also has a long-standing relationship with Verizon, which in turn provides 5G and LTE connectivity. That's why Verizon just made its partnership with BMW Group and KDDI official. The newly formed partnership means that Verizon provides its 5G Standalone Connected Vehicles services to BMW, so all new BMW vehicles produced for the US markets will make use of Verizon's cellular network. The press release doesn't explicitly say which...

Source: https://www.gsmarena.com/verizon_will_provide_5g_connectivity_services_for_new_bmw_vehicles_in_the_us-news-73670.php

iPhone Ultra battery capacity leaks

According to Digital Chat Station on Weibo, one of Apple's usual battery suppliers just had a pair of batteries certified together, which means they are intended for a foldable smartphone (since these have split batteries due to the form factor). The batteries in question have a rated capacity of 1,921 mAh and 2,962 mAh, respectively, giving us a grand total of 4,883 mAh. This is rated capacity, which means the typical advertised capacity will be 5,000 mAh. So that's most likely what the iPhone Ultra will boast. iPhone Ultra speculative render Interestingly, it's on par with the...

Source: https://www.gsmarena.com/iphone_ultra_battery_capacity_leaks-news-73674.php

Netflix is once again offering free trials

Netflix is once again offering free trials. These vary in length from 7 to 30 days, depending on user and not necessarily location. Even so, if you try visiting in an incognito browser window or clearing cookies beforehand, you may get offered the full 30 days. The offer weirdly seems to exclude the US and UK for whatever reason. For a lot of users, the trial makes you select which plan you want - and that will of course be automatically charged at the end of the trial period. Thus, you can even opt for the most expensive Premium plan, which includes 4K HDR streaming. It's unclear...

Source: https://www.gsmarena.com/netflix_is_once_again_offering_free_trials-news-73676.php

HMD Skyline 2 images and specs leak

The HMD Skyline is two years old this month, so you may be wondering when we should expect to see a successor. Apparently it is still in the works, but if you were hoping for a device with massively upgraded specs, you may be quite disappointed. According to a usually reliable source of HMD-related information, the Skyline 2 will be available in blue, black, and yellow, with a design that's very reminiscent of the original. HMD Skyline 2 leaked images At the helm will sit the Qualcomm Snapdragon 7s Gen 4 SoC, paired with 8/12GB of RAM and 256GB of expandable storage. The...

Source: https://www.gsmarena.com/hmd_skyline_2_images_and_specs_leak-news-73657.php

Samsung is reportedly working on an AI accelerator chip for PCs

According to a new report from Korea, Samsung is planning to enter a new market very soon. The company is said to be working on an AI accelerator chip for PCs. It's codenamed Gaia and it's using a 4nm process. It comes with an optimized NPU architecture to enable more efficient AI computing on PCs. Samsung has allegedly already supplied prototypes of this chip to some unnamed "major clients", and the company wants to start mass production of the chip next year. Gaia is aimed at PC Edge AI computing and also the physical AI market (robots, for example). It's said to deliver great...

Source: https://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_is_reportedly_working_on_an_ai_accelerator_chip_for_pcs-news-73652.php