Reportedly, WhatsApp could allow you to share a voice note as a status update. A voice note updated as a status may be called ‘voice status.’ WhatsApp for iOS is working on a feature that will give users the ability to hide their online status from everyone. Meta-owned messaging platform WhatsApp is working on a new feature that may allow users to post voice notes on their status updates. According to WABetaInfo, this feature is under development so it is not ready to be released to b ...read more

In context: Currently, the minimum connection speeds required to classify as broadband in the US are 25Mbps downstream and 3Mbps upstream. The FCC chair recently proposed increasing that standard to 100/20Mbps, while also mentioning plans to upgrade it to a whopping 1Gbps/500Mbps in the future. Unfortunately, it's unknown if her proposal will move forward. FCC chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel has proposed raising the definition of broadband speeds to 100Mbps for downloads and 20Mbps up. She als ...read more

(Bigstock Photo) Deploying broadband throughout Washington state has been at the top of local lawmakers’ minds for years. The state legislature enacted a bill in 2019, which recognized that access to reliable internet connection was a critical issue for residents. Now, a substantial funding package for broadband infrastructure and payment assistance is on its way to Washington.  The state is set to receive at least $100 million from the Infrastructure and Jobs Act that was signed into la ...read more

The denunciations were sometimes extreme.“Fuzzy theory is wrong, wrong, and pernicious,” said William Kahan, a highly regarded professor of computer sciences and mathematics at the University of California at Berkeley in 1975. “The danger of fuzzy theory is that it will encourage the sort of imprecise thinking that has brought us so much trouble.”Another berated the theory’s scientific laxity. “No doubt professor Zadeh’s enthusiasm for fuzziness has been reinforced by the prevaili ...read more

Hello again, friends. Jordan Parker Erb here, bringing you the last newsletter before the weekend. Today we've got the deets on how Microsoft won Netflix, and why some drivers are ditching their Teslas. Let's get straight to it. If this was forwarded to you, sign up here . Download Insider's app here. 1. Microsoft's partnership with Netflix is the biggest ad prize of the year. This week, Netflix chose Microsoft as the tech and sales provider for its new ad-supported streaming ...read more

In context: A two-year court case between a group of book publishers and the Internet Archive heated up this month after both sides asked a New York court for a summary judgment. The legal battle could decide the fate of the Internet Archive and influence how US libraries lend out books. The legal case over the Internet Archive's digital lending program enters a new stage as both parties request a summary judgment in a Manhattan court. The Internet Archive maintains that buying and scanning b ...read more

Amazon’s annual Prime Day, which is actually two days, ended Wednesday night. Time was running out, and my fear of missing out was going up. With just a few hours left in Amazon’s Prime Day last night, I was looking at a pair of Bose SoundLink Around Ear Wireless Headphones II to replace a worn-out pair of Microsoft Surface Headphones currently held together with duct tape. At $161.99 during Prime Day, the Bose headphones were 29% off the list price of $229, which seemed like a pretty ...read more

For a deep dive into the engineering behind the James Webb Space Telescope, see our collection of posts here. When Apollo astronauts sent back the first pictures of Earth as a disk in space, the poet Archibald MacLeish wrote of it as “that bright loveliness in the eternal cold.” He was not far off. Deep space has a temperature of 2.7 kelvins—just 2.7 degrees above absolute zero. If the James Webb Space Telescope is to work—looking so far out and therefore so far back in time that it ...read more

Elizabeth Holmes and Ramesh Balwani faced similar charges related to their tenures at Theranos. While Holmes was convicted on 4 counts, Balwani was convicted on 12 counts last week. Former Theranos COO Ramesh "Sunny" Balwani was convicted on fraud-related charges in federal court last week. But he received a very different verdict than that of his ex-girlfriend, former business partner, and co-defendant, Elizabeth Holmes, who faced similar charges. Up against 11 charges, Holmes received a ...read more

In brief: The 2022 edition of Prime Day is in the history books, and Amazon couldn't be happier with the results. The e-commerce giant said this year's two-day savings event was the biggest ever. Customers from around the globe collectively purchased more than 300 million items, which averages out to more than 100,000 items bought per minute over the course of the sale. In 2021, Amazon said it sold more than 250 million items during Prime Day. According to early data from market research firm ...read more

In April, the artificial intelligence research lab OpenAI revealed DALL-E 2, the successor to 2021’s DALL-E. Both AI systems can generate astounding images from natural-language text descriptions; they’re capable of producing images that look like photos, illustrations, paintings, animations, and basically any other art style you can put into words. DALL-E 2 upped the ante with better resolution, faster processing, and an editor function that lets the user make changes within a generated i ...read more

In a nutshell: YouTube isn't the only Google-owned service attempting to remain relevant in an age dominated by social media. Two of the company's core products – Search and Maps – are increasingly falling out of favor with youth using social media in ways you might never have considered. During the recent Fortune Brainstorm Tech 2022 conference in Aspen, Colorado, Google SVP Prabhakar Raghavan said they keep learning that new Internet users don't have the same expectations and mindset th ...read more

For a deep dive into the engineering behind the James Webb Space Telescope, see our collection of posts here. When the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) reveals its first images on 12 July, they will be the by-product of carefully crafted mirrors and scientific instruments. But all of its data-collecting prowess would be moot without the spacecraft’s communications subsystem. The Webb’s comms aren’t flashy. Rather, the data and communication systems are designed to be incredibly, unq ...read more

Google has started rolling out the Android 13 final beta. The beta update is currently available only for selected Pixel devices. Google has also confirmed that the stable rollout of Android 13 is a few weeks away. Google announced Android 13 at the I/O 2022 conference earlier this year and has already rolled out three betas. The company has finally started the rollout of the final beta, meaning that a stable rollout can be expected soon. Google in its blog post has confirmed that ...read more

Why it matters: The new K70 Pro Mini wireless mechanical gaming keyboard sports a 60 percent form-factor, meaning it doesn't include "extras" like a number pad, arrows and navigation key cluster. The reduced functionality may not appeal to everyone, but those with limited desk space or people who travel frequently often find the tradeoff worthwhile. Corsair's latest comes with your choice of 100 percent Cherry MX Red (linear, 45 cN operating force, 4.0mm total travel) or MX Speed Silver (line ...read more