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| Here's a look at today's tech briefing: - Apple is exploring personal home robots.
- Alphabet weighing offer to buy HubSpot.
- Meta and Apple resolve worldwide service outages.
- X restores blue checks for 'influential' accounts.
Beth
p/beth-duckett | |
| 1 | | Apple is exploring personal robotics, including a mobile robot designed to "follow users around their homes," according to Bloomberg sources. Apple has also explored a tabletop gadget that uses robotics to move its display screen and mimic a user's head movements during FaceTime calls. More: - Apple's AI group and hardware engineering division are leading the moonshot robotics projects.
- The company has been looking into AI algorithms to help robots navigate cluttered home environments.
- While both projects are in early research stages, the robotic smart display is further along than the mobile household robot.
- It's uncertain if they'll ever be released to the public.
Zoom out: - Apple's home robot could rival Amazon's Astro, a household robot on wheels that responds to Alexa commands.
- The possible move into personal robotics follows Apple's recent shutdown of its electric vehicle project, another moonshot.
- With the EV project canceled and the release of its mixed-reality headset, Apple's focus has turned to future opportunities, including the smart home market, according to Bloomberg.
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| 2 | | Google parent Alphabet is considering making an offer for HubSpot, the online marketing software company valued at about $35B, according to Reuters. HubSpot's cloud-based software dominates marketing automation, with a 38.3% market share as of early 2024. 
The news: HubSpot, specializing in CRM for smaller businesses, offers cloud-based software for marketing automation. In recent days, Alphabet has met with investment bankers at Morgan Stanley about possibly making a bid for HubSpot, and has asked advisers if they think antitrust regulators would challenge the acquisition. Neither Alphabet nor HubSpot have commented on the matter. The bigger picture: Buying HubSpot would help Google expand its services in the growing CRM software market, reaching more business customers with marketing and advertising budgets. It could bolster Alphabet's competitiveness against rivals like Microsoft, Oracle, and Salesforce, while analysts suggest the deal could improve Google's digital advertising by further leveraging first-party data. Still: Given the intense antitrust scrutiny in the sector, a major acquisition like HubSpot could be unusual, especially considering Alphabet's existing antitrust challenges in the U.S. | | | |
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| 3 | | Separate outages affecting Meta and Apple users globally were resolved by Wednesday night. Meta experienced hours-long outages yesterday affecting WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram. Separately, a brief outage disrupted Apple's online services, including the App Store, Apple TV, and Apple Music. More: - Meta's outage affected over 24,000 WhatsApp users in the U.S. and thousands more in India, the U.K., and Brazil, according to Downdetector data.
- Users also reported difficulties accessing Instagram and Messenger, to a lesser degree.
- Meta's status page also showed disruptions to business services like Messenger Platform, Ads Manager, and the WhatsApp Business API.
- For Apple, its services including Fitness+, Arcade, Audiobooks, and Podcasts were down for about an hour Wednesday in countries like the U.S., U.K., India, China, and Australia.
Zoom out: - It's the second worldwide outage for Meta in the past month.
- In early March, more than 500,000 Facebook users reported outages, along with 77,000 Instagram users and 12,000 Messenger users.
- At the time, Meta blamed a "technical issue," without elaborating further.
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| 4 | | X, formerly, Twitter, has restored blue check marks for "influential " accounts. The social network is gifting accounts with over 2,500 verified followers free Premium subscriptions with the blue checks. More: - Starting Wednesday, many X users were awarded free subscriptions for being "an influential member of the community."
- Following Elon Musk's announcement in March, accounts on the platform with over 2,500 verified followers should receive free Premium features, and those with over 5,000 get Premium+ at no cost.
- Not all users were pleased with their blue checks, with some seeking to distance themselves from the paid strategy.
- X lets users hide the blue checks via settings, though other premium features could still reveal their status.
Zoom out: - Before Musk's takeover, Twitter's blue badge was reserved for public figures; now, anyone can purchase one with a paid membership.
- X offers users a choice among "Basic," "Premium," and "Premium+" tiers for exclusive features like the blue checks, fewer ads, and the ability to edit posts.
- Musk launched subscriptions on X to boost its ad revenue after many advertisers scaled back or left the platform.
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| 5 | | Blockchain firm Ripple Labs plans to launch a U.S. dollar stablecoin later this year. Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies designed to minimize volatility by anchoring their value to a stable asset, usually the U.S. dollar. More: - Ripple's stablecoin will be backed 1-to-1 by an equivalent of U.S. dollar deposits, short-term U.S. government bonds, and other cash equivalents held by the company.
- The token, set to be issued on the Ethereum and Ripple-developed XRP blockchains, will allow banks and asset managers to trade securities on blockchains.
- The stablecoin will debut in the U.S., with potential expansions to other regions.
Zoom out: - Ripple chose to launch the stablecoin after the "depegging" of competitors Tether's USDT and Circle's USDC, which dominate 90% of the $153B stablecoin market.
- It comes during a resurgence in investor interest in digital assets, following Bitcoin reaching a record high of $73,000 this year.
- In 2020, Ripple faced accusations from the SEC for selling its cryptocurrency XRP as unregistered securities, leading to a legal battle and a recent $2B penalty filing by the SEC, which Ripple is challenging in court.
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| 6 | | Google may charge users to access its new AI-powered search capabilities, according to the Financial Times (FT). If implemented, it would be the first time Google places a core product behind a paywall. More: - Google has been testing AI in its search engine to answer questions in chats, generate summaries, and offer follow-up questions and web links.
- According to FT, Google is considering adding the AI-powered search features to its premium subscription service.
- The paid search would still show ads alongside results for subscribers.
- Google's traditional search engine without AI would continue to be free.
Zoom out: - A Raptive analysis estimates that Google's AI search could slash publishers' ad revenue by up to $2B a year.
- This is because the AI shows answers to search queries directly in the chat, making it less likely users will click through links to publisher websites.
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 | AI and technology writer | | Beth is a contributing editor and writer of Inside's AI and Tech newsletters. She has written for publications including USA Today, the Arizona Business Gazette, and The Arizona Republic, where she received recognition with a Pulitzer Prize nomination and a First Amendment Award for collaborative reporting on state pension cost increases. You can reach her at Beth.Duckett@yahoo.com. | | This newsletter was edited by Beth Duckett | |
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