A week's worth of tech news that takes you 5 minutes to read

Welcome to this week's Sunday Download! In less than 5 minutes, you’ll be entirely up to date on everything that has happened in the tech space this week.

So please sit back, grab a cold drink (assuming you’re in a part of the country that experienced record-high temperatures this week), and scroll on through as we take you through the top stories and emerging trends.

In return, we ask that you share it with a friend or colleague instead of keeping the Smartology goodness all to yourself. While greed may be good on Wall Street, sharing is caring here at Smartology. 🤝

Lots of stuff to go through this week, so let's not waste any (more) time. Highlights of this week's issue include:

• Threads passes 100 million users

• Hydrogen-powered weapons are all the rage

• Big updates in workplace productivity

Total read time: 4 minutes and 42 seconds. Let's goooooo! 🚀

Threads, a thread

Instagram's new Threads app has achieved over 100 million users in just a few days, surpassing the growth rate of OpenAI's ChatGPT. The app reached 2 million users in the first two hours and climbed to 70 million. Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Instagram's parent company Meta, expressed that the launch exceeded their expectations.

Users have already shared over 95 million posts and 190 million likes on Threads. While Meta isn't aiming to replace Twitter, Threads could become a popular conversation-based social media platform. It remains to be seen if Threads will maintain its user base in the long run. On the other hand, Twitter has seen a decline in traffic recently, according to external data.

One opinion on why the growth has been so quick is that Instagram users are directed to create a Threads account every time they log in.

Cool high-tech venue alert

The MSG Sphere in Las Vegas is generating excitement as it prepares to open with U2 concerts in three months. Billed as the world's largest spherical structure, it boasts the highest-resolution wraparound LED screen and 1.2 million programmable LEDs on its exterior.

The venue will feature daily animations on its illuminated surface, and the immersive concert experience will be enhanced by a 16K LED screen, haptic seats, and 160,000 speakers delivering pristine sound to every seat. The Sphere is, in a word, dope and aims to revolutionize live music and entertainment, and its unique features have garnered praise from visitors and artists alike.

This is what it looks like without the LEDs turned on:

Here are some examples of what it looks like with the LEDs on (from the outside):

Microsoft and Activision are sitting in a tree…

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has denied the Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) request to halt Microsoft's planned $75 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard. The court order paves the way for the merger to proceed and pressures the FTC to drop its appeal of a previous ruling. In that ruling, the judge stated that the FTC hadn't proven that Microsoft's ownership of Activision titles would harm competition. While the deal still faces opposition in the UK, the Competition and Markets Authority is considering proposals for a restructured contract. The acquisition would strengthen Microsoft's presence in the gaming industry if completed.

One essential part that helped minimize Sony’s temper tantrum is that Microsoft agreed to keep “Call Of Duty” available for PlayStation.

In other Microsoft news, more layoffs are coming as the company plans to consolidate platforms and restructure leases.

Google Calendar gets a long-needed upgrade.

Google has introduced new scheduling features for Gmail, integrating Google Calendar. Users can now easily create events and share their availability directly from Gmail. The calendar icon in the conversation view offers options to create an event or share free time slots. The "Create an event" button generates a Google Calendar event with the email subject as the event name and recipients as participants. The availability-sharing feature allows users to drag slots to share with recipients across different days. These new features provide an alternative for scheduling and availability sharing, competing with other tools like Calendly and Vimcal. Google Calendar has released various features, including support for paid meetings and work location information sharing. Read more here.

Land me to the moon

The next six months will see up to half a dozen missions attempt to land on the Moon. The three primary drivers in the renewed interest in the Moon include the discovery of water on the Moon in the 1990s and early 2000s, the rise of China's space program, and private companies looking to exploit resources on the lunar surface. This article explains what to expect from the upcoming Moon missions. The missions include Chandrayaan-3 in July, Luna 25 and SLIM in August, IM-1 sometime in the third quarter of this year, Peregrin Mission One in the fourth quarter, and IM-3 near the end of the year. Read more here.

For any interested, a simple Google search of “why haven’t we landed back on the moon in the last 60 years” takes you down a reeeeal dark rabbit hole.

Musk wants in on AI

Elon Musk has announced the formation of xAI, a company aimed at “understanding the nature of the universe” and competing with OpenAI's popular chatbot, ChatGPT. The company, led by Musk himself, comprises AI industry veterans from Google's DeepMind, Microsoft, and Tesla, as well as academic institutions. xAI plans to maintain close ties with Musk's other companies, such as Twitter and Tesla. Despite Musk's previous concerns about AI. The company is actively seeking engineers and researchers to join its technical staff based in the Bay Area.

There is no information on what his new AI company intends to accomplish, nor has there been any vision aside from “understanding the nature of the universe.” Read more here.

iOS 17 goes public

The first public betas of iOS 17, iPadOS 17, watchOS, and macOS 14 Sonoma are now available. These builds are essentially identical to the third developer betas released last week. Public betas are usually signals that OSes are approaching the level of stability and polish required for a public release.

Updates include:

• StandBy mode: Your iPhone can act as a smart display while charging in landscape mode.

• 72-hour passcode grace period: You can use your old passcode for 72 hours to reset a new one if you forget it.

• Autocorrect improvement: The keyboard will better predict what you're typing, including names and grammar.

• New Journal app: Personalized journaling app with prompts, reminders, and privacy features.

• Messages improvements: Check-In feature, jump to unread messages, swipe to reply, create Live Stickers from photos.

• Contact Posters: Highly customizable contact cards for iPhone contacts, including emoji pictures.

• Automatic deletion of verification code messages.

• Grocery list feature in the Reminders app.

• Conversation Awareness on AirPods: AirPods Pro can recognize when you start talking, lower music volume, and amplify voices.

• No more "Hey, Siri" greeting is needed to activate Siri.

• Back-to-back Siri requests without repeating the activation command.

• AirTags can be shared with multiple people.

• Maps app upgrades, including offline map access and EV charging station availability.

• Easier sharing with AirDrop and NameDrop functionalities.

• Sensitive content warnings to protect against unwanted explicit content

You can download the iOS 17 public beta on your phone by clicking here (I solemnly swear not to RickRoll you).

Oh, speaking of Apple, if you haven’t downloaded the latest iOS 16.5.1 security patch update, make sure you do it NOW.

Hydrogen-powered weapons made by a 19-year-old

Mach Industries, founded by 19-year-old Ethan Thornton, has attracted interest from venture capitalists and the US Department of Defense (DoD) for developing hydrogen-powered military platforms. The company secured $5.7 million in a seed round led by Sequoia Capital, with participation from Marque VC and Champion Hill Ventures. Mach aims to provide the military with cost-effective solutions, such as hydrogen combustion-powered munitions and unmanned aerial vehicles. The Pentagon has recognized the importance of incorporating startup technologies into national security efforts. Mach Industries plans to use the funding to expand its engineering capabilities and hire more talent.

Ethan Thornton decided he was just “tired of going to class,” so he started his hydrogen-based weapons company after skipping a semester at M.I.T. It’s like “The Social Network,” but way more relaxed. Read more here.

New tech to be aware of: Li-Fi

Li-Fi (no, that’s not a typo) uses light waves to transmit data, offering faster and more reliable wireless communication with enhanced security compared to Wi-Fi and 5G. Li-Fi has advantages such as higher reliability, lower latency, and enhanced security due to its exclusive use of the optical spectrum. While Li-Fi won't replace other wireless technologies, it can complement them in specific use cases. Manufacturers can now integrate Li-Fi technology into their devices more confidently, facilitating the growth of Li-Fi network devices and user devices supporting the standard.

We mention it this week because The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) has published the 802.11bb standard for light-based wireless communications. The release of the standard is expected to accelerate the adoption of Li-Fi technology.

Click here for a fun 2-minute and 21-second video on how it works.

Rapid Fire

• How much was spent on Prime Day? $12.7 BILLION

• You’re going to need an appointment and a facial scan to buy an Apple Vision Pro

• LG is going all in on home appliances in an effort to boost sales

• A new report by Synergy Reserchers shows that on-prem data centers are hanging in, but cloud capacity is growing much faster

• Microsoft gets a new default Office font called “Aptos,” kicking Calibri to the curb

• Stability AI releases StableDoodle, which takes your sketches and turns them into AI art

• Hollywood actors join the writes in a strike that puts real-life talent at odds with an uncertain AI future

• Turns out that the software they use to detect if someone used ChatGPT is pretty ineffective

• India taxes online gaming at 28%

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