Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the company’s next VR headset, set to launch at Meta’s Connect conference in October, will focus on “social presence.” Speaking on the “Joe Rogan Experience” podcast, Zuckerberg shared that the new device will feature eye-tracking and face-tracking, so expressions will be replicated for a user’s avatar, noting, “There’s more nonverbal communication when people are with each other than verbal communication.”

T-Mobile is partnering with SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet in a deal aimed at eliminating dead zones. With “Coverage Above and Beyond,” mobile phones would connect to satellites, allowing users to text, send MMS messages and use “select messaging apps” whenever there is a clear view of the sky. The service is slated to launch in beta by the end of the year.

Twitter’s head of security, fired by the company in January, has accused his former employer of deceiving its board and regulators about its security measures. In a whistle-blower complaint, Peiter “Mudge” Zatko claims Twitter allows staffers access to sensitive information, that senior executives have been trying to cover up its security vulnerabilities, and that one or more current employees may be working for a foreign intelligence service. A Twitter spokesperson said the complaint is “riddled with inconsistencies and inaccuracies and lacks important context,” and labeled the allegations “opportunistic.” Zatko is scheduled to speak at a congressional hearing on the allegations set or September 13.

Netflix is developing features that allow subscribers to play its mobile games with each other, and to see their ranking on a leaderboard, reports TechCrunch. The company confirmed it’s exploring various gaming features in a statement. “We are always looking to improve our member’s experience on the service, and are exploring different features to enrich the Netflix mobile games experience,” said spokesperson Kumiko Hidaka. “We don’t have anything else to share at this time.”

Apple’s iPhone event, which will include the debut of the iPhone 14, has been scheduled for September 7 at 10 PT. On the iPad front, “This is an especially big year for iPadOS,” said Apple in a statement. “As its own platform with features specifically designed for iPad, we have the flexibility to deliver iPadOS on its own schedule. This Fall, iPadOS will ship after iOS, as version 16.1 in a free software update.”

Waze is shutting down Waze Carpool starting next month. “Driving behaviors on the roads have changed: while Waze was predominantly a commuting app pre-COVID, today the proportion of errands and travel drives have surpassed commutes,” said a Waze spokesperson. “We are proud of what we accomplished through Waze Carpool, and are grateful to the Carpool community for sharing drives and working together to take cars off the road.” Waze Carpool launched in 2016 with the goal of helping save money and fuel, and decrease traffic during rush hour.

To protect young people from potentially damaging material, Instagram has updated its Sensitive Content Control. The Sensitive Content Control has only two options for teens: “Standard” and “Less.” New teens on Instagram under 16 years old will be defaulted into the “Less” state, while teens already on Instagram will be a prompt encouraging them to select the “Less” experience. The move is aimed at making it more difficult for young people to come across potentially sensitive content or accounts in Search, Explore, Hashtag Pages, Reels, Feed Recommendations and Suggested Accounts.

Fuse Media will become the first launch partner for Theta Network’s Mainnet 4.0, Metachain. As part of the partnership, Fuse will launch a new business initiative that will take advantage of Theta Ecosystem, including using Theta Video API as the core infrastructure for delivering its video streams around the world. “When we heard Fuse’s plan to use Web3 to engage and empower their users, we knew they were aligned with Theta in how we see decentralized technology disrupting the current user-platform model”, said Mitch Liu, CEO of Theta Labs. “Whether it’s Theta Video API or NFTs with embedded utility, Theta infrastructure is designed to give users more ownership and we are excited to see Fuse’s users as the first to benefit.”

AI video generation company Hour One has launched a “News” feature that turns text into immersive video-based news. Virtual human avatars make it possible to create personalized 3D videos by typing the script into a text box. “News and media companies around the world understand the value of creating more video content, but filming live news anchors in a studio environment requires a lot of time and investment,” said Hour One Head of Strategy Natalie Monbiot. “For news stations and media publishers, access to virtual anchors and studios removes these obstacles, and unlocks endless new possibilities, including localization of news content and 24-hour newscasting.”

Sixty-five percent of users consider Meta social networks (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp) a shopping destination, according to a report from SimplicityDX. Throw in Facebook Marketplace, and the figure jumps to 83%. Nevertheless, consumers tended to use social media more for product discovery, preferring to check out on a brand website.

The National Broadcasters Association’s PILOT tech innovation is teaming with the Google News Initiative to help local broadcasters master what they need to know to develop new, first party data-based solutions amid the end of third-party cookies and consumers’ changing privacy expectations. Ten of NAB’s television and radio members will participate in phase one of the six-month educational program with Google.

Google is also partnering with The Black List, for the joint creation of the Black List x YouTube Originals Black Voice Creator Fellowship. The Fellowship will provide financial and creative support to four television writers. “As part of Google’s commitment to help build a world where everyone can belong, our team looks forward to providing these talented artists with equitable access to resources that can serve as a key to unlocking a world of opportunity,” said DeMira Pierre, Creative Executive, Impact & Racial Justice, YouTube Originals.

Facebook has agreed to pay $37.5 million to settle a lawsuit that accused the company of collecting users’ IP addresses. If the agreement is approved, people who used Facebook between January 30, 2015 and April 18, 2018 and who turned off location services on Android or Apple devices will be eligible for part of the settlement.

SSIMWAVE, specialist in Viewer Experience QC and Automation, has been awarded a patent for image and video banding detection. U.S. Patent No. No.63/008, 257, “Image and Video Banding Assessment,” is intended to help live and VOD streaming services optimize for Banding across billions of hours of viewed content.

Business of Esports Podcast

A PARTNER OF ESPORTS BUSINESS SUMMIT

In this episode, with special guest Jimmy Baratta (Investor in XSET and our Chief Gaming Officer), we give you a sneak peek at one of the interviews that was taped for our upcoming leadership series. Tune in for amazing learnings and insights that you can only get from the C-suite and gaming elite, and can only be brought to you by the Business of Esports!

Listen-in to special guest, Jimmy Baratta

ADVERTISING

Ninety-percent of purported iCloud private relay traffic may be invalid, according to a study conducted by Pixalate. Key takeaways from the report include:
· iCloud Private Relay traffic appears to be associated with around 21% of the traffic purported to come from Apple Devices on both mobile and desktop Safari. However, there appear to be discrepancies in most of the traffic that are not in line with Apple’s description of the expected behavior. Almost all of such traffic appears to be invalid.
· Only around 1%-2% of traffic from purported Apple devices was detected as originating from an iCloud Private Relay IP and exhibiting the expected behavior of devices behind iCloud Private Relay, hinting at the actual adoption rate of the service.
· The cases where an iCloud Private Relay IP address is referenced is increasing. This number has doubled over the past 6 months (from about 10% to now about 20%). Most of this increase is due to the seemingly spoofed traffic, while the percentage of detected iCloud Relay traffic has remained relatively constant.
· There appears to be some amount of traffic (<1%) that is coming from non-Apple devices but is nonetheless claiming to be iCloud Private Relay.
Overall, it appears that fraudsters might already be trying to take advantage of the concept of iCloud Private Relay, suggests the report, which says, “They may be trying to make their traffic look more legitimate in the hope that AdTech firms may just be adding these IP ranges to allow-lists and blindly letting them through. While Pixalate is able to detect this form of IVT and protect our clients, the number of such attempts seem to be growing over the last 6 months. This seems to indicate that fraudsters may be having some level of success with this form of spoofing.”

National CineMedia has struck a new partnership with iSpot to enhance its analytics and measurement. iSpot will be providing its real time ad verification feed to NCM for use across their ecosystem of ad offerings, including the movie screen, app, digital and OOH. The iSpot partnership is an extension of NCMx, NCM’s data intelligence platform that gives brand advertisers a complete view of the moviegoing consumer before, during and after going to the movies.

Pumped up about the opportunity to engage drivers who are waiting for their electric vehicles to charge, ChargePoint Holdings, operator of EV charging stations, is partnering with digital display company Ara Labs Inc. and Destination Media Inc. to create an advertising network. ChargePoint aims to install about 1,000 screens across 10 markets in the year following the launch, expected before year’s end. Ads will appear around three- to five-minute videos.

OpenX has been named a preferred supply-side platform for programmatic advertising bought by Havas Media Group on behalf of its clients across North America. “HMG is committed to buying through supply-side partners who bring insight, operating excellence and transparency to our supply chain and who align with our vision of responsible and sustainable advertising,” said Andrew Goode, EVP, managing director, investment for HMG North America.

While consumers agree that data privacy is a priority, only 50% feel confident in the security of their online data when browsing the web, according to a new study from Integral Ad Science, “2022 Future of Privacy-First Advertising Report.” Nearly 62% of media experts agrees that having an understanding of data privacy is a priority this year, with the 89% saying privacy relating to Personally Identifiable Information (PII) is top of mind for brands. “With upcoming online data and privacy policy changes coming down the pipe, privacy continues to be a priority for both consumers and media experts,” said Yannis Dosios, Global Chief Commercial Officer, IAS.

PODCAST POSTS

Twitter is integrating podcasts into Spaces. “Our internal research indicates that 45% of people who use Twitter in the US also listen to podcasts monthly, so we’ll automatically suggest compelling podcasts to help people easily find and listen to the topics they want to hear more about,” said the company in a blog post. So if someone regularly interacts with Vox content on Twitter, they’ll likely to see a Vox podcast in a Spaces hub. Users can build a more customized experience by giving a podcast a “thumbs up” or “thumbs down.”

Meghan Markle’s podcast, “Archetypes,” topped Spotify’s charts, besting usual winner “The Joe Rogan Experience.” Released Tuesday, “Archetypes” was #1 on Spotify’s charts in the US, Canada, the UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand.

Liberated Syndication announced it has surpassed generating $50 million in advertising earnings for podcasters and has completed a new Automatic Advertising Solution to assist publishers with generating programmatic advertising revenues.

STREAMING

Peacock will become the next-day streaming home for NBC and Bravo shows starting September 19. “From Sunday Night Football and ‘Jurassic World: Dominion’ to ‘Saturday Night Live’ and ‘The Office,’ Peacock is the streaming home for NBCUniversal and beyond, providing customers a massive premium content offering across TV, Film, Sports, and News, with less than five minutes of ads per hour for just $5 per month,” said Kelly Campbell, President, Peacock and Direct-to-Consumer, NBCU. Throughout the month of September, new customers will be able to sign up for Peacock’s premium tier for $1.99 per month.

Castify.ai, an omnichannel content distribution and monetization platform has announced a partnership with Usercentrics, a consent management solution, aimed at simplifying the way customers can provide their data sharing preferences within a familiar and privacy-first CTV application. “It’s vital to create a comfortable space when users are prompted to share their personal information with content providers for the first time. Our goal is to design something fresh that is welcoming yet clear and transparent on how data will be processed, managed, and shared,” said Gal Turjeman, CEO of Castify.ai.

Pixellot, provider of AI sports video and analytics solutions, is collaborating with HomeTeam Live, a live streaming app for amateur sports leagues. Pixellot’s technology will provide high quality streaming for parents, coaches, and fans as well as open new revenue opportunities for the leagues. After the initial launch period, HomeTeam Live intends to increase its Pixellot-powered network from 40 to 150 venues by the end of 2022 as it seeks to further expand its network across Canada.

Peacock launched its first-ever virtual “DocFest,” an on-platform showcase celebrating the platform’s slate of documentaries. The lineup for the six-week virtual festival will feature six new Peacock Original titles. Between September 14 and October 19, one new title will drop every Wednesday in a dedicated collection on the streamer, with formats ranging from feature-length films to multi-part series.

Cynopsis Team