Zone’s Ross Basham handpicks and shares the five best stories on digital trends, experiences and technologies…

1. Forget Facebook — the future’s FACEBOOK
Amid the constant negative headlines it seems to generate, Facebook is rebranding as FACEBOOK. There, all sorted! The all-caps logo is “designed for clarity” and will begin appearing across all of the company’s services, with the goal of creating a “visual distinction between the company and app”.
Instagram and WhatsApp will now have “from FACEBOOK” emblazoned across them in the appropriate colours, as apparently people feel warmer towards Facebook when they find out it owns the other apps. Although, conversely, the same discovery puts a ‘brand tax’ on the less toxic platforms. Can’t win ’em all, I guess.

2. Google’s Fitbit purchase raises privacy fears
Google has agreed to stump up $2.1bn for Fitbit in an effort to take on the increasingly popular Apple Watch. Fitbit does well in the fitness tracker market but less so with its smartwatches, while Google has an array of Wear OS devices that a lot of people aren’t even aware of, so the deal makes sense for both parties.
However, many Fitbit wearers are concerned that Google will soon have access to their intimate health information and can therefore use it for targeted advertising. Fitbit has tried to assure users that won’t be the case, but understandably mistrust of big tech companies runs pretty deep…

3. BBC battling for prominence on smart TVs
When you click on your TV’s electronic programme guide (EPG), BBC One is at the top, right? It seems obvious, but public service broadcasters such as the BBC and ITV have their ‘prominence’ protected by law. But what about smart TVs, where web-enabled TV from the likes of Netflix and Amazon Prime doesn’t require an EPG?
Smart TVs aren’t bound by the ‘prominence’ law, so the BBC and other PSB apps have to pay to be shown on smart TV home pages (although these deals are kept private). This article looks at what may happen if prominence becomes an auction, with PSBs up against the deep pockets of US giants like Netflix and Disney.

4. WhatsApp gives users control over groups
WhatsApp groups can be a nightmare, especially when you get added to a large group where people you don’t even know are sharing awful jokes or arranging events you don’t want to go to (and it’s not like you can quietly leave). And at the darker end of the spectrum, groups are used for harassment or spreading fake news.
Now WhatsApp is finally giving users more control over who can add them to groups. If you select anything other than ‘everyone’ enabled to add you, you’ll get notifications asking if you want to join first. This still isn’t the default though — you’ll need to dig into your privacy settings in order to do this (and you’ll need to know about it in the first place).

5. Space-aged claret is out of this world
In the latest ‘what an age we live in’ news, a Luxembourg startup has sent a dozen bottles of Bordeaux wine to the International Space State to age for a year. The company, Space Cargo Unlimited, specialises in testing how the space environment impacts on materials used on earth.
It’s predicted that microgravity and space radiation will result in different chemical and physical reactions from bottles aged on earth. However, I’m concerned that the logistics involved may push it over the £5–10 price bracket, which makes it a no-go for me — even if it comes back as the tastiest wine ever.
