Trending Tech News (03/13–03/19)
On today’s post, I’d like to observe what’s interesting happened in the world of tech for the past week. Here are my top 5 news stories that I found important and fascinating!
The Steam Deck is on sale.
In February, Valve celebrated the one-year anniversary of Steam’s launch. To celebrate this big data, Valve announced a sale (for the first time ever) to encourage people to buy their product.
Until March 23rd at 10 a.m. PT, users can buy a Steam Deck for 10% off in every region where it’s sold, including Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.
In the US, that translates to:
- $359.10 for 64GB,
- $476.10 for 256GB,
- $584.10 for the 512GB model,
*before tax, with free shipping
In addition to the discount, Valve added a new feature to the Steam Deck last Thursday.The most recent update allows users to create their own startup movies or use pre-made ones when the system boots up.
Meta launches verification subscription service in US
On Friday, Meta, Facebook and Instagram’s parent company, launched a paid subscription service in the United States, allowing users on both platforms to pay for verification.
The Meta Verified service will give users a blue badge after they verify their accounts using a government ID and will cost $11.99 per month on the web or $14.99 a month on Apple’s iOS system and Google-owned Android.
Meta Verified is only available to personal accounts on the territory of US. By purchasing this subscription users will get a special verification badge on their profile pages, proactive impersonation protection, and direct access to customer support.
TikTok banned from government phones in number of countries
Legislators in the United States, Europe, and Canada have increased efforts in recent months to restrict access to TikTok, the massively popular short-form video app owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, citing security concerns. Due to cybersecurity concerns, New Zealand government representatives announced that TikTok would be banned on devices with access to the country’s parliamentary network, making the country the latest to restrict the use of the video-sharing app on government-related devices.
Concerns have grown around the world about the Chinese government’s ability to access users’ location and contact information via ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese parent company.
The United Kingdom has also announced that TikTok will be banned on government devices. On Thursday, British minister Oliver Dowden announced that the government would prohibit the use of TikTok on government devices, citing concerns about how sensitive data could be used on certain platforms.
Trump returns to YouTube and Facebook after two-year ban
Former US President Donald Trump posted to YouTube and Facebook on Friday, returning to the tech platforms that fueled his political rise until he was cut off following his followers’ January 6, 2021, attack on Congress.
The “I’M BACK!” posts on his Facebook page and YouTube channel show a CNN video announcing Trump’s election as president in the 2016 election against Hillary Clinton. The screen then fades to a “Trump 2024” screen.
Microsoft-backed OpenAI’s GPT-4 model was announced
OpenAI, a Microsoft Corp.-backed startup, has begun rolling out GPT-4, a powerful artificial intelligence model that replaces the technology that underpins the wildly popular ChatGPT.
GPT-4 is “multimodal,” which means that it can generate content based on both image and text prompts. GPT-4 is accessible to users in two ways: via ChatGPT Plus and as an API for programmers to create their own software and services. However, only the text-input feature is currently available for ChatGPT Plus members and software developers, and there is a waitlist to access it. The image-input capability is not yet available to the general public.
