Microsoft’s Summary of Changes to the Licence states: “Updated Acceptable Use Policy to clarify that mining cryptocurrency is prohibited without prior Microsoft approval.”
Australia takes aim at Apple, Microsoft over child protection online
The two firms also confirmed they did not use any technology to detect live-streaming of child sexual abuse on video services Skype and Microsoft Teams, which are owned by Microsoft, and FaceTime, which is owned by Apple, the commissioner said in a report published.
Electric vehicles confront the leap to the mass market
As interest rates rose and financial markets gyrated, shares in many EV startups deflated. Rivian Automotive Inc, which had a higher market value than Ford Motor Co shortly after it went public in 2021, lost more than 70% of its value over the past year.
Former Prime Video exec launches Trendio, a video shopping app aiming to reimagine beauty e-commerce
Trendio, a new video shopping app co-founded by a former Amazon Prime Video executive, is aiming to enhance the beauty shopping experience. The shopping app enables customers to engage with personalized content and seamlessly purchase beauty products through live and recorded videos.
The app is the brainchild of Alex Perez-Tenessa, the former vice president of Prime Video U.S. and Head of Beauty at CVS, and startup veteran David Olmos. The pair enlisted Amazon Live alum, Julie Novak and former Glossier Head of Make-up Category Management, Leah Grubb with the goal of creating a platform that reimagines the future of beauty e-commerce by delivering the personalized advice traditionally only found in-store with the efficiency of digital shopping.
“I had the privilege of running Prime Video and I saw a number of new technologies related to content creation,” Perez-Tenessa told TechCrunch in an interview. “I saw changes in expectations and behaviors of audiences around the world and that made me see there was an opportunity to leverage all of those technologies to solve a problem I’d seen when I was running beauty at CVS, which was that beauty products are complex. They need to be demoed in order for customers to truly understand their value. And the way that the digital retail environment has evolved has not gone in the direction of making that easier, for both brands and consumers. So I saw an opportunity to leverage video technologies to create a much better way to discover and shop beauty products.”
Trendio provides both live and pre-recorded content from creators to help users make informed decisions about products and brands. Among Trendio’s growing roster of beauty brands are Merit, Philosophy, Fig1, Ursa Major, Nudestix, Kjaer Weis, Joanna Vargas, Coola and Avene.
Image Credits: Trendio
The app features a TikTok-like feed where you can swipe through short previews of different products. If you come across a product that you’re interested in, you can tap to watch the full video. You can also watch a live video where you can chat with a creator and other viewers about specific products. Users can browse Trendio’s catalog of videos to see new items or featured brands, along with creator channels and brand stores. When you find a product that you like, you can check out directly in the app. Trendio then makes a commission on every product that is sold on the platform.
At launch, Trendio is available in the U.S on iOS, Android and Roku. Perez-Tenessa says one of the insights that he took from his time at Amazon Prime Video was that consumers are moving toward connected TV, which is why it was so important for Trendio to be available on both mobile and Roku. Although Trendio is initially only available in the U.S., the company plans to launch the app in additional countries in the future.
All of the content on Trendio is currently manually edited, but in the future the company says the content will be automatically edited using AI. Trendio is currently training and building AI models that will be able to ensure that the app surfaces content that is interesting for each specific user.
The idea of live video shopping has taken off in Asia, but it’s still a fairly new and experimental concept in the U.S. Perez-Tenessa believes that in order for the concept to take off in the U.S, it needs to be different from the model in Asia.
Image Credits: Trendio
“I think the expectation regarding the content that people come across is very high in the U.S.,” Perez-Tenessa said. “It also has to be a combination of live and recorded content. I think that is true to some extent in Asia, but it has to be even more the case in the U.S. People have just tried to just copy the Asian model and copy paste it into the U.S. I don’t that’s going to work because the relationship to video in the U.S. and and in Asia has alway been different. You have to be there for the customers the way they want to consume the content. We think we can give customers that quality and experience that they expect.”
In terms of funding, Trendio closed a $3 million funding round in May that was led by Madrona. Half of the investment went toward product development and creating business relationships. The company will use the other half of the investment next year for continued product development and marketing. Trendio is also planning to raise a Series A in 2023.
Although Trendio is launching in the beauty e-commerce space, the company plans to expand beyond that category in the future. Perez-Tenessa says there is potential for the company to naturally expand into wellness and accessories e-commerce, and beyond.
Former Prime Video exec launches Trendio, a video shopping app aiming to reimagine beauty e-commerce by Aisha Malik originally published on TechCrunch
Binance CEO says deposits returning after mega $1.14 billion withdrawals
Amid the FTX collapse saga, customers withdrew $1.14 billion in just 12 hours from leading crypto exchange Binance and according to its CEO, the massive withdrawals were “handled with ease” and “things seem to have stabilised” now.
Cyber attacks to grow as hackers get sophisticated, says Cisco executive
Cyber attacks are only going to increase in volume and as hackers use more sophisticated means to hit organisations, the need of the hour is to build cyber security for mass markets as it is no longer confirmed to niche markets only, Jeetu Patel, executive vice president and general manager of security and collaboration at Cisco, has said.
Samsung forms new team to make its own chips
Samsung’s Mobile Experience (MX) Business has formed a completely new team for designing and developing its own chipsets, media reports said.
How to create Highlight reel using Samsung Gallery
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How to enable 'package tracking' feature in Gmail: A quick guide
Additionally, this feature offers labels like “Arriving tomorrow” or “Delivered today” for quick information. Users have to enable the feature in Gmail’s settings in order to receive updates on package delivery in their inbox. Here’s how you it’s done:
Airbnb is rolling out a toggle to show you price inclusive of all fees
Airbnb is rolling out a new toggle to show you the price inclusive of all fees (before taxes) for your stay instead of showing you a per-night price. This means you won’t have to go to the booking page to see other fees like service fees and cleaning fees.
The company first announced this update back in November, and now it is making the feature available through a toggle to users. If you turn on the toggle, the search algorithm will prioritize the total price of the stay (before taxes) in ranking for search results. So properties with a lower nightly rate but high cleaning fees won’t show up on the top.
The question is why not switch to showing all-inclusive prices by default? Last month, Airbnb told TechCrunch that the opt-in search method “allows us to educate guests as to this change, without causing additional confusion.” The company doesn’t want to make a sudden switch to the new search parameter as some users might be used to seeing the nightly price. While it is offering a toggle in early access, Airbnb said that it plans to make all-inclusive pricing a default parameter the next year.
Airbnb, which rolled out a bunch of host tools last month, said that next year it plans to introduce more pricing and discounting tools for hosts to help them see the price guests are paying. The company said this will help the listing owners set more competitive prices.
What’s more, the company is set to improve guest checkout experience by providing guidelines to hosts about being “reasonable” about tasks.
“Guests should not have to do unreasonable checkout tasks such as stripping the beds, doing the laundry, or vacuuming when leaving their Airbnb. But we think it’s reasonable to ask guests to turn off the lights, throw food in the trash, and lock the doors—just like they would when leaving their own home,” it said.
However, Airbnb didn’t detail how it plans to enforce these rules on hosts and guests. Airbnb users have long complained about ridiculous cleaning fees and a long list of checkout tasks listed by some hosts. The company is now finally paying attention to some of these problems.
Apart from this, CEO Brian Chesky is also focused on increasing hosts on the platform as he doesn’t want to “get to a supply-constrained era”. To onboard more hosts on the service, the company launched a new program last month to let renters find Airbnb-friendly apartments in select markets.
Airbnb is rolling out a toggle to show you price inclusive of all fees by Ivan Mehta originally published on TechCrunch