TikTok will reportedly bring live shopping to the US this holiday season

TikTok plans to bring its live shopping “TikTok Shop” feature to North America using outsourced technology, according to The Financial Times. It’ll reportedly be launched “over the next month with large brands” to take advantage of holiday shopping. 

TikTok Shop is based on a similar, successful feature on TikTok’s sister app Douyin in China, and is available in Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, Singapore, the Philippines and Indonesia. Last year, it launched in the UK — the only country with availability outside of Asia. 

A similar feature on Douyin has reportedly hosted 9 million live ecommerce broadcasts per month, selling over 10 billion products in a single year from May 2021 to May 2022 — triple what it did the previous year. However, TikTok Shop apparently hasn’t fared as well in the UK, and because of that, TikTok postponed a planned launch elsewhere in Europe. 

The underlying technology will supposedly be provided by the US company TalkShopLive, which will also support livestreams hosted by influencers and brands. The agreements are still under discussion and “no contracts have been signed,” according to the FT.

TikTok didn’t deny or confirm upcoming US availability. “When it comes to market expansion for TikTok Shop we are always guided by demand and are constantly exploring new and different options for how we can best serve our community, creators and merchants in markets around the world,” the company told the FT. “These efforts include exploring partnerships which further support a seamless ecommerce experience for merchants, which is an important part of our ecosystem.”

The report comes just a day after rival Facebook abandoned its own Live Shopping feature. Facebook is now asking merchants to showcase products via Reels, Reels ads and product tagging on Instagram Reels. Last year, TikTok started testing a Shopping tab, letting business users add their profiles, sync their product catalogues and link to their online stores. It has also previously piloted live shopping in the US, most notably with Walmart. 

A Bruce Willis deepfake could appear in his stead for future film projects (updated)

Bruce Willis may have retired from acting following a diagnosis of aphasia, but a version of him will live on in future projects. Last year, the actor’s “digital twin” appeared in an ad for a Russian telecom created by a company called Deepcake. According to The Telegraph, his digital likeness may appear in future film, advertising and other projects. 

Deepcake told The Hollywood Reporter that, despite reports to the contrary, Willis has not sold his likeness rights to the company. Its involvement with the retired actor “was set up through his representatives at CAA,” according to the publication. A representative for the retired actor claimed that Willis “has no partnership or agreement with this Deepcake company.” 

Engineers created the digital double drawing from content in Die Hard and Fifth Element, when Willis was 32 and 42, respectively. With his likeness now on the company’s AI platform, it can graft his likeness onto another actor’s face in a relatively short amount of time. However, Willis’s estate has final approval on any projects. 

In the ad for Megafon, Willis’s face was swapped onto actor Konstantin Solovyov. “I liked the precision of my character. It’s a great opportunity for me to go back in time,” Willis said in a statement on Deepcake. “With the advent of the modern technology, I could communicate, work and participate in filming, even being on another continent. It’s a brand new and interesting experience for me, and I grateful to our team.”

In March, Willis’s family announced that he was retiring from acting to due a diagnosis of aphasia, which impairs communication and comprehension. In the last few years, the 67-year-old has appeared in a series of projects amid concern about his cognitive state.

Actors have already appeared as digital versions of themselves, notably in The Book of Boba Fett with a young Mark Hamill. Digital versions of Carrie Fisher and Peter Cushing also appeared in Star Wars: Rogue One, despite the fact that both are deceased. James Earl Jones recently sold Disney the right to recreate his voice using AI, so he could retire. 

The practice has stoked controversy. Deepfakes vary widely in quality, but many approach the “uncanny valley” where characters don’t look quite right because of stiff movements, dead eyes and other issues. There’s also the question of rights, as deceased actors can’t turn down posthumous film roles, even if the family or estate approves. 

Update 10/2 1:35PM ET: The Hollywood Reporter clarified that Willis did not sell his likeness rights to Deepcake. Rather, Deepcake says it “hired” a digital twin of the star. Willis or his estate will need to sign off on future use of his likeness.

Satellites must be deorbited within five years of completing missions, FCC rules

The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has adopted new rules to address the growing risk of “space junk” or abandoned satellites, rockets and other debris. The new “5-year-rule” will require low-Earth operators to deorbit their satellites within five years following the completion of missions. That’s significantly less time than the previous guideline of 25 years. 

“But 25 years is a long time,” FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said in a statement. “There is no reason to wait that long anymore, especially in low-earth orbit. The second space age is here. For it to continue to grow, we need to do more to clean up after ourselves so space innovation can continue to respond.”

Rosenworcel noted that around 10,000 satellites weighing “thousands of metric tons” have been launched since 1957, with over half of those now defunct. The new rule “will mean more accountability and less risk of collisions that increase orbital debris and the likelihood of space communication failures.”

However, some US representatives don’t necessarily agree with the decision. Members of the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology said in a letter that such decisions are often taken by NASA. By acting unilaterally, the FCC “could create uncertainly and potentially conflicting guidance” for the space industry. They asked the FCC to explain the decision to Congress, saying “this would ensure that procedural measures such as the Congressional Review Act are not necessary.”

NASA has said there are “23,000 pieces of debris larger than a softball orbiting the Earth.” It noted that China’s 2007 anti-satellite test “added more than 3,500 pieces of large, trackable debris and many more smaller debris to the debris problem.”

New York joins California in aiming to make all auto sales hybrid or EV by 2035

New York is following California’s lead by mandating that all new cars, pickups and SUVs sold in the state must be either EVs or plug-in hybrids, Governor Kathy Hochul announced. To reach that goal, 35 percent of new cars must be zero-emission by 2026 and 60 percent by 2030. New school buses must also be zero emissions by 2035. A public hearing will be held before the rules are put into place.

Hochul ordered the state’s environmental agency to create similar standards to those adopted by California that phases out all fossil-fuel-only car sales by 2035. Those rules went into last month and were designed to reduce passenger vehicle pollution 25 percent by 2037, with 9.5 fewer internal-combustion engine (ICE) only vehicles sold by 2035.

“We had to wait for California to take a step because there’s some federal requirements that California had to go first — that’s the only time we’re letting them go first,” the governor said in a press conference yesterday.

The state is following California’s actions for a reason. The Clean Air Act permits California to set its own pollution rules, but other states aren’t allowed to do that. However, they can follow California once it acts — so California must pave the way for any emissions rules implemented by individual states.

The governor also unveiled a $10 million Drive Clean Rebate Program. That gives residents a $2,000 rebate toward the purchase of over 60 EVs and plug-in hybrids that’s on top of the $7,500 federal tax rebate. The state has spent $92 million on the program to date. The state also announced the installation of its 100th fast charger as part of the EVolve charging network. 

“With sustained state and federal investments, our actions are incentivizing New Yorkers, local governments, and businesses to make the transition to electric vehicles,” Hochul said.

Adobe brings guided edits and AI animated photos to Photoshop Elements 2023

Ahead of its annual MAX event next month, Adobe has unveiled the 2023 version of its non-subscription Elements products. As with yearspast, the highlights are new AI features like animation for Photoshop Elements images and AI-applied art styles for Premiere.

For Photoshop Elements 2023, the most dramatic update is the ability to add motion to still photos. To do so, you just need to select the part of the image you want to move and indicate the direction of movement using the arrow tool. The AI will then do the rest, adding appropriate movement to water, fabrics, sand and so on. A bit cheesy, sure, but it could work in some situations. 

Adobe Photoshop Elements 2023 introduces guided edits and AI animated photos
Adobe

Another key tool for Photoshop Elements is guided edits. That lets you do things like “peek-throughs” or putting foreground objects in a photo, along with “perfect portrait” that lets you smooth blemishes, whiten teeth, adjust face tilt or make the subjects smile wider (or even change a blink to open their eyes). Another guided lets you replace an ugly background with, say, a sunset. 

The perfect portrait feature adds a touch of uncanny valley to subjects if overused, and the background replacement work can be a bit wonky, depending on how well the AI isolates your subject. Still, it could be fun for certain uses. Other features include new collage and slideshow templates, faster performance, Apple M1 chip support and a new Android companion app to upload mobile photos and videos to Elements on desktop (English-only beta).  

Adobe Photoshop Elements 2023 introduces guided edits and AI animated photos
Adobe

The key feature for Premiere Elements also revolves around Adobe’s Sensei AI. The “artistic effects” tool lets you add painterly styles to video including Van Gogh, DaVinci, Monet and so on. The effect takes motion into account for a consistent look, though again, this can get very tacky if overused. 

Adobe also added over 100 new audio tracks to give you some free music for videos, while boosting performance and stability and adding Apple M1 chips support. The Android companion app can also be used with Premiere Elements to make it easier to upload videos from your phone (again, only for the English-only beta). Adobe Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements are now available for $100 new or $80 as upgrades, or $150 for both products ($120 as an upgrade). 

Amazon boosts wages for hourly workers across the US

Amazon has announced that it’s spending nearly $1 billion boosting wages for hourly workers in the US amid criticism of its labor practices and a pitched union battle. The increase will take the starting wage for most front-line warehouse and transportation employees to over $19 per hour, while pay in fulfilment and elsewhere will rise to $16 an hour. The company’s minimum wage will remain at $15 per hour.

Amazon is also expanding its “Anytime Pay” program to all employees, allowing them to access up to 70 percent of their eligible pay at any time with no fee, rather than the usual once or twice a month. It also added a new development program that allows employees to advance to engineering roles after 12-14 months of training. 

Amazon is the second largest employer in the US after Walmart, with a total workforce of over 1.5 million. Most of those are hourly workers in warehouses or delivery, or retailer workers at Whole Foods and Amazon Fresh. The average hourly pay in the US is $32.36, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, and $28.10 in the “transportation and warehousing” category.

In April this year, 8,000-plus workers at a Staten Island facility voted to unionize, and Amazon lost its initial appeal for a re-vote. It’s also facing a House committee probe into a deadly warehouse collapse that killed six workers during a tornado. Last June, the panel accused Amazon of “obstructing” the probe by refusing to hand over key documents related to an internal review. 

Wacom’s Cintiq Pro 27 drawing display is its first with a 4K 120Hz screen

Wacom has unveiled one of its most advanced drawing tablets yet for creatives, the $3,500 Cintiq Pro 27. It has an all-new compact design, a 26.9-inch, 120Hz 4K reference touch display and all-new Pro Pen 3 that’s adjustable for weight, balance, button layout and thickness. 

The Cintiq Pro 27 is actually smaller than the Cintiq Pro 24, thanks to the significantly slimmer bezels. Wacom also moved the ExpressKey buttons to the back left and right sides, but they’re located on the grips to make them easy to find and use. 

While previous models effectively required an external monitor to view accurate colors, the new multi-touch display is effectively a reference monitor itself. It uses a true 10-bit and not a dithered 8-bit 4K panel, delivering 99 percent of the Adobe RGB gamut and 98 percent of the DCI-P3 (HDR) gamut. It also runs at 120Hz for smooth and responsive drawing and has a peak brightness of 400 nits, just enough to display HDR content. It’s even Pantone SkinTone validated, meeting the Pantone standard for the full range of human skin tones.

The faster refresh allows the new Pro Pen 3 to track twice as quickly as previous models. And the pen itself is customizable, giving users the ability to change the size, weight, center of gravity and even the button layout via swappable parts. The battery-free electro-magnetic resonance tech offers 8,192 levels of pressure and ships with five standard and five felt-tip nibs.

The Ergo Stand supports 20 degrees of screen rotation along with tilting functions, but it’s not included in the price and costs $500. However, the display also supports VESA mounts if you prefer to go that route. The Cintiq Pro 27 is now available for $3,500 from Wacom and select retailers — a lot of money to be sure, but more reasonable as a professional tool. 

Apple pulls Russia’s biggest social media network from the App Store

Russia has removed all iOS apps from VK, the second largest tech company in Russia, The Verge has reported. That includes not just the VK social media app that’s the fifth most popular in Russia, but others like Mail.ru and VK Music. The move was made in response to UK sanctions against the Russian government.  

VK confirmed that “some VK applications are blocked by Apple, so they are not available for download and update in the App Store,” according to a (Google translated) press release. “Their core functionality will be familiar and stable… [but] there may be difficulties with notifications and payments. VK will continue to develop and support applications for iOS.”

These apps are being distributed by developers majority-owned or majority-controlled by one or more parties sanctioned by the UK government. In order to comply with these sanctions, Apple terminated the developer accounts associated with these apps, and the apps cannot be downloaded from any App Store, regardless of location.

Apple confirmed that it removed the apps and shut down VK’s developer accounts. “These apps are being distributed by developers majority-owned or majority-controlled by one or more parties sanctioned by the UK government,” a spokesperson told The Verge. “In order to comply with these sanctions, Apple terminated the developer accounts associated with these apps, and the apps cannot be downloaded from any App Store, regardless of location. Users who have already downloaded these apps may continue to use them.”

Earlier this week, the UK government imposed sanctions on Russian oligarchs over the sham referendums held in Ukraine. Included in the list are executives from Gazprombank, a Russian bank with ties to VK. “Today’s sanctions will target those behind these sham votes, as well as the individuals that continue to prop up the Russian regime’s war of aggression,” said UK foreign secretary James Cleverly in a statement. 

Russia’s Ministry of Digital Affairs told state media site RT that it’s investigating the reasons for the removal. The apps are still available on Google Play — Engadget has reached out to Google to see if it plans to follow Apple’s lead. 

Earlier this year, Apple halted sales of all its products in Russia in response to the Ukraine invasion, while also limiting Apple Pay and pulling apps from outlets like RT and Sputnik. Last year, a Russian law went into effect that required Samsung, Apple and other manufacturers to pre-install Russian apps like VK and Yandex on devices sold there. 

The Polestar 3 electric SUV will debut on October 12th

Polestar’s first electric SUV will get its official unveiling on October 12th with a host of premium features, the Swedish company announced. The Polestar 3 will launch with premium features like an air suspension, active dampers and torque vectoring, putting it up against other SUV EVs like the Mercedes-Benz EQS, Rivian R1S and Tesla Model X. Like those models, it’ll be manufactured in the US at Volvo’s factory in Charleston, South Carolina.

The company, co-owned by Volvo and Chinese parent Geely, revealed a fair bit of information about the Polestar 3. That includes a new glimpse from the back showing similar (but upside down) taillights to the Polestar 2. Polestar previously showed off the design from the side in June (below). 

Polestar reveals glimpse of its electric SUV set to launch on October 12th
Polestar

The Polestar 3 will come with a rear-biased dual-motor powertrain similar to the one on the Polestar 2, with electric torque vectoring via a dual clutch system on the rear motor. The ride will be controlled by an adaptive dual-chamber air suspension and active dampers as standard, letting drivers switch between comfort and firm suspension dynamics. The dampers will adjust to suit road conditions “once every two milliseconds,” Polestar said.

The optional Performance Pack will deliver 510 horsepower and 671 pound-feet of torque (compared to 670 horsepower for the Model X). It also includes Polestar Engineered chassis tuning for the active dampers and air suspension, along with interior details like gold seat belts. 

Previously, the company has said that it’s shooting for a 372-mile range on the European WLTP cycle (so considerably less in EPA terms). It’ll also include a semi-autonomous driving system for highway driving, enabled by by NVIDIA tech and a lidar sensor — Volvo is likely to use similar tech on its next-gen EX90 SUV set to launch on November 9th. Rumors have pegged the Polestar 3’s price at somewhere between $75,000 and $111,000 at launch. 

Fujifilm X-H2S review: The most powerful APS-C camera yet

Four years after releasing the X-H1, Fujifilm has finally followed it up with not just one but two models. One of those is the highest-resolution APS-C camera to date, the 40-megapixel X-H2. The other is what we’re looking at today, the high-speed X-H2…