Beats today announced the Solo 4, a $200 set of familiar-looking cans with significant improvements inside, even if they look almost exactly like the Solo 3.
At this price, the Solo 4s don’t have active noise cancellation and, according to Billy Steele, who tested the new headphones, they sound a bit thin. However, the sound is generally improved and the increase to 50 hours of playback (along with USB-C) is a significant improvement over its predecessor. You can buy them now.
Beats also surprised us with new solo headphones for under $100, wireless (non-ANC) earbuds with 18 hours of playback time. A focus is on comfort. Ergonomic acoustic nozzles and vents support audio performance and relieve strain on your ears. The Solo Buds will be available in June for $80.
– Mat Smith
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And punish aggregators with little effort.
Instagram is overhauling its Reels recommendation algorithm to support and increase “original content.” This could have a significant impact on aggregator accounts and other accounts that primarily report other users’ work. The company is also changing the tiering of Reels to encourage smaller accounts.
The app’s changes to “original content” could be fairly immediate. Instagram says it will actively replace reposted Reels with the “original” clip in its suggestions when it detects two identical pieces of content. Aggregator accounts that “repeatedly” post others’ posts will be penalized even more harshly. I’ve come across many accounts (often through Reels) that are simply posting and reposting the same viral clip (which isn’t even original) as far as I wanted to scroll. These changes could reduce the chances of encountering such boring content.
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It is used to sell customer location data.
The Federal Communications Commission has imposed a $200 million class penalty on the largest wireless carriers in the U.S. for selling access to their customers’ location information without consent. AT&T was ordered to pay $57 million, while Verizon was fined $47 million. Meanwhile, Sprint and T-Mobile face fines totaling $92 million since the companies merged two years ago. Apparently, the airlines “sold real-time location information to data aggregators,” and that data ended up “into the hands of bail companies, bounty hunters, and other shady actors.”
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But it’s more like a Polaroid.
Fujifilm’s Instax cameras have been around for a while, but the new Instax mini 99, released this month, looks more like my X-T2 and other Fujifilm models than another plasticky Polaroid. From a distance it looks like an expensive digital camera, but it only costs $200. It also has modes and filters that allow you to customize your small instant photos. This flexibility, combined with the unobtrusive look, makes for an instant camera that I could actually buy (and use).
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