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Google’s 3D video calling booths, Project Starline, will now be tested in the real world • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 13, 2022Posted in 3d imagery, Google, Hardware, project starlineNo Comments

While Meta is trying to convince consumers to strap on its VR headsets to enter the metaverse, Google continues to experiment with a different sort of false reality: its holographic video chat project known as Project Starline. Announced last year, Project Starline is a video-calling booth that uses 3D imagery, high-resolution cameras, custom depth sensor sensors, and a breakthrough light field display to create a lifelike experience for callers on both sides of the screen — and all without a required headset. Now, Google says it’s expanding its real-world tests with an early access program that will see Starline used in the offices of various enterprise partners, including Salesforce, WeWork, T-Mobile and Hackensack Meridian Health. Google will begin installing Project Starline prototypes in select partner offices for regular testing starting later this year, it noted. Until now, the 3D calling booths were found in Google’s offices in the U.S. where employees were able to test them for things like meetings, employee onboarding sessions, and more. The company had also invited over 100 enterprise partners in areas like media, healthcare and retail to demo the technology in its offices and offers their feedback about the experience. With the launch of the new early access program, those partners will be able to test the calling booths in their own offices, providing Google with valuable feedback and insights about how such a technology would be used in the real world and what sort of challenges it may face. Those who have been able to test Project Starline have described the experience as being incredibly realistic and an impressive technology, even in its early phases. But there have been questions about to what extent Starline would ever exist beyond being a very cool tech demo, versus a technology that would eventually become a part of office workers’ — much less consumers’ — everyday lives. It’s unclear if Google has a plan to actually commercialize the tech, what these calling booths would cost businesses to either purchase and maintain, and whether or not there’s enough demand for the technology in a world where Zoom and Google Meet are considered “good enough” solutions for virtual meetings. (Plus, they can support more than the one-on-one conversations Starline offers.) In addition, Project Starline’s long-term status at Google has been unknown as the project was wrapped up into a reorg a year ago that saw Google relocating its various AR and VR technologies, along with its internal R&D group known as Area 120, into a new “Labs” team. This September, Google then slashed the number of projects in Area 120 by half — an indication that it may not see these sorts of experiments as priorities in the current economic environment. Even some Googlers were not sure how Project Starline was still around, given the situation. Still, Starline’s tech is an interesting bet on a different kind of “virtual” reality — one where people aren’t represented with gaming-like avatars, but rather as their real selves. Instead of developing tech that uses cameras to track eye and face movements to make avatars more realistic, as Meta is now doing, or figuring out how to add legs to your in-VR body, Google is working to present a person as they are — and without the additional encumbrance of having to wear something on your head. Meanwhile, as more businesses are trying to figure out the hybrid future of work model, technology like Starline could bridge the gap between in-person meetings and the less-idea 2D video chat experience we have today. Partners like WeWork and Salesforce spoke of their interest in trying out the tech, which they believe could help make connections between people more meaningful. “In today’s digital-first world, companies need to provide the technology and tools to help employees be more productive and effective at work,” Andy White, SVP of Business Technology at Salesforce, said in a statement. “At Salesforce, we’re constantly exploring new ways to deliver incredible experiences to our employees and customers around the world. Project Starline has the potential to drive deeper connections between people by bridging in-person and virtual experiences.” Google says it will share more about what it learns from its early access program next year.

Google’s Pixel Watch delivers nice hardware, but fails to answer the ‘why’ • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 12, 2022Posted in Gadgets, Google, Google Fall Event 2022, Hardware, pixel watch, wear osNo Comments

It took some evasive maneuvering to get us here — the building out of a small-scale hardware ecosystem, coupled with a couple big-ticket acquisitions and a partnership with one of its largest potential competitors. But suddenly, Google emerging as competitive in the smartwatch space doesn’t seem an altogether outlandish proposition. One can make a compelling argument that the software giant learned some hard lessons from past smartwatch and earbud struggles. Entering an already mature hardware category isn’t easy for anyone; spending in excess of $2 billion is a pretty good shortcut if your pockets are deep enough. While devices are reasonably far along in this world, things aren’t that cut and dry. For one thing, Google’s partnership with Samsung meant an overnight increase in Wear OS market share. Both companies were staring at Apple’s first place lead from a distance, so why not join forces? At the very least, it’s been a swift kick in the pants for a wearable operating system that has languished for the better part of a decade. Image Credits: Brian Heater Even more central to the deal are a pair of big purchases. The $2.1 billion Fitbit deal was obviously the highest-profile move there — and understandably so. It’s not every day a household name gets acquired. Like the Samsung move, that deal immediately buys Google more market share, and from the looks of things, it will work out similarly to the Apple/Beats deal: Google gets immediately built-in sales and keeps the brand name around, as it uses Fitbit’s software as a foundation for its first-party play. The bit that gets lost in a lot of this is the company’s 2019 purchase of $40 million in Fossil IP. The deal mostly revolved around an unseen prototype that may well have served as the architecture for the new Pixel Watch hardware. Certainly the product looks like nothing Fitbit has ever given us before. It’s worth noting that Google didn’t just buy Fitbit and a piece of Fossil. There’s a sense in which it acquired the many companies they themselves acquired. It’s difficult to point to, but there are likely pieces of OG wearable Pebble, Vector, Twine and Coin (Fitbit), along with Misfit (Fossil) living in this small device currently sitting on my wrist. Add in the company’s work with Samsung, and you’ve got a kind of secret history of the smartwatch universe sitting in front of you. Image Credits: Brian Heater That’s an incredible cocktail of smartwatch DNA. Is it enough to catapult the Pixel Watch to the top of the rankings? Well, no. Obviously not. But it’s enough to compete. Apple remains the insurmountable mountain for the moment — and let’s be honest, the company effectively sits alone in the world of iPhone compatibility. Google’s competition sits much closer to home. Specifically, the company is up against Samsung, Fitbit and a number of companies like Xiaomi, which are duking it out for the lower end of the market. Garmin, meanwhile, is off in its own outdoor world with little competition outside the likes of the Apple Watch Ultra. So, really, that leaves Samsung as the Pixel Watch’s one immediate competitor. The Galaxy Watch has maintained the No. 2 spot for some time, so that’s still some stiff competition. Image Credits: Brian Heater The Pixel Watch is a looker. I really dig the design here. It’s about as minimal as one can get — a big change from the Apple Watch Ultra I’d been wearing previously. It’s a watch distilled down to its essence — glossy curved glass, with a haptic crown on the side. It’s also quite small. The case is 41mm, the smaller of the two standard Apple Watch models. The display is even smaller, at 1.2 inches, to the 41mm Series 8’s 1.53 inches. We’re very much dealing with screen sizes where a fraction of an inch can make a world of difference. Google’s device isn’t helped much by some sizable bezels on the sides. You mostly won’t notice them, due to all of the watch faces being black. With a lighter-colored face, the space would be much more noticeable. Ultimately what that means, however, is that there’s less surface area for a touch display. When it comes to wearables, I’ve long been of the opinion that the more size options, the better. Human bodies are like that, you know? Given the option, however, I’d say smaller is ultimately better. It’s a lot easier to wear a watch case that’s too small, instead of one that’s too large. The 41mm case felt and looked small on my wrist, but the screen size is enough for most things, assuming you’re not planning to do a lot of typing. Still, I would be shocked if the Pixel Watch 2 doesn’t arrive in at least two sizes next year. Image Credits: Brian Heater The bands snap on and off with a press of a button and a slide. It’s a little tricky the first time, so much so the company guides you through taking it on and off during setup. The connector is proprietary, and at present only Google makes compatible bands. There’s a decent selection of both materials and price points, and the company has plans to open it up to third parties. The Pixel Watch launches with an always-on display, though it was off by default. When enabled, it effectively presents a lower res and slightly dimmed version of your watch face. The battery was a bit disappointing in my trials, so you may want to keep it off, depending on how long you’re looking to eke out. With it on, getting to a full 24 hours can be tricky. So if you’re planning to do some sleep tracking, maybe budget in some quick charging time. One thing Google managed to avoid by way of its late entry was the years’ long search for meaning among smartwatch makers. Notifications were pitched as the thing in those early days. Eventually, however, health tracking became

Samsung and Google partner to speed up Matter-enable smart home setups • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 12, 2022Posted in Gadgets, Google, Hardware, IoT, matter, Samsung, smart homeNo Comments

Samsung and Google announced a new partnership today that will allow easier setup for Matter-enabled devices on both Samsung SmartThings and Google Home systems. At the Samsung Developer Conference held in San Fransisco, the Korean tech giant said that it will update its SmartThings app in the coming months so that users can onboard Matter-enabled devices even if they are set up in Google’s ecosystem and vice versa. For the uninitiated, Matter is an Internet of Things standard that’s being developed by companies like Apple, Google, Amazon and Samsung to ensure smart home devices from different companies work across ecosystems. Last week the Connectivity Standards Alliance, the consortium behind Matter, officially approved the first set of specifications so developers can apply for certification for their solutions. Samsung said it’s using Matter’s multi-admin capabilities to make compatible devices easy to find and control across different apps. Once the company updates the SmartThings apps, users can see Matter-enabled devices that were set up under Google’s ecosystem and then import them into Samsung’s ecosystem and vice versa. This way, users will be able to control these devices from either the Samsung SmartThings app or the Google Home app. “As the largest Android developer, Samsung values its strong partnership with Google. Providing users with greater flexibility through this new multi-admin feature is a natural progression in our evolution as partners, allowing us to better support our massive existing and potential user base with both Samsung and Google products,” Jaeyeon Jung, Corporate VP and Head of SmartThings at Samsung said in a statement.

Refinements are perfectly fine • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 12, 2022Posted in Gadgets, Google, Google Fall Event 2022, Hardware, PIXEL, pixel 7, Pixel 7 ProNo Comments

Following last week’s Google event, a colleague commented to me that the Pixel 7 wasn’t as big an upgrade as the Pixel 6. This is an objectively true statement. But also, it’s fine. Whatever you think about the yearly refresh cycle hardware makers are locked into, we’ve all come to accept that some upgrades are going to be more incremental than others. In fact, most years are going to be iterative. That’s how this works. The contrast is strong here, because last year was anything but. The Pixel 6 was Google’s breakout phone. Last year was the year Google finally answered the “why,” marrying excellent hardware and software with an affordable price point. It’s a question the Pixel Watch may spend another generation or two addressing. But last year the Pixel smartphone line broke out of the cycle, and all it took was a massive restructuring of Google’s hardware division. The Pixel 6 changed the conversation around Google’s smartphone efforts. The Pixel 7 is, by and large, an iteration on last year’s model. And that’s totally fine. In 2021, the company worked to catch up with the rest of the flagship market, and now it’s about keeping that pace. The truth about the way the category is structured currently is that it seems likely that any one will change the conversation completely. Image Credits: Brian Heater So many of these devices revolve around same or similar components powering the same operating system. At present, Google’s biggest differentiator is software. The Pixel may have been developed as a method for showcasing new Android features, but these days, those features are precisely what distinguishes the product from the pack. The other big (and related tentpole) are the company’s advances in machine learning. Those are present in a number of spots, but most primarily imaging, where this thing really shines. I opted to review the 7 Pro instead of the 7 this time out because we’re finally getting some nice fall weather here and I really wanted to take some good photos. Is that selfish? I mean, yeah, for sure, but photography is the battlefield on which the smartphone wars are currently waged. There’s a third potential plank for some differentiation: processing. Like Apple, Google has broken out of the Qualcomm mold that powers a majority of flagships these days, instead opting to build its own chips in-house. Unfortunately, there’s really not a big leap from original Tensor chip to the G2 — certainly nothing worth dwelling on here. The benchmarks do get a small uptick, but for day-to-day use, it seems unlikely you’ll notice much there. Image Credits: Brian Heater The hardware is refined over last year’s model. It’s a nice looking phone (the camera bar has proven somewhat polarizing, but I like it). It’s slim, slick and shiny, and the phone doesn’t feel as outsized as its 6.7-inch screen (though single-handed use is largely a no-go for me). The 1,000 nit display is nice and bright, and the 1440 x 3120 512 ppi resolution looks great coupled with the smooth 120Hz refresh rate. Like the new Pixel Watch, it’s got an always-on option, though again, that’s going to have an impact on battery life. Also like the Pixel Watch, I wasn’t particularly impressed with the on-board battery. Rated at 5,000 mAh (a slight downgrade from the 6 Pro’s 5,003), I’m looking at around 25% capacity nine hours in. Once again, imaging is where this thing really shines. One of the earliest hard-learned lessons for the line is that computational photography alone isn’t enough. Google felt it had something to prove in those early days, with a single camera sensor, but it ultimately came up short. Computational photography, coupled with good camera hardware, on the other hand, is a force to be reckoned with. The standard 7 sports a 50-megapixel wide camera and 12-megapixel ultrawide, while the Pro adds a 48-megapixel telephoto into the camera bar. I’m not permanently packing up my SLR any time soon, but as far as a frictionless, out of the box experience goes, it’s tough to beat the Pixel 7 Pro. Generations of camera software updates have made taking a good photo dead simple, and recent upgrades have brought dramatic improvements to things like zoom. [Insert: Full zoom]The phone will only get you up to 5x with optical zoom, but it does an impressive job beyond that, all things considered. When you really push things to 20-30x, you’re going to see clear noise on the image, but the result is still impressive, particularly when shooting in direct sunlight. Image stabilization also does a good job minimizing some of the unavoidable handshaking that comes with telephoto shots. Light also makes a world of difference for macro shots. Holding the camera around one to two inches from a subject will surface the setting automatically. There’s no specific macro lens built in (as we’ve seen on a smattering of other models). Instead, the feature relies on the ultrawide, and the results are impressive, nonetheless. Coupled with upgrades to features like Real Tone for more authentic skin tones and Night Sight and you’ve got an extremely well-rounded and impressive little camera in your pocket. Image Credits: Brian Heater The biggest exclusive (for now, at least) software updates arrive on the Speech side of things. These have long been top of the list of Pixel standout features, so it’s no surprise to see that they’re still a focus this time around. Voice Recorder adds Canadian English, American Spanish and Hindi English to a list that also includes German, French, Spanish, Italian and Japanese. Google’s longstanding quest to make automated phone menus less annoying continues in earnest with the addition of pressable menu options that populate even before the robot voice speaks them. Much like the phone itself nothing there is a true breakthrough, so much as a refinement on an already good thing. With a starting price of $599 for the 7 and $899 for the 7 Pro, Google is more

After selling his last startup to Google, this founder now wants to automate mundane tasks with Relay • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 12, 2022Posted in Enterprise, gmail, Google, Jacob Bank, relay, Startups, workflow automationNo Comments

Some seven years after selling his previous company to Google, Jacob Bank is preparing to launch his next project, this time with a focus on automating mundane, repetitive tasks. Bank was previously cofounder and CEO at Timeful, a smart scheduling app that helped users make better use of their time through automatically prioritizing their various commitments. After selling up to Google in 2015, Bank joined Google’s ranks and set about integrating core Timeful technology into Gmail and Google Calendar, before transitioning into various roles at the tech giant — including product lead for Gmail, Calendar, Google Chat, and Google Workspace. Fast-forward to July 2021, and Bank parted ways with Google to found Relay, which has a self-stated mission to “tackle collaborative workflows” with a product that sits somewhere at the intersection of Zapier and Asana. He also said that he’s managed to hire a number of product, design, and engineering personnel from the Gmail and Google Calendar development team. “From a product perspective, we aim to combine the time saving automations of Zapier with the accountability of Asana, but optimized for repeated workflows,” Bank explained to ZebethMedia. Relay: Automations Image Credits: Relay Automation for the people There are certainly no shortage of workflow automation tools out there, Zapier perhaps chief among them, while newcomers such as Bardeen have also been attracting the attentions of venture capitalists. And it’s this desire to reduce tedious, repetitive tasks that Relay is looking to capitalize on too, with specific scenarios in mind — use-cases that are less about “automated mechanical data flows from one product to another,” as Bank puts it, and more about supporting collaborative activities that may require multiple people to work together. For example, anything that recurs or repeats across the business sphere, such as all-hands meetings, investor updates, board meetings, newsletters, planning cycles, and so on, are within Relay’s scope. As are “function-specific playbooks” such as new-hire onboarding, customer onboarding, or feature launches. It’s basically aimed at reducing time-consuming admin from various business functions, from COO to product management and customer success. Relay sits on top of existing productivity tools such as calendars and team collaboration software, and reduces much of the manual labor involved in organizing a specific event or activity. For example, a monthly all-hands meeting may involve several contributors from different departments, each charged with preparing their own updates — with Relay, companies can preconfigure a lot of the administrative steps such as messaging contributors a few days before the all-hands with the correct presentation template, who are then prompted to add their content, and then automatically create a dedicated Slack channel for that specific meeting. Relay: Workflow automation in action Image Credits: Relay Using these various productivity tools separately in their own silos, if the all-hands meeting date has to be pushed back a few days at the last minute, this would ordinarily require organizers or management to manually update dates and schedules in Asana, for example. With Relay, any change is reflected up and down the chain. “Maybe the most consequential difference between our product and what’s out there is that we’re going after a class of use-cases that haven’t been explicitly served before,” Bank said. “The operating workflows required to run a great team: all-hands, leads meetings, executive updates, product reviews, business reviews, newsletters, planning processes, onboarding, project tracking, feature launches, customer updates, and much more.” Ramping up For now, Relay remains a closed early-access product, with plans to transition into an open beta phase before the end of the year. While it’s keeping most of its early users under wraps for now, it did confirm Ramp and Lumos as “design partners” as it readies for a wider rollout. “We’re targeting organizations that are between 30 and 500 [workers] in size, and most of our early design partners are tech companies,” Bank said. To help take things to the next level, Relay has also announced it has raised $5 million in a seed funding round led by Khosla Ventures, which also invested in Timeful back in 2014, with participation from Neo, BoxGroup, SV Angel, and a handful of angels. “Relay’s vision of understanding the best practices of top-performing teams and creating assistive software to bring those workflows to everyone could transform the entire way people work,” Khosla Ventures’ partner Sandhya Venkatachalam said in a statement. “In Jacob, we have a founder that we have backed before, with a team that has the track record, conviction and talent to execute on this incredibly daunting challenge.”

Apple and Google to soon release 5G support software updates in India • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 12, 2022Posted in 5g, Apple, Google, Hardware, indiaNo Comments

Apple and Google said Wednesday they will roll out software updates to enable 5G support on their respective handsets in India, the world’s second largest wireless market, just days after local bureaucrats began pushing the phonemakers to expedite their efforts. Reliance Jio and Airtel, India’s two largest carriers, have started to offer 5G services in select Indian cities in recent weeks, but many popular handsets in the nation currently don’t support the local airwaves. These smartphones have hardware capabilities for 5G, but manufacturers need to work with local network carriers to release software updates to enable support for local airwaves. To that end, Apple today said that it will issue a software update in December to enable 5G on iPhones used in India. Apple first introduced 5G capabilities with the iPhone 12 in 2020. “We are working with our carrier partners in India to bring the best 5G experience to iPhone users as soon as network validation and testing for quality and performance are completed. 5G will be enabled via a software update and will start rolling out to iPhone users in December,” an Apple spokesperson told ZebethMedia. Google has also promised a software update for its devices — though it hasn’t provided a specific timeframe for the rollout. “Pixel 7, 7 Pro, and Pixel 6a are 5G capable devices. We are actively working with the Indian carriers to enable functionality at the earliest,” a Google spokesperson said in a statement. Google launched the Pixel 6a in India in July, and the Pixel 7 series will go on sale soon. In July, India sold the license to 5G airwaves in an auction for a record sum of $19 billion. Billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Jio has purchased most of the spectrum and has committed to spending $25 billion alone in rolling out and broadening its 5G services. The South Asian nation, which is one of the last major markets to adopt 5G, has high hopes about its potentials. “5G is a knock on the doors of a new era in the country. It is the beginning of an infinite sky of opportunities,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said at an event last month. Both Apple and Google’s devices hold a small percentage in terms of market share in the Indian smartphone market. While Apple commands just 4% of the local smartphone market, Google’s numbers are not available because of comparatively lower sales. According to analyst firm Counterpoint, the total install base of 5G-ready smartphones in India was 50 million in July. Samsung, India’s second largest smartphone vendor, didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. According to a support page by carrier Bharti Airtel, some headsets from Chinese manufacturers like Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo, Realme, and OnePlus already support its 5G services. Notably, Airtel has enabled its 5G services in eight cities and Reliance Jio has enabled them in four cities through an invite-only program. Both these network providers aim to expand the 5G coverage across the country in the coming few years. Airtel’s chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal said that the company aims to cover all parts of its eight launch cities by March 2023 and the entire country by 2023. Reliance Jio’s goals are rather ambitious as it plans to roll out its 5G services across the country by 2023.

Google removes The OG App from the Play Store as founders think about next steps • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 10, 2022Posted in Apps, Google, Instagram, play store, The OG AppNo Comments

Almost a week after Apple removed The OG App from the App Store, an Instagram client that promised to provide an ad-free and suggestion-free feed, Google followed the suit and booted the app off the Play Store. In a Twitter thread, co-founders of Un1feed, the company that published The OG App, said that the startup won’t be able to serve its users following the app’s removal from both iOS and Android’s app stores. The app makers said in a brief period the app was live it attracted more than 25,000 downloads. However, following our removal from the Google Play Store and Apple App Store – OG will be unable to continue serving users through our mobile app. — The OG App 🔗 (@TheOGapp_) October 7, 2022 ZebethMedia has reached out to Google for a comment, and we’ll update the post when we hear back. Late last month, Un1feed launched The OG App with a promise to provide users with a customizable Instagram experience. To do so, it reverse-engineered Instagram for Android API. However, that created a lot of issues that potentially risked users’ privacy and security. Following the launch, Instagram owner Meta said that the app violated its policies and that the company is “taking all appropriate enforcement actions.” But it didn’t provide any details about the steps it took. Around the same time, Apple removed the app from the App Store saying that it was accessing Instagram’s service in an unauthorized manner. The Cupertino-based tech giant added that The OG App breached App Store rules. These that prohibited apps from displaying content from third-party apps by violating their terms of use. In a note displayed on The OG App’s website, the founders said that they are still thinking about the next steps and will provide some clarity in the coming weeks. After going through a ton of security mishaps, Meta has tightened its rules around access to user data and has limited its APIs to show a limited amount of information outside its family of apps. It’s not surprising that the company was swift to crack down on a solution that used unofficial APIs to display content.

Twitter gets an Edit button, Instagram increases ads, Google gets serious about wearables • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 9, 2022Posted in Apple, Apps, Google, Mobile, Social, This Week In Apps, TwitterNo Comments

Welcome back to This Week in Apps, the weekly ZebethMedia series that recaps the latest in mobile OS news, mobile applications and the overall app economy. Global app spending reached $65 billion in the first half of 2022, up only slightly from the $64.4 billion during the same period in 2021, as hypergrowth fueled by the pandemic has slowed down. But overall, the app economy is continuing to grow, having produced a record number of downloads and consumer spending across both the iOS and Google Play stores combined in 2021, according to the latest year-end reports. Global spending across iOS and Google Play last year was $133 billion, and consumers downloaded 143.6 billion apps. This Week in Apps offers a way to keep up with this fast-moving industry in one place with the latest from the world of apps, including news, updates, startup fundings, mergers and acquisitions, and much more. Do you want This Week in Apps in your inbox every Saturday? Sign up here: techcrunch.com/newsletters. Elon Musk is buying Twitter…again…maybe Image Credits: Bryce Durbin / ZebethMedia Elon Musk delivered another week of Twitter deal drama. After initially trying to worm out of the now-overpriced deal, the Tesla and SpaceX exec this week decided he would go through with the purchase after all. It was speculated that Musk may have seen the writing on the wall, and realized this legal battle was one he couldn’t win. (After all, he can’t simultaneously claim he wants to fix the Twitter bot problem by buying the network and then claim that there are just too darned many bots here — and that Twitter is lying about them, when in fact, its SEC filings indicate otherwise. Right?!) But it had also come to light that Twitter had been given the go-ahead by the judge to proceed with a probe that would allow it to seek out information as to whether the Twitter whistleblower Peiter “Mudge” Zatko had contacted Musk’s lawyers before he tried to exit the deal. It seems that Twitter’s discovery had uncovered an anonymous email claiming to be a former Twitter exec involved with Twitter’s Trust & Safety team that had been sent to Musk’s attorney on May 6. And Twitter wanted to find out if the legal team or Musk followed up to determine the sender’s identity. A judge agreed Twitter could dig in — and this was just before Musk changed his mind to move forward with the purchase. So perhaps it was this deep dive into more files and communications that Musk wanted to avoid? Maybe he didn’t want to be asked about this under oath? In any event, Musk said the deal was on and Twitter’s stock jumped over 22% on the news. But the matter wasn’t immediately resolved. As it turned out, Musk and Twitter hadn’t reached an agreement to end their litigation, and neither party had filed anything to stop the court case from proceeding. So the judge alerted them that the trial was still on and would start on October 17, 2022, as planned. But!… Twitter wasn’t ready to take Musk at his word about this sudden change of heart. The judge, however, agreed to give Musk’s team until October 28, 2022 — the date Musk’s team said they could close by — to see if the transaction goes through. If not, the parties will be given November 2022 trial dates, the judge said. Now the deal is hinging on the “receipt of the proceeds of the debt financing,” Bloomberg reported. Morgan Stanley and half a dozen banks underwrote the debt financing for the deal, and given the market conditions, they may find it more difficult to find buyers for the bonds and loans — possibly taking a loss on portions of the package, the report said. But they’re not likely to back out or find a legal means of doing so. Which means…Elon is buying Twitter again. We think! Go ahead, edit Your tweets Image Credits: Bryce Durbin/ZebethMedia And if that wasn’t enough Twitter news for the week, then there’s this other small tidbit: Twitter’s Edit button has arrived. The long-requested feature has now rolled out to Twitter Blue’s U.S. subscribers, in addition to subscribers in Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The feature allows users to edit their tweets for up to 30 minutes after posting — something that could help users clarify or correct a mistake in their tweet, fix a small typo or add hashtags, among other things. The edits are logged and visible to the public to prevent abuse. Additionally, Twitter said users can only edit their tweets five times within the 30-minute period, which is also meant to cut down the feature’s abuse. But many are still concerned that bad actors will find a way to take advantage of the addition to edit tweeting in misleading ways. Plus, it comes at a time when user demand for an edit button may have been quelled, given that Twitter last year introduced an “Undo Tweet” feature for its subscribers. This lets users quickly fix a typo after they post — likely cutting down on one of the major use cases for an Edit button. With “Undo Tweet,” users can delay their tweets for up to a minute, giving them time to re-read posts and fix errors, if needed. The edit feature was also one of Musk’s big ideas for fixing Twitter, we should point out. Shortly after taking a board seat at Twitter (remember when that was the big Twitter news?!), he polled his 80.5 million followers to ask if they wanted an edit button — either a tease of the planned announcement or a desire to look like he was already taking action at Twitter. A day later, Twitter announced an edit button was actually in the works after years of saying the opposite. But Twitter denied it was Musk’s idea. While the edit option is now live, its impact may be limited. The majority of Twitter’s users are not