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Meta has started testing a subscription service allowing Facebook and Instagram users to pay to be verified. The “Meta Verified” service costs $11.99 a month on the web or $14.99 a month on iOS or Android. More: - In a post announcing the plans, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said testing will start in Australia and New Zealand. It's expected to roll out to the U.S. and other countries later this year.
- Users will have to submit a government ID to receive a verified "blue badge" on their accounts.
- Those badges were previously free and only available to businesses or public figures.
- In addition to the verification, subscribers will receive direct access to customer support, higher visibility, added protection from impersonators, and other "exclusive features."
- The goal is to increase "authenticity and security" across Meta's services, according to Zuckerberg.
Zoom Out: - In December, Twitter relaunched its similar Blue paid subscription service. In addition to getting a blue verified checkmark, it allows individual users to edit tweets and view fewer ads.
- As of January, Twitter Blue had an estimated 290,000 global subscribers, a small fraction of its more than 350 million monthly active users as of 2022.
CNN 
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Twitter will start limiting texting for two-factor authentication (2FA) to its paid subscribers. The change, effective starting on March 20, means non-subscribers will have to use an authenticator app or a security key to get the added security protection. More: - Twitter Blue subscribers will still be able to use text messaging for their 2FA method, an extra step to verify their username and password when logging in.
- Non-subscribers can still use 2FA but will need an authentication app or physical security key. Those users who currently have text 2FA enabled and don't subscribe will lose that ability on March 20.
- In a blog post explaining the move, Twitter said text-based 2FA has been “abused” by “bad actors," implying that the text method is easier to hack.
- Twitter owner Elon Musk appeared to confirm that the reason behind the policy change is that telecommunication companies have used bot accounts "to Pump 2FA SMS" and the company has lost $60M annually "on scam SMS."
- Twitter charges $8 to $11 a month or $84 a year for Blue, which comes with a blue verified checkmark for accounts and other perks.
SILICON REPUBLIC
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Amazon will require most of its corporate and tech employees to return to the office for a minimum of three days per week, CEO Andy Jassy said in a memo Friday. Previously, the company had allowed individual leaders to decide whether their teams would return to the office. More: - Starting on May 1, most of Amazon's 300,000-person corporate workforce will be expected to spend "at least" three days per week in the office, Jassy said.
- Working on-site makes it "easier to learn, model, practice, and strengthen our culture when we’re in the office together most of the time and surrounded by our colleagues," he noted.
- Shifting to in-person working should also boost businesses around Amazon's urban headquarters in Seattle, Arlington, Virginia, Nashville, and its offices around the world, he said.
- The mandate comes after Amazon announced job cuts affecting over 18,000 positions, largely in its Amazon Stores (Go, Fresh, Style) and People, Experience, and Technology organizations.
Zoom Out: - Apple and Google also require most corporate and tech staff to be in the office at least three days a week.
THE SEATTLE TIMES
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A first-generation sealed iPhone dating to 2007 sold for a record $63,356.40 at an auction. The winning bid represented 105 times the original $599 price, and was the highest ever for an original sealed iPhone. More: - Bidding for the phone started at $2,500 on Feb. 2 through the online platform LCG Auctions.
- The device was expected to go for around $50,000. It drew 27 bids before the auction ended on Feb. 19.
- The iPhone's owner, Karen Green, was gifted the device in 2007. She didn't open the phone — an 8 GB model with a 2-megapixel camera — because she was locked into a Verizon contract.
- Previous public sales of the same original iPhone drew $35,414 in August and $39,339 in October of 2022.
- Steve Jobs formally announced the iPhone on January 9, 2007, at MacWorld San Francisco. It was released to the public on June 29, 2007, for $499/$599.
PCMAG
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Uber Technologies announced plans to electrify part of its fleet in India. The company said it will roll out 25,000 electric vehicles for ride-hailing across the country over three years, making it one of the biggest green mobility deals to date. More: - Under the plans, Uber's fleet partners will purchase the EVs from Tata Motors, the largest auto manufacturer in India, which will deliver the cars in phases starting this month.
- Tata will supply its budget EV sedan, the XPRES-T, which is exclusive to fleet customers.
- The vehicle has range options of 315km and 277km and energy density batteries of 26 kWh and 25.5 kWh, enabling 0 to 80% charging in 59 mins or 110 mins, respectively
- The EVs will be deployed in the cities of Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Bengaluru, and Ahmedabad, according to Uber, which currently has 300,000 active vehicles in India.
*NOTE: Inside.com founder and CEO Jason Calacanis is an investor in Uber. REUTERS
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Microsoft is engaging in talks with ad agencies about monetizing its new AI-powered Bing search engine. Reuters reports that Microsoft demoed the new Bing to an unnamed "major ad agency" and has been testing ads on the Bing chatbot feature. More: - During the demo, Microsoft reps described plans to add paid links within Bing's answers to search queries.
- The company is planning to incorporate traditional search ads into the Bing chatbot's responses.
- When it first announced AI Bing last week, Microsoft already acknowledged that it is expected to "deliver even more relevant messages to consumers," aiming to improve ROI for advertisers.
- Microsoft is receiving millions of requests to join the waitlist for the new search engine, which it plans to roll out more broadly in the coming weeks.
- The influx of new users is expected to lead to greater ad exposure and boost Microsoft's competition in the search advertising market dominated by Google.
REUTERS
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Community Corner I'm Kiani from Inside.com, and last week, we asked our community, "What are some key tech tools in your professional and personal setup?" Here are some of the responses we received: - Menachem Ani (p/menachem), Founder at JXT Group, answered: “Vimcal is an amazing calendar solution. Allows you to offer the scheduling aspect of Calendly while limiting to your availability for that specific person as well as giving the user inability to respond directly to the email if they don't want to schedule themselves.”
- Stephen Ekker (p/scekker), Professor and Dean at Mayo Clinic, said: “I've used an electronic to do list since the Palm Pilot days. Wunderlists was great, moved to Microsoft To Do as it's cross platform and works most of the time. Slack is instrumental in balancing different projects.”
- Rishi Sharma (p/rishi-sharma), Venture Partner at GV Partners, wrote: “Reclaim.AI, Grammarly, Coda, Zapier, Hey.com Email Client, and Flow are essential tech tools in my professional and personal setup. Reclaim.AI helps me manage my email, Grammarly checks my writing for errors, Coda is a document and database creation tool, Zapier automates tasks, Hey.com is a modern email client, and Flow is a Pomodoro Timer. These tools help me be more productive, efficient, and organized.”
Join the conversations at Inside.com, and we may shout out your name and business or contact you for more! ⭐️
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- Many Microsoft Outlook users are saying that the email client's spam filters are broken, causing their inboxes to be flooded with junk messages.
- Meta's WhatsApp is now adding picture-in-picture support for video calls via the latest version of its iOS app. Users can now switch to other apps without interrupting video calls.
- TikTok's latest fund to pay creators will require them to make videos longer than a minute.
- Tencent Holdings, Asia's largest internet company, is not venturing into VR hardware making and has to cut costs and workforce at its metaverse unit.
- Online gaming platform Roblox will soon launch AI tools that help users create and change the look of in-game materials.
- You could be starting therapy with an accredited professional in just 48 hours. Join today and take 25% off your first month.*
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Upcoming Events: - February 20 - Inside Marketing Coffee Break (Register Here)
- February 21 - Inside Startups Coffee Break (Register Here)
- March 01 - Webinar on the changing privacy landscape in the US by Vanta and Osano (Register Here) *
- April 18 - Human Resources Summit'23 (Register Here)
* This is a sponsored listing.
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 |  | Beth is a writer and editor at Inside.com covering artificial intelligence and daily technology news. She has written the Inside AI newsletter since 2019. You can reach her at Beth.Duckett@inside.com. |   | | Editor | Eduardo Garcia is a writer and editor based in New York. He is the author of "Things You Can Do," an illustrated book about climate action. Bylines in The New York Times, The Guardian, Slate, Scientific American, and others. In one of his previous lives, Eduardo worked as a Reuters correspondent in Latin America for nearly a decade. | |
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