YouTube Music has unveiled a couple of new features, including one that lets you generate your own AI playlist art. Engadget.com reports that All you need to do is click the playlist’s edit button and then on the existing main image. YouTube Music will then bring you to a range of categories, such as nature, humor and animals. Each one will generate a random set of pictures upon selection, such as a dog in a specific art style, that you can change. Just toggle through the options, and when you find one you like, save it as your playlist’s new cover photo. Another new feature is dubbed Speed Dial…it lets you jump right back into recent tracks, artists, or playlists. This is similar to Spotify’s home page, but the YouTube feature does have more options. 

Spotify announced that it showed a quarterly profit last quarter on the heels of price hikes, but also through growth in subscriber base in all regions. According to reuters.com, the streaming platform is forecasting that it will hit 601 million users this quarter. Spotify’s first quarterly profit since 2021 was $34.1 million. They are forecasting some $41 million in profit for this quarter. 

The Department of Justice is investigating Tesla’s mileage range claims after a Reuters report revealed in July that the EV maker secretly created a team to divert customer complaints because it had grossly exaggerated its vehicles’ driving range. Reuters’ source confirmed that “the directive to present the optimistic range estimates came from Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk.” Arstechnica.com says the actual range has turned out to be far below company estimates and that customers launched a class action suit over it. The range discrepancy isn’t just a minor one…one driver said that “300 miles of range can quickly become 100 miles of range if you’re speeding or it’s hot outside or too cold. It can be very deceptive and a gas-powered car can seem more accurate in that way.”

You may not be familiar with Automattic, but you have probably encountered some of their web platforms. They have WordPress.com (where I have posted my tech blogs for a dozen years), Tumblr, Pocket Casts, and other sites. Now, they are picking up Texts. Theverge.com notes that Texts is a universal messaging app. You can use it to log into WhatsApp, Instagram, LinkedIn, Signal, iMessage and others, and see and respond to all your messages in one place. Automattic is dropping $50 million on Texts. Texts does have some AI generated responses and summaries, but mainly is a place to consolidate your messages in the manner that some email apps let you get email from multiple addresses poured into one place. Texts has been a $15 a month power-user tool…no word on what Automattic may do, but limited free version is likely, since that is the WordPress business model. 

I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.