When Mel Brooks teased Spaceballs Two, he subtitled it ‘the search for more money,’ in a poke at Star Trek, the Search for Spock. Now, it looks like Disney is cutting some ties with Apple for…you guessed it…more money. Apple, as you no doubt know, gets a 15-30% cut of all money that comes from sales via their App Store. Macrumors.com reports that by not allowing new sign ups through the App Store, and pushing customers to their website, Disney will cut out those subscription fees for in-app purchases. Disney is already raising prices a couple bucks for Hulu and Disney +, and it looks like they intend to keep all of it! Netflix quit letting subscribers buy over the iOS app several years ago. 

If at first you don’t succeed…Meta is bringing back facial recognition, they say with new safeguards. Engadget.com notes that this comes some 3 years after they first tried it, but backed off after a huge backlash. Meta claims the facial recognition will first be used to detect scam ads that use the faces of celebrities or other public figures. If they confirm it as a scam ad, they will block it. Celebrities will be able to opt out of this use. Meta is also testing facial recognition as a method of account recovery. This time around, users will upload a video selfie…a short clip of themselves, and Meta will match that to their profile photo if the user gets locked out of their account. This should work for all personal accounts, but won’t work on a business page at this point…as they don’t include a profile pic of a person. Some privacy advocates are still skeptical, given the last time around. Meta paid out over lawsuits in Texas and Illinois from that last go around…some $650 million in Illinois and $1.4 billion in Texas. 

WhatsApp has been relying on your phones contact book to sync contacts for the platform. Now, techcrunch.com says WhatsApp will allow users to save contacts within the app, where they will live on cloud servers. That way, if you lose a phone or link a new one to your WhatsApp primary number, you will see all your contacts. Also…it gives WhatsApp possession of the data about all your contacts. They won’t mind, right? WhatsApp claims they have a new encrypted storage system for secure contact saving. In addition, they are saying that the storage feature will make it possible to save contacts by usernames. That way, you won’t need to share your phone number when messaging them. Signal and Telegram both already offer a way to share usernames without sharing contact details. 

In the shock of the century, T-Mobile and AT&T have come out in opposition to a proposed plan by the Federal Communications Commission to require the unlocking of phones within 60 days of activation. Arstechnica.com reports that the carriers are claiming that locking phones to a carrier’s network makes it possible to provide cheaper handsets to consumers. “If the Commission mandates a uniform unlocking policy, it is consumers—not providers—who stand to lose the most,” T-Mobile alleged in an October 17 filing with the Federal Communications Commission. The rule has broad support from consumer advocates, who say it will give consumers more choice and lower costs. The carriers have traditionally said that the locking helped them subsidize providing phones at lower costs. It seems more likely that we the consumers are subsidizing our own discounts. Verizon already unlocks phones after 60 days, due to requirements imposed on spectrum licenses it holds. 

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