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“Enhance Your Insta-DM Game: Edit Sent Messages Up to 15 Minutes Later!”

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Instagram announced today that it’s rolling out the ability for users to edit their direct messages for up to 15 minutes after sending them. The ability to edit your DMs lets you fix a typo or change things around if your message doesn’t quite sound right. To edit a message, you need to press and hold it, and then then choose “edit” from the dropdown menu. The feature works similar to Apple’s edit feature for iMessage, which launched nearly two years ago. Instagram also recently started allowing all users to turn read receipts off, for all of their chats or specific ones.

Spotify Introduces a New Audiobooks Service for Free Users at Just $9.99 per Month

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After adding 15 hours of free audiobooks listening to its subscription plan late last year, Spotify today is introducing a $9.99 per month option that will allow its free users to also access its audiobooks collection. With the addition, free Spotify users will able to continue to stream music and podcasts via its ad-supported service, but pay to listen to audiobooks without having to buy a Spotify subscription. However, the move could allow Spotify to upsell audiobooks to customers who aren’t as interested in its music service, or who regularly use another app for that. 15 hours is fairly generous, as it often encompasses more listening time than one audiobook alone, if not two shorter books. The company today also offered an update on the interest that free users have for audiobooks, noting that since launching audiobooks for its Premium subscribers, it’s seen a 45% increase in free users searching for and interacting with audiobook content each day.

Fisker Cuts 15% of Workforce and Reserves Additional Funds for Challenging Times Ahead

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Fisker is laying off 15% of staff and says it needs more cash ahead of a “difficult year”Electric vehicle startup Fisker is planning to lay off 15% of its workforce and says it likely does not have enough cash on hand to survive the next 12 months. “[W]e have put a plan in place to streamline the company as we prepare for another difficult year,” founder and CEO Henrik Fisker said in a statement. Fisker said Thursday that it finished 2023 with $396 million in cash, though $70 million of that is restricted. The company says it is talking with one of its lenders about making “an additional investment” in the company. Fisker has also been dealing with a number of problems with its Ocean SUV, its only model so far, as TechCrunch reported earlier this month.

iPhone 15 dominates with 50% of Apple’s India smartphone shipments

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The iPhone 15 and its many iterations comprised more than half of Apple’s Q4 smartphone shipments of nearly 2.8 million units in India, Canalys said in its quarterly report. Apple started selling the iPhone 15 series in India in the first batch of its availability in September. Nonetheless, Apple is becoming a familiar brand in the Indian smartphone market and is rapidly growing its local presence. However, the country saw a minimal 2% yearly drop, with 148.6 million smartphone units shipped in 2023. “Canalys expects the Indian smartphone market to grow by mid-single digits in 2024, driven by affordable 5G and the pandemic period replacement cycle.

COP28: The Long-Awaited Recognition of Global Truth

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I have a confession to make: I don’t usually follow the UN climate change conference proceedings until the very end. Not because it was hosted by an oil and gas power, and not because neither President Biden nor the Pope attended. Rather, I’ve come to view all Conferences of the Parties (COP) as lagging indicators of what needs to happen. More recently, they’ve also become lagging indicators of what’s actually happening in the world. Documents leaked shortly before COP28 showed that the country was planning to use the meeting to strike oil and gas deals with 15 countries.