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Tesla is set to introduce two-factor authentication to its iPhone App in shortly. CEO Elon Musk tweeted that the long-awaited iOS feature “is going through final validation right now,” AppleInsider.

In a response to a tweet on Friday asking about an ongoing project to add two-factor authentication to the app, Elon Musk apologized for the feature being “embarrassingly late,” but that it was on the way. According to Musk, two-factor authentication via SMS or an authenticator app is “going through final validation right now,” though it is unclear if this refers to Tesla’s own procedures or those relating to the App Store. The Tesla mobile app provides drivers with a lot of information and control for their electric car. From the app, users can change media being played, remotely change the climate control, locate the vehicle in a car park, interact with the navigation, and monitor the progress of recharging, among other elements.

France’s privacy watchdog opened a probe into TikTok on Tuesday, Bloomberg News reported. The Chinese-owned video-sharing app is facing ongoing scrutiny of its privacy policies in Europe, alongside takeover talk in the U.S.

The French authority, CNIL, is looking at a number of issues, including how the company communicates with users and the protection of children, a spokesman said Tuesday. The questions are part of an investigation into TikTok’s plan to set up a European Union headquarters for data purposes. The EU’s data protection chiefs in June pledged to coordinate potential investigations into the Chinese company, establishing a taskforce to get a better understanding of “TikTok’s processing and practices across the EU.” The EU taskforce would also likely give the final decision on plans by the company to set up an EU base for data purposes in Ireland. This could mean that future probes would be led by the Irish data authority, which is already the lead privacy regulator for tech giants, including Google, Facebook Inc. and Twitter Inc.

Facebook has joined Google in extending its work from home plans. Staff will not return to the office until July 2021, Techcrunch reported. Apple is hoping to have employees return in early 2021.

“Based on guidance from health and government experts, as well as decisions drawn from our internal discussions about these matters, we are allowing employees to continue voluntarily working from home until July 2021,” a spokeswoman told the Reuters news agency. Facebook also said it will provide employees with an additional $1,000 to spend on “home office needs”… Earlier this month, Facebook secured the main office lease on an iconic building in New York, for example — adding 730,000 square feet to its existing 2.2 million square feet of office space.

The entire set of Harry Potter movies is heading to Peacock and will be available in windows from later this year and into 2021, Variety reported. The films will even be accessible to those users with the free tier.

The octet of movies based on J.K. Rowling’s famed fantasy book series is set to roll off HBO Max as of Aug. 25, after WarnerMedia had carved out a three-month window for the popular franchise following its launch. In 2016, NBCU inked a deal with Warner Bros. locking up TV and digital rights to the Potter movies (including “Fantastic Beasts”) from 2018-2025 that also incorporated content for Universal theme parks. “The Harry Potter franchise is beloved by people of all ages and represents the caliber of quality entertainment customers can expect to find on Peacock,” said Frances Manfredi, Peacock’s president of content acquisition and strategy, in a statement. “We’ve built a world-class collection of iconic movies and shows, and we will continue to expand the film library with treasured titles from NBCUniversal and beyond that will surprise and delight Peacock customers time and time again.”

Amazon’s sci-fi game StarFinder is now available over Alexa devices, reported CNet. All you have to do is set up the skill and say “Alexa, play Starfinder.”

Starfinder is an exciting example of more experimental game and story formats made possible by voice assistants like Alexa. We’ve seen examples like The Wayne Investigation — a Batman-themed choose-your-own-adventure Alexa skill from 2016 — but Starfinder brings higher production values and a bigger budget to the structure, although Amazon won’t share the exact numbers. Actors like Laura Bailey (The Last of Us, Part II) and Nathan Fillion (Firefly, Castle) voice characters in a cast of 13, selected and recorded by Audible Studios. The acting, sound and music are excellent across the board. Unlike a simple choose-your-own-adventure, Starfinder allows you to select from five characters to play, gives you an inventory of items and checks your stats for performing different actions (say, schmoozing an alien or disarming a bomb).

Kashmir Hill stopped using the ‘big five’ tech giants, one at a time. For the final week, she stopped using them all. She relayed her experience for Gizmodo.

I went through the digital equivalent of a juice cleanse. I hope I’m better than most dieters at staying healthy afterward, but I don’t want to be a digital vegan. I want to embrace a lifestyle of “slow Internet,” to be more discriminating about the technology I let into my life and think about the motives of the companies behind it. The tech giants are reshaping the world in good and bad ways; we can take the good and reject the bad.

[Update: August 3] The quote above and main link (below) is from the first time Ms. Hill conducted this experiment, in 2019. She has since reflected on it for The New York Times.

It seems that the success of Tom Hanks moving Greyhound has prompted a shift in thinking at Apple TV+. While big-name series were clearly always fundamental, sources told Fast Company that blockbusters are going are to be a much bigger focus going forward.

One source says the streamer is discussing plans to release a dozen new movies a year on Apple TV Plus, roughly one a month. Two to four of those would be blockbuster-type titles such as Greyhound and Emancipation, the runaway-slave thriller starring Will Smith and directed by Antoine Fuqua (Training Day) that Apple recently acquired for $120 million in a bidding war with Warner Bros., Universal, and other studios. Another source had fewer specifics but confirmed that Apple is telling Hollywood that it’s now in the market for more tentpole-like feature films. (Apple would not comment for this story.) Apple’s greater focus on big films marks a noticeable amplification on its movie front.

TikTok has been the focus of much political attention recently due its base in China and allegations (which it denies,) of data sharing with the Chinese state. The video-sharing app has said it will move its HQ, but it could even be bought by a U.S. firm. Music Business Worldwide offered a number of reasons why that company could, and maybe should, be Apple.

TikTok’s global addictive appeal is no accident. The app’s advanced artificial intelligence capabilities and powerful recommendation algorithms are key factors behind the 68 billion hours spent by its users in the app last year. Case in point: respected investor and tech industry commentator Connie Chan recently wrote a piece in which she called TikTok “the first mainstream consumer app where artificial intelligence is the product”… In an increasingly competitive music streaming market, with Apple Music’s primary rival Spotify known for excelling in content recommendation, TikTok’s AI baked into the the Apple Music ecosystem could be Spotify’s kryptonite.