Welcome back to Lately, The Globe’s weekly tech newsletter. If you have feedback or just want to say hello to a real-life human, send me an e-mail.
In this week’s issue:
🔮 The future of TikTok in Canada
🗳️ A new political battleground emerges online: podcasting
🕵🏻♀️ A lost Mayan city found…by browsing the internet
📱 Apple Intelligence’s underwhelming debut
🎙️ LinkedIn is weird now
SOCIAL MEDIA
The future of TikTok in Canada
TikTok’s future is under threat in North America.Illustration by Dave Murray
In the seven years since TikTok arrived in Canada, it’s become the birthplace of new dance trends, the engine of political memes and the launchpad of burgeoning artists. Yet despite its meteoric rise and more than one billion global users, its future in North America is under threat.
TikTok, like all Chinese-owned companies, is subject to Chinese law, which requires it to share information with the government, if requested. Although the company has said it has never, and would not, share American or Canadian data, the U.S. government has said it will ban the platform unless its owner ByteDance sells to non-Chinese owners. Canada has not said if it would follow suit, but as my colleague Ann Hui writes, what comes next for TikTok has the potential to set new precedents for governments on how to balance social media as a platform for free speech and how to protect citizens from the all-taking powers of Big Tech.
INFLUENCERS
Trump and Harris turn to influencers to reach elusive voters
Kamala Harris speaks with Call Her Daddy’s Alex Cooper.Call Her Daddy/Reuters
This election season, Donald Trump and Kamala Harris have been on the podcast circuit, appearing on The Joe Rogan Experience, Call Her Daddy, This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von and others. As I wrote this week, the campaigns are increasingly turning to podcasts, YouTubers, social media stars and online influencers to break a months-long deadlock in the polls. The campaigns see these online spaces as gateways to specific segments of potential voters who are unlikely to catch their message through traditional media (and who often mistrust those outlets). But will this tactic work? We won’t know for sure until after the election.
INTERNET BROWSING
A PhD student finds lost Mayan city using Google Search
A Lidar image shows what archeologists say is a newly discovered lost Mayan city.Luke Auld-Thomas et al, 2024/Reuters
Most people don’t make it past the first page of Google Search results, much less click through to the 16th page. But that’s where Luke Auld-Thomas, a PhD archeology student at Tulane University, found a laser survey done by a Mexican organization, which led to the discovery of what is believed to be the second-largest Mayan site in ancient Latin America. As Auld-Thomas explained to the BBC, he took data from the Lidar survey – a remote sensing technology that examines the surface of the earth – and used archeology methods to reveal pyramids, sports fields and amphitheatres buried under vegetation in the Mexican state of Campeche. At the city’s peak in 750 to 850 AD, it may have been home to 50,000 people.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
Apple Intelligence arrives, finally
Apple Intelligence, the company’s much-hyped suite of AI tools, is finally available for its new models of iPhone 16, which came out more than a month ago. Or at least some of the features are now available in iOS 18.1, and only if you are in the United States. Canadians will have to wait until next month to try out the new AI features. The iOS 18.1 update includes Apple Intelligence’s photo tools, which can remove unwanted elements from photos, and writing tools, which can proofread and edit text, or change the tone to different styles such as “Friendly”, “Professional” or “Concise.” So far, reviewers are underwhelmed by the updates.
What else we’re reading this week:
Elon Musk wants big families. He bought a secret compound for his (New York Times)
How Comic Sans became the Crocs of fonts (Fast Company)
Online shopping cannot be trusted (The Walrus)
Soundbite
LinkedIn presented itself as this pure place that wasn’t going to be Twitter: you would have to use your real name, there’s no anonymity. It was seen as a safer premium place and it’s almost like that is being exploited now. It’s like they thought we’re going to take the goodness and actually make money off that.
— Tim Kiladze, Globe and Mail business reporter speaking about LinkedIn’s posting revolution on this week’s episode of the Lately podcast.
ADULT MONEY
DEALS
Nov. 1 is all about discount Halloween candy.The Globe and Mail
Discount Halloween candy
This week’s Adult Money is decidedly tech-free. Instead, it represents one of the best parts of being an adult: buying Halloween candy on sale on Nov. 1. In a world of uncertainty, heavily discounted boxes of chocolate bars, chips and squishy candies is something we can rely on. Getting a deal on candy feels even more critical now because as my colleague Dakshana Bascaramurty writes, manufacturers are shrinking candy bars and reducing the number of treats in each bag to protect profit margins.
Culture Radar
STREAMING
Bart and Homer were drafted to the NFL.ESPN
Watch a Simpson-fied version of the NFL
In an attempt to court young people, the NFL football game between the Dallas Cowboys and Cincinnati Bengals on Dec. 9 is going to Springfield – as in the fictional town of The Simpsons. The alternate broadcast will be a fully animated version of the game, with Homer supporting the Cowboys and Bart on the Bengals. Lisa and Marge will be sideline reporters, and other popular characters will appear in the telecast too. The animated game will stream on Disney+, ESPN+ and NFL+, while the regular one will be broadcast on ESPN.
The alt broadcast is the latest effort by the NFL and broadcasters to bring in Gen Z who may not regularly watch big league sports. According to a 2021 study, only 23 per cent of Gen Z describe themselves as a passionate sports fan and a further 27 per cent say they’re “anti-sports.”