TikTok will reportedly bring live shopping to the US this holiday season

TikTok plans to bring its live shopping “TikTok Shop” feature to North America using outsourced technology, according to The Financial Times. It’ll reportedly be launched “over the next month with large brands” to take advantage of holiday shopping. 

TikTok Shop is based on a similar, successful feature on TikTok’s sister app Douyin in China, and is available in Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, Singapore, the Philippines and Indonesia. Last year, it launched in the UK — the only country with availability outside of Asia. 

A similar feature on Douyin has reportedly hosted 9 million live ecommerce broadcasts per month, selling over 10 billion products in a single year from May 2021 to May 2022 — triple what it did the previous year. However, TikTok Shop apparently hasn’t fared as well in the UK, and because of that, TikTok postponed a planned launch elsewhere in Europe. 

The underlying technology will supposedly be provided by the US company TalkShopLive, which will also support livestreams hosted by influencers and brands. The agreements are still under discussion and “no contracts have been signed,” according to the FT.

TikTok didn’t deny or confirm upcoming US availability. “When it comes to market expansion for TikTok Shop we are always guided by demand and are constantly exploring new and different options for how we can best serve our community, creators and merchants in markets around the world,” the company told the FT. “These efforts include exploring partnerships which further support a seamless ecommerce experience for merchants, which is an important part of our ecosystem.”

The report comes just a day after rival Facebook abandoned its own Live Shopping feature. Facebook is now asking merchants to showcase products via Reels, Reels ads and product tagging on Instagram Reels. Last year, TikTok started testing a Shopping tab, letting business users add their profiles, sync their product catalogues and link to their online stores. It has also previously piloted live shopping in the US, most notably with Walmart

Alarming Video Shows Helicopter Crash In Yard Of California Home

Video shows the aircraft falling from the sky and landing outside a Fresno house Saturday morning.

Paramount's Smile Opens to Box Office Success

As it goes every year, the month of October is when horror movies shine. Such a slate for the month includes Halloween Ends and a re-release of Trick ‘r Treat, but first, we’re kicking things off with a Smile. And in terms of box office, Paramount’s newest film is already off to a pretty great start.

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Tesla built 365,923 electric vehicles in Q3, up 42 percent from Q2

After pandemic-related disruptions in Q2, Tesla ramped up its manufacturing capacity again last quarter, leading the company to make a record number of deliveries between July 1st and September 30th. The company built 365,923 electric vehicles during the period. That marks a year over-year production increase of nearly 54 percent, as Tesla manufactured 237,823 cars in Q3 2021. Production was also up by 41.5 percent from Q2 2022, when the automaker built 258,580 vehicles.

The company produced 19,935 Model S and Model X cars in Q3 and delivered 18,672. For the Model 3 and Model Y, those figures were 345,988 and 345,988, respectively. In total, Tesla says it was able to deliver 343,830 vehicles in Q3, the most it has delivered in any quarter to date. However, that was below expectations, according to Reuters. On average, analysts anticipated that Tesla would deliver 359,162 EVs during the quarter.

Tesla built around 20,000 more vehicles that it was able to deliver during Q3. “As our production volumes continue to grow, it is becoming increasingly challenging to secure vehicle transportation capacity and at a reasonable cost during these peak logistics weeks,” Tesla said in a statement.

CEO Elon Musk noted last year that Tesla sees a significant increase in deliveries at the end of every quarter. That’s because the Shanghai Gigafactory, which recently built its 1 millionth car, manufactures EVs bound for Europe and other countries in the first half of each quarter, “then cars for far away parts of China, then cars for nearby parts of China,” Musk said.

“In Q3, we began transitioning to a more even regional mix of vehicle builds each week, which led to an increase in cars in transit at the end of the quarter,” Tesla said. “These cars have been ordered and will be delivered to customers upon arrival at their destination.”

The number of cars Tesla manufactured and delivered dropped dramatically in Q2 2022. It was forced to suspend work at the Shanghai factory in March due to a COVID-19 outbreak in China. Production at the plant has resumed, while recently opened Gigafactories in Berlin and Texas have helped the company significantly improve its manufacturing numbers. We’ll learn more about what the uptick in production and deliveries means for Tesla’s bottom line when the company announces its Q3 financial results on October 19th.

Nicole Kidman’s Iconic AMC Ad Gets Even More Culty In ‘SNL’ Parody

Chloe Fineman nails her impression of the actor in a hilarious spoof of the theater chain’s now-legendary commercial.

Thanks, Cartoon Network, for 30 Years of Being You

We here at io9 have talked at length about cartoons, whether it’s cartoons from our childhoods that we’ve loved, or more recent ones that deserve a wider spotlight. And when it comes to western animation, you can’t talk about it without talking about one channel in particular.

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Thanks, Cartoon Network, for 30 Years of Being You

We here at io9 have talked at length about cartoons, whether it’s cartoons from our childhoods that we’ve loved, or more recent ones that deserve a wider spotlight. And when it comes to western animation, you can’t talk about it without talking about one channel in particular.

Read more…

Chrome's controversial new extension platform is coming in 2023

Google has slowly but surely been marching towards a new extension platform called Manifest V3 for Chrome. And now there is a firm timeline for its rollout. Starting with Chrome 112 in January of 2023 the company may start turning off support for Manifest V2 in the Canary, Dev and Beta channels. Then in June with Chrome 115, it will begin experimenting with turning off support in the stable channel as well. 

To coincide with the transition of Chrome stable to V3, all Manifest V2 extensions in the Chrome Web Store will be switched to unlisted. And eventually in January of 2024, the remaining V2 extensions will be removed completely. 

The transition has not been without controversy however. While Manifest V3 includes a ton of changes, many of which Google claims are in the name of privacy and security, it’s draw particular ire for how it would affect ad-blockers. It would essentially prevent them from working as they currently do, and render them all but useless. 

Most modern ad-blockers like uBloc Origin and AdGuard rely on Chrome’s “webRequest” API to block entire categories of HTTP requests from being made. But this method can add significant delays to load and render times for sites, which Google is obviously eager to avoid. Instead Manifest V3 requires developers to use a “declarativeNetRequest” which essentially forces them to use a blocklist of specific URLs. The problem is that list of “rules” is limited to 30,000 entries. And many ad-blocking lists can be in excess of 300,000 entries. 

Enterprise users are at least getting some reprieve, and will be able to continue using Manifest V2 extensions until January of 2024. 

Chrome's controversial new extension platform is coming in 2023

Google has slowly but surely been marching towards a new extension platform called Manifest V3 for Chrome. And now there is a firm timeline for its rollout. Starting with Chrome 112 in January of 2023 the company may start turning off support for Manifest V2 in the Canary, Dev and Beta channels. Then in June with Chrome 115, it will begin experimenting with turning off support in the stable channel as well. 

To coincide with the transition of Chrome stable to V3, all Manifest V2 extensions in the Chrome Web Store will be switched to unlisted. And eventually in January of 2024, the remaining V2 extensions will be removed completely. 

The transition has not been without controversy however. While Manifest V3 includes a ton of changes, many of which Google claims are in the name of privacy and security, it’s draw particular ire for how it would affect ad-blockers. It would essentially prevent them from working as they currently do, and render them all but useless. 

Most modern ad-blockers like uBloc Origin and AdGuard rely on Chrome’s “webRequest” API to block entire categories of HTTP requests from being made. But this method can add significant delays to load and render times for sites, which Google is obviously eager to avoid. Instead Manifest V3 requires developers to use a “declarativeNetRequest” which essentially forces them to use a blocklist of specific URLs. The problem is that list of “rules” is limited to 30,000 entries. And many ad-blocking lists can be in excess of 300,000 entries. 

Enterprise users are at least getting some reprieve, and will be able to continue using Manifest V2 extensions until January of 2024. 

Pine Island Residents Recall Terror As Hurricane Ian Raged In Florida

Emergency responders are seeking to evacuate residents from the largest barrier island off Florida’s Gulf Coast.