Thursday, February 16, 2023 at 5:40AM 
Photo: OPPO
After its debut in China late last year, the OPPO Find N2 Flip makes its international debut, meaning it'll finally make its way to more markets than its home country. This Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 competitor gets priced at £849 (around $1,370).
Thursday, February 16, 2023 at 4:28AM 
A nuisance that started rolling out on Google Calendar recently finally gets a new fix. Google started rolling out a new enabled-by-default spam filter. The system will automatically detect calendar invites sent to your Gmail address. If they see it's from someone you've never communicated with, it will block the invitations. You can revisit the email invite, respond to it, and add it to your calendar. If you're unclear if you have this new feature, Google has been sending out an email on top of the pop-up that shows up in the app.
Tuesday, February 14, 2023 at 10:37PM 
Graphic: Pinterest
If you want to get better at using Pinterest as a marketing avenue, the platform launched its refreshed Pinterest Academy education resource. The e-learning site offers courses and insights to understand Pinterest better. The refreshed courses focus on the new elements of the platform with a larger focus on video (via Idea Pins) and the new visual elements.
There are over twice as many courses in the Pinterest Academy. It teaches everything from "foundational knowledge, like Pinterest ad formats or on-platform measurement tools" to Pinterest trends, which will come in handy if you're planning your strategy on the site. There are also new achievement badges you can show off when you complete an element/lesson. Pinterest Academy courses are available globally in English, with French, Italian, Spanish, German, Japanese, and Portuguese languages coming later this year.
Tuesday, February 14, 2023 at 9:25PM 
Photo: Gabrielle Henderson/Unsplash
Code within the Instagram app suggests Meta is planning to take cues from Elon Musk's Twitter by adding blue checkmarks in its app, which is verification on the social platform that Twitter now charges for. Reverse engineering professional Alessandro Paluzzi spotted a new mention in the codebase of both Facebook and Instagram suggesting it wants to add a "paid blue badge."
Meta has yet to confirm or deny the feature, but if true, it looks like the company is looking for a new way to monetize. It's a baffling source of revenue from a creator's perspective, given verification is crucial for ensuring prominent people or profiles are distinguished from copycats, scammers, and the like. What value would these blue checkmarks bring if people can just pay for them? Since this is hidden within the code, it may not even be released. But it gives us an idea of what Meta might be considering.
