Signalling protocol for heterogeneous Internet of things gateways

Framework for combating the use of stolen mobile devices

Signalling requirements for the separation of control plane and user plane in a virtualized broadband network gateway (vBNG)

Signalling requirements and architecture for interconnection between trustable network entities

The compatibility testing of SDN-based equipment using OpenFlow protocol

Supplement on Guidelines for developing a sustainable e-waste management system
Source: Editor
Study Questions: Q13/5

Draft Supplement on Guidelines for developing a sustainable e-waste management system
Source: Editor
Study Questions: Q13/5

Supplement on Guidelines for developing a sustainable e-waste management system
Source: Egypt, Uganda

Timing characteristics of an enhanced synchronous equipment slave clock

Self-FEXT cancellation (vectoring) for use with VDSL2 transceivers

New Appendix V - Provisional planning values for the fullband equipment impairment factor and the fullband packet loss robustness factor

Serial asynchronous automatic dialling and control

Procedures for establishing communication between two multiprotocol audiovisual terminals using digital channels at a multiple of 64 or 56 kbit/s

Serial asynchronous automatic dialling and control

a modem operating at data signalling rates of up to 28 800 bit/s for use on the general switched telephone network and on leased point-to-point 2-wire telephone-type circuits

Error-correcting procedures for DCEs using asynchronous-to-synchronous conversion

A 48/56/64 kbit/s data-circuit terminating equipment standardized for use on digital point-to-point leased circuits

Electrical characteristics for unbalanced double-current interchange circuits for general use with integrated circuit equipment in the field of data communications

Electrical characteristics for balanced double-current interchange circuits for general use with integrated circuit equipment in the field of data communications

Transmission of start-stop characters over synchronous bearer channels

Automatic calling and/or answering equipment on the general switched telephone network (GSTN) using the 100-series interchange circuits

A family of 2-wire, duplex modems operating at data signalling rates of up to 9600 bit/s for use on the general switched telephone network and on leased telephone-type circuits

Error-correcting procedures for DCEs using asynchronous-to-synchronous conversion

A modem operating at data signalling rates of up to 33 600 bit/s for use on the general switched telephone network and on leased point-to-point 2-wire telephone-type circuits

New Annex B - Use of data signal detection and silence insertion in voiceband data, and new Annex C on use of V.21 preamble for echo canceller control in a V.152 gateway

Interworking between ITU-T T.38 and ITU-T V.152 using IP peering for real-time facsimile services

Asynchronous serial command interface for assistive and multi-functional communication devices

Various extensions to V.250 basic command set

Read the book, Typographic Firsts

This month, Steven Heller takes a closer look at the Roadhouse font family.

The post Steven Heller’s Font of the Month: Roadhouse appeared first on I Love Typography.

Wireframing is the first and the most crucial step in deciding the fate of an application. The right wireframe can make an excellent app – turning an idea perfectly into an app, while a wrong wireframe can break everything. And to make a wireframe perfect, you need a wireframing tool to solve your design purpose.  […]

The post Most Popular Wireframe tools Small Business Should Consider in 2022 appeared first on Usability Geek

When it comes to testing your user experiences, there are plenty of methods you can use that will get you the information you need. From interviews to assistive technology testing, these methods offer a more streamlined and beneficial process capable of revealing the insights you need to revolutionize your UX. But how can you know […]

The post Testing: User, Usability, and Others You Should Be Using appeared first on Usability Geek

With over 4.8 billion users currently on the internet across the globe, the digital world as we once knew it continues to adapt to accommodate modern forms of interaction and communication across the social sphere. As e-commerce booms and social platforms multiply, it’s clear that a digitally native world is only around the corner. With […]

The post From Users To Players: The Future Of UX Design In The Metaverse appeared first on Usability Geek

Empathizing with your users creates successful products. So here are some design tools and tips to help you strengthen your user empathy and enhance your UX research. This guide will help you know when to apply user empathy to your design process, what tools to use, and why it is beneficial to understand your users […]

The post How To Empathize With Your Users appeared first on Usability Geek

Wall Street firms are expected to pay heftier bonuses for this year, the first increase since a bumper year in 2021, according to a report by compensation consultancy Johnson Associates.

Payouts will probably rise after financiers benefited from several factors in recent months: a recovery in dealmaking, the Federal Reserve cutting interest rates and equity markets surging to record highs, said the consultancy’s founder, Alan Johnson.

“This year has been surprisingly good, and the industry is quite optimistic about 2025, especially with the potential of announcing more M&A deals,” he said, referring to mergers and acquisitions.

While bonuses will be more generous, they will remain below the record levels from 2021, when revenue and compensation were “abnormally good,” Johnson said.

Investment bankers in debt underwriting are projected to receive the biggest surge in bonuses of 25% to 35% for 2024, the estimates showed, buoyed by a resurgence of activity. Their counterparts in equity capital markets will likely get boosts of 15% to 25%.

Meanwhile, a slower recovery for M&A will result in more modest bonus increases of 5% to 10% for bankers advising on transactions.

Traders will also reap a windfall from more volatility and rising equities, the report showed. Equity sales and trading professionals can expect their bonuses to climb about 15% to 20%, while in fixed income, payouts will probably rise 5% to 10%.

But not all bankers will share in the recovery, the consultant said. Bonuses for retail and commercial bankers will probably decline or stay flat for the year.

—Tatiana Bautzer, Reuters

Something bad is happening in Oz.

Last week, fans of Wicked, the musical-soon-to-be-movie, headed to retailers including Target, Walmart, and Macy’s to pick up Mattel’s limited-edition Wicked Barbie dolls ahead of the film’s release on November 22. At first, it seemed like any other Mattel collaboration—until a few fans started searching the URL printed on the back of the box, which led not to the Wicked movie website, as intended, but to a parody porn site of the same name. 

Mattel has apologized for the mix-up and promised to “remedy” the error, but that hasn’t stopped fans from speculating about how such an egregious typo could’ve made its way to the box in the first place. One popular theory, which has garnered more than 62,000 likes on X, is that the mistake had something to do with AI.

In an email to Fast Company, Mattel’s Barbie & Dolls director of global brand communications wrote, “I can confirm AI was not used on packaging for Mattel Wicked collection dolls.”

Though AI has been the culprit of plenty of misguided marketing snafus, the tweet demonstrates a misunderstanding of how Mattel is actually using AI tools in its packaging development process—and shows that, even as AI gains popularity with creative teams as a production tool, human error is alive and well.

The official Mattel Wicked dolls link to a porn site on the box ???????? pic.twitter.com/iW4mNVAlPE

— just2good (Sarah Genao) (@just2goodYT) November 9, 2024

Can we blame a chatbot for this?

In June, Fast Company covered Mattel’s announcement that it planned to use Adobe Firefly, a generative AI software, as part of its packaging development process. At the time, Mattel’s chief design officer Chris Down clarified that the tech would be used to help visualize fantastical new concepts and speed up time-consuming processes, like fine-tuning a background in Photoshop. The company’s guidelines around generative AI tools specified that Firefly could not be used to generate subject matter itself, like the actual doll (or, in this case, the accompanying text). 

Nevertheless, an X user shared Fast Company’s original headline alongside the news of the Wicked typo with the caption “Smash cut to four months later.” One commenter under the post wrote, “how did I know this mistake happened bc they’re using AI.” Another added, “The future is so, so dumb.”

Mattel has previously been open about how it’s used AI for doll packaging. In early October, the first Mattel packaging featuring input from Adobe Firefly hit shelves. The company explained to AdAge at the time that its new Holiday Barbie and Sue Bird Barbie packages incorporated backgrounds generated by Firefly, which had then been touched up by human designers. It’s important to note that, for a brand as wide-reaching as Mattel, AI is not being used in the design process without guardrails around both IP and image quality. Any visuals provided by Firefly are vetted and edited by multiple human designers before they ever reach the actual box.

At this stage, it’s highly unlikely that Mattel would trust an AI software to write the final copy for their packaging. It appears that the Wicked Barbie typo was a plain old instance of human error—if a somewhat inconceivable one. As of this writing, Mattel hasn’t responded to Fast Company‘s request for comment on how the mistake may have been made during the design process.

The fallout

In a statement on the Wicked packaging misprint, Mattel shared, “We deeply regret this unfortunate error and are taking immediate action to remedy this. Parents are advised that the misprinted, incorrect website is not appropriate for children. Consumers who already have the product are advised to discard the product packaging or obscure the link and may contact Mattel Customer Service for further information.” 

While it’s unclear exactly what steps Mattel plans to take to “remedy” the issue, retailers including Target, Walmart, Amazon, Best Buy, Barnes & Noble, and Macy’s had already pulled the dolls from shelves as of midday Monday. 

Meanwhile, there are a few parties benefitting from the unfortunate situation. Variety reports that the mistakenly shared porn site has seen a 12-year surge in traffic after the incident, and several eBay users have taken this opportunity to massively mark up their Wicked dolls in original packaging. One pack of seven different dolls, advertised as “IN MISPRINT ERROR BOX,” is currently going for $3,500. 

Mattel is sure to take a financial and reputational hit from this incident. Still, the news pick-up, social media speculation, and pricey eBay reselling demonstrate how a simple mistake can turn a run-of-the-mill product drop into something fans will remember—for better or worse.

If hybrid cars can cut CO2 emissions on the road, can hybrid-electric planes do the same in the air? 

NASA is exploring that possibility, announcing this week two contracts to aviation startup Electra. The company claims it can meet NASA’s goal of reducing airliner fuel use by 60% to 80% by 2035 with a hybrid design that features generators powering motors to drive a large number of propellers. While this may sound like a convoluted way to power an airliner, the company claims it ultimately requires far less fuel than a traditional plane. 

Electra is already flying a two-seat test plane with this kind of system and will debut a nine-seater with a 380-mile range this week. It’s now partnering with American Airlines, Honeywell, Lockheed Martin, MIT, and the University of Michigan to guide the design and scale up the tech to airliners.

Electra’s grants, totaling about $3.5 million, are part of the $11.5 million, to four companies and one university for the first phase of its Advanced Aircraft for Sustainable Aviation (AACES) 2050 program. First announced in August 2023, AACES challenges companies to propose aircraft concepts that could help bring passenger and cargo plane emissions to zero by 2050.

The aviation industry has long touted zero-emission fuels (for example, jet fuel made from biomass, or hydrogen produced with green electricity) as the ultimate climate solution. It’s easier to make enough of these fuels if new planes need a lot less of them—hence NASA’s challenge to Electra and the other winners to develop radically more-efficient designs.

The case for electric-powered planes

A number of companies are developing electric airplanes, but most are for short-range air taxi services. Toyota-backed Joby Aviation, for example, promises to put a four-passenger plane into service as soon as 2025. Powered 100% by heavy batteries, packing about 1/40th as much energy per pound as jet fuel, Joby’s plane can fly 100 miles per charge.

Electra stands out as one of the few companies, alongside Sweden’s Heart Aerospace and Ampaire and Whisper Aero out of the U.S., testing different hybrid concepts to dramatically extend range. (NASA has also been testing hybrid tech with other companies.) Electra and its allies’ initial concept for NASA is a 114-seat airliner that can fly nearly 3,300 miles, says Electra’s vice president and general manager, JP Stewart. But he says the tech can scale to NASA’s largest target: carrying about 300 people up to around 8,600 miles.

Electra’s take on hybrid technology is called a “series hybrid.” On a traditional plane, each propeller (or jet engine) requires a big, expensive turbine that burns jet fuel. By using turbines to power generators instead, Electra can run more props using lightweight electric motors. Electra’s initial sketch has five propellers across each wing (plus three in the tail), which the company says can improve airflow and boost the wing’s ability to lift the plane—tech that’s already working on its two-seat prototype. For its NASA proposal, Electra envisions an airliner that uses this hybrid tech and a new design of the fuselage (the tube carrying passengers) to take off with smaller wings, which will produce less drag and save fuel in flight.

Another benefit of hooking a turbine to a generator, says Stewart, is that the turbine can run at its most-efficient speed throughout the flight. Airplane engines have to be very flexible, gunning it on takeoff and landing and running less intensely when the plane is cruising in the air. Turbines that power the propellers directly don’t have the flexibility to do both tasks efficiently; electric motors do. Finally, by adding batteries to the mix, the plane can use a smaller turbine that needs to produce just enough power for cruising, says Electra. For takeoff and landing, battery packs join in to provide the extra oomph only when needed.

Electra’s concept is just one of several ideas NASA has given the green light to. Another contract winner, JetZero, has proposed a liquid hydrogen-powered, “blended wing body” concept for a jetliner or cargo plane that ditches the traditional design of a metal tube with wings and a tail. Instead, it has a tail-less, triangular shape that looks a bit like a B2 Stealth Bomber and promises major fuel savings. 

Other winners include Georgia Institute of Technology, Pratt & Whitney (part of the RTX conglomerate), and Boeing-owned Aurora Flight Sciences, which are working on several engine and body technologies. (Aurora founder John Langford went on to found Electra in 2020.)

The task now for Electra, JetZero, and other winners is to produce a final airplane design in 18 months. Getting real planes in the air will take many more years.

Influencers have played a big role in this election cycle. Hundreds of typically nonpolitical content creators have been using their platforms to endorse candidates on both sides of the political spectrum. Funnily enough, those who said nothing on election day actually ended up being the loudest. 

“Speaking as an influencer, a lot of your favorite influencers are fucking embarrassing,” said TikToker Kate Glavan. “To be a woman in America with a huge fucking platform and a huge audience and post nothing yesterday, just business as usual, ‘I’m going to my Pilates and I’m going to my brunch . . . ’ No one gives a fuck about your Amazon storefront or your fucking makeup routine.” 

The comment section of her video is filled with people calling out the names of influencers who have been notably silent throughout the election. “Me finding out which influencers voted [Republican] cause they are the ones who are strangely silent and acting like its a regular day,” posted another TikTok user last week. 

For influencers, posting who they voted for is a lose-lose situation. Pick a side and they risk alienating a large section of their audience. Stay silent and they risk alienating a large section of their audience. While it makes sense that followers want to know who their favorite influencer voted for, should we expect—or even want—political activism from people whose job involves posting their Sephora hauls and workout routines?

With apologies to Voltaire, with great virality comes great responsibility. Unlike media outlets, which are subject to regulation, there is little oversight of social media, meaning influencer posts can reach millions and have huge sway over their followings. During the 2024 election cycle we have seen influencers and internet personalities being paid on behalf of groups backing both Vice President Kamala Harris or former President Donald Trump to court their followers’ votes, cashing in on thousands—sometimes millions—for a single post. 

Social media influencers have more influence than they are often given credit for, according to research published in the journal Management Information Systems Quarterly. In fact, research by Pew shows that more than half of U.S. adults (54%) turn to social media for news at least some of the time, putting influencers in direct competition with traditional news outlets for audience attention. To stand out in this crowded space, influencers are incentivized to exaggerate their messages, often leading to polarized followers. If their audience ends up blindly following what they say instead of examining the candidate’s or party’s policies for themselves, it can result in diminished critical thinking in voters. 

Influencers are human and will have a political opinion whether they choose to share it or not. Being pressured into posting about politics can sometimes end up causing more harm than good. At the same time, choosing not to post anything at all during such a divisive election is a choice. So is following an account.

I am a huge baseball fan, so World Series time is one of my favorite times of the year, especially when my Yankees are playing. (Yes—I’m a Yankees fan. Winners can handle the hate.) I went to my first game at Shea Stadium to see the Yankees play the Senators and played stickball in Lefferts Park imagining I would pitch for the Yankees someday.

I came up as a fan towards the tail end of the first generation of integrated baseball. Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in the late forties. By the 1950s, the Negro League, which had until that point been the main place for Black men to play professional baseball, was essentially defunct.

This year was the 100^th anniversary of the Negro League. It began in 1924 and grew in popularity from there. Despite the talent of the players in those teams, the all-white Major League did everything they could to keep Black men out of baseball. They resisted it for years until Jackie Robinson came along.

Why? Racism, sure. But also, because they were afraid.

They were afraid of putting Black men and white men on the same playing field—literally. They were worried—in some cases, rightfully so—that Black men would outperform white men at the game. Instead of opening the ballparks to everyone, creating a true meritocracy and better baseball for all, they artificially kept a part of the population out of the game.

The problem with limiting inclusion

I see a similar trend playing out in our economy now: We are artificially keeping a whole class of people out, limiting the true potential of what we can achieve.

Almost 400 laws have been introduced in the past few years to stop or restrict the use of social impact considerations in private sector decision-making. These include laws that would ban diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives to support the most marginalized among us to start and grow businesses. This push has been exemplified by the legal effort to stop a privately funded program from the Fearless Fund, which aimed to help Black women founders and their companies. The Fearless Fund recently settled to avoid creating a legal precedent against these kinds of programs in the future.

I will not put on my attorney hat and get into the merits of these laws or lawsuits. That’s for another time. But clearly, a group of people felt threatened by the support of Black women entrepreneurs, enough to spend time and resources to take legal action.

They are doing this, even though Black women, women of color, and people of color in general, have the most barriers to success as entrepreneurs and small business owners. Black and Latiné business owners are usually constrained by undercapitalization and often lack access to traditional advisor and investor networks. As a result, people of color are less likely to be approved for small business loans, and when they are approved, receive lower amounts at higher interest rates compared to their white counterparts.

Investment returns are the same, yet . . .

The picture on the equity side of the equation is not any brighter. While white men receive at least 77% of the venture capital funding, Black men receive less than 1% of it. However, data have also shown that investment firms managed by people of color perform no different from firms managed by white people, for most asset classes.

For four major asset classes—mutual funds, hedge funds, real estate, and private equity—with a combined $69.1 trillion in assets globally, less than 1.3% are managed by people of color and white women. And of this asset bucket, only 1% percent are managed by Black people. This results in a lack of diversity in which founders are funded with venture capital and private equity. Like segregated baseball, it also begs the question about what innovation, creativity, and productivity are all of us missing out on because of this pattern of exclusion.

Legal advocates and their supporters are doing everything they can to stop anyone trying to upset this norm, just like they kept baseball segregated for as long as they could. Beyond a single case, they have effectively cowed potential investors from expanding economic opportunity for fear of becoming a target of groundless litigation. While Major League Baseball colluded to exclude Black men from competing with white men, white MLB players were also barred from competing in the Negro Leagues and feared reprisals.

Now, similar forces seek to bar Black women’s access to competition with white men by threatening reprisals to private investors and philanthropists. So far, their strategy seems to be successful. Unlike Dodgers owner Branch Rickey who invested in Jackie Robinson to win and ultimately improve baseball, white investors seem to be standing back, avoiding being called out as champions for economic equity and inclusion. (Their support for Robinson is probably the only reason I wasn’t too brokenhearted when the Dodgers beat my Yankees for the series title.) Perhaps investors do not want to find out if Black women entrepreneurs are actually better than the average white male entrepreneur.

We can all win in an inclusive economy

Our nation does not need to impede everyone capable and courageous enough to start a business, keeping up yesterday’s systemic barriers to economic opportunity. Such barriers need to be broken so we can all enjoy the fruits of an economy that recognizes talent and drive.

In the same way, we celebrate Jackie Robinson today and MLB has adjusted its records to include men like my grandfather, New York Cuban all-star pitcher Patricio Scantlebury, we will celebrate those with the courage to demand and strive for excellence and inclusion. They may not win before courts skilled in today’s ahistorical sophistry, but they will win in the court of public opinion. Our history will remember them and those who invested in them as champions for the equitable and inclusive economy we all deserve.

Joe Scantlebury, JD, is CEO of Living Cities.

In our ever-changing and seemingly chaotic world, the typo, that simple yet ubiquitous mistake that everyone everywhere makes occasionally, is still too often deemed as the ultimate death knell for too many potential hires, projects, and deals. 

As the dyslexic son of an English teacher and a librarian, the importance of proper grammar and spelling has been metaphorically beaten into my brain since early childhood. “Food is good . . . You do things well . . .” was an all too common saying around my eastern North Carolina childhood home. 

The older I’ve gotten and the more that I’ve tried, these pesky, frustrating, and often hilarious mistakes still manage to creep their way into literally every single thing I do. It’s both maddening and inevitable, but also nearly always funny. 

What makes us unique

Everyone has a special, unique, and key talent. Mine is inevitably inserting typos at the exact wrong point and being unable to spot them after the fact . . . until, of course, it’s too late and I’ve sent my now mortifyingly unsendable error. 

For most of my life, this has been a near-crippling fear. It’s slowed down productivity, inhibited timely responses, and very likely affected friendships and professional relationships. 

In a shocking (but obvious) sense of self-realization during a conversation about AI recently, the need for perfection—and the ever-blurring line between technology and humanity—I finally realized just how little these this actually matters in the grand scheme of things. And how these all too human mistakes show our quirks and personalities in ways that ever-evolving AI can and never will replicate. Let’s stop pretending otherwise. 

While I’m fully aware that my english teacher mother is likely looking down at me from beyond the grave unamused and shaking her head in disapproval at my self-realization, I do in fact believe that as a society we should be embracing our quirks more fully, as these are what truly make us human.  

For clarification, I’m not arguing for an age of not caring. I’m just arguing for an age of caring within reason. At the end of the day, life is far too short and there are far too many other things of higher importance that demand our attention than to needlessly worry about such things. I mean seriously . . . fukc it . . .

William Dodge is cofounder and artist at A Gang of Three and founder and design principal at p-u-b-l-i-c.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution, fueled by the internet of things (IoT), is dramatically reshaping the manufacturing landscape. This new era, often referred to as Industry 4.0, integrates advanced digital technologies with traditional manufacturing processes, creating a highly automated and interconnected production environment. From factory floors to our daily lives, sensors are now ubiquitous, connecting disparate systems and driving unprecedented innovation and advancements in productivity, efficiency, and automation.

Our nation’s mobility ecosystem is now in the early innings of a similar transformation. Simply put, the mobility ecosystem can be defined as the critical infrastructure—physical and digital—that touches people’s lives every day. It’s where vehicles get fueled, charged, washed, serviced, and repaired. And it’s where travelers get their necessities.

Modernization of the convenience store

This industry is becoming increasingly complex. And as driver expectations evolve, technology advances and a multi-energy future takes shape, there is an urgent need to digitize, connect, and optimize these operations. One prime example of this need is the modern convenience store.

These stores are becoming go-to destinations and now offer a range of essential services, including fueling, charging, car wash, craveable food, beverages, and other on-the-go staples. A recent survey by Vontier found that American drivers are not only prioritizing convenience and a one-stop-shop experience but are also willing to pay more and even drive a little out of their way to get it. Nearly 60% of respondents indicated they would be happy to pay a markup on convenience store products if it meant making only one stop. This suggests a growing consumer demand for convenience and efficiency that aligns with the broader trends of digital transformation. However, many of these assets and services still operate in silos like they did decades ago, missing out on valuable data and insights that could enhance efficiency and revenue.

Imagine a future where the early morning rush at a bustling convenience store is seamlessly orchestrated. The store owner, feeling confident and prepared, watches as her employees anticipate the familiar routine. An Amazon delivery driver rolls in for his usual fill-up and coffee, while a family on their way to the beach picks up sandwiches to go while charging their electric vehicle (EV). Behind the scenes, linked payment systems can make this a reality, streamlining transactions and providing valuable data insights. By leveraging advanced analytics, businesses—from large convenience store chains like Circle K, 7-Eleven, Wawa, and Sheetz, to the small family-run businesses—can understand driver behavior, tailor offerings for digital-savvy consumers, track asset usage, optimize maintenance, avoid downtime, anticipate trends, improve workflows, and perhaps most importantly, exceed customer expectations and improve customer loyalty.

The commercial fleet market

A similar transformation is happening in the commercial/industrial fleet vehicle market. As the industry looks to modernize and decarbonize, integrating traditionally disparate systems and data can help fleets make better, quicker decisions and improve their key performance metrics. Managing mixed fleets (gas, diesel, natural gas, EV, and hydrogen fuel types) and deciding the right time to transition fleets is a major challenge and requires multiple technologies and capabilities across telematics, route planning, fuel logistics, EV network management, and energy management. An integrated platform can help make recommendations on how to best manage and fuel fleets at the lowest total cost of ownership while helping achieve sustainability and compliance goals. It can also provide valuable visibility, planning, monitoring, reporting, and control across the entire fleet, optimizing operations and reducing costs.

It’s time for the mobility industry to seize this opportunity and pioneer a smarter, more sustainable and connected ecosystem. By leveraging IoT principles, we can digitize and improve operations, unlocking new revenue streams, improving customer experiences, and enhancing productivity, uptime, safety, and sustainability,

Industry 4.0 has paved the way. To achieve Mobility Ecosystem 4.0, we must break down the silos that have traditionally hindered progress. The stakes are nothing short of monumental: increased productivity, efficiency, and a more sustainable future for all. 

Mark Morelli is president and CEO of Vontier. 

While Donald Trump has announced a few people who will be part of his new administration, when it comes to Cabinet appointees, things appear to be ramping up fast. Trump has named people to several roles, including chief of staff and border czar, and media reports in the past 24 hours have leaked a number of potential Cabinet appointments–with more to come.

On Monday night, the Wall Street Journal reported that Trump was expected to name Florida Senator Marco Rubio as his Secretary of State—the first of the 15 Cabinet posts to be filled. And on Tuesday South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem was tapped to head Homeland Security. Trump also confirmed that former Rep. Lee Zeldin would be his EPA administrator and that John Ratcliffe, the one-time director of National Intelligence during the final year of Trump’s first term and a former congressman who is unflinchingly loyal to Trump, is his pick to lead the CIA. Trump also surprised many with his pick of Fox News host Pete Hegseth for Defense Secretary.

The job of Cabinet secretaries is to advise the president on issues that are related to their office—and whoever fills those must first be confirmed by the Senate . . . at least, for now. Trump is already calling on the Republican-controlled Senate to change those rules and let him appoint nominees without a Senate vote.

Nominees for Cabinet positions are normally trusted advisors, experts in their field, and sometimes major donors. Tesla CEO and Trump backer Elon Musk also may or may not be involved: He recently put out a call on X saying it “would be interesting to hear recommendations for roles in the new administration for consideration by the President.”

Whether those recommendations will carry any weight is, of course, unknown, but given how close Musk and Trump are now—and Trump’s fondness for social media feedback—it can’t be discounted entirely.

That said, here are some of the leading and potential candidates for select Cabinet posts:

Attorney General

Senator Mike Lee: Considered by some as the leading candidate, the Utah Senator aided efforts to overturn the 2020 election. He has also spread conspiracy theories about the January 6 attack on the Capitol. That’s a big turnaround from 2016, when he did not vote for Trump.

Jeffrey Clark: Known best as the assistant Attorney General who pressured officials in the Justice Department to overturn Trump’s loss in 2020, Clark is currently under indictment in Georgia for his role in that election. Three months ago, a disciplinary committee in Washington, D.C., said Clark should be disbarred for two years for efforts to interfere with election results.

Treasury Secretary

Scott Bessent: The former Soros Fund Management executive (and founder and CEO of Key Square Group) is reportedly Trump’s “go-to economic advisor” and has become the frontrunner in the race for Treasury Secretary after John Paulson removed himself from consideration Tuesday.  He has known the Trump family for decades and is friends with JD Vance. Bessent has expressed concerns about the country’s debt levels and believes the way to correct that is by increasing growth. Asked about a possible Treasury secretary role by CNBC, he said, “I’m going to do whatever Donald Trump asks.”

Howard Lutnick: While Lutnick, who is CEO of investment firm Cantor Fitzgerald, might be under consideration, he’s busy right now leading the Trump transition team with Linda McMahon (who was administrator of the Small Business Administration, 2017-2019, during Trump’s first term). Lutnick and Trump have been friends for more than 20 years and he raised or donated more than $75 million for Trump’s reelection bid.

Larry Kudlow: Best known as a Fox Business financial commentator, Kudlow served as director of the National Economic Council during the Trump Administration, 2018-2021. Throughout this election cycle, Kudlow has been a vocal supporter of Trump and his economic policies on Fox.

Wild cards

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: While Kennedy has said Trump “promised” him “control of the public health agencies,” the exact role he will play in the administration (if any) is still very much up in the air. Asked by CNN in August if he would appoint the independent politician to his cabinet, Trump said “he probably would,” but public criticism of Kennedy’s stance on vaccines and water fluoridation has grown considerably since then.

Elon Musk: Musk has stuck close to Trump since the election, even sitting in on a call with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Musk has, however, taken himself out of the running for any Cabinet positions, according to Trump. “He doesn’t want to be in the Cabinet, he just wants to be in charge of cost-cutting. We’ll have a new position, secretary of cost-cutting—Elon wants to do that.” On Tuesday, Trump announced that Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy would indeed head a new agency called the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to cut government spending, although a new agency cannot be created without Congress.

Update, November 12, 2024: This article has been updated with Trump’s picks for CIA and Defense Secretary, and announcement about Musk and Ramaswamy.

Facebook and Instagram users in Europe will get the option to see less personalized ads if they don’t want to pay for an ad-free subscription, social media company Meta said Tuesday, bowing to pressure from Brussels over privacy and digital competition concerns.

Meta Platforms has been offering European Union an ad-free subscription option for about a year to comply with the continent’s strict data privacy rules, but regulators had accused the company of giving people a false choice.

The company said in a blog post that while people will still be able to choose between the subscription and existing free versions, it would also start giving free users an extra option over the coming weeks to see digital ads that are less personalized.

This means ads will be targeted at users based only on what they see during their current session on Facebook or Instagram going back no more than two hours, plus minimal personal information such as age, location, gender as well as how they engage with ads.

Data from all of a user’s previous time spent on Facebook or Instagram, which is typically combined to precisely target an individual with tailored ads, won’t be used.

“While this new choice is designed to give people an additional control over their data and ad experience, it may result in ads that are less relevant to a person’s interests,” Meta said in a blog post. “That means people will see ads that they don’t find as interesting. This drop in relevance is inevitable given that drastically reduced data is being used to show these less personalized ads to people.”

People who choose the new option will see ad breaks that can’t be skipped for a few seconds, Meta said.

European Union regulators had accused Meta of breaching the 27-nation bloc’s digital rules when it gave user the option to pay a monthly fee to avoid being targeted by ads based on their personal data.

The U.S. tech giant had rolled out the option after the European Union’s top court ruled Meta must first get consent before showing ads to users, in a decision that threatened its business model of tailoring ads based on individual users’ online interests and digital activity.

The company also said Tuesday it’s slashing monthly subscription prices for the ad-free option. Web users will pay 5.99 euros ($6.36), down from 9.99 euros previously, while iPhone and Android users will be charged 7.99 euros instead of 12.99 euros, which includes commissions charged by the Apple and Google mobile app stores.

Meta’s new subscription model could hit the company’s lucrative digital ad business in one of its biggest markets. The company said it has already factored the new offering into its most recent business outlook and financial guidance.

The options are available to users 18 and older in the EU’s 27 member countries, plus Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein.

—Kelvin Chan, Associated Press business writer

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