Lauren Goode

A group of bipartisan US senators and representatives have called for an additional $7 billion that would extend the Affordable Connectivity Program through the end of 2024. The White House has expressed support, but the proposal hasn’t yet advanced in Congress. In the meantime, some ISPs are offering short-term subsidies and new discount plans to try to support low-income households that were previously relying on ACP.  First implemented in 2021, the ACP was part of a massive, $1.2 trillion Biden administration deal called the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

Facing heightened scrutiny for its social media policies and relentless quest for growth, Facebook is now turning its attention to getting more people high-speed internet access in hard-to-reach places. The move comes with some irony, as it comes on the heels of Facebook’s own massive outage, which temporarily took down all of the apps in its empire.

Apple made its long-anticipated foray into health and fitness information gathering with HealthKit, a Passbook-like application that pulls in data from third-party apps and consolidates them in one comprehensive health-related profile.

There are existing apps for “everything from monitoring your activity level, to your weight, to chronic medical conditions like blood pressure and diabetes,” Apple’s Craig Federighi, senior vice president of software engineering, said. “But right now that information lives in silos.”

With HealthKit in iOS 8, there’s now a single profile of activity and health. Not surprisingly, Apple named Nike as an early partner in this. But it also named the reputable Mayo Clinic as a partner.