Apple Podcasts is now available on Amazon Echo and Fire TV devices in Germany like they are in the U.S, AppleInsider reported. The service can be set as the default via a skill. I very much hope this comes to other European countries, including the UK! At the moment, in these other countries, you can access podcasts on an Alexa device via TuneIn.

Tuesday was Instagram’s 10-year birthday. To mark the occasion, the Facebook-owned photo-sharing platform announced new anti-bullying features on its official blog.

In the last few days, we started testing a new feature that automatically hides comments similar to others that have been reported. We know from research that, while people don’t want to be exposed to negative comments, they want more transparency into the types of comments that are hidden. You can tap “View Hidden Comments” to see the comments. Comments that violate our Community Guidelines will continue to be automatically removed. We’re also expanding comment warning to include an additional warning when people repeatedly attempt to post potentially offensive comments. Since launching comment warning, we saw that reminding people of the consequences of bullying on Instagram and providing real-time feedback as they are writing the comment is the most effective way to shift behavior. These new warnings let people take a moment to step back and reflect on their words and lay out the potential consequences should they proceed. We just started testing this feature in select languages.

Rumors picked up on by Cult of Mac indicate that a HomePod mini could be on the way at Apple’s October 13 event, a topic discussed on Tuesday’s Daily Observations podcast. However, the same source suggests we may have to wait a bit longer for the second generation of the full-size version.

L0vetodream made the claim Tuesday on Twitter after Apple issued invites to its October 13 “Hi, Speed” event. Apple likely will unveil its final new hardware products of the year at that time… Given that Apple hasn’t updated the HomePod since 2017, it seems to be on Cupertino’s back burner. Perhaps that’s because a lot of smart speaker functionality, outside playing music, can be done on other Apple devices. But many people could be keen to buy a cheaper HomePod. Apple could find success, essentially following the model laid out by the iPhone SE and Apple Watch SE. HomePod SE, anyone?