In the first fortnight of the year, nearly 25,000 tech workers were laid off
The tech sector is not just downsizing, but it’s doing what it takes to be, said Jeff Shulman, a professor at University of Washington’s Foster School of Business. “There’s a herding effect in tech,” he said. Shulman added that if it appears as if an entire sector is experiencing a downward shift, it takes the focus off of any single individual company.
The joy of streaming and the sadness of it
‘An Unmarried Woman’ director Melanie Mayron has shared an old scene from her 1978 film ‘Girlfriends’, which shows a woman dancing to the sea off the coast of New York. “It stayed with me: exuberant, silly, creative, full of possibility,” she said. Mayron added she hasn’t seen the film since she was a teenager but that scene stayed with her.
Track friends and family on the phone
Several Android apps like WhatsApp and Google Maps offer location-sharing capabilities that allow users to track their friends. It allows users to share location with others. Users can turn off location-sharing with their contacts and add a location-based notification by tapping on a contact’s name. They can also choose to stop sharing location with a specific individual.
Apple is accused of extortion with the new App Store tax
Apple has announced a new fee structure for apps that want to operate on the third-party stores. Under the current fee structure, any app that sees over one million installs per year must pay Apple a 50 cent fee (about 54 cents) for every new installation over that first one million installs. Third-party app stores must pay Apple 50 euro cents per user per year.
Every developer will hate the new Apple tax
Apple will require a 1 million letter of credit from an A-rated financial institution in order to establish an alternative app store in the European Union (EU). Developers have to move their users to a third-party app store in order to launch a company’s store. A user must first uninstall the old version of the app that was downloaded through Apple’s App Store.
Cruise was hiding the video from regulators, but it had bad internet
An independent investigation by Exponent, a consulting firm, has said that self-driving car startup Cruise’s video of the crash, which left a pedestrian seriously injured, could not be viewed on the internet. It added that Cruise’s vehicle had “technical issues” during the crash which hindered the video’s playback. It said the video should have been viewed on the internet.
Ring wont give cops a free pass on warrants for video requests
Amazon-owned doorbell camera startup Ring will stop allowing police departments to request footage from its users. It will continue to allow law enforcement agencies to use the ‘Neighbors Public Safety Service’ (NPSS) to post helpful information to community residents, a Ring spokesperson said. Earlier, Gizmodo had found that city governments were blanketed by Ring cameras, subjecting residents to widespread surveillance.
Tim Sweeney called Apple App Store changes to be hot garbage
Apple has said its iOS 17.4 update would allow third-party browsers and sideloading. It added that the App Store will be open to game streaming services and developers can use alternative in-app payment options. It also said the new terms of distribution of apps through the App Store that choose to use an alternative payment system will charge a 17% commission instead of 30%.
OpenAI was quiet about its promise to release documents to the public
OpenAI, founded by Elon Musk in 2015, is an artificial intelligence ( AI) lab that aims to develop powerful artificial intelligence. OpenAI’s reports to US tax authorities said that anyone can review copies of its documents, whether they are governing documents or financial statements. OpenAI said it has been following industry standards since 2000 and that includes not publicly distributing internal documents.
alternate App stores are coming to the iPhone from Apple
Apple has announced a new “Core Technology Fee” for iPhone app developers who distribute their apps through the App Store in the European Union (EU). The fee will be charged 0.50 (around 54 cents) per annual install. However, this fee only kicks in after a million annual installs in the EU. Apple will lose its position as sole distributor of iPhone apps.