Facebook Down on Earnings Report; Netflix Finally Adds Delete to ‘Continue Watching’; Alphabet Took in Over $75 Billion 4th Quarter; Cruise Opening RoboTaxis to Public
Posted: February 2, 2022 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a commentFacebook whiffed on earnings, and the stock took a 20% haircut today. CNBC.com reports that in addition to disappointing earnings, the company gave weak guidance…saying that user growth had stagnated. The earnings per share were $3.67, while $3.84 was what was expected. Revenue was $33.67 billion…which did beat the $33.4 that was expected. Daily Active Users was 1.93 billion, and they had been looking for 1.95 billion. Facebook says first quarter revenue will be between $27 and $29 billion. They blamed inflation and supply chain issues on lower ad budgets from their clients.
Netflix at long last had added a way to delete the shows in ‘Continue Watching’ that you just watched a bit of and hated, or got tired of. According to engadget.com, you can just go to the title you want to drop, and there will be a little ‘Remove from Continue Watching’ icon under the menu of user preferences. Not everyone is seeing this just yet. It’s several years later than would have been cool, but better now than never.
While Facebook took a hit on earnings, Google parent Alphabet did nicely…reporting forth quarter revenue of $75.3 billion. 9to5google.com says that figure was up 32% from the same quarter of 2020 (which was $56.9 billion.) It was also up from the $65.1 billion take for 3rd quarter of last year.
They have been relentlessly patrolling San Francisco for the last several years, and now the ubiquitous Cruise self-driving cars will become available for driverless ride hailing. TechCrunch.com reports that SoftBank has dumped another $1.35 billion into the startup. As of now, the rides will be free, and there is a wait list on the Cruise website. Cruise says riders will not have to sign a non-disclosure agreement before using the service. It will run from 11 PM to 5 AM initially. Also, for the time being, the driverless service is limited to certain areas and streets within the Haight-Ashbury, Richmond District, Chinatown and Pacific Heights neighborhoods.
Tesla Recalls 54,000 Over FSD Stopsign-Rolling; Sony Buys Bungie; Google Messages Rolls Out iMessage Reactions; Tablet Shipments Down
Posted: February 1, 2022 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a commentThere was some noise last month when Tesla pushed out its latest iteration of it’s so-called Full Self-Driving software. There was an ‘assertive mode,’ which allowed cars to roll through stops. Cnet.com reports that the NHTSA was not amused, and now the feds have issued a recall notice for 53,822 Teslas…including Model S, Model X, Model 3, and Model Y cars. According to the NHTSA, the beta software “allows the vehicle to travel through all-way-stop intersections at up to 5.6 mph before coming to a complete stop, if certain conditions are first met.” If you own a Tesla with the software, you won’t have to go in…it will be fixed with a free over-the-air update.
Sony has opened their cash vault and dropped a sweet $3.6 billion to buy Bungie. According to gizmodo.com, this will get them a larger player base and steady stream of income from Destiny players. They could conceivably make that game exclusive on their platforms in the battle against Microsoft, but really can’t do so with banner game Halo, which Microsoft holds the rights to. Gizmodo speculates that gaming might not be the only reason for the buy…they wonder if Sony is contemplating producing a Destiny TV series or movie.
Google Messages has started rolling out iMessage reactions in beta for Android users. 9to5google.com says the emoji translations aren’t spot on—for example, the iMessage Heart becomes ‘Smiling Face with Heart-Eyes. The reactions…often called Tapbacks, will now show up as emojis instead of a text version, which frankly looks silly. So far, the rollout is limited, so you may not see them right away.
Tablet shipments were off in the 4th quarter of 2021. That said, Apple continues to lead the market with a 38% market share. Appleinsider.com notes that Samsung is 2nd with 15.9%, followed by Lenovo at 4.6%, amazon at 3.6%, and Huawei with 2.5%. Every maker’s shipments dropped except Amazon, which was up 1.3%. Apple was off 8.6%, but Samsung took a 21.6% hit, with Lenovo down 25.4%, and Huawei off 13.9%. Some of the drop has been attributed to supply chain constraints.
clarkreid 
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