Musk Mulls Twitter Paywall; Signal Adds Stories Feature, Feds Recover $3.36B in Stolen Bitcoin; Google & Renault-‘Software Defined Vehicles’

Elon Musk has come up with another way to monetize Twitter…and finish killing it off if he proceeds. 9to5mac.com reports that Early Twitter investor and venture capitalist Chris Sacca has said that Musk has one of the greatest minds he has known, but that the billionaire is completely alone now because he has no one around him who dares to speak truth to power. Now, Elon is considering paywalling the entire Twitter platform. In his latest scheme, Musk would allow everyone to use Twitter for a limited time every month, but then require a subscription to continue. Meanwhile, number crunchers calculate that the $8 Twitter Blue fee, which would reduce ads for those users would make Twitter lose more money. Great mind, indeed.

Every platform seems to have a short video feature since TikTok has grown so ginormous. According to techcrunch.com, the latest (and quite late to the game) to add a Stories feature is Signal. The short videos and texts will disappear automatically in 24 hours. As with all the rest of Signal, Stories there are end-to-end encrypted. Users can select to share with everyone in their phone contact list who use Signal, any you have had a one-to-one conversation with, or anyone whose message you’ve accepted. You can also create a custom list for a Story. 

It’s always ‘the perfect crime’ until the crook gets caught. Now, arstechnica.com says federal prosecutors have recovered $3.36 billion in bitcoin that was ripped off 10 years ago from Silk Road. The thief, one James Zhong, had stashed a single board computer in a popcorn tin under a pile of blankets in a bathroom closet! He also had more coin in a safe. He had tried to hide his theft through a series of complex transactions, but eventually the feds were able to trace the blockchain history and nabbed him. The weed of crime bears bitter fruit… Crime does not pay… The SHADOW knows!

After 4 years, Google and Renault are expanding their partnership to develop and advanced software platform for future vehicles. Theverge.com reports that they are calling it a ‘software-defined vehicle.’ Ultimately, it will be on Google’s Android Automotive OS and send data to the company’s cloud servers for processing. As part of the deal, Renault has named Google as their ‘preferred cloud provider.’ Most other auto makers are using Amazon Web Services. What exactly is a ‘software-defined vehicle?’ The idea is that a vehicle is sold with a base level of hardware and that its features are largely dictated by its software, which can be updated and improved with over-the-air updates.

I’m Clark Reid, and you’ve been ‘technified’ for now.